Ex Libris 
 [ C. K. OGDEN • 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 (^f
 
 TREASURY 
 
 OF 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT,
 
 A HOMILETIC AND ILLUSTRATIVE 
 
 TREASURY 
 
 OF 
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 
 
 (Being a New Edition of "THIRTY THOUSAND THOUGHTS")? 
 
 OR, 
 
 Twenty Thousand Choice Extracts, 
 
 SELECTED FROM THE WORKS OF ALL THE 
 
 GREAT WRITERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 WITH COPIOUS INDICES. 
 
 EDITED BY THE 
 
 VERY REV. DEAN H. D. M. SPENCE, M.A., 
 
 REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A, 
 
 REV. CHARLES NEIL, M.A. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 THE VERY REV. DEAN HOWSON, D.D. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 R. D. DICKINSON, 89, FARRINGDON STREET, E.G. 
 
 HDCCCLXZXIX.
 
 UNWIN BROTHERS, 
 
 tide (SrfgTjam Jprcdji, 
 
 CHILWORTH AND LONDON. 
 
 rkt Rights of Translation and of Rtproduction are Resttve'<.
 
 ■5'3 
 
 /■/■ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A. -Need ok a Comprehensive Illustration-Book like the Present. 
 
 The large number of commonplace books, under various titles, which has issued from 
 the press during the last quarter of a century, proves two or three facts incontrovertibly. 
 First, the value of such collections, both as aids to reflection and as casual and fireside 
 reading, is unmistakeably acknowledged. Secondly, the unwieldy and unmanageable size 
 to which literature, chiefly theological, has now grown, coupled together with the 
 increased and imperious demands of a practical, busy age, upon the real workers in life, 
 require, as a positive necessity, readier modes to arrive at knowledge in departments 
 necessary for occasional and immediate use, or for popular embellishment. Thirdly, the 
 inadequacy of any existing homiletical encyclopaedia or dictionary of illustrations exactly 
 to supply the want now keenly felt, may be clearly read in the many rival but fruitless 
 endeavours to secure full or permanent public favour. Fourthly, the casual, single-handed 
 attempts, worthy, in many instances, of high praise, are now out of the question. 
 
 B.— Need of Co-operation for such a Work. 
 
 An individual, however many-sided and variously gifted, might as well try to furnish the 
 plans, dig the foundations, and erect a large museum, as well as to collect and arrange its 
 contents, as by himself to construct a work like the present. The necessity of co-operation, 
 the aid of the specialist, and the possession of technical skill, have received a tardy but 
 growing recognition in this and many other fields of religious literature. Though the prin- 
 ciple of division of labour has been adopted with satisfactory results in preparing homiletical 
 commentaries, yet, as far as we are aware, there has not been any such united eflbrt to 
 produce a homiletical encyclopaedia on a truly comprehensive basis. 
 
 C. — Plan of Present Work. 
 I. Its Unique Character : — 7nade in accordance with a Pre-arranged Idea. 
 
 " Thirty Thousand Thoughts " is the first attempt in this direction — " a new 
 departure" in the history of Illustration-Dictionaries. It is an experiment, too, upon a very 
 large scale, and worked upon a well-considered and carefully laid ground-plan. 
 
 The first step in the present work seems to have been the last taken in all previous 
 attempts. A full Index of Subjects to the book was made before a single extract was 
 collected, or a single line written. This method possibly did not occur to previous 
 labourers, because the aptitude to collect is rarely allied to the skill to methodize. Accord- 
 ingly in those cases, the more minute indices and so-called classification and analysis came 
 afterwards, not as a work of love, but as a bare necessity, in order to afford some facility of 
 reference, and to render the book saleable. In the prefa<:es to this class of literature the 
 
 3011170
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 apology for a proper classificatory apparatus, or the phraseology used in the claim to have 
 given one, more than justifies the above remarks. One author, for instance, with much 
 charming simplicity, confesses how he attempted to build his literary house without a plan, 
 and consequently what after-thoughts and hopeless defects mar his labours. " After a work," 
 says he, " is finished, imperfections often show themselves where they were hid in the plan 
 and in the process of workmanship." But he tries to console himself with the thought that 
 others beside himself act first and think afterwards. " There are," continues he, in a slightly 
 cynical and desponding undertone, "however, many who, while they can point out a fault in 
 a work complete, would have made greater faults had they been the workmen in carrying out 
 the design." 
 
 2. Its Departments. 
 
 To avoid, then, this radical defect in the construction, an index of subjects was at the 
 outset made, and four leading and more or less clearly defined departments were fixed. 
 These were — ist. Theology ; 2ndly, Scripture, including the Mosaic Economy, and Bible 
 History generally. Biography, Natural History, and Geography ; 3rdly, the Church ; and, 
 4thly, Man and the Laws of his Being, including Man's Nature and Constitution, Ethics, 
 Logic, Mental Philosophy, and Sociology, and lastly, the Practical Themes of life. Under 
 these leading departments sections were formed. 
 
 3. Its Main Sections, its Relief Sections, and its Topics. 
 
 Under Theology will be found the principal section of Christian Dogmatics. This, in 
 one sense, might have included the whole subject. But "Relief" sections are made to 
 take up certain themes which are best treated as distinct, partly on account of their size 
 and importance, and partly on account of their special nature. Such relief sections 
 are formed as Christian Evidences, Controverted Points, Prophecies, Dreams and Visions, 
 Miracles and Parables, the Divine Attributes, Names and Titles of the Three Persons of 
 the Trinity, figurative appellations of the Church, Ministers, and Saints, also of Satan and 
 the Wicked, as well as Sins and Superstitions. 
 
 Under Scripture " History" are sections for Leading Events, Sieges, and Conspiracies; 
 for the Tabernacle, Jewish Holy Times and Seasons, Sacrifices, Rites and Ceremonies, 
 and Laws of Purity; and, as connected with Jewish worship, another section is allotted 
 to Musical Instruments. Under Scripture " Biography " are sections for Scripture Characters, 
 both Men, Women, and Children, and also for Sects. Under Scripture " Natural History " 
 are sections for Animals, Birds, Fishes, Insects, and Reptiles, Trees, Plants, and Flowers. 
 Under Scripture "Geography" are sections for Natural Phenomena, Mountains, Valleys, Lakes 
 and Seas, Rivers, Towns and Villages, Earthy Substances and Metals. The Natural History 
 and Geographical sections have been chiefly prepared with a view to the pastoral instruction 
 of younger hearers, but are valuable aids for lectures and incidental pulpit remarks. 
 
 Under The Church are sections for Church Seasons, Church or Parochial Associa- 
 tions, Liturgical Subjects, Canticles, Hymns, and Ascriptions, as well as Courses of Sermons 
 commonly chosen, such as the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, 
 the Seven Churches, and the like. 
 
 Under the title Man are sections relating to his Nature and Constitution, Traits of 
 Character, Responsibility, Actions, Influences, and Motives. There are also furnished 
 other sections dealing, on an extensive scale, with Logical, Metaphysical, and Philosophical 
 terms. And, lastly, some sections are occupied with Sociological subjects, such as Educa- 
 tion, Dress, and Social Usages ; Periods of Time, Classes and Stages of Life ; and a very 
 interesting and practical one illustrating life in its darker, quieter, and brighter sides. 
 
 All these above-named sections have been divided and subdivided, and topics arranged 
 under them, and these topics themselves are again minutely analyzed.
 
 PREFACM. vl'l 
 
 D.— Method of Executing Present Work. 
 
 I . Obfaini?ig Extracts. 
 
 When the ground-plan was thus settled, the next point was to obtain the extracts with 
 which to construct the book. These came from various sources. Persons who had existing 
 collections of extracts, some simply for private purposes, others with a view to their separate 
 publication, or as a basis of future independent works, supplied a fair quota. Special 
 readers were engaged to go through different classes of writers ; some took the Fathers, 
 others the Puritans, and so on. Special readers, too, were at the same time found to 
 undertake books upon particular Departments, and Sections. Endeavours were made as 
 much as possible to secure the co-operation of the readers according to their predilections 
 as to classes of writers, or to particular groups of subjects. 
 
 2. Arrangifig Extracts. 
 
 Simultaneously, and connected with the process of collecting materials, there was the 
 work of examining, sifting, and provisionally passing the excerpts, and also the allotting of 
 them, by means of numbers, to their various sections, or rather words in their sections. 
 
 After this, the services of special persons, experts in the sphere of knowledge represented 
 by the various sections, were secured to go over, test, add to, and otherwise put them into 
 shape, in accordance, of course, with the original ground-plan. The final homiletical 
 arrangement, as well as the classified or thought-multiplying tables, was the work specially 
 undertaken by the Editor standing third on the Title-Page. And, in order to secure complete- 
 ness and supply deficiencies, one gentleman of considerable judgment and experience was 
 wholly employed at the British Museum to hunt up, often through endless piles of books, 
 for some provokingly missing link. 
 
 3. Character of Extracts. 
 
 The principles upon which the extracts were made, selected, and passed, may here 
 fitly be stated. Those were rejected which were wanting in refinement, real point, truth, or 
 beauty. Those were accepted which, after due consideration, were found to contain thought 
 definitely stated, to illustrate a particular aspect of a truth, or otherwise to provoke and 
 stimulate further thought. Frequently a pleasing illustration would, on careful examination, 
 prove to be merely fanciful, not a rare or even a real pebble, but a worthless stone which, 
 on account of accidental and adventitious circumstances, sparkled. Or a fascinating state- 
 ment, when tested, would turn out to be but a half-truth, or a mere sophistry, or if not this, 
 a commonplace, decked-up, and dressed far above its rank. On the other hand, some 
 rugged and not very attractive saying would be found to be instinct with an inward fire, 
 to grow upon one despite prejudices, and, by reason of its native royalty, to claim the right 
 of precedence. 
 
 In some few cases the difficulty was which to reject, but far oftener where to find a gem 
 worthy to be set. The number of first-class illustrations, and of really superior extracts, is far 
 more limited than the majority of people imagine. You may sometimes go through a whole 
 volume, and not find a single passage really worthy of a place in such a work as the present. 
 
 4. Suggestive Headings to Extracts. 
 
 From the principle of selection we naturally pass to the mode of naming the extracts 
 This is a very special and hitherto much neglected process. The exact shade of thou'^ht 
 must be discovered, and often more than this. Some writers, frequently the most compre- 
 hensive and deepest thinkers, fail themselves to see the truth clearly — they instinctively feel 
 it, rather than positively grasp it; or if they grasp it they have not the power, or if the power, 
 not the patience, or. it may be, not the technical skill, necessary to make their meaning plain 
 and perspicuous. Thus, commonly, to characterize an extract, means the diving far beneath the
 
 via PREFACE. 
 
 surface, and discovering and expressing clearly the underlying thought of the author. 
 When a difficult idea is rightly perceived, and exactly and accurately designated, the ordinary 
 reader is able to grasp what would otherwise be an unsolved riddle, or an unmeaning 
 collocation of words. 
 
 5. final Process with the Extracts : — their Adaptation and Adjustment. 
 
 When the extracts were named, then, and not until then, were they classified. In this 
 process, the first naming has frequently to undergo some modifications, in order to make a 
 little Cosmos from what appears, when spread out on the table, to be a complete Chaos. 
 The relation between the extracts, and the distance which they stand in the order of things 
 from each other, have to be distinctly traced. Unity of thought, harmony, symmetry, 
 suggestiveness, and freshness have all to be kept constantly and unitedly in view. 
 
 E. — Sectional Arrangements of Present Work. 
 I. — The Sections singly complete, yet related. 
 
 While the whole forms a connected and logical system, according to the nature of such 
 works, it will be found an additional advantage that each section is complete in itself upon 
 its own particular subject. In the last volume a scheme will be furnished showing the 
 relation of the parts to the whole. There will be provided, too, in addition to the Sectional 
 Index, a general and complete Alphabetical one, to all the subjects illustrated. 
 
 The value of the Analytical Lists is, that when one looks up a topic, say Atheism 
 (p. 160, vol. I, No. 74), one has the whole of its synonyms, or, more strictly speaking, of its 
 affiliated and related topics, at once to hand, and before the eye at a single glance. The 
 reader therefore knows the subject, not only as isolated, but as to its place in the system 
 of knowledge. He is thus able to institute comparisons, trace analogies, discern nice 
 differences, and also to combine ideas to an endless extent, almost as patterns are formed 
 in the kaleidoscope. 
 
 F. — Workers upon Sections in Present Volume. 
 
 It may seem invidious, out of many who have helped, to select any for special 
 mention; but it was thought only right to give the names of those who have specially 
 worked at the sections in each volume. Thus it is our pleasing task to acknowledge ' the 
 ready and hearty cooperation of the Rev. Brewin Grant, B.A., Incumbent of St. Paul's, 
 Bethnal Green, in regard to the First Section, viz., "Christian Evidences;" of the Rev. F. 
 W. Procter, M.A., Assistant Master of King's College, London, in regard to the Second 
 Section, viz., "The Titles of the Holy Ghost;" of the Rev. J. W. Burn, of Norwich, in 
 regard to the Third Section, viz., "The Beatitudes;" of the Rev. E. Bray, M.A., Rector 
 of Shadwell, in regard to the Fourth Section, viz., " The Lord's Prayer." The initials of 
 these writers are attached to their respective original contributions. 
 
 G.— This Work combines Advanced Knowledge with Catholic Truth. 
 In compiling this work, it has been felt that the advanced knowledge and general 
 intelligence of the age demand increased freshness and comprehensiveness in homiletical 
 functions; yet such treatment, so far from endangering catholic and orthodox views, is 
 perfectly compatible with strict adherence to the cardinal truths of Christianity, and to 
 the supernatural in religion, both as to outward revelation and inward illumination. 
 
 ' Mr. C. Higham, Bookseller, 27fl, Farringdon Street, London, rendered much bibliographical aid in a 
 Very friendly and excellent spirit.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The request with which I have been honoured — that I would write a short preface to this 
 volume — can mean only one thing. It can simply be a suggestion, for which my thanks are 
 due, that I should place on record a few independent and very general thoughts on the 
 present condition of the great question of Christian Evidence. It is obvious that I am 
 not pledged to agreement with all the contents of the book, though I cannot doubt that the 
 gathering together of a large number of various utterances on this serious subject will be 
 helpful to many doubting minds. 
 
 It is quite evident that, as the ages pass on, Christianity must enter into new modes of 
 conflict with the world, and must adopt new modes of persuasion. This does not mean that 
 " the old " is necessarily obsolete, but that " the old " which may have been proved to be 
 good should be combined with "the new" which may be found to be needful. In the 
 historic progress of Mankind there must be perpetual change and, more or less, continuous 
 growth. Fresh discoveries through scientific research and observation, fresh conditions of 
 political, social, and industrial life, fresh phases of thought in the course of debate and of 
 experience within the Church itself, are inevitable. For all this Christianity must be 
 prepared. She ever stands, as it were, on the verge of a new country, which is to be bravely, 
 yet wisely and warily, occupied. It is with her as with the army of the Israelites when 
 encamped in the plain on the eastern side of Jordan, and when their leader said to them, 
 " This day ye shall eat new food : bring forth the old because of the new." 
 
 That which presses most heavily for the moment upon Revelation, and with the most 
 threatening aspect, is Natural Science, especially in the department of Physiology. This has 
 been the case, indeed, to a great extent, during the last fifty years. The alarm which was 
 caused by geological discovery seems now to be passed away ; and Christian Faith can hold 
 its own, and Christian Life can actively pursue its even and beneficent tenor, without being 
 disturbed by the contemplation of the vast periods of time which for a while overawed our
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 customary chronology. Such, it may be confidently expected, will in the end be the 
 practical result of the full Christian consideration of those subjects which may be grouped 
 together under the one word " Evolution." Upon this question a lew remarks may here be 
 made. 
 
 As to those phenomena which we group together under this general term in 
 connection with Darwin's name, it must be observed that we have always believed in 
 evolution of a kind quite as wonderful as any that is proposed for our attention now. St. 
 Paul uses a familiar instance of this general principle in an animated part of his most solemn 
 teaching. Our Lord Himself does the same in that parable which is given to us by St. Mark 
 only. " Thou sowest not the harvest that shall be, but naked grain, wheat or other grain, as 
 the case may be ; " and the growth is on this wise, " First the blade, then the ear, then the 
 full corn in the ear." And next, as to the modification and variation of physiological facts 
 under the action of certain laws, I may perhaps be allowed to give an illustration of my 
 thought in a manner which is natural at this moment. I have lately been in one of the 
 habitats of that charming flower, the Auricula, in its simple native form, on the lofty hills which 
 overhang the Lake of Lugano. This plant has had a very distinguished history. No plant 
 has yielded itself more freely to beautiful variety under the influence of human cultivation 
 and skill. And shall we be surprised if the Almighty does, on a vaster scale, and with more 
 diversified methods, and through longer ranges of time, what man can do by the application 
 of laws within his own little power ? But, to turn to another side of this intricate subject, 
 no bridge has yet been built between the intellectual and moral life of man and that which 
 we call life in its lowest forms \ while yet it is true that the phenomena of habit and instinct 
 are a help to us in contemplating the facts of animal existence on the globe as one great 
 whole. But once more, Physiological Science, though it has alleviations for pain— and this^ 
 too, is perhaps in some degree due to the action of the Christian spirit upon the spirit of 
 discovery— has no true solace for sorrow, and no real, or even approximate, cure for sin ; 
 whereas the consolations of Christianity in our saddest moments, its power of giving peace 
 under a sense of guilt, and strength under the pressure of temptation, are parts of the 
 experience of the present as truly as ever was the case in the ages that are long gone by. 
 
 This topic, as most of us are aware, has its special difficulties in connection with the letter 
 of the Bible. If Modern Science tends to disturb our belief in the Divine origin of the 
 Christian Revelation, so does Modern Criticism. Here we enter upon new ground. It 
 cannot be denied that the criticism of the day has made some inroads upon popular beliefs. 
 But here two questions arise. First, it may not be quite certain that these beliefs are any 
 essential part of real Christianity. Secondly, under the action of this new criticism we may 
 have gained quite as much as we have lost. For my own part, I believe we have gained 
 more than we have lost, while certainly what we do hold after this criticism we hold more 
 firmly, and with a clearer perception of consequences, than we should have done without the
 
 INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 criticism. As regards the Gospel History, Strauss is no longer a name of terror. As regards 
 the Epistles and the Acts, Renan concedes the four great letters to the Romans, the Corinthians, 
 and the Galatians as unquestionably written by St. Paul ; and, starting from this concession, 
 we can argue logically to the acceptance of very much more. And, speaking generally of the 
 progress of recent thought, is it not a clear advantage to us, that we can now study the 
 Sacred Scriptures without trammels forged by an arbitrary defining of Inspiration ? 
 
 To pass now from the negative to the positive side of this great subject, the two names 
 just mentioned may remind us of the vast influence which the Life of Jesus Christ exercises 
 upon mankind, even where it is not the object of belief in any true Christian sense. That 
 Holy Presence in the midst of History commands an attention which cannot be withdrawn 
 from it. All earlier events tend to this point ; all later events diverge from it. The Biography, 
 too, is quite unique. From this conviction we cannot escape. The multitude of books 
 recently written, more or less directly, on this subject is surprising. During the last forty 
 years there has been more literature of this kind than during two hundred years previously. 
 Here is proof that the Presence still rests upon humanity as a problem unexplained, unless 
 where it is accepted in faith, with hope and charity and diligent usefulness as the results of 
 that faith. 
 
 This brings us to another positive and direct evidence of the Divine character of 
 Christianity, which in a signal degree marks our times. I refer to the activity and zeal (in 
 our own country at least) exhibited in the cause of Christ, alike in work among the poor, the 
 ignorant, and the suffering at home, and in vigorous efforts for the progress of the Gospel 
 abroad. And in connection with what has just been stated is another evidential circumstance 
 in the indirect benefits of Christianity. Just as there is dipenuvtbra of evil surrounding every 
 case of flagrant wickedness, so is there a light which spreads beyond the luminous centre of 
 that which is thoroughly good. Our religion, where it has had free scope, has always been 
 productive of beneficial influence in the world. No one was ever made worse by becoming 
 more like Christ ; and no limit can be set to the diffusion of good which may come from this 
 likeness. 
 
 Another test, under our present circumstances, is of great value and does not admit of 
 question as a fact. This is the large amount of Hymn-writing which has marked our day. 
 Without raising any questions between good hymns and bad hymns, and without any necessity 
 of referring to divergence among religious parties, it is certain that we have here an expression 
 of the reality of Religion. This feature of our times is a proof that faith is still strong and 
 that devotion to Christ is operative for good results. 
 
 Christ and Christianity are, after all, the two great difificulties which unbelief has never 
 been able to overcome. It is in our time, as it always has been in the times that are past.
 
 Xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the fashion of the day, indeed, there is a tendency to depreciate the older books of 
 evidence. But there is abundant proof that the magnificent method of Butler is still 
 potential among us for producing conviction, while the shrewd good sense of Paley is an 
 admirable corrective of the mischievous influence of vague theories. It is a remarkable fact, 
 too, that the " Natural Theology " came from the same author as the " Horae Paulinae." 
 
 This remark brings before us Criticism and Science in contact again : and to return, in 
 conclusion, to a topic named above, is it not still perfectly clear that the evidence of Design 
 in Nature is as strong as the evidence of Evolution? May we not expect that the half-truths 
 of the past and the present will be combined by the religious philosophy of the future, under 
 Divine guidance, into comprehensive and correct views of the verities of Nature ? At all 
 events, while it is essential that we should endeavour to understand correctly the 
 characteristics of our existing position, we shall not serve our generation the better, in 
 the defence of our Religion, if we do not duly honour those who have fought some of our 
 battles before us. 
 
 J. S. HOWSON. 
 
 September, 1883.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SECl'ION I. CuRFSTiAN Evidences .... , . i 
 
 SECTION II. Titles of The Holy Spirit 289 
 
 SECTION III. The Beatitudes .,.•... 341 
 SECTION IV. The Lord's Prayer ...... 369 
 
 SECTION V. Man, and His Traits of Character ... 489 
 SECTIONAL INDICES:— 
 
 I. Christian Evidences , . , , . , , .531 
 
 II. Titles of the Holy Spirit ...... -533 
 
 V. Man :— His Virtues and Excellences •••-.. 534 
 His Vices, Faults, and Errors , • . . , .536
 
 SECTION I. 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 
 
 DIVISIONS OF TOPICS ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 PAiiB 
 
 A.— THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY ... 7 
 
 B.— CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM 21 
 
 C— THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY 
 
 [i] Its First Prinxitles and Maxims. 
 [2] Proofs of the Divjne Existence. 
 
 P.— REASON AND FAITH 
 
 50- 
 
 D.— THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION ... 95, 
 
 [i] External Evidences. 
 
 (1) Prophecy. 
 
 (2) Miracles. 
 
 (3) Hibtory. 
 
 [2] Internal Evidfnces. 
 [3] Personal Evidences. 
 [4] Failure of iNPiDELrry. 
 
 E.— THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY ... ^. ... 147 
 
 [i] Infidelity. 
 
 (i) Its Phases. 
 /. Latent. 
 it. Actual. 
 
 a. Denial of the Existence of God. 
 
 b. Denial of the Divine Personality. 
 
 c. Denial of the Christian and Catholic Idea of GoJ. 
 iit. Practical. 
 
 (2) Its Allied Social Systems. 
 [2] Non-Christian Systems. 
 [3] Heresies. 
 
 254 
 
 G.— THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 265
 
 CLASSIFIED CONTENTS, SECTION I., 
 
 BEING 
 
 The Topics illustrated, Alphabetically arranged under their Respective Divisions and Subdivisions, 
 with Consecutive N^unbers at hjt hand for facility of reference. 
 
 (See Sectional Index, p. 531, and General Index at the end of last volume.) 
 
 A.— THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1 Divinity of Clirist 
 
 2 Fiuuve Life, The 
 
 3 Holy Spirit, Personal Agency of 
 
 4 Immortality (Individual) of Man 
 
 5 Incarnation, Tlie ... 
 
 6 Man as a Spiritual Being 
 
 7 Man, Free and Responsible 
 
 8 Personality of God ... 
 
 9 Redemption, Moral Necessity of 
 
 10 Sin, The Realitv of 
 
 11 Trinity, The Holy 
 
 B.— CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 12 Adaptation to IMan's Nature and 
 
 Needs ... 
 J3 Christian and Heathen and Jewish 
 
 Systems 
 14 Church of the Future and its Conflicts 
 T 5 Connection of Science and Philosophy 
 
 with Religion 
 :i6 Divine Origin of Christianity ... 
 il7 Modern Civilization in Relation to 
 
 Christianity 
 l8 Moral Philosophy in Relation to 
 
 Christianity 
 »9 Philosophy of Christianity ... 
 
 20 Progress of Christianity ... 
 
 21 Reasonableness of Christianity 
 
 22 Temporal Benefits of Christianity 
 
 23 Theistic Elements of Christianity ... 
 
 C— THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION 
 GENERALLY. 
 
 [i] Its First Principles and Maxims. 
 
 24 Analogy as a gui'Je to Truth and 
 
 as an A;<i to Faith ... 
 
 25 Basis of Faith 
 
 26 Constitution and Course of the World 
 
 27 The Divine Government 
 
 28 Final Causes of Natural Things 
 
 29 First Cause 
 
 30 Nature 
 
 31 Natural Philosophy 
 
 32 Number, a Link between the Divine 
 
 Intelligence and Human 
 
 33 Primary Belief 
 
 34 Religious Instincts 
 
 35 Soul, The, and the Future State 
 
 36 Uniformity of Nature 
 
 7 
 9 
 10 
 II 
 14 
 15 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 iS 
 19 
 
 23 
 27 
 
 2S 
 
 36 
 
 38 
 40 
 42 
 43 
 44 
 47 
 
 50 
 53 
 53 
 54 
 55 
 5S 
 60 
 61 
 
 62 
 64 
 
 67 
 68 
 70 
 
 [2] Proofs of the Divine Existence. 
 
 37 Anthropological Argument : from 
 
 Human Consciousness and Histor}- 74 
 
 38 A posteriori and a priori Argument... 74 
 
 39 Cosmological Argument : from 
 
 Causation ... ... ... 75 
 
 40 Ethical Argument : from Moral Law 
 
 and Justice ... ... ... 78 
 
 41 Historical Argument : from Universal 
 
 Tradition ... ... ... So 
 
 42 Ontological and Metaphysical 
 
 Argument : from Abstract Reasoning S i 
 
 43 Psychological Argument : from 
 
 Mental and Spiritual Phenomena 84 
 
 44 Physico-Theological or Teleological 
 
 Argument : from Evidences of 
 Design in the Universe ... ... 85 
 
 45 Providential Argument : from 
 
 E'.-idences of Divine Government 92 
 
 >.— THE EVIDENCES OF THE 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [i] External Evidences. 
 (i) Prophecy. 
 
 46 Prophecy (generally) ... 95 
 
 47 Messianic Prophecy ... ... 96 
 
 (2) Miracles. 
 
 48 Miracles (generally) ... 97 
 
 49 Miracles and Science ... ... 106 
 
 50 Miracles of Pagans and Papists ... 107 
 
 51 Possibility and Necessity of Revelation loS 
 
 52 Supernatural, The ... ... 109 
 
 (3) History. 
 
 53 Histoiy (generally) ... .« ... Ill 
 
 54 Archeology ... ... ... 112 
 
 55 Conversion of St. Paul ... ... 114 
 
 56 Existence of the Christian Church 115 
 
 57 Resurrection of Christ, The ... 116 
 
 58 Tradition 119 
 
 [2] Internal Evidences. 
 
 59 Christian Morals (generally)... 
 
 60 ,, Characteristics ... 
 
 61 „ Philosophy ... 
 
 62 Teaching and Character of Christ 
 
 [3] Personal Evidences. 
 
 63 Inward Witness 
 
 [4] Failure of Infidelity. 
 
 64 Difficulties of Infidelity 
 
 65 History of L'nbelief 
 
 66 Modern Thought 
 
 67 Philosophy of Unbelief 
 
 121 
 
 125 
 126 
 127 
 
 134 
 
 138 
 140 
 141 
 144
 
 CLASSIFIED CONTENTS, SECTION I., 
 
 Continued. 
 
 .—THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] Infidelity. 
 
 (i) Its Phases. 
 i. Latent. 
 
 68 Infidelity (viewed generally) 
 
 69 Agnosticism ... 
 
 70 Altruistic Secularism 
 
 71 Doubt 
 
 72 Scepticism... 
 
 73 Secularism 
 
 a. Actual. 
 
 a. Denial of the Existence of Go.L 
 
 74 Atheism 
 
 75 Materialism 
 "6 Materialistic Atheism 
 
 77 Philosophical Materialism .. 
 
 78 Nihilism ... 
 
 79 Pessimism 
 
 b. Denial of the Divine Personality. 
 
 80 Pantheism ... 
 
 81 Intuitionalism... ... /Philosophies 176 
 
 82 Speculative Philosophy j allied to 17S 
 S3 Transcendentalism ... ( Pantheism 
 
 c. Denial of the Christian and 
 
 Catholic Idea of God. 
 
 84 Deism ... 
 
 85 Theism 
 
 86 Monotheism 
 
 87 Naturalism 
 
 88 Spiritualism 
 
 89 Rationalism 1 
 
 90 Neology ... I . , 
 
 91 Freethought ^.-^^^ ... 
 
 92 L nitananismj 
 
 93 Evolutionism ... ... [ 
 
 94 Philosophical Cosmologism \ 
 
 95 Scientism ... ... ( 
 
 Hi. Practical. 
 
 96 Indifterentism 
 
 97 Formalism 
 9S Superstition 
 
 (2) Its Allied Social Systems. 
 
 99 Communism ... ... ... ... 206 
 
 ICO Secularism ... ... ... 207 
 
 loi Socialism ... ... ... ... 20S 
 
 Conflict 
 
 Conflict 
 
 with 
 Science 
 
 147 
 148 
 
 152 
 153 
 157 
 
 160 
 164 
 166 
 167 
 167 
 168 
 
 174 
 
 178 
 
 1 84 
 
 185 
 1S5 
 1S6 
 1S7 
 188 
 1 89 
 190 
 191 
 191 
 
 195 
 
 iq6 
 
 199 
 200 
 204 
 
 [2] Non-Christian Systems. 
 
 102 Brahminism ... ... ... 210 
 
 103 Buddhism ... ... ... ... 21 r 
 
 104 Confucianism ... ... ... 217 
 
 105 Fetishism ... ... ... ... 21S 
 
 106 Judaism (M^idern) ... ... 219 
 
 107 Mohammedanism ... ... ... 221 
 
 loS Mythology ... ... ... 226 
 
 [3] Heresies. 
 
 109 Heresy (generall;.) ... ... ... 228" 
 
 no Antinomianism ... ... ... 230 
 
 111 ApoUinarianism 
 
 112 Arianism ... ... ... ... 232 
 
 113 Dualism ... ... ... ... 236 
 
 114 Fatalism 237 
 
 115 Gnosticism ... ... ... ... 237 
 
 116 Mysticism... ... ... ... 241 
 
 117 Pelagianism ... ... ... ... 242 
 
 118 Sabellianism ... ... ... 245 
 
 119 Semi-Pelagianism ... ... ... 247 
 
 120 Socinianism ... ... ... 248 
 
 121 Universalism ... ... ... ... 248. 
 
 F.— REASON AND FAITH 
 
 122 Critical and Verifying Faculty of 
 
 ^lan 254 
 
 123 Dogmatic Faith ... ... ... 255 
 
 124 Efficacy of Prayer ... ... ... 256 
 
 125 Faith and Philosophy ... ... 260 
 
 126 Faith and Freethought ... ... 260 
 
 127 Things above Reason ... ... 26* 
 
 128 Province of Reason ... ... ... 262 
 
 G.— THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 129 Authority of the Canon ... ... 265 
 
 130 Authority of the Scriptures ... ... 266 
 
 131 Bible Difficulties 268 
 
 132 Chronology of the Bible ... ... 270 
 
 133 Continuity of the Scriptures ... 271 
 
 134 Credibility of the Gospel History ... 272 
 
 135 Divine Legation of Moses ... 276 
 
 136 Inspiration ... ... ... ... 278 
 
 137 Mosaic Cosmogony ... ... 282 
 
 138 Undesigned Coincidences of the Old 
 
 and New Testament ... ... 286
 
 DIVISION A. 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Pages T to 19. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 I 
 
 DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 
 
 2 
 FUTURE LIFE, THE. 
 
 3 
 HOLY GHOST, PERSONAL AGENCY OF THE. 
 
 IMMORTALITY (INDIVIDUAL) OF MAN. 
 
 5 
 INCARNATION, THE. 
 
 MAN AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 MAN, FREE AND RESPONSIBLE. 
 
 PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 REDEMPTION, MORAL NECESSITY OF. 
 
 SIN, THE REALITY OF. 
 
 TRINITY, THE HOLY.
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 
 
 DIVISION A. 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 
 
 I, Its Evidences. 
 t Not antecedently impossible. 
 
 [i] In Christ's consciousness there is a human 
 and a Divine factor, originally distinct, then 
 blended into a higher unity, in which the reality 
 of the one sacrifices nothing to the reality of the 
 other. Criticism has yet to prove its right to 
 declare the existence of such a consciousness ci 
 priori impossible. That nothing less than this 
 is expressed in the fourth gospel, is (as a result 
 of exegetical investigation) for the Biblical 
 theologian a certainty. — Van Oostcrzee, Theo- 
 logy of the New Testament. 
 
 2 The continuous beliefs of the Church. 
 
 [2] This is so, as may be seen : — 
 (i) By the formal statements of creeds from 
 sub-apostolic times to the present. 
 
 (2) By the unfailing round of adoration which 
 has gone up to Christ as God in heaven in all 
 ages and from every country'. 
 
 (3) By the corporate action of the Church 
 against contrary opinions. 
 
 [3] From the time of St. Atha«nasius and the 
 Nicene Council, the doctrine appears commonly 
 in all Christian writings of a dogmatic character, 
 being brought into greater prominence by the 
 heresy of Arius, the expanded definition of the 
 creed, and the world-agitating contests between 
 Catholics and Arians. — Dictionary 0/ Doctrinal 
 and Historical Theology:'^ 
 
 [4] Christianity is not related to our Lord as a 
 philosophy might be to a philosopher— that is, 
 as a moral or intellectual system thrown off from 
 his mind, resting thenceforv.-ard on its own 
 merits, and implying no necessary relation 
 towards its author on the part of those who 
 receive it, beyond a certain sympathy with what 
 was at one time a portion of his thought. A 
 philosophy may be thus abstracted altogether 
 from the person of its originator with entire 
 impunity. But detach Christianity from Christ, 
 
 and it vanishes before our eyes into intellectual 
 vapour. Christianity is non-existent apart from 
 Christ ; it centres in Christ ; it radiates now as 
 at the first from Christ. It perishes outright 
 when men attempt to abstract it from the living 
 Person of its Founder. — Canon Liddon. 
 
 3 Affirmed by Christ Himself. 
 
 [5] Jesus calls Himself the Son of God in an 
 absolute sense, and not in the sense of which 
 men, for instance, may be called sons of God- 
 by virtue of creation, or moral likeness to Him. 
 In the case of Jesus, this title denotes a relation 
 of essence and nature. — Liithardt, The Funda- 
 mental Truths of Christianity. 
 
 [6] Christ bids us say, Our Father; He never 
 calls God so Himself; His relation to God is 
 unique. His fellowship with God is absolute 
 (John X. 11., 38) ; His presence, the vision of 
 Him, is actually that of the Father (chap. xiv. 9, 
 and xvi ) ; He has Divine life in Himself (v. 26), 
 and will therefore be honoured even as the 
 Father (v. 23) ; in short, he includes Himself 
 in the Godhead, and thus appears before 
 the whole world and the whole human race as 
 One forming a component part of divinity. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [7] Our Saviour in suffering Himself to be 
 sentenced to death for His declaration that He 
 was the Son of God, obliges us to adhere to this 
 important truth unto death. To this great truth 
 a noble army of martyrs have witnessed with 
 their blood. It therefore behoves us to be 
 thoroughly convinced of, and strenuously to 
 defend, this important article of our faith. — Dr. 
 Rambach, Meditations (ccndensed). 
 
 II. 
 
 Its Essential Prominence in the 
 Christian System. 
 
 I Protects truths of natural religion. 
 
 [8] Placed at the centre of the f;iith of Chris- 
 tendom, it looks backward as well as forward ; 
 it guards in Christian thought the due apprehen- 
 sion of those fundamental verities without which 
 no religion whatever is possible, since these are
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRIXEr, OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 8-19] 
 
 [divinity of CHRIST. 
 
 the postulates of all religious thought and 
 activity. 
 
 [9] Belief in our Saviour"s Godhead : — 
 fi) Protects Christian thought against the 
 intellectual dangers Avhich await an arid 
 Deism. 
 
 (2) It affords an equally effective safeguard 
 against Pantheism. 
 
 (3) It guards in our thoughts the honour, the 
 majesty, the life of God, it also protects the true 
 dignity and the rights of man. — Canon Ltddon, 
 Banipton Lecticres (condensed), 
 
 2 Supports other truths of faith. 
 
 [10] The earnest recognition of Christ's true 
 humanity as the seat of His sufferings is a most 
 essential feature of the apostle's doctrine ; but 
 what is it that gives to Christ's human acts and 
 sufferings such preterhuman value.? Is it not 
 that the truth of Christ's Divine Personality un- 
 derlies this entire description of His redemptive 
 work, rescuing it from the exaggeration and 
 turgidity with which it would be fairly charge- 
 able, if Christ were merely human or less than 
 God.— //'/</. 
 
 3 Gives reality to the gospel system. 
 
 [11] The doctrine of Christ's divinity involves 
 and insures the infallibility of His teaching; it 
 communicates infinite value to His atoning 
 death ; and imparts supernatural power to the 
 ministry of the gospel. 
 
 [12] Faith in a Divine Christ is the Church's 
 strength in all dangers. 
 
 [13] If Christ be not Divine, every impulse of 
 the Christian world falls to a lower octave, and 
 light and love and hope alike decline. — David 
 Swing. 
 
 [14] You might just as well take away the 
 luminous a;ther from the atmosphere and call the 
 residuum air, and expect to have its original life- 
 sustaining power, as really to remove the doc- 
 rine of Christ's divinity from theology without 
 theactual and complete overthrowof Christianity 
 itself as a consistent and energizing system. — 
 C. N. 
 
 III. Its Mvsteriousxess. 
 
 1 Beyond the power of illustration. 
 
 [15] The nature of the union between the 
 Father and the Son we have no mental capacity 
 to explain. Augustine draws illustrations from 
 the sun and its rays, and from fire and the light 
 of fire, which, though two distinct things, are 
 yet inseparably united, so that where the one 
 is the other is. But all illustrations on such 
 subjects halt and fail. Here, at any rate, it is 
 better to believe than to attempt to explain. — 
 Bp. Ryle. 
 
 2 Beyond the reach of imagination. 
 
 [16] The utterance which St. John puts in the 
 very forefront of his gospel, as containing its in- 
 most essence, and as solving all the problems of 
 
 the world, that the Logos became flesh,was a truth 
 far beyond anything of which man had dreamed, 
 that the Word — who was in the beginning, who 
 was with God, who was God, by whom all things 
 were made, in whom was life, which life was the 
 light of man — that this Word was in the world, 
 came to His own people, and His own home, 
 and was by most of them rejected — that this 
 Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us, 
 and we beheld His glory, a glory as of the only 
 begotten from the Father, full of grace and 
 truth. — Canon Farrar, Early Days of Christi- 
 anity. 
 
 IV. Its Practical and Experimental 
 Effects. 
 
 [17] As the shining of the stars is a better proof 
 of their existence than the figures of an astrono- 
 mer ; as the testimony of the almanack that sum- 
 mer comes with June is not so convincing as is 
 the coming of summer itself in the sky, in the air, 
 in the fields, on hill and mountain : so the power 
 of Christ upon the human soul is to the soul 
 evidence of His divinity, based upon a living 
 experience, and transcending in conclusiveness 
 any convictions of the intellect alone, founded 
 upon a contemplation of mere ideas, however 
 just and sound. 
 
 If Christ is the wisdom of God and the power 
 of God in the experience of those who trust and 
 love Him, there needs no further argument of 
 His divinity. — Ward Beechcr. 
 
 [18] Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years 
 Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond 
 all others difficult to satisfy. He asks for the 
 human heart : He will have it entirely to Him- 
 self : He demands it unconditionally ; and 
 forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful ! 
 In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, 
 with all its powers and faculties, becomes aii 
 annexation to the empire of Christ. All who 
 sincerely believe in Him experience that re- 
 markable supernatural love towards Him. This 
 phenomenon is unaccountable ; it is altogether 
 beyond the scope of man's creative power. Time, 
 the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish 
 this sacred flame : time can neither exhaust its 
 strength nor put a limit to its range. This is that 
 which strikes me most. I have often thought 
 of it. This it is which proves to me quite con- 
 vincingly the divinity of Jesus Christ. — Napo- 
 leon I., Bersier, Serin. 
 
 [19] What man that still retains, I will not say 
 the faith of a Christian, but the modesty of a man 
 of sense, must not feel that there is a literally 
 infinite interval between himself and that Ma- 
 jestic One, who, in the words of Jean Paul 
 Richter, " being the Holiest among the mighty, 
 and the Mightiest among the holy, has lifted 
 with His pierced Hand empires oft" their hinges, 
 and has turned the stream of centuries out of its 
 channel, and still governs the ages''? — Canon 
 Liddon, Banipton Lectures. 
 
 See "Character and Teachinjr of Christ."
 
 / 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINRS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 20— 25] 
 
 [the future life. 
 
 THE FUTURE LIFE. 
 
 /i. I'deaV^ predisposing to the Reception 
 OF i'his Truth. 
 
 [20] The belief in immortality (apart from 
 revelation) rests upon a priori datum of the soul, 
 or an a posteriori conclusion of the reason from 
 the data of experience. These two bases of 
 belief virtually glide imperceptibly into each 
 other.— C. N. 
 
 [21] Is there no such thing as happiness here ? 
 The inference from hence is, that I ought to 
 look out for it elsewJiere. Is there no carrying 
 virtue to any great height of excellence in the 
 present state? is it very imperfect in the best 
 of men ? Then this life is only a passage or 
 introduction to another. — H. Grove, 16S3-1738. 
 
 [22] A very wicked man, who had always lived 
 in prosperity, without having his health or fortune 
 at any time impaired, dying at last when he was 
 ninety-three years of age, the emperor Fjrderic 
 III. made this wise remark upon it, See here a 
 proof of another life / For if there be a right- 
 eous God who governs the world, as reason and 
 7-evelation teach us, it must needs be that souls, 
 at their departure out of the body, pass into 
 other places, in order to receive their proper 
 recompenses, seeing they do not receive them 
 in this world. — Ibid. 
 
 [23] For many years previous to 1S45, it had 
 been known that the planet Uranus was subject 
 to certain perturbations in its orbit, which could 
 not be accounted for by the attraction of the sun 
 and of the other planetary bodies. From the 
 nature and amount of these perturbations, Le 
 Verrier, a French mathematician, demonstrated 
 the existence of an undiscovered planet : and so 
 completely did he determine its place in the 
 distant heavens, that when Dr. Galle, of the 
 Berlin Observatory, pointed his telescope to the 
 place designated by Le Verrier, he not only 
 found the new planet, but found it within one 
 degree of its computed location. Here, then, 
 we have not only an unknown planet casting 
 the spell of its attraction upon those that are 
 known and seen, and producing thereby its 
 visible effects, but, to the eye of reason, these 
 mysterious eftects became the infallible proofs 
 of the existence and direction of another world 
 hitherto undiscovered and unknown. So it 
 may be with the human soul, and its continued 
 love for the dead. — Dr. Mattison. 
 
 II. Non-Christian Views. 
 1 Of Greek philosophers. 
 
 [24] I dare say you feel as I do, how very hard 
 or almost impossible, is the attainment of any 
 certainty about questions such as these in the 
 present life. And yet I should deem him a 
 coward who did not prove what is said about 
 
 them to the uttermost, or whose heart failed him 
 before he had examined them on every side. 
 For he should persevere until he has achieved 
 one of two things : either he should discover or 
 be taught the truth about them ; or, if this is 
 impossible, I would have him take the best and 
 most irrefragable of human theories, and let this 
 be the raft upon which he sails through life — not 
 without risk, as I admit, if he cannot find some 
 word of God which will more surely and safely 
 carry him. — Plato {Phcedo, 85). 
 
 [25] Plato, having shown that even here the 
 good and the bad receive a proper recompense — 
 all things in life working for the good man — says, 
 " Yet all this is as nothing compared with what 
 awaits the just and the unjust after death." 
 
 2 Of Eastern nations. 
 
 [26] Mr. Bosworth Smith maintains that Mo- 
 hammed's view was no more sensual than that 
 taken by other nations, viz., that Paradise is but 
 the happiness of the present life intensified, and 
 that in defining it any people must necessarily 
 express themselves in terms drawn from their 
 experience of pleasure here. Thus Mohammed 
 promises to the good ^Muslim, after death, what 
 to the wanderer in the thirsty desert must seem 
 the acme of enjoyment — cool, shady gardens 
 with bubbling fountains and running streams ; 
 with the companionship of black-eyed houris 
 (their name and attributes borrowed, by the by, 
 from the Persian^ and certain luxurious neces- 
 saries, such as perfumes, cushions, carpets, &;c. 
 Similarly the Red Indian dreams of a happy 
 hunting-ground beyond the clouds, and the 
 Norseman thought that after death he should 
 drink ale for ever from the skulls of his enemies 
 slain in battle. — Quarterly Review {fan. 1877). 
 
 3 Of Northern nations. 
 
 [27] Theimmortalityof thesoul, among north- 
 ern nations, was a deep rooted belief; and they 
 also looked for a state of retribution beyond the 
 grave. They regarded the future state as, to a 
 large extent, a continuation of the present ; and 
 so the dead were supplied with some of their 
 property, and coins were put under their tongues 
 to defray the first expenses of their journey to 
 the other world. — Br. Burns in Faiths of the 
 World. 
 
 4 Of rationalist thought. 
 
 [28] The surest means to convince one's self of 
 a life after death is so to act in the present that 
 one must wish it. Whoever feels that, if there 
 is a God, He must look graciously on him, seeks 
 for no reasons against His existence, and re- 
 quires none. Whoever has otiered up so much 
 for virtue, that he ought to expect indemnifica- 
 tions in a future life, such an one requires no 
 proof of, nor does he merely believe in, the ex- 
 istence of such a life ; he feels it within himself. 
 —Fichte. 
 
 See " Immortality."
 
 lO 
 
 29-35] 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [the holy GII05T. 
 
 III. Arguments for its Existence, 
 
 1 From the personality of God. 
 
 [29] In fact, the belief in a personal, living God, 
 and the belief in a distinct personal existence for 
 man throughout eternity, hang closely together. 
 God is not the God of the dead but of the living. 
 We cannot imagine to ourselves a personal 
 eternal love which had brought forth existences 
 after His own image only to annihilate them ; 
 which had planted wants in their bosoms that 
 should never obtain satisfaction. As certain as 
 is our faith in a personal, living God, so certain 
 is our faith in eternal life. — Ncander. 
 
 2 Rests upon faith rather than presentiments. 
 
 [30] If there be an argument which stirs me to 
 indignation at its futility, and to wonder that any 
 mortal ever regarded it as of the slightest force : 
 it is that which is set out in the famous soliloquy 
 in Cato, as to the immortality of the soul. Will 
 anysanemansay,that if in this world you wish for 
 a thing very much, and anticipate it very clearly 
 and confidently, you are therefore sure to get it.'* 
 If that were so, many a little schoolboy would 
 end by driving his carriage and four who ends 
 by driving no carriage at all. No : we cling to 
 the doctrine of a future life: we could not 
 live without it : but we believe it, not because of 
 undefined longings within ourselves, not because 
 of reviving plants and flowers, not because of 
 the chrysalis and the butterfly : but because our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and 
 brought light and immortality to light through 
 the gospel.—^. K. H. Boyd. 
 
 3 Their sufficient proof. 
 
 [31] It is altogether //'w/tYVi-j^z;^ that a mes- 
 senger should be sent express from the dead, to 
 give men notice of another life, and therefore un- 
 reasonable in any to resolve they will not believe 
 without it. There are proofs enough of a future 
 state besides this, drawn from reason and Scrip- 
 ture : and if it be said that these do not satisfy, 
 the answer is plain, that the fault does not lie in 
 the arguments, but in the temper of their minds. 
 For these arguments have convinced others, 
 and why then should they not prevail upon 
 them? Is it that they are persons of greater 
 penetration than the rest of mankind, and have 
 sought_ after the truth with more application and 
 impartiality? or does their moral character as 
 men of sobriety and integrity exceed that of the 
 believers of a future state ? Quite the reverse of 
 this is true. To om 7inbclicv£r of any eminence 
 for learning and solid sense, and of a tolerable 
 life and conversation, hundreds may be produced 
 from among the believers of a future state, of 
 equal talents, whose lives have done honour to 
 their profession.— //. Grove, 1683-173S. 
 
 4 Their accumulated force. 
 
 [32] And yet we confidently affirm, «' Yes, 
 man will live again." 
 
 (i) I appeal to man's intelligence, to the crea- 
 tive power with which he is endowed, to the vast 
 development of which he is capable, to the per- 
 
 fection of the human race, and the prodigies 
 with which it has covered the globe. 
 
 (2) I appeal to man's conscience, to that pure 
 and disinterested voice which nothing earthly 
 ever caused him to hear, and which speaks loudly 
 of duty, of judgment, and of responsibility. 
 
 (3) I appeal to the respect, to the inexplicable 
 love which man inspires, as an infinitely precious 
 being, so precious that the whole world would 
 not be sufficient to purchase him. 
 
 (4) I appeal to the moral and religious po-wer 
 which, from the beginning of time, has been at 
 enmity with baseness and sensuality, and which 
 has always triumphed. 
 
 (5) I appeal to Cod, who'would not exist if He 
 were not a moral and holy being, and who 
 would not be such, were death to annihilate man. 
 
 (6) I appeal to Christianity, to that emana- 
 tion of the moral world which has appeared in 
 the visible earth to enlighten man and change 
 him. 
 
 (7) I appeal to heaven and earth, to all out- 
 ward and inward things, to revelation and 
 myster)', to the soul and the world. — S. Vincent, 
 1787-1837. 
 
 See " Immortality (Individual) of Man," and 
 " Soul and the Future State." 
 
 THE HOLY GHOST, PERSONAL 
 AGENCY OF. 
 
 I. Arguments showing His Person- 
 ality. 
 
 [33] Personality includes intelligence, will, and 
 individual subsistence. \i, therefore, it can be 
 proved that all these are attributed to the Spirit, 
 it is thereby proved that He is a person. The 
 use of the personal pronouns, His being set forth 
 as an object of faith, the baptismal formula, the 
 offices which he performs, acts of intelligence 
 and power, personal manifestations, &c., are 
 proofs of personality. — Dr. C. /dodge, Sj'st. 
 Theol* 
 
 [To those who accept the authority of the 
 Scriptures the above argument will be conclu- 
 sive. — C. A'.] 
 
 [34] Must it not rather be admitted, unless 
 you will convict the Scriptures either of alosurdity 
 or of blasphemy in describing an attribute as 
 though it were a person, or of a blasphemy in 
 ascribing to a finite being the incommunicable 
 properties of the infinite — that unless you would 
 do this, there is no alternative but that of giving 
 in your adherence to the orthodox doctrines, 
 that the Spirit is a person, and that person 
 Divine.—//. Melvill, Colden Lectures. 
 
 II. Instances of His Personal Agencv. 
 
 [35] As to the essential principles of the nature 
 of man, it is not for nothing that God express- 
 eth communication of a spirit of life by His 
 breathing into him (Gen. ii. 7). The Spirit of
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1\, 
 
 35—41] 
 
 [immortality of man. 
 
 God and the breath of God are the same, only 
 the one expression is proper, the other meta- 
 phorical : wherefore this breathing is the especial 
 acting of the Spirit of God. Ihe creation of 
 the human soul, a vital, immortal principleand 
 being, is the immediate work of the Spirit of 
 God (Job xxxiii. 4). Here, indeed, the creation 
 and production of both the essential parts of 
 human nature, body and soul, are ascribed unto 
 the same author ; for the Spirit of God and the 
 breath of God are the same, but several eft'ects 
 being mentioned causeth a repetition of the 
 same cause under several names. This Spirit 
 of God first made man, or formed his body of 
 the dust, and then gave him that breath of life 
 whereby he became a "living soul." So then 
 the creation of man is assigned unto the Holy 
 Spirit, for man was the perfection of the 
 inferior creation ; and in order unto the glory of 
 God, by Him were all other things created. 
 Here, therefore, are His operations distinctly 
 declared, to whom the perfecting and complet- 
 ing of all divine works is peculiarly committed. 
 — y. Owen, 1616-16S3. 
 
 This subject will be found 7norc fully treated 
 in section termed " Christian DoginaticsT 
 
 [36] We say that destruction is the order of 
 nature, and some say that man must not hope 
 to escape the universal law. Now we deceive 
 ourselves in this use of words ; there is in reality 
 no destruction in the material world. True, the 
 tree is resolved into its elements, but its ele- 
 ments survive ; and still more, they survive to 
 fulfil the same end which they before accom- 
 plished. Not a power of nature is lost. The 
 particles of the decayed tree are only left at 
 liberty to form new, perhaps more beautiful and 
 useful, combinations ; they may shoot up into 
 more luxuriant foliage, or enter into the struc- 
 tures of the highest animals. But were mind 
 to perish, there would be absolute irretrievable 
 destruction ; for mind, from its nature, is some- 
 thing individual — an uncompounded essence, 
 which cannot be broken into parts and enter 
 into union with other minds. I am myself, and 
 can become no other being. My experience, 
 my history, cannot become my neighbour's. My 
 consciousness, my memory, my interest in my 
 past life, my afiections, cannot be transferred. 
 If in any instance I have withstood temptation, 
 and through such resistance have accjuired 
 power over myself and a claim to the approba- 
 tion of my fellow-beings, this resistance, this 
 power, this claim, are my own ; I cannot make 
 them another's. I can give away my property, 
 my limbs ; but that which makes myself — in 
 other words, my consciousness, my recollections, 
 my feelings, my hopes — these can never become 
 parts of another mind. In the extinction of a 
 thinking moral being who has gained truth and 
 virtue, there would be an absolute destruction. 
 This event would not be as the setting of the 
 sun, which is a transfer of light to new regions ; 
 but a quenching of the light. It would be a 
 ruin such as nature nowhere exhibits, a ruin of 
 
 what is infinitely more precious than the out- 
 ward universe, and is not therefore to be inferred 
 from any of the changes of the material world. — 
 W.Ellery Channing, 17S0-1842. 
 
 lAIMORTALITY {INDIVID UAL) 
 OF MAN. 
 
 I. Arguments. 
 
 I Not antecedently impossible. 
 
 [37] The dissolution of the brain no more 
 implies the dissolution of the soul than the 
 destruction of a musical instrument does that of 
 an invisible musician who plays upon it, or that 
 of a boat does that of the rower. — Rev. J. Cook, 
 Boston Lectures (1878). 
 
 [38] The self-evident axiom that every change 
 must have an adequate cause requires us to 
 hold that there exists behind the nerves a non- 
 atomic ethereal enswathement for the soul, 
 which death dissolves out from all complex 
 contact with nerve fiesh, and which death, thus 
 dissolving, leaves free before God for all the 
 development with which God can inspire it. — 
 Jbid. 
 
 [39] Huxley says that life is the cause of 
 organization, not organization the cause of life. 
 Well, if so, it is probably safe to say that the 
 cause must exist before the effect. But if life 
 may exist before organization, why not after it ? 
 
 1 affirm that the microscope begins to have 
 visions of man's immortality. — Ibid. 
 
 2 From universal instinct. 
 
 [40] Let a man never so much smother and 
 suppress the truth ; let him, with all the art he 
 can, divert his conceits, and entangle his thought 
 in secular cases ; let him shut his eyeUds as 
 close as his nail is to his flesh, yet the flashes of 
 immortality are of so penetrative and searching 
 a nature, that they will undoubtedly get through 
 all the obstacles which a mind not wholly over- 
 daubed with worldliness and ignorance can put 
 between.— i?/. Reynolds, 1 599-1676. 
 
 [41] We are told that the doctrine of the 
 soul's immortality could only have arisen from 
 the speculations of men of genius, and that it 
 was introduced by legislators to console man- 
 kind under oppression, or deter them from crime 
 by motives drawn from future retribution. If 
 this be so, how happens it that it has found its 
 way into the deserts, and has been diftused alike 
 over the South Sea Islands and those of the 
 Pacific ; over Lapland and Asia, and the nations 
 of benighted Africa ? The nations of the Society 
 Islands entertain it ; and those, too, of the 
 Friendly Islands ; the New Zealanders also, 
 and the inhabitants of the Pelew Islands, with 
 the wild tribes of Kalmuc Tartary, and all the
 
 12 
 
 THE DISTIXCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 41—50] 
 
 [immortality of MAN', 
 
 wandering tribes which have peopled, and do 
 still people, the continent of America. — Rev. 
 R. IV. Landis. 
 
 [42] It is very remarkable to see how some 
 who have shaken themselves pretty nearly free 
 of all other dogmatic belief, have clung to the 
 belief in the immortality of the soul. It was 
 Mr. Buckle, of the •' History of Civilisation," who 
 wrote that " the belief in a future state ap- 
 proaches certainty nearer than any other belief; 
 and it is one which, if eradicated, would drive 
 most of U5 to despair." And the eloquent but 
 sceptical writer founds his belief just on this, 
 that IT .MUST EE TRUE.— ^. K. H. Boyd. 
 
 [43] The fact that our existence in a future 
 world has been an article of faith among 
 pagan philosophers indicates that this doctrine 
 is an appropriate part of natural theology. But 
 even if it had not been thus believed by 
 heathens, it ought to have been ; and the argu- 
 ments which convince the unaided judgment 
 of its truth are also reasons for classifying the 
 doctrine among the teachings of nature. 
 
 [44] The arguments from reason by which 
 the immortality of the soul is maintained are 
 well known. But there is another argument, 
 the scope of which has been so immensely en- 
 larged in modern times that the disregard of it 
 by the ancients does not count against its in- 
 herent validity. This is the general consent of 
 the race. The future existence of the soul has 
 been held as a matter of popular belief by the 
 people of every age and country. It is found 
 among the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Hindus, 
 the Persians, the Greeks and Romans, the 
 Druids, the Celts, the Germans, the Slavs, and 
 a great variety of uncivilized tribes in North 
 America and South, in the centre of Africa, and 
 in the islands of the sea. There are exceptions, 
 but these are just enough to confirm the rule. 
 The great body of the human family in every 
 age have held, as they hold now, that the soul 
 survives the body ; and there is no way of ac- 
 counting for this unanimity but by admitting 
 the truth of the doctrine. Either it was derived 
 by tradition from our original ancestors, who 
 obtained it from their Creator, or its evidences 
 lie so deeply impressed upon the constitution ot 
 man that they compel assent. A judgment held 
 so long, so widely, and by such difterent races, 
 must be deemed to be correct. — G. F, Wright. 
 
 [45] Even the superficial student of history 
 cannot fail to be impressed with the general 
 prevalence of a belief in immortality. For, not- 
 withstanding the perpetual recurrence of death 
 and the subsequent dissolution of the body, men 
 of all degrees of culture have found it natural 
 to believe that the essential qualities of the mind 
 survive the shock of that universal, mysterious, 
 and appalling catastrophe. The belief is found 
 among races and individuals of all grades of in- 
 telligence and in all stages of civilization. — Ibid. 
 
 [46] It is very wonderful how the absolute 
 need there is in average humanity for a longer 
 look-out than is afforded by this life, and for a 
 reserve allotment or provision of life beyond the 
 one which is present, has constrained humanity 
 to cling to the vague hope of immortality through 
 ages when there was absolutely no reason what- 
 soever for cherishing that hope. For it is not 
 a reason for holding any belief, merely that we 
 should be destitute beyond all words did we not 
 hold it. And, apart from the express assertion 
 of Divine revelation, I never saw any argument 
 for the immortality of the soul which could not 
 be most easily answered and refuted. ... If a 
 future life be needed to redress the evils of this, 
 and another world to set this right, I should 
 say that the sufferings of cab-horses and of 
 vivisected dogs demand compensation as vehe- 
 mently as those of any man. — Recreations of a 
 Country Parson. 
 
 [47] Fools or philosophers — we are content 
 to leave the choice of terms to the great heart 
 and sound sense of humanity ; w^e cling to the 
 strong, 7-tasonable hope of everlasting life. It is 
 human to cling, it is divine to cling ; it is in- 
 stinct, it is reason ; it is the blind brute motion 
 of nature, it is the last fine finish of knowledge. 
 — Miss E. S. Phelps in the Atlantic Monthly. 
 
 [48] It is not mere eternity which the thought- 
 ful man desires, not even the perpetuity of things 
 as they are ; but eternal life worthy of the noble 
 name, and in harmony with his highest nature, 
 in which the good he aspires after shall be at- 
 tained, and the evil he deplores be removed, 
 and the unseen God be beheld with joy and 
 served with undecaying energies. — 7". M. Her' 
 bert. 
 
 3 From reason and experience. 
 
 [49] Suftering implies future retribution, for 
 what a God who would give, as a reward to His 
 servants, suftering here and nothingness hereafter! 
 The doctrine of annihilation which fails in pre- 
 sence of the success of the wicked, fails still more 
 completely in presence of the misfortunes of the 
 righteous. The tribulation they endure for God, 
 their physical or moral anguish, the fetters by 
 which they are bound, the burning piles on 
 which their bones are consumed, their graves 
 dug by impious hands, are as many voices cry- 
 ing to the sorrow-laden soul : " Fail not, take 
 courage, there is justice in heaven ; and thy 
 trials will be turned into glory when Christ shall 
 appear." — Chappnis. 
 
 [50] If there is no life beyond the grave, if 
 there is no immortality, if all spiritual calcula- 
 tion is to end here, why, then the mighty work 
 of God is all to end in nothingness ; but if this 
 is only a state of infancy, only the education for 
 eternity, in which the soul is to gain its wisdom 
 and experience for higher work, then to ask 
 why such a mind is taken from us, is just as 
 absurd as to question why the tree of the forest
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 SO -55] 
 
 [immortality of man. 
 
 13 
 
 has its first training in the nursery garden. 
 This is but the nursery ground, from which we 
 are to be transphmted into the great forest of 
 God's eternal uni\erse. — F. \V, Robertson. 
 
 [51] Useful heads : 
 
 (i) The universahty of the belief. 
 
 (2) The nature of its aspirations and desires. 
 
 (3) The powers and capacities of the soul. 
 
 (4) The existence of conscience. 
 
 (5) The unequal distribution of good and evil 
 in this life. — Rcv.R. W. Lanais, Iininortaliiy of 
 Hie Soul. 
 
 [52] We have arrived, then, at these two 
 conclusions — that personal identity is not to be 
 explained by the present structure ot our bodies, 
 and that it is as little to be accounted for by the 
 present structure of our minds. There remains 
 a third supposition : does it lie in the present 
 union of our bodies and our minds. If the 
 grounds on which we have reached the previous 
 conclusions be just, this third supposition is 
 already disposed of For if the structure of the 
 body be constantly changing, and if the sti'uc- 
 ture of the mind be never the same, it follows 
 that there must have been a series of unions 
 between the body and the soul. Which of them 
 then made the identity ? That identity has sur- 
 vived the dissolution of several environments ; 
 which of them is the essential one ? The natural 
 answer clearly is, none of them. That which 
 has survived these forms of union must itself be 
 independent of them. We see death overtaking 
 the organism long before its earthly life is 
 finished. We see the original union of body 
 and soul dissolved before our eyes. We see 
 every feature of the one and every element of 
 the other subjected to a complete change. At 
 last we behold the appearance of another body 
 and another soul, of a new physical and a new 
 mental structure. Yet, strange to say, in the 
 new environment the old identity appears. The 
 former self of the man asserts its sameness 
 amid its changed surroundings, and claims these 
 changed surroundings as its natural home. Is 
 it any more difficult to conceive that after the 
 great dissolution of death shall separate again 
 the bodily and the spiritual functions, the iden- 
 tity of the individual may reproduce itself un- 
 impaired in the functions of a new body and a 
 new mind ? — Dr. G. Matheson, D.D. 
 
 [53] As Bishop Butler points out, we find by 
 experience that many actions whose immediate 
 consequences in this world are pleasureable, 
 have remote consequences of such a painful 
 character that (even as regards the present life) 
 we must regard them as prohibited rather than 
 commanded ; while others whose immediate 
 consequences are painful, have remote effects of 
 so pleasurable a character, that even as regards 
 this life they must be regarded not as prohibited 
 but as commanded. Now, if there be a future 
 hfe, it is natural to suppose that something of 
 the same kind may take place with regard to it 
 — that actions whose effects in this world are 
 
 on the whole pleasurable, may have painful 
 eftects in the future state, and vice versd. A 
 revelation which asserts this, asserts nothing 
 improbable, and as we can know nothing of the 
 future state except by revelation, we must ac- 
 cept its statements with regard to that state if 
 the revelation is fairly attested. We must act 
 upon our lights for the time being, but we often 
 do so well knowing that if we hr.d more light 
 we might act difterently. An action whose con- 
 sequences seem to A. likely to be on the whole 
 pleasurable, may seem to B. likely to be on the 
 whole painful, for the simple reason that B. has 
 more experience or better information ; and if 
 A. was aware of B.'s superior knowledge, he 
 would probably take B.'s word for it, and act 
 contrary to what he would have done if thrown 
 on his own resources. Nay, A. himself would 
 often form difterent judgments with regard to 
 the consequences of an action (and act dif- 
 ferently for that reason) at difterent periods of 
 his life, owing to the subsequent acquisitions of 
 experience and knowledge. Rules of conduct 
 deduced merely from observation of the na- 
 tural consequences of actions in this world can 
 never be relied on as objections against a 
 fairly attested revelation which proceeds on 
 the assumption of a future life. — Rev. W. H. S. 
 lUofick, M.A. 
 
 4 From human and Christian ideals. 
 
 [54] The Church, too, exists — according to 
 its ideal, at least — with its vital fellowships in 
 sacrament and service, to cherish whatever is 
 chiefest in character, because of its fundamental 
 premise of a life waiting beyond the present ; 
 and no society for grand and illustrious ethical 
 culture can permanently continue on a slighter 
 foundation. — Dr. R. S. Siorrs, Rccogtiition of 
 tJie Siipernaiiiral. 
 
 [55] Here is the inexhaustible impulse to an 
 intrinsic and beautiful nobleness. It is not from 
 laws, teachings, examples, the maxims of pru- 
 dence, or the dictates of conscience — it is from 
 this immense conception of the timeless rela- 
 tions of the spirit in man, and of its possible 
 coming association with persons and spheres sur- 
 passing thought, that the subtlest and strongest 
 incentive comes to what is august and surpass- 
 ing in virtue. If one had the chance to write a 
 poem for spirits to read in higher realms — to 
 mould the marble into lovely forms of ecstasy 
 and passion for them to contemplate — to paint 
 the picture whose beauty should show no pallid 
 tint or tremulous line beneath the searching 
 heavenly lustres — with what infinite pains would 
 he strive at his work ! That he can make his 
 character worthy the free acceptance of those 
 whose feet, sandalled with light, have trodden 
 only ethereal paths, it is the grandest benefit of 
 grace which God, if there be a God, has be- 
 stowed. It is assuredly the consummate ex- 
 pression of the power of protoplasm, if that it 
 be which has built the creation ! And when 
 the thought of such a result rises within one,
 
 14 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 55-63] 
 
 [the incarnation. 
 
 the supreme law of character which dominates 
 the world from Galilee and from Calvary needs 
 no word to interpret, and no argument to defend 
 \i.—Ibid. 
 
 5 From Old Testament teaching. 
 
 [56] That the ancient Jews, and also the 
 patriarchs, had a knowledge of the doctrine of 
 immortality is evident : 
 
 1. From the distinction which is made be- 
 tween ''i^^*^', the abode of disembodied spirits, 
 and li2, or 1?p., the place for the body (Gen. 
 xxviii. 5 ; xlix. 33 ; 1. 2-10, &c.) 
 
 2. From the belief in the art of necromancy 
 by which the spirits of the dead were thought to 
 be summoned back (Lev. xix. 31 ; xx. 6, 7 ; 
 2 Kings xxiii. 24 ; Isa. xix. 3 ; Zech. xiii. 2-6, 
 &c.) 
 
 3. From the oft-recurring phrases, " gathered 
 to his fathers," or " to his people."' 
 
 4. From the use of the word " spirit"' in a 
 sense necessarily implying its separate existence 
 (e.g., Psa. xxxi. 5 ; comp. Luke xxiii. 46). 
 
 5. From the use of the phrase, "giving up the 
 ghost '■' (Gen. xlix. 33 ; Job xiv. 10, &c.) 
 
 6. From innumerable devotional passages 
 {e.s;., Psa. Ixxiii. 24-26 ; xvi. 5 ; Job xix. 25-27, 
 &c.) 
 
 7. From the argument of Heb. xi. 13-16. 
 
 8. From Christ's reasoning with the Sadducees 
 (Matt. xxii. 23-33 ; Luke xx. 27-38 ; comp. Exod. 
 iii. 6). 
 
 9. From innumerable passages which imply 
 this doctrine {e.g.. Gen. ii. 7 ; Eccles. iii. 21, and 
 xii. 7 ; Hag. ii." 23, ^z>j—Rev. R. W. Landis, 
 Imviortaliiy of the Soul. 
 
 6 From New Testament teaching. 
 
 [57] I. All passages which speak of the pre- 
 sent existence of hell for wicked men infer the 
 doctrine of the soul's uninterrupted immortality. 
 
 2. All passages which speak of the present 
 existence of heaven as the region of the blessed 
 infer the same. 
 
 3. All passages which assure the believer that 
 he shall never perish. 
 
 4. The fact of regeneration, and the commu- 
 nication of a new spiritual life, over which the 
 law has no condemning power. 
 
 5. The fact and effects of justification. 
 
 6. The fact and effects of adoption. 
 
 7. The believer's union to Christ. 
 
 8. Many particular passages expressly affirm 
 or imply the doctrine of immortality : {e.g., 
 Matt. x. 28 ; Matt. xvii. 3 ; Luke viii. 54, 55 ; 
 and xvi. 22, 23 ; Sec.)— Ibid. 
 
 See Article on "The Future Life." 
 
 7 Assumed by Christ. 
 
 [58] This doctrine has not in the teachings 
 of Jesus the appearance of a fresh philosophical 
 theory, or of a new truth, kindling in him a 
 constant surprise of intensity. It seems rather 
 like unconscious knowledge. He speaks of the 
 
 great invisible world as if it had always lain 
 before Him, and as familiarly as to us stretches 
 out the landscape which we have seen since 
 our birth. The assertion of a future state is 
 scarcely to be met with in His teachings : the 
 assumption of it pervades them. — Beechcr, Life 
 of Christ. 
 
 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 I. An Essential Part of the Gospel. 
 
 [59] The fourth Gospel contains no record of 
 the nativity. Matthew and Luke tell us of the 
 birth of the Son of Man : John tells of the 
 incarnation of the Son of God. The former 
 look from the side of earth, the latter looks 
 from the side of heaven. The former state the 
 fact, the latter gives the underlying principle of 
 the fact. But unless you take John's point of 
 view you cannot understand Luke's story. — Rev. 
 A. MaLlare7i. 
 
 [60] Nothing can be more foolish than for 
 advocates of Christianity to attempt to pare 
 down the miracles in order to make them more 
 acceptable to the other side ; for the very heart 
 of Christ is " God manifest in the flesh ; " and if 
 you take that, then the whole procession of 
 miracles which He wrought is natural. — Ibid. 
 
 [61] Without entering upon any dogmatic 
 controversy, we will content ourselves with 
 establishing that the miraculous conception of 
 of Jesus (everywhere implied in the New Testa- 
 tament, even where it is not formally stated) is 
 an essential part of Christian doctrine. He who 
 is to be the Head of a new race, which is to be 
 at once Divine and human — the realization, that 
 is to say, of its primitive type — cannot be simply 
 one of the links of the long chain of natural 
 generations, all tainted with the evil which has, 
 as it were, become incorporated in a fallen race. 
 — E. De Prcsscnse, Jesus Christ j His Time, 
 Life, and Work. 
 
 [62] When we say that Jesus Christ is God, 
 we mean that in the Man Christ Jesus, the 
 Second of the Persons in the Godhead, One in 
 Essence with the First and with the Third, 
 vouchsafed to become Incarnate. 
 
 II. Different Views. 
 1 Pantheistical. 
 
 [63] It is not at all necessary in order to 
 salvation that we should know Christ after the 
 flesh ; but we must regard Him in a very 
 difterent manner, as the eternal Son of God, 
 that is, the eternal wisdom of God, which has 
 manifested itself in all things, specially in the 
 human mind, and most of all in Jesus Christ.— 
 Spinoza, Ep. xxi. {Tr. J. S.)
 
 63-68] 
 
 the distixctive doctri^'es of christtanjtv. iq 
 
 [man as a spiritual being. 
 
 This view is subversive of all true faith in 
 Christ ; but unfortunately is popularized in an 
 attractive form in certain classes of light litera- 
 ture.— C iV. 
 
 2 Philosophical. 
 
 [64] The human nature of Christ may, therefore, 
 so far forth as it is human, be considered the 
 outcome of the law of the ascent of life, and of 
 the individualization of life in higher and higher 
 forms. 
 
 The incarnation is the culmination of the crea- 
 tion. That thought is not altogether familiar to 
 American theology, but I think it entirely har- 
 monious with the Holy Scriptures. It is cer- 
 tainly very familiar to German theology, and I 
 believe the time has come for emphasizing the 
 great truth which throws into rapture men like 
 Dorner and his associates in Berlin, men like 
 Kahnis and his associates at Leipsic, the central, 
 the scientific, and Biblical idea that the incar- 
 nation, under the law of the ascent of life, and 
 the individualization of higher and higher forms 
 of spiritual existence, is the culmination of the 
 creation. — J. Cook, Boston Monday Lectures. 
 
 3 Doctrinal. 
 
 [65] St. John's doctrine of the Divinity of the 
 Word cannot be objected to on the score of its 
 mysteriousness by those who allow themselves 
 to face their real ignorance of the mysteries of 
 our human nature. Nor does that doctrine 
 involve a necessary internal self-contradiction 
 on such a ground as that the " Word by whom 
 all things were made, and who sustains all 
 things, cannot become His own creature." The 
 Word Incarnate does not cease to be the 
 Word ; but He can and does assume a nature 
 which He has created. — Canon Liddon, Banipton 
 Lccticrcs. 
 
 4 Experimental. 
 
 [66] The living soul is not content to be 
 spoken to by a book alone, but by a person. 
 The word is mighty when it is " made flesh." 
 The necessities underlying the incarnation are 
 imperative as ever. We can have no sympathy 
 with the " stream of tendency " that would dis- 
 tribute Christ as a pale presence pervading all 
 things, or bury His personality in the tomb of 
 the universe. We cannot afford to ignore the 
 teaching of sacred history. We remember that 
 the strength of Judaism was bent on incarna- 
 tion. The bush, the pillar of fire, the temple, 
 were, as far as the nature of the things would 
 allow, a vesture of personality for God. 
 
 III. Its Purposes. 
 
 [67] (i) To show us what God is. 
 
 "He dwelt among us." Dwelt means dwelt 
 in a tabernacle, or tent, and so reminds us of 
 the Divine presence abiding with Israel in the 
 Tabernacle. 
 
 ''2) To show us what man ought to be. 
 
 How perfect was the example that that 
 
 human life set before us ! The admission o*f 
 enemies tells us that : our own hearts and con 
 sciences tell us. But did you ever think how 
 strange it is that these four little tracts— the 
 Gospels — telling us such fragmentary stories 
 and of so brief a period of a life, should have 
 been accepted by all the centuries, and by all 
 sorts and conditions of men, women, and chil- 
 dren, wise and foolish, learned and ignorant, as 
 an all-sufficient guide and model for them, and 
 that these little stories should be felt by us all 
 to contain an adequate guide and will for our 
 conduct.? It is not enough to say, "Ah, yes ; 
 men's circumstances change, but the essentials 
 of their duty are very few, and you can put 
 them into very few words;" we have got the 
 Divine example in human form. 
 
 (3) That he might die. 
 
 i'here are numbers of good, well-meaning 
 people who have donetheirbesttoshift the scene 
 of Christianity from the Cross to the Cradle, 
 to put it all en the Incarnation instead of the 
 Crucifixion. But you cannot understand Christ- 
 mas unless you go to Good Friday, We do not 
 know the meaning of that Cradle unless we see 
 falling on it the Shadow of the Cross. 
 
 (4) That He might pity and sympathize with 
 us. 
 
 He has trodden all the road before us, and in 
 our hours of weakness or of conflict, when our 
 hearts bleed, and when the way is dark, it is 
 blessedness, and company, and strength, and 
 good cheer to remember that He has gone 
 before. 
 
 (5) That manhood might be glorified, 
 i'here is the crown of the mysteiy — that we 
 
 through His poverty may be made rich. As 
 Psalm viii. expounded in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews has it, men are destined to dominion 
 and glory and honour. But we and all our 
 brethren have come woefully short of our 
 Divine destinies. Is the Divine purpose then 
 broken short ? Is there never to be anything 
 better ? Yes : we see not yet all things put 
 under Him, but we see Jesus. Where He is 
 He will lead me if I like. What He is He will 
 make va^.—Rev. A. Maclaren. 
 
 MAN AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 I. Argument from Human Conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 [68] (i) The fundamental fact with which I 
 begin is, that I AM. I find myself existing as 
 a simple, self-same, substantial being. 
 
 (2) I find myself, moreover, existing with 
 certain qualities ; in some of which I am like 
 lower animals, but in others altogether unlike 
 them. 
 
 (3) I am like lower animals iu being Sensi- 
 tive, Causative, Intellective.
 
 i6 
 
 68—76] 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [man, free and responsible. 
 
 (4) I am altogether tiiilike them in being 
 Moral, Religious, Progrecsive. — Prebendary 
 Griffith, Fundaine7itals. 
 
 [69] I am more than a life. I am the some- 
 what who has life. — ThcriUale. 
 
 ]jo\ Because the soul feels itself not moved 
 by extraneous force, but fiom itself alone, it 
 can say of all the assaults which are made 
 against these sorry mud walls which enclose it, 
 you are nothing to ME ! I can live anywhere, 
 without this feeble carcase ; for I was not that, 
 but had only a command over it while I dwelt 
 in it. — John Smith, Diseourses. 
 
 [71] A man is one thing, his mind another, 
 his body a third. Although they belo)t_^ to him 
 they are no more the man himself than his horse 
 or dog. It is a mere blunder in natural history 
 to confound these things. — Professor Rolleston 
 {Lecture at the Royal histituti'in). 
 
 [72] What the thing is which we call ourselves 
 we know not. It may be true, and I for one care 
 not if It be, that the descent of our mortal bodies 
 may be traced through an ascending series to 
 some glutinous jelly formed on the rocks of the 
 primeval ocean. It is nothing to me how the 
 Maker of me has been pleased to construct the 
 organized substance which I call my body. It 
 is mine, but it is not Die. The intellectual spirit, 
 bemg an essence, I believe to be an imperish- 
 able something engendered in us from a higher 
 source. 
 
 " The soul that rises in us, our life's star, 
 Hath elsewhere had its setting. 
 And Cometh from afar.'" 
 
 — y. A. Froude. 
 
 [73] Araspes says to Cyrus : " I have plainly 
 two souls ; for a single soul cannot be a good 
 one and a bad one at the same time ; nor can 
 it at the same time aftect both noble actions 
 and vile ones. It cannot incline and be averse 
 to the same things at the same time ; but it is 
 plain there are two souls ; and when the good 
 one prevails, it does noble things ; when the 
 bad one prevails, it attempts vile things." — 
 Xeiiophon. 
 
 II. CORROEORATIVE SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. 
 
 [74] The scriptures represent the body as but 
 the scabbard m which the soul is inclosed (Dan. 
 vii. 15) ; earthly domicile (Job iv. 19) ; its taber- 
 nacle or tent (2 Cor. v. i); and its clothing, 
 which it shall exchange for a better garment 
 (Job X. 11). And this soul, thus distinct from 
 the body, and occupying it only as a temporary 
 residence, is one and the same with our very 
 self. — Prebendary CrifptJi, Fundamentals. 
 
 MAN, FREE AND RESPONSIBLE. 
 
 I. Metaphysical Difficulties consi- 
 dered. 
 
 [75] The Free, Responsible, Moral Nature of 
 Man constituting him a Spiritual Being, in dis- 
 tinction from all mere animal existences and 
 material mechanisms, is another of those pri- 
 mary truths which belong to the very substance 
 of all religions, and therefore of Christianity as 
 a religion which appeals by persuasion to the 
 human heart and seeks to influence the life. 
 Apart from all theories of the origin of the 
 human race, the question may be put, what is 
 man as he is addressed by the word of God, or 
 that which claims to be the word of God, in the 
 scriptures ? He certainly is regarded there as 
 rational, as moral, as spiritual ; in short, as 
 capable of making a free choice of the aim and 
 method of his life, as possessing some such 
 mastery over himself and over the world around 
 him, that it is not a mere mockery to make an 
 appeal to his will. It is of no practical import- 
 ance to prove that man's volition is absolutely 
 free. 
 
 The metaphysical difficulties which may be 
 involved in the conception of human freedom 
 are only of the same kind as beset all our sim- 
 plest ideas, all attempts to penetrate below the 
 surface of those facts with which we have to do 
 in daily life. The theory of vision, e.g., has 
 never been satisfactorily set forth by philoso- 
 phers. Yet vision itself is a fact, and the appeal 
 to the seeing man to use his eyes, is quite inde- 
 pendent of an explanation of the laws of percep- 
 tion. — R. A. Red/ord, The Chfistian's Plea 
 against Unbelief. 
 
 II. Limitations arising from Personal 
 Conditions and Environments con- 
 sidered. 
 
 [76] In short, whether we regard our natural 
 dispositions, or the circumstances in which we 
 are placed, or our lot in life, we eveiywhere find 
 ourselves restrained within certain limits, which 
 we can neither pass nor extend ; we everywhere 
 see ourselves subjected to a law of necessity 
 which we are unable to shake off. But this is 
 not the whole man. Whether our natural en- 
 dowments are great or small ; whether we are 
 favourably or unfavourably circumstanced, does 
 not after all decide upon what we really are, is 
 not, in truth, our very self 
 
 All this constitutes, it may be, the possessions 
 we have, this new material we are to fashion, 
 the matter out of which we build up the edifice 
 of our life — but it is we that use this material in 
 our life-building. How we use it, whether ill or 
 well, is our own affair, and depends not on the 
 material alone, but upon ourselves, upon the 
 tendency of our own will, upon the moral con- 
 stitution of our own nature. In the sphere of 
 the will, in the province of moral resolves and
 
 76- 82] 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [personality of god. 
 
 self-determinations, we feel ourselves free- 
 Lut/iardt, Moral Truths of Christianity. 
 
 See section termed "Man's Responsibility.'' 
 
 PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 I. As A Distinctive Doctrine of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 lyj"] Religion, however we define it, presup- 
 poses an object of worship. Christianity rejects 
 all other conceptions of religion than that which 
 regards a personal God as its object. It is 
 distinguished, on the one side, from all forms 
 of polytheism, which is in fact the worship of 
 the creature instead of the Creator, of a finite 
 object instead of an infinite Being ; and, on the 
 other side, from a\\ pantheistic forms of so-called 
 religion, which reduce the positive worship of a 
 living person to a vague sentiment, dependent 
 upon an intellectual conception, and therefore 
 altogether unsuited to be made the universal 
 worship of the human race. 
 
 II. The Necessity of its Belief, 
 
 [78] The denial of the Personality of God 
 "eliminates everything essential from worship, 
 and takes even the possibility of reasonableness 
 from piety." — The S7tper7iatural in Nature. 
 
 III. The Christian View consistent 
 with Reason, 
 
 [79] To call Personality, Goodness, Intelli- 
 gence, anthropomorphic in their nature is, 
 indeed, to give them their title ; but, to forsake 
 these and adopt energy or motion, mechanical 
 in place of intellectual terms, is not less anthro- 
 pomorphic, and forsakes the higher for the lower: 
 Personality as much transcending material con- 
 ceptions as humanity transcends the crystal or 
 the sea-weed, 
 
 [80] Personality is not used in any sense of 
 limitation, but as the mysterious aspect of the 
 omnipresent Energy, to whose eternal decrees 
 we submit, and on whose constancy we ex- 
 plicitly rely. We decline to call Him Power, or 
 Matter, or Motion. The Name of the great "I 
 am" has been in essence unpronounceable, but 
 we say," God is Spirit," and we are kept from 
 attributing human or material attributes to Him 
 by the unsolvable mystery being formulated as 
 a Trinity in unity ; and there is a likeness in 
 this mystery of Three in One, or that other 
 mystery of three— past, present, future, which 
 are but one " Now " to the supreme. — The 
 Supernatural in Nature, 
 
 [81] An infinite, eternal One cannot indeed 
 be conceived of as material, nor yet strictly as 
 mental, but it may be conceived of as spiritual 
 and personal. 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 IV, Summary of Proofs. 
 
 [82] To sum up the proofs of God's personality. 
 These proofs, as in the evidence for man's per- 
 sonality, are of two classes. 
 
 A personality is shown in and through the 
 material universe. 
 
 First, The perfect unity exhibited through all 
 things, of which we have any knowledge, argues 
 that the power by which they exist possesses 
 likewise a perfect and indivisible unity. This 
 cannot be said of mere abstract law, for the 
 laws of the universe are many and diverse. 
 There must be behind these laws an existence 
 which is one and indivisible characterized by 
 this fundamental principle of personality. 
 
 Secondly, The universe exhibits a progression 
 and development in its formation. All progres- 
 sive advancement in utility, in beauty, in better 
 adaptation to special ends and purposes, of 
 whose origin and cause we really know any- 
 thing, and which are not the subjects of mere 
 conjecture, has resulted from the exercise of the 
 personal guidance and control of men. In the 
 absence of proof to the contrary, the logic of 
 science, which bids us look for similar causes 
 where there are similar results, would not only 
 justify but require us to attribute to a personal ' 
 agency the progressive development so visible 
 in the formation of the world, and in the crea- 
 tion of its living inhabitants. 
 
 Thirdly, The stability of the universe depends 
 very largely upon the fact that all its varied and 
 multiplied movements are mutually incommen- 
 surable in time and space. Such movements 
 cannot be automatic, the result of mere law. 
 Law, however complex, must eventually run its 
 full course, and all those bodies which it con- 
 trols will necessarily return to the same relative- 
 positions. The incommensurable nature of 
 times and distances of the various heavenly 
 bodies is incompatible with the idea of the uni- 
 verse being a mere machine. There must have 
 been a personal intelligent agency concerned in 
 its formation, 
 
 A Divine personality is shown by and through 
 the inward manifestation of the Divine Spirit to 
 the human spirit. 
 
 First. Every man is conscious of an inward 
 conviction that all the wonders and beauty and 
 adaptation of nature arise from the will and pur- 
 pose of a superior Being, This inward conviction 
 arises from no process of reasoning, but, being; 
 common to all, can be nothing less than a 
 Divine inspiration, the voice of God communi- 
 cating directly with the spirits of men. 
 
 Secondly. Moral intuitions, the clear per- 
 ception of a distinction between right and wrong, 
 can find no other solution to the problem of 
 their existence than the direct personal in- 
 fluence of the Divine Spirit, The laboured 
 attempts to account for the power of the laws 
 of morality by a theory of development have 
 a defect similar to that which lies at the basis 
 of material development. The distinction be- 
 tween right and wrong must be assumed. It 
 cannot be accounted for. Nothing more can be
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [sin, the reality of. 
 
 said of it than that it exists and that the 
 human mind is conscious of that distinction. 
 Just as in material development, the existence 
 of matter and life are not accounted for but 
 assumed. 
 
 Thirdly. The sense of religion has not its 
 origin in the human intelligence or experience. 
 It is imparted from without. From the very 
 nature of such impressions the source whence 
 they come must be a personal existence equally 
 Avith the human spirit whom He guides and 
 controls. — Rev. 11'. ]V. Olssen, Personality, 
 Human and Divine. 
 
 9 
 
 R.EDEMPTION, MORAL NECES- 
 SITY OF. 
 I. Morally. 
 
 [83] Christianity does not create the sense of 
 sin and guilt. It has been powerful in all re- 
 ligions. We look with awe on the human race, 
 bound and writhing through all history in the 
 sense of guilt, like the Laocoon in the embrace 
 of the serpents, the marble anguish unchanging 
 through all the ages. 
 
 [84] Human laws, which are the only expe- 
 dient lately attempted, cannot come to the head 
 and source of this corrupt fountain. It lies too 
 deep. Their power cannot reach it, and much 
 less purify it. An act of parliament can only 
 regulate the outward behaviour. It can take 
 Tio cognizance of a crime until it break out into 
 some overt act, and therefore it can have no 
 influence over the heart. If murder, adultery, 
 ■robbery, (S;c., be in the heart, there all statute 
 laws leave them ; and the inclination only waits 
 for a fair opportunity, which it will always em- 
 brace, whenever there is a prospect of escaping 
 the lash of the law. Thus no sin is hereby pre- 
 vented. Only the commission of it is rendered 
 more private, and the heart is put upon invent- 
 ing schemes, how it may gratify itself in its 
 pleasures, without incurring the pains and 
 penalties which the law threatens to inflict. 
 By this means the corruption, that seems to be 
 diminished in the channels, gathers and in- 
 creases at the fountain-head, where the more it 
 is stopped, the more it ferments and pollutes 
 itself. Since this is the case, what reformation 
 can we expect from the interposition of human 
 authority } Supposing the legislature should 
 follow his majesty's gracious instructions from 
 the throne, and try to find out some new laws 
 for putting a stop to robberies and murders, yet 
 experience would soon prove them to be inef- 
 fectual. All the human laws which ever were 
 made, or ever will be made, cannot reform one 
 single person, because they cannot reach the 
 heart. Gospel and not law should be here 
 employed. The gospel can take sin out of the 
 heart, but the law can only make the commis- 
 sion of it more private. The clergy therefore 
 
 should be called upon, and not the magistrate. 
 — U\ Rofnaine, 1714-1795. 
 
 II. Theologically. 
 
 [85] Any one who believes that the Divine 
 acts are not arbitary must admit that when the 
 guihy are forgiven it must be for a sufficient 
 reason. If repentance and reformation are the 
 ground of it, then the one stage of life is set 
 over against the other and is the sufficient 
 reason for the Divine procedure regarding the 
 sins of the past. And again, if this repentance 
 and reformation are affected through the suffer- 
 ings and death of Christ, then these become 
 after all, in a real sense, the ground of pardon. 
 So that whatever objections may lie against the 
 strictly vicarious doctrine hold against this also. 
 — Prof. CJiapman in Homilctic Magazine (18S2). 
 
 [86] Qu. Why was it needful that Christ 
 should be niafi ? 
 
 A. First, because he could not suffer in his 
 Divine nature, and therefore, unless he had 
 taken upon him the weak nature of man, he 
 could not have suffered for us, I Tim. i. 17. 
 
 Secondly, because man had sinned ; and 
 therefore it was needful that man should suffer 
 for sin, Heb. ii. 16. 
 
 Thirdly, that he might feel in himself the many 
 weaknesses and infirmities, that our nature is 
 subject to, Heb.\\. 17. — J. S?nith, Christ nuistbe 
 Human (1618-1652). 
 
 10 
 
 SIN, THE REALITY OF. 
 
 I. Shown by its Universality. 
 
 [87] Our declining from the perfect rule of 
 righteousness in the course of our lives is not 
 the mere effect of education, or imitation ; since 
 Jesus Christ was born into the same world that 
 we are, and bred up as we are, among corrupt 
 and vicious examples. — H. Grove, 1683-1738. 
 
 II. Shown by its Tendency. 
 
 [88] A state of sin and holiness are not like 
 two ways that are just parted by a line, so as a 
 man may step out of the one full into the other; 
 but they are like two ways that lead to very 
 distant places, and consequently are at a good 
 distance from one another ; and the further a 
 man hath travelled in the one, the further he is 
 from the other. — Bp. Tillotson. 
 
 III. Shown by its Effects. 
 
 [89] For sin is the greatest and highest in- 
 felicity of the creature ; depraves the soul 
 within itself, vitiates its powers, deforms its 
 beauty, extinguisheth its light, corrupts its 
 purity, darkens its glory, disturbs its tranquillity 
 and peace, violates its harmonious, joyful state 
 and order, and destroys its very life. — f. Hcwe, 
 1 630-1 705.
 
 THE DISTIXCTIl-'E DOCTRIIVES OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 90-99] 
 
 [trinity, the H",LY. 
 
 tg 
 
 [90] Here, I fear, is a dangerous tendency of 
 the age we live in — to regard sin rather as a 
 misfortune or a mistake than a fault and cor- 
 ruption. No one can object to the generous 
 impulse which leads us to make due allowance 
 for those who grow up, through no fault of their 
 own, under unfavourable influences ; and a 
 merciful God, no doubt, considers and makes 
 due allowance for the inevitable disadvantages 
 under which so many human souls are reared. 
 But still, sin is sin, and right is right, and the 
 true Church of God never falters in its con- 
 demnation of the one and its upholding of the 
 other. It is its special business to form and 
 maintain an elevated public opinion, based on 
 the standard of the Word of God. — Abp. Tait, 
 Church of the Future. 
 
 This subject is more fully treated in sections 
 termed " Doematics " and '" Sins." 
 
 11 
 
 TRINITY, THE HOLY. 
 I. A Mysterious Doctrine, 
 
 (i) Above, not contrary to, reason. 
 
 [91] But so much we manifestly find in our- 
 selves, that we have three natures in us very 
 sufficiently distinguishable and that are inti- 
 mately united — the vegetative, sensitive, and 
 the intellective ; so that, notwithstanding their 
 manifest distinction, no one scruples, when they 
 are united, to call the whole "the human 
 nature." — J. Howe, 1630-1705. 
 
 [92] How little do those who quarrel with 
 mysteries know of the commonest actions of 
 nature ! The growth of an animal, of a plant, 
 or of the smallest seed, is a mystery to the 
 wisest among men. If an ignorant person were 
 told that a loadstone would draw iron at a dis- 
 tance, he might say it was a thing contrary to 
 his reason, and could not believe before he saw 
 it with his eyes. The manner whereby the soul 
 and body are united, and how they are distin- 
 guished, is wholly unaccountable to us. We 
 see but one part, and yet we know we consist 
 of two ; and this is a mystery we cannot com- 
 prehend, any more than that of the Trinity. 
 
 [93] It is highly probable, that if God should 
 please to reveal unto us this great mystery of 
 the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy 
 religion, we should not be able to understand 
 them, unless He would at the same time think 
 fit to bestow on us some new powers or faculties 
 of the mind, which we want at present, and are 
 reserved till the day of resurrection to life 
 eternal. " For now," as the apostle says, " we 
 see through a glass darkly, but then face to 
 idiCQ."— Dean Swift. 
 
 [94] And whereas necessity of existence, m.ost 
 unquestionably of an intellectual being, is a 
 most certain and fundamental attribute of 
 
 Deity ; the Father, Son, and Spirit being sup- 
 posed necessarily existent, in this united state, 
 they cannot but be God : and the Godhead by 
 reason of this necessary union cannot but be 
 one ; yet so, as that when you predicate God- 
 head, or the name of God, of any one of them, 
 you herein express a true but an inadequate 
 conception of God : that is, the Father is God, 
 not excluding the Son and Holy Ghost ; the 
 Son is God, not excluding the Father and the 
 Holy Ghost ; the Holy Ghost is God, not ex- 
 cluding the Father and the Son : as our body 
 is the man, not excluding the soul ; our soul is 
 the man, not excluding the body. — J. Howe, 
 1 630-1 705. 
 
 [95] It is a mystery ; the greatest of all mys- 
 teries, and the key of all mysteries, but itself 
 has no key. — Vinet. 
 
 [96] Just because the doctrine of the Trinity 
 is the most obscure and enigmatic revelation of 
 God, therefore to him who penetrates into it 
 with earnest searchings the profoundest depths 
 of knowledge will be opened, and what is appa- 
 rently self-contradiction will appear more and 
 more in grand harmony and intrinsic necessity. 
 — Christlieb, Modern Doubt and Ch7-istian Belief. 
 
 II. Its Mysteriousness guards against 
 Irreverence of Idea in regard to 
 the Deity. 
 
 [97] In the shaping of our thoughts, formu- 
 lated in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which 
 are for ever striving after higher, purer ideality, 
 we are guarded against imputing the feebleness 
 of man to God. — The Supernatural in Nature. 
 
 [9S] The doctrine of the Holy Trinity rescues 
 us from what Spinoza says — " To define is to 
 deny Him/' Determinatlo negatio est; rescues 
 us from the error that thought and volition, as 
 known to us, are the very nature and essence of 
 the Infinite ; and enables us to see that the 
 personality is not a limitation, but an ineftable 
 reality, raising us from the error of regarding 
 the Eternal as mere infinitude, and giving 
 knowledge of Him as the all-pervading and 
 all-sustaining Power." — Ibid. 
 
 [99] It is not easy to rightly respect a 
 superior whose antecedents and history are too 
 familiar to us, nor to accept one as our leader 
 whose minds and plans we can fully fathom. 
 Analogy as well as religious experience teaches 
 that the sense of infinite superiority and the 
 elements of incomprehensibility are absolutely 
 necessary for the spiritual act of adoration. 
 
 The Christian idea of the Trinity reveals 
 mysteries beyond those of mere monotheism oi- 
 pure theism, and raises Deity in our thoughts to 
 the highest conceivable pinnacle. At the same 
 time the practical outcome is that by acknow- 
 ledging the glory of the eternal Trinity we are 
 not only best able to worship the unity, but are 
 brought into the closest conceivable' relation- 
 ships with the Divine Majesty. — r ■ •
 
 DIVISION B. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 Fa^es 21 io 48. 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 12 
 
 ADAPTATION TO MAN'S NATURE AND NEEDS. 
 
 CHRISTIAN AND OTHER SYSTEMS. 
 
 14 
 CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 15 
 
 CONNECTION OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY WITH 
 RELIGION. 
 
 16 
 DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 17 
 MODERN CIVILIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 18 
 MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 19 
 PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 20 
 PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 21 
 
 REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 22 
 
 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 23 
 THEISTIC ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY.
 
 DIVISION B. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 12 
 
 ADAPTATION TO MAN'S NATURE 
 AND NEEDS. 
 
 I. Nature of the Adaptation. 
 
 I Christianity points out both the disease 
 and remedy of human nature. 
 
 [too] Christianity gives us a view of human 
 nature, as fallen from its original dignity, yet by 
 the grace of God capable of recovering its purity, 
 and with that its peace, and attaining to perfec- 
 tion of blessedness. Here we have the best 
 and noblest end, the glory of God in the final 
 happiness of man, and the surest and most ex- 
 cellent means for the accomplishing this end, 
 by humility, self-denial, purity, mortification to 
 the world, by the love of God and our neigh- 
 bour, by the practice of virtue, and the exercise 
 of a sober and rational, yet exalted devotion. 
 Here are the most perfect rules, the most use- 
 ful institutions, the divinest examples, the most 
 powerful assistances, the most glorious pros- 
 pects, and the most abundant consolations. 
 Here is sight for the blind, health for the diseased, 
 liberty for the captive., and pardon and life for 
 the lureteh under condemnation. Here is enough 
 to entertain the devout and thoughtful mind, to 
 calm the troubled conscience, to relieve the 
 anxious, to satisfy the doubting, and to raise 
 and comfort the timorous and dejected soul. 
 Are not all these so many characters of divinity 
 in the frame of our religion ? — H. Grove, 1683- 
 1738- 
 
 [loi] Infidelity proclaims itsown inconsistency 
 by denying the defects of man's nature, and at 
 the same time blames that nature for the de- 
 velopment of its religious instincts. — C. N. 
 
 2 Christianity exactly meets man's highest 
 aspirations. 
 
 [102] The engineers who directed the work of 
 the Hoosac tunnel started two gangs of men 
 from opposite sides of the mount. So accurate 
 was their survey, that when they met midway 
 in the mount, the walls of the excavations ap- 
 proaching from the different starting - points, 
 joined within less than an inch. The practical 
 working of the bore proved the scientific accu- 
 racy of the survey. Alan starting from the side 
 of his human need, reaching upwards toward 
 God, is met by the revelation in Christ coming 
 
 down from God, a revelation which exactly fits 
 his need. This perfect match between the 
 human need and the heavenly supply, is the 
 perfect proof of the Divine origin of the Bible. 
 — Rev. F. C. Penticost, Volume of the Book. 
 
 3 Christianity accommodates itself to all di- 
 versity of minds. 
 
 [103] So it is with the truths of the gospel. 
 God does not make those truths the same to 
 any two minds. If men had the subtle power 
 of analysis, so as to seize just what they feel, and 
 put their feelings exactly into words, I believe it 
 would be found that no two persons on the face 
 of the earth ever stated, or could state, their 
 views of facts alike. God, that never made 
 two faces alike ; God, that never made two 
 leaves alike ; God, that makes unity with in- 
 finite diversity — He does not mean that men 
 shall feel just alike. The amplitude of being, is 
 expressed by variations of being, that go back 
 to essential unity and take hold of a common 
 root. And the attempt to bring the glowing and 
 fervid Orientals, the staid and practical Occi- 
 dentals, the mediaeval minds, the artist minds, 
 the sombre and unirradiating natures, and the 
 light and gay natures, all to one statement of 
 speculative truth, is as wild and preposterous as 
 the boy's race after the rainbow. It cannot be 
 done. — IFard BeecJier. 
 
 [104] As streams are impregnated by the soils 
 over which they flow, so subjects are affected by 
 the individualism of the mind through which 
 they pass. Thus Christianity may be said to 
 be different things to difterent minds. To the 
 speculative man it is a great attempt to solve 
 deep problems in theology ; to the controver- 
 sialist it is a challenge to debate profound sub- 
 jects on new ground ; to the poet it is a dream, 
 a wondrous vision many-coloured as the rain- 
 bow, a revelation many-voiced as the tunes of 
 the wind or the harmonies of the sea. — Rev. R. 
 A. Bertram. 
 
 [105] As to merely "speculative" matters, the 
 remarks in the two preceding extracts may be 
 admitted ; namely, in relation to superficial dif- 
 ferences and theological terms and inferences ; 
 but the main effect of the gospel, on all varieties 
 of taste and culture, is to produce the same 
 faith and hope and joyful expectation. 
 
 The fact that Bible narratives and truths.
 
 22 
 
 -109] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 [adaptation to man's nature and needs. 
 
 especially the life of Christ, and what is taught 
 respecting Him, interest and move persons of 
 all races, classes, and ages, proves, first, psycho- 
 logically, the unity of mankind ; and, secondly, 
 that Christianity has touched the keynote of 
 humanity as the common salvation, adapted to 
 our common nature. — B. G. 
 
 II. Lines of Proof. 
 I Christianity adapted to man's nature on 
 ethical grounds. 
 
 [io6] The argument presented is one of adapt- 
 ation and correspondence. Man's moral nature 
 being an admitted reality, and the Christian 
 religion an acknowledged fact, it has been 
 attempted to show that the one is fitted for the 
 other. Man's esteem and honour for what is 
 right, his contrition for sin, and his aspirations 
 towards immortality ; all testify to Him from 
 whom not only do they proceed, but the revela- 
 tion also that responds to and satisfies them ; 
 all testify to the Cross, that brings peace to the 
 conscience and inspiration to the new and better 
 life ; all testify to the ascended King Himself, 
 who lives for ever to love and bless, and yet 
 eternally to reign. 
 
 The argument is admittedly one of proba- 
 bility., and (it is urged) of probability so high as 
 \o afford conclusive reason for action. It is an 
 argument aanulaiive in form. Each one of the 
 particulars mentioned has a certain strength ; 
 conjoined together, they constitute a powerful 
 and conclusive argument in favour of our reli- 
 gion, and justify a cordial and practical acknow- 
 ledgment of its claims. — Rev. J. R. Thompson, 
 M.A. 
 
 3 Christianity adapted to man's needs his- 
 torically, i.e., by its practical effects. 
 
 [107] One of the most interesting features in 
 the Apologies of Justin Martyr— presented to 
 Roman emperors in defence of the new religion 
 — is the light cast on the moral state of the 
 Christian Church. In the First Apology, ad- 
 dressed to Antoninus Pius and his sons, about 
 the year 139, Justin, whose own conversion as a 
 Palestinian Greek, from philosophy to faith in 
 Christ, is one of the brightest passage in early 
 Christian history, dwells much upon the spread 
 of the gospel, which had just ended its first 
 century ; but he also gives prominence to its 
 moral and spiritual effects. " After we were 
 persuaded by the Word, we forsook the powers 
 of evil, and now follow the one everlasting God 
 by His own Son. We who delighted before in 
 fornication, now embrace only chastity. We 
 who practised magic rites, have now devoted 
 ourselves to the good and everlasting God. We 
 who loved above everything else the income we 
 drew from stocks, and houses, and lands, now 
 cast what we have into the common treasury, 
 and give to every one that needeth. We who 
 hated and slew each other in mutual feuds, and 
 through diversity of customs would not even 
 warm ourselves at the same fire with strangers, 
 now, after the advent of Christ, sit at the same 
 
 table ; and we pray for our enemies, and strive 
 to convert those who unjustly hate us, that they 
 too, living according to the glorious precepts of 
 Christ, may have the same good hope of reward 
 from the Lord of all. Let those who do not live 
 as Christ enjoined be known not to be Chris- 
 tians, whatever they may profess ; and such 
 who merely take the name of Christ, but live 
 inconsistently with it, we give up to you to 
 punish them as you please." — Present Day 
 Tracts. 
 
 III. Phases of this Adaptation. 
 
 1 Christianity permanently recommends it- 
 self by its moral rather than its miraculous 
 elements. 
 
 [108] We come to this conclusion, that to put 
 the miracles before unbelievers in the fore-front 
 of our pleading for Christianity, and to say that 
 they are bound to believe in the Divine mission 
 of Christ because it was supernaturally attested 
 by these acts of superhuman power, is neither 
 the way of the New Testament nor the method 
 of recommending the gospel which is likely to 
 be successful. The primary, the chief appeal 
 must be to the gospel itself ; to its adaptation 
 to man's higher nature ; to its self-evidencing 
 quality when it comes in contact with the soul 
 that seeks after God ; to its spiritual power, and 
 beauty, and gloi-y ; to its manifest effects on the 
 course of the world, and on the order and 
 growth of human society. Here are ample 
 materials for an answer to the question, " What 
 think ye of Christ ?" — P. Brooks. 
 
 2 Christianity even in its mysterious elements 
 is practically adapted to the deeper needs 
 of humanity. 
 
 [109] Now it is precisely in the most mysteri- 
 ous doctrines of our creed, in those which make 
 the strongest demands on faith, and are the 
 most remote from any possibility of scientific 
 verification, that Christian souls find their sup- 
 port and refuge under these burdens of the flesh 
 and these torments of the spirit. The message 
 that " God so loved the world, that He gave His 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever beheveth in 
 Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life " — this is a message, simple as are its terms, 
 which transcends all philosophy, all reason, all 
 experience — nay, all capacity of comprehension ; 
 and yet it is in reliance on this message, and on 
 other assurances of the same kind, that Chris- 
 tians are delivered from all despair, and are 
 enabled, under whatever distresses, to cling to 
 their belief in the love of their Father in heaven. 
 When the Christian minister can assure a 
 suffering soul on the bed of death, in misery or 
 in pain, that whatever its agonies, the Son of 
 God in human form endured far worse for its 
 sake, as a pledge of the love of the Father, and 
 in fulfilment of that love, he applies a remedy 
 which is equal to any need. The message of 
 the Cross, interpreted by the doctrine of the 
 incarnation, is thus in moments of real trial the 
 support of the most elementary principle of
 
 CHKIST/AiViry AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 ^i 
 
 109 — 114] 
 
 [christian and other systems. 
 
 faith. In fact, the minimizing theology, now in 
 question, depends for its plausibility upon a 
 simple evasion of the real problems of philo- 
 sophy, and of the practical difficulties of life. 
 The full and explicit faith of the creed recog- 
 nizes those difficulties, and looks them in the 
 face. It owns that they are insuperable upon 
 any grounds of mere natural reason, and it offers 
 supernatural realities and supernatural assur- 
 ances to overcome them. — Prof. Wace^Bampton 
 Lectures. 
 
 13 
 
 CHRISTIAN AND OTHER 
 SYSTEMS. 
 
 I. Points of Superiority in Christi- 
 anity TO Judaism. 
 
 [no] The author of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews, in the opening verses of that epistle, 
 points out four distinct grounds of superiority 
 of Christianity over Judaism, (i) He says that 
 the Jewish revelation was not uniform in its 
 appearance, but given in "various modes;'' 
 whereas the revelation of Christ was given in 
 the continuous image of a single human form. 
 (2) He declares that the Jewish revelation did 
 not exhibit a united view of the universe, but 
 was made in "divers parts;" whereas the mani- 
 festation of Christ was the revelation of one 
 connected life. (3) He maintains that Judaism 
 was only a temporary manifestation of God : 
 " He spoke unto our fathers in times past ; " 
 whereas Christianity was the centre of all 
 epochs, past, present, and future : "whom he 
 hath appointed heir of all things, for whom 
 also He made the ages." (4) He affirms that 
 Judaism did not give the Divine Voice from the 
 fountain-head : God spoke to our fathers only 
 by " the prophets ; " whereas in Christianity 
 we have the Voice direct from heaven, because 
 we have the revelation made from the bright- 
 ness of His own glory : " hath in these kist days 
 spoken unto us by His Son." — Dr. Mathcson, 
 Expositor {Oct. 1879). 
 
 [in] Judaism was the adumbration and 
 historical introduction of Christianity — " the 
 shadow of good things to come." " Christ, 
 our Passover, is (now) sacrificed for us.'' if 
 there Jiad been a law which would give life, 
 salvation would have been by that law ; but 
 because of its inadequacy, the gospel was given. 
 —E.G. 
 
 [112] The gospel is no afterthought, but the 
 forethought of God. God sees theendfrom the be- 
 ginning. All things in nature and grace are work- 
 ing out one grand scheme, which God before 
 the creation of heaven and earth designed. The 
 gospel was but a further and fuller development 
 of God's plans in Old Testament times. The 
 stem is no afterthought ; the leaves and buds 
 are no afterthought ; the flower is no after- 
 
 thought ; the fruit is no afterthought ; for they 
 were all wrapped up from the first in the seed, 
 or cutting, or bulb. Or, to take another illus- 
 tration, it is of no unfrequent occurrence that 
 the architect designs a Gothic church which is 
 not to be built all at once, but as sufficient funds 
 are forthcoming, or as the congregation increases. 
 At first the nave is constructed, then one aisle 
 after another is added ; and afterwards the 
 chancel is built, and last of all is erected the 
 spire — whose " silent finger points to heaven." 
 The pulling down of the temporary walls and 
 hoardings, and the additions from time to time 
 made, are no afterthought, but only the carrying 
 out of the original design. Thus the doing away 
 with the ceremonial law and Jewish ritual, and 
 the bringing life and immortality to light through 
 Jesus, are no afterthought, but the yi?;Ythought 
 of God — the revealing of His glorious scheme of 
 grace designed before the foundation of the 
 v/orld, and previously promised by His prophets 
 in the Holy Scriptures. " The New Testament 
 is concealed in the Old ; the 01^ Testament 
 lies revealed in the New " {Aus^ustinc). St. 
 Hilary's thought is similar, when he speaks of 
 " the New Testament as enfolded in the Old, 
 and the Old as unfolded in the New." Bishop 
 Chr. Wordsworth expresses the same idea in his 
 note on Ezek. xvi. 60 : " The Old is the germ 
 of the New; the New is the development and 
 consummation of the Old." — Rev. C. Neil^ The 
 Expositors' Coininoitary : Romans. 
 
 II. Points in which Christianity is 
 Superior to Paganism. 
 
 I Viewed negatively. 
 
 (i) The best of other systems have strange 
 incongruities. 
 
 [113] In the sacred books of the East, by the 
 side of so much that is fresh, natural, simple, 
 beautiful, and true, it contains so much that is 
 not only unmeaning and artificial and silly, but 
 even hideous and repellant. — Max Miilier, 
 Sacred Books of the East. 
 
 [114] A comparison of the cosmogony of 
 INIoses with that of any heathen writings proves 
 its superiority, and is a strong argument for its 
 Divine origin, eclipsing so completely all human 
 imaginations. As a proof of this, we will cite 
 the instance selected by Iconoclast himself, who 
 says in "The Bible, what is it ?" "Ask yourselves 
 in what particular feature is Genesis superior to 
 the Shastra or Bhagavat. The following is from 
 the ]\Ianava Shastra, the words of Menu Son of 
 Braha, and was quoted in vol. i. of the "Asiatic 
 Researches," p. 244. " This world [says he] 
 was all darkness, undiscernible, undistinguish- 
 able, all together as in profound sleep ; till 
 the self-existent, invisible God, making it mani- 
 fest with five elements and other glorious forms 
 perfectly dispelled the gloom. He, desiring to 
 raise up various creatures by an emanation 
 from His own glory, first created the waters, 
 and impressed them with a power of motion ;
 
 24 
 
 CHRISTIAKITV AS A SVSTEIiT. 
 
 114 — 120] 
 
 [CHRISTIAN' AND OTHER SYSTEMS. 
 
 by that power was produced a golden egg, 
 blazing like a thousand suns,, in which was 
 born Brahma, self-existing, the great parent of 
 all rational beings. The waters are called Xara, 
 since they are the offspring of Kara or Iswara ; 
 and thence was Naiayana named, because his 
 first ayaua, or moving, was on them. That which 
 is the invisible cause, eternal, self-existing but 
 unperceived, becoming masculine from neuter, 
 is celebrated among all creatures by the name 
 of Brahma. That god, having dwelled in the 
 egg through revolving years, himself meditating 
 on himself, divided it into two equal parts, and 
 from these halves formed the heavens and the 
 earth, placing in the midst the subtle ether, the 
 eight points of the world, and the permanent 
 receptacle of waters." Nobody can understand 
 that, which is its chief recommendation to our 
 minute philosophers, who object to all Bible 
 mysteries. A self-existing god, making an egg 
 to be born in, to provide an object for atheistic 
 adoration ! The intrdels of England are now 
 sitting on that egg to hatch it over again. I am 
 afraid it is addled. If this is the best rival of 
 the Bible, we may retain the Old Book yet, and 
 have no fear of being stigmatized as supersti- 
 tious. " Ask yourselves in what particular fea- 
 ture Genesis is superior to this absurd tale which 
 is the cousin of that other from the same source 
 — the earth stands on the back of a great tor- 
 toise ! How weak men become when, abandon- 
 ing God, they lean on their own understanding.'' 
 — Brcwin Grant^ Discussion luith Iconoclast, 
 1858. 
 
 (2) PagaJiism failed to produce humane and 
 benevolent instittitions. 
 
 [115] Amid all the boasted civilization of 
 antiquity, there existed no hospitals, no peniten- 
 tiaries, no asylums. — Canon Farrar, Life of 
 Christ. 
 
 [116] Hospitals, although peculiarly Christian 
 institutions, one of the fruits of Christian fore- 
 sight and benevolence, yet they are sometimes 
 boldly claimed as of pagan origin by modern 
 infidels, to rob Christianity of the glory. But 
 were it really so that paganism originated hos- 
 pitals, that would be no credit to infidelity, be- 
 cause it would be the religious element, even of 
 paganism, that produced these institutions. 
 But it is not true, and no clear instance of a 
 pagan or pre-Christian hospital has been pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Some men, wise in their own conceit, have 
 pretended, and do still pretend, that because 
 Christianity enjoins prayer for the sick, it pro- 
 hibits medicine ; but the Great Physician said, 
 " the whole need not a physician, but they that 
 are sick" — which means, the sick do need a phy- 
 sician ; and therefore Christianity embraces 
 physicians and medicine for the body : so 
 our prayer is— "as well for the bodv as the 
 soul." 
 
 Atheists say, if God sends sickness, it is con- 
 travening His will to try and remove it by medi- 
 cine; but God sends the medicine and the 
 
 doctor as well as sickness, and gives us common 
 sense to profit by both. — B. G. 
 
 (3) Other systems, though containing good 
 sentiments, yet lack force to itifluence the general 
 masses of mankiiid. 
 
 [117] Taking their ethical treatises as our 
 basis, we are justified in assuming that the phi- 
 losophers had determined that true happiness 
 consisted in the best possible exercise of man's 
 highest functions ; and on this principle they 
 had evolved a general code of ethical duties 
 more or less perfect. This code, however, pre- 
 sents us with several striking defects, and, on 
 the confession of its authors, it was devoid of 
 sanctions sufficiently powerful to act on the mass 
 of mankind. The desire of happiness, though 
 universal, is only one out of many forces by 
 which man is impelled ; and in the contest for 
 the mastery those other forces generally exert a 
 preponderating strength. Such a principle of 
 duty, therefore, being wholly devoid of a reli- 
 gious basis, was necessarily weak. The very 
 conception of duties which a man owed to him- 
 self, implies an absence of all binding power. 
 Such a conception of duty can never elevate it- 
 self to that of disinterested virtue. Self becomes 
 both debtor and creditor ; self has to enforce 
 obligation against the overwhelming impulses 
 of passions, all of which terminate in self-quali- 
 fication. It was on this basis of man's position 
 as a niember of political society that the practice 
 of disinterested virtue could alone be made to 
 rest. But how was the reality of the duty to be 
 demonstrated? How was the obligation of self- 
 sacrifice to be proved.? If demonstrated, how 
 was a moral force to be imparted to it of suffi- 
 cient strength to enable it to struggle success- 
 fully against the power of the feelings and 
 affections, which terminated in self.'' — Contem- 
 porary Review, i S69. 
 
 (4) Other systems have slight influence even 
 over the selected few. 
 
 [i iS] The philosopher endeavoured to streng- 
 then his position from considerations derived 
 from the moral beauty of virtue. But on men 
 of imperfect morality these were comparatively 
 weak ; they freely confessed that such a con- 
 sideration was only fit to act on select minds. 
 On the masses it was powerless. — Idid. 
 
 [119] The philosophers and the multitude in 
 Greece and Rome included the whole people ; 
 and there was one fatal characteristic common 
 to them. In both there was an entire separation 
 of morality and religion. The virtue of the 
 few, even when purest, was not religious, and 
 did not profess to be so. The religion of the 
 masses, even when enthusiastic, was so little 
 moral that it seemed to have no root at all in 
 conscience. — Dr. Irons, Bampton Lectures. 
 
 [120] Julian strove to graft the morality and 
 the organization of Christianity on the stem of 
 heathendom. The priests of paganism were
 
 CHRISTIANITV AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 120 — 124] 
 
 25 
 
 [christian and other systems. 
 
 merely the performers of certain rites, the depo- 
 sitories of certain mysteries. They had no 
 moral, or educational, or philanthropic con- 
 science. The Christian clergy, on the ether 
 hand, over and above their duties in the public 
 services of the Church, were expected to be also 
 the pastors and teachers, the guides and ex- 
 amples, the ministers of comfort, and the dis- 
 pensers of alms to their flocks. Julian attempted 
 to infuse this pastoral element into the pagan 
 priesthood, to which it was wholly foreign. In 
 the letters which are extant, the priests are en- 
 joined by him to abstain from the theatre or the 
 tavern ; they are forbidden to engage in any 
 degrading occupation ; they are required to see 
 that their wives, and children, and servants at- 
 tend regularly on the service of the gods ; they 
 are told to imitate the grave demeanour and the 
 benevolent hospitality of Christian bishops. " It 
 is shameful," writes the emperor, "that the im- 
 pious Galileans should support our people as 
 well as their own." Such a conception of the 
 priest's office must have surprised Julian's cor- 
 respondents. They had not bargained for any- 
 thing of the kind. — Cation Liddoii, Lectures on 
 CJirisiianity and Paganism. 
 
 [121] These considerations make it evident 
 why it was that philosophy was so completely 
 at fault in dealing with the mass of human cor- 
 ruption by which it was surrounded. Being 
 devoid of profound spiritual convictions, it had 
 no means of penetrating to the depths of the 
 human spirit. In exerting the power of habit, 
 it found the ground completely preoccupied, and 
 an enemy in possession of the very centre of its 
 strength. All that a philosopher could say to 
 one in whom the principles of evil had taken 
 root was, " Begin the work of reformation by 
 performing virtuous actions. After sufficient 
 exercise and practice, this will form in you 
 virtuous habits ; and after a sufficient interval 
 these will deepen into virtuous principles." If 
 to this the reasonable objection was made, How 
 is it possible for one with strong tendencies to 
 evil, or in whom the violence of passion over- 
 powers the dictates of conscience, to perform 
 these virtuous actions ? Philosophy had no 
 answer whatever to give. It was impossible for 
 her, therefore, to issue forth from the schools 
 and proclaim a gospel of good news to the out- 
 cast, to the profligate, or even men in whom 
 habits of vice were formed. Her failure in this 
 point of view is most striking, and of it she was 
 fully conscious, for she never made one effort to 
 grapple with the moral degeneracy of the masses. 
 She felt that her mission was the very reverse of 
 that which our Lord described His to be. He 
 asserted that the primary object of His mission 
 was not to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
 pentance. She proclaimed aloud her utter in- 
 ability to deal with the sinner, and confined her 
 efforts to the comparatively good. Even within 
 this narrow sphere the results which she could 
 accomplish were feeble. — C. A. Rozc, Hloral 
 Teachings of New Testament. 
 
 2 Viewed positively. 
 
 (t) Cliristiajiity supplies the failnres and de- 
 fects of other systems. 
 
 [122] (i) It puts legislation for speculation, 
 since it proclaims as lazus what philosophers 
 could only adduce as probable opinions. All 
 speculations as to man's duty, were merely 
 '•academical questions" for philosophical specu- 
 lation, and not moral obligations enforced by 
 adequate authority. As, to do good to all men, 
 is a proper and respectable sentiment ; but this 
 view of " utility," though a taking and popular 
 sentiment, is of no binding force, for why should 
 I do good to others, except on the ground that 
 God's beneficence is an indication that His will 
 and requirement enforces benevolence as a 
 Divine law.'' To ignore this Divine law and 
 rule, and advocate general utility as our rule of 
 action, is to destroy the motive power and re- 
 move the boiler from the engine. 
 
 (2) Christianity fulfilled the anticipations and 
 prophecies of Judaism and met the defects and 
 wants of paganism by a system which included 
 " the common people." 
 
 (3) All other efforts had failed to interest and 
 influence the generality of mankind. 
 
 (4) This cosmopolitan and universal aim of 
 Christianity was the object of scorn, and is its 
 fairest ornament. 
 
 (5) Christianity showed its superiority in 
 securing the true euthanasia., or glorious death, 
 where pagan philosophy, like some modern 
 philosophers, proposed only suicide, as the es- 
 cape for frail humanity. 
 
 (6) Christianity was the opportune rescue of 
 mankind from effete superstitions and philo- 
 sophies. 
 
 (7) Christianity, as a physician called in when 
 danger is extreme, was the rescue and restora- 
 tion of humanity. — Dreivin Grant, Coivper 
 Street Discussion. 
 
 (2) Christiatiity incorporates all the best re- 
 sults of reasoti embedded in every form of 
 philosophy and superstition. 
 
 [123] We can discover, in the crude ore 
 which was made to supply the earliest coins or 
 counters of the human mind, the presence of 
 religious ingredients. Before the Aryan lan- 
 guages separated — and who is to tell how many 
 thousand years before the first hymn of the 
 Veda or the first line of Homer that ethnic 
 schism may have happened 1 — there existed in 
 them the expressions which afterwards became 
 the name of God. If religion is thus involved 
 in the earlier traces of man's thought, it is only 
 a fair conclusion that that fact of religion rests 
 on an idea of an object of worship. — Professor 
 Flint. 
 
 [124] Christianity gives new Divine force to 
 all previously enunciated good maxims. They 
 who say that some of the precepts of Jesus, as 
 the Golden Rule, are not original, forget that the 
 incorporation and inculcation of alleged pre- 
 viously existing sentiments give to such senti-
 
 26 
 
 124—128] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SVSTEA:. 
 
 [christian and other systems. 
 
 ments the new force of Divine legislation and 
 enforcement. In this sense, as larus, they are 
 original, even if vaguely recognized before- 
 hand.—^. G. 
 
 (3) C/irisiiani(y alone furnishes a sufficient 
 poti'er-inotive for JwUness. 
 
 [125] Glowing panegyrics on sobriety and 
 purity may be quoted from the Greek and 
 Roman philosophers, or Oriental mystics. It 
 may be possible even to find a parallel else- 
 where to what is more distinctive of Christianity, 
 its earnest and repeated warnings on the neces- 
 sity of being pure in thought as well as in deed. 
 Where, then, is the difference ? It is in the 
 motive, which is the life and the essence of the 
 precept. " Ye are Christ's" — here is the motive. 
 Christianity regards the body as a shrine for 
 the presence of Christ by His indwelling Spirit. 
 Others may tell us of the injurious effects of 
 intemperance, of the misery, the degradation. 
 But Christ would have us to be temperate, not 
 so much from a calculation of consequences to 
 ourselves, as because intemperance is a detrac- 
 tion from that willing service which we owe to 
 Him, a breach of our allegiance, a faithlessness 
 in our love. — Rev. J. G. Smith, Bavipton 
 Lectures. 
 
 (4) Christianity conquered paga7tisni by moral 
 and spiritual ii'eapons. 
 
 [126] I propose to trace the stream a little fur- 
 ther from its source,when Christianity has forced 
 itself into recognition and become the pre- 
 dominant religion of the empire. The struggle 
 between Christianity and paganism has entirely 
 changed its outward character. The only 
 weapons which the Church could wield at a 
 former epoch were moral and spiritual. She is 
 now furnished with all the appliances of political 
 and social prestige ; yet these, however impos- 
 ing, and to some extent serviceable, are not her 
 really effective arms. She can afford to be 
 deprived of them for a time, and her career of 
 victory is unchecked. Her substantial triumphs 
 must still be won by the old weapons. The 
 source of her superiority over paganism is still 
 the same as before — a more enlightened faith 
 in the will of the Unseen, a heartier devotion to 
 the cause of humanity, a more reverential awe 
 for the majesty of purity, a greater readiness to 
 do and to suffer. The change has been as 
 startling and as sudden as it was momentous. 
 All at once the Church had passed from hope- 
 less, helpless oppression to supremacy and 
 power. For several years after the opening of 
 the fourth century the last and fiercest persecu- 
 tion still raged. Christians were hunted down, 
 tortured, put to death with impunity and with- 
 out mercy. The only limit to their sufferings 
 was the weariness or the caprice of their per- 
 secutors. Yet before the first quarter of this 
 century has drawn to a close the gi'eatest sove- 
 reign, who had worn the imperial diadem for 
 three hundred years, is found presiding at a 
 council of Christian bishops, discussing the 
 
 most important questions of Christian doctrine, 
 as though the fate of the empire depended upon 
 the result. In the short period of fifteen years 
 which elapsed between the death of Galerius 
 and the Council of Nicsea, the most stupendous 
 revolution which the pages of history record 
 had been brought about. We cannot wonder 
 that the contemporary heathen failed altogether 
 to recognize its completeness and its' perma- 
 ence. Obviously they look at Christianity as a 
 phenomenon which it may be curious to con- 
 template, but which has no great practical 
 moment for them ; they do not realize it as 
 destined to mingle permanently with the main 
 stream of human life. — Canon Liddon, Lectures 
 on Christianity and Paganism. 
 
 (5) Other systems under 7nost favourable cir- 
 cumstances had to give luay to Christianity as a 
 regenerative and restorative power under most 
 unfavourable. 
 
 [127] We study the sacred books of all the 
 great religions of the w^orld ; we see the effects 
 exercised by these religions on the minds of 
 their votaries ; and in spite of all the truths 
 which even the worst of them enshrined, we 
 watch the failure of them all to produce the 
 inestimable blessings which we ourselves enjoy. 
 We read the systems and treatises of ancient 
 philosophy, and in spite of all the great and 
 noble elements in which they abound, we see 
 their total incapacity to console, or support, or 
 deliver, or regenerate the world. Then we see 
 the light of Christianity dawning like a tender 
 dayspring amid the universal and intolerable 
 darkness. From the first it allies itself with the 
 world's utter feeblenesses, and those feeble- 
 nesses it shares ; yet without wealth, learning, 
 or genius, without arms or anything to dazzle 
 or attract, it puts to flight kings and their 
 armies, it breathes a new life and a new hope 
 and a new and unknown holiness into a guilty 
 and decrepit world. — Canon Farrar, Life of 
 Christ. 
 
 [12S] When the gospel was first proclaimed 
 it had little to fear from the " outworn creeds " 
 of men. The old pagan religions had lost their 
 vitality and power. They had become incred- 
 ible. They were regarded as myths or poems, 
 which set forth natural processes or relations, as 
 lending a useful sanction to the police regula- 
 tions of the empire, as affording a serviceable 
 stimulus to the national unity or enthusiasm, 
 but not as faiths which were to rule the thoughts 
 and lives of men, and for which 'twere well 
 even to die. The real obstacles with which the 
 primitive disciples had to contend were the 
 scepticism and the inveterate immoralities 
 which idolatry had bred. — Rev. S, Cox, Ex- 
 positor's Note Book,
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 '128—137.] 
 
 [the church of the future. 
 
 27 
 
 14 
 
 CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 I. The Nature of the Church's De- 
 velopment. 
 
 1 Christianity admits of unity in variety. 
 
 [129] That all religious life should manifest 
 itself in the same way (Mark ix. 14-17) was a 
 false idea. 
 
 (i) It receives no countenance from the 
 variety of life and beauty in nature. 
 
 (2) Nor from the varied manifestations of 
 intellectual life. 
 
 (3) Nor from the diversity of character dis- 
 played in the Bible. 
 
 Yet there is a strong family likeness between 
 all true believers, and a spiritual freemasonry. 
 The difference between various types of Chris- 
 tianity regards outward development only ; the 
 deeper down you go, the more the essence will 
 be found to be identically the same. Each type 
 of Christianity discloses for the general benefit 
 of the Church some trait of character in a more 
 special respect. — C. N. 
 
 2 Christianity admits of change of termin- 
 ology. 
 
 [130] We hear very much at the present day 
 about new ideas and strange doctrines, but we 
 need not tremble for the ark of God's truth when 
 history teaches us that Christianity has come 
 safely through many a social and intellectual 
 revolution, and is still fresh with a life that 
 seems ever young. It behoves us to have calm 
 confidence in the living power of truth ; we 
 know by experience that it is a sublime reality ; 
 we may then be assured it cannot die. What- 
 ever our ideas may be, the world will move on 
 in the path of progress, for God is still at the 
 helm of affairs ; He controls the circumstances 
 and guides the destinies of His people. 
 
 Even now when good men do things not quite 
 in harmony with common notions, and speak 
 truths which have a sound of strangeness, many 
 are ready to cry out that the Church is in danger, 
 and that we are going to be cursed by new 
 doctrines. 
 
 Let us be calm. There is nothing to be 
 gained by going into a state of wild excitement. 
 New deeds may be prompted by the everlasting 
 Spirit, and striking truths may be but the old 
 gospel translated into the language of to-day. — 
 Rev. IV. G. yordan, Spiritual Life. 
 
 [131] Let us be careful that the eld truth is 
 not obscured or weakened in the process of re- 
 setting. It is not every revision which is able 
 to take permanently the place of the older ver- 
 sion. After all, the current religious ideas and 
 conventional language of the day fail to bring 
 out all the various sides of truth, or even one 
 side, in all its completeness. The religious 
 thought of one age acts as a corrective supple- 
 ment to that of the rest. The religious literature 
 of each period, Patristic, Medieeval, Puritan, 
 
 serve not their own age only, but maybe studied 
 at times with profit by each succeeding genera- 
 tion of Christians. — C. N. 
 
 [132] We can never exhaust or work out any 
 one stratum of Divine truth. — C. N. 
 
 Aid us to search Thy Scriptures, Lord, 
 
 As miners search for gold ; 
 There lie vast treasures unexplored, 
 
 And wonders yet untold. 
 Though churches deem their creeds of worth, 
 
 And think their systems broad. 
 Thou, Lord, hast yet more light and truth 
 
 To break forth from Thy Word. 
 
 3 Christianity admits of progress in the 
 understanding of it, not in abandonment 
 of it. 
 
 [133] As future science may afford new views 
 of light and leave the sun and planetary system 
 just the same, so new views in theology will 
 leave Christianity just the same. — B. G. 
 
 [134] There may be, and has been, a three- 
 fold development in doctrine — (i) philological, 
 from a better understanding of terms employed ; 
 (2) philosophical, from progress — general know- 
 ledge ; (3) ethical and historical, from the influ- 
 ence of Christianity in awakening men's faculties, 
 and the reflex influence of times and countries 
 upon it. — De Qiiiiicey, Essay on Protcstaiiiism. 
 
 [135] No doubt it is beyond the human power 
 to add to the subject-matter of revelation, though 
 clearer light may in the course of ages be 
 thrown upon its obscure regions. But the appli- 
 cation of Revealed Truth to the circumstances 
 of human history, its practical development in 
 living actual results, its inherent and unsuspected 
 activity, its conformity with unknown powers, 
 and, it may be, principles of human nature ; 
 these and other considerations supply a field for 
 the enlargement of an acquaintance with the 
 meaning and potential character of Christianity 
 as a scheme of revelation, which admits of end- 
 less advance and indefinite augmentation. — 
 Canon Eaton, Bainpton Lectures. 
 
 [136] By all means let narrow and partial 
 views of truth be discarded, let wrong interpre- 
 tations of Scripture be resolutely put aside. 
 But let us take care that we do not throw away 
 the gold in our zeal to remove the ore. The 
 German proverb quaintly expresses the warning 
 for precipitate reformers of all sorts. " Certainly 
 empty the dirty water out of the bath, but do 
 not throw the baby into the gutter." — C. N. 
 
 4 Christianity admits of fresh applications in 
 accordance with modern advancements. 
 
 [137] The truths of Christianity and the re- 
 deeming grace of God are always the same. 
 But they must work in and through humanity, 
 and the results by which they declare themselves 
 must be realized in and through humanity.
 
 2S 
 
 137—146] 
 
 C/IR/ST/A.^'/ri' AS A SySTEAf. 
 
 [connection of science with religion. 
 
 Christianity, being the religion for all time, 
 and the power that is to act through all ages in 
 renovating and perfecting society through re- 
 demption, necessarily has meanings and appli- 
 cations which can be disclosed only by the 
 progress of Christ's kingdom through the ages. 
 
 An objection is urged against the Bible that 
 the advance of science and civilization necessi- 
 tates new interpretations and evokes new mean- 
 ings. But this must be so, if it is the revelation 
 of God. Christ compares His words to seeds ; 
 they are germinating words. We must see 
 more in them when grown than we saw in them 
 as seeds. 
 
 [13S] Some persons see more in Shakspeare 
 th?.n ever Shakspeare saw. Let Christianity 
 speak its special lesson to each age, but do not 
 inoculate Christianity first of all with our notions 
 of what it ought to teach. If it j-eally be Christi- 
 anity which is speaking and working, moulding 
 thought, leavening society, then such a develop- 
 ment of its meaning and influence should be 
 welcomed, but not otherwise. — C. N. 
 
 II. Possible Dangers to the Church. 
 
 I Christianity, like science, may be for a time 
 perverted by overlooking its essential 
 truths. 
 
 [139] I have great fear lest, in the long run, 
 the faith of our Church and country may suffer 
 far more by abstraction from than by addition 
 to its approved system of Christian doctrine. 
 It is curious to observe how, within the last few 
 years, there have been signs that some of those 
 who would reduce Christian doctrine to very 
 meagre limits, do not hesitate to avail them- 
 selves of the popular taste for outward cere- 
 monial, and make in appearance a strange 
 alliance with the system to which in truth they 
 are most distinctly opposed. 
 
 There is, I hold, real ground to fear lest the 
 tendencies of this age result in the prevalence of 
 a lax view of Christian doctrine and teaching, in 
 many respects unlike anything with which our 
 country has in former times been familiar. 
 
 I have endeavoured to set forth, in my former 
 addresses, my grounds for the expectation that 
 our countrymen will not, in the coming age, give 
 themselves up either to an atheistical or to a 
 simply deistical philosophy. Are' we equally 
 secured against a meagre sublimated Christi- 
 anity, such as St. Paul certainly would not have 
 recognized as the gospel which saved his soul, 
 and to which he devoted his life 1 — Archbishop 
 Tait, Chinrh of the Fii/iife. 
 
 III. The Church's Place in the Future. 
 
 I The Church, or organized Christianity, the 
 
 destined guide of the coming age. 
 
 [140] Undoubtedly, then, the guide of the 
 
 coming age will be a Church — the Church of 
 
 Christ in our land — and not simply a philosophy 
 
 — a Church with a philosophy of its own, a 
 Divine philosophy, the mistress and queen, as it 
 was of old held to be, of all the sciences ; a 
 science which treats of God in His relations to 
 man, and of man in his relations to God and to 
 his fellow-men, which embraces the whole circle 
 of man's moral being in this life, and which 
 avails itself unreservedly of all the helps which 
 God has given it for raising human hopes and 
 fears to the contemplation of a life bevond. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [141] Though the outlook in many directions 
 is dark, yet we are not without hopeful signs on 
 the religious horizon. The common sense of 
 the country, the religious instincts in man- 
 kind, the failure of infidelity, the splendid past 
 triumphs of Christianity, and above all the 
 promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against the Church of Christ, forbid too gloomy 
 forecasts for the future. — C. A'. 
 
 [142] They who have lost faith in the Church 
 being the guide of the coming age, are fit 
 guides themselves neither for the Church nor 
 the age. — C. N. 
 
 [143] Some "pessimist" Christians seem to 
 have outgrown both their faith and manliness. 
 —C. N. 
 
 IV. Its Assured Safety. 
 
 I Christianity, like its Author, is invincible 
 against decay and death. 
 
 [144] Its enemies have more than once pro- 
 claimed its death. Again and again has the 
 seal been affixed, and the watch set over its 
 supposed grave ; yet again and again has it 
 come forth in the power of its resurrection life. 
 No merely natural force can hurt its super- 
 natural vitality. No heresy, however cancer- 
 ous, can eat away all its creed. No assaults of 
 infidelity, however violent, can ever overthrow 
 its evidences. Its death, if ever it could die, 
 would be by the departure from it of the in- 
 dwelling Spirit of Christ, grieved by the sins 
 and the faithlessness of Christian men. — Bp. 
 Magcw 
 
 [145] The Church of the Future is founded on 
 the same Rock as the Church of the Past : 
 "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever." — B. G. 
 
 15 
 
 CONNECTION OF SCIENCE AND 
 PHILOSOPHY WITH RELIGION. 
 
 I. The Supposed Antagonism between 
 Science and Religion. 
 
 I No need for such antagonism to exist. 
 
 [146] There is nothing in the nature of the 
 study of science to make those who pursue it
 
 146—156] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 2) 
 
 [connection of science with religion. 
 
 more generally averse from religion than others 
 of the same mental power. — Theology and 
 Science, by Sir James Paget, F.R.S. 
 
 [147] It is only when men set up science as 
 the idol in their hearts that God is neglected, 
 ignored, or denied, and religion unfavourably 
 regarded. — C. N. 
 
 2 Such antagonism is not so general as is 
 supposed. 
 
 [148] The proportion of scientific men who 
 profess the Christian faith is, I believe, about 
 the same as that of literary men, or of lawyers 
 or merchants, or any other group of men in the 
 same social position, or of equal general culture. 
 You will find among scientific men very few 
 who attack either theology or religion. The 
 attacks imputed to them are made for the most 
 part by those who, with a very scanty know- 
 ledge of science, use, not its facts, but its most 
 distant inferences, as they do whatever else 
 they can get from any source, for the overthrow 
 of religious beliefs. — Theology and Science, by 
 Sir James Paget, F.R.S. 
 
 3 Such antagonism may arise through the 
 ignorance of some intermediate truth. 
 
 [149] When two beliefs seem incompatible 
 it does not follow that one is true and the other 
 false ; they may both be true. In the disputes 
 of theologians and men of science it is gene- 
 rally believed that one side must be in the 
 wrong ; yet in many of them both may be 
 right, and their opposition may be due to their 
 both being ignorant of some intermediate truth, 
 which, when gained by increasing knowledge, 
 will combine the truths they now hold apart. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [150] A third gas will sometimes make two 
 others unite which would otherwise explode. 
 
 4 Such antagonism will arise through par- 
 tial views on either side. 
 
 [151] That there are some forms of religious 
 belief which can never be squared with some 
 forms of scientific belief must be freely ad- 
 mitted. But this only militates against that 
 special form of so-called religion on the one 
 hand, and that special form of so-called science 
 on the other. But this does not imply that 
 science and religion are finally and necessarily 
 antagonistic, that there cannot be, even in the 
 fulness of knowledge and in the perfectness of 
 faith any point where science and religion run 
 together, and are found indeed but one. — Dr. 
 LI. D. Bevajt, Sermons to Students. 
 
 5 This supposed antagonism through science 
 forsaking its proper department. 
 
 [152] A real antagonism between religion 
 and science emerges only when the latter re- 
 cognizes only the validity of phenomena, and 
 
 excludes all operation of man's spiritual part. — 
 Canon Eaton, Bampton Lectures (1872). 
 
 [153] The pretended differences between 
 science and religion are from ignorance of one 
 or of the other ; from not having true science, 
 or not having a true view of the Scripture. 
 Thus the assertions respecting the age of the 
 earth, that the Bible makes it only some six 
 thousand years old, as if coasval with Adam ; 
 whereas it was created "in the beginning," 
 which admits of any possible degree of anti- 
 quity. — B. G. 
 
 II. Christianity and Science viewed 
 
 COMPARATIVELY. 
 
 1 Christianity, unlike science, affords com- 
 fort to the troubled mind. 
 
 [154] In determining the relative position of 
 theology and science, it must not be forgotten 
 that the causes for which religion exists are not 
 such as to depend upon any advance in mere 
 knowledge. The difficulties for which it ac- 
 counts are such as no perfection of science can 
 hope to remove. In what way shall science 
 look to satisfy the strivings of man's spirit, or 
 suppress his sense of sin? When it shall have 
 substituted for conscience and remorse neces- 
 sity and law, will it indeed have found the 
 "balm in Gilead" which may "minister to the 
 mind diseased".'' — Canon Eaton, Bampton Lec- 
 tures. 
 
 2 Christianity, unlike science, tends to a 
 spirit of moderation. 
 
 [155] Christianity is paralleled with science 
 in its requirement of certain moral qualities in 
 its votaries. But the difference is that the qua- 
 lities it demands it also promises to impart ; 
 and it is for want of power to impart them that 
 science suffers so much at the hands of its 
 advocates, and that the dogmatism they de- 
 nounce in others reappears so conspicuously 
 in themselves. The only fault that Christianity 
 finds with the modern quest of truth is precisely 
 that presumptuousness which our author [of 
 "Natural Religion"] describes as fatal to the 
 hope of its attainment ; and it may be noted 
 that the most confident boasters are precisely 
 those that forswear all connection with Chris- 
 tianity, while those in whom a spirit of modera- 
 tion appears-^some of them chief lights in the 
 world of science — are those who have disci- 
 plined their spirits under the yoke of the Great 
 Master, and laid their intellectual trophies as an 
 offering at His feet. — London (Quarterly Review. 
 
 3 Christianity, unlike science, strengthens 
 the soul itself. 
 
 [156] Other sciences may strengthen certain 
 faculties of the soul ; some the intellect, some 
 the imagination, some the memory ; but Chris- 
 tianity strengthens the soul itself. The light 
 which other sciences shed upon the mind is
 
 3° 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A 
 
 156 — 160] 
 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 [connection of science with religion. 
 
 only as the lunar ray. However bright, it is 
 chilly ; it plays only upon the surface, and does 
 not penetrate to the roots of life. Christianity 
 is a solar beam ; it goes down into the hidden 
 springs of being, quickens the latent germs, 
 and makes the mental world bud with life and 
 bloom with beauty. 
 
 III. Christianity and Philosophy VIE^VED 
 Comparatively. 
 
 1 As to nature and effects. 
 
 [157] They interpenetrate. Their fundamental 
 truths are tlie same ; the highest ideas and rela- 
 tions of the one are also the highest ideas and 
 relations of the other. What in religion is felt 
 and believed, is in philosophy reasoned and 
 known. Religion is intuitional and anticipatory 
 philosophy ; philosophy is reasoned and rational- 
 ized religion. There are, indeed, elements in re- 
 ligion that do not exist in philosophy — elements 
 of emotion, awe, joy, trust, love, reverence ; but 
 while philosophy may be unable to create these, 
 it is needed to justify and explain them. Reli- 
 gion in its highest moments tends to become 
 philosophical ; philosophy in its loftiest flights 
 to become religious. — Rev. Principal Fairbairn, 
 D.D.^ m Contemporary Review. 
 
 [158] Philosophy makes us wiser, but Chris- 
 tianity makes us better men. Philosophy ele- 
 vates and steels the mind, Christianity softens 
 and sweetens it. The former makes us objects 
 of human admiration, the latter of Divine love. 
 That ensures us a temporal, but this an eternal 
 happiness. — Fielding. 
 
 2 As to adequacy of motive power. 
 
 [159] It is impossible to exert an influence 
 for good on a mass of moral corruption without 
 generating a new principle in the mind, or 
 awakening one which was previously dormant. 
 To effect a change for good in our moral and 
 spiritual nature, a power must be called into 
 existence of sufficient strength to overbear all 
 opposing influences, or to impart a new vigour 
 to those which already exist, but which had pre- 
 viously succumbed in the struggle. Unless this 
 can be accomplished, the old forces will go on 
 in obedience to the same laws and produce the 
 same results. How can it be otherwise? The 
 only force in human nature to struggle against 
 the principles of corruption is that of reason 
 and conscience. To those who are corrupt, that 
 power has already proved inadequate to resist 
 the force of evil. But, in addition to this, as 
 corruption advances its energy diminishes. 
 How, then, is the force of the principle of evil 
 to be counteracted, or that of good to be gene- 
 rated, or to be called into lively energy when it 
 is dormant 1 Moral aff'ections will not grow up 
 spontaneously. They must be generated by 
 some cause. Man's reason is that cause. This 
 is the only road through which new moral con- 
 ceptions can obtain access to the mind. They 
 must be presented by some power to the intel- 
 
 lect until they have produced a definite convic- 
 tion. We use this word in the widest sense, 
 as including the whole rational powers of man. 
 A powerful influence can be exerted on our 
 spiritual and moral being by introducing a new 
 conception, or evolving a new conviction in the 
 intellect ; and the influence which it will exert 
 will be powerful in proportion to the intensity 
 of the belief with which it is accompanied. The 
 same power is equally effectual to call dormant 
 affections into lively exercise. Such was the 
 influence by which the Author of Christianity 
 proposed to act on the mind of man, and He 
 has conceived of one all-effectual for His pur- 
 pose. A holy thought enters the intellect, and 
 lives there in the form of an intense conviction. 
 From the intellect, by this act of faith, it pene- 
 trates the heart and creates or calls forth holy 
 feelings, holy affections, a new mind, and a new 
 spirit. As a question of moral philosophy we 
 are only called on to recognize the fact and the 
 modus operandi, not the remote cause. Faith 
 is the instrument through which the Divine 
 Spirit acts on the human soul. It is not every 
 conception of the intellect which will act on our 
 moral nature. Mere scientific thought can't do 
 so. It must be a deep conviction on some sub- 
 ject intimately connected with our moral and 
 spiritual being. — Conlemporary Review, 1869. 
 
 [160] What, then, did the Author of Chris- 
 tianity propose to accomplish ? Was it merely 
 to publish a new and more perfect edition of 
 the moral law ? Certainly not. He had higher 
 aims, such as no teacher had ever aspired to 
 before Him. He grasped at nothing less than 
 to regenerate the world. The philosopher left 
 the masses of mankind alone as utterly hope- 
 less. The utmost that their aspirations ascended 
 to was the establishment of a small republic on 
 the model of existing Grecian States, in which 
 a few thousands of mankind might be trained 
 to virtue, but of which philosophers were to be 
 the magistrates. In this humble attempt they 
 never succeeded in getting beyond the theory. 
 He determined to attempt the regeneration of 
 the masses of mankind, to reform those very 
 classes which the philosophers pronounced hope- 
 less, and to make them the subjects of his 
 spiritual empire. He therefore sought to create 
 a spiritual influence which should outweigh 
 every other and make it centre in Himself. 
 This power was one which was to strengthen 
 the holy in their holiness, and which was at the 
 same time capable of renovating the morally 
 sunken and depraved. . . . But to set this prin- 
 ciple into operation it was necessary to create 
 a state. The mode of eftecting this was very 
 far from obvious. The elect were very few ; 
 and the masses were dull of hearing, and sunk 
 in sensuality and vice. The philosopher felt 
 he had no spiritual force he could bring to bear 
 on them. To use a metaphor taken from me- 
 chanics : while he had a fulcrum in the prin- 
 ciple of habituation he could set no lever, and 
 thus left his fulcrum, however strong in itself, 
 utterly useless. His principle of habituation
 
 i6o — 167] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 31 
 
 [connection of science with religion. 
 
 came to a standstill simply from Lick of means 
 to work it with. Conscious of this lack of 
 power, the thought of turning missionary never 
 occurred to him. But our Lord created a power 
 by which the bad could be made good ; and 
 then He proceeded to institute His own ideal 
 state, the Christian Church, in which this power 
 should be e.xhibited as an actuality. In insti- 
 tuting this society He recognized the import- 
 ance of the philosophic principle of habituation. 
 But He advanced beyond this ; He provided it, 
 through the influence of another principle, with 
 the requisite working machinery. That principle 
 was faith. — Ibid. 
 
 3 As to realization of high ideals. 
 
 [161] But the idea of what is reasonable be- 
 tween man and man, though a great advance 
 upon the ancient notions of heathen morality, 
 does not come up to the full idea of dutj'. To 
 attain its full conception we must take into full 
 consideration the relation in which man stands 
 to the great Moral Governor of the universe. 
 The want of a conception of a personal deity 
 rendered the ancient philosopher utterly unable 
 to erect a moral law on such a foundation, or to 
 enforce its motives by a coi-responding idea of 
 duty. The sense of duty can only be fully felt 
 when it is conceived as owed, not to an abstrac- 
 tion, but to a living personality, in whom all 
 obligations centre. Such was the view con- 
 ceived of it by our Lord. He first concentred 
 the whole force of religion on morality by re- 
 vealing God in His character of a Creator, a 
 Moral Governor, a Sovereign, and a Father, 
 who embraces in His person the entire force of 
 moral obligation ; and then educed a law out 
 of the perfections of the Divine character. The 
 idea of duty in its highest form is evolved by 
 Him out of the conception of the self-sacrifice 
 on the part of man, which the conception of 
 God in His aspect of Creator, Lord, and Father 
 involve. — Ibid. 
 
 [162] But there is a higher conception of 
 morality than duty or law, which exclusively 
 belongs to the teaching of Christianity, viz., the 
 foundation of the moral law on the principle of 
 love ; and the measuring of its obligations by it. 
 Morality, viewed as duty, requires obedience, 
 because we ought to obey it ; or because it is 
 imposed on us by an external authority. Viewed 
 as love, the external and the internal mutually 
 coincide and embrace one another. It then 
 becomes the presentation of self as a willing 
 offering. As duty, morality is restricted within 
 the definite limits of obligation. As love, it 
 transcends all limits, and earnestly desires to 
 surrender the entire faculties of the mind to the 
 work of goodness and holiness more and more. 
 Such an aspect of morality could be presented 
 to us in its fulness by no teacher who did not 
 possess the attributes of a Christ. A perfect 
 being, like Himself, is the only power by which 
 such a spirit of voluntary self-sacrifice could be 
 generated. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. The Rationale of the Harmony 
 BETWEEN Science, Philosophy, and 
 Religion. 
 
 1 Science and Christianity are founded in the 
 reality of things. 
 
 [163] It is the truer, as it is the heartier, faith 
 to hold that, in the golden age which science 
 now ranks as to come, and not as gone, know- 
 ledge and religion must ultimately coalesce and 
 coincide. The one is the science of the visible ; 
 the other of that which, though invisible, is no 
 less real, no less truly a phase of truth and 
 being. But if both are founded in the reality 
 of things, there must lie between them a funda- 
 mental harmony. — Canon Eaton, Baniptoti 
 Lectures. 
 
 2 Christianity and science are supplementary 
 revelations. 
 
 [164] Far be it from a theologian to imagine 
 that true science and true philosophy, pursued to 
 the utmost limits of human powers, can be other 
 than a real help to religious knowledge. Far be 
 it from a Christian philosopher to doubt that, 
 however far he may be enabled to extend the 
 boundaries of real knowledge in any department, 
 there still needs the sacred cultivation of the 
 immortal spirit in the revealed truths of God. — 
 Bp. Moberly, Bampton Lectures. 
 
 [165] We have here brought before us what I 
 take to be the real schism between science and 
 religion. Some writers have contrasted these 
 two great elements of our nature in this way. 
 Religion, said they, brings out a personal, but 
 science a pantheistic view of God. But if I am 
 right science is not here rightly described. She 
 does point out traces of purpose in the world, 
 and it is such purpose v/hich suggests the idea 
 of a personal God, independent of the universe, 
 its maker, or at least ruler, as opposed to the 
 pantheistic view, which confounds the Divine 
 energy with the power of nature, and does not 
 make it independent and controlling — Stanley 
 T. Gibson, B.D., Re/i^i^ion and Science. 
 
 3 The provinces of science and religion 
 ought to be distinguished. 
 
 [166] Let science keep to her own province, 
 she will be honoured and thanked as heretofore ; 
 but let her not intrude into the inner shrine of 
 our temple to desecrate it. Or let her worship 
 there, as we all do, with lowly eyes and bended 
 knee. Science in her own province is a glorious 
 and welcome revealer of God's truths, nor can 
 we dispense with her wonderful revelations. Let 
 her only be rightly, cautiously, and reverently 
 interpreted.— /I'^^tvi Noel, British Quarterly 
 Reviezu {Jan. 1881). 
 
 [167] When scientific men leave their pro- 
 vince they often become inconsistent and really 
 unscientific. There needs to be a reverent 
 pause before leaving the laboratory and enter- 
 ing the temple. A new world, a new set of 
 principles, a new mode of reasoning belong to
 
 32 
 
 167—174] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 [connection of science with religion. 
 
 each kingdom of thought. The carpenter's rule 
 is well enough for the artizan, but ill adapted 
 for the artist who has to consider the higher law 
 of perspective. — C. N. 
 
 [168] Huxley's remark is typical of the error 
 made by scientific men in importing purely 
 technical terms into the realm of the spiritual : 
 '"The man of science has learned to believe in 
 justification not by faith but by verification." — 
 Lay Sen!io}ts,p. 22. 
 
 [169] To justify a scientific theory and to 
 justify a soul are two difterent things : one 
 requires verification by facts, the other requires 
 forgiveness through mercy. To confound these 
 cases is to be unscientific. — B. G. 
 
 4 Scientific results often either misunder- 
 stood or misapplied. 
 
 [170] Though it does seem certain that the 
 alleged discoveries of recent science, and, still 
 more, the rash and unlicensed deductions that 
 have been made from them, have caused the 
 greatest possible amount of doubt and disquie- 
 tude in thousands of hearts— yet that these two 
 things also are certain. First, that of these 
 alleged discoveries some are, in a very high 
 degree, scientifically doubtful. Secondly, that 
 of these same discoveries, those which appa- 
 rently seem to be trustworthy are distinctly 
 evidences, not, as it is alleged, against, but for 
 the blessed truth of the existence and personality 
 of God, and that, too, in a very marked and even 
 providential manner. — Bp. Eliicott, Modern 
 Unbelief. 
 
 5 Science and religion each useful in its 
 proper place. 
 
 [171] I think men of science as well as other 
 men need to learn from Christ, and I think Chris- 
 tians whose minds are scientific are bound to 
 study science that their view of the glory of God 
 may be as extensive as their being is capable 
 of. — Clerk Maxivell, M.A. 
 
 5 Christianity answers some unsolved ques- 
 tions of science. 
 
 [172] The cosmic questions are connected not 
 only with this world but with the whole uni- 
 verse. What are the questions of this kind 
 which science says she is unable to answer, and 
 which religion has answered .'' Questions of 
 origin. How did the first atom of matter come 
 into existence ? What was the origin of force? 
 What was the origin of life .''_ These great 
 questions are answered in the Bible. 
 
 Is God a person ? 
 
 Can God control the laws of nature ? 
 
 Will God answer prayer 1 
 
 What is God's character ? 
 
 What is God's relation to mankind? 
 
 These questions are not only unsolved by 
 science, but there is not the least indication that 
 they will ever be solved in this way. They 
 belong to an earlier stage and a higher sphere 
 
 than it is given to man to penetrate. The first 
 page of the chapter which treats of "origins" 
 is a sealed book unless to those who read it in 
 the first chapter of Genesis. — Rev. IV. Ander- 
 son, Scripture Miracles and Modem Scepticism. 
 
 7 Christianity embraces all true principles of 
 philosophy and science. 
 
 [173] If there be true principle in any philo- 
 sophy, science, wisdom of art, or manners, it 
 lies within the range of the Christian inheri- 
 tance. It is simply something which has not 
 yet emerged in Christian experience or thought. 
 But it belongs to it, lies somewhere in the scope 
 of it, and will reveal itself some day as rooted 
 in it. 
 
 Principles, precepts, forms of truth — if they 
 be true principles, true precepts, good forms of 
 truth — whether they belong to the past, the pre- 
 sent, or the future, whether they have arisen in 
 heathen or Christian, in spiritual or secular 
 thought — Christian life includes them all within 
 the wide circles of its possessions, aspires to 
 whatever is true, and pure, and good in each of 
 them, bids them all welcome into its experiences, 
 and claims them all as portions of the heritage 
 of the kingdom of the truth, over which its Lord 
 is Kmg.—Rev. Alex. Macleod, Days of Heaven. 
 
 8 Divine revelation the central point of the 
 converging lines of science. 
 
 [174] If you were to place a person blind- 
 folded before a black board, with a piece of 
 chalk in his hand, and direct him to draw any 
 number of lines he pleased at random, it is very 
 probable that many pairs of lines would cross each 
 other ; but it is exceedingly improbable that any 
 three should intersect each other at the same 
 point ; and beyond the limits of all probability 
 that more than three should meet exactly, liy 
 then, we saw on the board many lines converg- 
 ing to one point with great precision we should 
 conclude that he who drew them was not blind, 
 and that he drew them intentionally. If, how- 
 ever, before we saw the board the ends of some 
 of the lines had been rubbed out, and we did 
 not find them meeting in one centre, yet by 
 measuring the angles of their direction we 
 should be able to tell with certainty that they 
 would meet if produced ; and should believe 
 with equal warrant that once they had united. 
 
 This, we think, not unfairly represents the 
 case of revelation and the sciences. We may- 
 say that the central point represents revelation ; 
 and the lines the sciences which we affirm meet, 
 or tend to meet, in the assertions which the 
 Bible makes, but which unbelievers think flatly 
 contradict it. Now if it can be shown that any 
 three or four sciences harmonize, or tend to 
 harmonize, with the statements of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, then revelation acquires a weight which no 
 other system possesses ; and the evidences of 
 design will be too clear for reasonable men to 
 neglect. 
 
 Natural coincidences seem limited to two 
 courses of action meeting opportunely ; when
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 174— It 
 
 [divine origin of CHraSTIANITY. 
 
 three meet they assume an air of Providence ; 
 and when more, they have the verisimilitude of 
 Divine Agency. We do not say that this is 
 absolutely demonstrable. We shall be quite 
 content if the thought help to weigh down the 
 balance of a hesitating soul, or prompt a pro- 
 fessor of unbelief to reconsider his position. 
 
 DIVINE 
 
 16 
 
 ORIGIN OF 
 TIANITY. 
 
 CHRIS- 
 
 I, Lines of Proof. 
 
 I From the unique excellence of its teaching. 
 
 (i) As seen in the stiperioriiy of the Scriptures 
 over the mythological superstitions of antiquity. 
 
 [175] We notice one general characteristic of 
 the Biblical revelation, which has not had justice 
 done it by many who reject, at first sight, the 
 Mosaic account of the creation. The fact is 
 that the Bible had in the beginning, and pre- 
 served throughout its whole development, one 
 great scientific virtue. The Biblical view of 
 nature is singularly free from the mythological 
 and superstitious conceptions of nature preva- 
 lent in antiquity. It is kept, in this respect, 
 from one fatal defect of other early religious 
 literature. It possesses, from the start, a virtue 
 which made it capable of growth. The multi- 
 tudinous personifications of other primitive 
 religious traditions and sacred hymns are not to 
 be found in the Book of Genesis. Here is a 
 variation from the prevailing type of religious 
 tradition ; here is a 5/tY-z/f(f mark upon our Bible, 
 at its earliest appearance, which we are at a loss 
 to explain when we consider the historical en- 
 vironment amid which it sprang up. — Newman 
 Smyth, Old Faiths iji Neiu Light. 
 
 (2) As seen in the practical moral elements of 
 Scripttirc whe-n contrasted with the merely specu- 
 lative character of heathen philosophy. 
 
 [176] The incomparable superiority of Hebrew 
 " Wisdom " to that of all other ancient nations 
 is, however, beyond dispute. Nor is it difficult 
 to understand the cause. While, among other 
 races, philosophy speculated on questions alto- 
 gether beyond our faculties, in Israel it con- 
 tented itself with accepting the great first truths 
 of religion, and only strove to discover their 
 practical bearings. India might elaborate meta- 
 physics, the Jew contented himself with faith ; 
 the Aryan intellect might seek to think every- 
 thing out for itself, the Hebrew received revealed 
 doctrines with a calm and resolute faith. The 
 " Wisdom " of the one pursued cold and airy 
 abstractions, which the keenest thought is 
 unable to follow beyond a certain length ; that 
 of the other derived its power and depth from a 
 living relation to the Holy God ; a sense of His 
 VOL. I. 
 
 nearness, His perfections, and His inflexible 
 laws. Other "Wisdom" is distinct from 
 morality ; that of Israel demands it in its 
 highest and purest sense. According to it, all 
 right action rests on the fear of the Lord, who 
 searches the heart and knows all things. The 
 wisdom thus learned creates true humility; is 
 the root of all earnest efibrts after perfection ; 
 insists that no man is free from sin ; urges him 
 to a frank confession of sinfulness ; teacheshim 
 to watch his thoughts and life, and impels him to 
 a fruitful self-examination, which is the ultimate 
 condition of spiritual health. The creation of 
 this religious philosophy, as it may be called, in 
 Israel, is one of the great distinctions of Solomon. 
 — Rev. Dr. Geikie, Hours with the Bible. 
 
 [177] Human philosophy is for the intellect, 
 Bible philosophy is for the conduct, for the heart 
 and life. — B. G. 
 
 (3) As seen in the character of Christ, as not 
 a human invention, but felt to be real and super- 
 natural the more it is considered. 
 
 [178] A history which has led the vast majority 
 of readers in all ages to feel that it was more 
 than human, is confessedly beyond human con- 
 struction. Christian theology itself is baftledwhen 
 it tries to state in propositions the two natures 
 of Christ, and the relation between them. The 
 decrees of councils and the terms of creeds 
 rather exclude error than grasp truth. Yet here 
 admittedly, in the narratives of the Evangelists, 
 the impossible is achieved. The living Christ 
 walks forth, and men bow before Him. Heaven 
 and earth unite all through : power with gentle- 
 ness, solitary greatness with familiar intimacy, 
 ineftable purity with forgiving pity, unshaken 
 will with unfathomable sorrow. There is no 
 effort in these writers, but the character rises 
 till it is complete. It is thus not only truer than 
 fiction or abstraction, but truer than all other 
 history, carrying through utterly unimaginable 
 scenes the stamp of simplicity and sincerity, 
 creating what was to live for ever, but only as it 
 had lived already, and reflecting a glory that 
 had come so near and been beheld so intently, 
 that the record of it was not only full of " grace," 
 but of "truth." — Principal Cairns, D.D.., Lec- 
 tures. 
 
 [179] The greatest miracle in the New Testa- 
 ment is the central Personage, as being no out- 
 growth of that age, and as the model for all 
 future ages. — B. G. 
 
 2 From the unique weakne&s of its human 
 instrumentalities. 
 
 (i) As seen in the spread of Christianity by 
 moral, in coniradistinctiofi to physical force. 
 
 [180] There are several things which may be 
 represented in scientific phraseology as the 
 efficient causes of the spread and influence of a 
 religion. Mohammedanism has demonstrated 
 with a vengeance the possibility of spreading a 
 j religion by the power of the sword. Mohammed 
 ! could scarcely number a score of disciples be- 
 
 3
 
 34 
 
 CIIRISIIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 i8o--i8a] 
 
 FdIVINE origin of CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 fore persecution necessitated his escape to 
 Medina. Here he changed his character, be- 
 came a soldier, organized an army, infused his 
 own martial spirit into it, and led it forth to 
 victory and renown. His religion progressed 
 simultaneously with his sword, or flourished in 
 proportion as his plans of conquest became suc- 
 cessful. His creed was made predominant in 
 Arabia in his lifetime, and elsewhere after his 
 death, precisely in the manner in which the 
 famous Political Propaganda of France subse- 
 quently endeavoured to make their democratic 
 principles preponderant in Europe. A grand 
 army was organized and sent forward regularly 
 to force republicanism on the acceptance of 
 reluctant peoples living peacefully under their 
 own political institutions on the continent of 
 Europe. Mohammed and his followers spread 
 their religion mainly, if not solely, by the 
 power of the sword. Again, Buddhism has 
 shown the possibility of spreading a religion by 
 what may be called a flexible, compromising, 
 and assimilative spirit. The spread of Bud- 
 dhism was secured by the facility with which 
 it intermingled and identified itself with the pre- 
 valent religions of the world. It became in 
 essentials what the Apostle Paul subsequently 
 became in non-essentials, "all things to all men." 
 In China it developed into a system of religious 
 sociology ; in Thibet it became a sort of thau- 
 maturgy, and in some of the barbarian islands it 
 conquered it was lost amid the impurities and 
 horrors of the lowest types of fetishism. By 
 abandoning its own principles, giving up its dis- 
 tinctive features, and assuming varieties of forms 
 inconsistent with its spirit, Buddhism made itself 
 predominant. 
 
 Again, a religion maybe spread by the power 
 and influence of a dominant aristocracy in con- 
 junction with a powerful hierarchy, or, in simpler 
 words, by statecraft in combination with priest- 
 craft. Almost all the hoary and consolidated 
 heathenisms of the world were evidently spread 
 in this manner. The spread of a religion is a 
 phenomenon to the production of which several 
 causes contribute ; but it is not difficult to as- 
 certain in a particular case that which may be 
 called the efficient cause. The spread or in- 
 fluence of Christianity is a phenomenon which 
 we have to explain on correct principles of 
 logic. 
 
 A religion may be spread by the power of the 
 sword ; but the first propagators of Christianity 
 were entirely destitute of this power. Nay, they 
 had this power — the power of the sword — ar- 
 rayed against them. A religion may be spread 
 by an aristocratic and hierarchical influence ; but 
 the first preachers of Christianity had this in- 
 fluence arrayed against them, certainly not in 
 their favour. A religion may be spread by a 
 supple, yielding, and assimilative spirit ; but 
 Christianity manifested from the very beginning 
 a firm and uncompromising principle, and de- 
 clared a war of extermination against all the 
 religions of the world. 
 
 These causes, therefore, could have nothing 
 to do with the spread and influence of Chris- 
 
 tianity during at least the first and most glorious 
 period of its promulgation ; it therefore was 
 spread by the only other cause to which such a 
 phenomenon may be traced — the power of God 
 exhibited in signs and wonders and mighty 
 works ! — Ram Chandra Base, Truth of Chris- 
 tian Religion, 
 
 [i8i] Had the doctrine and the preaching 
 consisted in the persuasive utterance and 
 arrangement of words, then faith also, like that 
 of the philosophers of the world in their 
 opinions, would have been through the wisdom 
 of men, and not through the power of God. — 
 Origen. 
 
 (2) As seen in the natural incapacity of the 
 first agents of Christianity, either to invent it 
 or to convert the world to it. 
 
 [1S2] Let us be amazed at the power of God, 
 admire, adore it. Let us ask Jews, let us ask 
 Greeks, who persuaded the whole world to desert 
 from their fathers' usages, and to go over to the 
 ranks of another way of life ? The fishermen 
 or the tentmaker? the publican or the un- 
 learned and ignorant ? And how can these 
 things stand with reason, except it were the 
 Divine power which achieveth all by their 
 means ? And what, too, did they say to per- 
 suade them ? " Be baptized in the name of the 
 Crucified." Of what kind of man ? One they 
 had not seen nor looked upon. But never- 
 theless, saying and preaching these things, 
 they persuaded them that they who gave them 
 oracles, and whom they had received by tra- 
 dition from their forefathers, were no gods ; 
 whilst this Christ, He Who was nailed to the 
 wood, drew these all unto Himself And yet 
 that He was indeed crucified and buried was 
 manifest in a manner to all ; but that He was 
 risen again, none save a few, saw. But still of 
 this, too, they persuaded those who had not 
 beheld ; and not that He rose again only, but 
 He ascended also into heaven, and cometh to 
 judge the quick and dead. Whence, then, the 
 persuasiveness of these sayings, tell me .'' From 
 none other thing but from the power of God. 
 For, in the first place, innovation itself was 
 offensive to all ; but when, too, one innovates 
 in such things the matter becomes more 
 grievous ; when one tears up the foundations 
 of ancient customs, when one plucks laws from 
 their seat. And besides all this neither did 
 the heralds seem worthy of credit, but they 
 both were of a nation hated amongst all men, 
 and were timorous and ignorant. Whence, then, 
 overcame they the world? Whence cast they 
 out you, and those your forefathers who were 
 reputed to be philosophers, along with their 
 very gods? Is it not quite evident that it was 
 from having God with them ? For these are 
 not successes of human but of unspeakable and 
 Divine power. — St. Chrysostont. 
 
 (3) As seen in the victory obtained by illiterate 
 advocates over the world, which is in itself tni- 
 j-ac7ilo7(s, if they were not sustained by miracles.
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 183—189] 
 
 [divine origin of CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 35 
 
 [183] For this certainly they will not con- 
 trovert, nor impugn what we see with our eyes : 
 when they say that no miracles took place they 
 inflict a worse stab upon themselves. For this 
 would be the greatest of miracles, that without 
 any miracles the whole world should have 
 eagerly come to be taken in the nets of twelve 
 poor and illiterate men. For not by wealth or 
 money, not by wisdom of words, not by any- 
 thing of this kind did the fishermen prevail ; so 
 that objectors must even against their will 
 acknowledge that there was in these men a 
 Divine power, for no human strength could ever 
 possibly effect such results. For this He then 
 remained forty days on earth, furnishing in 
 this length of time the sure evidence of their 
 seeing Him in His own proper Person, that 
 they might not suppose that what they saw was 
 a phantom. And not content with this. He 
 added also the evidence of eating with them at 
 their board : as to signify this, the writer adds, 
 "And being at table with them. He com- 
 manded." And this circumstance the apostles 
 themselves always put forth as an infallible 
 token of the Resurrection ; as where they say, 
 "Who did eat and drink with Him." — Ibid. 
 
 3 From the unique extent of its triumph. 
 
 (i) As seen in its conqnests over all vaf'ictics 
 ofhianan superstitions aJid culture. 
 
 [184] It has gained accessions from all those 
 varieties of the human mind which have been 
 placed in contact with revealed truth, with the 
 idiosyncrasies of persons, of nations, of ages, 
 from fathers and councils, from controversies 
 and heresies, from Hellenist, Alexandrian, and 
 Roman forms of thought, from the mind of the 
 East and from the mind of the West, from 
 corruptions and reformations of religion. The 
 developments of doctrine thus originated were 
 the joint product of the revealed truth and the 
 condition of the mind which received it. — Cation 
 Bernard, Bampton Lectures. 
 
 (2) As seen in its success both intellectually 
 and morally. 
 
 [185] Divine intervention in the history of 
 Christianity is inferred from the extent, com- 
 pleteness, nature, and means of its success in 
 the old Roman world ; from the wonderful 
 moral and spiritual change which it wrought in 
 the characters and lives of the early converts ; 
 from its missionary and mental activity even 
 during the " dark ages ; " from the power it 
 displayed of renewing its youth at the time of 
 the Reformation, and subsequently of entering 
 into and becoming the creator of the modern 
 world ; from the manner in which it has been 
 able to resist and overcome persecution, and 
 draw inspiration from its martyr history ; from 
 the success with which it has repelled the 
 assaults of unbelief and the powers of darkness, 
 and subdued the native resistance of the human 
 heart ; from its organization, ordinances, and 
 literature, which fit it in a unique manner for 
 the work it has to do ; and from the motives 
 with which it is furnished for the fulfilment of 
 
 its mission ; and, lastly, from the manner in 
 which its own predictions, both of its successes 
 and corruptions, have been fulfilled. — Rev. 
 Principal Cairns, D.D. 
 
 [1S6] This early Christian apologist (Origen) 
 repeatedly dwells upon the fact that the preach- 
 ing of the gospel had power at once to " convert 
 multitudes from a life of licentiousness to one 
 of extreme regularity, and from a life of wicked- 
 ness to a better, and from a state of cowardice 
 or unmanliness to one of such high-toned 
 courage as to lead men to despise even death 
 through the piety which shows itself within 
 them."'' 
 
 4 From its inherent principles of vitality. 
 
 {\) As seen in its retention, unlike other reli- 
 gious systems, of its origiVial power. 
 
 [1S7] Seeing this force at work in the purest 
 faith of the world, we cannot help feeling that 
 any theory of the human origin of religion wants 
 a stable foundation. How are we to account 
 for pure fountains when the human tributaries 
 of the stream are so turbid and foul 1 How 
 else, indeed, than upon the assumption of Divine 
 revelation ? That assumption is consistent 
 with the facts. We see men falling from these 
 revelations everywhere ; we nowhere see them 
 rising into them. There are clear, bright 
 fountains far up on the mountain sides, but so 
 soon as human hands touch the stream it 
 begins to be polluted. Our Professor says : '' In 
 one sense the history of most religions_ might 
 be called a slow corruption of their primitive 
 purity." "We see Abraham, a mere nomad, 
 fully impressed with the necessity of the unity 
 of the Godhead ; while Solomon, famous among 
 the kings of the earth, built high places for 
 Chemosh and Moloch. . . . The Hindoos who, 
 thousands of years ago, had reached in the 
 Uparinshads the loftiest heights of philosophy, 
 are now in many places sunk into a grovelling 
 worship of cows and monkeys." This degra- 
 dation of religion, so constant a tendency in 
 all history, seems to furnish a strong proof that 
 " God has spoken unto us." — Max Miiller. 
 
 [188] Man has often lost or perverted re- 
 ligious truth, but has never discovered it.— 
 B. G. 
 
 (2) As seen in its survival in spite of the 
 assaults of crushing persecution and corncpiing 
 prosperity. 
 
 [189] At the outset fierce and bitter persecu- 
 tion assailed Christianity; but every drop of 
 martyr-blood shed for its sake blossomed in 
 some new flower of Heaven's own planting. Its 
 purest triumphs, its most hopeful growths, were 
 under the very agencies employed to crush it 
 out of being. From beneath the heel of the 
 Csesars it mounted their throne and swayed 
 their sceptre. Then commenced the severer 
 trial of corrupting prosperity ; and still could 
 not its ordinances be distorted wholly out of 
 shape, or its cardinal doctrines wholly obscured,
 
 135-197. 
 
 CHRISTIAXITY AS A SVSTE.V. 
 
 [modern CIVII.TZATIOX and CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 or its benign influence wholly obliterated. 
 When encrusted with superstitions and falsities, 
 it still parted not with its Divine unction ; in its 
 tarnished purity it was still the purest thing on 
 earth ; in its diluted ethics it still had power to 
 restrain and guide ; and at no moment did the 
 world fail to be immeasurably the better for 
 it. 
 
 (3) As seen in the survival of Christianity, 
 after beino; buried tender the mediceval supersti- 
 tions of tJie Papacy. 
 
 [190] The Reformation was its resurrection 
 and restoration. — B. C. 
 
 17 
 
 MODERN CIVILIZATION AND 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1. The Relation between Civilization 
 AND Christianity. 
 
 -I The religious element necessary in civi- 
 lization. 
 
 [191] Look out for a people entirely devoid 
 of religion ; and if you find them at all, be 
 assured that they are but a few degrees re- 
 moved from the brutes. — Hume. 
 
 [192] Religion as regards its general influence 
 ■over the mind of a nation, apart from and inde- 
 pendent of religious education, forms a sepa- 
 rate and very important element in the pro- 
 motion of civilization. The Christian religion 
 is in its nature highly favourable to the civiliza- 
 tion alike of individuals and of states, and both 
 intellectually and morally. The knowledge that 
 it teaches is the highest and most elevating ; 
 .and the principles that it enforces are the purest 
 and most comprehensive. — George Harris, Civi- 
 Jizaticn considered as a Science. 
 
 [193] In Greece and Rome, the absence of 
 the element of a correct religious influence was 
 the cardinal defect in their civilization, as it 
 must also be in the present day in that of 
 Turkey. — Ibid. 
 
 [194] Certain communities have reached a 
 high degree of perfection in art and literature ; 
 but from the other elements of civilization 
 being neglected, they have continued in a 
 state of comparative barbarism as regards their 
 general condition. — Ibid. 
 
 ■a Civilization under Christian influence 
 reaches a higher phase of existence. 
 
 [195] (i) Civilization is not a product of 
 Christianity, but has an independent existence. 
 
 Christianity is not necessary to create civili- 
 zation. If preached to a barbarous people, it 
 finds the capacity of civilization, and develops 
 it ; but other agencies, without Christianity, 
 might have developed it. Usually some form 
 
 of civilization has existed before Christianity is 
 brought to a people. Christianity at the out- 
 set found itself confronted with the Hebrew, the 
 Greek, and the Roman civilization. It is re- 
 markable that the apostles instituted no mis- 
 sions to barbarians. The first and prominent 
 fields of their missions were the cities, whence 
 Christianity spread more slowly into the coun- 
 try. The word " pagan," or " villager," gradu- 
 ally came to denote an idolater. So, usually, 
 Christianity comes to nations already civilized. 
 It finds society already constituted, with opinions, 
 usages, government, civilization, religion. 
 
 (2) Christianity imparts to civilization and 
 makes effective in it the spiritual forces 
 necessary to its purity, completeness, and 
 Perpetuity. 
 
 (3) Christianity, by the spiritual forces which 
 it introduces and makes effective, gradually 
 creates a Christian civilization. 
 
 It has been said that genius does not estab- 
 lish a school, but kindles an influence. The 
 method of Christianity in Christianizing civili- 
 zation is the same. It kindles an influence 
 which creates the new beneath the old, and so 
 pushes the old off. Its method is not the 
 mechanical change of organization, but the in- 
 ward process of life. 
 
 [196] In three distinct and independent 
 modes, moreover. Religious Influence contri- 
 butes to the civilization of a nation, both as 
 regards men individually and men in the aggre- 
 gate. The first of these is by raising the minds 
 of the people to a sense of their own natural 
 dignity and importance as immortal beings, 
 and as allied to the great Creator of all things. 
 The effect of this influence is very different, 
 and, indeed, directly opposite to pride and 
 vanity, which spring from the supposed indi- 
 vidual superiority of one man to another, and 
 not from any opinion as to the dignity of the 
 whole race. The second of the modes by which 
 Religious Influence contributes to the civili- 
 zation of a people, is by instilling into their 
 minds the consciousness of a constant observer 
 of all their actions, to whom they are account- 
 able for every deed. And the third of these 
 modes is by the establishment of a strict and 
 unerring rule of the highest authority for the 
 direction of their conduct on all occasions, both 
 as to principle and practice. — George Harris, 
 Civilization considered as a Science. 
 
 [197] Whether we consider civilization as it 
 aftects the individual or the state, or direct our 
 thoughts to its essence, elements, and ends, it 
 will become at once apparent that Christian 
 influence is necessary for its highest attain- 
 ments. Civilization, indeed, is nothing less 
 than the rendering the higher endowments pre- 
 dominant over those which are lower, and the 
 bringing to complete maturity the most valuable 
 resources and powers of the nation. Chris- 
 tianity alone rightly effects these glorious ends,
 
 197—207] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 37 
 
 [modern civilization and CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 or really promotes the virtue, the hai^pinesSj or 
 security of a nation. — C. N. 
 
 [198] Grand ideals, enlarged conceptions, the 
 principle of belief, a true sense of independence, 
 a right appreciation of others, a longing for 
 peace with honour, a true recognition of the 
 brotherhood of man, a desire for knowledge and 
 its general diffusion, a sense of refinement, are 
 all necessary elements for civilization, and are 
 best developed and blended together under 
 Christian influence. The secret of civilization 
 is contained in St. Paul's elevating and en- 
 nobling words, " Whatsoever things are true, 
 whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
 are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
 things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
 report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be 
 any praise, think on these things" (Phil. iv. 8). 
 — C N. 
 
 3 Christendom almost co. extensive with true 
 civilization. 
 
 [199] God is not exclusively present in Chris- 
 tianity, but He is more present in it than in any 
 other religious and moral development. Chris- 
 tianity is, in fact, the religion of civilized 
 peoples ; each nation admits it in its moral 
 sense, according to its degree of intellectual 
 culture. The freethinker, who dispenses with 
 it altogether, is within his prerogative ; but the 
 freethinker constitutes an individual case, how- 
 ever highly respectable ; his intellectual and 
 moral situation is by no means yet that of any 
 nation or of humanity. Let us then preserve 
 Christianity, with admiration for its high moral 
 value, for its majestic history, for the beauty of 
 its sacred books. — J/. Renaji, quoted in London 
 Quarterly. 
 
 [200] Hundreds of thousands have suffered 
 death for their religion. Is it conceivable that 
 the belief for which they died can have had no 
 influence on their lives ? Is it conceivable that 
 the influence can have been confined to the 
 martyrs ? Is not Christendom almost co-exten- 
 sive with moral civilization ? And does not the 
 whole face of Christendom — do not its literature, 
 its art, its architecture — show that religion has 
 been its soul ? — Prof. Goldiuin Smith in Con- 
 temporary J\ez'ie7c. 
 
 [201] It cannot, indeed, be doubted that the 
 greatest conquests over human nature which 
 have ever been effected, and the completeness 
 of which is most fully evinced, as in the case of 
 other conquests, by the entire change in heart, 
 and habits, and customs, and conduct which is 
 produced, are those which have been accom- 
 plished by the influence of Christianity. Nations 
 and individuals alike attest the truth of this 
 proposition. In fact, the world at large may be 
 appealed to for this purpose, in which the most 
 extensive moral revolutions that have ever been 
 wrought have been effected through this medium 
 alone. And the direct and powerful tendency 
 of religious influence to promote civilization 
 
 is conclusively proved by the circumstance that 
 wherever, throughout the world, Christianity 
 has taken root, there civilization has been at 
 once established. Christianity is, indeed, as it 
 were, the moral sun by which alone the darkness 
 of ignorance and superstition has been effectually 
 dispelled, and from which the bright and genial 
 beams of civilization have been generally dif- 
 used. — George Harris, Civilization considered 
 as a Science. 
 
 II. The Civilizing Effects of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 1 It embraces and ennobles art. 
 
 [202] The highest art is always the most 
 religious ; and the greatest artist is always a 
 devout man. A scoffing Raphael or Michael 
 Angelo is not conceivable. — Blackie. 
 
 The same is true of musical art, the highest 
 elements of which, as "The Creation" and 
 "the Messiah," are developments of Christian 
 civilization. — B. G. 
 
 [203] Religion both elevates and inspires the 
 soul. The most magnificent works of art have 
 been instigated by the influence of religious 
 fervour, and the noblest and sublimest ideas 
 have been afforded by religious subjects. Re- 
 ligion has, moreover, ever been the soul of 
 poetry, and of productions in each of the sister 
 arts. — George Harris, Civilization considered as 
 a Science. 
 
 2 It fosters the intellectual elements of 
 civilization. 
 
 [204] Is it then the true inference that potent 
 religious life repudiates thought and culture, 
 and allies itself with ignorance and fanaticism ? 
 that "ignorance is the mother of devotion"? 
 The illustrious record of Christian philosophers, 
 theologians, scholars, and thinkers, from Paul 
 to Augustine, from Aquinas to Bacon, from 
 Pascal to Butler, and to the host of eminent 
 men who believe in our own day, make this 
 theory untenable. — Bev. Dr. Alton, The Church 
 of the Future. 
 
 [205] A beautiful literature springs from the 
 depth and fulness of intellectual and moral life, 
 from an energy of thought and feeling, to which 
 nothing, as we believe, ministers so largely as 
 enlightened religion. — Channing. 
 
 [206] We must not narrow theology until it 
 becomes a sectarian science ; we must insist 
 that within its expansiveness are to be found 
 all things and all hopes which minister to the 
 strength and exalt the destiny of human life. 
 
 3 It softens the horrors of war, by the justice 
 and chivalry of a true civilization. 
 
 [207] Christianity, it is said, still permits war 
 to disgrace our civilization and our religion ; 
 nay, that the carnage is multiplied tenfold. What 
 shall we say in reply .'' It is not the number of 
 lives that they cost, but the temper in which
 
 t8 
 
 207—213] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 [moral philosophy and CHRIST IAN-ITY. 
 
 they are conducted that marks the difterence 
 between one war and another in morality. It 
 cannot be denied that mider the influence of 
 Christianity war is becoming a last resource 
 after other ways of settling a dispute have 
 failed. The moral sense of Clwistendom, as 
 a rule, pronounces unequivocally against the 
 aggressor. We have seen, too, how the horrors 
 of war may be alleviated by a growing respect 
 for the lives and property of non-combatants, 
 and by the devoted labours of Christian men 
 and women, ready to relieve the sufterings on 
 either side. — Ibid. 
 
 4 It promotes amicable unity and social 
 communion. 
 
 [208] Christianity has also a direct tendency 
 to promote civilization, from the manner in which 
 it enjoins amicable unity, and social communion, 
 and good fellowship among different people. 
 It strives to join together, in one vast community, 
 or rather fraternity, the whole family of the 
 human race, and impels us to endeavour to 
 disseminate through the remotest regions of the 
 world the blessings of true religion. This 
 principle, from which, indeed, springs the very 
 foundation of civilized society, Christianity 
 carries out further than does any moral or 
 constitutional code that has been established 
 in any nation. While science and intellect in- 
 duce us to extend the pale of our sympathies to 
 all those of our race who are capable of par- 
 taking of, or of appreciating our efforts in the 
 cause of learning or art, Christianity leads us 
 to extend it to all who belong to the common 
 race of mankind. And while the former urge 
 us from a feeling of connection, Christianity 
 constrains us from a principle of duty. In the 
 promotion of general benevolence among man- 
 kind, Christianity has done much for civiliza- 
 tion ; as also, in conjunction with it, by the 
 numerous charitable, educational, and religious 
 institutions which it has been the means of 
 founding. In this respect, the indirect influence 
 of our religion, independent of its direct efiects, 
 in promoting mutual goodwill among the several 
 members of society, both in our own country 
 and in foreign nations, by the exertions which 
 it calls forth to alleviate their wants, and to 
 minister to their necessities and comforts of each 
 kind, of itself causes Christianity to have a 
 powerful civilizing influence over the whole 
 world. No other religion has produced this 
 great effect ; it alone has accomplished it 
 perfectly. — George Harris, Civilizaiion con- 
 sidered as a Scicjice. 
 
 5 It has elevated the tone of moral judgment 
 in the civilized world. 
 
 [209] And if the enli.sjhtened European judg- 
 ment to which appeal is made does present a 
 higher and purer moral tribunal than elsewhere 
 has been known, it is because that judgment 
 has been moulded and swayed and taught for 
 centuries in the school of Divine revelation. — 
 Thomas Poivnall Boultbee, LL.D. 
 
 [210] The direct and extensive tendency of 
 
 the Christian religion, and of its various institu- 
 tions, is to promote civilization. Among the 
 customs that it enjoins, the observance of a 
 Sabbath, by which one day in seven is set apart, 
 and ordinary unnecessary manual occupation is 
 excluded from it, is highly conducive to civiliza- 
 tion, independent altogether of the religious 
 advantages that it possesses. Mental and moral 
 improvement among all classes is eminently 
 furthered by this institution. The poorest 
 person has once a week secured to him a day 
 of leisure to devote to the cultivation of his 
 mind and his morals, as well as to his religious 
 duties, ^^'hich directly tends to the improvement 
 of the former. Such an institution is also greatly 
 refining in its results. Each poor man with 
 his family for that day moves in the rank of 
 gentility, appears in his best clothes, and enjoys 
 a period of leisure. Not only should the Sab- 
 bath be a day of freedom from toil, but of free- 
 dom also from worldly care and anxiety. And 
 it should supply a foretaste of heaven, not 
 merely as regards the religious exercises which 
 are followed upon it, but as regards the high 
 mental pursuits for which it affords the oppor- 
 tunity, the benevolent social feelings which it 
 calls forth, and the good deeds which are done 
 on that day. To each person, whether rich or 
 poor, the Sabbath should be, moreover, not only 
 the holiest but the happiest day throughout the 
 week. — George Harris, Civilization considered 
 as a Sciejice. 
 
 18 
 
 MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I. Failure of Moral Philosophy when 
 
 CONTRASTED WITH CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1 Moral philosophy moved in the sphere of 
 the political. 
 
 [211] Ancient philosophers viewed moral 
 philosophy as a branch of politics. To a certain 
 extent they were right in this view. They had 
 no other objective standard of obligation. A 
 well-constituted state formed the only educator 
 through whose agency the philosopher saw even 
 a chance of training mankind in virtue. — The 
 Contt/iiporary Reviciu, 1S69. 
 
 [212] You cannot make people moral or 
 virtuous by Act of Parliament or State control, 
 at least when the nation has outgrown ^ 
 patriarchal government. The family is the true 
 iinit of political as well as moral life, from which 
 real and permanent improvement must be 
 sought. Improve the State and you do not 
 necessarily imj^rove the individual. Improve 
 the individual and you necessarily improve the 
 State.— C. N. 
 
 2 Moral philosophy failed to bind private 
 conscience by a higher sense of duty. 
 
 [213] Ancient morality was ignorant of the
 
 213— 2i8] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. jg 
 
 [moral philosophy and CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 idea of duty in the sense in which Christianity 
 has brought it to bear on the mind of man. Its 
 idea of duty was twofold : — First, a subjective 
 one, which was measured by the obligations 
 which a man owed to himself. Secondly, an 
 objective one, measured by the obligations 
 which he owed as a member of political society. 
 Beyond these he possessed no standard. The 
 ancient religions were incapable of bringing any 
 sense of moral obligation to bear on the human 
 mind. All of them were political, and the 
 aspect of their duties was such that no improve- 
 ment in morality could come from making them 
 the subject of imitation. To enable religion to 
 sti'engthen the moral power by the creation of a 
 real sense of duty, God must be clearly appi-e- 
 hended as the head Moral Governor of the 
 Universe ; and man's relationship to Him must 
 be clearly felt, the lack of moral power which 
 was inherent in the ancient religions was not 
 supplied by any discoveries of the philosophers ; 
 their duty was either an impersonal one, or one 
 purely intellectual. The moralist was, therefore, 
 forced to look on political institutions, and a 
 course of training under their influence, as the 
 only power on which he could rely to enforce 
 the sanctions of morality. From them alone 
 could he deduce the nature of moral obligation. 
 Uncertain about the nature of God, how was it 
 possible that he could enforce morality by 
 appealing to His character, His will, or the rela- 
 tion in which man stood to Him. — Contcmpofary 
 Reincw, 1869. 
 
 3 Ancient philosophy confessed the inade- 
 quacy of its motives to impel men to 
 virtue. 
 
 [214] Philosophy confesses the inadequacy of 
 its motives to impel men to virtue : — 
 
 1. Its despair with respect to the masses of 
 mankind. 
 
 2. Its teaching addressed to the upper ten 
 thousand. 
 
 3. Its failure to create a missionary spirit. 
 
 4. Its failure to deal with men as individuals. 
 — Re7K G. A, Roio, iM.A., Moral TcacJiing of 
 the N. T. 
 
 II. The Excellence of Christl\n Philo- 
 sophy WHEN CONTRASTED WITH MORAL 
 
 Philosophy. 
 
 I Christianity introduces personal respon- 
 sibility and higher obligations than 
 merely political. 
 
 [215] Whilst philosophers, legislators, and 
 inhdels fostered popular superstitions, some 
 from a belief in the usefulness to morals, some 
 from reasons of State, some from indifference to 
 truth, Christianity came without State neces- 
 sity, without compliance to popular delusions, 
 to utter a truth that should elevate both freeman 
 and serf, and establish justice as the rule of 
 f]0vernment, love as the flow of life. And since 
 in the effort to bolster up superstition, pretended 
 
 prodigies were performed, it wrought real 
 miracles, without which it would not have 
 gained the notice of mankind, and uttered prin- 
 ciples equally miraculous, but without which it 
 would have gained no permanent hold on the 
 affections of men ; and thus it alone breathed 
 new life into decaying humanity ; corrected and 
 repressed the universal growth of the most 
 debasing immoralit)-, and gave an impulse to 
 that tide of improvement which, in spite of all 
 opposing agencies, the cunning of priests and 
 the power of tyrants, has worked hitherto, and 
 still remains the germ of every improvement, 
 the inextinguishable hope of mankind for all 
 personal character, social and political amelio- 
 ration. The sick nations had received many 
 nostrums from many secular advisers, but were 
 not yet improved; priests, philosophers, legis- 
 lators — all had received their fees ; the patient 
 was impoverished in purse and constitution, and 
 had been turned out as incurable, like "a 
 certain woman who had suffered many things of 
 many physicians, and had spent all that she 
 had, and was nothing bettered but rather grew 
 worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in 
 the press behind and touched the hem of his 
 garment, and felt in her body that she was 
 healed of that plague" (Mark v. 25-29). This 
 rapid sketch teaches how little was done before 
 Christianity, and how much it was needed as 
 the great and sole light of the world, the 
 regenerating element of society. Everything 
 else had failed ; and human reason, which, 
 according to atheistic ideas, had been at 
 work from all eternity, ended in looseness of 
 thought and morals, scepticism, superstition, and 
 debasement. — Brewm Grant. 
 
 [216] Medical boards, apothecaries halls, 
 skilled physicians, trained nurses, cannot re- 
 store to the patient vital power and health, when 
 there is no constitution left to work upon. So 
 the arm of the State cannot raise poor fallen 
 humanity. We are so far gone from original 
 righteousness that nothing less than Divine 
 interposition can remedy the evil. — C. N. 
 
 [217] The State without Christianity lacks 
 moral power, and so cannot morally and per- 
 manently improve man. The State owes all its 
 moral weight to Christianity, which declares 
 that " the powers that be are ordained of God," 
 and, moreover, Jesus, our Master in heaven, re- 
 quires us, as His loyal servants, to honour all 
 earthly masters. — C. N. 
 
 2 Christianity introduces human dignity as 
 the basis of man's claims and duties. 
 
 [218] The element of human dignity is the 
 true foundation of '• the rights of man." The 
 gospel is the first system that recognizes the 
 people, cares for them, and appeals to them. 
 It has introduced into all modern literatures the 
 ideas of our common human dignity, the im- 
 portance and sacredness of every man ; from 
 which freethinkers have selected the doctrine of
 
 40 
 
 2i8 — 226] 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 [philosophy of CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 human brotherhood, Avhich never existed till 
 Christ came as the brother of all men. — B. G. 
 
 [219] Christianity levels not down but up. 
 The lowliest is raised by Christianity to a higher 
 position than the highest without its privileges. 
 Christ has exalted our common humanity, and 
 not only Himself becomes the centre around 
 which all may circle, but round which none can 
 gather except as brothers. — C. N'. 
 
 3 Christianity appeals to an authority su- 
 perior to merely human commands. 
 
 [220] This was exemplified in St. Peter's 
 appeal against the prohibition to follow con- 
 science and God in preaching Christ : — " But 
 that it spread no further among the people, let 
 us straitly threaten them that they speak hence- 
 forth to no man in this name. And they called 
 them and commanded them not to speak at all 
 nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and 
 John answered, Whether it be right z« the sight 
 of God to hearken unto you more than unto 
 6^(7c/, judge ye '■' (Acts iv. 17-19). This was the 
 introduction and recognition of the new principle 
 and final appeal on moral duty. — B. G. 
 
 4 Christianity exalts the humble virtues 
 above the heroic. 
 
 [221] Our Lord based virtue on the moral 
 nature of man in relation to the obligations 
 which unite man to man, and man to God ; 
 whereas the political aspect of ancient morality 
 compelled the philosophers unduly to estimate 
 the heroic ones. The fact is beyond dispute 
 that our Lord's teaching reverses the order of 
 the virtues, and assigns to the milder and the 
 more unobtrusive ones the highest place in his 
 spiritual temple ; whereas the philosophers 
 unanimously pursued a contrary course. — Con- 
 tefnporajy Revi'ezu, 1869. 
 
 5 The Christian Beatitudes surpass in 
 heroism the so-called heroic virtues. 
 
 [222] What are called the heroic virtues are 
 not so heroic as those which are termed the 
 humble ones. It requires more courage and 
 fortitude to endure and forgive insult and injury 
 than to revenge a wrong. "Blessed are the 
 poor in spirit,"' "the meek," "the merciful," 
 " the peace-makers," " the persecuted," the " re- 
 viled" (St. Matt. v. 3-1 1), is a moral teaching 
 far in advance of natural reason and philosophy. 
 To forgive our enemies is a difficult but heroic 
 duty : the practice of these precepts would bless 
 the world.— ^. G. 
 
 [223] The "heroic" virtues in early stages of 
 society have so marketable a value that the 
 ancients naturally unduly exalted them. They 
 are conspicuous virtues, and springing, as they 
 do, from the lower or animal side of our nature, 
 are easier cultivated and brought to perfection. 
 On the other hand the " humble " virtues, though 
 really those that conduce mostly to human 
 happiness, are not naturally prized. Indeed, 
 
 before Christ showed what true humility meant, 
 what a heavenly and noble flower this grace 
 was, the world had few, if any, specimens worth 
 exhibiting. And thus while man might discover 
 the law of gravitation without revolution, it Avas 
 beyond the reach of human originality to assign 
 to humility its lawful place. 
 
 19 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I. LMPORTA^•CE OF THE STUDY. 
 
 [224] There is, however, a divine philosophy 
 in the Christian scheme, which the thoughtful 
 believer will trace out with admiration and 
 thankfulness. To the Church and in the Church 
 there is made known the many-varied wisdom 
 of God, into which even angels desire to look. 
 Little attention has been paid to what has been 
 termed by an American writer the philosophy 
 of salvation ; but in proportion as we recognize 
 the Divine adaptation of Christianity to man's 
 mental constitution, we shall see that between 
 heathen philosophy in its best estate and revela- 
 tion a great gulf is fixed. — Rev. Wiliiatn Web- 
 ster, AJ.A. 
 
 II. Its Nature. 
 
 I The Christian scheme is especially adapted 
 to our mental constitution. 
 
 (i) It presents a Divine Person as the sole 
 object of our homage. 
 
 [225] It is not an abstraction, an idea, a rule, 
 a discipline, a code of laws, a system of doctrine, 
 or an assemblage of beautiful theories ; but is 
 the presentation of a Divine Person as the sole 
 and satisfying object of reliance and trust, of 
 admiration and love ; it is the manifestation of 
 Him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the 
 Godhead in bodily form. This Divine Person 
 assumed that state and condition of life which 
 has the most direct influence to eradicate from 
 the human breast the noxious fibres of selfish- 
 ness and pride ; and to cherish the grow^th of 
 contentment, benevolence, humility. In the 
 exercise of these qualities, philosophy truly saw 
 that the soul of man could find rest; and that 
 under the dominion of their opposites, the soul 
 was as a troubled sea, casting up mire and dirt ; 
 but it lacked the influence of one who could 
 enforce His teaching by pointing to His example, 
 " I am among you as one that serveth." — Ibid. 
 
 (2) // adopted the principle of faith, 710 1 per- 
 ception, as the medium of knoivledge. 
 
 [226] Truth can enter the soul only in one of 
 two ways — by perception or by faith, i.e., by the 
 medium of the senses or by the belief of testi- 
 mony. But from the nature of our mental con- 
 stitution, the recurrence of facts which fall under 
 personal observation produces an elTect which 
 grows weaker and weaker in proportion as they
 
 CHRISTIAXITV AS A SVSTE.M. 
 
 226 — 236] 
 
 41 
 
 [philosophy of CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 are repeatedly witnessed. But facts -which are 
 received by faith, the more they are realized, the 
 more the mind revolves them, produce a greater, 
 a more powerful, in fact, an overwhelming, an 
 abiding impression. By the exercise of sight 
 the effect of what is seen grows less ; by the 
 exercise of faith the effect of what is believed 
 grows greater ; the belief of falsehood perverts 
 and debases the soul ; the belief of truth puri- 
 fies, ennobles, and saves. — Ibid. 
 
 (3) // assigns obedience to the master principle 
 of love. 
 
 [227] All happy obedience must spring from 
 affection ; that outward compliance which is ex- 
 torted by fear and dread can never be habitually 
 maintained, as opportunities for relapsing will be 
 embraced whenever they occur. This obedience 
 will be cheerfully rendered in proportion as we 
 are conscious of the intrinsic worth of the party 
 to whom it is rendered, and of his rightful claim 
 as our gracious benefactor. The man to whom 
 Jittle is forgiven loveth little. As the stream can 
 never rise higher than its source, obedience will 
 never exceed the sense of blessing received. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 III. Its Excellence. 
 1 Arguments e contrario. 
 
 (i) Every advantage is on the side of belief in 
 Christianity. 
 
 [228] If the best that can happen to the un- 
 believer be that he be right, and the worst that 
 can happen to the believer be that he be wrong, 
 who in his madness would dare to run the ven- 
 ture ? — Locke. 
 
 [229] Should a man err in supposing the 
 Christian religion to be true, he can be no great 
 loser by the mistake. But how dreadful to err, 
 in supposing it to be false. — Pascal, Thoughts ofi 
 Religion (162 3- 1 662). 
 
 [230] If Christianity — which leaves no alter- 
 native religion possible — is false, the dying 
 Christian is as safe as the dying Atheist or 
 Agnostic. — B. G. 
 
 [231] Provision for old age is safe if there be 
 no old age for us, and the providing for a future 
 contingency is not without present counter- 
 vailing advantages. The slight inconvenience 
 of insuring our property against the risk of fire 
 is a small sacrifice if easiness of mind alone be 
 considered. — C. N. 
 
 [232] To toil up the mountains and pursue 
 our journey in an arduous manner amid a bracing 
 atmosphere is preferable to being allured into the 
 smoking valley which will prove sultry and its 
 miasma may end fatally. Thus the discipline 
 and sacrifice which Christianity require, even if 
 there were no future awards and punishments, 
 would be more than compensated by present 
 actual acquisition, such as peace of mind, a sense 
 
 of security, and development of character, and 
 other reflex influence of a religious life. — C. N. 
 
 [233] The results at issue in the rejection or 
 acceptance of Christianity should " give us 
 pause " and secure the deepest consideration. 
 It has such pretences, at least, as may make it 
 worthy of a particular consideration : it pretends 
 to come from heaven ; to have been delivered 
 by the Son of God ; to have been confirmed by 
 undeniable miracles and prophecies ; to have 
 been ratified by the blood of Christ and His 
 apostles, who died in asserting its truth. It 
 can show likewise an innumerable company of 
 martyrs and confessors : its doctrines are pure 
 and holy, its precepts just and righteous ; its 
 worship is a reasonable service, refined from 
 the errors of idolatry and superstition, and 
 spiritual like the God who is the object of it : it 
 offers the aid and assistance of heaven to the 
 weakness of nature ; which makes the religion 
 of the gospel to be as practicable as it is reason- 
 able : it promises infinite rewards to obedience, 
 and threatens eternal punishment to obstinate 
 offenders ; which makes it of the utmost con- 
 sequence to us soberly to consider it, since every 
 one who rejects it stakes his own soul against 
 the truth of it. — Bishop Sherlock, 1678-1761. 
 
 (2) Instances of the folly of atheistic teaching. 
 
 [234] Paine says — " It is the fool only, and 
 not the philospher," who lives as if there were 
 no God and no future life of retribution. 
 
 [235] It is presumption, and not philosophy, 
 to say, "We must die to find it out." Chris- 
 tianity teaches us to attain a rational certainty 
 before it is too late to retrieve a false step. — 
 B. G. 
 
 IV. Positive Arguments. 
 
 (i) Its exquisite adaptation to the mental and 
 moral constitution of human iiature. 
 
 [236] Socrates and Aristotle proposed to 
 correct the errors of man by improving the 
 intellect. "But leviathan is not so tamed." 
 Men do not determine moral questions in which 
 they are personally interested by the mere ver- 
 dict of the understanding. They set up the 
 will in the judgment seat. In the hour of 
 temptation they act not as they see to be right, 
 but as they wish to act. Christianity proceeds 
 in a method the reverse of this. "It makes its 
 first appeal to the affections which are the 
 springs of the will, and through them clears and 
 rectifies the understanding'' {Goulburn). The 
 method propounded by the wisdom of man is 
 false in principle and inefficacious in practice ; 
 while the mode prescribed by the wisdom of 
 God is philosophically true, mighty to pull 
 down the strongholds of selfishness and ignor- 
 ance, of passion, prejudice, and pride, and to 
 bring every thought into captivity in subjection 
 to Christ.— Titv. 7i7///(?w Webster, M.A.
 
 42 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 237—240] 
 
 ri'ROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 (2) Personal testimony to its blessedness. 
 
 [237] I envy no quality of mind or intellect in 
 others — not genius, power, wit, or fancy ; but 
 if I could choose what would be most delightful, 
 and, I believe, most useful to me, I should prefer 
 a firm religious belief to every other blessing ; 
 for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates 
 new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and 
 -throws over the decaj^, the destruction of exist- 
 ence the most gorgeous of all lights ; awakens 
 life even in death, and from the corruption and 
 decay calls up beauty and divinity ; makes an 
 instrument of torture and shame the ladder of 
 ascent to paradise ; and far above all combina- 
 tion of earthly hopes, calls up the most delight- 
 ful visions, palms and amaranths, the gardens 
 of the blessed, the security of everlasting joys, 
 where the sensualist and the sceptic view only 
 gloom, decay, and annihilation. — Sir HitnipJu'ey 
 Davy, 
 
 PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I. Causes of the past Success of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 I General Analysis. 
 
 [238] Can we conceive the triumphant pro- 
 gress of Christianity to have been made unless 
 the following had been the distinctive features 
 of the Christian religion ? i. The person of 
 Christ. 2. The ci'oss of Christ. 3. The Church 
 of Christ. 4. The doctrine of Christ. 5. The 
 luorship of Christ. 
 
 " Our curiosity," says Gibbon, in his cele- 
 brated fifteenth chapter of his " History of the 
 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," " is 
 naturally prompted to inquire by what means 
 the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a 
 victory over the established religions of the 
 earth.? To this inquiry an obvious but satis- 
 factory answer may be returned ; that it was 
 owing to the convincing evidence of the doc- 
 trine itself, and to the ruling providence of its 
 great Author." Although there is an intentional 
 sarcastic sneer in these words, as is shown by 
 the rest of the chapter, still, as the sceptic 
 admits, such causes must be acknowledged to 
 be the primary causes of the success of a 
 religion, however we describe the secojidaty. 
 The doctrine itself, and the providential favour 
 of God, must be put first. We may divide the 
 latter under two heads — (i.) The aid which 
 Christianity received from the supernattcrai 
 a.gency which mingled with its propagation ; 
 (ii.) The providential appointment of circum- 
 stances favourable to it — some of which have 
 been well described, as we shall see, by such 
 writers as Gibbon and Renan, although with a 
 mistaken estimate of their operation. — R. A. 
 Redford, the Christiaji's Plea. 
 
 2 Viewed negatively. 
 
 (i) Its rise ajid progress, tiot from the mechan- 
 ism of merely human institutions. 
 
 [239] How did Christianity rise and spread 
 among men ? was it by institutions, c^nd 
 establishments, and well-arranged systems of 
 mechanism .'' Not so ; on the contrary, in all 
 past and existing institutions for those ends its 
 Divine spirit has invariably been found to 
 languish and decay. It arose in the mystic 
 deeps of man's soul, and was spread abroad by 
 the preaching of the word, by simple altogether 
 natural and individual efforts, and flew like 
 hallowed fire from heart to heart till all were 
 purified and illuminated by it, and its heavenly 
 light shone, as it still shines, and as sun or star 
 will ever shine, through the whole dark destinies 
 of man. There again was no mechanism, man's 
 highest attainment was accomplished dynami- 
 cally, not mechanically. — Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 3 Viewed positively. 
 
 (i_) Due to its Divine origin and character. 
 
 [240] Presently it came to pass that the 
 religion of the despised Jesus did infinitely 
 prevail ; a religion that taught men to be meek 
 and humble, apt to receive injuries, but unapt 
 to do any ; a religion that gave countenance to 
 the poor and pitiful, in a time when riches were 
 adored and ambition and pleasure had possessed 
 the heart of all mankind ; a religion that would 
 change the face of things, and the hearts of 
 men, and break vile habits into gentleness and 
 counsel ; that such a religion, in such a time, 
 by the sermons and conduct of fishermen, men 
 of mean breeding and illiberal arts, should so 
 speedily triumph over the philosophy of the 
 world, and the arguments of the subtle, and the 
 sermons of the eloquent ; the power of princes 
 and the interests of states ; the inclinations of 
 nature and the blindness of zeal ; the force of 
 custom and the solicitation of passions ; the 
 pleasures of sin and the busy arts of the devil ; 
 that is, against wit and power, superstition and 
 wilfulness, fame and money, nature and empire, 
 which are all the causes in this world that can 
 make a thing impossible ; this, this is to be 
 ascribed to the power of God, and is the great 
 demonstration of the resurrection of Jesus. 
 Every thing was an argument for it, and im- 
 proved it ; no objection could hinder it, no 
 enemies destroy it ; whatsoever was for them, 
 it made the religion to increase ; whatsoever 
 was against them, made it to increase ; sunshine 
 and storms, fair weather or foul, it was all one 
 as to the event of things ; for they were instru- 
 ments in the hands of God, who could make 
 what himself should choose to be the product of 
 any cause ; so that if the Christians had peace, 
 they went abroad and brought in converts ; if 
 they had no peace, but persecution, the converts 
 came in to them. In prosperity, they allured 
 and enticed the world by the beauty of holiness; 
 in aftliction and trouble, they amazed all men 
 with the splendour of their innocence and the 
 glories of their patience ; and quickly it was
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 240 — 246] 
 
 43 
 
 [REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 that the world became disciple to the glorious 
 Nazarene, and men could no longer doubt of 
 the resurrection of Jesus, when it became so 
 demonstrated by the certainty of them that saw 
 it, and the courage of them that died for it, and 
 the multitude of them that believed it ; who, by 
 their sermons and their actions, by their public 
 offices and discourses, by festivals andeucharists, 
 by arguments of experience and sense, by reason 
 and religion, by persuading rational men, and 
 establishing believing Christians, by their living 
 in the obedience of Jesus, and dying for the 
 testimony of Jesus, have greatly advanced His 
 kingdom, and His power, and His glory, into 
 which He entered after His resurrection from 
 the dead. — Bp. Jeremy Taylor, 1613-1667. 
 
 II. Objections. MET. 
 
 I The sceptic's vain attempt to explain this 
 progress. 
 
 [241] Renan said that it was the millennial 
 view — the anticipation of earthly greatness, 
 taken into connection with the moral side, 
 which he allowed — that gave Christianity the 
 victory. But that idea was not consistent with 
 the life of Christ as recorded in the Scriptures; 
 and even if it had been so, he did not see that 
 there was in it anything that would have at- 
 tracted men who knew Christ only as the son of 
 a Galilean carpenter, who had been crucified 
 and had then been cast away by the Jewish 
 nation. — Principal Cairns, D.D., History of the 
 Christia7i CJiicrcJi, 
 
 III. Prospective View of Subject. 
 
 I Progress of Christianity assured, as falling 
 in with and aiding the continuous progress 
 of Humanity. 
 
 [242] We find good reason to conclude that 
 man will continue to make progress in the know- 
 ledge of whatever is true, and just, and honest, 
 and of good report. We become well assured 
 that the simple law of Christian love will in 
 due time be expanded by Christian science into 
 thousands and tens of thousands of those special 
 precepts of Christian ethics, which future gene- 
 rations shall joyfully accept, and that these will 
 be light as air in their facile applications to 
 the varying conditions of human existence, and 
 strong as links of iron to hold men to every 
 form of duty. We triumph in the faith that the 
 time will come when this unwritten law shall 
 sound within every obedient soul as winningly 
 and as lovingly as the evening breeze that rests 
 on the wind harp, and shall thunder as terribly 
 in the ear of the disobedient as the voice of 
 God from Sinai. — Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., 
 Future Developnie?it or Progress. 
 
 21 
 
 REASONABLENESS OF 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I, Arguments e contrario. 
 
 [243] The reasonableness of Christianity is 
 seen in the fact that it does not appeal to or en- 
 courage the lower passions, as in the promise of 
 a Mohammedan paradise of sensuality, but re- 
 presses and subordinates passion, and appeals 
 to reason and conscience as the proper ruling 
 principles, the crown and glory of regenerated 
 humanity. — B. G. 
 
 II. Positive Arguments. 
 
 1 It incorporates into itself all the best 
 elements of natural reason. 
 
 [244] Christianity, if we well weigh and con- 
 sider it, in the several parts and members of it, 
 throughout the whole system, may be justly 
 called the last and the most cori'ect edition of 
 the law of nature, there being nothing excellent 
 amongst the heathens but is adopted into the 
 body of Christian precepts. Neither is there any 
 precept in Christianity so severe and mortifying, 
 and at the first face and appearance of things 
 grating upon our natural conveniences, but will 
 be resolved into a natural reason, as advancing 
 and improving nature in the higher degrees and 
 grander concerns of it. — R. South, D.D., 1633- 
 17 16. 
 
 2 It answers the anticipations and instincts 
 of man's conscience. 
 
 [245] If it be rumoured among the people of a 
 vast city that a new and magnificent hall ol justice 
 is to be built, and if there be seen a multitude 
 of workmen collecting materials at the stated 
 place of the proposed building, those materials 
 are a strong proof of the truth of the common 
 rumour. And just so, when the conscience of 
 all mankind tells of a judgment to come, and we 
 see how the materials for that judgment are 
 accumulating, and the demand and necessity 
 for it increasing, and how the busy memory is 
 occupied with collecting and arranging those 
 materials, the proof becomes very strong : the 
 common rumour of the world and of the indi- 
 vidual conscience is so corroborated, that one 
 who looks fairly at the light of nature, even 
 apart from that of revelation, cannot doubt. 
 And every instance of the power of memory, 
 every elucidation of the laws under which the 
 mind acts in its operations of remembrance, 
 and every instance of the manner in which con- 
 science accompanies this work, aftords addi- 
 tional conviction. — Dr. Geo. B. Cheever, Biblical 
 Repository (JiUy, 1850). 
 
 3 It contains all the elements essential to a 
 world-wide religion. 
 
 [246] What are the conditions necessary to 
 constitute a religion ? There must be a creed, a 
 conviction, claiming authority over the whole of 
 human life ; a belief or set of beliefs deliberately
 
 44 
 
 246-253] 
 
 CHRISriANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 [temporal benefits of christianit?. 
 
 adopted respecting human destiny and duty to 
 which the beHever inwardly acknowledges that 
 all his actions ought to be subordinate. More- 
 over, there must be a sentiment connected with 
 this creed, or capable of being evoked by it, 
 sufficiently powerful to give it in fact the autho- 
 rity over human conduct to which it lays claim 
 in theory. — y. S. lilili, Coniie and Positivism. 
 
 4 Its principles advance the welfare of the 
 state. 
 
 [247] Let those who affirm that the religion 
 of Christ is adverse to the welfare of the state 
 produce soldiers like those produced by that 
 religion ; let them produce such citizens, hus- 
 bands, wives, parents, children, slaves, kings, 
 judges, tax-gatherers, &c., as the Christian re- 
 ligion enjoins all its adherents to be, and then 
 let them dare to say that it is adverse to the 
 welfare of the state ; nay, rather let them at 
 once confess that that religion, where duly ob- 
 served, is the strongest safeguard of the state. 
 — Augttstine, Epp. ad MarcelL, cxxxviii. n. 15. 
 
 III. Objections met. 
 
 I Its highest value is seen in those restrain- 
 ing laws which, to undisciplined minds, 
 seem most irksome. 
 
 [248] As for most of those restraints which 
 Christianity lays upon us, they are of that 
 nature so much both for our private and public 
 advantage, that, setting aside all considerations 
 of religion and of the rewards and punishments 
 of another life, they are really good for us ; and 
 if God had not laid them upon us, we ought in 
 reason, in order to our temporal benefit and 
 advantage, to have laid them upon ourselves. 
 If there were no religion, I know men would not 
 have such strong and forcible obligations to 
 these duties ; but yet I say, though there were 
 no religion, it were good for men, in order to 
 temporal ends, to their health, and quiet, and 
 reputation, and safety, and, in a word, to the 
 private and public prosperity of mankind, that 
 men should be temperate, and chaste, and just, 
 and peaceable, and charitable, and kind, and 
 obliging to one another, rather than the con- 
 trary. So that religion does not create those 
 restraints arbitrarily, but requires those things 
 of us w-hich our reason, and a regard to our own 
 advantage, which the necessity and conveniency 
 of the things themselves, without any considera- 
 tion of religion, would in most cases urge us to. 
 — Archbishop Tillotso?!, 1630- 1694. 
 
 22 
 
 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 i. as raising the general and national 
 Standard of Morality. 
 
 [249] One thing there is abundance of evi- 
 dence to prove : that however lamentably reli- 
 
 gion may have failed to raise human conduct to 
 its ideal standard of morality, the absence of 
 religion, where it has been general in any society, 
 has been accompanied by a fearful increase of 
 immorality. Witness the morals of the latter 
 Roman Empire ; of Italy, under the first pagan 
 influence of the Renaissance ; of France, during 
 the last half of the iSth century. Witness also 
 the doctrines of the Nihilists and of all the ex- 
 treme Socialist, or, as they should rather be 
 called, anti-socialist, sects of whatever nation- 
 ality, who would abolish the family, property, 
 and social organization, together with God, and 
 with unconscious logic call for absolute lawless- 
 ness as the only complete expression of atheistic 
 liberty. Religion, in fact is, in its essence, faith 
 in a supreme and adorable Law over human life. 
 — Mrs. Wni. Grey in Modern Review. 
 
 [250] The absence of religious restraints and 
 guidance is the occasion of innumerable evils in 
 society. 
 
 [251] Benjamin Franklin once said, "Men are 
 bad enough with religion — what would they be 
 without it 1 "—B. G. 
 
 II. As inducing Self-sacrifice and 
 Care for Others. 
 
 [252] Institutions the outcome of Christian 
 benevolence are the embodiment of self-sacri- 
 ficing charity, and, in effect, the continuance of 
 the Saviour's miracles of healing. — B. G. 
 
 [253] The world to-day is full of the signs of 
 Christ's presence. Hospitals, orphanages, homes 
 for the poor and aged, for friendless servants 
 and fallen women, for sailors and foreigners, 
 ragged and reformatory schools — all witness 
 that Jesus is passing still through the crowded 
 highways of modern life. These institutions 
 spring from seeds which the hand of Christ 
 sowed. They are multiplied and supported by 
 the leaven of His teaching still working in the 
 hearts of men. The heathen world knew 
 nothing of them. Yet there are those who do 
 not recognize the Son of God, as He lays His 
 consecrating hand upon the stones that form the 
 shrine of His mercy. They feel, indeed, the 
 tender glow of His compassion, the pure joy of 
 self-denial for the sake of others, of which He 
 gave the truest example ; they are in communion 
 with His spirit ; but the form they see, and the 
 voice they hear, they mistake for that of the 
 genius of civilization. Still more is Christ a 
 living presence when He inspires individual men 
 and women with graces and virtues, so saintly 
 and yet so gentle that the most evil and the 
 coarsest are awed and subdued before them ; 
 when He sends them forth on missions upon 
 which they must enter bearing the stigmata of 
 a crucifixion of all ordinary pleasures and am- 
 bitions — sacred missions of mercy at which the 
 world is filled with reverent wonder, and stands 
 back as if fearing to tread profanely upon the 
 blood of martyrs.
 
 254— ?63] 
 
 CHRJSTIAmTr AS A SVSTEHf. 45 
 
 [temporal benefits of CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [254] So far, then, from admitting that spiri- 
 tual Christianity, rightly understood, is the 
 opponent, or even the lukewarm friend of secular 
 progress, we hold that it is the very reverse. It 
 smiles on the efforts of science, civilization, and 
 social reformation ; and it supplies the great 
 moving spring of philanthropy, the unwearied 
 heavenly love that goes forth, like its Master, to 
 seek and to save that which is lost. The hope 
 of the world, and especially of its down-trodden 
 and suffering masses, lies in spiritual Chris- 
 tianity. Where, if you discard it, will you find a 
 power to take its place ? — Rez'. IV. G. Blaikie, 
 D.D., Christianity and Civilization, 
 
 [255] Christianity at first softened and finally 
 abolished slavery, threw the shield of power and 
 chivalry over woman's physical weakness, re- 
 fined love from a passion, and made it a social 
 virtue. — B. G. 
 
 [256] Christianity is the power which first 
 gradually softened slavery, and is now finally 
 abolishing it. Christianity has insisted upon 
 the claims of the poor : the hospital is an inven- 
 tion of Christian philanthropy. The degrada- 
 tion of woman in the pagan world has been 
 exchanged for a position of special privilege and 
 honour. The sensualism which pagans mis- 
 called love has been placed under the ban of all 
 true Christian feeling ; and in Christendom love 
 is now the purest of all moral impulses. — Liddon, 
 Ba7)ipto7i Lectures. 
 
 [257] Infidelity builds no churches, founds 
 no asylums, endows no universities. It provides 
 no refuge for the poor, and furnishes no help or 
 comfort to those who weep. — Bp. Simpson. 
 
 III. As INDUCING Better Performance 
 OF Ordinary Duties. 
 
 I On account of the very nature of Christi- 
 anity. 
 
 [258] Christianity adds the highest sanction 
 to the duties of every relation. Piety is exceed- 
 ing useful for all sorts of men, in all capacities, 
 all states, all relations ; fitting and disposing 
 them to manage all their respective concern- 
 ments, to discharge all their peculiar duties, in 
 a proper, just, and decent manner. It rendereth 
 all superiors equal and moderate in their admin- 
 istrations ; mild, courteous, and affable in their 
 converse ; benign and condescensive in all their 
 demeanour toward their inferiors. Correspond- 
 ently it disposeth inferiors to be sincere and 
 faithful, modest, loving, respectful, diligent, apt 
 willingly to yield due subjection and service. It 
 inclineth princes to be just, gentle, benign, 
 careful for their subjects' good, apt to administer 
 justice uprightly, to protect right, to encourage 
 virtue, to check wickedness. Answerably it 
 rendereth subjects loyal, submissive, obedient, 
 quiet and peaceable, ready to yield due honour, 
 to pay the tributes and bear the burdens 
 imposed, to discharge all duties, and observe all 
 laws prescribed by their governors conscion- 
 
 ably, patiently, cheerfully, without reluctancy, 
 grudging, or murmuring. It maketh parents 
 loving, gentle, provident for their children's good 
 education and comfortable subsistence; children, 
 again, dutiful, respectful, grateful, apt to requite 
 their parents. Husbands from it become affec- 
 tionate and compliant to their wives ; wives sub- 
 missive and obedient to their husbands. It 
 disposeth friends to be friends indeed, full of 
 cordial affection and good-will, entirely faithful, 
 firmly constant, industriously careful and active 
 in performing all good oflices mutually. It 
 engageth men to be diligent in their calling, 
 faithful to their trusts, contented and peaceable 
 in their station, and thereby serviceable to public 
 good. It rendereth all men just and punctual 
 in their dealing, orderly and quiet in their be- 
 haviour, courteous and complaisant in their 
 conversation, friendly and charitable upon all 
 occasions, apt to assist, to relieve, to comfort one 
 another. — T. Barroic^, D.D. 
 
 2 On account of the consciousness of the 
 unseen God. 
 
 [259] There aretwominers, say, by themselves, 
 and far from human eye, in the fields of the far 
 West : one has found a rich nugget, the other 
 has toiled and found nothing. What hinders 
 the man who has found nothing, if he is the 
 stronger or the better armed, from slaying his 
 mate as he would a buffalo, and taking the gold t 
 Surely, in part at least, the feeling, drawn from 
 the Christian society in which his youth was 
 passed, that what is not seen by man is seen by 
 God, and that, though the victim himself may 
 be weak and defenceless, irresistible power is 
 on his side. — Prof. Goldwin Smith in Contem- 
 porary Review. 
 
 [260] The consciousness of God secures a 
 regard for private rights, and safety where 
 police defences may not reach. — B. G. 
 
 3 On account of a practical and present aim. 
 
 [261] Present and immediate motives influ- 
 ence where prospective and speculative ones 
 fail.— ^. G. 
 
 [262] The prospect of a social goal inde- 
 finitely distant, and to be attained not by the 
 individual man but by humanity, influences 
 only highly educated imaginations and refined 
 natures, if it greatly influences even these. 
 W^hat does Bill Sykes, what does a director of 
 the Glasgow Bank, what does William Tweed, 
 what does Fiske, or St. Arnaud, or St. Arnaud's 
 employer, care about the fortunes of humanity a 
 million of years after he as an individual being 
 has ceased to exist ? What impelling force will 
 such visions have with the multitudes of com- 
 mon people, unread in the " Philosophie Posi- 
 tive," on whose conscientious performance of 
 duty society depends, and whose goodness is the 
 salt' of the earth.? — Prof. Coldivin Smith in 
 Contemporary Review.
 
 46 
 
 263—272' 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 
 
 [temporal benefits of CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 4 On account of the imparted moral influence 
 to nerve for all duties. 
 
 (i) Vicived posith'cly. 
 
 [263] Is it not true of almost all of us — all but 
 the men whose personal duty has lain in the 
 direction of advancing science — that they are 
 infinitely more civilized, infinitely more im- 
 pressed by their obligations to others, through 
 the moral or spiritual influences, whatever they 
 be, which nerve them into struggle against 
 wrong, whether political or social — into active 
 compassion for misery — into steadfast endur- 
 ance of pain— into patience under calamity — 
 than by all the magnificent pictures presented 
 to their imagination, even in the noble and 
 picturesque story of Sir John Lubbock ? No, — 
 let us keep the word "civilization "for a higher 
 meaning than any which the acquisition of mere 
 knowledge, or even the effectual alleviation of 
 physical suffering can imply. Socrates was a 
 more civilized man than most of those who are 
 now attending the British Association at York, 
 and St. Paul a far more civilized man, though 
 neither the one nor the other ever heard of 
 spectrum analysis or the telephone. That which 
 makes the citizen is the influence which spurs 
 him on to do his duty to his neighbour, so 
 soon as he knows it, — not even that, which 
 helps him to know it better ; though, of course, 
 it is part of his duty to avail himself of every 
 means in his power to increase his knowledge 
 of the ways in which he can benefit the society 
 to which he belongs, as well as of the ways 
 in which he might inadvertently injure it. — 
 Spectafor, Sept. 3, 1881. 
 
 [264] Christianity is more practically effective 
 for moral ends in strengthening for duty and 
 heroic endurance than imaginative and senti- 
 mental views of poetic grandeur. — D. G. 
 
 (2) Viewed nes^atively. 
 
 [265] The locomotive will run on the lines for 
 a couple of miles after the steam has been shut 
 off; but the steam which has escaped, and not 
 the machinery, must be credited with the 
 momentum. And if we all became atheists 
 to-morrow, and the inspiration of faith were 
 universally to die, we should still go on for a few 
 years on the smooth rails of Christian law 
 and example by the sheer force of the life which 
 has hitherto propelled us. But what becomes 
 of society when that force expires ? — E. E. 
 Jenkins. 
 
 [266] The outward morality or occasional 
 good deeds of unbelievers is not from unbelief, 
 but from the indirect influence of religion. 
 
 [267] I honestly think that the process of 
 making atheists, traijied as S7tch, into philan- 
 thropists, will be but rarely achieved. And I 
 venture to propound the question to those who 
 point to admirable living examples of atheistic 
 or Comtist philanthropy — How many of these 
 have passed through the earlier stage of 
 morality as believers in God, and with all the 
 
 aid which prayer and faith and hope could give 
 them ? That they remain actively benevolent, 
 having advanced so far, is readily to be anti- 
 cipated. But will their children stand where 
 they stand now 1 We are yet obeying the great 
 impetus of religion, and running along the rails 
 lain down by our forefathers. Shall we continue 
 in the same course, when that impetus has 
 stopped, and we have left the rails altogether ? 
 I fear me not. — Frances Po%uer Cobbe. 
 
 [26S] Atheistic virtue, or profession of it, is 
 not from atheism, but in spite of it and because 
 
 Christianity has made vice disreputable. 
 
 • 
 
 [269] Atheism or irreligion supplies no motive 
 for virtue and benevolence, but only removes 
 those which religion supplies. Accordingly 
 BacoH, in his Essays [xvi. " Atheism "], says : 
 " Therefore, as atheism is in all respects hate- 
 ful, so in this — that it depriveth human nature 
 of the means to exalt itself above human 
 frailty."— i?. G. 
 
 [270] After giving up Christianity men often 
 retain the virtues of Christianity. A cut flower 
 still retains its perfume. 
 
 IV, Objections met. 
 
 1 The benefits and value of religion are seen 
 in the very difficulty of attaining to its lofty 
 ideal. 
 
 [271] The only really influential objections to 
 the Christian morality are ihdse connected with 
 its difficulty, and its failure to realize itself 
 among professed Christians. This has caused 
 the gospel to suffer more than all other hin- 
 drances put together, for the inconsistencies of 
 Christian nations and churches have been seen 
 and read of all men, while the excuses for those 
 failures, and even the attempts to clear Christi- 
 anity from this reproach, have not been equally 
 successful in impressing the general mind. Still 
 it is a great and singular thing for any system 
 of morality to be complained of chiefly because 
 it is too high and ideal ; while at the same time 
 all candid minds allow that Christianity has 
 here been immensely eftectual in elevating the 
 moral standard of the world, and in bringing 
 round a state of things when its own strictness 
 and elevation shall seem less hopeless as a pre- 
 vailing aspiration and attainment. — Rev. Prin- 
 cipal Cairns on Christianity and Miracles. 
 
 2 In the proportion in which Christianity is 
 practically exhibited, it diffuses temporal 
 blessings. 
 
 [272] We fear no challenge when we afifirm 
 that in its purest form Christianity has fostered 
 the ideas and encouraged the habits out of 
 which all true civilization springs. Wherever 
 Christianity exists in its true character, it always 
 acts beneficially on human society. It gives its 
 tone to the laws and institutions of the country, 
 it educates the people, it liberates the slave, it 
 cares for the poor, it heals the sick, it fosters
 
 372 — 276 j 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 47 
 
 LTHEISTIC ELEMENTS OF CHRISriANITY. 
 
 the arts of peace, it mitigates the horrors of 
 war; and, not content with improving the con- 
 dition of those at home, it takes to its heart the 
 remotest nations of the earth, and plans and 
 labours and prays that all its blessings and 
 privileges may flow out to the whole family of 
 man. 
 
 And thus, as spiritual Christianity, with its 
 habit of living in the future, does not hinder but 
 help a man in his own sphere of earthly duty, so 
 neither does it hinder but help undertakings 
 which have for their object to relieve temporal 
 suffering and promote temporal good. In spite 
 of the confident remarks of secularists, we would 
 appeal here to facts. In the preface to the late 
 Mr. de Liefde's admirable work on " The 
 Charities of Europe," it is said, " I have been 
 always of opinion that nowhere could a better 
 proof of the Divine origin of Christianity and of 
 the truth of the gospel be found than in the 
 story, simply told, of some charitable institu- 
 tions. — Rev, IV. G. Blaikie, D.D., Temporal 
 Benefits. 
 
 23 
 
 THEISTIC ELEMENTS OF 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I. Their Place in Christianity. 
 
 [273] Christianity takes for its basis, " One 
 God and Father of all ;" and it is this Divine 
 element and authority which gives validity to 
 its provision of mercy, and the highest sanction 
 and obligation to its requirements of duty. 
 
 II. The Idea of God the Sole Basis 
 
 FOR Morals. 
 
 [274] Without this doctrine there would be 
 no basis for morals. Its thcistic element, or the 
 idea of God as Ruler and Judge, is the sole 
 secure basis for morals ; and the ground of 
 general utility, as a moral guide, receives all its 
 force from Divine authority, as i-equiring this 
 benevolence. — B. G. 
 
 [275] This theistic element, which thus 
 supports the duty of seeking the general good, 
 not only affords a ground for morals, but is 
 itself, in turn, confirmed by its beneficial ten- 
 dency. — B. G. 
 
 [276] There are three leading theories ex- 
 pounded by systematic writers on ethics, each of 
 which must be questioned to see if a reasonable 
 answer can be given apart from the Christian 
 religion as to a pure basis for morals. 
 
 According to the first, which has received the 
 uncouth name of Hedonism, or the science of 
 pleasure, the rule of conduct is the maxim of 
 doing always what will yield one's self the 
 greatest total amount of gratification. If what 
 is called virtue seems on the whole to yield 
 more pleasure than vice, then the follower of 
 this rule will aim at practising virtue. But as 
 
 he would do it for his own advantage, and 
 simply for what he could get by it, he could 
 scarcely expect the common sense of mankind 
 to credit him with morality at all. At any rate, 
 to look to the principle of securing at all costs 
 the greatest possible amount of one's own grati- 
 fication for moral heroisms and noble sacrifices, 
 would be at least as absurd as to expect grapes 
 from brambles and figs from thistles. 
 
 According to the second theory of ethics, 
 commonly called Utilitarianism, and sometimes 
 Altruism, the rule of conduct is the maxim of 
 doing always that which will produce the great- 
 est happiness to the greatest number of persons. 
 A system, truly, of the purest benevolence, to 
 which no taint of selfishness can be attributed ; 
 but our question is whether it contains within 
 itself the force to make it work. Suppose a 
 person to say, "I perceive that my denying 
 myself this or that gratification, or my volun- 
 tary subjection of myself to this or that suffering, 
 would produce more happiness for others than 
 would arise from indulging or sparing myself. 
 But what I do not see is why I should on that 
 account deny or sacrifice myself. My own 
 happiness is surely a much nearer and more 
 important concern to me than the happi- 
 ness of any one else can possibly be, and 
 consequently has a far stronger claim on my 
 attention; and it seems to me that to throw it 
 away for the sake of others would be an act 
 contrary to the common sense on which I pride 
 myself, and worthy only of irrational enthu- 
 siasts." Suppose a person to argue in that way, 
 what reply could the Utilitarian theory fur- 
 nish ? Absolutely none ! It is an excellent rule 
 of practice, but of moving force it has not a 
 shadow. 
 
 According to the third theory of ethics, 
 distinguished as the Intuitional, the rule of 
 conduct is the maxim of always obeying the 
 intuitive sense of right which dwells in every 
 human breast. An admirable principle indeed, 
 though perhaps involving some serious difficul- 
 ties in the use of it as a guide amidst the 
 complex circumstances of human life. But 
 what concerns us now is not the adequacy of 
 the rule, but the provision of a motive strong 
 enough to make it work. Let us suppose that 
 a choice must be made between the alternatives 
 of sinning and suffering. In one shape or other 
 a choice of this kind is continually being forced 
 on human beings ; their lives are beset with 
 temptations from one end to the other, and the 
 force of every temptation lies in the apparent 
 gain attainable by wrong-doing. Let us suppose 
 the temptation presented in the most emphatic 
 shape : " Sin, and live to enjoy ; refuse to sin, 
 and perish ; " and as before, let us ask what 
 reply the theory will enable the sorely tried soul 
 to give. " I know it is nobler to die rather 
 than sin," the wavering man may answer ; 
 " the intrinsic superiority of obeying the voice 
 of conscience at all hazards is attested nn- 
 mistakeably by my consciousness. But life is a 
 practical matter, not a theory or idea. Is it 
 really better for me to keep my conscience
 
 48 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A 
 
 ^^^^\ 
 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 [THEISTIC elements of CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 unstained, and thereby perish in my integrity ; 
 or by doing an act -which conscience condemns, 
 to preserve my Ufe with all its opportunities of 
 action and enjoyment ? The beneficial conse- 
 quences of the wrong-doing are plain and 
 undeniable ; but of any gain to be secured by 
 dying in my integrity my intuition tells me 
 nothing. On that side all is blank. Suffering 
 virtue is doubtless admirable in imagination ; 
 but till I am assured of some compensating 
 future which awaits it, common sense forbids 
 me to sacrifice the substance for the shadow." 
 That the reply would be an ignoble one may be 
 admitted ; but the logic of it would be unques- 
 tionable. Not even by the intuitive theory of 
 ethics is a sufficient working force of morality 
 supplied. 
 
 Yet morality has ever worked, and continues 
 to work ; its triumphs are the glory of human 
 nature. Whence then does it fetch that motive 
 force, of which none of the theories can give an 
 explanation .'' 
 
 Not from earth, but from heaven. The soul 
 springs up from its own moral consciousness to 
 the conception of an infinitely righteous Will, 
 supreme over all things, and sure to bring about 
 a final coincidence of well-being with well- 
 doing. Instinctive belief in a holy God solves 
 the difficulty and supplies the force. Assume 
 His existence and rule, and the inference is 
 inevitable that it must go well with the 
 righteous. Sufferers for conscience' sake have 
 the Lord of the universe on their side. Igno- 
 miny, privation, torture, death itself, may be 
 their lot here, but they can afford to smile at 
 their losses, as they " commit the keeping of 
 their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a 
 faithful Creator" (i Pet. iv. 19). 
 
 It is time now to sum up the reply of the 
 moral faculty to our interrogation of it respect- 
 ing its witness to the existence of God. 
 
 We have observed the uniqueness and gran- 
 deur of the faculty, existing in man as an essen- 
 tial part of his constitution, and manifesting 
 itself in a recognition, of the eternal distinction 
 between right and wrong, in the voice of 
 conscience, the sense of responsibility, the 
 passion of remorse, and the fear of retribution. 
 
 We have further noticed that in all ages and 
 among all nations, in proportion to men's 
 growth and culture in the higher attributes of 
 humanity, this faculty has led them to the con- 
 ception of an objective moral law under which 
 they were placed, and of a supreme moral 
 Governor to whom they were accountable. 
 
 Once more, we have seen that while this 
 
 conception affords an adequate explanation of 
 the origin of the faculty, of the sense of respon- 
 sibility to which it gives birth, and of the force 
 by which it wins its practical triumphs, of these 
 great facts of human nature reason discovers 
 no other solution which can be pronounced 
 adequate. 
 
 Here then we find ourselves in face of a belief 
 in a supreme righteous Lawgiver, characterized 
 by these three features : it has its roots in 
 one of the noblest elements of human nature ; 
 it has sprung up, with scarce an exception, 
 wherever any tolerable degree of civilization has 
 prevailed ; and it is shown by reflection to be in 
 entire harmony with the demands of reason. 
 But such a Lawgiver is what we mean by the 
 awful name God. 
 
 The conclusion seems inevitable that belief 
 in God, as the supreme Lawgiver to whom we 
 are responsible, is really one of those primarj', 
 intuitive beliefs which justify themselves by 
 their existence. 
 
 [277] The removal, neglect, or abolition of 
 this theistic element, or doctrine of God as 
 Father, Ruler, and Judge, would weaken or de- 
 stroy morality. No theory of morals from which 
 God is absent provides a working force suffi- 
 cient to sustain morality against the onset of 
 temptation and the violence of human passion ; 
 and that reason is unable to discover any 
 adequate source of the power of morality except 
 faith in a living and righteous God, who will 
 insure the ultimate and everlasting coincidence 
 of well-being with well-doing. If this be true, 
 it settles the question. A perfect human 
 morality without God must then be a dream 
 which cannot be realized. Morality might 
 indeed for a season outlive theism. Inherited 
 tendencies, the force of custom, the survival of 
 modes of thinking, the memory of the satisfac- 
 tions of virtue and the shame of guilt, might 
 continue to it a lingering existence, just as the 
 impulse of the fly-wheel keeps up the motion of 
 a machine for a time after the motive power has 
 been withdrawn. But so far as the result can 
 be foreseen by reason, an inevitable change for 
 the worse would soon manifest itself. Self- 
 restraint would become weaker, selfishness gain 
 the upper hand, the passions revolt more 
 successfully ; and at last, before the din and 
 anarchy of unbridled lawlessness the virtues 
 would take their flight, finding room no more 
 for their exercise in a world which had out- 
 grown its belief in God. — Broiimlow Maitiami, 
 Morality.
 
 DIVISION C. 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION 
 GENERALLY. 
 
 [i] ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES AND MAXIMS. 
 
 Pages 50 to 93. 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 24 
 
 ANALOGY AS A GUIDE TO TRUTH AND AS AN AID 
 
 TO FAITH. 
 
 25 
 BASIS OF FAITH. 
 
 26 
 CONSTITUTION AND COURSE OF THE WORLD, THE. 
 
 27 
 DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 28 
 
 FINAL CAUSES OF NATURAL THINGS. 
 
 29 
 
 FIRST CAUSE. 
 
 30 
 NATURE. 
 
 31 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 32 
 
 NUMBER, A LINK BETWEEN DIVINE INTELLIGENCE 
 
 AND HUMAN. 
 
 33 
 PRIMARY BELIEF. 
 
 34 
 RELIGIOUS INSTINCT. 
 
 35 
 SOUL, THE, AND THE FUTURE STATE. 
 
 36 
 UNIFORMITY OF NATURE. 
 
 49 
 
 VO'. I.
 
 50 
 
 DIVISION C 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [i] ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES AND MAXIMS. 
 
 24 
 
 ANALOGY ASAG UIDE TO TR UTH 
 AND AS AN AID TO FAITH. 
 
 I. Present Position of Question. 
 
 I The points respecting analogy, which were 
 waived by Bishop Butler, need to be care- 
 fully examined. 
 [278] It may be useful, however, to note the 
 points which he expressly waives, as these will 
 serve to indicate some of the chief lines of 
 inquiry which remain to be pursued. He de- 
 clines to discuss three points : — The first is, 
 "the nature, foundation, and measure of proba- 
 bility:" its nature, or what it is, and how it 
 should be defined ; its foundation, or in what 
 circumstances it arises, and on what ground it 
 rests ; and its measure, or the rule by which we 
 should estimate its amount in particular cases, 
 since it may exist in different degrees, as "a 
 presumption," or as an " opinion," or as " full 
 conviction." The second is, the connection 
 between a sense of probability and the per- 
 ception of analogy ; or the explanation of the 
 psychological fact — " whence it is that likeness 
 should beget those beliefs which it does neces- 
 sarily produce in every one." The third is, the 
 need of a criterion, or of certain canons and 
 safeguards by which we may be protected 
 against "the errors to which reasoning from 
 analogy is liable." All these points belong to 
 the general doctrine of analogy, considered as 
 a ground of more or less probable reasoning ; 
 and the mere fact that the discussion of them 
 is avowedly waived in Butler's treatise, may 
 be accepted as one reason for instituting a 
 fresh examination of the 5\.\h]QC\..— James 
 Buchanan, D.D. 
 
 2 The two classes of opinion respecting 
 analogy afford proper occasion for a 
 summary and re-statement of its true 
 principles. 
 [279] The existence of two rival schools, ex- 
 hibiting such opposite tendencies of thought in 
 regard to the interpretation of that analogical 
 language which is equally employed by natural 
 and revealed religion, is sufficient to show 
 that the time has arrived for a thorough revision 
 of the whole question of analogy ; and for such 
 an examination both of its fundamental prin- 
 ciples and of its legitimate applications, as may 
 
 serve to define its nature and establish its 
 authority — to distinguish it from mere metaphor 
 and figure — to remove the distrust with which 
 it is often regarded, and to show its indis- 
 pensable necessity, and manifold important 
 uses, in connection with the whole scheme of 
 our religious knowledge. Any inquiry of this 
 kind should be brought down to the state of 
 speculation on the subject at the present time, 
 and should embrace not only the points formerly 
 specified as having been waived by Butler, but 
 those also which have emerged since his day, 
 or which have acquired greater prominence in 
 recent discussions. Several points of this kind 
 are suggested by the theories of King, Copleston, 
 and Whately, which call for a special considera- 
 tion. They are merely indicated here, as 
 finger-posts pointing to several distinct lines of 
 future inquiry. IhQ first is their definition of 
 analogy, as consisting in a resemblance of re- 
 lations or effects merely, such as implies no 
 similarity in the nature of the related terms, or 
 in the causes from which the effects proceed. 
 The second is the difference between analogies 
 and such metaphors as are founded on other 
 relations than that of resemblance. The ihi/d 
 is the nature of our analogical knowledge — or 
 whether it involves true and proper conceptions 
 of God and His attributes and of the truths 
 which He may have been pleased to reveal. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 II. Nature. 
 
 [280] Analogy, considered in its various as- 
 pects and relations, is an intermediate link 
 between natural and revealed religion. It 
 clears the way, educates. 
 
 [281] Analogy is something more fundamental 
 than mere casual likeness. We cannot accept 
 that definition of analogy which represents it 
 as consisting in a mere " resemblance of re- 
 lations or effects." We admit that a resem- 
 blance of relations — such as the relation of a 
 civic magistrate to his fellow-citizens, as com- 
 pared with that of a commander of a ship to 
 his crew — may amount to a true and proper 
 analogy ; and that a resemblance of effects 
 may indicate a similarity, in some respects, 
 between the causes by which they are respec- 
 tively produced. But, this being admitted, we 
 cannot affirm that there is no other analogy 
 between different objects, excepting such as 
 consists in a resemblance of relations and 
 effects : there may be, as we think, a relation
 
 28l-2£ 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 51 
 
 [analogy as a guide to truth. 
 
 of a more radical and intimate kind — a resem- 
 blance between the essential nature and the 
 common properties of the objects compared, 
 such as may be clearly discerned in itself, and 
 also easily discriminated from any mere super- 
 ficial or accidental likeness. — James Btccha?ta>i, 
 D.D. 
 
 [2S2] Analogy imparts an aspect of va-i- 
 similittide to truths which might otherwise seem 
 strange, and even incredible. And more, it 
 yields a fresianptio7i or a probability in favour 
 of certain conclusions, such as admits of every 
 variety of degree, and is often practically 
 sufficient for the daily purposes of life. 
 
 [283] Besides being a suggestive principle 
 and a guide to discovery, the perception of 
 analogy involves a judgment by which the re- 
 semblance of two or more objects is affirmed ; 
 and this judgment gives rise to inferences which 
 are founded upon it, as to become a principle 
 of reasoning and a method of proof. 
 
 III. Analysis. 
 
 [284] The analysis of the real elements ar^d 
 force of analogy, in the full sense of the term, 
 is valuable as a guide to its proper use and 
 application. — C. N. 
 
 [285] The perception of strict logical analogy 
 necessarily implies, yfr^/, a knowledge, derived 
 from experience or testimony, of certain objects 
 or facts ; secondly, a knowledge, derived also 
 from experience, of some of the relations of 
 those objects, their essential properties, or 
 fundamental laws ; thirdly, a comparison of 
 two or more objects in respect of these relations, 
 properties, and laws, when they have thus been 
 ascertained ; 2Si^ fourthly, a perception of their 
 resemblance, when they are thus compared : 
 and it is this resemblance, and this only, which, 
 when it is clearly discerned, becomes a guide 
 to truth, a ground of inference, and a reason for 
 belief, in any department of knowledge. And 
 if it be duly considered, that the analogy holds 
 only so far forth as the precise point of resem- 
 blance extends — that it is not impaired by any 
 difference /;/ other respects — and that the differ- 
 ences which do, or do not, aft'ect it, may be 
 easily determined by considering what is the 
 precise point that is really essential or impor- 
 tant, and whether the difference affects that or 
 leaves it unimpaired, we shall see cause to con- 
 clude that analogy may be a safe, as it is an 
 indispensable guide, in the path of inductive 
 inquiry. — Jaines Btichaiian, D.D. 
 
 IV. Uses for Argument. 
 
 Z It neutralizes objections and removes 
 adverse presumptions. 
 
 [286] Analogy is not the original foundation 
 of religious doctrines, which rest on reve- 
 lation ; but analogy from known facts of nature 
 meets objections, gives confirmation and rational 
 explanation.—^. G. 
 
 [2 87] We are under no necessity of proving 
 the peculiar doctrines of Scripture by rational 
 arguments or natural analogies ; it is sufficient 
 if we can show that the Bible is the Word of 
 God, and that these doctrines represent its 
 true meaning. Analogy may be highly useful 
 in neutralizing objections and in affording a 
 strong probability that the Author of Nature 
 is also the Author of Scripture : it may even in 
 some cases supply a confirmatory evidence in 
 favour of particular doctrines, by showing that 
 they are not at variance, but in entire harmony 
 with the laws of human thought, or the facts of 
 our actual experience. The resemblance, how- 
 ever, on which it founds must not be superficial 
 or fanciful, but real and radical, implying a 
 common property, or a common principle, in 
 each of the objects compared. It may be true 
 that " when reason is aided by revelation to 
 perceive a truth, the accordance of that truth 
 with her own most profound deductions is, to 
 her, a clear testimony, to its validity ; " but we 
 are jealous of any proposal " to establish the 
 doctrine of the Trinity on a rational and scrip- 
 tural basis, chiefly by means of certain natural 
 analogies supplied by the consciousness of the 
 human mind." — James Buchanan, D.D. 
 
 2 It is a source of evidence as well as a 
 vehicle of religious instruction. 
 
 (i) Our Lord's tise of afia logics in His 
 parables included not 07ily illustration but 
 persuasive power and moral proof. 
 
 [2S8] In His parables, as well as in the types 
 of the Old Testament, analogy is applied to the 
 proof, not less than to the illustration, of Divine 
 truth. In both there was the same principle 
 involved in each of the related terms of a com- 
 parison, and this constituted the funda?nentu7n 
 relationis — the ground of an analogical infer- 
 ence. The illustrative power of analogous 
 instances is universally admitted ; but, looking 
 at our Lord's parables, who will venture to say 
 that they serve only to illustrate, and can afford 
 no element of proof.'' Is their logical value duly 
 estimated, when their force is supposed to be 
 exhausted in answering objections, and neutral- 
 izing adverse presumptions? Does not every 
 one feel that there is a persuasive power in the 
 principle which is common to the two cases — 
 of an earthly and a Christian steward — of the 
 prodigal son and a penitent sinner — of the 
 Pharisee and every other self-righteous formalist 
 — of the good Samaritan and a truly benevolent 
 man ? There may be much room for the exer- 
 cise of a wise discretion in selecting the strong 
 points of the case, and applying them in argu- 
 ment ; but this is equally necessary in expound- 
 ing parables when they are regarded simply as 
 illustrations, and can afford no reason for dis- 
 owning their higher power as analogical proofs. 
 Our Lord made use of natural analogies in 
 confirmation of the truth which He taught with 
 infallible authority ; but who would ever dream 
 of imputing to Him the spirit or the principles 
 of modern rationalism ? — Ibid.
 
 5^ 
 
 285-291] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [analogy as a guide to truth. 
 
 (2) Analogy is useful in explaining and 
 justifying the progressive character of Bible 
 revelatiofi. 
 
 [289] The constitution and course of nature, 
 when compared with the scheme of religion, 
 natural and revealed, suggests a multitude 
 of analogies of which Bishop Butler has 
 made admirable use ; but there are other 
 analogies besides these, and such as stand very 
 closely connected with our religious beliefs. 
 There are many interesting and instructive 
 analogies which belong to the scheme of reve- 
 lation itself, and which come into view on 
 a simple comparison of one part of it with 
 another — a comparison which may be made 
 without assuming, in the first instance, its 
 Divine origin, although it may gradually lead us 
 up to the conviction of that — but which may 
 proceed simply on the fact that the Scriptures, 
 as they have been put into our hands, are so 
 related to each other as to exhibit many internal 
 analogies. We may compare, for instance, the 
 successive dispensations of revealed religion — 
 the Primeval, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, the 
 Prophetical, and the Christian ; or we may 
 compare its theological doctrines with its ethical 
 lessons, and both with its ritual observances ; 
 above all, we may compare the types of the Old 
 Testament with their antitypes in the New. It 
 were surely a strange omission did we find no 
 place for this marvellous scheme of prefiguration 
 in treating of such analogies as may be a guide 
 to truth and an aid to faith : for the use and 
 importance of analogj', as at once a source of 
 evidence and a vehicle of religious instruction, 
 could scarcely have been more emphatically 
 taught than it was by the fact that, when no 
 natural symbols could be found adequate to 
 represent supernatural truths, a nezv class of 
 analogies '■u,'as created on purpose as the best 
 preparation for Christianity, and visibly ex- 
 hibited beforehand in the histor>' and ritual of 
 the Jewish Church. These analogies, belonging 
 to the scheme of revelation itself, demand our 
 careful study as well as those which may be 
 derived from the constitution and course of 
 nature ; and with reference to both, it will be 
 found practically useful, as conducing to greater 
 clearness of conception, to reduce them to dis- 
 tinct heads, and to specify the different sources 
 from which they are derived, and the precise 
 relations on which they respectively depend. — 
 (did. 
 
 V. Objections met. 
 
 I Analogy is of great value in conveying and 
 illustrating truths, and is not to be treated 
 as merely a metaphorical way of speaking. 
 
 [290] The illustrative power of analogy — the 
 charm and beauty of its poetical applications — 
 and its peculiar effectiveness as an instrument 
 of rhetorical discourse adapted to the purposes 
 of popular instruction, will be readily admitted 
 by many who are conscious, notwithstanding, of 
 a vague but deep-seated feeling of suspicion or 
 distrust when it is employed as a guide to truth, 
 
 or a ground of inference. It may be admired 
 as an ornament of style, while, as a process of 
 thought, it is supposed to belong rather to the 
 domain of the imagination than to that of judg- 
 ment or reason. If a sound argument is ex- 
 pressed in analogical terms, it is often thought 
 sufficient to say in reply that the language is 
 figurative or metaphorical, as if such terms were 
 incapable of representing anything that could 
 serve the purposes of proof. But if it be true, 
 as we have attempted to show, that analogy is 
 largely concerned in all our processes of thought 
 — that it presides over and determines many of 
 the most familiar convictions of the popular 
 mind — that it is involved in scientific induction 
 itself, and also in that similitude of ratios and 
 proportions on which the conclusions of geometry 
 and arithmetic depend — there is surely enough 
 in these considerations to show that our distrust 
 in its guidance may spring from a groundless 
 prejudice, and that it becomes us to reconsider 
 the whole question with a view to ascertain in 
 what cases and under what conditions analogy 
 may be a sure ground of inference and a safe 
 guide to truth. — Ibid. 
 
 2 This use of analogy, to remove objections 
 and confirm doctrines of religion, is not 
 rationalistic, but the proper use of reason 
 in connection with revelation. 
 
 [291] There is nothing rationalistic, therefore, 
 in this method of proof — unless, indeed, it be 
 rationalistic, as some seem to suppose, to admit 
 any exercise of reason, or any use of evidence, in 
 matters of faith. No comparison is instituted 
 between the doctrines of Scripture and the mere 
 opinions of men ; two vast systems are brought 
 together and viewed in the light of their mutual 
 relations — both external and objective — both 
 anterior to individual reason and independent 
 of it — both consisting mainly of facts or founded 
 upon them : the one the standard of natural, the 
 other of revealed truth. These two are placed 
 side by side and compared ; they are found to 
 differ in some respects and to agree in others ; 
 the points of resemblance between them are 
 such as may be proved to involve principles 
 which are common to both, although they are 
 exemplified in different ways — and they afford 
 solid ground for reasoning from the one to the 
 other, on the principle of analogy. By this 
 analogy we may be conducted to the conclusion 
 that the Word, not less than the world, is the 
 product of Divine wisdom. We compare what 
 God is supposed to have said, not with what we 
 thi/ik, but with what He has actually donej and 
 any legitimate argument founded on the analogy 
 betwixt these two is at the farthest possible re- 
 move from the presumptuous abuse of reason. 
 Indeed, the serious study of nature and experi- 
 ence, and the impartial application of natural 
 analogies, may prove one of the most effective 
 antidotes to all that is false and dangerous in , 
 rationalism. — Ibid.
 
 292-298] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 53 
 
 [constitution and course of the world. 
 
 25 
 
 BASIS OF FAITH. 
 
 I. The Consciousness of Human Per- 
 sonality A necessary Assumption 
 FOR ALL Reasoning upon Religious 
 Subjects, 
 
 [293] At the basis, then, of our inquiry lies the 
 assumption that man is JiiDnan; that is, a person, 
 endowed with reason, will, moral and spiritual 
 affections, whose consciousness of mysterious 
 superiority to the physical world and its organ- 
 isms represents a real and ultimate fact of being. 
 With any one who refuses to admit this assump- 
 tion, and denies the witness borne by his con- 
 sciousness to his possession of human personality 
 and reason, we do not pretend to argue. — 
 Brownlow Maitland, Theism t r Agnosticism. 
 
 [293] To know ourselves is in one sense the 
 last and highest attainment. To know ourselves 
 so as to form a correct personal estimate is in- 
 deed a matter which we learn, if at all, usually 
 when it is too late to be of much practical value. 
 But we are unable to reason about higher truths 
 without consciously or unconsciously knowing 
 the laws and principles of our own being. We 
 reason, in fine, from our own consciousness in 
 the realm of mental and spiritual realities. — 
 C.N. 
 
 II. The Fact of our own Existence is 
 A Useful Stepping-stone to Belief 
 IN Christian Truth. 
 
 [294] The facts of our own existence and the 
 nature of our own minds, as known to conscious- 
 ness and reflection, are the stepping-stone to 
 Christian truth. — B. G. 
 
 [295] More serious mischief is done by the 
 state of vague doubt, and the uncertain attitude 
 of mind induced in many by recent physical 
 theories or researches, than by the direct nega- 
 tions of those who profess to deny the e.xistence 
 of a Divine Mind or Order, and whose conclu- 
 sions seem to call into question the foundations 
 or fundamentals on which alone any faith can 
 rest. Prebendary Griffith has, therefore, in his 
 work upon " Fundamentals, or Bases of Faith," 
 wisely confined himself at the outset rigidly to 
 facts, and has started with the one fact which to 
 each individual man must be more certain than 
 any other — the fact of his own existence. This 
 existence of man is shown to be the existence 
 of a person simple, self-same, substantial — like 
 the lower animals in being sensitive, causative, 
 and intellective, but altogether unlike them in 
 being moral, religious, progressive. In other 
 words, man finds that he is a being of mind and 
 will. 
 
 But this author further insists that we are not 
 less bound to accept the inferences logically in- 
 volved in facts than the facts themselves ; and 
 therefore he proceeds to trace, in the phenomena 
 
 of the universe, the presence of ?. similar Mind 
 and Will — a presence more surely inferred by 
 this process than by any reasoning from effects 
 to causes ; for the manifestations of design 
 bring us at once to the acknowledgment of a 
 designing Mind, to the correlation of this ]\Iind 
 with the mind of man, and to all the momentous 
 inferences which flow from it. For instance, 
 from our own moral perceptions we may hold 
 that the Divine goodness exceeds only in the 
 infinity of its degree, and not at all in kind, 
 that which is excellent in ourselves ; and that 
 justice, love, truth, and charity in man are only 
 faint reflections, and in no way contradictions, 
 of the same qualities in God. And thus, from 
 facts which he believes will not be disputed, this 
 author endeavours to lead the reader, by the 
 strictest processes of reasoning, onwards to the 
 highest Christian belief and hope ; proving the 
 reality of this belief, and justifying this hope, by 
 exhibiting the contradictory and untenable con- 
 clusions involved in any materialistic philo- 
 sophy ; tracing that process of development for 
 the human race which, commenced by the 
 Divine teaching of gifted individuals, and pro- 
 ceeding through the stages of a sacred family 
 and a sacred nation, culminates in the sacred 
 brotherhood of Christendom. 
 
 III. Truth should carefully be dis- 
 tinguished FROM Opinion as a 
 Belief. 
 
 [296] Concerning the bonds of unity, extremes 
 are to be avoided ; which will be done, if the 
 league of Christians, framed by our Saviour 
 Himself, were, in the two cross clauses thereof, 
 soundly expounded : " He that is not with us is 
 against us ; "and again : " He that is not against 
 us is with us ; " i.e., if the points fundajnental 
 and of substance in religion were truly discerned, 
 and distinguished from points not of faith, but 
 of opinion only. — Bacon, Essays. 
 
 [297] All opinions stand on the same level ; 
 whether they affect religion, philosophy, or poli- 
 tical principle, they may be expected to wax 
 and wane, to ebb and flow, like everything else 
 in this world. Truth, or rather our view of 
 truth, like time, is in a state of perpetual flux. 
 
 26 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION AND COURSE 
 OF THE WORLD. 
 
 I. The Use of the Term in Analogical 
 Reasoning as applied to Religion. 
 
 [298] The "Analogy of Religion to the Con- 
 stitution and Course of Nature" is an expres- 
 sion so general and abstract, that it needs to be 
 illustrated by particular examples before we can 
 have any very definite conception of its mean-
 
 54 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 298-303] 
 
 [the divine government. 
 
 incr ; and even then it restricts the arguments 
 to certain kinds of analog^' only — those, namely, 
 which arise from a comparison of religion with 
 the facts and laws of the natural world — a large 
 class, certainly, since it includes the whole con- 
 tents of our common secular experience ; but 
 there are other analogies besides those arising 
 from that source — such as an analogy between the 
 constituent parts of revelation itself, or between 
 the type and the antitype, or between the suc- 
 cessive dispensations of Divine truth, or between 
 the system of doctrines and the corresponding 
 system of practical duty, which contribute 
 largely to enhance the strength of the evidence, 
 and which are eminently fitted to attract the 
 interest, and determine the convictions, of 
 reflecting men. — James Buchanan, D.D. 
 
 II. The Make and Constitution of the 
 World an Aid to the Knowledge 
 OF the Character of God. 
 
 [299] Our eyes frequently cannot look upon 
 the nature of the light itself; that is, upon the 
 substance of the sun ; but when we behold his 
 splendour or his rays pouring in, perhaps 
 through windows or some small openings to 
 admit the light, we can reflect how great is the 
 supply and source of the light of the body. So 
 in like manner the works of Divine Providence 
 and the plan of this whole world are a sort of 
 rays, as it were, of the nature of God, in com- 
 parison with His real substance and being. As, 
 therefore, our understanding is unable of itself 
 to behold God Himself as he is, it knows the 
 Father of the world from the beauty of His 
 works and the comeliness of His creatures. — 
 Origen. 
 
 [300] We know more of God than we know 
 of man, as we see more of Divine than of 
 human productions, and in each case we judge 
 of the worker by his works. — B. G, 
 
 [301] If there were no constitution or system 
 in the world there would be no science, which 
 is only a record of systematic, constitutional 
 Divine procedure. — B. G, 
 
 III. Scientific Discovery harmonizes 
 W'Ith the Predicted Course of 
 Nature in the Bible. 
 
 [302] In iNIay, 1866, one of the stars in the 
 Northern Crown was seen to undergo a rapid 
 change. It was originally one of the tenth 
 magnitude, but in a short time it increased in size 
 and brilliancy until it nearly equalled Sirius, 
 Capella, or Vega. It remained bright for some 
 time, and then rapidly faded until it resumed its 
 former size. No sooner was the spectroscope 
 pointed at the star than there appeared in the 
 spectrum the three well-known lines — red, green, 
 and violet — which denote burning hydrogen. 
 .... Supposing our sun (which is one of the 
 stars, and round it are vast volumes of hydrogen) 
 
 were to blaze out in a similar manner, the whole 
 of the planets would be consumed in a few 
 seconds, and converted into gases. As ]\Ir. 
 Roscoe says : " Our solid globe would be dis- 
 sipated into vapour almost as soon as drops of 
 water in a furnace." {See Gen. i. i ; ii. 2-4 ; 
 2 Peter iii. 10 ; Rev. xxi. i). — y. G. Wood, 
 Nature's Teachino. 
 
 27 
 
 THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 I. The Rationale of the Mystery ob- 
 servable IN THE Divine Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 [303] Let us consider what reason requires. 
 It has pleased God to make us reasonable 
 creatures ; that is, to endow us with a power of 
 judging and a liberty of acting. Why were 
 these powers given ? Was it that we might use 
 and exercise them, and give proof of our virtue 
 or vice in so doing ? Or was it that God might 
 overrule them, and render them in every parti- 
 cular instance useless and insignificant? If this 
 is the case, had He not much better have made 
 us machines at first, than have created us free 
 agents, and then make us machines by an arbi- 
 trary interposition of power ? Who can account 
 for the wisdom of God in making so great a 
 thing to no use or purpose : in filling this lower 
 world with free agents, and then excluding all 
 freedom by immediate acts of his power 1 Now 
 this would in great measure be the case were 
 rewards and punishments to be punctually ad- 
 ministered in this world ; and that for this plain 
 reason : the temporal prosperity of men depends 
 on their own actions, and the natural conse- 
 quences of the actions of others with whom they 
 live in society. Now to secure the happiness of 
 a man, not only his own actions, but the actions 
 of all others with whom he is any way con- 
 cerned, must be determined, so as to conspire in 
 making him prosperous ; that is, he and all 
 about him must lose the freedom of acting in 
 order to secure his welfare here. If a righteous 
 man must never suffer in this world, all the 
 wicked about him must be restrained from doing 
 him violence. If a wicked man must be pun- 
 ished according to his merit, all who would do 
 him more harm than he deserves to suffer must 
 be withheld ; and if none designed him harm 
 enough, somebody must be employed to do the 
 work. Carry this reflection abroad into the 
 world, where the fortunes and interests of men 
 are mixed and complicated so variously together, 
 that one man's temporal prosperity depends on 
 actions of many besides himself, and it will be 
 very clear that there must be an end of all free- 
 dom, on supposition that rewards and punish- 
 ments are to be equally dispensed in this world. 
 —Bp. Sherlock, 1678-1761.
 
 304-311] 
 
 THE EP'IDEJVCES OF RELIGION' GENERALLY. 55 
 
 [final causes of natural things. 
 
 II. The Divine Government appears 
 Mysterious through the Limita- 
 tion OF our Faculties. 
 
 [304] A child might say to a geographer, 
 " You tallc about the earth being round ! Look 
 on this great crag ; loolc on that deep dellj look 
 on yonder great mountain, and the valley at its 
 feet, and yet you talk about the earth being 
 round." The geographer would have an instant 
 answer for the child. His view is comprehen- 
 sive ; he does not look at the surface of the 
 world in mere detail ; he does not deal with 
 inches, and feet, and yards ; he sees a larger 
 world than the child has had time to grasp. 
 He explains what he means by the expression, 
 "The earth is a globe," and justifies his strange 
 statement. And so it is with God's wonderful 
 dealings towards us : there are great rocks and 
 barren deserts, deep, dank, dark pits, and defiles, 
 and glens, and dells, rugged places that we can- 
 not smooth over at all, and yet when He comes 
 to say to us at the end of the journey, " Now 
 look back ; there is the way that I have brought 
 you," we shall be enabled to say, " Thou hast 
 gone before us and made our way straight." — 
 Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 III. The Divine Government does not 
 necessitate Contravention of the 
 Laws of Nature. 
 
 [305] How wide the region in which indirectly 
 our prayers even for temporal blessings may be 
 answered ! Thus, for instance, we pray that 
 cholera or the murrain may be stayed. God 
 does not with His own hand take away the 
 plague; but He puts it into the heart of some 
 physician to find the remedy which will remove 
 it. He does not hush the storm in a moment ; 
 but He gives the mariner courage and skill to 
 steer before it till he reach the haven. He does 
 not shower bread from heaven in a famine ; but 
 He teaches the statesman how, with wise fore- 
 thought and patient endeavours, at least to 
 mitigate the calamity. . . . And thus the answer 
 comes, not by direct interference with the laws 
 of Nature, but in accordance with the laws of 
 the spiritual world, by the Divine action on the 
 heart of man. — J. y. S. Perowne. 
 
 [306] The regularity of Nature's laws, so 
 called, is one great element of Divine pro- 
 cedure, as a guide of our actions and expecta- 
 tions. — B. G. 
 
 28 
 
 FINAL CAUSES OF NATURAL 
 THINGS. 
 
 I. The Original Signification of the 
 Word. 
 
 [307] The term final cause {causa finalis) was 
 introduced into the language of philosophy by 
 scholasticism. It signifies the end {finis) for 
 
 which one acts, or towards which one tends 
 and which may consequently be considered as 
 a cause of action or of motion. Aristotle ex- 
 plains it thus : " Another sort of cause is the 
 end, that is to say, that on account of which (ri 
 oi) 'iveKd) the action is done ; for example, in this 
 sense, health is the cause of walking exercise. 
 Why does such a one take exercise ? We say 
 it is in order to have good health ; and, in 
 speaking thus, we mean to name the cause." 
 
 [30S] There is a saying quoted in Feltham's 
 "Resolves," "What is first in intention is last in 
 execution ; " that is also the final cause, or 
 object and purpose, the end in view, in making 
 any instrument, performing any act, or adjusting 
 any means. — B. C. 
 
 [309] The higher the type to which a man 
 belongs, the farther back lies his final cause, or, 
 less technically speaking, his animating motive 
 or ruling principle. A man, for instance, jumps 
 into a train to be in time for dinner with his 
 family ; this evening meal is not the final cause 
 of his action. He lives, if he be anything but a 
 glutton, not to eat, but eats to live. He is 
 anxious to be in time for dinner for a variety of 
 reasons beyond the mere desire to satisfy his 
 appetite. He wishes to taste the pure joys of 
 home life and to strengthen family ties. He 
 seeks, too, the rest and refreshment of home, 
 that he may the better discharge the duties of 
 life. And if he be a Christian, we shall not 
 reach the secret spring of his movements until 
 we recall St. Paul's injunction, "Whether ye eat. 
 or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the 
 glory of God."— C. N. 
 
 II. Definition. 
 
 1 Final cause implies purpose or intention. 
 
 [310] The final cause, as given us in experi- 
 ence, is an effect if not foreseen at least 
 predete?'niincd, and which, by reason of this pre- 
 determination, conditions and dominates the 
 series of phenomena of which it is in appearance 
 the result. Thus it is yet once more an act 
 which may be considered as the cause of its own 
 cause. Thus, in one sense, the eye is the cause 
 of sight ; in another sense, sight is the cause of 
 the eye. We shall have to conceive, then, as Kant 
 has said, the series of final causes as a reversal 
 of the series of efficient causes. The latter 
 proceeds by descent, the former by ascent. The 
 two series are identical (at least it is permitted 
 to suppose so a priori), but the one is the in- 
 version of the other. The mechanical point of 
 view consists in descending the first of these 
 two series (from the cause to the effect) ; the 
 teleological point of view, or that of final causes, 
 consists in ascending it again (from the end to 
 the means). — Paul Janet, Final Causes. 
 
 2 Final cause means the effect arrived at. 
 
 [311] Let us examine closely the proper and 
 singular character of this kind of cause. What
 
 56 
 
 3"-3iS] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [final causes of natural things. 
 
 characterizes it is that, according to the point 
 of view which one occupies, the same fact can 
 be taken either as cause or as effect. Health is 
 without doubt the cause of walking, but it is 
 also the effect of it. On the one hand, health 
 only comes after walking, and by it. It is be- 
 cause my will, and, by its orders, my members, 
 have executed a certain moven.ent that health 
 has followed. But, on the other hand, in another 
 sense, it is in order to obtain this good health 
 that I have walked ; because, without the hope, 
 the desire, the preconceived idea of the benefit 
 of health, perhaps I would not have gone out, 
 and my members would have remained in re- 
 pose. A man kills another : in a sense the 
 death of the latter had as a cause the action of 
 killing, that is to say, the action of plunging a 
 poniard into a living body, a mechanical cause 
 without which there would have been no death ; 
 but reciprocally this action of killing had as a 
 determining cause the will to kill, and the death 
 of the victim, foreseen and willed beforehand by 
 the criminal, was the determining cause of the 
 crime. 
 
 Thus a final cause is a fact which may be in 
 some sort considered as the cause of its ow7i 
 cause; but as it is impossible for it to be a cause 
 before it exists, the true cause is not the fact 
 itself, but its idea. In other words, it is ajore- 
 seefi effect, which could not have taken place 
 without this foresight. — Ibid. 
 
 III. Analysis. 
 
 1 Final causes correspond to a preceding 
 ideal, or inventive origin. 
 
 [312] This analysis of the final cause contains, 
 in fact, nothing that really contradicts it. No 
 one maintains that the house itself as house is 
 the cause of the structure. No one denies that 
 the final cause may be reduced to the efficient 
 cause, if in the efficient cause itself the final 
 be introduced, namely, the desire and idea — in 
 other words, the anticipation of the effect ; and 
 it matters little whether the cause, thus analyzed 
 into its elements, is called final or efficient. 
 The only question is, whether a house is pro- 
 duced without there having previously been an 
 anticipatory representation of it ; whether it has 
 not had an ideal before having a concrete exist- 
 ence ; and whether it is not the ideal that has 
 determined and rendered possible the concrete 
 existence } Hence the question, whether an 
 analogous cause ought not to be supposed 
 wherever we shall meet with similar effects, that 
 is, co-ordinations of phenomena, themselves 
 linked to a final determinate phenomena. Such 
 is the problem ; the psychological analysis of 
 Spinoza contains nothing that contradicts the 
 solution we have given of it. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Final causes contain four elements. 
 [313] 1st. The conception of the end. 2nd. 
 
 The conception of the means. 3rd. The realiza- 
 tion of the merins. 4th. The realization of the 
 end. Whence it follows that the order of execu- 
 
 tion reproduces inversely the order of concep- 
 tion ; whence it follows, again, that v.'hat is last 
 in execution (the end) is the first in conception 
 (the idea of the end). This is expressed by the 
 scholastic axiom, Quod prius est in intentione 
 uliiinum est in executione. — Hartmami^ Philo- 
 sophie des Unbeurissten, 
 
 IV. Fundamental Propositions. 
 
 [314] 1st. The first is that there is no a /r/<?n 
 principle of final causes, The final cause is an 
 indication, a hypothesis, whose probability de- 
 pends on the number and characters of observed 
 phenomena. 
 
 2nd. The second is that the final cause is 
 proved by the existence in fact of certain com- 
 binations, such that the accord of these combi- 
 nations with a final phenomenon independent 
 of them would be a mere chance, and that 
 nature altogether must be explained by an 
 accident. 
 
 3rd. The third, in fine, is that the relation of 
 finality being once admitted as a law of the 
 universe, the only hypothesis appropriate to our 
 understanding that can account for this law, is 
 that it is derived from an intelligent cause. — 
 Paul Janet, Final Causes. 
 
 V. Misconceptions of the Doctrine. 
 I Final causes are not miracles. 
 
 [315] Final causes are not miracles ; they are 
 not effects without cause. It is, therefore, not 
 astonishing that, in ascending from organs to 
 their elements, one finds the elementary pro- 
 perties whose combination or distribution will 
 produce those complex effects which are called 
 animal functions. The most subtle and learned 
 art, even were it the divine art, will never pro- 
 duce a whole, except by employing elements 
 endued with properties rendering possible that 
 whole. But the problem for the thinker is to 
 explain how these elements can have been co- 
 ordinated and distributed so as to produce that 
 final phenomenon which we call a plant, an 
 animal, a man. 
 
 Since we maintain as legitimate the old com- 
 parison of human art and the industry of nature, 
 let us show by an example how the physiological 
 theory of the vital elements in no way excludes 
 the hypothesis of finality. Suppose an instru- 
 ment of music, the use of which we do not know, 
 and which nothing tells us to be the work of 
 human art, — could not one Say to those who 
 supposed that it is a machine adapted to serve 
 the musician's art, that that is a superficial and 
 quite popular explanation ; that the form and 
 use of the instrument mean little ; that analysis, 
 on reducing it to its anatomical elements, sees 
 nothing in it but a collection of strings, wood, 
 ivory, &c. ; that each of these elements has 
 essential and immanent properties ; the strings, 
 for instance, have those of vibration, and that 
 in their smallest parts (their cells) ; the wood 
 has the property of resonance ; the keys in
 
 315— 319] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 57 
 
 [final causes of natural things. 
 
 motion have the property of striking, and of 
 determining the sound by percussion ! What 
 is there wonderful in this, it would be said — 
 that this machine should produce such an effect, 
 for example, as the production of a succession 
 of harmonious sounds, since it is certain that 
 the elements composing it have the properties 
 necessary to produce that effect ? As to the 
 combination of these elements, it must be attri- 
 buted to fortunate circumstances which have 
 brought about this result, so analogous to a pre- 
 conceived work. Who does not see, on the con- 
 trary, that in thus reducing the complex whole 
 to its elements and their essential properties, 
 nothing has been proved against the finality 
 that resides in the instrument, because it really 
 resides in it, and because this finality just re- 
 quires, in order that the whole may be fit to 
 produce the desired effect, that the elements 
 should have the properties they are seen to have. 
 — Paid Janet, Final Causes. 
 
 VI. Abuses of the Doctrine. 
 
 [316] They may be briefly summed up as 
 follows : 
 
 1st. To make use of this principle as an argu- 
 ment against a fact, or against a law of nature, 
 even when that fact or law was demonstrated 
 by experiment and calculation. 
 
 2nd. To oppose not only speculative truths, 
 but inventions practical and useful to men. 
 
 3rd. To employ the principle as the explana- 
 tion of a phenomenon which does not exist. 
 
 4th. To trace fanciful ends in the economy 
 of nature. 
 
 The error does not consist in admitting final 
 causes, but in assuming false ones. That there 
 are erroneous and arbitrary final causes there is 
 no doubt ; that there are none at all is another 
 question. Men are as often mistaken regarding 
 efficient as regarding final causes : they have as 
 often attributed to nature false properties as 
 false intentions. But as the errors committed 
 regarding the efficient cause have not prevented 
 scientists from believing that there are true 
 causes, so the illusions and prejudices of the 
 vulgar with respect to final causes ought not to 
 determine philosophy to abandon them alto- 
 gether. 
 
 As regards the first point, we have already 
 seen that the final cause ought in no way to 
 restrict the liberty of science. No precon- 
 ceived idea can prevail against a fact : but the 
 fact once discovered, nothing forbids us to seek 
 its finality. "We must," as M. Florens has 
 justly said, " proceed not from final causes to 
 facts, but from facts to final causes." 
 
 As to the second point, the final cause, far 
 from forbidding any useful invention, justifies 
 them all beforehand, and Hi priori. For with- 
 out even going so far as to say that all has been 
 made for man's use, it suffices that man. having 
 been created industrious, has been made to 
 make use of all things, in order that every new 
 invention may thereby be warranted as im- 
 plicitly willed by Divine Providence. It is only. 
 
 then, an unenlightened superstition, and not the 
 doctrine of final causes, which is here in question. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 [317] One must advance "from facts to final 
 causes, and not from final causes to facts." Thus 
 understood, this theory can in no way favour 
 any scientific error. Also, one must distinguish 
 accidental from essential final causes. The first 
 are the more or less arbitrary uses which men 
 obtain from external things, and which have not 
 always been attached to them ; the second are 
 the uses inherent in the very essence of the 
 things — for instance, the uses of the organs. 
 Abuses of this kind almost always arise from 
 confounding external and internal finality ; and 
 this very confusion is the source of the most 
 part of the objections directed against this 
 theory. — Ibid. 
 
 [318] Another abuse of final causes consists 
 in employing them as the explanation of a phe- 
 nomenon which does not exist. Fdnelon, in his 
 '•' Treatise on the Existence of God," maintains 
 that the moon was given to the earth to give it 
 light during the absence of the sun. " She 
 appears at the right time, with all the stars," 
 says he, " when the sun has to go away to bring 
 the day to other hemispheres." This opinion 
 furnished to Laplace the occasion of a victo- 
 rious refutation : " Some partizans of final 
 causes," says he, " have supposed that the moon 
 was given to the earth to give it light by night. 
 In that case, nature would not have attained 
 the end it had proposed to itself, since we are 
 often deprived at once of the light of the sun 
 and of that of the moon. To attain it, it would 
 have sufficed at the beginning to place the moon 
 opposite the sun in the same plane of the ecliptic, 
 at a distance from the earth equal to the 
 hundredth part of the distance of the earth from 
 the sun, and to give to the moon and the earth 
 parallel rates of movement proportional to their 
 distances from that luminary. Then the moon, 
 constantly opposite the sun, would have de- 
 scribed around it an ellipse similar to that of 
 the earth ; these two luminaries would have 
 succeeded each other above the horizon ; and 
 as at that distance the moon would not have 
 been eclipsed, its light would constantly have 
 replaced that of the sun." Here, it must be con- 
 fessed, the scientist is right as against the theo- 
 logian. Thus it is that by an indiscreet use of 
 final causes. Providence is exposed to receive a 
 lesson in mathematics from a simple mortal. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 VII. Objections and Difficulties. 
 I The ignorance of ends. 
 
 [319] Descartes, like Bacon, and even more 
 than he, has shown himself opposed to final 
 causes, for Bacon only removed them from 
 physics to relegate them to metaphysics. Des- 
 cartes, on the other hand, seems to exclude 
 them at once from metaphysics and from 
 physics, or at least he refuses to make use of
 
 58 
 
 319- 
 
 325] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [first cause. 
 
 them in either of these two sciences. It is not 
 that he denies the existence of ends in nature, 
 but he thinks that ^\•e cannot know them, be- 
 cause of the infirmity of our mind. Hence this 
 objection, so often reproduced by able men, 
 namely, that it belongs not to us to sound the 
 intentions of the Creator. — Ibid. 
 
 [320] Suppose that a peasant, entering in 
 broad daylight the garden of a famous mathe- 
 matician, finds there one of those curious 
 gnomonic instruments which indicate the posi- 
 tion of the sun in the zodiac, its declination 
 from the equator, the day of the month, the 
 length of the day, &c. ; it would, no doubt, 
 be a great presumption on his part, ignorant 
 alike of mathematical science and of the inten- 
 tions of the artist, to believe himself capable of 
 discovering all the ends in view of which this 
 machine, so curiously wrought, has been con- 
 structed ; but when he remarks that it is fur- 
 nished with an index, with lines and horary 
 numbers, in short, with all that constitutes a 
 sun-dial, and sees successively the shadow of 
 the index mark in succession the hour of the 
 day, there would be on his part as little pre- 
 sumption as error in concluding that this in- 
 strument, whatever may be its other uses, is 
 certainly a dial made to show the hours. — 
 Robert Boyle. 
 
 [321] When scientists, after having eliminated 
 final causes from their methods (which they 
 have a right to do), proceed to banish them from 
 reality itself, they do not see that they are then 
 no longer speaking as scientists, but as philo- 
 sophers ; and they do not distinguish these two 
 parts. They attribute to themselves the same 
 infallibility as philosophers which they have as 
 scientists ; they believe that it is science that 
 pronounces by their mouth, while it is only free 
 speculation. This distinction is very important, 
 for it removes many equivocations and mistakes. 
 A scientist, however bound he may be by the 
 severities of the scientific method, yet cannot 
 escape the temptation to think, to reflect on the 
 phenomena whose laws he has discovered. Like 
 other philosophers, he gives himself up to 
 reasonings, inductions, analyses — to concep- 
 tions no longer belonging to the domain of 
 experience, but which are the work of thought 
 operating on the data of experience. It is 
 clearly his right, and no one will complain that 
 scientists should be at the same time philoso- 
 phers ; it may even be thought that they are 
 not so enough. But forthwith to attribute to 
 these personal interpretations the authority 
 which attaches to science itself, is to commit 
 the same error, the same abuse of power, as 
 that of the priests of the iSIiddle Ages, who 
 availed themselves of the respect due to religion 
 to cover all the acts of the temporal power. — 
 Paul Janet, Final Causes. 
 
 2 How far man is the final cause. 
 
 [322] If man, according to his organization. 
 
 is made to use things, these things reciprocally 
 are made to be utilized by him. And in pro- 
 portion as he uses and can use these things, he 
 has the right to consider himself as being one 
 of their ends. It is in this sense and measure 
 that we must restrict the general proposition 
 v/hich has been abused, namely, that man is the 
 end, if not of the creation, at'least of the little 
 world he inhabits. — Ibid. 
 
 29 
 
 FIRST CAUSE. 
 
 I. Line of Argument. 
 I Negatively. 
 
 (i) Man^s invention is limited to vieclianical 
 co7istruction. 
 
 [323] IMany sorts of rare engines we acknow- 
 ledge contrived by the wit of man, but who hath 
 ever made one that could grow.'' or that had in 
 it a self-improving power.'' A tree, a herb, a 
 pile of grass may upon this account challenge 
 all the world to make such a thing ; that is, to 
 implant the power of growing into anything to 
 which it doth not natively belong, or to make a 
 thing to which it doth. 
 
 By what art would they make a seed? and 
 which way would they inspire it with a seminal 
 form? And they that think this whole globe 
 of the earth was compacted by the casual, or 
 fatal, coalition of particles of matter, by what 
 magic would they conjure so many to come 
 together as should make one clod ? — J. Howe, 
 1630-1705. 
 
 (2) Vital force, or the power of life to assimi- 
 late and modify " no7i-living matter," is itself 
 tmique. 
 
 [324] The simple truth is that the essential 
 phenomena of all living beings cannot be ex- 
 plained without recourse to some hypothesis of 
 power totally different from any of the knov/n 
 forms or modes of energy. Any one who 
 allows his reason to be influenced by the facts of 
 nature as at present discovered will feel obliged 
 to admit the existence of vital power as distinct 
 from, and capable of controlling, the ordinary 
 forces of non-living matter. It has been con- 
 clusively shown that the laws of vital force or 
 power are essentially difterent from those by 
 which ordinary matter and its forces are 
 governed. — Prof Lionel Beale, M.D., F.R.S., 
 at the Victoria Institute. 
 
 2 Positively. 
 
 (i) This vital force, the mystery and nature 
 of life, allies material with immaterial and 
 transcends physical laws, and implies super- 
 natural as;cncy. 
 
 [325] He studies nature with a careless eye 
 and a benighted mind who does not perceive 
 that the supernatural lies in it and above it. 
 For when all is said that science can teach, and
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 325—330] 
 
 59 
 
 [first cause. 
 
 all is done that skill can achieve to cultivate the 
 earth and bring forth its fruits, one gift remains 
 without which every thing else were vain — that 
 gift which the Supreme Creator has reserved 
 absolutely to Himself— that gift which man and 
 every living creature can take away and none 
 can restore — that gift without which this earth 
 would be no more than the cinder of a planet — 
 the mystery and miracle of Life. — Edinburgh 
 Review. 
 
 (2) The only rational solution of the origin, 
 diffusion, atid perpetuity of life is in the recogni- 
 tion of an ever-living Creator. 
 
 [326] With diffusion of life, creation begins ; 
 and of that act all but a supernatural power is 
 incapable. The seed of cummin you commit to 
 the earth includes it ; the single grain of wheat 
 shoots up, not only to reproduce itself, but to 
 multiply its ears a hundredfold and in successive 
 generations, millions upon millions of times, 
 and to nourish a world ; the acorn carries in its 
 little cup a thousand years of vitality ; the 
 midge and the butterfly that sport for a day 
 upon the rushes and the blossoms enjoy it ; the 
 laborious earthworm that builds up the fertile 
 soil of our fields and gardens has it ; it ascends 
 through all the scale of existence until it arrives 
 at man, a being capable of conceiving infinite 
 power and hopes of an everlasting future. Yet 
 who shall say what life is ? What is the value 
 of a system of philosophy which denies or dis- 
 cards the only rational solution of the very first 
 problem and condition of our own existence 
 [viz., the existence of a "Supreme Creator"]? — 
 Edinburgh Review. 
 
 (3) Some Being vmst have existed a7id con- 
 tained the capacity for originating and control- 
 ling all dependent existejice. 
 
 [327] We cannot but admit there is some 
 eternal necessary Being, somewhat that is of 
 itself active ; somewhat that is powerful, wise, 
 and good. And these notions have in them no 
 repugnancy to one another, wherefore it is not 
 impossible that they may meet and agree to- 
 gether in full perfection to one and the same 
 existent Being ; and hence it is manifestly no 
 unapprehensible thing that such a Being doth 
 exist. Now, supposing that it doth exist, and 
 hath been to us the Cause and Author of our 
 being ; hath given us the reasonable, intelligent 
 nature which we find ourselves possessors of, 
 and that very power whereby we apprehend 
 the existence of such a Being as he is to be 
 possible — all which we for the present do still 
 suppose — while also his actual existence is not 
 unapprehensible : were it not the greatest mad- 
 ness imaginable to say that if he do exist he 
 cannot also make our apprehensive nature un- 
 derstand this apprehensible thing that he doth 
 e.xist ? — y. Howe, 1630-1705. 
 
 (4) TJie idea of a Maker or Creator shaping 
 iion-existent material into adaptation is instinc- 
 
 tive or inttiitional, and is based on experience of 
 maiis productions. 
 
 [32S] Sir Isaac Newton, a very wise and 
 godly man, was once examining a new and fine 
 globe, when a gentleman came into his study 
 who did not believe in a God, but declared that 
 the world we live in came by chance. He was 
 much pleased with the handsome globe, and 
 asked, " Who made it ?" " Nobody," answered 
 Sir Isaac ; " it happened here." The gentle- 
 man looked up in amazement at the answer, 
 but he soon understood what it meant. 
 
 (5) The same instinctive view of causation by 
 willing agency is the basis of moral judgment. 
 
 [329] The imperative character of this law of 
 our thought may be illustrated in this way. A 
 murder is committed by means of fire-arms. 
 What killed the victim? The bullet. Then 
 let us punish the bullet, and have done with the 
 matter. Nonsense ! The stroke of the bullet 
 was but a physical antecedent, not a true cause ; 
 we must go further back for the criminal. Well, 
 then, shall we accuse the gunpowder Avhich 
 impelled the bullet ? Nonsense again ! How 
 far back, then, must we go ? Shall we fix the 
 guilt on the percussion cap which ignited the 
 powder; or on the hammer which exploded 
 the cap ; or on the spring which forced the 
 hammer to strike ; or on the trigger which re- 
 leased the spring ; or on the finger which 
 pressed the trigger ? Still we are in the series 
 of merely metaphysical antecedents, and we 
 find it impossible to stop at any of them with- 
 out conscious absurdity, and say, " Here is the 
 guilty cause." But what moved the finger ? 
 The volition of the human agent. Ah, that is 
 different 1 Here is the real origin, the true 
 cause. The man is the murderer, because his 
 will set in motion the train of physical causes, 
 at the end of which is murder. He is the 
 author of the act, and on his head the unani- 
 mous verdict of mankind fixes the guilt. — 
 Brownlow Maitland, Theism or Agnosticism. 
 
 II. Difficulties of other Hypotheses. 
 
 I Scientific efforts to produce life are an 
 acknowledged failure. 
 
 [330] By experiments, reiterated in many 
 cases, the induction has been established that 
 the power of developing bacterial life by atmo- 
 spheric air and its power of scattering light go 
 hand in hand. Every experiment was converted 
 into an indefinite number of experiments on 
 infusions of different strengths. Never, in my 
 opinion, was the requirement as to concentra- 
 tion more completely fulfilled, and never was 
 the reply of Nature to experiment more definite 
 and satisfactory. There is no shade of uncer- 
 tainty in any of the results. In every instance 
 we have, within the chamber, perfect limpidity 
 and sweetness — without the chamber, putridity 
 and its characteristic smells. In no instance is 
 the least countenance lent to the notion that an 
 infusion deprived by heat of its inherent life,
 
 6o 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 330—338] 
 
 [nature. 
 
 and placed in contact with air cleansed of its 
 visibly suspended matter, has any power what- 
 ever to generate life anew. — Tyndall, Floating 
 Matter of the Air. 
 
 2 Natural selection is an effort of reason to 
 prove that nature is conducted without 
 reason, and is another failure as well as 
 self-contradictory. 
 
 [331] No blunder can be more unscientific 
 than to ascribe to a given process the power of 
 producing its own indispensable antecedents. 
 But this is precisely what is done when natural 
 selection is opposed to creative design as the 
 cause of " the adaptation of the organism to its 
 environment." — Dr. Eustace Co7idcr in Contem- 
 porary Review. 
 
 3 Only two other possible systems, and these 
 are both alike unsatisfactory. 
 
 [332] We have ultimately only three systems, 
 mari-ced by the following broad distinctions : — 
 First, belief in a personal God, the Creator and 
 Moral Governor of the universe ; secondly, ac- 
 knowledgment of the existence of an impersonal 
 First Cause, Power, or Intelligence, conscious 
 or unconscious, either, on the one hand, immi- 
 nent in, and inseparable from, the totality of 
 things, with which totality it is itself to be iden- 
 tified — or, on the other hand, so far separable 
 that the phenomenal universe is to be regarded 
 as its outward manifestation and investiture ; 
 thirdly, denial, direct or inferential, both of a 
 personal God, and of a First Cause, whether 
 identifiable with or separate from nature. — Bp. 
 Ellicott, Modern Unbelief, 
 
 30 
 
 NATURE. 
 
 I. The Power and Immutability of the 
 Laws of Nature. 
 
 [333] God's laws are wondrous things — they still 
 
 revolve 
 On their own axes, promulgate themselves, 
 And in one language speak to every tribe. 
 They work their own results all noiselessly, 
 As they who built the Temple. 
 
 Sir W. Partridge. 
 
 [334] The laws of Nature are not the laws 
 which Nature imposes and carries out, but those 
 imposed on Nature, and by which Nature is 
 constituted, controlled, and regulated. — B. G. 
 
 [335] The law of Nature is founded in the 
 essential perfections of God, and in the reason 
 and relation of things, and is therefore neces- 
 sary and immutable. Nothing which makes a 
 part of the law of Nature can ever be set aside. 
 — H. Grove, 1683-1738. 
 
 [336] It is of the first consequence to under- 
 stand what is meant by " Nature." Is it the 
 material universe, and all the phenomena taking 
 place therein.' The term "Nature" is often 
 used in a merely mythological sense, as some 
 power or personality to which the events are to 
 be attributed : whereas " Nature " is the aggre- 
 gation of results, or means, regulated by super- 
 natural Wisdom to which the unity of Nature 
 or the universe is to be referred. — B. G. 
 
 II. The Laws of Nature viewed Com- 
 prehensively. 
 
 I The merely scientific view is not sufficiently 
 comprehensive. 
 
 [337] An inhabitant of a distant part of our 
 world or of another world, let us suppose, visits 
 Europe, and inspects some of our finer cathe- 
 drals, such as that of York or Cologne. Admir- 
 ing the buildings, he is led to inquire narrowly 
 into their architecture, and he observes how 
 stone is fitted to stone, and buttress to that 
 which it supports, and how all the parts are in 
 beautiful adaptation one to another. Does he 
 know all about these cathedrals, when he has 
 completed this class of observations ? In one 
 sense, he knows everything ; he knows that the 
 building material of the one is a species of 
 limestone, and of the other, basalt ; every stone 
 and pillar and window has been examined by 
 him, and he has admired the beautiful pro- 
 portions of the whole fabric. But if he has 
 gone no further in his inquiries, he has but a 
 meagre idea, after all, of these temples. There 
 are higher questions : What is the use of this 
 chapter-house ? of this crypt? ofthis lovely chapel 
 or chancel? The stranger has no proper idea 
 of the cathedrals till, rising beyond the minute 
 inspection of stones, and columns, and aisles, 
 he contemplates the grand results and uses, 
 and observes how this part was for the burial 
 of the distinguished dead — this other part for 
 the kneeling of the worshippers — this third part 
 for the convocation of the priests — this fourth 
 part for the dispensation of the holiest rite of 
 the Christian Church — and the whole for the 
 worship of God. 
 
 Now we hold that the investigator of the 
 mere facts and laws of Nature is engaged in a 
 work resembling that of this supposed visitant 
 when he is examining the stones and arches of 
 the building. We are not inclined to depreciate 
 this work of the scientific inquirer, and we are 
 not doing so when we maintain that, if he would 
 rise to a correct view of the character of God, 
 he must enlarge the sphere of his vision ; his 
 eye and his mind must take in other phenomena, 
 and he must look at the object served by this 
 temple (for such it is), whose architecture he 
 has been observing and admiring. — President 
 McCosh, Method of the Divine Government. 
 
 [338] As a cathedral is not explained by 
 enumerating its parts, or the materials of which 
 it is composed, but by the genius of the archi-
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 6i 
 
 338-344] 
 
 [natural philosophy. 
 
 tect which it embodies ; so Nature is explained 
 as the embodiment of the Divine Artistry, and 
 not as a mere conglomeration of atoms arranged 
 by some mythical laws, which laws never made 
 or did anything, but are only records of effects 
 and orderly regulated procedures. — B. G. 
 
 2 The Christian system leads to progressive 
 views of nature and its laws. 
 
 [339] In Christian times the physical universe 
 itself has worn a different aspect : it has passed 
 from the all into the part j from reality to 
 symbol ; from opaque to transparent ; from 
 the brilliant palace of the senses, to the mystic 
 temple of the soul. — James Martincau. 
 
 3 Nature as one consistent or harmonious 
 whole is indicative of one sole will or rule 
 of God. 
 
 [340] While scientific men have seemed to 
 be working more and more widely apart, they 
 have found more and more near relations among 
 all the objects of their study. As the rays of 
 knowledge have extended and diverged, so has 
 their relation to one common centre become 
 more evident, and the unity of Nature has 
 become more significant of the unity of God. — 
 Sir James Paget, F.R.S., Theology and Science. 
 
 [341] The laws of Nature, so called, are ac- 
 counts of, and do not account for, the events of 
 which they are only classifications or records. 
 —B. G. 
 
 31 
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 I. Its Various Theories. 
 
 t Chance. 
 
 [342] All phenomena and all being is, and 
 ever has been, the result of chance or a blind 
 fortuitous concourse of atoms. Perhaps no 
 sane person ever did absolutely believe this 
 theory, if we can call it such ; but some have 
 attempted to take refuge in it from the idea of 
 Divine government and retribution, or as an 
 escape from the perplexities and mysteries en- 
 shrouding the problem of the universe. — Clark 
 Braden, The Problem of Problems. 
 
 2 Fate. 
 
 [343] All things have been brought into being 
 by resistless, undeviating fate and necessity, and 
 are now governed by it. There are various 
 phases of this theory, ist. The present order 
 of things is eternal, and holds on its course 
 under the control of relentless, unchanging 
 necessity. 2nd. At first there was a fortuitous 
 concourse of atoms and phenomena, until the 
 present order of things, by fate or chance, 
 obtained and became an established and fatal 
 necessity. This is the theory of ancient fatalists. 
 
 3rd. Theories of development. Some think that 
 development began in a fortuitous concourse 
 and action of matter, and force that resulted in 
 evolution, or in starting a course of evolution. 
 Others hold that this course of evolution is 
 eternal, and has eternally been under the control 
 of law. All atheistic theories of development 
 are theories of fate or necessity. They have 
 only added the term law to ancient theories. 
 This law is a law of fatal necessity, not con- 
 trolled by intelligence. The denial of spon- 
 taneity in nature, even in man and in mind, and 
 of freedom of the will, providence, prayer, for- 
 giveness of sin, and the talk of undeviating, 
 unchanging law that abounds in the speculations 
 of physical science and evolutionists, show that 
 they are but modernized statements of ancient 
 theories of fate. The ancient systems of Lucre- 
 tius and Epicurus were anticipations of modern 
 speculations. Matter and force are eternal. 
 Motion is an eternal and inherent property or 
 state of force. Force in motion acts on matter, 
 and matter in turn reacts and modifies force, 
 and by their action, reaction, and interaction is 
 evolved inorganic, organic, and vital existences. 
 So the ancient hylozoic theory was an anticipa- 
 tion of certain modern speculations. It assumed 
 that the present order of things is eternal. The 
 two entities or existences whence all sprang 
 were matter and phenomena. Matter was per- 
 vaded by plastic life (life susceptible being 
 moulded into all forms) and by intelligence. 
 Tyndall's Belfast speech was but a modernized 
 statement of this speculation of ancient thought. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 3 Nescience or ignorance. 
 
 [344] There is a distinction between the me 
 and the not-me, but we can know nothing of 
 either absolutely or in their essence. We can 
 only know that they exist, and learn and recog- 
 nize their differentia. There is a distinction 
 between mind and matter, but we can learn and 
 believe nothing of either in regard to their ab- 
 solute nature or essence. We can only know 
 that they exist, and recognize their differences. 
 We can learn and know nothing of the ultimate 
 or absolute, and can know nothing of the infinite 
 and unconditioned. We can learn nothing of 
 ultimate causes, or of the Ultimate Cause, or of 
 the Absolute or Infinite Cause. We can have 
 no knowledge, not even an apprehension or idea 
 of the infinite. It is folly to undertake to learn 
 anything concerning the infinite, or to speculate 
 concerning it. Let us confine ourselves to the 
 what we know exists, and to what we can learn 
 concerning them ; their differentia and their 
 phenomena, although we cannot learn anything 
 concerning their nature. We need not know 
 anything of the ultimate and infinite. It is not 
 practical knowledge, nor is it scientific to attempt 
 such inquiries. Modern evolution has resorted 
 to the same subterfuge to evade the same 
 difficulty. It has each cycle begin in a turbu- 
 lent chaos, and has it close with a catastrophe 
 that reduces all existence to chaos, in which it
 
 62 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 344-349] 
 
 [number. 
 
 commences a new cycle. In this dreamy system, 
 which has a fascination for certain poetical, 
 mystically inclined minds, we are told that in 
 the finite alone do we know or apprehend the 
 infinite. The finite is the infinite in existence 
 or realized. God is the universe, and the 
 universe is God. There is no conscious power 
 orintelligence in the universe except as developed 
 in the finite. God attains His highest conscious- 
 ness in man. Intelligence is ever rising from 
 the boundless ocean of existence like vapour 
 from the sea, and returning back to the infinite 
 and eternal ocean of being like the raindrop to 
 the sea. Since this theory makes all phenomena 
 and being a part of the ever-realizing infinite, 
 the infinite realized, it destroys all distinction 
 between conduct and acts. Sin and virtue are 
 alike modes of the infinite, and alike in essence 
 and nature. And since all being and phenomena 
 are bound up in the Infinite, all freedom and 
 responsibility are impossible, and mere chimeras. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 II. Science and Philosophy in relation 
 TO Nature, or the Phenomena of 
 THE Universe. 
 
 [345] Science is an account of observed 
 phenomena of events in Nature ; it is, or should 
 be, confined to ascertained facts and their 
 classification ; but the explanation of, or ac- 
 counting for, all these regularities — called laws 
 — is in the higher province of philosophy, in 
 which the mind of man recognizes the mind of 
 God, whose Will dictates "laws" to Nature, 
 which laws man discovers and takes advantage 
 of. All this is, with the highest philosophy, 
 recognized in the following passages : — Prov. 
 viii. 22-30; Psa. cxlvii. 3-6: cxix. S9-91. No 
 science and no philosophy, ever surpassed or 
 will surpass this saying respecting Nature and 
 its elements ; " for all are Thy servants." — B. G. 
 
 32 
 
 NUMBER, A LINK BETWEEN 
 
 THE DIVINE INTELLIGENCE AND 
 
 HUMAN 
 
 I. Line of Argument. 
 
 I Number or numerical proportion enters 
 into the elements and processes of nature 
 and into human inventions. 
 
 [346] The case stands thus : Here is a law 
 involving certain properties of number, control- 
 ling all the matter with which man finds himself 
 surrounded ; in conformity to which law planets 
 are retained in their orbits, birds poise them- 
 selves in the air, ships fioat upon the water, and 
 man himself, together with all the structures of 
 his contrivance, is enabled to retain his footing 
 in repose, whilst the globe on which he stands 
 
 firm and upright is incessantly undergoing at 
 the least two revolutions of exceeding swiftness. 
 Now what conclusion can commend itself more 
 forcibly to man's reason than that the universal 
 action of this one law, itself in every case the 
 expression of a definite numerical proportion, 
 proves it to be the edict of one intelligent Law- 
 giver, acting on principles intelligible to man 
 himself? — Charles Girdlestone, M.A. 
 
 2 The capacity to calculate number and use 
 is special to man of all creatures in this 
 world. 
 
 [347] Leaving, then, man's moral nature out of 
 sight, and having in view only his intellectual 
 faculties, it is maintained that in this one of 
 them the'capacity to calculate Number, and to 
 apprehend its intimate connection witli a law 
 impressed on all things, there is manifested an 
 impassable gulf between man and all other 
 creatures in man's cognizance ; and that there 
 is manifested also a closely connecting link 
 between man's mind and the supposed Intelli- 
 gence by which all things have been ordered. 
 Whether we contemplate a Newton generalizing 
 the phenomena of gravitation, or a Somerville 
 deeply interested in a treatise on quaternions at 
 the close of her protracted life, or a child study- 
 ing the elementary problems of Euclid, algebra, 
 and arithmetic, we can hardly fail to discern 
 traces of a lineage quite alien to that of the 
 brute creation, and akin rather to that super- 
 human thinking Power to which the universe 
 owes its orderly and harmonious working, 
 always and everywhere alike. — Ibid. 
 
 3 Though humanity, like a worn coin, may 
 have lost some of the perfections of the 
 image traced on it, yet the superscription 
 remains in this capacity. 
 
 [348] Let them hear the voice of Number, if 
 they will listen to no other, telling them : Ye 
 are scions of a heaven-born race ; and though 
 every atom of your bodies be of the earth, 
 earthy, yet is there that within you which is 
 after the likeness of the Father of your spirits, 
 an inborn gift derived from Him, given to your 
 family, and to yours only, of all His creatures 
 here below, a trait of family resemblance 
 ineffaceable, however far you may have fallen 
 from your first high estate, and still answering, 
 however faintly in most of you, and imperfectly 
 in all, to the same faculty in Himself, even as 
 an impression corresponds, in a material ever 
 so inferior, with the seal impressing it. — Ibid. 
 
 4 As Number reaches through Nature, so it 
 extends through all human sciences, in- 
 eluding sociology. 
 
 [349] It has already been observed that man 
 stands alone in the known creation in appre- 
 hending Number. In that conscious intelligent 
 self, which each man feels that he truly is, he 
 readily apprehends, and has actually ascertained, 
 by discovery and proof, the modes in which 
 Number has been made use of in the ordering
 
 THE EriDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 349-353] 
 
 [number. 
 
 63 
 
 of the universe. And moreover, he is able to 
 make use of Number largely himself, in those 
 countless mechanical devices and constructions, 
 in which he takes a sort of creative interest ; 
 faint copyings of that creation by mere voli- 
 tion, to which all things, including man himself, 
 owe their being, as generally believed. Such 
 works of man are his pyramids, temples, and 
 palaces, his bridges and aqueducts, his ships, 
 steam-engines, and chronometers ; some of them 
 inert, some endowed by human skill with life- 
 like motion ; but all limited by the materials 
 and forces at his disposal, and, like his own 
 continuance in the present life, incapable of be- 
 coming perpetual. In all these productions of 
 man's art, Number ministers to man's uses, and 
 to his enjoyment ; as it does also in statues, in 
 pictures, and in poems ; the most remarkable 
 of the creations, as we call them, of man's 
 genius. 
 
 It is indeed a notable instance of the use of 
 Number in creation, that man is gifted with the 
 pou-er of using it for his own purposes ; and 
 this not only in his constructive works, but also 
 in the various doings and details of his life, civil, 
 social, and domestic. It is by Number that he 
 marks his hours, days, and years ; that he keeps 
 accounts, buys and sells, and carries on com- 
 merce in all quarters of the globe. National 
 finance, banking, insurances, joint-stock enter- 
 prize, all depend on man's calculations of Num- 
 ber. So does also the census of population, 
 and so do all statistics, as those of health and 
 sickness, of longevity and mortality. We are 
 measured for the clothes we wear, we regulate 
 by Number our food and our medicine, and the 
 intervals of time at which we take them. By 
 Number we tabulate the depth of the ocean, 
 the height of mountains, the length of rivers, 
 the miles of each journey, the leagues of each 
 voyage. By help of this same ever-serviceable 
 instrument we are able to date in order the 
 facts of our histories, and to refer to the multitu- 
 dinous volumes in our libraries, as well as to 
 the contents and pages of each. By the same 
 means we indicate the chapters and verses in 
 our Bible. — Ibid. 
 
 5 The capacity of Number indicates man's 
 relationship to God. 
 
 [350] Whether we scan the pages of that 
 sacred book, or glance over the columns of our 
 daily journal, that mirror of man's life, replete 
 with Number as it is throughout, we might do 
 well to ask ourselves such questions as the 
 following : How came I by this unique faculty 
 of numeration ; so observable in all the realms 
 of nature, so conformable to my own will in all 
 my works and doings? Is it of spontaneous 
 growth in my own brain ? Or can I have got it 
 by descent from creatures who had none of it, 
 under circumstances favourable to its develop- 
 ment ? Is it not infinitely more probable that 
 it came to me by heritage from a Being so 
 familiar with its use, alike in things great and 
 small, that He telleth the Number of the stars, 
 
 and by Him even the very hairs of my head are 
 all numbered ? Or if on looking at the things 
 seen, and pondering on their significance, we 
 knew no better than, like the Greeks of old, to 
 build our altar to " the unknown God," yet our 
 discernment of Number, invisible though it be, 
 pervading all His workmanship, and regulating 
 our doings also, would constrain us to adopt the 
 statement made by certain of the same favoured 
 race, that " we are His offspring." — Ibid. 
 
 II. Objections met. 
 
 1 The instinctive use of Number in inferior 
 creatures, is from no knowledge on their 
 part. 
 
 [351] Animals have no science of arithmetic, 
 algebra, geometry, or astronomy. — B. G. 
 
 [352] But further it may be objected that 
 traces of a sense of Number are to be met with 
 in the works of creatures far inferior to man, as 
 in the spider's web, and in the geometrical cell 
 of the bee. The latter singular phenomenon is 
 possibly to be accounted for by the existence of 
 an hexagonal lens in the bee's eyes. And these 
 as well as all cases of the nature of instinct are 
 facts similar to the distinctive angles of crystals, 
 and the distinctive number of stamens and 
 pistils in plants ; instances of the use of Num- 
 ber in the framing of nature, from which no 
 one would infer any relationship of a fatherly 
 character between the Maker of these things 
 and His works. No one of these creatures, it 
 may be safely averred, can either discern the pre- 
 sence of Number in things all around it, or use 
 the powers of Number in doing its own work. 
 The sagacious elephant is no astronomer ; the 
 clever monkey is no chemist. No bird can ac- 
 count by Number for its own sweet notes, nor 
 help itself with an inch measure in building its 
 nest, nor with an almanack in achieving its 
 periodical migrations. — Charles Girdlesto?ie, 
 M.A. 
 
 2 Though we cannot discern the reason for 
 every fixed numerical proportion in Nature, 
 we can discern incur capacity for Number, 
 our own relation to the Author of Nature. 
 
 [353] Thedistance of each planetary orbit from 
 the sun, as approximately stated in Bode's law, 
 the degrees of temperature at which water freezes 
 and boils under ordinary circumstances, and the 
 nature and proportion of the elements in the 
 blood of animals, are constants of a kind which 
 in this sense may be well termed arbitrary, as 
 as having been ordered by a Supreme Will, for 
 reasons beyond the scrutiny of man. Moreover, 
 the height and bulk assigned to different organic 
 beings, and as well as other elements of their 
 form and structure, appear to be constants of this 
 nature, within certain limits. And when we are 
 asked to conceive it possible that quadrupeds, 
 by dint of exertion and self-adaptation to circum- 
 stances, 'might in the course of long ages become 
 bipeds, a sound philosophy would agree with ex-
 
 64 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 353-362] 
 
 [primary belief. 
 
 perienceand religion in replying, that, on the con- 
 trary, even man, however superior in intelligence 
 he may be, cannot by any means so much as add 
 one cubit to his stature. If therefore without 
 prejudice we consult our own minds, and com- 
 pare what we think within us with what we see 
 around us, our reason leads us to adopt, as the 
 true solution of the problem proposed, the open- 
 ing statement of the earliest written record in 
 existence, " In the beginning God created the 
 heavens and the earth." And if we had no other 
 evidence besides the idea of Number, showing 
 the harmony between that Supreme Intelligence 
 and our own limited faculties, a sound philosophy 
 might bring us no less readily to the conclusion, 
 expressed by the words which occur soon after- 
 wards in the same ancient record : " God 
 created man in His own image." — Ibid. 
 
 III. The Wide Application of the 
 Argument. 
 
 1 The speciality and wide applicability of 
 
 this argument from man's power of dealing 
 with Number. 
 
 [354] This argument from " Number," as 
 appreciated by the special capacity of man, and 
 related to the Divine intelligence, is, at first 
 sight, not only original and striking, but may 
 even be described as startling. The more it is 
 considered, the profounder it will appear ; and 
 the variety of application and illustration of 
 which it is capable cannot but afford interest to 
 the thoughtful mind. 
 
 2 Its close relation to mind or human 
 intelligence. 
 
 [355] As speech, Logos, Word, is related to 
 reason or logic, so calculation is equally 
 related to the same : — I " reckon," deem, or 
 judge this or that, I " calculate," anticipate, or 
 infer such and such things, are forms of speech 
 which ally reckoning and numbers with mind or 
 reason. 
 
 3 Its relation to man's power, or capacity 
 of arranging and marshalling material 
 resources. 
 
 [356] Every buildmg, enterprise, or impor- 
 tant undertaking is dependent upon calculation 
 of time, numbers, proportions ; the size, weight, 
 strength, and general nature of the materials 
 to be combined and employed. 
 
 4 Its relation to man's foresight. 
 
 [357] To sit down and "count the cost" — 
 whether with so many thousand he is able to 
 cope with a force of such and such a number. 
 (St. Luke xiv. 28.) 
 
 5 Its relation to human expectations. 
 
 [358] "For I 7-echon that the sufferings of this 
 present time are not worthy to be compared 
 with the glory which shall be revealed in us " 
 (Rom. viii. 18). 
 
 6 Its relation to human responsibility. 
 
 [359] The Lord of those servants cometh and 
 reckoneth with them — counts up the talents, 
 means, and resources with which they were 
 entrusted and endowed. Refer to Matt, xviii. 
 24; XXV. 19. This "reckoning," "taking ac- 
 count," " rendering an account " of stewardship 
 connects the question of Number with the 
 responsibility of man to his Creator. — B. G. 
 
 33 
 
 PRIMARY BELIEF. 
 
 I. Its Nature and Tenets, 
 
 1 Belief in the supernatural, 
 
 (i) Primary belief transcends nature or mate- 
 rial phcnotnena and agencies. 
 
 [360] At the very foundation of their [the 
 Romans] religion there lay two profound ideas 
 rooted deep in every sound-hearted nature — 
 that the spirit of man is in close and conscious 
 relationship with the spirit of God, and that 
 underneath all phenomena there lies a super- 
 natural element. — Dr. MacGregor tJt Faiths of 
 the World. 
 
 2 Consciousness of God. 
 
 (i) Primary beliefs may be regarded as 
 intuitional or axiomatic. 
 
 [361] A consciousness of God is one of the 
 primary and fundamental intuitions of human 
 nature. Whence the conclusion follows, that 
 the belief in God to which it has given rise 
 among mankind is one of those primary beliefs 
 of the reason which underlie all logical proof, 
 and justify themselves by their existence. — 
 Brownlow Maitland, Theism or Agnosticism. 
 
 (2) Primary beliefs seen to have their roots 
 in human nature. 
 
 [362] We have before us ample evidence that 
 belief in God actually has that relation to the 
 human mind which we call instinctive or 
 intuitive, in that it springs up or roots itself 
 universally in the consciousness, and takes ever 
 firmer hold in proportion to the growth of man 
 in the higher characteristics of humanity. 
 Moreover, we find that, in seeking for a rational 
 ground for the belief, it is not along one line 
 only, but along four distinct and independent 
 lines that our minds advance to the assured 
 possession of it. From our own consciousness 
 of will we infer a supreme, originating Will ; of 
 intelligence, a supreme, constructing Mind; of 
 morality, a supreme righteous Lawgiver; of 
 spirituality, a supreme Father. Thus the 
 instinctive inference of a personal God is woven 
 of four separate strands ; the evidence is the 
 coincident testimony of four independent 
 witnesses ; the proof is the combination and
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 362-36 
 
 65 
 
 [primary belief. 
 
 consilience of four distinct lines of induction. 
 And our conclusion is, that belief in God rests 
 on as trustworthy and practically sure a founda- 
 tion as any of those primary instinctive beliefs 
 of the reason on which all mankind habitually 
 rely and act. — Ibid. 
 
 3 Monotheism. 
 
 (i) As shown 171 the struggle against poly- 
 theism even ivhen it ivas most rampatit. 
 
 [363] At a later date, when the polytheism 
 has become rampant, the monotheism is con- 
 scious, and asserts itself with an emphasis un- 
 known before. Take, for example, the famous 
 passage ascribed to Sophocles : 
 
 " There is in truth but One, One only God, 
 Who made both heaven and long-extended 
 
 earth, 
 And bright-faced swell of sea, and force of 
 winds." 
 
 Canon Raivlinson, Present-Day Tracts. 
 
 [364] The religious beliefs of the Semitic, 
 Aryan, and Turanian nations, the Cushite races, 
 the Egyptians, and the Chinese are surveyed, 
 and it is shown that, with one exception only, 
 monotheism, either avowed or latent, absolute 
 or qualified, is found everywhere underlying or 
 struggling with a prevailing polytheism, and is 
 found most distinctly and clearly present in the 
 earlier stages of religion. — Ibid. 
 
 (2) As shown in the names by which heathen 
 deities were designated. 
 
 [365] The one God thus confidently asserted 
 was identified by still later writers with the old 
 national God, Zeus (or Zen), " the Living One," 
 as they understood the word ; and long descrip- 
 tions were given of His nature and His rela- 
 tions toward man and the world. Aratus, the 
 poet whom St. Paul quoted at Athens (Acts 
 xvii. 28), said : 
 
 " With Zeus begin we — let no mortal voice 
 Leave Zeus unpraised. Zeus fills the haunts 
 
 of men, 
 The streets, the marts — Zeus fills the sea, the 
 
 shores, 
 The harbours, — everywhere we live in Zeus. 
 We are His offspring too ; friendly to man, 
 He gives prognostics ; sets men to their toil 
 By need of daily bread : tells when the land 
 Must be upturned by ploughshare or by spade; 
 What time to plant the oUve or the vine — 
 What time to fling on earth the golden grain. 
 For He it was who scattered o'er the sky 
 The shining stars, and fixed them where they 
 
 are — 
 Provided constellations through the year, 
 To mark the seasons in their changeless 
 
 course. 
 Wherefore men worship Him, the First, the 
 
 Last, 
 Their Father, Wonderful, their help and 
 
 shield."— /(J/r/. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 [366] The primary belief had its monuments 
 and remembrances in the very names given to 
 the recognized Divinity. Moreover, all the 
 names by which they designate the Divine 
 Nature, such as El, Eloh or Eloah, Adon, Baal 
 or Bel, Shaddai, Jehovah, Allah, Elohim, even 
 in the case where they are plural in form, imply 
 the idea of supreme and incommunicable 
 power, of absolute and perfect unity (" Histoire 
 des Langues Sdmitiques ")• El means "strong," 
 or " the strong one ; " Baal or Bel, " the Lord ; " 
 Baal Samin, " the Lord of heaven ; " Adonis (in 
 Phoenicia), "Lord;" Marnas (at Gaza), "our 
 Lord ; " Shet or Set, " Master ; " Moloch, Mil- 
 com, Malika, "King;" Eliun, "the Most 
 High;" Shaddai, "the Almighty;" Ram or 
 Rimmon, "the Exalted" (Max Muller, "Chips 
 from a German W^orkshop "). The fact that 
 these names are the oldest names expressive of 
 divinity in the Semitic languages, and the fur- 
 ther fact that, whatever corruption of religion 
 took place among the Semitic nations, these 
 names remained in use, were never parted with, 
 but passed on from generation to generation as 
 invaluable heirlooms, is strongly indicative of a 
 monotheistic conviction lying deep in the heart 
 of the race. — Ibid. 
 
 [367] The general tendency to religious belief 
 pointed to one supreme god. The highest god 
 received the same name in the ancient mytho- 
 logy of India, Greece, Italy, and Germany, and 
 retained that name whether worshipped on the 
 Himalayan mountains or among the oaks of 
 Dodona, on the Capitol or in the forests of Ger- 
 many. His name was Dyaus in Sanskrit, Zens 
 in Greek, yi^Tz/j- in Latin, Tin in German. These 
 names are not mere names ; they are historical 
 facts— ay, facts more immediate, more trust- 
 worthy, than many facts of mediaeval history. 
 These words are not mere words, but they bring 
 before us, with all the vividness of an event 
 which we witnessed ourselves but yesterday, the 
 ancestors of the w-hole Aryan race, thousands of 
 years, it may be, before Homer and the Veda, 
 worshipping an unseen Being, under the self- 
 same name, the best, the most exalted name 
 they could find in their vocabulary — under the 
 name of Light and Sky. 
 
 4 Belief in God as man's Teacher and Guide. 
 
 [368] Compare these Greek gods and their 
 worshippers with the deities in pristine America 
 and their worshippers. Study the noble prayers 
 of the Mexicans ; the simple yet splendid wor- 
 ship of the Peruvians ; the noble ideas of the 
 Great Spirit which pervaded even the humbler 
 tribes in North America ; and, above all, note 
 the high conception of the functions of a deity 
 which had been formed by the greatest people 
 in America — the Araucans. They maintained 
 that prayer was needless, because their gods 
 were so beneficent that they were sure to con- 
 fer upon man all things that it was good for him 
 to have. At the same time the Araucans showed 
 their gratitude for this goodness by humble 
 offerings, never touching life.
 
 66 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 368-374] 
 
 [primary belief. 
 
 Then, again, look at India. As far as one 
 can understand Buddhism, it may be a religion 
 of little hope, but there is no meanness in it. — 
 A. Helps. 
 
 [369] Our thesis, that man naturally considers 
 God as his teacher and guide, is capable of 
 almost endless illustration. We see it most 
 simply, perhaps, in the revelations -which men 
 have ' drawn from the external nature, from 
 signs and omens and sacrifices, from oracles and 
 divinations ; we find it taking another shape in 
 the belief in incarnations of the deity, and the 
 help afforded by gods and sons of gods come 
 down in the likeness of men ; and, lastly, we 
 perceive it in its most powerful and permanent 
 form, in the inspiration attributed to particular 
 books and writings. — Prebendary lVordszo'or//i, 
 Banipton Lectures. 
 
 5 Belief in immortality. 
 
 (i) Primary beliefs trajiscended incut al life 
 and stretched toward eternity. 
 
 [370] By the exercise of the power of reason, 
 the wisest among the heathens discovered that 
 there was ground for men to have expectations 
 beyond this life. They saw plainly that them- 
 selves, and all things that fell under their 
 observation, were dependent beings on the will 
 and power of Him who formed them ; and 
 when they sought to find Him, they were led by 
 a necessary chain of reasoning to the acknow- 
 ledgment of a supreme, independent, intelligent 
 Being. They saw in every part of the creation 
 evident marks of His power, wisdom, and good- 
 ness : they discerned that all the inanimate 
 parts of the world acted perpetually in submis- 
 sion to the law of their creation ; the sun and 
 all the host of heaven were constant to their 
 courses ; and in every other part, the powers of 
 nature were duly and regularly exerted for the 
 preservation of the present system : among 
 men only they found disorder and confusion. 
 That they had reason was plain ; that they 
 were intended to live according to reason could 
 not be doubted ; and yet they saw virtue often 
 distressed and abandoned to all the evils of 
 life, vice triumphant, and the world everywhere 
 subject to the violence of pride and ambition. 
 How to account for this they knew not : this 
 only they could observe, that man was endowed 
 with a freedom in acting, which the other beings 
 of the lower world wanted ; and to this they 
 rightly ascribed the disorders to be found in 
 this part of the creation. But though this 
 accounted for the growth of evil, yet it rendered 
 no account of the justice or goodness of God in 
 permitting vice oftentimes to reign here in glory, 
 whilst virtue suffered in distress. On these 
 considerations they concluded that there must 
 be another state after this, in which all the 
 present inequalities in the administration of 
 providence should be set right, and every man 
 receive according to his works. — Bp. Sherlock, 
 1678-1761. 
 
 II. Its Ixfluenxe. 
 
 1 Primary belief the foundation of the best 
 elements of progress and civilization. 
 
 [371] Those three great primary beliefs, com- 
 mon to all men, to which reference has so often 
 been made, the beliefs in our own self, the selves 
 of our fellow-men, and the physical universe, of 
 which no logical basis can be predicated, when 
 tried by the test of their practical working come 
 triumphantly out of the ordeal. On them are 
 built the entire culture of humanity, the mag- 
 nificent structure of science, the domestic, poli- 
 tical, and social relations of mankind. Without 
 them human life would be impossible. On 
 metaphysicalscepticism, however logical, nothing 
 can be built : in it neither knowledge, nor duty, 
 nor love can find a resting-place ; it begins and 
 ends in the mists and phantoms of unreality. I 
 am : my fellow- men are : the universe is : these 
 are the three fundamental articles of the charta 
 of humanity and civilization. 
 
 Let belief in God the Father Almighty stand 
 the same test of practical working, and beside 
 this great Triad it may without challenge take its 
 place on equal terms. — Brownlow Maitland, 
 Theism or Agnosticism. 
 
 III. Relation to Christian Truth. 
 
 1 Priniary beliefs anticipated some of the 
 leading truths of revelation. 
 
 [372] But with all its defects and idolatries the 
 religion of Egypt gave forth more scintillations 
 of what we have been taught by revelation to 
 regard as truth than any other of the ancient 
 faiths. Its teachings as to the formation of 
 man ; its affirmations concerning death and 
 judgment ; its anticipation of what Christianity 
 has made clear regarding the unity of man's 
 complex nature and the sanctity of his body ; 
 its glimmering light thrown on immortality and 
 resurrection — raise it above other ancient his- 
 toric religions, and go far to warrant a belief 
 that it originated in a primeval revelation. — Dr. 
 Dodds in Faiths of the World. 
 
 [373] The best features of the Eg>'ptian faith 
 reappear in the Books of Moses. There are 
 golden grains of Divine truth to be gathered still 
 from the mummies and monuments of Egypt. 
 The more we study this ancient faith, the more 
 clearly we come to see that God never left Him- 
 self without a witness to man ; and that, in some 
 measure at least, the religion of the Egyptians, 
 like the law given by Moses, was a shadow ol 
 things to come. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Primary beliefs, restored fully by Christi- 
 
 anity, were embedded in the Platonic 
 philosophy. 
 
 _ [374] There was a near and most friendly rela- 
 tion to Christian truth in the eminently j//;///m/ 
 character of Plato's philosophy. No ancient 
 writer equals him in this. "The soul," he says, 
 " is come from heaven, but the body is earth- 
 born, and so the soul is the divinestpart of man,
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERAI.LY. 
 
 374-38 
 
 [religious instincts. 
 
 67 
 
 and to be honoured next to God ; nor does man 
 honour his soul when he sells her glory for gold ; 
 for not all the gold in the world is to be com- 
 pared with the soul. But a man can honour his 
 soul only by making her better." Such a spiri- 
 tual philosophy can alone establish a real basis 
 for a spiritual religion. Recognizing the primary 
 conceptions of revelation — God, virtue, immor- 
 tality — in the facts of consciousness, as the 
 intuitive faiths of the soul, it finds man able to 
 apprehend and receive the positive truths of 
 Christianity. Hence the strong attraction that 
 Platonism has had for so many and so good men 
 in the Church, from the days of Origen and 
 Augustine until now. Hence, too, in every great 
 epoch of conflict between Christian faith and 
 error, Plato has reappeared, and in alliance with 
 what is noblest and best in Christian thought 
 and action. And at the present day, when men 
 would resolve all vitality into material force, all 
 thought into cerebration, and all mind into 
 matter, a new infusion of Plato's ideal thought 
 seems needed to preserve the equilibrium be- 
 tween physical and spiritual truth. 
 
 We find a still nearer relation to Christian 
 truth in the spirit and substance of Plato's 
 ethical teaching. The sole end of his specula- 
 tion, however high or far he pushed his in- 
 quiries, was to see and possess those immutable 
 ideas of moral being which might bring man 
 into likeness to God, and his disordered life 
 into harmony with the Divine government. 
 But when we pass from the ethical to the reli- 
 gious thought of Plato, his philosophy is seen to 
 be, at best, only preparatory to Christianity. 
 
 3 Christianity the necessary complement of 
 natural religion. 
 
 [375] Christianityis a structure of mingled /z/j- 
 torical facts and moral and religions truths. The 
 Christian religion stands upon a basis, like all 
 other religions, oi primary belief. But it is im- 
 possible to separate the distinctively Christian 
 elements from those which, while they may 
 appear elsewhere, have, in the Christian system, 
 their special significance. It is not correct to 
 say that the doctrines and facts which distin- 
 guish Christianity rest upon a foundation of 
 " natural religion" i.e., in such a sense that 
 they are only supplementary to it. Rather they 
 are the necessary complement to that which can 
 be learnt from "the constitution and course of 
 the world." They are the true manifestation of 
 the mind and will of the Creator. The revela- 
 tion which claims acknowledgment in the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old and New Testament takes up 
 into itself all other revelations as subordinate 
 and preparatory, leading on to that which does 
 not, properly speaking, stipersede them, but 
 explains, fulfils, and glorifies them. This may 
 be illustrated by the analogy of the development 
 of the individual human being. Manhood is 
 neither a mere supplement to childhood, nor is 
 it a mere outcome of that which was already 
 given in early life. We explain the child by the 
 man, and not the man by the child. We under- 
 
 stand God's revelation in the physical universe, 
 and in the human mind and conscience, only 
 when we look into the face of '■'' God manifest 
 in the flesh." — R. A. Bedford, The Christiaifs 
 Plea. 
 
 IV. Unbelief Unnatural. 
 
 [376] Neither belief nor disbelief on these sub- 
 jects exists amongst animals, who, as having no 
 religious nature, are not guilty, nor even capable, 
 of atheism, which is a perverted condition of 
 man's religious capacity, and could not exist 
 without it, and ought not logically to exist with 
 it. 
 
 As immorality, of which animals are incap- 
 able, is at once a sign and perversion of man's 
 moral nature, so infidelity, atheism, disbelief, or 
 contradiction of religion, is at once a sign and 
 perversion of man's distinctive religious nature. 
 —B.G. 
 
 34 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTINCTS. 
 
 I. Their Existence. 
 
 [377] The Primary Behefs noted in the pre- 
 ceding section spring from religious instincts,, 
 or rest on self-evident truths. 
 
 [378] Religion is of a character not unanaio- 
 gous with music ; that is to say, it is an instinct, 
 or intuition — not the result of a theory or of a 
 logical process. As an instinct or intuition k 
 may be, like the taste for music, possessed in 
 a greater or less degree by all, but by some 
 much more strongly than by others. — C. F. 
 Keary, Early Religious Development [Nineteenth 
 Century). 
 
 [379] Religion, like morals and physics, has 
 first truths, which are incapable of h€\ng derived 
 from anything more certain than themselves — 
 which the human mind, at a particular point 
 of its development, invariably recognizes, and 
 the intuition of which is a direct result of its 
 highest activities.— 7«w^J Martineau. 
 
 II. Their Origin. 
 
 I Religious life, like natural, is guided by 
 instinctive beliefs and intuitions. 
 
 [3S0] All this life, this reality, rest on know- 
 ledge which is prior to logical processes, and 
 is obtained through our consciousness. W^e do 
 not reason it out ; it comes to us, and we possess 
 it and live by it. We trust our intuitions, our 
 perceptions, our experience ; that is the secret 
 of our practical, our human life. In the sphere 
 of this life the question, " Can you prove de- 
 monstratively the grounds on which you act ?" 
 turns out to be an idle one. Were we to wai'
 
 68 
 
 380-386] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [the soul and future state. 
 
 till we could answer it in the affirmative, death 
 would overtake us before we had begun to live. 
 The bearing of the foregoing discussion on 
 the momentous problem before us, the possi- 
 bility of our ever arriving at a sufficient and 
 practical knowledge of God, is too close to need 
 many words in explanation of it. We confessed 
 that we could not demonstrate God logically ; 
 and the rejoinder was, " Then give up the expect- 
 ation of knowing Him at all." Nay, we reply, 
 we are something higher and better than logical 
 machines, which can do nothing but grind out 
 demonstrations, or else rust in the ignorance of 
 scepticism. We are human beings who have 
 other inlets of knowledge than the logical under- 
 standing, and who certainly know more than 
 we can rigorously T^roxt.-^Broivnloiu Alaitland, 
 Theism or Agnosticism. 
 
 2 Our moral nature encourages our religious 
 
 instincts. 
 
 [381] The primary witness to Him is in your- 
 selves ; in your sense of personality and free 
 will, in your conviction of the awful sacredness 
 of right and duty, in the voice of your conscience, 
 in the solemn haunting feeling of your responsi- 
 bility, in the yearning of your souls for the 
 perfect Goodness, in the thrill of sacred emotion 
 which in your best moments is stirred within 
 you by the voice which claims to come from 
 heaven. — Browtilow Maitland, Steps to Faith. 
 
 III. Their Expression. 
 
 I Prayer is one of man's religious instincts. 
 
 [382] Among the moral instincts of humanity, 
 none is more natural, more universal, or more 
 insuperable than prayer. The infant readily 
 learns to pray : the old man has recourse to 
 prayer as his refuge amid the solitude of his 
 declining years. Prayer comes instinctively to 
 the young lips which can scarce pronounce the 
 name of God, and to the dying lips which have 
 no longer strength to pronounce it. Among all 
 nations, unknown and well known, barbarous 
 and civilized, one meets at every step the facts 
 and formulas of prayer. Wherever man is 
 found, in certain circumstances and at certain 
 hours, under the influence of certain spiritual 
 instincts, the eyes are raised, the hands are 
 clasped, the knees are bent, for the purpose of 
 prayer or thanksgiving, adoration or suppli- 
 cation. — Giiizot, LEglise et la Societe Chre- 
 tienne. {Tr. J. S.) 
 
 [383] Tennyson has written some beautiful 
 things about prayer. In his " Harold " he 
 makes Edith say — 
 
 "God help me ! I know nothing— can but 
 
 pray 
 For Harold — pray, pray, pray — no help but 
 
 prayer, 
 A breath that fleets beyond this iron world, 
 And touches Him that made it.'' 
 
 2 Man has an instinctive longing for the 
 sympathy of an infinite Father. 
 
 [384] Why should it be thought a thing in- 
 credible that God should write in the book of 
 our being a record of our childhood and our 
 need of a Father ? Shall the needle turn to the 
 north? shall the heliotrope follow the sun? and 
 shall the heart of man have no centre where it 
 may rest in safety and peace ? Like the tidal 
 marks found in the lowest rocks, there are 
 records even in the stony heart of how high 
 religious emotions may at one time have risen. 
 — Rev. R. Mitchell^ Fatherhood of God. 
 
 [3S5] In all lies a restless sighing for the know- 
 ledge and worship of God. For, like as children, 
 separated from their mother's arms, experience 
 an indescribable yearning after her, stretch out 
 their hands towards the absent one, dream of 
 her ; so men who feel themselves alien to God 
 are ever striving after fellowship with God. 
 — Chrysostom. 
 
 35 
 
 THE SOUL AND FUTURE STATE. 
 
 I. Ideas apart from Revelation. 
 
 I The natural desire for, and conception of 
 a future life as seen even in the rudest 
 nations. 
 
 (i) Ideas of rtide nations generally. 
 
 [386] " If a man die, shall he live again?" is a 
 question which has naturally agitated the heart 
 and stimulated the intellectual curiosity of man, 
 wherever he has risen above a state of bar- 
 barism, and commenced to exercise his intellect 
 at all. Without such a belief, Ma.x Miiller well 
 says, " religion surely is like an arch resting on 
 one pillar, like a bridge ending in an abyss." 
 It is very gratifying, therefore, to the behever, 
 and a fact worthy of notice, that the affirmative 
 on this question is assumed more or less by all 
 the nations of earth, so far as our information 
 reaches at the present day, although, it is true, 
 their views often assume very vague and even 
 materialistic forms. 
 
 We concede that the views of most rude 
 heathen nations, both ancient and modern, 
 respecting the state of man after death are 
 indeed dark and obscure, as well as their 
 notions respecting the nature of the soul itself, 
 which some of them regard as a kind of aerial 
 substance, resembling the body, though of a 
 finer material. Still it is found that the greater 
 part of mankind, even of those who are entirely 
 uncultivated, though they may be incapable of 
 the higher philosophical idea of the personal 
 immortality of the soul, are yet inclined to 
 believe at least that the soul survives the body, 
 and continues either for ever, or at least for a 
 very long time. This faith seems to rest in 
 uncultivated nations, or, better perhaps, races
 
 386-392] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 69 
 
 [the soul and futuee state. 
 
 (i) upon the love of life, which is deeply planted 
 in the human breast, and leads to the wish and 
 hope that life will be continued even beyond the 
 grave ; (2) upon traditions transmitted from their 
 ancestors ; (3) upon dreams, in which the dead 
 appear speaking or acting, and thus confirming 
 both wishes and traditions. 
 
 (2) Ideas 0/ Greenlanders. 
 
 [387] The Greenlander believes that when a 
 man dies he travels to Torngarsuk, the land 
 where reigns perpetual summer, all sunshine, 
 and no night ; where there is good water, and 
 birds, fish, seals, and reindeer without end, that 
 are to be caught without trouble, or are found 
 cooking alive in a huge kettle. 
 
 In fact ideas of the future life are taken from 
 the defects or advantages of climate. 
 
 2 The natural desire for, and conception of, a 
 future life as seen in more refined nations. 
 
 (i) Ideas of Chinese. 
 
 [388] While it is true that Confucius himself 
 did not expressly teach the immortality of the 
 soul, nay, that he rather purposely seems to 
 have avoided entering upon tliis subject at all, 
 taking it most probably like jNIoses, as we shall 
 see below, simply for granted, it is nevertheless 
 implied in the worship which the Chinese pay to 
 their ancestors. Another evidence, it seems to 
 us, is given by the absence of the word death 
 from the writings of Confucius. When a person 
 dies, the Chinese say, " he has returned to his 
 family." 
 
 (2) Ideas of Persiatts. 
 
 [389] In the religion of the Persians, also, at 
 least since, if not previous to the time of Zoro- 
 aster, a prominent part is assignad to the exist- 
 ence of a future world, with its governing spirits. 
 •' Under Ormuz and Ahriman there are ranged 
 regular hierarchies of spirits engaged in a per- 
 petual conflict ; and the soul passes into the 
 kingdom of light or of darkness, over which 
 these spirits respectively preside, according as 
 it has lived on the earth well or ill. Whoever 
 has lived in purity, and has not suffered the divs 
 (evil spirits) to have any power over him, passes 
 after death into the realms of light." 
 
 (3) Ideas of Greeks. 
 
 [390] Wherever pagan thought and pagan 
 morality reach the highest perfection, we find 
 their ideas of the immortality of the soul gradu- 
 ally approaching the Christian views. The first 
 trace of a belief in a future existence we find 
 in Homer's '' Iliad," where he represents that 
 Achilles first became convinced that souls and 
 shadowy forms have a real existence in the 
 kingdom of the shades (Hades) by the appear- 
 ance to him of the dead Patroclus in a dream. 
 These visions were often regarded as Divine by 
 the Greeks. But while in the early Greek 
 paganism the idea of the future is everywhere 
 melancholic— Hades, or the realms of the dead, 
 
 being to their imagination the emblem of gloom, 
 as may be seen from the following : " Achilles, 
 the ideal hero, declares that he would rather till 
 the ground than live in pale Elysium "—we find 
 that, with the progress of Hellenic thought, a 
 higher idea of the future is found to characterize 
 both the poetry and philosophy of Greece, till, 
 in the Platonic Socrates, the conception of im- 
 mortality shines forth with a clearness and 
 precision truly impressive. " For we must 
 remember, O men," said Socrates, in his last 
 speech, before he drained the poison cup, "that 
 it depends upon the immortality of the soul 
 whether we have to live to it and to care for it 
 or not. For the danger seems fearfully great of 
 not caring for it. Yea, were death to be the end 
 of all, it would be truly a fortunate thing for the 
 wicked to get rid of their body, and, at the same 
 time, of their wickedness. But now, since the 
 soul shows itself to us immortal, there can be 
 for it no refuge from evil, and no other salvation, 
 than to become as good and intelligible as, 
 possible." More clearly are his views set forth 
 in the "Apology" and the "Pha8do,"in language 
 at once rich in faith and in beauty. "The soul, 
 the immaterial part,being of a nature so superior 
 to the body, can it," he asks in the"Phfedo," 
 " as soon as it is separated from the body, be 
 dispersed into nothing and perish ? Oh, far 
 otherwise. Rather will this be the result. If it 
 take its departure in a state of purity, not carr)'- 
 ing with it any clinging impurities of the body, 
 impurities which during life it never willingly 
 shared in, but always avoided, gathering itself 
 into itself, and making the separation from the- 
 body its aim and study — that is, devoting itself 
 to true philosophy, and studying how to die 
 calmly ; for this is true philosophy, is it not? — 
 well, then, so prepared, the soul departs into 
 that invisible region which is of its own nature, 
 the region of the Divine, the immortal, the wise, 
 and then its lot is to be happy in a state in 
 which it is freed from fears and wild desires, 
 and the other evils of humanity, and spends the 
 rest of its existence with the gods." This view, 
 or better, doctrine of the immortality of the soul, 
 held by Socrates and his disciple Plato, imphed 
 a double immortality, the past eternity as well 
 as that to come. They certainly offer a very 
 striking contrast to the popular superstitions 
 and philosophy of their day, which in many 
 respects recall the views held by the Hindus. 
 
 II. Teaching of Holy Scripture. 
 
 [391] The future state of the soul, as inde- 
 pendent of present material conditions, is not 
 only instinctively held by ruder and refined 
 nations, but is involved and directly taught in 
 the Christian revelation. — B. G. 
 
 [392] Such materialistic theories are also met 
 by instinctive feeling and by weighty evidence. 
 
 (i) There is a voice within every one that 
 speaks the universal language, ^^ Non omnis 
 inoriarf and that which tells of a future in- 
 corporeal existence of the Ego tells also that the
 
 70 
 
 392-3? 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [uniformity of nature. 
 
 Ego of the present must be something more 
 than that which chemical affinities will shortly 
 dissolve and dissipate. 
 
 (2) There is evidence, too, that the mental 
 faculty can retain its full power and capacity for 
 action when the body is so battered and muti- 
 lated that scarcely any other trace of life is 
 observable, and even after severe injuries and 
 consequent disorganization of the brain itself. 
 
 (3) The few but weighty testimonies of Holy 
 Scripture to the separate existence of the soul 
 are beyond the reach of confutation, and can 
 only be met by aiiy contradictions ; especially 
 the most weighty of all, the testimony of our 
 Lord's own death and resurrection ; the separa- 
 tion, that is, and the reunion of His body and 
 His soul. (Death and Resurrection of Christ.) 
 
 (4) Nor, lastly, must it be overlooked that the 
 vhole moral teaching of Holy Scripture, of the 
 Christian Church, and of all shades of theism, is 
 founded on the idea of a conscious and respon- 
 sible soul. — Rev. J. H. Blunt. 
 
 III. Views of the Early Church. 
 
 [393] In the early Christian Church the views 
 on the immortality of the soul were verj' varied. 
 There were none that actually denied, far from 
 it, nor even any that doubted its possibility. 
 Ekit some of them, e.g., Justin, Tatian, and 
 Theophilus, on various grounds, supposed that 
 the soul, though mortal in itself, or at least in- 
 different in relation to mortality or immortality, 
 eitheracquires immortality asa promised reward, 
 by its union with the spirit and the right use of 
 its liberty, or, in the opposite case, perishes with 
 the body. They were led to this view partly 
 because they laid so much stress on freedom, 
 and because they thought that likeness to God 
 ■was to be obtained only by this freedom, and 
 partly, too, because they supposed (according to 
 the trichotomistic division of human nature) 
 that the soul (■•pvxii) receives the seeds of im- 
 mortal life only by the union with the spirit 
 (iri'evna), as the higher and free life of reason. 
 
 36 
 
 UNIFORMITY OF NATURE. 
 I. Nature is not Supreme. 
 
 I Nature itself a miracle and gives way to 
 other miracles. 
 
 [394] Some men worship Nature as if it were 
 God, and think there is nothing higher than the 
 bodies that we wear and the earth in which we 
 live, and they are quite satisfied with tracing 
 the existence of the world and all its inhabitants 
 back again to some little germ of the ascidia, 
 and passing by slow degrees of progress until it 
 becomes a man. If miracles be true, the laws 
 of nature are not the highest powers in the world, 
 but that power which brought the world into 
 
 existence continues still, and has acted on the 
 theatre of the world itself in these various ways 
 which we call miracles. The important question 
 which men are discussing. Is Nature supreme .' 
 is answered by the miracles. Nature is 7iot 
 supreme. God holds the Key of Nature, and 
 God can overrule the powers of nature just as 
 He pleases. — Rev. W. Anderson, Scripture 
 ^Miracles and Modern Scepticism. 
 
 II. It does not prevent Human Im- 
 provements IN Natural Conditions. 
 
 [395] Theuniformityof nature, itself a miracle, 
 gives way to other miracles which break that 
 uniformity and give signs of the Divine monarchy 
 over nature. — B. G. 
 
 [396] The will of man has accomplished most 
 wonderful changes in the history of the world. 
 It has made rain fall where rain never fell before, 
 where man has planted trees ; it has made seas 
 drj' land, and turned dry land into seas ; and 
 the whole of the condition of the world at the 
 present moment, compared with what it was two 
 thousand or four thousand years ago, and the 
 greater part of what we call civilization, have 
 been the result of changes produced on the face 
 of nature by the will of man. 
 
 But did the laws of nature, of whose immuta- 
 bility we hear so much, place any impediment 
 in the way of man's will.'' Far from it. It is 
 only by learning the laws of nature in the first 
 instance and following them that man has learnt 
 to subdue nature, and all those changes which 
 man has made on the face of the world have 
 arisen from the knowledge which has been 
 gained of nature's laws and through man's will to 
 put these to such uses as man's wants may sug- 
 gest. Has God, think you, less power over the 
 laws of nature than man.' — Rev. IV. Atiderson, 
 Scripture Miracles and Modern Scepticism. 
 
 [397] The uniformity of nature does not pre- 
 vent human improvements in natural conditions 
 after the pattern of the Divine government. — 
 B. G. 
 
 III. Nature does not satisfy ]\Ian's 
 Religious Instincts. 
 
 I Nature in its mere uniformity of physical 
 laws, no proper object of love, trust, or 
 adoration. 
 
 [398] Ancient phrases of piety tell me to 
 reverence the laws of nature ! I am not an 
 idolator to worship what is below me. These 
 things bring me suffering, and are not sorry ; 
 or relief, and feel no joy : they whirl and grind 
 away, weaving my fortune if I am circumspect 
 and sharp ; or, if my heedless cloak should 
 touch their shaft, picking me up and crushing 
 every bone. For their own sakes, the laws of 
 nature can be the objects of no solemn love, of 
 no moral reliance, but only of fear, of calcula- 
 tion, of helpless submission ; and not till they 
 are regarded as the finite usages of an infinite
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 71 
 
 398—403] 
 
 [uniformity of nature. 
 
 Mind, deep in holiness and beauty which they 
 cannot express, will any true devotion mingle 
 with the thought. — James I\Iartincati. 
 
 [399] It is only when nature is regarded as 
 the work of God, and temporal calamities are 
 seen to be overruled by Divine Wisdom for our 
 eternal good, that man is reconciled to nature. 
 —B. G. 
 
 2 Nature, as merely ruled by material forces, 
 is pitiless, and its uniformity sometimes 
 seems to be cruel. 
 
 [400] Man shudders before nature's remorse- 
 less insensibility. He notices how little she 
 makes of the dead, and how little she cares for 
 the living — how she mocks at and trifles with 
 sensibility and with life. An earthquake swal- 
 lows up tens of thousands of living men. The 
 jaws of the gulf that opened to receive them 
 swing back to their place, and forthwith flowers 
 adorn the ghastly seam, as if in mockery of the 
 dead who are buried beneath. A great ship 
 founders in the ocean, freighted with a thousand 
 living souls. As they go down they raise one 
 shriek of anguish that it would seem should 
 rend the sky. But the cry is over, and the 
 waters roll over the place as smoothly as though 
 those thousand lives were not sleeping in death 
 below. Of another life there are no tidings and 
 few suggestions, a possibility, or perhaps a prob- 
 ability, but no hope. — Rev. Noah Porter, D.D. 
 
 [401] The deriders of God and adorers of 
 what they call Nature, are often abusers of 
 their chosen idol ; and speak in melancholy 
 bitterness, in a hopeless, despairing way, of 
 Nature's " red beak and claws " that peck and 
 tear the heart of humanity. — B. G. 
 
 IV. Laws of Nature allow of no false 
 Liberty with Impunity. 
 
 [402] Do the laws of nature allow of free 
 thought ? Do these laws allow men to make 
 mistakes concerning any of the facts of nature ? 
 Try and see. Let any man think wrongly of 
 the forces of nature, and let him see what 
 nature will do. Let him freely think that fire 
 does not burn, or that water does not drown ; 
 let him think that fever is not infectious, or that 
 ventilation is unhealthy ; let him think wrong- 
 
 fully concerning any other law of nature, and, 
 whichever he transgresses and sets at naught, 
 he will find himself visited by a sharp and 
 merciless punishment. Those who talk about 
 appealing from Christianity to the beneficent 
 laws of nature, forget the fact that there are 
 no laws so merciless, so utterly unforgiving — ay, 
 and so utterly regardless of the circumstances 
 whether a man has transgressed ignorantly or 
 purposely. As to the laws of nature, he who 
 transgresses ignorantly and he who transgresses 
 wilfully are alike beaten with many stripes. 
 The great machinery of the world will not arrest 
 its revolutions for the cry of a human creature 
 who, by a very innocent error, by the mistaken 
 action of his free thought, is being ground to 
 pieces beneath them ; slowly, surely, relent- 
 lessly, eternally it moves on ; oppose it in your 
 free thought, and it will grind you to powder. — 
 Bp. Magce. 
 
 I Necessity for man obeying these laws. 
 
 [403] These ill-consequences, at times these 
 fatal consequences, which arise from ignorance 
 respecting the laws of nature, seem to be in- 
 tended to teach mankind the necessity of search- 
 ing after scientific truth. And this necessity is 
 one which never ceases to exist. It is felt by 
 the savage when he constructs his cross-bow, 
 when he builds his rough canoe, or when he 
 manufactures his tomahawk. It is felt, too, as 
 civilization advances and population increases ; 
 when seas have to be traversed ; when tunnels 
 have to be bored ; in fine, without a knowledge 
 of scientific truth the world would come almost 
 to a standstill. The system of rewards and 
 punishments in the Book of Nature has led 
 mankind to go down into the depths and up 
 into the heights, to discover the laws of nature, 
 and has impressed upon every reasonable mind 
 the importance of a right scientific creed. 
 Never more than at the present time were the 
 due claims of science felt and recognized. We 
 have professors of science, halls of science, and 
 men of science in every department of human 
 industry and of human enterprise. And rightly 
 so. For is it not requisite for personal ease, 
 domestic comfort, commercial success, national 
 prosperity, yea, even for the very existence of 
 society, that' we should adopt, as far as possible, 
 sound, just, and comprehensive views of nature 
 and of science .'' — C. N.
 
 DIVISION C 
 
 {Continued). 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION 
 GENERALLY. 
 
 [2] PROOFS OF THE DIVINE EXISTENCE. 
 
 Pages 73 to 93. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 37 
 ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 38 
 A POSTERIORI AND A PRIORI ARGUMENTS. 
 
 39 
 COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 40 
 ETHICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 41 
 
 HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 42 
 ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 43 
 
 PSYCPIOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 44 
 
 PHVSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 45 
 PROVIDENTIAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 72
 
 CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROOFS OF THE DIVINE EXISTENCE. 
 
 DEPARTMENT 
 OF IDEAS 
 SURVEYED, 
 
 PHENOMENA 
 DEALT 
 WITH. 
 
 METHOD OF ARGUMENT. 
 
 KENCE 
 TO 
 CLE. 
 
 technical NAME. 
 
 POPULAR DESCRIPTION. 
 
 W O H 
 * Z cd 
 
 W <; 
 
 Concrete ( 
 
 MENTAL j 
 
 AND 
 MORAL 
 
 V 
 
 ANTHROPOLOGICAL 
 
 Psychological 
 
 Ethical 
 
 Historical 
 
 Providential 
 
 From the constitution of human nature 
 and facts of human history 
 
 From the phenomena of the soul viewed 
 apart from abstract reasoning 
 
 From nature and the moral world 
 
 From the consent of mankind as testi- 
 fied in the facts of human history 
 
 From the moral government among 
 mankind 
 
 37 
 
 43 
 40 
 
 41 
 45 
 
 MATERIAL 
 
 AND -l 
 PHYSICAL 
 
 COSMOLOGICAL 
 
 PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL ' 
 
 OR 1 
 
 TELEOLOGICAL 1 
 
 From the principle of causation. From 
 considerations about the First Cause. 
 
 From the evidences of intelligence and 
 wisdom in the universe. From con- 
 siderations about design and final 
 causes 
 
 39 
 
 44 
 
 Abstract • 
 
 MENTAL [ 
 AND 
 IDEAL. 
 
 ONTOLOGICAL [ 
 
 OR i 
 
 METAPHYSICAL ( 
 
 Fro*::! the thoughts of the mind, sub- 
 jected to the principles of logic, 
 analysis-, &c 
 
 1 
 
 42 
 
 73
 
 74 
 
 DIVISION C 
 
 (Coutimtcd), 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [2] PROOFS OF THE DIVINE EXISTENCE. 
 
 37 
 
 ANTHROPOL GICAL AR G UMENT. 
 
 I. Definition of Term. 
 
 [404] Anthropology (Gr. avOpwiroQ, man, 
 and Xfynv, to say, to speak), the science of man, 
 considered in his entire nature, as composed of 
 body and soul, and as subject to various modi- 
 fications from sex, temperament, race, civiliza- 
 tion. It is distinguished from psycholo^^y, which 
 is the science of the phenomena of the soul. 
 
 [405] The argument called anthropological 
 is from its subject matter, namely, man ; the 
 reasonings and inferences being founded on the 
 facts of man's nature and experiences. 
 
 II. Nature of the Argument. 
 
 [406] By this method we reason from the 
 constitution of human nature, and the facts of 
 human history, to the existence of God. 
 
 III. The Basis upon which the Argu- 
 ment RESTS. 
 
 I The facts of human nature, its beliefs, 
 consciousness, and common consent, his- 
 torically developed, point to the Divine 
 existence. 
 
 [407] We are content to rest upon the simple 
 result which we have already indicated, viz., 
 that this widespread and almost universal con- 
 sent does raise a strong presumption in favour 
 of the blessed truth to which it bears its 
 strangely accordant testimony. It does at least 
 throw a vast responsibility on the maintenance 
 of the contrary opinion ; it does call upon every 
 earnest searcher after truth to go forward and 
 honestly to test the other considerations which 
 are alleged to bring the belief in a personal 
 God still more home to us, and to try, fully and 
 fairly, the reality of the strength of that pre- 
 sumption to which we have already arrived. — 
 Bp. EUicoit, The Being of Cod. 
 
 [40S] Many are wandering ; many have 
 given up their first faith ; many are sadly asking 
 whether they have really a Father in heaven, 
 or whether all is a delusion and a dream. 
 
 To all such let us delay not in giving help 
 
 and guidance. Let us endeavour to lead them, 
 even by the poor broken lights of History, 
 Nature, and Humanity, back again into the 
 homeward path, and revive the blessed convic- 
 tion, never perhaps wholly given up, that they 
 verily have in the heavens above them a Father 
 and a God. — Ibid. 
 
 2 The Divine existence is no mere arbitrary 
 assumption. 
 
 [409] First, there are arguments, sober and 
 reasonable arguments, against this showy and 
 pretentious unbelief, which appeal to no other 
 authority, and ask for no other ultimate arbiter 
 than properly instructed good sense. Secondly, 
 it is our especial duty to turn our attention to 
 them. — Bp. Ellicott, Modern Ufibelief. 
 
 A 
 
 38 
 
 POSTERIORI AND A 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 PRIORI 
 
 I. The Arguments defined. 
 
 [410] The arguments technically termed a 
 priori and a posteriori do not describe the 
 subject matter, but the principle or method of 
 reasoning; the former being a method of pro- 
 ceeding from general truths to inferences, or from 
 causes to effects ; the latter being a method of 
 proceeding from effects to causes. 
 
 [411] The arguments which have been em- 
 ployed to prove the existence of a personal God 
 are of many kinds, and have been classified 
 under the division a priori and a posteriori, 
 according to the character of the reasoning, as 
 deductive from necessary, axiomatic truth of the 
 reason, or inductive from the generalization 
 made by means of observation and experience. 
 — R. A. Bedford, The Chrisiiafi's Plea. 
 
 [412] If there are any i}-ntlis which, the mind 
 possesses, whether consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, before and independent of experience, 
 they may be called a priori truths, as belonging 
 to li prior to all that it acquires from the world 
 around. On the other hand, truths which are 
 acquired by observation and experience are
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 75 
 
 412—419] 
 
 [COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 called a posteriori truths, because they come to 
 the mind after it has become acquainted with 
 external facts. How far <i:j^/7W'/ truths or ideas 
 are possible, is the great campus pJiilosophoriim, 
 the great controverted question of mental phi- 
 losophy. — Abp. Thoi/ison, Outline of Laws of 
 Thought. 
 
 II. Illustration of the a priori 
 Method. 
 
 [413] That something of real being must have 
 existed from all eternity. In the succession of 
 nature we go back to a time when all that now 
 is was preceded by something. (2) This some- 
 thing must have been uncaused. (3) It must be 
 independent. (4) It must necessarily exist. (5) 
 It is self-active, that is, has power to act in and 
 of itself. A necessaiy Being is acknowledged 
 in order to account for all other being ; hence 
 we must confess this Being to be self-active : 
 to deny it is absurd. (6) This Being is origin- 
 ally vital, and is the root of all vitality ; (7) 
 therefore it is of vast and mighty power. From 
 all this it follows as a plain and necessary 
 corollary, " That this world had a cause diverse 
 from the matter of which it is composed." The 
 Being whose existence is thus proved is wise 
 and intelligent as well as powerful. It would 
 be absurd to say that the cause of the world was 
 not an intelligent cause, as is shown by various 
 phenomena, which point to a wise and designing 
 cause. The idea of a fortuitous concourse of 
 atoms is shown to be unreasonable ; and the 
 idea of design shown in a multitude of par- 
 ticulars. As for the soul of man, it is argued, 
 that notwithstanding so high excellences, it 
 appears to be a caused being which sometime 
 had a beginning ; and that its very excellences 
 render it evident that the soul is due to a wise 
 and intelligent cause. ^y. Hozve, 1630-1705. 
 
 III. The Two Lines or Methods illus- 
 trated AND COMBINED. 
 
 [414] The following is an outline of Adam 
 Clarke's argument : 
 
 1. Admitting that something now is, it must 
 have a cause, a reason, a ground of its existence. 
 That ground of its existence must be in the 
 necessity of its own nature, or in the existence 
 of some other being ; in either case we must 
 assume existence as eternal. Something has 
 existed from eternity — Ex7iiliilo niliilfit. This 
 is the argument from " sufficient causes." 
 
 2. It is absolutely impossible and inconceiv- 
 able that there should be an eternal succession 
 of dependent beings without any original inde- 
 pendent cause. Succession implies commence- 
 ment. 
 
 3. If existence is not an infinite series, then it 
 must be the effect of an infinite, immutable, 
 independent Being, self-existent and necessarily 
 existing. 
 
 4. That which necessarily exists, exists every- 
 where and always, and is one, because variety 
 or difference of existence is dependent on imity. 
 
 5. Reasoning a posteriori we may conclude 
 that the self-existent Being is intelligent and 
 free, infinitely wise, powerful and good. In this 
 argument the ontological and the cosmological 
 are mingled together, and the a posteriori is 
 brought in to complete the a priori. The first 
 proposition contains all the rest. It is the 
 application of the law of human thought to all 
 existence. Existence is an abstraction from 
 existing objects. What we know is the finite. 
 What we know of the Infinite Being is finite. 
 To reason from the idea of causation, as Clarke 
 does, to the existence of God, is metaphysically 
 impossible. An infinite cause is as inconceiv- 
 able as an infinite series of finite causes, for the 
 conception of cause itself is a relative and finite 
 conception, which loses its definite meaning 
 when it becomes infinite. It is a remarkable 
 fact that the axiom Ex nihilo nihil fit, which 
 Clarke employs, is now equally the resort of the 
 materialist in seeking to establish the eternity 
 of matter. 
 
 [For fuller illustration oi "Cc^q a priori method, 
 see " Ontological argument," and for the a 
 posteriori method, see "Cosmological argu- 
 ment."] 
 
 39 
 
 COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 I. Definition of the Term. 
 
 [415] Analogy {Gr. Koa\xoQ, the world, and 
 Xoyof, discourse), the science of the world or 
 universe ; or a treatise relating to the structure 
 and parts of the system of creation, the ele- 
 ments of bodies, the modifications of material 
 things, the laws of motion, and the order and 
 course of nature. 
 
 [416] The cosmological argument, like the 
 anthropological, is named from its subject 
 mother, namely, the Kosmos (Greek), i.e., well- 
 arranged universe, or combined system of 
 material existences. 
 
 II. Nature of the Argument. 
 
 [417] The argument is from the principle of 
 causation. Assuming the reality of the universe, 
 it is argued that, taken as a whole, it is an 
 effect which must have proceeded from a First 
 Cause. 
 
 [418] This is the argument from cause and 
 effect. It is perhaps the most ancient of all 
 attempts to prove philosophically the existence 
 of a Supreme Being. 
 
 [419] The cosmological argument for the 
 existence of the Deity starts from experience 
 — from the observed contingency of the world, 
 in order to construct the supposed notion on 
 which it founds. Clarke's cosmological demon-
 
 76 
 
 419—428] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 stration, called a priori, is therefore, so far, 
 properly an argument a posteriori. — Sir W. 
 Ha?nillon, ReicTs Works. 
 
 III. Facts and Principles upon which 
 THE Argument is based. 
 
 I The general order observable in nature. 
 
 [420] The Apostle Paul hath observed " the 
 invisible things of God from the creation of the 
 world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
 things that are made, even His eternal power 
 and Godhead." These things declare the 
 existence of an Almighty and most wise Being, 
 whom we call God, after the same manner, 
 though much more plainly, as a noble and well- 
 proportioned edifice, a curious and useful 
 engine, consisting of a variety of parts, a fine 
 statue, or piece of painting convince us that 
 they were the productions of art and contri- 
 vance, though we were not present when the 
 several artists were at work about them. — H. 
 Grove, 1 683-1 738. 
 
 [421] When we see a fair and a goodly 
 tower, though we saw not the workman when 
 he built it, yet we easily conceive that there was 
 some architect that framed it and set it up ; so, 
 when we see the glorious frame of heaven and 
 earth, we easily conceive that there is a God 
 who made it, though we see Him not. — J. 
 Smith, 1629. 
 
 [The force of the reasoning here lies in the 
 fact that it is not necessary to see the Worker, 
 it is enough to see the work which proves the 
 Worker.] 
 
 [422] We will not say infinite, lest we should 
 step too far at once ; not minding now to 
 discuss whether creation require infinite power, 
 when we consider and contemplate the vastness 
 of the work performed by it : unto which, if we 
 were to make our estimate by nothing else, we 
 must at least judge this power to be proportion- 
 able. For when our eyes behold an effect 
 exceeding the power of any cause which they 
 can behold, our mind must step in and supply 
 the defect of our feebler sense ; so as to make 
 a judgment there is a cause we see not, equal to 
 this effect. As when we behold a great and 
 magnificent fabric, and entering in we see not 
 the master, or any living thing (which was 
 Cicero's observation in reference to this present 
 purpose) besides mice or weasels, we will not 
 think that mice or weasels built it. Nor need 
 we, in a matter so obvious, insist further. But 
 only when our severer reason hath made us 
 confess, our further contemplation should make 
 us admire, a power which is at once both so 
 apparent and so stupendous. 
 
 [The force of the reasoning here lies in 
 the fact that the qualities and powers of the 
 Worker must be at least equal to the workman- 
 ship displayed.] 
 
 [423] Astronomy leads us to contemplate 
 phenomena, the very nature of which demon- 
 strates that they must have had a beginning, 
 and that they must have an end. — Huxley, Lay 
 Sermons. 
 
 [424] When it was proposed to Voltaire to 
 become an atheist, he said, " The universe em- 
 barrasses me ; I cannot see how a watch can 
 exist without a maker." — Prof. E. Naville, 
 Eternal Life. 
 
 [425] When one in reply to the saying, " Facts 
 are against you," replied, "So much the worse 
 for the facts," he inverted the only witty defence 
 of Atheism, or rather the only evasion of the 
 difficulty ; which, however, is thus confessed by 
 implication. — B. G. 
 
 [426] The footprint of the savage traced in 
 the sand is sufficient to attest the presence of 
 man to the atheist who will not recognize God, 
 whose hand is impressed upon the entire 
 universe. — Htigh Miller. 
 
 2 The beauty observable in nature. 
 
 [427] All beauty is a gleam from the fountain 
 of beauty. No work of beauty can be more 
 beautiful than the mind which designed it. I 
 do not think a sculptor can possibly chisel a 
 marble so as to make it more beautiful than his 
 own ideal conception. I do not think a painter 
 can produce a painting more beautiful than the 
 thought of his mind which led up to it ; I do 
 not think a musician can express in sound, or a 
 poet on paper, anything beyond the thought 
 within him. I know, indeed, that the concep- 
 tion of either may grow with the process by 
 which it is presented to others, and that the man 
 may, as he proceeds, have a fairer and nobler 
 view of what he is trying to express ; but, after 
 all, the mind of the sculptor is more beautiful 
 than the marble which he has sculptured ; and 
 the mind of the painter is a more beautiful thing 
 than the work of art which he has painted ; and 
 the mind of the musician is better and higher 
 and nobler than the most exquisite symphony 
 which he has composed and reduced to writing; 
 and the mind of the poet is better than his 
 most beautiful piece of poetry. And so we 
 must rise from all the fragmentsof beauty which 
 God has scattered so widely over His world to 
 say with Milton — 
 
 " Thine this universal frame 
 Thus wondrous fair ; Thyself how wondrous 
 then !" 
 
 — E. H. Bickersteth. 
 
 3 The mechanism of the human frame. 
 
 [428] It would be far more unreasoning to 
 believe that that unrivalled mechanism, the 
 human frame, was self-developed, than to believe 
 that if a "fortuitous concourse of atoms" of 
 brass and steel, swept up from a workman's 
 floor, were put into a bag and thoroughly well- 
 shaken, they would spontaneously evolve a first 
 rate chronometer.— Charles Brooke.
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 429—437] 
 
 [COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 77 
 
 4 The antecedent idea involved in the fact 
 of sight. 
 
 [429] Sight being a fact, not precedent, but 
 subsequent to the putting together of the organic 
 structure of the eye, can only be connected with 
 the production of that structure in the character 
 of a final, not an efficient, cause. That is, it is 
 not sight itself, but an antecedent idea of it, that 
 must be the efficient cause. But this at once 
 marks the origin as proceeding from an in- 
 telligent will. — John Stuart Mill, Three Essays 
 on Religion. 
 
 5 The very fact of man's existence. 
 
 [430] Man, the noblest creature upon earth, 
 hath a beginning. No man in the world but 
 was some years ago no man. If every man we 
 see had a beginning, then the first man had also 
 a beginning, then the world had a beginning ; 
 for the earth, which was made for the use of 
 man, had wanted that end for which it was 
 made. We must pitch upon some one man 
 that was unborn, that first man must either be 
 eternal, and that cannot be, for he that hath no 
 beginning hath no end ; or must spring out of 
 the earth, as plants and trees do, and that can- 
 not be ; for why should not the earth produce 
 men to this day, as it doth plants and trees ? 
 He was therefore made ; and whatsoever is 
 made hath some cause that made it, which is 
 God. — S. Charnock, 162S-1680. 
 
 6 The existence of matter . " 
 
 [431] It is objected that nothing can produce 
 nothing ; which means that nothing can be pro- 
 duced without an adequate cause. But there 
 is an adequate cause for the existence of the 
 Universe in the Will of an Almighty Being. 
 
 Our appeal to nature leads us to considera- 
 tions which rest upon the principles of causation 
 as suggested to us by the material world. Step 
 by step we find ourselves led through the realm 
 of secondary causes until at length the existence 
 of our First Cause will be found to be a logical 
 and intellectual necessity. — Bp. Eliicolt, Six- 
 Addresses. 
 
 [432] The positive mode of thought is not 
 necessarily a denial of the Supernatural, since 
 it merely throws back the questions of the origin 
 of all things. If the universe had a beginning, 
 its beginning, by the very conditions of the case, 
 was supernatural ; the Laws of Nature cannot 
 account for their own origin. — y. S. Mill, Comte 
 and Positivism. 
 
 IV. Considerations which give Weight 
 TO THE Argument. 
 
 I Certain facts have to be accounted for. 
 
 [433] What are the things of which we have to 
 seek the true and efficient cause? These are 
 three. We have to account for three begin- 
 nings — the beginning of the material world, the 
 beginning of life, and the beginning of mind. — 
 Bp. Ellicott. 
 
 2 The cause must be permanently presiding 
 over changing elements and processes. 
 
 [434] Every effect must have an adequate 
 cause. The world is an effect, therefore, &c. 
 
 A cause is something having a real existence, 
 having also power and efficiency sufficient and 
 appropriate to the effect produced. This idea 
 of a cause is proved to be true by our own con- 
 sciousness, by appeal to the consciousness of 
 other men, and it is shown in the universal 
 belief that every effect must have a cause. 
 
 The world is not self-existent and eternal : 
 
 (i) Every part of it, everything that enters 
 into its composition is dependent and mutable. 
 
 (2) We have historical evidence that the race 
 of man, e.g., has not existed from eternity. 
 
 (3) The evidence of geology is to the same 
 effect regarding other animals and plants. — Dr. 
 C. Hodge, Systematic Theology. 
 
 3 There is nothing in material elements 
 to account for the orderly processes in 
 nature. 
 
 [435] Design or no design, purpose or no 
 purpose, a mass of matter cannot determine its 
 own quantity ; the amount of energy which 
 exists unchanged and unchangeable in a 
 material system cannot determine its own 
 amount ; the straight line in which the centre 
 of the system moves and the uniforni velocity 
 with which it moves cannot determine them- 
 selves : yet all these things have been deter- 
 mined somehow. Therefore they must have 
 been determined by an agent which is outside 
 the material system, or, in other words, which 
 is not itself material. There may have been, so 
 far as my argument is concerned, no good pur- 
 pose, nor any purpose at all, in the determina- 
 tion ; but it is absolutely impossible, so far as 
 I can perceive, to avoid the conclusion that a 
 determining cause exists. I am disposed to call 
 this result a de/iwnstratioft from natural pre- 
 jnisses of the existence of the Sicper-natural. — Bp. 
 Harvey Goodwin, 
 
 V. Testimony in Favour of the Argu- 
 ment. 
 
 1 The conclusion of advanced religious and 
 scientific criticism. 
 
 [436] Consciousness of an unscrutable Power, 
 manifested to us through all phenomena, has 
 been growing ever clearer, and must eventually 
 be freed from its imperfections. The certainty 
 that on the one hand such a Power exists, while 
 on the other hand its nature transcends intuition 
 and is beyond imagination, is the certainty to- 
 ward which intelligence has from the first been 
 progressing. To this conclusion science inevi- 
 tably arrives as it reaches its confines ; while 
 to this conclusion religion is irresistibly driven 
 by criticism. — Herbert Spencer. 
 
 2 The plain teaching of revelation. 
 
 [437] The doctrine of creation, revealed in 
 the opening words of Scripture, agrees at once
 
 78 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 437—440] 
 
 [ethical argument. 
 
 with the most certain conclusions of sound 
 reason, that time and the universe had a begin- 
 ning, and with the widest results of induction 
 with regard to all the successive generations of 
 plants and animals during the ages of known 
 history. The progress forward, in every case, 
 is not from like to unlike, but from the few to 
 the many ; and the only progress backward, 
 which can claim really scientific evidence, is 
 not from like to unlike, from the definite to the 
 undefined, but from the many to the few. 
 
 To these fatal objections is added another, 
 more decisive still to reverent minds. Its direct 
 and plain tendency is to dethrone the Creator, 
 and thrust Him far away from the thoughts of 
 men. It sets before us nothing higher than the 
 vision described by Milton as once witnessed 
 from the open gates of hell : 
 
 "The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark 
 Illimitable ocean, without bound, 
 Without dimension, where length, breadth, 
 
 and height, 
 And time and space, are lost ; where eldest 
 
 Night, 
 And Chaos, ancestors of nature, hold 
 Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 
 Of endless wars, and by confusion stand." 
 
 The simple narrative of Scripture, which this 
 theory sets aside with scorn, embodies and 
 combines all the surest and grandest inductions 
 of science, the constancy of species, their gene- 
 rative and multiplying power, and the ascend- 
 ing order and scale of being, from lifeless 
 matter, through the plant, and lower animals, 
 up to man, created in the image of God. And 
 then it forms them all into the noble pedestal 
 for a glorious series of Divine revelations ; until 
 we rise to share in the rest of the Creator, and 
 in the worship of the spirits before the throne, 
 when the morning stars sang together, and all 
 the sons of God shouted for joy. As far as man 
 excels the monkey, so far the blind guesses of 
 irreligious science are excelled by the philoso- 
 phical depth and simple and sublime grandeur 
 of the very first page in the true and faithful 
 sayings of the Living God. — Bro%vnlow Mait- 
 land. 
 
 40 
 
 ETHICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 I. Lines of the Argument. 
 I The existence of the innate idea of justice. 
 
 (i) As seen in ednea/ing children. 
 
 [438] The education of children cannot be 
 canned out on any other hypothesis than that 
 of moral order. No one will dare to teach his 
 child that he is to disregard the quality and 
 tendency of his actions. Plainly, therefore, 
 mankind bear witness to the existence of freedom 
 
 and moral government in the world. A com- 
 munity which should be entirely under the 
 control of virtuous principles, all whose members 
 are virtuous and whose life is an exercise of 
 power on the lines of virtue, would be acknow- 
 ledged to be the highest and most powerful 
 community in the world. " It would plainly be 
 superior to all others, and the world must 
 gradually come under its empire." If the mani- 
 fest tendency of things, then, is to the superiority 
 of virtue, there must be an adaptation of the 
 constitution of the universe to that tendency, 
 and therefore there must be a moral order, 
 invisible and imperfectly established, but on the 
 way to being made manifest and complete here- 
 after. — R. A. Redford, TJie Christian's Plea. 
 
 2 The existence of the idea of responsi- 
 
 bility. 
 
 (i) As seen in the expiatory nature of punish- 
 ment. 
 
 [The idea of punishment for offences is not 
 merely founded on utility, but, in satisfaction to 
 justice, as a kind of imperfect expiation.] 
 
 [439] Nothing is more common than to hear 
 it said of a criminal that be has expiated his 
 crime on the scaftbld, or that a youth of folly 
 and vice has been expiated by years of subse- 
 quent suffering. Let us consider what is meant 
 by such an expression. We obviously speak of 
 punishment here not as a means of repairing 
 mischief done, which in some cases, as in that 
 of murder, is impossible ; nor as a means of 
 deterring others from the commission of a like 
 crime ; nor of reforming the criminal, for in 
 capital punishments this too is impossible : a 
 far deeper idea than any of these lies at the 
 root of this ordinary language, that of the 
 necessity of the restoration of right infringed, 
 but not to be infringed with impunity. The 
 State, as a Divine institution intended to main- 
 tain right in the form of law, purges itself by 
 the punishment of the criminal, of participation 
 in his crime ; the criminal himself, by suffering 
 the punishment, restores matters, as far as in 
 him lies, to their former position. Punishment 
 is the recoil of the eternal law of right against 
 the transgressor. The whole history of crime 
 proves that this notion is agreeable to the moral 
 sense. Instances are on record in which crimi- 
 nals whose sin would never in this world have 
 found them out, have been impelled by the 
 secret craving for atonement, in the sense of 
 expiation, to deliver themselves voluntarily into 
 the hands of justice ; and, this being done, have 
 expressed their satisfaction, as if a burden which 
 had long lain on their heart had been removed. 
 The feeling in such cases is, not merely that 
 injury has been done to individuals, but that a 
 righteous law has been violated and a debt to 
 justice has been incurred. — Bainpton Lectitres, 
 1856. 
 
 3 The acknowledged necessity of ethica] 
 teaching. 
 
 [440] Consider the expression, We ought to
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 440—444] 
 
 [ethical argumknt. 
 
 79 
 
 do so. What does it mean ? The meaning of 
 " ought " is, that a man may leave a thing un- 
 done if he pleases, but that he ought not to do 
 so. There is something within him which will 
 reproach him if he does, and say, You ought not. 
 There is an obligation before which you ought 
 to bow, higher than you. To matter, force, or 
 invariable law the sense of duty or obligation is 
 utterly inapplicable. What owe I to them .? 
 There is something within us which points to 
 something outside us, which cannot be generated 
 by their united force. " I ought '' — the idea is 
 as universal as man. Even he who in theory 
 denies responsibility is compelled to use the 
 unwelcome word. To what, then, does it point ? 
 To matter, force, or law, or any of their modifi- 
 cations ? ]\Ieditate on the mysterious word, for 
 it reaches to the profoundest depths of our being. 
 What does it affirm? It is right, it is fitting, 
 it is proper, it is your duty. — Rev. C. A. Row. 
 
 [The connection of duty, which implies a 
 moral governor, is not dependent on utility in a 
 sense of selfish advantage.] 
 
 [441] There is yet another interval. A being 
 may be a person, and yet have no conception 
 of right or duty. I select this conception as 
 representative of the whole moral nature of 
 man, of which it forms the most remarkable 
 characteristic. It is immaterial to my argu- 
 ment whether the utilitarian philosophy is 
 correct in its analysis of the origin of the idea. 
 I firmly believe that it is not. But the fact 
 cannot be gainsaid that vast numbers of minds 
 of the highest order have a clear conception 
 of duty quite distinct from any reference to 
 utilitarianism. On the contrary, they feel the 
 strongest obligation to sacrifice themselves to 
 it in contradiction to the strongest dictates of 
 expediency. There is something within us 
 which says. Let right prevail even if the 
 heavens fall. There must therefore have been 
 a time when the first being who was capable 
 of feeling a sense of duty, who could bow before 
 a moral law and say, " I ought," began to be. 
 The interval is one which separates the con- 
 ception of duty from non-duty ; of conscience 
 from non-conscience ; of a moral nature from 
 the want of it. The difference is not one of 
 degree, but of kind. Between laws of motion 
 and their modifications and conceptions of 
 duty there is no one thing in common. When 
 the idea of duty first originated, a new order 
 of being entered the universe. — Ibid. 
 
 II. Importance of the Argument. 
 
 1 The ethical element in Christianity con- 
 stitutes its chief claim to Divine authority. 
 
 [442] There are two lines of proof by which 
 Christianity may be shown to be a Divine reve- 
 lation — the historical and the moral. The first 
 of these assigns the most prominent position 
 to a body of external evidence, which is ad- 
 duced for the purpose of proving the genuine- 
 
 ness and authenticity of the writings in which 
 it has been communicated, and of the miracles 
 by which it has been attested. By demon- 
 strating the truth of these it endeavours to 
 ascend to Him to whom writings and miracles 
 alike point. But the moral proof presents us 
 at once with the person and teaching of Jesus 
 Christ, as the evidence of His mission. Through 
 it, it addresses its appeals at the same time 
 both to the understanding and to the moral 
 and spiritual nature of man, his reason, his 
 conscience, and his affections. In this proof 
 the moral and spiritual occupy the foreground ; 
 the historical and the miraculous the secondary 
 place. It begins with Christ. Through His 
 person and teaching it advances to the Divine 
 character of the book which contains them, 
 and supplements the whole by the historical 
 proof. 
 
 This mode of reasoning has one advantage 
 over the historical method. It is as strong 
 now, probably stronger, than it was in the 
 second centurj'. The historical proof has been 
 weakened by the loss of a great mass of Chris- 
 tian literature, and of the works of its earliest 
 opponents. It also requires a large acquaint- 
 ance with history and a considerable amount 
 of critical judgment for its full appreciation. 
 The moral requires only familiarity with the 
 New Testament and the exercise of sound 
 judgment to arrive at the conclusion that 
 Christianity is Divine. The historical proof 
 has been chiefly employed by the defenders of 
 Christianity in their controversies with modern 
 unbelievers. The moral one was that on which 
 the writers of the three first centuries chiefly 
 relied. It was that which greatly contributed 
 to the multiplication of the Church from the 
 five hundred primitive believers to the many 
 millions which rendered her the dominant re- 
 ligion of the Roman Empire. — JbicL 
 
 2 The ethical element essential to the per- 
 fection of human society. 
 
 [443] No human being, and no society com- 
 posed of human beings, ever did or ever will 
 come to much, unless their conduct was 
 governed and guided by some ethical idea. — 
 Critiques and Addresses. 
 
 3 The moral element is the basis and sub- 
 stratum of the spiritual and Divine life in 
 man. 
 
 [444] At first one might imagine the spiritual 
 to be simply a development of the mental and 
 moral parts of the animal life. It may yet be 
 seen — it is indeed an expectation of science — 
 that animal life is simply a development of the 
 vegetable ; how much more might one expect 
 the spiritual to be merely the development of 
 the animal .? The question is appallingly igno- 
 rant. There is in the world no such wide 
 chasm as that which separates the natural and 
 the spiritual. The natural man belongs to this 
 present world : the spiritual man has a new, a
 
 5o 
 
 444—452! 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [historical argument. 
 
 distinct, a supernatural endowment : he is not 
 of this world, he is of eternity. — Prof. Henry 
 D}-i£jn?nond, Clerical World, iSSi. 
 
 41 
 
 HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 I. The Argument Itself. 
 I Its nature. 
 
 [445] This argument is from the consent of 
 mankind, as testified in the facts of human 
 history. 
 
 [446] Some view, however imperfect, of 
 divinity is associated with the whole career 
 of humanity, and tinges all human life and 
 history ; it underlies all religion and all super- 
 stition, and enters into every solemn form of 
 justice and government. All Church history is 
 full of it, and is based on it. All the con- 
 ceptions and rites of paganism rest on the 
 same fundamental idea. Atheism itself is a 
 contradictory acknowledgment of the idea of 
 theism, and could not exist without it. — B. G. 
 
 a The line taken. 
 
 (i) The nniversally felt need of a supreme 
 and persotial Deity. 
 
 [447] " Every human heart is human, 
 And even in savage bosoms 
 There are longings, yearnings, strivings, 
 For the good they comprehend not ; 
 And the feeble hands and helpless, 
 Groping blindly in the darkness. 
 Touch God's right hand in that darkness. 
 And are lifted up and strengthened." 
 
 [448] The explanation which lies at the 
 foundation of revelation cannot at all events 
 be proved to be contradicted by the facts ; 
 whereas to assume the perfectibility of man, 
 and to deny the reality of moral evil, is to 
 leave a thousand things unexplained and to 
 run counter to the inmost consciousness of 
 man. The cry which has gone up from the 
 heart of humanity everywhere is a confession 
 of sin and a longing after peace with God. — 
 R. A. Redford, The Christianas Plea. 
 
 [449] When you need a God, one that can 
 help you (for that is the principal point), you 
 must accept also His identity and oneness ; His 
 superhumanity,His all-goodness and all- wisdom. 
 I have indeed returned to God, like the prodigal 
 son, after long tending of swine. The yearning 
 for heaven came upon me and urged me forth 
 through forests and ambushed passes, over the 
 giddiest mountains of logical bewilderment. 
 On my course I discovered the God of the 
 pantheist, but he could not help me. This poor 
 visionary being has interwoven and incorpo- 
 
 rated himself with the world, and become so 
 imprisoned in it that he can do nothing but 
 gape at you powerlessly and without purpose. 
 No ! To have a will on our side we must have 
 a personality. — Ibid. 
 
 (2) The teachtttg of comparative granunar 
 as applied to mythology. 
 
 [450] When we examine most of the heathen 
 religions in their oldest portions, we find an 
 agreement in certain simple fundamental 
 features, and this agreement is fully confirmed 
 among nations of kindred stock, an identity in 
 the terms running through their language. The 
 Greek word Ztix, the name of the highest deity, 
 and common to all the Greek dialects, is the 
 same as the Latin Jov, the root of the word 
 Jupiter, with the Anglo-Saxon Tin, and the old 
 high German Zio; and all these are identical 
 with the Sanscrit Dyzi; and this word, the 
 radical meaning of which is to beam forth, is an 
 appellation in later use for heaveft, but in the 
 oldest songs of the Vedas (the original docu- 
 ments of the Hindu religion) it is a popular 
 name for the highest god and the father of gods 
 and men. — Pfleiderer. 
 
 (3) The personal and social records of Chris- 
 tiatiity. 
 
 [451] Christianity claims to be an historical 
 religion ; the records are records of human 
 lives and experiences, and of great social facts. 
 The truth which it places beside them, and by 
 which alone, it maintains, they can be vindi- 
 cated as real, is the truth that the personal God 
 reveals His presence and His spiritual power, 
 as and where He pleases, for the lifting up of 
 the individual human consciousness, for the 
 production of new facts in experience, and for 
 the development of new forms of society. — R. 
 A. Redford, The Christian'' s Plea. 
 
 II. The Facts upon which the Argu- 
 ment RESTS. 
 
 I The amount and character of the general 
 consent of mankind in reference to the 
 being and existence of God. 
 
 [452] We may now sum up our general con- 
 clusions as to the amount and the character of 
 the general consent of mankind in reference to 
 the Being and Existence of God. They would 
 seem to be briefly as follows : — 
 
 First, that religion, and consequently the 
 belief in the existence of a Being or Beings 
 with whom that religion is connected, is 
 virtually universal. The "symphony of all 
 religions," to use the striking words of Cud- 
 worth, attests the belief of man in a supra- 
 mundane and supreme God. Secondly, that 
 there are distinct traces in the past, and equally 
 clear evidences in the present, of a tendency 
 towards the conception of one Supreme Being 
 who is the origin of all things — but that there 
 are examples, such for instance as Buddhism, 
 which show that the tendency towards that
 
 452—460] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 8 1 
 
 [ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 conception has, in certain cases, as yet been 
 imperfectly developed. Thirdly, that there are 
 no traces, either in the past or the present, of 
 the existence of atheism, except in the cases of 
 individuals and limited schools of speculative 
 thought. — Bp. Ellicott, The Being of God. 
 
 [453] What it all seems to amount to is this, 
 that the current of human thought regarded as 
 a whole is to theism, but that this theism has 
 not, in many cases, attained to its full develop- 
 ment. The stream, however, is all setting one 
 way, the backwater movement is slight, dis- 
 continuous, and exceptional. ^//'/V?'. 
 
 2 The conclusion to be drawn from the 
 general consent of mankind to the exis- 
 tence of God. 
 
 [454] The existence of this general consent, 
 according to Barrow, may be attributed either 
 (i) to a natural light, or instinct, or to what 
 Stillingfleet speaks of as the inward *• voice of 
 nature ; " in other words, to innate ideas. Or it 
 may be ascribed (2) to a common and prevail- 
 ing inclination to entertain the opinion when- 
 ever intelligently propounded : or, yet again, (3) 
 to some prevalent reason suggested by the 
 general appearances of nature : or, lastly, (4) to 
 some common fountain of original instruction, 
 some one primitive tradition which had become 
 the sort of heirloom of the race. 
 
 III. Objections Considered. 
 
 I The alleged existence of some non- 
 theistic savages. 
 
 [455] The objection from the exception, if 
 real, of non-theistic savages, is like an objection 
 to reason from the case of idiocy, which means 
 speciality, and is no measure of, but outside 
 ordinary sane humanity.— ^5. G. 
 
 [456] The first need not detain us more than 
 a moment. It is said that travellers have 
 occasionally discovered small tribes of men 
 among whom no traces of theistic belief could 
 be detected. Such tribes have invariably been 
 in the lowest stage of debasement and 
 ignorance ; without writing or art, or anything 
 that savours of civilization ; scarcely intelligible 
 in their speech, unsociable, inhospitable, and 
 retiring from strangers within the fence of a 
 sullen reserve. To arrive at any certainty 
 about the religious belief of such tribes could in 
 few cases be an easy matter, and subsequent 
 visitors have not seldom found reason to correct 
 the impressions reported by those who first 
 made acquaintance with them. But whatever 
 may have been the precise condition of these 
 few exceptional tribes, it can no more tell 
 against the universality of the instinct which 
 leads to belief in God, than the absence of 
 intelligence in infants and idiots can tell against 
 the universality of the endowment of mankind 
 with the faculty of reason. So far as any 
 inference can be drawn from them it would be 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 that atheism is associated with only the lowest 
 and most debased stage of human nature ; an 
 inference which can scarcely be of much value 
 to the opponents of theisnj.. — Broti'iiloiu Mait- 
 land, Tlicisni or Agnosticism. 
 
 2 The alleged atheism of Buddhism. 
 
 [Another objection is founded on the case 
 of Buddhism, in which there is a mystical denial 
 of human personality equally with apparent 
 ignoring of Divine personality.] 
 
 [457] Buddha himself has become a deity to 
 his disciples, and the state of extinction or un- 
 consciousness to which his doctrine points has 
 assumed to the popular mind the aspect of a 
 delicious paradise of repose. Moreover, along- 
 side of the worship of Buddha there has, at 
 least in some quarters, grown up a supple- 
 mentary worship of deities of a subordinate 
 kind, by which the system has become a sort of 
 incongruous polytheism. So that, on the whole, 
 Buddhism, in its historical aspect, bears witness 
 rather for than against the hypothesis of an 
 instinctive tendency in human nature to believe 
 in God. 
 
 Once more, whatever Buddhism is theoreti- 
 cally, in its actual working it is the religion of 
 stagnation. Among none but dreamy, listless, 
 unprogressive Orientals could it have survived 
 a single generation. Not one iota has it ever 
 contributed to the development of mankind ; 
 not a single leader of our race has ever sprung 
 from its Isosom. It is the religion of a starved, 
 stunted, torpid humanity, possible only when 
 man is little more than half human, and utterly 
 incompatible with the life, the energy, and the 
 intellectual culture of the Western world. — Ibid. 
 
 [458] There is no place found for permanent 
 or general atheism in any stage of history or 
 any condition of society, so abhorrent is this 
 idea to humanity. 
 
 42 
 
 ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHY- 
 SICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 I. Definition of Terms. 
 
 [459] Ontology (from Gr. oi-ra, the things 
 which exist, pi. neut. of u>v ovtoc, being p. pr. 
 of tlrat, to be, and Xoyoe, discourse) ; that part 
 of the science of metaphysics which investigates 
 and explains the nature and essential properties 
 and relations of all beings, as such. 
 
 [460] Metapliysics (Gr. [htu. to. (pvcriK-a, after 
 these things, which relate to external nature, after 
 physics, from fisra, beyond, after, and (pvaiKoc, 
 relating to external nature, natural, physical, 
 from (pvaig, nature.) It is said that this name 
 was given to the science by Aristotle or his
 
 82 
 
 460-469! 
 
 THE EVIDE^XES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [OXTOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 followers, who considered the science of natural 
 bodies, physics, to be the first in the order of 
 studies, and the science of mind, or intelligence, 
 10 be the second. The science of real as dis- 
 tinguished from phenomenal being ; ontology ; 
 also the science of being, as such, as distin- 
 guished from the science of determined or 
 concrete being. 
 
 [461] The words "meta physical" are first 
 meant simply after the physic or material studies, 
 and was a direction or title on books or papers to 
 indicate that they came after in physics, as a 
 second course of study, and afterwards the words 
 came to mean superphysical or philosophical, 
 a transcending science, and dealing not with 
 merely material facts, but with the principles 
 underlying them. — B. G. 
 
 II. Nature of the Argument. 
 
 [462] Ontologkal proof, the a /r/^r/ argument 
 for being in general, and for the being of God, 
 and its essential attributes and relations, derived 
 from the necessary elements involved in the 
 very idea of God. According to others, it is 
 the argument derived from the necessary ex- 
 istence of time and space, and hence the 
 necessary existence of some Being to fill and 
 occupy them. 
 
 III. Lines of the Argument. 
 I Man has an innate idea of God. 
 
 (i ) The idea of God is peculiar to man. 
 
 [463] The idea of God has always existed in 
 the human mind in every stage of development, 
 and either man's reason, conscience, instinct, 
 and consciousness are unreliable, or there is 
 some reality corresponding to this idea. Either 
 it arises from the projection of man's nature 
 beyond itself to the supernatural, or it is the 
 reflection of the supernatural into the mirror of 
 humanity, as the sky and the foliage on the 
 banks of a lake are reflected in its still waters. 
 
 Not that every idea in man's mind corre- 
 sponds to some reality, but no such general 
 conception as this of God can be without its 
 counterpart, unless reason and conscience be 
 themselves unreliable. 
 
 It is in this sense above described that 
 Anselm's saying is true and profound, viz. : " The 
 idea of God in the mind of man is the one un- 
 answerable evidence of the existence of God." — 
 B. G. 
 
 (2) The idea of God in man is defnife and 
 distinct from all other ideas. 
 
 [464] You may deny the ideas of the Infinite 
 and the Eternal Vi% not clear; and clear they are 
 not, if nothing but the mental picture of an out- 
 line can deserve that word. But if a thought is 
 clear when it sits apart without danger of being 
 confounded with another, when it can exactly 
 keep its own in speech and reasoning, without 
 forfeiture and without encroachment ; if, in 
 short, logical clearness consists not in the idea 
 
 of a limit, but in the limit of the idea, then no 
 sharpest image of any finite quantity, say of a 
 circle or an hour, is clearer than the thought 
 of the Infinite and the Eternal. — Dr. Marti?ieau. 
 
 [465] It is as easy by reason to understand 
 that He is, as it is difficult to know what He is. 
 —S. Charnock, B.D., 162S-16S0. 
 
 [466] One thing alone is certain — the Fatherly 
 smile which every now and then gleams through 
 nature, bearing witness that an Eye looks down 
 upon us, that a Heart follows us. — Renan. 
 
 (3) The idea of God in man is a real and 
 operative spiritual principle. 
 
 [467] There may be a consciousness of God, 
 which is not a knowledge of Him of a kind with 
 our knowledge of matters of fact, and yet is the 
 most real, because the most operative, of all 
 spiritual principles.— /"r^y. T. H. Greeji in Con- 
 temporary Review. 
 
 [468] It is the consciousness of God which 
 has in manifold forms been the moralizing agent 
 in human society ; nay, the formative principle 
 of that society itself. The existence of specific 
 duties, and the recognition of them ; the spirit 
 of self-sacrifice ; the moral law, and the rever- 
 ence for it in its most abstract and absolute 
 form — all no doubt presuppose society ; but 
 society, of a kind to render them possible, is 
 not the creature of appetite or fear, or of the 
 most complicated and indirect results of these. 
 It implies the action in man of a principle in 
 virtue of which he projects himself into the 
 future, or into some other world, as some more 
 perfect being than he actually is, and thus seeks 
 not merely to satisfy momentary wants, but to 
 become another man — to become more nearly 
 as this more perfect being ; . . . always keeping 
 before man in various guise according to the 
 degree of his development, an unrealized ideal 
 of a Best, which is his God, and giving Divine 
 authority to the customs or laws by which some 
 likeness of this ideal is wrought into the actuality 
 of life.— /^;V/. 
 
 [469] Conscience expresses the instinctive 
 sense of obligation to moral law. This law was 
 not enacted, and is not reversible by the human 
 will ; it is imposed by an authority outside of 
 ourselves. The instinct of obligation is active 
 when we are separated from all human govern- 
 ment and society ; we cannot imagine ourselves 
 to obliterate this obligation by the obliteration 
 of all finite beings ; we know that we must 
 answer to a Power outside of us. In the nature 
 of things this implies that the Power to which 
 we are answerable knows what we do and what 
 we ought to do ; approves the right and disap- 
 proves the wrong, and has the power and pur- 
 pose to reward us according to our character 
 and conduct. — Rev. Joseph Cook, Boston 
 Lectures (1878).
 
 470— 478J 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 83 
 
 [ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 2 Conscience gives practical force to the 
 innate idea of God. 
 
 (i) All rational vicius of the Divine nature 
 involve our responsibility to the Divine luill. 
 
 [470] Man believes in God because God 
 reveals Himself to his consciousness. But to 
 know God is not to know God perfectly ; it is 
 not to comprehend His existence, but to appre- 
 hend it. '* There are three main elements," 
 says Dr. Newman in his " Grammar of Assent," 
 " which nature furnishes for acquiring the 
 knowledge of God ; viz., our own minds, the 
 voice of mankind, and the course of the world, 
 i.e., of human life and affairs. The informations 
 which these three convey to us teach us the 
 Being and attributes of God, our responsibility 
 to Him, our prospect of reward and punishment, 
 to be somehow brought about according as we 
 obey or disobey Him. And the most authori- 
 tative of these three means of knowledge, as 
 being especially our own, is our own mind, 
 whose informations give us the rule by which we 
 test, interpret, and correct what is presented to 
 us for belief, whether by the universal testimony 
 of mankind or by the history of society and the 
 world. — R. A. Rcdford, The Christian's Flea. 
 
 (2) Man's conscience, as the element recogniz- 
 ing duty, involves the existence of God as the 
 Moral Ruler of the universe. 
 
 [471] It seems to be possible to build upon 
 the very fact of the existence of the conscience 
 an independent argument in favour of the being 
 of God. The existence of the law in the heart 
 seems to imply the existence of a lawgiver. — 
 McCosh, Method of the Divine Government. 
 
 (3) Conscience is the echo of the Divine voice 
 of command. 
 
 [472] What is the instinct of awe and sense 
 of obligation found in every breast, but the 
 testimony to some higher and superior power ? 
 As the echo implies some preceding sound, 
 surely the whispers of conscience imply the 
 inner voice of the Great Spirit. — Bowes. 
 
 [473] How beautifully was its office set forth 
 in the ring which, according to an Eastern tale, 
 a great magician presented to his prince ! The 
 gift was of inestimable value, not for the diamonds 
 and rubies and pearls that gemmed it, but for a 
 rare and mystic property in the metal. It sat 
 easily enough in ordinary circumstances ; but so 
 soon as its wearer formed a bad thought or wish, 
 designed or concocted a bad action, the ring be- 
 came a monitor. Suddenly contracting, it pressed 
 painfully on the finger, warning him of sin. The 
 ring of that fable is just that conscience Avhich 
 is the voice of God within us, which is His law 
 written on the fleshy tablets of the heart. — Dr. 
 Guthrie. 
 
 3 Moral instincts aid to interpret and 
 strengthen the innate idea of God. 
 
 (i) Conscience, as God's vicegerent, is also the 
 inward witness of the Divine existence and 
 government. 
 
 [474] The considerations drawn from our 
 
 moral nature have been deemed by some of our 
 deepest thinkers to be the most momentous and 
 most convincing, that there must be one blessed 
 Being to whom every "ought" is owed, every 
 duty due, and in whom alone is to be found that 
 moral perfection which the soul recognizes as 
 its ideal, and knows to be the surest of all testi- 
 monies to the existence of an all-pure and all- 
 holy God.— ^/. Ellicott, Six Addresses (1880). 
 
 (2) Man's moral instincts as much indicate a 
 higher moral Ruler as the vieclianical instincts 
 of the inferior creatures indicate a guiding in- 
 telligence superior to those creatures. 
 
 [475] We investigate the instincts of the ant, 
 and the bee, and the beaver, and discover that 
 they are led by an inscrutable agency to work 
 toward a distant purpose. Let us be faithful to 
 our scientific method, and investigate also those 
 instincts of the human mind by which man is 
 led to work as if the approval of a Higher 
 Being were the aim of life. — Prof. W. S. 
 Jevons, The Principles of Science. 
 
 (3) The power of conscience is the supreme 
 authority in all states and stages ijt the world, 
 and is the Divine witness within. 
 
 [476] The history, the conscience, and the 
 experience of the human race tell it that its 
 relations to its Creator have a firm experimental 
 basis on which to rest. No one, however refined 
 or however untutored, can escape the inward 
 control of conscience, or the external influence 
 "of that power which makes for righteousness,"^ 
 which prescribes conduct, and gives or with- 
 holds personal happiness and inward peace. 
 The sense of those relations is universal ; it has 
 been the very life of nations and individuals ; 
 it calls forth the whole power of the race, and 
 alone of all the notions that have possessed 
 mankind is capable of illuminating the future 
 or stimulating real progress. There is an innate 
 force and power in it that will compel men to 
 belief and reverence ; and unless tradition and 
 historic revelation are accepted, the inward 
 craving which remains is hard to satisfy. — 
 Blackwood's Magazine (1874). 
 
 (4) Conscience by its striving indicates a pur- 
 pose outside and superior to ourselves. 
 
 [477] When I attentively consider what is 
 going on in my conscience, the chief thing 
 forced on my notice is that I find myself face to 
 face with a purpose — not my own, for I am often 
 conscious of resisting it— but which dominates 
 me and makes itself felt as ever present, as the 
 very root and reason of my being. — Thomas 
 Erskine, The Spiritual Order and other 
 Papers. 
 
 [478] This consciousness of a purpose con- 
 cerning me that I should be a good man— right, 
 true, and unselfish— is the first firm footing I 
 have in the region of religious thought : for I 
 cannot dissociate the idea of a purpose from 
 that of a Purposer, and I cannot but identify 
 this Purposer with the Author of my being and
 
 84 
 
 478-485] 
 
 the evidekces of religion generally. 
 
 [psychological argument. 
 
 and the Being of all beings ; and further, I 
 cannot but regard His purpose towards me 
 as the unmistakable indication of His own 
 character. — Ibid. 
 
 (5) The poiver of conscience is the shadow 
 and representation of a Rider ivithout. 
 
 [479] There is an internal proof of a Deity 
 arising from conscience, and the reflexion of 
 the mind on the good or evil we do, which 
 amounts to the fullest declaration of the power 
 of God, and is the completest promulgation of 
 His law to mankind that can be desired or 
 expected. In all civil cases a king is sufficiently 
 proclaimed, and a law is sufficiently pro- 
 mulged, when either is done according to 
 custom in some public and solemn manner ; for 
 it being impossible to give every man concerned 
 particular notice, the necessity of the case re- 
 quires that every man should at his peril take 
 notice of the public declaration. But with 
 respect to the authority of God and the common 
 laws of morality such care is taken that the 
 promulgation is made at every man's own door, 
 nay, in his very heart. The sense which men 
 have of good and evil, the hopes and fears 
 which naturally arise in consequence of the good 
 or ill they do, are such demonstrations, and so 
 homely applied to every man's understanding, 
 of the obedience owing to a superior Being, 
 that nothing can invalidate. — Bp. Sherlock, 
 16JS-1761. 
 
 IV. Difficulties connected with this 
 Method of Argument. 
 
 [480] An idea of God is in my mind. That 
 idea of God must be a necessary idea or a 
 factitious idea. If a necessary idea, that is, one 
 which my reason, as reason, includes, although 
 I am not able to account for it and speculatively 
 prove it to have any other origin than the law 
 of my own thought, still is not existence a 
 necessary constituent of it, i.e., am I not com- 
 pelled to think of the infinite, the absolute, the 
 eternal, as a Being? Even if these positions be 
 sustained, the reply might be made. But what 
 is proved more than the existence of an idea? 
 How do you pass from the subjective to the ob- 
 jective, from the necessity of thought to the 
 necessity of being? In the Middle Ages the 
 Realism of Plato, mingled with the Aristotelian 
 logic, produced a metaphysical and partly mys- 
 tical theology, which delighted in attempting 
 . answers to such questions ; but they were little 
 better than reasonings in a vicious circle, the 
 existence of God being assumed to prove the 
 validity and truthfulness of human reason, and 
 then human reason being called in to prove the 
 existence of God. Realism and Nominalism 
 struggled long for supremacy, but Realism 
 .triumphed in the theological schools of Europe. 
 ^R. A. Bedford, The Christian's Plea. 
 
 [481] Metaphysical proofs of God are so very 
 intricate, and so far removed from the common 
 reasonings of men^ that they strike with little 
 
 force : or, at best, the impression continues tut 
 a short space ; and the very next hour men 
 fancy that they have been deceived : so that 
 what they have learned by curiosity they lose 
 again through pride. 
 
 Again, arguments of this kind are able to lead 
 us no farther than a speculative knowledge of 
 God ; and to know Him only thus is, in effect, 
 not to know Him at all. — Pascal, Thoughts 
 on Religion, 1623- 1662. 
 
 43 
 
 PS \ XHOL GICAL ARG UMENT. 
 
 I. Definition of Term. 
 
 [482] Psychological (Gr. -i^vxh, the soul, mind, 
 and X670C, discourse). The science of the human 
 soul ; specifically, the systematic or scientific 
 knowledge of the powers and functions of the 
 human soul, so far as they are known by con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 II. Various Lines of the Argument. 
 
 1 Man's nature includes ethical and religious 
 instincts. 
 
 [483] As a shadow proves the existence of 
 light, though obstructed by some interv'ening 
 object, so man's religious instincts prove the 
 existence of something corresponding thereto. 
 As the eye implies light, so man's religious 
 instincts imply the existence of the Divine 
 Being. Man's religious nature is as real as his 
 physical nature, and implies a spiritual as much 
 as the other implies a physical world. — B. G. 
 
 [484] That religious instincts are as truly a 
 part of our nature as are our appetites and our 
 nerves is a fact which all history establishes, 
 and which forms one of the strongest proofs of 
 the reality of that unseen world to which the 
 soul of man continually tends. — Lecky, History 
 of European Morals. 
 
 2 Man's spiritual and moral nature is such 
 as to connect him with moral government. 
 
 [485] As a psychological fact we are intui- 
 tively conscious that our benevolent affections 
 are superior to our malevolent ones ; truth to 
 falsehood, justice to injustice, gratitude to in- 
 gratitude, chastity to sensuality ; and that in 
 all ages and countries the path of virtue has 
 been towards the higher and not towards the 
 lower feelings. " La loi fondamentale de la 
 morale," says Voltaire, " agit sur toutes les 
 nations. II y a mille differences dans les in- 
 terpretations de cette loi en mille circonstances, 
 mais le fond subsiste toujours le meme, et ce 
 fond c'est Tidee du juste et de I'injuste." — Pre- 
 bendary Griffith, Fwidainetitals.
 
 486 — 492] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 85 
 
 [PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 3 Man's nature apart from revelation finds 
 no hope of satisfaction or perfection. 
 
 (i) Mail's indefinite craving and futile efforts 
 to find satisfaction in via'terial nature proves the 
 need of something higher. 
 
 [486] The wearied wits and wasted estates 
 laid out upon the philosopher's stone aftbrd 
 but a faint, defective representation of this case. 
 What chemistry can extract heaven out of a 
 clod of clay ? What art can make blessedness 
 spring and grow out of this cold earth ? If all 
 created nature be vexed and tortured never so 
 long, who can expect this elixir ? Yet after so 
 many frustrated attempts, so much time and 
 strength and labour lost, men are still as eagerly 
 and vainly busy as ever ; are perpetually tossed 
 by unsatisfied desires, " labouring in the fire," 
 wearying themselves for very vanity, distracted 
 by the uncertain and often contrary motions of 
 a ravenous appetite and a blind mind, that 
 would be happy and knows not how. — J. Hozue, 
 1630-1705. 
 
 (2) Man's own nature as nnregenerate does 
 not contain elements of satisfaction. 
 
 [487] Let the law be considered which is 
 "written in men's hearts"' — the vonoq Sijfuovp- 
 yiKoc, the Td4'ie twofioc, or the "lex nata," in the 
 ethnic language, which the eternal lawgiving 
 Mind hath created in our souls — and how evi- 
 dently doth that law convince that we neither 
 are nor do what we should ! How gross and 
 numerous deformities do we daily behold by 
 that shattered and broken glass ! How many 
 things which we disapprove, or certainly would, 
 if we discussed the matter with ourselves ! 
 How frequent buffetings are many, when they 
 reflect, constrained to suffer at their own hands ; 
 even wherein, not having another law, they 
 " are only a law to themselves," and have only 
 their own thoughts, either their excusers or ac- 
 cusers ! And what doth that signify but a lapse 
 and recess from their original state, the broken 
 imperfect memorials whereof are a standing 
 testimony against their present course ; their 
 notions of right and wrong, comely and un- 
 comely, remonstrating against their vicious in- 
 clinations and ways .'' For would they ever 
 reprove themselves for what was not possible 
 to be otherwise ? — /did. 
 
 (3) Man's nature is evidently constructed to 
 find perfection in a higher state of being. 
 
 [488] I, Every man has in his own conscious- 
 ness evidence of the existence of mind. 
 
 2. The soul has capacities which are never 
 fully developed in this world, and cannot be ; 
 it has desires, aspirations, and necessities for 
 which the world does not furnish the appro- 
 priate objects. It is, therefore, as evidently 
 designed and adapted to a higher and spiritual 
 state of existence as the body is to the present 
 order of things. This is true ia) of the intel- 
 lectual powers, {b) of the desire for happiness, 
 (t) aspirations after spiritual fellowships, {d) 
 conscious dependence on a higher Being. 
 
 3. Every man has also the consciousness of 
 right and wrong. — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic 
 Theology. 
 
 See " Conscience"' and " Morals." 
 
 4 God, the sole satisfier of man's spiritual 
 instincts, known most truly through per- 
 sonal consciousness. 
 
 [4S9] No scientific discoveries will ever find 
 in nature more than God made, nor a better 
 explanation than that " He made it," nor a 
 more satisfying provision for man's incapacity 
 and indefinite longings than in the mercy of 
 the Cross, and the kingdom "which He hath 
 promised to them that love Him." — B. G. 
 
 [490] So many wonderful truths — for truths 
 they are — of which our forefathers dreamed 
 nothing, are discovered every year, that none 
 can foretell where the movement will stop, what 
 we shall have to believe next. Only let us 
 take refuge in the text, " In the beginning God 
 created the heaven and the earth." All that we 
 see around us, however wonderful, all that has 
 been found out of late, however wonderful, all 
 that will ever be found out, however still more 
 wonderful it may be, is the work of God — of 
 that God who revealed Himself to Moses ; of 
 that God who led the children of Israel out of 
 their slavery in Egypt ; of that God who taught 
 David in all his troubles and wanderings to 
 trust in Him as his Guide and Friend ; of that 
 God who revealed to the old prophets the fate 
 of nations and the laws by which He governs 
 all the kingdoms and people of the earth ; of 
 that God, above all, who so loved the world 
 that He gave His only-begotten Son that the 
 world by Him m.ight be saved. This material 
 world, which we do see, is as much God's world 
 as the spiritual world which we do not see ; 
 and therefore the one cannot contradict the 
 other, and the true understanding of the one 
 will never hurt the true understanding of the 
 other. — Canon Kingsley, 
 
 44 
 
 PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL 
 OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 I. Definition of the Terim. 
 
 [491] Teleology (from Tiko<:, riXeot;, the end or 
 issue, and Xoyog, discourse). The science or 
 doctrine of the final causes of things; the philo- 
 sophical consideration of final causes in general. 
 
 II. Nature of the Argument. 
 
 [492] This argument is from the evidences of 
 intelligence and wisdom in the universe to an 
 intelligent Creator : sometimes called argument 
 from design.
 
 86 
 
 493—501] 
 
 [493] Design supposes a designer : the world 
 exhibits marks of design, therefore design in- 
 ckides (i) the selection of an end to be attained, 
 (2) the choice of suitable means for the attain- 
 ment of that end, (3) the application of these 
 means to that end. Design thus implies intel- 
 ligence, will, and power. — Dr. C. Hodge, Syste- 
 matic Theology. 
 
 III. Various Lines of Proof. 
 
 [Valuable as each of the following lines 
 of argument may be when taken separately, yet 
 it is in their combined forai and accumulative 
 force that their real worth consists.] 
 
 I From nature generally. 
 
 (i) The iinh'ersatity of design. 
 [494] Design is exhibited : — ■ 
 
 1. In single organs; e.g., the eye, the ear, <S:c. 
 
 2. In the relation of organs to each other ; 
 £.g., an animal. 
 
 3. Adaptations of organs to instincts ; e.g., 
 beasts and birds carnivorous have organs requi- 
 site for seizing their prey, Sec. 
 
 4. In provision, or the preparation for an 
 event in the future ; e.g., organs of sight, hear- 
 ing, &c. ; provision for the support of the young, 
 &c. 
 
 5. In vegetable physiology : the structure, 
 growth, reproduction. 
 
 6. In the adaptations of external nature to 
 the requirements of animal and vegetable life. 
 
 7. In the mutual relations and adaptations of 
 the animal and vegetable worlds. 
 
 8. In the preparation and adaptation of the 
 earth for the life of man. 
 
 9. In the arrangements of our own and other 
 solar systems, considered {a) separately and {b) 
 in their relations to each other. — Ibid. 
 
 (2) Unity of design. 
 
 [495] The simple fact that we call all material 
 •existences nature, as one system, implies one 
 -Maker and Ruler. 
 
 [496] Nature presents to us the appearance 
 of a vast organic whole, whose unity depends 
 not on physical necessity, but on delicate adjust- 
 ments and complicated adaptations, which are 
 essentially intellectual and arbitrary ; involving 
 relation of number, size, speed, distance, equi- 
 librium, proportion, the balance of forces which 
 determines strength of material, and the all but 
 infinite relations involved in chemical com- 
 pounds and vital structures. It is consequently 
 at the same time an intellectual 'ivhole,\\\ which 
 we may be absolutely certain that every fact 
 and law is intelligibly consistent (supposing our 
 knowledge complete, and our intellect competent 
 to grasp it) with every other. And it is a moral 
 whole ; a system of benevolent foresight and 
 mutual ministry. — Dr. Eustace Conder in Con- 
 temporary Review. 
 
 [497J In an action for conspiracy as respect- 
 ing the dynamite outrage, it is enough to prove 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 the unity of action in different agents as in- 
 dicating one purpose or plan ; so to make all 
 nature of one coherent scheme requires either 
 that myriads of elements conspire together to 
 transcend, or that some presiding Mind directs 
 the whole. — B. G. 
 
 (3) Harmony of design. 
 
 [49S] This world, the work of liberty, of intel- 
 ligence, and of love, is the living expression of 
 this principle. Everywhere in the immensity of 
 space and time reigns a law of suitability and 
 harmony, a Divine law, a sovereign law which 
 rules the history and affinities of all beings, 
 triumphs over all resistance, effaces all acci- 
 dental discord, and conducts each being beyond 
 the appointed chances and changes of life to 
 all the beauty, all the perfection, all the felicity 
 which appertains to his particular nature and 
 universal order. — Saisset, Phil. Rel. 
 
 [There is no logical escape from this argu- 
 ment from design.] 
 
 [499] The marks of intelligence and design 
 are all around us here, stamped ineffaceably on 
 the whole face of the world. Take us back to be 
 vapour, and we have not got rid of them ; they 
 go back with us, and again confront us in the 
 amazing properties and potencies of that 
 primary stage of being, and no more there than 
 here have we any means of accounting for them 
 except by the hypothesis of an originating Mind. 
 — Brownlow Maitland. 
 
 (4) The marvels of design. 
 
 [50c] When one looks on a clock and sees 
 the motion of the wheels, the striking of the 
 hammer, the hanging of the plummets, he would 
 say there were some artificer did make it, and 
 put it into that order. So when we see the 
 excellent order and harmony in the universe, 
 the sun, that great luminary dispensing its light 
 and heat to the world, without which the world 
 were but a grave or prison ; the rivers sending 
 forth their silver streams to refresh the bodies 
 of men and prevent a drought, and every 
 creature acting within its sphere and keeping 
 its due bounds, we must needs acknowledge 
 there is a God who wisely orders and governs 
 all these things.— y. Watson, 1690. 
 
 [In fine, millions of circumstances or con- 
 ditions must be combined in carrying on the 
 operations of nature.] 
 
 [501] We will suppose, for instance, that one 
 who had never before seen a watch or anything 
 of that sort, hath now this little engine first 
 offered to his view ; can we doubt but he would 
 upon the mere sight of its figure, structure, and 
 the very curious workmanship which we will 
 suppose appearing in it, presently acknowledge 
 the artificer's hand .'' But if he were also made 
 to understand the use and purpose for which it 
 serves ; and it were distinctly shown him how 
 each thing contributes, and all things in this 
 little fabric concur, to this purpose, the exact
 
 SOI— So6] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 87 
 
 1 PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 measuring and dividing of time by minutes, 
 hours, and months, he would certainly both con- 
 fess and praise the great ingenuity of the first 
 inventor. — J. Howe, 1630-1705. 
 
 [502] This is the argument a fortiori; i.e., if 
 such a production as a watch requires a pro- 
 ducer of intelligence, much more the production 
 of the watchmaker himself, and of all creatures, 
 requires a greater maker.^Z)". G. 
 
 (5) The gradual process in the ivorking out 
 of design. 
 
 (a) As to the original of things. 
 
 [503] The admirableness and comely variety 
 of God's works doth easily offer it to our 
 thoughts. In the frame of the work you may 
 easily find a wise workman (Psa. cxxxvi. 5 ; 
 Prov. iii. 19). The wisdom of God appeareth in 
 the order of making and in the order of placing 
 all His creatures. In making them, in simple 
 things, God began with those that were most 
 perfect. As His first creature was light, which 
 of all qualities is the most pure and defecate, 
 and is not stained by passing through places 
 most impure : then all the other elements. In 
 mixed bodies God took another method, from 
 imperfect to perfect : first things that have a 
 being, as the firmament, then life, as plants ; 
 then sense, as beasts, then reason, as men. First 
 God would provide the places of heaven and 
 earth, then the creatures to dwell in them ; first 
 the food, then the creatures to be sustained by 
 it. Provision was made for the inhabitants of 
 the earth, as grass for beasts, and light for all 
 living and moving creatures. Plants have a 
 growing life, beasts a feeling life. Then man 
 was made, last of all creatures as most excellent. 
 Thus God would teach us to go on from good to 
 better. Man's palace was furnished with all 
 things necessary, and they were placed and 
 disposed in their apt cells for the beauty and 
 service of the whole, and then, like a prince, he 
 was sent into the world to rule and reign. There 
 are not so many animals in the. earth as in the 
 sea, to avoid the great waste of food which 
 would be consumed by the beasts of the land to 
 the prejudice of man. But there is no end of 
 these considerations. — T. Jl/anton, D.D., 1629- 
 1677. 
 
 [In the above extract the reader can mentally 
 correct the statement about the creation of 
 light. It was the first part of the six days' work 
 to reintroduce light into the world.] 
 
 {b) As to the continuance of things. 
 
 [504] The superstition of modern philosophy 
 restricts the attention to the efficient causes 
 which render adaptation possible and evident, 
 as to fail to regard them under the higher 
 relation. 
 
 An example will illustrate the similarity and 
 the difference between the application of this 
 relation in the case of the savage, who ascribes 
 a single instance of adaptation directly to a 
 rational deviser, and the philosopher in the 
 
 other, who sees it extend so widely and numer- 
 ously over an immense field of efficient agencies 
 that he questions whether to ascribe it to a 
 rational spirit at all. We take a plant, say the 
 weed that is trodden under our feet, or the bud 
 that is just starting in the nearest hedge. The 
 plant is itself so abundant in adaptations that, 
 regarding it by itself, we might say it was pro- 
 duced directly by a creating power ; but we 
 discover that it was not so created, but was 
 evolved from a tiny seed. But the seed, to 
 produce it, must depend upon the light and 
 moisture, upon the sun and the earth, as co- 
 agencies, in order that it may germinate and 
 grow into a perfected plant. The seed in its 
 turn was evolved from another plant, which was 
 also evolved in a similar way and ripened from 
 another plant by the aid of sun and air and 
 earth. What if this is so ? Are not the heat 
 and light and moisture as really adapted to tliie 
 several parts of the plant as the organs of the 
 plant in their functions are adapted to one 
 another ? Are not all an organism as truly, 
 though not by so close and exclusive a connec- 
 tion, as are the constituents of the plant itself? 
 Is not the whole series of the plants of a single 
 species, with all the agencies which condition 
 their coexistent and continuous life, as truly an 
 organism of mutually adapted elements, as if 
 a single individual of a non-existent species 
 had been created in the morning and had 
 perished at night .'' The discovery of additional 
 conditions, though they stretch throughout the 
 universe in space, or of efficient forces, though 
 they extend in time through a long series and 
 are connected as parent and offspring, simply 
 renders the structure more complex and its 
 adaptations more various and interesting. — 
 Rev. Noah Poi'ter, D.D., The Hunia7i Intellect. 
 
 (6) Beauty linked with design. 
 
 (a) Beauty is itself an end or designed object, 
 and is indicative of past and future enjoyment 
 for man. 
 
 [505J The beauty which picturesque verse 
 loves to celebrate depends for its tender and 
 supreme recognition on spiritual insight. It is 
 a recent notion of physicists that beauty is never 
 an end in itself, in the outward and evident 
 scheme of things, but exists only to serve utilities. 
 The notion, I must think, has its root in another 
 — that the system has originated, not in intelli- 
 gence and beneficent purpose, but in the deve- 
 lopment of mechanical forces. The apprehension 
 of a prescient ordaining mind, behind all phe- 
 nomena, is indispensable to the clear recognition, 
 or the sympathetic rendering, of even the out- 
 ward beauty of nature. Then only does this 
 stand in essential correlation with spiritual states, 
 which find images in it ; while then alone does 
 it knit the present, on which it casts its scattered 
 lights, with vanished paradises, and spheres of 
 beauty still unapproached. — Dr. R. S. Siorrs, 
 Recognition of SuJ>ernatural. 
 
 [506] Utility in its vulgar aspect could be
 
 88 
 
 506—514] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 attained without beauty or pleasure, as man 
 might eat food, without taste or appetite, merely 
 to preserve life. The same applies to sights and 
 sounds, colour, in its infinite varieties, in flowers, 
 grass, sky, and paintings, and the human voice, 
 instrumental music, and the music of the spheres. 
 —B. G. 
 
 2 From man himself. 
 
 (i) Viewed posonally. 
 
 [507] The Argument from Design attains its 
 full force when we take man himself into account, 
 as the choicest product of nature, the cul- 
 minating point of the whole series of existences 
 in our world. For not only is the human body 
 the most complex and exquisite in its mechanism 
 of all living structures, and therefore most clearly 
 stamped with the impress of design ; besides 
 that, Ave cannot help feeling that our bodies are 
 instruments designed and fashioned for the use 
 of our real selves. For no one of us thinks that 
 he is his body, or that his body is himself; we 
 are all conscious of a personality which is alto- 
 gether different from the material organism, 
 residing somehow in it and making use of it, 
 yet entirely different from it in kind, and im- 
 measurably superior to it. . . . This, I say, 
 crowns the argument. We found design im- 
 pressed on all the orders and ranks of Nature, 
 but till we reached man it might have seemed 
 that there was no sufficient end towards which 
 all the skill and workmanship were directed. 
 Here, in man, is the end, worthy of the whole 
 elaborate purpose ; and in the recognition of 
 such an end our minds are satisfied, and the 
 argument receives its complement and finish. — 
 B}'ouinlozu Maitland, Design. 
 
 (2) Viewed liistorically. 
 
 [508] Again, the world, because its highest 
 unfolding is history, an intellectual and moral 
 development — i.e., something other and higher 
 than a mere cycle of beginning to be and ceasing 
 to be — a purposed coming into being of some- 
 thing which, when it has thus become, shall be 
 worthy to abide^the world cannot have its end 
 or object in its mere existence nor in its mere 
 temporal development, but only in a realized 
 ideal world — in an eternal kingdom of God, 
 which in the end of world-history shall stand 
 forth as the eternally-enduring result of this 
 history. Just as Paul further reminds us, "God 
 hath appointed a day in the which He will judge 
 the world in righteousness." 
 
 IV. Extent of the Argument. 
 
 [509] There are two things, however, always 
 to be remembered about it : first, that the argu- 
 ment is not strictly demonstrative, but of the 
 nature of an appeal to the intellectual instincts 
 of our race ; and, secondly, that it takes us up 
 to a great intelligent Cause, but not beyond that, 
 as the Source of Being. The conception of God 
 as our God, our living, holy, gracious Father, is 
 not to be got from the physical universe ; the 
 presentation of God to our minds through the 
 
 medium of nature is limited to the idea of an 
 almighty Mind, the Fountain, the Centre, the 
 Force of all physical existence. For the higher 
 conception of God in His character, as righteous, 
 merciful, true, and fatherly, we must betake 
 ourselves to the presentation which He has given 
 us of Himself in and through man, whom He 
 was pleased to make in His own image. This 
 completes what the physical world leaves in- 
 complete, and leads us on to the true idea of the 
 heavenly Father, who loves us and cares for us. 
 — Broi^'ulou) Maitland, Design. 
 
 V. Objection to Conclusions about 
 THE Divine Existence "drawn from 
 the Argument. 
 
 I There are so many different views of God. 
 
 [510] It is much the same thing as the disputes 
 about the nature and matter of the heavens, 
 the sun, and planets. Though there be great 
 diversity of judgments, yet all agree that they 
 exist. So all contentions among men about the 
 nature of God weaken not but rather confirm 
 that there is a God. — S. Charnoek, B.D., 
 1628-1680. 
 
 [511] The objection that after all proofs of the 
 existence of God, there are different ideas con- 
 cerning God, is answered by the fact that there 
 are few natural objects respecting which men 
 have not had different ideas, yet this does not 
 disprove the existence of those objects. There 
 have been many theories respecting the nature 
 of light and fire, but this does not prove there is 
 no light or fire ; on the contrary, those different 
 theories are founded on the fact of the existence 
 of elements. — B, G. 
 
 VI. Objections to the Line of Argu- 
 ment itself. 
 
 1 The argument does not cohere, the con- 
 clusions do not follow from the premise. 
 
 [512] Things which grow of themselves differ 
 essentially from structures fashioned by human 
 hands, and therefore when you say that design 
 in these proves design also in those, you are 
 really not arguing, but only making an assump- 
 tion which there are no facts to support. 
 
 Reply, (a) The argument from design has 
 not strictly demonstrative force. (^) There is 
 no other reasonable explanation possible. 
 
 [513] The objection assumes that things "grow 
 of themselves,'' which is a petitio principii, un- 
 less all things outside our knowledge contradict 
 all within our knowledge. When watches or 
 books "grow of themselves," without a watch- 
 maker or a printer respectively, we may believe 
 the same respecting " the productions of nature," 
 a phrase which itself implies a producer. — B. G. 
 
 2 There are alleged irregularities, incon. 
 sistencies, blemishes in Nature. 
 
 [514] Such peculiarities lurk in the nooks and
 
 514—520] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 89 
 
 [PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 byways of the physical world, in the fringes and 
 skirts' of nature ;' they are like the specks and 
 flaws which a magnifying glass discovers in a 
 polished surface. 
 
 Is the broad, fair face of the world so blurred 
 and disorganized by these minute irregularities, 
 that order, adjustment, and beauty can no longer 
 be discerned in it? Surely it might as well be 
 argued that a noble palace, with its stately 
 chambers and costly decoration, was nothing 
 more than a freak of chance, or a shapeless 
 mass, because an apparently useless closet or 
 two might be found in it, a stone here or there 
 be loose, or a handful of dust lie in some of its 
 corners 1 — Browtiloiu Maitland. 
 
 [515] "Irregularities" in nature imply "regu- 
 larities," from which they are the exception. 
 This proves the rule, or rather proves the 
 existence of the Ruler. — B. G. 
 
 3 There is no room for the argument, it does 
 not apply to the facts of nature as we now 
 know them. 
 
 [516] Those who urge this objection say in 
 effect — "We have found out all about the origin 
 of the natural organisms which fill the world, 
 and their story excludes the idea of their exist- 
 ence being due to anything like design or pur- 
 pose. Time was, in the immeasurably remote 
 past, when nothing existed in space but a wild 
 whirling vapour of inconceivably minute atoms ; 
 this, by virtue of its own physical properties, 
 separated into masses, condensed into solid orbs, 
 cooled down into worlds, struck out rudimentary 
 germs of life ; these germs, under the influence 
 of their physical surroundings, went on to pro- 
 duce diverse and superior forms of life, the 
 better varieties of which naturally, in the long 
 run, supplanted the worse ; and this process 
 going on by the natural force of things through 
 millions of ages, the divergences and the im- 
 provements became imperceptibly wider and 
 greater, until at last the world became what 
 we see it to be now, full of the highly organized 
 and complex structures of both the animal and 
 vegetable kingdoms. Where, then, in all this 
 physical evolution, which has been the neces- 
 sary outgrowth of certain physical laws, is there 
 the smallest opening by which design or purpose 
 could have entered into the process, unless, in- 
 deed, you choose to ascribe intelligence to the 
 original vapour out of which everything has 
 proceeded?" 
 
 [517] If all elements were once in wild con- 
 fusion, they would be so now, if no wise Agency 
 intervened. Chaos is not the father of Kosmos. 
 —B. G. 
 
 [518] Common experience informs us that our 
 workmen construct artificial machines, and they 
 do not come of themselves by accident, or any 
 sort of self-forming process. Whenever, there- 
 fore, we meet with a machine, however simple, 
 sve are sure that it is a thing of human handi- 
 work ; some man's brain devised it, some man's 
 
 hands made it. It may be only two pieces of 
 stick tied together with a bit of string, and 
 picked up on a mountain's side ; yet our infer- 
 ence is immediate and unfailing ; we cannot for 
 a moment doubt that it was produced by human 
 intelligence and art. Well, we look now at 
 nature's organic mechanisms, her elaborate 
 living structures, part fitted to part with exqui- 
 site accuracy so as to bring about a definite 
 end ; and as we gaze on them, an impression of 
 a similar kind is made on our minds. These, 
 we exclaim, these also cannot be chance-work ; 
 here are the plain marks of intelligence, of pur- 
 pose, of skill ; this is mechanism, better even 
 than our best ; these are the products of still 
 higher skill. Such is the immediate, unavoid- 
 able impression made on our minds. We can- 
 not help feeling it, even though afterwards we 
 might attempt to reason it away. It comes on 
 us irresistibly as we examine these natural, living 
 mechanisms ; they strike us at once as bearing 
 the marks of design, of intention, of contriving 
 intelligence ; the inference is instantaneous, the 
 facts speak for themselves ; our minds by their 
 very constitution leap at once to the conception 
 of an intelligent maker as the only adequate ex- 
 planation. But who is the maker in this case ? 
 Not man, we are sure ; for no human being was 
 ever able to construct the meanest of living 
 things. Some far mightier and more skilful 
 mind and hand must have been at work ; some 
 mind able to design, some hand competent to 
 fashion, the amazing, unspeakable universe of 
 being. To this immeasurably skilful and power- 
 ful !\Iaker of all things, to whom our minds thus 
 instinctively spring up from the contemplation 
 of nature, we give the awful name of God. — 
 Brownlow Maitland, Design. 
 
 [519] The whole chorus of nature raises one 
 hymn to the praise of its Creator. You alone, 
 or almost alone, disturb this general harmony. 
 You start abstruse doubts, cavils, and objections. 
 You ask me, What is the cause of this cause ? 
 I know not ; I care not ; that concerns not me, 
 I have found a Deity, and here I stop my inquiry. 
 — Dialogues on Natural Religion. 
 
 [520] Around him lies the physical universe, 
 and on every part of it he will discern the im- 
 press of God. In the glories of the sky and the 
 wonders of the earth ; in the countless varieties 
 of vegetable and animal life ; in every spectacle 
 of natural beauty, and every provision for human 
 use, he will recognize the power, the wisdom, 
 and the goodness of the Creator. Not a star 
 that gems the night, not a flower that adorns the 
 soil, not a fruit that affords nutriment for living 
 things, will fail to whisper to him of God. The 
 seasons as they run their beneficent round, 
 bringing forth storm and calm, rain and sun- 
 shine, winter frosts and summer heats, and 
 ripening the harvests for the sustenance of all 
 living creatures, will be eloquent to him of a 
 Divine order ; the solid earth with its mountains 
 and valleys and garniture of green, the great 
 oceans with their solemn swell and voice, the
 
 90 
 
 52 
 
 524] 
 
 THE EP'IDEXCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 [PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 Stately rivers and leaping streams, Avill testify to 
 him of the Almighty Architect, whose mind 
 conceived and whose hand built up the majestic 
 structure of our globe. Standing in the midst 
 of the glorious universe of visible being, and 
 ranging with devout eye over its manifold phe- 
 nomena, he will feel it to be a temple filled by 
 the omnipresent Deity, and from his heart will 
 ascend worship and praise unto Him who was, 
 and is, and is to come, of whom and for whom 
 are all these things. — Brownlow Maiihind, 
 Thcisiii or Agnosticis7>i. 
 
 [521] Thus is the living, personal, fatherly 
 God, " in whom," as Paul further on says, " we 
 live, and move, and have our being " — whose 
 life-atmosphere and life-heat surrounds us at all 
 times and everj-where in our existence, in order 
 that we may seek Him and find Him, and by 
 His felt nearness be drawn into His communion 
 and formed into His likeness — thus, I say, is 
 the Heavenly Father the highest certainty of a 
 heart which sets out in its thought from its own 
 moral and religious nature, and in the light of 
 the gospel has come to the knov.-ledge of itself 
 — an idea of God before which, when it is once 
 grasped by faith, all these deified world-forms 
 not of mythology only, but quite as much of 
 philosophy also, turn pale as phantoms. But 
 as H-e and nothing else is the solution of the 
 riddle of our hearts, so is He also, He alone, the 
 solution of the riddle of the world so far as such 
 a solution is granted to us here below— the 
 question, that is to say, of the origin and end or 
 object of the world. 
 
 VII. The Value and Force of the 
 
 ArGUiMENT. 
 
 I The principle involved in the argument 
 is not a generalization from experience, 
 but a truth. 
 
 [522] The argument from design isnot founded 
 merely or solely on analogy from human expe- 
 rience as to man's productions, but is a funda- 
 mental principle of reasoning from the nature 
 of the case, like mathematical reasoning, 
 and amounts rather to demonstration than 
 probability. 
 
 [523] The analogy would indeed be worthless 
 if the truth that design implies a designer were 
 a mere generalized truth of observation : that 
 is to say, if we had no reason for believing 
 it to be so, except that we have always found it 
 to be so. But this is not the case. ' We may 
 no doubt be mistaken in thinking that we see 
 design: this is a question to be decided by 
 careful examination of facts and accurate in- 
 ductive reasoning. Darwin's entire theory of 
 the- origin of species, against which I have 
 argued at length in my work on " Habit and 
 Intelligence," is an attempt to prove that the 
 appearances of design in the organic creation 
 are illusory. But when the existence of design 
 is proved, the inference of the existence of a 
 Designer is inevitable. In other words, when 
 
 we perceive adaptation to a purpose, the in- 
 ference is inevitable that the adaptation is 
 intended. The certainty of this truth is alto- 
 gether independent of the number of instances. 
 We believe it, not as we believe that all matter 
 gravitates, because we have always found it to 
 be so : but as we believe that parallel lines will 
 continue parallel to infinity, because it cannot 
 be otherwise. 
 
 To reason from design in human works, such 
 as machinery and architecture, to design in the 
 Divine works, is not strictly speaking analo- 
 gical reasoning : that is to say, the analogy is 
 not the ground of the reasoning. If it were, 
 the form of the reasoning would be this : — 
 " What is true of the works of man is true also 
 of the works of nature : in the works of man, 
 design implies an intelligent designer ; there- 
 fore the same is true of the works of nature." 
 But this is evidently no true statement of the 
 argument. We believe that design must every- 
 where imply an intelligent designer, not because 
 we find it to be so in the works of man, but 
 because we perceive that it must be so : and 
 those examples of human ingenuity and skill 
 on which so much emphasis is laid do not 
 in any degree constitute the data of the argu- 
 ment : they are only illustrations by means of 
 which we learn to understand it. Had we not 
 become familiar with design as a proof of 
 human intelligence, it is probable that we 
 should never have learned to regard design as 
 a proof of Divine Intelligence : yet the analogy 
 in this case no more constitutes the proof, than 
 the parables of the New Testament constitute 
 the proof of the spiritual truths which neverthe- 
 less they illustrate. 
 
 Thus the works of human art are not experi- 
 mental proofs, but only illustrations, of the 
 truth that design implies a Designer; and their 
 value as illustrations is in no way aftected by 
 the fact that they are put together, or con- 
 structed, while the works of nature are evolved. 
 
 But further : there are works of human art 
 which, like those of nature, are rather evolved 
 than constructed : I mean such works as poetry 
 and music, which are not the work of the hands, 
 and are not put together out of pre-existing 
 materials, but are formed within the mind. 
 This case is really not exceptional but typical : 
 for that which is contributed by intelligence to 
 such a work of art as a piece of architecture 
 or machinery is neither the materials nor the 
 labour which puts the materials together, but 
 the design ; and the design manifests intelli- 
 gence equally, whether it is ever executed or 
 not : indeed, the action of pure intelligence 
 ends where the action of labour on the materials 
 begins.— 7. J. Murphy. 
 
 2 Modern discoveries have not weakened the 
 fundamental principle of the argument. 
 
 [524.] Arguments that greatly influenced in- 
 telligent minds a hundred years ago have now, 
 in several instances, lost much of their power, 
 though their real evidential value seems, in the
 
 524— S3i] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 9I 
 
 [PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 abstract, to be quite as great as ever. The 
 argument from design may be noticed as an 
 instance, and, still more so, the argument from 
 the manner in which the gospel was first pro- 
 pagated. The first argument may, to a certain 
 extent, have been neutralized in some of its 
 more limited illustrations — such, for example, 
 as those derived from our bodily structure, in 
 which structure we are told that we have to 
 recognize traces of rudimentary or aborted 
 organs. — Bp. Eilicott, Modern Unbelief. 
 
 3 The argument carries irresistible force to 
 the unsophisticated mind. 
 
 [525] One of the Red Republicans of 1793 
 was telling a good peasant of La Vendee :— 
 " We are going to pull down your churches and 
 your steeples — all that recalls the superstitions 
 of past ages and all that brings to your mind 
 the idea of God." " Citizen,"' replied the good 
 Vendean, " pull down the stars then." 
 
 VIII. Difficulties of the Impugners 
 OF THE Conclusions drawn from 
 THE Argument. 
 
 1 To overlook or deny Divine wisdom in 
 design is to manifest our own want of 
 wisdom or intelligence. 
 
 [526] I should think it much more easy and 
 rational (says my Lord Bacon) to believe all 
 the fables in the poets, the legends, the Talmud, 
 and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame 
 shall be without a Creator and Governor. 
 
 Cicero . . . mastered thoroughly the whole 
 Epicurean system, as his Epicurean friend 
 Atticus confessed, as also we see in his Dia- 
 logues ; but he avows that he would as soon 
 believe that the Iliad of Homer was written by 
 shaking letters together in a bag as that this 
 universe arose out of blind chance. — G. F. 
 Wright. 
 
 2 We may as well deny human agency or 
 design as Divine. 
 
 [527] The theist predicates design, and for 
 the best of reasons, since he has a just and 
 adequate analogy on which to base his con- 
 ception. Man himself is a designer. He 
 modifies the course of nature. He uses tools 
 and machinery, and accomplishes his designs 
 through indirect means. In man as a designer 
 we have a true cause, operating indeed on a 
 small scale and within definite limits, but these 
 limits are not such as would necessarily cir- 
 cumscribe a higher order of mind. — Ibiei. 
 
 3 To account for orderly events by laws, 
 which mean orderly events, is to make 
 the effects their own cause. 
 
 [528] The world — because its whole basis is 
 nature, i.e., unconscious, unfree, material being, 
 and yet at the same time law, order, worked- 
 out reason — cannot itself be the ground or 
 cause of its own existence, but its laws demand 
 a thinker, its orderly arrangements a master, 
 its wonder-works a creator. As Paul preaches 
 
 — " God that made the world and all things 
 therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and 
 earth, dwelleth not in temples made with 
 hands ; neither is He worshipped with men's 
 hands, as though He needed anything, seeing 
 He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." 
 
 4 The absence of design involves the pre- 
 sence of mystery or miracle. 
 
 [529] The assumption of design in the uni- 
 verse justifies the faith of science in a personal 
 and intelligent Creator. Justifies ? I had almost 
 said it requires this in order that the intellect 
 may rest in a completed idea of a well- 
 rounded universe. A creator is a being who 
 originates all the active beings, and imparts all 
 the force or forces which exist, and who regu- 
 lates their mutual activities by the laws which 
 he has imposed upon them to accomplish the 
 designs which he proposes, in the existence, 
 the development, and activity of the material and 
 spiritual universe. You may try in vain to stop 
 short at any view of the origin of things with- 
 out designing force, if you hope to provide for 
 science. You may try the theory of force only, 
 as Spencer does, and refer this origin or exist- 
 ence of things as he does to a persistent un- 
 known and unknowable power, unlimited in 
 space and without beginning or end in time. 
 But in this conception you have all the inys- 
 tery that pertains to a self-existent personal 
 Creator, with no advantages. — President Porter 
 {Yale), Princetown Review {May i, 1879). 
 
 5 An intelligent designer is the only solu- 
 tion of the mystery or miracle of nature. 
 
 [530] Man, as has so often been pointed out, 
 obtains certain results by working with a special 
 object, i.e., with design : he chooses and com- 
 bines with a view to the desired end. When 
 we study the similar selective work of nature, 
 surely it is gratuitously illogical to insist that 
 this must be the work of chance. One thing 
 cannot be too often borne in mind : the more 
 complicated our arrangement is, _ the _ more 
 numerous the elements that enter into it, the 
 more unlikely it becomes that it can be the 
 result of chance. — Lo?idon Qna7iei-ly Review. 
 
 6 The variety of orderly productions, their 
 mutual arrangement and evident purpose 
 can be explained only by an agency and 
 intelligence capable of such combination. 
 
 [531] What, then, are these things without a 
 Providence ? Tell me now, could so many good 
 things as we see around us come by accident ? 
 The daily light, the beautiful order that exists 
 in all things, the mazy dances of the stars, the 
 equable course of night and day, the regular 
 gradation of nature in vegetables, animals, and 
 i-iien— who, tell me, is it that ordereth these? 
 If there were no superintending Being, but all 
 things combined together by accident, who was 
 it that made this vault revolve, so beautiful, so 
 vast— the sky, and set it upon the earth— nay 
 more, upon the waters ? Who is it that gives
 
 92 
 
 THE EVIDEXCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 531—539] 
 
 [providential argument. 
 
 the fruitful seasons ? Who implanted so great 
 power in seeds and vegetables ? for that which 
 is accidental is necessarily disorderly, whereas 
 order implies art. For which, tell me, of the 
 things around us that are accidental is not full 
 of disorder and confusion? Nor will I speak 
 of things accidental only, but of those which 
 imply some agent, but an unskilful agent. For 
 example, let there be timber and stone, and let 
 not lime be wanting, and let a man unskilled in 
 building take them, and begin building ; even 
 with earnest endeavour will he not spoil it all ? 
 Again, take a vessel without a pilot, containing 
 ever^'thing which a vessel ought to contain, 
 without a shipwright— I do not say unappointed, 
 but well appointed— will it be able to sail ? and 
 could the vast extent of earth standing on the 
 waters ever stand so firmly and so long a time 
 without some power to hold it together? And 
 can these views have any reason in them? Is 
 it not the extreme of absurdity to conceive them, 
 for in very truth all is the work of Providence. 
 — St. Chrysostom. 
 
 IX. Testimony in favour of the Line 
 OF Argument. 
 
 I The incidental recognition of the doc- 
 trine of design or contrivance in the nomen. 
 clature of modern advanced scientists. 
 
 [532] If ViX. Darwin's researches have sug- 
 gested to many inferences adverse to theism, 
 at least no one of the present day has done 
 more to swell the host of examples which might 
 serve to illustrate the argument from design, 
 in particular by his study of the singularly 
 varied contrivances by which provision is made 
 for the fertilization of certain families of plants ; 
 for whether we acknowledge " a contriver " or 
 not, the word " contrivance '' is not shunned by 
 ISIr. Darwin himself as being the only one that 
 seems capable of expressing the wonderful 
 adaption of means to ends. — Prof. Salmon, 
 Non-Miraculous Christianity. 
 
 a The admission of the late John Stuart 
 Mill. 
 
 [533] The late 'Mr. J. S. Mill, in his posthu- 
 mous essay on Theism, while rejecting all other 
 arguments for the existence of God, hesitatingly 
 allowed that this argument does raise a faint 
 presumption or probability in favour of a God 
 of limited power. 
 
 [534] The idea assumed in the preceding 
 quotation that the Divine power is exhausted in 
 what we know of nature, and is to be " limited " 
 by our discoveries thereof, first supposes that 
 we know the whole of nature, and that nature 
 is limited ; and secondly supposes that if nature 
 be limited. He who made it is absolutely to be 
 measured by it, and limited to it. 
 
 45 
 
 FR VIDENTIAL AR G UMENT. 
 
 I. The Nature of the Argument. 
 
 [535] This is the argument from the moral 
 nature and the moral world, or, otherwise stated, 
 for the existence of a -personal Ruler in the 
 universe. 
 
 [536] This is founded on the evidences of a 
 moral government among mankind. It rests 
 upon the facts of an omniscient, all-wise, just, 
 and benevolent foresight and control of the 
 world, which is beyond and above the physical 
 laws of nature, while at the same time by means 
 of those laws it maintains a moral system and 
 secures a constant moral advancement among 
 mankind. — R. A. Redford. 
 
 [537] Providence is universal and particular 
 in general laws and in single events ; it includes 
 conscience, and moral right, and human dis- 
 cipline, and points to a moral completion for 
 man in another state of existence. The idea is 
 supported by, or involved in, all that precedes as 
 to the existence and character of the Divine 
 Being. 
 
 II. The Point of the Argument. 
 
 1 The pervading power and purpose of God 
 as shown in human history suggests the 
 existence of God. 
 
 [538] A consideration of the world as aAvhole, 
 and its reasonable arrangement, conducted So- 
 crates to the notion of the One Supreme. God 
 appeared to him as reason, ruling the world and 
 holding the same relation to it as the soul does 
 to the body. As the soul without being visible 
 affects the body, so God affects the world. As 
 the soul exercises dominion over the body, so 
 God over the world. As the soul is present in 
 all parts of the body, so God in the world. And 
 as the soul, though limited, can perceive what is 
 distant, and have thoughts of the most various 
 kinds, so the knowledge and care of God must 
 be able to embrace the whole universe at once. 
 And thus the universal providence of God is 
 included in the argument for His exisiatce drawn 
 from this relation in all things of means to ends. 
 — Zeller's Socrates, by Reichel. 
 
 2 As there is a unity in physical nature, so 
 in the history of humanity. 
 
 [539] Its law of progress is a Divine purpose, 
 and its goal is the greatest possible moral good. 
 Its development is not that of an abstract idea, 
 or a world-spirit, or the blind working of imper- 
 sonal laws ; but man is taken up in the purpose 
 of a higher Being, and human history, with all 
 its lights and shadows, with all its eddies and 
 retrogressions, is the progress of a Divine pur- 
 pose, whose end is the greatest possible good. 
 This view recognizes a power in human affairs 
 that " makes for righteousness," and makes for it
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 
 
 539—543] 
 
 [providential argument. 
 
 ^l 
 
 likewise with apparent forethought, and intelli- 
 gently. — Dr. Newman Smyth, Old Faiths in 
 New Light. 
 
 3 All sciences and all events converge to- 
 wards one providential scheme. 
 
 [540] Though the truths which the several 
 sciences have discovered in the various fields of 
 inquiry are with difficulty brought together and 
 harmonized ; though the facts of nature, history, 
 and consciousness lie before our reason often 
 unconnected and broken, like those fragments 
 of Assyrian records which have been thrown 
 together in the British Museum, we should, 
 nevertheless, regard every one of them as of 
 value, and as having its own place and worth 
 in the record of God's creative purpose, which, 
 some day, we may hope not merely to decipher 
 by syllables and to know in part, but to compre- 
 hend in its length and its breadth, and to read 
 as one grand, connected story. — Ibid. 
 
 [541] The whole universe is an expression of 
 His will, and is governed by His will. God is 
 manifestly not a mere idea shining out upon the 
 world, but a force working in the world. — Pre- 
 bendary Griffith, Fimdametitals. 
 
 III. The consequences of denying the 
 Principle upon which the Argu- 
 ment IS based. 
 
 [542] What would be the result of abandon- 
 ing the idea of God, as our Father, and leaving 
 man alone to contend with destiny.'' It would 
 sever man from man as no longer linked in 
 a brotherhood, by orphaning all men in the ex- 
 clusion of that Divine Father en whose relation- 
 ship human brotherhood rests. — B. G. 
 
 [543] It is hinted now that in our efforts to 
 help the weak and to save the lost, we are 
 interfering with the operation of a benign 
 natural law which dooms them to speedy ex- 
 tinction, and are trying in vain to mend the 
 hard, inexorable order of the world. 
 
 And who has not noted the vein of deep 
 sadness which runs through the literature of 
 the school, and finds fullest expression in the 
 masterpieces of art with which our most ac- 
 complished and powerful novelist from time to 
 time adorns and enriches our literature ? Their 
 philosophical writings, too, are very clever, very 
 thoughtful, very learned, very just, after a 
 fashion, but very cold, very hopeless, very life- 
 less. There is no glow about them, no fire. 
 There is nothing to kindle a spark of enthusiasm, 
 nothing that can stir itself to praise. Life must 
 be lived, and the best must be made of it for 
 ourselves and for others, is the loftiest thought 
 to which the teachers of this school seem to be 
 
 able to climb. And there is a dark tendency, 
 already very manifest, to make light of the 
 sanctions by which the sacredness of life is 
 guarded. The putting of the old and the sick 
 whose case seems hopeless quietly out of the 
 way is already, as I have pointed out, openly 
 advocated as a duty. I referred, too, to signi- 
 ficant indications that it will not be long before 
 we find suicide justified as a refuge from suffer- 
 ing, or magnified, as it was of old, as man's 
 ultimate and victorious argument against a 
 tyrannous Fate. " This is as a rule the course 
 of man's life," says Schopenhauer, " that, 
 befooled by hope, he dances into the arms of 
 death." 
 
 Schopenhauer is one of the leading prophets 
 of the school, perhaps the ablest, and his influ- 
 ence is very powerful and wide spread on the 
 cultivated youth of Europe ; and this is his 
 view of life. It is but a step from this to argue 
 that the sooner we dance into the arms of death 
 the better. Nor does the philosopher at all 
 shrink from the conclusion. What else does 
 this terrible passage mean ? The history of 
 every life is but a life of suffering ; the course 
 of life is generally but a series of greater or of 
 less misfortunes. The true sense of the mono- 
 logue in Hamlet may be thus summed up. Our 
 condition is so wretched that utter annihila- 
 tion would be decidedly preferal^le. The oft 
 lamented shortness of life may perhaps be its 
 best attribute. Life may be represented as a 
 constant deceiver in things both great and 
 small. If it makes promises, it never keeps 
 them, except to show how undesirable is that 
 which was desired. First the hope, and then 
 the thing hoped for disappoints us. Life gives 
 only to take away. The charm of distance 
 shows us a paradise, which vanishes like an 
 optical delusion if we allow ourselves to 
 approach it. The general structure of life 
 would rather produce the conviction that nothing 
 is worth our efforts, our energies, and our 
 struggles ; that all possessions are vanity, the 
 world a bankrupt in all quarters, and life a 
 business which does not pay its expenses. The 
 existence of the world is a matter not of rejoic- 
 ing but of giief; its annihilation would be 
 preferable to its existence ; it is fundamentally 
 something which ought not to exist. Human 
 life, far from wearing the aspect of a gift, has 
 every appearance of an incurred debt, the pay- 
 ment of which is exacted in the form of the 
 urgent necessities, the tormenting desires, 
 the unceasing want which life involves. The 
 whole period of life is generally consumed in 
 the liquidation of this debt, and yet it is only 
 the interest which can be thus paid oft". The 
 payment of the capital is eftected by death. It 
 will be hard to uphold the sin of suicide against 
 such a "vision of life." — Baldwin Brown.
 
 DIVISION D. 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 RELIGION. 
 
 [i] EXTERNAL EVIDENCES. 
 
 Pages 95 to 119. 
 
 TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 (i) Prophecy. 
 
 46 
 
 PROPHECY (GENERALLY). 
 
 47 
 MESSIANIC (PROPHECY). 
 
 (2) Miracles. 
 
 48 
 MIRACLES GENERALLY. 
 
 49 
 MIRACLES AND SCIENCE. 
 
 50 
 MIRACLES OF PAGANS AND PAPISTS. 
 
 51 
 
 POSSIBILITY AND NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 
 
 52 
 SUPERNATURAL, THE. 
 
 (3) History. 
 
 53 
 HISTORY (GENERALLY). 
 
 54 
 ARCHAEOLOGY. 
 
 55 
 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 56 
 EXISTENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 57 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 58 
 TRADITION. 
 
 94
 
 95 
 
 DIVISION D. 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [i] EXTERNAL EVIDENCES. 
 (Prophecy; Miracles; History.) 
 
 46 
 
 PROPHECY (GENERALL Y). 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [544] A prophecy, considered as a prediction, 
 may be defined to be an announcement of a 
 future event whose occurrence could not pos- 
 sibly be foreseen by the power of natural human 
 sagacity, but which must have been disclosed 
 to the prophet by a Divine communication. — 
 Paion Jiuncs Gloag, D.D., The Baird Lecture for 
 1879- 
 
 II. Its Nature. 
 
 I As distinguished from human foresight. 
 
 [545] In all instances of human foresight there 
 are data to proceed upon, elements of calculation 
 which lead to a certain result ; and although the 
 calculation may be complicated, yet a master 
 mind may be able to attain to a satisfactory so- 
 lution in many of the great problems of life. But 
 when there are no data to proceed upon ; when 
 the prophecies relate to events in the distant 
 future, and are connected with persons still 
 unborn, or with nations which have not yet 
 appeared on the theatre of this world's history, 
 it is evident that these announcements of the 
 future cannot be accounted for on the ground of 
 mere human sagacity. — Ibid. 
 
 [546] The prediction is placed out of the 
 sphere of human sagacity or foresight : it re- 
 lates to contingent matters, the knowledge of 
 whose futurity cannot be accounted for without 
 the aid of supernatural illumination (Isa. xlv. 
 20, 21 ; 2 Pet. i. 21). — Ibid. 
 
 [547] The prophets all avowedly speak only 
 as the instruments of Deity. They introduce 
 what they have to utter with the formula, "Thus 
 saith the Lord;" or, "The Lord spake unto me, 
 or. " The word that came from the 
 
 saym£ 
 
 Lord, saying ;" they call what they have to an- 
 nounce "the burden of the Lord," or "the 
 vision which the Lord caused them to see." — 
 VV. L. Alexander, D.D. 
 
 [548] The prophecy came not in old time by 
 the will of man, but holy men of God spake as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter i. 
 21). At that time Samuel knew not the Lord ; 
 that is, was not yet familiar with the Divine 
 voice or supernatural method of prophetic inti- 
 mation (i Sam. iii. 7). — B. G. 
 
 2 As distinguished from heathen oracles. 
 
 [549] The predictions of the heathen, when 
 they were fulfilled, can easily be accounted for 
 without the aid of supernatural intervention. A 
 great amount of artifice accompanied them ; 
 they were secretly divulged ; they were seldom 
 delivered, and then only after great preparations 
 were made ; they ministered to the passions and 
 wishes of men ; they were expressed in equi- 
 vocal language ; their fulfilment generally de- 
 pended on chance ; they were as often wrong as 
 right ; and when they failed, the fault was not 
 laid to the charge of the prophet, but was im- 
 puted to some error committed by the inquirer. 
 
 The predictions of Scripture are widely dif- 
 ferent. They were openly published ; they were 
 delivered without solicitation ; they were ex- 
 pressed in no artful language ; the events pre- 
 dicted were beyond the power of human saga- 
 city to foresee, or even when the general event 
 might have been foreseen, yet minute circum- 
 stances were added which were beyond the 
 wisdom of man to predict ; and there was a par- 
 ticularity in these prophecies which clearly dis- 
 tinguished them from the conjectures of wise 
 men (see Jer. xiv. 14). — Baton James Gloag, 
 D.D., The Baird Lecture for i2>j(). 
 
 III. Marks of True Prophecy. 
 
 [550] Mr. Davison, in his " Discourses on 
 Prophecy," laid down three tests, viz. (i) Known 
 promulgation prior to the event ; (2) Sufficiency 
 of correspondence between the prediction and 
 the result ; (3) Chronological or moral remote- 
 ness in the date or nature of the event. 
 
 To these we may add : (4) That the prediction, 
 though capable of being considered separately, 
 shall not in itself be detached and isolated, but 
 part of a connected and systematic whole. (5) 
 That the prediction be not general and colour- 
 less, but enriched with a certain number of ad-
 
 96 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 550—55^] 
 
 [messianic prophecy. 
 
 juncts. (6) That the prediction be not of a 
 nature merely to gratify private feehng, or stimu- 
 late an otiose curiosity, but shall have some 
 reference to an end worthy of a Divine author. 
 — Bp. Alexander, Baiiipton Lectures. 
 
 [551] But whosoever shall pretend it, I see 
 not what right they can claim to be believed 
 by others, till the event justify the prediction, 
 unless they can otherwise show the signs which 
 are wont to accompany and recommend a super- 
 natural revelation. Where any such is really 
 aftbrded, it is likely it may produce a concomitant 
 confidence that will exclude all present doubt in 
 their own minds, without external confirmation. 
 — y. Howe, 1630- 1 705. 
 
 IV. Extent of their Fulfilment. 
 
 I Originally obscure predictions become by 
 their fulfilment as clear as historical narra- 
 lives. 
 
 [552] The prophecies of Scripture will bear 
 the closest investigation ; and the more care- 
 fully they are examined, and the more minutely 
 their correspondence with the event is scrutin- 
 ized, the more will it become apparent that only 
 as the prophets were taught of God, and spoke 
 and wrote as His organs, could they so accu- 
 rately and precisely have foretold things to come. 
 So exact and so complete is the correspondence, 
 that whatever obscurity or improbability may 
 have attached to the predictions at the time they 
 w'ere uttered, when read in the light of subse- 
 quent events, they appear more like historical 
 narratives of what is already past, than announce- 
 ments of what is to happen in the far-distant 
 future.— rr. L. Alexander, D.D. 
 
 47 
 
 MESSIANIC PROPHECY. 
 
 I. The Psychological Principles of its 
 Interpretation. 
 
 [553] They may be divided thus : — 
 \a) Subjective: Lyrics primarily of our Lord's 
 humanity, secondarily of our own. The charac- 
 teristics of His life are mirrored with a perfect 
 reflection. Thus we account for those passages 
 which speak of sin in connection with Messiah. 
 They are ours, but the curse of them is on Him. 
 So also we account for the Imprecatory Psalms. 
 [See " Imprecatory Psalms."] 
 
 ib) Mystical : The whole atmosphere of Jewish 
 religious thought was charged with mystical ele- 
 ments. — Co7idensedfrom Bp. Alexander's Bainp- 
 ton Lectures. 
 
 II. Its Variety and Extent. 
 
 I It includes the Divine character and pro- 
 ceedings in general, and the Person and 
 work of the Messiah in particular. 
 
 [554] (i) In all that relates to the nature and 
 attributes of God the prophetic teaching is par- 
 
 ticularly copious and emphatic, specially the 
 perfections of Jehovah as contrasted {a) with 
 the limited powers of man, and ip) the lying 
 pretensions of heathen gods. 
 
 (2) Another prominent topic is the superin- 
 tending and directing providence of God in the 
 affairs of the world. 
 
 (3) The prophetic teaching expounds the full 
 meaning of the moral law, and assigns to moral 
 duties their proper place of superiority as com- 
 pared with the ceremonial precepts. 
 
 (4) Messianic teaching, which embraced 
 chiefly these three topics]: («) The person and 
 work of the Redeemer ; lb) eternal life and 
 the resurrection ; {c) the nature of Christ's 
 kingdom. 
 
 Perfect harmony existed between the lessons 
 which the Law taught by symbol, and those 
 which Prophecy more directly enunciated : 
 each illustrates the other, and both combine to 
 direct us to Him who was at once their Author 
 and their Object. — Condensed from Liddon's 
 Bamptoti Lectures. 
 
 III. Its Foreshadowings. 
 
 I Wide extent of the adumbrations of the 
 Cross. 
 
 [555] Wherever we look at God's dealings 
 with fallen man, we are conscious, as it has 
 been said with undeniable truth, "we are con- 
 scious of a cross unseen standing on its undis- 
 covered hill, far back in the ages, out of which 
 came sounding always just the same deep voice 
 of suffering love and patience that was heard 
 from the sacred hill of Calvary." 
 
 IV. Collateral Confirmations of its 
 Fulfilment. 
 
 [556] When we see the predicted mission of 
 the Messiah so faithfully fulfilled — when we see 
 the great world's history bending itself to the 
 birth of Jesus in the "Anno Domini" of its 
 dates and superscriptions — when we see that 
 the world has moved as in deepest sympathy 
 with the humble Nazarene, working ever in His 
 behalf — when we behold all events marching 
 onwards through the centuries to the beat of 
 time, preserving, as Napoleon thought, "a 
 celestial order," to accomplish one given result, 
 the universal and final ascendency of the Son 
 of David — when we see that all opposing sys- 
 tems can no longer hold comparison with the 
 religion given to the world by Him than can the 
 pale, thin, extended crescent ring of the setting 
 moon hold comparison to the full blaze of the 
 unclouded noonday sun — when we discover that 
 this mighty One issued from the house of David 
 before its fall, and from Bethlehem in the days 
 of Herod, must we not acknowledge that He is 
 the Being whom the prophets declared to be 
 one with the Father Almighty.-' As we see 
 Him standing alone among the millions of the 
 race, the only Pattern of absolute perfection, 
 whose entire life, without inclining a hair's 
 breadth to either side, pointed straight upwar-"
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 556—563] 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 97 
 
 to heaven— as all the separate and wandering 
 rays of prophecy that had sparkled through the 
 Divine Word are combined and concentrated, 
 and rest as with a sacred halo on His head — 
 how can we do otherwise than proclaim our 
 convictions in that prophetic, startling, and 
 sublime word, " Immanuel !" — God with us? — 
 Credo. 
 
 V. Special Characteristics. 
 
 1 The Messiah the only One whose whole 
 life and purpose were predicted. 
 
 [557] Christ is the only Person who ever lived 
 in this world whose life in some of its minutest 
 particulars was written beforehand ; as, for in- 
 stance, in the time, in the place, and in the 
 manner of His birth ; in the kind of life which 
 He was to lead, in the kind of teaching He was 
 to give, and the kind of death He was to die. 
 He is the only Person in all history of whom it 
 can be said that His life was written, and His 
 work assigned before He came into the world 
 at all. 
 
 2 Christ the undeviating centre of prophecy. 
 
 [558] It would have been possible to have 
 given forth real prophecy that was remote from 
 Christ. Some of it, in one sense, is so ; as, for 
 example, the predictions bearing on some of 
 the ancient nations. But the strength of pro- 
 phecy lies in its chain of references to Christ, 
 from the first mention of the " Seed of the 
 woman " to the virgin-born Immanuel ; from 
 the Sufferer, whose heel is bruised in terms of 
 the earliest promise, to the " Man of sorrows " 
 in the fifty-third of Isaiah ; and from the peace- 
 ful Lawgiver of a yet uncrowned tribe to the 
 heir of David, who enters the long-established 
 seat of rule as a king. Even the predictions 
 that bear on the Church of God and its universal 
 progress are but the sequel to those which fore- 
 tell the personal Christ, and they then reflect 
 the light of His exaltation ; nor can the judg- 
 ments on the Jewish nation be dissociated, as 
 the depth of their fall is but the measure of the 
 grace and truth that were in Christ, and for 
 rejecting which they were to be cast away. — 
 Pfincipal Cairns, D.D., Lectures, 
 
 48 
 
 MIRACLES. 
 
 I. Their Definition. 
 
 [559] Iri the New Testament four words are 
 employed to designate these supernatural 
 occurrences, namely, miracles, wonders, signs, 
 and works. The first (ofw/isic) signifies powers, 
 and refers to the agency by which they were 
 produced ; the second (-fonra) denotes marvels, 
 and alludes to their effect on the mind of the 
 beholder ; the third {ai]i.iiia), signs, has special 
 reference to their significance in connection 
 
 VOL, I. 
 
 with the system by whose inauguration they 
 were wrought ; while the last (epya), works, is 
 only used regarding them by Jesus himself, and 
 this mode of speech in His lips is most sugges- 
 tive, as implying that the things which to others 
 were so marvellous, were in His case perfectly 
 natural, being in fact only the outcome and 
 development of His true Divinity. — l-V. M. 
 Taylor^ The Miracles Helps to Faith. 
 
 [560] The Scripture account of a miracle is 
 an extraordinary act proceeding immediately 
 and directly from the will of God. We believe 
 that the will of the Omnipotent can produce 
 changes in nature without necessarily disturbing 
 the relation of its parts, or changing its laws, in 
 the same way, though to an infinitely higher 
 degree, as the will of man can act on the condi- 
 tion of the earth. — Rev. IV, Anderson, Scripture 
 Miracles and Modern Scepticism, 
 
 [561] Miracles are sparks glistening on the 
 wheel of Divine Providence as it revolves in 
 ordinary work. 
 
 They are probable, reasonable, natural, com- 
 ing from Him by whom nature exists ; and 
 supernatural as controlling nature. 
 
 Nature is afflicted with a fatal malady, and 
 miracles are a part of the means, elixirs in the 
 healing prescriptions of the great Physician. 
 It is in the course of nature that medicines 
 heal ; yet they entirely change the otherwise 
 regular currents of events, and bring in a new 
 and endless range of consequent events ; that, 
 in place of death, life rules and man is saved. — 
 The Mysteries of Nature. 
 
 [562] A miracle is unusual Divine action j. 
 natural law is habitual Divine action. In a 
 world containing creatures that are really free, 
 both kinds of action are essential ; otherwise, 
 freedom is not freedom. The natural is indeed 
 a continued miracle, but being prolonged,, 
 hides its supernaturalism from the common 
 observer. It represents the truth. God is so 
 wise that He can make all things ; and, much 
 wiser than that He enables all things to make 
 themselves. — Ibid. 
 
 [563] Miracles, as we look back, were the 
 great steps by which nature ascended the 
 heights of being and existence. 
 
 As we look around, miracles are seen in all 
 new life and sustainment of old life ; in the 
 rhythm of all things, the current of electricity,, 
 the pulsation of life, and the throb of our 
 breasts ; in the tidal wave, succession of day 
 and night, and in cycles of the universe. 
 Mysterious invisible Will is everywhere pro- 
 ducing effects without any known intermediate 
 agencies. 
 
 INIiracles, as we look forward, are stars gleam- 
 ing on our life's waves, which cause the surface 
 of our mental ocean to sparkle with Divine 
 iridescence. 
 
 View the past, the present, the future, our
 
 98 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 563—573] 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 conscience, our reason, our science, detect, 
 accept, and approve miraculous working. — Ibid. 
 
 II. Their Evidential Value. 
 I The importance of this branch of evi- 
 dence. 
 
 [564] The Bible is full of miracles, invisible 
 and visible, and the prophecies of the Bible, 
 which occupy as large a space in the Old 
 Testament as the miracles of Christ in the New 
 Testament, are just as much miracles as the 
 evidences of power. — Rev. W. Andeison, M.A. 
 
 [565] Christianity, if it be worth anything as 
 a remedy, is so essentially supernatural in its 
 inmost essence and provisions, that it cannot 
 be detached from miracles without losing its 
 virtue ; and the nineteenth century, not less 
 than the first, must accept of Christ's own 
 challenge, " If I do not the works of My Father, 
 believe JNIe not." — Rev. Principal Cairns o?i 
 Christianity and Miracles. 
 
 [566] We are to judge of doctrines by the 
 accompanying miracles, and of miracles by the 
 accompanying doctrines. The doctrines are 
 the test of the miracles, the miracles of the 
 doctrines. This statement is strictly correct, 
 and involves no contradiction. — Pascal. 
 
 [567] It is often alleged that the defenders of 
 the faith are guilty of reasoning in a circle, in- 
 asmuch as they hold that the miracles are 
 proved by the inspiration and authority of 
 Scripture, while they employ the miracles to 
 establish the divinity of the Bible ; but this is 
 not so. For when we are treating of the 
 credibility of the gospel history, we have to 
 answer the question, how far that is aflected by 
 the records of supernatural occurrences which it 
 contains ; and then, the credibility established, 
 in dealing with the Divine authority of the 
 ;gospel, we have to ask what the miracles say 
 ■concerning Him who wrought them, and the 
 system in connection with which they were 
 performed. There is thus no vicious circle, but 
 a strictly logical and exact method is pursued, 
 each subject of investigation following naturally 
 on that by which it is preceded. — [V. M. 
 Taylor, The Miracles Helps to Faith. 
 
 2 Miracles are not merely evidences. 
 
 [56S] Miracles, according to the true Chris- 
 tian conception, had a deeper design than to 
 be evidences of Christianity. They had to be 
 vital and integral parts of Christianity. But 
 this did not hinder them from being evidences 
 too ; and as evidences they have a reason and a 
 credibility which would be wholly wanting if 
 they were extraneous and supplementary parts 
 engrafted upon an otherwise non-miraculous 
 system. — Rev. P}-incipal Cairns on Chtis- 
 tiafiity and Miracles. 
 
 3 Miracles are not the only or chief evi- 
 dence. 
 
 [569] In place of an appeal to those mighty 
 
 influences which Christ's words and doctrine 
 exercise on every heart that receives them, 
 to their transforming, transfiguring power, to 
 the miracles of grace which are the heritage 
 of every one who has believed to salvation, in 
 place of urging on the gainsayers in the very 
 language of the Lord, " If any man will do His 
 will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be 
 of God" (John vii. 171, this all as vague and 
 mystical (instead of being seen to be, as it truly 
 was, the most sure and certain of all) was 
 thrown into the background. Men were afraid 
 to trust themselves and their cause to evidences 
 like these, and would know of no other state- 
 ment of the case than this — Christianity is a 
 Divine revelation, and this the miracles which 
 accompanied its promulgation prove. — Abp. 
 Trench. 
 
 [570] The spiritual power of the gospel 
 transcends its recorded physical miracles, which 
 were material types of spiritual effects ; as heal- 
 ing the leper, to indicate the perennial miracle 
 of removing the leprosy of sin — " I will, be 
 thou clean." — B. G. 
 
 4 Miracles are not logical proofs but pertinent 
 illustrations of truth. 
 
 [571] A miracle does not prove the truth of 
 a doctrine, or the Divine mission of Him that 
 brings it to pass . . . The doctrine must first 
 commend itself to the conscience as \}€\x\^ good, 
 and only then can the miracle seal it as Divine. 
 But the first appeal is from the doctrine to the 
 conscience, to the moral nature in man . . . 
 " He that is of God heareth God's word," and 
 knows it for that which it proclaims itself to be 
 . . . Where the mind and conscience witness 
 against the doctrine, not all the miracles in the 
 world have a right to demand submission to the 
 word which they seal . . . It may be more truly 
 said that we believe the miracles for Christ's 
 sake, than Christ for the miracles' sake — Abp. 
 Trench. 
 
 [572] The recordedmiraculous is difficult of be- 
 lief, difficult of proof ; a thousand perplexities sur- 
 round it, the critical intellect instinctively revolts 
 against it. To secure it acceptance, it needs to 
 be borne along on a mighty tide of moral evidence 
 and fitness, to follow in the wake of manifested 
 "grace and truth ;" not as logical proof, but as 
 pertinent illustration ; not as bare prodigy, but 
 as the physical embodiment and sign of the 
 spiritual power which redeems and saves. 
 
 [573] Extreme views have been held : on the 
 one hand, that they are the only satisfactory 
 evidence of a Divine revelation, and on the other, 
 that they are no proper evidence. Scripture 
 teaches that their evidence is important and 
 decisive, but at the same time subordinate to 
 that of the truth itself. God confirms his own 
 revelations by them ; prophets and apostles 
 appeal to them in support of their Divine com- 
 mission ; so also Christ Himself — Dr. C. Hodge, 
 Systematic Theology.
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 574—580] 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 99 
 
 [574] And, first, it seems clear that there is 
 no warrant for putting the miracles in the fore- 
 front of our argument, as if they must be proved 
 by incontrovertible evidence to have been really 
 performed and strictly supernatural, before the 
 gospel itself, the substance of Christianity, can 
 reasonably approve itself to our hearts as being 
 from God. All thac we have collected from the 
 New Testament on the subject points to a 
 different order : first, the various intrinsic and 
 moral evidences of the divineness of the gospel ; 
 and, after these, the attestation afforded by the 
 physical miracles of its origin. — Brownlow 
 Main and. Steps to Faith, 
 
 [575] Each such miracle had its moral or 
 spiritual significance. Each taught its own 
 lesson to the heart, and so proved itself worthy 
 of God. The accusation against Christ that He 
 wrought the miracles by the aid of " Beelzebub, 
 the chief of the devils," stood self-refuted by the 
 very character of the miracles themselves, as 
 well as by the purity of the teachings which 
 they were sent to support. — E. Gray, M.A. 
 
 III. Their Possibility. 
 I Not antecedently impossible. 
 
 [576] It is difficult to conceive in what sense 
 miracles are said to be repugnant to experience. 
 Several relations of the same fact may be in- 
 consistent ; but unconnected facts, how difterent 
 soever, are not repugnant to each other. You 
 have never, for example, felt an earthquake ; 
 yet the man who asserts that he felt one in a 
 distant country, or before you were born, does 
 not contradict your experience. You have never 
 known a dead man restored to life ; yet the 
 witnesses of such an event cannot be refuted by 
 your ignorance. — \V. S. Powell, D.D., 1717- 
 1775- 
 
 [577] Miracles must not be compared to com- 
 mon natural events ; or to events which, though 
 uncommon, are similar to what we daily expe- 
 rience ; but to the extraordinary phenomena of 
 nature, and then the comparison will be between 
 the presumption against miracles and the pre- 
 sumption against such uncommon appearances, 
 suppose, as comets, and against there being any 
 such powers in nature as magnetism and elec- 
 tricity. — Bp. Btttler, 1692-17 52. 
 
 [578] If miracles cannot take place, an in- 
 quiry into the historical evidences of revealed 
 religion is vain ; for Revelation is itself miracu- 
 lous, and therefore by the hypothesis impossible. 
 But what are the grounds upon which so 
 stupendous an assertion is made, as that God 
 cannot, if He so please, suspend the working of 
 those laws by which he commonly acts upon 
 matters, and act on special occasion differently ? 
 Shall we say that He cannot because of His own 
 immutability ? But if we apply the notion of a 
 law to God at all, it is plain that miraculous 
 interpositions on fitting occasions may be as 
 much a regular, fixed, and established rule of 
 
 His government as the working ordinarily by 
 what are called natural laws. Or shall we say 
 all experience and analogy is against miracles? 
 But this is either to judge, from our own narrow 
 and limited experience, of the whole course of 
 nature,'and so to generalize upon the most weak 
 and insufficient grounds, or else, if in the phrase 
 " all experience " we include the experience of 
 others, it is to draw a conclusion directly in the 
 teeth of our data; for many persons well worthy 
 of belief have declared that they have witnessed 
 and wrought miracles. — Razvlinson, Historical 
 Evidences. 
 
 [579] The course of nature furnishes in every 
 case an anterior probability that the event will 
 be such as it hath been before, and all human 
 calculations are grounded on this principle ; 
 but the moment an event actually happens, the 
 time for probable calculation is past, and we 
 may know it with the same certainty, whether 
 it never occurred before or occurred a thousand 
 times. If it be quite unusual, that is a reason 
 for scrutinizing every circumstance and deciding 
 slowly ; but it is no reason for rejecting the 
 evidence of our senses. The argument before 
 us confounds two very different things, namely, 
 the anterior probability of what may be to- 
 morrow, and the actual experience of it when it 
 comes ; and because the uniformity of nature's 
 laws suggest one result as most likely, you are 
 not allowed to believe another when it actually 
 happens. You cannot believe it until it has 
 happened so frequently as to claim to rank 
 among natural events. But who can doubt that 
 Adam, the first day he saw the sun rise, would 
 be just as certain of the fact as after he had 
 seen it rise every day for a century .? The only 
 difference would be, that in the latter case he 
 would have learned to calculate with greater 
 certainty on its return to-morrow ; but the 
 evidence of its actual appearance on any day 
 would not be greater than the evidence of its 
 actual appearance the first day it rose. So of 
 a miracle or any wonderful event. You could 
 not calculate on it beforehand ; you would 
 expect the reverse ; but when it actually did 
 occur, you might be as certain of it as of the 
 most common event. — Dr. Lindsay, Christ and 
 Christianity. 
 
 2 Miracles naturally expected in connection 
 with revelation. 
 
 [5S0] If you deny miracle, you deny that God 
 can, or else you deny that He luiU., convey any 
 knowledge, any teaching, any information of 
 that kind of which we speak to the intelligent 
 beings whom He has made. 
 
 That he cannot do so we have shown to be 
 an assertion altogether irrational. That He will 
 not, is beyond the right of any man to assert, as 
 it is certainly beyond his power to prove. 
 
 If God cannot do this without a miracle ; and 
 if He desires and purposes to do it ; it follows 
 as an inevitaljle consequence that He will do 
 it by miracle. — E. Gray, M.A.
 
 100 
 
 S8i-5 
 
 THE EVIDEXCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 [581] We come therefore to this reasonable 
 conclusion : — that as we believe that there is a 
 God, a Maker of all things ; and as that Maker 
 is kind and beneficent in His purposes toward 
 His creatures ; and as, because He is so, He 
 must desire that we should know Himself and 
 His will ; and as, finally, there is no conceivable 
 means by which He can do this without some 
 miraculous agency ; — there is every reason to 
 expect and believe that He has thus revealed 
 Himself; and if so, that such revelation must 
 have been by means of some miraculous mani- 
 festation of His power to mankind. — Ibid. 
 
 [582] The highest. love demanded miracle for 
 its interpretation. Only so could it reveal itself 
 the sovereign of life. Only so could be lifted 
 for us a corner of the mysterious veil by which 
 our life temporal is shadowed round, and the 
 eternal shown to be its life and goal. There 
 are higher meanings than sense can guess, deeper 
 secrets than intellect can ever pierce to, in our 
 common suftering life. Divine love alone could 
 utter them by the words and works of the Divine 
 Son. Was not this His meaning when He said, 
 "My Father worketh hitherto and I work".' Was 
 not this His meaning when disease and death fled 
 away before the touch of His sovereign pity, and 
 evil drew back from 
 
 " The sweep of His white raiment " ? 
 
 It is that sin and pain are temporal, that mercy 
 is eternal. " If thou canst believe, all things are 
 possible to him that believeth." The base of 
 this low altar-stair of suffering slopes through 
 darkness up to the everlasting heavens, and far, 
 far within their piercing deeps love is enthroned 
 for ever. — Rev. Leigh Matin. 
 
 3 Moral conceptions show the probability of 
 miracles. 
 
 [583] So long as we abide in the region of 
 nature, miraculous and improbable, miraculous 
 and incredible, may be admitted as convertible 
 terms. But once lift up the whole discussion 
 into a higher region, once acknowledge some- 
 thing higher than nature, a kingdom of God, 
 and men the intended denizens of it, and the 
 whole argument loses its strength and the force 
 of its conclusions. Against the argument from 
 experience which tells against the miracle, is to 
 be set, not, as Hume asserts, the evidence of 
 the witnesses, which it is quite true can in no 
 case itself be complete and of itself sufficient, 
 but this, phis the anterior probability that God, 
 calling men to live above nature and sense, 
 would in this manner reveal Himself as the 
 Lord paramount of nature, the breaker through 
 and slighter of the apparitions of sense ; plus 
 also the testimony which the particular miracle 
 by its nature, its fitness, the glory of its circum- 
 stances, its intimate coherence as a redemptive 
 act with the personality of the doer, in Cole- 
 ridge's words, " its exact accordance with the 
 ideal of a true miracle is the reason " given to 
 the conscience that it is a Divine work. The 
 moral probabilities Hume has altogether-over- 
 
 looked and left out of account, and when they 
 are admitted, — dynamic in the midst of his 
 merely mechanic forces, — they disturb and in- 
 deed utterly overbear and destroy them. — Abp. 
 Trench, Notes on Miracles. 
 
 IV. Difficulties of those who reject 
 Miracles. 
 
 I The evidence of those who witnessed the 
 miracles must be overthrown before the 
 miracles themselves can be overthrown. 
 
 [584] I believe that the word of one true man 
 is surer evidence than the experience of nature's 
 uniformity for a thousand years, and that the 
 spiritual philosophy which accords this supre- 
 macy to the deliberate accents of reason and 
 conscience, which owns the majesty of man as 
 transcending the authority of nature, is infinitely 
 more profound than the philosophy of Hume. — 
 Bayne, Testimotiy of Christ, &^c. 
 
 [585] It is beyond all dispute that the first 
 Christians believed that jniracles had been 
 wrought, and that the resurrection was the 
 corner-stone of their faith ; thus, as their testi- 
 mony was sincere, and as the record leaves us 
 in no doubt that they actually witnessed what 
 they believed to be miracles ; and as what they 
 witnessed was never proved not to have been 
 miraculous, but on the other hand has been 
 borne out by the subsequent history of Chris- 
 tianity, which can only be explained on the 
 view that its origin was miraculous ; we are 
 shut up to this alternative : — either miracles are 
 so incredible that nothing can prove them, or 
 the evidence of the Christian miracles is satis- 
 factory. — R. A. Red/ord, The Christian's Plea. 
 
 2 Miracles were not denied by those who 
 were concerned to destroy Christianity in 
 its early days. 
 
 [586] Can you say by what means these people 
 to whom the moral teaching associated with the 
 miracles was most repugnant were convinced 
 that the miracles were true which you say were 
 false. How was it that the enemies never found 
 them out to be delusions or illusions, though 
 they were performed in the light of day ? How 
 came it that their moral purport is perfectly 
 harmonious with the teaching of the gospel .'' 
 How came it that they were avowed and ap- 
 pealed to and accepted .' How could St. Paul, 
 twenty years afterwards, say that there were 
 hundreds of people living still who saw these 
 wonderful facts on which the Christian religion 
 was based ? Give something to supply the place 
 of that which you remove. — Rev. IV. Ander- 
 son, M.A., Scripture Miracles and Modern 
 Scepticism. 
 
 V. Their Apparent Design. 
 
 [587] In the New Testament Tioag marks 
 their evidential purpose, and aij/tttu their ethical. 
 
 [58S] They have been well compared to the 
 tolling of the bell to summon people to church.
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 588-594] 
 
 lOI 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 So miracles were designed to call attention to 
 the voice of God, speaking on some unusually 
 solemn occasion, as at the opening of a new 
 dispensation. — Bowes. 
 
 [589] All truths do not need miracles ; some 
 are of easy belief, and are so clear by their 
 own light that they need neither miracle nor 
 demonstration to prove them. Such are those 
 self-evident principles which mankind do gene- 
 rally agree in : others which are not so evident 
 by their own light we are content to receive 
 upon clear demonstration of them, or very prob- 
 able arguments for them, without a miracle. 
 And there are some truths which, however 
 they may be sufficiently obscure and uncertain 
 to most men, yet are they so inconsiderable, 
 and of so small consequence, as not to deserve 
 the attestation of miracles ; so that there is no 
 reason to expect that God should interpose by a 
 miracle, to convince men of them. " Nee Deus 
 intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus inciderit." 
 
 But for such truths as are necessary to be 
 known by us, but are not sufficiently evident of 
 themselves, nor capable of cogent evidence, 
 especially to prejudiced and interested persons, 
 God is pleased in this case many times to work 
 miracles for our conviction ; and they are a 
 proper argument to convince us of a thing 
 that is either in itself obscure and hard to be 
 believed, or which we are prejudiced against, 
 and hardly brought to believe ; for they are 
 an argument a viajorl ad ininits, they prove a 
 thing which is obscure and hard to be believed 
 by something that is more incredible, which 
 yet they cannot deny because they see it done. 
 Thus our Saviour proves Himself to be an 
 extraordinary person, by doing such things as 
 never man did ; He convinceth them that they 
 ought to believe what He said, because they 
 saw Him do those things which were harder to 
 be believed (if one had not seen them) than 
 what He said. — Abp. Tilloison, i6jo. 
 
 [590] If a new religion were at any time 
 proclaimed among men, it would not thereupon 
 become their duty to accept it as true. It would 
 not even become their duty to examine it, and 
 try whether it were true or not. They would 
 have a right to expect and require that it should, 
 in the first place, make out a prima facie case ; 
 that it should come with such credentials as to 
 make it their reasonable duty to inquire into it 
 earnestly, and put its pretensions to the proof. 
 
 [591] The principle applies to Christianity as 
 to all other systems of religion. It also is 
 bound to make out ?l prima facie case. It must 
 meet men who are not yet Christians upon their 
 own ground, and " shew them signs," signs 
 which will necessarily change with the changing 
 ages, but which must always be sufficient to 
 render indifference to its claims unreasonable, 
 and therefore wrong. And this it both has done 
 from the beginning, and does at the present 
 day. 
 
 In the beginning it did so by miracle. Those 
 to whom Jesus in the first place came were not 
 bound to receive Him for His word's sake. 
 They might say, and justly, " The scribes and 
 Pharisees sit in Moses' seat ; what they teach 
 us that we will observe and do. But who is He, 
 this peasant of Galilee, that we should do His 
 commandment and observe His rules?" The 
 force of this objection Jesus Himself admitted. 
 He allowed that, if it had not been met, they 
 would not have sinned in rejecting Him. But 
 it was met. He showed them the sign. He 
 did among them works which no other man did. 
 Unless they could deny His miracles, they could 
 not, on their own principles, dispute His claim 
 — not indeed to be forthwith accepted as the 
 Messiah, but at least to be listened to without 
 prejudice, and to have His doctrine tried. — 
 T. M. Home in The Expositor, 1881. 
 
 [592] A gardener, when he transplanteth a 
 tree out of one ground into another, before the 
 tree takes root he sets stays to it, and poureth 
 water at the root of it daily ; but when it once 
 taketh root, he ceaseth to water it any more, 
 and puUeth away the stays that he set to uphold 
 it, and suffereth it to grow with the ordinary in- 
 fluence of the heavens. So the Lord in plant- 
 ing religion — He put to the help of miracles, as 
 helps to stay it ; but when it was once confirmed 
 and fastened, and had taken deep root. He took 
 away such helps, so that, as St. Augustine hath 
 it, " He that looketh for a miracle is a miracle 
 himself ; for if the death of Christ work not 
 faith, all the miracles in the world will not do 
 it." — Spencer. 
 
 [593] Supposing, therefore, that you have 
 found a way by which some few thoughtful men 
 obtained true notions of religion, you are far 
 from having found a way of propagating true 
 religion in the world. Reasoning will not do 
 the business ; and therefore the gospel set out 
 in another manner, by proposing the great truths 
 of religion in the plainest and simplest manner 
 in an authoritative way, but by an authority 
 supported by the plainest and the strongest 
 proof, the proof of miracles ; an argument that 
 was adapted to men of all conditions, and made 
 its way to every understanding. 
 
 VI. Their Connection with Natural 
 Laws. 
 
 I Miracle is no violation of law, but falls in 
 with a higher law and purpose of the Law- 
 giver. 
 
 [594] Miracles may be effected by higher 
 law, for ought we know ; but who or what brings 
 that law down to bear upon the lower sphere ? 
 Miracle must imply God in immediate action ; 
 and to us miracle is simply miracle. We get 
 lost when we begin to philosophize and define. 
 The " law" there may be in the case, is so far 
 from removing God from the sequence, that it 
 brings Him directly into it.
 
 102 
 
 595— 6ool 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 2 The essence of miracle is that we cannot 
 explain the effect by ordinary machinery. 
 
 [595] We see no possible advantage in trying 
 to understand the means by which a miracle was 
 wrought. In accepting the evidence for it, we 
 are avowedly accepting the evidence for some- 
 thing which transcends the ordinary laws by 
 which nature works. — Cation Farrar, Life of 
 Christ. 
 
 3 A miracle is the Divine power exercised in 
 a different way than ordinarily. 
 
 [596] All that is essential to the idea of a 
 miracle is the intervention of Divine power to 
 accomplish by supernatural means, whether 
 directly or indirectly, a result not attained in 
 the ordinary course of nature. But what is 
 above and beyond nature is not necessarily con- 
 trary to it. That iron should swim, may be 
 extra-naiura.], j-;//t7--natural, yet not contra- 
 natural. Nay, there may possibly be, as 
 some suppose, even within the sphere of nature 
 itself, a power hitherto unknown, sufficient to 
 produce that unusual result ; requiring only to 
 be called into exercise by the Divine will, when 
 the special occasion demands ; and the result 
 would be none the less a miracle, since it is the 
 effect of special Divine interposition, and is 
 something beyond the usual course of nature. 
 But whether the 7;/ d'(?;/j' employed are natural or 
 supernatural, in either case the efficient canse is 
 supernatural, and the event miraculous ; nor is 
 there, in either case, any necessary violation or 
 suspension of the already existing and estab- 
 lished laws. Those laws may remain in full force, 
 notwithstanding the coming in of this power. — 
 Prof. Hanen in Bibliotheca Sacra. 
 
 [597] Looking upon the universe as every- 
 where and always the realm of law, it has been 
 suggested that miracles may be due to the 
 action of higher laws in the region of lower 
 laws. — Abp. Trench. 
 
 [598] We should term the miracle, not an in- 
 fraction of the law, but behold in it a lower law 
 neutralized, and for a time put out of working 
 by a higher ; and of this abundant analogous 
 examples are evermore going forward before our 
 eyes. Continually we behold in the world 
 around us lower laws held in restraint by higher, 
 mechanic by dynamic, chemicalby vital, physical 
 by moral. — R. A. Redford. 
 
 4 The extraordinary proceeding of the Divine 
 power, which is miracle, may be with or 
 without natural agencies. 
 
 [599] ^f '■he wind which blew back the Red 
 Sea and gave the Israelites a safe passage 
 across, were a true consequent of natural ante- 
 cedents, it would be none the less a miracle in 
 the Bible sense of the word, that the action of 
 the wind should correspond exactly in time and 
 place with the purpose of God towards His 
 people. But there are many miracles recorded 
 in Scripture to which such an argument is 
 
 totally inapplicable. Take, e.g., the case of 
 raising the dead. The resurrection of Christ is 
 the crucial instance of the miraculous. Here 
 we cannot talk of antecedents and consequents. 
 There is no parallel in the uniform successions 
 of nature. — Ibid. 
 
 5 Miracles may be applications of unfamiliar 
 laws. 
 
 [600] We call those the laws of God which are 
 familiar to us, and we call them rightly. But 
 how can we tell that there are not, in the in- 
 finity of creation, other laws at work which are 
 greater and more marvellous in operation than 
 those with which we are acquainted ? And if 
 these are the natural laws of that other sphere, 
 is it allowable for us to speak of them as an 
 infraction of God's rule, merely because they 
 are not the selfsame laws which regulate this 
 world of ours ? Supposing that for some special 
 purpose those laws of another sphere were made 
 to take effect in our world, would it be correct 
 to state that God's law was thereby broken ? 
 
 Let us endeavour to illustrate our position by 
 a short parable ; bearing in mind, however, that 
 a parable can only partially represent the idea 
 of which it is an illustration. 
 
 There was once a garden, filled with trees and 
 herbs. These trees and herbs were all of them 
 sensitive and sentientbeings, capable of noticing 
 surrounding objects, and of forming some esti- 
 mate of the various things and circumstances 
 which came within the range of their experience. 
 For instance, they were accustomed to the pre- 
 sence of the gardener, and recognized in him a 
 being of a superior order. 
 
 The tools which he daily employed were sub- 
 jects of some speculation in their minds ; but 
 being daily present to them, they did not excite 
 any great astonishment. No doubt they ac- 
 counted them wonderful ; but then they were 
 also familiar, and for that reason, as has been 
 said, they did not awaken surprise, or seem in 
 any way supernatural. 
 
 They sometimes speculated upon how the 
 various implements of husbandry had come into 
 existence, but at any rate they^zr/ of their exist- 
 ence was beyond dispute, and that fact they 
 admitted, much in the same way as we accept 
 many things which are evident to our senses, 
 but which we can account for only in a conjec- 
 tural manner. 
 
 It had come to be received by them as a law 
 of nature that in summer the lawn should be 
 mown weekly, that the fruit trees should be 
 pruned twice in the year, the ivy clipped every 
 spring, and the ground dug and manured in the 
 winter. Some of these operations might occa- 
 sionally be omitted, but such omission was, to 
 their thinking, only an interruption of a natural 
 law, just as we may regard an exceptional season 
 of rain or drought: Another familiar law was 
 this, that at intervals of uncertain recurrence, 
 the garden, or certain portions of it, should be 
 refreshed by the artificial irrigation of the 
 watering-pot. 
 
 But at length it occurred to the gardener to
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 600 — 605] 
 
 103 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 lay down a flexible tube, and to connect it with 
 the water supply of the neighbouring town ; and 
 by means of this he watered his beds with a con- 
 tinuous stream until the whole plot of ground 
 was saturated. 
 
 "A miracle! a miracle!" exclaimed the as- 
 tonished plants ; for it was an occurrence con- 
 trary to all their past experience. It appeared 
 to them a supernatural event, simply because it 
 was without precedent, and because no cause 
 within their range of knowledge or experience 
 could account for so strange a portent. 
 
 To the gardener, indeed, the event was no 
 miracle, but simply the application of a law to 
 his garden, which he had never employed 
 before, or never employed in the same manner, 
 though familiar to him as being usually operative 
 elsewhere. — E. Gray, M.A. 
 
 6 There is room in nature for freedom of 
 action by the Divine as by the human will, 
 •without infringing on the so-called laws of 
 nature. 
 
 [601] Miracles, then, are not anomalies, or 
 events brought about in contravention of the 
 laws of nature. They certainly interfere with 
 and interrupt some of the laws of nature, but 
 they do not run counter to that system of laws 
 by which the material world is governed. A 
 comet in its movements does not obey the 
 laws of our solar system ; but it obeys some 
 law, and marches forward in its apparently 
 erratic orbit in accordance with that complete 
 and perfect system of laws by which the move- 
 ments of the starry spheres are regulated. And 
 so, though miracles apparently contravene this 
 or that particular law of nature, they are not 
 lawless. — Ram Chandra Base, The Truth of 
 Christian Religion. 
 
 [602] We need pay little attention to those 
 who dogmatically affirm that miracles are im- 
 possible. For even if that were the fact, nothing 
 short of Omniscience could safely venture to 
 declare it. — G. F. Wright. 
 
 [603] Again, persons who talk in this strain 
 overlook the elasticity of nature, or the possi- 
 bility of its admitting the acts of free agents 
 without endangering the uniformity of its course. 
 You will remember the celebrated statement of 
 Fichte regarding a grain of sand. Suppose a 
 grain of sand appears a few inches off from the 
 spot whereon it is found, an almost endless 
 chain of new antecedents must be pre-supposed 
 to account for the fact. The wave by which it 
 ■was deposited must have proceeded a few 
 inches forward ; the wind by which the wave 
 was propelled must have blown a trifle harder ; 
 the atmospheric conditions preceding the motion 
 of that wind must have been difterent from 
 vvhat they were ; these altered conditions might 
 have destroyed the crops which fed the father 
 of the party who sees the grain of sand ; the 
 , father might have died, and the son might never 
 have been born ! 
 
 But all this chain of antecedents would be a 
 
 beautiful conceit of the head if the grain of 
 sand, instead of being driven forward by a 
 wave, were removed by my hand. I can re- 
 move the particle with the greatest ease with- 
 out disturbing the antecedents or the con- 
 sequents conjured up like so many phantoms 
 by the imagination of the philosopher. So that 
 there is room in nature for the independent 
 action of the mind or will ; and there certainly 
 is room for the independent action of the Will 
 which controls and regulates all the physical 
 and moral forces of which it is the grand store- 
 house. — Ram Chandra Base, The Truth 0/ 
 Christian Religion. 
 
 [604] It is somewhat strange to talk of the 
 harmony of nature in the midst of disorder and 
 anomaly. Look at the condition of man, the 
 lord of creation, with the lower animals in a 
 state of rebellion against him ; his authority 
 despised, his glory trailed in the dust, and his 
 person insulted by the meanest insect ; — look 
 at the lelative condition of man in this world, 
 and tell us if this is the primitive state of things. 
 Look at the regular system of destruction that 
 operates side by side with the system of life, 
 and then say if the harmony of nature has con- 
 tinued undisturbed. Look at disease and death 
 in their ten thousand frightful forms, at the 
 arrow that flieth by day, and the pestilence that 
 walketh in darkness ;— look at vice in all its 
 impurity and filthy and crime in all its horrors, 
 and then say if there are no rents in the 
 harmony of nature. To talk of the impossibility 
 of rents in this world of disorder is something 
 like talking of the stability of empires amid the 
 existing ruins of Rome or Athens ! 
 
 If this sin-created order of things is allowed- 
 to go on undisturbed, this harmony of disorder,, 
 so to speak, left intact, the complete destruction 
 of nature is only a question of time. A remedial 
 system is needed to bring nature back. Miracles 
 therefore are not capricious acts, but connected 
 manifestations of a higher law ushered in to 
 restore sin-deformed nature to its original 
 harmony. Miracles are not rents, but mag- 
 nificent appendages of a system introduced to 
 do away with rents. Miracles are not dis- 
 turbances, but the attractive accompaniments 
 of an arrangement calculated to heal all dis- 
 turbances. And therefore miracles tend to re- 
 store nature to the harmony it has lost, and 
 man to that state of purity and bliss from which 
 he has fallen.— /<^/^/. 
 
 7 Our ignorance or limited knowledge of the 
 vast range of the universe, of the relation 
 of mind and will to material instruments, 
 render it presumptuous to regard miracles 
 as contrary to those laws of nature which 
 may include them. 
 
 [605] I shall ask you this, to consider with 
 me the vastness of nature — a vastness both 
 Avith regard to variety and to extent — to our 
 finite conception a vastness illimitable, infinite. 
 And the I'eason why I invite you to the con- 
 sideration of this phase of nature lies in the
 
 104 
 
 6o5 — 6o51 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 conviction that it will remove from some minds, 
 as it certainly has from my own, all a priori or 
 anterior objections to the miracles of the New 
 Testament, drawn from the suspicion that they 
 are contrary to the laws of nature. I think I 
 shall be able to convince you that, whatever 
 else these miracles may be, we have no valid 
 reason for regarding them in this light ; but, on 
 the contrary, they may after all be only 
 necessary instances of the orderly course of 
 nature itself. Turn your thoughts, then, to the 
 starry heavens as nightly disclosed to the 
 astronomer's gaze by those gigantic telescopes, 
 and their appliances, which are among the 
 chief wonders of inventive skill. In certain 
 portions of the heavens, more stars pass across the 
 small visible field of the instrument each minute 
 than you or I have ever distinctly seen with 
 unaided vision shining over the whole concave 
 surface of the sky. I say nothing of the in- 
 calculable distances of each from each, or of 
 each from our earth. Our planetary systems 
 and our own sun are themselves units in this 
 vast associated group. Yet this incalculable 
 array of associated systems of worlds is not a 
 chaos, but a cosmos replete with order and 
 beauty and law. And now, not in contrast, still 
 less in derisive contrast, turn your thoughts to 
 that little sand-glass which limits the due ac- 
 complishment of my present task. The sand 
 therein is debris of ancient continents teeming 
 with life and happiness and beauty upon this 
 our globe, long anterior to the advent of man. 
 The why and the wherefore of this amazing 
 prodigality of duration as much baffle and 
 evade us as do the stars. And next think of 
 the materials which constitute the glass which 
 contains the sand. Every particle of one of 
 those materials has passed through the tissues 
 of creatures living, no doubt, a pleasurable 
 existence in some primaeval waters, while the 
 other material aided the life and growth of the 
 beautiful flora which adorned its shores. Modern 
 science has revealed the existence within that 
 ^lass of myriads and myriads of entities, yet 
 moving among each other with velocities 
 measurable by no terrestrial standards, but ap- 
 proaching rather the velocities of the planets, 
 and, dashing against each other and against 
 the sides of the glass, produce by their orderly 
 conflicts all those varied effects which we classify 
 under the names of atmospheric pressure, heat 
 and light, and electricity. Add to those stu- 
 pendous hosts which adorn the skies, and to 
 those myriad atoms thus curiously endowed, all 
 the existences that lie between and around 
 them ; add to them that bright mysterious 
 thing called life, and especially human life; and 
 then, summing up the whole, at what you have 
 arrived at last in all this interminable array of 
 things and thought? Simply this: You have 
 nature, which is only another name for the sum 
 of all created things. Now, in this darkness or 
 this light of nature, tell me, if it pleased the 
 Author of nature to send us a revelation of 
 things in which we are most deeply concerned, 
 but regardincj which the visible parts of nature 
 
 could give us no information ; if, in this behalf, 
 there appeared upon this earth one who assumed 
 to be a messenger from heaven, and to know 
 the secrets of the Most High ; if he claimed 
 for himself a Divine origin and exhibited in his 
 conduct moral excellence and a moral intelli- 
 gence far beyond any that we conceive attain- 
 able by the children of men ; if he taught and 
 lived as none other being ever taught and lived 
 before or since, and if, in the course of his 
 ministry, this unique being, appearing under this 
 unique environment, claimed, and was said and 
 seen to exhibit, power over the diseases of the 
 body and over the elements of nature— nay, 
 over life and death — could you, with any show 
 of reason, reject the narrative, simply under 
 the plea that it was contrary to the laws of 
 nature ? I omit all reference to our absolute 
 ignorance of those laws of the mysterious inter- 
 action between mind and matter. The miracles 
 of the unique, the Divine Teacher are in the 
 sacred records attributed to the energy of His 
 will. And who knows the relation of will to 
 the motions of material atoms ? Consider in 
 what are constituted, and by what means are 
 developed, the arts, the conveniences, the em- 
 bellishments of social life. Regard for a mo- 
 ment railways and telegraphs in the mere light, 
 though that is an important light, of their 
 exciting the curiosity and developing the in- 
 telligence of the great masses of our population. 
 We know that the earth is the great storehouse 
 of the means provided for our material and 
 intellectual advancement ; and, now that you 
 have before your minds this wondrous correlation 
 of our complex globe to the still more wonder- 
 ful being in due time placed upon it, turn the 
 gaze of your thoughts towards the nebulous 
 masses in the far-ofT sky, now in process of 
 evolution into new suns and new worlds, to be 
 constituted in their turn after the fashion of 
 our own in these mysterious fiery clouds. The 
 instructed gaze of science already discerns the 
 nitrogen of future atmospheres, the hydrogen 
 of future oceans, the carbon of a future vege- 
 tation, and, it may be, the sure traces of the iron 
 that is destined to quicken the inventive genius 
 of beings who are to be the denizens of worlds 
 yet unformed. Magnificent prolepsis ! The skies 
 of the ages long past must have once proclaimed 
 in like manner the same beneficent arrange- 
 ments in preparation for ourselves ; for those 
 ancient skies contained the promise and the 
 prophecy, the far-off prophecy, of the advent 
 of a being, who, in the slow but sure progress of 
 the rolling ages, would, as on this day, sing of 
 the glory and be warned and invigorated by the 
 parental love of the Lord of the universe. — 
 Professor Pr it chard. 
 
 8 The Divine character renders miracles 
 probable as well as possible. 
 
 [606] The doctrine of theism being assumed, 
 the conditions of the problem are clearly stated 
 by John S. Mill. Hume's argument against 
 miracles is far from being conclusive "when the
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 606 — 613] 
 
 [miracles. 
 
 existence of a Being who created the present 
 order of nature, and therefore may well be 
 thought to have power to modify it, is accepted 
 as a fact, or even as a probability resting on 
 independent evidence. . . . The question then 
 changes its character, and the decision of it 
 must now rest upon what is known, or reason- 
 ably surmised, as to the manner of God's 
 government of the universe ; whether this know- 
 ledge or surmise makes it the more probable 
 supposition that the event was brought about 
 by the agencies by which His government is 
 ordinarily carried on, or that it is the result of a 
 special and extraordinary interposition of His 
 will in supersession of those ordinary agencies." 
 —G. F. Wright. 
 
 9 What we call miracles are the Divine 
 special actions, and rule over nature, like 
 man's actions. 
 
 [607] In miracle and providence the Creator 
 is only supposed to use a power over nature 
 analogous to that so freely exercised by man. 
 The use of nature for purposes of the Creator's 
 design is no more a paradox than its use by 
 man. — Ibid. 
 
 [608] The miracles of the Bible were sus- 
 pensions, or, more correctly, counteractions, of 
 some foixe of nature — I have not said some law 
 of nature — counteractions of some force of 
 nature, or the bestowing of some superhuman 
 power by the immediate will of God, coinciding 
 with the words of revelation which the miracu- 
 lous gifts of the persons who were inspired 
 authoritatively attested to mankind as the words 
 of God. — Rev. IV. Anderson, Scripture Aliracies 
 a7id Modern Scepticism. 
 
 [609] Miracles are not portents, nor were 
 they ever given under such circumstances as 
 these, and for such a purpose. They are signs, 
 channels of communication between two worlds, 
 palpable evidences that the course of nature is 
 more than a chain of unbroken sequences, that 
 there is a personal God, whose will can, for the 
 purpose of authenticating His message to man- 
 kind, prove itself to be supreme over the laws 
 which govern the physical world. — Ibid. 
 
 VII. The Distinctive Character of 
 Bible Miracles generally. 
 
 [610] In reference to miracles we require an 
 interpreting mind to explain them. This is the 
 reason why so many thoughtful men believe 
 that the outburst of fire when Julian tried to 
 rebuild the Jewish temple, and the wonder of 
 the thorn in the history of Port Royal, were 
 nothing more than natural wonders. If the 
 final cause be considered to have been sufficient 
 in these cases to warrant Divine interposition, 
 at least there was no interpreter to explain 
 them, nor any revealed message to be taught. — 
 Canon Farrar, Crit. Hist, of Free TJioiight. 
 
 [611] There is thus in the miracles of the 
 Bible— abating some obscure instances— a broad 
 stamp of distinction from extraordinary, though 
 still natural, phenomena ; while there is a plan, 
 a method, a reigning spirit which takes them 
 completely out of the region of the mere random 
 wonders and portents of Livy, or the childish 
 marvels of the later ecclesiastical historians. It 
 may be confidently affirmed that if the Bible 
 miracles are not recognizably Divine, none can 
 be so ; and thus the extreme sceptical position 
 would be reached, that a Being who wished to 
 make a revelation, and sought to attest it by a 
 seal, which the general sense of mankind has 
 connected with such a communication, could not 
 thus stamp it by any sign of distinctive power. 
 — Principal Cairns. 
 
 VIII. The Distinctive Character of 
 Christ's Miracles. 
 
 I The miracles of Christ were public, in the 
 eyes of men, and could have been contra- 
 dicted if not real. 
 [612] He did all His miracles publicly, not in 
 corners and among some select company of 
 people, but before multitudes, and in the greatest 
 places of concourse ; so that if there had been 
 anything of imposture in them He gave the 
 fairest opportunity that could be to His enemies 
 to have detected Him. Mahomet's miracles 
 were wrought by himself alone, without witness, 
 which was the best way in the world certainly 
 for one that could work no miracles, but yet 
 could persuade the people what he pleased. But 
 our Saviour did nothing in private. His trans- 
 figuration only was before three of His disciples, 
 and therefore He made no use of that as an 
 argument to the Jews, but charged His disciples 
 to tell it to none till after His resurrection, be- 
 cause that would give credit to it ; after they 
 were assured of that, they would easily believe 
 his transfiguration. But all His other miracles 
 were in the sight of the people. He healed 
 publicly, and admitted all to see what He did. 
 When He turned the water into wine, it was at 
 a public feast ; when He multiplied the loaves 
 and the fishes, it was in the sight of four or five 
 thousand people ; when He raised Lazarus from 
 the dead, it was before a great multitude of the 
 people. The works that He did durst abide 
 the light, and the more they were manifested, 
 the more miraculous they did appear.— ^^^. 
 Till Olson, 1 630- 1 694. 
 
 2 The miracles of Christ, unlike those of 
 
 prophets and apostles, exalted Him as the 
 
 Worker. 
 
 [613] These miracles point to the catholic 
 
 belief, as distinct from any lower conceptions 
 
 concerning the person of Christ. They diff'er 
 
 from the miracles of prophets and apostles in 
 
 that, instead of being answers to prayer granted 
 
 by a higher Power, they manifestly flow forth 
 
 from the Life resident in the \Voxk.&x.—Liddon, 
 
 Bamptoti Lectures.
 
 io6 
 
 614 — 620] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [miracles and science. 
 
 3 The miracles of Christ were indications 
 of the nature, as well as proofs, of His 
 ' mission. 
 
 [614] Such wonders of mercy and grace will 
 then appear to you the natural outcome of His 
 redeeming mission, the appropriate signs and 
 tokens of His saving might ; and confirmations 
 of the truth and reality of those ancient marvels 
 will not be wanting in the every-day facts of the 
 spiritual life. Is it not as wonderful that souls 
 once sin-bound and corrupt should break off 
 their chains and walk in newness of life, should 
 face temptation with unconquerable firmness, 
 should live above the world in the peace and 
 hope, the purity and joy, of the children of God 
 — is not this as wonderful as that the sick should 
 be healed and the dead raised by the word of 
 the Son of God ? And if " His name through 
 faith in His name'' is still working these wonders 
 in your own souls and in those of all His true- 
 hearted servants, why should you find it diffi- 
 cult to believe that the same power gave " per- 
 fect soundness" to multitudes in the days of 
 old ? — Brozuitlozv Maitland. 
 
 [615] The miracles recorded in the New 
 Testament identify the Cod of nature with the 
 Christ of the gospel. They give impressive 
 illustration of the truth declared by the apostle 
 John, that the "Word" who became flesh and 
 dwelt among us was " in the beginning with 
 God," and that "all things were made by Him." 
 The works wrought by the Saviour, so varied in 
 kind and evincing so complete a command over 
 all physical forces, show that the kingdom of 
 nature and the kingdom of God are alike under 
 His control, and prove, therefore, that the bene- 
 ficence of the natural world and the mercy of 
 the gospel are the outcome of the same Infinite 
 goodness. 
 
 4 The miracles of Christ were His natural 
 procedures. 
 
 [616] In the Synoptic Gospels the most com- 
 mon term for our Lord's miracles is cwafiuc, 
 potuers. The teaching, therefore, of this word 
 cvvan^it:, powers, or faculties, is that our Lord's 
 works were perfectly natural and ordinary to 
 Him. They were His capacities, just as sight 
 and speech are ours. Now in a brute animal 
 articulate speech would be a miracle, because 
 it does not lie within the range of its capa- 
 cities, and therefore would be a violation of its 
 nature ; it does lie within the compass of our 
 faculties, and so in us is no miracle. Similarly 
 the healing of the sick, the giving sight to the 
 blind, the raising of the dead, things entirely 
 beyond the range of our powers, yet lay entirely 
 within the compass of our Lord's capacities, and 
 were in accordance with the laws of His nature. 
 It was no more "a miracle" in Him to turn 
 water into wine than it is with God, who works 
 this change every year. — Professor J. IV. 
 Worvian. 
 
 IX. Evil Consequences of their Re- 
 jection. 
 
 1 Hopeless perplexity of mind. 
 
 [617] To one who rejects them — to one who 
 believes that the loftiest morals and the divinest 
 piety which mankind has ever seen were evoked 
 by a religion which rested on errors or on lies 
 — the world's history must remain a hopeless 
 enigma or a revoking fraud. — Canon Farrar, 
 Life of Christ. 
 
 2 Abandonment of the religion of Christ. 
 
 [618] At least three stupendous miracles, the 
 Incarnation, Resurrection, and Ascension, are 
 essential parts of Christianity, regarded merely 
 as a moral system. Those who do not believe 
 in those lesser o-r///s7a of Christ, which are com- 
 monly called "miracles," generally end by dis- 
 belief in the truth of these essentials. — Preb. 
 Wordsworth, Banipton Lectures. 
 
 [619] If ever the time should come when 
 Christian people have shown themselves unwill- 
 ing to defend the miracles, that time will very 
 soon be followed by the abandonment of the 
 religion of Christ entirely ; for certainly no 
 person would undertake to believe that what is 
 now good for mankind and which had a Divine 
 origin was founded on a falsehood or on a 
 delusion. We are bound, therefore, if we believe 
 the Christian religion at all, to defend the 
 miracles recorded therein. — Rev. IV. Anderson. 
 
 49 
 
 MIRACLES AND SCIENCE. 
 
 I. The Proper Function of Science in 
 
 REGARD TO THE iVIlRACULOUS. 
 
 [620] Science is the current stage of human 
 intelligence as to the orderly processes in the 
 usual course of nature. Miracles are events 
 outside that usual course ; and are, therefore, 
 outside the domain of science. The proper and 
 only sphere of science in this matter is, to bear 
 testimony to the fact that certain events — as 
 raising Lazarus from the grave — are not in the 
 ordinary course of nature. The work of the 
 priest in Judaism was to give a certificate of 
 cure to one recovered from leprosy, and the 
 work of the scientist is to give a certificate that 
 certain events or phenomena are outside the 
 known laws or rules according to which pheno- 
 mena occur. In this inquiry we are not to 
 assume that nature is an operant or worker, 
 but is composed of a set of works or phenomena. 
 Works, because in nature, are not of nature. 
 Phenomena constitute nature, but nature does 
 not create her phenomena or her processes. It 
 is time to banish for ever that great goddess 
 Diana of the Ephesians, the mythological,
 
 620 — 625I 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. I07 
 
 [miracles of pagans and papists. 
 
 poetical, or fabulous Nature, as some person or 
 power that v/orks ; and to recognize only works 
 or events which happen not by laws or rules, 
 but according to them. Every work or event 
 that cannot lae classified under known rules, or 
 regular methods and lines of occurrence, should 
 be scientifically regarded as a miracle— tiymo- 
 logically, something to be ivondcredat — as indi- 
 cating a special intei-ference or line of action 
 different to the regular course within which the 
 events of nature are generally confined and 
 directed. Hence, while science may certify as 
 to what is a miracle, it can never say that no 
 miracle occurs; for it is a record of general 
 orderly phenomena, and can only say that 
 certain phenomena are outside the usual course 
 of things, and therefore, not being within the 
 ordinary course, are miraculous. In the true 
 sense, all nature is one great miracle ; but as 
 custom destroys luomier, some special events 
 are permitted, in order to excite special atten- 
 tion, and give credentials to special truths. — 
 B. G. 
 
 [621] If the progress of science remove from 
 the category of miracles events previously clas- 
 sified as such, it merely fulfils its proper func- 
 tion in so doing. The distinction between the 
 marvellous and the miraculous only thereby 
 becomes more marked. — H. Calderivcll. 
 
 50 
 
 MIRACLES OF PAGANS AND 
 PAPISTS. 
 
 ■ I. The Difference between pretended 
 AND Real Miracles. 
 
 I Pretended miracles (as those of the Papists) 
 are frivolous in character and wrought on 
 unlikely occasions. 
 
 [622] And now I am sorry I have occasion to 
 say it, but it is too true that the miracles pre- 
 tended to by the Church of Rome, for the con- 
 firmation of her erroneous doctrines, are taxed 
 by several of their best writers of imposture and 
 forgery, of fable and romance, so extravagant 
 and freakish and fantastical, wrought without 
 any necessity, and serving to no wise end, that 
 they are so far from giving credit to their doc- 
 trines, that they are a mighty scandal to them 
 and to our common Christianity ; whereas the 
 truly Divine miracles, reported to us in Scrip- 
 ture, how unlike they are to these ? How 
 venerable in themselves, and in all the circum- 
 stances with which they are related ? never 
 wrought but upon great necessity and for excel- 
 lent ends ; full of benefit and advantage, of 
 mercy and compassion to mankind ; and, in a 
 word, such as are every way worthy of their 
 Author, having plain characters of the Divine 
 
 wisdom and goodness stamped upon them. — 
 Abp. Tillotson, 1630-1694. 
 
 [623] We shall see by and by that there are 
 many accounts of persons being marked with 
 the wounds of Christ. There is one, indeed, of 
 our own day, that of the Belgian ecstatic, Louise 
 Lateau. One of our ablest physiological 
 writers, Dr. Carpenter, in his recent work, 
 " Mental Physiology," regards these phenomena 
 as quite capable of natural explanation. In the 
 accounts of St. Francis, we see that intense 
 absorption in the contemplation of Christ's 
 passion which is supposed to produce the 
 effects. The vision of the seraph, which can of 
 course be explained, and the resulting convic- 
 tion that the saint was to be transformed into 
 the likeness of Christ crucified, were exactly the 
 antecedents likely to be followed by such a 
 result. It had, indeed, been objected that in the 
 case of St. Francis we have not merely the five 
 wounds of Christ impressed upon the body, but 
 also the appearance of what seemed to be nails 
 in form and colour. We may rely that it is 
 difficult to set a limit to this power of a mental 
 impression over the bodily frame. — Sta?iley S. 
 Gibson, Religion and Science. 
 
 II. Pretended Miracles should not 
 
 BE allowed to discredit THE REAL. 
 
 [624] History, no doubt, is full of stories of 
 wonder which, in an age of ignorance and super- 
 stition, were believed to be the miraculous proofs 
 of Divine interposition. But such legends have 
 scarcely anything, except the name, common 
 with the miracles of the Bible. Spurious coin 
 sometimes imposes on the unwary by its re- 
 semblance to the true. This should make us 
 more careful to discriminate, and should put us 
 on our guard, but it is no reason why we should 
 disparage that which is genuine, or deny the 
 manifest use of that which men have so often 
 tried to counterfeit. — Rev. IV. Anderson, Scrip- 
 ture Af trades and Modern Scepticism. 
 
 [625] As counterfeit coin is a tribute to, and 
 acknowledgment of, the current coin which it 
 imitates, so counterfeit miracles are a compli- 
 ment to true ones. They also recognize the 
 importance and suitability of miracles as cre- 
 dentials of religion. But the difference in the 
 character and circumstances of the miracles, as 
 recorded in the Scriptures, and those subse- 
 quently invented or pretended, is the same as 
 between sterling gold in a good sovereign and 
 baser metal in a counterfeit one. The false sets 
 off the true. So of the apocryphal Infancy 
 of Jesus ; its absurdities show the difference 
 between man's inventions and God's revelation. 
 In like manner the miracles there recorded, as 
 the infant Jesus making a clay sparrow fly, and 
 so surpassing His playfellows, indicates the 
 difference between spurious miracles, whether 
 of patristic or Romish invention, and the 
 genuine miracles of the Scriptures. — B. G.
 
 lo8 
 626- 
 
 -632I 
 
 THE EP'IDEXCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [possibility and necessity of revelation. 
 
 51 
 
 POSSIBILITY AND NECESSITY 
 OF REVELATION. 
 
 I. Probability of a Revelation. 
 
 1 From general antecedent considerations. 
 
 [626] Is it more likely, from the standpoint 
 of theistic conceptions of the character of God, 
 that He should leave His creatures uncared for 
 and unguided, or that He should in " sundry 
 times and divers manners" reveal Himself to 
 them 'i And if, of those divers manners, the 
 witness borne by Nature, by Reason, and by 
 Conscience, proved to be insufficient, if they 
 were, at the best, but as Trrtu'ciyajyoi leading to a 
 higher Teacher than themselves, was there not 
 an antecedent likelihood that He should reveal 
 Himself in other ways, suspending here and 
 there the laws which He had Himself ordained, 
 or modifying their action by a will acting under 
 higher laws, so as to arrest men's attention and 
 authenticate the teaching, as of the prophets, by 
 whom " He spake in times past to the fathers ;" 
 so also of the Eternal Son, by whom "He has 
 in these last days spoken unto us?" — Rev. Pro- 
 fessor Phcmptre in Co)ite>iipora7y Review. 
 
 2 From the natural conception of God as 
 our Father. 
 
 [627] But if God is our Father, if He exer- 
 cises a loving providence over us, if He hears 
 our prayers, if He has ordained for us a life 
 beyond death, how shall we know it .'' Nature, 
 as we have seen, is voiceless. Revelation alone 
 can meet these desires of ours, can answer 
 these questions which every awakened con- 
 sciousness must ask. Nor is there in revelation 
 anything intrinsically incredible. Indeed, if it 
 be our only avenue to certain knowledge regard- 
 ing providence and immortality, can we believe 
 that this avenue would have been left for ever 
 closed? Is there anything unnatural indirect 
 communication from the Creator to creatures 
 capable of knowing Him — from the Father to 
 children capable of loving Him and of rejoicing 
 in His lo\e? 
 
 Is objection urged against revelation as op- 
 posed to the order of nature ? How much do 
 we know of that order ? Are we in a position 
 to pronounce such and such events to be incon- 
 sistent with it ? Probably many of us have 
 encountered in our own experience, or through 
 testimony which we could not question, occur- 
 rences which we knew not how to include m the 
 order of nature. 
 
 II. Need and Necessity of a Revela- 
 tion. 
 
 I On account of the mystery of our being. 
 
 [628] The king and his chief captains and 
 ministers are sitting in council on a dark win- 
 ter's day, rain and snow without ; within, a 
 bright fire in their midst. Suddenly a little 
 
 bird flies in, a sparrow, in at one door and then 
 out at another. Where it came from none can 
 say, nor whither it has gone. So is the life of 
 man. Clear enough itself, but before it, and 
 after the end thereof, darkness ; it may be 
 storm. If the new doctrine will tell us anything 
 of these mysteries, the before and after, it is the 
 religion that is wanted. — Venerable Becie. 
 
 2 On account of the enigma of sin. 
 
 [629] The cause of evil both moral and penal, 
 or of sin and misery, its first entrance into the 
 world, and continual progress and increase, has 
 very much puzzled those who have seriously 
 inquired into it, and have had only reason for 
 their guide. 
 
 3 On account of the necessity of a remedy 
 for sin. 
 
 [630] The knowledge which Creation im- 
 parts is imperfect and insufficient. Creation 
 has been marred by sin. We cannot learn from 
 the survey of nature how sin may be forgiven. 
 Hence it was to be expected that, if ever man 
 was to be made the object of Divine mercy and 
 forgiveness, then in some plainer and fuller 
 method God would reveal Himself to His crea- 
 tures. The Bible discloses whatever is neces- 
 sary for man to know in relation to the forgive- 
 ness of sin, and the attainment of everlasting 
 salvation. — Bp. Biekersteth. 
 
 4 On account of all human attempts to solve 
 the riddle of man's being. 
 
 [631] Man feels that he needs it. There 
 are questions concerning the origin, nature, and 
 destiny of man, concerning sin and its pardon, 
 which he cannot answer. And no man can 
 answer these questions for his fellow men. 
 Even if philosophers could answer them, the 
 great mass of men must still be ignorant. The 
 experience of ages proves that the world by wis- 
 dom knows not God. Where the light of reve- 
 lation is enjoyed, those who reject it are led to 
 the most contradictory conclusions, and to the 
 adoption of principles subversive of virtue and 
 happiness. — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theology. 
 
 5 To enable us to escape evils otherwise 
 insuperable. 
 
 [632] Many thinking men among the heathen, 
 considering the deplorable state of ignorance, 
 superstition, and vice into which mankind are 
 so generally sunk, and having experienced the 
 insufficiency of natural reason to raise them out 
 of this state, have been inclined to believe that 
 a revelation would sometime or other be vouch- 
 safed to the world ; and the will of God, as the 
 rule of our duty and the ground of our expecta- 
 tions, be thus more uni\-ersally and more cer- 
 tainly known : which hope they derived also 
 from their natural notions of the goodness of 
 God, which not a little countenanced it. — H. 
 Grove, 1 683-1 73S.
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 633-640] 
 
 T09 
 
 [supernatural, the. 
 
 III. The Evidence of the Bible being 
 A Divine Revelation. 
 
 1 The Divine impress of truth is marked on 
 its pages. 
 
 [633] That book that goes up and down 
 under the name of His word, can you disprove 
 it to be His word ? If such writings should 
 now first come into the world, so sincere, so 
 awful, so holy, so heavenly ; bearing so expressly 
 the Divine image, avowing themselves to be 
 from God — and the most wonderful works are 
 wrought to prove them His word, the deaf 
 made to htar, the blind to see, the dumb to 
 speak, the sick healed, the dead raised, by 
 a word only commanding it to be so ; would 
 you not confess this to be sufficient evidence 
 that this revelation came from heaven ? And 
 are you not sufficiently assured they are so 
 confirmed ? — y. Howe. 
 
 2 Its moral tendency. 
 
 [634] If a revelation really comes from the 
 moral Orderer of the world, it must flow with 
 His purpose. It must be a part of His order, 
 it must carry out His method and work. The 
 supreme moral test of the Bible therefore is. 
 Does it flow with and increase this diviner 
 current of history ? Did it, as it first welled up 
 and began to flow in Israel, does it now in the 
 fulness of its power, run into and sweep on with 
 the deepening righteousness, the enlarging 
 truth of history? — Stnyth (America)^ 1882. 
 
 3 Its advancing human progress. 
 
 [635] First, the general formation truths of the 
 Old Testament were progressive forces in early 
 history. They were necessary to progress, and 
 they pressed man on. Revelation forbade man 
 to look back, by its threatenings, and led man 
 en. going before him as the angel of the Lord, 
 with its promise. 
 
 Secondly, these scriptures, one after another, 
 seem to have been thrown into the course of 
 the moral education of the world when they 
 were needed. They came not too soon or too 
 late. When the age needed the lesson, the 
 schoolmaster stood before it, sent from God to 
 teach it. Revelation in this manner led step by 
 step, and age after age, the moral progress of 
 man. — Ibid. 
 
 4 The consistency of the revelation in the 
 Bible with the idea of the Divine govern- 
 ment and its adaptation to the wants of 
 man. 
 
 [636] From' the theistic argument which em- 
 braces the evidence for the existence, character, 
 and government of God, passing to that of 
 ravelation, we regard the conception of a 
 Divine Being revealing to men truth, gra- 
 dually, and by fitting modes of communica- 
 tion, both as an a priori possibility and moral 
 necessity, and as proved a pcstenori by a 
 consideration of the history of ^\hat mankind 
 has acknowledged to be Divine communica- 
 
 tions, by the authority of the written Scriptures. 
 This argument concentrates itself in the Person 
 and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and is con- 
 firmed by the facts of Christian life, by the 
 practical application of the truth in the course of 
 ages, by the testimony given to it over the wide 
 extent of the human family, showing that 
 Christianity is the only religion which is uni- 
 versally adapted to meet the wants of man. — 
 R. A. Redford, TJie Christian'' s Plea. 
 
 IV. Objections met. 
 
 [637] Can a revelation be certified? Is it 
 possible that it can be known to be a Divine 
 revelation in a special sense ? Can it be given 
 to man in such a manner as to vindicate itself 
 against a priori and a posteriori objections ? 
 The answer to this question may be divided 
 into three parts, i. The method of the reve- 
 lation, by individual men, and by writings 
 handed down from age to age, is not unreason- 
 able. 2. The anterior probability of such a 
 revelation as is given in Scripture is un- 
 doubtedly strong. 3. The test of time being 
 applied to the revelation actually given suffi- 
 ciently approves the Divine authority which is 
 claimed for it. — Ibid. 
 
 52 
 
 SUPERNATURAL, THE, 
 
 I. Its Nature. 
 
 I Beyond the analysis of science and ordi- 
 nary experience. 
 
 [638] It must be held clear by scientists and 
 theologians alike, that while scientific methods 
 are reliable within their own spheres, science 
 can bear no testimony, and can offer no criti- 
 cism, as to the supernatural, inasmuch as science 
 is only an explanation of ascertained facts by 
 recognition of natural law. — Prof. Calderwood, 
 D.D., on the Relations of Science and Religion. 
 
 [639] It results from the very natuie of the 
 case, that science, which is man's record of 
 natural processes, does not include what is 
 supernatural. Even what is natural cannot be 
 measured by private or individual experience, 
 but by a wide survey. — B. G. 
 
 [640] I ne-\-er durst make my own observa- 
 tion or experience the rule and measure of 
 things spiritual, supernatural, or relating to 
 another world, because I should think it a very 
 bad one, even for the visible and natural things 
 of this; it would be judging like the Siamese, 
 who was positive it did not freeze in Holland, 
 because he had never known such a thing as 
 hard water or ice in his own country. — Berkeley.
 
 no 
 
 641 — 649] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [supernatural, the. 
 
 2 All Divine revelation necessarily super- 
 natural. 
 
 [641] The moment you begin to explain away 
 the miraculous and supernatural you surrender 
 the Bible. Take the supernatural out of the 
 Bible, and you make it a collection of contra- 
 dictions and impossibilities. — R. A. Redford. 
 
 II. Ground for belief in the Super- 
 natural. 
 
 1 The supernatural recognized by the in- 
 stinctive consciousness of humanity. 
 
 [642] It is found that throughout the whole 
 histor}' of man there has grown with his growth, 
 and persistently asserted itself against all oppos- 
 ing influences, a belief in his actual contact with 
 the supernatural. As this supernatural always 
 seemed to him to transcend all the limitations 
 of his own consciousness, it may be called a 
 contact with the infinite ; as it always seemed 
 to him to mingle with his life, it may be called 
 a consciousness of revelation. Amid all the 
 varieties of human religions, including even 
 those which like Buddhism recognize no personal 
 God, this consciousness of contact with the 
 infinite is a universal fact, and equally universal 
 are attempts at worship and service of the infinite 
 thus known. — Church Quarterly Review, 
 
 2 What is natural, as an orderly produc- 
 tion, can be accounted for only by what is 
 supernatural. 
 
 [643] We vainly hunt with a lingering mind 
 after miracles ; if we did not more vainly mean 
 by them nothing else but novelties, we are com- 
 passed about with such ; and the greatest 
 miracle is that we see them not. You, with 
 whom the daily productions of nature (as you 
 call it) are so cheap, see if you can do the like. 
 Try your skill upon a rose. — y. Howe. 
 
 3 The idea of the supernatural cannot per. 
 manently be eradicated. 
 
 [644] The thought of the supernatural abides 
 with man, do what he will. It visits the most 
 callous ; it interests the most sceptical. For a 
 time— even for a long time — it may be asleep in 
 the breast, either amidst the sordid despairs, or 
 the proud, rich, and young, enjoyments of life ; 
 but it wakens up in curious inquiry, or dreadful 
 anxiety. In any case it is a thought of which no 
 man can be reasonably independent. In so far 
 as he retains his reasonable being, and preserves 
 the consciousness of moral susceptibilities and 
 relations, in so far will his thought of a higher 
 world — of a life enclosing and influencing his 
 present life — be a powerful and practical thought 
 with him. — Dr. Tulloch. 
 
 [645] The idea of the supernatural is itself 
 supernatural, and the denial of it involves it, 
 for it can be no part or process of material 
 Nature to speculate on what is above itself; 
 and all science is man's reasoning and inference 
 outside and above what is reasoned upon. 
 
 Science is a spiritual idea : man's mental 
 kosmos is a reflex of God's natural kosmos, 
 the material universe. — B. G. 
 
 4 Man's art or applied science is, like science 
 itself, supernatural, as ruling over nature. 
 
 [646] jVIan controls nature in one case by 
 obeying some other natural law, and bringing 
 into operation some secondary cause. Thus, in 
 the instances given above, the lifting of the 
 book, the building of the house, &c., are all 
 illustrations of man's intelligence availing itself 
 of its knowledge of one set of natural laws to 
 produce effects which, apart from his interven- 
 tion, nature itself would never produce. — W. M. 
 Taylor, The Miracles Helps to Faith. 
 
 [647] " Nature never built a house, or inodell- 
 ed a ship, or fitted a coat, or invented a steam- 
 engine, or wrote a book, or framed a constitu- 
 tion." Hence the human soul has power over 
 nature, and can, up to a certain extent, control, 
 suspend, or counteract its laws. Up to a certain 
 extent, for man is finite ; but where he ceases to 
 have power, God is as omnipotent as ever ; and 
 if you only carry up your thoughts from man's 
 power over nature to God's — if you only think 
 of God by His will counteracting or suspending, 
 in a given case beyond the reach of human 
 causality, the usual course of things which men 
 call nature — you will have the idea of a miracle. 
 There is, however, one great difterence between 
 the two. — Ibid. 
 
 5 Nature borders on the supernatural and 
 results from it. 
 
 [648] A truer and more exact use of the word 
 as expressing the higher region, is that of the 
 things and events which come within ordinary 
 experience and knowledge. But every increase 
 of knowledge reveals to us further illustrations 
 of the assertion that " order is heaven's first 
 law." If newly discovered facts and laws seem 
 for a time to form no part of the general system 
 of order, we know that they are only as moun- 
 tain peaks standing high up above a mist which 
 hides their connected roots, and that when the 
 mist is dissipated by advancing day they will 
 all appear as part of a continuous chain. 
 
 The veil of " supernatural " phenomena and 
 " supernatural" law is for a moment lifted by 
 a miracle, and forthwith it becomes evident that 
 "nature" is not to be limited by the boundaries 
 of our experience, but that it extends into a region 
 which is ordinarily unseen, and forms one great 
 system of order of which the "supernatural" is 
 but the higher atmosphere. — Rev. J". H. Blunt. 
 
 5 Our natural life projects toward the super, 
 natural and eternal. 
 
 [649] Our argument from life goes to this 
 extent, that life is a fact of extra-physical signi- 
 ficance, and that it leads reason out again to the 
 borders of a realm of spiritual forces, and to 
 possibilities of being, which transcend our per-
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 649—655] 
 
 [history (ciENERALLY). 
 
 sent experience. Not otherwise, or by supposing 
 less than this, can we render to ourselves any 
 rational interpretation of the origin, conservation, 
 and outcome of life. — Newman Smyth, Old 
 Faiths in New Lis:ht, 
 
 53 
 
 HISTORY {GENERALLY). 
 
 I. Phases of Historical Testimony to 
 Revealed Truth. 
 
 1 In regard to the life of Christ. 
 
 [650] We possess two kinds of evidence that 
 Jesus Christ actually existed, and that He was 
 what Christians believe Him to have been : the 
 one is the purely historical G.\-\dtnce, which traces 
 the facts and ideas of Christian histoiy during 
 the last eighteen centuries back to their antece- 
 dents in the One Divine Man from whom they 
 came, and from whom they derived their special 
 character. The other kind of evidence may be 
 called the docicmentary. Here are certain 
 sacred writings, the genuineness and authenti- 
 city of which can be certified on independent 
 grounds, both external and internal, the Gospels 
 and Epistles. In them we find a presentment 
 which is perfectly distinct, harmonious, com- 
 plete ; which, in short, may be said to be the 
 soul of the writings, their essential meaning and 
 worth. We can have no reasonable doubt 
 whatever that the early Christians, to whom we 
 owe these New Testament writings, believed 
 Jesus Christ to be what He is represented to be 
 on their pages ; and we have just as little doubt 
 that the facts of His history, the features of His 
 character, the words which are ascribed to Him, 
 are substantially accurate transcripts of the 
 wonderful Personality and ministry which ap- 
 peared in Palestine eighteen hundred years 
 ago. — R. A. Redford, The Christian'' s Plea. 
 
 2 In regard to the scriptural account of the 
 Jewish nation. 
 
 [651] Much more might be said, if it were 
 needful, for the evincing the truth of this par- 
 ticular piece of history ; and it is little to be 
 doubted but any man, who with sober and im- 
 partial reason considers the circumstances re- 
 lating to it ; — the easily evidenceable antiquity 
 of the records whereof this is a part ; the certain 
 nearness of the time of writing them to the time 
 when this thing is said to have been done ; 
 the great reputation of the writer among the 
 Pagans ; the great multitude of the alleged 
 witnesses and spectators ; the no-contradiction 
 ever heard of ; the universal consent and 
 suffrage of that nation through all times to this 
 day, even when their practice hath been most 
 contrary to the laws then given ; the securely 
 confident and unsuspicious reference of later 
 pieces of sacred Scripture thereto — even some 
 parts of the New Testament— as a most known 
 
 and undoubted thing ; the long series and tract 
 of time through which that people are said to 
 have had extraordinary and sensible indications 
 of the Divine presence — which if it had been 
 false could not in so long a time but have been 
 convicted of falsehood — their miraculous and 
 wonderful eduction out of Egypt, not denied by 
 any, and more obscurely acknowledged by some 
 heathen writers ; their conduct through the 
 wilderness and settlement in Canaan ; their 
 constitution and form of polity, known for many 
 ages to have been a Theocracy ; their usual 
 ways of consulting God upon all more important 
 occasions : whosoever, I say, shall soberly con- 
 sider these things — and many more might easily 
 occur to such as would think fit to let their 
 thoughts dwell awhile on this subject — will not 
 only from some of them think it highly improb- 
 able, but from others of them plainly impos- 
 sible, that the history of this appearance 
 should have been a contrived piece of falsehood. 
 —J. Howe. 
 
 3 In regard to the continued preservation of 
 the Jews. 
 
 [652] Lord Rochester lived a long while in 
 infidelity, but there was one argument in favour 
 of Christianity, he confessed, he could never set 
 aside, viz., the existing state and circumstances 
 of the Jewish nation. 
 
 [653] Every one of them is bound to every 
 other by a tie such as binds together no nation 
 on earth, not even some remote mountain tribe 
 which has never seen an invader. Elastic to 
 stretch to the ends of the earth, it binds every 
 one of them to this City, this Sanctuary, and to 
 each other. 
 
 [654] It is a common contempt of other races ; 
 a common enthusiasm for their own ; a common 
 history, contained in a book which they look on 
 as Divine ; a common hope, which they also 
 look on as Divine ; common festivals, which 
 commemorate national deliverances, drawing 
 them to the common temple. Their lawgiver 
 must have been a great patriot and statesman, 
 this Moses in whom they trust. I always 
 thought them a wonderful and inexplicable 
 people. But now, first, at Jerusalem, I begin to 
 understand the Jews. — Schotiberg Cotta Family, 
 
 [655] The Jews have been spread over every 
 part of the habitable globe ; have lived under 
 the reign of every dynasty ; they have shared 
 the protection of just laws, the oppression of 
 cruel ones, and witnessed the rise and progress 
 of both ; they have used eveiy tongue, and have 
 lived in every latitude. The snows of Lapland 
 have chilled, and the suns of Africa have 
 scorched them. They have drunk of the Tiber, 
 the Thames, the Jordan, the Mississippi. In 
 every country, and in every degree of latitude 
 and longitude, we find a Jew. It is not so with 
 any other race. Empires the most illustrious 
 have fallen, and buried the men that constructed
 
 112 
 
 6s5-66i] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 fARCHiEOLOGY. 
 
 them ; but the Jew has lived among the ruins, a 
 living monument of indestructibility. Persecu- 
 tion has unsheathed the sword and lighted the 
 faggot, p.ipal superstition and Moslem barbarism 
 have smitten them with unsparing ferocity ; 
 penal rescripts and deep prejudice have visited 
 on them most unrighteous chastisement ; and 
 notwithstanding all, they survive. — Fraser^s 
 Magazine. 
 
 [656] The fact that the Jews bring down 
 through the ages the Old Testament, containing 
 the prophecies and adumbrations fulfilled in 
 the New Testament, proves that Christians did 
 not invent the Bible and its prophecies, which 
 are preserved by the enemies of Christianity. — 
 B. G. 
 
 II. Force of Historical Testimony to 
 Revealed Truth. 
 
 [657] Our acts of faith rest on the recorded 
 experience of 4000 years. Age by age the evi- 
 dence has accumulated. For a soul in these 
 days to distrust the God whose leading of hu- 
 manity is here recorded, is as though the eye 
 should distrust the sun. — J. Bahhuin Broivn. 
 
 54 
 
 ARCHEOLOGY. 
 
 I. Phases of Archaeological Testimony 
 to Revealed Truth. 
 
 X In regard to Oriental life. 
 
 [658] It seems as if Oriental life had been 
 petrified into immutability to prove for ever the 
 marvellous minute truthfulness of scriptural 
 
 narrative. 
 
 2 In regard to the recent discoveries in the 
 East generally. 
 
 [659] Besides the living photographs of the 
 past, there are dead witnesses — " sermons in 
 stones." The buried marvels of Nineveh dis- 
 entombed after long ages, the silent catacombs 
 opened after many centuries, the awful chambers 
 of the pyramids penetrated in these later years, 
 have all voices testifying to the historic verity of 
 the Bible. The rock inscriptions of the Sinaitic 
 valleys, the discovered dwellings and temples 
 and stones of Moab and Bashan, are eloquent 
 with varied evidences. The cherished traditions 
 of the Nestorians, the names of passes and 
 mountains and fortresses in Afghanistan, and 
 the documents, habits, and histor)- of the Jewish 
 colony, discovered in the interior of China, are 
 all witnessing to the reality and consistency of 
 Bible narratives. In Palestine and Egypt and 
 Syria each stone has a voice, each mountain an 
 ■^,cho, each stream a melody, each city a history, 
 bach village a memory ; and all proclaim that 
 the gospel records are true. — Rev. JoJm Grit ton. 
 
 3 In regard to researches and explorations in 
 the sites of Biblical lands. 
 
 [660] Speaking of the various modern cor- 
 roborative evidences of the truth of Holy Writ, 
 Dr. Hamilton says : " Lieutenant Lynch has 
 floated down the Jordan, and explored the Dead 
 Sea ; and his sounding-line has fetched up from 
 the deep physical confirmation of the catastrophe 
 which destroyed the cities of the plain. Robin- 
 son, and Wilson, and Bartlett, and Bonar have 
 taken pleasure in the very dust and rubbish oi 
 Zion ; and they come back declaring that the 
 Bible is written on the very face of the Holy 
 Land. Since Laborde opened up the lost 
 wonders of Petra, its stones have cried aloud, 
 and many a verse of Jehovah's word stands 
 graven there with a pen of iron in the rock for 
 ever. Scepticism was wont to sneer, and ask, 
 Where is Nineveh, that great city of three days' 
 journey ? But since Botta and Layard have 
 shown its sixty miles of enclosing wall, scepticism 
 sneers no longer. Hidden in the sands of Egypt, 
 many of God's witnesses eluded human search 
 till within the last few years ; but now, when 
 Bibles increase, and are running to and fro 
 through the earth, and when fresh confirmations 
 are timely, God gives the word, and there is a 
 resurrection of these witnesses, and from their 
 sphinx-guarded sepulchres old Pharaohs totter 
 into court, and testify how true was the tale 
 which Moses wrote three thousand years ago. 
 ' In my youth,' said Caviglia, when Lord Lindsay 
 found him in the East, ' I read Jean Jacques and 
 Diderot, and believed myself a philosopher. I 
 came to Egypt, and the Scriptures and the 
 Pyramids converted me.' And even so a visit 
 to Palestine, the reading of Keith's ' Fulfilment 
 of Prophecy ' — nay, the mere sight of the 
 Assyrian antiquities has given faith to many a 
 doubter ; just as we could scarcely imagine any 
 one reading Dr. Stroud on the ' Physical Cause 
 of Christ's Death,' or Mr. Smith on the ' Ship- 
 wreck of St. Paul,' without carrying away the 
 firmest conviction of these historical facts, and, 
 consequently, of all those vital truths which the 
 facts by implication involve." 
 
 [661] Every one who visited Sinai, and care- 
 fully examined it with the Mosaic records as his 
 guide-book, would be convinced of two things — 
 first, not only of the exact and complete agree- 
 ment in all particulars of the mountain and its 
 surroundings with the sacred records, but of the 
 impossibility of finding another place in the 
 whole of that desert which would furnish points 
 of agreement at all like this, either in number or 
 minuteness ; and secondly, he would also be 
 convinced that the records of the solemn trans- 
 actions contained in the latter part of the Book 
 of Exodus could not have been written at a 
 distance of hundreds of years, but only at the 
 time and on the spot by an eye-witness. No 
 one who had been in the desert would be easily 
 convinced that two and a half millions of people 
 could have lived there forty years without bread 
 miraculously provided for them by God ; and
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 661—665 1 
 
 no one who went there would return without his 
 belief in the Mosaic history having been greatly 
 strengthened. Not a single member of the 
 Exploration Committee returned home but was 
 firmly convinced of the truth of the sacred his- 
 tory which they found illustrated and confirmed 
 by the natural features of Sinai. Coming from 
 scientific men, who might not be supposed to 
 have had any theological preferences or theories 
 — from scientific men who looked at the desert 
 from an engineering point of view — this testi- 
 mony was of special value. — Rev, Dr. Black. 
 
 4 In regard to the Egyptian tablet of Joseph's 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 [662] There were two kings of the 19th 
 Dynasty before Rameses II. Rameses I. 
 reigned a year and a half. His son, Sethos I., 
 whose mummy was found with the others at 
 Dayr-el-Bahari, reigned 55 years. Rameses II., 
 the oppressor of the Israelites, therefore, began 
 to reign in or about 1408 B.C. The Greeks 
 called him Sesostris. He reigned 68 years at 
 least. There is a tablet in the British Museum 
 dated in his 66th year, 1342 B.C. The kings of 
 the 1 8th Dynasty had not annexed the Delta, 
 where the Israelites were located, on the eastern 
 banks of the Nile ; and hence they did not suffer 
 from the turmoil and unrest of their reigns. 
 Rameses II. did this, and the Israelites became 
 subject to his will. In the 21st year of his reign 
 he withdrew from them, by royal decree, the 
 privileges which they had enjoyed by decree of 
 Joseph's Pharaoh. From 1387 B.C. they were, 
 therefore, liable to the forced service which was 
 imposed upon all the subject or conquered races 
 of the Egyptian kingdoms. The captives taken 
 in his wars could not have supplied anything 
 like the number of workmen engaged in the 
 various enterprises of his beneficent reign. He 
 was one of the greatest and noblest of the kings 
 of Egypt, and one only of his predecessors can 
 be compared with him, as having devoted him- 
 self so completely to the material development 
 and progress of his country. His cities, fortifica- 
 tions extending 160 miles to protect the eastern 
 frontier, his works of irrigation, his restoration 
 of the land to peasant proprietors and cultivators 
 of the soil, and his monumental records, give 
 him a claim to the highest rank among the royal 
 benefactors of Egypt. The monuments of all 
 the other kings of the land of wonders during 
 2000 years are said to number upwards of 150, 
 while those of Sesostris-Rameses alone exceed 
 in number all the rest put together. All over 
 the country there are great works or ruins which 
 bear his name. His face does not indicate 
 anything like cruelty. It is rather refined and 
 gentle. His policy in using the forced labour 
 of foreigners was, unfortunately, as it still is, the 
 policy of the country. In our own time 20,000 
 lives have have been sacrificed under like bond- 
 age. The very favour which the Israelites had 
 enjoyed so long, and their growing prosperity, 
 made the bondage doubly oppressive. Their 
 wrongs, as all such invariably do, brought 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 113 
 
 [archeology. 
 
 troubles irreparable upon the land which 
 Rameses loved so well and raised to such a 
 height of glory. On many of his monuments 
 the countenances of the labourers are unmis- 
 takeably Jewish ; and it is quite impossible for 
 any one to put the monumental records of this 
 marvellous man and the Bible narratives side 
 by side without having the conviction deepened 
 that the one completely verifies the other. 
 Egypt's testimony to the truth is unfaltering 
 and indubitable. It puts to silence the igno- 
 rance of foolish men. 
 
 5 In regard to the Moabite stone. 
 
 [663] Part of the inscription on the Moabite 
 stone discovered in 1870 reads as follows : — 
 " And I took the vessels of the Lord (of Jehovah), 
 and brought them before Chemosh." The holy 
 name Jehovah here is very interesting as the 
 earliest known example of its occurrence outside 
 the Scriptures. This would be about 896 B.C. — 
 Christiati Evidence Journal, 1876. 
 
 II. Value of Arch^ological Testimony" 
 TO Revealed Truth. 
 
 [664] We are very far from sympathizing with • 
 the mental or spiritual attitude which assumes 
 that the Scriptures are, from time to time, to be 
 tremblingly weighed in the uncertain balances 
 of modern investigation and thought. The 
 sublime elevation and soul-saving efficacy of 
 Scripture truth are, after all, what really "com- 
 mend it to every man's conscience in the sight 
 of God ; " and these can never be affected by 
 any advances, real or supposed, in human know- 
 ledge. Still it can never be otherwise than 
 interesting to the believer in inspiration to notice 
 how far the matured results of independent 
 research and reflection, on the part of studious- 
 men, harmonize with the sacred records. 
 
 Now, the views of primitive land tenure indi- 
 cated by this construction of these Scripture 
 records are in complete harmony with the most 
 recent results of investigation and thought on 
 the general subject. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the independent con- 
 clusions regarding the primitive forms of land 
 tenure, arrived at by men who — with no apolo- 
 getic purpose in view, and with no reference to 
 Scripture at all — have devoted their special at- 
 tention to the subject, harmonize with and 
 support the view indicated by the fragmentary 
 and incidental records of Sacred Writ. — Richard. 
 Reid. 
 
 [665] In the preface to his elaborate work on 
 the chronology of the New Testament (" Fasti 
 Sacri "), Mr. Lewin says : " When the more closely 
 I sift the records of that period, the more at 
 every step I find the sacred penmen confirmed 
 in their most casual and passing allusions to 
 contemporary persons and ancient customs, I 
 necessarily feel my creed rests on no insecure 
 foundation, that it is not the cunningly devised 
 fable of an after age, but is part and parcel of 
 actual history. ... I believe that many who
 
 114 
 
 665—670] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [conversion of ST. PAUL. 
 
 indulge in scepticism do it, not from conviction, 
 but from never having seriously addressed their 
 attention to any inquiry after truth." Will any 
 infidel undertake to show how such a history 
 can be at the same time a fable or a mythology? 
 
 [666] The material discoveries of the nine- 
 teenth century — startling as they are — are not 
 of a nature to interfere with the ordinary his- 
 torical and moral evidences of Christianity. 
 
 The ability of Christianity to endure the ordeal 
 to which time and advancing scholarship subject 
 it, establishes its supernatural claims upon an 
 ever-widening basis, and adds to the evidence 
 compelling us to regard the system asa unique 
 Divine production of permanent necessity for the 
 moral development of the human race. — G. F. 
 Wright. 
 
 55 
 
 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 I. Points of the Argument in favour 
 OF Divine Truth drawn from the 
 Fact of St. Paul's Conversion. 
 
 S St. Paul's conversion is a spiritual pheno- 
 menon demanding an explanation. 
 
 [667] The conversion of Saul of Tarsus must 
 be accounted for. The rigid Pharisee, the fierce 
 persecutor, the man of vast learning, of regal 
 intellect, suddenly becoming a Christian convert, 
 " counting all things that were gain to him but 
 loss for Christ," growing to be the chiefest 
 Christian apostle, spending a long life as a mis- 
 sionar)-, and dving a martvr to his faith in Jesus 
 Christ.— Te^'z/. 'H. A lion, D.D. 
 
 [668] The character of St. Paul, next to that 
 ■of his Divine IMaster, is a stroke beyond the in- 
 vention of his age, bears the marks of reality 
 and genuineness, and is consistent throughout ; 
 displays the same eagerness, courage, and con- 
 scientiousness — though misguided — before as 
 after his conversion. " I verily thought I ought 
 to do many things contrary to the name of 
 Jesus, which things also I did." He was first 
 blindly honest, and afterwards intelligently 
 honest. — B. G. 
 
 2 St. Paul's conversion is morally and logic- 
 ally consistent. 
 
 [669] To Paul, for instance, Christ seems to 
 have come at a definite period of time, the exact 
 moment and second of which could have been 
 known, And Paul never destroyed the force of 
 this incarnation by minimizing what had hap- 
 pened. He was quite clear what had happened. 
 He never wavered afterwards from the tran- 
 scendent position that Christ was in him. This 
 is certainly the normal origin of life according 
 to the principles of biology. Life cannot come 
 gradually — health can, structure can, but not 
 life. A new theology has laughed at the 
 doctrine of conversion. Sudden conversion 
 
 especially has been ridiculed as untrue to philo- 
 sophy and impossible to human nature. We 
 may not be concerned in buttressing any theo- 
 logy because it is old. But we find that this old 
 theology is scientific. The line between the 
 living and the dead is a sharp line. When the 
 dead atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 
 nitrogen, are seized by the living force, the 
 organism first is very lowly. It performs few 
 functions. It has little beauty. Growth is the 
 work of time. But life is not. That comes 
 in a moment. At one moment it was dead ; the 
 next it lived. This is conversion — the "passing," 
 as the Bible calls it, "from death unto life." 
 Those who have stood by another's side at the 
 solemn hour of this dread' possession have been 
 conscious sometimes of an experience which 
 words are not allowed to utter — a something like 
 the sudden snapping of a chain, the waking from 
 a dream. Let us finally sum up : — 
 
 1. There is a great gulf fixed between the 
 living and the dead. The distinction between 
 lost and saved is scientific. 
 
 2. Life in the spiritual world can only come 
 from contact with the living Christ. He that 
 hath the Son hath life. 
 
 3. It follows that this life is not a force, nor 
 a manifestation of force. It is Christ Himself. 
 He that hath the Son hath life. 
 
 4. This life comes suddenly — all life does. 
 Sudden conversion is scientific. — Pfof. Henry 
 Dnanmond, Converswfi of St. Paul. 
 
 3 St. Paul's subsequent life shown to be 
 the natural result of his conversion, upon 
 the supernatural hypothesis. 
 
 [670] It is obvious that the more complex a 
 man's character is, from conflicting motives or 
 a chequered history, the more difficult it must 
 be to personate it. If therefore the account ot 
 St. Paul's mar\-ellous conversion be true we shall 
 expect to find an entire absorption of all his 
 faculties into the service of that Being at whose 
 call he lay prostrate, blind, and utterly submis- 
 sive ; yet, as in the case of ]\Iartin Luther, the 
 old nature would be there, moulded it is true 
 for new and better purposes, but still intensely 
 vehement, impatient ol contradiction, and yet 
 continually checking itself from a sense of self- 
 humiliation — as Jewish as ever, and yet opposed 
 from the necessity of the case to all Pharisaic 
 exclusiveness. Here was a man the whole 
 current of whose life was suddenly turned in 
 another direction, his dearest aims thwarted, the 
 ambition of his carnal hopes crushed into new 
 feelings of love, gentleness, and meekness, 
 qualities which were the utter scorn of the great 
 and noble of his day. Yet he was so far from 
 being broken-hearted at this that all his letters 
 breathe an unutterable joy at his new position. 
 The conflicting elements of the old and new 
 states are, however, in spite of himself, con- 
 tinually cropping out, and not only is his life an 
 antithesis, but every chapter in every epistle is 
 full both of a moral and verbal antithesis not 
 found elsewhere.
 
 671—677] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. II5 
 
 [existence of the christian church. 
 
 56 
 
 EXISTENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 I. Points of the Argument in favour 
 OF Christianity, drawn from the 
 Existence of the Christian Church. 
 
 1 The growth and development of the 
 Christian Church by force of Divine prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 [671] The believers in Christ became a 
 society, a Church, which, it must be admitted, 
 was a totally different manifestation of religious 
 life from anything to be found in heathenism, 
 and which we can scarcely conceive of as hold- 
 ing together by mere force of ordinary associa- 
 tion : community of thought, feeling, and action. 
 Had the world been at once obedient to the 
 proclamation of the gospel, it might then be 
 argued that Christian churches arose naturally 
 and maintained themselves by ordinary means ; 
 the accepted faith requiring an expression ir^ 
 life, and that life taking the form of community 
 as a matter of course. But history shows us the 
 fact of a world opposed fiercely to Christianity, 
 and for three centuries subjecting believers to 
 the most terrible ordeal of persecution. That 
 an individual should endure such a trial, and 
 believe all the more firmly the more he is 
 persecuted, might b3 attributed to the natural 
 self-assertion of the human spirit, which defies 
 the tyrant who would destroy its liberty, and 
 deepens its convictions by suffering for them. 
 But it is inconceivable that the Christian 
 Church should have developed itself under such 
 adverse circumstances into a supreme strength, 
 unless there were principles of union within it 
 which were not of this world. — R. A. Redford, 
 The Christian's Plea. 
 
 [672] Christ said not to his first conventicle, 
 Go forth and preach impostures to the world ; 
 But gave them Truth to build on ; and the 
 
 sound 
 Was mighty on their hps ; nor needed they, 
 Beside the gospel, other spear or shield. 
 To aid them in their warfare for the faith. 
 
 Dante. 
 
 [673] The offensive weapon of the Church 
 was Truth, its defensive armour was Patience. 
 —B. G. 
 
 2 The fact that the disciples had more 
 spiritual power and courage in their Lord's 
 bodily absence. 
 
 [674] " The weakness of God," says Paul, "is 
 stronger than men." For that Christianity is 
 Divine is plain also from this consideration. How 
 did it occur to twelve ignorant men to attempt 
 such a vast enterprise ? That they were timid 
 and cowardly is shown by him who wrote of 
 them, and who did not decline to tell the whole 
 truth, nor attempt to throw their faults into the 
 shade ; which is itself the greatest proof of the 
 
 truth of his narrative. Whence was it, then, 
 that they who, whilst Christ was alive, did not 
 withstand the attack of the Jews, afterwards, 
 when Christ had died and been buried, and, as 
 ye say, had not arisen, nor spoken to them, nor 
 infused courage into them, set themselves in 
 array against the whole wide world .-" Would 
 they not have said to themselves, " What means 
 this? He had no power to save Himself, and 
 will He stand up in our defence ? When in life 
 He did not defend Himself, now that He is 
 dead will He stretch out a hand to us ? He 
 Himself when in life did not even subdue a 
 single nation, and shall we, by uttering His 
 name, convince the whole world .'' " Why, how 
 can it be reasonable, I do not merely say to do 
 this, but even to think of it ? From all this it is 
 plain that unless they had seen Him risen, and 
 had received the fullest demonstration of His 
 power, they would never have ventured on so 
 great a hazard. Let us hold fast these two 
 heads of the argument. How did the weak 
 overcome the strong ? and how did it occur to 
 them, being the men they were, to form such a 
 plan, unless they were enjoying the help of God 
 as on their side ? — St. Chrysostom. 
 
 3 That the gates of hell did not prevail 
 against Christ's Church when all external 
 and human power opposed. 
 
 [675] How was it that Christianity triumphed, 
 when it was the religion of the poor and 
 despised and persecuted ? How was it that the 
 Christian communities held together and main- 
 tained their very exceptional constitution, not- 
 withstanding that they were aided by no 
 surrounding bond of external circumstances, 
 such as wealthy institutions, protecting laws, 
 favourable public sentiment, &c., but, on the 
 contrary, depended entirely on the internal 
 force of their faith ? No enumeration of mere 
 secondary causes will explain away this main 
 feature of the fact. The Church grew and 
 triumphed, not because it was assisted to do so 
 from without, but because it was in itself a vital 
 fact which was seeking development. — R. A, 
 Redford, The Christia?i's Pica, 
 
 4 Its continued spread in spite of obstacles. 
 
 [676] Christianity from its very beginning to 
 this day has been maintained and disputed by 
 some of the keenest intellects of the most culti- 
 vated races ; yet it stands firm. And if, as is 
 often said, it was never so assailed as in the 
 last half century, it has assuredly in that same 
 time attained a marvellous growth among all 
 classes. The mere fact of its continued exist- 
 ence among intelligent people is a weighty 
 evidence of its truth. — Sir James Paget, FJi.S.^ 
 Theology and Science, 
 
 [677] Persecution no more destroys it, than 
 crucifixion destroyed its Founder. It springs up 
 into new life from the ashes of persecution, and 
 is the true phoenix— ever renewing its youth — in 
 its incarnation in a growing church, which is
 
 ii6 
 
 677—680] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [the resurrection of CHRIST. 
 
 larger now than ever it was, and promises to 
 absorb the whole world into its living organism. 
 ^B. G. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 [The Resurrection of Christ, being the key- 
 stone of the arch in historical Christian evidences, 
 requires slightly different treatment to the rest 
 in proofs in the present subdivision or group.] 
 
 I, Its Characteristics, as seen in Apos- 
 tolic AND Contemporary Witnesses. 
 
 I Viewed as one connected whole, 
 
 [678] The following are some of the leading 
 characteristics which lend more than ordinary 
 strength to the impression which it naturally 
 produces. 
 
 (i) The variety of the circumstances under 
 which the risen Saviour appeared. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive a greater variety 
 of moods than that in which the disciples were 
 to whom Christ showed Himself. The feelings, 
 the expectations, the anticipations of some were 
 precisely the reverse of those of others ; yet the 
 testimony of all of them was one. 
 
 (2) The circ7i7nstantiality of the testimony 
 given by the different witnesses. 
 
 Whatever is told us is told with the minuteness 
 and circumstantiality of persons who had actually 
 seen what they record, and upon whom what they 
 had seen had made an indelible impression. 
 
 (3) The simplicity and apparent truthfultiess 
 with which the witnesses describe their impres- 
 sions when the Saviour appeared to them. 
 
 So far from any eftbrt to exaggerate the effect 
 upon their minds, or to exhibit their own feelings 
 as having been in harmony with the greatness of 
 the event, they rather convey to us the idea that 
 they were marked by unpardonable hesitation 
 and slowness of belief. 
 
 (4) The event borne witness to was completely 
 unexpected by the witnesses. (Cf. Tvlatt. xvi. 
 21 ; xvii. 9 ; xx. 18, 19 ; xxvi. 32 ; ]\Iark ix. 10 ; 
 John XX. 21, 24 ; xxi. 3 ; Matt, xxvii. 62-64.) 
 
 With feelings such as these (see above pas- 
 sages), it can occasion us no surprise that the 
 apostles and first disciples should have been so 
 hard to persuade that Christ was really risen 
 from the dead. And surely this much at least 
 is obvious, that their conviction that he had risen 
 could have sprung from no expectation that he 
 would rise, that it could have been the result of 
 nothing but irresistible evidence of the fact. 
 
 (5) What the fratne of mind of the disciples 
 became after the event is said to have taken 
 place. 
 
 Hitherto we have considered them as con- 
 scious, at present they may be regarded as un- 
 conscious, witnesses of the truth. Like all rnen 
 living for a great cause, it is the cause which 
 fills them and makes them, without their knowing 
 \t, what they are. They have no time to reflect 
 
 either upon what they were or upon what they 
 have become, or upon what has caused the 
 difference, if difference there be. W^e have time 
 and opportunity to do so, and we turn now to 
 them. Their weakness has been supplemented 
 by a Divine strength, their despondency by a 
 lofty confidence, their sorrow by a joy which no 
 trial can diminish, their idea that they might 
 return to worldly labour by the conviction that 
 there was but one work before them to the end 
 of life — to make known the name and the gospel 
 of the Lord. They were altogether different 
 from what they were. They were refined, puri- 
 fied, exalted. They breathe a higher atmosphere ; 
 they live a nobler life ; they are ready to endure 
 without a murmur the martyr's sufferings and 
 death. And the change is sudden. It is not 
 the result of deliberation, of arguments with 
 one another ; of a deep policy under the influence 
 of which they only gradually come. (See Acts 
 ii. 36.) 
 
 (6) Its publication to the world on the very 
 spot where, aftd at the very moment when, the 
 event was said to have happetied. — Rev. Wm. 
 Milligan, D.D. 
 
 [679] The proof of the Redeemer's resurrec- 
 tion the third day, it is granted, rests entirely 
 upon the accounts furnished us in the New 
 Testament. The genuineness and credibility, 
 therefore, of gospel narratives must of course be 
 assumed in the argument. 
 
 The apostles had the tnost powerful faith in 
 the fact. They were soon convinced by His 
 appearance to them, and having been once con- 
 vinced, they never after seemed to have had any 
 doubt on the question. The powerfulness of 
 their faith will be seen when the following things 
 are considered, (i) They were unanimous in 
 their declaration of it, a few days after, on the 
 ver}' spot on which it occurred, and that to men 
 who were prepared to do anything to conceal the 
 fact. (2) In their unanimous declaration of it, 
 they acted in direct opposition to their previous 
 beliefs and to their worldly interests. 
 
 The apostles had every opportunity for tho- 
 roughly satisfying themselves on the point. 
 They, by their declaration of the fact, induced 
 thousands of the very enemies of Christ to be- 
 lieve in it, and that close to the time and near 
 to the very spot on which it occurred. Christ 
 appeared and lived amongst them for forty days 
 after his resurrection. No less than ten different 
 times did He appear to them in different num- 
 bers and in different circumstances. Once there 
 were even five hundred present. He spoke to 
 them long discourses. He ate with them. He 
 allowed them to handle Him, and by "many 
 infallible proofs "'He worked the fact of His 
 resurrection into their consciousness as the most 
 undebateable of all truths. — Homilist. 
 
 2 Viewed as to separate points. 
 
 (i) Sincerity of the witnesses. 
 
 [680] As for the other condition of a compe- 
 tent witness, that he be a person of such un- 
 questionable sincerity as to report the naked
 
 681—687] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1 1 7 
 
 [the resurrection of CHRIST. 
 
 truth of what he knows ; this, with respect to the 
 apostles in the present case, appears in a great 
 measure from the meanness of their parts, abili- 
 ties and education, naturally disposing men to 
 plainness and simplicity; for simplicity has ever 
 yet been accounted the good step to sincerity. 
 They were poor, mean fishermen, called in Acts 
 iv. 13, I'dtiorai Kdi aypafi^iaroi, in plain terms, per- 
 sons wholly illiterate and unacquainted with the 
 politic fetches of the world ; and could such men, 
 think we, newly coming from their fishermen's 
 cottages, and from mending their nets, entertain 
 so great a thought, as to put an imposture upon 
 the whole world, and to overthrow the Jewish 
 laws and the Gentile philosophy with a new 
 religion of their own inventing? It is not so 
 much as credible, and much less probable. — 
 R. Soitth, D.D., 1 633-1 7 1 6. 
 
 (2) The unlikelihood of the witnesses being 
 mistaken. 
 
 [6S1] That the reporters had sufficient oppor- 
 tunity to know the things reported by them . . . 
 is undeniable ; forasmuch as they personally 
 conversed with, and were eye and ear witnesses 
 of, all that was done by Him, or happened to 
 Him as it is in i John i. 3, And surely if know- 
 ledge might make a man a competent witness, 
 there is room for evidence, as well as certainty, 
 superior to that of sense ; and if the judgment 
 of any one sense rightly disposed, be hardly or 
 never deceived, surely the united judgment of 
 them all together must needs upon the same 
 terms pass for infallible, if anything amongst us 
 poor mortals may or ought to be accounted so. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 II. Its Evidential Value. 
 
 1 It proves the truth and reality of the whole 
 Christian revelation. 
 
 [682] It is open to discussion, I conceive, 
 whether it is not a truer and more rational 
 method to lay our chief stress on the actual 
 evidence, external and internal, which attests the 
 crowning miracle of the resurrection ; and if 
 that is held to be capable of proof, to infer from 
 it the reality of the supernatural power of Him 
 who thus died and rose again, and from that the 
 truth of the gospel records as a whole, and 
 from that again the veracity of the Old Testa- 
 ment records, also as a whole, as postulated and 
 guaranteed by the teaching of the New. — Rev. 
 Prof. Phnnptre in Contemporary Review. 
 
 2 It endorses all the teachings and claims of 
 Jesus. 
 
 [683] The fact of the resurrection proves not 
 the Deity, but the Divine authority of our Lord, 
 as a teacher sent with a supreme and a divinely 
 attested religious mission. 
 
 The Divine authority of our Lord proves the 
 doctrines he attested. Among these are His 
 Deity, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the 
 necessity of the new birth, the atonement, 
 immortality, and eternal judgment. — Rev. 
 foseph Cook, Boston Lectures. 
 
 [684] And the death of Christ, did it not be- 
 come itself a source of life to perishing souls, 
 through the assurance given by the resurrec- 
 tion that the life laid down for man was sur- 
 rendered voluntarily by One who, in His own 
 nature, had power over death and hell ? And 
 is it not a conviction of these truths, all based 
 on Christ's rising from the dead, that through 
 the ages has made the gospel of Christ what it 
 is to us — the consoler of the sorrowful, the healer 
 of the conscience-stricken, the antidote against 
 the fear of death 1— Archbishop Tail, Church of 
 the Fitture. 
 
 3 It is the basis of gospel doctrines. 
 [685] The resurrection carries with it all the 
 
 miracles of the gospel history in proving the 
 supernatural. The following are the words of 
 Dr. Carpenter :—" I regard the historical evi- 
 dence of the resurrection as standing on a far 
 wider basis than the historical evidence of any 
 single miracle of the New Testament." " Look- 
 ing at the unquestionable fact (for such it appears 
 to me) that the resurrection of our Lord was the 
 foundation of the preaching of Paul, and, so far 
 as we know, of the other apostles, and was uni- 
 versally accepted by the early Church as the 
 cardinal doctrine of Christianity (' If Christ be 
 not risen, then is your faith vain '), the gospel 
 narratives derive from that fact a support that 
 is given to none other of the miracles either of 
 Christ or His followers." 
 
 4 It is the corner-stone of Christianity. 
 [686] It is impossible to over-estimate the 
 
 importance of the resurrection of our Lord, 
 either in itself or in its bearing on the Christian 
 life ; nor is it too much to say, that a firm con- 
 viction of the truth of this one event would dis- 
 pel almost every difficulty connected with the 
 supernatural origin of our faith ; afford conclu- 
 sive testimony to the claims of the New Testa- 
 ment revelation, and impart to all the followers 
 of Jesus a far larger amount of Christian 
 privilege, and a far loftier standard of Christian 
 living, than is commonly exhibited by them. 
 We cannot read either the Gospels or Epistles 
 without seeing how influential was the part 
 which a belief of the resurrection of its Lord 
 played in the views and feelings of the infant 
 Church. We cannot think of it seriously now 
 without being satisfied that whatever it was to 
 that Church it may be to us ; and would one 
 wish to settle with himself what will do him most 
 good amidst the perplexities and doubts and 
 questionings of a time such as that in which we 
 live, he would probably, after reviewing all the 
 facts of Christianity, turn to this as the one, a 
 firm faith in which will be the most suitable to 
 his purpose, that Christ Jesus, having really died 
 and been buried, rose on the third day from the 
 grave. — Rev. Williain Milligan, D.D. 
 
 5 The evidence in favour of its truth irre- 
 sistible. 
 
 [687] The belief in the resurrection could
 
 ii8 
 
 687-693] 
 
 THE EVIDEXCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 not have grown up in the gradual manner in 
 which ordinary fictions do, i.e., at a considerable 
 distance of time and place from the occurrence 
 of the supposed events ; but, on the contrary, it 
 originated at Jerusalem within a few days after 
 the public execution of Jesus, and was imme- 
 diately proclaimed as a fact by His followers ; 
 and the Church was reconstructed on its basis. 
 
 6 It stands the test of historical criticism. 
 
 [688] Thousands and tens of thousands have 
 gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as ever 
 judge summed up on a most important cause. I 
 have myself done it many times over, not to per- 
 suade others, but to satisfy myself. I have been 
 used for many years to study the history of 
 other times, and to examine and weigh the evi- 
 dence of those who have written about them, 
 and I know of no one fact in the history of 
 mankind which is proved by better and fuller 
 evidence of every sort, to the understanding of 
 a fair inquirer. — Dr. Arnold, Rugby Sermons. 
 
 III. Its Primary Importance as an 
 Evidence of the Truth of the 
 Christian System. 
 
 I As seen in the fact that being a witness of 
 this fact was essential to the apostleship. 
 
 [689] To be a witness to this great event was 
 held — as the election of Matthias informs us — to 
 be the special function of the apostolic office. It 
 was to this event that Peter referred at large in 
 his discourse on the day of Pentecost. When 
 Paul addressed the men of Athens, this was the 
 one supernatural event to which he referred. 
 From the first it was to that crowning miracle of 
 Christianity that its teachers made appeal. — 
 Rev. W. Hanna, DD., LL.D., Our Lords Life 
 on Earth. 
 
 IV. Its Denial by the Sadducees. 
 
 [690] We are told by our Lord that the Sad- 
 ducees in denying the resurrection made two 
 errors — (i) They erred in their reading of the 
 Scripticres, ?ir\d. denied the _/(?t'/ of the resurrec- 
 tion ; (2) and they denied the possibility of it 
 because they misconceived th.Q p}'0)nise of God 
 (Matt. xxii. 29). Its possibility rests upon the 
 Divine omnipotence, and the fact is proved by 
 Scripture. — J3p. Alexander, Banipton Lectures. 
 
 [691] Josephus states that " the Sadducees 
 believe that the soul dies with the body ; " while 
 St. Luke informs us that "they believe neither in 
 the resurrection nor in angel nor spirit, but the 
 Pliarisees confess both." No wonder, then, that 
 their hostihty was aroused. If Christ be risen, 
 the resurrection is a doctrine, no less than an 
 historic fact ; and what then becomes of their 
 party, of their aristocracy, of their princely in- 
 comes ? It was a day of strife and of prophetic 
 apprehensions. Not content with Christ's cru- 
 cifixion, they had undertaken to hold Him in 
 His grave. His corpse was their property, and, 
 
 in the guard ofsoldiers watching at the sepulchre, 
 this Sanhedrim stood over the dead Christ and 
 held Him in their clinching hands. Where 
 were His apostles ? Not one of them appears 
 in the scenes of His removal from the cross and 
 of His burial ; the very dust of their victim, 
 cold and blood-stained, lies in their grasp. 
 They and they alone are with Him in that 
 sealed tomb of hewn rocks. So it pleased God 
 to overrule this matter, lest the evidence of 
 Christ's resurrection should lack completeness of 
 demonstration. From the grasp of their power 
 the dead Christ had risen, and the first glory of 
 His resurrection had flashed from the spears 
 and helmets of their Roman soldiers. It was 
 well ; His enemies were His earliest witnesses ; 
 and the wrath of man was made to praise Him 
 before the resurrection anthem had touched the 
 lips of angels or xa.zx\..— Dr. Lipsconibe^ Boldness 
 of Apostolic Preachiftg. 
 
 V. Modern Theories, or Attempts to 
 
 EXPLAIN away the FACT. 
 
 [692] Various attempts have been made to 
 explain away the resurrection of Christ, and 
 thus to escape the logical necessity of receiving 
 what it had been resolved beforehand to reject. 
 
 First : There is the supposition of fraud. 
 (Matt. x.Kviii. 1 1, 12). 
 
 Secondly : There is the supposition that Jesus 
 had not really died upon the cross ; but His 
 death was only a swoon, from which He after- 
 wards recovered. 
 
 Thirdly : There is the supposition that there 
 had been no real resurrection, but that the 
 disciples had been deceived by visionary ap- 
 pearances. — Rev. IV. Milligan, D.D. 
 
 [693] It can hardly be expected that the 
 common sense of the public will permanently 
 accept any of the present "critical" explana- 
 tions of the alleged appearance of Christ after 
 death. It will not accept the view of Strauss, 
 according to which the "myth-making-faculty" 
 created a legend without an author, and without 
 a beginning ; so that when St. Paul says, " He 
 was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve," he is 
 repeating about acquaintances of his own an 
 extraordinar)^ assertion, which was never origi- 
 nated by any definite person on any definite 
 grounds, yet which somehow proved so per- 
 suasive to the very men who were best able to 
 contradict it, that they became willing to sufter 
 death for its truth ! Nor will the world be con- 
 tented with the theorj', according to which 
 Christ was never really killed at all, but dis- 
 appeared unaccountably from the historic scene, 
 after crowning a Divine life with a sham resur- 
 rection ! Nor will men continue to believe — if 
 anybody besides M. Renan believes it now — 
 that the faithful were indeed again and again 
 convinced that their risen Master was standing 
 visibly amongst them, yet thought this merely 
 because there was an accidental noise, or a puff 
 in the air. Paley's " Evidences" is not a subtle 
 book nor a spiritual book. But one wishes that
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 693—696] 
 
 119 
 
 [tradition. 
 
 the robust Paley were alive again to deal with an 
 hypothesis hke this. The apostles were not so 
 much like a British jury as Paley imagined them. 
 But they were much more like a British jury 
 than like a panel of hysterical monomaniacs. — 
 F. Myers in Nineteenth Century. 
 
 VI. The Difficulties involved in De- 
 nial OF THE Fact. 
 
 1 The fact that the resurrection is the secret 
 of the gospel's power. 
 
 [694] But the greatest visible miracles of the 
 gospel were the resurrection from the dead and 
 the ascension into heaven. St. ^Paul connects 
 the doctrine of justification with one of these, 
 and the mediation of Christ with the other. 
 Every Christian feels that these are essential 
 parts of his faith, and the source of comfort and 
 strength in all the trials and temptations of life. 
 The articles of the creed and the doctrines of 
 the gospel are so united together as to form a 
 complete and uniform system, from which we 
 cannot remove any one part without endanger- 
 ing and ultimately destroying the whole. And 
 if all these be true and mutually dependent, they 
 point to one and only one conclusion the belief 
 of St. John : " These things are written that ye 
 may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, 
 and that believing you may have life through 
 His Name." If this be true, all other miracles 
 are credible. If it be not true, the light which 
 remains may be pure, but it is cold and lifeless, 
 like the light of the moon. It has lost the power 
 of drawing human hearts and kindling human 
 love. — Rev. IV. Anderson, Af.A., Scripture 
 Miracles and Modern Scepticism. 
 
 2 The fact that St. Paul's epistles are written 
 on this basis. 
 
 [695] Within about thirty years of our Lord's 
 resurrection, we find from this undisputed epistle 
 of the apostle's evidence that the greater num- 
 ber of five hundred witnesses of the resurrec- 
 tion of our Lord existed. To this the apostle 
 alludes as an undoubted fact ; he could not so 
 have alluded to it if this had not been* a fact 
 well known. In the Acts the whole tenor of the 
 apostles' preaching and of the Church's creed 
 rests on the belief of the resurrection of a cruci- 
 fied Saviour. Is not this fact and this doctrine 
 fully corroborated by St. Paul's epistle, " but ye 
 know and believe him to be Jesus, otherwise ye 
 would not be what ye are " ? Is not this a proof 
 that not in " the second coitiiry^' as Mr. Scott 
 alleges, but within thirty years after the event, 
 the Christians at Galatia, in Rome, and Corinth, 
 believed in the main fundamental fact of the 
 Gospels' narrative as well as of the Acts, namely, 
 the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ ? 
 
 These epistles place before us as undoubted 
 facts certain miractilous gifts as the outcome 
 of the resurrection and ascension of Christ to 
 heaven, and of His presence on earth : now, if 
 
 facts, then a belief of particular events which 
 were not facts produced them. In other words, 
 we must conclude the faith of the early Church, 
 as shown in these epistles, was not only self 
 originated, but actually that all the phenomena 
 of its existence were the product of that which 
 itself had no existence— a conclusion equally 
 opposed, we need scarcely say, to all reason and 
 all experience. — T. H. L. Leary, D.C.L. 
 
 58 
 
 TRADITION, 
 
 I. The Argument drawn from Tradi^ 
 tion in favour of the Synoptic 
 Gospels. 
 
 [696] The evidence from tradition establishes 
 conclusively the following points : First. That 
 the tradition of the Church respecting the actions 
 and teachings of our Lord, whether they existed 
 in a written or an oral form, were, at the con- 
 clusion of the first century, substantially the 
 same as those which we read in the Synoptics, 
 the variations being so inconsiderable that for 
 historical purposes they may be safely disre- 
 garded. Secondly. If there was a different class 
 of traditions floating about in the Church, and 
 modelled on the conceptions involved in the 
 stories contained in the apocryphal gospels, that 
 the writers of this early Christian literature did 
 not attach any value to them ; and that they 
 must have accepted the one as an account of 
 the genuine actions and teaching of their Master, 
 and rejected the other as a fabulous addition. 
 From these two conclusions it follows — 
 
 First. That no legendary matter worthy of 
 the notice of the historian, which was invented 
 as late as the last ten years of the first century, 
 has been incorporated into the narratives of the- 
 Synoptics. 
 
 Secondly. That the traditions of the same- 
 period attributed to Jesus a number of miracu- 
 lous actions, nearly all of them identical with, 
 and all of them of the same character as, those 
 in our Gospels, and wholly differing in type and. 
 conception from those which are narrated in the 
 apocryphal ones. 
 
 Thirdly. That the religious and moral teach- 
 ing which these traditions attribute to Him, 
 whatever slight variations it may have contained, 
 is, for all practical purposes, the same as that 
 which we read in the Synoptics. 
 
 Fourthly. That if the narrative of the Syn- 
 optics consists of a mass of legendary matter, 
 these legends must have grown up between 
 a.D. 30 and A.D. 90, or during the sixty years 
 which followed the conclusion of our Lord's 
 ministry. This interval is covered by the Pauline 
 Epistles. — Rev. C. A. Row.
 
 DIVISION D 
 
 ( Continued). 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 RELIGION. 
 
 [2] INTERNAL EVIDENCES. 
 
 Pages 121 to 132. 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 59 
 CHRISTIAN MORALS (GENERALLY). 
 
 60 
 CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 61 
 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 62 
 TEACHING AND CHARACTER OF CHRIST.
 
 DIVISION D 
 
 {Continued). 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [2] INTERNAL EVIDENCES. 
 
 59 
 
 CHRISTIAN MORALS {Generally). 
 
 I. Preliminary or Allied Questions. 
 
 1 Relation of religion and morality. 
 
 (i) Mofaliiy distinguished from religion, of 
 •which in one sense it is a part. 
 
 [697] Morality is actual conformity to some 
 human standard of goodness ; Religion, at least 
 in the Christian meaning of the word, is an un- 
 ceasing eiTort after conformity to a Divine ideal. 
 If this distinction be borne in mind, it will meet 
 many objections and remove many difficulties. 
 Herein consists the great distinction between 
 morality and religion. A true religion must 
 impel all its subjects, however excellent they 
 may be, to follow after something yet beyond 
 them, to press toward the mark of a higher 
 calling than they have yet attained ; whereas a 
 man may be moral, in the ordinary meaning of 
 the word, with little effort and without aspiration. 
 He has simply to compare himself with the 
 standard of the age and counli-y in which he 
 lives — to conform to the mores of the time ; and 
 if, as often happens, his natural constitution and 
 fortunate circumstances enable him easily to 
 endure this test, his work is done and he may 
 rest satisfied. — T. HI. Home, Expositor {Feb. 
 1881). 
 
 (2) Morality luithotd religion is defective, but 
 relii^ion ruithont morality is impossible. 
 
 [698] Morality is certainly a very excellent 
 thing, and it were scandalous indeed for any 
 professing Christian to pour contempt upon it. 
 Wherever this is wanting, pretences to faith and 
 Christian experience are not only vain, but 
 insolent and detestable. He that committeth 
 sin is of the devil ; and only he that doth 
 righteousness is righteous : nor hath the grace 
 of God ever savingly appeared to that man, 
 through whatever uncommon scenes of thought 
 he may have passed, who is not effectually taught 
 by it to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. 
 
 2 The inferiority of secular morality and the 
 superiority of Christian merality, 
 
 (i) Sectdar morality pliable, and regulated 
 by temporary convenience. 
 
 [699] Moral philosophy is the science which 
 
 treats of the nature of human actions, of the 
 motives and laws which govern them, and of 
 the ends to which they ought to be directed. 
 And surely such a philosophy is found in the 
 Bible alone. For the heart to be right toward 
 man, it must be right with God. Motives for 
 the regulation of human conduct are suggested 
 in abundance by men whose moral theories were 
 never identified with the sacred volume ; but 
 they have been addressed, if not to the worst, 
 to some of the most unworthy passions of the 
 human heart. But the morality founded on such 
 a basis, and supported by such incentives, is 
 devoid of principle. It knows no law but the 
 opinions of men, and the ever-fluctuating state 
 of human society. It invests itself with different 
 forms, as the character of the age, the state of 
 the times, and the circumstances of the individual 
 require. It is one thing in Europe and another 
 in Asia ; one thing in the palace, and another 
 in the mansions of the poor ; one thing amid 
 the quietude and searching observation of a 
 rural village, and another amid the bustle and 
 concealment of a crowded city ; one thing on 
 the Exchange, and another amid the retirement 
 of private liie ; one thing in the equable seasons 
 of untempting prosperity, another amid the em- 
 barrassments and agitations of calamity and 
 misfortune ; one thing in peace, and another in 
 war ; one thing at home, and another abroad. 
 It is one thing to-day, and another thing to- 
 morrow. — Dr. Gardiner Spring, Obligations of 
 the World to the Bible. 
 
 (2) The motive of present Jttility or secular 
 advantage incapable of producing lofty morality 
 or high Christian character. 
 
 \jo6\ There is great difference, I apprehend, 
 in these two plans, that is, in adhering to virtue, 
 from its present utility, or in expectation of future 
 happiness, and living in such a manner as to 
 qualify us for the acceptance and enjoyment of 
 that happiness ; and the conduct and dispositions 
 of those who act on these different principles 
 must be no less different : on the first, the 
 constant practice of justice, temperance, and 
 sobriety, will be sufficient ; but on the latter, 
 we must add to these an habitual piety, faith, 
 resignation, and contempt of the world : the 
 first may make us very good citizens, but will 
 never produce a tolerable Christian. — Soame 
 fenyjis.
 
 122 
 
 701—709] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [christian morals (generally). 
 
 (3) Morality not spjiiii^ing out of religions 
 principle is cold. 
 
 [701] A code of morality only rules bad, 
 unloving souls, in order that they may first 
 become better and afterwards good. But the 
 loving contemplation of the soul's first friend, 
 who abundantly animates those laws, banishes 
 not merely the bad thoughts which conquer, but 
 those also which tempt. As the eagle flies high 
 above the highest mountains, so does true love 
 above struggling duty. 
 
 (4) The puj-e morality of the gospel receives 
 its force and support from its supernatural 
 elements. 
 
 [702] There are some who, like the author of 
 " Supernatural Religion," openly maintain that 
 the morality of Christianity, stripped of its 
 supernatural enforcement, is all that the world 
 requires ; and that that superior morality, which 
 was taught and illustrated by Jesus Christ, 
 sufficiently accounts for the past victory and 
 present superiority of the Christian religion. 
 But when we examine the facts, we are driven 
 to the conclusion that, as a moral system alone, 
 it would have remained utterly inadequate for 
 the work which was given it to do. It con- 
 quered not only by exhibiting a purer law of 
 life and example of humanity, but by manifest- 
 ing an invisible spiritual power, impelling, and 
 guiding, and sustaining all men, of all classes 
 and conditions, and under every variety of 
 circumstances. — R. A. Bedford, The Christian's 
 Plea. 
 
 II. Its Phases and Excellences. 
 
 1 It embraces everything which is good in 
 ancient philosophy. 
 
 [703] The philosophers confess that, in certain 
 particulars, their teaching was defective. These 
 very defects Christianity has supplied. Those 
 portions of it which latter times have pro- 
 nounced to be defective, the teaching of the New 
 Testament has supplemented. — C. A. Roiv, 
 Moral Teaching of New Testament. 
 
 2 It contains many points of special teaching 
 unknown to philosophy. 
 
 [704] Since these have been discovered by 
 Christianity, they have received the approbation 
 of enlightened reason. The very subjects which 
 philosophy abandoned in despair she has grap- 
 pled with successfully. — Ibid. 
 
 3 It presents us with the ideal of morality in 
 the person of Christ. 
 
 [705] An overwhelming majority of thinkers 
 have pronounced the delineation of Christ to be 
 perfection. It is an unquestionable fact, that it 
 constitutes the greatest moral force which has 
 ever been brought to bear on man. — Ibid. 
 
 [706] Is there any irregular practice, any 
 wrong affection countenanced by the religion 
 of Christ ? Does it connive at any vice, or per- 
 mit us to gratify any base or sordid passions ? 
 
 Docs it not severely condemn all ? Let malice 
 itself ransack the writings of the apostles of our 
 Lord, and produce anything of this kind if it 
 can. But the praise of the gospel morals is not 
 confined to negatives ; let any virtue be named 
 which is not enjoined by the gospel, or in which 
 the possessors of the gospel are not commanded 
 to excel. — H. Grove., 1683-173S. 
 
 [707] Nothing that Christ has done or taught, 
 nothing in His example or His gospel, when 
 rightly understood, does in any manner oi 
 degree favour the love and practice of iniquity. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 [708] No man can test Christ except by con 
 forming to His ideal. No man can test Christ 
 without making the test in himself as to whethei 
 he has that which made the ideal Christ what 
 He has been to the world— as to whether the 
 structure, operation, drift, tendency of his in- 
 terior nature, is working out in him what Christ 
 said it should work out, and what He promised 
 that it should work out, as the underlying drift 
 of creation. 
 
 Did Christ, then, bring all virtues into the 
 world .'' No, not morality. He did not invent 
 that. There was justice before He was just ; 
 there was love before He was loving ; there 
 was mercy before He was merciful ; there was 
 order in the household before He came upon 
 earth ; there was obedience to parental autho- 
 rity prior to His advent. Neither did He invent 
 religion ; but He brought into the world a con- 
 ception of that which was in Him, and of those 
 elements which lead to the infallible development 
 of men out of their animal conditions into the 
 highest spiritual or Divine conditions. That He 
 did ; and it was not done before nor since, as 
 He did it. Hence the true test as to whether 
 He was Christ, or in any sense Divine, must be 
 found in verifying the declarations which He 
 made. — Ward Beechcr. 
 
 4 It is characterized by its many-sidedness 
 and breadth. 
 
 [709] Its distinctive teaching is characterized 
 by its many-sidedness and breadth. It is free 
 from every mark of one-sidedness or narrow- 
 ness. It appeals to every principle in human 
 nature, that is capable of being enlisted in the 
 service of holiness, in its proper place and due 
 subordination. Its moral law is of such a wide 
 extent that all possible duties are embraced in 
 it. While its teaching originated in the bosom 
 of the most intolerant of races, its principles of 
 toleration are such that philosophy may envy 
 them. The duty of self-sacrifice, as taught by 
 Christianity, covers the entire range of social 
 and political morality. There is no duty which 
 man can owe to man which it does not embrace 
 and command, whether it be individual, social, 
 or political. It is adequate to the wants of man's 
 entire condition. Within its range. Christian 
 teaching is in strict agreement with the dis- 
 coveries of social and political science ; and, in 
 addition, it contains principles adequate to deal
 
 709—713] 
 
 THE EVIDEAXES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1 23 
 
 [christian morals (generally). 
 
 with difficulties with which science is unable to 
 grapple, and that lie beyond its limits. — C. A, 
 Rati', Moral Teaching of New Testament. 
 
 5 It embraces man as a whole. 
 
 [710] Such is the many-sidedness of the 
 moral teaching of Christianity. Enthusiasts 
 and fanatics appeal to one principle alone. 
 Christian men have not unfrequently imitated 
 them, and have denounced many of the primaiy 
 principles of man's mental constitution as sin- 
 ful. To systematic minds the charm of reduc- 
 ing all action to some one principle is great. 
 The writers of the New Testament have taken 
 a larger and a truer view of morality than mul- 
 titudes of philosophers. Their breadth of view 
 is inconsistent with narrow-mindedness. It is 
 impossible, therefore, that Christianity can 
 have been gradually developed by a multitude 
 of credulous enthusiasts. — Ibid. 
 
 [711] All previous poetry and philosophy were 
 incommensurate with the life of man as a whole. 
 So far as life is sunny, joyous, prosperous, they 
 express it well ; with a more thorough abandon- 
 ment to it for the moment than is possible for 
 one whose religion teaches him to grieve for 
 others, if not for himself. But life is not all 
 sunshine. None are exempt from pain ; to 
 many, painful experiences preponderate over 
 pleasurable ; while over our brightest moments 
 death, ever drawing near, casts its dark shadow 
 before. And here pagan philosophy fails us in 
 our need. The philosophies of Zeno, or of Epi- 
 curus, stand dumb before the Sphinx of man's 
 destiny with its insoluble enigma ; they would 
 fain escape, if they could, from the stony gaze of 
 those pitiless eyes. But Christianity faces every 
 aspect of our existence, sunlit or under the 
 cloud. It knows "how to be abased and how 
 to abound." It bids its disciples "rejoice with 
 those that do rejoice," as well as "weep with 
 those that weep." And if joy is impossible for 
 souls beset, beaten down, all but crushed under 
 their woes, it whispers of a "peace which passes 
 understanding." 
 
 Like the gate of a mediccval monastery, 
 Christianity opens itself to all comers ; welcomes 
 all to its shelter ; receives from each his peculiar 
 inheritance of truth ; imparts to each that which 
 was wanting to complete it, and fuses the scat- 
 tered fragments into a whole. 
 
 Or mark the elasticity of Christianity in 
 adapting itself to various forms of government. 
 The gospel precept of obedience to those who 
 are in authority, applies alike to the subjects of 
 a despotic empire, of a constitutional monarchy, 
 of a democracy where all are on a level. When 
 the French republican of the last century called 
 the Founder of Christianity " le bon sansculotte," 
 and when the Jacobite adherent of the exiled 
 Stuarts appealed to his creed as teaching him 
 to " honour the king," they were unconsciously 
 combining their testimony to the breadth and 
 elasticity of Christian politics. When the words, 
 *' Unity, Indivisibility, Brotherhood, or Death " 
 
 were inscribed over the doors of the houses in 
 Paris in 1740, it was a ghastly parody of the 
 universal fellowship which the gospel proclaims. 
 Christianity insists unhesitatingly on the price- 
 less value of each man's personality : " What 
 shall a man give in exchange for his soul ! " On 
 the other hand, it lays an equal or even greater 
 stress on the reciprocal obligations of society. 
 " For we are members one of another." The 
 liberty which Christianity proclaims is not 
 anarchy, for though it is "perfect liberty," it is 
 itself a " law." As Bishop Taylor quaintly but 
 beautifully says, the teaching of Christ " enters 
 like rain into a fleece of wool." Even precepts 
 such as these, " to abstain from meat offered to 
 idols," and not to " muzzle the ox that treadeth 
 out the corn," which have been cited as a con- 
 tradiction of this universality of the gospel, are 
 no contradiction really. In both cases a great 
 principle underlies an apparently arbitrary enact- 
 ment. There is the principle of providing for 
 the temporal wants of those who hold a spiritual 
 office. In both cases the minuteness is in the 
 expression, not in the thought ; in the illustra- 
 tion, not in the thing illustrated. — The Homilist. 
 
 6 It provides that moral force which turns 
 speculative morality into a practical prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 [712] Its special achievement is that it has 
 brought to bear on the mind of man a mighty 
 moral force, compared with which all those 
 known to philosophers and moralists were 
 weakness. Such a force the philosophers de- 
 sired to find, but they were unable to dis- 
 cover. Now that it has been brought to light 
 by Christianity philosophy admits that it is 
 one in accordance with our highest reason. 
 The moral force which Christianity professes 
 to have discovered is no idle theory, but 
 one which has acted with a tremendous 
 potency. It has impressed itself on every form 
 of civilization ; it has lifted the degraded from 
 their degradation, and has elevated the holy. 
 The influence which it has exerted has been 
 entirely beneficent. Reason sets the seal of its 
 approbation to the mode of its operation ; it is 
 one which is equally rational and powerful. — 
 C. A. Row, Moral Teaching; of New Testament. 
 
 [713] Obligation, when centred in God, be- 
 comes all-embracing. The conception of the 
 fitting and the morally beautiful is vague ; that 
 of political obligation is weak ; that of expediency 
 is a mere question of calculation. But holiness, 
 obligatory on man, because it is the essential 
 character of God, is at once distinct, morally 
 beautiful, all-embracing, and, under the govern- 
 ment of the Creator, conducive to our highest 
 happiness. From the conception of duty seated 
 in God, Christianity evolves a body of great moral 
 principles applicable to every condition of man- 
 kind. Its special rules are intended as illustra- 
 tions of those principles as applicable to the 
 circumstances of the time to which they relate. 
 —Ibid.
 
 124 
 
 714—718] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [christian morals (generally). 
 
 [714] On every page of this sacred volume 
 we see a system as pure, as lofty, as invariable 
 as its Divine Author. We meet with perpetual 
 evidence of those great principles of unbending 
 virtue, which, while they purify and regulate 
 the interior, also purify and regulate the ex- 
 terior man ; and which produce an equability 
 of character, a " calm constancy," a tenderness 
 of conscience, a kindness of spirit, as far re- 
 moved from the morality and philanthropy of 
 the world as are the cold abstractions of heathen 
 philosophy from the Sermon on the Mount. The 
 Bible settles the great question : What is duty ? 
 It is everywhere familiar with that all-important 
 principle, that to do right, men must do what is 
 right in itself, from right motives, and with a 
 right spirit. — Dr. Gardiner Spring, Obligations 
 of the World to the Bible. 
 
 III. The Value of the Argument in 
 FAVOUR OF Christianity drawn 
 FROM ITS System of Morality. 
 
 [715] If the ethical teaching of Christianity 
 is superior to that of other systems, here is one 
 of the surest arguments for Christianity as a 
 whole : and the argument is strengthened in 
 proportion to the degree of the superiority. — 
 Rev I, G. Smith, Bainpton Lectures. 
 
 [716] No "essential element of morality" is 
 omitted in Christianity, but all " the essential 
 elements of the highest morality " are found 
 there in a fulness and with a harmony which are 
 absolutely unique. At the same time it has 
 been admitted, or rather it has been urged very 
 earnestly, that these " elements of morality " are 
 to be looked for in the gospel of Christ in an 
 "elemental" form. To say that "the gospel of 
 Christ is not a complete morality," and that " it 
 is corrective of a pre-existent morality,'' is in 
 effect a repetition of our Lord's own words, " I 
 am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." To say 
 that Christian morality "must be eked out from 
 the Old Testament," that " it is incomplete 
 without secular standards," and that " St. Paul 
 ekes it out from the Greeks and Romans," is no 
 disparagement, but in strict accordance with 
 our Lord's retrospective allusions to the law of 
 Moses, and to St. Paul's appeal to nature and 
 conscience, as a proof that the Father of all 
 never left Himself without a witness. To say 
 that the morality of the gospel is couched in 
 " terms most general " and that Christian mora- 
 lity, as we have it, is " not the work of Christ or 
 of His apostles," but the growth of centuries, is 
 in other words to admit, as we contend, that the 
 principles of the gospel are contained in the 
 gospel implicitly rather than explicitly ; that 
 they are not fossilized petrifactions, but living, 
 fructifying principles ; that they are so framed 
 in order to elicit and stimulate in the heart a 
 living, fructifying principle of action ; and that 
 by their very nature, by this their capacity of 
 testing what is genuine in man and what is 
 false, they are themselves, and must be, capable 
 of perversion. — Ibid. 
 
 [717] They who profess to believe in the prin- 
 ciple of utility, should find, in the moral use and 
 fitness of the gospel, the supremacy of its claim 
 as " worthy of all acceptation." — B. G. 
 
 IV. Objections met. 
 
 I The question of rewards promised in 
 Christian teaching. 
 
 [718] There can be no question but promises 
 of reward occupy a very prominent place in the 
 exhortations of our Lord and in the preaching 
 of the apostles. These exhortations to Chris- 
 tian duty, and this aspect of Christian life, have 
 occasioned difficulties of two distinct classes. 
 In proportion as Christian souls have realized 
 their own unworthiness, they have been inclined 
 to shrink from language which seems to imply 
 that they can receive anything from God in the 
 nature of a reward. Some divines have ex- 
 hibited a certain hesitation in dwelling on the 
 free and unfettered assurances of reward, as 
 though they might be misinterpreted too easily 
 into countenancing some doctrine of merit 
 and reliance upon good works. On the other 
 hand, it has been often urged as an objection to 
 the whole moral teaching of the gospel, that it 
 incites men to the pursuit of righteousness for 
 the mere sake of reward, for some selfish or 
 ulterior purpose. 
 
 The explanation will, perhaps, best be dis- 
 cerned if we observe that a similar difficulty, or, 
 we might say, delicacy of feeling, arises in the 
 ordinary relations of life. Consider the case of 
 love, or friendship, between two persons. Such 
 relations are felt to be degraded — they cease in 
 fact really to exist — when the motive of attach- 
 ment on either side is merely that of personal 
 and mutual advantage. Love which is not, in 
 this sense, disinterested is not love ; and men 
 despise a man who affects friendship for a 
 powerful neighbour for the mere sake of what 
 can be obtained from him. But, on the other 
 hand, it is part of the essence of such rela- 
 tions that there should be a return, and a gene- 
 rous return, on the part of friends for the love 
 or the friendship which is bestowed. No 
 doubt, one of the most beautiful feelings is 
 love which is bestowed without any possibility 
 of return ; but, none the less, where it is pos- 
 sible that the love, the friendship, or the kind- 
 ness should be returned, there it ought to be 
 returned ; and there is an incompleteness, a 
 maimed and unsatisfied character, about mutual 
 relations where such mutual benefits are not in- 
 terchanged. But what deserves more particular 
 observation is, that the nature of this relation- 
 ship is much more easily felt than expressed. 
 The beauty of any such relation between man 
 and man, or between man and woman, would be 
 at once marred, if the love, or the benefit, which 
 the one could bestow on the other were put 
 forward as constituting anything like a formal 
 claim, so as to transform the relation into one 
 of mere exchange ; but yet who would not be 
 ashamed if, in point of fact, he made no ade-
 
 7i8 — 726] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 125 
 
 [christian characteristics. 
 
 quate return for the love or the kindness be- 
 stowed on him ? The return must come fiom a 
 free heart. — Rev. H. IVace, Expositor. 
 
 60 
 
 CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 I. Points of Christian Excellence. 
 
 I Universality. 
 
 [719] It is Christianity alone which, as the 
 religion of humanity, as the religion of no caste, 
 of no chosen people, has taught us to study the 
 history of mankind as our own, to discover the 
 traces of a Divine wisdom and love in the de- 
 velopment of all the races of the world, and to 
 recognize, if possible, even in the lowest and 
 crudest form of religious belief, not the work of 
 a devil, but something that indicates a Divine 
 guidance, something that makes us perceive, 
 with St. Peter, that God is no respecter of per- 
 sons, but that in every nation he that feareth 
 God and worketh righteousness is accepted with 
 Vi\m..—Max Mil Her. 
 
 [720] The forces common to all systems of 
 religion in which Christianity shows itself supe- 
 rior to all, and in which the proof and promise 
 of its permanence lie, are such as these : (i) 
 The hold exercised by the theory of belief upon 
 the spirit and conscience of its professors ; (2) 
 The tendency of the system to extend itself lay 
 conversion. 
 
 2 Impartiality. 
 
 [721] The moral teaching of the ancient 
 world was intended for the benefit of the upper 
 ten thousand, i.e., for the moral and intellectual 
 aristocracy of mankind. The philosophers em- 
 phatically declared that their hopes of doing 
 good were limited to those who were born with 
 virtuous tendencies. In one word, as moral 
 physicians, they undertook to prescribe only 
 for those who were in a tolerable state of 
 health. But in cases of moral and spiritual 
 degradation they did not hesitate to confess that 
 they had no medicine adequate to effect a cure. 
 — C. A. Row, Moral Teaching of New J'es- 
 tament. 
 
 [722] How could the philosopher do other- 
 wise ? He had no spiritual power which was 
 capable of reaching the case. To enable him 
 to bring those with which he was acquainted 
 into action, two things were necessary. First, 
 that those to whom they were to be applied 
 should be capable of appreciating them. 
 Secondly, that their force should be superior to 
 that of the appetites and passions. The only 
 power with which he was acquainted, apart from 
 that of habit, was an appeal to the moral beauty 
 and fitness of virtue ; and that the practice of it 
 was generally conducive to happiness. But to 
 present these as a counterpoise to the violence 
 of the passions resembles the attempt to resist 
 
 the violence of the waves of the Atlantic by a 
 mop. The only powerful moral force with which 
 philosophy was acquainted was that of habit. 
 Still, mighty as is its power to sustain a man on 
 a course on which he has once entered, it is 
 utterly powerless to effect the regeneration of 
 one who has become tainted with moral and 
 spiritual corruption. The causes of this ineffi- 
 ciency it is worth while briefly to investigate, as 
 it will enable us to estimate the wisdom of the 
 mode in which Christianity has grappled with 
 the moral and spiritual diseases of mankind. — 
 Idicl 
 
 3 Self-sacrificing benevolence. 
 
 [723] The great principle of vicarious suffer- 
 ing, which forms the centre of Christianity, 
 spreads itself through the subordinate parts of 
 the system, and is the pervading, if not the in- 
 variable law of Christian beneficence. — Isaac 
 Taylor, Natural History of Enthusiasm. 
 
 4 Unique position. 
 
 [724] Christianity, in the classification of re- 
 ligions, is much in the same position as man in 
 the classifications of physiology. We may, for 
 a kind of convenience, place our own race 
 among and at the head of the Ouadrumana, as 
 having certain physical characteristics which are 
 common to the whole order ; but when we re- 
 gard man on his spiritual side, and recognize in 
 him reason and speech, and — except in rare and 
 exceptional cases — acknowledgment of a moral 
 law, and belief in a God, we feel at once how 
 much more consistent it would be with all the 
 facts of the case to classify man, as Scripture 
 classifies him, with reference to the image of 
 God, of which he is alone the adumbration. 
 
 Just so is it with Christianity. It may be 
 convenient for the sake of preserving broad and 
 intelligible distinctions to allow it to be classed 
 with theistic religions, but it really stands nearly 
 as far apart from every other system as man 
 does from every other genus of living and sen- 
 tient creatures. I say advisedly, nearly as far 
 apart ; for though it is only the New Testament 
 that reveals to us the true nature of the Triune 
 God, we may not and must not forget that the 
 God of the old dispensation is the God also of 
 the new, and that though His blessed gospel 
 alone tells us of Christ that is come, the law 
 and the prophets tell of Him that was to come, 
 and are as the dawn that ushers in the bright- 
 ness of the day. — Bp. Ellicott, Modem Unbelief. 
 
 5 Special recognition of God and eternity. 
 
 [725] Reverence and humility, a constant 
 sense of the true majesty of God, and the weak- 
 ness and sinfulness of man, and a perpetual re- 
 ference to another world, were the essential 
 characteristics of Christianity, the source of all 
 its power, the basis of its distinctive type. — Lecky, 
 History of Europeaii Morals. 
 
 6 The sole teacher of truth. 
 
 [726] We may show in other ways that the 
 gospel is its own witness from the character of
 
 126 
 
 726— 732j 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [christian philosophy. 
 
 its teachings. First of all, it is alone as a 
 teacher of absolute truth, in opposition to every 
 deceit, fraud, and lie. Plato taught that men 
 might lie, and I know of no philosopher of 
 ancient times v/ho took the Christian ground ; 
 but Christianity reprobates every falsehood in 
 every form, acted or spoken, and teaches abso- 
 lute truthfulness in every man — the worship of 
 a God of absolute and perfect truth ; the belief 
 in a gospel of pure and absolute truth. You 
 cannot have a greater and more striking con- 
 trast between every system of religion and the 
 gospel than in this one particular, the gospel 
 alone has been the tmjlinchhig, nnswervhtg 
 advocate and teacher oft7-uthj and every Chris- 
 tian man who receives the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ in sincerity and honesty, must admit that 
 it demands truth, and that no lie can by any 
 means be patronized by it. — B. H. Cowper. 
 
 7 The fulcrum for the lever to raise humanity. 
 
 [727] The power of the principle of habit may 
 be illustrated by the action of the lever and the 
 fulcrum. A lever acts with mighty force when 
 it rests on a fulcrum adequate to its support. 
 Without a suitable support it is powerless. So 
 it is with the principle of habit ; it is a powerful 
 lever in the moral world, slow, but yet mighty 
 in its action. But to call forth its latent power 
 it is necessary that it should rest on an adequate 
 support. If it is deficient in this, it is powerless. 
 — Rev. C. A. Row, Moral Teaching 0/ the New 
 Testatnent. 
 
 8 Consistency with the principles of natural 
 religion and former revelations. 
 
 [728] Every true religion must have certain 
 marks by which we may judge of its truth; such 
 as miracles wrought in confirmation of it ; and 
 the internal frame, or the doctrines and com- 
 mands, of the religion itself, which must at least 
 be consistent with the principles of natural 
 religion and with former revelations. — H. Grove, 
 16S3-1738. 
 
 II. Points of Contrast between Chris- 
 tian Teaching and Ancient Philo- 
 sophy. 
 
 [729] The specialities which distinguish the 
 teaching of Christianity from that of the ancient 
 philosophers : — 
 
 The completeness of its teaching. 
 
 Its all-embracing character. 
 
 Its practical character as distinguished from 
 the speculative character of philosophy. 
 
 Its principles all true to universal morality. 
 
 Their freedom from the one-sidedness of those 
 of the ancient world. 
 
 The elevation of the milder and unobtrusive 
 virtues. 
 
 Its ideal of morality not an abstraction, but 
 centred in the person of a living Man. 
 
 Christianity creates a new moral and spiritual 
 power in the person of its Founder. 
 
 It concentrates the whole power of religion on 
 morality. — Rev. C. A. Row, i\Io?-al Teaching of 
 the New Testatnent. 
 
 61 
 
 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 I. Infidel Testimony to the Excellence 
 OF THE Christian Religion. 
 
 I Indirect testimony. 
 
 [730] The superiority of the Christian code 
 is practically acknowledged, and often con- 
 fessed, in a most significant way, by the mode 
 in which the enemies of Christianity taunt its 
 disciples. When they speak of the vices and 
 corruptions of the heathen, they blame, and 
 justly blame, the principles of their vicious 
 systems, and ask how it could be otherwise ? 
 When they blame the Christian, the first and 
 last thing they usually do is to point in triumph 
 to the contrast between his principles and 
 practice. "How much better," say they, "is 
 his code than his conduct ! " It is as a hypo- 
 crite that they censure him. It is sad for 
 him that it should be so ; but it is a glorious 
 compliment to the morality of the New Testa- 
 ment. Its enemies know not how to attack its 
 disciples, except by endeavouring to show that 
 they do not act as it bids them. Surely this 
 uniform excellence of the Christian ethics, as 
 compared with other systems, is a peculiarity 
 worth knowing, and utterly incomprehensible 
 upon the hypothesis that it was the unaided 
 work of man. That there are points on which 
 the mortal systems of men and nations osculate 
 is most true ; that there should have been 
 certain approximations on many most important 
 subjects was to be expected from the essential 
 identity of human nature, in all ages and 
 countries ; but their deviations in some point 
 or other — usually in several — from v/hat we 
 acknowledge to be both right and expedient, 
 is equally undeniable. That when such men as 
 Plato and Aristotle tried their hands upon the 
 problem, they should err, while the writers of 
 the New Testament should have succeeded — 
 that these last should do what all mankind 
 besides had in some points or other failed to 
 do, is sufficiently wonderful ; that Galilean Jews 
 should have solved the problem is, whether we 
 consider their age, their ignorance, or their 
 prepossessions, to me utterly incredible. 
 
 [731] The special excellence of the Christian 
 code is often unwittingly acknowledged by its 
 opponents, who, when professed Christians do 
 wrong, accuse them of being inconsistent. Such 
 accusation of Christians is a concession to tho 
 Christian cause. — B. G. 
 
 2 Direct testimony. 
 
 [732] It is remarkable that infidels them- 
 selves have been obligated to give their testi- 
 mony in its favour. Ca;sar Vaninus, a sworn 
 enemy to the Christian religion, and one who 
 was industrious in searching out objections 
 against it, owned that he could find nothing in 
 it that savoured of a carnal and worldly design. 
 What says Bolingbroke? "No religion has 
 ever appeared in the world of which the natural
 
 732— 7J5 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, I27 
 
 [teaching and character of CHRIST. 
 
 tendency is so much directed as the Christian, 
 to promote the peace and happiness of man- 
 kind ; and the gospel is one continued lesson 
 of the strictest morality, of justice, charity, and 
 universal benevolence." The testimony of 
 Gibbon is remarkable: "While the Roman 
 empire," says he, "was invaded by open vio- 
 lence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure 
 and humble religion gently insinuated itself 
 into the minds of men, grew up in silence and 
 sobriety, derived new vigour from opposition, 
 and finally erected the banner of the cross on 
 the ruins of the capitol." Again he says, " The 
 Christian religion is a religion which diffuses 
 among the people a pure, benevolent, and uni- 
 versal system of ethics, adapted to every con- 
 dition of life, and recommended as the will and 
 reason of the Supreme Deity, and enforced by 
 the sanction of eternal rewards and punish- 
 ments." Such are the testimonies of infidels, 
 and true it is, that this noble system allows of 
 no evil, but promotes the greatest good. 
 
 " For this — of all that ever influenced man, 
 Since Abel worshipped or the world began, 
 This only spares no lust ; admits no plea ; 
 But makes him, if at all, completely free. 
 Sounds forth the signal, as she mounts her car, 
 Of an eternal, universal war. 
 Rejects all treaty ; penetrates all wiles ; 
 Scorns, with the same indifference ; frowns 
 
 and smiles ; 
 Drives through the realms of sin, where riot 
 
 reels. 
 And grinds his crown beneath her burning 
 
 wheels." Buck. 
 
 II. Objections met. 
 
 X Christianity is no more an arbitrary system 
 than the theory of moral science is an 
 arbitrary system. 
 
 [733] Christianity is simply a carrying forth 
 of the primary purpose of God in the creation 
 of man, under a changed condition of things. It 
 is the science, therefore, which teaches men to 
 understand both the nature of their relation- 
 ships with intelligent beings under that changed 
 condition of things, and the means which have 
 been provided for enabling us to realize them. 
 It thus affords an assurance of the most perfect 
 and permanent happiness of which their natures 
 are susceptible, to all who choose to make it 
 available. The notion that Christianity is an 
 arbitrary system, has arisen from an entire mis- 
 conception as to the nature of that happiness 
 which it promises. This misconception again 
 originates in the almost irresistible strength 
 which our desire for wordly gratifications has 
 acquired by that alienation from God which 
 characterises our changed condition. — The 
 Philosophy of Christianity. 
 
 See article " Philosophy of Christianity," 
 No. 19. p. 4.0 
 
 62 
 
 TEA CHIANG AND CHARACTER OF 
 CHRIST 
 
 I. Various Aspects of the Moral Teach- 
 ing OF THE New Testament. 
 
 I Centred in Christ. 
 
 [734] The entire moral teaching of the New 
 Testament is made to centre in the person of 
 its great Teacher. This constitutes a peculiarity 
 which is to be found in no other systems what- 
 ever. The teachings of Socrates, of Plato, of 
 Aristotle, of Zeno, of Seneca, of Aurelius, of 
 Zoroaster, and of all the moralists or the_ phi- 
 losophers who ever lived, were quite inde- 
 pendent of their own persons. If the whole of 
 their history had perished, their systems would 
 be unaffected by it. But if the same fate had 
 overtaken the person and work of Jesus Christ, 
 the morality of Christianity would lose all co- 
 hesion. This is a circumstance worthy of our 
 profoundest attention. The idea of founding 
 a system of moral teaching on a living person 
 must be owned to be one profoundly original. 
 I think that it can be shown to be in accordance 
 with a sound philosophy. But not only is this 
 the case ; but the entire character of Christ, 
 and the parts of which it is composed, can be 
 shown to be constructed with the most exquisite 
 skill and the most faultless perfection. If this 
 can be established, it is evident that the theory 
 which asserts that the contents of the Gospels 
 have been invented by a multitude of credulous 
 enthusiasts will not stand the test of reason. 
 
 The morality of Christianity has a threefold 
 connection with the historical life of its Founder. 
 
 First, His person imparts its vitality to the 
 entire teaching of the New Testament, and 
 constitutes the chief of the moral and spiritual 
 powers possessed by Christianity. 
 
 Secondly, the historic life of Christ contains 
 the morality of Christianity in its ideal per- 
 fection. It constitutes that fountain of living 
 morality which assigns a definite meaning to all 
 the principles and precepts found in the New 
 Testament, and renders them suitable for every 
 age and condition of man. 
 
 Thirdly, it contains a great body of principles 
 and precepts laid down in The New Testament, 
 which bear a distinct reference to the historic 
 life of Christ as the source from whence they ■ 
 flow. — Rev. C. A. Row, Moral Teaching of the 
 New Testajnent. 
 
 [735] Jesus Christ then constitutes Christi- 
 anity ; He is its life and centre, the power 
 which imparts vitality to its teaching. Human 
 literature contains no idea like it. No other 
 teacher has ventured to assume the place which 
 the Christian Scriptures have assigned to Jesus 
 Christ. He has proved mightier than all the 
 dogmas of philosophers, and the teachings of 
 morahsts. It is easy to propound theories for 
 the regeneration of mankind, and assert that
 
 128 
 
 735—742] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN' RELIGION. 
 
 [teaching and character of CHRIST, 
 
 they will constitute the gospel of the future. 
 These we have in abundance, from the morality 
 of utilitarianism to that of communism and 
 atheism. Some of these have attempted the 
 regeneration of mankind, and failed. Others 
 resemble the speculative republics of the ancient 
 philosophers, which refuse to appear in the 
 form of facts. The one kindles no enthusiasm, 
 the other an enthusiasm which society speedily 
 crushes. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are 
 glorious names, but the little of them which 
 actually exist is due to Christian teaching. 
 Some of their modern advocates are striving to 
 erect them on a basis independent both of 
 Christianity and religion. But the foundation 
 refuses to support the weight. They can only 
 be erected on the basis of our relationship to 
 a common God, and not in virtue of our descent 
 from a common brute. — Ibid. 
 
 736] This character is a link between 
 humanity and divinity, and receives power over 
 man by its relation to God as His reflex. 
 "Who is the image of the invisible God.^' — B.G. 
 
 [737] You never get to the end of Christ's 
 words. There is something in them always be- 
 hind. They pass into proverbs, they pass into 
 laws, they pass into doctrines, they pass into con- 
 solations ; but they never pass away, and after 
 all the use that is made of them they are still 
 not exhausted. — Dean Statiley. 
 
 [738] Christianity is built upon the Person of 
 Jesus Christ, and holds forth His human cha- 
 racter as the one flawless realization of humanity, 
 the perfect exemplar, the absolute pattern, the 
 unapproachable goal toward which all human 
 aspiration and effort are to be unceasingly 
 directed. Now of that character, as depicted 
 in the Gospels, the moving force and energ;y 
 was His intense consciousness of God as His 
 Father. His Father's will was His sole rule of 
 action ; His Father's work the entire business 
 of His life. In communion with His Father lay 
 the secret of His strength ; in conscious oneness 
 with His Father the sum of His sinless perfec- 
 tion. He did not speak His own, but His 
 Father's word ; He did not seek His own, but 
 His Father's glory ; He did not act in His own 
 name, or by His own authority, but by power 
 and commission from His Father. Thus His 
 life was consciously based on God, and led in 
 God ; in an uninterrupted sense of the Divine 
 presence ; in direct and constant intercourse 
 of His soul with God ; and in the perpetual 
 reception of truth and wisdom and strength 
 from God. — Broivnlou Maiiland, Theism or 
 Agiiosticism. 
 
 2 Ennobling and sanctifying, not revolu- 
 tionizing. 
 [739] Christ came to reveal that the eternal 
 was not the Future, but only the Unseen; that 
 eternity was no ocean whither men were being 
 swept by the river of time, but was around them 
 now, and that their lives were only real in so far 
 
 as they felt its presence. He came to teach 
 that God was no dim abstraction, infinitely 
 separated from them in the far-off heaven, but 
 that He was the Father in whom they lived, 
 and moved, and had their being ; and that 
 the service which He lov-ed was not ritual and 
 sacrifice, not pompous scrupulosity and censo- 
 rious orthodoxy, but mercy and justice, humility 
 and love. He came not to hush the natural 
 music of men's lives, nor to fill it with storm and 
 agitation, but to re-tune every silver chord in a 
 " harp of a thousand strings," and to make it 
 echo with the harmonies of heaven. 
 
 3 Inexhaustible and Divine. 
 
 [740] What has given the life of the Jewish 
 Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded by the Evan- 
 gelists, such a fascination over all thoughtful 
 minds, whether friendly or unfriendly to His 
 Divine claims? There can be but one answer 
 to this question — this man spake as never man 
 spake before. " Without controversy, great is 
 the mystery ; " but there is no accounting for 
 the facts connected with His life and death, and 
 ever living and growing influence, but by admit- 
 ting that in Him, '' God was manifest in the 
 flesh." The strange and sublime story never 
 loses its power over us by often repetition. 
 What human life could be subjected to such 
 constant perusals, be broken into chapters for 
 weekly lessons, and be taken apart, sentence 
 by sentence, as the foundation of myriad dis- 
 courses ? The Gospels are an inexhaustible 
 enigma to unbelievers, and an inexhaustible 
 fountain of inspiration to both the humblest and 
 loftiest of Christian disciples. Each different 
 mind sees a new phase of the Saviour's human 
 life, and pants to embody it for the admiration 
 and instruction of others. Why should we 
 wonder at the number of " Lives " of Christ 
 which have been written, when there is no end 
 in the present dispensation to be expected of 
 the sermons which will be preached about Him? 
 
 [741] As in the minutest of God's works the 
 microscope, in proportion to its power, reveals 
 increasing wonders ; so the words and life of 
 Christ ever present fresh wonders as man's 
 spiritual vision becomes clearer. — B. G. 
 
 4 Perfect and comprehensive. 
 
 [742] Such is the perfection and all-compre- 
 hensive character of Christian teaching. Its 
 parts fit into pne another with an exquisite pro- 
 priety. Nothing so pure and elevated, so wide 
 and catholic, has ever been conceived of by 
 the mind of man. It has nothing partial or 
 narrow, but is as broad as human nature. It 
 rests responsibility on a foundation which is 
 able to support the weight by placing its centre 
 in God. It has elevated duty to the purest con- 
 ception of disinterested love. Yet on the theory 
 of unbelievers this must have been a natural 
 development out of the narrow spirit of Jewish 
 sectarianism — a spirit which, in the times of 
 Jesus Christ, instead of being in advance of that 
 contained in the Law and the Prophets, was a
 
 742—749] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1 29 
 
 [teaching and character of CHRIST. 
 
 movement purely retrograde. History tells us 
 that the course of its actual development was 
 precisely contrary to that contained in the New 
 Testament. It produced a system of moral 
 teaching which embodied the narrowest spirit 
 Df legalism, technicality, and formalism. Can 
 the spirit of pure benevolence be the natural 
 stream which issues from such a fountain, or a 
 narrow exclusiveness the parent of the widest 
 comprehensiveness ? Yet according to the 
 theories of modern unbelievers, the one must 
 have emanated from the other — Christianity 
 was a natural growth out of the Judaism of A.D. 
 30. The bare statement of the fact is its refuta- 
 tion. — Rev, C. A. Row, Moral Teaching of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 5 Its dominant power and mysterious in- 
 fluence. 
 
 [743] Our Lord did not, like the Pharisees, 
 give strict precepts to others which they them- 
 selves did not follow. " They said, and did not ; 
 laid heavy burdens upon others, and grievous 
 to be borne, when they themselves would not 
 touch them with one of their fingers." Nor like 
 the philosophers, who spake fine and glorious 
 things of goodness and virtue, but did much like 
 other men ; gave strict rules to others, but lived 
 loosely themselves ; and therefore it is no wonder 
 that their discourses had so little eftect upon the 
 lives and manners of men, and were so unavail- 
 able to the reformation of the world. 
 
 [744] It was reserved for Christianity to pre- 
 sent to the world an ideal character which, 
 through all the changes of eighteen centuries, 
 has inspired the hearts of men with an impas- 
 sioned love, has shown itself capable of acting 
 on all ages, nations, temperaments, and condi- 
 tions ; which has been not only the highest 
 pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive 
 to its practice ; and has exercised so deep an 
 influence that it may be truly said that the 
 simple record of three short years of active life 
 has done more to regenerate and to soften man- 
 kind than all the disquisitions of philosophers 
 and all the exhortations of moralists. — Lecky, 
 Histo7y 0/ European Morals. 
 
 _ [745] Here is a Man born and bred in obscu- 
 rity, with no advantages of education ; without 
 rank, wealth, or associates ; hated by the lead- 
 ing men of His time ; a Man who died by the 
 hands of the law, and was buried by charity ; 
 and yet kings and emperors are anointed in His 
 name ; the most gorgeous temples on the face 
 of the earth are consecrated to His worship ; 
 millions upon milhons believe there is eternal 
 salvation only through Him ; the history of the 
 last eighteen centuries has taken its form from 
 Him ; and there is no name in heaven or earth 
 that is spoken with the same reverence as the 
 name of Jesus. 
 
 [746] Through all Christendom is felt an in- 
 fluence strange, penetrating, subtle, and mighty 
 — the life of Jesus Christ. We cannot get clear 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 of it ; we see it where we least expect it ; even 
 men who have travelled farthest from it seem 
 only to have come round to it again ; and while 
 they have been undervaluing the true life and 
 power of Jesus Christ, they have actually been 
 living on the virtue which came out of the hem 
 of His garment. 
 
 [747] If an assembly of 500 or 1000 persons 
 could be gathered together in any city of Europe, 
 or European America, it being provided that all 
 of them should be intelligent, well-educated, 
 high-principled, and well-living men and women ; 
 and if the question were put to each of them, 
 " To what influences do you attribute your high 
 character, your moral and social excellence.'"' 
 I feel no doubt that nineteen out of twenty of 
 them would, on reflection, reply, " To the in- 
 fluence of Christianity on my education, my 
 conscience, and my heart." I will suppose a 
 yet further question to be put to them, and it 
 shall be this : " If you were to be assured that 
 the object you hold dearest on earth would be 
 taken from you to-morrow, and if at the same 
 time you could be assured with undoubting cer- 
 tainty that Jesus Christ was a myth or an im- 
 postor, and His gospel a fable and a falsehood, 
 whether of the two assurances would strike upon 
 your heart with the more chilling and more 
 hope-destroying misery?" And I believe that 
 nine-tenths of the company, being such as I have 
 stipulated they should be, would answer, " Take 
 from me my best earthly treasure, but leave me 
 my hope in the Saviour of the world.'' This is 
 the effect produced upon the most civilized 
 nations of the world by the teaching of four 
 years, the agony of a few hours, of One who 
 lived as a peasant, and died as a malefactor 
 and a slave. " Whence had this man this 
 wisdom and these mighty works .^ " — Modern 
 Scepticism, Christ's Teaching attd Influence on 
 the World. 
 
 [748] For the first time in the world's history 
 Christianity has solved the great problem how 
 virtue may excite the enthusiasm of the heart, 
 as well as the approbation of the conscience. 
 Its secret is the personal Christ, and the love 
 that He inspires. Christ has won for Himself, 
 in the hearts of men, a religious reverence and 
 a fervent devotedness to which there is no 
 parallel. Nothing among men is so sacred as 
 the name of Christ, no reverence so great as 
 that which hallows it, no rapture so great as 
 the love which gathers round it, no blasphemy 
 so great as that which profanes it. Myriads of 
 the noblest minds and hearts do Him homage. 
 —Rev. Henry Alton, D.D. 
 
 II. Evidential Value of the Moral 
 Teachings of the New Testament. 
 
 I Christ not the outgrowth of the age in 
 which He appeared. 
 
 [749] He (Jesus Christ) is not to be accounted 
 for by any spiritual Darv.'inism, by any possible 
 process of development. Do what you will
 
 I30 
 
 749—7551 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [teaching and character of CHRIST. 
 
 with His character, you cannot bring Him into 
 Hne with His predecessors, whether Jewish or 
 Gentile, or with the culture or standard of His 
 age. These eighteen centuries of progress have 
 not brought the advanced guard of humanity 
 up to Him. We can trace the rudiments of 
 other pre-eminent characters, and show whence 
 and how they grew. There is no human or 
 earthly accounting for Him. The character of 
 Christ as portrayed in the Gospels is the highest 
 possible evidence of their authenticity. It is a 
 character which without an original could not 
 have been conceived by the evangelists ; one 
 for which they had neither the materials within 
 their reach, nor the genius or culture requisite 
 for its invention. As an actual character, it 
 could not by any possibility have been formed 
 by antecedent or surrounding influences. It 
 was not a natural development ; for human 
 virtue has not yet developed up to its standard. 
 Its human side cannot possibly be authentic, 
 unless its Divine side be equally authentic. — 
 Dr. A. P. Peabod/s Lectures for 1S74. 
 
 [750] Is a book at once so sublime and simple 
 the work of man ? Can it be that He whose 
 histoiy it relates was Himself a mere man ? Is 
 this the tone of an enthusiast, or of a mere 
 sectary 1 What sweetness, what purity of 
 manners ! what touching grace in His instruc- 
 tions ! what elevation in His maxims ! what pro- 
 found wisdom in His discourses ! what presence 
 ot mind, v.-hat acuteness, what justness in His 
 replies! what empire over His passions ! Where 
 is the man, where is the sage, who knew in this 
 way how to act, suiYer, and die ? When Plato 
 describes his imaginary good man, covered 
 with the opprobium of crime, yet meriting the 
 rewards of virtue, he paints, trait by trait, Jesus 
 Christ. . . . What prejudice, blindness, or bad 
 faith, does it require to compare the son of 
 Sophroniscus with the Son of Alary ! What 
 distance between the two ! Socrates dies with- 
 out pain, without ignominy ; he sustains his 
 character easily to the end. If he had not 
 honoured such a life with a death, we 
 should have thought him a sophist. They say 
 Socrates invented ethics ; but others practised 
 morality before he taught it. Aristides was 
 just before Socrates described justice ; Leonidas 
 died for his country before Socrates taught the 
 duty of patriotism. Sparta was temperate 
 before Socrates praised sobriety ; Greece 
 abounded in virtuous men before he defined 
 what virtue is. But Jesus — where did He find 
 the lofty morality of which He alone gave both 
 the lesson and the example ? From the midst 
 of a furious fanaticism proceeds the purest 
 wisdom ; among the vilest of the people appears 
 the most heroic and virtuous simplicity. The 
 death of Socrates, tranquilly philosophizing 
 among his friends, is the sweetest one could 
 desire ; that of Jesus, expiring amid torments, 
 abused, ridiculed, cursed by a whole people, is 
 [he most horrible which one could fear. . . . 
 Ves ; if Socrates lives and dies like a philo- 
 
 sopher, Jesus lives and dies like a God ! — yean 
 Jacques Rousseau. 
 
 2 Christ's perfect life in this imperfect world 
 itself the most convincing miracle. 
 
 [751] One might have thought that the 
 miracle of miracles was to have created the 
 world such as it is ; yet it is a far greater 
 miracle to have lived a perfectly pure life 
 therein. 
 
 [752] The miracles of Christ, on the contrary, 
 all bear the impress of His own holiness, and 
 He ever uses them as the means of winning to 
 the cause of goodness and truth those who wit- 
 nessed them. Thus He presented His own 
 life as the perfect model not only to His im- 
 mediate disciples but to all men. He taught 
 His disciples to make known to those that heard 
 them the perfect will of God ; and He revealed 
 to mankind, far more by His life and words 
 than by His miracles, the secret of that holiness 
 by which it is possible in all things to please 
 God. If such was the life of Jesus, how can He 
 be compared to mere charlatans, and why may 
 we not believe that He was indeed God mani- 
 fested in the flesh, for the salvation of our race. 
 — Origeji. 
 
 3 The continued influence of Christ's cha- 
 racter and teaching over men inexplicable 
 save upon the Christian hypothesis. 
 
 [753] It was reserved for Christianity to 
 present to the world an ideal character which 
 throughout all the changes of eighteen centuries 
 has inspired the hearts of men with an im- 
 passioned love ; has shown itself capable of 
 acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and 
 conditions ; has not only been the highest 
 pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to 
 its practice ; and has exercised so deep an in- 
 fluence that it may be truly said that the simple 
 record of three short years of active life has 
 done more to regenerate and to soften mankind 
 than all the disquisitions of philosophers and 
 all the exhortations of moralists. This has, 
 indeed, been the well-spring of whatever is best 
 and purest in the Christian life. Amid all the 
 sins and failings, amid all the priestcraft and 
 persecution and fanaticism that has defaced the 
 Church, it has preserved in the example and 
 character of its Founder an enduring principle 
 of regeneration. — Lecky, History of European 
 Morals. 
 
 [754] Here is a certainly authenticated fact. 
 No after deduction from it, whether right or 
 wrong, can make it cease to be a fact. From 
 the date in which Jesus of Nazaretli lived and 
 died, an ideal of human goodness, most beautiful 
 and in many respects new, was undoubtedly 
 held up for the admiration and imitation of 
 mankind. — Canon liynne. 
 
 III. The Blessedness of its Moral 
 Realization. 
 
 [755] Eveiy truth of God, even in itself and 
 
 I 
 
 II
 
 755— 76o] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 131 
 
 [teaching and character of CHRIST. 
 
 abstractly considered, is precious ; but the 
 beauty, lustre, and sweetness of Divine truth is 
 never seen or felt until the truth be known 
 " as it is in Jesus." All the truths of Divine 
 revelation meet in Him, as the beams in the 
 sun, or as the spokes of a wheel in their centre. 
 — Eb. Erskine, Sermons (1726). 
 
 [756] He is " the Truth," as the true model of 
 perfect humanity (Eph. iv. 21), as the true repre- 
 sentative of the Divine purity and mercy. This 
 is implied in that saying so often misquoted, 
 " The truth as it is in Jesus," but which in the 
 words of the Apostle is "But ye have not so 
 learned Christ ;'' that is, have not seen any 
 evil lesson or example in Him : "if so be that 
 ye have heard Him and been taught by Him as 
 the truth (all perfection without stain) is (exem- 
 plified) in Jesus" (Eph. iv. 20, 21). — B. G. 
 
 [757] When we bring our hearts into con- 
 tact with the story of Christ's life and character, 
 and the teachings of His commissioned mes- 
 sengers ; when we find the longings and aspira- 
 tions of our moral nature so grandly satisfied by 
 the gospel of the Lord Jesus ; W'hen we find 
 so many of the deepest questions of the under- 
 standing answered by it, and so many of the 
 difficulties and trials of actual life made easier 
 by it, we are face to face with an evidence that 
 is of all others perhaps the most practically 
 potent. But it is only one of the many lines of 
 proof, by the convergence of which we are con- 
 vinced that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the 
 flesh, and that our Christian faith is based, not 
 on hopes or dreams, but on the firm foundation 
 of positive fact. — Rev. Canon IVytine in Clergy- 
 viands Magazine. 
 
 IV. The Superiority of the Influence 
 exercised by christ to that of 
 Heathen Philosophers, 
 
 [758] In comparing the moral teachings of 
 heathen philosophy with those of Christ, it is 
 necessary to suggest the caution that some 
 recent writers overstate the merits of the former, 
 and depreciate, and sometimes even misrepre- 
 sent, the latter. In their obvious partiality to 
 heathenism they become its eulogists rather 
 than its critics. If they find a fine moral sen- 
 timent they expand and display it, as the 
 optician expands a ray of light in all the colours 
 of the rainbow. From their own knowledge of 
 Christianity they interpolate into an isolated sen- 
 tence of a heathen author a meaning which the 
 connection does not warrant, and which the 
 author did not design to express. 
 
 _ From the ancient Pythagoreans, who defined 
 virtue as " a habit of duty," to Reid, who defines 
 it as consisting " in a fixed purpose or reso- 
 lution to act according to our sense of duty," 
 ethical philosophy has recognized no principle 
 of virtue higher or more effective than the sense 
 of duty. This is, indeed, a grand principle ; and 
 its presentation by some philosophers rises to 
 the sublime. Christianity does not reject it. 
 
 Christianity broadens and spiritualizes the law, 
 and emphasizes its authority, its immutability, 
 and its sanctions. It quickens the conscience, 
 and adds to the delicacy of its discernment and 
 the authority of its commands. It makes the 
 voice of duty to be nothing less than the voice 
 of God. But the voice of duty is the voice of 
 God proclaiming His law. — President Harris, 
 Bibliotheea Sacra (1871). 
 
 [759] Socrates was a man of great mental 
 endowment, of great common sense, and of 
 great moral courage. He wrote nothing ; but 
 his disciples recorded his teachings, and they 
 became a moral force in the world. Plato, his 
 disciple, was second to no human teacher ;■ he 
 wrote copiously and elaborately ; he never will 
 be surpassed in the art of thinking and writing ; 
 his works have never died. Though they were 
 once buried in medijeval superstitions, they 
 have risen and come forth again ; and never 
 were they so dominant as to-day. The force of 
 that Greek mind that lived thousands of years 
 ago not only is not spent, but does not seem 
 to be weakened. After him came Aristotle, 
 who was as great as Plato, only his mind was 
 turned towards material and scientific truths,, 
 while Plato's mind was turned towards social 
 and metaphysical truths. 
 
 All of these masters were morally and intel- 
 lectually great ; but, undeniable as their in- 
 fluence has been and is, no man will pretend 
 for one single moment that their power would 
 at any time, or will now, at all compare with the 
 power of that Jew who only lived three years as 
 a teacher, who wrote not a word, and who 
 spoke His wisdom, not to scholars that would 
 make accurate registry of it, but to ignorant 
 fishermen that remembered only a part of it. 
 If you take the combined moral influence of 
 Aristotle, of Plato, and of Socrates, and put it 
 beside the moral influence of Christ, it will be 
 found that the light of the Jew is greater than 
 all the illumination of the Greeks. — Ward 
 BcccJier. 
 
 [760] The maxim of Confucius, " Do not to 
 others what you would not that they should do 
 to you," is often quoted as if to show that the 
 morality taught by heathen philosophy is the 
 same as that taught by Christ, that Christianity 
 is therefore merely one of the religions of the 
 world, and has no pre-eminent claim to a Divine 
 origin. 
 
 The first reply is that the New Testament 
 explicitly teaches that conscience gives all men 
 a knowledge of moral law. Without this, Chris- 
 tianity would have no basis, a universal religion 
 would be impossible. 
 
 A second reply is that Jesus was not dis- 
 tinctively a teacher of philosophy or of ethics ; 
 but he was the Redeemer of the world. He 
 assumes that God's law is already known and 
 already transgressed : he comes to redeem men 
 from sin and guilt of which they are already 
 conscious. 
 
 But, for the very reason that Christianity is
 
 132 
 
 760 — 7^^] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [teaching and character of CHRIST. 
 
 distinctively redemption, Christian virtue must 
 have certain distinctive peculiarities ; the Chris- 
 tian conception of virtue inust be distinct from 
 and superior to the conception of virtue in the 
 mind of one who is ignorant of redemption, and 
 knows only the moral law. This is our present 
 subject : the peculiarity and superiority of Chris- 
 tian virtue involved in the fact that it ori- 
 ginates in redemption from sin. — President 
 Harris, Bibliotheca Sacra (1871). 
 
 V. Infidel Testimony to suitability of 
 Christ's Teaching as a Moral Stan- 
 dard AND Guide for Humanity. 
 
 [761] A presumption, even stronger, for the 
 reality of the Bible miracles, is the transcendent 
 character of the morality with which they are 
 associated. At no point has Christianity come 
 out of the struggle of centuries stronger than 
 here.— /e^z/. W. G. Blaikie, D.D. 
 
 [762] Mr. Rathbone Greg, whose " Creed of 
 Christendom " is owned to be one of the keenest 
 assaults yet made on the gospel, bears honour- 
 able testimony to the character of Christ and of 
 many of His teachings. Remarkable illustra- 
 tions of this occur at pp. 209 and 224 of the 
 second edition. Mr. Greg says : " It is difficult, 
 without exhausting superlatives, even to un- 
 expressive and wearisome satiety, to do justice 
 to our intense love, reverence, and admiration, 
 for the character and teaching of Jesus. We 
 regard Him not as the perfection of the intel- 
 lectual or philosophical mind, but as the per- 
 fection of the spiritual character, — as surpassing 
 all men of all times in the closeness and depth 
 of His communion with the Father. In reading 
 His sayings, we feel that we are holding converse 
 with the wisest, purest, noblest Being that ever 
 clothed thought in the poor language of humanity. 
 In studying His life we feel that we are following 
 the footsteps of the highest ideal yet presented 
 to us upon earth," &c. 
 
 [763] The greatest of moralists, like Kant, have 
 treated the New Testament as containing a full 
 moral system ; and attacks on the Christian 
 morality, as erring, either by excess or defect, 
 have to a large extent ceased. Mr. Mill, who, 
 in his essay on Liberty, had charged Christianity 
 on this head with at least incompleteness, has 
 in one of his posthumous Essays made the 
 remarkable statement, that no one could find a 
 better rule of life than to act in every case so as 
 that Christ would approve of his conduct. — Rev. 
 W. G. Blaikie, D.D. 
 
 [764] About the life and sayings of Jesus there 
 is a stamp of personal originality, combined with 
 profundity of insight, which, if we abandon the 
 idle expectation of finding scientific precision 
 where something very different was aimed at, 
 must place the Prophet of Nazareth, even in the 
 estimation of those who have no belief in His 
 inspiration, in the very first rank of the men of 
 sublime genius of whom our species can boast. 
 When His pre-eminent genius is combined with 
 the qualities of probably the greatest moral 
 reformer and martyr to that mission who ever 
 existed upon earth, religion cannot be said to 
 have made a bad choice in pitching upon this 
 man as the ideal representative and guide of 
 humanity ; nor even now would it be easy even 
 for an unbeliever to find a better translation of 
 the rule of virtue from the abstract unto the 
 concrete than the endeavour so to live that 
 Christ would approve our life. When to this 
 we add that to the conception of the rational 
 sceptic it remains a possibility that Christ was 
 actually what He supposed Himself to be, — not 
 God, for He never made the smallest pretension 
 to that character, and would probably have 
 thought such a pretension as blasphemous as it 
 seemed to the men who condemned Him, — but 
 a man charged with a special, express, and 
 unique commission from God, to lead man to 
 virtue and truth. We may well conclude that 
 the influences of religion on the character, which 
 will remain after rational criticism has done its 
 utmost against the evidences of religion, are well 
 worth preserving, and that what we lack in 
 direct strength as compared with those of a 
 firmer belief is more than compensated by the 
 greater truth and recitude of the morality they 
 sanction. — y. Stuart Mill. 
 
 [765] This testimony, the result of Mill's ripest 
 thoughts, took the unbelievers by surprise, and 
 remains as a valuable acknowledgment. The 
 Divine side of Jesus, which Mill doubted, is also 
 confirmed by the moral side, which he confessed. 
 —B. G. 
 
 [766] The only really influential objections to 
 the Christian morality are those connected with 
 its difficulty, and its failure to realize itself among 
 professed Christians ; and this has caused the 
 gospel to sufter more than all other hindrances 
 put together, for the inconsistencies of Christian 
 nations and churches have been seen and read 
 of all men, while the excuses for those failures, 
 and even the attempts to clear Christianity from 
 this reproach, have not been equally successful 
 in impressing the general mind. — Rev. IV. G. 
 Blaikie, D.D.
 
 DIVISION D 
 
 ( Continued). 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 RELIGION. 
 
 [3] PERSONAL EVIDENCES. 
 
 Pages 134 to 136. 
 
 63 
 INWARD WITNESS. 
 
 I.i3
 
 134 
 
 DIVISION D 
 
 {Contimced). 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [3] PERSONAL EVIDENCES. 
 
 63 
 
 INWARD WITNESS. 
 
 1, Its Reality and Use. 
 
 \^(ii\ In the teaching of natural science no idea 
 has more gained ground of late than that of the 
 necessity of an experimental acquaintance with 
 a subject, where possible, if the student is really 
 to master it ; spiritual truth, in like manner, 
 little as the fact is accepted or understood by 
 the irreligious, must also be experienced to be 
 understood and mastered. — Girdkstune, C/iris- 
 tianity and Modern Scepticism. 
 
 [768] Why do we believe in the law of gravi- 
 tation ? Because it works. And for the same 
 reason we ought to believe in faith and hope and 
 love, &c., because they work. — E. A. Abbott. 
 
 [769] Religion does not shrink from the stern 
 test which modern science insists upon applying 
 to all things — the test of experience. We are 
 told to be content with no authority, no com- 
 mand to believe this or that ; for obser\-ation, 
 experience, experiment, must settle everything. 
 We answer : " By all means : for then you can- 
 not brush our beliefs aside with a sneer, a jest, 
 a scornful word, like iinscientific." We also 
 claim to be experimented upon. We assert that 
 a vast and varied experience of men now living 
 prove Christ to be the Lord of the dead, of the 
 dying, of the death-chamber, and the dark hour. 
 We say that He is to-day breathing not only calm 
 but exultation into numberless breasts at the 
 approach of the king of terrors. Hundreds are 
 feeling to-day that when to live has been Christ, 
 then to die has been something better than even 
 the enjoyment of His favour here. What is that 
 "gain"? Not the negative gladness of release 
 from anguish, for they have not been the queru- 
 lous and heavy-laden ; and this would be 
 counterbalanced besides by the wrench from 
 full many a delight. It is to enter a brighter 
 company ; to drink of the river of life nearer to 
 its sunlit fountain ; to stand in the vestibule of 
 a statelier temple, and in earshot already of 
 sweeter anthems than ours, ascending continu- 
 ally like incense unto God ; it is the vision of 
 Him whom, we have not seen after the flesh, the 
 touch of His hand, the serene profundity of His 
 
 gaze. That is the death of him that "dieth not." 
 —S. A. Chadwick. 
 
 \llo\ Two and two make four — that is mathe- 
 matics ; hydrogen and oxygen form water — that 
 is chemistry ; Christ crucified is the power of 
 God unto salvation — that is revelation. But 
 how do you know ? Put two and two together 
 and you have four : count and see. Put hydro- 
 gen and oxygen together and you have water : 
 test and you will prove it. Believe in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved : believe 
 and you will know. Each demonstration is un- 
 answerable in its own sphere. — Rev. F. G. Pen- 
 ticost, The Vohnne of the Book. 
 
 II. Its Evidential Value. 
 I As to its possessor. 
 
 (i) The iriivard witness is the strongest and 
 best of all proofs. 
 
 [771] The inward witness is the proof, the 
 strongest proof, of Christianity. — WesLy. 
 
 [772] I have bought tropical morning-glory 
 seeds for the greenhouse with the assurance of 
 the seedsman that I could not raise them out of 
 doors. I did raise them out of doors ; that is 
 the answer I gave him. " But,"' he says, " it is 
 not possible, in our summer, to raise them ; " 
 but I did it. "The summer is not long enough, 
 or warm enough, to raise them here." I have 
 raised them, and I shall not give up my argu- 
 ment upon that question. 
 
 If a man says that there never was a Christ, 
 or that He was only a man, I answer that I have 
 found Him of whom ISIoses and the prophets 
 spake. I have asked Him, "What wilt Thou?" 
 and He has told me. I have put my soul and 
 my heart, as He has commanded me, into His 
 hand. A\'ill any man now undertake to reason 
 me out of the result ? I know in whom I have 
 trusted, and know what He has done for me. Is 
 the music of my life, the inspiration of every 
 faculty, the transformation of my views, the re- 
 generation of my hopes — are these nothing? 
 Am I to go back eighteen hundred years, with 
 the sceptical philosopher, to reason about Jeru- 
 salem, and about the Lord Jesus Christ, and not 
 reason upon my own actual daily posit've expe- 
 rience ? — Jl'a?d Bccchcr.
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 773-783] 
 
 [inward witness. 
 
 \.773\ When a soul hath a real experience of 
 the grace of God, pardon and peace by be- 
 lieving ; let men, or devils, or angels from 
 heaven oppose, if it cannot answer their soph- 
 isms, yet he can rise up and walk ; he can, with 
 all ho'ly confidence and assurance, oppose his 
 now satisfying experience unto all their arguings 
 and suggestions. A man will not be disputed out 
 of what he sees and feels ; and a believer will 
 abide as firmly by his spiritual sense as any man 
 can by his natural.—/. On'Cfi, D.D., 1616-16S3. 
 
 [774] As there can be no argument of che- 
 mistry in proof of odours like a present perfume 
 itself; as the shining of the stars is a better 
 proof of their existence than the figures of an 
 astronomer ; as the restored health of his 
 patients is a better argument of skill in a phy- 
 sician than laboured examinations and certifi- 
 cates ; as the testimony of the almanac that 
 summer comes with June is not so convincing 
 as is the coming of summer itself in the sky, in 
 the air, in the fields, on hill and mountain ; so 
 the power of Christ upon the human soul is to 
 the soul evidence of His divinity, based upon a 
 living experience, and transcending in conclu- 
 siveness any convictions of the intellect alone, 
 founded upon a contemplation of mere ideas, 
 however just and sound. — ]]'ard Beccher. 
 
 [775] The common saying, "The proof of 
 the pudding is in the eating,"' contains true and 
 profound philosophy. We know that bread 
 " strengthens man's heart " from experience, 
 not from analvsis. We have the same know- 
 ledge of " the i3read of Life."— i?. G. 
 
 [776] The best of all proofs of His divinity 
 come not from the testimony of eye-witnesses, 
 however numerous or competent, nor from the 
 miracles, the record of which is inseparable 
 from His Divine life, but from those who have 
 testified for themselves that he is indeed the 
 Christ, the Saviour of the world. — Rev. IV. 
 Anderson^ M.A. 
 
 [777] If at any rate in the same way as by 
 serving men you get to know those who are 
 willing to return the service, and by doing 
 kindness those wlio wish to return it, and by 
 taking advice you find out the wise— if thus by 
 serving the gods you make trial of them, too, 
 whether they will be at all ready to give you 
 counsel about things hidden to men, you will 
 get to know that such is the greatness, such are 
 the attributes of the Deity, that it hears all 
 things at once, sees all things, and is every- 
 where present, and has care for all things at 
 once. — Xenophon^ Memorabilia . 
 
 [778] The truest knowledge of Christ is to 
 know Him for ourselves. " Xo70 we belie\-e, not 
 because of thy saying, for we have heard Him 
 ourselves, and know,"' &c. — St. John iv. 42. 
 
 (2) The inivaTd iviiness vabcable fot' continu- 
 ance in the faith. 
 [779] The doorkeeper of an alien household 
 
 said to Peter: "Thou art surely a Galilean; 
 thy speech betrayeth thee." There is some- 
 thing in the face and in the tone of every man 
 which brings up and out the life's meaning and 
 purposes, and this inherent quality of character 
 is read and known by the multitudes. 
 
 Whate\er a man's mind takes in and cherishes 
 becomes an element of his very being. If the 
 soul have tastes for the music of the world, the 
 tongue will soon take the same key, and become 
 the ready exponent of worldly things. If the 
 world be in a man's heart, it will break out at 
 his lips. No matter what may be his profes- 
 sion, or what the reputation of an individual, 
 he will exactly impress and express himself in 
 his common conversation day by day. He may 
 put himself into strictest bonds as to outward 
 observances— he may live in the very letter of 
 religious law and order; but when his spon- 
 taneous words come forth, they will certainly 
 bear the brogue of his real nature. There is a 
 native tone to every man's soul surer in sig- 
 nificance than that of his mother-tongue. And 
 unless the inmost nature be new created in 
 Christ Jesus, and the will sanctified and con- 
 trolled by the Holy Spirit, there will be certain 
 betrayal of the real character long before the 
 judgment-day, by the attesting witnesses of the 
 face and voice. 
 
 [7S0] As by personal knowledge of Christ we 
 know the truth of His claims and promises, so 
 by that personal knowledge we attain to the 
 blessedness and safety of the true Christian 
 life. 
 
 (3) The inivai'd luitncss is the answer to intel- 
 lectual difficulties. 
 
 [78 1] It has been truly said that you cannot 
 reason a man out of a thing that he has never 
 been reasoned into ; and the only cure for this 
 unhappy state of mind is to come to the Bible 
 as to the foundation of truth, saying, " Lord, 
 what I know not teach Thou me." When the 
 voice of prejudice exclaimed, " Can any good 
 thing come out of Nazareth?" the happy con- 
 vert who had just found the Saviour Himself, 
 and whose soul was glowing with desire for the 
 salvation of his friend, had too much wisdom 
 to sit down and enter into an argument about 
 the matter. Had he done so he would in all 
 probability have lost his temper, and have done 
 more harm than good ; but there was holy 
 power in the reply, " Come and see." — Rev. R. 
 Boyd, D.D., JVay of Life. 
 
 [782] The way to drink is to go to the foun- 
 tain ; to learn and know is to search the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 [7S3] A theological student once went to 
 Dr. Hodge with difficulties about the divinity 
 of our Lord and Saviour. The doctor listened 
 patiently, and then said, " My dear young friend, 
 your difficulties are of the head. If I should 
 answer them, new ones would suggest them- 
 selves. The best way to remove them, and
 
 136 
 
 783—792] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [inward witness. 
 
 guard yourself from future and similar troubles, 
 is to have Christ within you. Learn His life ; 
 learn to trust in Him more, to love Him more ; 
 become identified with Him; and your doubts 
 as to His divinity will disappear." The young 
 student followed his advice ; his doubts fled ; 
 and, on a subsequent deathbed, he bore his 
 testimony to the divinity of our blessed Lord. 
 
 [784] Experienced facts are stronger than 
 theories. Christ in you "the hope of glory" and 
 the establishment of faith. 
 
 [785] The pomp of man's religion only ex- 
 pands the soul in vague emotions, as if it were 
 the Infinite, and leaves it empty. God's reli- 
 gion brings down the Infinite into the soul, and 
 fills it. Let your heart be but as a flower 
 meekly opened to the sky with all its stars, and 
 the heavens shall drop dew into it, and the 
 dead earth shall distil living sap into it. Only 
 keep your soul lifted up, and God will take care 
 that it shall grow. — ScJwnberg Cotta Series. 
 
 [786] " O taste and see that the Lord is 
 good." "The way of transgressors is hard" 
 — on the road, and at the end. 
 
 Wisdom's ways "are ways of pleasantness, 
 and all her paths are peace." 
 
 a As to the outside world. 
 
 (i) The personal testimony and consistency 
 of believers carries immense lueight. 
 
 [787] For who can help being astonished, when 
 one being a man, and partaking of our common 
 nature, and living among other men, is seen 
 like adamant to resist the assaults of passion? 
 when being in the midst of fire and sword, and 
 of wild beasts, he is even harder than adamant, 
 and vanquishes all for the word of godliness' 
 sake .'' when being injured He blesses ; when 
 being evil reported of, He praises; when being 
 despitefully used. He prays for those who in- 
 jure Him ; when being plotted against, He does 
 good to those who lay snares for Him? For 
 these things, and such as these, will glorify God 
 far more than the heavens. For the Greeks, 
 when they behold the heavens, feel no awe ; but 
 when they see a holy man exhibiting a severe 
 course of life, they shrink away and condemn 
 themselves. Since, when He that partakes of 
 the same nature with themselves is liaised above 
 them more than the heaven is above the earth, 
 even against their inclinations they perceive 
 that it is a Divine Power which works these 
 things. — St. Chrysostom. 
 
 [788] The phenomena of religious conversion 
 are as indisputable as they are unaccountable, 
 save on the supernatural theory of Christianity. 
 The truths of Christianity read in the Bible, or 
 
 listened to from a preacher, work the most mar- 
 vellous transformations ; they put an arrest 
 upon sinful habit and feeling, and often in a 
 single day change the entire life of a man. 
 Conversions as sudden and as radical as that of 
 Saul of Tarsus are continually occurring. — Rev. 
 Henry Alton, D.D. 
 
 [789] It is not, if we understand it rightly, a 
 sign of decreasing, but of increasing spirituality, 
 that miracles have ceased. And so it is a truer 
 discrimination that recognizes the presence ot 
 God in men, the saints that are in the world, 
 not by the miracles they work, but by the mira- 
 cles they are, by the way in which they bring 
 the grace of God to bear on the simple duties 
 of the household and the street. The sainthoods 
 of the fireside and of the market place — they 
 wear no glory round their heads ; they do their 
 duties in the strength of God ; they have their 
 martyrdoms, and win their palms ; and though 
 they get into no calendars, they leave a benedic- 
 tion and a force behind them on the earth when 
 they go up to heaven. — Phillips Brooks. 
 
 [790] The argument from personal experience, 
 though it cannot be directly pleaded with un- 
 believers, is with Christians the most signal of 
 all acts of Divine power, and renews in every 
 Christian life the deepest side of the miracle of 
 Damascus. For there is here contact with the 
 personal Jesus in His risen life and greatness, 
 in His power to stamp His image and to convey 
 His will, so that this most subduing of all evi- 
 dences prolonged into the manifold experiences 
 of a Christian life, and carrying with it a sense 
 of liberty, peace, and nearness to God, other- 
 wise wholly unattainable, so visibly centres in 
 Christ, that it cannot even be conceived of 
 without Him, and is really the conscious recep- 
 tion and reproduction of His own life and 
 character. Nor is this argument so incom- 
 municable as has sometimes been alleged ; for 
 Christian experience has a power of irradiation 
 even into dark and unsightly places ; and 
 wherever it goes it bears with it not only some- 
 thing of rebuke in Christ's name, but of hope to 
 the most outcast and fallen, that the dead may 
 yet live again, and the lost be found. 
 
 [791] We ought not toallow ourselves to forget, 
 in the noise and din of controversy, that after 
 all the gospel of Christ is one which is to be 
 preached to the poor, and that it is only in the 
 eftcct of the gospel upon the history of mankind, 
 and its transforming energy in the human heart, 
 that we can see fully exhibited the greatness of 
 its power and the completeness of its evidence. 
 
 [792] As flowers, fruits, and grain indicate 
 the living forces in nature, so the products of 
 Christianity show its character.
 
 DIVISION D 
 
 {Continued). 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 RELIGION. 
 
 [4] FAILURE OF INFIDELITY. 
 
 Pages 138 /(J 145. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 64 
 DIFFICULTIES OF INFIDELITY. 
 
 65 
 HISTORY OF UNBELIEF. 
 
 66 
 MODERN THOUGHT. 
 
 67 
 PHILOSOPHY OF UNBELIEF. 
 
 137
 
 138 
 
 DIVISION D 
 
 {CoiitiJined). 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [4] FAILURE OF INFIDELITY. 
 
 64 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF INFIDELITY, 
 
 L Certain Problejis Solvable only 
 
 UPON THE ThEISTIC HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 1 The mystery of consciousness. 
 
 [793] ^f ''• material element, or a combination 
 of a thousand material elements in a niolecule 
 are alike unconscious, it is impossible for us to 
 believe that the mere addition of one, two, or a 
 thousand other material elements, to form a 
 more complex molecule, could in any way tend 
 to produce a self-conscious existence. Either 
 all matter is conscious, or consciousness is 
 something distinct from matter ; and in the 
 latter case its presence in material forms is a 
 proof of the existence of conscious beings cut- 
 side of, and independent of, what we term 
 matter. — A. R. Wallace, Contributions to the 
 Tlieory of Natural Selection, 
 
 2 The mystery of life. 
 
 ( i) Anti-theistic definitions of life are deficient. 
 
 [794] Various definitions of Life will be found 
 in Prof. Flint's " Anti-theistic Theories," note 
 xvii. pp. 489 sq. The most brief form in which 
 it has been expressed, and at the same time the 
 form that has been judged to be least open to 
 exception — viz., that "Life is the continuous 
 adjustment of internal relations to external re- 
 lations " — is, nevertheless, utterly deficient in 
 telling us what, after all, Life really is. — Bp. 
 Ellicott, The Being of God 
 
 (2) Anti-theistic theories leave all the vaj-ieties 
 of life and order tmexplained. 
 
 [795] Upon the subject of the origin of things, 
 natural history brings no light. She does not 
 pretend to say what was the beginning or what 
 will be the end. Supposing material particles 
 once in existence, she cannot tell why they have 
 moved in a marvellous progression rather than 
 in an endless circle of chaotic disorder. What is 
 there in matter, living or inert, to account for 
 its tending toward a world of beauty, toward 
 Newton and Shakespeare, rather than toward 
 an endless round of slime or fiery mists ? Nay, 
 if the higher stages of creation not only surpass, 
 
 but also in a sense contradict the lower, natural 
 history cannot tell us why. " Change from un- 
 changeable matter, death from the imperish- 
 able, motion from absolute rest, life from the 
 dead, sense from the senseless, purpose from 
 causes acting blindly, intelligence from the un- 
 intelligent, spirit from the unspiritual" — such 
 are the contradictions which, according to Hoff- 
 mann, the materialists must accept. The pro- 
 perties of matter, living or dead, are unequal to 
 account for such transformations. To endow 
 the atom with such informing power is to make 
 an idol of it ; to escape from the idea of a crea- 
 tion, we make our idol create. Materialism ex- 
 plains nothing ; it leaves harder questions than 
 it solves. Looking out upon the splendour of 
 the world, upon the summer in its beauty, and 
 the sea in its might, upon the deep perspective 
 of the stars — ''those stars whose steps are 
 worlds, above and under, glory on glory, wonder 
 upon wonder" — the little atom and its little 
 doings will not content us. " Lift up your eyes 
 on high, and behold who hath created these 
 things, that bringeth out their host by number : 
 He calleth them all by names by the greatness 
 of His might, for that He is strong in power; 
 not one faileth." You will never eradicate this 
 view of creation ; for we, that think it, are a part 
 of the creation, and the consciousness of a 
 Father's power comes to us as birthright, and 
 beats in the pulses of our blood. 
 
 [796] Huxley in " Encyclopaedia Britannica," 
 Art. " Biology," an equally great authority, 
 states in the same unhesitating language, " No 
 one has ever yet built up one particle of living 
 matter out of lifeless elements ; every living 
 creature, from the simplest dweller on the con- 
 fines of organization up to the highest and most 
 complete organism, has its origin in pre-existent 
 living matter." — Prof All/nan, Address to the 
 British Association (1S79). 
 
 (3) Anti-theistic theories have no category for 
 vitality. 
 
 [797] I regard " vitality " as a power of a 
 peculiar kind, exhibiting no analogy whatever to 
 any known forces. It cannot be a property of 
 matter, because it is in all respects essentially 
 difterent in its actions from all acknowledged 
 properties of matter. The vital property belongs
 
 797— 8o2] 
 
 the evidences of the christian religion. i39 
 
 [difficulties of infidelity. 
 
 to a different category altogether. — Sir Lionel 
 Beale, Protoplasm. 
 
 [798] Biologists, whose special profession is 
 the science of life, confess that they cannot de- 
 fine it ; in other words, they do not know scien- 
 tifically what life is, or wherein it consists. It 
 is a mystery to them. This confession was made 
 before the Royal Commission on Vivisection, or 
 experiments on live animals. — B. G. 
 
 II. Necessary Infidel Achievements 
 BEFORE Christianity can be over- 
 thrown. 
 
 1 Christianity must be proved untrue, useless, 
 and mischievous. 
 
 [799] Infidelity will find it difficult indeed to 
 prove that Christianity is useless, so long as it 
 sets up and provides for such institutions and 
 contributes such vast sums of money for ame- 
 liorating the misery of humanity 1 It will find 
 it difficult to show as much for itself What 
 has infidelity done to relieve the woes and 
 misery of humanity ? It will stamp and rage 
 about the tyranny of this or that government, 
 about the crimes of princes and the woes to 
 which the working men of England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland are subjected, and seek to lash 
 them to fury, and pro\-oke them to sedition and 
 rebellion ; it will tell them, with all the appear- 
 ance of real earnestness, that nothing short of 
 blasphemy and sedition will ever bring paradise 
 to the world — and there it stops. 
 
 If time permitted, I would show that Chris- 
 tianity is worthy of your love and courageous 
 support from its benevolent design ; and I would 
 base the whole impeachment of infidelity upon 
 the coldness, the hardness, and uncharitableness 
 of its heart. 
 
 Again, when infidelity has shown that reli- 
 gion—Christianity in particular — is not only un- 
 true, but that it is useless, it will not have done 
 enough. It has a still greater difficulty to over- 
 come, and that is— to show that Christianity is 
 essentially injurious. — B. H. Coivpcr, 
 
 2 Infidelity must frame a satisfying creed. 
 
 [Soo] When infidelity has overcome the diffi- 
 culty of proving Christianity untrue and useless, 
 it has not done its work ; it has still to com- 
 mence, and I shall rapidly enumerate the 
 gigantic tasks it will have to perform. I will 
 suppose it has blotted out from man the instinct 
 of religion ; that it has rooted out the thought 
 of God from the heart of humanity. Its difficul- 
 ties have only begun. It has, at most, produced 
 the raw material out of which the world of infi- 
 delity has yet to be fashioned and moulded. 
 Humanity is a blank, then, we shall suppose : 
 what has infidelity to do ? Humanity must 
 feel, and speak, and act ; you cannot keep it 
 quiet ; and if you want it to act, and speak, and 
 feel, and think, on infidel principles, you must 
 give it infidel principles — it cannot live upon 
 mere negation, it must sit at a full table ; it has 
 been in the habit of sitting at a full table where 
 
 Christ has sat. People will hunger and thirst 
 after something ; what will you give them ? 
 Where is the creed of negation? Where are 
 the thirty-nine articles of despair? Where is 
 the gospel of the " everlasting No?" Infidelity 
 has laboured, and tugged, and striven ; it has 
 used its best endeavours, made trial after trial, 
 projected scheme after scheme, experiment after 
 experiment, in order to model a creed for the 
 future ; but it has failed. 
 
 The founders of the system in debate— in 
 solemn debate— two and twenty years and more 
 after the system has been launched ! in debate 
 as to the fundamental principles of the system. 
 Twenty-two years before its leaders— its two 
 great supporting pillars, its Jachin and its Boaz 
 — can discover what its fundamental principles 
 are. The creed has to be framed, and it is a 
 great difficulty. — Ibid. 
 
 3 Infidelity must frame a sure rule of life. 
 [801] A great difficulty will be to discover and 
 
 to frame a stire rule of life. We have the doc- 
 trines which we are to believe ; we have a rule of 
 life, and we leavn without difficulty the duties 
 which we should perform. And, mark you, the 
 precepts, and the commandments, and the 
 teachings of our book come with authority, the 
 authority of a King— not an earthly king, but 
 the King of the Universe.- But infidelity brings 
 us its puny propositions, and says, " Will you 
 accept of these?" It brings its precepts and 
 says, "Will you accept of these?'' Where is 
 its authority ? Can it say, " We command you ; 
 these precepts are a law ; they are enacted by 
 power and authority, by ago\'ernment, and they 
 command the acceptance and the obedience of 
 men"? — Ibid. 
 
 4 Infidelity must furnish sufficiently power- 
 ful motives for duty. 
 
 [802] When infidelity has overcome this 
 difficulty, let it bear in mind that it has to 
 supply men with motives to action. The Bible 
 says, " Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly 
 with your God." I can imagine infidelity 
 borrowing good things, as it has done, from the 
 Bible ; and I ask it to find anything in morals 
 which is not to be obtained by implication, or 
 directly from the Bible. " Do justly, and love 
 mercy " — infidelity can say that ; but what 
 motives can it give for it ? It may say " Do 
 justly, and love mercy," because it is right, 
 "because it is kind ; but that is not enough ; we 
 want some powerful consideration, external to 
 ourselves. Man requires mo^-ing in the path 
 of right and good, by the con\-iction that the 
 eye of God is upon him, that God approves of 
 his senice, that He will recognize his service. 
 Man needs such motives, and if he has the love 
 of God in his heart— if grace from on high has 
 been poured into his soul, the power within him 
 will carry him on, and he will not count his life 
 dear unto him, so that he may finish his course 
 with joy. On the other hand, if a man says, 
 " There is something which I can steal," infi-
 
 J40 
 8o2— 8ioJ 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [history of unbelief. 
 
 delity says, " Don't steal ; " but the man may 
 say, " There are no eyes upon me ; the owner 
 is rich ; I shall never be called to account either 
 in time or eternity ; there is no judgment to 
 come ; we shall be all alike in the end ; and, in 
 the meantime, I shall be better off for stealing 
 this." I say, then, that the infidel in this case 
 has more motives to do evil than to do good ; 
 and I do not see how, if you blot out a God, a 
 judgment to come, a state of rewards and 
 punishments from the consideration of man — if 
 you blot out from his soul the feeling of grati- 
 tude, the spirit of sincere and conscientious 
 obedience and submission, that you leave the 
 world right motives sufficient for practical pur- 
 poses. Infidelity cannot find sufficient motives ; 
 it never did, and I believe it never will. There- 
 fore these three difficulties come together — to 
 find a creed, a rule of life, and sufficient 
 motives for action. — Ibid. 
 
 65 
 
 HISTORY OF UNBELIEF. 
 
 I. In Early Centuries. 
 
 1 Mode of manifestation. 
 
 [803] (i) Absolute unbelief. 
 
 (2) Bigoted attachment to national (pagan) 
 creed. 
 
 (3) A philosophical theory of religion. 
 
 (4) Mystical theory. — Farrar, Critical History 
 of Free Thought. 
 
 2 Nature and effect of early opposition, as 
 seen in the case of Celsus. 
 
 [804] The early opposition to Christianity is 
 best represented by its culmination in the ap- 
 pearance of the philosopher Celsus, and his 
 deliberate and formal attempt to overthrow the 
 authority of the Christian records. He is the 
 original representative of a class of intellects 
 which, in the various attacks on Christianity, has 
 over and over again presented itself to notice ; 
 wit and acuteness without earnestness of purpose 
 or depth of research; a worldly understanding 
 that looks at things merely on the surface, and 
 delights in hunting up difficulties and contradic- 
 tions. His objections against Christianity serve 
 one important end : they present, in the clearest 
 light, the true opposition between the Christian 
 position and that of the ancient world ; and, in 
 general, the relation which revealed religion will 
 ever be found to hold to the ground assumed by 
 natural reason. Thus it is that many of his ob- 
 jections and strictures become nothing less than 
 testimonies to the truth. — Neandcr. 
 
 3 Sources of information. 
 
 [805] (1) Notices occurring in heathen litera- 
 ture, which are slight. 
 
 {2) Works written expressly against Christi- 
 anity. 
 
 (3) Special replies to attacks made. 
 
 (4) General treatises on Christian Evidences 
 by early Fathers. — Farrar^ Critical History of 
 Free Thought. 
 
 II. In the Middle Ages. 
 
 [806] The general character of the Middle 
 Ages is rather that of the growth of theological 
 system and terminology than of evidential 
 literature strictly so called. There was still 
 opposition to Christianity in the Paganism of 
 the German and Slavonic tribes, but it was not 
 of an intellectual kind. It was met by the 
 practical work of missionaries, and gradually 
 subsided as the mass of European society be- 
 came pervaded with Christian ideas and insti- 
 tutions. — R. A. Redford, The Christian's Plea. 
 
 III. In the Fourteenth and Fifteenth 
 Centuries. 
 
 [807] There were two influences which com- 
 bined in the fifteenth century to promote the 
 development of an inquiring spirit — the one 
 was the growth of jnysticism in t/ieology, re- 
 presented by such names as Ruysbroek, Eckart, 
 Tauler, Thomas k Kempis, Suso, Gerson, and 
 others ; the other was the extraordinary revival 
 of humanism^ both in literature and in politics, 
 and study of the classical writings. — Ibid. 
 
 [808] In the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
 turies there was a philosophical spirit alive in 
 the schools which frequently took the form of 
 sceptical inquiry. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. In the Seventeenth and Eigh- 
 teenth Centuries. 
 
 [809] Germany, from the time of Kant, has 
 been the chief seat of religious unbelief. It is 
 true that Christianity was vigorously defended. 
 Such names as those of Euler, the great mathe- 
 matician, and of Haller, the great naturalist, 
 and of Schleiermacher, the great theologian, 
 show that while reason was appealed to by 
 many in the cause of doubt, it was also 
 summoned to the support of a devout and 
 earnest faith. The philosophy of Germany, 
 developed by such men as Fichte, Schelling, 
 Hegel, exalted the claims of human reason more 
 and more, until the only foundation required 
 was the laws of thought, which were substituted 
 for all reality, whether it be the reality of God 
 or the reality of the external world. — Ibid. 
 
 [810] There are two names which demand a 
 notice in this sketch of the history of unbelief, 
 they are those of Auguste Comte, the positivist 
 philosopher, and Ernest Renan, the scholar and 
 critic. The principle of the Comtist philosophy 
 is antichristian only in so far as it discards the 
 supernatural as fact, and attempts to substitute 
 an ideal object of reverence in place of a 
 personal God. Place the Comtist theory of 
 religion in comparison with that of Christi- 
 anity, and it will be seen how purely unsub-
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 8ic— 817I 
 
 J4I 
 
 [modern thought. 
 
 stantial and ideal it is, and how much it owes 
 to the philosophic fervour of the mind from 
 which it sprang, in connection with a vast 
 system of generalizations, for any measure of 
 acceptance which it has received from thinking 
 men. — Ibid. 
 
 [811] The appeal to fact and observation, 
 which became from that time the principle of 
 all inquiry, was made by Descartes, in the 
 seventeenth century, the foundation of a new 
 system of psychology and philosophy, in the 
 study of human consciousness. The same 
 revolution in the method of thought is exem- 
 plified in the system of Spinoza, though carried 
 to an extreme. The laws of thought are taken 
 to be the basis on w^hich all existence rests, and 
 Spinoza made the attempt to form a complete 
 intellectual philosophy of the universe by the 
 reduction of its parts to ultimate principles and 
 absolute laws whose certainty rests entirely on 
 consciousness. — Ibid. 
 
 V. In the Nineteenth Century. 
 
 1 Its Protean phases. 
 
 [812] Just as there was a great run two ages 
 ago toward rationalism, and an age ago to- 
 ward intuitionalism, so there is a corresponding 
 set of youths in our day who will become 
 Comtists, or Millites, or Spencerites, or even 
 Huxleyites : the demand will create the supply ; 
 and they will find able men to lead them on 
 over the dreary plain strewn with the skeletons 
 of those who have there wandered and perished. 
 — James McCosh, Christianity and Positivism. 
 
 [813] Infidelity assumes all colours, as the 
 chameleon, and is ever starting new standards, 
 principles, watchwords, and text-books, while 
 our One Book Standard and Leader remains 
 unchanged — "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever." — B. G. 
 
 2 Its present special characteristics. 
 
 [814] While the influence of the rationalistic 
 writers of Germany and France is by no means 
 exhausted, it may be said that the main stress 
 of unbelief is now taking the philosophical and 
 scientific form rather than the critical and his- 
 torical.— 7?. A. Redford. 
 
 3 Its probable causes. 
 
 [815] The nature of the causes of unbelief 
 was discussed at the recent Church Congress at 
 Plymouth, but scax'cely in a manner commensu- 
 rate with the importance of the subject. The 
 most noticeable feature of the discussion was 
 the admission by some of the speakers that 
 misrepresentation of the Bible, on the part of 
 believers, was one of the causes. The tendency, 
 since the Reformation, of the popular religious 
 mind " to confound inspiration on certain sub- 
 jects, such as those mentioned by St. Paul, 
 with infallibility on all subjects, such as Scrip- 
 ture nowhere claims," was noted by one of the 
 
 speakers as having produced very injurious 
 effects. Still more striking was the statement 
 made by the same speaker, that the " Augustinian 
 theosophy," or, in other words, the view taken 
 by Augustine of the permanence of an eternal, 
 though impotent malevolence, has not only 
 exerted an enomious influence against religion, 
 but is the only cause which w^ill probably be 
 permanent. The statement, to a certain extent, 
 is undoubtedly true, though clearly somewhat 
 exaggerated. — Bp. Ellicott, Modern Unbelief. 
 
 See next article. 
 
 66 
 
 MODERN THOUGHT, 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [816] Logically speaking, the term " Modern 
 thought " is equivocal : it may be taken as 
 "distributed," or as "undistributed;" that is, in 
 part or in the whole of its " extension." Taken 
 in its entire " extent," as a " universal " term, it 
 would mean the wJiole of modern thought, or 
 the opinions and views of everybody in these 
 modern times. This cannot truly or fairly be 
 its meaning, for it is used generally in reference 
 to the particular opinions of a restricted class, 
 sometimes described as "advanced thinkers." 
 Therefore by " modern thought " must be meant 
 only the opinion of some moderns, not of all 
 moderns. The proper translation of the phrase 
 " modern thought " is, consequently, " novel 
 opinions." This reminds of the saying, " What 
 is new is not true, and what is true is not new." 
 Modern thought is one of those phrases that 
 cover the craze of a narrow but ambitious clique 
 which, like "freethinkers," falsely assumes to 
 itself a speciality ; for everybody is as much a 
 freethinker as those who usurp the title ; and 
 every one in modern times who thinks at all 
 exercises " modern thought." It is necessary 
 to mark this fact in order to dissipate the 
 " glamour," not to say insolence and presump- 
 tion, of the self-styled "modern thought" school. 
 Like certain Athenians, they " spend their time 
 in nothing else but either to tell or to hear 
 some new thing" (Acts xvii. 21). True thought, 
 or real principle, is of no age, but is eternal. 
 Matters of mere detail may vary from age to 
 age, but the groundwork of main facts and 
 principles is unchangeable. The sun, moon, 
 and stai'S are the same amid all the progress of 
 astronomy, and this is true of all moral and 
 religious principles. — B. G. 
 
 II. Its Unconscious Obligations to 
 Christianity. 
 
 [817] Even those who disown or disbelieve 
 Christianity are often its unconscious debtors. 
 Men of the modern world, they are born into 
 its spirit, and that is greatly what Christianity
 
 142 
 
 817-824] 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [modern thought. 
 
 has made it. Christian ideas are in the air. 
 We draw them in with our daily breath, and 
 cannot choose but receive them into our intel- 
 lectual nature. Thus it is quite possible that 
 men may lie under unacknowledged obligations 
 to Christianity, and that they may be crediting 
 to independent inquiry what is indirectly trace- 
 able to a Christian source. — Rev. Principal 
 Caird in Good lVo?-ds. 
 
 [818] The poet speaks of the eagle stretched 
 upon the plain, and feeling the bitterness of the 
 death-pang increased at the sight of his own 
 feathers on the arrow that is drinking his life- 
 blood. Well, that is poetry, of course. But the 
 idea conveyed in the verses may illustrate the 
 feeling of some amongst us when we see the 
 intellect to which Christianity has given its 
 acuteness, brandished against her life ; when we 
 hnd the nobler, purer, kindlier sentiments which 
 she has herself inspired and fostered, turned 
 into arguments against her character, into in- 
 struments for her destruction and overthrow. — 
 Rev. Gordon Calt/uvp. 
 
 III. Objections met, 
 
 I A belief is no worse for being traditional. 
 
 [S19] Disbelief will become traditional if it 
 last long enough. — B. G. 
 
 [820] The modern critics who claim for them- 
 selves the heights of their science, and profess to 
 pursue their investigations in a truly philosophi- 
 cal spirit, are fond of applying the term. " tradi- 
 tional " to the opinions from which they have 
 more or less widely departed. We need not 
 dread greatly the insinuations made by the use 
 of that epithet. In Biblical criticism, as in every 
 other branch of theology, and, it may be added, 
 in every branch of natural science, there is a 
 wise and just tradition which no judicious man 
 will ever think of despising. The critic, in 
 approaching the scientific study of the Scrip- 
 tures, is bound to master the works of the great 
 scholars who have preceded him, and specially 
 to be acquainted with the methods they adopted, 
 and the conclusions at which they arrived. He 
 will, in the great majority of instances, be com- 
 pelled to accept these results with little or no 
 modification. He must always, of course, exer- 
 cise his independent judgment ; but in handling 
 difScult and intricate questions he will, for the 
 most part, give the benefit of the doubt to the 
 accepted belief, the established opinion. There 
 is usually much more danger in breaking off 
 from Protestant tradition in matters of scrip- 
 tural interpretation than in adhering to it. 
 
 IV. The Consequent Duty of Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 1 Increased attention to deeper learning and 
 patient criticism. 
 
 [82 1] Oh may that blessed Spirit be with us 
 all ! The days in which we live are dark and 
 anxious. Deeper learning is, I fear, declining ; 
 
 patient criticism is rare ; merely emotional 
 belief is not uncommon ; but real and instructed 
 belief, that belief that can give the reason for 
 the hope that is in it, and can exhibit clearly 
 the basis of its own convictions, is less and less 
 showing itself among generally professing Chris- 
 tians. Even we the clergy, we whose duty is 
 to guide and direct others amid the mazes of 
 modern speculation, we, I fear, are often found 
 unequal to the duty that is now forced upon us. 
 Everything now seems to be pressed into the 
 service of external work. W^e may thank God 
 that there is this amount of work, but work is 
 superseding thought ; a restless activity is now- 
 taking the place of much of that calm and 
 sequestered study that once so honourably 
 marked the order to which we belong. Much 
 there is that is at present disquieting. — Bp. 
 Ellicott, iModem Unbelief. 
 
 2 Shedding abroad all possible light. 
 
 [S22] As a little warmth of the rising sun may 
 call up the very mists which are to be dissipated 
 by its more powerful shining, so this vague and 
 chilling popular unbelief is to be dispelled, not 
 by withholding knowledge, but by shedding 
 abroad all possible light. — Smyth {American). 
 
 3 Faithful preaching of the fundamental 
 truths of our holy religion. 
 
 [823] Let it never be forgotten that the most 
 convincing proof of the truth of the gospel, and 
 that on which the faith of the bulk of believers 
 must always rest, is the experience of its exact 
 adaptation to the wants of our moral and spiri- 
 tual nature ; its felt power as the remedy for the 
 soul's sense of guilt, the stiller of its fears, the 
 comforter of its sorrows, the strength of its 
 weakness, the renewer of its better energies, the 
 spring of new and higher hopes and duties, and 
 the realizer of its blind longings for immortality. 
 The most effectual antidote, therefore, to the 
 poison of infidelity will ever be the faithful 
 preaching of Christ crucified; the patient in- 
 culcation under all its lights and bearings — 
 undeterred by the fear of wearying by repeti- 
 tion — of the great message with which we are 
 all charged : "the word of reconciliation ;" the 
 old and wondrous mystery of the incarnation 
 of the coequal and coeternal .Son of God ; the 
 atonement made by Him on the cross, whereby 
 God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself ; 
 the offer of this reconciliation made to and 
 pressed upon all ; the privileges, duties, and 
 powers which belong to the reconciled ; the 
 reality of the gift of the Holy Ghost ; the means 
 in the use of which it is ordinarily to be sought 
 and obtained ; and the renewal of the outer and 
 inner life which is at once its fruit, its evidence, 
 and the earnest of heaven. — Bp. Jackson, 
 Charge, 1875. 
 
 V. The Futility of its Opposition to 
 THE Spread of Christianity. 
 
 [824] Christianity from its very beginning to 
 this day has been maintained and disputed by
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 824—825] 
 
 [modern thought. 
 
 some of the keenest intellects of the most culti- 
 vated races ; yet it stands firm. And if, as is 
 often said, it was never so assailed as in the 
 last half century, it has assuredly in that same 
 time attained a marvellous growth among all 
 classes. The mere fact of its continued exist- 
 . ence among intelligent people is a weighty evi- 
 dence of its truth. — Sir James Paget. 
 
 VI. A Review of its Phases. 
 
 [825] While no mere intellectual act consti- 
 tutes religion, the exercise of reason is an 
 essential part of religion. The denial of this is 
 an error prevalent among the modern theologians 
 of Germany, owing to their accepting Kant's 
 argumentation against the possibility of appre- 
 hending God by the speculative or pure reason, 
 as conclusive. If religion have no rational 
 foundation, it has no real foundation. Reason 
 does not apprehend merely what is finite. 
 True place of reason in religion. 
 
 Religion has often been resolved into feeling 
 or sentiment, but erroneously, since whatever 
 feeling is fixed on requires some explanation of 
 its existence, and this can only be found in 
 some act or exercise of intellect. 
 
 Epicurus, Lucretius, and Hume have traced 
 religion to fear. Fear explains atheism better 
 than it explains religion ; and in order even to 
 be feared, God must be believed in. Men fear a 
 great many things. Mere fear founds nothing, 
 but only causes efforts to avoid the presence 
 or thought of its object. Fear enters into reli- 
 gion, and is filial in the higher, and servile in 
 I the lower, forms of religion. 
 Feuerbach resolves religion into desire — into 
 an ignorant and illusive personification of man's 
 own nature as he would wish it to be. This 
 view presupposes the truth of atheism, does not 
 explain why man should refer to supramundane 
 ends or objects, and is contradicted by the 
 historical facts, which show that reason and 
 conscience have at least co-operated with desire 
 in the origination and development of religion. 
 
 Schleiermacher resolves religion into a feeling 
 of absolute dependence — of pure and complete 
 passiveness. Statement of his theor}\ Shown 
 to rest on a pantheistic conception of the Divine 
 Being. His reduction of the Divine attributes 
 into ■poiver. No such feeling can exist, the 
 mind being incapable of experiencing a feeling 
 of nothingness — a consciousness of unconscious- 
 ness. Could it be supposed to exist, it would 
 have no religious character, because wholly 
 blind and irrational. The theory of Schleier- 
 macher makes the moral and religious con- 
 sciousness subversive of each other : the former 
 affirming, and the latter denying, our freedom 
 and responsibility. 
 
 Mansel supposes the rehgious consciousness 
 to be traceable to the feeling of dependence and 
 the conviction of moral obligation ; but the 
 latter feeling implies the perception of moral 
 law, and is not religious unless there be also 
 Vielief in a moral lawgiver. 
 
 Schenkel represents conscience as " the reli- 
 
 gious organ of the soul," but this is not consis- 
 tent with the fact that conscience is the faculty 
 which distinguishes right from wrong. Schen- 
 kel's \\&v! of conscience shown to make its re- 
 ligious testimony contradict its ethicaltestimony. 
 Strauss combines the views of Epicurus, 
 Feuerbach, and Schleiermacher ; but three 
 eiTors do not make a truth. 
 
 Account of the criticism to which the Straus- 
 sian theory of religion has been subjected by 
 Vera, Ulrici, and Professor H. B. Smith. 
 
 Although there can be no true religion without 
 love ; and although to love the true God with 
 the whole heart is the ideal of religion, religion 
 cannot be resolved exclusively into love. Since 
 love presupposes knowledge, and is not the 
 predominant feeling, if present at all, in the 
 lower forms of religion. 
 
 Religion includes will, implying the free and 
 deliberate surrender of the soul to God, the 
 making self an instrument where it might, 
 although w-rongfuliy, have been made an end ; 
 but it is not merely will, since all volition, 
 properly so called, presupposes reason and 
 feeling. 
 
 Kant made religion merely a sanction for 
 duty, and duty the expression of a will which is 
 its own law, and which is unaffected by feeling. 
 But this view rested on erroneous conceptions 
 as to (i) the relation of religion to morality, (3) 
 the nature of the will, and (3) the place of feeling 
 in the mental economy. 
 
 Religion and morality inseparable in their nor- 
 mal conditions, but not to be identified ; religion 
 being communion with God, while morality is 
 conformity to a law which is God's will, but 
 which may not be acknowledged to be His will, 
 so that they may and do exist in abnormal forms 
 apart from each other. 
 
 The will has not its law in itself. Kant's 
 errors on this subject. Feeling is the natural or 
 universal antecedent of action. Kant's errors 
 on this subject. 
 
 Dr. Brinton (" Religious Sentiment," &;c., 
 1876) analyzes religion into emotion and idea — 
 an effective and intellectual element — the latter 
 of which arises necessarily from the law of con- 
 tradiction and excluded middle. Merits and 
 defect of this theory. 
 
 The religious process is at once rational, 
 emotional, and volitional. Its unity, and the 
 co-operation of knowing, feeling, and willing. 
 Description of (i) its essential contents, (2) its 
 chief forms, (3) its principal moments or stages, 
 and (4) its manifestations in spiritual worship 
 and work. — Dr. Flinty The Psycliological Nature 
 oj Religion.
 
 144 
 
 826—828] 
 
 THE EVIDEXCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 [philosophy of unbelief. 
 
 67 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF UNBELIEF. 
 
 I. Its Old Fundamental Error. 
 
 I Sincerity the condition of salvation. 
 
 [826] The old plea was that if a man is only 
 sincere he can have nothing to dread in another 
 world. If sincerity may be cruel, blind, igno- 
 rant, sinful, clearly it cannot save a man from 
 the natural consequences of cruelty, blindness, 
 ignorance, sin, either in this world or in the 
 world to come. — Rev. A. J. Harriso7i. 
 
 [S27] If " sincerity" is sufficient, there is no 
 need of, and no excuse for, opposing Christi- 
 anity; since a man may at least be as sincere 
 inside as outside the Christian pale and faith. 
 "Blind unbelief" is no better than blind belief. 
 —B. G. 
 
 II. Weak Points in Anti-miraculous 
 
 Science. 
 
 I The hopeless variations of its leading ex- 
 ponents in regard to momentous and reli- 
 gious questions. 
 
 [828] I do not know whether I am precisely in 
 the wonted tracks of a chairman's address, but, 
 pursuing the questions of the so-called antagon- 
 isms of scientific and religious thought, I have 
 sometimes wondered at the assertion that the 
 solid unity of opinion lies with the investigators 
 of nature, whilst infinite division belongs to the 
 theologian. I have imagined that if a catechism 
 of scientific belief on the subjects common to 
 both were compiled, it would evince strange 
 disunion where there is boasted unanimity. Let 
 me give a specimen of such a catechism, with 
 the answers mostly in the ipsissima verba, the 
 very words of our leading scientific men : — 
 1st Question. — Who created all things? 
 Biiciiner. — ]\Iatter and force are uncreated, 
 and have given rise to the present order of 
 things. 
 
 Huxley. — "When the materialists begin to 
 talk about there being nothing else in the uni- 
 verse but matter and force, I decline to follow 
 them." 
 
 Spencer. — The origin of things is unknowable. 
 2nd Question. — What is the nature of the 
 Author of all things, judging from His works? 
 
 ]\Iill. — " It is impossible to believe that a 
 world so full of evil is the work of an author 
 combining infinite power with perfect goodness 
 and righteousness." 
 
 Lyell. — "The philosopher, without ignoring 
 these difficulties, does not allow them to disturb 
 his conviction that whatever is is right." 
 
 Huxley. — "We may liken life to a game of 
 chess. The player who stands behind nature is 
 hidden from sight, but his play is always just, 
 fair, and patient, hke a calm strong angel, play- 
 ing for love." 
 
 3rd Question. — What is the origin of life? 
 
 Darii'in. — " The Creator at first breathed life 
 into a few forms." 
 
 Sir W. Thompson. — " Perhaps the first germs 
 of life reached our globe falling through the sky 
 on a moss-grown fragment from the ruins of 
 another world." 
 
 Spencer. — " The origin of life is probably un- 
 discoverable." 
 
 Dr. C. Bastian. — " Living things are being 
 generated every instant all the world over." 
 
 Huxley. — " There is no experimental proof ot 
 spontaneous generation. The doctrine that life 
 now only springs from already living creatures 
 is triumphant." 
 
 4th Question. — Have men and the higher 
 animals sprung from the lower ? 
 
 Darii'in. — The conviction rises firm and strong 
 " that man was descended from some lowly 
 organized form." 
 
 Professor Phillips. — " This hypothesis ever)'- 
 where fails in the first and most important step" 
 — want of proof 
 
 Agassis. — " We find no indication that any 
 animal has swen'ed from its type." 
 
 The varying answers given to this question 
 remind one of the story told by Dr. Paterson. 
 Three students — an Englishman, a Frenchman, 
 and a German — were ordered to write an essay 
 on the camel. The Frenchman took his port- 
 folio and set off to see the animal at the Zoo- 
 logical Gardens. The Englishman set off to 
 Africa, to study the creature in its native haunts. 
 The German took tobacco and lager beer, and 
 shut himself up in his study, to evolve a camel 
 out of his consciousness. The divergence 
 among the very chiefs of science on these points 
 suggests that a considerable part of this theory 
 is due to the splendid corruscations of what is 
 called the scientific imagination, rather than to 
 a duly matured study of the facts of nature. 
 
 Take another highly momentous question, and 
 its scientific replies. 
 
 5th Question. — Is man a free agent, or is he 
 fast bound in fate ? 
 
 Spencer. — " Unless all that is contained in 
 these pages (and there are 400 of them) be sheer 
 nonsense, there can be no such thing as freedom 
 of the will." 
 
 Huxley. — "In the struggle of life 'a man's 
 volition counts for something.'" 
 
 Dr. Carpenter. — " I cannot regard myself, 
 either intellectually or morally, as a mere puppet 
 pulled by suggesting strings." 
 
 We do not find the boasted unanimity on this 
 high subject. 
 
 As a closing question, we may ask, as the 
 human soul has from the dim and silent past 
 always asked — 
 
 6th Question. — Is man immortal ? 
 Lyell. — " To man alone is given this belief in 
 immortality, so consonant with his reason, im- 
 planted by nature in his soul, a belief that tends 
 to raise him morally and intellectually in the 
 scale of being." 
 
 Buchner. — " When we die, we do not lose 
 ourselves, but only our personal consciousness j
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 82S-833] 
 
 145 
 
 [philosophy of unbelief. 
 
 we live on in nature, in our race, in our children, 
 in our deeds, in our thoughts." 
 
 This, then, is the immortality which this Goth 
 among thinkers would gi\'e to man. The lonely 
 wanderer, who lays him down to die in the awful 
 solitude of the bush, is called to exult that he 
 will live in the grass among his whitened bones, 
 and the flies that boom round his corpse. Let 
 science be silent when she can only speak to 
 shock the soul with such harrowing humiliation. 
 To surrender Christ for such a doctrine as this ! 
 It is to prefer midnight, with the crawling, slimy 
 worm, to the eternal splendours and the august 
 societies of all that is noblest in the universe. 
 
 1 have deviated into this catechetical argument 
 to show that, on those momentous questions 
 that science now claims to settle by demonstra- 
 tion, her students, like the men of Babel, are 
 smitten with confusion of tongues. — Rev. J. 
 Legge. 
 
 2 The building anti-Christian theories upon 
 mere conjectures, 
 
 [829] The habit of attributing estajDlished cer- 
 tainty to novel hypotheses upon which scientific 
 men are hopelessly divided, must also be consi- 
 dered as unjust as it is unscientific. But notwith- 
 standing the numerous evidences of what can only 
 be regarded as superficial and shallow on the part 
 of those who so summarily dismiss the theology 
 which they decline and disdain to take into con- 
 sideration, and who so confidently bring forward 
 bold conjectures in the name of established 
 truth, it is gratefully acknowledged that modern 
 scepticism has very little of mocking manner or 
 scoffing tone, and that its zeal, however chas- 
 tened, is, in the main, both earnest and honest. 
 
 3 The ignoring the force of Christian argu- 
 ments. 
 
 [830] He who holds on to a faith by dint of 
 shutting his ears to all that can be said against 
 it does not take very high ground ; but he who 
 lets a faith go by simply openijig his ears to all 
 that can be said against it does not, of a 
 certainty, take a higher ground. — E. C. Tainsh, 
 a Study of Tennyson. 
 
 4 The failing rightly to use modern revela- 
 tions of science respecting God's goodness. 
 
 [831] During the past hundred years, and 
 especially during the last portion of that time, 
 
 the All-good, the All-wise, and the All-merciful 
 has permitted the creatures of His hand to see 
 far, far more clearly than in any centuries of the 
 past the glory and the majesty of His works ; 
 and yet it is impossible to deny that during that 
 time, and especially recently, the light that 
 ought to have been welcomed almost as a new 
 revelation of the wisdom and omnipotence of 
 God, has, in many and many a soul, become a 
 cheerless and deepening darkness.— Bp. EUicott. 
 
 III. 
 
 Methods of Meeting the Attacks 
 OF Anti-miraculous Science. 
 
 [832] The uncertainty and untenableness of 
 all, even modern, philosophy should be proved 
 from the constant fluctuation and change of its 
 principles, the undemonstrated character of its 
 assumptions, and its inner contradictions. As 
 against destructive criticism it must be shown 
 that its philosophical principles are false ; that 
 it is arbitrary and partial to coups de force in 
 details ; that modern archceological science is 
 in favour of the Scripture record ; that neither 
 Christ nor the Christian Church can be ex- 
 plained without accepting the gospel narrative 
 as a historical fact. To repel the attack of anti- 
 miraculous science, the respective aims and 
 objects of Scripture must be defined, the anti- 
 miraculous axioms of modern science rejected ; 
 the hope of future solutions pointed out in the 
 harmony already established between Bible 
 cosmogony and natural science ; the uncertainty 
 and rashness of many so-called scientific con- 
 clusions exposed, and the hypothesis of the 
 generation of man from natural forces repulsed 
 by arguments drawn from our moral and spiritual 
 self-consciousness. 
 
 [833] Although the devil has nothing new to 
 say, he has endlessly new ways of saying it, and 
 an endlessly-changing audience to say it to ; so 
 that the old warfare seems new to each genera- 
 tion, the combatants and the battle-field being 
 really new. Each generation has to find its 
 own answers to the old renewed problem, to 
 find its own weapons to meet the new weapons. 
 A long-bow was good in its day, and a Brown 
 Bess was good in its day; but it is as useless to 
 encounter a needle-gun with a Brown Bess 
 as a Brown Bess with a long-bow. — Bertram 
 Family, 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 tc
 
 DIVISION E. 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY. 
 
 Pages 147 io 15S. 
 
 6S 
 
 INFIDELITY (GEXEIL-VLLY) 
 
 (i) Its Latent Phases. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 69 
 AGNOSTICISM. 
 
 70 
 ALTRUISTIC SECULARISM. 
 
 71 
 
 DOUBT. 
 
 72 
 SCETTICIS^L 
 
 73 
 SECULARIS>L 
 
 146
 
 DIVISION E. 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY. 
 
 (i) /. lis Latent Phases. 
 
 68 
 
 INFIDELITY ( VIE WED GENE- 
 RALL Y). 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [834] Strictly speaking, an infidel is one who 
 has apostatized. This is according to the 
 etymology of the word. The first Christians 
 used it, I suspect, as those in later times cer- 
 tainly did, to designate one who, after attaching 
 himself to Christ, had become unfaithful, or 
 had forsaken Him. A distinction is thus made 
 between the infidel and such as have never 
 believed on Christ's name. He is a far baser 
 person than the pagan, who, having no know- 
 ledge of Christ, nor at any time confessing him 
 as Lord, cannot be charged with unfaithfulness 
 to Him. But we need not use the term in this 
 harsh sense. Though the infidel of to-day is 
 one who dwells where Christ is preached, and 
 who therefore may have fallen away from the 
 Christian faith into his present state of unbelief, 
 yet his heart does not plead guilty to the charge 
 of treachery. He may have a conviction of 
 honesty, and the approval of conscience, in 
 what he has done. AH this we are ready to 
 grant him ; nor do we, in applying to him a 
 term which usage has made current, mean any- 
 thing beyond what he is ready to acknowledge ; 
 namely, that he has rejected Christ as the 
 supreme authority in matters of religious faith. 
 Such, I take it, is the most legitimate applica- 
 tion of the word at present. I do not propose 
 to employ it, save in this fair and honourable 
 method. — J. M. Manning, Half-TnitJis and 
 The Truth, 
 
 II. The Origin of many of its Forms. 
 
 [835] I regard many forms of infidelity as 
 half-truths, at least in their origin. Believing 
 that the human intellect naturally craves truth, 
 I shall not easily be persuaded that any body 
 of doctrines, which has been put forth by 
 earnest thinkers, is unmixed error ; nor shall I 
 fail, so far as the nature of my undertaking will 
 permit, to point out the merits of writers whom, 
 as to their main tenets, I may feel bound to 
 condemn. Some of those writers manifest, at 
 timeSj a calm spirit of inquiry which their 
 
 critics would do well to emulate. It is not only 
 lawful, but often greatly for our advantage, to 
 learn from those with whom we disagree. 
 Truth has not as yet revealed itself wholly to 
 any finite mind ; and the remark of Him who 
 was the Truth, about the beam in the eye which 
 sees the mote in a brother's eye, is not alto- 
 gether inapplicable to those who are defending 
 scriptural cloctrine against the assaults of infi- 
 delity. — Ibid. 
 
 III. Its Mental Tendencies. 
 
 [S36] If the mental tendency be transcen- 
 dental, it uldmates itself in pantheism ; if it be 
 empirical, it ultimates itself in positivism. 
 Between these extremes the irreligious mind of 
 the race has been ever swinging — wearily swing- 
 ing, with a pendulous motion, vvhile the hand 
 on the dial has marked the steady advance of 
 the kingdom of Christ. Whenever the prevail- 
 ing philosophy of the world has been trans- 
 cendental, the prevailing infidelity has been 
 pantheistic ; and when that philosophy has 
 been empirical, the infidelity has had in it more 
 or less of positivism. Ancient Buddhism is 
 associated with the philosophy of the senses, 
 Brahmanism with that of consciousness. Des- 
 cartes gave the a priori method to Europe, and 
 out of that method sprang Spinozism ; Bacon 
 and Locke gave the a posteriori, which was 
 pushed forward into sensationalism. Kant 
 taught a spiritual philosophy, and Hegel was, 
 in some real sense, his successor ; the prevail- 
 ing philosophy of the present time is mate- 
 rialistic, and Comtism is the infidelity which 
 claims its protection. In Germany, where 
 thinking has had more to do with ideas than 
 with facts, pantheism has had a prodigious 
 growth ; in France, where the study of what is 
 outward prevails, positivism finds its home and 
 stronghold. Infidelity has existed all along 
 through the history of our race, ever since man 
 first departed from God ; and it will continue 
 to exist, in every nation and age, till men are 
 restored to God in Christ. In ages and coun- 
 tries where thought is chiefly concerned witti 
 the material and outward, the forms of infidelity 
 will have their ground in positivism ; in those 
 times and places where truth is sought chiefly 
 in consciousness, pantheism will be the inform- 
 ing spirit of unbelief. One or the other of these
 
 836—847] 
 
 the forces opposed to christianity. 
 
 [agnosticism or positivism. 
 
 two yokes of bondage men will wear, until 
 delivered into the glorious liberty of the children 
 of God. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. Its Egregious Folly. 
 
 1 It rejects the sovereign remedy without 
 providing any substitute. 
 
 [837] What would you think if there were to 
 be an insurrection in a hospital, and sick man 
 should conspire with sick man, and on a certain 
 day they should rise up and reject the doctors 
 and nurses? There they would be — sickness 
 and disease within, and all the help without ! 
 Yet what is a hospital compared to this fever- 
 ridden world, which goes swinging in pain and 
 anguish through the centuries, where men say, 
 "We have got rid of the atonement, and we 
 are rid of the Bible ? " Yes, and you have rid 
 yourselves of salvation. — Ward Besche}\ 
 
 2 It gloomily distorts truth. 
 
 [838] Infidelity and faith look both through 
 the same perspective glass, but a; contrary 
 ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong end 
 of the glass, and therefore sees those objects 
 which are near afar off, and makes great things 
 little ; diminishing the greatest spiritual bless- 
 ings, and removing far from us threatened evils. 
 Faith looks at the right end, and brings the 
 blessings that are afar off close to our eyes, and 
 multiplies God's mercies, which in distance lost 
 their greatness. — £p. Hall. 
 
 [839] The preaching and tendency of infidelity 
 is to magnify the ills of life while providing no 
 salve for them ; the work of religion is to make 
 these ills look small in comparison of a glorious 
 hope. — Blackwood's Magazine. 
 
 V. Duty of Christlws to Battle 
 
 AGAINST IT. 
 
 [840] \Vhatever claims pre-eminence over 
 Christ, or denies to Him the supremacy in mat- 
 ters of religious faith, or lays down propositions 
 known to be subversive of His authority, is an 
 infidelity. In that view of it, although associated 
 with much that we admire, and even approve, it 
 deserves no quarter at our hands. As the dis- 
 ciples of Christ, believing that He spoke the 
 absolute truth, and concerned for the well-being 
 of men as truly as for His honour, we are bound 
 to unmask the intruder, and battle against it 
 ■under its proper designation. — J. M. Manning; 
 Half-Tfjiihs and The Tnith. 
 
 69 
 
 AGNOSTICISM OR POSITIVISM. 
 I. Its Definitions and Real Nature. 
 
 [841] The name given by Auguste Comte to 
 his system of philosophy, as professedly based 
 
 upon facts, and expressly denying the possibility 
 of any knowledge of causes. It is a philosophy 
 of uniform sequences. — H. Calderwood, 
 
 [842] It is important to distinguish the agnos- 
 ticism of the nineteenth century from the scep- 
 ticism of the eighteenth. Mr. Herbert Spencer 
 stands on a very different platform from that of 
 Hume. Agnosticism is as far from the hesita- 
 tion of scepticism as it is from the negations of 
 atheism, for while it does not deny the existence 
 of God it admits of no wavering doubts — it is 
 positive and emphatic in asserting the impossi- 
 bility of all knowledge on the subject. Scepticism 
 questions the validity of the present achievements 
 of theology ; agnosticism denies the possibility 
 of establishing any theology. Either because of 
 a lack of all attainable evidence, or on account 
 of the essential nature of an Infinite Being, or 
 owing to the limitations of our own faculties, 
 an impenetrable barrier, we are told, excludes 
 us necessarily and for ever from all knowledge 
 of God.— /^. W. Adeney. 
 
 [843] It is a doctrine which is closely related 
 both in history and character to scepticism on 
 the one hand, and to materialism on the other. 
 It owes its existence to the partly concurrent 
 and partly counteractive operation of these two 
 theories. It is a link between them ; a cross or 
 hybrid in which their respective qualities are 
 combined, although incapable of being truly 
 harmonized. — Prof. Flint, Antitheistic Tlieories. 
 
 [S44] Agnosticism, therefore, is only a form 
 of atheism, though it would not acknowledge, 
 perhaps, that it knew enough to make a positive 
 denial of the existence of God. Practically, 
 however, it amounts to the same thing. All 
 that do not know God, or at least know of His 
 existence, are without God. 
 
 [845] Agnosticism puts sense in the place of 
 intellect ; and deifies laws instead of the Law- 
 giver and Ruling Power. 
 
 [846] The senses are the only source of know- 
 ledge ; nothing exists but matter ; mind has no 
 existence ; there are no causes, no God, no im- 
 mortality. Science is confined to facts of per- 
 ception. The relations between observed facts 
 constitute the laws of nature. These laws apply 
 to human action as well as to the whole physical 
 world. — Condensed from Dr. C. Hodge, Syste- 
 matic Theology. 
 
 [847] Among the forms of modern cynicism 
 may be classed that of agnosticism, which does 
 not deny that a God may exist, but affirms that, 
 even on that supposition, man must remain 
 ignorant of His existence, adding that knowledge 
 on that subject, or the kindred subject of man's 
 immortality, is needless, such themes being 
 amongst those respecting which a healthy mind 
 will feel no distress. The diseased limb feels 
 no distress when the period of mortification has 
 set in, and that of dissolution is imminent ; and 
 
 k
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 149 
 
 847-856] 
 
 [agnosticism or positivism. 
 
 yet mortification is not thought a healthy condi- 
 tion. — Aubrey de Vere, Subjective Difficulties 
 in ReUo;ion^ in the Nineteenth Coitury Review. 
 
 II. Its Contemplated Aim. 
 
 [848] The positivism which he taught, taken 
 as a whole, is at once a philosophy, a polity, 
 and a religion. It professes to systematize all 
 scientific knowledge, to organize all industrial 
 and social activities, and to satisfy all spiritual 
 aspirations and affections. It undertakes to 
 explain the past, to exhibit the good and evil, 
 strength and weakness, of the present, and to 
 forecast the future ; to assign to every science, 
 every large scientific generalization, every prin- 
 ciple and function of human nature, and every 
 great social force, its appropriate place ; to con- 
 struct a system of thought inclusive of all well- 
 established truths, and to delineate a scheme of 
 political and religious life in which duty and 
 happiness, order and progress, .opinion and 
 emotion, will be reconciled and caused to work 
 together for the good alike of the individual and 
 of society. It sets before itself, in a word, an 
 aim of the very largest and grandest kind con- 
 ceivable ; and as Comte believed that he had 
 been signally successful in performing his mighty 
 task, we need hardly wonder that he should 
 have boldly claimed to have rendered to his race 
 the services both of a St. Paul and an Aristotle. 
 
 III. Its Relations to other Creeds. 
 
 1 To atheism. 
 
 [849] Positivism rises in comparison with 
 atheism, which is itself less base than panthe- 
 ism ; for ii is better to ignore than to deny, as 
 it is better to deny than to degrade God. — Dr. 
 Jetme. 
 
 [850] It may be doubted whether ignoring is 
 not meaner than denying ; and if not in itself 
 more offensive, it is at least " without the courage 
 of its convictions." — B. G. 
 
 2 To theism. 
 
 [851] The position of the agnostic may be 
 described as a position which, in relation to 
 theism, is threefold : (i) dogmatic denial ; 
 (2) sceptical indifference ; (3) philosophical 
 negation. 
 
 [852] To speak of the " unknowable," assumes 
 first, its existence ; secondly, that we know this 
 much about it, namely, that it is " unknowable " 
 — which is perhaps presumption, as measuring 
 all possible knowledge by our confessed igno- 
 rance. What we do not know, somebody else 
 may know yet ; and though we cannot " find 
 out the Almighty unto perfection," He may be 
 known sufficiently for our guidance. — B. G. 
 
 [853] The strongest believer in revelation 
 cannot deny the term " unknowable " to an 
 object which he connot search out to perfection. 
 To pronounce it unknowable is to be an agnos- 
 
 tic ; yet no agnostic can deny that he has some 
 kind of knowledge of that to which he knows 
 the term " unknowable " to belong. The 
 formula of the agnostic is therefore the same 
 as that of the believer, only with a greater 
 emphasis laid upon the mysterious and inscru- 
 table element in our knowledge. — Church 
 Quarterly Review. 
 
 IV. Its Nurseries. 
 
 [854] A church which lays intense emphasis 
 on what it does not believe, and whose members 
 know not how to express an article of faith 
 without a negative particle, is a nursery of 
 scepticism and infidelity, and nothing better. 
 At the same time, there is no intolerance so bitter 
 and scornful as that of the so-called churches 
 whose faith consists in not believing. — Uiiitarian 
 Review. 
 
 V. Explanation of its Lower Types. 
 
 I The dislike to the practices involved in 
 belief. 
 
 [855] The true cause of that atheism, that 
 scepticism and cavilling at religion, which we; 
 see and have cause to lament in too many in 
 these days ... is not from anything weak or 
 wanting in our religion, to support and enable- 
 it to look the strongest arguments, and the 
 severest and most controlling reason, in the. 
 face : but many men are atheistical because; 
 they are first vicious, and question the truth 
 of Christianity because they hate the practice ; 
 and, therefore, that they may seem to have 
 some pretence and colour to sin on freely, and 
 to surrender up themselves wholly to their 
 sensuality, without any imputation on their 
 judgment, they fly to several stale, trite, pitiful 
 objections and cavils, some against religion in 
 general, and some against Christianity in par- 
 ticular, and some against the very first principles 
 of morality, to give them some poor credit and 
 countenance in the pursuit of their brutish 
 courses. — R. South, D.D. 
 
 2 Recklessness and folly. 
 
 [856] That profane, atheistical, epicurean 
 rabble, whom the nation so rings of, and who 
 have lived so much to the defiance of God, 
 the dishonour of mankind, and the disgrace of 
 the age which they are cast upon, are not 
 indeed (what they are pleased to think and vote 
 themselves) the wisest men in the world ; for 
 in matters of choice, no man can be wise in 
 any course or practice in which he is not safe 
 too. But can these high assumers and pre- 
 tenders to reason prove themselves so, amidst 
 all those liberties and latitudes of practice that 
 they take ? Can they make it out against the 
 common sense and opinion of all mankind that 
 there is no such thing as a future estate of 
 misery for such as have lived ill here ? Every 
 fool may believe, and pronounce confidently ; 
 but wise men will, in matters of discourse, con- 
 clude firmly, and in matters of practice act
 
 856—861] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [agnosticism or positivism. 
 
 surely. And if these will do so too in the case 
 now before us, they must prove it not only 
 probable (which yet they can never do), but also 
 certain and past all doubt, that there is no hell, 
 nor place of torment for the wicked : or, at least, 
 that they themselves, notwithstanding all their 
 villainous and licentious practices, are not to be 
 reckoned of that number and character ; but 
 that with a 7ion obstante to all their revels, their 
 profaneness, and scandalous debaucheries of all 
 sorts, they continue virtuosos still : and are 
 that in truth, which the world in favour and 
 fashion, or rather by an antiphrasis, is pleased 
 to call them. — Ibid. 
 
 VI. Its Self-Contradictions. 
 
 [857] Some persons will assume responsibility 
 when they ought to decline it, and decline it 
 when they ought to accept it. To say " I know " 
 when our knowledge and experience do not 
 warrant the assertion, and to say " I don't know" 
 when we ought to know, are both oft-allied faults, 
 and perhaps equally culpable. The positivist 
 commits both these faults to an extent, at least, 
 which demands his indictment at the bar of 
 spiritual thought. 
 
 As to \h&fositivist he says : " I know. Science 
 will reveal the secrets necessary to construct a 
 creed comprehensive and powerful enough to 
 regenerate society and to supplant Christianity." 
 But how can he " know ? " Is not all experience 
 against the realization of such a hope ? 
 
 Again, as to the agnostic he says : " I know 
 not. I cannot find sufficient evidence for any 
 religious creed " — when he carefully refuses, in a 
 world full of mysteries, to investigate with a 
 Tiew to conviction, or with the serious earnest- 
 ness becoming a being endowed with religious 
 instincts and moral consciousness. — C. N. 
 
 VII. Arguments against the System. 
 
 1 It assumes an indefensible attitude. 
 
 [858] But it is necessary to point out that 
 however one may act in regard to questions of 
 science or philosophy, which are to many men 
 matters of curious speculation rather than of 
 practice, and in regard to which most men are 
 compelled (from want of leisure or want of in- 
 clination) to take up a position of agnosticism, 
 such an attitude is here indefensible, for we are 
 dealing with the most practical of all questions, 
 which every man's life will decide for himself, 
 since no man can avoid having some opinion as 
 to the origin of the institutions and customs in 
 the midst of which he lives, and which, whether 
 he be a Christian or not, have certainly produced 
 the most wonderful moral and religious revolu- 
 tion which the world has ever seen. — Rev. W. 
 Anderson, Scripture Miracles and Modern 
 Scepticism. 
 
 2 It makes a clean sweep of all human 
 knowledge whatever, 
 
 [859] Such is the question which the agnostic 
 confidently asks, and triumphantly answers in 
 
 the affirmative. " You form an idea of God," he 
 says to us, " but of any corresponding objective 
 reality you confess yourselves unable to formulate 
 a proof Why not resign yourselves to the in- 
 evitable inference, that the God of your con- 
 ception is nothing but the offspring of your 
 idealizing faculty, without substance or inde- 
 pendent existence ; and that if there should 
 chance to be any real God behind the universe, 
 at least He lies altogether beyond the reach ol 
 your faculties, and outside the possibilities of 
 human knowledge ? " 
 
 No doubt there is an air of plausibility about 
 the view which thus rudely smites back the 
 yearning of our hearts for God, and condemns 
 us to perpetual imprisonment within the bounds 
 of our physical existence. If it were just, the 
 controversy would be ended, and to try other 
 methods of finding God, after the failure of the 
 logical and demonstrative methods, would be 
 waste of time and labour. To justify, therefore, 
 our perseverance in the search, we must show 
 that this view of the necessary limits of human 
 knowledge is unsound, and contradicts both 
 experience and reason. 
 
 We affirm it to be so on this distinct ground, 
 that the principle which it embodies w'ould, if 
 accepted, make a clean and absolute sweep of all 
 human knowledge whatsoever. This statement 
 we proceed to justify. 
 
 The principle against which we protest may 
 be expressed as follows : — Knowledge must be 
 based on logical proof; the knowable and the 
 demonstrable are identical ; whatever cannot be 
 shown by strict inductive reasoning to exist 
 must be dismissed from the region of science, 
 and consigned to the dream-land of the specu- 
 lative imagination. Our contention is that as 
 soon as this principle, which is really the 
 stronghold of agnosticism, is tried at the bar of 
 practical reason, and brought face to face with 
 the realities of human life, it must be convicted 
 of monstrous absurdity. — Brownlow Maitland, 
 Theism or Agnosticism. 
 
 [860] Except for the testimony of our con- 
 sciousness we have no assurance of our own 
 personal identity, or of the coherence of our 
 reason, or of the existence of the external uni- 
 verse and of our fellow-men. Except for the 
 intuitive perceptions of our higher nature, 
 morality would be a mere name for custom and 
 repute. — Ibid. 
 
 3 It destroys personal interest in humanity. 
 
 [861] The real objection to the scheme of the 
 Positivists — and it is an objection to most 
 schemes for remodelling mankind — is that there 
 is no appreciable connection between what we 
 know and what we are asked to belie\'e in. 
 That men will gradually become more interested 
 in people of other and distant nations is not 
 only probable, but is the inevitable result of our 
 moving freely about the whole globe, and being 
 brought into contact with, and wishing to make 
 money of, or to govern, or kill, or convert, 
 remote persons. But what shape this interest
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 861—867] 
 
 ^51 
 [altruistic secularism. 
 
 will ultimately take, or what its extent or value 
 will be, is quite beyond our knowledge. The 
 cause of humanity is a fine phrase, but the only 
 contribution to the success of this cause as to 
 which Englishmen can hope with much con- 
 fidence that they do unquestionable good is that 
 we keep the peace in India. We have not any 
 solid reason to expect that the world will ever 
 care to worship its dead men. The great dead 
 are such persons as Confucius or Epaminondas, 
 who awaken no real emotion whatever, or they 
 are persons like Luther, or Voltaire, or Napoleon, 
 who awaken a crowd of conflicting emotions. 
 Men must be very much changed before they 
 can agree in liking the same dead persons more 
 heartily than they like the same living persons. 
 Dead men are chiefly symbols for living hatreds. 
 We cannot even begin to think what a hierarchy 
 of the wise men of the West would be like. So 
 far as experience can teach us, we should expect 
 that this hierarchy would be either a set of 
 pedantic beings reproducing the same stereo- 
 typed ideas, or they would quarrel among them- 
 selves, and every scientific bishop would have a 
 sect of his own. — The Saturday Review. 
 
 4 It culminates in theoretical or practical 
 pessimism. 
 
 [862] This, then, is our conclusion: That so far 
 as man denies God, or denies that God can be 
 known, he abandons hope of every kind — that 
 intellectual hope which is the life of scientific 
 thought ; hope for his own moral progress ; 
 hope for the progress of society ; hope for guid- 
 ance and comfort in his personal life ; and hope 
 for that future life for which the present is a 
 preparation. As he lets those hopes go one by 
 one, his life loses its light and its dignity ; 
 morality loses its enthusiasm and its energy, 
 science has no promise of success, sin gains a 
 relentless hold, sorrow and darkness have no 
 comfort, and life becomes a worthless farce or a 
 sad tragedy, neither of which is worth the play- 
 ing, because both end in nothing. Sooner or 
 later this agnostic without hope will become 
 morose and surly, or sensual and self-indulgent, 
 or avaricious and churlish, or cold and selfish, 
 or cultured and hollow — in a word, a theoretical 
 or a practical pessimist, as any man must who 
 beheves the world as well as himself to be with- 
 out any worthy end for which one man or many 
 men should care to live. — Rev. Noah Rorter. 
 
 70 
 
 ALTR U I STIC SE C ULARISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [Altruistic (from Latin alter, other) means 
 regardful of others, devoted to others.] 
 
 [863] It only remains to describe one other 
 form of antagonism to Christianity, which to a 
 certain extent may be said to combine all the 
 others, as it is rather practical than theoretic. 
 
 The altruistic sectdarist denies positively the 
 truths of religion. He may do so on philoso- 
 phical, or scientific, or critical grounds ; or he 
 may do so on all and every ground which he 
 can find to stand upon. Being a decided dis- 
 believer, he must substitute for religion some 
 other basis of morality, without which he admits 
 that the social needs of man cannot be met. 
 He assumes the adaptation of human nature to 
 the facts of the universe so far as the life of man 
 is concerned. He takes for granted that the 
 apparent disproportion between the world and 
 man is real and inevitable. He renounces all 
 hope of individual victory over natare and the 
 continuance of individual existence beyond this 
 life. His morality is a translation into what are 
 called moral principles of the law of pleasure 
 and pain, in short of utility without a definition 
 of the good beyond that of the greatest amount of 
 pleasure. — R. A. Redford, The Christiati's Plea. 
 
 II. Arguments against the System. 
 
 1 Apart from Christianity it is a mere popular 
 pretence. 
 
 [864] Altruism is itself an offspring and a pro- 
 duct of Christianity. Whether, indeed, altruism 
 could ever have been, but for the fostering care 
 of eighteen centuries of Christianity, and whether 
 it can exist in any vigour apart from Christianity, 
 may fairly be doubted. — Rev. I. G. Smith, 
 Bamptoii Lecticrcs. 
 
 [865] If the altruism of the positivist be 
 deemed an improvement on the morality of the 
 gospel in living for others, without the limitation 
 of loving our neighbour only as ourselves, it 
 seems not unreasonable to require that this 
 level should first be reached. — Canon Eaton^ 
 Baiiipton Lectures. 
 
 2 It is two sides of a ladder without any 
 steps. 
 
 [866] There is only one step from the sublime 
 to the ridiculous, and this altruism has taken. 
 An impossible height of sentimental suppression 
 of selfishness is not only to be reached, but to 
 be maintained. And all this without any rounds 
 to the ladder of sufficiently strong motives or 
 landing-place of attained or attainable desires. 
 — C. N. 
 
 3 Its motive of action though professedly 
 higher yet really lower than the Christian's. 
 
 [867] But, waiving this, let us look more 
 closely at what "altruism" means. What is 
 its motive and its mainspring ? I think we shall 
 not be doing an injustice to the positivist, if we 
 say that his "altruism" means doing good to 
 another, because this will be the good of all. 
 But this is by no means tantamount to saying, 
 " Do well to others, because it is their due." 
 Prudence or amiability may make it easy for 
 any one to confer benefits which will redound 
 to the good of all, the benefactor included ; but 
 a reciprocity of favours like this, a co-operative 
 partnership for mutual advantages, is something
 
 867-874] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 [doubt. 
 
 different from the teaching of words like these, 
 " He that loveth his Hfe shall lose it ; he that 
 loseth his life for IMy sake shall find it." — Rev. 
 I. G. Sviith, B amp ton Lectures. 
 
 4 Its motive-power insufficient to regulate 
 conduct. 
 
 [S6S] Let it be noticed, besides, that in pro- 
 posing love for Himself as the motive to His 
 disciples, Christ is proposing a yet higher motive 
 than love for our fellow-creatures. And this 
 for two reasons. First, because the object pro- 
 posed is more truly worthy of love. Next, 
 because the sincerity and the reality of love are 
 then most tried and proved when it is for one 
 unseen, and apprehended only by an effort of 
 thought, even as the remembrance of an absent 
 friend is a better proof of love than constancy 
 to one whom daily associations make it almost 
 impossible to be unmindful of So far, I think, 
 it will be allowed that Altruism falls short of the 
 motive which Christ proposes to His disciples : 
 " Bear all, do all, be all for My sake," and 
 " that men may glorify your Father which is in 
 hea\'en." — Ibid. 
 
 [869] His position as a member of the human 
 race and of society demands the recognition of 
 fellow-creatures and the suppression of selfish- 
 ness. His enthusiasm, if he has any, is for the 
 race. His highest motive is the development 
 of mankind. Doubtless this is a position which 
 has its relieving features of sentiment and its 
 possibilities of good, but that it should be intel- 
 lectually sustained is a contradiction, for it 
 builds morality on a basis which is insufncient 
 to sustain it ; and that it should resist the fo.-ce 
 of human corruption, and should be powerfv-^ 
 enough to overcome the evil of the world, is 
 contrary to all experience and a transparent 
 absurdity. — R. A. Red/ord, The Christian's Plea. 
 
 71 
 
 DOUBT. 
 
 I. Its Nature. 
 
 [870] From of old Doubt was but half a 
 magician ; she evokes the spectres which she 
 cannot quell. Thou shalt know that this 
 universe is what it professes to be, an infinite 
 one. — T. Carlyle. 
 
 [871] When we ask concerning doubt, " Is it 
 honest.'"' we may, to some extent, bring this 
 question to a test by asking further, Is it pain- 
 ful ? Does it desire to be removed one way or 
 the other by evidence ? Does it labour to this 
 end ? If it be insincere — and therefore immoral 
 — it will be cherished, or will be at least in- 
 different as to a conclusion. For indifference 
 about the truth of such statements as are con- 
 tained in the Bible must mark either levity, or 
 conceit, or dislike to the consequences which 
 
 would follow from acceptance of Christianity. 
 Doubt about such assertions, as has been well 
 said, must be either the agony of a noble nature, 
 or tlae veriest trifling of a fool. — Girdlestone, 
 Christianity and Modern Scepticism. 
 
 II. Its Outside Causes. 
 
 1 Arising from the accidental circumstances 
 of the case. 
 
 (i) The faults, real or imaginary, of others, 
 and believers in particular. 
 
 [872] The causes of religious doubt at the 
 present day appear to be connected with — 
 
 (i) Inconsistency of the lives of believei^s 
 with their creed. 
 
 (2) The Scriptures as often taught and handled 
 by believers, and in consequence by unbelievers. 
 
 (3) Natural science as often viewed both by 
 believers and unbelievers. 
 
 (4) Philosophy as often ignored or misused 
 by believers and unbelievers. — Rev. A. G. 
 Girdlestotie. 
 
 [873] God, in a worldly sense, is so far ofif", 
 and man so near. "In how many cases," says 
 an excellent writer, "does the belief in God 
 depend, in its energy and reality, and to some 
 extent rightly, on the actions of men?" Ten 
 thousand sermons preached by eloquent divines 
 will not undo half the evil of the acted sermon 
 of your life ! 
 
 Think of this. Think and know — for you 
 know that it is true — that the minds of sufferers 
 may be and are thrown into despair, and into 
 denial of all good, into doubt of God, and into 
 atheism, by neglect. " Such," says the writer 
 we quote, thanking him for his good teaching 
 in the best way, by making it more public — 
 " such states of mind are natural because every 
 sign of human love is a witness to Divine love, 
 and every want of human love a failure in that 
 witness." — Gefitle Life Series. 
 
 2 Arising from the real circumstances of the 
 case. 
 
 [874] (i) One fruitful source of perplexity to 
 an inquiring mind in religious matters is to be 
 found in the intellectual difficulties which beset 
 some of the cardinal doctrines of our religion ; 
 for instance, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the 
 Resurrection. 
 
 (2) Still greater distress arises from the moral 
 difficulties which pervade the consideration of 
 all human history, and are mingled with every 
 part of the great scheme of man's redemption 
 as presented to us in the Bible. 
 
 (3) There is a yet deeper and more personal 
 anguish from which faith in Christ our Saviour 
 can alone free us — that which arises from the 
 consciousness of evil within ourselves. 
 
 (4) Yet another source of perplexity is our 
 inability to trace the connection of God's pro- 
 vidential dealings as they concern ourselves or 
 those dearest to us. — Rev. W. S. Smith, ChrU 
 tian Faith.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 87S-8 
 
 [scepticism. 
 
 III. Its Personal Sources. 
 
 1 It is bred of unsubmissive tempers and of 
 unruly lives. 
 
 [875] There is a great deal of doubting which 
 has really no honest, intellectual basis at all, 
 although it may at times even ostentatiously 
 assume the intellectual form. It is bred of un- 
 submissive tempers and of unruly lives. Some 
 men do not want to be Christians. They like 
 physical enjoyments. They like selfish ease. 
 They like the way of life that comes. They 
 dislike the trouble and possible disturbance 
 connected with seeking another way. 
 
 2 It is through intellectual pride. 
 
 [876] Nothing could be more despicable (were 
 it not so serious) than some of the popular infi- 
 delity of the day. ... I need not say that it is 
 of no such doubters that I speak now. There 
 are real honest doubters among us, \yhose doubts 
 we must recognize as being such, and who 
 demand from us, at the very least, that sym- 
 pathy which is not inconsistent with very real 
 respect. There are those even to whom their 
 doubts are an agony, but who yet feel that 
 peace were too dearly bought by mental servi- 
 tude. They have not learned that their mental 
 life needs the rule of God as much as their 
 physical or moral life. — Rev. G. Body. 
 
 3 It is due to a morbidness of mind. 
 
 [877] Some persons hug their doubts or their 
 pretensions to be doubters, as if some virtue or 
 heroism were inherent therein ; especially do 
 they parade the title of " honest doubt," and 
 hang on a great poet for the phrase and name. 
 To doubt the doubters, and to suspect their 
 honesty, in any case, is "heresy" in the judg- 
 ment of self-styled " modern thought." — B. G. 
 
 4 It is occasioned by dishonesty of mind. 
 
 [878] Is not "doubt" sometimes pretended 
 by those who wish to cover denial by that name, 
 and who would at the same time gain the credit 
 of being in a state of impartial inquiry ? Some 
 " doubters " want to seem to belong to both 
 sides, and to have the credit of holding the 
 balance fairly, when they are either unbalanced, 
 or hold falsified weights and scales. This is 
 not " honest doubt," but politic trimming. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 IV. Its Methods of Cure. 
 
 [879] Doubt can only be exchanged for belief 
 either when the evidence for the truth of a pro- 
 position is complete, in which case belief itself 
 vanishes in knowledge ; or by the interposition 
 of some determinant external to the mental 
 process of believing. — J. H. Blunt. 
 
 V. Arguments against Doubting. 
 
 I Inconsistency of believers no substantial 
 ground for doubt. 
 
 [880] {a) Inconsistency in the life of a believer 
 can only prove him to be bad, or his faith weak. 
 
 It cannot prove that the object of his faith is 
 unreal or bad. {b) Similar inconsistencies in 
 matters of secular faith do not make you a 
 doubter. You do not throw away good shillings 
 because there are bad ones. Professors of a 
 belief in honesty may cheat ; you do not there- 
 fore doubt honesty. Believers in prudence may 
 be led into extravagance, believers in sobriety 
 into dissipation ; yet you do not doubt fore- 
 thought or sobriety. Is it reasonable, then, to 
 doubt Christ and Christianity because Christians 
 often live lives contrary to their principles .'' — 
 Girdlcsione^ Christiaiiity and Modem Scep- 
 ticism. 
 
 2 Doubt, at the utmost, should be temporary. 
 
 [881] Doubt is at best the porch and vestibule 
 of decision. — C. y. Vaugha7i. 
 
 [882] Doubt is only tolerable as a brief, a 
 temporary, a provisional condition. It must 
 end ; it must be ended ; it must be regarded 
 and treated as that council of war which always 
 breaks up before the engagement ; it must be 
 endured as a suffering ; it must not be vaunted 
 as a virtue ; it must be brought to an issue 
 before you are fit to live ; it must be brought to 
 an issue before you can dare to die. — Ibid. 
 
 [883] Faith in God and duty will survive much 
 doubt and difficulty and distress, and perhaps 
 attain to some nobler mode of itself under 
 their influence. But if once we have come to 
 acquiesce in such a standard of living as must 
 make us wish God and duty to be illusions, it 
 must surely die. — Prof. T. H. Green in Con- 
 temporary Review. 
 
 3 Doubt is not eulogized in the Scriptures. 
 
 [884] It is worthy of notice that the Scriptures 
 pass no eulogium on doubt or unbelief. They 
 everywhere assume that the evidence for all the 
 great truths of religion is ample and satisfactory, 
 and that there is no reason why any of them 
 should be questioned or denied. Their language 
 is : Be not faithless, but believing. O thou of 
 little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt .'' There 
 is no laudation of any doubtful-minded people 
 in all the Bible. Yet there is a species of semi- 
 infidelity running through much of our current 
 literature of magazine, sermon, and book, which 
 seems to delight in setting all religious truth as 
 in a twilight and haze of ambiguity. It is the 
 glorification of the doubting mind of the age — 
 the apotheosis of negations and denials, and 
 universal nothingism. 
 
 72 
 
 SCEPTICISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [885] Scepticism (er/c£n-ro/«rtt, to look, to seek) 
 is used as synonymous with doubt. But doubt
 
 154 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [scepticism. 
 
 may be removed by evidence, and give way to 
 conviction or belief. The characteristic of 
 scepticism is to come to no conclusion, for or 
 against ; sttox//, holding oft", and consequently 
 tranquility, aTapai,i.a. Scepticism is opposed to 
 dogmatism (good or bad). Absolute objective 
 certainty being unattainable, scepticism holds 
 that in the contradictions of the reason truth is 
 as much on one side as on the other — ohUv 
 /jaWov. — IV. Fleming. 
 
 [886] A sceptic is properly a thinker who is 
 determined, with physical, intellectual, or 
 spiritual eyes, to see into physical, intellectual, 
 or spiritual facts before forming, and especially 
 before teaching, any doctrine concerning those 
 facts. And scepticism denotes the mental atti- 
 tude of the inquirer toward any doctrine whose 
 truth he is examining, but concerning which he 
 has not yet decided. — A. J. Harrison. 
 
 II. Theories of supposed Sceptics. 
 
 [887] Hartmann denied that there was any 
 God save the Unconscious Absolute ! — the same 
 as the "v/orld elether''' — the life-element of 
 worlds ! Another Liberal, named Venetianer, 
 has written a work denying the being of God, 
 but holding a system called " Panpsychism," 
 that is, making all nature a kind of soul ! 
 
 Still another, whose name is well known, the 
 celebrated Strauss — who tried to prove the Bible 
 a collection of fables— denies the being of God. 
 What kind of a creator does he give us in the 
 place of the eternal Jehovah of the Bible 1 He 
 calls on all Christians to renounce their faith in 
 the everlasting God, and adore the " Ufiiversum 
 or World-All," a mighty machine that has no 
 more mind than a locomotive engine ! 
 
 Another prophet appears among Liberals with 
 a new god, and he asks all men to give up their 
 faith in an Almighty Creator, and believe in 
 protoplasm ! And what ii this stranger " which 
 neither we nor our fathers " ever adored ? Pro- 
 fessor Huxley attempts to account for the phe- 
 nomena of all natural life and spirit as springing 
 ixoxa. germs. He holds that the brain, with all 
 the powers of reasoning, came from the chemical 
 grouping of particles of matter. He holds that 
 we are sure of nothing but impressions, and if 
 there is a God, " He is 2inknown and tinknoiv- 
 able ! " 
 
 Still another light has arisen, and, with true 
 genius, explored the realms of science. " While 
 living," Dr. jMcCosh well says, " he went through 
 the universe as on the wing of an angel, and, re- 
 turning, reported he found no \estige of God, and 
 yet he knew that there must be a cause for every 
 effect, and resolving to deny there was a God, 
 affirmed that all things were originated and 
 carried on by law / " Beyond this, the splendid 
 intellect of Humboldt did not go. We might 
 ask : Was there ever a law without a law-giver ? 
 Was there ever a law-giver without a' will f 
 Was there ever a will without a person ? — Vati 
 Doren. 
 
 III. Its varied Phases. 
 
 1 The scepticism of sheer indolence. 
 
 [888] There are men who, like Gallio, care 
 for none of these things. If they are sceptical 
 about the being of God, the inspiration of 
 Scripture, the divinity of Christ, or of any such 
 subjects, it is simply because they have never 
 thought upon them, never studied their nature, 
 never examined their evidence. Thousands of 
 men say they doubt, who have never thought. 
 Their doubt is but a mental yawn. — Homilist 
 (1877). 
 
 [889] Gallio has been very unfairly used ; 
 those things, " for none " of which he " cared," 
 were the actions of the populace — the Greeks, 
 who beat Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, 
 the leader of the movement against Paul — (Acts 
 xviii. 12-17). — B. G. 
 
 2 The scepticism that avoids honest inquiry. 
 
 [890] They dislike religious subjects so far as 
 they know them, and they wish them to be un- 
 true. They dislike them because they clash 
 with their tastes, prejudices, pleasures, &c., and 
 their desire is that they should be disproved. 
 The man who is running in the line of insol- 
 vency does not wish to believe he is a bank- 
 rupt ; the child who loves a certain fruit does 
 not wish to be told it is injurious. There is a 
 large amount of this kind of scepticism. — 
 Homilist (1877). 
 
 3 The scepticism that precedes honest doubt. 
 
 [891] There are many minds who have a 
 strong love for truth, who are in earnest quest of 
 truth ; they are so afraid they should receive 
 error that they hesitate to believe till there 
 comes more light. This scepticism is whole- 
 some ; it is a condition of true progress. — Ibid. 
 
 [892] The Greek original of the word scep- 
 ticism meant " to look about you " — hence, to 
 consider and speculate ; hence, to hesitate and 
 doubt. The term sceptics was formally applied 
 to a sect of philosophers who lived in Greece 
 three hundred or four hundred years before 
 Christ ; their principle was to doubt everything 
 and deny everything, and to regard the objects 
 of life as not worth a care. Others looked for 
 the origin of scepticism in the famous saying of 
 Socrates, who declared " that all he knew was, 
 that he knew nothing." But he and they would 
 go further back still, and find its origin in the 
 doubts which the devil insinuated into the mind 
 of our first mother Eve. But here he remarked 
 that all doubters are not sceptics, and he asked 
 them to regard that point a little in its bearing 
 on the Christian religion. A man may probably 
 doubt a thing if he has not got proper evidence 
 of its truth ; but with regard to religion, we were 
 prepared to prove that, if men continued to 
 doubt, they had not looked at all the evidence, 
 or else they wanted evidence of an unreasonable 
 kind. Christians were bound, as far as in them 
 
 I
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 892—8 
 
 [scepticism. 
 
 lay, to study the evidences of the religion they 
 professed — to " search the Scriptures," to search 
 history and to search nature, first for their own 
 sakes, and then, as St. Paul told them, in order 
 that they might be able to give to others " a 
 reason for the hope that is in them." In every 
 phase and condition and event in life, we all of 
 ■ us doubt ; and doubt led us to inquire, and then 
 ; to decide. No man builds his house where he 
 * suspects there may be a quicksand, but, search- 
 ing, he digs deep and lays his foundations, and 
 then he trusts that his house will stand. No 
 man lends his money to people of whom he 
 knows nothing ; but he gets evidence of their 
 character and mercantile soundness, and, being 
 satisfied on these points, he trusts they will not 
 miscarry with his money. This also was the 
 Christian duty. As a great writer said, " \V& 
 doubt in order that we may believe ; we begin, 
 that we may not end in, doubt." He illustrated 
 this by the facts of the memorable epochs in 
 Martin Luther's life. The Christian poet said — 
 
 "There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds." 
 
 Only, let us beware that it is honest doubt, for 
 the land of doubt is a dangerous country ; and if 
 it be necessary for us to travel there, let us pass 
 through it with our loins girt about, our lamps 
 burning, and our hearts uplifted in prayer to 
 God. But he would say a few more words on 
 this point by and by. Sceptics, then, are 
 doubters ; but all doubters are not sceptics. — 
 Canoti Prescott. 
 
 4 The scepticism of pride. 
 
 [893] The late writings of Timbs give proof 
 of the strength and earnestness of his religious 
 convictions, and also of the type of his former 
 scepticism. The following piece, which is 
 probably known to few, may be taken as a 
 specimen : — 
 
 A BIRTHDAY MEMORANDUM. 
 
 Lines written before breakfast, yd January, 1834, the 
 Anniversary of my Birthday in 1780. 
 
 The proudest heart that ever beat 
 
 Hath been subdued in me ; 
 The wildest will that ever rose 
 To scorn Thy cause and aid Thy foes, 
 
 Is quell'd, my God, by Thee. 
 
 Thy will, and not my will be done. 
 
 My heart be ever Thine, 
 Confessing Thee, the mighty Word, 
 I hail Thee, Christ, my God, my Lord, 
 
 And make Thy name my sign. 
 
 Timbs, Autobiography. 
 
 5 The scepticism of closed eyes. 
 
 [894] Christian life is at least as undeniable as 
 physical life. Christendom has a literature, has 
 institutions. Christianity has fervent believers 
 whose whole existence is moulded by it : you 
 
 may detest or revere the results, but you cannot 
 ignore them, or regard the religion as obsolete, 
 by any other process than by shutting your eyes, 
 which is, of course, not a negative and uncon- 
 scious, but a most conscious and positive pro- 
 cess. — ScJibnberg Cotta Scries. 
 
 6 The scepticism of worldly convenience. 
 
 [895] Scepticism is not intellectual only, it is 
 moral also — a chronic atrophy and disease of 
 the whole soul. A man lives by believing some- 
 thing, not by debating and arguing about many 
 things. A sad case for him when all he can 
 manage to believe is something he can button 
 in his pocket — something he can eat and digest ! 
 Lower than that he will not get. We call those 
 ages in which he gets so low the mournfuUest, 
 sickliest, and meanest of all ages. The world's 
 heart is palsied, sick ; how can any limb of it 
 be whole ? Genuine acting ceases in all depart- 
 ments of the world's works ; dexterous simili- 
 tude of acting begins. The world's wages are 
 pocketed ; the world's work is not done. Heroes 
 have gone out ; quacks have come in. — Thomas 
 Carlyle. 
 
 IV. Mode of Treatment. 
 
 I All scepticism calls for pity, some for 
 special tenderness, and some for a certain 
 kind of respect. 
 
 [896] Most ofall, perhaps, we compassionate the 
 speculative doubter. It is some men's infirmity, 
 as Bishop Butler has remarked, to be led astray, 
 not by their passions so much as by their specu- 
 lations. There are men who are for ever asking 
 questions that they cannot answer, who see all 
 the difficulties and objections far better than 
 the reasons and proofs. Such men are always 
 tossing and find no rest. They are to be pitied. 
 — Ward Bccciicr. 
 
 [897] The ignorant infidel deserves tender- 
 ness. He knows not what he opposes. It is 
 his fault, and it is also his misfortune. Such 
 was mostly the class of men whom Dr. Nelson 
 encountered, many of whom his persevering 
 kindness recovered.— /<J^V/. 
 
 [89S] The learned sceptic often deserves 
 special consideration. He has explored, like 
 Huxley, among natural laws till he loses sight 
 of the law-giver ; he has dealt with sensuous 
 things till he has lost sight of the supersensuous ; 
 and has been unfortunate, perhaps, in the class 
 of Christian teachers whom he has encountered. 
 Or, like Buckle, he has plodded among the forces 
 and uniformities of history till the chaos orcom- 
 cidence of facts has hidden from him the guiding 
 hand Divine. Or he has spent his life in elabo- 
 rating the difficulties of religion and the objec- 
 tions to Christianity, till his sight is confused. 
 We respect his learning and acuteness ; we pity 
 his perplexity ; and the more because the whole 
 surrounding atmosphere of his life has been that 
 of doubt and ca.v'i\.— Ibid.
 
 156 
 
 899—911] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [scepticism. 
 
 [899] The sejttimenial and vtoral sceptic of 
 modern times has a kind of claim to considera- 
 tion for the high culture and morality which he 
 teaches, so different from the ribaldry and de- 
 bauchery of early English deism. It would be 
 a manlier thing in him to acknowledge whence 
 he borrowed his ethics. — Ibid. 
 
 [900] One occasionally recognizes a sort of 
 surly frankness in some kinds of scoffing and 
 railing scepticism. It strikes with all its might, 
 confessing the greatness of its foe. You have 
 that sort of feeling toward it that you have for a 
 vicious mastiff. — Idid. 
 
 [901] There has been at times a fanatical 
 scepticism which even commands a quasi re- 
 spect. It has fought with the Bible and the 
 Church because they were too slow for its refor- 
 matory schemes and philanthropic zeal. The 
 chief mark of its real character has usually been 
 its terrific bitterness ; a.ge7ieral bitterness, well 
 illustrated by Mr. Garrison when, on the fourth 
 of July, 1842 (we think it was), he stood up in 
 the Methodist church at Andover, Mass., and 
 expressed the hope " that the lightnings of 
 heaven would blast Bunker Hill monument." 
 We heard and remembered. — Ibid. 
 
 [902] Many individual cases in each type of 
 scepticism demands stern reproof, yet more flies 
 are caught by sugar than by vinegar. Ignorance 
 and human frailty is the one feature in human 
 sin which prevents it being diabolical and be- 
 yond the pale of forgiveness. The tender, 
 affectionate pastor in the long run wins his way 
 to wayward hearts. — C. N. 
 
 2 Scepticism as a moral force must be fairly 
 met by competent Christian scholarship 
 and culture. 
 
 [903] In its scientific and metaphysical aspects 
 and tendencies, or as a form^ of scientific investi- 
 gation and metaphysical philosophy, it must be 
 treated by Christian scholars and thinkers of 
 consummate ability, who are perfectly familiar 
 with the progress of scientific investigation, and 
 with the developments of modern philosophy, 
 and with the canons and methods of historical 
 criticism. The old apologies will not suffice. 
 One might as well take old armour and weapons 
 from the Tower of London, wherewith to equip 
 an army for modern warfare, as to go merely to 
 the Fathers, or merely to the Christian cham- 
 pions of the last century, for arguments where- 
 with to meet modern unbelief. Hence the 
 necessity of carefully selecting, and as thoroughly 
 preparing men, by the broadest kind of culture, 
 for the ser\'ice of the Church. 
 
 V. Its Cure. 
 I May be removed by investigation. 
 
 [904] John Hone was an almost unvarying 
 sceptic, but an incident which made him believe 
 in the separate being of the soul gave rise to 
 
 inquiries which terminated in his becoming a 
 convert to the truth of the Christian religion. 
 
 2 May be conquered by Christian example. *j 
 
 [905] In the preface to the English edition fl 
 of his Commentary on the Psalms, Professor 
 Tholuck says : — 
 
 " My conversion to the faith of the gospel 
 was brought about by the instrumentality of a 
 noble Christian layman, who belonged to the 
 small number of those who had, in a period of 
 universal infidelity, kept alive the faith in the 
 Word of God's truth. His luminous example of 
 a Christian walk, more than what he told me, 
 led me to think, and assured me at least of this, 
 that Jesus is the Son of God. Then I believed 
 in Christ, and was able to kneel before Him and 
 pray to Him." 
 
 VI. Arguments against Scepticism. 
 
 1 The unsatisfactoriness of its creed. 
 
 [906] But even in its proper sense, to glory in 
 scepticism, as such, is certainly no sign of sober 
 thought, seeing that the highest function of doubt 
 is to make way for a wise faith. — A, J. Harrison. 
 
 [907] Sincere infidelity (in religious matters) 
 is a sad thing, with little of the propagandist 
 spirit. Even believing Christian doctrines to 
 be delusions, its humane feeling would be not 
 willingly to shatter hopes it could never replace. 
 —A. K. H. Boyd. 
 
 2 It is not a working or a work-a-day system. 
 
 [908] We should think a capitalist unwise 
 who declined all investments for his money 
 because none offered absolute security. A like 
 argument will apply to the man who, with reli- . 
 gious instincts and spiritual endowments, de- 
 clines all creeds and faiths on the ground that 
 truths above reason do not allow of such de- 
 monstration as to his mind would amount to 
 certainty. — C. N. 
 
 [909] " I cannot believe in that which I can- 
 not comprehend." A vast amount of scepticism 
 is based upon this same idea, yet it is one of 
 the most delusive that can be entertained, and 
 one upon which we do not act in ordinary life 
 nor in science and philosophy. We all believe 
 daily in what we cannot comprehend, and to 
 look for an exception in the domain of religion 
 is a fatal error. — Christian Evidejtce Journal. 
 
 3 It is inconsistent with itself. 
 
 [910] There seems some inconsistency in com- 
 mencing religious inquiry by being sceptical as 
 to absolute truth, and yet demanding as a con- 
 dition of belief absolute evidence. — C. N. 
 
 4 The ephemeral character of its literature, 
 and the barrenness generally of its system. 
 
 [911] That powerful and eloquent lecturer, 
 the Rev. Joseph Cook, in his lecture on the 
 Services of the Tabernacle, dealt Boston seep-
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 911— 917] 
 
 [secularism. 
 
 ticism some of the heaviest blows it has ever 
 received. In telling of his meeting in the street 
 with a flood of people pouring out from the 
 Moody meeting, he said : " I noticed their faces ; 
 for the best test of what has been done by a re- 
 ligious address, in any assembly, is to study the 
 countenances of the audience as it disperses. If 
 you see a softened, an ennobled, a * solar look,' 
 to use one of the phrases of Bronson Alcott 
 (turning to Mr. Alcott, who sat on the speaker's 
 right), one may be sure that religious truth has 
 done good. I saw the solar look yesterday in 
 the street in hundreds and thousands of faces ; 
 I saw it sometimes in the gaze of shop-girls, 
 perhaps." From this he proceeded to describe 
 as it deserves the " low-bred, loaferish liberalism" 
 which exists in Boston, and " sneers because 
 the poor have the gospel preached to them,", 
 and then, rising with his theme to deal with the 
 intellectual unbelief of that cultivated city, he 
 made the following statement, as gratifying as 
 it is surprising : " What is our impecunious 
 scepticism doing here? Has it ever printed a 
 book that has gone into a second edition ? 
 Theodore Parker's works never went into a 
 second edition. I do not know of a single in- 
 fidel book, over a hundred years old, that has 
 not been put on the upper neglected shelf by 
 scholars. Boston must compare her achieve- 
 ments with those by cities outside of America, 
 and take her chances under the buftetings of 
 time. Where is there in Boston anything in 
 the shape of scepticism that will bear the micro- 
 scope ? For one, I solemnly aver that I do not 
 know where, and I have nothing else to do but 
 to search. Theodore Parker is the best sceptic 
 you ever had ; but to me he is honeycombed 
 through and through with dislo)'alty to the 
 very nature of things — his supreme authority. 
 It was asserted not long ago, in an obscure 
 sceptical newspaper here, that Parker's works 
 ought to be forced into a second edition by his 
 friends. It was admitted there was no demand 
 for a second edition, but it was thought that if 
 now there was an effort made strategically one 
 might be put upon the market. You have no 
 better books than these, and there has been no 
 market demand in Boston for these, and the 
 attentive portion of the world knows the facts. 
 Why am I proclaiming this ? Because, outside 
 of Boston, it is often carelessly supposed that the 
 facts are the reverse, and that this city is repre- 
 sented only by a few people, who, deficient in 
 religious activity, and forgetting the law of the 
 survival of the fittest, are distinguished far more 
 by audacity than by scholarship, and are mem- 
 bers of a long line in history, of which Gallio 
 stood at the head." 
 
 5 Men in testing-times unconsciously wit- 
 ness against scepticism and in favour of 
 Christianity. 
 
 [912] Not long ago a ship was wrecked upon 
 the reefs of an island in the Pacific. The sailors, 
 escaping to land, feared lest they might fall 
 into the hands of savages. One climbed a bluff 
 to reconnoitre. Turning to his companions, he 
 
 shouted, " Come on, here's a church !" A simple 
 story, but one involving a profound question : 
 Why was it safer for shipwrecked men to go 
 where a church upreared its cross than where 
 there was none "i That question probes the 
 scepticism of our time to the heart. 
 
 73 
 
 SECULARISM. 
 
 I. Meaning of the Term. 
 
 [913] Secularism, in its proper meaning, as 
 indicating the just principles, laws, and objects 
 of the present life, is an appropriate and even 
 noble word ; but as used by those who claim it 
 as their distinctive title, as a convenient intima- 
 tion of unbelief in God and in a future life, it is 
 one of the vaguest terms in our language. — A. 
 J. Harrison. 
 
 II. Its Development. 
 
 [914] Positivism in another shape, called secu- 
 larism, is actively propagated among the lower 
 orders. Replacing the sensuous philosophy and 
 political antipathies of Owen, it is taught, un- 
 connected with the political agitation which 
 marked his views, as a philosophy of life and a 
 substitute for religion. — A. S. Farrar, Critical 
 History of Free Thought. 
 
 III. Its Principles. 
 
 [915] It asserts three great principles : 
 
 First, that nature is the only subject of know- 
 ledge ; the existence of a personal God being 
 regarded as uncertain. 
 
 Secondly, hat science is the only Providence. 
 
 Thirdly, that the great business of man is, 
 as the name secularism implies, to attend to the 
 affairs of the present world, which is certain, 
 rather than of a future, which is uncertain. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 IV. Its Axioms. 
 
 [916] First, this life being the first in certainty, 
 ought to have the first place in importance. 
 
 Secondly, the nature which we know must be 
 the God which we seek. 
 
 Thirdly, science is the providence of men, 
 and that absolute spiritual dependence may 
 involve material destruction. 
 
 Fourthly, there exists independently of scrip- 
 tural authorities guarantees of morals in human 
 nature, intelligence, and utility. 
 
 V. The Principles of this System. 
 
 I Infidel secularism is partial. 
 
 [917] The secularist appeals to science, and 
 science condemns him. Any method which 
 cannot meet all the exigencies of a case 
 cannot be considered scientific. Though secu- 
 larism may serve fairly well in prosperity, yet 
 it is powerless to sustain in adversity or to 
 comfort at the open grave. — C. N.
 
 158 
 
 918—922] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [secularism. 
 
 2 Infidel secularism proves no gain to man- 
 kind. 
 
 [918] By taking a storey off the house you 
 do not increase the size of the basement or 
 render the house a more commodious dwelling- 
 place. So by pulling down the spiritual you do 
 not improve the secular, as this lower life has 
 its chief value as the foundation for the higher. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 3 The present can only be wisely regulated 
 by considering the future. 
 
 [919] The best and only way for a child to 
 enjoy its childhood is to train it for the future 
 life of manhood, even though there be no man- 
 hood for it. The believer replies to the secularist 
 by demonstrating in innumerable cases over 
 nineteen centuries, that the present life is best 
 enjoyed and prized, by preparing for the future, 
 even if there be no hereafter. But as there is a 
 future, the Christian is a gainer every way, and 
 the secularist a loser everywhere. The secularist 
 lives only for this life, and does not, alas ! get 
 the most that is to be got out of it. — Ibid. 
 
 4 No one can authoritatively say what is for 
 the greatest good. 
 
 [920] " We ought so to act as to secure the 
 greatest happiness of the greatest number of 
 men." But this is to put calculation for duty. 
 What is happiness ? What will procure it ? 
 Does it matter, one way or the other, to the 
 general happiness, if one or two shall indulge 
 their private vices ? Can men not so regulate 
 their vices that they may even benefit the 
 general body ? There are good answers to all 
 these questions ; but they cannot be drawn 
 from this philosophy. And they are questions 
 which are put, and in the hour of temptation, 
 just when an imperative rule and order are most 
 needed. We need not long-drawn calculations 
 to give us strength ; we need T/iou slialt, and 
 Thou shall not., from some higher sphere. 
 Natural science cannot speak them. "The 
 Divine is heard," to quote the words of Pro- 
 fessor Miiller, " in the / ot^ghf, which nature 
 does not know and cannot teach. Everj'thing 
 in nature is, or is not, is necessary or contingent, 
 true or false. There is no room in nature for 
 the / OJiglit, as little as there is in logic and 
 geometry. No natural inference can be higher 
 than nature herself.'' 
 
 VI. Secularism caxxot consistently 
 Ignore the Science of Theology. 
 
 I On account of the close relationships be- 
 tween all sciences. 
 
 [921] One science is, it is true, distinct from 
 another, and yet to cultivate one is not to deny 
 
 another. So theology, as a mere department of 
 thought, is distinct from the physical and material 
 sciences, and he who studies the latter may not 
 direct his attention to the former. But although 
 the sciences are so far distinct that to cultivate 
 one is not to deny another, they are also so 
 related that he who cultivates one cannot afford 
 to ignore others. The student of astronomy 
 will not succeed if he ignores mathematics. If 
 you entertain false views of mechanical and 
 chemical laws you will never correctly explain 
 geographical phenomena. And in like manner, 
 if there be a theology which directly or indirectly 
 denies any law of nature, the science which es- 
 tablishes that there is such a law, must do more 
 than merely ignore the theology which disowns 
 it — it must oppose that theology. It cannot 
 otherwise maintain its own truth and self-con- 
 sistency. — Prof. Flint, Anti-Thcistic Theories. 
 
 2 On account of secularism being not mere 
 knowledge, but the theory of an art pro- 
 fessedly based on knowledge. 
 
 [922] Secularism cannot reasonably ignore 
 any kind of knowledge which may concern it as 
 an art. Architecture is an art — the art of build- 
 ing houses — and as such it cannot afford to 
 ignore any kind of knowledge that bears on the 
 building of houses. An architecture which took 
 no account of the law of gravitation and other 
 principles of mechanics, of the properties of 
 stone, lime, and wood, of wind and water, light 
 and air, would be only the art of tiying to build 
 houses that would not stand, or which could not 
 be inhabited if they did. Apply this to the case 
 before us. Secularism professes to teach us a 
 more difficult and complex art than that of 
 building houses — the art of ordering our lives 
 aright in this world — the art of properly dis- 
 charging our duties in this present life ; and at 
 the same time secularism, as represented by 
 Mr. Holyoake, tells us that we may ignore the 
 questions, Is there a God ? is there a future 
 world ? I ask if such secularism be not pre- 
 cisely like an architecture which would advise 
 us to take no account, in building our houses, of 
 light and air, and therefore not to trouble our- 
 selves about windows and ventilators ? Give 
 me reason to believe that there is no God and 
 no future existence, and then I shall have reason 
 to ignore them ; but to ask me to ignore them 
 before you have done so, is neither more nor 
 less than to ask me to act like a fool. If I can- 
 not find out that there is a God or a future life, 
 I must be convinced by reason that I cannot. 
 If I can find out anything about them, I ought 
 to do my best to find out as much about them 
 as I can. And whatever I find out, or think I 
 find out about them, I am bound as a reasonable 
 and moral being to take account of in my con- 
 duct in this life. — Ibid.
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 [Coiitiimcif). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY. 
 
 (l) n. Its Actual Phases. 
 a. Denial of the Existence of God. 
 
 Pages l6o to 169. 
 
 TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 74 
 ATHEISM. 
 
 75 
 MATERIALISM. 
 
 76 
 INIATERIALISTIC ATHEISM. 
 
 77 
 PHILOSOPHICAL MATERIALISM. 
 
 78 
 NIHILISM. 
 
 79 
 PESSIMISAL 
 
 159
 
 i6o 
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 (^Continued). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY {Continued). 
 
 (i) //. Its Actual Phases. 
 
 a. Denial of the Existence of God. 
 
 74 
 
 ATHEISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition and Phases. 
 
 I Atheism as held by certain heathen philo- 
 sophers. 
 
 [923] To take a survey of the chief sects of 
 atheists amongst the ancient Grecian philo- 
 sophers. 
 
 (i) They all agreed in asserting that there 
 was nothing but matter in the universe ; but 
 differ as to the question whether it was animate 
 or inanimate. 
 
 (2) Those who held matter to be animated 
 were in general called v\oIoikol ; who (as they 
 darkly expressed it) maintained that matter had 
 some natural perception, but no animal sensa- 
 tion or reflection, in itself considered ; but that 
 this imperfect life occasioned that organization 
 from whence sensation and reflection afterwards 
 arose. 
 
 (3) Of these, some held only one life, which 
 they called a plastic nature; and these were 
 called the stoical atheists, because the Stoics 
 held such a nature, though they supposed it the 
 instrument of the Deity ; others thought that 
 every particle of matter was endued with life, 
 and these were called the Sirafonict, from Strato 
 Lampsacenus ; and Hobbes seems to have been 
 of this opinion. 
 
 (4) Those atheists who held matter to be 
 inanimate were called a-oinKoi. Of these, some 
 attempted to solve the phenomena of nature by 
 having recourse to the unmeaning language of 
 qualities and forms, as the Anaximandrians, who 
 thought they were produced by infinite active 
 force upon immense matter acting without de- 
 sign ; others, by the figure and motion which 
 they supposed to be essential to those atoms ; 
 these were the Dcmocritid, whose philosophy 
 differed but very little from the Epicureans, who 
 evidently borrowed many of their notions from 
 Democritus.— P. Doddridge, D.D., 1702-175 1. 
 
 [924] Epicurus was of this opinion. He con- 
 fessed that there was a Lord ; but as for His 
 interposing or concerning Himself in our affairs 
 
 here below, this he utterly denied, and that for 
 a reason as absurd as his assertion was impious ; 
 namely, that it would disturb His ease, and con- 
 sequently interrupt His fehcity, to superintend 
 our many trials and perplexities. — R. Souths 
 D.D., 1633-1716. 
 
 2 Atheism as held in later centuries. 
 
 [925] I would fain see some of those cogent, 
 convincing arguments by which any one will 
 own himself persuaded that there is no God ; or 
 that He does not govern the affairs of the world 
 so as to take a particular cognizance of men's 
 actions in designing to them a future retribution, 
 according to the nature and quality of the sin. 
 It being all one to the world whether there be 
 no God, or none who governs it. But how piti- 
 ful and ridiculous are the grounds upon which 
 some men pretend to account for the very lowest 
 and commonest phenomena of nature, without 
 recurring to a God and Providence ! Such as. 
 Either the fortuitous concourse of infinite little 
 bodies of themselves, and by their own impulse 
 (since no other nature or spirit is allowed by 
 these men to put them into motion) falling into 
 this curious and admirable system of the uni- 
 verse. According to which notion the blindest 
 chance must be acknowledged to surpass and 
 outdo the contrivances of the exactest art ; a 
 thing which the common sense and notion of 
 mankind must, at the very first hearing, rise up 
 against and explode. But if this romance will 
 not satisfy, then in comes the eternity of the 
 world, the chief and most avowed opinion set up 
 by the atheists to confront and answer all the 
 objections from religion ; and yet, after all these 
 high pretences, so great and inextricable are the 
 plunges and absurdities which these principles 
 cast men into, that the belief of a being distinct 
 from the world and before it is not only toward 
 a good life more conducible, but even for the 
 resolution of these problems more philosophical. 
 And I do accordingly here leave that old, trite, 
 common argument (though nevertheless vener- 
 able for being so), drawn from a constant series 
 of chains or causes, leading us up to a Supreme 
 Mover (not moved Himself by anything but Him- 
 self), a being simple, immaterial, and incorporeal. 
 I leave this, I say, to our high and mighty 
 
 k
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 925— 935I 
 
 161 
 
 [atheism. 
 
 atheists to baffle and confute it, and substitute 
 something more rational in the room of it if 
 they can ; and in order thereunto to take an 
 eternity to do it in. — Ibid. 
 
 [926] An absolute removal of the Divine Being 
 and existence ; that there is no such spiritual, 
 infinite, omniscient, omnipotent nature as we 
 call God, but that the world is of itself, and that 
 there is nothing else distinct from it. This is 
 the highest degree of asserting that there is no 
 God. It may be understood of a removal of 
 God's providence by which He governs and 
 takes account of all the particular affairs of the 
 world, and more especially of the lives and ac- 
 tions of men, so as to reward or punish them 
 according as they are good or evil. — Ibid. 
 
 [927] Atheism denieth God either (i) in 
 opinion, saying there is no God ; or (2) in affec- 
 tion, wishing there were no God ; or (3) in 
 conversation, living as if there were no God. — 
 T. Brooks, 1608-1680. 
 
 3 Atheism as held in the present day. 
 
 [928] Atheism, historically considered, may be 
 distinguished — 
 
 (i) As a prevailing sentiment, which is the 
 result of moral, political, and other causes. 
 
 (2) As a philosophical theory, which is the 
 conclusion of a reasoned statement from certain 
 premises. — Rev, J. H. Blunt. 
 
 [929] Although atheism pervaded society, it 
 did not appear in books until the year 1750, when 
 the great French " Encyclopedic" was published. 
 There is scarcely an atheistic book or tract to be 
 found (see Buckle's " Civilization," i. cap. 14). — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [930] Atheism is the denial, by words, in 
 theory or in practice, of the existence of a 
 spiritual cause of the universe, whether that 
 cause be conceived as one or many ; and as a 
 consequence of this the supposition that visible 
 nature is the ultimate fact with which the human 
 mind has to deal. — Ibid. 
 
 II. Its Causes. 
 I Intellectual. 
 
 (i) Self-sufficiency, presu7nptioft, and conceit. 
 .[931] The atheist brings forward some Bible 
 difficulty, the explanation whereof is deep and 
 high. Perhaps he reads some defence, and he 
 decides on the spot that it does not satisfy his 
 reason, and he forthwith declaims against the 
 Bible statement. Now see the awful assumption 
 he makes. He assumes that his reason is a suf- 
 ficient type of the universal reason to make its 
 decision a safe criterion of the decision of that 
 universal reason. He assumes, that is, that he 
 stands on the level of the highest thought— that 
 reason has no methods, syllogisms, or arguments 
 of which he is an incompetent judge — that the 
 highest elevations, mental and moral, of men 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 like Plato, or of Moses, Isaiah, St. Paul, St. 
 John, and even of One more than man, are 
 quite within his reach ; he talks as if he stood 
 head and shoulders above any of these ; and he 
 appears to think that he can fathom every depth 
 in the ocean of human thought. Of course, if he 
 had enough of real culture he would see the folly 
 of such an assumption, and would recoil from 
 the atheistic position. ... A little consideration 
 and candour might show an atheist that he 
 really is not great enough even to understand 
 men, and still less can he hope to understand 
 " the deep things of God." — Record. 
 
 [932] Great ignorance of nature and natural 
 causes. It is a saying of the Lord Bacon, that 
 a taste and smattering of philosophy inclines 
 men to atheism, but a deep and thorough know- 
 ledge of it directly leads men to religion. And 
 if the assertor of the world's eternity, or of its. 
 emerging out of the coalition of atoms, would; 
 consider how impossible it is for a body to- 
 put itself into motion without the impulse of 
 some superior immaterial agent, and what an. 
 inactive, sluggish thing that is that the philo- 
 sophers call matter, and how utterly unable to 
 fashion itself into the several forms it bears, he 
 would quickly fly to a spiritual, intelligent mover, , 
 such a one as we affirm to be God. — R. South,^. 
 D.D, 1633-1716. 
 
 (2) Ignorance. 
 
 [933] A little philosophy inclineth man's mind 
 to atheism ; but depth in philosophy bringeth 
 men's minds about to religion : for while the 
 mind of man looketh upon second causes scat- 
 tered it may sometimes rest in them and go no 
 further ; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, 
 confederate and linked together, it must needs 
 fly to Providence and Deity. — Bacon's Essays. 
 
 [934] It requires a loftier height of intelligence 
 to believe in miracles than to reject them, be- 
 cause it involves the reahzation of loftier than 
 mere material verities, and the recognition of 
 wider than purely physical laws. — F, W. Farrar^ 
 Witness of History. 
 
 I Moral. 
 
 (i) T/ie wish father to the thought. 
 
 [935] I" this matter men's conviction begins 
 not at their understandings, but often at their 
 wills, or rather at their brutish appetites ; which, 
 being immersed in the pleasures and sensualities 
 of the world, would by no means, if they could 
 help it, have such a thing as a deity, or a future 
 estate of souls to trouble them here, or to account 
 with them hereafter. No ; such men, we may 
 be sure, dare not look such truths as these in 
 the face, and therefore they throw them off, 
 and had rather be befooled into a friendly, 
 favourable, and propitious lie ; a lie which shall 
 chuck them under the chin and kiss them, and 
 at the same time strike them under the fifth rib. 
 To believe that there is no God to judge the 
 world is hugely suitable to that map's interest 
 who assuredly knows that upon such a judgment
 
 l62 
 
 935-942] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [atheism. 
 
 he shall be condemned ; and to assert that there 
 is no hell must needs be a very benign opinion 
 to a person engaged in such actions as he knows 
 must certainly bring him thither. Many are 
 atheists not because they have better wits than 
 other men, but because they have corrupter 
 wills ; not because they reason better, but be- 
 cause they live worse. — R. South, D.D.^ 1633- 
 1716. 
 
 (2) Prefet'e7ice of sensital pleasin-e. 
 
 [936] Atheists (are) such as have voluntarily, 
 violently extinguished to themselves the sunlight 
 of the Scriptures, moonlight of the creature, nay 
 the sparks and cinders of nature, that the more 
 securely, as unseen and unchidden of their own 
 hearts, they might prodigally act the works of 
 darkness : not, Athenian-like, dedicating an 
 altar to an unknown God, but annihilating to 
 themselves, and vilipending to others, altar, 
 religion, God, and suftbcating the breath of all 
 motions, arguments, manifest convictions that 
 heaven and earth produced ; for the reasons of 
 hell only shall one day evince it that there is a 
 God. — T. Adams, 
 
 III. Argument against this Theory. 
 
 I The burden of proof rests with atheists, 
 who are unable to prove their infinite 
 negative. 
 
 [937] O" which side may the burden of proof 
 fairly be considered to lie ? Naturally, one 
 would at first reply, on the side of the theist. 
 He asserts the fact of God's existence, and 
 therefore is bound to furnish proof of his asser- 
 tion ; the practical atheist asserts nothing but 
 his own ignorance, and waits to be convinced 
 if possible. No doubt this would be a just and 
 complete assignment of the burden of proof, if 
 atheism had been in general possession of the 
 field of thought, and theism were some novel 
 theory started by individual minds to displace 
 the old and universal opinion. But the real 
 position of the antagonistic views toward each 
 other is exactly the reverse. Theism has been 
 in general possession of the world ; it is atheism 
 which is the exceptional opinion, propounded 
 here and there by individual minds to bring 
 about a revolution in the established belief of 
 mankind. This undoubtedly in some measure 
 shifts the burden of proof. A belief which 
 antedates historical records, by rooting itself in 
 the noblest part of human nature, and allying 
 itself in man's best endeavours to advance 
 in civilization and moral culture, gives it a 
 prestige which must be allowed considerable 
 weight in the controversy respecting its truth. — 
 Brownlow Maitland. 
 
 [938] An atheist there may be, but an anti- 
 theist there cannot possibly be. That is to 
 say, a man may declare that he does not find 
 any evidence that satisfies him of the existence 
 of a God, but no man may dare to say abso- 
 lutely there is not a God. — Dr. Cjtmmini^. 
 
 2 Atheistic assumptions are absurd. 
 
 [939] The attempt of atheists shows their 
 enmity, for they are content to admit the 
 grossest absurdities into their minds rather 
 than permit that notion to remain unmolested 
 there ; rather imagine such a curious frame of 
 things as this world is, to have come by 
 chance, than that it had a wise, just, holy, as 
 well as powerful Maker. They would count it 
 an absurdity, even unto madness, to think the 
 exquisite picture of a man or a tree to have 
 happened by chance ; and can allow them- 
 selves to be so absurd as to think a man himself 
 or a tree to be casual productions. — y. Howe. 
 
 3 It is the philosophy of the charnel-house. 
 
 [940] " I could with less pain," says Richter, 
 " deny immortality than deity. There I should 
 lose but a world covered with mists; here I 
 should lose the present world — namely, the Sun 
 thereof. The whole spiritual universe is dashed 
 asunder by the hand of atheism into numberless 
 quicksilver points of me's, which glitter, fly, 
 run together or asunder, without unity or con- 
 tinuance. No one in creation is so alone as 
 the denier of God. He mourns, with an 
 orphaned heart which has lost its great Father, 
 by the corpse of nature, which no world-spirit 
 moves and holds together, and which grows in 
 its grave ; and he mourns by that corpse till 
 he himself crumbles off from it. The whole 
 world lies before him like the Egyptian sphinx 
 of stone, half buried in the sand : and the All 
 is the cold iron mask of a formless eternity." 
 
 4 It destroys but does not construct. 
 
 [941] Atheism and infidelity wants a stable 
 foundation ; it centres nowhere but in the 
 denial of God and religion, and yet substitutes 
 no principle, no tenable and constituent scheme 
 of things in the place of them ; its whole business 
 is to unravel all things, to unsettle the mind of 
 man, and to shake all the common notions and 
 received principles of mankind ; it bends its 
 whole force to pull down and to destroy, but 
 lays no foundation to build anything upon, in 
 the stead of that which it pulls down. — Abp. 
 Ttliotson, 1 630-1 674. 
 
 [942] I honestly think that the process of 
 making atheists, trained as such, into philan- 
 thropists, will be but rarely achieved. And I 
 venture to propound the question to those who 
 point to admirable living examples of atheistic 
 or Comtist philanthropy — How many of these 
 have passed through the earlier stage of mo- 
 rality as believers in God, and with all the aid 
 which prayer and faith and hope could give 
 them ? That they remain actively benevolent, 
 having advanced so far, is readily to be antici- 
 pated. But will their children stand where they 
 stand now ? We are yet obeying the great 
 impetus of religion, and running along the rails 
 laid down by our forefathers. Shall we continue 
 in the same course when that impetus has 
 stopped, and we have left the rails altogether?
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 942—951] 
 
 163 
 
 [ATHEISM. 
 
 I fear me not. — Miss F. P. Cobbe, Peak in 
 Darien. 
 
 5 It is the death-knell to happiness present 
 as well as future. 
 
 [943] Atheism is a very melancholy and 
 mischievous thing ; it would take away the 
 fountain of happiness, and the only perfect 
 pattern of it ; endeavours at once to extinguish 
 the being of God, and all the life and comfort 
 of mankind, so that we could neither form any 
 idea of happiness, or be in any possibility of 
 attaining it. For it is plain, we are not sufficient 
 for it of ourselves ; and if there be not a God, 
 there is nothing that can make us so. God is 
 the true light of the world, and a thousan'd 
 times more necessary to the comfort and happi- 
 ness of mankind than the sun itself, which is but 
 a dark shadow of that infinitely more bright and 
 glorious being, the blessed and only Potentate. 
 
 So that the greatest enemies, and most 
 injurious of all others to mankind, are those 
 who would banish the belief of a God out of the 
 world ; because this is to lay the axe to the root 
 of the tree, and at one blow to cut off" all hopes 
 of happiness from mankind. So that he is a 
 fool indeed that says in his heart, There is no 
 God ; that is, that wisheth there were none ; 
 because it is not possible for a man to wish 
 worse to himself, and more effectually to destroy 
 his own happiness. 
 
 [944] God is through all, and our not seeing 
 Him, does not banish Him. It can only banish 
 His joy from our hearts. — SchdnbergCotiaScries. 
 
 6 Its moral outlook, as a moral educator, is 
 as black as need be. 
 
 [945] Viewed with the utmost candour, and 
 admitting all the excellence of its living disciples, 
 I think atheism must deduct from morality the 
 priceless training to reverence afforded by re- 
 ligion ; the illuminating consciousness of an 
 unseen Searcher of hearts ; the invigorating 
 confidence in an Almighty Helper ; the vivi- 
 fying influence of Divine love ; and, finally, the 
 immeasurable, inestimable benefit from the 
 practice of prayer, which is God's own edu- 
 cation of the soul. 
 
 But whatever may be its results as a system 
 of moral training, atheism in its ultimate aspect 
 must be to every religious man and woman who 
 is driven to adopt it in later life the setting of 
 the sun which has warmed and brightened ex- 
 istence. We may live in the twilight, but that 
 which gave to prosperity its joy, to grief its 
 comfort, to duty its delight, to love its sweetness, 
 to solitude its charm, to all life its meaning and 
 purpose, and to death its perfect consolation 
 and support, is lost for ever. There are no 
 words to tell what that loss must be — worst of 
 all to those who are least conscious of it, and 
 who have, therefore, lost with their faith in God 
 those spiritual faculties in whose faculties man 
 has his higher being, and whose very pains are 
 better worth than all the pleasures of earth. — 
 F. P. Cobbc. 
 
 7 It involves the degradation of man. 
 
 [946] "They that deny God," says Lord Bacon, 
 "destroy man's nobility ; for certainly man is of 
 kin to the beasts by his body ; and if he be not 
 of kin to God by his spirit, he is an ignoble 
 creature." 
 
 8 The spread of atheism would be man's 
 social disintegration and ruin. 
 
 [947] The worst enemy a man can have is 
 the man who destroys his soul eternally, robs 
 him of his faith in Christ, and so deprives 
 him of his inheritance in heaven. Again, 
 who is the greatest enemy of his country? 
 Surely he who spreads infidelity and atheism, 
 renders men wicked and cruel, ready for every 
 evil deed, rid of the restraints of the law of 
 Christ, places no restraint on their evil lusts and 
 passions. Imagine for one moment, if j'ou can, 
 what would be the condition of England if the 
 atheists had their way in the teaching of the 
 people — if the masses of our people had no love 
 of God, no regard for His laws, no fear of hell, 
 no hope of heaven. 
 
 [948] Belief in God is the hoop that binds 
 the staves of society together ; let that be 
 broken and all its elements would be dispersed 
 in opposite directions. — Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 9 Atheists often in extremities belie their 
 creed. 
 
 [949] As it is reported of the Persians in 
 ^schylus, that were routed by the lake 
 Strymon : and thereupon, being either to pass 
 the ice then ready to thaw, or to be cut in 
 pieces by the enemy, though before they held, 
 or at least pretended to hold, that there was no 
 God ; yet then, they fell upon their knees and 
 prayed to God that the ice might bear them : 
 nor is this to be wondered at, since all men by 
 nature seem to have a secret acknowledgment 
 of a certain invisible power that is able either to 
 help or to hurt them, which is perhaps the first 
 rude draught and original seed of the persuasion 
 of a deity. And it is this secret acknow- 
 ledgment that naturally makes men, in a great 
 strait and extremity, willing to rely upon more 
 assistances than they see, and to extend their 
 hope further than their senses. — R. South, D.D., 
 1633-1716. 
 
 [950] The atheist usually deserts his opinion 
 in the hour of approaching death. 
 
 IV. The Attitude of Scripture in Re- 
 lation TO Atheism. 
 
 [951] The Bible never attempts to prove that 
 God is. His existence is always taken for 
 granted in the sacred Scriptures. From the 
 first page to the last God is their great assump- 
 tion ; a real atheist, that is, a person who 
 does not believe in any God at all, is a phe- 
 nomenon which they do not take into account, 
 do not, we might almost say, conceive possible.
 
 164 
 
 951—963] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [materialism. 
 
 Even when the Psahnist scornfully exclaims, 
 " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no 
 God," he evidently means, not the theoretical 
 atheist who denies God's existence altogether, 
 but the practical atheist, who thinks that God 
 does not see or care, and therefore need not be 
 feared by the sinner. The atheists of the Bible 
 are those who say, " The Lord shall not see, 
 neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." They 
 are not bold enough, or insane enough, to de- 
 clare that there is no God ; but they think so 
 unworthily about God as to flatter themselves 
 that their sins will escape His notice, or be 
 passed over without punishment. — Broivnloiv 
 Alaitland, Steps to Faith. 
 
 75 
 
 MATERIALISM, 
 
 I. Definitions. 
 
 [952] Materialism is that system which ig- 
 nores the distinction between matter and mind, 
 and refers all the phenomena of the world, 
 whether physical, vital, or mental, to the func- 
 tions of matter. — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic 
 Theology. 
 
 [953] The Lucretian philosophy taught that 
 all organic forms are the result of physical 
 force and chemical affinity acting upon natural 
 atoms. — J. S. 
 
 [954] Materialism in its modern forms, in all 
 that is essential to the theory, is the same that 
 it was a thousand years ago ; its fundamental 
 affirmation is that all the phenomena of the 
 universe are to be referred to physical forces ; 
 and its fundamental negation is that there is no 
 such objective entity as mind or spirit. — Dr. C. 
 Hodge, Systematic Theology. 
 
 II. Its Locus Standi. 
 
 [955] Materialism, so called, is not so much 
 the affirmation of matter as the negation of 
 mind. 
 
 [956] Materialism is on strong ground, from 
 which it cannot be dislodged so long as it in- 
 sists that the senses, so far as they reach, are 
 trustworthy reporters of truth ; its mistake lies 
 in saying that they are the only reporters of 
 truth, and that nothing is to be held for truth 
 which they cannot verify ; that the whole world 
 of mental and spiritual facts, with which the 
 senses have no relation whatever, is, therefore, 
 an imaginary and non-existent world ; that, in 
 short, matter, in whatever state, is alone real. — 
 Canon Liddon. 
 
 [957] The truths which the senses report are 
 reported to the intellect, and the intellect uses 
 the senses and creates instruments — as tele- 
 
 scopes, microscopes to aid the eyes, auroscopes 
 for the ear, and a thousand appliances by which 
 physical occurrences are rendered perceptible 
 to the intellect through the senses. — B. G. 
 
 [958] Materialism is the assumption of science 
 travelling out of its proper boundary. 
 
 III. Arguments against this System. 
 
 I Materialism fails to explain ^patent facts 
 which demand an explanation. 
 
 (i) Organization of matter. 
 
 [959] Give me matter, and I will explain the 
 formation of a world ; but give me matter only, 
 and I cannot explain the formation of a cater- 
 pillar. — Kant, 
 
 (2) Fact of conscioiiS7iess. 
 
 [960] Before science can be in a position to 
 pronounce the belief of the Christian unreason- 
 able, she must be able to explain the fact of 
 consciousness itself. It is obvious that it must 
 be out of her power to deny the possible exist- 
 ence of a mysterious factor of that which is it- 
 self one vast mystery to her. — Church Quarterly 
 Reviexu. 
 
 (3) Existence of spirit. 
 
 [961] If he cannot conceive, as indeed no one 
 can, how such an Infinite and Almighty Person 
 ever came to exist, or how He could exist with- 
 out a beginning — can he better conceive how 
 life, and thought, and spirit, and order, and law, 
 and beauty, and conscience, and harmony, and 
 holiness, and races of personal spirits arose out 
 of brute matter and chaos by millions of happy 
 and unforeseen accidents ? And here I give 
 him matter to start with, though whence matter 
 came must be to him utterly inconceivable. — 
 G. O. Haughton. 
 
 [962] To the common apprehension it seems 
 evident that thought and the qualities of matter 
 have nothing in common. The mind "distin- 
 guishes its own actings, states, and products, 
 and even itself, from the material substance with 
 which it is most intimately connected." 
 
 The mental powers in their highest states of 
 activity certainly are not altogether dependent 
 on matter. Memory, imagination, reflection, 
 religious emotion, the sense of obligation, the 
 consciousness of personal identity, and innu- 
 merable other mental activities, can none of 
 them be conceived of as qualities of matter. — 
 G. F. Wright. 
 
 2 Materialism is contrary to a wide range 
 of human experience. 
 
 [963] (i) It contradicts the facts of conscious- 
 ness : {ci) of our own existence ; {b) of free 
 agency ; (c) of our moral nature. 
 
 (2) It contradicts the truths of reason : {a) that 
 every effect must have an adequate cause ; [b) 
 an infinite succession of effects is unthinkable.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 963—968] 
 
 105 
 
 [materialism. 
 
 : 
 
 (3) It contradicts the facts of experience : the 
 resources of science are unable to raise matter 
 from mineral to vegetable, vegetable to animal, 
 animal to man. 
 
 (4) It contradicts all the evidences of theism. 
 See " Theism." 
 
 3 Materialism is opposed to our senses and 
 the consciousness of the race. 
 
 [964] Jean Paul Richter, finding the current 
 of thought in his time drifting toward atheism, 
 built a barrier for himself by writing, in his 
 " Fruit, Flower, and Thorn Pieces," a dream of 
 a universe without a God. Christ meets him 
 and tells him that God is dead, and then ensues 
 a series of images of confusion, bewilderment^ 
 and horror, such as no other conjurer of wild 
 visions ever imagined. 
 
 To us there seems nothing in literature more 
 remarkable than this piece of Jean Paul's. It 
 is more weird and fascinating than the " Ancient 
 Manner " of Coleridge ; it is more startling than 
 any passage in Dante's " Hell ; " it is more 
 powerful as against atheism than a library of 
 teleological arguments. 
 
 We, too, live in an age of atheistic tendencies. 
 There are those who announce to us that God 
 is dead. A sort of a God we have left ; a God 
 of too much dignity to hear the cry of any dis- 
 tressed spirit ; an absolute, all-pervading es- 
 sence, that is a dumb soul to the universe ; an 
 abstraction, of which we cannot think, that can- 
 not itself think or feel. 
 
 [965] How much such ideas are the outcome 
 of a defective mental constitution is shown in 
 the fact that the men who have, as they believe, 
 dissected the quivering heart of nature, and 
 found there no trace of the immortal God, do 
 not seem to see what a nightmare such a theory 
 is. They do not come to us with the horror- 
 stricken countenance of Jean Paul, to tell us 
 that God is dead, and that the world is orphan. 
 Seeing only the outside of the world, looking 
 coldly through their perceptives, ignoring the 
 intuitions, the wants, the inner oracles of the 
 human heart, they announce that since God can- 
 not be found by their retorts, their telescopes, 
 their miscroscopes — since He is not a pheno- 
 menon to be observed and definitely explained 
 by an experbnentiim cnicis — He cannot be, or, 
 what is the same thing, we can never know that 
 He is. It is the arrogance of physical science 
 that it assumes to be the All. We have had 
 usurpations of theology and usurpations of 
 metaphysics. Now we have the usurpation of 
 science, which begins by declaring that we 
 know nothing but what we see. But the man 
 who thinks to include everything in the category 
 of sense must first abolish not only theology, 
 but poetry. All that realm of knowledge which 
 Shakespeare's noble intuitions lay open to us 
 must be swept away. The things revealed by 
 poetry can be neither touched nor seen ; they 
 have no alkaline reaction ; they are beyond the 
 telescope, and out of the focus of the micro- 
 
 scope. Each age thinks the strongest eddy of 
 its own time the main current of human pro- 
 gress. Men would have us believe that all the 
 struggles of the human soul are to ultimate in 
 bald positivism. That the last result of all our 
 advancement will be to abolish immortality, to 
 deny poetry, to put out all the inner lights of 
 human aspiration and intuition, to believe that 
 this wonderful universe, growing ever into more 
 wonderful forms, is the result of a blind force ; 
 that men are left to be ground to powder by 
 fate, and that for all the injustice, and wrong, 
 and suftering of the world there is neither re- 
 tribution nor compensation. Thei'e are those 
 who think the highest possible result of human 
 enlightenment is a dead God. 
 
 But God has witnesses in the world without 
 and the world within. Man's heart bears testi- 
 mony that He is a living God. You cannot 
 argue against a man's senses, nor against the 
 consciousness of the race. 
 
 4 Materialism lacks moral power. 
 
 [966] As to the mass of mankind, who are 
 endowed neither with any superior gifts to em- 
 ploy, nor vivid imagination to realize the results 
 of their actions hereafter, an appeal to them to 
 act virtuously in consideration of their "post- 
 humous activities," would draw forth some such 
 reply as this : " Our conduct can at most leave 
 after our deaths only very small results on a 
 very few people whom we shall never know. We 
 find it hard enough to make sacrifices for those 
 whom we do know and love, and whose happi- 
 ness or misery we actually witness. It is ask- 
 ing too much of us that, for remote, contingent, 
 and evanescent benefits to our survivors, we 
 should undergo any pain or labour, or renounce 
 any of the pleasures which in our poor short 
 lives (so soon to end for ever in darkness) may 
 fall within our grasp." — Miss F. P. Cobbe, Peak 
 in Darien. 
 
 [967] As little as a crop of corn can spring 
 from the bare rock, can a moral harvest grow 
 upon the soil of materialism. 
 
 5 Materialism eclipses the highest joys of 
 life. 
 
 [968] You have been moved, I cannot doubt, 
 almost to tears by the infinite sadness of the 
 confessions of Mr. John Stuart Mill's "Auto- 
 biography." You remember how one trained 
 after the straitest sect of the Pharisaism of 
 Utility, making the greater happiness of man- 
 kind his chief object in life, because in so doing 
 he would also attain that happiness for himself, 
 found after a while that a horror of great dark- 
 ness fell on him — 
 
 " A grief without a pang, dark, void, and drear ; " 
 
 how he came to look " upon the habit of endless 
 analysis as a perpetital ivornt at the root both of 
 the passions and the virtues^'' ("Autobiography," 
 pp. 134-149), and asked, in the bitterness of 
 despair, "What good shall my life do me.'"
 
 i66 
 
 968—972] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [MATERIALISTIC ATHEISM, 
 
 The last lesson which his wisdom bequeathed 
 to mankind was this : "Religion is essential to 
 your happiness, and belongs to the imagination ; 
 therefore cultivate your imagination, and try to 
 be religious.'' It may be questioned whether 
 that will be accepted as an evangel by the 
 millions who toil and suffer, or by the few who 
 think and struggle. — Rev. Professor Plumptrc, 
 D.D., Infideliiy Refuted by its own Concessions. 
 
 76 
 
 MATERIALISTIC ATHEISM 
 
 I. Its Real Character. 
 I A delusive half-truth. 
 
 [969] Materialistic atheism, like secularistic 
 atheism, gains its position by asserting strongly 
 what few if any deny, and under the cover of this 
 assertion ignoring what nearly everybody be- 
 lieves. The one stands upon matter, or material 
 existence, which few deny, though none can ex- 
 plain what matter is, viz., the substance which is 
 supposed to underlie phenomena, and is itself 
 invisible, intangible, inaudible, inodorous, and 
 tasteless. The other stands upon this life and 
 temporal things, whose claims no one denies. 
 But both mean, surreptitiously, the exclusion of 
 all else : the one, that there is only matter ; the 
 other, that this life is our 07ily life. They are 
 right in what they affirm, but wrong in what they 
 ignore or deny. Their names are delusive and 
 mere decoy-ducks ; their professors are distin- 
 guished not by what they affirm, as matter and 
 this life, but by what they deny or ignore, 
 namely, spirit and a future life. They are both 
 atheistic, and wear a cloak — which is stolen 
 from Christianity and common humanity — for 
 all are materialists and secularists in the true 
 meaning of those terms ; but the majority, in- 
 cluding all Christians, are also spiritualists, 
 believers in the Divine and human spirit, and 
 in an eternal life. — B. G. 
 
 [970] It gives us a pretended lever, but with- 
 out a fulcrum — a building without a foundation 
 — an eft'ect without a cause. The mind of man 
 will not and cannot be content thus to dangle in 
 mid-air ; but we find our resting-place and re- 
 fuge in our belief in the power and providence 
 of an intelligent God and Creator of all nature. 
 — Professor Sedgwick. 
 
 II. Its Present Phase. 
 
 I The adoption of an equivocal, or non- 
 descript, form, viz., spirit-matter — a some- 
 thing between matter and spirit. 
 
 [971] The present fashion in many quarters 
 is to rule out all metaphysical ideas, and to 
 substitute everywhere in scientific thinking phy- 
 sical formulas for the spiritual entities of the 
 philosophers. Great pains have been taken in 
 the invention and perfecting of a suitable phy- 
 sical symbol for the mind. A formula which 
 neither affirms nor denies its immaterial essence, 
 
 but by which it may be represented as a physical 
 
 quantity in the scientific equation of things, has 
 lately been elaborated. Professor Bain, accord- 
 ingly, writes of "one substance with two sets 
 of properties, two sides, the physical and the 
 mental — a do7iblefaced Jinity.''' Mr. Lewes re- 
 presents these two aspects of life as like the 
 convex and concave sides of one identical curve 
 — though he fails to inform us what is curved, 
 or what substance possesses these contrasted 
 properties. This new positive philosophy of 
 mind escapes the charge of grossly confounding 
 mental and physical processes, and conveniently 
 faces both ways ; but Lotze justly characterizes 
 it as a fruitless hypothesis, for it explains nothing 
 — not even, we may add, itself When we think 
 it logically out, it leaves us no better off than we 
 were before. For either these opposite proper- 
 ties, the mental and the physical, must be pro- 
 perties the one of the other— the mind a function 
 of the brain, or the brain of the mind — which 
 would be the old materialism, or idealism, over 
 again ; or else these properties must inhere in 
 some third something, which would launch us 
 again into metaphysics ; or else we must try 
 and conceive of nothing with two sides to it, a feat 
 which might task the power even of a Hegelian. 
 In fact, this scientific formula for the soul, only 
 substitutes one metaphysical idea for another. 
 Our present purpose, however, is not to show 
 the insufficiency of this "guarded materialism," 
 but rather to avail ourselves of whatever new 
 light mental physiology may be able to throw 
 across the old problem of the nature of the soul. 
 Possibly from these modern studies of mind and 
 brain a modified immaterialism may be pro- 
 duced, which we may set over against the quali- 
 fied materialism of ^Ir. Bain as "the growing 
 opinion." — Newman Smyth., Old FaitJis in Neio 
 Light. 
 
 III. Its True Interpretation. 
 I It implies the orphanage of mankind. 
 
 [972] The loss of faith in Providence is in fact 
 one of the most deeply felt deprivations which 
 are connected with the giving up of the Chris- 
 tian beliefs of the Church. In the enormous 
 machine of the universe — amid the incessant 
 whirl and hiss of its toothed iron wheels, amid 
 the deafening crash of its ponderous stamps and 
 hammers — in the midst of this whole terrific 
 commotion, man, a helpless and defenceless 
 creature, finds himself placed, not secure for a 
 moment that on an imprudent motion on his 
 part, a wheel may not seize and rend him, or a 
 hammer crush him to powder. This sense of 
 abandonment is at first something awful. — 
 Strauss. " No God," adds the American trans- 
 lator of these words in Scribno^s Monthly for 
 February, 1874, "No God ; man without a soul 
 and destined very soon to perish for ever ; the 
 race also to be eventually destroyed, together 
 with everj'thing on the earth, and the earth 
 itself ; no goal, no grand final cause — an aimless 
 universe. Such is the attractive creed of the 
 new religion."
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY 
 
 973— 977J 
 
 167 
 
 [nihilism. 
 
 77 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL MATERIALISM. 
 
 I. Arguments against this Creed. 
 
 1 It seeks to permanently retain the results 
 of religion without its vital principle. 
 
 [973] To retain the pieties of human character 
 V. ithout any conscious relations with the living 
 God, as these men wish to do, is impossible. 
 The very life of religion centres precisely in that 
 which they discard. They feel the elevation 
 and the beauty of the best type of spiritual 
 growth, but would dispense with its secret 
 aliment and conditions. They look with wonder 
 at the stately stem as it springs aloft ; they 
 love the shade of the foliage ; they admire the 
 blossom ; but they cut the root. — JSIartineau. 
 
 2 It makes sense the measure of faith. 
 
 [974] To judge after this manner, nothing is 
 real which cannot be seen ; therefore there is 
 no such Being as God, because we do not see 
 Him. This would be most foolish arguing, of 
 Avhich any one, who pretends to reason, may be 
 ashamed : for if we consider it, invisibility is 
 necessarily implied in the notion of a God, and 
 He could not be God without it. For is not our 
 notion of a God that of a Being everywhere 
 present, and everywhere active? but if He be 
 everywhere, He cannot be like matter or body, 
 which is shut out of all those places where other 
 bodies are ; and if He be not a body, He cannot 
 be visible to bodily eyes. — H. Grove, 1683-1738. 
 
 3 It contains no force to conquer the power 
 of evil habit. 
 
 [975] This principle is one of the mightiest in 
 human nature. Through its influences men 
 have slowly become what they are. In a great 
 degree our existing modes of thinking, of acting, 
 and our whole moral environment, have grown 
 up under the power of habit. But habituation, 
 from its very nature, is powerless to grapple 
 with a state of moral evil and corruption. Its 
 operation must be slow, for any gradual change 
 is one which is implied in the very conception 
 of a habit. To enable it to struggle against a 
 state of corruption it requires a vantage-ground 
 from which to commence its operations. If a 
 bad or an imperfect man is to be made good by 
 habituation, the means must be provided for 
 coercing the vehemence of passion, while his 
 moral character passes through a succession of 
 slow stages of improvement. In a W'ord, it is 
 necessary that he should possess a certain 
 amount of goodness before the principle of 
 habituation can exert any salutary influence on 
 his reformation. It can act on an unformed 
 character with ease ; but how can it be brought 
 to bear on one where the evil appetites are pre- 
 dominant, and the power of self-restraint has 
 been weakened or destroyed ? Ancient philo- 
 sophy, therefore, rightly viewed an advanced 
 stage of moral corruption as one lying beyond 
 
 its power to remedy. What had it to preach to 
 the morally corrupt ? The beauty of disinter- 
 ested virtue, which such characters were unable 
 to discern ; or the cold considerations of pru- 
 dence, which were easily overborne by passion. 
 How was a new power to be created capable of 
 appreciating them ? — Contemporary Review, 
 1S69. 
 
 78 
 
 NIHILISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [976] Nihilism, from the Latin nihil — nothing, 
 means simply " nothingism," and is the proper 
 province of those wlio know nothing, but whose 
 modesty is not equal to their ignorance. — B. G. 
 
 II. Arguments against its Principles. 
 
 I Nihilism is the suicide of science and 
 philosophy. 
 
 [977] The Nihilist theory, which Mr. Spencer 
 shares with the disciples of positivism, while 
 disclaiming M. Comte's theories on many im- 
 portant questions of philosophy, as presented in 
 these chapters, has one fatal defect. By proving 
 too much it proves nothing, and betrays its own 
 inherent falsehood. It abolishes all possible 
 theology by abolishing equally all possible 
 science. The reasons from which it infers that 
 nothing at all can be known of God, have pre- 
 cisely the same efficacy to prove that nothing 
 can be known of any object of thought whatever. 
 The Ultimate Religious Ideas, and the Ulti- 
 mate Scientific Ideas, are pronounced alike to 
 be " unthinkable and inconceivable." The only 
 just conclusion from such premises must be, 
 either that knowledge is possible both in religion 
 and physical science, or in neither. But the legs 
 of the lame are not equal. The conclusion 
 actually drawn is that all theology, beyond the 
 admission that there is a mysterious something 
 of which nothing can be known, is a fiction ; 
 but that science may claim a wide, progressive, 
 and ever enlarging domain of ascertained and 
 ascertainable truth. How shall we account, 
 unless by some "^strange and fatal moral bias, 
 for premises exactly similar in the two cases 
 leading thus to wholly opposite conclusions ? 
 
 This Nihilist argument rests mainly on the 
 misuse of ambiguous terms, and a most decep- 
 tive antithesis between science and religion. 
 
 The three main subjects of human thought, 
 the objects of actual or possible science, are 
 Nature, Man, and God. The answering cate- 
 gories of thought are physics or natural philo- 
 sophy, humanity, and theology. In each there 
 is, or may be, something that is known ; and 
 there is also, and must be, unless we were 
 omniscient, much that is still unknown. The 
 first constitutes science, the second its attendant 
 mystery. Thus there is a natural science, and 
 there are physical mysteries ; there is human —
 
 i68 
 
 977— 9S2J 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIAyiTV, 
 
 [pessimism. 
 
 that is, biological, social, and moral science, and 
 there are human mysteries ; there is a theological 
 science, and there are Divine mysteries. The 
 higher we rise in the scale of being, from things 
 beneath us to the God above us, the larger the 
 proportion of the unknown to the known is 
 likely to be. 
 
 Science, however, is sometimes taken in a 
 limited sense for physical science alone. The 
 positive philosophy, and Mr. Spencer also, 
 though less its disciple than a collateral ally, 
 extend the title to include human or social 
 science also. Next, because the highest subject 
 is the most mysterious, religion is made an 
 equivalent for pure mystery. By this double, 
 silent process, theology is shut out entirely from 
 the domain of science. Religion sinks into a 
 synonym for nescience ; and science is con- 
 demned to grind in a prison-house of utter 
 irreligion, without one ray of heavenly light 
 being allowed to disturb the settled midnight 
 gloom. — Rev. T. R. Birks, Sciipiure Doctrine 
 of Creation. 
 
 2 Nihilism agrees with atheism in most 
 respects. 
 
 [978] Nihilism is really another alias for 
 atheism, and what is true of one system is true 
 very much of the other ; they both agree in the 
 following respects : — 
 
 1. Atheism supplies no motives to do well 
 which theism need reject if they are right. 
 
 2. It must reject some motives to good which 
 theism supplies. 
 
 3. It mutilates human nature, or suppresses 
 some of its most powerful instincts — e.g. prayer, 
 and gratitude to God. 
 
 4. It provides no substitute for religion. 
 
 5. It confines men to time and the world 
 -when they aspire to immortality and pant for 
 the Divine. 
 
 3 Nihilism involves, if possible, still deeper 
 contradictions than atheism. 
 
 [979] The doctrine of nihilism professes to 
 liold an impartial position, and to prove alike of 
 atheism, pantheism, and theism, that they are 
 unthinkable and inconceivable, and that of the 
 origin and authorship of the universe nothing 
 whatever can be known. But this neutrality is 
 a mere delusion. Its own negative atheism is 
 just as complete as that positive atheism which 
 it disclaims and professes to disprove. For 
 theism is no abstract, unpractical theory of the 
 universe. It is the belief in a First Cause, the 
 Creator and INIoral Governor of the universe, 
 who has a claim on the reverence and love of all 
 His intelligent creatures, and whom it is their 
 highest duty to sen-e, honour, and obey. To 
 affirm that there may be a God, and still that 
 nothing can ever be known of Him, so that 
 there can be no obligation on any other being 
 to serve and obey Him, is to accept in words 
 the existence of a Being, whose distinctive and 
 defining character is absolutely and wholly 
 denied. So far as the whole sphere of know- 
 
 ledge, life, duty, and practice extends, the creed 
 is one of simple atheism. It differs in theory, 
 only by involving still deeper self-contradictions. 
 However sad and dark, the view is morally 
 consistent : — " I believe that the universe is 
 self-created, and has no Divine Author, and 
 therefore I own no debt of service to a Being 
 who does not exist." But it is stranger still to 
 say — " I am not sure that there is a God, and 
 I am not sure that there is no God. Of this 
 only I am sure, that if He exists I can know 
 nothing about Him, and can owe Him no 
 service, gratitude, or love. I am sure of this, 
 that neither to love Him nor care for Him is 
 scientific wisdom, and to love Him or seek to 
 learn His will is a superstitious folly." Such a 
 doctrine seems more unreasonable and offensive 
 than even formal atheism. Its wide acceptance 
 in these days, under the plea of scientific insight, 
 is a moral portent of a most unusual and startling 
 kind. — Rev. T. R. Birks, Scripture Doctrine of 
 Creation. 
 
 79 
 
 PESSIMISM. 
 
 I. The Meaning of the Term Itself. 
 
 [980] Pessimism is from pessitnus, the super- 
 lative of Latin mains — bad or evil, and is 
 literally " worstism ; " it is the opposite of 
 optimism or " bestism," the language of which 
 is — 
 
 " I stretch lame hands of faith and hope 
 And gather dust and chaff, and call 
 To what I feel is Lord of all. 
 And faintly trust the larger hope." 
 
 "And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite. 
 One truth is clear, whatever is, is Right." 
 Pope, Essay on Man. 
 
 [9S1] A. Taubert, in her work " Der Pessi- 
 mismus und seine Gegner," remarks that the 
 term "pessimism" is not well chosen, as it 
 might express the idea that the present world 
 was the worst that could be conceived. The 
 term, however, she regards as correct so far as 
 it conveys the idea that the non-existence of the 
 universe is to be preferred to its existence. She 
 observes that the more suitable expression 
 would be that proposed by Knauer, namely, 
 MalisDuis, or, as Haym has proposed, Mise?-a- 
 bilisnms. For these terms permit one to hold 
 the opinion that, in spite of its badness, the 
 world as it exists is the best of all possible 
 worlds, while the word " pessimism " conveys a 
 much stronger idea. 
 
 II. Its Miserable Conclusion. 
 I Life is not worth living. 
 
 [9S2] A pessimist is what is commonly called 
 a universal complainer, but the one I intend to
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 982—988] 
 
 109 
 
 [pessimism. 
 
 introduce to you is a scholarly, thoughtful, 
 studious man, who after much study has formed 
 his own opinions on the subject of life. 
 
 [983] A pessimist's view of life and cosmology 
 does not give a very glowing picture, as the 
 brighter shades are almost eclipsed by the more 
 sombre ones, and the life of man is reduced to 
 a doleful existence. 
 
 [984] The pessimist in studying even nature 
 herself can hear no music in the harmony of the 
 spheres, "for ever singing as they shine, the hand 
 that made us is Divine." He only comprehends 
 them, in all their galaxy of beauty, as a conglo- 
 meration of" the fortuitous concourse of atoms," 
 which the concretions of aons have developed 
 into amazing masses of matter, rolling in their 
 distinct orbits, by the laws of dynamics ; also he, 
 considering this cosmos on which he dwells, in 
 all its amazing variety of hill, mountain, dale, 
 forests, flowers, fruit, rugged rock, fertile plain, 
 swelling seas, placid rivers — or when he digs 
 deep into its interior, and explores its geologi- 
 cal formation or its wondrous paleontological 
 museum of dead and extinct animals and 
 human remains — he finds it but a vast Gol- 
 gotha, a charnel-house, filled with the dust of 
 untold ages. The pessimist, therefore, thinks 
 that as men are ruled by such inexorable and 
 unrelenting laws that life becomes a hard task- 
 master, and like Shylock will have its pound 
 of flesh ; neither more or less. Viewing life 
 ethically, psychologically, physically, and theo- 
 logically, the pessimist concludes that " life is 
 not worth living." — H. Hastijigs, M.D., in the 
 Homilist (1881). 
 
 III. The Nature of its Philosophical 
 Creed. 
 
 I Avowed atheism yet exhibits a pantheistic 
 tendency. 
 
 [985] This school of philosophy, as repre- 
 sented by Schopenhauer and others, is avowedly 
 atheistic in its creed, though in the shape it has 
 assumed in the writings of Von Hartmann it 
 exhibits somewhat of a pantheistic tendency. 
 It is in many respects one of the most extraordi- 
 nary phenomena of the present age. Men have 
 existed in all ages predisposed to melancholy 
 and inclined to look upon life as dark and 
 gloomy. This " unreasoned pessimism," as it 
 has been well termed by Mr. Sully, has as- 
 sumed many forms. Some of the finest out- 
 pourings of poetry have been the outbursts of 
 the feeling of melancholy which often seizes 
 upon the human heart. The optimism of Leib- 
 nitz, eagerly embraced both by the deist philo- 
 sophers and the Christian theologians of the 
 eighteenth century, produced a reaction in an 
 opposite direction among philanthropic thinkers, 
 a reaction strongly aided by the writings of 
 David Hume. Several of the leading poets of 
 the succeeding age, such as Byron and Shelley 
 in England, and Heine and others in Germany, 
 w-ere deeply imbued with a dislike of the then 
 
 prevalent optimism, and their poems often com- 
 plain of the misery of human life. Some of 
 them went further, and even Herder in some of 
 his poems expressed sentiments not very dif- 
 ferent from those lately propounded. Pessimism, 
 however, may be considered to have been first 
 elevated to the position of a philosophic creed 
 by the writings of Schopenhauer and Von 
 Hartmann. — C.H. IV. Wright, D.D.^Doiinellan 
 Lectures (1883). 
 
 2 It is the desperation element and shadow 
 of atheism. 
 
 [986] There is another system, called pessi- 
 mism, which has dropped down into pure 
 'materialism. The doctrine of Schopenhauer 
 and of Hartmann, is that this is the worst of all 
 worlds ; or, if it is not the worst, then it is so bad 
 that it would have been better if it had never 
 been created, and that the supreme aspiration 
 of the human race must be for extinction. This, 
 literally, is the outcome of Malthusianism and 
 materialism, whose principles naturally run into 
 pessimism, and end at last in the name of cul- 
 ture and absolute despair. — Joseph Cook, The 
 Boston Monday Lectures. 
 
 3 It is the gospel of despair. 
 
 [987] It is the favourite and logical resort of 
 atheism in its more thoughtful and melancholy 
 moods ; that is, when atheism turns, from derid- 
 ing religion, to count its own treasures ; when it 
 vacates " the seat of the scorner," and sits down 
 on the throne of despair. The poetry of atheistic 
 freethought is wondrously doleful ; its highest 
 hope is to enter the "silent land" — to reach 
 " the last dark day of nothingness." — B. G. 
 
 IV. The Mental Source of its Error. 
 
 I Its miserable conclusion results from a 
 one-sided induction. 
 
 [988] Sully has pointed out that the empirical 
 proofs adduced by Von Hartmann in favour of 
 pessimism are unsatisfactory. Many of the 
 statements of Von Hartmann respecting the 
 illusory character of human progress are founded 
 on arbitrary assumptions. For instance, he 
 asserts that the amount of immorality is to be 
 regarded as a constant quantity ; that diseases 
 increase in a greater ratio than the remedies ; 
 that industrial progress has achieved nothing 
 positive for the happiness of mankind ; that the 
 sense of misery arising from the fierce uncon- 
 trolled passions of savage races "is equalled by 
 the sum of misery arising from the prudentially 
 restrained but still active immoral tendencies 
 of civilized society." Sully notes that a general 
 theory of pleasure and pain is still far from 
 complete, and that it is impossible to estimate 
 scientifically the relative value of different kinds 
 of pleasure. He maintains that happiness is a 
 balance of pleasure, and though happiness is 
 unattainable here, when thought of as an un- 
 broken state of delicious excitement, yet it is 
 to a very considerable extent attainable as an
 
 170 
 
 988-995] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [pessimism. 
 
 object of human pursuit. Sully admits that " the 
 view of the present life as an opportunity of lay- 
 ing the foundations of our eternal well-being, or 
 of helping to secure this immeasurable good for 
 the souls of our fellow-men, has, no doubt, its 
 unique value as a stimulus to human effort." He 
 observes also that "if men are to abandon all 
 hope of a future life the loss in point of cheering 
 and sustaining influence will be a vast one, and 
 one not to be made good, so far as I can see, by 
 any new idea of services to collective humanity; " 
 and yet he remarks sadly in the next paragraph 
 that "it is one thing to see the limits of an 
 object, another to deny it its proper magnitude. 
 After all, this earthly life may be our sole por- 
 tion, and it is well not to dismiss it from view 
 too scornfully." — Pessimism : a History and a 
 Criticism. 
 
 [989] If this life were all, and if enjoyment 
 were the object of being, it would be difficult to 
 deny that the pessimist had a formidable case, 
 or that the world, on the whole and for the 
 majority of mankind, was a failure. It is, at 
 least it may be, otherwise if the theistic hypo- 
 thesis is true, if the secret of the universe is not 
 mechanical but moral, if the paramount object 
 is the formation of character, and if the results 
 of effort are to endure, in any form whatever, 
 beyond the physical catastrophe of the planet. 
 Trying to be good is within the power of a 
 galley-slave ; audit is conceivable that by being 
 ever so little better than himself the most abject 
 of mankind may cast into the moral treasury a 
 mite more precious in the estimation of the 
 Author of our moral being than the effortless 
 virtue of a born se.r^.'p'h..— Professor Goldwiii 
 Smith in Contei.uporary Review. 
 
 [990] It is the compensation of the future life 
 that destroys pessimism in this. " If in this life 
 only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men 
 most miserable." 
 
 [991] Where is that to be found? Surely 
 only in the perception of a higher good than 
 happiness, in the recognition of an aim so 
 desirable that it may be sought through and in 
 spite of much misery, in the consciousness that, 
 given human free will, much misery is a needful 
 means to the attainment of that great end, the 
 righteous soul that loveth righteousness. Armed 
 with this interpretation of life, one may stand in 
 the presence of much suffering, and experience 
 some share of it one's self, without losing faitli in 
 the Divine greatness and goodness. — H. Shaen 
 Solly in Modern Review. 
 
 [992] The pessimist should listen to the con- 
 fession often made in wretched homes : " I 
 brought it on myself ;" " it's my own fault ; " " I 
 have no one to blame but myself ; " still better 
 is it to witness the unconscious heroism by which 
 suffering is turned into a school for fortitude, of 
 resignation or renewed endeavour, of faith either 
 to do or to bear. — Ibid. 
 
 V. Reasons aiding its Present Adop- 
 tion. 
 
 X It flatters one's sense of superiority. 
 
 [993] " Unreserved pessimism " is, as Sully 
 has well observed, in many cases but the 
 natural outburst of a carping, fault-finding dis- 
 position. Many take pleasure in finding fault 
 with all around them, and in thus seeking to 
 exhibit their own real or fancied superiority. 
 " By how much, one wonders, would the amount 
 of human criticism be diminished, if one no 
 longer derived from the process any agreeable 
 feelings of intellectual elevation." " Pessimism 
 flatters a man by presenting him with a portrait 
 of himself in which he appears as another 
 ' Prometheus vinctus,' suffering tortures from 
 the hand of the cruel Zeus-pater, the World- 
 all, which begot and holds us, yet bearing up 
 and resisting in proud defiance. . . . Pessimism 
 enables its adherent to pose as some wronged 
 and suffering divinity, to the admiration of him- 
 self at least, if not of spectators around him," 
 an admiration not less real though it is generally 
 disavowed. Many persons have adopted the 
 creed of modern pessimism, not because they 
 have made for themselves any deep study of its 
 principles, and still less any careful study of 
 the arguments in favour of Christianity, but 
 simply because of the novelty and temporary 
 popularity which that system has attained in 
 some quarters ; and because, like other atheistic 
 theories, it is unquestionably upheld by some 
 writers of ability and renown. — C. H. W. 
 Wright, D.D., Donnelian Lectures. 
 
 VI. Arguments against this Creed. 
 
 1 It is essentially selfish. 
 
 [994] In his " Pha^nomenologie des sittlichen 
 Bewusstseins," pp. 42-46, Von Hartmann has 
 some striking criticisms on these notions of 
 Schopenhauer. He points out that pessimism 
 in the form advocated by Schopenhauer is 
 essentially selfish in its aims. It is selfish for a 
 man to seek to escape from life and leave others 
 to go on in the same "mad dance of fools which 
 common life is." One ought, according to Von 
 Hartmann, to be perfectly indifferent to life or 
 death, to the idea of our existence being pro- 
 longed indefinitely or terminated. The latter 
 idea is in some aspects akin to the doctrine of 
 the Yoga taught in the second chapter of the 
 Bhagavad-Gita. — Ibid. 
 
 2 It leads to the indulging of a sensual 
 gratification. 
 
 [995] However the highly trained philosopher 
 may act, the adoption of an atheistic creed 
 must lead the multitude to seek after sensual 
 gratifications, and ultimately drive them into 
 the most terrible excesses. Even Renan has 
 clearly perceived this. Hence he writes (" Etude 
 sur I'Ecclesiaste," p. 88) : " In his greatest 
 follies Koheleth does not forget the judgment 
 of God. Let us do as he does. In the midst 
 of the absolutely fleeting character of things let
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 995-999] 
 
 171 
 
 [pessimism. 
 
 us maintain the eternal ! Without that we shall 
 not be free nor easy in discussing it. The 
 morrow of the day when men believe no more 
 in God, the largest number of victims will be 
 the atheists. One never philosophizes more at 
 ease than when he knows that his philosophy 
 will not be carried out to its consequences. 
 Ring, ye bells, entirely at your ease ; the more 
 you ring, the more I will permit myself to say 
 that your voice does not mean anything definite. 
 If I believed that I could silence you, ah ! it is 
 then that I would be timid and prudent." — Ibid. 
 
 3 It tends to suicide. 
 
 [996] However theoretically opposed Schopen- 
 hauer's philosophy may be to suicide, and how- 
 ever much his followers have tried to avoid the 
 accusation that the doctrines of pessimism tend 
 to that result, suicide cannot but be regarded as 
 a logical outcome of such doctrines. It must 
 be borne in mind that pessimists are not op- 
 posed to suicide on any principles of morality. 
 Every real basis of morality is destroyed by 
 their system. If life be hateful and its burden 
 unendurable, and if death lands us in the ever- 
 lasting rest of nothingness (for we need not 
 here discuss the possibility of some continuity 
 of existence when consciousness has ceased), 
 then the conclusion of the song is logical, " the 
 sooner 'tis over the sooner to sleep." Why 
 should an individual continue to live a life of 
 martyrdom and useless striving when the end 
 of all is that nothing, into which ascetics and 
 voluptuaries shall alike descend ? Why not as 
 speedily as possible step behind the veil into the 
 rest of unconsciousness 1 For even the miseries 
 of those who remain still on earth, whose suf- 
 ferings the individual might by living perhaps 
 help to alleviate, only tend to make them more 
 willing to seek the same blissful goal. — Ibid. 
 
 VII. Its Historical Relations. 
 
 I Its modern exponent supposed to have 
 been slightly deranged. 
 
 [997] Gwinner,his ablest and latest biographer, 
 speaks of him as one who from childhood was 
 always disposed to believe that some terrible 
 misfortune was about to happen to him. He 
 admits that his hero's intense anxiety often bor- 
 dered on madness. As a young man he was 
 tortured constantly with the idea that he had 
 all sorts of diseases. When a student he once 
 fancied he was dying of consumption. He fled 
 from Naples through a nervous dread of the 
 smallpox, and from Berlin on account of the 
 cholera. For many years he was miserable, 
 owing to his fear of a criminal process. He 
 was greatly deficient in personal courage, and 
 was in a constant state of alarm in 1813, fearing 
 lest he should be forced into the army. If he 
 was awoke by any noise at night he would rush 
 out of his bed armed with a dagger and pistols, 
 which he always kept loaded. He was more 
 than inclined to be a regular misanthrope, 
 although sometimes desirous not to be regarded 
 as such, but simply as one who despised man- 
 
 kind in general. In his old age he seemed to 
 look upon any contact with men as a contami- 
 nation and a defilement, and maintained that 
 the wisest man is he who in the w-hole course of 
 his life has the least intercourse with his fellows. 
 He regarded the vast majority of mankind as 
 either knaves or fools. See Schopenhauer's 
 " Leben," von Wilhelm Gwinner, 2te umgearbei- 
 tete u. vielfach vermehrte Auflage der Schrift 
 " Arthur Schopenhauer aus personlichem Um- 
 gange dargestelt." — Ibid. 
 
 2 Its followers live not as pessimists but 
 . optimists. 
 
 [998] Schopenhauer, though strongly inclined 
 to misanthropy, was keenly susceptible to all 
 adverse criticism of his writings, and to matters 
 affecting his reputation. He endeavoured in 
 early life to obtain distinction as a University 
 professor, and failed. His denunciation in 
 after life of all university professors and of 
 " Katheder-philosophie" ("Parerga und Parali- 
 pomena," Werke, vol. v. pp. 151 ff.) was not a 
 little influenced by his own failure. His great 
 work, too, " Die Welt als Wllleund Vorstellung," 
 was, notwithstanding the vigour of its style and 
 the novelty of its opinions, for many years an 
 utter failure (see Sully's "Pessimism," pp. 78 ff.) 
 Misogynist, too, as he became in later life, he 
 was at least once guilty of writing a love-poem, 
 and, when he was a Docent in the University 
 of Berlin, thought seriously of marriage. His 
 dread of the necessary cares and trouble of 
 married life, however, led him to abandon his 
 intention. The troubles of married life he 
 describes characteristically as " endlose Ausga- 
 ben, Kindersorgen, Widerspenstigkeit, Eigen- 
 sinn, Alt-und-garstigwerden nach wenigen 
 Jahren, Betriigen, Horneranfsetzen, Grillen, 
 hysterische Anfalle, Liebhaber, und Hcille und 
 Teufel " (Gwinner's "Leben," p. 335). It was 
 thus his melancholy forebodings rather than his 
 philosophical opinions which restrained him 
 from marrying. He was, however, not without 
 exhibiting at times a susceptibility to the power 
 of female charms, and was wont to confess, with 
 Lord Byron, that he found it hard to fall out 
 with women, and easy to fall out with men 
 (Gwinner's " Leben," p. 527). Luthardt (" Mo- 
 derne Weltanschauungen," p. 188), alluding to 
 the phenomenon noticed above, very appro- 
 priately refers to the scoff of Voltaire, that, 
 however pessimistically men may often express 
 themselves, they usually try to live as optimisti- 
 cally as possible, and seldom prove insensible to 
 the pleasures of venison and champagne. — Ibid. 
 
 VIII. Christianity contrasted with 
 
 Pessimism. 
 
 X The pessimist surrenders in despair to 
 fate; the Christian triumphs through faith 
 over fate. 
 
 [999] Pessimism is the teaching of hopeless- 
 ness and doubt, the disposition of those who 
 have managed to bring into a system what their 
 moral apathy wishes to justify as truly noble.
 
 172 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [pantheism. 
 
 Christianity is the gospel of hope, which 
 exalts man above his weakness, to a new joy in 
 life. 
 
 In the one case, man surrenders the battle 
 before he enters the conflict, saying, All is 
 vanity ; in the other case, man enters the battle 
 of life with certainty of victory. " Our faith is 
 the victory that overcometh the world." Pes- 
 simism and Christianity are the two great para- 
 doxes. Not infrequently have they been 
 declared to be related. Christianity is pes- 
 simistic in so far as it declares the earth to be a 
 valley of sorrow. Yes ; truly they are related. 
 Both preach the suffering of earth, and the 
 weakness of the individual purpose. But while 
 pessimism is satisfied with this, and makes 
 suffering the ground of vanity, Christianity 
 takes occasion from this suffering to direct its 
 vision aloft to the '• hills from whence cometh 
 our help." There, the preaching of the misery 
 of our life is made the occasion of haughty 
 pride ; here, it is a matter of humility which 
 speaks thus, There is nothing for me and my 
 life on this earth but to go hence ; what Christ 
 has given me that is worthy of love ; " for the 
 grace of God that bringeth salvation hath 
 appeared to all men." Both speak of the weak- 
 ness of man, but Christianity knows and speaks 
 with the apostle : " %vhcii I am weak, then I am 
 strong," for it is the power of God which is 
 mighty in the weak. And thus, when Luther 
 sings that with our might nothing is done, he so 
 sings only because he knew that, for him, " the 
 true man " strove, in whose name and strength 
 he lifted his age from disaster.— C^". Luthardt. 
 
 2 Christian pessimism is the road to true 
 optimism. 
 
 [1000] Christianity is pessimistic in so far as 
 it recognizes that " the world is out of course " 
 on account of sin, and that " the world " as it 
 is "lies under the power of the evil one (i John 
 v. 19). This is also the doctrine of the Old 
 Testament. For Judaism, notwithstanding 
 Schopenhauer's assertions to the contrary, has 
 also a pessimistic side. Judaism and Chris- 
 tianity both recognize the fact that " the whole 
 creation groaneth and travaileth in pain to- 
 gether until now" (Rom. viii. 22). The doctrine 
 that " all things work together for good to those 
 that love God" (Rom. viii. 28) was taught even 
 in the Old Testament, and the Book of Job was 
 written with the distinct object of pointing out 
 that afflictions and sorrows are not always to be 
 regarded as marks of the Divine displeasure, 
 but are often permitted in order to purify the 
 righteous, and to test their integrity. Inasmuch 
 as pain and misery exist in this world, Christians 
 are taught by their great Master not to endea- 
 vour to go out of the world, but, continuing in 
 the same, to seek to be preserved from the evil 
 that abounds in it Qohn xvii. 15), while working 
 for the good of others. They are not called 
 upon to become ascetics, though " bodily exer- 
 cise is profitable for a little," but to " exercise" 
 themselves rather "unto godliness" (i Tim. 
 iv. 7, 8), bearing in mind, whether they eat or 
 drink or whatever they do, to do all to the glory 
 of God (I Cor. X. 31).— C H. IV. Wright, 
 D.D., Donnellan Lectures.
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 {Continued), 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY. 
 
 (i) a. Its Actual Phases, 
 b. Denial of the Divine Personality. 
 
 Pages 174 to 184. 
 
 TABLE OF TOPICS, 
 
 80 
 PANTHEISM. 
 
 81 
 INTUITIONALIS^L 
 
 82 
 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 83 
 
 TRANSCENDENTALISM. 
 
 ^n
 
 174 
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 {Coniimted). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY {continued). 
 
 (i) a. Its Actual Phases. 
 
 b. Denial of the Divine Personality. 
 
 80 
 
 PANTHEISM. 
 
 I. Its Tenets. 
 
 1 It confines Deity to nature, as identified 
 with it. 
 
 [looi] According to scientific theism, we are 
 equally sure of the Divine Immanency in all 
 nature, and of the Divine Transcendency above 
 it. Pantheism, however, asserts that natural 
 law and God are one ; and thus, at its best, it 
 teaches but half the truth, namely, the Divine 
 Immanency, but not the Divine Transcendency. 
 — Rev. Joseph Cook, Boston Lectures. 
 
 [1002] God is everything, and everything is 
 God. 
 
 2 It virtually denies man's personality and 
 responsibility. 
 
 [1003] The pantheistic doctrine is that man is 
 not an individual subsistence ; he is but a 
 moment in the life of God, a wave on the 
 surface of the sea, a leaf which falls and is 
 renewed year after year. When the body, 
 which makes the distinction of persons among 
 men, perishes, personality ceases with it. There 
 is no conscious existence for man after death. — 
 Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theology. 
 
 3 It makes man a temporary phenomenon. 
 
 [1004] Pantheism denies the personal immor- 
 tality of the soul. To pantheism death is the 
 sinking of a wave back into the sea. — Ibid. 
 
 II. Its Forms and Developments. 
 
 I As infecting the ancient philosophy and 
 mythology. 
 
 [1005] The philosophic speculations of anti- 
 quity touching the Divine nature seldom rose 
 above pantheism ; they could arrive at the 
 conception of one primary fountain of Deity, 
 but they identified their deity with nature, and 
 so the Divine Being became a mere abstract 
 essence, at once everything and nothing, not a 
 living, personal, operative agent. Hence in its 
 
 ancient mythology, it is never the one invisible 
 God who interferes with the affairs of men : no 
 sooner does the Divine Essence come forth 
 from the void abyss, which is its proper resi- 
 dence, and manifest itself in action, than it be- 
 comes multiplied into polytheism, and appears 
 under the form of the manifold heathen deities, 
 to whom the real administration of the world 
 was held to be committed. — Canon Liddon, 
 Bainpton Lectures. 
 
 2 As an enemy to the religion of the cross. 
 
 [1006] Pantheism has ever and anon, through 
 the eighteen centuries of Christianity, proved 
 itself a grave, a subtle, and a serious enemy to 
 the religion of the cross. Sometimes it has 
 appeared in the gross form of a materializing 
 religion, which has depicted the Creator as an 
 earthly and carnal being ; sometimes in a far 
 more spiritual phase, needing but a slight dis- 
 entanglement to become Christian ; sometimes 
 in a dualistic shape, proclaiming with Mani- 
 cheeism the existence of two' rival principles, a 
 good and evil one, engaged, amidst internecine 
 warfare, in the production and governance of 
 created things ; sometimes trading, so to speak, 
 upon a reaction from prosaic systems of logic, 
 and upon incautious language employed by 
 devout Christians concerning the nature of the 
 union betwixt God and His creatures ; and, 
 lastly, presenting itself robed as an angel of 
 light in a system clear-cut, logical (provided its 
 premisses be granted), calm, comprehensive, 
 but withal utterly ruinous, if really accepted and 
 carried out into practice, alike to Christian 
 faith and Christian morals. — Church Quarterly 
 Review. 
 
 III. Characteristics. 
 
 1 It is evasive and unreal. 
 
 [1007] Pantheism is as though a dethroned 
 monarch were allowed all places and positions 
 but his own. The sum total of all dignities and 
 offices is not equal to kingship. — C. N". 
 
 2 It debases the idea of God. 
 
 [1008] It degrades what is high by exalting 
 what is low. Better to deny God, after all,
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 X008-1015] 
 
 [pantheism. 
 
 than to debase Him. Pantheism is, if possible, 
 worse than atheism. — Dr. Jeiuie. 
 
 3 It deifies nature and undeifies the Creator. 
 
 [1009] It runs together the distinct ideas of 
 the Creator and the creature ; it deifies the 
 universe, and amalgamates together the notions 
 of the finite and the infinite, unity and universal 
 substance. — Blunt. 
 
 IV. Arguments against this Creed. 
 
 I It is one of the varied phases of veiled 
 atheism. 
 
 [loio] There are various phases of pantheism. 
 In some of its phases, God is merely a term for 
 an universal force that exhibits intelligence only 
 when modified by matter in organization. Cer- 
 tain phases of the evolution theory accord with 
 this position. Or, God means merely a world 
 soul like vital force in the tree. Some carry the 
 conception higher, making the term God mean 
 a world soul like the soul of the animal. The 
 higher the organization in which it is manifested, 
 the higher the expression of this vital force or 
 world soul. Some make God merely latent or 
 nascent life or intelligence pervading all matter, 
 and susceptible of development by conditions, 
 as latent heat is developed by ccnditions. In 
 all these phases of pantheism, it is assumed 
 that God attains his highest consciousness in 
 man. These are really atheistic, and all these 
 phases of pantheism are atheism. There is 
 often an attempt to conceal this by taking 
 refuge behind the use of such phases as God, 
 the infinite. Sec. ; and often a denial of atheism 
 is made with much assumed indignation, when 
 the grossest atheism is hid under such subter- 
 fuges. There are theories professing to be 
 theistic that are pantheistic in reality. God is 
 recognized as Spirit and as eternally active and 
 conscious, but He is related to the universe as 
 the human spirit is to the body. Milton's 
 theory that God and matter were alike self- 
 existent and eternal is of this character. It 
 strips God of independence and self-sustenance, 
 and limits Him, and subjects Him to the neces- 
 sary properties and laws of matter. We can- 
 not conceive of the universe as consisting, at 
 first, of infinite mind and infinite matter, or of 
 infinite mind and infinite laws that are self- 
 existent, or of infinite mind and infinite re- 
 sources, that are eternal and self-existent, 
 without limiting and finiting God, by infinite 
 matter, or infinite laws, or infinite resources, 
 and entering on the descending inclined plane 
 that will land us in the abyss of atheism. We 
 must place mind back of all matter, law, and 
 resources, creating, constituting, and co-or- 
 dinating them. Much of modern poetry senti- 
 mentalism and speculatism is pantheistic. It 
 has a fascination for dreamy, sentimental minds, 
 inclined to mysticism. Spiritism is a system 
 of pantheism, and often of the grossest kind. 
 — Clark Bracien, the Problem of Problems, 
 
 a It makes the universe a palace without a 
 king. 
 
 [ion] Pantheism shows us a beautiful man- 
 sion — but the sight is melancholy ; we have no 
 desire to enter the building, for it is without an 
 inhabitant ; there is no warm heart to beat, and 
 no just mind to rule, in these large but tenant- 
 less halls. It gives us illusions which serve to 
 alleviate nothing, to solve nothing, to illuminate 
 nothing ; they are vapours which may, indeed, 
 show bright and gaudy colours when seen at a 
 great distance, but in the bosom of which, if 
 one enters, there is nothing but chill and gloom. 
 — John Foster., North British Review. 
 
 3 It identifies the worshipper and the ob- 
 ject of worship. 
 
 [1012] Now it would render a temple alike 
 insignificant, to suppose no worshipper as to 
 suppose none who should be worshipped. And 
 what should be the worshipper, when our souls 
 are thought the same thing with what should be 
 the object of our worship ? — John Hoiue. 
 
 4 It mocks, instead of satisfying, man's spiri- 
 tual nature. 
 
 [1013] Every form which pantheism takes, 
 every disguise which it assumes, to hide from 
 itself and from the world its real character, is 
 a testimony borne by atheism to the necessity 
 which all men feel for assuming the existence of 
 Deity. _ What Robespierre is reported to have 
 said with reference to political government and 
 national well-being — that if there were not a 
 God, it would be necessary to invent one — is 
 felt by pantheistic philosophers to be true in 
 regard to nature. — Modern Scepticism. 
 
 [1014] It is a testimony to theism, as the 
 atheists' acknowledgment of the necessity 
 either of a God or of a simtilacrnm of one. 
 It is a vain effort to fill up the hideous chasm 
 which atheism creates and shudders at. 
 
 5 It affords no help to the sorrowing, no 
 check to the wicked. 
 
 [1015] Go with the gospel of pantheism to 
 the fatherless and the widow, and console them 
 by talking of sunsets and the universal order ; 
 tell the heartbroken about the permutation of 
 energy ; ask the rich tyrant to remember the 
 sum of all things, and to listen to the teachings 
 of the Anima Mundi ; explain to the debauchee, 
 and the glutton, and the cheat, the Divine 
 essence permeating all things and causing all 
 things— including his particular vice, his pas- 
 sions, his tastes, his greed, and his lust. And 
 when social passions rage their blackest, and 
 the demon of anarchy is gnashing its fangs at 
 the demon of despotic cruelty, step forward with 
 the religion of sweetness and light and try if 
 self-culture, so exquisitely sung by Goethe and 
 his followers, will not heal the social delirium. 
 
 We know what a mockery this would be
 
 176 
 
 10I5-IOI9] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED 70 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [intuitionalism. 
 
 
 It would be like offering roses to a famished 
 tiger, or playing a sonata to a man in a fever. 
 — Frederick Harrison in Nineteenth Century, 
 1881. 
 
 V. Objections met. 
 
 I Why did Infinite Power only create a finite 
 universe in time ? 
 
 [1016] Pantheism stumbles at the idea of crea- 
 tion. It affirms that creation is inconceivable, 
 and infers that it is impossible. In treating of 
 materialism, I have indicated that the assertion 
 is equivocal, and the inference illegitimate. But 
 another argument has been em.ployed. The idea 
 of the creation of a finite universe in time has 
 been pronounced dishonourable to God, as 
 implying that His omnipotence is to a large 
 extent inoperative. What, we are asked, was 
 Omnipotence doing before creation ? How and 
 why did Infinite Power produce only a finite 
 effect? Is power unused, not power wasted? 
 Is there not something irrational and repellent 
 in the thought of an Omnipotence which origi- 
 nated only a limited sum of results, which has 
 no adequate operation or object ? To break or 
 avoid the force of these questions, some theo- 
 logians have maintained that God does all that 
 He can, that His activity is the free expression 
 of His ability ; and others have argued that 
 nature is an eternal and infinite creation. These 
 are views, however, which, far from warding off 
 pantheism, inevitably tend to it ; and they 
 grievously offend against reason, which de- 
 clares it an absurdity, that even an infinite 
 power should produce an infinite effect within 
 a finite sphere, within limits of time and space. 
 Is then omnipotence never fully exercised? Is 
 infinite power never fully productive ? We have 
 no right to think so. Although omnipotence 
 cannot express itself fully in the finite world to 
 which we belong, the Divine nature may be in 
 itself an infinite universe, where this and all 
 other attributes can find complete expression. 
 Is either God's power or His activity to be 
 measured exclusively by the production or sup- 
 port of beings distinct from Himself? If so, 
 obviously, unless His power be perpetually and 
 completely exercised about finite things, His 
 activity is not equal to His power, and He is 
 not infinitely active, but only infinitely capable 
 of acting. Even infinite activity, however, and 
 absolutely infinite production, cannot be reason- 
 ably denied to the Divine nature. As activity 
 is a perfection, infinite activity may be reasonably 
 held to be a supreme perfection, which must be 
 ascribed to God. If an absolutely infinite agent 
 acts according to all the extent of its absolutely 
 infinite nature, it must necessarily produce an 
 absolutely infinite effect : the effect would not 
 otherwise be proportionate to the Cause. The 
 production of an absolutely infinite effect must 
 be a far greater perfection than the creation of 
 any number of finite eftects, and the mind may 
 feel constrained to refer such production to 
 God. So be it. But must the infinite effect 
 all within the realm of contingency, of time, of 
 
 space ? Must it not, on the contrary, belong 
 to the sphere of the essential, the eternal, the 
 absolute ? Must it not lie within instead of 
 without the Godhead ? Must it not be such 
 an effect as theologians mean when they speak 
 of the eternal generation of the Word, or the 
 eternal procession of the Holy Spirit? It cannot, 
 I think, be such an effect as external creation. 
 God can never find or produce without Himself 
 an object equal to Himself, and fully commen- 
 surate with His essential, necessary activity and 
 love. The Divine nature must have in itself a 
 plenitude of power and glory, to which the pro- 
 duction of numberless worlds can add nothing. 
 — Robert Flint, Anti-theistic Theories. 
 
 81 
 
 INTUITIONALISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition from a Christian 
 Standpoint. 
 
 [1017] Axiomatic truths not derived from sen- 
 sation, but arising from the structure of the 
 mind itself, and called out and illustrated, on 
 suitable occasions, in the course of our expe- 
 rience. 
 
 II. The Established Tests of Intuitive 
 Truths. 
 
 [1018] Since Aristotle, these three — self-evi- 
 dence, necessity, and universality — have been 
 the established tests of intuitive truths. 
 
 An intuition is to be distinguished from an 
 instinct. The latter is an impulse or propensity 
 existing independent of instruction and prior to 
 experience. 
 
 An intuition is to be distinguished from in- 
 sight, emotional, reflective, or poetic. 
 
 An intuition is to be distinguished from 
 inspiration or illumination, sacred or secular. 
 
 In scientific discussion, any use of the word 
 intuition to denote other than a proposition 
 marked by self-evidence, necessity, and univer- 
 sality, is a violation of established usage. — 
 "jfoseph Cook, Monday Boston Lectures. 
 
 III. Chief Point in Dispute about In- 
 tuitive Truths. 
 
 1 Do they exist before or after experience. 
 
 [1019] The supreme question of philosophy is 
 whether the self-evident, necessary, and univer- 
 sal truths of the mind are derived from experi- 
 ence, or are a part of the constitution of man 
 brought into activity by experience, but not 
 derived from it nor explicable by it. Do these 
 self-evident truths ?Cl\^& a prioi'i ox a posteriori — 
 that is, do they exist before or after experience? 
 
 Up to this point we are all agreed, and we 
 have attained distinctness, I hope, as to our 
 fundamental term. From this point onward we
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 17 
 
 1019— 1022] 
 
 [intuitionalism. 
 
 i 4 
 
 may not all agree, but I must venture these 
 further propositions : — 
 
 This fundamental question has a new interest 
 on account of the recent advances in philosophy, 
 and especially in biology. 
 
 These advances, if the German as well as the 
 English field is kept in vievv^ favour the a priori 
 or the intuitional school. 
 
 On one point there is no debate any longer, 
 namely, that there are certain truths which are 
 not only evident, but self-evident ; which are 
 absolutely necessary beliefs to the mind ; and 
 which are, therefore, universal, both in the sense 
 of being explicitly or implicitly held by all sane 
 men, and in that of being true in all time and in 
 all places. Immanuel Kant instituted a great 
 inquiry as to the origin of this particular class 
 of truths, especially of those which are not 
 identical propositions ; and now I beg leave to 
 ask whether it is not worth while for us, now 
 that Germany has gone back to Immanuel Kant, 
 and dares to-day build no metaphysical super- 
 structure except on his foundations or their 
 equivalents, to ask over again, in the light of all 
 the recent advances of biological science, the 
 supreme question: Are the self-evident, neces- 
 sary, and universal ideas of the mind derived 
 solely from experience, or are they a part of the 
 original furniture of the soul, not derived at all 
 from sensuous impressions ? 
 
 I am quite aware that Mr. Frothingham, of 
 New York City, who in philosophy seems to 
 have very little outlook beyond the North Sea, 
 says that the Transcendentalism of which he is 
 the historian has for the present had its day. 
 Here is his graceful book ; and although it is 
 only a sketch, there is large meaning between 
 its lines in its plaintive undertone of failure. 
 This coast of New England the Puritans made 
 mellow soil for all seeds of religious fruitfulness. 
 Transcendentalism rooted itself swiftly here for 
 that reason ; but the effort was made to bring 
 up that seed to the dignity of a tree without any 
 sunlight from Christianity. Mr. Frothingham 
 says the attempt has failed. I believe the seed, 
 if it had had that light, might have lived longer. 
 Let it never be forgotten that there are two 
 classes of those who revere axiomatic truth — 
 the Kantian, Hamiltonian, and Coleridgian, on 
 the one side, and the purely rationalistic on the 
 other. Mr. Frothingham says New England 
 Transcendentalism deliberately broke with 
 Christianity ; but in that remark he overlooks 
 many revered names. 
 
 His own school in Transcendentalism was 
 indeed proud to shut away from the growth of 
 the seeds of intuitive truth the sunlight of Chris- 
 tianity. No oak has appeared in the twilight ; 
 but does this fact prove that the tree may not 
 attain stately proportions if nourished by the 
 noon ? Already axiomatic truth is an oak that 
 dreads no storms, and forests of it to-day stand 
 in Germany, watered by the Rhine, the Elbe, 
 and the Oder ; and one day similar growths will 
 rustle stalwart in New England, watered by the 
 Mystic and the Charles ; and the stately trees 
 will stand on the Thames at last, in spite of its 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
 rfimy mists. There will be for Intuitionalism 
 f\\\ Philosophy a great day so soon as men see 
 that the very latest philosophy knows that there 
 ^s a soul external to the nervous mechanism, 
 ^Q.4.that materialism must be laid aside as the 
 xesulj: simply of lack of education. 
 
 Tlie positions of Kant, Sir William Hamilton, 
 anu Coleridge, and not those of the rationalistic 
 w'iig of Transcendentalism, are favoured by the 
 ;^^searches of the most recent German philo- 
 si>f)hy. 
 
 As materialism and sensationalism assert, 
 t.icre is in the spiritual part of man nothing 
 which was not first in the physical sensations of 
 the man. 
 
 Leibnitz long ago replied to this pretence by 
 his famous and yet unanswered remark : There 
 is nothing in the intellect that was not first in 
 the sensations, except the intellect itself — Ibid. 
 
 IV. Rationalistic Errors respecting 
 Intuitive Truths. 
 
 I Mere intuitionalism is not a substitute 
 for revelation. 
 
 [1020] In the power of man to find out God, I 
 will never believe. The religious sentiment, or 
 God-consciousness, so much talked of nowadays, 
 seems to me — as I believe it will to all practical 
 common-sense Englishmen — a faculty not to be 
 depended on ; as fallible and corrupt as any 
 other part of human nature ; apt — to judge from 
 history — to develop itself into ugly forms — not 
 only without a revelation from God, but too 
 often in spite of one — into polytheisms, idolatries, 
 witchcrafts, Buddhist asceticisms, American 
 spirit-rappings, and what not. The hearts and 
 minds of the sick, poor, and sorrowing, all 
 demand a living God, who has revealed Himself 
 in living acts — a God who has taught mankind 
 by facts, not left them to discover Him by 
 theories and sentiments — a Judge, a Father, a 
 Saviour, and an Inspirer. — Canon Kingsley. 
 
 V. An Aid to Faith. 
 
 [102 1] These intuitional truths and processes 
 are to be claimed and used by the believer as 
 aids to faith, and not to be surrendered as the 
 property of the rationalist. — B. G. 
 
 [1022] But the infinite in which the mind is led 
 intuitively to believe is not an abstract infinite. 
 It is a belief in something infinite. When the 
 visible things of God declare that there is an 
 intelligent Being, the author of ail the order and 
 adaptation in the universe, we are impelled to 
 believe that this Being is and must be infinite ; 
 and we clothe Him with eternal power and 
 Godhead. The intuition is gratified to the full 
 in the contemplation of a God Eternal, Omni- 
 present, All Mighty, and All Perfect. — James 
 AlcCoshf Christianity and Positivism,
 
 178 
 
 1023-1029 ] 
 
 Til. 
 
 OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [transcendentalism. 
 
 82 
 
 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 I. The Contradictory Character _- 
 ITS Chief Exponents. 
 
 [1023] Berkeley's Theory. — A soul withC^it a 
 body. 
 
 Combe's Constitntion of Man. — A body witho.^t 
 a soul. '■"^ 
 
 Hegel. — Genius minus its chief element, 
 common sense. Clairvoyance of nothing. i 
 
 Humboldt. — Could not see God for the 
 universe. 
 
 Spinoza. — Could not see the universe for 
 God. 
 
 Fichte. — Could see neither the universe nor 
 God for the Ego. — The Homilist. 
 
 II. Its Failure under Crucial Tests. 
 I It is like leaning on a broken reed. 
 
 [1024] If there were no other proof of the 
 truth of Christianity but the hope and comfort 
 it gives in the hour of death, that would be 
 sufficient to show that it is not a mere human 
 mvention. Which of the elegant systems of 
 philosophy has proved a support when heart 
 and flesh fail — which of the mere philosophers 
 has died with any degree of hope or joy ? Lud- 
 wig Feuerbach, among the most noted of 
 German savants, died at Nuremberg in 1872; 
 he expired in utter bewilderment and confusion, 
 saying: "Truth! O truth! where is it?" and 
 with this confession of despair on his lips passed 
 into eternity. All his life he had professed to 
 seek the truth ; he wrote on such subjects as 
 "the Essence of Christianity," and why did he 
 die without the light, or die in pursuing an ignis 
 fatiius which left him in dire extremity, and 
 mocked his last moments with the unattainable? 
 He discarded the idea of a personal God ; he 
 beHeved in humanity, nothing higher. "God is 
 only a name given to the ideal nature of man 
 as it educates itself on towards perfection." 
 High-sounding words these — but how they failed 
 in the stern presence of death ! Humanity was 
 no god to the poor human soul just passing out 
 into the great unknown — it needed a surer staff 
 to lean upon in the dark valley. Humanity 
 deified is but a poor god to humanity dying. 
 Goethe's last words were : " Light ! Oh for more 
 light ! " Of what avail was it now that he had 
 been the idol of the literary world. Instead of 
 light there was the blackness of darkness. 
 Hobbes, the deist, said : " I am taking a fearful 
 leap in the dark." What would he not then 
 have given for the Christian's hope, the trust of 
 the gentle Herbert, who whispered with his 
 parting breath : "Now, Lord Jesus, receive my 
 spirit ; " or to be able to say, like Wesley, "The 
 best of it is, God is with me" ! Goldsmith on 
 being asked, while dying: "Is your mind at 
 ease?" replied sadly: "No, it is far from it." 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the brilliant parlia- 
 mentary orator, shrieked : " O, I am absolutely 
 
 undone ! " In the stern presence of the King of 
 Terrors, the refuge of lies is swept away. 
 
 2 It affords no true rest to the soul. 
 
 [1025] The true cure for poisonous error is to 
 be found, not in speculations, but in that practi- 
 cal grasp of truth which unites the soul to God 
 and the spiritual world, through the daily grow- 
 ing purification and elevation of the life and 
 character. — Abp. Tail, Church 0/ the Futtcre. 
 
 3 It ends in gloom. 
 
 [1026] Human reason left to itself, leaves us, 
 as to God, a threefold choice ; we may deny 
 God, we may degrade God, we may ignore God. 
 A noble result ! A godless philosophy ends in 
 suicide. So it will ever be. 
 
 " Philosophy which, in Heaven before, 
 Sinks to her second cause, and is no more." 
 
 Dr. Jeime. 
 
 [1027] Speculative philosophy, like a "specu- 
 lative " business, affords more blanks than prizes, 
 and abounds in risks, but not in satisfactory 
 results. — B. G. 
 
 83 
 
 TRANSCENDENTALISM. 
 
 I. Its Radical Principle. 
 
 [102S] The radical principle of the transcen- 
 dental philosophy, the corner-stone of the whole 
 edifice, is Cousin's doctrine, that spontaneous 
 reason acquaints us with the true and essential 
 nature of things. According to this doctrine 
 reason, when uncontrolled by will, or when left 
 free to expatiate, undirected and uninfluenced 
 by the voluntary faculty, always apprehends 
 things as they are, or has direct and absolute 
 knowledge of the objects of its contemplation. 
 — The Church Review. 
 
 II. Its Definition. 
 I Etymologically. 
 
 [1029] The word transcendental may be used 
 in both a definite and a vaguer sense ; in a 
 definite sense as opposed to the empirical way 
 of thinking dominant during the eighteenth 
 century, alike in France and in England. The 
 empirical thinker derives all our ideas from 
 experience, some members of the school assert- 
 ing that it is through the senses alone that we 
 obtain these ideas. The transcendental thinker 
 believes that the mind contributes to its own 
 stores ideas or forms of thought not derived 
 from experience. As to a Divine Being, and 
 man's relations with Him, the empirical thinker 
 may be a theist, but he will ordinarily require 
 an apparatus, a mechanism to connect the 
 Divine Spirit with the spirit of man ; the tran- 
 scendental thinker can with difticulty endure 
 the notion of such a mechanism or apparatus ; 
 
 &
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1029-1034 ] 
 
 [transcendentalism. 
 
 the natural and the supernatural seem to him to 
 touch, embrace, or inter-penetrate one another ; 
 in the external world and in his own soul the 
 Divine presence for ever haunts, startles, and 
 waylays him. So far, the meaning of the word 
 transcendental is definite enough. But a word, 
 like a comet, has a tail as well as a head, or at 
 least a coma as well as a nucleus, and much 
 vague talk about the Infinite, the Immensities, 
 the Eternal Verities, the Eternal Silences, and 
 what not, is properly a part of transcendentalism ; 
 that is, of its coma, or its yet fainter and more 
 extended tail. We are bound to recognize this 
 vague transcendentalism, even if we cannot 
 accurately define it. Much has justly been said 
 of fallacies which arise from not defining our 
 words ; it has not, perhaps, been sufficiently 
 noted how fallacies arise from assuming that a 
 formal definition of a word is equipollent to the 
 word considered as a winged thing, and acting 
 with a vital power. — The Contemporary Review. 
 
 [1030] The word transcendentalism, as used 
 at the present day, has two applications, one of 
 which is popular and indefinite ; the other, 
 philosophical and precise. In the former sense 
 it describes men rather than opinions, since it 
 is freely extended to those who hold opinions, 
 not only diverse from each other, but directly 
 opposed not only in their statements, but in 
 their bearings upon the most important interests 
 of man. In its precise and strictly appropriate 
 application, it denotes a class of philosophical 
 opinions concerning the principles of human 
 knowledge, or the grounds of our faith in the 
 world of sense, and also in those higher truths 
 which make us capable of science and of re- 
 ligion, those truths which impart to our being, 
 as men, all its dignity, and to our hopes and 
 fears for the future, their interest. — Biblical 
 Repository. 
 
 2 Philosophically. 
 
 [1031] This clairvoyance of reason Cousin calls 
 an " instinctive perception of truth, an entirely 
 instinctive development of thought," "an original, 
 irresistible, and unreflective perception of truth," 
 "pure apperception and spontaneous faith," 
 " the absolute affirmation of truth, without re- 
 flection, inspiration, veritable revelation." — The 
 Clmrch Review. 
 
 III. Its Leading Characteristic. 
 
 1 Knowledge regarded as immediate and 
 infallible. 
 
 [1032] The characteristics of this kind of 
 knowledge as being immediate and infallible, 
 though not always perfectly distinct at first, and 
 as being Divine, or as coming from God, either 
 directly or indirectly, all transcendentalists main- 
 tain. But in what manner, or by what mode 
 of action, our reason acquires this knowledge, 
 they do not distinctly inform us. Whether our 
 Creator has endowed us with an intellectual 
 instinct, a power of rational intuition; or whether 
 the rational soul, as itself partaking of the 
 
 Divine nature has this inherent sagacity in and 
 of itself ; or whether the Divine Being, God 
 Himself, is always present in the soul, and 
 acting in it by way of inspiration, these philo- 
 sophers seem not to have decided. They use 
 terms, however, which fairly imply each and all 
 of these hypotheses ; and especially the last. 
 But however undecided on this point, which is 
 of so much importance in a philosophic view, 
 on the general fact, that all rational beings do 
 possess this knowledge, they are very explicit ; 
 and some of them attempt to prove it, by rea- 
 soning from the necessity of such knowledge to 
 us, and from the current belief of mankind. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 IV. Its Effects as regards Theology. 
 
 1 Transcendentalism dispenses with the 
 necessity of external revelation. 
 
 [1033] The effects of this principle when car- 
 ried into theology are immense. It dispels all 
 mysteries and all obscurities from this most pro- 
 found of all sciences, and gives to human reason 
 absolute dominion over it. For it makes the- 
 Divine Being, His government and laws, and 
 our relations to Him, and all our religious obli- 
 gations and interests — every part of theology 
 theoretical or practical — perfectly comprehen- 
 sible to our reason, in its spontaneous operation. 
 It makes all the doctrines of natural religion 
 the objects of our direct, intuitive knowledge ; we 
 need no explanations, and no confirmations 
 from any books or teachers ; we have only to 
 listen to the voice of spontaneous reason, or to 
 the teachings of our own souls, the light which 
 shines within us, and all will be perfectly intel- 
 ligible and absolutely certain. And hence we 
 need no external revelation, no inspired teacher, 
 to solve our doubts and difficulties, or to make 
 any part of natural religion, or any principle of 
 moral duty, either more plain, or more certain. 
 We are all of us prophets of God, all inspired 
 through our reason, and we need no one to 
 instruct and enlighten us. The great seers of 
 ancient times, Moses and the prophets, Christ 
 and the apostles, were no otherwise inspired 
 than we are ; they only cultivated and listened 
 to spontaneous reason more than ordinary men ; 
 we need not pore upon the so-called external 
 evidences, miracles, prophecies, &c., but merely 
 listen to the testimony of our own souls, the 
 teachings of spontaneous reason, or what it 
 called the internal evidence, and we shall at 
 once see the clear and infallible marks of 
 inspiration. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Transcendentalism dispenses with the help 
 of extraneous interpreters. 
 
 [1034] To understand the Bible, we need no 
 aid from learned interpreters. Only give us 
 the book in a language we can read, and the 
 suggestions of our own inspired minds will 
 enable us to comprehend, perfectly, the import 
 of every sentence, and to see clearly what is 
 Divine, and what is human, or what originated 
 from spontaneous reason, and what from human
 
 i8o 
 
 1034-1037 J 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [tra;;scendentalism. 
 
 infirmity, in the Holy Scriptures. And, of 
 course, every man is competent to decide, 
 definitely and infallibly, all the controversies 
 among theologians, all the disputes between 
 different sects of Christians, respecting the 
 doctrines taught in the Bible. In short, not 
 only the profound researches of philologists, 
 antiquarians, and biblical commentators ; but 
 also the elaborate discussions of didactic theo- 
 logians, polemic, apologetic, and metaphysical, 
 are all of little or no value in theology. Instead 
 of depending on them, the theological inquirer 
 should rather retire to solitude and silence, and 
 ■while musing on religious subjects, with the 
 Bible and the Book of Nature before him, he 
 should refrain from giving any determined 
 direction to his thoughts, and allowing them to 
 flow on spontaneously, he should listen to the 
 voice of reason, as she expatiates freely in the 
 open field of visions ; then he will be caught 
 up, as it were, to the third heaven, and will see 
 all that the inspired prophets saw ; his know- 
 ledge will be superhuman and Divine. — Ibid. 
 
 [1035] It is these speculations, such as they 
 are,whichthe German philosophy has substituted 
 for the Bible. All authority of revelation being 
 discarded, the human mind, then, is like a man 
 wandering on a prairie ; there is on every side 
 a boundless prospect ; there is neither pathway 
 nor guide ; there is in every direction the same 
 profusion of plants and flowers, without any 
 diversities sufficient to mark his progress ; and 
 the proud wanderer, disdaining to turn his eyes 
 tov/ards the luminaries of heaven which might 
 direct him, pushes onward and onward with 
 laborious diligence, and applauds himself for 
 his rapid progress, Vihen he is only returning 
 again and again upon his own track without 
 knowing it. Just so it will be here, if the 
 guidance of revelation be abandoned for the 
 brilliant mazes of transcendentalism, to which, 
 it must be confessed, there is now a strong 
 tendency. — Ibid. 
 
 V. Its Effects on Sociology. 
 
 I It destroys the finer and friendly feelings 
 between rival schools of speculative 
 thought. 
 
 [1036] We judge the tree by its fruits, when 
 we assert, that the study of such writings tends 
 to heat the imagination and blind the judg- 
 ment — that it gives a dictatorial tone to the 
 expression of opinion, and a harsh, imperious, 
 and sometimes flippant manner to argumenta- 
 tive discussion — that it injures the generous 
 ■and catholic spirit of speculative philosophy by 
 raising up a sect of such a marked and dis- 
 tinctive character, that it can hold no fellow- 
 ship either with former labourers in the cause, 
 or with those, who, at the present time, in a 
 diff'erent line of inquiry, are aiming at the same 
 general objects. The difference in the mode of 
 philosophizing between the old and new schools 
 IS radical. Either one party or the other is 
 wrong. To come over to the new system we must 
 
 read our former lessons backwards, give up the 
 old tests of correctness and sincerity, and rely 
 no longer on meek and gentle features without, 
 as indications of truth and goodness dwelling J 
 within. We are fully aware, that it is danger- fl 
 ous in speculation to appeal to the practical 
 tendency of any doctrine as evidence for or 
 against its soundness. Men are inconsistent 
 beings. Their actions are controlled by innu- 
 merable causes distinct from the direct influence 
 of their speculative notions. But the assailants 
 of Locke's phUosophy have rested their objec- 
 tions to it mainly on this ground, and have 
 invited a comparison, in this respect, to the 
 dogmas and mode of reasoning adopted by the 
 two schools. And there are reasons at the 
 present day for paying especial regard to the 
 immediate influence of speculation upon con- 
 duct. The defence of metaphysical pursuits 
 consists chiefly in the advantages to be expected 
 from them in disciplining and developing the 
 mental and moral faculties. We may not rea- 
 sonably look for great discoveries in mental ^ 
 science. Philosophers do much, if they succeed ■ 
 in dispersing the clouds, which their own eftbrts * 
 have collected. Such, at least, is the common 
 opinion. And if metaphysicians are to come 
 from their studies with feelings worn, and their 
 general sympathies with humanity diminished, 
 better let them at once burn their books, and 
 renounce their vocation. There is an old re- 
 proach, that " no stone is harder than the heart 
 of a thoroughbred metaphysician,'' which must 
 be wiped off entirely before one can account 
 satisfactorily to his conscience for engaging in 
 the science of abstruse learning. 
 
 Whatever course, therefore, tends to rive the 
 philosophical world into parties, to inflame 
 discussion between them beyond all discreet 
 bounds, to remove the objects of thought still 
 farther from the common pursuits and interests 
 of mankind is, so far, positively pernicious and 
 wrong. Let the transcendentalists look to this 
 point. Their efforts hitherto have tended to 
 undermine the only foundation on which they 
 could safely rest. They have deepened the 
 gulf between speculative and practical men, 
 and by their innovations in language, they are 
 breaking down the only bridge that spans the 
 chasm. Let them succeed in this end, and 
 they perish by isolation. — Christian Examiner. 
 
 2 It alienates practical men by arrogantly 
 ignoring their intelligence. 
 
 [1037] The insufferable arrogance of the new 
 school, and their anxiety to place themselves 
 apart from the mass of mankind, are shown in 
 the very plea by which all objections to their 
 philosophy are commonly met, that men do 
 not understand the system which they presume 
 to criticize. True, men do not usually under- 
 stand what is intentionally made unintelligible. 
 It is of the per\-erseness shown by this wilful 
 and designed obscurity that we complain. Si 
 non vis intelligi debes negligi. There is more 
 point than truth in the saying of Coleridge, that 
 we cannot understand Plato's ignorance, but
 
 THE FORCES OFF OS ED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1037-1042 ] 
 
 181 
 
 [transcendentalism. 
 
 must be ignorant of his understanding. How 
 far is such a remark applicable? Is the intel- 
 lect of every author so much superior to that of 
 his reader, that every want of understanding 
 between the two must necessarily be ascribed 
 to the latter? Do not cloudy minds sometimes 
 belong to men who write books, as weJi as to 
 those who read them ? Do not authors, now 
 and then, indulge in wilful mystification ? The 
 plea is a very convenient one, but it proves 
 nothing, because it proves too much. Jacob 
 Bohme might have used it, as well as the 
 plainest thinker that ever lived. — Ibid. 
 
 VI. Its Ambitious and Hopeless At- 
 tempts. 
 
 1 To consider general truth w^ithout previous 
 examination of particulars. 
 
 [1038] The aim of the transcendentalists is 
 high. They profess to look not only beyond 
 facts, but without the aid of facts, to principles. 
 What is this but Plato's doctrine of innate, 
 eternal, and immutable ideas, on the considera- 
 tion of which all science is founded ? Truly, 
 the human mind advances, but too often in a 
 circle. The new school has abandoned Bacon, 
 only to go back and wander in the groves of 
 the Academy, and to bewilder themselves with 
 dreams which first arose in the fervid imagina- 
 tion of the Greeks. Without questioning the 
 desirableness of this end, of considering general 
 truths without any previous examination of par- 
 ticulars, we may well doubt the power of modern 
 philosophers to attain it. — Church Examiner. 
 
 2 To inquire after the real and absolute as 
 distinguished from the apparent. 
 
 [1039] Again they are busy in the inquiry (to 
 adopt their own phraseology) after the real and 
 the absolute, as distinguished from the apparent. 
 Not to repeat the same doubt as to their success, 
 we may at least request them to beware lest 
 they strip truth of its relation to humanity, and 
 thus deprive it of its usefulness. Granted that 
 we are imprisoned in matter, why beat against 
 the bars in a fruitless attempt to escape, when 
 a little labour might convert the prison to a 
 palace, or at least render the confinement more 
 endurable. The frame of mind which longs 
 after the forbidden fruit of knowledge in sub- 
 jects placed beyond the reach of the human 
 faculties, as it is surely indicative of a noble 
 temperament, may also, under peculiar circum- 
 stances, conduce to the happiness of the indivi- 
 dual. But if too much indulged, there is danger 
 lest it waste its energies in mystic and unpro- 
 fitable dreams, and despondency result from 
 frequent failures, till at last disappointment 
 darkens into despair. — Ibid. 
 
 VII. Arguments against this System. 
 X Independence of mind impossible. 
 
 (l) The rejectors of revelation become maji- 
 ixjorshippers. 
 [1040] But some boast of the independence of 
 
 the human mind, and rejoice in these develop- 
 ments as proofs of its exercising that indepen- 
 dence. The human mind is not independent, 
 and independent it cannot be. It was created 
 limited, and of course dependent. It feels its 
 own dependence in its inmost heart. From the 
 very necessity of its nature, it must have some 
 God to worship, some authority to lean upon. 
 In Germany, where the authority of revelation 
 has been so generally rejected, the mind has no 
 more independence than it has here, where the 
 authority of revelation is still so generally re- 
 spected. As the ancient Egyptians in their 
 wisdom despised the God of the Hebrews, and 
 worshipped crocodiles and calves, so literary 
 Germany in her pride has despised Jesus 
 Christ, and worshipped her Hegels and her 
 Goethes, both, as the Apostle Paul expresses it, 
 receiving within themselves that recompense of 
 their errors that was meet. — Biblical Repository. 
 
 3 The system leads inevitably to atheism. 
 
 [1041] To consider self-dependence as the 
 highest stage of moral advancement, to look 
 upon all recourse to the teachings either of 
 natural or revealed religion as an evidence of 
 weakness, as a defect that may both practically 
 and theoretically be done away — and such is the 
 ground assumed by Fichte — is a mode of think- 
 ing which, fully carried out, can stop in nothing 
 short of atheism. If the religious law is nar- 
 rowed down to an entire identity with the 
 moral, if revelation requires nothing more of us 
 than what conscience alone would demand, then 
 disappears not merely all necessity for any 
 direct and special intervention of the Deity in 
 the course of human affairs, but also all sure 
 ground for believing in His existence. Such an 
 opinion may be held for a time, for it is flatter- 
 ing to the pride of human reason. But in many 
 minds a reaction will be liable to occur, that 
 will carry its subjects to the opposite extreme ; 
 and thus may be explained the sudden transi- 
 tions that are often witnessed, from a state of 
 unbelief to a complex, exaggerated, and gloomy 
 faith . — Christian Examiner. 
 
 VIII. Special Tendency of some Minds 
 
 TOWARDS this SYSTEM, 
 
 [1042] We shall not hesitate to admit, that 
 there is in the German mind a tendency to 
 mysticism, properly so called ; as perhaps there 
 is, unless carefully guarded against, in all minds 
 tempered like theirs. It is a fault ; but one 
 hardly separable from the excellences we ad- 
 mire most in them. A simple, tender, and 
 devout nature, seized by some touch of Divine 
 truth, and of this, perhaps, under some rude 
 enough symbol, is rapt with it into a whirlwind 
 of unutterable thoughts, wild gleams of splen- 
 dour dart to and fro in the eye of the seer, but 
 the vision will not abide with him, and yet he 
 feels that its light is light from heaven, and 
 precious to him beyond all price. A simple 
 nature, a George Fox, or a Jacob Bohme. igno- 
 rant of all the wavs of men, of the dialect in
 
 l82 
 
 I042-I045] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [transcendentalism. 
 
 which they speak, or the forms by which they 
 think, is labouring with a poetic, a religious 
 idea, which, like all such ideas, must express 
 itself by word and act, or consume the heart it 
 dwells in. Yet how shall he speak ; how shall 
 he pour forth into other souls that of which his 
 own soul is full even to bursting ? He cannot 
 speak to us ; he knows not our state, and can- 
 not make known to us his own. These are 
 mystics ; men who either know not clearly 
 their own meaning, or at least cannot put it 
 forth in foiniulas of thought, whereby others, 
 with whatever difficulty, may apprehend it. — 
 7". Carlyle. 
 
 IX. Locke's System viewed as its 
 Antithesis and Corrective. 
 
 [1043] Alluding to the Essay on the Human 
 Understanding, Mackintosh observes : " Few 
 books have contributed more to rectify preju- 
 dice, to undermine established errors, to diffuse 
 a just mode of thinking, to excite a fearless 
 spirit of inquiry, and yet to contain it within the 
 boundaries which nature has prescribed to the 
 human understanding. In the mental and 
 moral world, which scarcely admits of anything 
 which can be called a discovery; the correction 
 of the mental habit is probably the greater ser- 
 vice which can be rendered to science. In this 
 respect the merit of Locke is unrivalled. His 
 writings have diftused throughout the civilized 
 Avorld the lov^e of civil liberty, the spirit of tole- 
 ration and charity in religious difterences, the 
 disposition to reject whatever is obscure, fan- 
 tastic, or hypothetical in speculation, to reduce 
 verbal disputes to their proper value, to aban- 
 don problems which admit of no solution, to 
 distrust whatever cannot be clearly expressed^ 
 to render theory the simple expression of facts, 
 and to prefer those studies which most directly 
 contribute to human happiness." Hiiic illcz 
 lachry))i(X. The transcendentalists have good 
 reason to decry the tendency of Locke's 
 philosophical writings. 
 
 [1044] We are not left to infer vagueness and 
 incompleteness of thought merely from obscurity 
 of language. The transcendentalists openly 
 avow their preference of such indistinct modes 
 of reflection, and justify loose and rambling 
 speculations, mystical forms of expression, and 
 the utterance of truths that are but half per- 
 ceived, on the same principle, it would seem, 
 that influences the gambler, who expects by a 
 number of random casts to obtain at last the 
 desired combination. In this respect the 
 philosophy of the new school is well summed 
 up by a modern writer in the following asser- 
 tions : " that a guess is often more fiuitful than 
 an indisputable affirmation, and that a dream 
 may let us deeper into the secret of nature than 
 a hundred concerted experiments." " Poetry 
 comes nearer to vital truth than history.'' Why 
 not follow the principle of the gambler entirely 
 by shaking a number of words in a hat that, 
 after a number of trials, they may so arrange 
 
 themselves as to express some novel and im- 
 portant truth ? 
 
 " Insanum vatem adspicies, quse, rupe sub imi, 
 Fanta canit, foliisque notas et nomina mandat." 
 
 If it be urged that vagueness is not inconsistent 
 with reality and truth, we reply that this asser- 
 tion does not meet the point, nor resolve the 
 difficulty. In the imperfect conceptions of man, 
 mystery may envelope truth, but it does not 
 constitute that truth, any more than the veil of 
 the temple is in itself the " Holy of Holies." Still 
 less is there any necessary connection between 
 dimness and reality ; for truth, considered as 
 the object of Divine contemplation, is light 
 itself, and glimpses of the spiritual world are 
 blinding to man, only because they dazzle with 
 excessive brightness. We live in the twilight 
 of knowledge, and though ignorant of the points 
 of the compass, it argues nothing but blind 
 perverseness, to turn to the darkest part of the 
 horizon for the expected rising of the sun. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 X. Purposes which in a Modified and 
 Poetical Form it may serve. 
 
 I As a protest against the literalism oi 
 
 mere scientists. 
 
 [1045I It seemed to me that some good 
 might be done, if I could succeed in bringing 
 before our hearers the truth that, while the 
 several physical sciences explain each some 
 portion of nature's mysteries — or nature con- jj, 
 sidered under one special aspect — yet that, after flj 
 all the physical sciences have had their say, and ~' 
 given their explanations, there remains more 
 behind — another aspect of nature — a further 
 truth regarding it, with which, real and interest- 
 ing though it is, science does not intermeddle. 
 The truth on which especially I wished to fix 
 attention, is the relation which exists between 
 nature and the sensitive and imaginative soul 
 of man, and the result on creation which arises 
 from the meeting of these two. This is a true and 
 genuine result, which it does not fall within the 
 province of science to investigate, but which it 
 is one peculiar function of poetry to seize, and, 
 as far as may be, to interpret. That the beauty 
 which looks from the whole face of nature, and 
 is interwoven with every fibre of it, is not the 
 less because it requires a living soul for its ex- 
 istence, is as real a truth as the gravitation of 
 the earth's particles or the composition of its 
 materials — that careful noting and familiar 
 knowledge of this beauty reveals a new aspect 
 of the world, which will amply repay the ob- 
 server — and that the poets are in a special way 
 kindlers of sensibility, teachers who make us 
 observe more carefully and feel more keenly the 
 wonders that are around us : — these are some of 
 the truths which I wished to bring before my 
 hearers, and which, if I could in any measure 
 succeed in doing so, would, I felt sure, not be 
 without mental benefit. — J. C. Sharp.
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 {Continued). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY. 
 
 (i) a. Its Actual Phases. 
 C. Denial of the Christian and Catholic Llea of God. 
 
 Pa^es 1S4 to 197. 
 
 TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 84 
 DEISM. 
 
 S5 
 THEISM. 
 
 85 
 MONOTHEISM. 
 
 S7 
 NATURALISM. 
 
 88 
 SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 89 
 RATIONALISM. 
 
 90 
 NEOLOGY. 
 
 91 
 FREE THOUGHT. 
 
 92 
 UNITARIANISM. 
 
 93 
 EVOLUTIONISM. 
 
 94 
 PHILOSOPHICAL COSMOLOGISM. 
 
 SCIENTISM. 
 
 iS:
 
 x84 
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 {continued^ 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY {Continued). 
 (i) //. Its Actual Phases. 
 c. Denial of the Christian and Catholic Idea of God. 
 
 84 
 
 DEISM. 
 
 I. Its Historical Relations. 
 
 1 Its rise as a regular system. 
 
 [1046] Deism may be divided into two classes : 
 those who, believing in one God, deny that He 
 takes cognizance of men and of their actions, 
 and reject the idea of any historical revelation 
 made to man, and those who allow the work of 
 Providence. Limiting to the former the name 
 of deist, Kant has applied to the latter the 
 designation of Theists. Deism synchronizes 
 with the Reformation. The coincidence of cor- 
 ruption Avith the high mission of the Church 
 was fatally mischievous ; and men learned not 
 only to question her authority, but to deny the 
 truth of all revealed religion. As Spinoza's 
 system was the result of reaction from Jewish 
 Talmudism, so deism sprang naturally, as it 
 were, from the condition into which religion 
 had subsided in the sixteenth century. — Rev. 
 J. H. Blunt, M.A. 
 
 2 Its development. 
 
 [1047] Two generations ago, deism was the 
 profession of infidels, or those who rejected 
 Christianity, and who covered the rejection of 
 the special truths of revelation by the profession 
 of this one general truth. What deists pro- 
 fessed was right, but it was in their rejection of 
 that religion, from which they learned their 
 deism, that they were in error. Deism was a 
 religious mask for infidel opinions. — B. G. 
 
 n. Its Phases. 
 
 [1048] The following are the prevalent de- 
 fective views of the Divine character : — 
 
 First, the mechanical view of God. This 
 view is the natural product of a mechanical age. 
 It is an age engrossed in studying the mere 
 mechanism of nature, and its idea of God has 
 come to be that of a great mechanician, or an 
 omnipotent engineer, constructing worlds like 
 steam-engines, to work according to the proper- 
 lies with which they are endowed. 
 
 Secondly, the sentimental view of God. This 
 is the product of the poetry as the other is of the 
 science of the times ; or, to go deeper, the one 
 is the creation of the imagination and emotions, 
 as the other is of the mere intellect empirically 
 exercised, and both under the guidance of an 
 unholy heart. The one view, like the other, is 
 not so much erroneous as it is defective. Let 
 us clothe the Divine Being with as bright a robe 
 of loveliness as we please ; but let us not pluck 
 from him, meanwhile, his sceptre and his crown, 
 or represent him as indifferent alike to evil and 
 to good. 
 
 Thirdly, the pantheistic view of God. This 
 is the combined result of the influences which, 
 when existing separately, produce one or other 
 of the views which we have just been con- 
 templating. — McCosh, Method of the Divine 
 Government. 
 
 III. Arguments against this Creed. 
 
 1 The existence of a latent theopathic ten- 
 dency in man. 
 
 [1049] There would thus appear to be some- 
 thing in the human mind always disposing it to 
 accept the revival of the primitive revelation, 
 whenever circumstances in any degree appeared 
 to suggest it — a kind of theopathic tendency, 
 always ready to be called out and, however 
 unconsciously, to revert to the earliest and truest 
 form of human belief — the belief in a Creator 
 and a God. " The heart,"' as has been well said 
 by Van Oosterzee, "is the palimpsest, on which 
 the older letters, however pale and effaced, will 
 come to light again when it has been properly 
 handled," and when the conditions for revival 
 have in anv degree assumed a favourable aspect. 
 —Bp. Ellicott. 
 
 2 Deism is a retrograde movement. 
 
 [1050] Deism is not a growth of religious 
 revivalism ; but a backward movement into 
 indifference and irreligion, while retaining nomi- 
 nally, as a profession, belief in God. — B. G. 
 
 3 Deism, as a moral guide, refuted by ex- 
 perience. 
 
 [105 1] The follov.ing reasons were assigrtec!
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1051—1061] 
 
 185 
 
 [theism. 
 
 by a reclaimed infidel for renouncing deism and 
 embracing Christianity : — i. That I never saw, 
 heard, nor read of any man, woman, or child 
 that was reformed, either in whole or in part, by 
 embracing the principles of deism. 2. That I 
 have known hundreds, and heard of thousands, 
 who have been reformed by embracing Chris- 
 tianity. 3. That I have known industrious and 
 sober men, who, by imbibing the principles of 
 deism, almost instantly became desperately 
 wicked, and, in many instances, dangerous 
 members of civil society. 4. That I have known 
 some deists, and many scoffers at religion, 
 speedily and effectually turned from the most 
 abandoned practices, "by the preaching of the 
 gospel," to a life of righteousness, which showed 
 itself by sobriety, industry, charity, brotherly 
 kindness, and universal philanthropy. 5. That 
 I do not recollect ever hearing but one deist 
 profess really to believe in a future state of 
 rewards and punishments. 6. That 1 never 
 met with a man who professed to be a real 
 Christian, but who built his principal hopes 
 upon the reality of a future state. 7. That I 
 cannot, in all the deistical writings, find any 
 law to prevent wickedness, or encourage virtue, 
 with rewards and punishments annexed thereto. 
 [Paine's Deism is an exception to the 7th 
 proposition]. 
 
 85 
 
 THEISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [1052] There is some difficulty in the use of 
 the word theism, owing to the different shades of 
 meaning in which it is used by different writers. 
 Perhaps the most simple and intelligible mode 
 of using the word is to denote by it belief in a 
 personal God, the Creator and moral Governor 
 of the universe. As, however, this belief may 
 be contravened in at least two ways — either by 
 only admitting the existence of an impersonal 
 First Cause ; or, more generally, by denying the 
 existence of God in any form, we need two 
 corresponding expressions. One of these is 
 obviously atheism, which correctly applies to 
 the second and general form of denial. The 
 other form is frequently denoted by the term 
 anti-theism {see Flint,- " Antitheistic Theories," 
 pp. 443 et seq.), but as this has been used, con- 
 formably to its etymological aspect, by Chalmers 
 and others to denote atheism in its most pro- 
 nounced or dogmatic form, we need some term 
 like Paratheism {i.e.^ a perverted theism) to 
 designate the fi.rst-mentioned form of misbelief. 
 
 [1053] Theism is a term of religious philosophy 
 rather than of theology. Theism, then, may be 
 defined as speculative theology. — J. H. Blitnt. 
 
 [1054] Theism is the doctnu'j of an extra- 
 mundane, personal God, the Creator, Preserver, 
 and Governor of the world. — Dr. C, Hodge, 
 Systematic Theology. 
 
 [1055] Theism is distinguished from deism, as 
 not having acquired a meaning hostile to Chris- 
 tianity. — B. G. 
 
 II. Its General Recognition. 
 
 [1056] The belief in a God has been found in 
 all ages and in all nations, and the cases in 
 which this belief has not been found are so few 
 and so exceptional that they cannot justly be 
 regarded as modifying in any sensible degree 
 the general force of the universality of the testi- 
 mony. — Bp. Ellicott, Six Addresses on the Being 
 of God. 
 
 [1057] Dr. Ebrard, in his recent work on 
 "Christian Apologetics," after a very careful 
 survey of ancient and modern religions, says 
 that he cannot trace the faintest indication of a 
 progress from polytheism to a gradually dawn- 
 ing theism, but that the evidence of a depra- 
 vation from an earlier and relatively purer 
 knowledge of God is everywhere most distinct. 
 
 III. The True Inference from this 
 Doctrine. 
 
 [1058] Let us urge on the theist to realize 
 continually the full force of this doctrine which 
 he recognizes, its bearing on an all-pervading 
 Providence, its suggestion that if God is, it may 
 be possible for the soul to hold communion with 
 Him. — Abp. Tait, Church of the Future. 
 
 86 
 
 MONOTHEISM. 
 
 I. Contrast between Monotheism and 
 Polytheism. 
 
 [1059] Monotheism is, for intelligent belief, 
 simply a natural consequence of theism ; yet is 
 none the less of most indisputable value for 
 religion and morality. — Vaji Oosterzee. 
 
 [1060] Polytheism is a fruit of sin. The 
 darkened understanding could no longer raise 
 itself to the clear conception of one absolute 
 perfection, because the imagination was at the 
 same time captivated and deceived by the 
 varying brightness of the creation. — Ibid. 
 
 II. Argument in Favour of this Be- 
 lief. 
 
 I Monotheism is a primitive form of re- 
 ligion. 
 [1061] It would almost appear as if the 
 earliest form of religion had been monotheistic. 
 From Tacitus we learn that " a Being, master 
 of the universe, to whom all things were sub- 
 missive and obedient, was the Supreme God of 
 the Germans ; " and from other sources we gather 
 that, in all Teutonic tongues, this Being was 
 called by the general name of God. The object 
 of the most ancient Norse-worship is described 
 as the " author of everything that existeth, the
 
 i86 
 
 1061 — io58] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [NATURALISM. 
 
 eternal, the ancient, the living and awful Being, 
 the searcher into concealed things, the Being 
 that never changeth." — Dr. Burns m Faiths of 
 the World. 
 
 [1062] I doubt whether this question would 
 ever have arisen, unless it had been handed 
 down to us as a legacy of another theory, very 
 prevalent during the Middle Ages, that religion 
 began with a primeval revelation, which primeval 
 revelation could not be conceived at all, except 
 as a revelation of a true and perfect religion, 
 not therefore as monotheism. That primeval 
 monotheism was supposed to have been pre- 
 served by the Jews only, while all other nations 
 left it and fell into polytheism and idolatry, 
 from which, at a later time, they worked their 
 way back again into the purer light of a religious 
 or philosophical monotheism. It is curious to 
 see how long it takes before any of these purely 
 gratuitous theories are entirely annihilated. 
 They may have been refuted again and again ; 
 the laest theologians and scholars may long have 
 admitted that they rest on no solid foundation 
 whatsoever ; yet they crop up in places where 
 we should least expect them — in books of refer- 
 ence, and what is still worse, in popular school 
 books ; and thus the tares are sown broadcast, 
 and spring up everywhere, till they almost choke 
 the wheat. — Max Miiller, Origin and Grotuth of 
 Religion. 
 
 2 Monotheism the obvious inference from 
 the unity of the universe. 
 
 [1063] The unity of the universe as one system, 
 is our argument for one mind regulating it. All 
 is as one kingdom under the same sets of laws, 
 under one king and constitution. — B. G. 
 
 See article on " Fetishism."' 
 
 87 
 
 NATURALISM. 
 
 I. Its Proper Place. 
 
 1 Natural theology subordinate to, not the 
 substance of, religion. 
 
 [1064] For what is called "natural theology," 
 which a man is supposed to get by studying all 
 sorts of things inferior to himself, I have but a 
 small esteem. Well as a supplement, it is 
 naught as the substance of religion. Faith 
 comes, I am persuaded, through the jnoral 
 elements of our nature, by the presence of 
 spiritual causes above us, not by the observation 
 of material effects beneath us. — James Mar- 
 tineau. 
 
 2 Natural religion needs to be supplemented 
 and completed by revelation. 
 
 [1065] Allow nature to have all the advantages 
 that ever the greatest patrons of natural religion 
 laid claim to on her behalf ; allow reason to be as 
 
 clear, as uncorrupted, as unprejudiced, as even 
 our fondest wishes would make it ; yet still it 
 can never be supposed that nature and reason, 
 in all their glory, can be able to know the will 
 of God so well as He himself knows it : and 
 therefore, should God ever make a declaration 
 of His will, that declaration must, according to 
 the nature and the necessity of the thing, be a 
 more perfect rule for religion than reason and 
 nature can possibly furnish us with. Had we 
 the wisdom and reason of cherubim and sera- 
 phim to direct us in the worship and service of 
 our ]\Iaker, nevertheless it would be our highest 
 wisdom, as it is theirs, to submit to His laws — 
 that is, to the declarations of His will. — Bishop 
 Sherlock, 1678-1761. 
 
 II. 
 
 Natural compared with Revealed 
 Religion, 
 
 [1066] The definition of natural religion is 
 simple enough : the sum of knowledge of things 
 superhuman which is discoverable to the human 
 mind by its ordinary faculties, and the ordinary 
 methods of scientific investigation. The natural 
 way to inquire how much knowledge is thus 
 discoverable would be by an appeal to history — 
 how much has, without supernatural assistance, 
 been discovered by man. 
 
 Natural religion fails (i) because its existence 
 can be accounted for from causes not involving 
 its truth ; and (2) because it suggests difficulties 
 which it cannot solve. Revealed religion does 
 not fail similarly, (i) because its existence is a 
 fact not explained by natural causes ; and (2) be- 
 cause, though it suggests at least as many diffi- 
 culties as the other, it accounts, as the other 
 does not, for the existence of difficulties. 
 
 III. Its Twofold Phases. 
 
 [1067] This word is used in two senses, an objec- 
 tive and a subjective. In the former sense, it is the 
 belief which identifies God with nature; in the 
 latter, it is the belief in the sufficiency of natural 
 as distinct from revealed religion. The former 
 is pantheism, the latter deism. — A. S. Farrar, 
 Critical History of Free Thought. 
 
 [1068] This name, which has now become 
 nearly obsolete in a theological or philosophical 
 sense, has been used to designate two sections 
 of the antichristian school which rejects belief 
 in supernatural causes or operations. 
 
 1st. The name has been mostly used by Ger- 
 man writers for those who identify God with 
 nature, but who are now more generally known 
 as Pantheists. 
 
 2nd. By English writers it is generally taken as 
 signifying those who consider natural religion to 
 be sufficient for man's guidance and happiness 
 without any supernatural revelation. 
 
 But these latter may be subdivided also into 
 two classes ; the first of which has received the 
 name of "philosophical naturalists," rejecting 
 altogether belief in revelation; the second, that 
 of " theological naturalists " who accept revela-
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 187 
 
 1068 — 1073] 
 
 [spiritualism. 
 
 tion as containing truth, but as being at the best 
 only a republication of natural religion, and so 
 unnecessary. The name is rarely found in 
 works written later than the seventeenth century, 
 when it was used by Kant in Germany, and by 
 Boyle in England ; and the school formerly 
 known as naturalists are now called pantheists 
 and rationalists. — Rev. J. H. Blunt. 
 
 IV. Arguments against this Systeji. 
 I Natural religion not a practical force. 
 
 [1069] It has been truly said that so-called 
 natural religion, the apotheosis of moral ab- 
 stractions, exists only in books. Religions 
 which have vital force and influence are positive 
 religions, i.e., they make for themselves a church 
 and rites and dogmas. — Canon Eatoji, Bampto7i 
 Lectures. 
 
 [1070] Sometimes the deniers of the mira- 
 culous become the worshippers of nature. 
 Nature worship was, perhaps, the earliest form 
 of natural religion. Men worshipped trees and 
 rivers, the ocean, the sky, the sun, and the 
 moon. Hence flowed the corruption and super- 
 stitions which defiled the religions of the world 
 before Christ. The present form of nature 
 worship is not like this in its superstition. But 
 it is equally powerless. It makes no provision 
 for the highest wants of man. — Rev. VV. Ander- 
 
 2 Natural religion presents the character 
 of God in a forbidding aspect. 
 
 [107 1] To call upon men to praise such a Being, 
 as the God of nature and providence merely, 
 to be happy in the contemplation of His character, 
 would be to call upon the offender against law 
 to rejoice in the aspects and accents of the 
 judge who is pronouncing upon him the sentence 
 of death. — \V. Span'oiv, Sermons. 
 
 88 
 
 SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 I. Its False Claim to Novelty. 
 
 [1072] Nothing in the spiritualistic circles of 
 our day has been more strange, mysterious, and 
 wonderful than things which have been seen in 
 the past centuries of the world. In all the ages 
 there have been necromancers, those who consult 
 with the spirits of the departed ; charmers, those 
 who put their subjects in a mesmeric state ; 
 sorcerers, those who by taking poisonous drugs 
 see everything, and hear everything, and tell 
 everything ; dreamers, people who in their sleep- 
 ing moments can see the future world and hold 
 consultation with spirits ; astrologers, who could 
 read a new dispensation in the stars ; experts in 
 palmistry, who can tell by the lines in the palm 
 of your hand your origin and your history. 
 
 From a cave on Mount Parnassus, we are told, 
 there was an exhalation that intoxicated the 
 sheep and the goats that came anywhere near 
 it, and a shepherd approaching it was thrown 
 by that exhalation into an excitement in which 
 he could foretell future events and hold consul- 
 tation with the spiritual world. Yea, before the 
 time of Christ the Brahmins went through all 
 the table-moving, all the furniture excitement, 
 which the spirits have exploited in our day ; 
 precisely the same thing, over and over again, 
 under the manipulations of the Brahmins. Now, 
 do you say that Spiritualism is different from 
 these? I answer, all these delusions I have 
 mentioned belong to the same family. They 
 are exhumations from the unseen world. — Tal- 
 
 II. Its Absurdity. 
 
 [1073] The spiritualist is perfectly content with 
 an ideal heaven wherein he will remain in just 
 as much doubt or error as he happens to have 
 entertained upon earth. Further, as regards 
 his personal and social affections, does he at 
 least image to himself that he will be nearer 
 and more able to protect and bless his dear 
 ones after death? Or that he will pass freely 
 hither and thither, doing service like a guardian 
 angel to mankind, strengthening the weak, com- 
 forting the mourner, and awakening the con- 
 science of the wicked ? There is (so far as we 
 have followed the literature of Spiritualism) no 
 warrant for such a picture of beneficent activity. 
 Good spirits, as well as bad — the souls of Plato 
 and Fdnelon, as well as those of the silliest and 
 wickedest "twaddler" (as Dr. Wallace honestly 
 describes many spirits, habitues of seances) — 
 have seemingly spent all the centuries since 
 their demise humbly waiting to be called up by 
 some woman or child, precisely as if they were 
 lackeys ready to answer the downstairs' bell. 
 In many cases we are led to infer that the dead 
 have been striving for years and ages to make 
 themselves known, and now for the last quarter 
 of a century have very clumsily and imperfectly 
 succeeded in doing so. Let us conceive for a 
 moment a grand and loving soul — a Shake- 
 speare or Jeremy Taylor, or Shelley, who once 
 spoke to mankind in free and noble speech, a 
 man among men— fumbling about the legs of 
 tables, scratching like a dog at a door, and 
 eagerly flying to obtain the services of an in- 
 terpreter like Miss Fox, Mr. Hume, or Mrs. 
 Guppy — and we have surely invented a punish- 
 ment and humiliation exceeding those of any 
 purgatory hitherto invented. If virtue itself has 
 nothing better to hope for hereafter than such a 
 destiny, we may well wish that the grave should 
 prove indeed, after all, the last home of 
 
 " Earth's mighty nation, 
 Where Oblivion's pall shall darkly fall 
 On the dreamless sleep of annihilation." 
 
 In conclusion, is it too much now to ask that 
 we may be exonerated, once for all, from the 
 charge of unreasonable prejudice, if we refuse
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1073-1080] 
 
 [rationalism. 
 
 to undertake the laborious inquiry into the 
 marvels of Spiritualism which its advocates 
 ch allenge. — Cornhill Magazine. 
 
 III. Its Sinfulness. 
 
 [1074] What does God think of all these de- 
 lusions? He thinks so severely of them that 
 He never speaks of them but with livid thunders 
 of indignation. He says, "I will be a swift 
 witness against the sorcerer." He says, "Thou 
 shalt not suffer a witch to live." And lest you 
 might make some important distinction between 
 spiritualism and witchcraft, God says, in so 
 many words, "There shall not be among you 
 a consulter of familiar spirits, or wizard, or 
 necromancer ; for they that do these things are 
 an abomination unto the Lord." And He says 
 again, "The soul of those who seek after such 
 as have familiar spirits, and who go whoring 
 after them, I will set myself against them, and 
 he shall be cut off from among his people." 
 The Lord Almighty, in a score of passages, 
 which I have not now time to quote, utters 
 His indignation against all this great family of 
 delusions. After that, be a spiritualist if you 
 dare ! — Talmage, 
 
 89 
 
 RATIONALISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition and Fallacies. 
 
 [1075] Rationalism is the title given to the 
 views of those who pare down religion to the 
 size of their boasted reason, in which they have 
 no special prerogative. 
 
 [1076] There are two ways by which the 
 human mind can attain the knowledge of truth ; 
 first by receiving a Divine revelation of it ; and, 
 secondly, by means of observation and ratio- 
 cination. The name rationalism is given to 
 that school of thought which believes that the 
 latter of these two ways is of itself fully sufficient 
 for the attainment of all truth. 
 
 [1077] The following are some of the fallacies 
 underlying rationalism : — 
 
 1st. It is founded upon the false principle 
 that, in order to the rational exercise of faith, we 
 must understand the truth believed. The im- 
 possible cannot be believed, but every one does 
 believe much that is incomprehensible. 
 
 2nd. It assumes that the human intelligence 
 is the measure of all truth. 
 
 3rd. It destroys the distinction between faith 
 and knowledge, evidence and experience. — Co7i- 
 densed from Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theology. 
 
 II. Its Evil Consequences. 
 
 I Rationalizing religion is robbing it of all 
 motive power. 
 
 [1078] What is it that is now leading thousands 
 
 and thousands of men and women to form their 
 resolutions of holiness, to live more for God and 
 less for themselves ? What is it that sends out 
 the learned and the eager-minded, and the great 
 men that go out to the ends of the world ; to 
 the wilds of North America and the centre of 
 Africa, trying to bring to the fold if they can 
 those dear sheep of Jesus which they know to 
 be there ? What is it, to come nearer home, 
 that leads educated and learned men anLi 
 women, well born and of gentle nurture, to go 
 into the foul dens of London where you and I 
 dare not show our respectable faces at all, to go 
 there and pick up Christ's children out of the 
 gutter, and tell them they are heirs of heaven ; 
 to rescue the harlots from the pavement, and to 
 bring the drunkard and thief to penitence ? Is 
 it rationalism which is doing all this ? I think 
 not. — Rev. C. L. A eland. 
 
 2 Rationalism affords no ground-work for 
 moral obligation. 
 
 [1079I The idea of goodness is something 
 radically different from the idea of pleasure, 
 happiness, or prosperity, whether of the indi- 
 vidual, the tribe, or the whole human race. 
 The idea of a being who sacrifices all for the 
 good of others is the idea of a very good being, 
 but not necessarily of a happy one. The idea 
 of goodness is generally accompanied by a 
 feeling of complacency, but it need not be so. 
 Moral goodness is a sort of rational instinct, 
 and its existence is necessary to form a perfect 
 man, but moral truth may be both clearly per- 
 ceived and hated. INIoreover the goodness of 
 acts is measured, as all men (save the few who 
 have an eccentric theory to maintain) agree to 
 declare, by the motives which prompt actions, 
 and not by the resiclts of the acts performed. 
 It is abundantly evident that no collection of 
 sensuous experiences can generate the ideas ot 
 goodness. This truth cuts the ground from 
 under — renders simply impossible — the view 
 that a judgment as to moral obligation can ever 
 have been evolved from mere likings and dis- 
 likings, or from feelings of preference for tribal 
 interests over individual ones. — Prof. Mivart in 
 British Quarterly Review. 
 
 III. Confutations of this System. 
 
 I All nature is a mystery equally with re- 
 ligion. 
 
 [1080] Herbert Spencer ("First Principles of 
 a New Philosophy," p. 45) says that in nature 
 there is the omnipresence of something which 
 passes comprehension, and that this inscrutable 
 Power is believed in alike by science and re- 
 ligion. Professors Tyndall and Huxley speak 
 in similar language. This Power " declines all 
 intellectual manipulation," Tyndall says. There- 
 fore all science leads up to the fixed belief 
 of that which is admittedly incomprehensible, 
 thereby overturning the fundamental postulate 
 of rationalism. — /. S.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1081-1088/ 
 
 189 
 
 [neology. 
 
 2 Scientific knowledge continually enlarges 
 the horizon of mystery. 
 
 [108 1] Positive knowledge does not, and never 
 can, fill the whole region of possible thought. 
 At the utmost reach of discovery there arises, 
 and must ever arise, the question, What lies 
 beyond ? Science is a gradually increasing 
 sphere, and every addition to its surface does 
 but bring it into wider contact with surrounding 
 ignorance. — H. Spencer, First Principles. 
 
 3 Rationalism is the uselessly leaving the 
 province of reason. 
 
 [1082] The only sphere of knowledge in re- 
 ligion, as in natural things, is the relation of 
 objects to ourselves — that fireburns,that clothing 
 warms, that food nourishes ; but why, how, these 
 effects are produced, and what is the essence 
 and nature of things, is a mystery which ration- 
 alism cannot solve ; though reason accepts the 
 facts and sees the benefits : and the same is 
 equally true of religion and its doctrines. — B. G. 
 
 4 That cannot be truly rational which is 
 morally injurious. 
 
 [1083] It has ever been a great evil in the 
 Church that men have allowed the logical un- 
 derstanding, or what they call their reason, to 
 lead them to conclusions which are not only 
 contrary to Scripture, but which do violence to 
 our moral nature. It is conceded that nothing 
 contrary to reason can be true ; but it is no less 
 important to remember that nothing contrary to 
 our moral nature can be true. — Dr. Hodge, 
 Systematic Theology. 
 
 5 Practical knowledge is the only wisdom 
 and true rationality. 
 
 [1084] The first and main question should be. 
 What is true to the renewed heart ? and not 
 merely, What is true to the understanding ? So 
 legitimate and powerful is this inward teaching 
 of the Spirit, that it is no uncommon thing to find 
 men having two theologies — one of the intellect, 
 another of the heart ; the one finding expression 
 in creeds and systems, the other in prayers and 
 hymns. — Ibid. 
 
 90 
 
 NEOLOGY. 
 
 I. Its Definition and Mistaken At- 
 tempt. 
 
 [1085] From Greek vkoq — new, and Xoyog — 
 speech, discourse, reason, or science. Nihilism 
 is Noihingism, Neology is Newismj it is mainly 
 another term for rationalism in religion. It is 
 of the " advance " party, who assume that what 
 is old is obsolete ; though King Lear, addressing 
 the stars, asks them to pity him, an old man, 
 '' since ye yourselves are old." Religion was 
 complete in its fundamental documents some 
 two thousand years ago ; and admits of no 
 
 "discovery'' of any new truth, but only with 
 regard to definition, practical application, ter- 
 minology, and practice. 
 
 If newness is the quality of truth or rationality, 
 there is no permanent truth, and present neo- 
 logy should be set aside for another " phase of 
 faith."— ^. G. 
 
 II. Its Origin. 
 
 I Attributed to Coleridge. 
 
 [1086] Coleridge is the origin of all this 
 modern English rationalism: "The compati- 
 bility of a document {i.e., of the statements in 
 it), with the conclusions of self-evident reason 
 and with the laws of conscience, is a condition 
 a priori of any evidence, adequate to the proof 
 of its being revealed of God." And, " There 
 are mysteries in Christianity ; but these are 
 reason, in its highest form of self-affirmation." 
 [These words are cited in " Essays and Reviews," 
 by Dr. Pattison, " The Ground of Truth," P.263.J 
 
 [1087] Coleridge would turn in his grave to 
 find such use of his metaphysics, which were 
 intended as a defence of orthodoxy. — B. G. 
 
 III. Its Underlying Errors. 
 
 [1088] The two underlying errors of neology 
 are, first, the conscience above the scriptures ; 
 secondly, the supremacy of reason in matters of 
 religion. Both these statements are very simi- 
 lar. " Man's reason supreme in religious 
 matters" only differs from " conscience supreme 
 above the Bible " in that conscience is the 
 larger faculty of the two ; for it receives religious 
 impressions of fact and ideas as well as forms 
 final decision respecting them, whereas reason 
 does not receive impressions. Reason has a 
 work indeed, distinct from conscience, of com- 
 bining and separating ideas and facts, and 
 then of generalizing and abstracting ; but even 
 in forming moral conclusions, conscience un- 
 questionably bears a part, and becomes then 
 twin or one with reason, and assists afterwards 
 in marshalling the facts and ideas. If then he 
 says that reason is supreme, he must include 
 conscience, and the two expressions are nearly 
 tantamount. 
 
 But while we limit rationalizing in theology, 
 we cannot afford to forget for a moment the 
 services of reason and conscience. It is theirs 
 even to determine where their own jurisdiction 
 ceases, on account of the inadequacy of their 
 powers : and it lies equally with them to deter- 
 mine the true meaning of the Scripture : but 
 not on the principle that, when their undoubted 
 interpretation of it goes contrary to what would 
 be their own independent decision, that decision 
 is right, and that interpretation wrong. Man's 
 reason is but a servant to our all-wise Maker ; 
 and to His undoubted word, reason must bow. 
 If reason does not bow, it can only be defended, 
 even for a moment, on the false ground that the 
 Bible is not, or is not all, God's word ; or is not 
 God's word to such an extent that reason ""^
 
 igo 
 
 1088-1D92] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [freethought. 
 
 called on to submit to it. And what kind of 
 Bible we have on this hypothesis, this very book 
 (" Essays and Reviews ") has shown us. 
 
 The most illustrative anecdote I know, I can 
 but imperfectly recite. " Nay," said a learned 
 man to a great king, " experience and logic are 
 both against your majesty." His majesty 
 coolly replied, " So much the worse for logic 
 and experience ! " What was presumption, in 
 word at least, in the case of a mortal king, is 
 all logic and philosophy regarding the word of 
 the King of kings. If the Bible is not equal to 
 the encounter, it is no Bible. It must be su- 
 preme, even when it seems to oppose reason and 
 conscience. But it only does so really when 
 they are both in error : and no doubt they often 
 are. This is the second error in this essay, 
 viz., making reason supreme. Dr. Pattison 
 might only cany it to the length of rationalism : 
 but its natural course, in fallen men, may be to 
 the length of deism and atheism. — Rev. Charles 
 Herbert^ Neology not True. 
 
 [1089] Reason and conscience cannot be 
 above revelation ; but, when properly enlight- 
 ened, may judge of its claims, and must then 
 submit to its direction. 
 
 IV. Its General Purport and Scope. 
 
 z The introduction of much sceptical un- 
 certainty into the chief departments of 
 theology. 
 
 [109c] It is most desirable to define our terms : 
 and Dr. jNIorell says that the word " neology,"' 
 "as a distinctive and significant expression, has 
 become absolutely without any other meaning 
 than" "something which is new to us, or difters 
 from our system.'' I can accept this definition, 
 for it is really in this sense that I use the termi. 
 I mean by it certain opinions which difi'er, as 
 I maintain, from the doctrines of the Church 
 of England and other accordant communities ; 
 and which are new, to a great extent, to us, 
 in that their rise amongst us was chronologi- 
 cally coincident with the decline of that de- 
 velopment of religious thought and practice on 
 which Dr. Benson fixed the convenient and in- 
 oftensive name of Tractarianism. The general 
 purport and scope of these new opinions has 
 been to introduce much sceptical uncertainty 
 into the chief departments both of religion and 
 theology. Whether this new mode of thought 
 be true or no, the readers of this and other 
 books will judge. But if any particular answer 
 is desired to the question what I designate by 
 that general term, it is surely a fair method of 
 adding specialty to my general description if I 
 say that in the doctrines, which I extract from 
 the latest works of three leading writers of that 
 school, is seen a part of what I mean by neology. 
 The writers of this class must be dealt with one 
 by one, for they have no general confession ; 
 and it would be outrageously unjust to lay to the 
 door of two at least of my authors the throwing 
 open of the floodgates of doubt in " the seven " 
 Essays and Reviews. — Rev. Charles Herbert, 
 Neology not Tr-iie, 
 
 V. Its Tactics. 
 
 [1091] Antagonism and variance between 
 man's moral faculties and Scripture, and man's 
 scientific faculties and Scripture, have often 
 originated from confounding man's glosses upon 
 Scripture with the word itself; and man's false 
 inferences, when they have long lain and en- 
 crusted themselves upon it, have to be roughly 
 chiselled and heated with strong solvents, and 
 even ground away, if we would honestly arrive 
 at the true jewel of God's revealed wisdom 
 beneath. All, then, who are able to bring a 
 larger portion of the utterances of God into 
 real harmony with the general judgments of 
 men, and to justify the words of God to man's 
 understanding, are great benefactors to Chris- 
 tian nations. — Ibid. 
 
 91 
 
 FREETHOUGHT. 
 
 I. Its Nature and Fallacies. 
 
 [1092] (i) Freethought and freethinker are 
 names fondly used by those who teach the 
 impossibility of freethought, and who deny in 
 effect, if not in words, that any one can be a 
 freethinker. 
 
 (2) The doctrine of causation, or necessary 
 sequence, by which no event, or action, or 
 thought, or will, can possibly be otherwise than 
 it is, makes freethought an absurdity according 
 to the opinions of so-called freethinkers them- 
 selves. 
 
 (3) The denial of responsibility for belief, or 
 thought and opinion, on the ground that our 
 opinions, thoughts, or beliefs are necessitated 
 by organization and circumstances, as main- 
 tained by the same professed and self-styled 
 freethinkers, proves that, on their principles, the 
 freethought which they profess is impossible. 
 
 (4) This line of argument was once answered, 
 in a way of concession and evasion, by a noted 
 freethinker, in a public oral discussion. That 
 freethinker said in effect : We do not say that 
 thought is free, but we say that we are free- 
 thinkers as claiming to be under no priestly 
 compulsion, and deserving no legal punishment 
 for our opinions. This was the answer given to 
 the preceding arguments, proving freethought, 
 in the mouth of a professed freethinker, is a 
 contradiction of the same self-styled freethinker's 
 teachings. 
 
 (5) This admits that, on their own showing, 
 thought is not free ; and the claim to be free 
 from the dictation of priests and from human 
 penalties for opinions is, in its first part, only a 
 Protestant doctrine, and in its second part a 
 question of general utility and of civil freedom, 
 but is not a question of freedom of thinking. 
 At most it refers not to thinking at all — for 
 which we can be responsible only to God — but 
 a question of speaking or writing, for which we 
 may be responsible to men.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1092-1098] 
 
 191 
 
 [evolution. 
 
 (6) The name "bigots" is applied by pre- 
 tended freethinkers to all who do not think in 
 the so-called " freethinking " groove. 
 
 (7) No self-styled freethinker would permit 
 that title as suitable to a Christian man, who 
 may be, and who is, as free in his thinking as 
 any unbeliever in Christianity. This they are 
 too liberal to admit. 
 
 (8) To be freethinkers we must subscribe to 
 their articles, and be forced to think as they do. 
 It is the curious boast of the leader of certain 
 so-called freethinkers that he is regarded as 
 ^'^ doing the thinking FOR" them. So that his 
 freethinking followers are free from thinking; 
 and it has been proved that every principle 
 which he himself holds or professes is second- 
 hand, and therefore his freethought is the echo 
 of other people's opinions, just as the opinions 
 of his folloive7-s are the echo of his, and are 
 fabricated or adopted by him for them. 
 
 (9) Therefore freethought, as used by its 
 adherents and professors, is a cant term, and 
 it is time this was understood more generally. — 
 B. G. 
 
 [1093] Freethought is a self-condemned term 
 on the lips of those who deny the freedom of 
 man, and regard him as the mere creature of 
 circumstances. Freedom from the influence of 
 all creeds is utterly impossible, as the language 
 and literature of the world is saturated and im- 
 pregnated with creeds and systems and schools 
 of thought. If we could be free to think unin- 
 fluenced by the world of existing thought, we 
 should be crude indeed in our notions. Free- 
 thought then would be free from thought — at 
 least true thought. What we have to do is to 
 be free, not from creeds and systems (which will 
 be impossible, and, if possible, would be posi- 
 tively hurtful), but from prejudice,prepossessions, 
 and other idols of the mind. The so-called free- 
 thinker has no right to claim that, as regards 
 freedom in its true sense, he is superior to the 
 " free man in Christ."— C. N. 
 
 [1094] As those who desert the temple of faith 
 find themselves in the gloomy caverns of super- 
 stition, so the would-be freethinkers are possibly 
 more manacled than their neighbours. — C N. 
 
 [1095] There is a current in human thought 
 like those in various parts of the ocean, and it 
 is precisely when the ship is set free, and the 
 anchors drawn, and the cables hauled in, that 
 the current is most felt. It is the free ship 
 which is its unresisting victim. What, we may 
 ask, is meant by the phrase so often heard at 
 present, that " a wave of sentiment," " a demo- 
 cratic wave," "an atheistic wave," is passing 
 over European nations ; what, but that men 
 yield themselves captive to the prevailing sen- 
 timent of the society in which they move, and 
 whilst they imagine themselves free are driven 
 by a current that is in truth their master. — 
 Church Quarterly. 
 
 II. Its Inevitable Tendency to Posi- 
 tivism. 
 
 [1096] In my last lecture I gave a sketch of 
 the progress of free thought in this country, and 
 showed that it is tending to sink towards positi- 
 vism. But this negative philosophy cannot last 
 any great length of time. Persons cannot live 
 long, for they cannot breathe, in a vacuum. A 
 terrible wind will rush in to fill up the void when 
 it begins to be felt. If men's heads do not dis- 
 cover the fallacy, their hearts will turn away 
 from the emptiness. But, meanwhile, the move- 
 ment has its course to run ; and, as it does so, 
 it will freeze by its coldness much blood at the 
 heart, w^hich would otherwise be felt vitally in 
 every member of the frame, and go forth in 
 practical activity ; nay, as it is dragged along it 
 may crush much life under its Juggernaut wheels. 
 But before it closes its course it must assume 
 another form : it will become a prevailing mate- 
 rialism. — James UlcCosh, Christianity ajid Posi- 
 tivism, 
 
 92 
 
 UNITARIANISM. 
 
 [1097] (i) Unitarianism, like many other 
 names for doctrines, and badges of sects, does 
 not really indicate the differences between its 
 adherents and other bodies of professors. It 
 in fact expresses the point in which all are 
 agreed, not the points wherein those called 
 Unitarians recede from the orthodox faith. 
 
 (2) Unitarianism, as to the word, is mono- 
 theism ; as to its application, it is simply opposed 
 to Trinitarianism, but it is not opposed to Trini- 
 tarianism in its etymological force. "The 
 Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity " is 
 recognized, "not confounding the persons nor 
 dividing the substance." Unitarianism, in its 
 application to the opinions of those professing it, 
 is a flexible term, and ranges from rationalism, 
 neology, deism, to the very edge of orthodox 
 evangelical religion. It includes Dr. Priestly 
 and James Martineau. In general, besides 
 rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, it excludes 
 the atonement, which rests on the true divinity 
 of Christ. The name " Unitarian " refers 
 directly to the rejection of the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, which, however, as before said, is itself a 
 doctrine of unity — Tri-unity being the etymology 
 of Trinity. — B. G. 
 
 93 
 
 E VOL UTION. 
 
 I. Its Definition and Fallacies. 
 
 [109S] (i) Evolution is the abacadabra of 
 scientific conjuration, the mystic spell or charm 
 and magic word that is to carry on or account
 
 192 
 
 I098-II041 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [evolution*. 
 
 for the processes in nature, without the too 
 close proximity of the Presiding Ruler. 
 
 (2) Sometimes the evolutionist admits Divine 
 agency both in starting and carrying on the 
 process, and assures us tliat he " does not 
 exclude God," but " methinks he doth protest 
 too much." 
 
 (3) Evolution is a name under which chance 
 is masked, and transformed into the source of 
 consecutive and orderly series of events or 
 productions. 
 
 (4) Our " Ephesians of the modern church " 
 sometimes have " Law " as their " great goddess 
 Diana;" here it is "Evolution." Nothing is 
 produced by a Maker, but one thing is evolved 
 from another, and all is plain — and at least the 
 explanation is muddy, if not profound. 
 
 (5) We ask for a key to unlock the secrets 
 of nature ; and in place of a key that will turn 
 the lock we are favoured with a patent word — 
 Evolution. 
 
 (6) It is a theory or phraseology evolved out of 
 scientific consciousness. There is a gradation 
 in things, and so one comes from another, 
 
 (7) The supposed elder and simpler, are pro- 
 genitors, though sometimes the product and the 
 producer are for a long time contemporaneous. 
 
 (8) The mollusc, the monkey, and the man 
 live side by side; but why the "protoplasms " 
 from which they are all evolved, and which 
 started together, or have existed for ever, did 
 not keep pace with each other in development, 
 is not yet evolved or expounded. 
 
 (9) A spear is evolved into a cross-bow. Brown 
 Bess, needle-gun, and, finally, cannon. The 
 great gun called the " Woolwich infant" is evolved 
 from its parent stem, " Colt's revolver." 
 
 (10) An acorn is evolved into an oak, which 
 is evolved into ships called "hearts of oak." 
 Clay is evolved into bricks, and then into houses, 
 — all by a consecutive orderly course of nature, 
 which every one can trace, and explain the whole 
 by evolution — that is without human interposi- 
 tion ; and so nature's products are equally, and 
 no more, solved by evolution without Divine 
 interposition and presidency. — B. G, 
 
 II. Its Phases. 
 
 [1099] Theories of developmejit or evolution. 
 — Of these there are three phases : Cosmical 
 development, physiological development, and 
 historical development, i. Cosmical develop- 
 ment. This undertakes to account for the 
 origin, forms, and motions of the planets and 
 systems that constitute the physical universe, 
 and for their physical constitution, and for the 
 universe itself. 2. Physiological development. 
 This undertakes to account for all life and 
 varieties of life, both animal and vegetable, by 
 what are called laws of nature, or natural law. 
 3. Historical development. This undertakes to 
 account for the progress of the human race in 
 arts, civilization, science, government, social and 
 domestic life, religion and morality ; and for all 
 rational, moral, and religious ideas and systems, 
 by natural law or laws of nature. — Clark Bradcn, 
 The Problem of P)-oblems. 
 
 III. Its Distinctive Schools. 
 
 [i loo] There have been at least three schools 
 of evolutionists : those who deny the Divine 
 existence, those who ignore it, and those who 
 affirm it ; or the atheistic, the agnostic, and the 
 theistic. — Rev. Joseph Cook, Bostofi Lectures. 
 
 IV. Pleas put forward in its Favour 
 BY its Christian Advocates. 
 
 I It does honour to the Divine Wisdom. 
 
 fiioi] Creative evolution, therefore, is a per- 
 fectly intelligible and legitimate hypothesis. It 
 is perfectly in harmony with " the arguments of 
 such writers as Paley, Bell, and Chalmers " (and 
 
 1 may add, with the first chapter of Genesis), 
 as any hypothesis of " independent creation 
 of species." Natural theology can have no 
 possible quarrel with any hypothesis which 
 seeks rationally and reverently to trace the lines 
 along which Almighty Power has been guided 
 by Omi iscient Wisdom. — Dr. Eustace Conder 
 in Contemporary Review. 
 
 2 It does honour to the Divine Omniscience. 
 
 [1102] Matter and energy, such as we know — 
 them, appear to be practically coming to an end, 9 
 and we seem almost forced to believe that their ■ 
 original position and properties must have been 
 impressed upon them by some Power apart from 
 either. Supposing this to be the case, the 
 Power who gave the atoms their position and 
 properties must, from a knowledge of these, 
 almost necessarily have been able, not only to 
 declare the end from the beginning (Isaiah xlvi. 
 10), but to know what was going on in every 
 space and at every time, and must indeed be 
 not only omnipotent, but omniscient. Thus in 
 the doctrine of evolution, carried to its very 
 remotest limits, there is nothing atheistic, but 
 the very reverse. — Dr. Lauder Bi'unton, Bible 
 and Science. 
 
 3 It does not interfere with faith in the 
 personal communion of God with the 
 soul, 
 
 [1103] Whatever of truth there may be in the 
 doctrines so ably advocated by the great scientist 
 whom we have lately lost [Darwin] amounts, 
 from the religious point of view, to no more 
 than an extension of our knowledge of the 
 sphere of secondary laws. The fundamental 
 doctrine of the theist is left precisely as it was. 
 The belief in the great Creator and Ruler of the 
 universe is confessed by the author of these 
 doctrines. The grounds remain untouched of 
 faith in the personal Deity who is in intimate 
 relation with individual souls, who is their guide 
 and helper in life, and who can be trusted in re- 
 gard to the great hereafter, — Church Quarterly. 
 
 4 It leaves room for creative and directive 
 Divine energy, 
 
 [i 104] Spirit is essentially energy, and the God 
 who is a spirit can never be inactive, but must be
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHR ISTIAA'ITV 
 
 1104-tiiij 
 
 [evolution. 
 
 everywhere and at every moment a living Force, 
 a producing and efficient Will. Continuous and 
 universal action is given in the very idea of 
 God ; it is impossible to conceive them without 
 receiving it. Then, as to His relation to Nature, 
 it is, and must be, natural. I utterly refuse to 
 conceive nature as the antithesis of God, inde- 
 pendent of Him, going its own way, doing its 
 own work, without, save at special moments, 
 any care or concern or touch of His. I utterly 
 refuse to regard His action in nature as super- 
 natural or miraculous, as interposition or inter- 
 ference from without, possible only by a violation 
 of what men call Law. Nature has no being 
 without God ; its energies are His, its processes 
 are His, His are the works it is daily performing. 
 His the results it daily achieves. And this con- 
 ception of their relations is based on the nature 
 of Nature as well as of God. It came into 
 being through its cause ; it is only as its cause 
 is ; continues to be and to act only as the cause 
 abides unchanged and unchangeable. And on 
 His side isolation is impossible ; were He to 
 withdraw from the world He would surrender 
 His infinitude, sacrifice His omnipotence to 
 inaction, and reduce His wisdom to silence. In 
 evolution, then, the creative action does not 
 exclude God ; its process is one that only the 
 more demands the exercise of His energy and 
 the direction of His will. — Dr. A. M. Fairbairn 
 in Contemporary Review. 
 
 [1105] The evolutionary process, supposing it 
 to exist, must have had a beginning : who began 
 it ? It must have had material to work with : 
 who furnished it ? It is itself a law or system 
 of laws : who enacted them ? Even supposing 
 that the theory represents absolute truth, and is 
 not merely a provisional way of looking at things 
 incidental to the present stage of knowledge, 
 these great questions are just as little to be 
 decided by physical science now, as they were 
 when Moses wrote the Pentateuch ; but there 
 are apparently three important gaps in the 
 evolutionary sequence which it is well to bear 
 in mind. There is the greater gap between the 
 highest_ animal instinct and the reflective, self- 
 measuring, self-analyzing thought of man. There 
 is the greater gap between life and the most 
 highly organized matter. There is the greatest 
 gap of all between matter and nothing. At 
 these three points, as far as we can see, the 
 Creative Will must have intervened otherwise 
 than by way of evolution out of existing ma- 
 terials—to create mind, to create life, to create 
 matter. — Canon Liddon. 
 
 5 It does honour to God as the Designer 
 of the universe. 
 
 [i 106] The whole course of nature may be the 
 embodiment of a preconcerted arrangement ; 
 and if the succession of events be explained by 
 transniutation, the perpetual adaptation of the 
 organic world to new conditions leaves the 
 argument in favour of desii^n, and therefore of a 
 Designer, as valid as Q\t\:—Lycll, Antiquity of 
 Man. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 6 It explains and illustrates the hereditary 
 depravity in man. 
 
 [1107] The Darwinian doctrine of evolution- 
 ary development— which, be it observed, has no 
 necessary or even natural connection with the 
 figment of spontaneous generation, which specu- 
 lative savants have tried to hang upon it — at 
 once and clearly explains how, if there ever was 
 evil in human nature, it mtist of necessity be 
 persistent throughout the whole progeny of our 
 first parents ; and if the fathers sinned, their 
 children cannot by any possibility escape the 
 penalty of their offences. Thus science has by 
 one discovery removed the difficulty which has 
 perplexed the niind of man through countless 
 generations. — Lancet {April 15, 1882). 
 
 7 It does not necessarily imply the truth of 
 the particular theory known as Natural 
 Selection. 
 
 [i loS] The theory of evolution is still very far 
 from being scientifically established ; and also, 
 if true, very far from standing in any antithesis 
 whatever to creation. It has been justly observed 
 by Mr. Row that there are undoubtedly "indi- 
 cations that in the formation of the universe the 
 Creator has acted through the agency of means, 
 and not by direct action.'' He adds, however, 
 very properly, that it is quite another question 
 whether this be an entire account of the matter. 
 (See Row, " Principles of Modern Pantheistic 
 and Atheistic Philosophy;" compare also the 
 special work of St. Clair, "Creation by Evo- 
 lution.") It need scarcely be added that the 
 evolution here referred to does not by any means 
 involve or imply the truth of the particulat' 
 theory known by the name of Natural Selection.^ 
 The one is a broad principle for which there 
 certainly seems some evidence ; the other is a 
 special exemplification of it, against which, as 
 originally defined, there lie apparently insuper- 
 able objections. — Bishop Ellicott, Modern Un- 
 belief. 
 
 [i 109] The selection and preservation, and we 
 may say the education, of the actual forms and 
 adaptations, niay be scientifically accounted for, 
 but not their origination. The origination is the 
 essential thing. — Dr. Asa Gray in Contemporary- 
 Review, 
 
 V. Objections urged against this 
 Theory. 
 
 1 From the study of comparative anatomy. 
 
 [iiio] In the highest apes the capacity of the- 
 cranium is thirty-four inches, while the skeleton 
 is not fitted for an erect position, and the fore- 
 limbs are essential to locomotion ; but in the 
 lowest existing men the capacity of the cranium 
 is sixty-eight inches, every bone is made for the 
 erect position, and the fore-limbs are wholly 
 taken from the ground and have other and 
 higher uses. — Professor Dana, Geology. 
 
 2 From the evidence of geology and experi- 
 ence, 
 
 [iiiij No remains bear evidence to less per-
 
 194 
 
 IIII-II2ol 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [evolution. 
 
 feet erectness of structure than in civilized man, 
 or to any nearer approach to the ape in essential 
 characteristics. — Ibid, 
 
 [1112] The following are well - ascertained 
 facts : — 
 
 1st. The age of man is small, extending only 
 to a few thousand years. 
 
 2nd. INIan appeared suddenly : the most 
 ancient man known to us is not essentially dift'er- 
 ent from the now living man. 
 
 3rd. Transitions from the ape to the man, or 
 the man to the ape, are nowhere found. — Rev. 
 Frederick Pfeirff, Present-Day Tracts. 
 
 3 From common-sense and rational grounds. 
 
 [i 1 13] A good sort of man is this Darwin, and 
 Avell-meaning, but with very little intellect. Ah, 
 'tis a sad, a terrible thing to see nigh a whole 
 generation of men and women, professing to be 
 cultivated, looking round in a purblind fashion, 
 and finding no God in this universe. I suppose 
 it is a reaction from the reign of cant and hollow 
 pretence, men professing to believe what in fact 
 they do not believe. And this is what we have 
 got to. All things from frogs' spawn ; the gospel 
 of dirt the order of the day. The older I grow 
 — and I now stand upon the brink of eternity — 
 the more comes back to me the sentence in the 
 catechism which I learned when a child, and 
 the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes, 
 " What is the chief end of man "i " " To glorify 
 God, and enjoy Him for ever." No gospel of 
 dirt, teaching that men have descended from 
 frogs through monkeys can ever set that aside. 
 — Carlyle in The Times (Jan. 17, 1877). 
 
 4 From its three breaches of continuity. 
 
 [11 14] The doctrineof ^I'fii/////^^ (the doctrine 
 that the various species of animals and plants 
 have been evolved through the action of natural 
 causes from antecedent animals and plants of 
 difterent kinds) has been exaggerated by enthu- 
 siasts into the assertion that the whole material 
 universe has been evolved by one continued 
 process, without any kind of breach in its iini- 
 form continuity, and this in the face of three 
 e\-ident breaches of continuity occasioned by 
 (i) the difference between the living and the 
 non-living ; (2) the difference between sentiency 
 and the absence of sentiency ; and (3) the differ- 
 ence between intellect and the absence of intel- 
 lect. — Professor JMivart in British Quarterly 
 Review. 
 
 5 From its failing to contribute anything to 
 the philosophy of causality. 
 
 [11 15] Evolution is one of the strongest pos- 
 sible attestations of the dominion of thought in 
 the universe, and not of the contrary. Evolution 
 is only a method of effectuation. It implies (i) 
 a designer of the method ; (2) an operator of 
 the method. Evolution possesses no efficiency. 
 He who contents himself with discovering this 
 method in nature contributes nothing to the 
 philosophy of causality. He leads us along the 
 
 rills of phenomena, but only tantalizes the innate 
 thirst to drink from the fountain of truth. — Dr. 
 IVincheli, Science and Religion. 
 
 [11 16] And so a writer in "The British 
 Quarterly Review : " " Even those who main- 
 tain the development theory, and even if they 
 hold the co-eternity of matter, must rest their 
 theory of the uni\-erse on a primal miracle, by 
 which the first substance was endowed with 
 energies and laws that would unfold into all the 
 varieties of animate and inanimate nature."' — 
 British Quarterly Review {fan., 1861). 
 
 6 From physiological considerations. 
 
 I'll 1 7] For the development of man, gifted 
 with high reason and will, and thus made a 
 power above nature, there was required a special 
 act of a Being above nature, whose supreme 
 will was not only the source of natural law, but 
 the working force of nature itself — American 
 fournal of Science and Art {Oct., 1876). 
 
 7 From the unexplained stoppage of its 
 progress. 
 
 [i 1 18] We have no fact before us which would 
 permit us to accept the conclusion that the 
 oldest inhabitants of the earth, of whom we have 
 as yet any information, were not on the same 
 level as the majority of the now living popula- 
 tion. In short, according to their physical con- 
 stitution, the oldest men of whom we have 
 information were not nearer to the brutes than 
 those now living. The longer the interval of 
 time placed between our times and the so-called 
 pak"eolithic men, the more ominous and destruc- 
 tive for the theory of the gradual development 
 of man from the animal kingdom is the result 
 stated, seeing that the older we regard man in 
 general to be, according to the theory of a 
 ceaseless progressive development of all living 
 creatures, it is incomprehensible how no per- 
 ceptible advance has taken place in those long 
 periods. — Rev. Frederick Pfarff. 
 
 [11 19] Has evolution died out ? Ifnot, whyis 
 man stationary as man, and why is he not over- 
 taken by all the other organizations ? If there 
 is such a law as that of evolution in force, how 
 comes it that such series as have been referred 
 to exist now ? Why do protogens as well as 
 men appear at this time ? Why are not all 
 species and genera developed into men, iS:c. ? 
 and why do not men themselves show any sign 
 of being developed into something higher .-" Are 
 not the species, which form the gi-adation relied 
 upon, really the ends of so many parallel lines 
 reaching back into the far past, and therefore a 
 proof that the doctrine of evolution is untrue ? 
 certainly no proof of its truth. — Christian 
 Evidence Journal. 
 
 [1120] Evolution only moves the difficulty 
 further back — if there be a difficulty. The 
 Divine hand may make the clock, but not wind 
 it up, nor regulate its going.— ^. G.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 195 
 
 1121-1126] 
 
 [PHILOSOPKICAL COSMOLOGY. 
 
 8 The puerility of its usual hypothesis. 
 [1121] "Spontaneous Generation," not less 
 
 than "Transmutation of Species," is merely "a 
 puerile hypothesis." But on these two dogmas 
 the theory of agnostic evolution is absolutely 
 dependent. By means of the support derived 
 from them — if only they themselves could have 
 been made to stand — it might have stood ; but 
 with their fall, it also comes to the ground. Its 
 relation to them renders its fate inevitable. 
 The instability of the superstructure is insepar- 
 ably connected with the insecurity of the foun- 
 dation. 
 
 [1122] The latest form of evolution asserts 
 that God made the types, but that they print 
 themselves without external aid. — Rev. Joseph 
 Cook, Boston Lectures. 
 
 9 From the facts of animal biology. 
 
 [i 123] If we take, as the most favourable case 
 for the evolutionist, the most sagacious of the 
 lower animals — the dog, for example — and com- 
 pare it with the least elevated condition of the 
 human mind, as observed in the child or the 
 savage, we shall find that even here there is 
 something more than that "immense difference 
 in degree" which Darwin himself admits. 
 Making every allowance for similarities in ex- 
 ternal sense, in certain instinctive powers and 
 appetites, and even in the power of comparison, 
 and in certain passions and affections ; and 
 admitting, though we cannot be certain of this, 
 that, in these, man differs from animals only in 
 degree, there remain other and more important 
 differences, amounting to the possession, on the 
 part of man, of powers not existing at all in 
 animals. Of this kind are — first, the faculty of 
 reaching abstract and general truth, and con- 
 sequently of reasoning, in the proper sense of 
 the term ; secondly, in connection with this, the 
 power of indefinite increase in knowledge, and 
 in deductions therefrom leading to practical 
 results ; thirdly, the power of expressing thought 
 in speech ; fourthly, the power of arriving at 
 ideas of right and wrong, and thus becoming a 
 responsible and free agent. Lastly, we have the 
 conception of higher spiritual intelligence, of 
 supreme power and Divinity, and the conse- 
 quent feeling of religious obligation. These 
 powers are evidently different in kind, rather 
 than in degree, from those of the brute, and 
 cannot be conceived to have arisen from the 
 latter, more especially as one of the distinctive 
 characters of these is their purely cyclical, repe- 
 titive, and unprogressive nature. — Principal 
 Dawson iti The Leisure Hour. 
 
 [1124] If it could be shown that there is a 
 stage of barbarism in which man knows, feels, 
 and does nothing that might not be known, felt, 
 and done by an ape, this would not be sufficient 
 to reduce him to the level of the brute. There 
 would still be this broad distinction between 
 them— the one possesses a capacity for develop- 
 
 ment which the other does not possess. Under 
 favourable circumstances the savage will become 
 a reasoning, progressive, and moral man ; under 
 no circumstances can a similar transformation 
 be effected in'the ape. — Lecky, European Mo'als. 
 
 10 On account of the want of clearness in its 
 definition. 
 
 [11 2 5] It is some comfort to know that our 
 friends the materialists have finally settled — to 
 their own satisfaction, at least — the difficulty 
 about the origin of all things. Herbert Spencer, 
 who is generally accepted as the high priest of 
 the new faith, may, we suppose, be taken as 
 good authority on the subject. In his "First 
 Principles of the New System of Philosophy " 
 occurs this luminous paragraph — 
 
 " Evolution is an integration of matter and a 
 concomitant dissipation of motion, during which 
 the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent 
 homogeneity to a definite homogeneity, and 
 during which the retained motion undergoes a 
 parallel transformation." 
 
 That is exactly what we have always thought, 
 albeit we have never been able to put our ideas 
 in such a clear shape as this. Now we think 
 of it, however, it occurs to us that this definition 
 can be slightly improved. If we wished to be 
 critically exact in our analysis, we should say 
 that " Evolution is, strictly speaking, a homo- 
 logous development of helerosophic molecules, 
 differentiated by natural selection, and segrega- 
 ted by the survival of the fittest, from which 
 it results, through the correlation of forces, 
 that matter passes from the definite coherent 
 homogeneity of a tadpole into the incoherent 
 homogeneity of some people's brains." Now 
 that is a definition of "evolution" that we call 
 " exhaustive." Still, Herbert is an acknowledged 
 master of the whole subject. It is hazardous 
 to attempt to "gild refined gold." How much 
 clearer this " new philosophy" does make it all, 
 than the very "old philosophy," which simply 
 declares that " In the beginning God created 
 the heavens and the earth ! " 
 
 94 
 
 PHIL OSOPHICAL COSMGL G V. 
 
 I. Its Tenets. 
 
 [1126] The philosophical cosmologist starts 
 from a point of inquiry at which he supposes 
 himself surrounded with a universe of pheno- 
 mena in cosmical arrangement. He regards it 
 as an assumption on the part of the theist or 
 the Christian to ascribe these phenomena to a 
 creative intelligence as their First Cause. The 
 philosophy which denies the possibility to 
 human thought of transcending phenomena 
 and reaching the Absolute and the Infinite, 
 which since the time of Kant has been the pre- 
 vailing philosophy of Europe, forbids the formu-
 
 196 
 
 II26— II34] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 [SCIENTISM. 
 
 lating of any theory of the origin of the universe 
 ie 7tihilo. The theist is opposed by the cos- 
 mologist, as placing beyond the facts of sense 
 and reason the idea of God, which it is main- 
 tained is not given in that which comes under 
 the cognisance of our faculties. But some of 
 the profoundest thinkers of this school, as Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer, and perhaps it might be added 
 Mr. G. H. Lewes and Mr. J. S. Mill, have ad- 
 mitted that there are evidences which are ap- 
 preciable by the rational faculties of man, of 
 what is called a power beyond phenomena, 
 though there is no possibility of defining or 
 describing that power, nor of substantiating the 
 reality of its existence apart from the universe 
 itself as an effect in time and space. — R. A. 
 Redford, The Christian'' s Plea. 
 
 [11 27] The language of the philosophical cos- 
 mologist, when stripped of its verbiage, really 
 amounts to this : he starts with a universe 
 ready made, and assumes that nobody made it. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Impossible Position assumed in 
 THIS System. 
 
 [i 12S] If the philosophical cosmologist refuses 
 to consider the Power behind nature which 
 brought the universe into being, he cannot in 
 his scientific investigations shut his eyes, except 
 by mere perversity, to the Power behind nature 
 which sustains everything. The act of creation 
 is involved in that of preservation, and there is 
 no rational way of evading the question of the 
 Absolute and the Infinite, or the formulating 
 some theorv as to the origin of the universe. — 
 C. A'. 
 
 [1129] We protest against the ascription of 
 causality to the "laws of nature " which science 
 investigates. The methods of science can teach 
 us nothing but the order of phenomenal suc- 
 cession to which our expectations are to adjust 
 themselves ; and this, in spite of all the special 
 pleading of " acute analysis," does 7!ot fulfil our 
 idea of causation. The mind demands a Power 
 beneath the surface over which sense and 
 observation range, to evolve the serial order, 
 to marshal the punctual ranks of beneficent and 
 beautiful events. We think that Power cannot 
 in reason be otherwise conceived than as the 
 Living Will of God, — Ja^nes Martineau. 
 
 .rai 
 
 95 
 
 SCIENTISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition and Fallacies. 
 
 [1130] Scientism is the tendency to recognize 
 as facts, only material or sensuous processes ; 
 and yet to frame really metaphysical theories 
 outside the sphere of merely physical and 
 material elements, and to dogmatize over the 
 region of philosophical thought, as if science 
 
 itself, in all its inquiries and inferences, were not 
 purely spiritual, and outside mere sensation- 
 alism. — B. G. 
 
 II. Inherent Defectiveness of the 
 System. 
 
 The world 
 science. 
 
 of spirit outside material 
 
 [11 31] I will not admit that the whole world 
 belongs to the men who follow scientific truth 
 only in its physical relations. They mine into 
 the earth, they sink wells down and down ; but 
 at the bottom of their wells, looking upwards, 
 they do not see the whole range of truth. — Rev. 
 Joseph Cook, Boston Lectures. 
 
 [11 32] The plummet of physical science is not 
 the fitting instrument for discovering the Infinite 
 Spirit ; a higher organon is needed for this in- 
 vestigation. The universe they have sounded, 
 " broad and deep " though it be, is after all but 
 one sphere, and that the lowest, of the true 
 universe as it may be known to man. Physical 
 and physiological research can go far ; it has 
 gone so far of recent years that some Christians 
 have felt half-afraid lest it should succeed at 
 last in reducing the whole world of being under 
 the empire of mechanical necessity, prove men 
 to be "magnetic mockeries — cunning casts in 
 clay," and leave no room for religion. But all 
 such fears are quite groundless. Science can 
 go far, and the farther she can go the better ; 
 but she has found and she has recognized her 
 limit. Beyond the molecular changes in the 
 substance of the brain, further than the furthest 
 point to which scientific processes, the scientific 
 reason, even the scientific imagination, can go, 
 is the hyperphysical fact of consciousness. 
 And, with regard to this, science admits that 
 she knows nothing. Her far-reaching, deep- 
 searching analysis fails here. Her most delicate 
 instruments are too coarse to dissect a motive, 
 or weigh a desire, or measure the force of a 
 moral effort. She can only stand powerless 
 before the inexplicable undeniable facts and 
 say : " This knowledge is too wonderful for me : 
 it is high, I cannot attain unto it." — T. M. 
 Home, Expositor. 
 
 [1133] Science, searching for the origin ot 
 things, cannot find it in things themselves, and 
 is compelled, after all its endeavours, to give 
 the creation over to reason and conscience for 
 its final interpretation. It knows nothing by 
 which it can gainsay their assertion that on the 
 other side of the atoms is God. Beyond the 
 last conceivable subdivision of matter, beneath 
 the last imaginable centre of force, is the One 
 substance — the continuous, indivisible, omnipo- 
 tent, spiritual ground of existence, the living 
 God. — Neivman Sjiiyth, Old Faiths in Nezv 
 Light. 
 
 2 Material science is neutral in respect to 
 moral questions. 
 
 [1134] To say that science has its own
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I134-II40I 
 
 197 
 
 [SCIENTISM. 
 
 morality is just as true as to say it has its 
 immorality, for its discoveries can be and are 
 daily employed for immoral as truly as for 
 moral ends. If science discovers life-saving 
 apparatus, it discovers the horrible slaughter 
 machines which cut down human beings as the 
 autumn winds sweep off the leaves. If science 
 teaches how to detect adulterations of our food 
 and drink, it teaches also the most skilful 
 methods of adulteration. And so on ad injini- 
 tuni. Looking at all sides of the question, and 
 adding experience and observation, we feel that 
 the public generally cannot be too deeply con- 
 vinced of the fact that there is no moral force 
 or life in mere science, though it may become 
 most powerful as an instrument in the hands of 
 men actuated by moral principles, whether good 
 or bad. — Earl of Carfiarvon. 
 
 3 Material science has no measure of moral 
 truth. 
 
 [1135] The perceptions of the senses are 
 undoubtedly the only guides we possess to a 
 knowledge of the material world, and the 
 inferences drawn from them by the faculties of 
 the understanding are the legitimate conquests 
 of physical science. But they entirely fail to 
 explain the higher functions of the intellect, 
 which are the domain of metaphysics ; still less 
 do we derive from the senses the moral laws of 
 justice, of truth, of charity, of conscience ; and 
 least of all, that conception of the supernatural 
 and the infinite which it is the glory of man to 
 trace in nature and in the emotions of the soul. 
 — Edinburgh Rcvieii'. 
 
 4 Science can provide nothing better than 
 religion. 
 
 [1136] We may turn our backs on religion, 
 and repudiate revelation, but we have nothing 
 better to turn to. No single fact in science is 
 anconsistent with, or opposed to, the hypothesis 
 of inspired or derived vitality, or the work of a 
 Creator. Indeed, there is a need for this or 
 some other hypothesis in the explication of 
 physiology. The scientist is at liberty to reject 
 religion as an aid to science, but if he does 
 this on the ground that what religion has to 
 offer is hypothesis, he must on the same ground 
 reject the hypothesis of life as a property of 
 protoplasm. All true men know this. — Lancet. 
 
 iii. scientism contrasted with true 
 Science. 
 
 [1137] Scientism is pedantry. Science itself 
 is modest and intelligent, and amongst other 
 points of knowledge knows its own place, and 
 keeps it. — B. G. 
 
 [1138I A fact is one thing, while theories, 
 hypotheses, doctrines — like that of evolution 
 itself — framed by men of genius so as to include 
 or account for facts, are quite another. These 
 theories may or may not be true, even if they 
 are brilliant and imposing ; they may for a 
 generation or for a century carry everything 
 before them in the world of thought ; but science 
 knows no finality, and while theories pass and 
 are forgotten, facts, like God's revelation of 
 Himself in Christ, remain. — Canon Liddofi. 
 
 IV. The Unwisdom of Scientific Men 
 
 TRAVELLING BEYOND THEIR OWN PRO- 
 VINCE. 
 
 [1139] It is admitted that it is the province ot 
 scientific men to discuss scientific questions ; 
 and that much injury to the cause of truth has 
 followed the attempts of men not devoted to 
 such pursuits undertaking to adjudicate in such 
 cases. Physicists are wont to take high ground 
 on this subject. Metaphysicians and theolo- 
 gians are not allowed to be heard on questions 
 of science. The rule must work both ways : 
 scientific men, devoted to the study of the 
 sensuous, are not entitled to be dictatorial in 
 what regards the supersensuous. A man may 
 be so devoted to the examination of what his 
 senses reveal, as to come to believe that the 
 sensible alone is true and real. — Dr. C. HodgCp 
 Systematic Theology. 
 
 [i 140] The first and greatest wrong committed 
 by men of science is to mix up metaphysical 
 doctrines with science, and cleverly invest the 
 one with the authority of the other. Another 
 fault of scientific men is, on the one hand, an 
 almost total ignorance of the faith they attack ; 
 on the other, the misconception of the elements 
 which constitute science. — Pere Didou.
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 {^Continued). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY. 
 
 (i) Hi. Practical Phases. 
 
 Pages 199 to 204. 
 
 TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 96 
 INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 97 
 FORMALISM. 
 
 I 
 
 SUPERSTITION. 
 
 198
 
 199 
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 [Continued). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY {continued). 
 (i) ///. Its Practical Phases. 
 
 96 
 
 INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition and Fallacies. 
 
 [1141] In this case, no hostile attitude to the 
 generally received body of truth may be taken. 
 The doctrines respecting the Divine existence, 
 personality, providential government, and the 
 Bible redemption, may theoretically be admitted, 
 but there is a want of stern fidelity to these 
 doctrines. The truth is not, like a fortress, 
 stoutly assailed and bravely defended. But it 
 happens, either that those who are without pass 
 by and turn toward it a look of indifference ; or 
 that some of its professed guardians would shake 
 hands alike with friends and foes, persuade them 
 that their variance is a mere trifle, and receive 
 the one as well as the other within the citadel. 
 The man does not go forth before us fully 
 equipped and boldly defying the armies of the 
 living God, but he shouts for a truce, alleges 
 that mere matters of opinion are not worth con- 
 tending for, and that a man is no more respon- 
 sible for his belief than he is for the colour of 
 his skin or the height of his stature. This 
 diluted kind of scepticism is large in its tolera- 
 tion. Not attaching much importance to any 
 kind of religious belief, it is indulgent towards 
 all. It cares not to assail by argument, or 
 otherwise, this creed or that ; and it cares as 
 little about defending what it may have adopted 
 as its own. It says. Leave me alone to the in- 
 dulgence of my opinion, and I will leave you to 
 the indulgence of yours. Different forms of re- 
 ligious belief are much the same in its estima- 
 tion, as the different-shaped or different-coloured 
 coats which men wear. And it is disposed to 
 think that the one sits with as little responsi- 
 bility on the conscience as the other does on 
 the back. It will stand up resolutely for a poli- 
 tical creed, and unsparingly denounce its oppo- 
 site ; it will have its favorite theory in science, 
 and argue keenly for it against every other ; it 
 will be engrossed with its land or merchandize, 
 and suffer nothing to interfere with the most 
 intense devotion thereto. But it has no zeal to 
 spend on religious opinions, it has no article in 
 theology so dear as to muster up an argument 
 in its defence, and it will suffer itself to be en- 
 
 grossed with anything or everything rather than 
 with the system of truth which it professes to 
 believe. It is indifferent itself toward religion, 
 and it cares little what quiet shape it may as- 
 sume in others. Gibbon, speaking of the paganism 
 of ancient Rome, says, "the various modes of' 
 worship which prevailed in the Roman world 
 were all considered by the people as equally 
 true, by the philosopher as equally false, and 
 by the magistrate as equally useful." The com- 
 ment of some one is, " after eighteen centuries 
 of the gospel, we seem unhappily to be coming 
 back to the same point." — Thomas Pearson. 
 
 II. Its Philosophy. 
 
 [i 142] The indifferent in the circles of the well- 
 instructed believe that they are able to infer 
 from the religious controversy, by which they 
 are on all sides surrounded, that in the region 
 of supernatural things nothing certain is to be 
 learned. They therefore consider it wiser not 
 to enter upon their consideration, and passively 
 to await what is only to be revealed as truth, 
 or as a lovely dream. — Dr. Krianniacher^ The.- 
 Religious Cotidilion of Christendotn. 
 
 III. Its Origin. 
 
 [1143] It indicates an enfeebled sense of re- 
 sponsibility, or the existence somewhere of the 
 notion that religious belief is not a matter of 
 personal obligation for which we are accountable 
 to God. — T/io/nas Pearson. 
 
 IV. The Folly of its Various Phases. 
 I As seen in mere theoretical religion. 
 
 [1144] There are those who are theoretical 
 theists, but who are utterly indifferent to the 
 presence and claims of God, caring for none of 
 those things which involve fundamental obliga- 
 tions and the chief interests in life, dead to 
 God's eye and God's presence. 
 
 [i 145] And the more any one doth only notion- 
 ally know in the matters of religion, so as that 
 the temper of his spirit remains altogether un- 
 suitable and opposite to the design and ten- 
 dency of the things known, the more he hath 
 lying ready to come in judgment against him : 
 and if therefore he count the things excellent
 
 200 
 1 145— 1 153] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [formalism. 
 
 which he knows, and only please himself with 
 his own knowledge of them, it is but a like case 
 as if a man should be much delighted to behold 
 his own condemnation written in a fair and 
 beautiful hand ; or as if one should be pleased 
 with the glittering of that sword which is directed 
 against his own heart, and must be the present 
 instrument of death to him. — J. Hoive. 
 
 2 As seen in a false liberalism. 
 
 [1146] What passes for charity is really, in 
 many cases, nothing but indifference. The man 
 who prides himself on his liberal-mindedness is 
 often only one who, caring but little for the 
 principles which he professes, is, of course, not 
 disposed to resent very wai'mly the action of 
 those who set them at open defiance. But he 
 by whom those principles are really prized is 
 roused by it as by a personal insult. — Tlioi>ias. 
 
 [i 147] Charity has nothing to do with opinions. 
 If they are false and evil principles, it is charity 
 to men to expose them ; if they are good prin- 
 ciples, it is not charity but justice to praise and 
 espouse them. — B. C. 
 
 3 As seen in the superfluous compliments 
 to heretical and infidel writers by the re- 
 ligious press. 
 
 [1148] I may specify, by way of example, the 
 Tcception that was given to the work entitled 
 " Supernatural Religion " two or three years 
 ago. It was spoken of by more than one reli- 
 gious periodical in terms of studious respect, 
 which now, after the searching criticisms of 
 Dr. Lightfoot in the Cojitemporary Revieiv, and 
 the extremely able answer of V^r. Sanday, we 
 may certainly complain of as misplaced. Our 
 opponents ought always to receive at our hands 
 fairness and courtesy; but it becomes positively 
 mischievous, especially at a time like the pre- 
 sent, when there is such a distinct tendency to 
 consider everything as opinionable, to make 
 complimentary and concessive statements as to 
 the general tenor of sceptical arguments, until 
 a close investigation shall have proved, beyond 
 all reasonable doubt, that it is right and equit- 
 able to make them. The harm done by these 
 reviews is excessive. — Dp. Ellicott. 
 
 [1149] This unnecessary and untrue compli- 
 menting of irreligious productions, in religious 
 reviews, is from an affectation of liberality, which 
 is simply treachery against the truth. — i>. G, 
 
 [i 150] To actually go out of our way to praise 
 subtle and astute opponents for their knowledge 
 and gifts when perverted (and shown by faithful 
 champions of the truth to be so) is to act an 
 unreal and insincere part, or else to prove that 
 we do not regard our Christian privileges as in- 
 alienable, or those upon which we set much 
 value. Our plain duty is always to " eschew 
 the evil," and all the more so when it is con- 
 cealed amid a profuse parade of scholarship 
 likely to bewilder and unsettle the less instructed 
 and simpler-minded of our brethren, whom it is 
 
 the special province of the leaders of Christian 
 thought to protect. — C. N. 
 
 V. Hopeful Signs in Regard to its 
 Decrease. 
 
 [11 51] Moreover, it is no little thing that so 
 much of the thinking of the day concerns itself 
 with religious questions. If faith is shaken, in- 
 quiry is not neglected. And surely it must be 
 better to be dimly groping after God afar off, 
 than to have a clear cold knowledge of Divine 
 truth and to be blankly indifferent about it. 
 But the most encouraging feature of modern 
 thought is its earnestness. Men ask Pilate's 
 famous question, "What is truth?" not with 
 the sneer of the Roman voluptuary, to whom 
 truth was a matter of contempt, but in deep, 
 sad earnest. We are no longer living in the 
 heartless age of Voltaire. jNIen are not now 
 inclined to follow Gibbon in disposing of Chris- 
 tianity with a sarcasm. With more earnestness 
 in the inquiry and more genuine humanity in 
 the hearts of the men who pursue it, surely there 
 is something hopeful even in the darkest doubt 
 of the age. — W. Ade^icy, 
 
 97 
 
 FORMALISM. 
 
 I. Its Nature. 
 
 [11 52] The formalist would no more think of 
 denying that man is responsible for his disposi- 
 tions, opinions, and conduct than of denying 
 that he thinks, feels, and acts. Words implying 
 moral agency and accountability are ever flow- 
 ing over his lips, and yet his habitual sentiments 
 and conduct are such as could only be formed 
 under an habitual forgetfulness of Him whose 
 eyes behold and whose eyelids try the children 
 of men. There is no infidelity in theory, but 
 there is abundance of it in practice. In so far 
 as the mere letter of a creed is concerned, all 
 may be evangelical and correct ; but the inner 
 and outer man are as little influenced by it as 
 by the abrogated notions of the Ptolemaic 
 system. There is religion, but it is merely 
 professional and verbal. " The sign is taken 
 for the thing, the counter for the money." The 
 structure is complete as regards shape, size, and 
 bones ; but the flesh and blood, the sparkling 
 eye, and the agile limbs, are wanting. This is 
 what the Scripture means when it speaks of 
 men having the form of godliness, but denying 
 the power thereof. — TJiomas Pearsoti. 
 
 [11 53] Formalism is the tendency of the mind 
 to rest in the mere externals of religion, to the 
 neglect of the inner life of religion itself. It is 
 just as when a child runs his lesson rapidly over 
 without heeding the import of the story which 
 he reads. It is just as if our knowledge of a 
 man was confined to his stature, to the shape 
 and colour of his coat ; so that, when his name
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 1153—1157] 
 
 201 
 
 [formalism. 
 
 is mentioned in our presence, we immediately 
 think of his size and dress, Ijut nothing more. 
 It is the folly of valuing the tree for its bark, 
 instead of its goodly timber ; the folly of choos- 
 ing a book for its binding, irrespective of the 
 nature of its contents ; the folly of delighting ni 
 painted windows and adorned walls, regardless 
 of the character of the society and accommoda- 
 tion within. It is the very essence of formalism 
 to set the outward institutions above the inward 
 truths, to be punctilious in going the round of 
 ceremonial observances while neglectful of 
 those spiritual sacrifices with which God is well 
 pleased, to substitute means in the room of 
 ends, and to rest in the type and symbol with- 
 out rising to the glorious reality. It will stand 
 up for the skeleton creed, though the life be as 
 little influenced by it as by a mummy ; it will, 
 in the strength of its zeal, put on armour, 
 brandish weapons, guard the courts of the sanc- 
 tuary from unhallowed intrusion, and shout 
 lustily, " The temple of the Lord, the temple of 
 the Lord are we ; " while it lacks heart for 
 fighting the good fight of faith, and wrestling 
 with spiritual wickednesses. The church and 
 the sacraments, the symbol and the lettered 
 creed, fill the sphere of its vision, and draw 
 forth its devotion, to the almost utter exclusion 
 of those grand spiritual objects that are unseen 
 and eternal. Such, in general, is the character 
 of formalism. — Ibid. 
 
 II. Its Origin and Philosophy. 
 
 [i 154] Formalism is the result of two opposing 
 forces. The one of which will not let man live 
 without a religion, and, if undisturbed by hostile 
 influences, would lead him, spiritually, to worship 
 God who is a spirit. The other is of the earth, 
 earthy, and by its greater potency prevents the 
 former in the natural man from rising above 
 rites and ceremonies, above the symbol and the 
 lettered creed. An adjustment or compromise 
 of the claims of two rival parties takes place. 
 The one pointing the thoughts and affections 
 upward to God, and the other seeking to draw 
 them away from Him. Both are persuaded to 
 meet and shake hands over a religious form, 
 and thus the former is hoodwinked while the 
 latter triumphs. — Thomas Pearson. 
 
 [11 55] It is easy to be a slave to the letter, 
 and difficult to enter into the spirit ; easy to 
 obey a number of outward rules, difficult to 
 enter intelligently and self-sacrificingly into the 
 will of God ; easy to entangle the soul in a net- 
 work of petty observances, difficult to yield the 
 obedience of an enlightened heart ; very easy to 
 embrace a self-satisfying and sanctimonious 
 system of rabbinical observances, veiy difficult 
 to love God with all the heart. — Canon Farrar, 
 Life of Christ. 
 
 III. Its Phases. 
 
 I As seen in the religions of the ancient 
 heathen world. 
 
 [11 56] What were the creeds and rites of 
 
 Greece and Rome but splendid and imposing 
 systems of formalism 1 Objects of religious 
 worship met the Greek or Roman, wherever he 
 turned his eyes. Every street down which he 
 passed, every house into which he entered, every 
 fountain at which he drank, and the summit of 
 every little hill on which he stood, reminded him 
 of the divinities that he was to adore. Religion 
 blended itself with almost every piece of daily 
 business that he performed, with almost every 
 journey that he took, and with nearly every 
 amusement that he witnessed. There were 
 numerous and magnificent temples into which 
 he could enter. There was a gorgeous and 
 attractive mythology with which he was familiar. 
 There were statues and paintings everywhere, 
 on which unrivalled art depicted to his view 
 things sacred and divine. And there were rites 
 and ceremonies of the most engrossing descrip- 
 tion which he was ever called upon to observe. 
 But, a^iiid all this sensible pomp and grandeur, 
 there was no provision for the wants of the inner 
 man. Heathenism had no line to reach the 
 depths of human depravity, and no power to 
 raise man up from his degradation, to break the 
 spell by which he was bound to sensual objects, 
 and to set his spirit free. It had no object of 
 religious worship fitted to call forth love, vene- 
 ration, gratitude ; and no body of truth that 
 could be instrumental in purifying and ennobling 
 man's mental powers, in connecting him with 
 the higher world, and renewing him after the 
 image of God. It was a system every way fitted 
 to gratify and strengthen the tendency in human 
 nature to rest in mere external symbols, regard- 
 less of spiritual and invisible realities. The 
 heathen duly went his round of religious obser- 
 vances, but it was merely a round of formalism. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 2 As seen in the domain of revealed religion. 
 
 ( I ) Under the Levitical economy. 
 
 [i 1 57] The tendency, in the domain of revealed 
 religion, to halt in mere forms, was strongly 
 evinced by the Hebrews. The Levitical economy, 
 containing a large machinery of divinely ap- 
 pointed rites and ceremonies, which, though 
 cumbersome compared with the dispensation of 
 the gospel, was admirably adapted to the state 
 of the Israelites, in conveying to their minds, 
 and preserving in the midst of them, those ele- 
 ments of Divine truth which have been fully 
 developed in all their simplicity and majesty in 
 the gospel age. But their history, as faithfully 
 recorded in Scripture, shows that their besetting 
 sin was to idolize the symbol, instead of rising 
 from it to the thing signified ; to go the mere 
 round of external observances, neglectful of the 
 cultivation of the heart and that spiritual wor- 
 ship which God requires. And it deserves 
 notice that, in the same record where the typical 
 and ritual system is so fully and minutely de- 
 tailed, the most strict cautions are given against 
 resting in it ; and the most terrible denuncia- 
 tions are uttered against those who substitute 
 the symbol in the place of the invisible reality
 
 202 
 
 1157—1162] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [formalism. 
 
 The burden of prophecy, while leading the mind 
 forward to the glory of the latter days, and seek- 
 ing to concentrate the thoughts in Him who was 
 emblematically represented in every lamb that 
 bled on the Hebrew altars, contained often a 
 strong rebuke to the hollow formalism that pre- 
 vailed. The divinely appointed rites were re- 
 pudiated as worthless, when men converted 
 them into idols, and failed to be led by them to 
 the high spiritual realities. " Hath the Lord," 
 said Samuel to Saul, "as great delight in burnt- 
 offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice 
 of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than 
 sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." 
 " To what purpose is the multitude of your 
 sacrifices unto me?" was the question which 
 Jehovah addressed to the punctilious formalists 
 among the ancient Hebrews. This system of 
 religious ceremonialism appeared in all its 
 odiousness in the Pharisees of the Gospels. 
 And it was against the men who were scrupu- 
 lously exact in paying tithe of mint, and anise, 
 and cummin, while regardless of the weightier 
 matters of the law — ^judgment, mercy, and faith, 
 that the meek and lowly Saviour pronounced 
 the most tremendous woes. Rigid adherence 
 to bare rites went hand in hand with the most 
 gross corruptions. Men would stand up and 
 stoutly contend for the mere letter of the law, 
 while shamelessly violating its spirit. The 
 formalism of the system was complete, and the 
 Amen, the faithful and true witness, denounced 
 the hypocrisy of its worshippers. — Ibid. 
 
 (2) Under the Christian dispensation. 
 
 [11 58] Under the shadow of Christianity, for- 
 malism soon grew up, and extended its cold, 
 withering influence for ages over the Church. 
 Judaizing teachers — the masters of forms— in- 
 sinuated themselves into the first Christian 
 societies, and insisted on the observance of 
 abrogated ceremonies as indispensable to sal- 
 vation. Apostolic influence and zeal, in a great 
 measure, thwarted their pernicious efforts, and 
 preserved the truth of God pure and unclogged. 
 But soon after the apostles had fallen asleep, 
 and the spiritual energy which they had infused 
 into the Church had diminished, the tendency 
 to exalt the material above the spiritual, and 
 bind up the living element of truth in a system 
 of forms, appeared almost unchecked. The 
 symbols were aggrandized. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. Arguments against this System. 
 
 z Its utter failure to satisfy the great wants 
 of human nature. 
 
 (i) Its powerlessncss to remove the burden of 
 guilt. 
 
 [11 59] Formalism, whether gorgeous or naked, 
 can no more remove the condemning sentence 
 from the head, and root out depraved principles 
 from the heart, than saying to a destitute brother 
 or sister, be ye warmed and filled, can profit, if 
 we give them not those things that are needful 
 to the body. To look amid a mere ceremonial 
 for some power to atone and purify, were as 
 
 foolish and vain as to seek the living among 
 the dead. — Thomas Pearson, 
 
 [1160] As man cannot feed upon flowers, nor 
 his natural life be sustained by the most enrap- 
 turing music ; so, amid the most strict obser- 
 vance of even divinely appointed rites, he will, 
 if halting in them, remain, in the scriptural 
 sense of the expression, dead in trespasses and 
 sins. — Ibid, 
 
 [1161] The use of a ladder is to ascend by it to 
 some lofty eminence ; but if men were merely to 
 run up and down the steps, and imagine that they 
 had reached the height to which it pointed, and 
 that they had beheld the view which the summit 
 commanded, they would be regarded as under 
 a strange hallucination. The hallucination is 
 not less real, and infinitely more dangerous, in 
 the man who goes the round of religious obser- 
 vances, stops short at them, builds upon them, 
 and deems himself all the while to have attained 
 to the position and character of a child of God 
 and an heir of heaven. It betrays a littleness 
 of conception in reference to the character and 
 law of the great I am, to suppose that, by mere 
 outward rites and ceremonies, men are to be 
 pardoned, sanctified, and saved. It manifests 
 a great lack of spiritual discernment, to regard 
 a punctilious attention to a ritual, and a reliance 
 on forms, as occupying the place, and answering 
 the ends, of faith and repentance, holy love, and 
 spiritual obedience. It is acting as if the reverse 
 of the proposition — and not the proposition 
 itself — were true : man looks upon the outward 
 appearance, but God looks upon the heart. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 (2) Its inefficacy to assimilate men to the 
 likeness of God. 
 
 [1162] If it be a religion merely formal, men 
 will observe its rites and pass through its forms 
 without throwing off any more of their impurity 
 and receiving any more of the beauties of holi- 
 ness, than if they paced to and fro the floor of 
 the gallery, amid cold marble statues. The man 
 of taste has stood amid some glorious amphi- 
 theatre of nature, and felt his soul elated by the 
 majesty of the hills, the green loveliness of the 
 valleys, the splendour of the setting sun, and 
 the concert of the rejoicing creation. He has 
 witnessed the same magnificence, and felt its 
 power over and over again. But when the ex- 
 citement of the imagination has been subdued, 
 and the charm has passed away like a dream, 
 and the man has fallen back upon himself, or 
 mingled with the world, his heart has been 
 found without God, and his life reflecting not a 
 ray of the Divine image. Thus making it mani- 
 fest that the formalism of taste, gratified though 
 it be by the grand and graceful in scenery, has, 
 in itself and independent of influences from 
 above, no efficacy whatever to purify the heart 
 and clothe man in moral beaut3^ The fonnalist 
 has gone up, demurely and punctually, to the 
 temple at the hour of prayer, and, whether it 
 has been amid the architectural splendour of
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I162— 1168] 
 
 203 
 
 [formalism. 
 
 the cathedral where the pealing organ carries 
 the soul aloft, and gorgeous ceremonies are 
 observed ; or whether it be in the humble meet- 
 ing-house where psalms are plainly sung, and 
 the gospel is plainly preached, he has felt him- 
 self attracted and regaled as with a lovely song. 
 But it has been a mere round of formal excite- 
 ment, which has never moved the depths of the 
 heart to harmony with the will of God, and 
 thrown no hallowed comeliness over the life. 
 Thus showing that the ritual of a sanctuary, be 
 it splendid or simple, can of itself no more re- 
 generate the soul of man than the ritual of 
 material nature. — Ibid. 
 
 2 The pleasure found in spiritual religion 
 is not experienced. 
 
 [i 163] The creation is not so joyous and full of 
 life when a mass of dark clouds intercepts the 
 rays of the sun, as when that sun beams brightly 
 forth on hill and valley, and covers heaven and 
 earth with light as with a garment. God is a 
 sun. He is the infinite good. Nothing but a 
 living sensible communion with Him can dis- 
 place heaviness from the heart, and shed a holy 
 happiness over the life. Formalism interposes 
 thick shadows between the fountain of light and 
 the human soul. It is as when a man halts on 
 the somewhat bleak and rugged borders of a 
 lovely region, without ever entering into the 
 beautiful territory itself. Forms were designed 
 by Him who knoweth our frame to be the means 
 by which we might ascend to the enjoyment of 
 Himself. But when the mind halts in the sym- 
 bol, instead of rising from it to the thing signi- 
 fied ; when the man runs up and down the 
 ladder, instead of reaching the eminence which 
 commands the glorious prospect, he loses the 
 enjoyment inseparable from intercourse with 
 the blissful reality. — Ibid. 
 
 [1164] There is a pleasure felt under the 
 shadow of the cathedral pile, derived from the 
 imposing splendour of the place, the enrapturing 
 music, and the rich ceremonial ; but it is a 
 pleasure different in kind, and vastly inferior in 
 degree to what is experienced by the man, ob- 
 servant it may be of the same forms, who rises 
 through them to Divine fellowship with the 
 Father of spirits and the God of his salvation. 
 And there is a pleasure, also, in going up to the 
 humble chapel, amid the hallowed calm of the 
 sabbath morning, and bearing a part in the 
 routine of its simple services ; but that pleasure, 
 likewise, may have little or none of the life and 
 joy of godliness, and be as unlike the holy in- 
 ward happiness of the man who worships God 
 in spirit and in truth, as earth is unlike heaven. 
 Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of 
 thistles ; neither do they experience that joy 
 '^ which is a fruit of the Spirit, in a religion which 
 is merely formal and not spiritual. — Ibid. 
 
 3 Its tendency is to intolerance. 
 
 [1165] Men, in proportion as they are imbued 
 with the spirit of the gospel, have enlarged 
 
 hearts. Love is represented, in almost every 
 page of the New Testament, as the character- 
 istic of the Christian. It is not an attachment to 
 men merely because they are members of this 
 or that particular society, but because they be- 
 long to the church of the living God. It is not 
 entwined around a man because he bears a 
 humanly devised name, but because he wears in 
 his bosom, and shows in his life, the Saviour's 
 image. This holy principle looks beyond the 
 outward appearance, and fastens its regard on 
 that image, though it be found in a Lazarus sit- 
 ting in rags and seeking to be fed with the crumbs 
 of the rich man's table. Nor does it confine its 
 regards to those who are united to the common 
 Saviour, and are made partakers of the common 
 salvation. It looks on the wide world with an 
 eye of compassion, and feels towards it those 
 stirrings of benevolence which seek to save that 
 which is lost. It is like the sun in the firma- 
 ment which confines not his radiance to any 
 little spot on the surface of the earth, but spreads 
 it over the wide fields of creation. " Its going 
 forth is from the end of the heaven, and its cir- 
 cuit unto the ends of it : and there is nothing 
 hid from the heat thereof." Formalism engen- 
 ders a spirit the reverse of all this. It is secta- 
 rian. It is pent up within the pale of its own 
 community ; and whatever religious zeal it pos- 
 sesses, is spent on its own creed and ceremonies. 
 We see this in the Pharisees of the Gospels. 
 They were proud, haughty separatists. Men 
 who stood aloof from others on the ground of 
 mere outward observances. — Ibid. 
 
 [1166] The transition from separatism to a 
 rancorous fanaticism is easy and natural. The 
 full-blown separatist not only stands aloof from 
 other men and disregards their claims, but he 
 assumes towards them an attitude of scowling 
 defiance. He carries his hateful spirit into the 
 very exercises of the sanctuary, and utters his 
 denunciations at the altar. — Ibid. 
 
 [i 167] This odious system stings like a serpent 
 and bites like an adder at every species of 
 spiritual piety that crosses its path. It varies in 
 the manifestation of its intolerance, from the 
 man v.'ho, like a sentinel, goes the round of his 
 own church observances, and inwardly says, 
 "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord 
 are we," to the man who would erect the gibbet 
 and kindle the faggot for schismatics and heretics 
 and persuade himself that in thus acting he was 
 doing God service. — Ibid. 
 
 4 It is diametrically opposed to the spirit 
 and precepts of the gospel. 
 
 [i 168] There are two ways of destroying Chris- 
 tianity ; one is to deny it, the other to displace 
 it. To put the church above Christianity, the 
 hierarchy above the word of God ; to ask a man, 
 not whether he has received the Holy Ghost, 
 but whether he has received baptism from the 
 hands of those who are termed successors of the 
 apostles and their delegates : all this may doDbt-
 
 204 
 
 ii68 — I 174] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [supers riTION, 
 
 less flatter the pride of the natural man, but is 
 fundamentally opposed to the Bible, and aims a 
 fatal blow at the religion of Jesus Christ. If 
 God had intended that Christianity should, like 
 the Mosaic system, be chiefly an ecclesiastical, 
 sacerdotal, and hierarchical system, He would 
 have ordered and established it in the New Tes- 
 tament, as He did in the Old. But there is 
 nothing like this in the New Testament. All the 
 declarations of our Lord and of His apostles 
 tend to prove that the new religion given to the 
 world is "life and spirit," and not a new system 
 of priesthood and ordinances. '^ The kingdom 
 of God," saith Jesus, "cometh not with observa- 
 tion, neither shall they say : Lo here ! or lo there ! 
 for behold the kingdom of God is within you." 
 " The kingdom of God is not meat and drink ; 
 but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost." .... Let us not, then, esteem 
 the bark above the sap, the body above the soul, 
 the form above the life, the visible church above 
 the invisible, the priest above the Holy Spirit. 
 Let us hate all sectarian, ecclesiastical, national, 
 or dissenting spirit ; but let us love Jesus Christ 
 in all sects, whether ecclesiastical, national, or 
 dissenting. "And as many as walk according 
 to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and 
 upon the Israel of God." — UAtibigne. 
 
 98 
 
 SUPERSTITION. 
 
 I. Its Definition and Real Character. 
 
 [i 169] Superstition is an outward ecclesiastical 
 goodness that seeks to put God under obliga- 
 tion by unrequired services, or those which are 
 required and invented by men, and of which 
 God says, " Who hath required this at your 
 hands ? "—B. G. 
 
 [11 70] As a rule superstition is to be regarded 
 as a parody of faith, the latter being a belief 
 founded on credible authority or other sufficient 
 evidence ; while superstition is a belief on in- 
 sufficient evidence, or on no evidence at all. 
 While faith may, therefore, be called an eviden- 
 tial belief in things unseen (the highest evidence 
 of all being Divine revelation of them), super- 
 stition may be called a speculative belief, and 
 its tendency is towards credulity. — Rev. J. H. 
 Blunt. 
 
 [1171] Wherever God is apprehended as a 
 mere power to be pleased rather than as a living 
 source of light and blessing to all who trust in 
 Him, superstition is more or less present. And 
 worship, when directed to the outward vesture 
 of religion rather than its inward spirit, is of the 
 nature of superstition. 
 
 [1172] Superstition as to rites and ceremonies 
 is the embodiment of formalism to compensate 
 for spiritual religion. — B. G. 
 
 II. Its Relation to Atheism. 
 
 I The pendulum of thought oscillates be- 
 tween superstition and atheism. 
 
 (i) As illustrated ift the case of France. 
 
 [1173] Superstition led to atheism, and the 
 excesses of atheism drove men back to supersti- 
 tion. Even now in 1S83 the freethought des- 
 potism of the Republic in repressing religion and 
 forbidding services of Roman Catholic priests 
 in hospital chapels tends to excite hostility to 
 pretended freethought, and pity and sympathy 
 for Roman Catholic priests and their suffering 
 people, if not for their form of religion. — B. G. 
 
 (2) As illustrated in the case of England. 
 
 [1174] In this age, as in every other age of 
 materialism and practical atheism, a revulsion 
 in favour of superstition is at hand ; I may say 
 is taking place round us now. Doctrines are 
 tolerated as possibly true — persons are regarded 
 with respect and admiration who would have 
 been looked on, even fifty years ago, if not with 
 horror, yet with contempt, as beneath the serious 
 notice of educated English people. But it is 
 this very contempt which has brought about the 
 change of opinion concerning them. It has 
 been discovered that they were not altogether 
 so absurd as they seemed ; that the public mind, 
 in its ignorance, has been unjust to them ; and, 
 in hasty repentance for that injustice, too many 
 are ready to listen to those who will tell them 
 that these things are not absurd at all — that 
 there is no absurdity in believing that the leg- 
 bone of St. Simon Stock may possess miraculous 
 powers, or that the spirits of the departed com- 
 municate with their friends by rapping on the 
 table. The ugly after-crop of superstition which 
 is growing up among us now is the just and 
 natural punishment of our materialism — I may 
 say of our practical atheism. For those who 
 will not believe in the real spiritual world, in 
 which each man's soul stands face to face all 
 day long with Almighty God, the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, are sure at last to 
 crave after some false spiritual world, and seek, 
 like the evil and profligate generation of the Jews, 
 after visible signs and material wonders. And 
 those who will not believe that the one true and 
 living God is about their path and about their 
 bed, and spieth out all their ways, and that in 
 Him they live and move and have their being, 
 are but too likely at last to people with fancied 
 saints and demons that void in the imagina- 
 tion and in the heart which their own unbelief 
 has made. — Kingsley, The Hermits: Simeon 
 Stylites.
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 [Coniittued). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY. 
 
 (2) Its Allied Social Systems. 
 Pages 206 io 208. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 99 
 COMMUNISM, 
 
 100 
 SECULARISM. 
 
 lOI 
 
 SOCIALISM. 
 
 205
 
 206 
 
 DIVISION 
 
 {Coniifuted). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [i] INFIDELITY {continued). 
 (2) Its Allied Social Systems. 
 
 99 
 
 COMMUNISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [1175] This name is used to express the 
 doctrine of coninniiiity of property ; it claims 
 that all should share and share alike out of the 
 common fund of general society. — B. G. 
 
 II. Its Phases. 
 
 [1176] It was attempted to be put in practice 
 in England by Robert Owen, who induced 
 many to go into " Community," one of which, 
 called "New Harmony," was a sad example of 
 confusion, and broke up like the rest in quarrels, 
 dissatisfaction, calamity, and disgrace. Owen's 
 movement was infidel or atheistic ; but some 
 have advocated communism as a Christian 
 doctrine, and by " corrupt following of the 
 apostles " have vainly urged the case in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, where it is said they had 
 all things in common. But this referred to a 
 contributed common fund for cases of distress, 
 and did not destroy private property outside 
 that common accumulation. Communism would 
 destroy industry by removing the proper incen- 
 tive of personal advantage as the reward for 
 labour and enterprise. It has never succeeded. 
 —B. G. 
 
 III. Its Effect. 
 
 [1177] Let us examine a little what would be 
 the effect if all was equality. Were all equal 
 in beauty, there would be no beauty ; for beauty 
 is only by comparison. Were all equal in 
 strength, conflicts would be interminable. Were 
 all equal in rank, and power, and possessions, 
 the greatest charms of existence would be 
 destroyed — generosity, gratitude, and half the 
 finer virtues would be unknown. The first 
 principle of our religion, charity, could not be 
 practised, pity would never be called forth, 
 benevolence, that great organ, would be useless, 
 and self-denial a blank letter. Were all equal 
 in ability, there would be no instruction, no 
 talent, no genius — nothing to admire, nothing 
 to copy, to respect— nothing to rouse emulation 
 
 or stimulate to praiseworthy ambition. WTiy, 
 what an idle, unprofitable, weary world would 
 this be, if it were based on equality. 
 
 IV. The proved Impossibility of its 
 
 Slxcess. 
 
 [11 78] What roots out communism is ex- 
 perience of its impossibility — the plain demon- 
 stration that society cannot be carried by 
 assault, and will defend itself remorselessly. 
 It is this which has extinguished it in France, 
 but even there it has taken three bloody con- 
 flicts to do it, and two generations of civil strife ; 
 and nobody who observes what is going on in 
 Germany and Russia can doubt that the problem 
 will have to be solved there in the same way 
 — that is, communism will grow and its preten- 
 sions rise, until it thinks itself strong enough to 
 attempt a realization of its dreams by physical 
 force, and then it will find that the opposing 
 strength of society is tremendous, and that it 
 has no bowels of compassion. — Nation. 
 
 V. AIethods to neutralize its In- 
 fluence. 
 
 [1179] The fostering of communistic views, 
 either directly or indirectly, either by speech 
 or legislation, is therefore great cruelty to the 
 ignorant and unthinking, who form the bulk of 
 those of whom they take hold. The sooner it 
 can be made clear that they are seeking the 
 impossible, the better for them as well as for 
 society, and the way to make this clear is to 
 show thorough readiness for defence. Much 
 can be done, of course, to save the coming 
 generation from this poison — the worst, all 
 things considered, that has yet entered the 
 moral world — by improved means of education 
 and better social arrangements. — Jdid. 
 
 VI. Difficulty of dealing with Com- 
 munism. 
 
 I On account of its thorough unpracticalness. 
 
 [1180] The difficulty of dealing with com- 
 munism is great. It creates a distaste for the 
 steady routine of life, and a shrinking from 
 realities not unlike that created by gambling. 
 In order to reason a man out of a vagary, too,
 
 il!F. FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 iiSo— 11S6J 
 
 207 
 [secularism. 
 
 you and he must have some common ground to 
 start from. With the communist there is no 
 common ground to start from. He ofters no 
 fulcrum for your lever. He denies and scoffs 
 at your religion. He repudiates all your virtues 
 and all the motives by which your own life is 
 governed. He shares none of your hopes, and 
 is not troubled by any of your fears. He hates 
 what you most admire, and longs for all that 
 you most abhor ; denies the force of all your 
 tests and sanctions, and looks on you as a selfish 
 impostor. This is not a pleasant phenomenon, 
 and it is likely to prove to modern society a 
 curse and puzzle somewhat like those which 
 slavery proved to ancient society, and must be 
 faced. — Ibid. 
 
 100 
 
 SECULARISM, 
 
 I. Its Real Meaning. 
 
 [118 1] Secularism is the system which pro- 
 poses to waive all questions of man's origin 
 and future destiny as either too speculative or 
 too insoluble, or both too speculative and too 
 insoluble, for the purposes of practical life. — 
 R. H. Hutton, Expositor {Mdj, iSSo). 
 
 [1182] Infidel secularism professes to attend 
 to this life, though it will never mend it. All 
 that belongs to the so-called secularism is 7ioi 
 a special regard for this life, but a disregard 
 for the next. — B. G. 
 
 II. Failure when put to the Test. 
 
 Z Historically. 
 
 (i) // has produced no heroes. 
 
 [1183] Who are the heroes of secularism? 
 Who are the benefactors of the world that have 
 adorned its ranks ? Who are its philanthropists 
 and patriots ? Where is their Valhalla, crowded 
 with the portraits of their great and good 1 — 
 Rev. JV. G. Blaikic, D.D. 
 
 (2) // has pt'oditced Jio dene/actors like Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 [1184] What has secularism got to match 
 our modern missions, with names like those of 
 Carey and Schwartz, Vanderkemp and Judson, 
 Eliot and Zinzendorf, Williams and Moffat, 
 Gutzlaff and Burns, Livingstone and Patteson, 
 besides hosts of others that have become house- 
 hold words for devotion and self-sacrifice 1 If 
 the slave has had to be rescued from unlawful 
 bondage, who have toiled for him like ]Macaulay 
 and Clarkson, William Wilberforce and Sir 
 Fowell Buxton ? If an atrocious jail-systernhas 
 had to be reformed, and abuses corrected in 
 Britain and the other countries of Europe the 
 record of which now fills us with horror, what 
 secularist ever flung himself into the work with 
 the ardour and self-sacrifice of John Howard ? 
 If projects for the amehoration of humanity 
 have been started, what can be set over against 
 Pastor Fliedner's work at Kaiserswerth, or John 
 
 Bost's enterprise at Laforce ? What secularist 
 ever did for humanity what was done for our 
 great cities by Dr. Chalmers? Was Florence 
 Nightingale a secularist, or Agnes Jones, or 
 Sister Dora ? The great temperance reformers, 
 the men whose appeals go to the hearts of the 
 multitude, and move them like the leaves of the 
 forest, such as John Gough and Francis Murphy, 
 are not secularists, but Christian men. The 
 man who passed the Ten Hours' Act, who has 
 identified himself so conspicuously with the 
 Ragged and Reformatory movement, and with 
 every scheme for the relief of toiling humanity, 
 is no secularist, but the eminently Christian 
 Earl of Shaftesbury. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Ethically. 
 
 (i) // has only the selfish pri7iciple in man to 
 work upon and to tuork with. 
 
 [1185] As a system, secularism repudiates 
 everything which lies beyond the sphere of the 
 tangible and the visible. Nothing is a more 
 common fallacy than to assume that because 
 there is some truth in a system, therefore it 
 contains the whole tnith. I am far from deny- 
 ing that the attempt to improve the outward 
 condition of mankind will exert a beneficial 
 influence on his moral character. But to pro- 
 pound this as the one only efficient means of 
 grappling with human corruption, is to treat 
 with contempt the entire experience of history, 
 which proves that the highest forms of civiliza- 
 tion in the ancient world were compatible with 
 the lowest depths of moral corruption. Secu- 
 larism, if true to its principles, can appeal only 
 to the selfish principle in man. All past expe- 
 rience proves that self-love in any form is too 
 weak to grapple with the violence of the passions. 
 As secularism asserts that it is impossible to 
 prove the existence of the invisible, the only 
 power which it can bring to bear on man as a 
 moral being is the influence of the present life. 
 That influence has been tried, and has failed to 
 eftect the regeneration of mankind. No moral 
 reformation can be eftected by any power which 
 is unable to penetrate to the depths of human 
 nature. Bad political institutions help to de- 
 grade mankind, but good ones are unable to 
 regenerate him when degraded. To efi'ect this 
 we must deal with him, not in his social, but 
 his individual character. — C. A. Rozv, Moral 
 Teaching of the Arriy Testament. 
 
 [11S6] We should fancy that when the school- 
 master had taught the first moral lesson of 
 secularism, that it is the duty of every man to 
 aim at what he regards as his own greatest 
 good, his scholars would think they had got 
 enough, and would proceed to carry out the 
 lesson very faithfully. If he should go on to 
 teach next that it was their duty also to aim at 
 the highest good of their country and their race, 
 we can fancy them much more puzzled. In the 
 first " standard " there would be no failures ; 
 but how many would pass the second? — Rez'. 
 U\ G. Blaikie, D.D.
 
 2o8 
 II87- 
 
 JHE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 "93] 
 
 [socialism. 
 
 3 As an original and independent system. 
 
 [1187] The truth is that to a very great 
 extent it is only Christianity which makes 
 modern secularism look plausible. By long 
 dwelling on the Christian type of character men 
 have learnt to imagine that that type of charac- 
 ter could stand alone, after all the beliefs which 
 nourished and support it are gone. " Get rid," 
 says secularism, " of this mystical religion of 
 yours, and we accept your morality for its own 
 sake with all our hearts. It is only your re- 
 ligion which prevents you from insisting as you 
 ought to do on your morality." On the contrary, 
 we reply, only get rid of what you call our mys- 
 tical religion, and we do not believe that enough 
 of the old morality would survive it to make 
 your moral position in the least like that which 
 you at present expect to hold. Sweep away 
 the belief in the guidance of men by a Divine 
 hand, and all the more mysterious and less 
 commonplace of our moral intuitions will vanish 
 into doubtful superstitions. Dispel the belief 
 in a future life, and that intensity of personal 
 affection which we now revere will become a 
 folly. Convince yourselves that there is no law 
 of God, and the law of human virtue will become 
 suddenly questionable and hazy. Once assure 
 yourselves that a holy character is not the end 
 of life, and you will waver more and more as to 
 what kind of life it is that should be the end of 
 character. Secularism is strong and respectable 
 only while it borrows its moral standard from 
 the Gospels, even though it declines to acknow- 
 ledge the assumptions on which the Gospels 
 found it. So understood, secularism has a 
 plausible air, only because it borrows a host 
 of assumptions about every-day life painfully 
 established by centuries of spiritual discipline 
 and supersensual teaching. — R. H. Hiitton^ 
 Expositor {May, 1880). 
 
 4 As to its locus standi. 
 
 [1188] It is certain that the Bible contains 
 directions for industry and honesty, for mutual 
 respect and kindness between employers and 
 employed, for happiness in home life, for com- 
 fort in troubles, as part and parcel of Christi- 
 anity ; and further, •• that it points to a power 
 beyond ourselves, which mere secularism can- 
 not offer, to aid our feeble and fickle energies in 
 carrying out such purposes. Christianity is in 
 truth the best secularism — i.e., it works better 
 than any other system in our ordinary pursuits 
 and occupations. — Girdlestone, Christianity and 
 Modern Scepticism. 
 
 101 
 
 SOCIALISM. 
 
 I. Its History and Tenets. 
 
 [1189] Socialism was advocated by the late 
 Robert Owen, who had a number of travelling 
 
 missionaries, most of whom developed into so- 
 called secularism, which succeeded as the next 
 phase of infidelity. Owen's socialism added 
 to community of property, community not of 
 "djives, but of women : its social side was the 
 abolition of marriage. 
 
 Owen's lectures on marriage set up animals 
 as our true models, and perhaps he sunk below 
 them in some of his teachings. His frequent 
 phrase was, '• The trinity of evils — religion, 
 marriage, and property." — B. G. 
 
 [1190] It designates those who aim to reform 
 society by a new social science, and comprehends 
 the most various classes, from the wildest com- 
 munist to the most careful and scientific philo- 
 sopher. It takes in Owen and Louis Blanc, St. 
 Simon and Fourier, and certainly does not 
 exclude thinkers like Mill and Lamartine. — 
 Christian Examiner. 
 
 II. A Misnomer. 
 
 [1191] Nothing is more anti-social than such 
 socialism which offered bribes to passion to 
 hoodwink reason and lead astray the unwary. 
 Secularism is not really secular, and sociaHsm 
 was not really social ; infidelity uses good and 
 plausible words to hide its ill principles. — B. G. 
 
 III. Objections to its Theory. 
 
 1 Socialism over-estimates the power ci 
 external arrangements. 
 
 [11 92] How it is that life in the "phalanstery" 
 is to be free from the usual infirmities and 
 passions of mankind — how strife and hatred are 
 to cease within those favoured precincts, and 
 industry, and order, and affluence are to abound 
 — we cannot conceive, unless the members of 
 the association are a very select class, already 
 educated under the best Christian influences. 
 How the evils of competition are to be avoided 
 between rival "phalansteries," and the fluctua- 
 tions of prices and the awards of labour kept at 
 a desirable limit, we cannot understand, without 
 presupposing a state of things that cannot exist 
 in a nation not wonderfully pervaded by the 
 blessing of education and its attendant industry 
 and frugality. — Christian Examiner. 
 
 2 Socialism is not favourable to the true 
 life of man. 
 
 [1193] The whole doctrine of the desirable- 
 ness of luxury which lies at the basis of the 
 " phalanstery," seems to us very questionable. 
 That a palace more magnificent than Rome or 
 Versailles ever saw can be favourable to the 
 true life of man, we cannot easily believe. 
 While in this world we cannot so entirely repu- 
 diate the self-denial of the cross, nor do we 
 think it well to tell men striving for their daily 
 bread, and cheered by hopes of reasonable 
 success, that they ought to feast better than 
 kings and revel in every indulgence, and with 
 less should not be content. — Ibid.
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 [Cojitinucd). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [2] NON-CHRISTIAN SYSTEMS. 
 
 Paga 210 to 252. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 102 
 BRAHMINISM. 
 
 103 
 BUDDHISM. 
 
 104 
 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 105 
 FETISHISM. 
 
 106 . 
 JUDAISM (MODERN). 
 
 107 
 MOHAMiMEDANISM. 
 
 loS 
 MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 209 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 H
 
 210 
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 {Contimied). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHPvISTIANITY. 
 
 [2] NON-CHRISTIAN SYSTEMS. 
 
 102 
 
 BRAHMINIS^T. 
 
 I. Description of the System. 
 
 1 The nature of Brahm. 
 
 [1194] Brahm is the name of the highest 
 purely spiritual divine essence in the religion of 
 India, of whom the other gods are but servants. 
 He is not an object of worship, but is revealed 
 in the triad — Brahma, the creator ; Vishnu 
 the preserver; and Siva, the destroyer. The 
 Indians glorify him by innumerable names. — 
 Faiths of the World. 
 
 2 Twofold idea of Brahm. 
 
 [1195] He is regarded in one view as wholly 
 inactive, existing in a state of unbroken sleep, 
 undisturbed repose. This profound slumber, 
 however, is not everlasting in its duration. 
 After unnumbered ages he suddenly awakes, 
 and, starting to a consciousness of his own 
 existence, he exclaims, " Brahm is," or " I am." 
 From that moment he begins to exhibit active 
 qualities and attributes. A desire for duality 
 arises in his mind. In obedience to this desire, 
 the archetype or ideal form of the universe 
 presents itself before him. This is succeeded 
 by an act of volition, which calls tho universe 
 into actual existence. This done, Brahm re- 
 lapses into his former qualities and attributes. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 3 The worship of Brahm. 
 
 [1196] The Hindu Brahm has no temple 
 dedicated to his worship, nor is a single act 
 of adoration ever offered to him. This may 
 appear strange, but the reason which is given 
 by the admirers of Hinduism for the denial of 
 all worship to Brahm is, that the representmg 
 the Supreme Being by images, or the honouring 
 him by the institution of sacred rites and the 
 erection of temples, must be perfectly incom- 
 patible with every conceivable notion of an all- 
 prevailing, immaterial, incorporeal Spirit. — Ibid. 
 
 4 The heaven of the Brahmans. 
 
 [1197J In Brahm there was originally existent 
 Swada, or the golden womb, the receptacle of 
 
 all the types of things, which produced Maya, 
 matter or illusion, the source of all phenomena, 
 and by means of which individual existences 
 made their appearance. From the bosom of 
 Brahm came forth the Trimurti or Triad of the 
 Hindus, consisting of Brahma, the creator ; 
 Vishnu the preserver of forms ; and Siva, the 
 destroyer of forms, who by this very destruction 
 causes the return of beings to unity and theii 
 re-entrance into Brahm. The Hindus are 
 taught to look forward to absorption into the 
 divine essence, or Brahm, as the ultimate 
 reward, or final beatitude. — Ibid. 
 
 II. The Social Evils of the System. 
 
 I It intensifies instead of lessening class 
 hatreds and antipathies. 
 
 [119S] Christianity found the highest finite 
 manifestation of God in the person of One who 
 was neither sacred nor great by birth or caste, 
 who linked infinite greatness to the lowest 
 earthly humiliation — the Son of God and the 
 carpenter's son, the incarnation of Deity, and 
 the companion of the pariah and the outcast, 
 the friend of publicans and sinners. But 
 Brahmanism, by its institution of caste, was a 
 religious system in all respects the opposite of 
 that. In it, arbitrary distinctions entered into 
 the inmost sphere of the religious life, and 
 instead of being modified or annulled by 
 religion, constituted its very essence. Instead 
 of breaking down artificial barriers, waging war 
 v,-ith false separations, softening divisions and 
 undermining class hatreds and antipathies, 
 religion became itself the very consecration of 
 them. The Brahman was by birth nearer to 
 God than other men, standing in a special rela- 
 tion to Him, which is independent of character 
 and moral worth, and to which no other mortal 
 could aspire. No others could be his brethren. 
 There were those among them whose very 
 touch was contamination. To associate with 
 them, eat with them, help them in danger, visit 
 them in sickness, come even into accidental 
 contact with them, was to him a pollution to be 
 atoned for by the severest penalties. Nay, 
 there were those whom it was no sin, but a 
 duty, to treat with contempt and inhumanity, 
 who were doomed by birth to a lot of infamy 
 and isolation from their fellow-men, and, worse
 
 THE FORCES uPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I 198 — 1200] 
 
 211 
 
 [buddhism. 
 
 than all, on whom religion inflicted a wrong 
 more cruel than slavery by making them slaves 
 who regarded their fate as no wrong. Instead 
 of teaching them to look on their dark and 
 hopeless lot as a thing for which they could 
 seek higher consolation, an injustice against 
 which it was right to struggle, religion only 
 gathered over it a more terrible darkness by 
 making that lot itself an unchangeable 
 ordinance of God. In these and other ways, 
 we could perceive how the system of caste 
 involved the worst of all wrongs to humanity — 
 that of hallowing evil by the authority and 
 sanction of religion. — Religions of India, Prin- 
 cipal Caird. 
 
 103 
 
 BUDDHISM. 
 I. Its History. 
 
 I The renunciation of Buddha. 
 
 ( I ) Its psychological explanation. 
 
 [1199] In the course of the sixth century B.C., 
 Gautama — who afterwards came to be known 
 by the designation of Buddha, the "enlightened," 
 — the son of a rajah or chief of the Sakyas, an 
 Aryan tribe of Central India, abandoned in early 
 life his position and prospects as heir to his 
 father's throne, and passed the rest of his life as 
 a wandering religious mendicant. Various inci- 
 dents, related with dramatic detail, were said to 
 have led to that act of renunciation. But if we 
 reflected on the influence which the conditions 
 of the time — an age of gross and degrading 
 superstition, and of intense social corruption — 
 would exert on a mind of great intellectual 
 originality, and of deep moral and religious 
 susceptibilities, the step was one not difficult to 
 account for. Buddha's seemed to have been 
 one of those natures, reflective, introvertive, 
 restless, for which the problems of the spiritual 
 life had an importance transcending all outward 
 interests, and which were impelled to seek the 
 solution of these problems by an imperious 
 inward necessity. In whatever form the object 
 of spiritual inquiry presented itself — whether as 
 the search for truth, or for the meaning and end 
 of human life, or for the explanation of its 
 moral contradictions and anomalies, or for sal- 
 vation from sin, and sorrow, and death — for 
 such natures there was no rest till the inward 
 perplexity and anxiety were removed. Passive 
 acceptance of circumstances was for them im- 
 possible ; and if the outward conditions of life 
 seemed to conflict with the profounder needs of 
 the spirit, we could understand how such minds, 
 jealous of their influence, in some access of 
 spiritual anxiety and impatience, might at one 
 stroke shake off the bondage of outward posi- 
 tion, and set themselves free for what they 
 deemed the great task of life — the work of 
 spiritual thought and inquiry. 
 
 The subsequent career of Buddha was in 
 keeping with the view he had now suggested. 
 It was the history of a soul in search of spiritual 
 rest, of the various experiments by which he 
 vainly sought to find it, of the success which at 
 last crowned his efforts, and finally of his life- 
 long endeavour to communicate to others the 
 blessing he seemed to himself to have attained. 
 Of his abortive endeavours, two are specially 
 recorded — the search after spiritual satisfaction, 
 first by philosophic thoughts, and secondly by 
 ascetic austerities. — Principal Caird, D.D. 
 
 (2) Its supposed immediate occasion. 
 
 [1200] In this connection it is helpful to look 
 at a religion founded upon human misery which 
 is held by nearly one-third of the human family. 
 It is Buddhism — a religion without a Supreme 
 God and without a heaven — a religion which 
 ofters nothing in the future state better than 
 extinction. 
 
 The origin of this religion, as given by the 
 great Oriental scholar, St. Hilaire, is this : The 
 Prince of Kapilavastu, riding in his chariot, saw, 
 on separate occasions, three spectacles of human 
 misery which led him to renounce his prospec- 
 tive throne in order to find a way for the escape 
 of men from the wretchedness of life. 
 
 The first vision of misery caused him to be 
 utterly discontented with youth. It was the 
 sight of an old man, broken, bowed, decrepit, 
 bald, wrinkled, tottering on a staff, and almost 
 toothless and voiceless with the infirmities of 
 age. 
 
 The second spectacle of misery seen from his 
 chariot gave him a 6^\iCo\\K.tr\X\v\'Cn. bodily health. 
 It was a sick man by the roadside, his wasted 
 body parched with fever and covered with filth. 
 
 The third decisive spectacle of misery gave- 
 him a disgust for life itself. It was a dead body 
 lying on a bier in the street and covered with a 
 cloth. The friends stood about, crying and 
 sobbing, tearing their hair, covering their heads 
 with dust, striking their breasts, and uttering 
 wild cries. 
 
 The prince, calling his coachman to witness 
 this painful scene, cried aloud : " Oh, woe to 
 youth, which must soon be destroyed by old 
 age ! Woe to health, which must be destroyed 
 by so many diseases ! Woe to this life, where 
 man remains so short a time ? If there were no 
 old age, no disease, no death — if these could be 
 
 made captive for ever . Let us turn back. 
 
 I must think how to accomplish deliverance." 
 
 He gave up all his wealth. He relinquished 
 his right to the throne. He pondered many 
 years upon the ills of life, and at last, calling 
 himself " Buddha," or the enlightened one, he 
 proclaimed a plan of deliverance. It was a 
 series of exercises by which, sooner or later, 
 after death the soul might forget that it had 
 ever lived, and finally become utterly uncon- 
 scious of existence itself. 
 
 That empty, wretched prospect is to-day the 
 brightest hope of perhaps 400,000,000 of our 
 fellow-men. — Ibid.
 
 212 
 
 1 20 1 — 1208 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [buddhism. 
 
 II. Causes of its Success. 
 
 1 Its social rather than its philosophical 
 and religious elements. 
 
 (i) // offc7-ed the Hindus release from aji 
 absolute and oppressive hierarchy. 
 
 [1201] It was a humanitarian reaction against 
 Brahmanism. No people were ever bound 
 more closely in the chains of a hierarchy than 
 were the Hindus under the Brahmans. The 
 meshes of the Brahmanic law entangled the 
 people everywhere. The caste of the Brahmans, 
 rendered proud and self-confident by their in- 
 creasing power, everywhere lorded it over the 
 masses. An inevitable and eternal distinction 
 was drawn between the castes. To those of the 
 lower castes there w-as no hope, no possibility 
 of rising ; to those of the highest castes — the 
 Brahmans— there was no possibility of a fall, 
 however wicked they might be. — Baptist Quar- 
 terly Review. 
 
 (2) It taught the possibility of salvation 
 irrespective of caste. 
 
 [1202] Buddha taught the possibility of salva- 
 tion to all — nay, that all might become Buddhas, 
 attain to the highest degree of merit and felicit3% 
 A man's happiness does not depend on the 
 caste in which he was born, but on his own 
 exertions, on his own life. Nay more, he taught 
 that those very qualities that the proud Brah- 
 mans looked down on with contempt — humility, 
 meekness, and kindness — were those of most 
 ,avail to a man in working out his own salvation. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 (3 j // adapted itself to the needs, social con- 
 dition, and prejudices of the people. 
 
 [1203] Buddhism, as a philosophy,is one thing; 
 as a religion for every-day life, quite another. 
 The history of every religion in the world sadly 
 illustrates how widely the life and practice of 
 its followers can diverge from its standards of 
 faith and duty. Especially is this seen in reli- 
 gions whose Scriptures are unknown or unintel- 
 ligible to the common people ; or where they 
 claim no authority, are not regarded as a basis 
 of faith, a standard for appeal, and a rule for 
 daily life. Every earth-born religion has only 
 maintained itself on its native soil by becoming 
 conformed to the growing intelligence and ever- 
 changing habits of its adherents ; and has only 
 been propagated abroad by becoming adapted 
 to the genius of the people upon whom it de- 
 pends for support. In China, as elsewhere, 
 Indian Buddhism never surmounted its environ- 
 ments, but, like organisms low in the scale of 
 life, suffered these environments to modify its 
 form, to tone down its abnormities, to eliminate 
 elements too offensive to national prejudices, 
 and to incorporate other elements, foreign to its 
 constitution, yet essential to its survival. 
 
 [1204] We are told that when it first started 
 it spread rapidly, and won thousands and 
 millions of converts. It may have been so ; I 
 should not be surprised if the converts were 
 
 more numerous than the converts to Christi- 
 anity during the first hundred years, and I will 
 tell you why. Because it is calculated to the 
 latitude and longitude of our fallen humanity, 
 and it does not encounter the hostility and 
 repugnance of the natural heart which the 
 gospel encounters, and which can only be over- 
 come by an influence from on high. — B. H, 
 Cowper. 
 
 2 Political events. 
 
 (i) The conquest of Kandiagupta over 
 Magadha. 
 
 [1205] Political events in India aided in 
 bringing about the Buddhist reformation just 
 as in Germany they exerted a great influence in 
 accomplishing the Lutheran reformation. Kan- 
 diagupta, a man of low origin, a mere adventurer, 
 had conquered the throne of Magadha, and 
 acquired his supremacy in India, in spite of the 
 Brahmanic law, and had broken through the 
 meshes of the intricate system of caste. — Baptist 
 Quarterly. 
 
 (2) 77/1? selfrenunciatiott and remarkable 
 character of its founder. 
 
 [1206] Buddha had broken caste, by giving 
 up his royal station and becoming a mendicant. 
 Thus the parvemc of the throne found his 
 natural allies in Buddha and his followers, who 
 had won the highest esteem among the middle 
 and lower classes, by their lives of virtue and 
 their unostentatious behaviour. — Ibid. 
 
 [1207] Buddha proclaimed his doctrine first 
 in Varanaci, the modern Benares, then in other 
 cities and villages in the valley of the Ganges. 
 Gradually the fame of the new teacher and his 
 doctrine began to spread far and wide. His 
 zeal, his rigid relf-renunciation, combined with 
 serene gentleness and benignity, his wisdom 
 and eloquence, and even, it was said, his per- 
 sonal dignity and beauty, gave strange force to 
 the stern doctrines he taught, and won men's 
 hearts wherever he went. Crowds flocked to 
 his teaching, and thousands of all ranks en- 
 rolled themselves among his adherents. The 
 schools of the Brahmans began to be deserted, 
 some of the most notable Brahmanical teachers 
 became themselves his converts. The terrible 
 bondage of caste became incapable of resisting 
 the power of the newly awakened spirit of 
 human brotherhood, and a moral reformation of 
 the most undoubted character witnessed to the 
 salutary influence of his teaching. — Pri7icipal 
 Caird, D.D. 
 
 III. Its Moral System. 
 I Its ten virtues and vices. 
 
 [1208] The primitive Buddhist books have a 
 higher moral tone than the latter, which are 
 mere metaphysical abstractions. Ten virtues 
 and ten vices are spoken of. There are various 
 enumerations of these. One is as follows : 
 The vices are, three of the body, viz., killing,
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1208 — 1216] 
 
 2^i 
 
 [buddhism. 
 
 stealing, adultery ; four of the lips, viz., slander- 
 ing, reviling, lying, and elegant words, i.e.^ 
 double entendres, with vicious intentions ; and 
 three of the mind, viz., jealousy, hatred, and 
 folly (including unbelief in Buddha and erro- 
 neous opinions). — Baptist Quarterly Review. 
 
 2 Its ten commandments. 
 
 [1209] The ten commandments which Buddha 
 imposed on his disciples are — 
 
 I. Not to kill ; 2, not to steal ; 3, not to com- 
 mit adultery ; 4, not to lie ; 5, not to get intoxi- 
 cated ; 6, to abstain from unseasonable meals ; 
 7, to abstain from public spectacles ; 8, to 
 abstain from expensive dresses ; 9, not to have 
 a large bed ; 10, not to receive silver or gold. 
 
 The lessening of human misery, and the pro- 
 motion of human happiness, form the sum of 
 human obligation. — Ibid. 
 
 3 Its tenets in regard to suffering. 
 
 (i) As to the fact itself. 
 
 [1210] The first of the cardinal tenets of 
 Buddha's doctrine is a wail over the imper- 
 manence of everything earthly. Birth, old age, 
 sickness, death, union with the unloved, separa- 
 tion from the loved, the clinging to earthly 
 things, these all are suftering. — Dr. William 
 Hoey. 
 
 [121 1] The Buddhist view of human life goes 
 out from the deepest melancholy and drapes it 
 in weeds of perpetual mourning. It looks only 
 at the dark side of existence. It runs over the 
 words disease, sorrow, decay, death, and returns 
 to them in perpetual repetition, till life is a 
 tomb in which hope has been buried. Its proper 
 symbol is found in the Buddhist ascetic wander- 
 ing among graves wrapped in rags and in the 
 cerements of the dead. — The New Englander. 
 
 (2) As to its origin. 
 
 [12 1 2] The second tenet is the origin of suffer- 
 ing, and here we touch the kernel of Buddhism, 
 and are face to face with the great difficulty of 
 the origin of being, for being is suffering. The 
 terms are equivalent in Buddhist thought. "The 
 thirst for being leads from birth to birth, to- 
 gether with lust and desire, which finds grati- 
 fication here and there ; the thirst for pleasure, 
 the thirst for power;" this is the origin of 
 suffering. — Dr. William Hoey. 
 
 (3) As to the method of its extinction. 
 
 [12 1 3] The third tenet is the "sacred truth of 
 the extinction of suffering," which is said to be 
 accomplished by the extinction of the thirst 
 for being, the annihilation of desire. Buddha 
 evidently felt that there was something needed 
 as an explanation and as a support of these two 
 tenets, and hence he propounded the " causal 
 nexus of being.'' It is not possible to quote the 
 formula here in extenso [vid. pp. 223-252 of Dr. 
 Hoey's translation], or to enter into the meta- 
 physical analysis of our being, but suffice it to 
 say that the ultimate origin of our being is 
 "ignorance," the non-possession of that know- 
 
 ledge which is comprised in the four sacred 
 tenets or truths. " The ultimate root of all 
 suffering is the delusion which conceals from 
 man the true being, and the true value of the 
 system of the universe. Being is suffering ; but 
 ignorance totally deceives us as to this suffer- 
 ing ; it causes us to see instead of suffering a 
 phantom of happiness and pleasure." From 
 ignorance comes " conformations," a term used 
 to translate the technical Buddhist word Sank- 
 hdra, and " from conformations comes con- 
 sciousness ; " and it is consciousness which, 
 entering the womb at conception, assumes 
 some material form. This brings us to the 
 Buddhist idea of Kamma \_Kamma is the Pali 
 form of the Sansk. Karma'\ or moral retribu- 
 tion. Whatever a man is, is the result of former 
 action, and hence his present state of being 
 involves that some other unit of being occupied 
 his place at a former time, and acted through 
 ignorance so as to necessitate a re-birth. The 
 cutting off of re-birth can only be attained by 
 the attainment of knowledge, i.e., of the four 
 cardinal truths, and the extinction of ignorance 
 and desire — the extinction of all clinging to th». 
 earthly. To express this clinging a figurative: 
 word is used, and the underlying figure is that 
 of flame. A flame feeds on wood or other fuel, 
 and not only devours it, but also goes out on the 
 air seeking other fuel. This is the state of our 
 being ; it is a continuous process of burning. 
 The wise man does not supply the fuel to the 
 flame of desire. He extinguishes desire (for 
 being) and all thirst. His state is that of 
 " Nirvana." The ignorant man, on the other 
 hand, supplies fuel to the flame, and the flame 
 of existence presses on in transmigration to 
 further stages of being. The cessation of cling- 
 ing to being may begin at any moment, and 
 from that moment Nirvana begins. — Ibid. 
 
 (4) As to the path of its extinction. 
 
 [12 14] The fourth tenet of Buddhism is the 
 path to the extinction of suffering, and is a rule 
 of life leading to pure habits of thought and 
 action. The scope of Buddhist ethics is very 
 diffei'ent from that of the Christian. Buddhism 
 does not recognize the will of a supreme law- 
 giver, or the principle of the good of others as a 
 rule to regulate conduct. The Buddhist prac- 
 tises any course of good action solely because it 
 is the best policy, not because it is right.^ 
 Ibid. 
 
 4 Its tenets in regard to sin. 
 
 (i) AT en are miserable rather than guilty, 
 [121 5] A Buddha is a saviour, and not a 
 god. His mission is to deliver men from suffer- 
 ing. Vices, faults, and misfortunes are inci- 
 dental to birth into the world. Misfortune and 
 sin are identical. — Baptist Quarterly Review. 
 
 (2) All men have a moral nature, and would 
 be good but for contact with the world and the 
 delusio7is of the senses. 
 
 [12 1 6] This is very similar to the Confucian
 
 214 
 
 I2l6- 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHS.ISTIANITY. 
 
 222] 
 
 [buddhism. 
 
 doctrine that all men are born good, but be- 
 come vicious by falling into evil habits. — Ibid. 
 
 5 Its teaching in regard to the tendencies of 
 nature. 
 
 [1217] Buddhism, notwithstanding its lofty 
 pretensions and its remarkable philosophy, has 
 proved a practical failure. However noble some 
 of its principles, it has been a curse and not a 
 blessing in all lands wherever its system has 
 taken root. Its ascetics, like those of other 
 countries and other faiths, have not, as might 
 have been anticipated, been able to conquer the 
 tendencies of nature. It has sought not to 
 regulate but to overcome nature, and nature 
 has overcome it — 
 
 '■'■ Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret." 
 — C H. IV. Wright, D.D. 
 
 6 Its teaching in regard to motives for virtue. 
 
 (i) The doctrine of future 7'czuards and piniish- 
 vieiits is vaguely held by the common people, bid 
 regarded as superstition by the C07itemplative 
 school. 
 
 [12 1 8] ]Motives to well-doing are drawn from 
 the Hindu popular notions of heaven and hell. 
 The rewards and punishments of the future 
 world are the results of our actions here. Just 
 as a tree bears its own fruit, an action is fol- 
 lowed by its legitimate consequence. Forgive- 
 ness is obtained by repentance and merit. A 
 man, though guilty of crime, may attain to 
 future happiness if he will recite his prayers for 
 the repose of his soul. After death the wicked 
 are conducted to King Im Lo (Yama), who 
 assigns them their punishment. Buddha is 
 aieither a creator nor a judge, but simply an 
 instructor, a teacher who by his superior know- 
 ledge has passed from metempsychosis and 
 attained to Nirvana. 
 
 One school makes the western heaven the 
 abode of O ui to (Amida\ the place of reward 
 for the good. This is the popular idea in China. 
 The contemplative school regard this as figu- 
 rative, and obliterate all distinction between 
 virtue and vice, regarding the other world as a 
 myth, and giving themselves up entirely to their 
 own abstractions. They say that idolatry is 
 necessary for the common people, who need 
 •some sensible object to lead their minds to a 
 :sense of the supernatural. — Baptist Qua?-terly 
 Review. 
 
 IV. Its Philosophical System. 
 
 1 Buddhism does not attempt to solve the 
 problem of the primary origin of all things. 
 
 [12 1 9] When INIalunka asked the Buddha 
 whether the existence of the world is eternal, 
 he made him no reply ; but the reason of this 
 was that it was considered by the teacher as an 
 inquiry that tended to no profit. — Contenporary 
 Review. 
 
 2 Buddhism denies that anything or any 
 being in the universe has a separate and 
 self-existent entity. 
 
 [1220] Buddhism takes as its ultimate fact 
 the existence of the material world and of 
 conscious beings living within it ; and it holds 
 that everything is subject to the law of cause 
 and effect, and everything is constantly, though 
 imperceptibly, changing. There is no place 
 where this law does not operate ; no heaven or 
 hell therefore in the ordinary sense. There 
 are worlds where gods or angels live, whose 
 existence is more or less material, according 
 to the lower or higher degree of holiness 
 reached by them in their previous lives ; but 
 the gods and angels die, and the worlds they 
 inhabit pass away. There are places of torment, 
 where the evil actions of men or angels produce 
 unhappy beings ; but when the active power of 
 the evil that produced them is exhausted they 
 will vanish, and the worlds they inhabit are not 
 eternal. The whole kosmos — earth and heavens 
 and hells — is always tending to renovation or 
 destruction, is always in a course of change, a 
 series of revolutions or of cycles, of which the 
 beginning and the end are alike unknowable. 
 To this universal law of composition and dis- 
 solution men and angels form no exception. 
 The unity of forces which constitutes a sentient 
 being must sooner or latter be dissolved ; and 
 it is only through ignorance and delusion that 
 such a being indulges in the dream that it is a 
 separate and self-existent entity. — Ibid. 
 
 3 It taught a gentler and truer morality than 
 Brahmanism under another form of Pan- 
 theism. 
 
 [1221] Buddhism, arising some six centuries 
 before the Christian era, was a protest against 
 the caste system of Hinduism. It proclaimed 
 a gentler and more kindly, perhaps we may say, 
 a purer morality. On the other hand, it can 
 scarcely be said to have had a cultus or special 
 theology ; and its doctrine of Nirvana, as the 
 end and aim of all true wisdom — whether Nir- 
 vana be regarded only as absolute quietism in 
 the bosom of the soul of the universe, or actual 
 annihilation — must be recognized as a form of 
 pantheism. For a long time Buddhism was 
 looked upon by the Hindus as a school of 
 philosophy rather than a rival creed. But its 
 progress weakened the powers of the Brahmans, 
 as indeed was inevitable. A life-and-death 
 struggle ensued, and Buddhism was effectually 
 banished from its original home in India to 
 take refuge in Thibet and Mongolia, in China 
 and Ceylon. — Rev. F. f . Masters. 
 
 4 Its leading principles were, concerning 
 Nirvana, the Buddhist heaven of absorp- 
 tion. 
 
 [1222] The doctrine of Buddha is a develop- 
 ment of the following four principles : (i) Every 
 kind of existence is transitory and painful ; (2) 
 all existence is the result of passion in some 
 previous form of existence ; therefore (3), the
 
 -^HE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 215 
 
 [buddhism. 
 
 extinction of passion is the one means to escape 
 from existence and from the misery which is 
 inseparable from it ; hence (4) all obstacles to 
 this extinction of existence must be eliminated. 
 —Rev. J. H. Blunt. 
 
 [1223] It degrades man to the lowest of the 
 brute creation. The swine is his brother, and the 
 worm is his sister or friend. It tangles human 
 destiny in a fatal web which drags it through 
 ages of untold horrors — for what? — that it 
 may be purified ? — that it may come forth from 
 all this at last to rejoice in the new effulgence 
 of a life of love which has left all pain behind ? 
 No, nothing of this ; — only that it may cease 
 to be ! There is no great glowing future to 
 which faith can lift its eye ; no eternal progress 
 to inspire human aspiration. No God, no soul, 
 no Saviour from sin, no love, no heaven! — The 
 New Etiglander. 
 
 [1224] Nirvana, the end of all desire, the end 
 of all pain, the end of all sorrow, the end of 
 hope and of fear, because it is the end of all 
 consciousness, the return to that nothing out of 
 which all things come. This is the final haven 
 of rest, where no care, nor grief, nor disease, 
 nor poverty, nor old age, nor death can come. 
 Behold the goal of all earthly hope ! Behold 
 the solution of the whole problem of life ! Over 
 that calm where all being has sunk away, no 
 wave of trouble shall sweep, for there shall be 
 no sea of sorrows through which its billows may 
 roll. In those depths of emptiness the good 
 and the bad alike shall bury their griefs, in 
 burying themselves for ever. — Ibid. 
 
 5 It undoubtedly holds that the " ultimate 
 union " is the perfection of the nature of 
 Buddha. 
 
 [1225] It appears that the idea of annihilation 
 as the one equivalent of Nirvana must be con- 
 fined (if at all) to one period only in the history 
 of the system, and that period one during which 
 scholastic refinement sought to explain or define 
 that which is, in its very nature, incapable of 
 definition, viz., the condition of the Infinite ; 
 for, all along, Buddhism assumes that the same 
 condition awaits the " emancipated soul " as is 
 enjoyed by the Supreme Mind, and hence the 
 constant reference to the state of the soul that 
 has gone across (parameta) to that shore where 
 there is no "birth or death." This state, because 
 it admits of no positive definition, is described 
 via re7notio7iis, i.e., by stripping from it every 
 conceivable imperfection, and the process is 
 carried to such an extent by the subtle logic of 
 the schools that at length nothing is left for the 
 mind to lay hold of, and this is the annihila- 
 tion spoken of. But in the earliest and latest 
 schools there is a dift'erent complexion given to 
 the idea of Nirvana. In the first period the 
 thought seems to have been simply confined to 
 a state of rest — rest or escape from all possible 
 sorrow ; and at this state, without attempting 
 to describe or define it, Buddha directed his 
 
 followers to aim. In the latest school, the idea 
 of Nirvana was " restoration to the true condition 
 of Being." It would be tedious to bring proofs 
 of this, for many of the latest works or Sutras 
 consist of the one idea, that there is but one 
 nature, to which all other natures must in the 
 end return; and this "return" or "ultimate 
 union" is the perfection of the one nature ot 
 Buddha. — Beat {Samuel), A Catena of BuddJiist 
 Sc7-ipt2t}'cs from the Chinese. 
 
 6 Buddhism, as a philosophical system, 
 teaches Atheism and Nihilism. 
 
 [1226] It does not deny the existence of God 
 or of gods, but simply ignores them. It ad- 
 mitted but one subjective self, and taught the 
 annihilation of all existence, of all thought, of 
 all individuality and personality, as the highest 
 object of all endeavours. But the mind of man 
 instinctively shrinks from such a system of 
 negation, and before long, as Max Midler well 
 remarks. Buddhism " changed the very nothing 
 into a paradise, and deified the very Buddha 
 who had denied the existence of a Deity." As 
 a system of philosophy it has had but few 
 adherents. Its power as a religion over the 
 millions of our race is owing to its moral system, 
 — Baptist Quarterly Reznezu. 
 
 [1227] It is an atheistic system. It ignores the 
 existence of an intelligent and personal Deity. 
 It acknowledges that there is a moral govern- 
 ment of the world, but it honours the statute- 
 book instead of the lawgiver, and adores the 
 sceptre instead of the king. — Spence Hardy, 
 Manual of Buddhism. 
 
 V. Its Relation to Pessimism. 
 
 [122S] The doctrines of this modern school, 
 the reader cannot fail to have observed, bear a 
 close resemblance to the principles of Buddhism. 
 But, although Buddhism teaches that existence 
 is an evil which the wise man will seek to get 
 rid of, that system does not so directly lead to 
 immorality and suicide as the doctrines of 
 Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann if carried out 
 to their logical consequences. For Buddhism 
 maintains that there is a life after death, and a 
 transmigration of souls in the case of the wicked, 
 and of those who are deficient in virtue. There 
 is, according to Buddhism, something which 
 the wicked may well fear, and something which 
 the upright may desire to attain. The Budd- 
 hist dreads to be involved in an indefinite 
 rotation of births, followed in each case by 
 decay and death. The object of his desire is 
 not merely to escape from life in one form, but 
 from existence in any shape whatever, and to 
 reach, as speedily as possible, his haven of rest 
 and "city of peace," the Nirvana where desire 
 is totally extinct.— C. H. IV. Wrio;ht, D.D., 
 Donncllan Lectures (1SS3). 
 
 VI. Its Resemblance to Practices of 
 THE Roman Church. 
 
 [1229] The form of religious woiship contains
 
 2l6 
 
 1229 — 1237] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [budehism. 
 
 many points (veneration of relics, auricular con- 
 fession, beads, processions, &c.) which bear a 
 striking resemblance to the practices of the 
 Roman Church, acknowledged by all, but ex- 
 plained differently. — McCltntock and Stroiig's 
 Cyclopadia. 
 
 VII. Its System compared with Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 1 As to civilizing elements. 
 
 [1230] It has to some of his followers been 
 the repose of annihilation ; to others the peace 
 of blessed absorption into Deity and loss of 
 personality ; to others the eternal rest pf the 
 heavy-laden in the bosom of God. The vague- 
 ness of the hope, the lack of sublime simplicity 
 in the teachings, the want of an overpowering 
 faith in the " Heavenly Father," and a certain 
 absence of consciousness of perfect union with 
 the Infinite Spirit, will perhaps account for the 
 failure of Buddhism in promoting the progress 
 of Asia as compared with Christianity in 
 Europe. — Brace, Gesta Christi. 
 
 2 As to moral elements. 
 
 [1231] As much had been made of the appa- 
 rent coincidences between the Buddhist and the 
 Christian morality, it would appear, on closer 
 examination, that the similarity was in some 
 respects only a superficial one. The main 
 defect of the former — arising out of the funda- 
 mental principle of Buddhism — was that it was 
 ii morality of negation or renunciation. It laid 
 almost exclusive emphasis on the passive 
 virtues of submission, resignation, indifference 
 to the allurements of sense and passion, dead- 
 ness to the world and the things of the world ; 
 and if it seemed to find any place for active 
 benevolence and kindred virtues, it did so only 
 in name, or by a kind of noble inconsistency. 
 
 [1232] It taught that self-surrender to God, 
 in which the essence of religion lay, involved, as 
 a necessary element of it, the abnegation of self, 
 the renunciation of any life that belonged to me 
 merely as this particular individuality— of any 
 life apart from God. The error of Buddhism 
 was not that in it religion contained a negative 
 element, but that it stopped short there. — 
 Principal Caird, D.D. 
 
 3 As to social elements. 
 
 [1233] Another "fatal short-coming" of 
 Buddhism, is that " the monk, with staff and 
 arms-bowl asking for bread, is not quite honour- 
 able or manly in the midst of working mankind. 
 He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is 
 greater than he." This is most true, and Chris- 
 tianity is as truly the religion of the busy, 
 working, practical member of society, as of the 
 lonely, persecuted sufferer for Christ's sake. 
 It goes with man into every relation of life, as 
 a member of the family, the social circle, the 
 state. No force has ever shown itself so potent 
 to draw out the highest, fullest devotion as the 
 
 " constraining love of Christ," or has nerved 
 weak human nature to so many sacrifices. 
 Christianity needs not to fear comparison with 
 Buddhism, or any other religious system, for 
 while others have inculcated love and compas- 
 sion among the duties to be fulfilled, they could 
 bring no strong, tender power, like the " con- 
 straining love of Christ," to touch the heart and 
 raise man above the innate evil of his nature. 
 It could hold out no bright hope of purity and 
 eternal blessedness in the " Father's House." — 
 Mills. 
 
 4 As to theological elements. 
 
 (i) TJie Bible gives in a clear inajmer what 
 Bicddliism aims after in a mystic fasliion. 
 
 [1234] In spite of our fuller knowledge of 
 the highest points reached in Indian religious 
 thought, and of its many excellences, in spite 
 of our wonder at its marvellous subtlety, our 
 admiration of the depth of its philosophic pene- 
 tration, it still is true that when we pass from 
 Indian ideas of God, and man's relation to Him, 
 to the perusal of a page of the Psalms, the sen- 
 sation is like that of exchanging the unwhole- 
 some atmosphere of the jungle for the pure air 
 of the mountain height, of exchanging the 
 gloomy canopy of the one for the unclouded 
 heaven of the other. — Chtirch Quarterly. 
 
 [1235] In no religion are we so constantly re- 
 minded of our own as in Buddhism, and yet in 
 no religion has man been drawn away from the 
 truth as in the religion of Buddha. Buddhism 
 and Christianity are indeed the two opposite 
 poles with regard to the most essential points 
 of religion. Buddhism ignoring all feeling of 
 dependence on a higher power, and therefore 
 denying the very existence of a Supreme Deity ; 
 Christianity resting entirely on a belief in God 
 as the Father, in the Son of man as the Son of 
 God, and making us all children of God by faith 
 in His Son. — Max Alicller. 
 
 (2) BitddJiisin has external points of contact 
 ivith Christianity which a missionary might 
 turn to account. 
 
 [1236] The absence of any theological element 
 in Buddhism distinguishes it toto ccelo from 
 Christianity. But there are many external points 
 of similarity which a well-prepared missionary 
 might turn to account. It has a ceremonial, which 
 has become a hard taskmaster ; like Christianity, 
 too, it afforded a relief to the " weary and heavy 
 laden," by calling away the mind to the spiritual 
 world, and, on the other hand, by the doctrine 
 of the brotherhood of all classes and nations of 
 men. The philanthropy of the one is very like 
 that of the other ; and the moral ideal, gentle- 
 ness, meekness, longsuffering, compassion, love, 
 is common to both. — Rev. J. H. Blunt, ALA. 
 
 [1237] Buddhism offered morality without 
 religion, as Brahmanism had offered religion 
 without morality. Christianity embraces the 
 essential ideas of both, and more than fulfils the
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1237—1243 1 
 
 217 
 
 [CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 highest spiritual aspiration of Buddha. He had 
 his mission to fulfil in preparing the way for a 
 greater than he, and we can be thankful for the 
 light shed in darkness by this "star in the 
 east," even while we feel that not from the 
 mountains of Nepaul, but from the hill country 
 of Judea, shone that "true light which lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world." — The 
 Canadian Mo7'.thly. 
 
 5 As to progress. 
 
 (i) Points of resemblance. 
 
 [1238] There maybe no irreverence in com- 
 paring the progress of a false with that of a true 
 religion. The growth of Buddhism indicates 
 both an inherent weakness in the system which 
 it supplanted, and some adaptation to the con- 
 dition of human nature in general, as well as 
 some peculiar relation to the circumstances of 
 the people among whom it spread. Its analo- 
 gies with Christianity consist in its overthrow of 
 the distinction of caste ; its aiming at universal 
 dominion ; its rising out of a previous system 
 which it supplanted ; its spreading, and for cen- 
 turies retaining, its hold over countries where 
 its predecessor was unknown ; its proselytizing, 
 as well as its protesting spirit — whilst the analo- 
 gies become actual points of resemblance when 
 we view the virtues which it preached and incul- 
 cated ; the councils by which its schisms were 
 suppressed ; and its missionary efforts for the 
 propagation of its faith in distant regions. Even 
 the surrender of its territory which it once pos- 
 sessed when Brahmanism became again the 
 dominant religion of India, offers a remarkable 
 parallel to the retreat of Christianity in Asia 
 and Africa before the overwhelming tide of 
 Mohammedanism. — Christian Remembrancer. 
 
 (2) Points of difference. 
 
 [1239] There is a grand distinction, which 
 cannot be too carefully borne in mind when we 
 allow ourselves to dwell upon this comparison 
 — that, unlike Christianity, Buddhism does not 
 profess to be in any way a completion or de- 
 velopment of a previous form, but is wholly an- 
 tagonistic to it ; and what, if we were now com- 
 paring the respective claims of the two reli- 
 gions, would be of paramount importance, that, 
 in the case of the retreat of Buddhism, it is its 
 predecessor and old antagonist that has beaten 
 it out of the field. Whatever objection may be 
 urged against the Christian religion on the score 
 of its having retreated from ground which it 
 once occupied, the objection would take a much 
 more serious form if it could be shown that 
 Judaism had expelled Christianity from its 
 strongholds, and had itself re-occupied them. 
 And we cannot but think that as regards the re- 
 ligions of India, it is a strong point to be able 
 to object to the undeniable fact that Buddhism 
 has supplanted, and in turn been supplanted by, 
 Brahmanism. — Ibid. 
 
 [1240] We are well aware that the analogies 
 and resemblances we have been noticing will 
 be pressed into a very different service from that 
 
 in which we have been employing them ; and 
 that many will seek to represent the one true 
 religion as nothing more than an inevitable 
 development in the Western world of the very 
 same ideas which in the East exhibited them- 
 selves in a somewhat different form of progress. 
 And with regard to any such arguments to be 
 founded on the facts which we have been 
 noticing, it is sufficient to observe that it will 
 not bear being confronted with the contrast 
 exhibited by the antagonism of Buddhism to 
 Brahmanism, as set against the educational 
 character of Judaism, its preparation for, and 
 its prophetic anticipation of, Christianity. — Ibid, 
 
 104 
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 I. The Chief Elements of its Success. 
 
 1 It was essentially a morality for this 
 world. 
 
 [1241] In the earlier part of the sixth century, 
 before the Christian era, Confucius stood forth 
 as the exponent of Chinese doctrine. Little was 
 known of the history of Confucius, but the in- 
 terest they had in him consisted in the fact that 
 he offered to his age an exposition of the 
 Chinese religion which has been accepted by 
 future ages. He professed to answer the ques- 
 tion by what means a man was qualified to be- 
 come a citizen of that heavenly kingdom which 
 had been established in the Chinese Empire. 
 When they examined the nature of the morality 
 which Confucius claimed as the substitute for 
 theology, there was one thing which struck them 
 pre-eminently : it was essentially a morality for 
 this world. It was built upon the notion that 
 the existing framework of Chinese society was 
 destined to be a permanent thing. — Dr. Caird. 
 
 [1242] Confucianism, or Chinese secularism, 
 may serve as a link between Western and 
 Eastern systems. 
 
 2 It took an optimist view of life, 
 
 [i 243] The world in which Confucius lived was 
 not only a world of speculation, it was a scene 
 of pessimism — that was to say, of despair. As a 
 general rule, the men of his day believed that in 
 the present system of things everything was as 
 bad as it could be. The effect of such a creed 
 was manifest ; it could only result in the neglect 
 of the present hour ; it led to the same disregard 
 of practice which they had seen produced by 
 the tendency to speculation. Into this world of 
 pessimism the creed of Confucius fell with 
 crushing power. It proclaimed a doctrine com- 
 paratively new to Eastern minds. It told them 
 that the chief end of man was not merely or even 
 mainly to prepare for a future world — that the 
 immediate task allotted to him was the beauti- 
 fying and the glorifying of the life which now
 
 si8 
 
 [1243 — 1248 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED 'lO CHRISTIANITZ.\ 
 
 [fetishism. 
 
 is. It told them that the life which now is 
 admits of being beautified and glorified — that 
 the present system of things, so far from 
 being radically bad, contains in its root the 
 germs of all perfection and the sources of in- 
 finite development. And let it be remembered 
 that in proclaiming this doctrine China had 
 made a real contribution to the science of reli- 
 gious thought. Could it surprise them that in 
 proclaiming this creed of hope for the present 
 world the doctrine of Confucius should have 
 been acceptable to the world — should have been 
 welcomed even by the faiths of pessimism ? Men 
 who took a gloomy view of life would at any 
 time rather be found wrong than right in their 
 calculations. Their wish invariably pointed in 
 an opposite direction to their thought, and they 
 were ready to accept any system that promised 
 to reveal what they despairingly desired to see. 
 They arrived then at this conclusion. The doc- 
 trine of Confucius owed its success to the fact 
 that it had made a real contribution to the 
 science of natural religion. It gave to the faiths 
 of the East an element which was distinctive 
 and new. There was, however, one thought 
 which must forcibly impress the modern mind 
 looking back upon the creed of Confucius 
 through the vista of two millenniums ; it was 
 the fact that the Chinese Empire herself had 
 not realized her own vision of optimism. That 
 empire which professed to be the very source of 
 human development had been left far behind by 
 the stream of human civilization. — Dr. Caird. 
 
 105 
 
 FETISHISM. 
 
 I. Different Senses 
 Word is used. 
 
 IN WHICH THE 
 
 s A heathen superstition. 
 
 [1244] A fetish is a rude idol, a piece of wood 
 or stone, ignorantly regarded as a charm, or 
 endued with some magic power. 
 
 Many people, besides ignorant Africans, have 
 their fetishes or charms and rude idols. The 
 praying machine is a fetish, so are beads and 
 relics, so is the miser's gold, and so are some 
 terms of scientists', by which, as magic words — 
 law, evolution, and such like — often without 
 ideas, great questions are solved and much 
 comfort and reliance are vouchsafed. — B. G. 
 
 [1245] The idea conveyed by fetishism is the 
 very lowest form of barbarous superstition and 
 belief in the preternatural ; a notion of weird 
 influence attaching to natural objects as the 
 means of propitating witchcraft and demoniacal 
 malice. Thus fetishism at times seems to raise 
 itself to something like belief in the unity of the 
 Deity and the responsibility of man ; but in 
 every other respect its history is a dismal picture 
 of the deep degradation into which unaided 
 human nature is sure to fall. — Rev. J. H. Blunt 
 
 2 A modern theory built upon this heathen 
 superstition. 
 
 [1246] Fetishism is a term employed to re- 
 present a modern theory, that monotheism was 
 not man's original religious idea, nor yet poly- 
 theism. But instead of this, that the idea of 
 God was one which grew out of some material 
 object, a stone, relic, or the like, which for 
 some special reason or other became surrounded 
 with interest, sentimental regard, or superstitious 
 awe. According to this theory the idol (or 
 fetish) is the explanation of the idea of God, 
 and not the idea of God the explanation of 
 the idol. The order of things is reversed. The 
 material leads to the spiritual, and the religious 
 idea is the development of gross idolatry and the 
 lowest superstition. Forsooth, fetishism is the 
 basis of religion ! — C. N, 
 
 II. Corrective Considerations. 
 
 1 It is impossible for any religion to be en- 
 tirely free from fetish worship, 
 
 [1247] The word "fetish'' has assumed with 
 us an ugly sound, but we have only to replace 
 the word by " symbol " or " emblem," which in 
 many cases, though not in all, differs very little 
 from what De Brosses and his followers call a 
 fetish, and there will be much less reluctance to 
 admit a fact which a careful study of religion 
 teaches, viz., that it is almost impossible for any 
 religion to be entirely free from fetish worship. 
 Every outward sign, every instrument connected 
 with Divine worship is apt to become a fetish 
 as soon as its original import is forgotten. If 
 an altar, as such, or a sacrificial vessel, if relics 
 of saints, if a stone or a plant, a picture, a ban- 
 ner, or a book is treated with more than usual 
 respect, it may be called by the outside world a 
 fetish. Again, if people carry a rare coin in their 
 purse as a hatch-penny {Heckepfeimig), if young 
 ladies value a piece of four-leaved clover because 
 it is rare and brings luck, if we suspend a branch 
 of mistletoe in our rooms at Christmas, all this, 
 in the eyes of a negro, would be worship of 
 grugrus or fetishes.- — F. Alax Milller. 
 
 2 Antiquarian researches for traces of fetish 
 worship often misleading through want of 
 discrimination. 
 
 [1248] What do we gain by mixing up objects 
 so heterogeneous in their origin, under the 
 common name of fetishes ? De Brosses speaks 
 already of fetishes, not only in Africa, but 
 among the Red Indians, the Polynesians, the 
 northern tribes of Asia ; and after his time 
 hardly a single corner of the world has been 
 visited without traces of fetish worship being 
 discovered. I am the last man to deny this 
 spirit, which sees similarities everywhere. But 
 we must not forget that comparison in order to 
 be fruitful must be joined with distinction, 
 otherwise we fall into that dangerous habit of 
 seeing cromlechs wherever there are some up- 
 right stones and another laid across, or a dolmen 
 wherever we meet a stone with a hole in it. — Ibid.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1249— 1256] 
 
 219 
 
 [JUDAISM, MODERN. 
 
 S Antiquarian research, conducted upon 
 sound and scientific principles, shows 
 that the antecedents of fetish worship are 
 seldom the same, even though its forms 
 are similar. 
 
 [1249] We have heard a great deal lately in 
 Germany, and in England alsO, of tree-worship 
 and serpent-worship. Nothing can be more 
 useful than a wide collection of analogous facts, 
 but their true scientific interest begins only 
 when we can render to ourselves an account of 
 how, beneath their apparent similarity, there 
 exists the greatest diversity of origin. If there 
 is fetish-worship everywhere, the fact is curious; 
 but it gains a really scientific value only if we 
 can account for the fact. How a fetish became 
 a fetish, that is the problem which has to be 
 solved ; and as soon as we attack fetishism in 
 that spirit we shall find that, though being appa- 
 rently the same everywhere, its antecedents are 
 seldom the same anywhere. — Ibid. 
 
 [1250] Let us consider only a few of the more 
 common forms of what has been called fetish- 
 ism, and we shall soon see from what different 
 heights and depths its sources spring. If the 
 bones, or the ashes, or the hair of a departed 
 friend are cherished as relics, if they are kept in 
 sacred places, if they are now and then looked 
 at, or even spoken of, by true mourners in their 
 loneliness, all this may be called fetish-worship. 
 Again, if a sword once used by a valiant 
 warrior, if a banner which had led their fathers 
 to victory, is greated with respect or enthusiasm 
 by soldiers, all this may be called fetish-worship. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 [1251] If these banners and swords are blessed 
 by priests, or if the spirits of those who had 
 carried them in former years are invoked, as if 
 they were still present, all this may be put down 
 as fetishism. If we are satisfied with calling all 
 this and much more simply fetishism, we shall 
 soon be told that the stone on which all the 
 kings of England have been crowned is an old 
 fetish, and that in the coronation of Queen 
 Victoria we ought to recognize a survival of 
 Anglo-Saxon fetishism. — Ibid. 
 
 III. Its Refutation. 
 
 I The fetish theory lacks an historical no less 
 than a logical and psychological basis. 
 
 [1252] Though our knowledge of the religion 
 of the negro is still very imperfect, yet I beueve 
 I may say that, wherever there has been an 
 opportunity of ascertaining the religious senti- 
 ments even of the lowest savage tribes, no tribe 
 has ever been found without something beyond 
 mere worship of so-called fetishes. I do not 
 mean to dispute away the fact that a worship of 
 material objects is widely spread among African 
 tribes, far more widely than anywhere else. 
 What I maintain is, that fetishism was a cor- 
 ruption of religion, that the negro is capable of 
 higher religious ideas than the worship of stocks 
 and stones, and that the same people who be- 
 
 lieved in fetishes cherished at the same time 
 very pure, very exalted, very true sentiments of 
 Deity.— /i^/(/. 
 
 [1253] Is there the slightest evidence to show 
 that there ever was a time when these negroes 
 were fetish-worshippers only, and nothing else ? 
 Does not all our evidence point rather in the 
 opposite direction, viz., that fetishism was a 
 parasitical development, intelligible with certain 
 antecedents, but never as an original impulse of 
 the human heart ? Fetishism, far from being, 
 as we are told by almost every writer on the 
 history of religions, a primitive form of faith, is, 
 on the contrary, so far as facts enable us to 
 judge, a secondary or tertiary formation, nay, a 
 decided corruption of an earlier snd simpler 
 religion. If we want to find the true springs of 
 religious ideas we must mount higher. Stocks 
 and stone were not the first to reveal the Infinite 
 before the wondering eyes of \\\t.n.-^Ibid. 
 
 [i 254] After carefully going through the whole 
 of the evidence placed before us by the up- 
 holders of the fetish theory, we have arrived at 
 the following two conclusions : First, that there 
 are few, if any, well-authenticated .cases of 
 savage tribes whose religion consists of fetish- 
 worship and of fetish-worship only. Secondly, 
 that there is hardly any religion, however 
 exalted in its original character, which has kept 
 itself entirely free from the particular growth of 
 fetish worship. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. Its Counter Theory. 
 
 [1255] My position, then, is simply this : It 
 seems to me that those who believe in a primor- 
 dial fetishism take that for granted which has 
 to be proved, viz., that e\ery human being was 
 miraculously endowed with the concept of what 
 forms the predicate of every fetish, call it power, 
 spirit, or god. They have never proved, either 
 as a fact or as a theory, that casual objects, 
 such as stones, shells, the tail of a lion, a tangle 
 of hair, or any such rubbish, possess in them- 
 selves a theogonic or god-producing character. 
 They have never proved that there exists at 
 present, or that there existed at any time, a 
 religion entirely consisting of fetishism ; and 
 they have often depended on evidence which 
 no scholar, no historian would feel justified to 
 accept. We are therefore, I think, bound to 
 look elsewhere if we wish to discover what were 
 the sensuous impressions that first filled the 
 human mind with a suspicion of the super- 
 sensuous, the infinite, and the divine. — Ibid. 
 
 106 
 
 JUDAISM, MODERN. 
 I. Its Leading Feature. 
 
 Declension from its ancient faith through 
 Talmudic and Rabbinical influences. 
 
 [1256] It were an invidious task to show that
 
 220 
 
 12^6 — I26l"l 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [JUDAISM, MODERN. 
 
 the ancient pure faith of the Jews, which the 
 Saviour Himself pronounced to be a standard 
 of moral guilelessness, has, as a general thing, 
 sunk in these days into many superstitious and 
 gross errors, being brought slavishly under the 
 influence of the traditional law, or of the Talmud 
 and other Rabbinical scriptures, which exercise 
 a minute and rigid despotism over every act, 
 destructive of free will, and tend to make the 
 Jew still more of a bigoted Jew in his intoler- 
 ance and isolation. 
 
 The Talmud has, in the opinion of the most 
 eminent Hebraists, by its assumptions and in- 
 terpretations, gone far to destroy the spirituality 
 of the law of INIoses, and to introduce the most 
 puerile and even vicious beliefs and customs — 
 such as prayers offered to saints and relics, the 
 doctrine of purgatory, the allowance of usuiy, 
 the forbidding of agriculture, the repressal of 
 all sympathy with other faiths and nations, and 
 the inculcation of a Jesuitical dealing with 
 others than Jews, that have greatly corrupted 
 the morality of the Jews. Not only has the 
 veil been upon the heart of congregations where 
 Moses is read, but it is to be feared that Moses 
 is not much read at all ; and if he is, it is in 
 the synagogues in the Hebrew tongue, which 
 language is a dead language now to multitudes 
 of the younger Jews in England and America, 
 who, if they are taught to read Hebrew, are 
 taught to read and pronounce merely the 
 character without understanding its meaning. — 
 TJie New E7iglancier. 
 
 II. Its Latest Phases. 
 
 1 Signs of life and activity among some 
 members of its modern school. 
 
 [1257] There seems to be among the orthodox 
 party (and this we conceive to be a hopeful 
 sign) a strong desire for a more regular and 
 efficient religious life, and a more distinct union 
 of organization among themselves, which last 
 idea has already been extensively carried out 
 as far as their charitable institutions and efforts 
 are concerned, but the attempt at union has 
 hitherto failed. Of late there has been con- 
 siderable activity in the Jewish bodies to secure 
 for themselves religious immunities. A society 
 is also active in the publication of works con- 
 nected with Hebrew literature and religion, and 
 has, we believe, under its fostering care Mai- 
 monides College, which was opened in Phila- 
 delphia, 1867, and also the Hebrew free schools 
 in the larger cities. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Rationalistic tendencies of its so-called 
 " Reformed School." 
 
 [125S] The " Reformed School," which is one 
 of the latest phases of Judaism, is, in fact, a 
 modified form of rationalism, and is in strong 
 hostility to the orthodox party. It sets forth a 
 philosophical system of religion, recognizing, 
 indeed, the existence, unity, and government 
 of God, h-jt having few religious rites, and ex- 
 plaining the old forms of Hebi'ew faith in a 
 rationalistic manner. — Ibid. 
 
 [1259] In iS4oan association was formed at 
 Frankfort, whose object was the abjuration of 
 Talmudism. The three propositions that it 
 adopted were : (i) That unlimited religious 
 development is not inconsistent with the law of 
 Moses ; (2) That the compilation called the 
 Talmud has no authority over the associated, 
 either in a doctrinal or a social point of view ; 
 (3) A Messiah who is to lead back the Israelites 
 to Palestine is neither expected nor desired by 
 the associated, and they acknowledge that alone 
 to be their country to which they belong by 
 birth or civil relation. The movement was 
 short-lived, but the avowal of these principles 
 has had a permanent effect, and they are held 
 by an increasing number of Jews at the present 
 day. Thus in the summer of 1869 a meeting oi 
 Jews was held at Leipsic, at which eighty-four 
 members of different Jewish congregations, in- 
 cluding twenty-five rabbis, attended. The great 
 object proposed was to get rid of the peculiarities 
 of Judaism.— 7?^t/. J. H. Blunt, M.A. 
 
 III. Its Evidential Aspects. 
 
 1 The permanence of type in the Jewish 
 character throws light on the Mosaic 
 record. 
 
 [1260] The race is ever the same ; what signs 
 and miracle did not our God show them in the 
 wilderness, but they continued still in unbelief. 
 And now neither the marvellous appearing of 
 Christ, nor His words of authority, nor His 
 miracles wrought before all the people, could 
 persuade them to believe in Him. Their pre- 
 sent unbelief is in strict accordance with all 
 that their own books tell of their want of faith 
 in the past. Which miracles, think you, are the 
 greater, those wrought in Egypt and in the 
 desert, or those of Christ ? If you give the pre- 
 ference to the former, must it not be easy to 
 comprehend that the people who resisted the 
 greater miracles should also resist the less .'' If 
 you place both on the same level, is it astonish- 
 ing if the same people should show themselves 
 equally incredulous in view of the miracles 
 which are at the basis of both covenants.'' In 
 rejecting Jesus Christ you bear witness against 
 yourselves that you are the worthy sons of 
 those who in the wilderness withstood the 
 clearest manifestations of the Divine power. — 
 Origen. 
 
 2 The preservation of the Jews is a striking 
 evidence to the truth of Christianity. 
 
 Tlie Jews are tJie standing tiniversal miracle 
 of Providence . 
 
 [1261] I. They have been in every age and in 
 every country impartial and unwilling witnesses 
 to the truth of Christianity. 
 
 2. They are a race that retains, and in which, 
 as mediums, originated the prophecies which 
 Christianity fulfils, and by which it is vindicated. 
 
 3. They are a race which, while preserving 
 the original documentary standards of its own 
 professed religion, proves, by its glosses on, 
 departures from, or additions to, its Divine
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1261—1265] 
 
 221 
 
 [MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 written standards, that it did not invent those 
 standards. 
 
 4. And, finally, by its " traditions " and meta- 
 physical cabalistic doctrines, shows the neces- 
 sity of adhering solely to the written standards 
 of which the Hebrew Bible — carried down by 
 the Jews — is the introductory, historical, and 
 prophetical portion, and of which the New 
 Testament is the corollary and completion. — 
 B. G. 
 
 107 
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 I. Explanation of Terms. 
 
 [1262] Islamism is an older name than 
 Mohammedanism. " Islam" signifies primarily 
 entire devotion to another's will, especially that 
 of God, and thereby the attainment of peace. 
 Its relation to the Hebrew word "saleni" is 
 evident. It stands in a secondary sense for all 
 the tenets, doctrinal and practical, belonging 
 to the Mohammedan religion. From it are 
 derived the terms "Moslem" and "Mussulman.'' 
 — Bibliotheca Sacra. 
 
 II. Its History. 
 
 I Its marvellous origin and spread. 
 
 [1263] Glance for one moment at its marvellous 
 history. Think how one great truth working 
 in the brain of a shepherd of Mecca gradually 
 produced conviction in a select band of personal 
 adherents ; how, when the Prophet was exiled 
 to Medina, the faith gathered there fresh 
 strength, brought him back in triumph to his 
 native place, and secured to him for his lifetime 
 the submission of all Arabia ; how, when the 
 master mind was withdrawn, the whole structure 
 he had reared seemed, for the moment, to vanish 
 away like the baseless fabric of a vision, or like 
 the mirage of the desert whence it had taken 
 its rise ; how the faith of Abu Bakr and the 
 sword of Omar recalled it once more to life, and 
 crushed the false prophets that always follow in 
 the wake of the true one, as the jackals do the 
 trail of a lion ; how it crumpled up the Roman 
 empire on the one side, and the Persian on the 
 other, driving Christianity before it on the west 
 and north, and fire worship on the east and 
 south ; how it spread over two continents, and 
 how it settled in a third, and how the tide of 
 invasion carrying it headlong onward through 
 Spain into France, it at one time almost over- 
 whelmed the whole, till Charles the Hammer 
 turned it back upon itself in his five days' 
 victory at Tours ; how throughout these vast 
 conquests, after a short time, to intolerance 
 succeeded toleration, to ignorance knowledge, 
 to barbarism civilization ; how the indivisible 
 empire, the representative on earth of the 
 theocracy in heaven, became many empires 
 with rival Khalifs at Damascus and Bagdad, at 
 Cairo, Cairoan, and Cordova ; how horde after 
 horde of barbarians of the great Turkish or 
 
 Tartar stock were precipitated on the dominions 
 of the faithful, only to be conquered by the faith 
 of those whose arms they overthrew, and were 
 compelled henceforward by its inherent force 
 to destroy what they had worshipped, to worship 
 what they had destroyed ; how, when the news 
 came that the very birthplace of the Christian 
 faith had fallen into their hands, "a nerve was 
 touched," as Gibbon says, " of exquisite feeling, 
 and the sensation vibrated to the heart of 
 Europe." 
 
 2 Explanation of the fact of Mohammed's 
 want of success at Mecca. 
 
 [1264] The monotheistic idea was not new to 
 the Meccans, but it was distasteful, and par- 
 ticularly so to the Kureish, whose position as 
 one of the first among Arab tribes, and whose 
 worldly prosperity arose from the fact that they 
 were the hereditary guardians of the national 
 collection of idols kept in the sanctuary at 
 Mecca. Mohammed's message, therefore, 
 sounded like a revolutionary watchword, a 
 radical party cry, which the conservative Mec- 
 cans could not afford to despise, and which 
 they combated very energetically. The Prophet, 
 therefore, in the first place, met with but little 
 success. Khadijah accepted her husband's 
 mission without hesitation, so did her cousin 
 Waraka ; and Zeid, " the Inquirer," a man who 
 had spent his life in seeking for the truth, and 
 in fighting against this same idolatry that was 
 so repugnant to Mohammed's ideas, at first gave 
 in his adherence to the new doctrine. For three 
 years, however, only fourteen converts were 
 added to the Jvloslem Church. 
 
 [1265] 
 3 Leading dates in regard to. 
 
 569.] Birth of Mohammed at Mecca, one 
 
 or [of the tribe of the Koreishites. Mar- 
 
 571. ) ried a rich widow for whom he traded. 
 
 A traveller in Syra, &c. 
 611. The crisis of his life. 
 622. Began to preach at Mecca. 
 632. Expired. 
 
 636. Jerusalem taken. 
 638. Antioch taken. 
 641. Alexandria taken. 
 669.1 Constantinople twice besieged by the 
 716. J Saracens. 
 637-651. Persian Empire ceased to exist. 
 
 665-709. North Africa was subdued. 
 
 711. Arabs or Moors overthrew in a single 
 battle the kingdom of the Goths and, 
 surmounting the Pyrenees, planted 
 themselves in Aquitaine, and threat- 
 ened to make all France, and with 
 France all Western Europe, their own. 
 
 732. Charles Martel at the Battle of Poit iers 
 (or Tours) encountered the armies of 
 Islam with the assembled chivalry of 
 the West, and inflicted so crushing a
 
 222 
 
 1265—1270] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 defeat that for long centuries all their 
 aggressive pressure upon the western 
 kingdom was arrested ; and, indeed, 
 has never again received its full 
 strength. 
 See Abp. T^-ench^ Chapter on Islam, in Lec- 
 tures on Mediisval Clmrch History. 
 
 4 The origin of the Koran and method of 
 compilation. 
 
 [1266] Dictated from time to time by Mo- 
 hammed to his disciples, it was by them partly 
 treasured in their memories, partly written 
 down on shoulder-bones of mutton, on bits of 
 wood or tablets of stone, which, being thrown 
 pell-mell into boxes, and jumbled up together 
 like the leaves of the Cumsan Sibyl after a 
 gust of wind, were not put into any shape till 
 after the Prophet's death, by order of Abu Bakr. 
 The work of the editor consisted simply in 
 arranging the Suras in the order of their re- 
 spective length — the longest first, the shortest 
 last ; and though the book once afterwards 
 passed through the editors hands, this is sub- 
 stantially the shape in which the Koran has 
 come down to us. Various readings which 
 would seem, however, to have been of very 
 slight importance, having crept into the different 
 copies, a revising committee was appointed by 
 order of the Khalif Othman, and an authorized 
 edition having been thus prepared, " to prevent 
 the texts differing, like those of the Jews and 
 Christians," all previous copies were collected 
 and burnt. — R. B. Smith. 
 
 Ill, The Character of its Founder. 
 
 I Does he deserve the opprobrious title of 
 impostor? 
 
 [1267] Up to the age of forty, Mohammed's 
 career was an uneventful one ; but then oc- 
 curred the crisis of his life. He had always 
 been subjected to fits of an epileptic nature, and 
 in one of these he believed that he had a direct 
 call from heaven, through the angel Gabriel in 
 person, to become a prophet of the Lord, and 
 to preach His unity and the sinfulness of 
 idolatry. The story has been so often told that 
 we need not repeat it here ; suffice it to say 
 that he was, in all probability, at first convinced 
 of the reality of his vision, and that it was a 
 genuine enthusiasm which led him, as he shortly 
 after did, to denounce "those who gave com- 
 panions to God," and to declare that "there 
 was no God but the God, and that IMohammed 
 v/as the Prophet of God." 
 
 [126S] If by " impostor" we understand, and 
 we can scarcely understand less, one who devised 
 a cunningly constructed system of fraud and 
 falsehood, which then, with the full conscious- 
 ness that it was such, he sought to impose upon 
 others, impostor Mohammed was not. Deceiver 
 I believe that he often was, but only where, 
 not of course without his own sin, he was him- 
 self first deceived. On any scheme of simple 
 and self-conscious imposture it is altogether 
 
 impossible to explain the results of his preaching, ^j 
 which has changed the face of so large a part ^' 
 of the world, given birth to a religion which for 
 many centuries contended as on equal terms 
 with'the Christian ; and which, if waning now M 
 like the moon that is its symbol, yet still subsists 9 
 a mighty power and passion, filling the hearts 
 and moulding the lives of millions of our 
 fellow-men. " Lies," as our proverb declares, 
 " have no legs ; " at all events, lies that are 
 nothing else but lies have not legs which will 
 carry them through some twelve hundred years 
 and more. Instead of dismissing without more 
 ado this religion as a lie, and its founder as an 
 impostor, it will profit us more to ask ourselves 
 what were the sources of its strength, to divide, 
 as far as this may be, the light from the dark- 
 ness in the man and in the faith, and to do 
 such justice to both as they have a right to 
 demand. 
 
 IV. Its Civil and Religious Character. 
 
 1 The civil morality of Islamism is of a 
 low character. 
 
 [1269] The civil morality of Islamism, drawn 
 from the religious, is of a low character. The law 
 of revenge, or the talio, is directly enforced from 
 the Koran. Polygamy, connected with pliant 
 divorce and slave concubinage, opens the door 
 to sensuality, only limited by the wealth and 
 power of the individual. It is true that earth 
 and heaven, according to Islamism, are made 
 for man, and woman has at best an uncertain, 
 and always a degraded place in either. The 
 names of the crimes themselves, under the 
 Mohammedan civil law, exhibit the mournful 
 condition of the public morals, and in the ad- 
 ministration of justice the grossest bribery 
 universally prevails. — Bibliotheca Sao'a. 
 
 2 Its worship is intensely formal and devoid 
 of spiritual power. 
 
 (i) The Mohammedan rises from his pray eiS 
 to return to his own life of mere sense. 
 
 [1270] The Mohammedan prayer is some- 
 thing more than picturesque : it is impressive 
 to behold the Mohammedan at his devotions, 
 his simple prostration before God, in the field 
 or in town, whenever the Muezzin calls from 
 his minaret, or whenever the sun comes forth, 
 touches the meridian, and sinks beneath the 
 horizon, without regard to place, occupation, or 
 company. But what are his prayers? Are they 
 a spiritual communion with God .'' are they 
 confessions of sin .' are they the breathings of 
 penitence? are they the pleadings for pardon? 
 are they purifyings of the heart, or even ex- 
 pressions of holy, devotional desire ? This can 
 hardly be claimed. The brief Mohammedan 
 creed, repeated and repeated, with a few vari- 
 ations in general ascriptions of praise, consti- 
 tute the prayer itself, while physical prostrations 
 and attitudes make up the rest. It is, in fact, 
 chiefly a bodily exercise, and allies itself, with 
 certainly a high degree of outward dignity and 
 propriety, to all physical methods of worship,
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1270 — 1276'] 
 
 223 
 
 [MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 of which we see an instance among ourselves, 
 in the Shaker communities. — Biblioiheca Sacra. 
 
 (2) 77^1? Mohamjiiedan rushes back from his 
 religions fast to his old vices. 
 
 [1271] The INIohammedan generally observes 
 his fast with rigour, even the solitary Bedouin 
 on the desert, according to the exact Burck- 
 hardt, confining himself to half a pound of 
 black bread in the twenty-four hours ; but the 
 manner in which all, from the sultan on the 
 throne to the poorest "fellah" at the water- 
 wheel, rush back again to their old vices, at 
 the moment the cannon booms to announce the 
 close of the fast, shows how little of a spiritual 
 or chastening character it has, and how purely 
 it is a matter of Stoic endurance. — Ibid. 
 
 3 The Mohammedan pilgrimage to Mecca 
 is simply a disreputable affair. 
 
 [1272] The pilgrimage to Mecca, if it ever 
 had a religious character, has long since become 
 a sad business of mingled money-making, 
 vagabondism, and immorality ; a " hadji," or 
 pilgrim, being almost synonymous with a worth- 
 less fellow. No longer does the magnificence 
 of mighty caravans issuing from the arched 
 gateways of Bagdad and Damascus, lend 
 solemnity and pomp to these pilgrimages, and 
 cover up their inutility, puerile superstition, and 
 vices. — Ibid. 
 
 V. Its Various Aspects. 
 
 1 Mohammedanism considered as a polity. 
 
 (i) It is more available for the protectioii of 
 the individual than is generally supposed. 
 
 [1273] Considered as a polity, Mohammedan- 
 ism is more available for the protection of 
 the individual than is generally supposed. 
 Turkey has had many violent and arbitrary 
 princes, who would tolerate no claim of limi- 
 tation to their power ; but in theory, and at 
 present in practice, the sultan is by no means 
 absolute. Although, therefore, he is regarded 
 with great reverence and devotion, and his 
 firmans are usually obeyed without question as 
 to their binding authority, yet the loyalty of the 
 Turk is not of so personally degrading a cha- 
 racter as the abject, crawling submission with 
 which the Muscovite receives the ukase of the 
 Czar, nor does the Moslem, like the Russian, 
 elevate his sovereign to the rank of God's re- 
 presentative and vicegerent upon earth. In 
 many cases of a civil and political character, 
 the formal assent of the highest ecclesiastical 
 auti.^rity, which is at once the supreme judiciary 
 and the head of the church, is required, and 
 the arbitrary will of a sultan has more than once 
 found a firm resistance on the part of the 
 doctors of civil and religious \d.\v. —Christian 
 Exanmier. 
 
 2 Mohammedanism viewed as a religious 
 movement. 
 
 (i) The bastard brother noiu of the Jewish^ 
 but chiefly of the Christian faith. 
 [1274J Although the Koran furnishes abun- 
 
 dant evidence that its author was at least par- 
 tially acquainted with the history and the 
 principles of the Christian religion, yet we can 
 by no means agree with those who think that 
 Islamism is founded on the New Testament, 
 and who in fact regard it as a species of Chris- 
 tianity minus Christ. It is far more nearly 
 allied to Judaism, or perhaps we should rather 
 say to that earlier and more widely diffused form 
 of theism, which existed among the Semitic 
 tribes before the Hebrew period, and may be 
 considered as having been incorporated into the 
 Jewish dispensation. The primeval religion of 
 Arabia has left no record but the books of 
 Genesis and Job, and the other scriptural notices 
 of patriarchal life, and we know little of its 
 ethical character, except as its moral precepts 
 were recognized and embodied in the Mosaic 
 law. Between those precepts and those of the 
 Koran the accordance is so close, that Judaism 
 and Islamism may be considered ethically 
 identical, and the most important differences 
 between the two religions are purely ritual. — 
 Christian Examiner. 
 
 [1275] But Mohammedanism is not merely 
 this falling back from the blessed truths of the 
 gospel ; it is a still further retrocession in the 
 spiritual history of mankind. It falls short not 
 only of Christian, but even of Jewish truth. It 
 is a Judaism not provisional ; not looking on to 
 some better thing which it announces and pre- 
 pares for ; not pregnant with a nobler birth ; but 
 a Judaism stripped of its prophecy and its pro- 
 mise, reduced to a religion of nature, without a 
 priesthood, without a sacrifice even, as it is 
 without any deep consciousness of sin, without 
 a Messiah. 
 
 3 Viewed in regard to human progress. 
 
 (i) A mere episode. 
 
 [1276] I could occupy much time by pic- 
 tures of the temporary reformation, the ele- 
 vation of manners and morals of which Islam 
 was the parent. I will just rend one little tale 
 as a sample of multitudes, that you may see how 
 really and powerfully such merciful and ele- 
 vating precepts as there are in the Koran 
 wrought in its disciples of the nobler type. It 
 is related of Hasan, son of Ali, that a slave, 
 having once thrown a dish on him, as he sat at 
 table, boiling hot, and fearing his master's re- 
 sentment, fell immediately on his knees, and 
 repeated these words : " Paradise is for those 
 who bridle their resentment." Hasan answered, 
 " I am not angry." The slave proceeded, "And 
 for those who forgive men." " I forgive you," 
 said Hasan. The slave, however, finished the 
 verse, "for God loveth the beneficent.'' " Since 
 it is so," said Hasan, " I give you your liberty, 
 and four hundred pieces of silver" (Sale's 
 " Koran," p. 51, note). These hints will reveal a 
 spring of moral power of no mean virtue in 
 such a world as that into which Islam was born. 
 It reformed for a time, it renewed and restored 
 Oriental society. For a time, strictly for a time. 
 And I have not used the word regeneration.
 
 224 
 
 12/6- 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 -1280I 
 
 [MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 There is nothing in Islam which can reach 
 humanity so deeply as to regenerate it. It has 
 no regenerating power. It can stir, kindle, 
 animate, but it cannot renew. There is nothing 
 in Islam which can permanently nourish the 
 higher life of men. It can inspire them with a 
 frenzy of enthusiasm, it can send them forth to 
 carry sword and flame through the world ; but 
 it cannot nourish, enlarge, and edify social and 
 political life. Its activity is essentially fitful and 
 spasmodic, and the history of Islam, wide as 
 have been its triumphs, large as is its empire, 
 comprising, perhaps, one-fifth of the human 
 race, is, after all, but an episode of the history 
 of human progress, the largest and the longest, 
 but an episode— a movement out of the line of 
 the vital progress — still. — Baldwin Brown. 
 
 4 
 
 from 
 
 Mohammedanism viewed 
 sionary point of view. 
 
 [1277] The power of the Mohammedan rule 
 is rapidly declining, but the pernicious influence 
 of the religion still remains in full force. The 
 faith which prevailed from the walls of China to 
 the Pillars of Hercules, and stretched southward 
 to the (unknown) sources of the Nile, is scarcely 
 impaired, though symptoms of decay are visible. 
 The martial devotion which hurried on its 
 warriors to the most astonishing exploits in 
 history, and influenced religion by the daring 
 spirit of conquest, has passed away. Of all 
 Mohammedan nations the hardy Turks have 
 most obstinately clung to the debasing prin- 
 ciples of their faith. They, too, have maintained 
 their political supremacy longer than the rest. 
 The Saracen has long since been forgotten. 
 The Great Mogul has become a fable. The 
 sons of Tamerlane in China have even for- 
 sworn the creed of their forefathers. But 
 Turkey has held fast her traditions in defiance 
 of Christendom, She has now drunk deep of 
 the waters of bitterness, and has become a prey 
 and a byword. The power of the Turks once 
 terrified Europe ; their weakness now alarms its 
 jealousy. The wide regions over which Moham- 
 med held his iron sway have long lain dark and 
 desolate. It remains for the efforts of men 
 filled with the spirit of missionary enterprise to 
 proclaim the dawn of a brighter empire, and 
 the opening of higher sources of civilization in 
 the introduction of a purer faith. — Christian 
 Observer. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Causes of the Success of Moham- 
 medanism. 
 
 1 On the side of the conquerors. 
 
 (i) 77/1? Moslem hosts went forth in the con- 
 fidence of a 7nission from heaven. 
 
 [1278] The ^Moslem hosts went forth in the con- 
 fidence of a mission from heaven. Not Kaled only, 
 but every Moslem warrior felt himself indeed to 
 be " the sword of God." Comparing what they 
 now were with what they had been in those 
 " times of their ignorance," when they wor- 
 shipped dead idols, they felt that they had been 
 
 brought into a new spiritual world, now at 
 length had learned what was the true glory 
 and dignity of man, namely, to be the servant 
 of the one God, Maker and Ruler of all ; that 
 such servants they were ; whose office it was 
 to proclaim His power ; themselves submitting, 
 and compelling others to submit, to His will. 
 What a truth was here, to have taken possession 
 of a multitude of souls ! No wonder that, in the 
 strength of this, innumerable tribes, which had 
 hitherto done little but mutually bite and devour 
 one another, were presently knit together into a 
 nation, and the worshippers of a thousand dis- 
 cordant falsehoods into a society which bore 
 some sort of similitude to a Church. — Abp. 
 Trench. 
 
 2 On the side of the conquered. 
 
 (2) MoJiammedanism was the scourge of Cod 
 tip on a guilty Church. 
 
 [1279] And then, if you would look further for 
 an explanation, turn to the conquered. '■' Where 
 the carcase is, there shall the eagles be gathered 
 together." This is the law of God's dealings 
 with men, with nations, and with Churches. 
 Where they are abandoned by the spirit of life, 
 and have thus become as a carcase, there the 
 eagles, the executors of the Divine vengeance, 
 are at hand, presently to remove out of the way 
 that which, suftered any longer, could only 
 taint the air and defile the earth. The Eastern 
 Church was not altogether such a carcase, and 
 therefore it did not wholly perish ; but yet we 
 must needs confess that it had grievously pro- 
 voked those terrible judgments which now fell 
 upon it. How rent was it and torn by inner 
 dissensions which men would not lay aside even 
 in the presence of a common foe, hating one 
 another so much that the triumph of that foe 
 seemed infinitely preferable to the triumph of a 
 rival Christian sect ; what mere strifes about 
 words had taken the place of a zeal for holiness, 
 and how fiercely were these debated ; how much 
 of superstition was there everywhere ; how much 
 which, if it was not idolatry, yet played most 
 dangerously on the verge of this. We can 
 regard Mohammedanism in no other light than 
 as the scourge of God upon a guilty Church. 
 He will not give His glory to another. He will 
 not suffer the Creator and the creature to be 
 confounded ; and if those who should have been 
 witnesses for the truth, who had been appointed 
 thereunto, forget, forsake, or deny it. He will 
 raise up witnesses from quarters the most un- 
 locked for, and will strengthen their hands and 
 give victory to their arms, even against those 
 who bear His name, but have forgotten His 
 XxViCti.—Ibid. 
 
 (3) // had a inissioti to perform, in God^s 
 providence, to the fetish-worshipping tribes of 
 Africa. 
 
 [1280] We shall best, I believe, understand 
 God's purposes here when we regard this reli- 
 gion in its relations, not to the religions which 
 stand above it, but to those idolatrous worships
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 1280 — 1286] 
 
 225 
 
 [MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 which stand beneath it. Thus while Christi- 
 anity has failed to attract the negro races with 
 which it has been brought into immediate con- 
 tact, many of the fetish-worshipping tribes of 
 Africa, long sunken in abject and brutal super- 
 stitions, have been raised, as it is impossible to 
 deny, by the moral impulses which Islam has 
 supplied, by a religion which was not too far 
 above them, to the worship of one God, to a cer- 
 tain measure of order and morality, which, so 
 far as we can see, without it they might never 
 have attained. Such a process is even now 
 going forward, as all the reports which reach 
 us from the interior of that land of darkness 
 declare. There are indeed few more curious 
 spiritual facts than the present spread of Mo- 
 hammedanism in Africa ; a movement which has 
 failed hitherto at all to attract the attention 
 which it deserves. — Ibid. 
 
 VII. Christianity and Mohammedanism 
 
 CONTRASTED. 
 
 I As to the causes which led to their 
 rapid spread. 
 
 (i) Islamisni was propagated by the stuord, 
 Christianity against the sword. 
 
 [1281] Writers constantly recur to the rapid 
 propagation of the religion of Mohammed as the 
 first step in the parallel between that and Chris- 
 tianity, and no more to be accounted for from 
 human causes than the diffusion of the latter in 
 the first ages. The propagation of Moham- 
 medanism was by the sword. 
 
 We deny the parallel. The propagation of a 
 religion by the sword can never be paralleled 
 with the propagation of a religion against the 
 sword. — Methodist Magazine. 
 
 [1282] I admit that the progress of Moham- 
 medanism was very rapid and very wide — whole 
 provinces bowed with submission to the false 
 prophet of the East soon after his death — but 
 consider the means by which that conquest was 
 effected. It was a military triumph, and not a 
 religious and moral one ; it was the triumph of 
 brute force and animal endurance, and not a 
 triumph of holiness and truth ; it was a triumph 
 of ambition, grasping and ferocious, and not 
 a triumph of meekness and gentleness, and 
 patience and long-suffering, and of every Chris- 
 tian grace ; and, therefore, it cannot be com- 
 pared with the triumph of the gospel. — B. 
 Harris Cowper. 
 
 (2) Islamism fell in with, while Chris- 
 tianity resisted, the current of hianafi comiption, 
 
 [1283] The great consideration which de- 
 stroys the parallel is, that Mohammedanism is 
 an instance of a religion making its way by fol- 
 lowing, or rather by giving a new impulse to, 
 the current of human corruption and fleshly ap- 
 petite ; Christianity by sternly reproving and 
 bearing up against both. Progress, indeed, is 
 made in each case ; but here the parallel ter- 
 minates ; for, to institute a parallel between the 
 same manner as we account for the progress of 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
 Christianity, it was not even so successful as 
 many of the elder forms of pagan error, which 
 might, therefore, as plausibly father themselves 
 upon the " special providence of God." — 
 Methodist Magazine. 
 
 (3) Islamism received an unreasonable assent 
 on the part of its converts, Christianity a 
 reasonable. 
 
 [1284] Inconsequence ofthe haughty violence 
 of the turbaned and scimitared apostles of the 
 Koran, no time was given to any to examine 
 the evidences of the mission of the Arabian 
 impostor ; the evidences of Christianity were for 
 nearly three centuries left open to investigation, 
 and no man ran the least risk of life, fortune, or 
 fame by rejecting them ; whilst to believe or die, 
 or, at best, to be treated as a dog or a slave, 
 was the stern alternative by which Moham- 
 medanism was enforced — a mandate too urgent 
 to admit of deliberation. Its first converts were 
 in many instances hypocrites ; and although 
 they might afterwards catch the fanaticism, yet 
 it chiefly allied itself to a blind sincerity, after it 
 had occupied the prejudices of the infant mind 
 by the force of education. — Ibid. 
 
 2 As to the nature of their teaching. 
 
 [1285] In clearest distinctness from this, the- 
 Saviour proclaims a parental king, unveils His 
 glory, and calls all men to the Great One who 
 waits to hear from His creatures' lips the trustful 
 loving words, " Our Father who art in heaven." 
 Nor does the reward of this kingdom consist, 
 like Mohammed's, in a sensual heaven and a 
 material hell. It is rather, " He that believeth 
 hath eternal life ;" Do this or the other, "for 
 this is right." Moreover, He reveals about that 
 kingdom how it is to triumph. Whereas Mo- 
 hammed made subjects — and Islamism can pro-- 
 duce only abject subjects — Christianity makes 
 converts. The highest aim of its noblest and 
 most inspired leaders is, "We persuade men ; " 
 while the watchword of its Founder is, not, Obey, 
 submit, yield, but, " Come unto Me." The great- 
 power in extending and consolidating this king- 
 dom is a cross, not a sword — a cross, for by 
 sacrifice the rebellious subjects are brought into 
 reconciliation with the king — a cross, for by self- 
 sacrifice the empire will be welded into unity, . 
 and will win its conquering way in the world — 
 a cross that tells of a victory won, and whose 
 benefits we have to receive, and not a sword to 
 proclaim perpetual struggle and agony to obtain 
 ■ — nevertheless, a cross that reveals love as the 
 mightiest force in the universe, and therefore 
 leaves no place for such persecutions, and 
 cruelties, and nameless horrors of bigotry as 
 Mohammedhimself sanctioned, and the Mussul- 
 man still believes to be the way to the victory 
 ofthe kingdom of God. — UrijaJi R. Thomas. 
 
 [1286] Mohammedanism recognizes only one- 
 side of the character of God, namely, His 
 sovereignty.
 
 226 
 
 1287 — 1292] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY 
 
 [mythology. 
 
 [1287] "One God" the Arabian prophet 
 
 preached to man ; 
 One God the Orient still 
 Adore, through many a reahii of mighty span,— 
 A God of Power and Wilh 
 
 A God that, shrouded in His lonely light, 
 
 Rests utterly apart 
 From all the vast creations of His might — 
 
 From Nature, Man, and Art. 
 
 108 
 
 MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [1288] Mythology is the legendary, fabled, 
 and traditional account of the gods, and of 
 nature, and of man in relation to the gods. It 
 is the tradition or legendary lore of heathenism. 
 It includes the Hindoo, Chinese, Egyptian, 
 Graeco-Latin, and all other traditional religions. 
 
 II. Its Relation to Christian Myste- 
 ries. 
 
 1 Viewed generally. 
 
 [1289] These relations and coincidences be- 
 tween the two are inferred from the esoteric 
 explanations of the exoteric or popular and 
 fabulous forms which heathenism assumed or 
 retained for the populace. 
 
 It is probable that the Eleusinian mysteries 
 or secrets revealed to the initiated, contained 
 the philosophical explanations of the popular 
 mythology, refining it from the grossness in 
 which it was clothed, and affording the true 
 moral of the fables in which that mythology 
 consisted. • 
 
 Even if these explanations are regarded as 
 only the philosophers' invention, apology, and 
 pretext for adhering to the popular supersti- 
 tion, they still contain what Lord Bacon sug- 
 gestively describes as " several intimations 
 that have a surprising correspondence with 
 the Christian mysteries" ("Wisdom of the 
 Ancients," end of " Prometheus") — i.e. in a word, 
 adumbrations of Christian mysteries. — B. G. 
 
 2 Viewed as to the accounts of the flood. 
 
 [1290] We are not dependent on the Bible 
 entirely for the story of the flood. All ages 
 and all literatures have traditions, broken tra- 
 ditions, indistinct traditions, but still traditions. 
 The old books of the Persians tell about the 
 flood at the time of Ahriman, who so polluted 
 the earth that it had to be washed by a great 
 storm. The traditions of the Chaldeans say 
 
 that in the time when Xisuthrus was king, there 
 was a great flood, and he put his family and 
 his friends in a large vessel, and all outside 
 of them were destroyed, and after a while the 
 birds went forth and came back, and their 
 claws were tinged with mud. Lucian and Ovid, 
 celebrated writers, who had never seen the 
 Bible, described a flood in the time of Deuca- 
 lion. He took his friends into a boat, and the 
 animals came running to him in pairs. So, all 
 lands, and all ages, and all literatures, seem 
 to have a broken and indistinct tradition of 
 a calamity which IMoses here, incorporating 
 Noah's account, so grandly, so beautifully, so 
 accurately, so solemnly records. — Talniagc. 
 
 III. Theories concerning its Sources. 
 
 [1291] Mythology is mixed up of various 
 streams, each of which has in turn had more 
 than its due proportion assigned to it. His- 
 torical fact exaggerated was the old story, 
 when Jupiter became a king of Crete, and 
 Odin a northern conqueror. 
 
 Abstract ideas personified next became the 
 prevalent theory, and power, wisdom, beauty, 
 war, &c., were shown working out their attri- 
 butes. 
 
 Then followed the Christian habit of tracing 
 the heathen tale to a scriptural tradition, such 
 as Hercules to Samson, Arion to Jonah ; and 
 at the present day the atmospherical theory is 
 swallowing up all the rest. 
 
 Now to our mind all these have had their 
 share in the work of creating the three great 
 mythologies of the world— the Indian, the 
 classical, and the northern. — F. Max Miiller. 
 
 [1292] The ancient mythology seems to us 
 like a vintage ill-pressed and trod ; for though 
 something has been drawn from it, yet all the 
 more excellent parts remain behind in the 
 grapes that are untouched. Though I have 
 thoroughly seen into the levity which the mind 
 indulges for allegories and allusions, yet I can- 
 not but retain a high value for the ancient 
 mythology. Many of these fables by no means 
 appear to have been invented by the persons 
 who relate and divulge them, whether Homer, 
 Hesiod, or others. Whoever attentively con- 
 siders the thing, will find that these fables are 
 delivered down and related by those writers, 
 not as matters then first invented and proposed, 
 but as things received and embraced in earlier 
 ages. And this principally raises my esteem of 
 these fables, which I receive, not as the pro- 
 duct of the age, or invention of the poets, but as 
 sacred relics, gentle whispers, and the breath of 
 better times, that from the traditions of more 
 ancient nations came, at length, into the flutes 
 and trumpets of the Greeks. — Lord Bacoti^ 
 Wisdom of the Ancients,
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 {Continues). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [3] HERESIES. 
 
 Fagcs 228 to 252. 
 TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 109 
 HERESY (GENERALLY) 
 
 no 
 
 ANTINOMIANISJNL 
 
 III 
 
 APOLLINARL\NISM. 
 
 112 
 ARIANISM. 
 
 "3 
 
 DUALISM. 
 
 114 
 
 FATALISM. 
 
 "5 
 
 GNOSTICISM. 
 
 116 
 
 MYSTICISM. 
 
 117 
 PELAGIANISM. 
 
 118 
 SABELLIANISM. 
 
 119 
 SEMI-PELAGIANISM. 
 
 120 
 SOCINIANISM. 
 
 121 
 UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 227
 
 223 
 
 DIVISION E 
 
 iContimied). 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [3] HERESIES. 
 
 109 
 
 HERESY {GENERALLY). 
 
 I. Its Radical Idea. 
 
 I A choice to make revealed and authorita- 
 tive truth harmonize with preconceived 
 ideas. 
 
 [1293] Heresy starts in the will ; in unsancti- 
 fied reason ; in arbitrary human opinion, as 
 opposed to faith and all rightful authority. It 
 is a positive force engermed in the soul, and al- 
 most certain to develop in a certain way. It is 
 a previous condition of the mind and heart 
 which, by prevailing bent, sways away from some 
 part of Scripture. Orthodoxy is not its goal, 
 nor does it commit itself to the natural flow of 
 the current towards it. It has another point to 
 reach, and means to push around whatever 
 stands in its way. It is the preference of some- 
 thing which is more agreeable to nature, or 
 which appears more consonant with reason to 
 that which is taught in the Scriptures. It is of 
 choice, to add something which they exclude, or 
 subtract something which they contain, or so 
 to interpret, change, or modify, as to make them 
 harmonize with a preconceived opinion or 
 theory. 
 
 A heretic, we say, is such from will and 
 desire ; not that he wills to be a heretic, but 
 he wills to be that which makes him heretical. 
 Thus Milton : " Heresy is in the will, professedly 
 against Scripture." And in the " I will not be 
 a heretic," of Augustine and Hooker, they show 
 it to be a matter of volition, as opposed to error 
 which is unavoidable. " Heresy," says Hooker, 
 " is heretically maintained by such as obstinately 
 hold it, after wholesome admonition." 
 
 Self-will, then, obstinacy, dogmatism, enter 
 into the radical idea of a heretic, and help to 
 give him that character. 
 
 2 A disposition rather to guide the Scriptures 
 than to be guided by them. 
 
 [1254] They seem to be regarded as incom- 
 plete, and as needing some sort of revision or 
 emendation. The Bible, so far from being 
 thought infallible, has been rummaged like the 
 books of ancient archives, and subjected to 
 every species of torture to prove a point. 
 
 II. Its Accidental Circumstances. 
 
 I These may modify the offence, but do not 
 alter its real nature or radical idea. 
 
 [1295] Here we must not forget that heresy 
 may be the natural growth of the prevailing 
 religion or philosophy ; or, that it may arise 
 from pure speculation, as in the case of Sabel- 
 lianism; or, that it may be a reaction from harsh 
 or erroneous opinions of the Church, and im- 
 pelled in the defence of some dogmatic interest, 
 as in the case of Pelagianism ; and that while 
 many persons appear to have been possessed by 
 a pious and an honest zeal, as, for instance, Nes- 
 torius, Arius, and Pelagius, others have been 
 heretical, unconscious to themselves, and out 
 of compulsion ; as witness multitudes in the 
 Romish Church. All these circumstances, per- 
 haps, must enter in to modify the offence. But 
 when all is done, heresy proceeds from some 
 other point of departure than that of Scripture, 
 and, as a rule, is of choice to arrive at other 
 conclusions. 
 
 III. Its Course. 
 
 I It is devious and often destructive. 
 
 [1296] With respect to the heresies, there is 
 nothing regular and permanent. Their origin 
 we may discover at all points in the history of 
 the Church. Unlike the gospel, which moves in a 
 regular orbit, and displays a steady light in every 
 age, the course of heresies has been like that of 
 comets and meteors — some returning at distant 
 periods under different names and phases, and 
 others ending, after a short career, in total dark- 
 ness. On the one side we might instance the 
 ]\Ionarchians,orthe iMonophysites astheyappear 
 among the Jacobites, or the Monothelites among 
 the Maronites of Syria. On the other we might 
 instance the Gnostic heresies ; those brilliant 
 and mighty coruscations — perhaps we should 
 say magnificent displays of thought and fancy 
 — which, for the time, swept all before them, 
 and in a century or two disappeared without 
 leaving a historian. 
 
 IV. Leading Form of its Modern Type. 
 
 I Modern heresy consists not in refusing to 
 believe what has been believed, but in 
 daring to believe more than has been 
 believed. 
 
 [1297] It has been said of late, the modem
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1297— 1304] 
 
 229 
 
 [heresy generally. 
 
 heresy consists not in refusing to believe what 
 has been beUeved, but in daring to believe more 
 than has been believed. To this there is no ob- 
 jection, if one shall dare to believe nothing 
 which militates against the truth of Scripture, 
 and shall never strain that truth beyond itself. 
 One should have no ambition to imitate the 
 Romish Church, which has certainly never been 
 backward in point of daring, whose astonishing 
 feats are before the world, and which constitute 
 one of the marvels of history. Papal presump- 
 tion, in daring to believe and to enforce belief, 
 has won a notoriety to which none should aspire 
 and which none should envy. 
 
 2 Modern heresy substitutes illegitimate de. 
 velopments for progressive evolution of 
 Christian truth. 
 
 [1298] What we should guard against is that 
 notion of development which contemplates 
 Bible truth as rudimental and imperfect, and 
 as something to be evolved, or rather developed 
 and perfected by human wisdom. We must 
 beware of that view which conceive all truth 
 as in continual flux and transition, and which, 
 as in the transmigration of souls, is to purify 
 itself only by constant change. In the words 
 of an old monk, " We ought to hold to 
 a progressive evolution of Christian truth, for 
 everything in the world advances from one stage 
 to another as it grows older. But this progres- 
 sive evolution presupposes an abiding principle 
 in the peculiar nature of the thing itself. The 
 contrary of this would not be growth, but a 
 change to something else. The doctrines of 
 heavenly wisdom must, with the progress of 
 time, become more exactly defined, but they 
 should not be altered or curtailed. They must 
 be unfolded in greater clearness and distinct- 
 ness, but they should lose nothing of their pure 
 and complete individual nature." The Bible is a 
 text-book which needs no revision or supple- 
 ment, and which embraces equally the germs 
 and the perfection of Christian knowledge. — 
 The New Englatider. 
 
 [Most of the foregoing extracts were taken 
 from, or suggested by, an article in " New 
 Englander," vol. xxxiii.] 
 
 V. Methods for refuting Heresy. 
 X In regard to others. 
 
 [1299] There are two ways of dealing with 
 error : one is by establishing truth to defend 
 and prove the truth ; the other is— and is often 
 neglected — to directly attack and expose the 
 error itself. These two methods are no less 
 essential in intellectual than in physical warfare. 
 ~B. G. 
 
 [1300] There is, however, much wisdom in 
 the advice given by a veteran Christian cham- 
 pion, " My principal method for defeating 
 heresy is by establishing truth." 
 
 2 In regard to ourselves. 
 
 [130T] "To trace an error to its fountain-head," 
 
 says Lord Coke, " is to refute it ; and many 
 men there are who, till they have received this 
 satisfaction, be the error what it may, cannot 
 prevail upon themselves to part with it." — 
 Jeremy Ben th am. 
 
 VI. Early Heresies. 
 I Their analysis. 
 
 [1302] The following divisions are Robertson's 
 re-stated : (i) Those luithoiit the Christian 
 sphere. Gnosticism was an attempt to solve 
 the question of the origin of evil by theories 
 chiefly derived from some other source than the 
 Christian revelation. (2) Those within the 
 Christian sphere. (a) The practical, ascetic, 
 enthusiastic sect of Montanus. (d) Speculation 
 taking the form of an endeavour to investigate 
 and define the scriptural doctrine as to the 
 Saviour and the Godhead. — C. A'. 
 
 VII. Contrast between Orthodoxy 
 AND Heresy. 
 
 I As to unity. 
 
 (i) Orthodoxy cofitradicts neither Seripttire 
 nor catholic teaching. 
 
 [1303] In order to determine what heresy is, 
 let us compare it with the standard of orthodoxy. 
 And here we prefer to indicate what that stan- 
 dard is rather by negation than affirmation, so 
 as not to fall into those statements and defini- 
 tions concerning orthodoxy which are peculiar 
 to an age, individual, or church. We wish 
 simply to conform to the words of Hagenbach, 
 that " the definitions of doctrines have been 
 undergoing constant change, while the great and 
 essential truths which they teach remain the 
 same in every age." 
 
 [1304] Orthodoxy, then, in the understanding 
 of the most pious and learned in all ages of the 
 Church, has not been that view which denies 
 the inspiration and Divine authenticity of the 
 scriptures, with many of the Gnostics, in re- 
 spect to the Old Testament and much of the 
 New ; or the fall, depravity, and ruin of the 
 human race, in consequence of sin, in an im- 
 portant sense with the Gnostics, Pelagians, 
 Socinians, Unitarians, &c.; or the Incarnation 
 of Jesus Christ, with the Marcionites, Mani- 
 chees, and others ; or which affirms His 
 humanity to the exclusion of His supreme 
 divinity, with the Ebionites, Eunomians, So- 
 cinians, Arians, &c. ; or His divinity to the 
 exclusion of His humanity, with some of the 
 Gnostics, Apollinarians, &c. ; or which denies 
 the personal distinction in the Godhead, with 
 the Patripassians, Sabellians, Marcellians, So- 
 cinians, and Unitarians ; or the doctrine of 
 the two natures, with the Eutychians, Mono- 
 physites, Sec. ; or the redemption and atone- 
 ment in consequence of Christ's sufferings and 
 death on the cross, with the Manichees, Mar- 
 cionites, Socinians, and Unitarians ; or regener- 
 ation through the personal agency of the Holy 
 Spirit, in an important sense with the Pelagians
 
 230 
 
 1304— 1309] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 [ANTINOMIANISM. 
 
 and Unitarians ; or justification by faith, with 
 the Gnostics, and, in an essential sense, with 
 many of the Papists and Pelagians ; the annihi- 
 lation of the wicked, with the Destructionists ; 
 or an offer of salvation after death, with we 
 know not whom. 
 
 (2) Heresy pj'onmlgates and accepts views at 
 variance both ivith Scripture and catholic 
 teaching. 
 
 [1305J The acceptance, then, of any of these 
 views as the genuine teachings of Scripture, is 
 heresy — heresy because they pervert and cor- 
 rupt their essential truth ; and this not on the 
 authority of any individual or church, but on 
 the authority of those who, in every age of the 
 church, have arrived at just contrary con- 
 clusions, and who, by their piety and learnin.^, 
 their honest and unshackled spirit, and by their 
 free surrender to the Spirit's influence, were, 
 and are, best fitted to apprehend the truth of 
 Scripture. We pretend not to deny that some 
 who accept these heresies may be Christians, 
 nor that there are many degrees of heresy ; bur 
 simply affirm that when tried by the highest 
 test, they, in an essential sense, depart from the 
 faith. In fact, it is easy to show that the 
 heretics are able to stand no such test as this, 
 nor to furnish any similar criterion among 
 themselves. 
 
 2 As to harmony. 
 
 (i) Heresy so alters the trtith as to destroy its 
 identity with scriptural and catholic teachiiig. 
 
 [1306] While, standing on common gi'ound, 
 all true believers are marshalled under one 
 banner, inspired by one watchword, and en- 
 gaged in one conflict ; while in every age it 
 has been one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
 whilst with heretics it has been endless diver- 
 sity and disagreement. They cross each other 
 in every direction. Hence a master of scoffing 
 mentioned by Lord Bacon, in a catalogue'of books 
 of a feigned library, sets down this title of a 
 book : " The IMorris-dance of Heretics." " For," 
 says Bacon, " every sect of them hath a diverse 
 posture, or cringe by themselves, which cannot 
 but move derision in worldlings and depraved 
 politics, which are apt to condemn holy things." 
 Witness the difference between the Ebionites, 
 the Docetce, and the Gnostics, in respect to the 
 character and mission of Jesus Christ ; and 
 also the endless diversity among the Gnostics 
 themselves — Gnosticism either exploding alto- 
 gether, or at last hardening off into ^lanicheeism. 
 Witness also the flat contradiction between the 
 Sabellians and Arians, in respect to the Trinity 
 — some of the latter toning down into semi- 
 Arians and ^Macedonians. Witness still further 
 the shades of difference and contradiction in 
 respect to the natures and wills of Christ, as 
 appears in the Apollinarians, the Nestorians, 
 the Monophysites, and Monothelites. We shall 
 call to mind also the diversity among the Pe- 
 lagians, semi-Pelagians, and Donatists. The 
 truth is, the heretics run to endless discord and 
 refute themselves. 
 
 (2) Otihodoxy abides by scriptural atid 
 catholic teaching, though its outward form and 
 expression vary. 
 
 [1307] We are aware that the same charge 
 has always been made by the Papal Church 
 against the sects of Protestant Christendom. 
 But in respect to external discipline and worship, 
 we say the church is not bound by rigid rules 
 and forms, because such is not the design of 
 the gospel, nor can it be shown to be more 
 conducive to the healthy development of Chris- 
 tian life. Hence the churches have taken the 
 liberty to assume such ecclesiastical vestments 
 as suit their taste. But the heretics, on the 
 contrary, have sundered the body of Christ and 
 corrupted its very life, and not only misplaced 
 the several parts, but have introduced such 
 fancied improvements of their own that the 
 original likeness is beyond recognition. — See 
 New Engiander^ vol. xxxiii. 
 
 110 
 
 ANTINOMIANISM. 
 I. Description of Antinomianism as 
 
 TECHNICALLY USED IN CHURCH HIS- 
 TORY. 
 
 [1308] Antinomians, in Church history, mean 
 certain heretics who were so called because 
 they rejected the law as of no use under the 
 gospel dispensation, and taught that good 
 works do not further, nor evil works hinder, 
 salvation ; that the child of God cannot sin ; 
 that murder, adultery, drunkenness, (S:c., are sins 
 in the wicked, but not in them ; that the child 
 of grace, being once assured of salvation, never 
 doubteth afterward ; that no man should be 
 troubled in conscience for sin ; that no Chris- 
 tian should be exhorted to perform the duties of 
 a Christian ; that a hypocrite may have all the 
 graces which were in Adam before his fall ; 
 that Christ is the object of all grace ; that no 
 Christian believeth or worketh any good, but 
 Christ only believeth and worketh ; that God 
 does not love any man for his holiness, nor 
 reject him for his sin ; that sanctification is no 
 evidence of justification; that the chosen cannot 
 forfeit the Divine favour; that they cannot do 
 anything which is really displeasing to God • 
 and, consequently, that they have no occasion 
 to confess their sins, nor to be penitent for them. 
 — Joseph Cottle, Strictures on Antinomianisni. 
 
 IL Source of this Error. 
 
 [1309] This error is founded partly on meta- 
 physics and partly on mistake as to the in- 
 definite and ambiguous term " law." The 
 metaphysics of Calvinism, or, as some would 
 term it, hyper-Calvinism, recognize the doc- 
 trine of necessity, excluding not only "free-will," 
 but really all free moral agency, which is very 
 diiierent ; and shutting 'jp all in the Divine 
 " sovereignty," in a sense that renders impos-
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1309-1316] 
 
 231 
 
 [antinomianism. 
 
 sible any freedom or responsibility in the 
 creature. This is not always acknowledged, is 
 often denied, but is logically and necessarily 
 implied. In addition to this metaphysical view, 
 there is the mistake as to the ambiguous term 
 "law," and because "the law" is set aside by 
 St. Paul, where the Levitical law of command- 
 ments contained in ordinances is only intended, 
 it is assumed that the moral law of personal 
 holiness is abrogated. They that are circumcised 
 are debtors to keep the whole law, namely, " the 
 law" of Judaical ceremonies, from which Christ 
 hath freed us. But this is not the moral law, 
 the " two commandments " on which " hang all 
 the law and the prophets." Antinomianism is 
 right as opposing merit or works as the ground 
 of justification : it is wrong as opposing works 
 as the fruits, signs, and proofs of sanctification — 
 the grateful results of free justification. — B. C. 
 
 III. Its Connection with Hyper-Cal- 
 vinism. 
 
 [1310] During the period of the civil wars in 
 this country, antinomianism began to ally itself 
 with the more rigid forms of Calvinism, and to 
 assume the aspect of a logical theory. Since 
 those who are elected to eternal life must, in 
 consequence of an irreversible decree, be led to 
 the practice of holiness, while the reprobate 
 can by no possibility be moved to repentance, 
 it is needless for the ministers of Christ to press 
 moral duties. Some even propounded the 
 revolting doctrine that the sins of the elect are 
 not properly sins, since God sees no sin in those 
 who are in Christ, and that consequently watch- 
 fulness against temptation, and i-epentance after 
 falling, are to the Christian equally unnecessary. 
 — Canon Liddojt, B amp ton Lectures. 
 
 IV. Real Import of its Doctrines. 
 
 [13 11] By the doctrines of antinomianism, 
 be it understood, we mean those doctrines which 
 tend to weaken our sense of the obligation to 
 perform the law of God, or which tend to make 
 the sinner easy and satisfied in the practice of 
 his sins. 
 
 V. Its True Origin. 
 
 [1312] Some historians place the rise of these 
 doctrines as far back as the fifteenth century 
 of the Christian Church, or even earlier. We 
 know but of one date to which to refer their 
 rise, and that is, the same date at w'hich com- 
 menced the fall of man. The first great anti- 
 nomian teacher and preacher was he who, with 
 the garb of a serpent, the tongue perhaps of an 
 angel, but the heart of an evil spirit, approached 
 our first parents and said, " Ye shall not surely 
 die : for God doth know that in the day ye eat 
 of the forbidden tree your eyes shall be opened, 
 and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 
 evil." Then first began the sect of antinomians. 
 The first sermon we know was but too effectual ; 
 and we rue its effects to this day. And from 
 that period it has been the object of the great 
 
 enemy of God and man to weaken in men's 
 minds their sense of obligation to keep the law 
 of God, and to make them easy in the practice 
 of their sins. 
 
 VI. Its Historical Phases. 
 
 1 As exhibited in the case of Cain and the 
 antediluvians. 
 
 [1313] The first and simplest of all expedients, 
 and one of the most general prevalency, was 
 that suggested, we may believe, to the murderer 
 Cain ; the substitution of ceremonious offerings 
 of external rites and professions for the homage 
 of the heart, the aftections, and the life. " Cain 
 brought of the fruit of the ground an offering." 
 However uneasily this first attempt at anti- 
 nomianism sat upon that primeval criminal, the 
 evil appears too clearly to have stolen in by 
 insensible degrees upon the antediluvian race, 
 till in process of time — and we speak it with fear 
 and trembling — of the whole antediluvian world, 
 there was but one man of whom it is recorded, 
 that "he was a just man and perfect in his 
 generation, and that he walked with God." 
 
 2 As exhibited in the case of the ancient 
 heathen world. 
 
 [13 14] After the flood it would be impossible 
 to trace the various methods by which the 
 tempter contrived to elude the force and obli- 
 gation of the Divine law in the hearts of his 
 children, and to set them at ease in the practice 
 of their sins. The awful description of the 
 whole heathen world is summed up by the 
 Apostle to the Romans when he declares, " they 
 held the truth in unrighteousness. 
 
 3 As exhibited by the Jewish Church. 
 
 [1315] We pass over the history of the early 
 idolatries of the Jewish antinomians, and quote 
 their later prophets : " Will ye steal, murder, 
 and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and 
 burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other 
 gods whom ye know not ; and come and stand- 
 before Me in this house, which is called by My 
 name, and say, We are delivered to do all these 
 abominations?" We quote from our Lord 
 Himself: "Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and 
 cummin ; but ye have omitted the weightier 
 matters of the Law — judgment^ and mercy, and 
 faith. These ought ye to have done, and not 
 to leave the other undone." They substituted 
 according to the first and most approved device 
 of Satan, the ceremonies of the law for its 
 moralities. 
 
 4 As exhibited in the Christian Church in 
 early times. 
 
 [13 16] With such a plain and undeniable 
 account from Scripture itself, of real antinomi- 
 anism on the one hand, and the resistance made 
 against it on the other, we ought surely to be 
 ever upon our guard against its approaches in 
 subsequent times ; aware that it is entirely 
 congenial to human nature and but too ready
 
 232 
 
 i3i6— 1324I 
 
 rHE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 [arianism. 
 
 to lurk under the most specious forms, and in- 
 trude into the most sacred sanctuaries. 
 
 [1317] In addition to its history, already 
 partly related, it appeared in very early times 
 in the Christian Church, after the canon of 
 revelation was closed ; and it is remarkable 
 that the same ancient father, St. Austin, who 
 had to oppose the doctrinal errors of the Pela- 
 gians, had likewise to combat the practical 
 errors of the antinomians ; both errors, indeed, 
 tending to the same point, the former depressing 
 the standard of holiness, the latter weakening 
 its obligation. 
 
 5 As exhibited in the Christian Church of 
 later date, whether Roman or Reformed. 
 
 [13 1 8] Afterwards it appeared no longer lurk- 
 ing in disguise, but in its most open and palpable 
 forms, in the many licentious codes of doctrine 
 -and absolutions of popery. It has appeared 
 since in the doctrine of a mitigated law. The 
 forgiving mercies of the new covenant have been 
 brought in to eke out a defective virtue, a worth- 
 less morality, which has tended to make the 
 commandments of God and the holiness of His 
 gospel of none effect. 
 
 [Most of the foregoing extracts are taken 
 from, or suggested by, various articles in '■ The 
 ^Christian Observer."] 
 
 Ill 
 
 APOLLINARIANISM. 
 
 I. Basis of Apollinaris' Argument. 
 
 [13 19] While the Arians altogether denied 
 the existence of a human soul in Christ, and 
 employed the texts which relate to His humanity 
 as proofs of the imperfection of His higher 
 nature, ApoUinaris followed the Platonic school 
 in dividing the nature of man into body, animal 
 (■>^yx'))} and intellectual or rational soul [vovc). 
 — James Craikie Robertson, History of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 II. LiXE OF Apollixaris' Reasoxixg. 
 
 [1320] From the variableness and sinfulness 
 of man's rational soul he argued that, if the 
 Saviour had had such a soul. He must together 
 with it have had its freedom of will, and 
 therefore tendency to sin ; consequently (he 
 proceeded to say) that part of man"s nature was 
 not assumed by the Saviour, but the Divine 
 Logos supplied its place, controlling the evil 
 impulses of His animal soul, of which the 
 body is the passive instrument. Some of the 
 followers of ApoUinaris, if not he himself, main- 
 tained that the flesh of Christ existed before 
 His appearance in the world, and was not taken 
 by Him of the substance of the Blessed Virgin, 
 a notion for which support was sought from 
 such texts as John i. 14 ; iii. 13 ; i Cor. xv. 47. 
 — Ibid. 
 
 III. Its Evextual Coxsequexces. 
 
 z It makes our redemption incomplete by 
 making our Redeemer incompletely man. 
 
 [1321] If Christ only assumed man's body, 
 He only became the Redeemer of man's body ; 
 man's soul, his intellectual and immortal part, 
 remains unredeemed, because one thing could 
 not be redeemed by another different from it, 
 but the body must be given for the body, the 
 soul for the soul. But since our whole nature, 
 body and soul, fell, our whole nature, soul 
 and body, must be restored. Our Redeemer, 
 therefore, must be qualified to effect this resto- 
 ration of our entire nature, by Himself assuming 
 and ofl'ering the entire and complete nature of 
 man.—//. //. Wyatt. 
 
 2 It really, like Eutychianism, confuses our 
 Lord's two natures. 
 
 [1322] The ApoUinarian heresy contains the 
 germ of another, viz., the Eutychian ; it may be 
 considered incipient Eutychianism, inasmuch as 
 it detracts from the distinctness and complete- 
 ness of one of the two natures in Christ, that 
 is, from His distinct and complete humanity. 
 There is, in effect, a cojifiision of the human and 
 Divine natures, when the Godhead is conceived 
 to supply the place of one, and that the princi- 
 pal, constituent of the human nature — Ibid, 
 
 112 
 
 ARIANISM. 
 
 I. Its Relation to other Heresies. 
 
 I To preceding heresies. 
 
 [1323] Up to the time of Arius the divinity 
 of our Lord had not been denied. Up to the 
 same time, the doctrine of the Trinity had not 
 been denied, though both had been wrongly 
 explained. And in some cases those explana- 
 tions had been proved to be wrong, because, 
 logically, they would have led to the denial ot 
 the Trinity, or the denial of the divinity, a 
 result as much against the convictions of the 
 one side as the other. — Christian Examiner. 
 
 [1324] The distinctive tenet of Arianism — the 
 denial of the Saviour's Godhead — had already 
 appeared in the heresies of the Ebionites of Arte- 
 mon, and of Theodotus. But now Christianity 
 had assumed a new position ; questions of doc- 
 trine produced an amount of agitation before 
 unknown ; the Arian controversy, and some 
 which followed it, were not only felt throughout 
 the whole Church, regarded as a spiritual body, 
 but had an important influence on political 
 affairs. — James Craikie Robertson, History of the 
 Chi'istian Church.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1325—1331] 
 
 [arianism. 
 
 2 To succeeding heresies. 
 
 (i) The halfway house betzueen Trinitarianism 
 and Unitarianisiii. 
 
 [1325] It is mainly concerned with the person 
 of Christ, and seeks to find a rank for Him as 
 near Deity as possible, yet so as still to be 
 amongst creatures, though of the highest order. 
 Many of the Puritans of the age of the Resto- 
 ration — Charles II., and subsequently their suc- 
 cessors — adopted this view, and finally slided 
 into the lower Unitarianism of Belsham and 
 Priestley.— -5". G, 
 
 II. Its Characteristic Dogma. 
 
 I That the Son was originally produced 
 out of nothing, and consequently there 
 was a time when He did not exist. 
 
 [1326] Arius maintained that He was a great 
 pre-existent spirit, the first in rank of all 
 derived beings ; that this spirit became after- 
 wards united with a human body and supplied 
 the place of a rational soul. Some of the 
 preceding Fathers attributed a human soul as 
 well as a human body to Jesus, which, how- 
 ever, was so absorbed in the Divine part of His 
 nature, that they were, in a strict sense, one 
 spirit, and not two, as modern Trinitarians 
 affirm or imply. Such was Origen's opinion. 
 According to the theology of Arius, however, the 
 human soul was wanting in Jesus Christ, and 
 He was a compound being only in the sense in 
 which all human beings are ; that is. He con- 
 sisted of a body and one simple, undivided, 
 finite spirit. — Chris tzaft Examiner. 
 
 [1327] "We believe," says he, "and teach, 
 that the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any 
 manner part of the unbegotten ; that He was 
 not made of matter subsisting, but by will and 
 counsel," that is, of the Father, " existed before 
 the times and ages — who, before He was born, 
 or created, or constituted, or founded, was not." 
 This language occurs in his letter to Eusebius. 
 Again, in his letter to Alexander, he says, " We 
 acknowledge one only God, alone unbegotten, 
 eternal, w^ithout beginning, who begat an only 
 begotten Son before the times of the ages ; by 
 whom He made the ages and all things, having 
 truly begotten Him, and constituted Him by His 
 will immutable, a perfect creature of God, but 
 not as one of the creatures ; a production, but 
 not as one of the (other) productions." " God, 
 as the cause of all, is alone without beginning ; 
 but the Son begotten without time of the Father, 
 and created and constituted before the ages, was 
 not before He was begotten, but was alone pro- 
 duced of the one only Father without time and 
 before all things ; for He is not eternal, nor 
 co-eternal, nor existed with the Father un- 
 begotten. God is before all things, wherefore 
 He is prior to Christ. — Ibid. 
 
 III. Its Tenets as propounded at the 
 Council of Nicea. 
 
 [1328] The Arians at the Council of Nicea 
 
 held that (i) the Son exists by the will of the 
 Father ; (2) that He was not eternal ; (3) that 
 He was created out of nothing and was there- 
 fore a creature ; (4) that He was not immutable ; 
 (5) that His pre-eminence consisted in the fact 
 that He alone was created immediately by God, 
 whereas all other creatures were created by the 
 Son ; (6) He was not God of Himself, but was 
 made God, i.e., on account of His superiority to 
 all other creatures, and as their Creator and 
 Governor He was entitled to Divine worship. — 
 Dr. C. Hodge. 
 
 IV. Real Aim of Arius. 
 
 I To deny the theory of Alexander as to 
 the origin of Christ, and to establish 
 another of his own. 
 
 [1329] Did Arius, then, deny our Lord's 
 divinity ? Did he deny the doctrine of the 
 Trinity.? Was he the great champion of the 
 doctrine of the Divine unity against Trinita- 
 rians, as he has been sometimes represented? 
 
 In the first book of the Ecclesiastical History 
 of Theodoret are contained two letters — one 
 from Alexander, explaining his view of Arius's 
 teachings, and one from Arius himself to his 
 friend the Court Bishop of Nicomedia. 
 
 Let us hear what Arius says : " We teach that 
 the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any manner 
 a part of the unbegotten. Neither was He 
 formed of anything lying below, but in will and 
 purpose He existed before all times and before 
 all worlds. Perfect God, the only-begotten, un- 
 changeable, and that before He was begotten, 
 or created, or purposed, or established. He was 
 not, for He was never unbegotten." — Church 
 Review. 
 
 [1330] It is manifest from this that Arius did 
 not intend to deny the divinity of the Son. He 
 holds Him to be " perfect God." His purpose 
 is to deny the theory of Alexander as to His 
 origin, and establish another of his own. The 
 question between them is not whether Christ is 
 God — that both admit — but how He comes to 
 be God and a distinct Person from the Father. 
 
 Alexander had taught, and that was what first 
 aroused Arius's opposition, that the Son was 
 begotten of the substance of the Father by an 
 eternal generation. Arius considered this Sa- 
 bellianism, and taught against him that the 
 Son was made God out of nothing — k- ohx 
 
 6vT(i)l>. 
 
 On the first theory, the Son would be equal 
 with the Father as to His nature, but subordi- 
 nate as to His origin. On the second. He 
 would be totally unlike both in nature and 
 origin, but as Arius claimed, "entire God" — 
 7rX)]pr]s QeoQ. — Ibid. 
 
 V. The Real Seat of the Error. 
 
 I The heresy scientifically stated did not 
 deny the divinity of Christ. 
 
 [1331] Of course the first inference deduced 
 from the theory, and pressed against it, was that
 
 234 
 
 I33I— I335J 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITi'. 
 
 [ARIANISM. 
 
 it denied the divinity of our Lord. On the ortho- 
 dox theory it did. A creature cannot be God. 
 If, therefore, the Son be made, not begotten of 
 the Fathers very essence, He is a creature — 
 the highest and greatest creature it may be — 
 but still a creature and not God. And it appears 
 from the letters of Alexander, given by Socrates 
 and Theodoret, that the Arians were at once 
 pressed with these consequences, and boldly 
 accepted some of them, though still insisting on 
 the divinity. They conceded that the Son was, 
 so far as He was a created being, liable to change 
 and deterioration, like other creatures, but ex- 
 plained that He was made superior to these by 
 grace, by the favour of God, that is, who had 
 endowed Him with Divine attributes beyond a 
 creature. In other words, the divinity of the 
 Son was admitted on both sides. The explana- 
 tion of Arius was that He was "made Godj" 
 not of the Fathers substance, nor of any other 
 lower, but unique, " out of nothing," and en- 
 dowed by the Father's gift with "all the fulness 
 of the Godhead," all powers and attributes of 
 divinity; and while, in His nature, as a being 
 made, inferior, changeable, and not omniscient, 
 yet by that endowment, equal, unchangeable, 
 and infinite in wisdom. — Ibid. 
 
 [1332] It was pressed against the Arians that 
 this explanation of theirs destroyed the divinity. 
 It did to the mind of the orthodox. If the 
 Arians had been forced to confess it did, they 
 would have been obliged to drop it, for they 
 were as much set to hold the divinity as their 
 opponents. Their claim was that the explana- 
 tion involved no such necessity. They would 
 seem to have argued that as God is omnipotent, 
 and can do what He will. He can make "out of 
 nothing '' a being who shall be " God in ful- 
 ness." In Book I. of Theodoret's "History" 
 we have a letter from the fi-iend and partizan 
 of Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, written to 
 Paulinus of Tyre, persuading him to intercede 
 for the Alexandrian Arians, and bring Alexander 
 over to their opinions. In this letter he sets 
 forth the views of his party : " We affirm that 
 there is One who is unbegotten, and that there 
 also exists another, who did in truth proceed 
 from Flim, yet who was not made from His 
 substance, and who does not at all share in 
 the nature or substance of the Unbegotten. 
 Him we believe to be entirely distinct in nature 
 and in power, and yet to be a perfect likeness 
 in character and power of Him from whom He 
 originated. We believe that the mode of His 
 origin cannot be expressed by words, that it is 
 incomprehensible, not to man only, but to orders 
 cf beings superior to man." — Ibid. 
 
 [}3?)3\ That it was clearly the doctrine of the 
 Arian party that Christ is God, and made by 
 the power and grace of God fully equal to, and 
 in the perfect likeness of, the Father, can 
 scarcely admit a doubt. That their heresy, 
 scientifically stated, was not the denial of the 
 divinity of the Son, can scarcely admit a doubt 
 either. — Ibid. 
 
 3 The heresy, however, did deny the unity 
 cf the Godhead and of Christ being the 
 one and the same (o/iooraioc) nature with 
 God. 
 
 [1334] The Xicean Creed adopted by the 
 council was a modification of that presented by 
 Eusebius Pamphilius, archbishop of Cesarea, 
 the local creed of the Palestinian Church. It 
 appears from the history of the council that 
 there would have been no objection — indeed, 
 there could have been none, on the express 
 principles of both parties — to the Palestinian 
 creed, nor to the creed as modified, except in 
 regard to one word, onoovdioc. That was the 
 test-word of the creed, the one word over which 
 the battle was fought in the council, and there- 
 fore the word which is exactly opposite to the 
 heresy condemned. 
 
 Every other expression the Arians could have 
 accepted — in the after contests were willing to 
 accept. They could say the Son is God, '•' true 
 God;" Light, and "true Light;" even "God 
 from God," and " Light from Light," and in 
 their own sense, " Begotten " and " begotten 
 before all worlds," because the phrase vv Tro-k ore 
 oi'Y VI', does not assert " there was a //;//^, when 
 He was not," but simply, "there zcas when He 
 was not." Arius did not make the "creation," 
 or "founding," or "setting up" of the Son in 
 time. He held that it was before time, before 
 worlds and yEons, only it was something that 
 did occur, an act and fact mentally conceivable, 
 and is not, as the Eternal Generation teaches 
 us to believe, something inherent in the nature 
 of Deity. So that God is always a Father 
 generating, always a Son generated, and always 
 a Holy Spirit proceeding — the generation of the 
 Son being not an act done or begun, or expres- 
 sible by any tense of the verb, but a process 
 eternal in the nature of the Godhead. — Ibid. 
 
 [1335] The real point of the heresy, therefore, 
 is touched by the test-word, and guided by that, 
 we can understand its scientific precision. It 
 admitted the possibility of more than one 
 essence in the Godhead. It held that there is 
 a God uncreated, and another created ; one 
 without beginning and another with ; one of 
 one substance, and another of a substance ab- 
 solutely ditTerent — difterent as the created is 
 from the uncreated. It sets up a god to be 
 served and worshipped who is made. It was 
 heresy against the doctrine of Divine Unity. 
 It was so met, and so understood. The test- 
 word used in its condemnation was carefully 
 chosen to declare the sameness and oneness of 
 substance, and so preserve that Unity. — Ibid. 
 
 VI. Summary, showing Real Point at 
 Issue between the Arian and Ca- 
 tholic Doctrine. 
 
 [1336] I. Arianism held that God the Father 
 is God uncreate, unbegotten, unoriginate. 
 
 2. That God the Son is God also by endow- 
 ment — equal, in all respects, with the Father.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I33'5— 1341I 
 
 [arianism. 
 
 3. Thai God the Son was made so (or " be- 
 gotten," in a sense, if that word be preferred) 
 by an act of creation, definitely begun and 
 ended. 
 
 4. That this act took place, but not in time — 
 before all times and worlds. It was a finished 
 act, and is conceivable as having a before and 
 after, intellectually. 
 
 5. Arius's discussions did not lead to any 
 examination of the relations of the Third Person, 
 but we may conclude from analogy and the 
 scientific examination of the question that he 
 would have taught virtually the same with re- 
 gard to the Holy Spirit. Admitting Him to be 
 a distinct Person, and God, he would have 
 denied the procession (for the emanation doc- 
 trine was just what he opposed), and would have 
 asserted His cjration as God in the same way. 
 
 6. The Son was 7imde, but He was not made 
 in time, so He was not niade of things that 
 exist — neither of the substance of the Father, 
 nor of any other substance. He is " of things 
 that are not" — Ik ovx vvnov. — Ibid. 
 
 VII. The Attractiveness of its Doc- 
 trine. 
 
 [1337] Arius found many to sympathize with 
 him — partly from the attractiveness of a doc- 
 trine which brought down the mysteries of the 
 Godhead to the sphere of human analogies and 
 conceptions, partly because the multitude is 
 always impatient of authority, and ready to take 
 part with any one who may suffer from the 
 exercise of it. — Canon Robertson, History 0/ the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 VIII. The Consequences of Arian Pro- 
 positions. 
 
 X They are simply polytheistic. 
 
 [133S] They deny the Divine Oneness. They 
 strike at the first article of faith, " I believe in one 
 God." For three hundred years the Church had 
 fought the battle of monotheism against the 
 "gods many " of heathenism. She went forth into 
 a world sunk in grovelling superstition before 
 gods of the brooks and the groves, gods of the 
 land and the sea, gods of Olympus and gods of 
 the depths below, deities celestial and deities 
 infernal, proclaiming the old cry from Sinai, 
 " The Lord thy God is Lord alone." And here, 
 at the end, comes a priest of this Church and 
 denies the first utterance of her lips, the awful 
 announcement of the One Awful God. He 
 proclaims that God is not One, that the un- 
 created has shared His glory with another, 
 that there are at least two Gods, necessarily 
 three. If he had gone a step farther, logically 
 the possibility of a thousand. The flood-gates 
 weie opened, and gods of all ranks and orders 
 might walk the clouds and rule the storm, and 
 guide the rolling world again ! — Ibid. 
 
 3 The Incomprehensible had not revealed 
 Himself. 
 
 [1339] ^s li'id sent a God of another nature 
 
 to teach men. The mediatorship was destroyed. 
 The Unknown remained wrapped in the eternal 
 clouds, circled by the eternal fires, and man 
 only dealt with a God who was made. Christ 
 was no mediator. He could not lay His hands, 
 as the Days-man, upon them both — God and 
 man. — Ibid. 
 
 IX. Confutation of this System and 
 OF the Cognate System of Docet- 
 
 ISM. 
 
 [1340] All these are confuted by these words 
 of the apostle : " For against Marcion we say, 
 How could that flesh be a mere shadow and 
 phantom, which was taken by One who had the 
 form of a servant, and was found in the fashion 
 of a man, and who suftered death on the Cross? 
 And to the others above mentioned (Arians) 
 we put these questions. How can the Son be 
 merely a Power and not a Substance, since He 
 who is said to have taken the form of a servant, 
 is said also to have pre-existed in the form of 
 God ? How can it be alleged that He derived 
 His existence from Mary, when He is declared 
 by the apostle to have subsisted in the form of 
 God ? How can He be thought to be a mere 
 Name, when He is said to have existed in a 
 state of equality with God ? Equality is be- 
 tween two things. No one can be said to be 
 equal to himself. Therefore we here see a 
 duality of Persons in one Godhead. How, 
 again, can He be thought to be a Creature, 
 when it is asserted by St. Paul that He existed 
 in the form of God, that is, the very nature and 
 essence of God, and that He did not count it 
 an unjust assumption on His part (as the Arians 
 do for Him) to be equal with God ? How, 
 lastly, could it have been said by the apostle, 
 that He took the form of a servant, and sufi"ered 
 death (which is the separation of soul and body), 
 if He had not also a human soul as well as a 
 human body ? " — St. Chrysostom. 
 
 X. The Counter Statement of the 
 Catholic Doctrine. 
 
 [1341] The Church collected herself to utter 
 one word which should end this for all time in 
 her history. No man thereafter should be ever 
 able to declare that Christ is God, and at the 
 same time deny the Unity. And that word was 
 'o\xo6vaiOi. In opposition to Arianism, she taught 
 that the essence of the Godhead is oiie, that 
 each distinct Person in the Trinity is of that 
 one essence. Consequently by nature equal, 
 subordinate with reference to the method of 
 existence only. She taught that the generation 
 — that mysterious process by which the Word 
 is a Person — never began and never ends ; that 
 it is a thing eternal and innate, so to speak, in 
 the Divine nature, that God is, in His awful 
 nature a Father, and in the same nature a Son. 
 She taught the like of the procession of the 
 Holy Ghost, and thus conserved the Unity. 
 The Godhead undivided, perfect, entire, is the 
 Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of
 
 236 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 1341— 1348] 
 
 [dualism. 
 
 the Holy Ghost. It is the same in all. — The 
 Church Review. 
 
 XI. Providential Use of the Arian 
 Controversy. 
 
 [1342] Sad as it undoubtedly is to contem- 
 plate the distractions thus occasioned, we must 
 yet remember that by fighting out these differ- 
 ences, instead of attempting to stifle them by 
 compromise, the Church gained a fixed and 
 definite form of sound words, which was of the 
 greatest value, and even necessity, for the pre- 
 servation of her faith through the approaching 
 ages of ignorance. — Canon Robertson, History 
 &f the Christian Church. 
 
 113 
 
 DUALISM. 
 
 I. Definition and Phases. 
 
 [1343] Dualism is literally Two-ism; mean- 
 ing the system, or systems — for there are vari- 
 ous—of dividing and classifying all events or 
 existences with two classes of agencies, or two 
 sorts of substances. — B. G. 
 
 [1344] As the Manichjean doctrine of two 
 agents, a good and an evil power, to which 
 benefits and virtues, calamities and sins, re- 
 spectively, are referred, to account for their 
 origin. Some have inferred that St. Augustine 
 held this view. — B. G. 
 
 II. Historical Causes. 
 
 [1345] The opinion of dualism, or the ulti- 
 mate contrariety of the spiritual and material, 
 has arisen historically from the following 
 causes : — 
 
 {a) A rough classification of the beneficent 
 and hurtful influences of climate and surround- 
 ing nature. (Apparent more or less in all 
 polytheism.) 
 
 {i>) The superposition of the Pantheon of one 
 on that of another hostile or subject nation. 
 (Persian, Slavonic, &c.) 
 
 (c) The reflection upon the Cosmos, of the 
 mental detachment of the critical and self-con- 
 scious individual from the moral and religious 
 world in which he lives. As a consequence of 
 the confusion of thought lying at the root of the 
 Platonic theory of ideas. (Plato and Epicurus.) 
 
 (d) The fusion of e with d and a. (Gnostic, 
 Manich^ean, Priscillianist, Paulician, Catharist.) 
 
 (e) From the attempt to arrive at certainty 
 through a process of universal scepticism. 
 (Descartes and his school down to Kant.) 
 
 Of these (a) arising from a low degree of 
 culture, vanishes with advancing civilization ; 
 (b) led to a series of reforms, and was at length 
 stigmatizedas a heresy; (c, d, e) disappear so 
 soon as their origin can be explained, and their 
 consequences shown to be unthinkable. 
 
 III. Growth of Persian Dualism. 
 
 [1346] The ancient Persian religion was a 
 natural growth from the primitive religion of 
 our Aryan fathers who dwelt in Iran, the region 
 rudely bounded on the north by the Persian 
 Gulf, on the west by the Tigris, on the east by 
 the Indus, and which extended northward as far 
 as the Scythians allowed. They adored one 
 supreme god ; him they saw visibly revealed in 
 the sky, which, as the grandest known existence, 
 they endowed with the grandest known qualities 
 — life and personality ; and to him they gave 
 such names as Varana, Ouranos, the enclosing 
 one ; or Dyaus, Deus, Zeus, the shining one. 
 From Iran westwards streamed those peoples 
 which, as Celts, Romans, Greeks, Teutons, 
 Slavs, overspread Europe, carrying with them 
 the primitive faith. Lastly, eastwards into 
 India flowed the Hindus, who in the Rig- Veda 
 had given us the correctest picture of that faith. 
 The supreme was not the only god ; closely 
 allied to Varana, the sky, was he whom the 
 Hindus in India and the Persians remaining iri 
 Persia, or rather, let us call them by the wider 
 and more correct name, the Iranians remaining 
 in Iran, called Mithra, the friend, the kingly 
 light of heaven. Six others stood around the 
 supreme, and under them all the powers of 
 nature — gods without number. But a settled 
 society under centralized government could not 
 leave the gods in nomadic disorder and inde- 
 pendence. Among the Iranians the idea of 
 heaven developed into monarchy ; Varana be- 
 came sole god with the name Ahura, lord ; the 
 other gods lost independence, became the works 
 of Ahura's hands and b:s instruments in pro- 
 ducing his other works — being named Amesha- 
 Spentas, bountiful immortals. But while gods 
 became more dependent archangels and angels, 
 demons refused to own the lordship of Ahura ; 
 therefore we called the Persian religion Dual- 
 ism.— 7?^z/. y. A/itne, M.A. 
 
 [1347] Besides this twofold classification of 
 good and evil under two powers, there is the 
 dualistic classification of existences into matter 
 and mind. And some have taught that all evil 
 comes from matter, that it corrupts the spirit ; 
 and this is sometimes the philosophy of Asce- 
 ticism, if it was not also at the foundation of 
 Docetism, which made the body of Christ a 
 phantom, or appearance only, and not a real 
 material body. — B. G. 
 
 [1348] Dualism is also used in a modern 
 sense as opposed to what is called monism, or 
 the doctrine of one existence only, some " un- 
 cognizable," one substance or existence, as 
 nature or the universe, as exclusive of God and 
 nature. This is the bastard Spinozism of cur- 
 rent atheistic infidelity. — B. G.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1349— 1359] 
 
 [gnosticism. 
 
 114 
 
 FATALISM. 
 
 I. Etymology of the Term. 
 
 [1349] Its etymology is from the Latin— /«r/, 
 /ans,fatuin — to speak, speaking, spoken — willed, 
 determined, said, or decreed. At the founda- 
 tion therefore of fatalism, according to its etymo- 
 logy, there is a speaker, determiner, or author, 
 of a fixed plan and purpose. Fate, in this view, 
 is something said by one who has a will to do, 
 or to secure the doing of that which is said, 
 spoken, or decreed. 
 
 II. Its Phases. 
 
 1 Heathen fate. 
 
 [1350] In this sense heathen fate is the will 
 of Jove, or Jupiter, the supreme amongst the 
 gods. 
 
 2 The predestination of Calvinism. 
 
 [135 1] The predestination of Calvinism is the 
 pre-ordination, or fore-said purpose, mind, will, 
 or decree ; the fate, or spoken and destined 
 result, or final purpose of the original Divine 
 determination, promise, or saying. 
 
 3 Fatalism of modern atheism. 
 
 (i) Its character and p^'ofessed designs. 
 
 [1352] Fatalism is held by modern atheists as 
 an unbroken and unbreakable series of necessary 
 effects, that includes no less human thought 
 and volition than physical material or natural 
 sequences. 
 
 [1353] This fatalism is used to destroy morality 
 and responsibility, and to impeach Divine and 
 even human justice as to any punishment for 
 sins or crimes, since these are the fated results 
 of organization and circumstances. 
 
 (2) Its inconsistency. 
 
 [1354] They who invent this excuse for sin 
 and crime are inconsistent in accusing any sup- 
 posed punishment — beyond mere policy — as 
 judicial crime ; for they -allow only judges to be 
 possibly criminal, and forget that fate as much 
 necessitates punishment as sin and crime, and 
 so equally excuses that. For the Supreme 
 Judge did not make Himself, and is ruled by 
 His own nature ; and human judges neither 
 made themselves nor the circumstances into 
 which they were born, from which self and cir- 
 cumstances, according to modern atheistic fatal- 
 ism, all their thoughts and actions necessarily 
 flow. 
 
 [1355] The same materialistic fatalists, while 
 logically, in their fashion, abolishing sin, crime, 
 and judgment, themselves mount the judg- 
 ment-seat, and liberally condemn men and 
 God as sinners and criminals before the bar and 
 tribunal usurped by those who denounce all 
 
 judgment, and then monopolize the right to 
 judge and punish — as far as their potency 
 stretches. 
 
 (3) Its unpJiitosophical position. 
 
 [1356] Amongst the ancient heathen — who 
 were, in this, more philosophical than modern 
 atheistical fatalists — fate was sometimes re- 
 garded as superior to the gods themselves ; and 
 so the same would excuse their acts, as also 
 man's, according to that answer of one who 
 taught fate or necessity, and yet punished an 
 offending servant. For when the latter said, 
 " You know, or teach, that I cannot help doing 
 what I do, and yet you punish me for doing it," he 
 answered, " You cannot help doing, but are 
 obliged to do, what I complain of; and I cannot 
 help punishing, but am obliged to punish, you 
 for it." 
 
 (4) Its refutation. 
 
 [1357] Fatalism practically proves the worth- 
 lessness of its philosophy, as it tends to destroy 
 hope, and so to destroy effort ; and advances 
 the vulgar truism, " What is to be, will be," 
 " What must be, must be," which nobody can 
 deny, the only question being, whether it is to 
 be, whether it must be, whether it shall be ; or 
 whether we will, on the one hand, prevent it ; 
 or, on the other hand, secure it. If I am to go 
 to China, I shall go to China ; but I shall never 
 get there without going, without getting into a 
 ship. Likewise, if I am to be saved, or am to be 
 lost, I shall be ; but I shall never be saved 
 without entering the ship, the ark of salvation ; 
 and shall never be lost without neglecting to 
 do so. In this respect God puts OUR fate 
 into our own hands, of which no one can fairly 
 complain. " Why will ye die, O house of 
 Israel?" "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye 
 might have life." " Him that cometh I will in 
 no wise cast out." — Foregoing Extracts are bv 
 B. G. 
 
 115 
 
 GNOSTICISM. 
 
 I. Thoughts suggested by its Etymo- 
 logy. 
 
 [1358] The Greek yfaJcric, or knowledge, is 
 also " knowingness," and the professors of Gnos- 
 ticism, called Gnostics, answer to the English 
 phrase, "knowing people," which does not 
 always mean those who are really wise or intel- 
 ligent, but sometimes means those who pretend 
 or think themselves to be. The Agnostic, with 
 "the pride that apes humility," affects scientific 
 ignorance ; the Gnostic, without even the parade 
 of humility, affects special knowledge. — B. G. 
 
 II. Its Definition. 
 
 [1359] While under one aspect this tendency 
 was intended to oppose Christianity (by neo-
 
 2V6 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1359— 1366] 
 
 [gnosticism. 
 
 Platonism), under another, the Church itself was 
 drawn into the vortex, and by an amalgamation 
 of Oriental theosophy, of Grecian theosophy, and 
 of Christian ideas, a widely ramified system of 
 most extravagant religious philosophy came 
 forth from the crucible of this peculiar kind of 
 speculation. This system bore the general 
 name of Gnosticism. — Dr. John Kurtz, Church 
 Histo7-y. 
 
 [1360] Gnosticism taught concerning Christ 
 that He became visible to mortal eyes not in 
 the reality of human flesh, but in an aerial form, 
 or shadowy resemblance of a body. — H. H. 
 IVyaif, Principal Heresies relati7ig to our 
 LorcTs Incarnation. 
 
 III. The Origin of the Attempt to 
 UNITE Christian Elements with 
 Greek and Jewish Gnosticism. 
 
 [1361] Simon Magus, marked for an immor- 
 tality of infamy in Acts viii., appears in history 
 as the leader of the first school which attempted 
 to unite Christian elements with Greek and 
 Jewish Gnosticism. He is said to have taught 
 that the Father or Jehovah, the Son or Christ, 
 and the Paraclete or Comforter, were the same 
 person of God under different modes of exist- 
 ence. And he declared that he was himself the 
 Word, the first image of the Perfect. The 
 followers of Simon even claimed that he was the 
 Paraclete, the Almighty, having all the attri- 
 butes of God. His Gnosticism was more Jewish 
 than Greek. — The Baptist Quarterly. 
 
 IV. The Priority of this Heresy in 
 Order of Time and in Importance. 
 
 [1362] Let us consider the Gnostic heresy as 
 first in order of time, and, it may be added, in 
 importance ; for, if Christ did not in reality 
 unite to Himself the nature of man ; if His 
 alleged manifestation in the flesh is to be re- 
 solved into an illusion ; in a word, if His in- 
 carnation never took place and be not a fact, 
 what occasion is there for considering the 
 various solutions of the manner in which it was 
 accomplished ? 
 
 All other heresies suppose and concede the 
 reality of Christ's coming in the flesh, though 
 per\-erting the right faith as to the mode of its 
 accomplishment. 
 
 The ApoUinarian believed the Word to have 
 been really made flesh, though he detracted 
 from the perfection of the human nature 
 assumed by our Lord, by disallowing Him a 
 reasonable soul. And so in like manner, 
 Nestorians, Eutychians, Monothelites, believed 
 Christ verily Incarnate at the same time that 
 their respective solutions of the mystery were 
 heresies. — H. H. Wyatt. 
 
 V. Leading Features of this System. 
 
 ^ Gnosticism was rationalistic eclecticism. 
 [1363] The Gnostics were the rationalists of 
 
 the early church, who summoned Christianity 
 to the bar of philosophy, and desired to ap- 
 propriate the portion of its teaching which 
 approved itself to their eclectic tastes. The 
 type reappears, perpetuated by the fixity of 
 mind, though the form varies under the foi'ce 
 of circumstances. — Farrar, Critical History of 
 Free Thotii^Jit. 
 
 % Gnosticism dealt in allegorical senses, as 
 the esoteric doctrine of the word, and left 
 the exoteric and " literal grammatical 
 sense " to the populace. 
 
 [1364] They strenuously inculcated the doc- 
 trine of a double sense and appealed to their 
 own fanciful interpretations, which they main- 
 tained to be hidden in the sacred word beneath 
 the vail of figure and allegory, as alone con- 
 veying the genuine mind of the Spirit ; for they 
 insisted that our Lord had even taught two 
 doctrines — the one public and exoteric, accom- 
 modated to the prejudices of the multitude, and 
 another, the truth itself, private and esoteric 
 to a chosen few, deemed worthy of admission 
 to this perfect Vnoaiq, which from them had 
 been handed down by perpetual tradition to fit 
 successors. — Conybeare, Analytical Exanii7ia- 
 tion t?ito the Writings of the Fathers. 
 
 VI. Its Origin. 
 
 1 According to the theories of its exponents. 
 
 [1365] Gnostic doctrine said to emanate from 
 the Supreme Being. None of the Gnostics 
 professed to derive his doctrine from his own 
 reason ; indeed, with the idea that all truth 
 emanated from the Supreme, and enlightened 
 the mind of the teacher, it became impossible 
 to draw any pure doctrine from the fountain 
 of the individual mind. 
 
 The various denominations of Gnostics, to 
 use a modern term, held in common the right 
 to profess a science superior to that of the 
 Christian teachers. This science was \^q. gnosis 
 which has given them their name. They 
 differed as to the origin of this mysterious 
 gnosis, some attributing it to ancient revelation, 
 handed down among " the children of light " 
 from the earliest times ; others professed to 
 obtain it by the ecstatic intuition of the superior 
 worlds (which is claimed by all mystics), and 
 a third party attempted to pin their faith to the 
 sleeve of some apostle, who had better oppor- 
 tunities than his fellows of ascertaining the 
 doctrines of Jesus. — Christia^i Examiner. 
 
 2 According to historical and philosophical 
 principles. 
 
 [1366] Gnosticism must ultimately be traced 
 to a peculiar and powerful tendency, inherent 
 in many minds during the first centuries. A 
 deep conviciion that the old world had run its 
 course, and was no longer able to resist the 
 dissolution which threatened it, pervaded the 
 age. — Vr. John Henry Kurtz, Church History. 
 
 II
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1367—1375! 
 
 [gnosticism. 
 
 VII. The Secret of its Fascinating 
 Power. 
 
 [1367] It also impelled many by a syncretism 
 the boldest and grandest that historj' has 
 recorded — we mean, by the amalgamation of 
 the various elements of culture, which hitherto 
 had been isolated and heterogeneous —to make 
 a last attempt at renovating what had become 
 antiquated. — Ibid. 
 
 VIII. Range of its Speculation. 
 
 [136S] Gnostic speculation busied itself with 
 such questions as the origin of the world and 
 of evil, or the purpose, means, and goal of the 
 development of the world. To solve these 
 problems the Gnostics borrowed from heathen- 
 ism its theory about the origin of the world, 
 and from Christianity the idea of salvation. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 IX. The Tenets of this System. 
 
 1 As to creation. 
 
 [1369] All Gnostic systems are based on a 
 kind of dualism of God and of matter (I'Xj;). 
 Only that some, with the Platonists, regarded 
 matter as unreal (having no real existence) and 
 without form {=\xr) ov), hence as not directly 
 hostile and opposed to the Deity ; while others, 
 in accordance with the views of the Parsees, 
 supposed it to be animated and ruled by an 
 evil principle, and hence to be directly opposed 
 and hostile to the Good Deity. — Ibid. 
 
 [1370] The theogonic and cosmogonic process 
 was explained on the principle of an emanation 
 (■7rpo[3o\i]), by which, from the hidden God, a 
 long series of Divine formations (aluji'sc) had 
 emanated, whose indwelling Divine potency 
 diminished in measure as they removed from 
 the original Divine Source. 
 
 These yEons are represented as being the 
 media of the creation, de-\-elopment, and re- 
 demption of the world. The original matter 
 from which the world was created consisted of 
 a mixture of elements derived partly from the 
 kingdom of light (the 7r\(';pw/<n), and partly from 
 the Hyle {i«7-ipi]j.ia \ivuiiia). This mixture was 
 differently represented, as brought about natu- 
 rally, by the fall, or by a contest. The world 
 was created by one of the lowest and weakest 
 ^ons, called the c^^uovpyoQ. — Ibid. 
 
 2 As to redemption. 
 
 [137 1] Creation is the preparation and the 
 commencement of redemption. But as the 
 Demiurgos cannot and will not accomplish 
 the latter, one of the highest ^ons appears in 
 the fulness of time as Redeemer, in order to 
 accomplish the deliverance of the captive 
 elements of light, by the imparting of yvwaiQ. 
 As matter is in itself evil, the (pneumatic) 
 Saviour had only an apparent body, or else at 
 baptism descended into the psychical Messiah, 
 
 whom the Demiurgos had sent. The death on 
 the cross was either only an optical delusion, or 
 the heavenly Christ had left the man Jesus and 
 returned to Pleroma, or else He had given His 
 form to another person (Simon of Cyrene), so 
 that the latter was crucified instead of Jesus 
 (Docetism). According as the pleromatic or 
 hylic element prevails, the souls of men are 
 naturally either pneumatic, and in that case 
 capable of yvCjaiq : psychic, when they cannot 
 attain Tria-iq ; or hylic — the latter class com- 
 prising the great mass of men who, left in 
 hopeless subjection to the power of Satan, only 
 follow their own lusts. — Ibid. 
 
 3 As to the process of salvation and sancti- 
 fication, 
 
 [1372] Salvation consists in overcoming and 
 eliminating matter, and is accomplished through 
 knowledge {yv^niQ) and asceticism. As it was 
 believed that matter was the seat of evil, 
 sanctitication was sought physically rather 
 than ethically, and thought to consist in re- 
 sisting matter and abstaining from material 
 enjoyments. 
 
 4 As to the scriptures. 
 
 [1373] Various sects of Gnostics viewed the 
 scriptures in a different manner. Some by 
 means of allegorical interpretations sought to 
 base their system on the Bible. Others pre- 
 ferred to decry the apostles as having falsified 
 the original Gnostic teaching of Christ, to at- 
 tempt recasting the apostolic writings to make 
 up a Bible after their own fashion. The teach- 
 ing of primitive sages, handed down by tradition 
 as a secret doctrine, they placed above Sacred 
 \Yv\t.—Ibid. 
 
 X. Its Effects. 
 I On its advocates. 
 
 (i) li exerted a deleterious and disastrous 
 influence on tlieir morals. 
 
 [1374] J^Iost disastrous was Gnosticism in its 
 influence on the morals of its advocates. It led 
 many to ascetic self-torture for the mortification 
 of the flesh and emancipation of the spirit ; but 
 it deluded more with the fancy that they could 
 retain purity of spirit while giving up their bodies 
 to indulgence in the wildest excesses. By the 
 attempt to realize a passionless lust, many were 
 encouraged in the most shameful orgies and a 
 most shocking debauchery. The sin which in 
 the church at Corinth awoke the indignation of 
 Paul, was repeated with all possible variations 
 of vileness, and there is all reason to fear that 
 those pretended saints who professed to expose 
 themselves to the strongest temptations without 
 sin, only drew a veil over abominable shame. — 
 The Baptist Quarterly. 
 
 (2) It led to intellectual pride and supercili- 
 ousness. 
 
 [1375] Possessed of this sublime science, 
 communi'^ated by the highest authority of the
 
 240 
 
 I37S— 1380] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [gnosticism. 
 
 universe, and rendered infallible by the inspira- 
 tion within him, how calmly could the self- 
 collected enthusiast look down from his high 
 eminence upon the idle show of practical life, 
 upon the keen controversy and perplexing doubt 
 which agitated the schools of speculation ! 
 Scarcely would they allow that even Plato was 
 a theosophist, maintaining that he had but seen 
 the faint glimmering of the ancient doctrines of 
 the East, whose pale and distant rays en- 
 lightened Greece, while themselves were born 
 and matured under its meridian beams ! Pos- 
 sessed of a tradition, of an intuition, of a revela- 
 tion, and of particular writings, which they 
 alone preserved entire, why should not they be 
 better qualified to teach than the apostolic 
 Christians, who possessed only writings and 
 doctrines corrupted by the ignorance of their 
 masters ? And why should they not teach better 
 than the Grecian schools, which in Ionia could 
 not distinguish intelligence from matter, which 
 in Athens dared not profess the existence of one 
 Supreme Being, which in Italy could only ex- 
 press the relation between the two worlds by 
 musical notes, cyphers, and doubts ? Why 
 should they not eclipse all the dogmatism and 
 all the scepticism of their times, initiated as 
 they were in all the mysteries of cosmogony, 
 pneumatology, theology, zeonology, and christ- 
 ology ? — Christian Examifier. 
 
 2 On the Christian Church. 
 
 (i) // in meastcre perverted Christianity for 
 three hundred years. 
 
 [1376] A philosophical system so widely ac- 
 cepted, so arrogant, could not fail greatly to 
 affect the advance of a new philosophy and 
 religion. A score or more of Gnostic schools 
 had adopted certain Hebrew dogmas, or per- 
 versions of them, and the same spirit would 
 threaten Christianity, both with fierce assaults 
 and with the seductions of an unholy alliance. 
 A haughty intellectualism despised the ttiotic, 
 or faith, of the Christians, and assailed the new 
 doctrines with all the spite which rationalistic 
 pride adds to the natural venom of sinful hearts. 
 
 From the time of Simon Magus, who had 
 many disciples, the number of Gnostics, who 
 adopted something of Christianity, increased. 
 Saturnin, Tatian, Marcion, and many others, 
 some claiming to be true Christians, perverted 
 Christianity. For three hundred years there 
 flourished various sects, which taught mystical 
 theories of the person of Christ. By some He 
 was believed to be one of the higher ffions ; by 
 others He was said to be a man to whom the 
 divine Logos became united at His baptism ; by 
 many it was affirmed that Christ had not a true 
 body, and only appeared to suffer. — The Baptist 
 Quarterly. 
 
 XI. The Explanation of the Failure 
 OF THIS System to realize its High 
 Moral Standard. 
 
 [1377] The system implied an exceedingly 
 
 strict code of morals, but in point of fact fre- 
 quently became the opposite, and degenerated 
 into antinomianism and libertinism. This is 
 partly explained from the low views entertained 
 of the Demiurgos, and partly by the not un- 
 common occurrence of a sect passing from 
 one extreme to another. — Dr. John Henry 
 Kurtz, Church History. 
 
 XII. Refutation of this Heresy as far 
 as it concerns our Lord's Incar- 
 nation. 
 
 [137S] It is, indeed, a remarkable instance of 
 the extravagance into which the human mind 
 can be betrayed, that a heresy which reduces 
 the whole Christian history to one continued 
 trope should ever have been conceived. There 
 are amongst revealed truths some which the 
 natural man feels more difficult of belief than 
 others. But it is doing gratuitous violence to a 
 history of facts to resolve it into fiction or 
 allegor}'. Not a circumstance, with but few 
 exceptions (and these capable of explanation), 
 is recorded of our Incarnate Lord, which can 
 reasonably create the idea of His being a 
 spectre. — H. H. IVyatt. 
 
 [1379] The right faith, as distinguished from 
 the error that our Lord became Man in appear- 
 ance only, is that He became really and truly 
 Man ; and if it can be shown that the Man 
 Christ Jesus passed through each stage of 
 human generation ; exhibited each phase, each 
 property, each infirmity of human life, and ful- 
 filled the conditions of humanity in death, the 
 truth of His Manhood is sufficiently established. 
 —/did. 
 
 XIII. The Fatal Consequences involved 
 IN this Heresy as concerning our 
 Lord's Incarnation. 
 
 I It subverts by consequence the entire 
 Christian faith, and is repugnant to the 
 whole Christian scheme from its opening 
 to its consummation. 
 
 [1380] Whereas the gospel history is a nar- 
 rative of the life, death, resurrection, and 
 ascension, as matters of fact, of a Man, " the 
 Man Christ Jesus," the Gnostic, dy denying- the 
 reality of His history as Mati, denies the doe- 
 triples luhich issue froin the facts. To deny the 
 reality of Christ's Alanhood is to deny the reality 
 of those great events of the Christian history on 
 which the body of Christian theology rests. If 
 our Lord was only I\lan in appearance. He only 
 suffered death in appearance ; man's redemp- 
 tion, therefore, was not in reality achieved ; 
 human guilt remains unexpiated ; God and man 
 are still unreconciled. But as the atonement of 
 Christ is revealed as an objective fact ; and as 
 " without shedding of blood is no remission," 
 the death of Christ must have been an objective 
 reality. Again, Christ could only have died in 
 His human nature, as Man (for the Divine 
 Nature is impassible) ; and He must, therefore.
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1380-1385] 
 
 241 
 
 [mysticism. 
 
 have been really Man, to have really undergone 
 death. So, too, His passion throughout has 
 afforded proof of His being truly Man, His re- 
 corded sufferings being such as could not ha\ e 
 been inflicted on an incorporeal spirit. Nor did 
 His enemies, and the persons who imposed the 
 sufferings, ever say that the subject of them was 
 not a real Man ; nay, their sin was that they 
 only regarded Him as a Man, "the carpenter's 
 son." Whilst, however, Christ's sufferings at- 
 test His humanity, proof of the latter has been 
 derived from circumstances prior to His Passion, 
 as from His generation, progressive develop- 
 ment, actions, and infirmities. — Ibid. 
 
 XIV. Gnostic Terms alone find their 
 True Meaning in Christian Doc- 
 trine. 
 
 [1381] Themany words in common use among 
 the Gnostics, such as " Beginning," " Word," 
 " only-begotten Son," " Life," " Light," " Spirit," 
 "^on," " Angel," " Wisdom," " Fulness," &c.,are 
 caught up by the apostles, and with a kindling 
 enthusiasm, and an eloquence which belongs 
 only to inspiration, it is shown that the truth of 
 which these words are the shadow is seen 
 perfectly only in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Take, for example, that wonderful passage, 
 so different from the general style of the New 
 Testament, the introduction of John's Gospel. 
 There is here no mention of Gnosticism, no 
 Gnostic dogma, nothing but what is Christian, 
 pure, lofty, unworldly. Yet the words are 
 Gnostic, while the thoughts are Divine. The 
 apostle does not argue against folly. Why 
 should he draw into the light the doctrines he 
 refutes ? He only gathers together those words 
 which to the philosophers were symbolical of the 
 profoundest mysteries, and in one word gives 
 the key to all. With the name of Christ he 
 put to shame a score of Gnostic theories. — The 
 Baptist Quarterly, 
 
 XV. Its Providential Uses. 
 
 I It led the Church to duly appreciate 
 studies, literature, and art. 
 
 [1382] Strange and odious as Gnosticism was, 
 we must yet not overlook the benefits which 
 Christianity eventually derived from it. In its 
 various forms all the chief ideas and influences 
 of earlier religions and philosophies were brought 
 into contact with the gospel, pressing, as it 
 were, for entrance into the Christian system. 
 Thus the Church was forced to consider what 
 in those older systems was true and what false ; 
 stedfastly to reject the falsehood, to appropriate 
 the truth, to hallow it by a combination with 
 the Christian principle, and so to rescue all that 
 was precious from the wreck of a world which 
 was passing away. " It was,'' says a late writer 
 (Baumgarten-Crusius), " through the Gnos- 
 tics that studies, literature, and art were intro- 
 duced into the Church ;" and when Gnosticism 
 had accomplished its task of thus influencing 
 the Church, it ceased to exist. — James Craikie 
 Robej-tsoH, History of the Christiaft Church. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 ID 
 
 a It compelled the Church to more accurately 
 define its doctrines. 
 
 [1383] Absurd and irrational as the system 
 of Gnosticism may have been, it was not with- 
 out its use. In Greece and Rome polytheism 
 was upheld as the religion of the body politic, 
 but the Eastern mind recoiled with a hearty 
 abhorrence from polytheism. Philosophy 
 gained a religious element, so far as it was 
 connected with theosophy. As in these wild 
 strayings of the human intellect it is more 
 pleasing to trace the faintest glimmering of 
 reason than to treat them as one remaining 
 blank ; so there is some satisfaction in the 
 thought that the sudden eradication of these 
 weeds might have endangered the existence of 
 the true seed, over which they had been scat- 
 tered broadcast. They were sown by the 
 malice of the enemy, but when once sown there 
 was less danger in their toleration than in their 
 precipitate removal. We have to thank this 
 heresy for many valuable writings against them 
 by the earlier Fathers, in which the faith and 
 practice of primitive times have been described 
 with a clearness that, so far as it reaches, leaves 
 little to be desired. The evil has been ephe- 
 meral, its antidote is a blessing for all time. — 
 Rev. J. H. Blunt, ALA. 
 
 XVI. Accusation of Rationalists, re- 
 specting the Apostles borrowing 
 from Philo, met. 
 
 [1384] The inspired writings of the apostles 
 teem with proofs of the early prevalence of 
 Gnosticism, and with illustrations of the dangers 
 with which it threatened the new religion. 
 
 Rationalists do not hesitate to accuse the 
 apostles of borrowing from Philo ; but fami- 
 liarity with Gnosticism would show that Philo 
 was too recent to be much known to Paul, 
 though the general principles of all Gnostics 
 were ultimately known to the apostles. We do 
 not merely admit, but we claim that John and 
 Paul were familiar with the tenets of Gnosticism, 
 but the evidences are complete that they knew 
 them only to abhor and condemn them. An 
 understanding of their allusions to this philo- 
 sophy, and their contrast of its errors with the 
 truths of Christianity, will make many passages 
 of Scripture glow with new light. — 2Vie Baptist 
 Quarterly. 
 
 116 
 
 Mysr/c/sjif. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 I According to its strict and literal derivation. 
 
 [1385] Mysticism is a term about which the 
 majority of ordinary people have very vague 
 notions. They have a dim idea that it indicates 
 some sort of heresy ; but beyond that their 
 knowledge does not go. Originally the name
 
 242 
 
 1335— 1397] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [PELAGIAMSM. 
 
 was given to certain individuals as a term of 
 reproach. The literal derivation of the word 
 implies "the closing of the avenues of the 
 senses that the mind may be susceptible of 
 supra-sensuous impressions." Much exaggera- 
 tion and many wild theories have at various 
 times passed under the name mysticism; but 
 for these, in all fairness, mysticism proper should 
 not be held responsible. — Rev. J. Ritson. 
 
 2 According to its popular usage. 
 
 [13S6] The term is not applicable to the pro- 
 per emotions of joy and confidence arising out 
 of God's promises contained in Scripture, but to 
 vague, unauthorized, and wandering imagina- 
 tions of man's own unguided egotism and self- 
 sufficiency. — B. G. 
 
 [1307] It is an emotional, imaginary, and 
 ecstatic spirit, looking to inward states, moods, 
 and fancies, instead of the plain teaching of 
 " God's word written." — B. G. 
 
 II. Its Relation to Speculation. 
 
 [1388] Speculation is a process of thought; 
 mysticism is matter of feeling. The former 
 tests all by the thinking faculty ; the latter 
 teaches that the feelings alone are to be relied 
 on.—/?. G. 
 
 III. Its Two Main Divisions. 
 
 [13S9] Mysticism is of two kinds: (i) Natu- 
 ral, which regards the natural religious con- 
 sciousness of all men as the source of religious 
 truth, more or less pure according to the degree 
 of its development, e.g., pagan, Mohammedan, 
 Christian. (2) Supernatural, which regards the 
 illumination of the Holy Spirit as necessary to 
 render consciousness trustworthy, as in Quaker- 
 ism, Quietism, and kindred systems. — Bl G. 
 
 IV. Its Origin. 
 
 1 A morbid development of the religious 
 aesthetic sense. 
 
 _ [1390] The mystic spirit arising from an emo- 
 tional nature and unfolding into a more or less 
 refined aesthetic sense seeks union and com- 
 munion v.'ith God, direct, immediate, and vital, 
 through the religious feeling. It either strives 
 to break through the forms of religion to the 
 spiritual substance, or else by the imagination 
 sees allegories in the forms or modes of Divine 
 manifestation in sensuous outlines and colours 
 of beauty and grandeur, to be interpreted by 
 the religious esthetic taste. — Professor C. A. 
 Br/ggs, D.D. 
 
 V. The Secret of its Error. 
 
 [1391] The latest error of mysticism in religion 
 is the aiming at a comprehension of transcen- 
 dental truth, at the fruition of a mental certainty 
 which it is not given us to acquire or possess. — 
 Cancp, Eatoj!, Bampton Leciures. 
 
 117 
 
 FELAGIANISM. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [1392] Named from Pelagius — seafarer, from 
 the Latin pclac:;t:s, the sea, perhaps equal to 
 foreigner — the main element of the doctrine of 
 Pelagius appears to have been a slight view of 
 human depravity, and a consequent depreciatory 
 doctrine of the necessity of the Holy Spirit's 
 influence in conversion and regeneration. — B. G. 
 
 II. Its Origin. 
 
 [1393] It is probable that Pelagianism was a 
 reaction against the supposed tendency of other 
 doctrines to destroy man's responsibility in ac- 
 cepting the gospel. But in avoiding Scylla, 
 Pelagius fell into Charybdis ; and by one extreme 
 was driven into another. — B. G. 
 
 III. Pelagianism and Augustinism con- 
 trasted. 
 
 z As to the way of holiness and the results 
 obtained. 
 
 [1394] Pelagianism, in its whole mode of 
 thinking, starts from man, and seeks to work 
 itself upwards gradually by means of an ima- 
 ginary good will, to holiness and communion 
 with God. Augustinism pursues the opposite 
 way, deriving from God's unconditioned, all- 
 working grace, a new life and all power of doing 
 good. The first is led from freedom, over into 
 a legal, self-righteous piety ; the other rises 
 from the slavery of sin to the glorious liberty of 
 the children of God. — Bibliotheca Sacra. 
 
 3 As to the mode of its thinking about the 
 office of revelation. 
 
 [1395] For the first, revelation is of force, 
 only as an outward help or the power of a high 
 example ; for the last, it is the inmost life, the 
 very marrow and blood of the new man. — Ibid. 
 
 3 As to the mode of thinking about the office 
 of Christ. 
 
 [1396] The first, consistent!}' carried out, runs 
 towards an Ebionitic view of Christ, and can 
 see in Him only a distinguished man, a virtuous 
 sage, a prophet, but not properly a high priest 
 or king ; the last finds Him in whom the fulness 
 of the Godhead dwells bodily, and who is the 
 principle of an entirely new spiritual creation. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 4 As to their respective direction and range 
 of their thoughts. 
 
 [1397] The first deals with the ever^'-day un- 
 derstanding, reasons acutely and clearly, and is 
 thus more popular; the other descends from the 
 surface into the abyss of existence, brings forth 
 the hidden treasures of knowledge from their 
 mysterious depths, and is immeasurably more 
 satisfactory in this way to mature thought. The
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1397— 1403J 
 
 243 
 
 [PELAGIANISM. 
 
 first pleases itself with the dignity and energy 
 of man ; the last is lost wholly in the contem- 
 plation of the majesty and almighty grace of 
 Qo^\.—Ib:d. 
 
 5 As to their respective moral attitude and 
 bearings. 
 
 [1398] Pelagianism begins with self-exaltation 
 and an undue estimate of its own powers, only 
 to end at last in overwhelming self-delusion. 
 Augustinism casts man first down into the dust 
 of humiliation and self-despair, to raise him 
 again on the wings of Divine trust to the highest 
 moral power ; draws from him tears of peniten- 
 tial grief, in order that from his heart may stream 
 forth afterwards the joyful praise of God's al- 
 mighty grace. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. The Pelagian Doctrine of Freedom 
 AND THE Primitive State. 
 
 I Its definition, and fundamental points. 
 
 [1399] Pelagius held the original state of man 
 to have been substantially the same with his 
 condition at the present time, so that what was 
 true of Adam before the Fall is to be regarded 
 as still of force in the case also of his posterity. 
 Here we have at once a grand fundamental 
 error of the system. Adam, he taught, was 
 created by God with reason and freedom. 
 Freedom is the highest good of man, his honour 
 and glory. It consists in the ability of doing 
 good or evil, equally complete on both sides. 
 " It is always free to us," says Pelagius, "to do 
 either one or the other, since both are always in 
 our power ; we possess the power of free choice, 
 equally enabling us to sin or not to sin. In 
 virtue of this ability, man may produce either 
 the flow-ers of virtue or the thorns of vice. Such 
 was the freedom of the primitive state, and such 
 also is our freedom still." " We say that man 
 has power always either to sin or not to sin, 
 that we may allow to him always the possession 
 of a free will." So much with regard to the 
 spiritual constitution of the first man. In re- 
 ference to his physical condition, Pelagius taught 
 that death is a natural necessity, and that Adam 
 therefore would have died without sin. Where 
 the Scriptures seem to declare the contrary, he 
 understood them to speak of moral corruption 
 or eternal damnation. — Ibid. 
 
 [1400] The other point, namely, the view 
 taken of death, which Pelagius sundered from 
 all connection with sin, shows also the super- 
 ficial character of his thinking. One that under- 
 stands not the bitter fountain cannot make right 
 account of the stream that flows from it. The 
 vitw leads, besides, to an unworthy conception 
 of God, since it makes Him to be the author 
 directly of death, with its gloomy train of pains, 
 and sicknesses, and evils of every kind. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Its defectiveness when viewed from a 
 philosophical standpoint. 
 
 [1401] We see from this that Pelagius con- 
 ceived of freedom only as the power of choice, 
 
 liberum arbitrium, and never went beyond this 
 its lowest stage. But this indeterminate middle 
 point between good and evil is one that must 
 necessarily be transcended. By the act of 
 choice the man goes beyond it, and determines 
 himself in favour of one or the other ; and every 
 new act serves to confirm him in the direction 
 taken. The formal power of choice ceases to 
 be simply formal, acquires real force, and so 
 overthrows itself more and more in proportion 
 to the moral development of the subject. The 
 sinner becomes the slave of evil, the good man 
 a child of God, who in the end is no longer able 
 to choose and do evil, because he cannot have 
 any such luill. True freedom, therefore, as recog- 
 nized in the holy scriptures, is self-determina- 
 tion to good, and to good only, and so of course 
 becomes in the end identical with moral neces- 
 sity. Such power of choice as leaves the man 
 just as much inclined to evil as to good is in 
 itself an imperfection that shows already a re- 
 moval from the original goodness of the creature. 
 Man may possess this, indeed, in his present 
 state, in things of inferior account ; but where 
 precisely it comes to a life question, the radical 
 change in his nature itself, he shows himself 
 bound by reason of sin. His present state is 
 one of slavery ; not Hercules at the forks of the 
 road, but Hercules on the highway of evil. 
 Pelagius knows only the two contraries — free 
 choice and constraint ; and his freedom of 
 choice is without past or future, externally and 
 internally dependent on nothing, a continual 
 tabula rasa, that may take meaning at its own 
 pleasure every moment, but only to fall back 
 again after each single act to the indeterminate 
 and undeterminable character it had before. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 3 Its defectiveness when viewed from a 
 moral standpoint. 
 
 [1402J Whilst Pelagius thinks to elevate man 
 in this way, he binds him fast, in fact, to the 
 starting-point of his proper life. Nay, more, he 
 makes the essence of morality — a good disposi- 
 tion — to be impossible. Virtue and vice, ac- 
 cording to his abstract conception of freedom, 
 can consist only in single good or bad actions, 
 that have no inward connection, and aflect not 
 the power of choice on which they depend. An 
 automatic morality, however, is no morality 
 v.'hatever. — Ibid. 
 
 V. Its Doctrine of the Fall and its 
 
 Consequences. 
 
 I Definition and fundamental points. 
 
 (i) Ad ant's sin an isolated fact and a very 
 small offence. 
 
 [1403] Pelagius admitted, indeed, that Adam 
 had sinned. It belonged of course to the very 
 nature of free choice that he might choose evil. 
 But this fall of the first man was, in his view, a 
 single isolated fact, just like the actual sins 
 committed by other men, and in truth a very 
 small offence. Julian compares it to the incon- 
 siderate fault of a child, that allows itself to be
 
 244 
 
 1403— i4io] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 [PELAGIANISM. 
 
 blinded by some tempting object of sense, but 
 is sorry afterwards for its disobedience. Hence, 
 also, it had no further consequences. The 
 power of free choice was not lost by it at all. 
 It might turn again, the next moment, towards 
 good. And just as little did it affect the under- 
 standing or the condition of the body. — Ibid. 
 
 (2) Adam, by his transgression, set us a bad 
 example, but otherwise his descendants are not 
 affected. 
 
 [1404] According to this, then, there is no 
 original sin, but every child is still born into 
 the -world in the same state in which Adam 
 came from the hand of his Maker. Man is 
 born without virtue as also without sin, but with 
 the capacity for both. Only this much would 
 Pelagius allow, that Adam, by transgressing the 
 Divine command, had set a bad example, which 
 exerts a more or less pernicious influence upon 
 his posterity. With the denial of original sin 
 is rejected also, of course, the idea of imputed 
 guilt. Such imputation of a foreign sin ap- 
 peared, besides, to Pelagius irreconcilable also 
 with the justice of God. — Ibid. 
 
 (3) Ada?n is an individual simply, like other 
 vten, and notliing more. 
 
 [1405] On the nature of sin Pelagius expresses 
 himself no further than this, that he places it in 
 the influence exerted upon the will by the sc7ises. 
 He has no conception properly of sinfulness, 
 but only of single sins. Here, again, we have 
 the same superficial, atomistic style of thinking 
 as before. In the first place, Pelagius has no 
 idea whatever of a general human life, an 
 organism. Adam's fall accordingly was that of 
 an individual only, not that of the human race, 
 as comprehended at the time in his person. 
 Men are connected with one another only in an 
 outward way, independent of one another, a 
 mere living sand-heap. What is done by one, 
 therefore, has no necessary influence upon 
 another ; every one commences the history of 
 the human race, as it were, again from the start. 
 This is perfectly atomistic, and utterly over- 
 throws the idea of all histoiy, and of everything 
 like progressive development. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Its Christological aspect. 
 
 (l) // robs the ivork and acts of Christ of their 
 imiversal significance. 
 
 [1406] Those passages of Paul, in which he 
 contrasts Adam and Christ as the two great 
 representatives and progenitors of the human 
 race, have for Pelagius no meaning. Where, 
 however, no first Adam is admitted, in the sense 
 of Paul, as the bearer of the whole human race 
 in its natural constitution, and so, of course, no 
 original sin and imputed guilt, there, also, no 
 second Adam can find room, no Redeenier of 
 the human race, no imputation of the merit and 
 righteousness of Christ. Pelagius has no power 
 ■,to conceive of the general as united with the 
 individual and single. Christ also, then, for the 
 system to be consistent, must have been a mere 
 
 individual, whose life, death, and resurrection 
 have no universal significance, reach not into 
 the depths of the organic general life, but pos- 
 sess at best the force only of a moral pattern or 
 good example. Pelagius has no knowledge of a 
 productive principle of development, but of a 
 dull, unprogressive routine merely of every-day 
 events. — Ibid. 
 
 [1407] Pelagianismrobs Christianity of its spe- 
 cific dignity, the gospel of its all-renovating life, 
 Christ of His Divine nature ; and leads thus by 
 necessary consequence to the system of natural- 
 ism and rationalism by which the very founda- 
 tions of our most holy faith are undermined. 
 Since, however, it has no right conception of 
 sin, this is the only result that could be expected. 
 If human nature be not corrupt, and free will 
 prepared for every good work, we need no 
 Redeemer to begin all anew, but simply a re- 
 former to improve what is at hand, and salva- 
 tion becomes properly the work of man. — Ibid. 
 
 VI. The Pelagian Doctrine of Grace 
 AND Redemption. 
 
 1 Definition and leading points. 
 
 (i) Men may have grace apart f 7-0 m reve- 
 lation. 
 
 [1408] Pelagius distinguishes in the case of 
 the good, three elements — ability, will, and being. 
 The first belongs to nature, the second to free- 
 dom, the third to the act. Ability, or the power 
 of good — what may be styled moral capacity — 
 is grace, and comes from God in the way of 
 necessary natural endowment, forming thus the 
 foundation for will and being, without, however, 
 making them necessary in the same way. These, 
 will and being, depend wholly on man. For 
 example, "The power of seeing with our eyes 
 depends not on ourselves ; but, on the other 
 hand, it does depend on ourselves whether we 
 shall see well or otherwise." — Ibid. 
 
 (2) The grace of the gospel is not that which 
 makes it possible to do good; it only renders 
 this more easy. 
 
 [1409] This grace, Pelagius teaches further, 
 must be merited, since God otherwise would be 
 unrighteous. " The heathen are subjected to 
 judgment and damnation, because, notwith- 
 standing their free will, by which they have it in 
 their power to attain to faith and to merit God's 
 grace, they make an evil use of the freedom 
 they possess ; Christians, on the other hand, 
 are worthy of reward, because by the proper 
 use of their freedom they merit the grace of the 
 Lord and keep His commandments." This pas- 
 sage implies, besides, that the grace of revela- 
 tion is not absolutely necessary. Moral capacity 
 and freedom are of themselves sufficient for 
 fulfilling the Divine commandments. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Its incongruity. 
 
 (i) It does violence to the pcndamental ideas 
 of grace and merit. 
 [1410] When Pelagius teaches that grace 
 
 t 
 
 \
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I410— 1415I 
 
 245 
 
 [SABELLIANISM. 
 
 must be merited, and that it is imparted to us, 
 accordingly, after the measure of our natural 
 virtue, he overthrows thus its proper nature 
 altogether. Grace and merit mutually exclude 
 each other. " To him that worketh," says Paul, 
 " is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of 
 debt ; but to him that worketh not, but believeth 
 on Him that justified the ungodly, his faith is 
 counted for righteousness" (Rom, v. 4, 5). "By 
 grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of 
 yourselves : it is the gift of God : not of works, 
 lest any man should boast " (Eph. ii. 8, 9). — Ibid. 
 
 VII. Its Necessary Failure as a Rival 
 TO THE Catholic Doctrine. 
 
 I Though the rich and cultured have been 
 again and again attracted by its easy 
 clearness, yet it has never deceived the 
 suffering. 
 
 [141 1] The great words of redemption, of 
 renewal, of the new creature, the cry of the 
 Psalmist against the sin in which his mother 
 conceived him, the imploring cry to another, to 
 God, for the renewal of a clean heart and of a 
 right spirit, the unsounded depth of utterances 
 which spoke of a sonship that could never be 
 born of blood or of the will of man, of a 
 freedom made for us by the Son, of that draw- 
 ing of the Father without which none could 
 come to Christ, of that gift of God, by which 
 alone we can become sheep of the Son's own 
 fold : all this sleeps in the Pelagian's ear ; he 
 has no logic wherewith to meet and understand 
 it ; he stares at it, and wonders, and passes 
 by ; to him it is exaggeration, it is misleading 
 jargon ; his narrow common sense is helplessly 
 staggered by these tremendous paradoxes. And 
 yet the very poorest, the most ignorant, of men 
 understand and welcome every syllable of this 
 astounding language. These strange words it 
 is that have run like a flame through the dark 
 and foul houses of woe and crime, and have 
 moved the passionate heart of the masses, and 
 have built up from the hopeless and the lost the 
 wonderful Church of Christ. — Church Quarterly 
 Review {Oct. iT' " 
 
 2 Its logic finds itself in helpless collision 
 with all that most deeply and strongly 
 stirs the human spirit. 
 
 [1412] Here is the case for Pelagius, a case 
 starting from most obvious and plausible pre- 
 misses ; and nothing, it seems to us, exhibits 
 more decisively the mystical profundity that 
 belongs to the most ordinary and universal emo- 
 tions of daily human life, than the discovery, 
 under the pressure of the Pelagian controversy, 
 how fiat and poor and inadequate is the attempt 
 of plain common sense to give any intelligible 
 significance to the religious experiences of man- 
 kind. Pelagian logic could make nothing of 
 all that mighty language with which St. Paul 
 read out the miserable impotence of man, the 
 tyrannous bondage of iniquity. It could make 
 nothing of words that spoke of slavery, of im- 
 prisonment, of a horrible body of clinging cor- 
 
 ruption ; nor, again, could it enter into that 
 overpowering joy with which St. Paul knew 
 himself to be cajght up by the compelling force 
 of a grace that violently forced him from him- 
 self, and dragged him a willing captive, enslaved 
 to righteousness, behind the chariot-wheels of 
 Christ. — Ibid. 
 
 3 The Catholic doctrine about grace and 
 sinfulness, when guardedly stated, has 
 nothing to fear from Pelagian objections 
 or counter theories. 
 
 [1413] It is possible to believe in the reality 
 of internal grace, as etiabling the soul which 
 responds to its touch, and which does so re- 
 spond by its assistance, to achieve what would 
 otherwise have been beyond its capacity, with- 
 out admitting that this touch determines the 
 response which it solicits and makes possible. 
 Again, " we may believe that the sin of the first 
 man entailed on his posterity a condition of 
 sinfulness . . . which involved a disorder and 
 taint of the whole inner nature . . . while yet 
 we may avoid language which would suggest 
 a literal imputation of Adam's sin to each of 
 his descendants, admit that sin can bear only a 
 modified sense in regard to what is not per- 
 sonal, acknowledge a certain operation of grace 
 in the production of goodness among the un- 
 regenerated, and decline to adopt a rigorous 
 application of the doctrine of inherited con- 
 demnation to all who die unbaptized." — Dr. W. 
 Bright, Anti-Pelagian Treatise of St. Augus- 
 tine. 
 
 118 
 
 SABELLIANISM. 
 
 I. Its Various Forms. 
 
 [1414] From Sabellius, the main propounder 
 of the doctrine so called. This was a speculation 
 concerning the Trinity, and, as Arianism was a 
 departure from the orthodox teaching respect- 
 ing the Son, this was mainly in reference to 
 the Holy Ghost ; and, in some respects, was 
 Dualism, in opposition to Trinitarianism ; that 
 is, admitting the personality of the Father and 
 of the Son, and denying that of the Holy Ghost. 
 Others interpret Sabellianism as regarding the 
 three Persons in the light of accommodation to 
 the human understanding, and merely express- 
 ing the different relationships of the undivided 
 Deity to the work of man's salvation. — B. G. 
 
 [141 5] The Monarchians, Patripassians, Uni- 
 tarians, as they were indifferently called, ad- 
 mitted a modal Trinity ; they admitted the true 
 divinity of Christ, but denied any personal dis- 
 tinction in the Godhead. The same Person is 
 at once Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; these 
 terms expressing the different relations in which 
 God reveals Himself in the world and in the 
 Church. The name Sabellianism was derived 
 from Sabellius of Ptolemais (A.D. 250), who was
 
 246 
 
 I4IS- 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 -1421] 
 
 [SABELLIANISM. 
 
 one of its principal advocates. — Dr. C. Hodge., 
 Systeiuaiic Theology. 
 
 [1416] Sabellius maintained that God is in 
 Himself the Monad ; that when revealed, He is 
 extended into the Trinity — the acknowledged 
 three persons, but used the word in a sense 
 which may be termed merely dramatic — as 
 meaning characters., assumed or represented. 
 He illustrated his idea by comparison with the 
 three elements of man — body, soul, and spirit ; 
 and with the threefold combination in the sun, of 
 shape or substance, light and heat. — yanies 
 Craikie Robertson, History of the Christian 
 Clnirch. 
 
 II. Its Tendencies, Logical Conclusions, 
 OR Natural Affinities. 
 
 I It leads to pantheism. 
 
 (i) If the personality of Christ, the Head of 
 redeemed hiun unity, is transient and unreal, so 
 nuist that of His members be. 
 
 [1417] The personality of Christ is not re- 
 garded as possessed of any eternal substance, 
 but is only a transitory appearance. The quasi- 
 humanity of Christ at length dissolves and be- 
 comes as though it had never been. Whatever 
 there was of the personal existence of Christ is 
 .at length annihilated. But in the light of 
 Scripture it may be asked. If the body, and 
 whatever there was of the personality of Christ, 
 be annihilated, how then is He to become the 
 first-fruits of them that slept, by rising in His 
 •own body, and by assuming for ever His own 
 special personality ? If the personality of Christ 
 is transient, is only an appearance that vanishes 
 away, then must not the personality of those 
 who believe on Him, and are spoken of as be- 
 coming like Him — must not their personality 
 also vanish away 1 Since the Christian faith in 
 a personal, eternal life, stands on the faith of the 
 eternal duration of the personality of Christ, we 
 might conclude that as Sabellius made Christ's 
 personality to be nothing more than a transitory 
 appearance, so he must have conceived it to be 
 in regard to all personal existence aside from 
 God. But if all personal existence is only 
 ephemeral and transitory in this manner, why 
 then everything at last comes to pantheism. It 
 is easy to see that the rejection of the eternal 
 personality of Christ must end in pantheism in 
 order to be logically consistent. This was the 
 strong objection raised against Sabellius at the 
 time he advanced his doctrine. 
 
 2 It does away with the reality of the Resur- 
 rection of the Body. 
 
 [1418] If the bcdy of Christ was not strictly 
 human, if it was only human in appearance, 
 and but a mere body, what became of it ? How 
 then could Christ become the First fruits of the 
 resurrection? What hope could there be for 
 the Christian that, according to the Scriptures, 
 he should follow Christ with his body in the 
 resurrection, and so become like Christ in the 
 risen, the spiritual, glorified body ? 
 
 3 It lies in close sympathy with positive 
 philosophy. 
 
 [14 1 9] From the idea of sin as a necessity, 
 and that it must have its course like an epidemic, 
 so as at length to run itself out, the inference is 
 drawn that future punishment will not be eternal, 
 since punishment in running its course must 
 have a purifying influence, and end in the 
 restoration of all from the effects of sin, so that, 
 finally, all would be brought back into the 
 unity of God. Thus the Sabellian idea of sin, 
 as theology, lies in close logical sympathy with 
 the positive philosophy. For to deny the real 
 personality of Christ both as related to the 
 Father and as related to man ; to assume His 
 return to, and re-absorption in, the Father, as a 
 ray of light re-absorbed in the sun ; to conceive 
 the loss of all human personality by the loss of 
 the body in the denial of the resurrection, and 
 then assume the final restoration of all into the 
 unity of God, is, to say with Comte, that " to 
 desire a personal immortality is to desire to 
 perpetuate an error to infinity, for individual 
 existence is the error from which it should be 
 the aim of life to extricate ourselves." 
 
 4 It robs Christ's example of any real or 
 practical value. 
 
 [1420] Yet, again, it behoved Christ to be our 
 example in every respect ; but this would be 
 impossible if His nature were not like ours, if, 
 indeed, He had no human soul. 
 
 III. Consequences of its False Views 
 concerning Sin as Existent in 
 Human Nature. 
 
 I Sin being regarded as an essential, not as 
 an incidental element, led to the disbelief in 
 Christ's assumption of our true humanity. 
 
 [1421] Adopting more or less the Manichcean 
 notion that sin was necessary in human nature, 
 that sin was the real nature of man, and that 
 freedom from sin must be a contradiction of 
 man's nature, assuming that evil was an eternal 
 principle, and that in consequence man, instead 
 of being created in a state of innocence, was 
 really by nature a sinning soul from the first — 
 holding these opinions, the Sabellians thought 
 that the admission that Christ had a human 
 soul was equivalent to the assertion that He had 
 a sinful nature. Because this admission would 
 dishonour Christ, and lead to the denial of His 
 divinity, degrading Him lower even than the 
 first class of RIonarchians had done, who held 
 that He was a man and nothing more, the 
 Sabellians thought best to maintain that Christ 
 had no human soul. But if they had accepted 
 the doctrine that man was created in a state of 
 innocence, from which he afterwards fell ; if they 
 allowed that the soul of man was at first holy, 
 and that man fell from that first estate by his 
 own voluntary transgression, then they would 
 have found no difficulty. To have declared 
 that He had such a soul, such as it was before 
 the fall of man, would have been to assume 
 
 i
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1421 — 142S] 
 
 247 
 
 [SEMI-PELAGIANISM. 
 
 Christ's complete human nature, so as at the 
 same time to maintain His sinlessness. 
 
 a Sin, being regarded as an essential, not 
 incidental, element, led to the belief in 
 the possibility of the Divine nature 
 suffering. 
 
 [1422] This false view of sin led the Sabel- 
 ! ans to false conceptions of God^ by ascribing 
 to Him acts of suffering and pain. This appears 
 when in reference to Christ they said, " God 
 was born," and that " God died." Because they 
 could not allow that Christ had a perfect 
 human nature, on account of their false notion 
 of sin, they were obliged to declare that the 
 Divine nature suffered — that God Himself 
 suffered ; hence in the West they were called 
 Patripassians. 
 
 [The foregoing articles were taken from, or 
 suggested by an article in, the Boston Reviewi\ 
 
 119 
 
 SEMI-PEL A GIANISM. 
 
 I. Its Contemplated Am. 
 
 I To be a golden means between the ex- 
 tremes of Pelagianism and the Augus- 
 tinian theory. 
 
 [1423] This term marks the state of religious 
 opinion that replaced Pelagianism in about the 
 fourteenth year of its existence. It is a name, 
 however, which the party designated by it never 
 assumed, for they professed that they held no 
 distinctive point of Pelagian error ; neither was 
 it fixed upon them by the Augustinian following 
 in the Church, who termed them roundly 
 Pelagians, notwithstanding their renunciation of 
 the more extreme views of their master. It 
 was an invention of the later schoolmen to mark 
 a middle line of opinion between the hardy 
 denial of grace on the Pelagian side, and the 
 predestination theory of Augustine on the other, 
 including the notion of irresistible grace, which 
 he himself claimed to have been his own inven- 
 tion. " Nondum diligentius qua^siveram, nee 
 adhuc inveneram qualis sit Electio Gratiae " 
 ("De Prced. et Verity. ")— Rev. J. H. Blunt, 
 Bictionafy ofBoctrinal and Historical Theology. 
 
 II. Points of Augustine's Theory re- 
 jected BY THE Semi-Pelagian School. 
 
 (i) Unconditional election. 
 
 [1424] This point came up in connection with 
 the discussion about the fate of infants dying 
 after baptism, or without it. The Semi-Pela- 
 gians asserted that God granted to the former 
 the grace of justilication and salvation, because 
 He foresaw that if they had li\-cd they would 
 have been faithful ; that He denied this favour 
 to the latter, because He foresaw that if they 
 had lived they would have been rebellious. St. 
 Augustine maintained that the difference of con- 
 
 duct on God's part toward these infants was 
 the consequence of an unconditional decree of 
 predestination in favour of the former, and he 
 did not shrink from the dreadful alternative 
 which was forced upon him by the inexorable 
 rigour of his logic in the case of the latter. 
 
 (2) The inability of man under any ci/rnin- 
 stances to do good. 
 
 (3) The constfaining influence of g)- ace on free 
 will. 
 
 (4) The final perseverance of the saints. 
 [1425] On the other hand the Semi-Pelagians 
 
 made an equally emphatic protest against the 
 accusation of pure Pelagianism which was at- 
 tempted to be brought against them. " Let no 
 one imagine," said Cassian, " that we give sup- 
 port to the profane notion of some, who assert 
 that the sum of salvation is in our ov/n power, 
 and by ascribing everything to free will, make 
 the grace of God to be dispensed according to 
 each man's merit " (" Collat.'' xiii. 16). 
 
 III. Points denied by Pelagius, but 
 admitted by Cassian. 
 
 [1426] Unlike Pelagius, he did not deny (i) 
 the existence of original sin in all men ; (2) its 
 results, such as concupiscence, death, the loss of 
 right of succession to eternal happiness. Nor 
 did he assert that (3) human nature is still as 
 healthful as it was in the time of Adam's inno- 
 cence. (4) Or that man is able without the 
 assistance of grace to perform every kind of 
 good work, to reach the highest degree of per- 
 fection, and to accomplish the work of his 
 salvation by his own natural power. — Rev. f. 
 H. Blunt. 
 
 IV. Summary of the Teaching of Cas- 
 sian (of Marseilles) on its Positive 
 Side. 
 
 [1427] I. Ordinarily the working depends on 
 the determination of man's own will. 
 
 2. God furnishes men's nature with the seeds 
 of virtue, although grace be needful to develop 
 them. 
 
 3. Faith and good works are motives to the 
 bestowal and retention of Divine grace. 
 
 4. The benefits of Christ's death extended 
 beyond the baptized members of the Church 
 upon a broadly potential hypothesis. 
 
 [142S] General predestination includes all; 
 specially those whom God foresawwoulduse their 
 privileges aright. He insisted that original sin 
 has not so far weakened human nature that man 
 is unable naturally to desire to have faith to quit 
 sin, or to recover righteousness ; that when he 
 entertains these good dispositions, God recom- 
 penses them by the gift of grace, so that the 
 commencement of salvation may actually rest 
 with man and not vrith God, although this was 
 not necessarily and always the case. — Rev. 
 J. H. Blunt, Dictionary of Sects, Heresies^ 
 Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools of Religious 
 Thought.
 
 248 
 
 1429-1435] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 fN'IVERSALISM. 
 
 120 
 
 SOCINIANISAL 
 
 I. Its Leading Feature. 
 
 [1429] Its leading feature is the denial of our 
 Lord's Divine nature, with the belief that He 
 was a typical and unique man, supernaturally 
 conceived by a Virgin, Divinely commissioned, 
 and displaying in so unprecedented a manner 
 those higher characteristics of human nature, 
 which make it a shadow of the Divine nature, 
 that He was called (though He was not in the 
 sense maintained by the Church) the Son of 
 Qo^.—Rev. J. H. Bhmt. 
 
 [1430] It asserts that Jesus Christ is merely 
 man, whether (as Faustus Socinus himself 
 teaches) supernaturally born of a Virgin, or (as 
 modern rationalists generally maintain) in all 
 respects subject to ordinary natural laws, al- 
 though of such remarkable moral eminence, 
 that he may, in the enthusiastic language of 
 ethical admiration, be said to be Divine. — 
 Cation Liddon, Bampton Lectures. 
 
 II. Its Relation to other Systems. 
 
 1 To Deism. 
 
 [143 1 ] So called from Socinus its chief 
 founder ; it consists mainly in denials of the 
 characteristic doctrines of Christianity, reducing 
 it to natural religion, or deism. — B. G. 
 
 2 To Arianism. 
 
 [1432] The keystone is the Divinity of Christ, 
 by which the grand, central, sacrificial truth of 
 the atonement is supported ; and with which 
 it falls. Socinianism is the last round on the 
 ladder of Arianism, which begins by undeify- 
 ing the Saviour, but seeks to make amends by 
 placing Him, though in creation, yet at the top, 
 "above all principalities and powers ; " whereas 
 Socinianism completes the dethronement by 
 placing the Saviour among men — " a little lower 
 than the angels" — and gives Him only that 
 character. Sometimes we have read Socinian 
 books proving that Christ was man — which is 
 true. He "was made man;" but He was 
 something more. Here, as usual, a truth is in- 
 sisted on, but only to cover an error. To insist 
 on Christ's humanity seems very innocent, but 
 is like atheistic secularism insisting on the 
 duties of this life ; or like materialism proving 
 that there is matter, when the question is 
 whether there is also spirit, also another life, 
 also not only humanity, but Divinity in Jesus. 
 
 And as Arians, to atone for denial of His 
 Divinity, placed Him high in nature, so 
 Socinianism, to compensate for making Him 
 only human, places Him at the top of humanity. 
 This overlooks the fact that the perfection of 
 His humanity is the reflection of His Divinity ; 
 as He Himself said, "Why call ye me good ; 
 none is good, save one, that is, God." If there- 
 fore we say He is good, in the highest sense, we 
 
 imply that He is God. Our Saviour did not 
 deny His own goodness ; He refused the term as 
 flattery if applied to Him only as man, and 
 showed to whom it belongs. In fine. He is 
 good, as Socinianism says — therefore He is God. 
 —B. G. 
 
 121 
 
 UNI VERSALISM. 
 
 I. Its Phases. 
 
 [1433] Universalism is the name given to the 
 opinion that, eventually, all will be saved. 
 
 This may be a very comforting doctrine, and 
 also may be very dangerous to those who act 
 and rely upon it. Kindness to others may lead us 
 to wish it to be true, but kindness to ourselves 
 will lead us to act as if it were not. We know — 
 if there be any truth in Christianity — that he 
 that believeth in Christ shall be saved ; but we 
 do not know, on the same authority, that " he 
 that believeth not" shall be saved. This is 
 an esoteric doctrine, and contradicts the very 
 facts of the documents by which Christians pro- 
 fess to be guided. — B. G. 
 
 [1434] I cannot preach the certainty of what 
 is called universalism — that is, the view that all 
 will finally be saved. That last doctrine — the 
 belief that good shall fall at last, far off, yet at 
 last, to all— does indeed derive much support 
 from many passages of Scripture ; and it, or a 
 view closely analogous to it, was held by Origen, 
 the greatest and noblest ; by Gregory of Nyssa, 
 the most fearless ; by Clement of Alexandria, 
 the most learned ; by Justin, one of the earliest 
 of the fathers. It was spoken of in some places 
 with half approval, and in others with very 
 modified reprobation, by theologians like St. 
 Ambrose, St. Irensus — even, at his better 
 moments, by that man who has cast so dark a 
 shade over theology, St. Augustine himself; and 
 in modern times, among many others, that doc- 
 trine has been held by grand and most orthodox 
 theologians like Bunsen and Toike among the 
 Germans, and by saints of God among our- 
 selves like Thomas Erskine of Lanathan, and 
 Bishop Austin of Argyle. And, further, what- 
 ever may have been the motives which in- 
 fluenced them, it is, at any rate, a fact that the 
 Reformers struck out of the Prayer-book that 
 article which originally decreed "All men shall 
 not finally be saved." I care but little for indi- 
 vidual authority in such matters ; but thus much 
 is proved, at least, by these different theories of 
 wise and holy men — that God has given us no 
 clear and decisive revelation on the final con- 
 dition of those who have died in sin. — F. IV. 
 Farrar. 
 
 [1435] Some preach what they call "The 
 Fatherhood of God," in a sense that denies 
 His sovereignty and judgment ; and in for- 
 getfulness that it was the returned and pcnite7ti
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I43S— 1440] 
 
 249 
 
 [UNIVERSALISM, 
 
 prodigal son whom the Father embraced. Some 
 preach what they call " Life in Christ," by which 
 they mean annihilation of those not in Christ ; 
 all this is an implied denial of any Divine 
 justice. — B. G. 
 
 II. Its Inconsistency. 
 
 [Universalism justly lies open to precisely the 
 same charges which it unjustly brings 
 against Catholic truth.] 
 
 I On antecedent grounds. 
 
 (i) The prevalence of the dodritie of eternal 
 punishment {almost amounting to an instinct), 
 if 7wt true, is in itself irreconcilable it'ith the 
 alleged q-oodness of God. 
 
 [1436] The doctrine of eternal condemnation 
 of the impenitent sinner has been more or less 
 distinctly believed in every age of the world. 
 Examine the tenets of the principal systems of 
 religion that have prevailed among men, and 
 you find a distinct avowal of belief in future 
 punishment ; in some, of endless punishment. 
 Examine the dictates of conscience and the 
 natural apprehensions of men. Do they declare 
 that no punishment awaits the sinner beyond 
 the grave.'* Their unwarped verdict accords 
 with the Bible. They teach men to expect 
 future woe. The most of universalists have 
 held originally the belief which they now re- 
 ject. Even their testimony once concurred 
 with the teachings of unprejudiced conscience. 
 We cannot suppose that God would sutler man- 
 kind to be deluded and afflicted as they have 
 been by the dominion of a cruel error down to 
 the present time. 
 
 [1437] Before the coming of Christ the doc- 
 trine of future and endless punishment prevailed 
 among Jews and pagans. This is admitted by 
 Dr. Hartley, a zealous defender of universal 
 salvation, who believed it to be a general tra- 
 dition, and who admits that it has been " the 
 doctrine of the Christian world ever since, some 
 very few persons excepted." Why is it the 
 deep-seated sentiment of the mind that sin 
 must be punished hereafter? This conviction, 
 as ancient as the world, whether we trace it to 
 tradition or to the natural suggestions of the 
 mind, comes from God. If it be a false sentiment, 
 how can its existence and prevalence be recon- 
 ciled with the alleged goodness of the Lord ? 
 
 (2) The i7ispired utterances regarding the 
 doctrine of eternal punishment more thati 
 justifying the belief of the Church in all ages, 
 if not true, are in themselves irreconcilable with 
 the alleged benevolence of God. 
 
 [1438] Will it be said that the prevalence of 
 our doctrine is to be traced to the dishonesty 
 in the first teachers of Christianity ? This is a 
 grave charge. Were Christ and His apostles 
 base deceivers ? Did they conceal the messages 
 they were sent to teach, and substitute doctrines 
 perfecily at variance with universalism } What 
 motive could have prompted them to withhold 
 the sentiment that sin will meet with no future 
 
 punishment, and teach in its stead the doctrine 
 of endless misery? It is impossible to assign 
 any reason for a measure like this. Why did 
 they persevere in teaching error when they 
 gained nothing but persecution, and when they 
 had only to announce the welcome doctrine, 
 that sin will not be punished hereafter, to 
 become the favourites of the world ? Surely they 
 were not dishonest teachers. They did believe 
 what they taught. Did they then receive their 
 instructions from God ? Did He impart the 
 doctrines that have prevailed in the world ? 
 The universalist says the doctrine is not true. 
 Has the Almighty then sanctioned error ? If 
 so, where is His benevolence ? 
 
 [1439] The men who have been authorized 
 by Divine inspiration to teach the way of 
 salvation, have conveyed the belief that this 
 doctrine is founded in truth. Have prophets 
 and apostles then taught what they were not 
 instructed to teach ? Were they commissioned 
 to make known the doctrine of universalism ; 
 and have they taught the opposite doctrines so 
 distinctly that the whole Christian world, " some 
 very few persons excepted," have been grievously 
 misled ? Was it incompetency or dishonesty 
 that made Christ and the apostles teachers of 
 error ? Teachers of error they were in fact, if 
 universalism be true, for their instructions have 
 established the belief that sin will be punished 
 for ever. Will it be said that they were incom- 
 petent teachers? If the defenders of univer- 
 salism assume this position, and thus claim for 
 their leaders more talent than fell to the lot of 
 the Saviour and the apostles, how will they vin- 
 dicate the goodness of God ? Why did not a 
 benevolent Deity raise up in former ages pro- 
 phets and apostles who could teach universalism 
 as distinctly and intelligibly as Balfour and 
 Ballou ? Why was the valuable discovery that 
 revelation teaches universalism postponed to our 
 own time ? Why was not the first promulgation 
 of Christianity entrusted to men who would per- 
 form their work in a less bungling manner 
 than incompetent apostles are supposed to have 
 done ? The same benignant Providence that 
 has blessed the world with the instructions of 
 modern preachers of universalism, could have 
 easily raised up men of equal talents in the first 
 age of Christianity. 
 
 (3) The recent origin of universalism, accord- 
 ing to the logic of its advocates, disproves either 
 the benevolence or the power of the Almighty. 
 
 [1440] It is the favourite representation of the 
 universalist, "If God be endowed with bene- 
 volence. He desires the salvation of all men. 
 If omnipotent, He is able to save all. The 
 doctrine of endless misery denies, then, either 
 the power or the benevolence of the Almighty ? " 
 Not to dwell upon the sophistical nature of this 
 argument, we would contend that it may be 
 retorted upon the universalist. If universalism 
 be the grand remedy for the errors and miseries 
 of mankind, the benevolence of God must have 
 inclined Him to make it known in every past age
 
 250 
 
 I440— 1443! 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 and over the whole earth. If God be omnipo- 
 tent, He is able to execute His desires — then He 
 must have made men in all ages universalists. 
 
 2 In regard to its philosophy about punish- 
 ments. 
 
 (i) The assertion of iiiiivcrsalists that men 
 suffer hi this luorld according to their deserts, 
 and endure the penalty of the lam, leaves tto room 
 for the idea of Divitie denevolence or the office 
 of Christ as a Saviour. 
 
 [1441] From v.'hat does the Son of God save 
 men ? Is it future and endless punishment ? 
 This universalism denies to have been our 
 desert. It must be only from evils in this world, 
 if we credit the assertions of the universalist. 
 
 From what earthly evils, then, does the Son 
 of God save men ? Let it be recollected that 
 it is the doctrine of universalism that men 
 suffer in this world according to their deserts, 
 and thus endure the penalty of the law. It is 
 not from punishment on earth, then, that we 
 are saved by Divine mercy ? Punishment we 
 are said to suffer literally and fully. Univer- 
 salism makes God as unrelenting as the severest 
 taskmaster. According to this system, He in- 
 flicts without mitigation and without mercy the 
 entire penalty of transgression. He is held up 
 to our view as an almighty Shylock, who stands 
 over the sinner with unyielding sternness, un- 
 willing to abate in the slightest degi'ee the 
 demands of justice. We know that universalism 
 professes to regard Christ as a Saviour, but at 
 the same time, with glaiing contradiction, it 
 avows that we are punished as much as we 
 deserve in this life. Here, then, is no room 
 for the services of a Saviour. We cannot be 
 punished by justice and saved by mercy at the 
 same time. 
 
 According to the tenets of universalism there 
 is no remission of sin, no expiatory atonement, 
 no grace, no clemency. If men obey, they are 
 rewarded as an act of justice ; if they sin, they 
 expiate their own guilt by enduring the full 
 amount of punishment. And yet this system 
 claims the merit of showing forth to a surpass- 
 ing extent the glory of Divine benevolence ! 
 
 (2) The removal into eternity (if there be no 
 future pimishments) of me7i in the very act of 
 
 atrocious "wickedness luJiich deserve pu7iishme7it, 
 •uioitld be a serious-miscarriage of jitstice. 
 
 [1442] Sometimes men are removed into 
 eternity in the very act of atrocious wickedness. 
 According to the system of uni\-ersalism this 
 is the most palpable form of partiality in the 
 government of the world. 
 
 The Egyptians, while pursuing the oppressed 
 Israelites, were engulfed in the Red Sea. The 
 pirate has perished in the act of inflicting death 
 upon a peaceful man. The highwayman has 
 been slain by the anned traveller. The adulterer 
 has fallen a victim to the vengeance of an injured 
 man. In such cases, when are perpetrators of 
 crime punished ? Not in the future world, if we 
 are to believe universalism ; not in this world, 
 
 for they die in the very commission of their 
 glaring crimes. And yet we are told that, in this 
 world, men receive according to their deserts. 
 How is justice administered in cases of this 
 description ? When are those who die in the 
 very commission of crime punished "^ or do they 
 pass with all their guilt to the courts of heaven ? 
 
 How comes it to pass that any such instances 
 occur under the government of the all-wise God .'' 
 Are not such instances so many specifications 
 of glaring partiality ? 
 
 Until universalism can account for the devia- 
 tions from rectitude which her system brings to 
 light in the providence of God, we must aflirm 
 that upon the principles of this system the Holy 
 One is guilty of glaring partiality— that He is 
 not " righteous in all His ways and holy in all 
 His works." 
 
 (3) 27^1? itiflictio7i of death, if it be the worse 
 for7)i of pu7iish77ie7it, up07i all. irrespective of 
 their grade of guilt, is not co77ipatible ivith 
 Divi7ie justice. 
 
 [1443] According to this system the punish- 
 ment of death, which is the worse form of 
 punishment, is inflicted upon all, how various so- 
 ever may be their grades of guilt. Justice would 
 dictate that if death were the highest penalty 
 of the Divine law, it should not be inflicted upon 
 all with indiscriminate severity. No criminal 
 code of human origin awards capital punish- 
 ment to every oftender — from the traitor that 
 would enslave his country down to the smuggler 
 who evades the payment of a trivial duty ; from 
 the blood-stained pirate down to the dissipated 
 youth who disturbs the peace by a midnight 
 revel. Such levelling severity would be deemed 
 the grossest injustice. With such severit}', how- 
 ever, do the universalists brand the government 
 of the blessed God. The infant that has never 
 lisped a syllable sinks under the agonies of 
 death. The child, whose sins have not risen to 
 the size and enormity of the sins of manhood, 
 is punished also with death. Those who have 
 advanced to the meridian of life, disclosing to 
 the eye of God additional guilt at every step, 
 are punished with but the same severity. And 
 the aged offender, who has grown grey in sin, 
 whom neither mercies nor misfortunes can re- 
 claim, who devotes the venerable influence of 
 advanced life to the corruption of the young, 
 suffers nothing worse than death. Is there, 
 then, no dift'erence between the faint dawn of 
 sinfulness and the vivid brightness of mature 
 iniquity? between the tender blossom and the 
 mellow fruit of sin ? between the hesitating air, 
 the unaffected blush of childish guilt, and the 
 insolent port and vaunting air of experienced 
 wickedness ? 
 
 It is true that in some instances the agonies 
 of death are comparatively light. Sometimes, 
 indeed, they are but momentary. But this 
 mitigation of punishment, granted, as it often 
 is, with no regard to justice, is only a confirma- 
 tion of the charge of partiality. The meek and 
 patient Christian, whose life has been a public 
 blessing, often experiences a more direful and
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1443— 1446] 
 
 [UNIVEESALISM. 
 
 prolonged conflict with the king of terrors than 
 the most worthless votary of vice. Even the 
 child Vi-ho has scarcely begun to walk in the 
 path of sin is convulsed on a deathbed with 
 throes which lacerate the parent's heart ; while 
 the vilest miscreant, by public execution or by 
 suicide, is hurried into eternity almost without 
 a struggle. Would not this be partiality of the 
 most glaring description if universalism were 
 true ? Is the heaviest penalty recognized by 
 this system thus enforced with no just regard to 
 age or character ? What could be more glaring 
 injustice ? 
 
 (4) The covipiinciions of remorse {an acknozv- 
 ledoed and important part of retribution) being 
 inflicted, as they are, tvitJi no just reference to 
 character, cannot, on the nniversalist theory, be 
 shown to be cojisistent ivith Divine justice. 
 
 [1444] Behold the gay libertine, who scruples 
 not to destroy the peace of virtuous families, 
 who glories in deeds that plunge the victims of 
 his ensnaring arts into the lowest depths of 
 degradation, who moves in society like a pesti- 
 lential sirocco, spreading around him a polluting 
 influence, leaving the imprint of vice and infamy 
 wherever he treads. Observe the gay indifference 
 with which he proceeds in his pathway of crime. 
 Remorse is a stranger to his bosom. Nay he 
 plumes himself upon the skill with which he 
 makes havoc of the morals and the happiness 
 of his deluded victims. 
 
 Turn to an humble Christian whose life is 
 stained by no immorality. For a season he is 
 overwhelmed with sorrow. What has led to 
 the distress you witness ? What cause has 
 covered his face with sadness .'' The cause of 
 his grief is one which he would rather conceal 
 within the sanctuary of his bosom than drag out 
 to public observation. He has detected within 
 himself a diminished interest in the word of 
 God, the fervour of his prayers may have given 
 place to cold formality. And while to the 
 observer's view his life presents the charm of 
 Christian consistency, he weeps and mourns 
 before God over the secret offences of his in- 
 ward life. Nor does he wear the aspect of peace 
 and gladness till the assurance of pardon and 
 favour from God has relieved his heavy heart. 
 In an hour does he experience more distress 
 than the conscience of the hardened libertine 
 would inflict in an entire year. Here is a strange 
 disregard of justice which universalism does not 
 explain, 
 
 3 In regard to its philosophy about rewards 
 or escape from punishment. 
 
 (i) The happy removal of the wicked from 
 earth to heaven, while righteous survivors are 
 still subjected to many sorrozvs, clearly involves 
 the charge of partiality against the Ruler of the 
 wiiversalists'' world. 
 
 [1445] The more profligate a man becomes, 
 the more does he shorten his life. According 
 to an inspired proverb, the wicked do not live 
 out half their days. They die and are borne to 
 heaven, if universalism is to be credited. Having 
 
 finished their course with joy, having run a race 
 of glaring iniquity, having contended not against 
 the enemies of the soul, but against the cause 
 of holiness and the servants of God to the last 
 moment, having won the crown of public infamy, 
 having become meet for an inheritance with the 
 devil and his angels, they are ushered by the 
 ministering spirits to the abodes of the blessed. 
 The glories of heaven beam around them ; the 
 bliss of heaven fills their bosoms ; the Holy One 
 lavishes upon them the warmest commendations. 
 But where are the miserable survivors, the 
 devout men whose peace they loved to disturb, 
 whose piety they loved to deride, whose benefi- 
 cent plans they loved to embarrass 1 They are 
 doomed to remain in this vale of tears, to breast 
 additional opposition from the replenished ranks 
 of the enemies of godliness. They must weep 
 and struggle for many a tedious year before the 
 time of their release shall come. 
 
 Let a man serve God with pious care, and 
 in ordinary circumstances he will outlive the 
 abandoned voluptuary. His piety will be re- 
 warded by a long exclusion from the joys of 
 heaven. He must stay on earth till he has seen 
 his fondest hopes crushed a hundred times ; he 
 must endure separations that will wring his 
 heart ; he must live till he becomes an incum- 
 brance to his friends, till he stands a solitary 
 trunk, stripped of its branches, bowing and 
 trembling under every blast. At last death 
 removes the superannuated burden from the 
 world. 
 
 Let the profligate young man rush into vicious 
 excesses. In a fit of inebriation, or in the hope 
 of concealing crime, he commits a murder : the 
 laws of the land doom him to die. Or in other 
 words, a kind Providence thus favours him with 
 a speedier discharg* from the woes of earth. 
 Instead of dragging out a long life, he is borne 
 to heaven ere he has attained mature age. He 
 is blessed with an early release from the perils 
 and vicissitudes of earth. 
 
 (2) The bitter persecution of the most holy 
 jnen, and the prosperity of their persecutors, is 
 an impeachment of Divine justice as expounded 
 by nniversalists. 
 
 [1446] Sometimes the most holy men have 
 been persecuted bitterly by the enemies of 
 religion. This may be specified as an additional 
 impeachment of the Divine justice as it is ex- 
 pounded by universalism. 
 
 Why were the primitive Christians loaded 
 with every indignity and subjected to every 
 outrage ? Why did the blood of martyrs flow ? 
 Why did the groans of persecuted Christians 
 ascend from the stake " with the smoke of their 
 torments ? " It was because they were righteous 
 and their oppressors wicked. The persecutors 
 survive to enjoy the blessings of prosperity. If 
 there be no future retribution ; if the oppressor 
 may inflict the most cruel tortures upon the 
 servant of Christ and still enjoy the ordinary 
 share of earthly happiness ; if the martyr and 
 the relentless monster who chained him to the 
 stake must meet at length under the same
 
 252 
 
 1446— 1448] 
 
 THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 [UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 canopy of Divine favour ; if the oppressed and 
 the oppressor, with no future adjustment of their 
 doings before the bar of God, must stand on the 
 same level — where is the justice of the Holy 
 One? If retribution is dispensed with in this 
 world, His is partiality of the most glaring 
 description. 
 
 (3) The regardwg this world as one vast 
 prison-house or hell, involves the charge of in- 
 competency agaifist its sovereign Ruler. 
 
 [1447] The Almighty has established laws by 
 which men are to be governed. He has fixed 
 penalties which may be supposed the most 
 suitable that infinite Wisdom can devise. Ac- 
 cording to the scheme of universalism, the 
 penalties are faithfully enforced ; every man, it 
 is said, "is punished to the full extent of his 
 guilt." 
 
 How does the administration of Jehovah 
 succeed ? What is the state of the world ? 
 Does the government of the Eternal inspire 
 sufficient awe or sufficient love to save men from 
 incurring the penalty of the law? Where is the 
 man that has been restrained effectually from 
 sin ? There is not an instance of undeviating 
 rectitude in our world. All have sinned, all do 
 sin, and all are punished. There is not one of 
 our race who escapes the penalty of the law as 
 it is explained by universalism. Universalism 
 makes all men suffer in this world, and only in 
 this world, according to their desert. It con- 
 tends that God enforces faithfully the penalties 
 of his laws. Under an administration so 
 effective what do we witness ? Every inhabi- 
 tant of our world becomes a malefactor, and is 
 punished. There is none that does not become, 
 at sometime of his life, an inmate of the univer- 
 
 salist's hell. The great mass of the human 
 family must be imprisoned over and over again, 
 as long as they live. Some persons, if we may 
 judge by their misfortunes, seem never to re- 
 main out of prison. Why, if a civil government 
 could not sustain itself without covering the 
 land with prisons and immuring within their 
 walls all its subjects, from the chief magistrates 
 down to the humblest child, at intervals, would 
 it not be deemed miserable work? 
 
 4 The lives of its advocates do not harmonize 
 with or aid its tenets. 
 
 (i) The nniversalists clinging to life, while 
 they regard this world as a universal prison 
 and the next as a tiniversal paradise, is an 
 indication of their own misgivings as to their 
 doctrine. 
 
 [1448] According to our views, the penalty of 
 the Divine law is not enforced in this life ; its 
 full infliction is reserved for a future state. 
 Universalists themselves show that all the hell 
 which they suffer in this world is but an incon- 
 siderable evil. For although confident that 
 they shall be happy after death, they evince na 
 eagerness to leave a world where the sins o\ 
 men are rigorously punished. They like their 
 prison. They are not anxious to depart and 
 be with Christ, as I'aul was. Why should they 
 wish to linger in our world if it be a hell, as 
 they assert, unless they begin to find that their 
 doctrine is false, since it charges God with such 
 incompetency as can never disgrace the govern- 
 ment of the Eternal. 
 
 [Most of the foregoing extracts are taken, or 
 condensed from, articles in "Biblical Reposi- 
 tory," vol. xii.]
 
 DIVISION F. 
 
 REASON AND FAITH. 
 
 Pages 252 io 263. 
 
 TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 122 
 CRITICAL AND VERIFYING FACULTY OF MAN. 
 
 123 
 DOGMATIC FAITH. 
 
 124 
 EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 
 
 125 
 
 FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 126 
 FAITH AND FREE THOUGHT. 
 
 127 
 THINGS ABOVE REASON. 
 
 128 
 PROVINCE OF REASON. 
 
 253
 
 254 
 
 DIVISION F. 
 
 REASON AND FAITH. 
 
 122 
 
 CRITICAL AND VERIFYING 
 FACULTY OF MAN. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 [1449] This critical faculty of man is not to be 
 taken as a separate simple power or capacity, as 
 reason, hope, and the like, but is the general use 
 of man's understanding in sifting evidence and 
 discovering truth. 
 
 And as nothing is more injurious to man than 
 delusion or error, and nothing more beneficial 
 than truth, it is a criminal instead of critical use 
 of the faculty when purposely or carelessly em- 
 ployed in fostei'ing error, or in destroying and 
 hiding truth. — B. G. 
 
 II. Its Right Uses and Prescribed 
 Limits. 
 
 [1450] The critical or verifying faculty is the 
 power which enables the mind to test truth, 
 especially of a moral and spiritual character. 
 This property is an endowment of our nature, 
 and some enjoy it apart from revelation and 
 spiritual enlightenment, in the Christian sense of 
 the word, to a considerable degree, amounting 
 in some cases, with the heathen philosophers, 
 almost to genius or inspiration of a lesser 
 degree. The verifying faculty is capable of 
 being cultivated to great nicety. But like all 
 other endowments it has its limits and defects, 
 and its truest office is only realized in the re- 
 newed nature. Without this faculty in embryo 
 form, what common ground would there be be- 
 tween the missionary and the heathen ? Where 
 would there be left room for man's responsibility, 
 and the guilt of refusing to allow the truth that, 
 by its very enunciation, has made its power felt, 
 to remain upon the vestibule of the heart for 
 further investigation. Or, again, without the 
 verifying faculty under its Christian form of 
 spiritual discernment, what personal safeguard 
 would there be against the errors, the supersti- 
 tions, and mis-statements of heretical, or ill- 
 instructed, careless, dishonest, or designing 
 teachers ? The use of the critical or verifying 
 faculty has, in the case of truths on the border- 
 land between religion and mental and moral 
 science, done really good service. One only 
 regrets that many have ascribed uses to this 
 faculty which it is unable either to perform at 
 all, or, if at all, not until itself is verified, recti- 
 
 fied, quickened, and renewed. To sum up, 
 then, the verifying faculty is a guide always, in 
 a limited degree before regeneration and con- 
 version, and in an extended degree after ; but 
 it is never an infallible or independent test, nor 
 does it supersede the necessity of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, the Church, the Sacraments, the Creeds, 
 and supernatural aids generally. — C. N. 
 
 III. Considerations to be borne in 
 jMind when applying this Test to 
 Scripture. 
 
 1 Revelation must, in a sense, be accom- 
 modated to the necessities and limited by 
 the capacities, mental and m.oral, of each 
 successive age. 
 
 [145 1] Revelation is not a wild, destructive 
 power — a flood sweeping everything away, but 
 the river of life. We cannot suppose that the 
 Almighty can pour the Mississippi River into 
 the banks of a mountain brook. He can begin, 
 however, with the springs and the brooks, and 
 make in time the broad Mississippi River. We 
 cannot expect God to pour the full Christian era 
 into the limited moral experience of the patri- 
 archal age. He may begin, however, with the 
 first welling-up of truth in far-off times, to pre- 
 pare for the Christian era. He will not, by a 
 too early flood, wash away the very possibility 
 of an enlarging revelation. His stream keeps 
 within its banks ; His revelation never breaks 
 through the appointed limits of a great historical 
 influence. But this patience of the Divine 
 Teacher with man's slowly maturing capacity 
 for instruction, this self-restraint of revelation, 
 is itself the sign of a higher wisdom. — Smyth 
 {Aiiierica). 
 
 2 The right of the individual to life is an 
 undeniable principle of morality; but, at 
 times, the right of a race to its redemption 
 may be more sacred. 
 
 [1452] Many vigorous providences were neces- 
 sary and right in the Divine order of history, as 
 were the blows of the pioneei^'s axe and the 
 smoke of his fires, when the forests were to be 
 cleared and the wilderness made habitable. 
 Moses and the judges, and the prophets, even, 
 were God's chosen pioneers ; and theirs v»'as the 
 rough, hard work of history. How nmch suffer- ' 
 ing and hardship does not nature relentlessly 
 compel in the pioneer age ! The necessities of 
 the times determine the rights and the tiuths 
 which must be made paramount and command- 
 mg. — Ibid.
 
 REASON- AND FAITH. 
 
 I4S3— 1458J 
 
 255 
 
 [dogmatic faith. 
 
 3 The Bible is its own commentary and 
 corrective. 
 
 [1453] We have thus far taken no notice of 
 the significant fact that it is to the Bible itself 
 we owe our own power of judging the Bible. 
 The hard places in the Old Testament are re- 
 vealed by the increasing light of the Bible itself. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 4 The Christian religion has nothing to fear, 
 but much to gain, by the application of 
 the severest tests. 
 
 [1454] False religions, and all corruptions of 
 the true, have such arguments lying against 
 them as evidently demonstrate their falsity ; and 
 therefore wisely shun all inquiry. But the true 
 religion loses nothing by examination, it shines 
 the brighter after it has dispelled the clouds and 
 mists which are raised about it. Its firmness is 
 never so well seen as when it is assaulted ; so 
 that we may challenge its opponents in the 
 language of the prophet : "Associate yourselves, 
 and ye shall be broken in pieces ; take counsel 
 together, and it shall come to nought." They 
 are only like the waves which with a great deal 
 of fury dash against the rock, but instead of 
 removing that from its place, only discover their 
 own weakness, and retire murmuring at their 
 defeat. — H. Grove, 173S. 
 
 123 
 
 DOGMATIC FAITH. 
 
 I. Its Definition. 
 
 1 Etymological. 
 
 [1455] From the Greek ^okIw, to think, or it 
 seems ; juot SokCi, it seems to me : whence cuYfta, 
 or what seems — which is thought or decided 
 upon. The " decree of Augustus C?esar that all 
 the world should be taxed " is foy/ia (Luke ii. i). 
 This is the objective expression of the subjective 
 opinion, doctrine, or conclusion. — B. G. 
 
 2 Ecclesiastical. 
 
 [1456] Ecclesiastically, dogma is the decision 
 or definition of doctrine by some Church 
 Council. The same word has come lately to 
 denote a usurping imposition of doctrine ; and 
 dogmatic, dogmatical, to mean opinionativeness 
 and overbearing assertion. But in this sectional 
 heading it is simply decisive or decided faith : 
 ftxed, orthodox doctrine. — Ibid. 
 
 II. Its Relation to History and Logic. 
 
 [1457] The term belongs strictly to a positive 
 statement of doctrine derived immediately or by 
 deduction from Divine revelation, and enunciated 
 by the Church through a General Council. In 
 a looser sense it is applied also to the special 
 tenets of particular churches, or even of sects, if 
 put forth by an authority recognized by them. 
 
 Dogma presupposes substantial proof, which is 
 generally, and in the ordinary sense, of an 
 historical or logical kind ; but it must be re- 
 membered that we have reached the highest 
 possible kind of evidence as to truth, when it is 
 proved that any particular statement has come 
 from God. There can be no real opposition 
 between dogma and history, or dogma and logic, 
 so long as these principles are kept in view ; 
 but it must be again remembered that there are 
 some subjects in theology, especially such as 
 relate to God Himself, which are beyond the 
 province of history or logic, and the dogmata 
 respecting which, must depend wholly upon His 
 revelation of truth. — Rev. J. H. Bbttit. 
 
 III. Its Uses. 
 
 1 Clear definitions of religious truth are ex- 
 ceedingly helpful to the religious life. 
 
 [145S] Everything is an advance in theology 
 which enables men to know God better, and to 
 think of Him more worthily — that is, more in 
 accordance with reality. 
 
 2 Doctrinal systems, when within scriptural 
 limits, are a means to promote the salva- 
 tion of men. 
 
 [1459] All doctrinal systems, as such, are the 
 products of human wisdom and skill. God has 
 no more given us a system of theology than He 
 has of botany, astronomy, geology, or zoology. 
 He has sown the earth with flowers, scattered 
 the stars in space, created the earth under our 
 feet, and peopled it with life. This He has 
 done. He has given us the facts, and motives, 
 and means for reducing them to harmony ; but 
 He has given us no system. The same is true 
 in theology, where the facts — that is, the truths 
 with which it is concerned — are in a manner 
 sown broadcast over the sacred page ; and he 
 that would have a system of theology must work 
 it out for himself, or others for him. One con- 
 sequence is, that as systems of botany, &c., are 
 all provisional, all liable to change and correc- 
 tions, so are theological systems mutable, and 
 imperfect, and many. It follows, also, that the 
 patrons of no particular system of theology have 
 a right to exceed the limits of human modesty 
 by proclaiming all others false, and their own 
 infallibly true, and alone to be tolerated. The 
 different systems of any science agree on cer- 
 tain fundamental principles, and usually on 
 many details. And this is true of systems of 
 theology. All we have to demand is a fair and 
 honest acceptance of plain and positive facts. 
 God is our ultimate Judge : and if we accept 
 His truth, it will be well with us. He has not 
 given us a system of theology, nor has He 
 appointed anybody else to give us one ; and 
 therefore it is wrong for any to claim a Divine 
 sanction for that which they devise or accept. 
 Nevertheless, theological systems have their 
 uses, like Church organizations and forms, but 
 only so far as they promote the end for which 
 Jesus Christ came into the world — the salvation 
 of men. Souls are so precious that everything
 
 256 
 
 1459—1465] 
 
 REASOX AND FAITH 
 
 [efficacy of prayer. 
 
 that can be done to save them, should be done; 
 but there is no reason for hindering them when 
 seeking for salvation. Yet they are hindered 
 when the terms of salvation laid down in Scrip- 
 ture are added to, diminished from, or in any- 
 way disguised. " What man is there of you 
 who, if his son ask bread, will give him a ser- 
 pent ? Or, if he ask a fish, will give him a 
 stone ? " But, in truth, some have acted veiy 
 much in this way. They have so mixed up the 
 pure grain of God's truth with the chaff of their 
 own inventions, that they have fed the hungry 
 with what hurt them as much as it fed them. — 
 The Christian Evidence Jotniml. 
 
 IV. Correctives of its Abuses. 
 
 1 The science of religion must be entered 
 upon in a holy and religious spirit. 
 
 [1460] Theology is the science of religion, a 
 science which, to be pursued properly and 
 profitably, must ever be entered upon in a truly 
 religious spirit, and so as to keep our hearts as 
 well as our minds not only in the knowledge but 
 in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we 
 maintain the supreme and sole jurisdiction of 
 Scripture in matters of faith, let us never imagine 
 that we show a sincere regard for that Scripture 
 if we content ourselves with drily and uncon- 
 cernedly upholding its authority as a mere topic 
 of controversial argument ; but let us receive 
 it into the inmost recesses of an honest heart. 
 — Conybeare, Analytical Exaininatiofi into the 
 Writings of the Fathers. 
 
 [1461] Dogmas of the intellect are dried 
 flowers, while the same truths in the heart are 
 flowers growing and blooming. — B. G. 
 
 2 Dogmatic wisdom has its roots and be- 
 ginnings in moral and spiritual sensibili- 
 ties, which Scripture calls •' the fear of 
 the Lord." 
 
 [1462] What can be more piteous than the 
 clear, hard, accurate knowledge of a soul which 
 has cultivated its intelligence without any corre- 
 sponding cultivation of its heart and conscience? 
 The absence of this fear of the Lord, which is 
 wisdom in the leading Bible sense of the term, 
 is fatal to any living appreciation, if not to any 
 appreciation whatever, of the doctrines of Re- 
 demption and Grace. What is the good of them 
 in the judgment of a soul which has never felt 
 the sting of sin, or which has never realized 
 its own utter impotence to return to God? 
 When such a soul comes into contact with the 
 Creed of Christendom, when it finds itself face 
 to face with the great truths of the Incarnation 
 and the Passion of Christ, the Influence and 
 Personality of the Holy Spirit, the sacramental 
 channels of communication between God and 
 our human life, the doctrine of the Ever-blessed 
 Trinity in which these several truths find their 
 justification and their point of unity, it can only 
 regard truths of this magnitude, truths which we 
 know to be so unspeakably precious, as a hard 
 block of dead dogma, weighing like an incubus 
 
 upon all honest and earnest thought. It is con- 
 scious of no demand which they satisfy, it enter- 
 tains no anticipations which they meet, it feels 
 no deep-seated disease for which they provide 
 the remedy. If a man would teach the power 
 of religious truth he must personally have felt 
 the need of it. — Canon Liddon. 
 
 3 Religion, though related to dogma, does 
 not consist in mere dogma. 
 
 [1463] Our religion is neither a dogma nor a 
 theory, a thesis nor a hypothesis, a category nor 
 a dream. It is a spiritual power; it is a personal 
 presence ; it is a governing genius of life ; it is 
 a comforter of actual sorrows ; it is a quickener 
 to every noble work. It is the world's best 
 builder, planter, legislator, and reformer. It is 
 not a stranger to be scrutinized, but a friend to 
 be loved, because it has first loved us. It is not 
 a guest to be entertained, but a leader to be 
 followed ; not a secret to be found out, for its 
 very face is a revelation ; not a clever and pro- 
 mising applicant for a place, which thrift may turn 
 to account and vanity display, for it speaks in 
 the name of the Lord ; not an institution that 
 can expire by limitation, nor a form that grows 
 old, nor a ceremony that can give up the ghost 
 and still keep on its feet, but an everlasting, 
 living law, vital in every part ; not a policy that 
 can be shaped, but a principle that by its own 
 formation and irresistible spirit shapeth all 
 things. It is a reality. — F. D. Himtingdon, D.D 
 
 124 
 
 EFFICA CY OF PR A YER. 
 
 I, Objections met. 
 
 I Replies to objections founded upon the 
 doctrine of predestination and the un- 
 changing character of God. 
 
 (i) God, IV ho ordains the ends, ordains also 
 the jneajis. 
 
 [1464] To the stale objection, "Why then 
 need I pray, since the answer is ordained?" the 
 answer is so stale that I am ashamed to be 
 obliged to repeat. It is an objection which may 
 be taken to every form of activity. A man is in 
 a fever. He argues that, if it be predestined 
 whether he is to recover, it is of no use sending 
 for the physician. The answer is known to 
 every tyro in moral science. If God has des- 
 tined that the man recover. He may also have 
 destined that he should send for the doctor. If 
 he declines sending for the proper aid, he may 
 find it destined that he is not to recover. So it 
 is with the answer to prayer. If he prays, he 
 may find that both the prayer and the answer 
 are fore-ordained. If he neglects to pray when 
 in duty bound, he may find himself punished by 
 being refused the blessing. 
 
 [1465] Since God is unchangeable, and has 
 arranged ever>'thing beforehand, why need I
 
 REASON AND FAITH. 
 
 1465—1470] 
 
 [efficacy of prayer. 
 
 pray at all ? The reply is — that the answer to 
 prayer proceeds on the foreseen circumstance 
 that the prayer will be offered ; that if the man 
 refuses to pray, he shall assuredly find it fixed 
 that no answer is given. Should petulance in- 
 sist on a farther reply, we think it enough to 
 show that this is a style of objection which would 
 apply to every species of human activity. Why 
 need I be industrious if it is arranged whether 
 or no I shall get the object which I expect to 
 gain by industry.? is the next form which the cavil 
 may assume. If the objector is an ambitious 
 man, we ask, why pursue so eagerly that ex- 
 pected honour when he knows that it has been 
 ordained, from all eternity, whether he shall 
 secure it or no ? If he is a man of pleasure, we 
 ask, why such anxiety to procure never-ceasing 
 mirth and amusement, when he knows that it is 
 pre-determined what amount of enjoyment he is 
 to receive in this life? Ah ! it turns out that the 
 objection, which presses with no peculiar force 
 upon the supposed Divine arrangements in re- 
 gard to prayer, is a mere pretext to excuse the 
 unwillingness of the person who urges it, for he 
 discovers it only in those cases in which he is 
 unwilling to act. — President McCosh, Method of 
 Divine Governmettt. 
 
 2 Replies to objections founded upon the 
 uniformity of the laws of nature. 
 
 (i) If finite man can control physical laws in 
 his limited lower sphere., surely God, the infifiite 
 God, can do the same in His unlimited and higher 
 sphere. 
 
 [1466] As man within his sphere can use these 
 fixed laws to accomplish the most diversified pur- 
 poses, so God in His unlimited sphere has them 
 always and everywhere under His absolute con- 
 trol, so that, without suspending or violating 
 them, they are ever subservient to His will. If 
 the fact that men can use the lav*s of nature to 
 their own ends and advantages is compatible 
 with the uniformity of those laws, the control of 
 God over them for the accomplishment of His 
 purposes cannot be inconsistent with their sta- 
 bility as laws. — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theo- 
 logy. 
 
 [1467] There is the same room for the action 
 of Providence, without the relaxation of the dis- 
 cipline of law, as there is in human life. If man 
 can alter the incidence of physical law by appeals 
 to the hearts and minds of others, so also can 
 God. He can inspire thought, if we can inspire 
 thought; He can guide our wills, if we can help 
 to guide each other's Avills ; He can inspire the 
 mind of the physician, or the precaution of the 
 soldier, or the conscience of the statesman, and 
 guide it into a new track, if we can do so ; and 
 He can so alter, without any interference with 
 the precise succession of physical events, the 
 fates of individuals and the fortunes of nations. — 
 Spectator {Jan. 9, 1875). 
 
 [1468] A great thinker can employ natural 
 laws to create conditions of life that did not exist 
 before — to change the public sentiment, to re- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 press indolence ; to stimulate activity. Every 
 man that is acting in the world is employing 
 natural laws with cunning, with wisdom, with 
 skill, by which he is enabled to change the whole 
 course and current of things. God stands be- 
 hind the whole system of natural laws, and can 
 produce special results in men whenever He 
 pleases. Such a doctrine of the special influence 
 of the Spirit of God makes prayer of benefit to 
 men. — H. W. Beecher, Spiritual Barbarism. 
 
 (2) If human mechanism can meet special 
 emergencies without interfering with the prin- 
 ciples of arrangements and prescribed channels, 
 surely God's providence can effect similar results 
 ifi answers to prayer. 
 
 [1469] Some time ago, being at Binghamton, 
 in this State, I went to see the machinery where- 
 with that city is supplied with water. In a 
 small house on the bank of the Susquehanna, 
 there is an engine which goes night and day, 
 pumping water into the mains. The demand 
 for water acts as a governor on the engine, and 
 regulates its motion, so that the more water is 
 drawn off the faster the engine goes. Then 
 when a fire occurs an alarm-bell is rung, on 
 hearing which the engineer gears on some extra 
 machinery, which causes the engine to move 
 more rapidly, and charges the ordinary mains 
 to their fullest capacity, so that they send water 
 through the hose to the top of the highest 
 building in the place. Now if men can thus 
 construct an engine whereby, through ordinary 
 and already existing channels, an emergency of 
 prayer may be met, why cannot God do the 
 same with this machine which we call the 
 universe ? As we understand the matter, it is 
 thus He does proceed. He uses His natural 
 laws for the carrying forward of His purposes 
 in grace, and for the help of His believing 
 children ; and, as Isaac Taylor has suggestively 
 said, " the greatest miracle of God's providence 
 is that it is carried on without miracle," while 
 yet it makes provision for the answering of 
 prayer, and for the accomplishment of the great 
 purpose of the Divine Mind. — Rev. W. M. 
 Taylor, D.D. 
 
 (3) The actijig upon law and not upon caprice 
 encourages us to bring our lawful petitions 
 before humati or Divine sovereignty. 
 
 [1470] That the Uniformitarians have failed, 
 utterly and completely failed, in dealing with 
 this larger world, only grows the more apparent 
 the longer we consider them and their works. 
 They have assumed, as I have said, that the 
 reign of law is fatal to prayer, and that we must 
 choose between law and caprice, no other 
 alternative being open to us. But if it be im- 
 possible for God to answer prayer, must it not 
 be equally impossible for man to answer it, 
 since man is at least more clearly the subject 
 of Law than He who made and rules the uni- 
 verse ? And yet is it impossible for man } 
 
 Consider our human relations ; reflect on 
 what we know of human action and motive : 
 and then say whether these assumptions can be 
 17
 
 258 
 
 I470— 1477] 
 
 REASON AND FAITH. 
 
 [efficacy of prayer. 
 
 sustained. Does uniformity of action drive us 
 from prayer ? Is it not, rather, an indispensable 
 condition of prayer and a direct encouragement 
 to it ? In the administration of public justice, 
 for example, what is it that makes every man 
 bold to bring his suit into court, and to seek 
 redress for any wrong that has been done him ? 
 It is simply that he believes the administration 
 of justice to be tolerably uniform, inflexible, 
 invariable. If the judges were notoriously open 
 to bribes, if they were at the beck of the 
 sovereign, if they courted the favour of the mob, 
 we should no longer be able to calculate on 
 them ; we should be afraid to carry to them 
 our prayers for redress. It is the very unifor- 
 mity and steadfastness of the administration of 
 justice which impresses and invites us to appeal 
 to it. So far from hindering us, it is this very 
 superiority to change and caprice which begets 
 confidence and moves us to carry our suits be- 
 fore the public magistrate. If our judges were 
 Turks, instead of Englishmen, could we possibly 
 appeal to them with the same confidence ? And 
 yet in the face of all this our uniformitarian 
 friends assume, without any attempt at proof, 
 that if we confess that God rules the world by 
 laws which are uniform in their action and 
 regular and invariable, we must also confess 
 that it is unreasonable to pray to Him, that we 
 can only take our suits to Him so long as we 
 conceive of Him as actuated by caprice. — 
 Exposiior {July, 1877). 
 
 [1471] That God is unchangeable is the reason 
 for prayer, not an objection against it. This 
 unchanging character, is that of the Hearer of 
 prayer, to Whom all flesh may come. — B. G. 
 
 3 Replies to the objection that it is inconsis- 
 tent with man being subjected to a regime 
 of law. 
 
 [1472] This is purely an arbitrary statement, 
 :and ignores both Divine Power and the fatherly 
 yearnings of God toward us, as well as the 
 sense of our weakness and infirmity, and the 
 longings of the renewed soul, or even the unre- 
 newed soul in its better moments, after the 
 living God. — C. N. 
 
 [1473] Nothing seems to us more reasonable 
 than to assume that a Being of infinite knowledge 
 and holiness, in providing for the discipline of a 
 very infirm creature, would, while subjecting him 
 to a regiine of law within which he would reap 
 inexorably what he had sown, also leave such 
 room for the free play of the mind of the creature 
 on the mind of the Creator as would create and 
 protect a real sphere for continued and living 
 intercourse between them. Nothing is more 
 arbitrary than the assumption that there can 
 be no intermediate region between what is good 
 for man and what is evil for him, no region 
 within which it may be good for him to have 
 what he prays for because he prays for it, though 
 it might be bad for him to have it unless he 
 prayed for it. -Spectator {Jaii. 9, 1875). 
 
 II. Arguments in favour of Prayer 
 
 WHICH ANTICIPATE OBJECTIONS AGAINST 
 
 ITS Efficacy, or neutralize their 
 Force. 
 
 1 A general and summary statement. 
 
 [1474] (i) That prayer is in itself necessarily 
 right. 
 
 (2) That it is necessary to promote a good 
 temper in us, and to train us up in righteousness. 
 
 (3) That it is incumbent upon us to pray as 
 we hope for the favour of God. 
 
 (4) That the Christian revelation enjoins 
 prayer. 
 
 (5) That prayer is not merely a Christian 
 duty, but an essential part of all religion : " All 
 nations of men acknowledge the obligations to 
 it, and the practice of it has been as universal 
 as the belief of a Deity." 
 
 (6) That the duty is recommended by the 
 pleasures which attend the performance of it. 
 
 (7) That not only the act, but the spirit of 
 prayer is conducive to the highest happiness in 
 ordinary life, and in the investigation of nature. 
 — Dr. Price. 
 
 2 A special and detailed statement. 
 
 (i) Prayer is in the greatest degree subser- 
 vient to virtue, and productive of the highest 
 advantage. 
 
 [1475] Prayer is not only itself virtue, but the 
 best means of virtue ; not only itself a duty, 
 but of the greatest use to maintain and increase 
 a regard to all other duties. 
 
 [1476] He that makes conscience of frequent 
 and serious prayer, must live under an habitual 
 sense of the presence, authority, and providence 
 of God, and of dependence upon Him, and 
 obligations to Him. He must be continually 
 reminding himself of the most important truths, 
 and exciting himself to the utmost care of his 
 life. He must be always exercising repentance 
 for his transgressions and benevolence to his 
 fellow-creatures. It is scarcely possible foi 
 such a man to be otherwise than truly virtuous. 
 The indulgence of known guilt and a regular 
 course of unaffected devotion are so incom- 
 patible, that it is not conceivable that they 
 can be united in one and the same man. — 
 Dr. Price, 
 
 [1477] Where the true spirit of devotion 
 prevails, it cannot fail to render a man more 
 amiable, and to promote the purification of his 
 mind. It will stifle in the birth all wrong 
 tendencies ; subdue the temper to kindness and 
 charity ; conquer every rebellious inclination, 
 and form the heart and life to universal good- 
 ness. Can a man set himself often to realize 
 to himself the inspection of the Deity, and to 
 adore His perfections, v.hile he feels himself an 
 enemy to His laws and government? Can he 
 with a contrite heart confess his sins, and not 
 resolve to forsake them ? C=yi he so mock his 
 tremendous Creator, as to seek favour from
 
 REASOIV AND FAITH. 
 
 1477—1482] 
 
 [efficacy of prayer. 
 
 Him while he goes on to affront Him, or 
 to beg that love and forgiveness to himself 
 which he is not willing to practise to others ? 
 Can he pray for those who despitefuUy use him 
 and persecute him, and at the same time indulge 
 rancour in his heart ? In short, can he employ 
 himself in turning his attention frequently to 
 eternal righteousness and goodness, without 
 participating in some degrees of _ those ex- 
 cellences ; or preserve a constant intercourse 
 between his mind and the first and best of all 
 Beings, without growing like to Him, and being 
 confirmed in pious gratitude and resignation? 
 —Ibid. 
 
 (2) Efficacy of prayer a necessary part of 
 theism. 
 
 [1478] With at least the great majority of 
 pre-Christian theists, this dogma (of the efficacy 
 of prayer) seems to have been regarded as a 
 necessary part of theism. Plato puts into the 
 mouth of Socrates a warning against rash or 
 ignorant prayer, but the danger from which he 
 would guard Alcibiades is that his prayer may 
 be granted, not that it may be refused. Cicero, 
 who has treated largely of the existence, nature, 
 and providence of the gods, gives no indication 
 of any scepticism among theists as to the 
 efficacy of prayer.— y. H. Jellett, B.D. 
 
 (3) The misery which disbelief in the efficacy 
 or lawfulness of prayer would entail in a world 
 of sin and sorrow. 
 
 [1479] In one of the meetings an old sailor 
 rose to make some remarks. He said : " One of 
 our boats was dashed to pieces at sea ; six of 
 the men clung to the fragments. Three days 
 were they without help, for we in the distant 
 ship could not find them. They told us after- 
 wards that the most awful and lonely thought 
 they had in those dreadful hours was that they 
 could do nothing to make us hear them ; and 
 that made me think of prayer. What if a man 
 were so cut off that he could not pray. What 
 if, while we are floating around on this mighty 
 ocean of peril, we had no voice that could be 
 sent over in any way to heaven." — Rev. C. 
 Robinson, D.D, Bethel and Penitel. 
 
 III. Considerations respecting the 
 True Manner in which Prayer 
 
 SHOULD be offered BY WaY OF 
 neutralizing THE FORCE OF AN- 
 TICIPATED Objections to its Effi- 
 cacy. 
 
 [1480] (i) That prayer should be offered with 
 a mind properly prepared for it, and with fixed 
 and composed thoughts. 
 
 (2) That we should pray with fervency of 
 affection and desire. 
 
 (3) That we ought to be constant in prayer. 
 
 (4) That successful prayer must be accom- 
 panied with a holy life and the diligent use of 
 our own endeavours to acquire what we pray 
 for. 
 
 (5) That we ought to pray and give thanks 
 in the name of Christ. — Dr. Price. 
 
 IV. Arguments to strengthen Be- 
 lievers IN the Duty of Prayer, and 
 in Belief of its Efficacy. 
 
 1 True prayer is accepted by God, even 
 though we fail to have perceptible emotions 
 of Divine grace in our hearts. 
 
 [1481] We are sometimes inclined to believe 
 that our prayers are not accepted by God, if we 
 do not feel a certain degree of pleasure arising 
 from the performance of this duty— an enthu- 
 siasm of love toward the Divine Being arising 
 in our souls. This is a wrong idea. Prayer is 
 not a charm of the imagination, or a sweet 
 delusion of the soul ; neither does it always 
 produce the perceptible emotions of the grace 
 of God in our hearts. It is our bounden 
 obedience to a Divine command ; it is our 
 self-humiliation before our Maker, the depre- 
 cation of His wrath, and the imploring His 
 assistance against the temptations of sin. Let 
 us, therefore, draw near with a pure heart, in 
 full assurance of faith, making our petitions in 
 the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and relying 
 on His merits alone for God's acceptance of 
 them. — Fenelon. 
 
 2 There is no reason why the Spirit of God 
 may not inspire our hearts with good de- 
 sires, as in the days of admitted miracles. 
 
 [1482] I do not think it is any extravagance 
 of faith to believe that nature is pliant in the 
 hands of its Creator, and that He can employ 
 its ordinances in answering prayer. The Spirit 
 of God is just as able to say to a man now that 
 He shall build an orphan asylum, as He was to 
 command Philip to join himself to the chariot 
 of the Ethiopian eunuch. God is as able to heal 
 men now by a word, or by the laying on of 
 hands, as in the days of the apostles. The 
 question is, Does He authorize any one to ex- 
 pect that He will do these things ? And here 
 all that can be said is that every man must be 
 left to his own judgment, and that, in the view 
 of others, no warrant is possible except by a 
 miracle, or by the result. So it was of old. How 
 did Peter know that the lame man who lay at 
 the gate of the temple which was called Beau- 
 tiful would rise and walk at his bidding 1 I do 
 not know precisely how, but he knew, and was 
 justified by the result. And so it is now. If 
 an impulse or a voice comes to a man, it comes 
 to him., and he alone can judge of it. He may 
 test it as he chooses, even as Gideon did ; but 
 if he thinks that he has sufficient evidence that 
 it is from God, he is to go forward. If it com- 
 mands him to build an orphan asylum, he is to 
 do that ; if to say to a lame man, " Rise up and 
 walk," he is to do that ; and if there is really a 
 command from God, he will be justified by the 
 result. This, hmvever, is a field in which there 
 will be tares ; but they cannot be rooted up
 
 26o 
 
 1482 — 1489] 
 
 REASON AND FAITH. 
 
 [faith and philosophy. 
 
 without danger to the wheat, and they must 
 " both grow together until the harvest." — Rev. 
 W. Sca/e, Quarterly Review {April, 1882). 
 
 3 The success of one real prayer should ever 
 after stimulate our faith. 
 
 [1483] The success of one real prayer of ours 
 ought to be the memory of a lifetime. We 
 might keep saying : " I am the man, dust and 
 ashes myself, who once on such a day and such 
 an hour asked, and Jehovah answered me ! 
 Nay more. He bade me come again." — Rev. C. 
 Robinson, D.D.^ Bethel and Penuel. 
 
 125 
 
 FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 I. The Meaning attaching to these 
 Words when contrasted with each 
 other. 
 
 [1484] Faith and philosophy, in this colloca- 
 tion, are distinguished from each other both by 
 their subject matter and by their practical 
 effects : faith, as here used, having reference 
 to Divine revelation, and philosophy to human 
 speculation. Faith also being — subjectively 
 considered — a practical moral or spiritual prin- 
 ciple, guiding the feelings, life, and actions ; 
 philosophy consisting of " academical ques- 
 tions," for scholastic debates and notional airy 
 opinions, for intellectual amusement ; to form or 
 maintain debating propositions not related to 
 duty and practical life. Faith, in this connec- 
 tion, is the practical intellect or reason, com- 
 bined with hope and duty; while philosophy, 
 as here used, is the speculative intellect, in 
 relation to the imagination rather than to the 
 conscience. — B. G. 
 
 II. The Distinctiveness of their Re- 
 spective Spheres. 
 
 [1485] Whilst the philosopher is finding out 
 God's laws, the Christian is observing them. 
 To the philosopher it is a life's labour to lay the 
 foundations ; the Christian has his laid, and his 
 life's labour is to build thereon. — Baring Gould. 
 
 [i486] To seek for theology in philosophy is 
 to seek for the living among the dead ; and to 
 seek for philosophy in theology is to seek for 
 the dead among the living. — Lord Bacon. 
 
 [1487] Yet there is nothing in Christianity 
 which contradicts the genuine elements in 
 human philosophy, but quite the reverse. The 
 Scriptures contain all that was true in every re- 
 ligious system. Christianity again has a Divine 
 philosophy, which satisfies both the head and 
 the conscience. — C. N. 
 
 III. Mistakes guarded against as to 
 the alleged Inner Relationship 
 BETWEEN Christian Faith and 
 Heathen Philosophy. 
 
 I The principles of faith and Christian virtues 
 are nominally the same, but fundamentally 
 different from the virtues of heathen phi. 
 losophy. 
 
 [14S8] The Christian doctrine we often hear 
 likened to the Greek philosophy, and found, on 
 all hands, some measurable way superior to it ; 
 but this seems a mistake. The Christian doc- 
 trine, that doctrine of humility, in all senses 
 godlike and the parent of all godlike virtues, is 
 not superior, or inferior, or equal, to any doc- 
 trine of Socrates or Thales : being of a totally 
 different nature ; differing from these, as a per- 
 fect ideal poem does from a correct computation 
 in arithmetic. He who compares it with such 
 standards may lament that, beyond the mere 
 letter, the purport of this divine humility has 
 never been disclosed to him ; that loftiest feeling 
 hitherto vouchsafed to mankind is as yet hidden 
 from his eyes. — T. Carlyle, 
 
 126 
 
 FAITH AND FREETHOUGHT. 
 
 I. Popular Fallacies respecting their 
 Antithetical Character. 
 
 1 They are not two different qualities or 
 exercises of the mind. 
 
 [1489] (i) These are often assumed to be two 
 different qualities or exercises of the mind, and 
 to be distinguished as follows : — (2) The profes- 
 sors of so-called freethought assume that it is a 
 province of knowledge or certainty, of open- 
 eyed vision, which accepts nothing that is not 
 proved. (3) On the other hand, it is assumed 
 that faith is blind, and accepts dicta without 
 proper evidence or proof. (4) Whereas even 
 those who imagine that they are guided only by 
 personal knowledge of science, are in general 
 for the most part led by faith in scientific 7?ien, 
 (5) whose discoveries or conclusions they 
 accept without verification. (6) Any one sci- 
 ence, or perhaps one department of a single 
 science, would occupy a lifetime. (7) There- 
 fore no man can, for himself, have original free- 
 thought and scientific knowledge even of the 
 ascertained truths, facts, or principles attained 
 to by the combined efforts of scientific inquiries 
 through all past generations. (8) Every one 
 who accepts scientific conclusions without veri- 
 fying them ; historical facts or conclusions, 
 without personally examining documents and 
 going through the investigation ; geographical 
 conclusions, without travelling and exploring — 
 and so on, ad infinitum — walks by faith and not 
 by sight, and relies on the investigations of other 
 persons. (9) All, therefore, that we call know-
 
 REASON AND FAITH. 
 
 X489— 1494] 
 
 261 
 [things above reason. 
 
 ledge is not " knowledge " of our own acquiring 
 and proving, but is the acceptance of the reve- 
 lation made to us by those who are better in- 
 formed than we are. (10) Yet it is by rational 
 evidence, on good grounds, that we entertain 
 such conclusions, not from any wild freethought, 
 but by true thought conformed to facts and 
 evidence adduced by others, and received by 
 inquiry ajid intelligent faith as to the informa- 
 tion or revelation made to us by them. (11) 
 All education, so far as imparting knowledge, is 
 an exercise of faith in the redpients of it ; who 
 can exercise no freethought in doubting or 
 blundering, as to history, geography, geology, 
 and kindred lines of knowledge ; but must re- 
 ceive in faith and master accurately the details 
 of information compiled for their guidance. 
 (12) Few persons — perhaps not one in a mil- 
 lion — have the time, if they have the capacity, 
 to understand the recondite and intricate pro- 
 cesses by which those propositions and state- 
 ments are proved, which they are called upon 
 to believe, and which those who call themselves 
 freethinkers do believe — only because they are 
 told.—B. G. 
 
 2 As much faith required in science as in 
 religion. 
 
 ( I ) In regard to physical phenomena. 
 
 1. The rate at which light travels. 
 
 [1490] What mere assertion will make any 
 man believe that in one second of time, in one 
 beat of the pendulum of a clock, a ray of light 
 travels over 192,000 miles, and would therefore 
 perform the tour of the world in about the same 
 time that it requires to wink with our eyelids, 
 and in much less than a swift runner occupies 
 in taking a single stride ? — Sir John Herschel. 
 
 2. The vast distance of the sun from the 
 earth, and yet its active attractive influence. 
 
 [1491] What mortal can be made to believe, 
 without demonstration, that the sun is almost 
 a million times larger than the earth ; that, 
 although so remote from us that a cannon-ball 
 shot directly toward it, and maintaining its full 
 speed, would be twenty years in reaching it, it 
 yet affects the earth by its attraction in an in- 
 appreciable instant of time .'' — a closeness of | 
 union of which we can form but a feeble and 
 totally inadequate idea, by comparing it to any 
 material connection ; since the communication 
 of an impulse to such a distance, by any solid 
 intermedium we are acquainted with, would 
 require not moments, but whole years. And 
 when with pain and difficulty we have strained 
 our imagination to conceive a distance so vast, 
 a force so intense and penetrating, if we are 
 told that the one dwindles to an insensible point, 
 and the other is unfelt at the meanest of the 
 fixed stars from the mere efitect of their remote- 
 ness, while among those very stars are some 
 whose actual splendour exceeds by many hun- 
 dred times that of the sun itself — although we 
 may not deny the truth of the assertion, we 
 cannot but feel the keenest curiosity to know 
 how such things were ever made out. — Ibid. 
 
 (2) In regard to physico -mental pheno7nena. 
 
 I. Use of the senses and the association of 
 ideas. 
 
 [1492] The human hand, in every age, has 
 excited the attention of the reflecting and the 
 wise, and has been often and forcibly referred 
 to as direct proof of consummate art and design 
 in the creation of our frame. Contemplate for 
 a moment the uses to which it is applied, and 
 the extent of its power as a means of acquiring 
 knowledge, in order that its vast importance 
 may be properly estimated. In the first place, 
 then, it is the grand organ of touch or tact, the 
 instrument by means of which we gain an 
 acquaintance with more of the physical proper- 
 ties of matter than through any other organ of 
 sense. Without it the eye would never, perhaps, 
 duly learn to appreciate correctly many of the 
 external properties of matter— the forms, the 
 relative size, the distance or the position of 
 bodies ; and it is the touch which aids, regulates, 
 and corrects the conclusions deduced from the 
 ideas gained through the medium of sight. It 
 is a coadjutor to the eye, though the eye, in its 
 turn, aids the hand : for example, touch will not 
 inform us of the colour of any object — colour is 
 an impression upon the organ of vision alone ; 
 but touch gives us its hardness or softness, its 
 lightness or weight, its warmth and texture, its 
 smoothness or roughness ; — thus, one organ 
 aiding the other, we gain a knowledge which 
 neither alone would communicate, and the one, 
 taught, as it were, by the other, will indepen- 
 dently communicate a degree of information 
 respecting qualities which the other can alone 
 appreciate. Such is the association of ideas, 
 that the sight of a feather brings to mind its 
 softness, its lightness, its warmth and elasticity., 
 though the sight only recognizes colour and 
 form ; but experience has taught, that with such 
 a form and colour these properties, cognizable 
 by touch alone, are always conjoined. — Martifi. 
 
 [1493] The mind, presiding over the senses, 
 using one to correct another, and inferring 
 results from comparing the evidences and inti- 
 mations from all these witnesses, is an instance 
 of faith transcending sensation ; and from " the 
 visible things" and the tangible things of ma- 
 terial nature, inferring invisible and intangible 
 truths and relations, as seen in the deductions 
 from the senses of sight and touch. — B. C. 
 
 127 
 
 THINGS ABOVE REASON. 
 
 I. Its Various Meanings. 
 
 [1494] (i) "Reason" is a term that may be 
 used for human reason in the abstract [i.e., really 
 logic, or the processes of reason, viewed as an 
 art), the highest intellectual attainment possible 
 to humanity ; and what is " above " this {i.e., 
 "things above reason" in this sense of the
 
 262 
 
 1494—1503! 
 
 REASOy AND FAITH. 
 
 [province of reason. 
 
 word) can be decided only by those who have 
 attained to that lofty eminence. 
 
 (2) "Reason" may be used for the capacity 
 and insight of ordinary understandings, or of 
 men in the concrete, instead of some abstract 
 quality of high intelligence ; and then " things 
 above reason " include those things which are 
 beyond being completely understood by men in 
 general. 
 
 II. Mistakes removed respecting the 
 ^VR0NGLY Restricted Use of this 
 Term, 
 
 [1495] (i) The things which are not completely 
 understood, but which, in some respects, tran- 
 scend both the ordinary reason of mankind and 
 the special reason of scientists, experts, and 
 men of genius and intellectual ambition, are as 
 multitudinous and infinite as things or existences 
 themselves ; for nothing is fully understood so 
 as to present no points or questions " above 
 reason " in its actual development and acquired 
 capacity. 
 
 (2) But while there is nothing that is not, in 
 some respects, " above reason," there is also 
 nothing which is not, in some respects, within 
 the scope of reason to comprehend it. " We 
 know in part " — but we do know part. 
 
 (3) Light, life, growth, are all existences and 
 facts within reason or knowledge and under- 
 standing ; but they are all " above reason " in 
 their ultimate essence, causes, processes, and 
 constituents. 
 
 (4) Natural facts and scientific truths are, in 
 this respect, as much "above reason " — as great 
 mysteries, and are so acknowledged by the 
 greatest students and masters — as religious truths 
 or spiritual facts ; and in this respect nature 
 and revelation, science and religion, are on the 
 same level. — B. G. 
 
 III. Answers to Antecedent Objections 
 to Christianity from their Exist- 
 ence. 
 
 1 Our mental faculties capable of dwelling 
 upon things above reason. 
 
 [1496] If knowledge cannot monopolize con- 
 sciousness, if it must always continue possible 
 for the mind to dwell upon that which transcends 
 knowledge, then there can never cease to be a 
 place for that which is of the nature of religion. 
 — H. Spejicer, First Principles. 
 
 2 The very idea of religion implies mystery. 
 
 [1497] In religious matters the furthest con- 
 clusion of reason is that there is much beyond 
 reason. Our reason is very weak if we cannot 
 see that. Natural things are too deep for us, 
 and what shall we do when we come to what is 
 beyond nature ? — Pascal. 
 
 3 Revelation necessarily increases the 
 number of things beyond the reach of 
 reason. 
 
 [1498] Accordingly as revelation was extended 
 
 it increased the number of mysteries. It gave, 
 as one may say, two half-told truths for every 
 half-truth of which it told the other half. 
 
 [1499] All knowledge necessarily and con- 
 fessedly enlarges the horizon of our ignorance. 
 The further a man can see, the wider is the 
 circular cloud-curtain that bounds his vision. — 
 B.C. 
 
 4 Things above human reason may be plain 
 to higher intelligences. 
 
 [1500] Other such rules we may not be able 
 to perceive from the meanness of our nature, 
 or our low rank among creatures ; for beneath 
 omniscience there being innumerable forms of 
 intelligence, in the lowest of these we sit, one 
 remove from beasts ; being endowed with 
 capacities suitable to that inferior station, and 
 to those meaner employments for which we were 
 designed and framed ; whence our mind hath a 
 pitch, beyond which it cannot soar ; and things 
 clearly intelligible to more noble creatures, 
 moving in a higher orb, may be dark and un- 
 explicable to us : "as an ang-^l of God, so is my 
 lord the king, to discern good and bad," was 
 an expression importing this difference, how 
 those glorious creatures do o'ertop us in intel- 
 lectual capacities. — /. Barrow,, D.D.^ 1630- 
 1677. 
 
 128 
 
 PROVINCE OF REASON. 
 I. Its Range. 
 
 1 Universal, including every field of know, 
 ledge, religious as well as secular. 
 
 [1501] This province is universal, as relating 
 to all questions or subjects — Science, Morals, 
 Religion. Reason deals with evidence, proba- 
 bility, proofs or inferences on every department 
 of human knowledge and interest. — B. G. 
 
 2 Extended by revelation and the principle 
 of faith. 
 
 [1502] Reason is good, if we use it reasonably, 
 i.e., with a modest sense of its weakness and 
 narrowness, a humble dependence upon Divine 
 aid, and due care that we do not, either through 
 overmuch haste, or the influence of corrupt 
 prejudices, mistake that for reason and evidence 
 which is only a false appearance of it. With 
 these conditions, the more we use our reason or 
 understanding in religion, the better ; we shall 
 bring more credit to it, and receive more benefit, 
 and pleasure, and establishment in it. 
 
 [1503] Right reason is entirely consistent and 
 harmonious with divine revelation, and super- 
 natural assistances ; and we may have a high 
 value for the one without renouncing the other : 
 nay more, cannot have a just notion, and make 
 the proper use of either, but we must be thank- 
 ful to the common fountain and donor of both. 
 
 I 
 I
 
 REASON AND FAITH. 
 
 1503—1509] 
 
 263 
 
 [province of reason. 
 
 [1504] So long as you simply reason you are 
 looking westwards — where light only fades away 
 and dies before the gazing eye. When you put 
 all your mind and heart into the truth you 
 know, and resolve in the strength of the grace 
 you already believe in to be true to that truth 
 and all its requirements, and to seek the higher 
 and further truth until you find it, then you turn 
 eastwards, and ere long the morning you look 
 for will be on your face. — Alexander Raki<^h, 
 Records of his Life. 
 
 5 Limited by certain necessary and obvious 
 conditions and principles. 
 
 [1505] It required the genius of Copernicus 
 and Newton to discover the true theory of the 
 heavens ; but when that theory is known, it 
 requires no such genius to observe that it is 
 confirmed by every phenomenon before our 
 eyes. It may require, in like manner, a super- 
 natural light to give the true explanation of the 
 mysteries of nature ; but now, with that ex- 
 planation before us, we see that nature has 
 many of its most difficult knots unravelled by 
 it. — President McCosh, Method of the Divine 
 Government. 
 
 [1506] There is a great difference between 
 knowing and understanding. A child may 
 know what the words " God is a Spirit " mean ; 
 no created being can understand the Almighty 
 unto perfection. In every department men 
 know and hear unspeakably more than they 
 understand. — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theology. 
 
 II. Mode of Procedure. 
 
 I To use to the utmost the reasoning 
 faculties in seeking, testing, and rightly 
 honouring Divine revelation. 
 
 [1507] Nor do we teach that nature and 
 reason cannot lead to the speculative knowledge 
 
 of Divine truths ; for the evidence of all Divine 
 
 truth resolves itself ultimately into either sense 
 or reason ; which are the common gifts of God 
 to mankind, by the principles of which the 
 truth of all things, depending on the deductions 
 of sense and reason, may be proved and ex- 
 amined. From the exercise of reason we come 
 to know the essential difference between good 
 and evil ; and by these principles are enabled, 
 to judge of any doctrine, whether it be agree- 
 able to the pure and holy nature of God ; which 
 is the first presumptive argument for the truth 
 of any divine revelation ; that it is holy and 
 pure, and such a one as, were God to have 
 given a law to the world, He would have given : 
 from reason we learn the unlimited power of 
 God ; and from sense and reason we know the 
 limited power of man, and are enabled to dis- 
 tinguish between the works which the power 
 or policy of man can perform, and the works 
 which can flow only from the unbounded power 
 of God : from hence we can judge of the 
 positive arguments of a divine revelation, the 
 works and miracles which are offered to the 
 world in confirmation of its truth. — Bp. Sherlocky 
 1678-1761. 
 
 [150S] There are heights of divine knowledge 
 and virtue to which human nature, unassisted, 
 cannot reach ; revelation kindly offers to be 
 our guide, and to raise and fortify our feeble 
 powers by the succours of grace. Is not he 
 a fool now, and wretchedly opiniative, that, 
 trusting to the sufficiency of his own faculties, 
 scornfully rejects the illumination and assistance . 
 he may have from heaven. — //. Grove, 1738. 
 
 [1509] Reason will convince any man, unless 
 he be of a perverse mind, that the Scripture is 
 the word of God : and then no reason can be 
 greater than this — God says so, therefore it is 
 true.
 
 DIVISION G. 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Pages 265 to 287. 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 129 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CANON. 
 
 130 
 AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 131 
 BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 132 
 CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 133 
 CONTINUITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 134 
 CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY, 
 
 DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES. 
 
 136 
 INSPIRATION. 
 
 137 
 MOSAIC COSMOGONY. 
 
 13S 
 
 UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES OF OLD AND 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 264
 
 265 
 
 DIVISION G. 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 129 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CANON. 
 
 I. Definition of the Phrase, Canon of 
 THE Scriptures. 
 
 [1508] Canon is a rule: the Canon of the 
 Scriptures, is the rule, list, or table of the 
 books to be accepted as genuine parts of the 
 Bible; as distinguished, first, from "profane" 
 literature, or ordinary human productions ; and 
 as distinguished, secondly, from " apocryphal," 
 surreptitious, and pretended divine or sacred 
 books. More care has been taken in preserving 
 the canon or list of genuine Scripture than in 
 preserving the genuine works of all profane 
 writers. — B.C. 
 
 II. Grounds upon which the Autho- 
 rity OF the Canon of New Testament 
 Scriptures rest. 
 
 X Internal evidence. 
 
 (i) The Gospels and Epistles reciprocally 
 confirm each other, and could only have been 
 'writtett in the age assigned to them. 
 
 [1509] Had internal evidence to be drawn 
 from the New Testament writings themselves, 
 we would refer to the promise of the Lord 
 Jesus Himself, recorded by St. John xiv., xv., 
 xvi., that the Spirit of God should especially 
 dwell with the apostles, and " bring all things 
 to their remembrance, whatsoever He had said 
 unto them" (xiv. 26), "guiding them into all truth, 
 and showing them things to come" (xvi. 13). 
 Such words could not have been an afterthought 
 of apostles, for they are introduced into the 
 Lord's discourses in a manner which forbids 
 such a supposition. Thus the Gospels and 
 Epistles reflect each other. They form one 
 harmonious whole. Nor is it possible to 
 imagine any of the writings of the New Testa- 
 ment to have been the production of any known 
 author of the second century. 
 
 a External evidence. 
 
 (i) The early Christian Fathers. 
 
 [15 10] This evidence is of the utmost value, 
 as it goes back to a very early period ; and 
 although not absolutely trustworthy in some 
 cases, still, taken together, produces a general 
 conviction of the genuineness of the sacred 
 writings not to be resisted. 
 
 [15 11] It can create no surprise, if the testi- 
 mony of the apostolical Fathers is to the 
 substance, and not to the authenticity, of the 
 Gospels. It establishes an important fact : even 
 in the first generation after the apostles, the 
 contents of the gospel were fixed within their 
 present limits. Some mysterious workings of 
 Providence suppressed the countless multitude 
 of things which Jesus did, of which the apostles 
 could have told. Two sayings of our Lord are 
 preserved, in the letters of Barnabas and Ig- 
 natius, which are not contained in the Gospels, 
 and may possibly be independent and original ; 
 but otherwise, the great outlines of His life and 
 teaching which can be drawn from the apos- 
 tolical Fathers, exactly coincide with those pre- 
 served in the first three Gospels. — Dr. IVestcoit. 
 
 (2) Exact textual criticism. 
 
 [15 1 2] Taking the oldest manuscripts as their 
 basis, and guiding their investigations by a few 
 sound principles, New Testament critics have 
 been able to eliminate the larger part of un- 
 certainty concerning what were the apostolic 
 originals. These conclusions are sustained 
 (though sometimes corrected), and their general 
 trustworthiness confirmed, by the concurrent 
 testimony of early translations, made before the 
 date of the oldest extant manuscripts, and of 
 the quotations occurring in early writings of 
 such apologists as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, 
 Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria, and of 
 such commentators and homilists as Origen, 
 Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine. 
 
 Scholars have ceased to mourn the loss of 
 the original documents of the sacred writers ; for 
 though these might free us from the perplexity 
 still remaining concerning a few passages, they 
 would not materially increase the lawful assur- 
 ance with which the rest of the text is received ; 
 and these remaining perplexities are too in- 
 significant in kind and quantity to affect the 
 general questions at issue. — G. F. Wright. 
 
 (3) Church authority. 
 
 [15 13] The Articles of the English Church 
 remind Christians that these sacred books are 
 in their hands ; that the Church has guarded 
 them carefully as its most sacred deposit through 
 the centuries ; and that they have not had their 
 high place assigned to them without a very care- 
 ful examination of their claim to be retained ; 
 while, on the other hand, many apocryphal books 
 have been excluded from the canon.
 
 266 
 
 1514— i52o] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [authority of the scriptukes. 
 
 III, Objections met. 
 
 1 The authority of the canon unaffected by 
 the various readings. 
 
 [15 14] One objection sometimes made is that 
 there are so many various readings in the Gos- 
 pels that we cannot tell what they originally were. 
 Here is an objection which no man would raise 
 who knew to what various readings amount, and 
 the actual effect they have on the substance of 
 a book. How many various readings are there 
 in Shakespeare.'' There are thousands, and 
 yet no infidel critic supposes the genuineness 
 of the dramatist's works affected by them. 
 
 [15 1 5] There are what are called various read- 
 ings. We have a few such in our English Bibles ; 
 thus, in I Tim. ii. 9 some copies read, " not 
 with broided hair, or gold, or pearls ;" while 
 others read, "not with broidered hair, or gold, 
 or pearls." This is a various reading which 
 affects the sense, but there are many which do 
 not alter the sense in the least, and only con- 
 cern the spelling of the words or the order in 
 which they stand. The original Scriptures 
 in Greek and Hebrew exhibit the same sorts of 
 various readings, but in greater numbers. ?.Ien 
 cannot copy books by hand so correctly as they 
 can by printing — though even printers some- 
 times make mistakes. Well, the various read- 
 ings, in the great majority of cases, do not alter 
 the meaning ; in most cases it can be ascer- 
 tained where the error lies, and the really un- 
 certain texts are very few indeed. It suits men 
 of a certain class to bluster about the wonderful 
 array of various readings ; but we, who have 
 examined the various readings, know that the 
 Bible has nothing to fear from them. The 
 spelling of proper names, and the setting down 
 of numbers have caused a good many various 
 readings, which are made much of, but which 
 can generally be fairly cleared up. Copies are 
 rectified by comparing them with one another 
 and with ancient translations. All persons who 
 really wish for information on this topic may 
 obtain it ; and I personally deprecate as neither 
 truthful nor honourable the behaviour of those 
 who attach the same weight to differences of 
 spelling as they do to differences which affect 
 the meaning. — Basil H. Cowper, Lecture on The 
 Difficulties of Sc7-ipture. 
 
 IV. Facts which neutralize the Force 
 OF Objections. 
 
 I The scrupulous care with which the Jews 
 preserved their scriptures. 
 
 [15 16] Josephus expressly said that the Jews 
 had not myriads of books, but two-and-t\venty — 
 the latest of them of the days of Artaxerxes (or 
 Ahasuerus), all of them estimated to contain 
 Divine doctrine, and all of them such, that the 
 Jews would willingly die for them. The books 
 which we now know as the. Old Testament 
 Apocrypha, and which, even when originally in 
 Hebrew or Chaldee, gained currency in a Greek 
 form, were of later date than the Hebrew canon ; 
 
 and the Jews of the dispersion gave a sacred 
 place to some of them ; while the Jews of Pales- 
 tine regarded Hebrew as the language of in- 
 spiration, and the old Hebrew books alone as 
 the sacred canon. — Professor Charteris, D.D. 
 
 [15 1 7] For the authority of the books as a 
 whole, we may safely appeal to the labours of 
 the Jewish schools. They discussed the minute 
 differences with immense learning, yet they 
 never disagreed, after the time of the IMaso- 
 retes, on the fundamental point, what books 
 should be regarded as canonical, and we may 
 fairly presume that the Old Testament text as 
 it stands, was accepted by the whole Jewish 
 nation as that which came down to them from 
 the time of ^Nlalachi. — R, A. Redford, The 
 Christian's Plea. 
 
 3 New Testament corroboration. 
 
 [15 iS] While there is nothing in the New 
 Testament which can be rightly regarded as 
 a divergence from the authority of the Old 
 Testament, there is, on the other hand, abun- 
 dant evidence of the acknowledgment of the 
 Old Testament canon. Of direct quotations 
 from the Old Testament writers, in the New 
 Testament, there are 263, and these cover 
 almost the whole book, being taken from nearly 
 every writer ; while there are allusions, which 
 amount almost to quotations, still more nume- 
 rous, upwards of 350. — Ibid. 
 
 [15 19] What was the view of the first Chris- 
 tians ? It was remarkable that Jesus Himself 
 never quoted an apocryphal book. It was still 
 more remarkable that none of His apostles ever 
 quoted one as an authority. 
 
 130 
 
 A UTHORITY OF THE SCRIP- 
 TURES. 
 
 I. Internal Evidence. 
 I Their own unique persuasiveness. 
 
 [1520] I have often thought M'ith myself 
 whence the Scripture itself is so persuasive, 
 from whence it doth so powerfully influence 
 the minds of its hearers, that it inclines or leads 
 them not only to receive an opinion, but surely 
 to believe. This is not to be imputed to the 
 evidence of reasons, which it doth not produce ; 
 nor unto the industiy of art, with words smooth 
 and fit to persuade, which it useth not. See, 
 then, if this be not the cause of it, that we are 
 persuaded that it comes from the first Truth or 
 Verity. But whence are we so persuaded but 
 from itself alone ? As if its own authority 
 should eftectually draw us to believe it. But 
 whence, I pray, hath it this authority ? We 
 saw not God preaching, writing, or teaching 
 it ; but yet, as if we had seen Him, we believe
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 1520—1526] 
 
 267 
 
 [authority of the scriptures. 
 
 and firmly hold that the things which we read 
 proceeded from the Holy Ghost. It may be 
 this is the reason why we so firmly adhere unto 
 it, that truth is more solid in it, though not more 
 clear, than in other writings ; for all truth hath 
 a persuasive power — the greater truth the 
 greater power, and that which is greatest the 
 greatest efficacy of all. — Baptisia Maiituamts. 
 
 II. Historical and Scientific Evidence. 
 
 1 Preliminary considerations. 
 
 (i) Historical canons for testing evidence. 
 
 [1521] I. When the record which we possess 
 of an event is the writing of a contemporary, 
 supposing that he is a credible witness and had 
 means of observing the fact, the fact is to be 
 accepted as possessing the first or highest degree 
 of historical credibility. 
 
 2. When the event recorded is one which the 
 writer may be reasonably supposed to have 
 obtained directly from those who witnessed it, 
 we should accept it as probably true, unless 
 it be in itself very improbable. Such evidence 
 possesses the second degree of historical credi- 
 bility. 
 
 3. When the event recorded is removed con- 
 siderably from the age of the recorder, and there 
 is no reason to believe that he received it from 
 a contemporary writing, but the probable source 
 of his information was oral tradition ; still, if the 
 event be one of great importance and public 
 notoriety, if it aftected the national life or pros- 
 perity — especially if it be of a nature to have 
 been at once commemorated by any rite or 
 practice, then it has a claim to belief as prob- 
 ably true, at least, its general outline. This, 
 however, is the third, and a comparatively low, 
 degree of historical credibility. 
 
 4. When the traditions of one race, which, if 
 unsupported, would have had but small claim 
 to attention, and none to belief, are corrobo- 
 rated by the traditions of another, especially if 
 a distant and hostile race, the event which has 
 this double testimony obtains thereby a high 
 amount of probability, and if not very unlikely 
 in itself, thoroughly deserves acceptance. The 
 credibility in this case may be as strong as the 
 highest or as weak as the lowest, since a new 
 and distinct ground of likelihood comes into 
 play which is not exactly commensurate with 
 the former cases mentioned. — Rawlinsott, 
 Historical Evidences. 
 
 (2) Historical materials, 
 
 [1522] Historical materials may be divided 
 into direct and indirect — such as proceed from 
 the agents in the occurrences, and such as are 
 the embodiment of inquiries and researches 
 made by persons not themselves engaged in the 
 transactions. — Ibid. 
 
 2 Acceptance by the early Church of the 
 scriptural records. 
 
 [1523] From the days of the apostles until 
 now, Christianity has meant, not what philoso- 
 phers and critics have assumed it to mtan, but 
 
 what has flowed naturally and irresistibly from 
 the sacred books. It is indisputable, that the 
 early Church accepted the records of the Scrip- 
 tures, and reflected their teaching. In fact, 
 the triumphs of Christianity could not have 
 been effected unless the Scriptures had been 
 simply, and openly, and fully accepted. Take 
 from history the New Testament, as it is, and 
 substitute for it a mere remnant or heap of 
 disjecta membra, a vague doctrine of morality, 
 such as the sceptical school would fain prove 
 sufficient, and then the phenomena of primitive 
 Christianity are entirely inexplicable. — R. A. 
 Redfo}-d, The Christian's Plea. 
 
 3 Confirmation of scientific evidences from 
 various departments. 
 
 [1524] Geology bears witness to the recent 
 origin of man, of whom there is no trace in any 
 but the latest strata. Physiology decides in 
 favour of the unity of the species, and the prob- 
 able derivation of the whole human race from 
 a single pair. Comparative philology, after 
 divers fluctuations, settles into the belief that 
 languages will ultimately prove to have been all 
 derived from a common basis. Ethnology pro- 
 nounces that, independently of the Scripture 
 record, we should be led to fix on the plains of 
 Shina as a common centre from which the 
 various lines of migration and the several types 
 of races originally radiated. The Toldoth Beni 
 Noah has extorted the admiration of modern 
 ethnologists, who continually find in it antici- 
 pations of their greatest discoveries. — Rawlin- 
 son. Historical Evidences. 
 
 4 Supposed historical disproofs or contra- 
 dictions are failures. 
 
 [1525] It is not possible to produce from 
 authentic history any contradiction of any por- 
 tion of the Hebrew records. When such a 
 contradiction has seemed to be found, it has 
 invariably happened that, in the progress of 
 historical inquiry, the author from whom it 
 proceeds has lost credit, and finally come to be 
 regarded as an utterly untrustworthy authority. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 III. Summary Statement of the Facts 
 OF THE Case. 
 
 [1526] The facts before us are — first, that the 
 books of the Old Testament existed in the time 
 of our Lord in their present state, even to the 
 very text, of which, indeed, there has been since 
 that day but one recension ; secondly, that our 
 Lord and His apostles constantly asserted that 
 these Scriptures contained the supernatural ele- 
 ment of prophecy. It may be that we are not 
 able always to interpret the predictions. Some- 
 times these ancient sayings may have been 
 referred to the events of after times without 
 authority. But since man cannot predict the 
 future, it is quite clear that if there are found 
 throughout the " Law, the Prophets, and the 
 Psalms," certain "things concerning" One who 
 was to live centuries afterwards, these docu-
 
 268 
 
 1526-1532] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [bible difficulties. 
 
 ments cannot be treated quite like " any other 
 book." — London Quarterly Review. 
 
 IV. Paramount Nature of the Autho- 
 rity OF the Scripture when estab- 
 lished. 
 
 I Upon a common-sense point of view, 
 
 [1527] Propose me anything out of this book, 
 and require whether I believe or no, and, seem 
 it never so incomprehensible to human reason, 
 
 1 will subscribe it with hand and heart, as 
 knowing no demonstration can be stronger than 
 this — God hath said so, therefore it is true. 
 
 2 According to the teaching of the Church 
 of England. 
 
 [1528] If any single point may be selected as 
 forming the distinctive and peculiar character 
 which the founders of the Church of England 
 most earnestly desired, I will not say to impress 
 on the structure they were rearing, but rather 
 to clear out from the incrustations which had 
 concealed it on the ancient walls of the primi- 
 tive temple they were restoring, it was that 
 there is no other authoritative rule or standard, 
 as to the essential doctrines of a saving faith, 
 than the canonical Scriptures, the unquestioned 
 and unquestionable oracles of inspiration. This 
 she has distinctly inscribed in the first page of 
 her Articles ; this she most solemnly impresses 
 on the conscience of every minister. — Conybeare, 
 Anal. Exam, into the Writifigs of the Fathers. 
 
 131 
 
 BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 I. Their Sources. 
 
 I Ignorance, often positively wilful ignor- 
 ance. 
 
 [1529] One of the sins of infidels is their 
 refusal to read the Scriptures in the light of 
 ancient times and distant lands. Want of 
 proper knowledge seriously interferes with our 
 appreciation of a book ; and I need not say 
 that ability to appreciate the teachings of the 
 Bible depends a good deal upon our degree of 
 learning. The least instructed may be made 
 wise unto salvation by it ; but the most learned 
 will understand the book intellectually better. 
 I do not scruple to accuse many opponents of 
 Scripture of being wilfully ignorant. They start 
 a difficulty, or a supposed contradiction. Do 
 they try to get knowledge and an explanation ? 
 Do they receive the truth if it is offered to 
 them ? Do they cease their cavillings when thev 
 have been told the truth .? They do not ; and 
 as I have said elsewhere, I say it here, that 
 when they have heard the truth, they have at 
 once gone to another place, and repeated their 
 old calumnious falsehood. — B. H. Cowper. 
 
 2 Prejudice or pride. 
 
 [1530] Evidently prejudice has much to do 
 with our knowledge. If you are prejudiced 
 against a man or a book, you will not be a just 
 and an intelligent judge ; you will not even give 
 a correct description. Hence the men who are 
 prejudiced against the Bible take a one-sided 
 view of everything, and offer us a caricature 
 for mockery rather than a description for infor- 
 mation. To such we say, your difficulties are 
 mainly in your crooked, gnarled temper, which 
 will not be informed ; they are in your pride, 
 your self-will, your self-sufficiency, rather than 
 in the book. He that is humble, meek, and 
 teachable, does not see the difficulties you see, 
 showing that now, as of old, " with the lowly is 
 wisdom." — Ibid. 
 
 II. Their Contemplated Purpose. 
 
 I They are a moral test and intellectual 
 training. 
 
 [1531] It is fitted wisely to the purpose of 
 forming character. It is a revelation clear 
 enough to render faith possible, and obscure 
 enough to leave unbelief possible. Too bright 
 as well as too dark a revelation might defeat 
 the very end of revelation. It would bring the 
 educational and probationary period of life to a 
 close ; it would bring on the day of judgment. 
 The very difficulties and limitations of reve- 
 lation are adapted, also, to the conditions of 
 moral growth. It requires, and it repays, toil. 
 It tasks, and tries, and puzzles, and strengthens 
 faith. It is like man to make everything regular, 
 easy, and plain ; but that is not like the God of 
 nature, of history, or of the Bible. A revelation 
 in which the way never could be missed ; a 
 revelation made level and smooth to our feet, 
 would be like the work of man, but not like the 
 builder of the mountains. Were there no Alps 
 for men to climb ; no ocean depths beneath the 
 plummet's reach ; no stars still unresolved ; no 
 Scylla and Charybdis waiting to catch up the 
 unskilful voyager ; no burdens of toil and sorrow 
 laid upon our manhood ; if this life were only 
 the play of children, and all the days were sun- 
 shine — then, indeed, might we expect to find 
 a Bible without difficulties ; a gospel without 
 parables ; a kingdom of truth without tasks for 
 the athlete, rewards for the victor. But the God 
 of nature, of history^, and of the Bible, surely 
 does not intend to people His heaven with a 
 race of moral imbeciles. *' To him that over- 
 cometh." — Smyth {Atnerica). 
 
 [1532] None are so keen in finding difficulties 
 in Scripture as those who have no desire that it 
 should be found true. There is left in the Bible 
 a sufficiency of stumbling-blocks whereon, in 
 righteous retribution, all such as lack childlike 
 docility and humility are allowed to stumble. 
 To all those who sincerely and humbly desire 
 to do God's will, seeming discrepancies prove 
 no stumbling-block. For many such, they have 
 already found, on deeper search, prove to be
 
 THE HOLY SCRiPTURES. 
 
 1532—1538] 
 
 269 
 
 [bible difficulties. 
 
 hidden harmonies, as is the case in what seemed 
 to Zedekiah a discrepancy ; and as to those 
 difficulties which they cannot solve, they believe 
 that if they had more light they would find the 
 difficulties disappear, so that they are content 
 to trust God, and to wait His time for making 
 all that is now dark clear. — A. R. Fausset. 
 
 Ill, Replies to Objections. 
 
 I Unsolved, possibly unsolvable, difficulties 
 existing regarding natural objects, do not 
 destroy their value. 
 
 (i) In the case 0/ the sun. 
 
 [1533] I looked up into the sky and saw the 
 setting sun radiant in its brightness. After 
 hours of blessing to this and other nations it 
 was passing away to regions which we shall 
 never see. I said to myself — The poor and the 
 untaught, equally with the noble and the wise, 
 hatve participated in the advantages of that 
 luminary to-day ; but who that has lifted up his 
 eyes and contemplated it, who that has observed 
 it as it has marched majestically through the 
 sky, who that has reflected upon its parts, its 
 comely proportions, and its wondrous motions, 
 and has asked how and whereby it is projected 
 through space, and is suspended in ether, has 
 not been overwhelmed with the conscious in- 
 ability of answering his own questions ? The 
 difficulty is common to us all, and we shall 
 never surmount it ; but we may thank the great 
 Creator of the sun that all the obstacles we en- 
 counter when we endeavour to understand it, do 
 not interfere for a moment with our enjoyment 
 of it, and the profit we derive from it. Such a 
 fact meets practically every objection brought 
 against the Bible on the score of its difficulties. 
 — B. H. Cow per. 
 
 C2) hi the case of the production of food and 
 its assimilation. 
 
 [1534] The grains of corn which are cast into 
 the ground take root, spring up and grow ; the 
 stalk is green, the ear forms, and the wheat 
 ripens. We all eat the bread and declare it 
 "the staff of life," but we cannot explain the 
 processes which lead to such a result. The 
 wisest philosopher has never got beyond the 
 man of whom our Lord said, he should sow his 
 corn, and he should not know how it springs 
 and grows up. The difficulties are such that 
 they will be solved by no mortal man. But do 
 those difficulties interfere with the wholesome- 
 ness of our bread, and prevent us from extract- 
 ing nutriment from it ? Verily, no ! So, if we 
 were advised to dispense with our ordinary food 
 because we cannot understand all about it, we 
 should regard the advice as that of a maniac. 
 
 Why should I not reason thus and act thus 
 in relation to the Bible? Infidels urge, as a 
 reason why I should reject it, that I cannot 
 wnderstand every statement in it. Very much 
 indeed is made of this argument; but the 
 practical benefits which the Scriptures convey 
 to the earnest Christian, prove that incidental 
 difficulties which appeal to the intellect, do not 
 
 prevent the Word from nourishing the soul of 
 the believer. — Ibid. 
 
 (3) In the case of science generally. 
 
 [1535] Yet who will be so foolish as to say 
 that science is a useful and mischievous bug- 
 bear, because its followers are not all . . . 
 unanimous, ... its problems not all solved, 
 and its mysteries difficult to explore ? — Ibid. 
 
 2 Difficulties in the Bible an evidence in 
 favour of its Divine character. 
 
 [1536] We have said there are difficulties in 
 the Bible ; we admit them, do not wish to deny 
 them, and are proud of them. If the book, 
 which professed to come from a wise and holy 
 God, displayed no difficulties to foolish and 
 ignorant men, we should almost doubt its claims 
 to inspiration. If the Bible only embodied 
 human ideas, while avowedly containing the 
 dictates of the Holy Spirit, we should question 
 it. If it only manifested human ideas of love 
 and kindness, while setting forth claims to be 
 the glorious gospel of the blessed God, we should 
 suspect it. If it only reached the level of human 
 ideas of justice, goodness, and the claims of 
 truth, we should doubt it. If its ideas were 
 within the scope of human ordinary thought, 
 and not beyond the range of common men, we 
 should not believe it. If it was merely suited 
 to one order or class of men, and did not speak 
 with a voice intelligible to humanity, we should 
 challenge its pretensions. — Ibid. 
 
 3 The certainty of difficulties in every-day 
 life is compatible with progress. 
 
 [1537] Are there no difficulties in life? You 
 know too well that they look grimly on you as 
 you lay in the cradle, and that they have at- 
 tended you all along. But where is the father 
 who says to his son, " Boy, life is full of diffi- 
 culties, a struggle and a battle from beginning 
 to end. You will be beset by these obstacles at 
 every step. You will find it hard, not merely to 
 win honour, but to win your bread. Snap the 
 thread that binds you to the world, and repudi- 
 ate life, which is onlyevil, and that continually." 
 Men do not lightly shun the ills they know, or 
 fly to others that they know not. So we, what- 
 ever difficulties we find in the Bible, find it a 
 pleasant thing to behold its light, and will not 
 renounce it for the unknown and untried nega- 
 tions of unbeUef. — Ibid. 
 
 4 Intellectual difficulties in Biblical revela- 
 tion accord with its professed design. 
 
 [1538] What is the avowed object of the 
 Bible? Is it not mental and spiritual culture — 
 the training of the intellect and the heart — "the 
 teaching of every man ? " If so, is not difficulty 
 essential ? The school-book, whose difficulties 
 the pupil has mastered, has lost its educational 
 worth. It has no longer a challenge to his 
 faculties. Its suggestive force has been ex- 
 hausted. If the Bible is always to be in our 
 world as its teacher, must it not always have
 
 270 
 1533—1542] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [chronology of the bible. 
 
 something in it that man does not understand ? 
 Tell me of a period, when humanity in its pro- 
 gressive march shall have mastered every 
 difficulty in the Bible, and you tell me of a 
 period when the Bible shall cease to be the 
 teaching book of our race. Intellect in that 
 Colossean age will treat it as a vesture which it 
 has outgrown. — David Thomas. 
 
 5 Intellectual difficulties in relation to 
 Biblical revelation are what we might 
 have expected. 
 
 [1539] There stands the student of nature, 
 perplexed by every sentence on the page he 
 reads. He walked the fields of botany and 
 culled the flowers and the plants. Still, he 
 cannot tell how springs the little seed from the 
 earth, and how it covers hill and dale, mead 
 and forest, with such a vast profusion and end- 
 less variety of life. Has he studied the stars of 
 God, as they have swept along in silent splen- 
 dour through the dome of night ? Still he un- 
 derstands not the "ordinances of heaven." Has 
 he surveyed the exquisite and complicated 
 machinery of his own frame ? Overwhelmed 
 with astonishment he must confess, " I am fear- 
 fully and wonderfully made." Let him be a 
 Humboldt in the sciences, yet everywhere will 
 he hear \\i^ o;reat spi7-it of nature reproving his 
 ignorance, and challenging his puny intellect to 
 interpret fully her mystic page. " Hast thou 
 perceived the breadth of the earth ? declare if 
 thou knowest it all. Where is the way of the 
 light ? and as for darkness, where is the place 
 thereof, that thou shouldest take it to the bound 
 thereof, and that thou shouldest know the path 
 to the house thereof.'' " (S:c. Go to that per- 
 plexed disciple of nature with the Bible — tell 
 him that it is a book written by the author of 
 the system he has been studying. Satisfy him 
 as to its divinity ; and then I ask, how would he 
 be likely to receive it from your hands ? Would 
 he do it with a thoughtless spirit ? With what 
 ideas would he open its pages ? Would he 
 expect to master everything it contained ? Nay, 
 would not an awful solemnity pervade his being 
 at that moment, and would he not commence 
 its perusal, fully anticipating to meet in its every 
 section things that would baffle his thoughts 
 and outstrip his comprehension ? We think so. 
 And if that man in the progress of the perusal 
 met with no difficulties, methinks his scepticism 
 would be awakened, and he would renounce it 
 as an imposture. Still more, its difficulties 
 are as necessary for the training of the heart 
 as the understanding. They make us sensible 
 of our feebleness. They humble our proud 
 spirits. They inspire us with stirring ques- 
 tions. They fill us with devout amazement and 
 solemn awe. They appear to me somewhat 
 analogous to the stupendous highlands and the 
 deep glens — the yawning chasms and the cir- 
 cuitous rivers — the craggy rocks and the 
 dashing seas, of a highly picturesque and 
 romantic territory ; there is an air of grandeur — 
 a living spirit of sublimity pervading the whole, 
 which starts in the bosom of the spectator in- 
 
 spirations he could never feel amidst the tame 
 and monotonous in nature. Would I have all 
 this removed from the Bible 1 Would I level 
 its Alpine heights ? Would I fill up its awful 
 deeps ? Would I make straight its labyrinthian 
 rivers, and tuna its shoreless oceans into lakes ? 
 No. It is when I look up at those dizzy alti- 
 tudes, which I cannot climb — adown those 
 abysses, which I have no plummet to sound — 
 abroad on those oceans, through whose surges 
 no human bark has ever steered its course, that 
 I catch the apostolic inspiration, " Oh the depth 
 of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge 
 of God ! how unsearchable are His judgments, 
 and His ways past finding out." — Ibid. 
 
 132 
 
 CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 I. Concessions which some Bible Stu- 
 dents ARE prepared TO MAKE. 
 
 1 That there is more than a supposed 
 collision between science and the letter 
 of Scripture upon chronology and genea- 
 logical tables. 
 
 [1540] It may be that not one of the argu- 
 ments of either the philologist, the ethnologist, 
 the antiquarian or the geologist is absolutely 
 conclusive ; but together they form a strong 
 cumulative proof of the inadequacy of the 
 current chronology which is founded on the 
 genealogical tables of Genesis, while there seem 
 to be no arguments of weight on the other side. 
 —J. H. Gladstone, Ph.D., F.R.S. 
 
 2 That certain inaccuracies have crept into 
 the early chronology of Genesis. 
 
 [1541] I ought to mention, however, that 
 another theory has lately been advanced which 
 even saves the common chronology. It is 
 argued that the first account of the creation 
 relates to the whole genus homo, but that the 
 second commencing at the fourth verse of the 
 second chapter of Genesis refers to the Adamic 
 race, and that this branch of the great family is 
 alone treated of in subsequent history. Such a 
 hypothesis has the merit of removing several 
 difficulties at once ; and if it raises others of a 
 theological character, it is possible that these 
 may eventually disappear. — Ibid. 
 
 3 That there are two different accounts of 
 man in Genesis, one of the whole genus 
 and the other of the Adamic race. 
 
 [1542] Yet it requires no great scholarship 
 to satisfy ourselves that the computation of 
 the date of Adam, as made from the received 
 Hebrew, or the Septuagint or Peschito versions, 
 will differ by many centuries ; that the figures 
 in Genesis v. have been tampered with in early 
 days ; that genealogies even in the New Testa-
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, 
 
 1542—1549] 
 
 [continuity of the scriptures 
 
 271 
 
 ment are purposely curtailed ; that one man is 
 sometimes said to be the son of another, though 
 elsewhere it appears that many generations have 
 intervened between them ; and that the genea- 
 logical lists after the flood refer, partially at 
 least, to the descent, not of individuals, but of 
 nations, one nation being said to have begotten 
 other nations. As, therefore, it is evident that 
 these lists of names are intended to indicate 
 only the line of descent, and not every step on 
 the road, as they have suffered in transmission, 
 and as we cannot always in the earlier records 
 distinguish between nations and individuals, we 
 need not consider ourselves bound to any 
 chronology deduced from them. — Ibid. 
 
 [1543] It is a great mistake to suppose that 
 the facts of science respecting chronology are 
 so conclusively established as to need a recon- 
 struction of usually accepted modes of inter- 
 preting Scripture so as to interfere with leading 
 doctrinal truth — as the unityof the human race. 
 If science should be able to disprove the chrono- 
 logy, as now regarded, of Genesis, then and not 
 till then will be the time for the Church to con- 
 sider how far we must modify present views or 
 construct new theories. At present our duty is 
 to wait and be still, and not to fear true science 
 rightly interpreted, so far from clashing with, will 
 confirm and supplement Scripture. — C. N, 
 
 II. Leading Cause of Mistakes re- 
 specting Scripture Chronology. 
 
 I The confounding the six days' work of 
 re-formation with the work of creation. 
 
 [1544] The great confusion and mystification 
 on this question of chronology, is from mixing 
 the origin of the universe or of the earth, with 
 that of the present races of the animal and 
 vegetable kingdoms. All the difficulties in- 
 vented respecting Bible chronology, as to the 
 age of the universe, of the earth and of man, 
 arise from not distinguishing between the six 
 days' work — of renovating this world, restoring 
 vegetable and animal life in it, after rendering it 
 once more habitable, and the original creation 
 of the heavens and the earth (Gen. i. i). — B. G. 
 
 III. Hopeful Signs of an Harmony be- 
 ing established between Science 
 and Scripture respecting Chrono- 
 logy. 
 
 I The tendency of modern discovery to 
 modernize the date of pre-historic times. 
 
 [1545] The facts do not require more than 
 seven or eight thousand years backward from 
 the present, for the antiquity of man. This con- 
 clusion agrees with the facts of history, and is 
 not in conflict with the chronology of Scripture. 
 The tendency of modern discovery is ever to 
 reduce the pre-historic period. By a survey of 
 the measurements of the skulls of various races, 
 and a comparison between the oldest men 
 known to us and now living men, it is shown 
 that man appeared suddenly, in all essential 
 
 respects the same as the man of to-day. The 
 total absence of proof of any transition from the 
 man to the ape is pointed out, and the suffi- 
 ciency and consistency of the scriptural account 
 of man is shown. — Dr. Friedrich Pfarff. 
 
 [1546] With geological records of great un- 
 certainty, and written records declared to be 
 incomplete for this purpose, we submit that it is 
 suflicient for us to show a near approximation 
 between science and Scripture, and to express 
 the conviction, founded on actual facts, that the 
 more geology is studied and its facts ascer- 
 tained, the closer does this approximation be- 
 come ; already this is the case in the judgment 
 of some leading geologists, for undoubtedly the 
 tendency of modern observation and discovery 
 has been to bring down and modernize the 
 mammalian and prehistoric epochs. 
 
 Finally, the matter stands thus — the exact 
 age of man on the earth is not ascertainable by 
 science, but science shows to us a number of 
 converging probabilities which point to his first 
 appearance along with great animals about 
 eight thousand years ago, and certainly not in 
 indefinite ages before that. — Ibid. 
 
 See article No. 137, " Mosaic Cosmogony." 
 
 133 
 
 CONTINUITY OF THE 
 TURES. 
 
 SCRIP- 
 
 I. As seen in the Merging of Judaism 
 into Christianity. 
 
 [1547] The Bible is made up of two parts, 
 Judaism and Christianity, but they constitute 
 but one system — one in principle, authorship, 
 and design ; Christianity is but the full unfold- 
 ment of Judaism, the germ advanced to the 
 fruit, the twilight brightened into noon, the 
 architectural plan elaborated into a magnificent 
 temple. — Homilist. 
 
 [1548] The Bible may also be viewed as made 
 up af ///rtv parts — Adamic Patriarchalism, Juda- 
 ism, and Christianity. In the first was the 
 promise of a Redeemer ; in the second were the 
 types of ceremonial sacrifices and the prophe- 
 cies ; in the third are the anti-type and fulfil- 
 ment — " The Lamb of God that taketh away the 
 sin of the world," " slain," in promise, " from 
 the foundation of the world." It is Christ who 
 gives unity to the Bible. — B. G. 
 
 II. As seen in one Directing and 
 Unifying Vital Force of Divine 
 Revelation. 
 
 [1549] The very naturalness and ease, if one 
 may so speak, of the manner in which the Bible 
 was formed, evinces theWork of a Power which 
 had perfect mastery over the springs of human
 
 272 
 
 IS49— IS54] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [credibility of gospel history. 
 
 history. It is difficult to explain the progress, 
 order, and unity of purpose in the Bible, unless 
 we take into the account something more than 
 individual genius, national temperament, or 
 peculiar historical conditions. There seems to 
 be some power behind all these, co-ordinating 
 them, arranging and guiding them, for the pro- 
 duction of this organic whole of the Scriptures. 
 — Smyth {America), 
 
 [1550] Its different writers were without inter- 
 communication, lived in different ages, and were 
 the medium of one Presiding Spirit, which ex- 
 plains the unity of the whole, as really from one 
 Authorship. — B. G. 
 
 [155 1] The Bible itself is a standing and an 
 astonishing miracle. Written, fragment by 
 fragment, throughout the course of fifteen cen- 
 turies, under different states of society, and in 
 different languages, by persons of the most op- 
 posite tempers, talents, and conditions, learned 
 and unlearned, prince and peasant, bond and 
 free ; cast into every form of instructive com- 
 position and good writing, history, prophecy, 
 poetry, allegory, emblematic representation, 
 judicious interpretation, literal statement, pre- 
 cept, example, proverbs, disquisition, epistle, 
 sermon, prayer — in short, all rational shapes of 
 human discourse ; and treating, moreover, of 
 subjects not obvious, but most difficult ; — its 
 authors are not found, like other writers, con- 
 tradicting one another upon the most ordinary 
 matters of fact and opinion, but are at harmony 
 upon the whole of their sublime and momentous 
 scheme. — Prof. Maclagan, Discourses. 
 
 iii. as seen in the unbroken moral 
 Leadership of the Bible in His- 
 tory. 
 
 [1552] Follow through the Bible the continu- 
 ous adjustment of the revelation of truth to the 
 conditions of the life of Israel— and in this 
 adaptation of the environment of revealed truth, 
 to the struggle of the higher life in Israel, there 
 lie the evidences of a more than natural evolu- 
 tion. The Bible, when interpreted with any 
 adequate historical sense, shows throughout 
 unbroken moral leadership. Its truths meet 
 the exigencies of its epochs, and lead on into 
 new eras, toward the one far-off Messianic goal. 
 Thus (for we can now only glance down the 
 course of development) Abraham receives the 
 word of the Lord which enables him to open the 
 way of reform, and to become the father of a 
 monotheistic nation. Moses, with the com- 
 mandments of the Lord, leads a chosen people 
 one great step onward toward the land of pro- 
 mise. Samuel receives the truth by whose 
 power he leads the twelve tribes out of political 
 chaos. David leads the kingdom to a throne 
 established in righteousness ; and the older 
 prophets come with the word of the Lord which 
 kings must hear. Isaiah, and the younger pro- 
 phets, lead religion through the deadly tangle of 
 Canaanitish idolatries, over the arid wastes of 
 
 formalism, beyond the rocky fastnesses of Juda- 
 ism, to the living fountains of a spiritual worship*, 
 and into the illimitable prospect of the Messi- 
 anic glory. The nation, in order to learn its 
 truths by heart, is sent into exile, " goes into 
 retreat to do penance for its sins." It is called 
 back, sobered and purified from idolatry, to 
 enter upon the Puritanism of the Jewish Church, 
 which also must precede the victory of faith, and 
 its final Christian liberty. — Smyth {America). 
 
 IV. As seen in its Christological con- 
 verging AND diverging SCRIPTURE 
 
 Rays. 
 
 [1553] "On the one hand," writes Lord 
 Hatherley, in his valuable work on the Con- 
 tinuity of Scripture, " what if, in the interval 
 between the closing of the Old Testament and 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, One appeared in 
 luhom centred every line of history and of pro- 
 phecy ; what if such an One led a life, as man, 
 in which the most daring gainsayer cannot sug- 
 gest a flaw ; what if He also claimed to come as 
 fulfilling the older Revelation, and Himself fore- 
 told the downfall of the earthly Jerusalem, since 
 the purpose of its separation from the world 
 had been accomplished ; what if He in fact 
 commenced by the foundation of the Christian 
 Church, a new kingdom, in which the promised 
 King should reign, ' to whom it was a light 
 thing that the Jews should be saved,' since to 
 Him ' all the Gentiles also were to be given ; ' 
 what if j/zt/; a7i One rose from the grave after 
 having to the letter accomplished, doth in life 
 and death, all that prophecy had foretold of His 
 earthly career, and then sent down the long- 
 promised gift of the Holy Spirit, the inward 
 teacher of the heart, the builder of that spiritual 
 temple which was to supersede the material 
 edifice on ]\Iount Moriah ; and what if such 
 temple (though, alas I too slowly and imper- 
 fectly) is gradually rising throughout the civi- 
 lized world, to the honour and glory of the 
 Triune Jehovah ? Surely this continuity of 
 events, establishes that the written word has its 
 outward counterpart, that the Old Testament is 
 but the germ of the New, and the one is con- 
 nected with the other as indissolubly as the Word 
 of God made flesh is for ever united to the 
 nature of regenerated man." — Christian Evi- 
 dence Jozniial. 
 
 134 
 
 CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL 
 HISTOR V. 
 
 I. Internal Evidence. 
 
 X The existence and unique character of 
 the New Testament a moral miracle. 
 
 (l) If the facts recorded be considered. 
 [1554] Had our Gospels been unauthentic, 
 they must inevitably have partaken of the cha
 
 1554—1562] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [credibility of gospel, history 
 
 273 
 
 racteristics which mark without exception every 
 early fiction about the Saviour's Ufe. — Canon 
 Farrar, Life of Christ. 
 
 [1555] The birth of Jesus had first been re- 
 vealed by night to a few unknown and ignorant 
 shepherds ; the first full, clear announcement 
 by Himself of His own Messiahship was made 
 by a well-side in the weary noon to a single 
 obscure Samaritan woman. Who would have 
 invented things so unlike the thoughts of man 
 as these ? — Ibid. 
 
 (2) If the manner of recording the facts be 
 considered. 
 
 [1556] No literary fact is more remarkable 
 than that men, knowing what these writers knew, 
 and feeling what they felt, should have given us 
 chronicles so plain and calm. Their narratives 
 place us without preface, and keep us without 
 comment, among external scenes, in full view 
 of facts, and in contact with the living person 
 whom they teach us to know. The style of 
 simple recital, unclouded, and scarcely coloured 
 by any perceptible contribution from the mind 
 of the writers, gives us the scenes, the facts, and 
 the person, as seen in the clearest light and 
 through the most transparent atmosphere. — 
 Canon Bernard, Bampto?i Lectures. 
 
 II. Historical and Scientific Evidence. 
 
 1 We have profane testimony of the first 
 order when the circumstances permit. 
 
 [1557] It is important to notice, regarding 
 many of the facts of the gospel history, (i) that 
 some of them (as the miracles, the resurrection, 
 the ascension) are of such a nature that no tes- 
 timony to them from profane writers was to be 
 expected, since those who believed them natur- 
 ally, and almost necessarily, became Christians ; 
 and (2) that with regard to others which are not 
 of this character, there does exist profane testi- 
 mony of the first order. — Rawlinson, Historical 
 Evidences. 
 
 2 Preservation practically of the entire New 
 Testament in the writings of the early 
 Fathers. 
 
 [1558] A gentleman dining with a literary 
 party, among whom were Lord Hales and Mr. 
 Buchanan, put the question, " Supposing all the 
 New Testaments in the world had been de- 
 stroyed at the end of the third century, could 
 their contents have been recovered from the 
 writings of the first three centuries?" No one 
 even hazarded a guess in answer to the inquiry. 
 About two months after this meeting, Lord 
 Hales told Mr. Buchanan, " That question quite 
 accorded with the turn of my mind. On return- 
 ing home, as I knew I had all the writers of 
 those centuries, I began immediately to collect 
 them, that I might set to work on the arduous 
 task aj SCO.', as possible." Pointing to a table 
 covered with papers, he said, "There have I 
 been busy for these two months, searching for 
 
 VOL. L 
 
 chapters, half-chapters, and sentences, of the 
 New Testament, and have marked down what 
 I have found, and where I have found it, so that 
 any person may examine and see for themselres. 
 I have actually discovered the whole New Tes- 
 tament from these writings, except seven or 
 eleven verses (I forget which), which satisfies 
 me that I could discover them also. Now, here 
 was a way in which God concealed or hid the 
 treasure of His word, that Julian the apostate 
 emperor, and other enemies of Christ who 
 wished to extirpate the gospel from the world, 
 never would have thought of : and, though they 
 had, they never could have effected their de- 
 struction." 
 
 3 Chronological and geographical elements 
 incidentally mixed up in the histories 
 confirmed by modern researches and dis- 
 coveries, 
 
 [1559] The New Testament scene does not 
 lie in some misty, undefined portion of time, the 
 place of which cannot be ascertained, but in a 
 period as historical and as recognizable as that 
 of Queen Elizabeth or Charles the Second. The 
 geography of the New Testament is historical. 
 It includes empires and kingdoms, provinces 
 and cities, mountains and oceans, rivers and 
 valleys, which are all real and correctly indi- 
 cated. The smallest villages equally with the 
 largest cities are accurately represented and 
 located. The progress of modern discovery has 
 only tended to confirm the book in its minutest 
 details. This is not usual with mythical and 
 purely fabulous writings, with which, indeed, the. 
 rule is quite the opposite. — B. H. Cowper. 
 
 [1560] Let us prove (a) that the New Testa- 
 ment portrays scenes enacted in one of the 
 most exciting and anomalous periods in the 
 annals of a peculiar people ; {b) that its narra- 
 tives cover a wide and almost illimitable territory, 
 a territory co-extensive with the entire empire 
 of ancient Rome ; and {c) that the local allusions, 
 of which it is full, are not only very great in 
 number, but minute, oblique, and incidental in 
 their character. — Rain Chandra Bose, Truth 
 of Christian Religion. 
 
 [1561] After visiting Palestine, Renan found 
 it to reflect so thoroughly the life and lessons of 
 Jesus, that to him it appeared like a fifth Gospel. 
 The teaching of Jesus in Galilee and in Judasa 
 respectively has a flavour of the soil. This 
 feature is one of the numberless traces of reality 
 that mark the life of Christ as delineated in the 
 four Gospels, and that justify the remark that it 
 were far more wonderful that the life should 
 have been a myth, than that it should have been 
 a realitv. — Dr. Blaikie, Witness of Palestine to 
 the Bible. 
 
 4 Agreement of advanced medical science 
 v/ith the peculiar physical circumstances 
 recorded by the Evangelists (unacquainted 
 with such knowledge) regarding our Lord's 
 death. 
 
 i3 
 
 [1562] We have it now authenticated beyond
 
 274 
 
 1^62- 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 -1567] 
 
 [credibility of gospel history. 
 
 reasonable doubt that, what John noticed, the 
 copious outflow of blood and water, is precisely 
 what would have happened on the supposition 
 that the heart of our Redeemer had been 
 ruptured under the pressure of inward grief. 
 
 Would it not be wonderful, would it not 
 correspond with other evidences of the truth of 
 the gospel narrative, should it turn out to be 
 true that the accounts of the sufferings and 
 death of Jesus, drawn up by four independent 
 witnesses — all of them uninformed as to the true 
 state of the case, and signally ignorant how 
 that which they recorded might seem to reveal it 
 — did, nevertheless, when brought together and 
 minutely scrutinized, contain within them those 
 distinct and decisive tokens which the advanced 
 science of this age recognizes as indicative of a 
 mode of death, so singular in its character, so 
 rare in its occurrence, so peculiar in its physical 
 effects ! 
 
 Would it not also give a new meaning to some 
 of the expressions which in Psalms Ixix. and 
 xxii. our Saviour is Himself represented as 
 employing, e.g.. Psalm Ixix. 20, 21, and Psalm 
 xxii. 14 ? 
 
 It seems also to spiritualize and elevate our 
 conception of the sufferings of Calvary ; it carries 
 our thoughts away from the mere bodily endu- 
 rances of the crucifixion ; it concentrates them 
 on the mysterious love which agitated His spirit. 
 How little had man to do physically with the 
 infliction of that agony wherein the great atone- 
 ment lay. — Rev. W. Han/ia, D.D., LL.D., Our 
 ^Lord's Life on Eai'th. 
 
 in. Admissions from our Opponents. 
 
 I As to internal evidence. 
 
 [i 563] Having pointed out the clear distinction 
 which exists between the moral teaching of the 
 New Testament, and what iMr. Mill designates 
 " Theological Morality" — by which he means 
 various systems of morality evolved during the 
 centuries of the Cliurch's history — and which he 
 charges with various defects as necessarily in- 
 hei^ent in Christian ethics, in any manner in 
 which it can be conceived, that philosopher 
 distinguishes between Christ's teaching and 
 human theology, which he condenses, saying : 
 " Far less would I insinuate this of doctrines 
 and precepts of Christ Himself. I believe 
 that the sayings of Christ contain all that I 
 can see any evidence of their having been 
 intended to be ; that they are irreconcilable 
 with nothing which a comprehensive morality 
 requires ; that everything which is excellent in 
 ethics may be brought within them with no 
 greater violence to their language than has been 
 done to it by all who have attempted to deduce 
 from them any practical system whatever." — 
 J. S. Mill., Essay on Liberty. 
 
 2 As to historical evidence. 
 
 [1564] On the whole I admit, as authentic, the 
 four canonical Gospels. All, in my opinion, date 
 from the first centurj', and the authors are, 
 
 generally speaking, those to whom they are 
 attributed. — Renafty Vie dt Jesus. 
 
 IV. Summary Statement of the Argu- 
 ments IN ITS Favour. 
 
 [1565] If the force of any one of the facts 
 enumerated is considered small, yet taken col- 
 lectively the series supplies a chain of evidence 
 which it will be difficult, if not impossible to 
 break. Some of the propositions are admitted 
 by sceptics themselves, but this is no reason 
 why any should be excluded ; we therefore 
 exhibit the whole in regular order. 
 
 1. Four Gospels ai-e to this day received by 
 all those ancient Christian communities which 
 regard the Scriptures as a rule of faith and a 
 divine law of life. This is true of the Protestant, 
 Roman, Greek, Ethiopic, Syriac, Coptic, Arme- 
 nian, and other sections of the Church. 
 
 2. The Gospels so received are the same as 
 ours, and are ascribed to the same authors — 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 
 
 3. These Churches have no tradition or record 
 of more than four canonical Gospels as ever 
 known and received. 
 
 4. None of these Churches has any idea that 
 fewer than four Gospels were ever regarded as 
 canonical since the production of that by St. 
 John. 
 
 5. No ancient proof or suspicion exists that 
 the original four genuine Gospels were different 
 from those now admitted. 
 
 6. Our four Gospels exist in manuscripts, of 
 which some are nearly fifteen hundred years old. 
 
 7. These Gospels exist in translations which 
 are older than any existing manuscripts. 
 
 8. Extracts from our Gospels are found in all 
 Christian writers back to the apostolic age. 
 
 9. The principal facts and doctrines contained 
 in the Gospels are embodied in Christian writ- 
 ings from the days of Clement of Rome down to 
 our own. 
 
 10. The four Gospels were regarded in the 
 second century as the standards of orthodoxy 
 by heretics, Jews, and pagans. 
 
 11. The four Gospels contain remarkable 
 internal proofs of being what they profess to 
 be, genuine and original documents. — Basil H. 
 Cowper. 
 
 [1566] Even the original text of the New 
 Testament, in its very details, is in the main 
 established by an overwhelming array of incon- 
 trovertible evidence. Such agreement is con- 
 clusive evidence that since about the middle of 
 the second century the widely separated tran- 
 scribers of the New Testament meant to be 
 faithful, and that they in each case possessed a 
 common original, whose authority was unques- 
 tioned. — G. F. Wright. 
 
 V. Counter- CHARGES against Modern 
 Anti-miraculous School of Thought. 
 
 [1567] The following summary is given by 
 Dr. Christlieb of the counter-charges which the 
 Christian apologist is able to substantiate against
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 1567— 1569] 
 
 275 
 
 [credibility of gospel history. 
 
 the whole of the modern critical school, in their 
 rejection of the miraculous narrative of the 
 gospel : — " I. They fail in historical perception. 
 They treat the records untruthfully to suit their 
 purpose. 2. They leave altogether unexplained 
 the existence of the Christian Church. 3. Their 
 theory of the person of Christ breaks down. It 
 is neither Divine nor human, but a mere mon- 
 strosity. The dilemma holds them on its horns 
 transfixed — given the moral impurity of Jesus 
 and His disciples, to explain the moral effects 
 of Christianity ; given the truth of the gospel 
 histoiy, to deny the Divinity of Christ. 4. They 
 fail to give an intelligent account of the con- 
 struction of the Gospels. The theory of myths, 
 legends, later inventions, and exaggerations, is 
 irreconcilable with the facts of the case, the age, 
 spirit, style of the gospel, the testimony of the 
 Epistles, and the undisputed history of the 
 early Church. 5. They supply no substitute for 
 that which they attempt to take away. Their 
 hard scientific criticism, or flimsy and immoral 
 romanticism, can afford no satisfaction, either 
 to the thoughtful doubter or to the troubled 
 spirit of the sufierer. 6. The whole school of 
 the modern anti-miraculous sceptics is panthe- 
 istic. Their thinking is vitiated by their evident 
 denial of the personality of God. They answer 
 themselves by their atheism." 
 
 VI. Difficulties in the way of those 
 who deny the genuineness and 
 Authenticity of the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 z Negatively viewed. 
 
 ( I ) The invention of a new gospel, ivlien all the 
 facts of the case are duly tccighcd, luoitld be as 
 great a iniracle as anything which the evan- 
 gelists record. 
 
 [156S] It is not the case of a body of com- 
 petent scholars sitting down in the nineteenth 
 century, collecting around them the libraries of 
 books now existing, which would instruct them 
 in the history, political combination, linguistic 
 condition, and locomotive facilities of the first 
 century ; and then, taking a complete view of 
 the whole, inventing a history which should 
 touch all these things, combine them accurately 
 in one narrative, and present to the eye of the 
 most acute and unfriendly critics a picture in 
 which the sharpest gaze could, at the most, 
 detect only a questionable tint or form here and 
 there out of the hundreds of forms in all colours 
 standing out on the canvas. 
 
 The invention of the gospel history, and the 
 consistent connection therewith of the immense 
 body of dogma, morality, and mental philosophy 
 contained in the historical books and epistles 
 of the Christian Scriptures, would, even under 
 the conditions now supposed, be a greater eftbrt 
 of human sagacity, knowledge, combination and 
 invention, than any existing monument of 
 human genius. How much greater would be 
 the marvel if the gospel histories, so-called, 
 should have been the invention of anv man or 
 
 any possible association of men living at the 
 period with which those supposed histories deal ! 
 
 From any supposition possible as to the 
 persons who invented, the places in which they 
 carried on their imposition, their means of 
 information, their political, linguistic, and geo- 
 graphical knowledge, and the suppositions will 
 prov^e unequal to the weight of the gospel, if it 
 be an imposture. 
 
 If the writers, whoever they may be, do but 
 deal with invented personages, and have but 
 imagined the endless series of incidents which 
 the Christian books record, they must have 
 exposed themselves to detection at ten thousand 
 points. 
 
 Consider with what various authors the 
 accounts must agree, and by what an immense 
 series of facts, superstitions, national and sec- 
 tional views, transitory notions and permanent 
 monuments the accounts may be tested. 
 
 Suppose that the Gospels are the truthful 
 records of events, and the Epistles the actual 
 letters which they profess to be — that the writers 
 were recording things which had passed under 
 their own observation in the various countries 
 and places they mention, and all is consistent 
 and satisfactory ; but if we reject this solution 
 of the matter because there is a miraculous 
 element in the history and a Divine person 
 revealed, we propose a problem, the solution of 
 which would necessitate something contrary to 
 all probabilities and possibilities, something 
 against nature, and not like a miracle, only 
 above nature. We may reject the marvel of 
 the incarnation and the miracles of the gospel, 
 but we can do so only by credulously accepting 
 suppositions far more difficult of belief than are 
 the facts which they are used to discredit. — Rev. 
 y. Grition. 
 
 2 Positively viewed. 
 
 [1569] Can any sceptic who doubts the truly 
 historical character of the New Testament 
 records solve the following problem ? — 
 
 To prove the possibility of a mythical or 
 mythological origin of the Christian system, 
 in view of the fact that Judsea was directly 
 under the government of Rome from the 
 reign of Augustus to the adoption of Chris- 
 tianity as the religion of the state. 
 It can be shown that Christianity first ap- 
 peared during the earlier portion of the period 
 in question. 
 
 It can be shown that writings on Christian 
 principles continued to appear during the 
 greater part of that period and in ditierent 
 countries. 
 
 It can be shown that Christianity spread and 
 extended during the same period. 
 
 It can be shown that Christianity was op- 
 posed by the philosophies, the religions, and 
 the governments of the period. 
 
 It can be shown that Christianity was known 
 to the Jews and adopted by many of them in 
 those times. 
 
 It can be shown that heathen authors were
 
 276 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 1569— 1575] 
 
 [divine legation of koses. 
 
 aware of the existence of Christianity, that they 
 recognized it as a historical fact, and not as a 
 myth. 
 
 It can be shown that the history of Juda;a 
 during that period was recorded in all its lead- 
 ing features. 
 
 It can be shown that Rome was in regular 
 communication with Judsea during that period. 
 
 It can be shown that the New Testament 
 altogether corresponds with the history of the 
 time to which it relates. — Christiaji Evidetice 
 Journal. 
 
 135 
 
 DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES. 
 
 I. Preliminary Considerations. 
 
 I Mosaic economy rightly termed Divine, 
 on purely chronological and ethnological 
 grounds. 
 
 [1570] In entering upon this broad inquiry 
 concerning the supernatural development of 
 revelation, we begin with certain significant 
 facts which the progress of our questioning 
 thus far has brought close at hand. One cir- 
 cumstance, which at once arrests our attention, 
 is the singular fact that Israel by some means 
 gained an exalted religion, while those tribes to 
 which it was nearest of kin, remained on the 
 lowest levels of idolatrous corruption. But this 
 contrast between Israel and his brethren, re- 
 markable in itself, appears the more significant 
 when we detect in Israel the same disposition 
 to evil which ran riot in the idolatries of kindred 
 and surrounding tribes. We find it difficult 
 upon any known law of heredity to conceive of 
 the pure worship of the prophets as the out- 
 growth of " the natural religious geniality of 
 Israel," when we remember that the Israelites 
 were naturally a stift'-necked people, and that 
 their religion seems to have gained its authority 
 over them only by a prolonged struggle against 
 their nature. Here is an evolution not in 
 accordance with the natural tendency to varia- 
 tion, and contrary to the immediate historical 
 environment. The development of the Bible, 
 and the religion of the Bible, makes head seem- 
 ingly against the natural gravitation of the 
 Israelitish history. A people are pressed for- 
 ward who are always turning back. A religion 
 is hfted up into the light when the external 
 forces tend to carry it down into the darkness. — 
 Smyth {Ainerica). 
 
 II. Two Chief Divisions. 
 I 
 
 [1571] The moral laws, as the Decalogue and 
 the two great commandments, on which hang all 
 the law and the prophets, are perfect and per- 
 petual and universal ; the civil and ceremonial 
 laws were temporary, and adapted to the Jews 
 or pre-Christian times. The general system, a 
 national theocracy. — B. G, 
 
 III. Nature and Relative Importance 
 OF THE Subject. 
 
 [1572] To treat of the claims of Moses, oi 
 his " Divine Legation," as a separate question, 
 apart from the whole system of Biblical Revela- 
 tion, is to repeat the absurdity long ago ridi- 
 culed and exploded, namely, of carrying round 
 a single brick as the specimen of a house on 
 sale. 
 
 Its place in the entire building is the proper 
 value of any brick or pillar ; and so the place 
 and authority of Moses is seen in his relation 
 to the entire Biblical structure. — B. G. 
 
 IV. Conditions of the Question, 
 
 [1573] (0 The place and authority of Moses 
 cannot be isolated from the system of events 
 and revelation in which his part was played. 
 He "was faithful as a servant" (Heb. iii. 5) in 
 that household, wherein Christ our Sa,viour was 
 " the only begotten Son," and Heir Apparent, 
 of the Father ; and Elder Brother to all the 
 other members adopted into the Family. 
 
 (2) Our Lord Himself gives to Moses his 
 credentials in many places in the gospel ; and 
 this is greater than all other witness to his 
 " Divine Legation." 
 
 V. Distinctive Features. 
 
 1 When viewed as a national constitution. 
 
 (i) The system of the theocracy under ivhich 
 the laws ivcre placed. 
 
 [1574] The specific difference between the 
 Mosaic law, regarded as a national constitution, 
 and every other that is known to have existed, 
 consists not in its religious character taken by 
 itself, nor in any peculiarity of its civil enact- 
 ments, remarkable as some of these were, but 
 in the complete fusion which it presented of 
 civil and religious government. The system 
 under which the Jews were placed was a visible, 
 external theocracy. — Canon Liddon, Bainpton 
 Lectures. 
 
 2 When viewed as an ethical code. 
 
 (i) The Jewish laws were complete at Jirst, 
 ajid not the growth of chatiglng legislation. 
 
 [1575J The learned Michaelis, who was Pro- 
 fessor of Law in the university of Gottingen, 
 remarks, " that a man who considers laws philo- 
 sophically, who would survey them with the eye 
 of a Montesquieu, would never overlook the 
 laws of Moses." Goguet, in his elaborate and 
 learned treatise on the " Origin of Laws," ob- 
 serves, that " the more we meditate on the laws 
 of Moses, the more we shall perceive their wis- 
 dom and inspiration. They alone have the 
 inestimable advantage never to have undergone 
 any of the revolutions common to all human 
 laws. There has been nothing changed, nothing 
 added, nothing retrenched from the laws of 
 Moses for above three thousand years." Mil-
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 1575—1581] 
 
 277 
 
 [divine legation of MOSES. 
 
 man, in his history of the Jews, remarks, that 
 " the Hebrew lawgiver has exercised a more 
 extensive and jiermanent influence over the 
 destinies of mankind than any other individual 
 in the annals of the world." — Dr. Ga7-diner 
 Spring, Obligations of the World to the Bible. 
 
 (2) The 7iiost ancient in the world, and the 
 .only one which has been preserved unaltered in 
 any state. 
 
 [1576] The law by which this people is 
 governed, is in all respects the most ancient 
 in the world, and the only one which has been 
 preserved unaltered in any state. This Philo 
 the Jew has demonstrated on many occasions, 
 and Josephus, most admirably in his discourse 
 against Appian, where he proves it to have been 
 so ancient, that the very name of law was not 
 known in other countries till more than a thou- 
 sand years after ; insomuch that Homer, who 
 has spoken of so many nations, has not once 
 used the word. — Pascal, Thoughts on Religion 
 (1623-1662). 
 
 (3) The old Hebrew laws have given an 
 ztnpetus to the moral ideas of the world 
 generally. 
 
 [i 577] The Hebrew moral nature is celebrated 
 the world over. Some of the best thoughts on 
 this subject are in Matthew Arnold's recent 
 writings on the peculiar contrasts between the 
 Hellenic mind and the Hebrew mind. He has, 
 I think, joined in the affirmation that no more 
 wonderful moral development ever took place 
 than that which took place in the old Hebrew 
 nation. The moral ideas of the world had their 
 leaven, and largely their model, there. It shows 
 us the force of things invisible and intangible, 
 that the laws, the institutions, and the civil pro- 
 cedure of associated nations to-day, sprang from 
 moral conceptions which dawned in that little 
 pocket of the Orient on the eastern end of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, thousands of years ago. 
 The Hebrews struck so deep, and they struck 
 so utterly the great moral laws of God in their 
 relation to human life, and in their associated 
 action, that in its development the world has 
 more and more built itself upon that which was 
 disclosed by them. 
 
 3 When viewed as prophetical and typical 
 of a universal religion. 
 
 [i 578] We cannot vindicate the Divine origin 
 of the Mosaic system solely on the ground of its 
 superior ethical character and apt expression of 
 the spiritual wants of man ; for it may have 
 been in this case, as a German writer expresses 
 it, "the first of the ethnic religions, but still 
 ethnic." The authentic signature of heaven is 
 still wanting, viz., the prophetical character, the 
 constructed reference to future events, which, 
 if it can be satisfactorily established, proves 
 beyond all doubt that the system in which it 
 inheres is not from man but from God. For, 
 whatever unaided reason may effect, to deliver 
 a real prophecy, to construct a real type, is con- 
 
 fessedly beyond its power. — Canon Liddon, 
 Ba)npto7i Lectures. 
 
 VI. Points of Difference between the 
 Mosaic Penal Code and that of 
 MOST Modern States. 
 
 .[1579] There are several striking points of 
 difference between the Mosaic penal code and 
 that of most modern states. One of these is the 
 requiring of two witnesses for every mortjj 
 crime, and that the witnesses should aid in the 
 execution of the guilty. This is a very remark- 
 able provision among such a people as the 
 Hebrews ; wonderfully calculated to prevent 
 false testimony, and deserves imitation among 
 the most enlightened judges and legislators. 
 Another is that they had no law of imprison- 
 ment, either for debt or for crime. There are 
 but two recorded exceptions to this remark 
 within my knowledge. The one is the keeping 
 of a criminal in custody for a single night, until 
 the will of the Deity could be consulted con- 
 cerning him, and the other is the appointment 
 of the cities of refuge for the manslayer. Though 
 of ancient usage and origin, imprisonment did 
 not originate with the law of Moses. Instead of 
 imprisonment for crime, the Mosaic code re- 
 quires the immediate and prompt execution of 
 the law. It was their doctrine that laws were 
 made to be executed ; and the Divine lawgiver 
 saw fit to decide that there should be no need- 
 less delay in the execution. Another striking 
 difference related to the character of the crimes 
 that were punishable with death. They were 
 all either of high moral malignity, or crimes that 
 tended to the subversion of their whole civil 
 polity, and endangered the social existence of 
 the nation. — Dr. Gardiner Spring, Obligations 
 of the World to the Bible. 
 
 VII. The Paradoxical Argument of 
 Dr. Warburton. 
 
 (i) The argument that Moses was able, by 
 present miracles, to dispense with future spiri- 
 tual satictions. 
 
 [1580] Dr. Warburton's learned work on 
 "The Divine Legation of Moses" contains 
 many curious facts incidentally collated ; and 
 for these, it is still of some interest to those of 
 literary tastes ; but the main argument was, and 
 is, regarded rather as a paradox than a serious 
 logical deduction. The point was that because 
 Moses, as is assumed, omitted, or ignored, a 
 future life of rewards and punishments which 
 other early legislators relied upon for sanctions, 
 therefore Moses, who founded his law on present 
 miraculous interpositions, thereby proved his 
 Divine mission. — B. G. 
 
 VIII. Replies to Objections as to the 
 Severity of the Mosaic Code. 
 
 [1581] The time was, and that less than two 
 hundred years ago, when by the laws of Eng- 
 land 07ie hundred and forty-eight crimes were
 
 1581—1591] 
 
 TI/E HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [inspiration. 
 
 punishable with death. By the Mosaic code 
 there are seventeen. Let the profane cease 
 from their rebukes of the penal statutes of 
 Moses ! — Dr. Gardiner Springs Obligations of 
 the World to the Bible. 
 
 136 
 
 INSPIRATION. 
 I. The Senses in which the Word is 
 
 USED. 
 
 [1582] (i) "The inspiration of genius," as in 
 Shakespeare's plays ; (2) the common reason of 
 mankind, as distinguished from the lower ani- 
 mals — "there is a spirit in man, and the inspi- 
 ration of the Almighty giveth them understand- 
 ing" (Job xxxii. 8) ; " and the Lord God formed 
 man [as to his body] of the dust of the ground, 
 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 
 \lives, faculties], and man became a living soul" 
 (Gen. ii. 7). These two inspirations, extraordinary 
 genius and the extraordinary faculties of human 
 nature, as distinguished from the animal crea- 
 tion, are the natural working of the human mind. 
 (3) But inspiration, as applied to the scriptures, 
 refers to the supernatural working of the human 
 mind, under the direct guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit, or the Divine mind, of which prophets 
 and apostles are the ministers and vehicles, 
 for the guidance of other minds, on those ques- 
 tions whose solution is beyond unaided human 
 reason, and on which man's eternal welfare 
 depends. — B. G. 
 
 IL Definitions and Important Dis- 
 tinctions. 
 
 I Negatively. 
 
 (2) Ift regard to the fact of inspiration as 
 Comiected with revelation. 
 
 [1583] "Ali Scripture is given by inspiration 
 of God " (2 Tim. iii. 6) ; but all Scripture is not 
 revelation— z.t'., does not contain things which 
 are a revelation from heaven. 
 
 [1584] A divine revelation of the mind of God 
 is a different thing from a divine action on the 
 mind of man. To some, this remark may sound 
 like a self-evident truism ; but the turn of 
 modern metaphysical speculation in certain 
 quarters renders it necessary to make it. 
 
 _ [15S5] Inspiration, as connected with revela- 
 tion, has respect, not to the receiving of divinely 
 communicated truth, but to the communication 
 of it to others. This again might seem so self- 
 evident as scarcely to need its being stated. But 
 in certain quarters there is great confusion of 
 ideas upon this very point. 
 
 (2) In regard to the vianncr of inspiration. 
 
 [1586] One other remark, under this head, 
 inust be allowed. The fact of inspiration is a 
 different thing altogether from the manner of it. 
 
 The fact of inspiration may be proved by Divine 
 testimony, and accepted as an ascertained 
 article of belief, while the manner of it may be 
 neither revealed from heaven nor within the 
 range of discovery or conjecture upon earth. 
 
 2 Positively. 
 
 _ [1587] I am content to understand by revela- 
 tion whatever God has to say to man, whether 
 man might have discovered it for himself or not ; 
 and as to inspiration, I care for no admission or 
 acknowledgment of it which does not imply 
 infallibility. — Pri7icipal Candlish, Reason and 
 Revelation. 
 
 [1588] By inspiration in general, I would be 
 understood to mean, any supernatural influence 
 of God upon the mind of a rational creature, 
 where it is formed to any degree of intellectual 
 improvement, beyond what it would, at that 
 time, and in those circumstances, have attained 
 in a natural way, that is, by the usual exercise 
 of its faculties, unassisted by any special divine 
 interposition. Thus, if a man were instanta- 
 neously enabled to speak a language which he 
 had never learned, how possible soever it might 
 have been for him to have obtained an equal 
 readiness in it by degrees, I believe few would 
 scruple to say, that he owed his acquaintance 
 with it to a divine inspiration. Or if he gave a 
 true and exact account of what was doing at a 
 distance, and published a particular relation of 
 what he neither saw nor heard, as some of the 
 prophets did ; all the world would own, if the 
 affair were too complex, and the account too 
 circumstantial to be the result of a lucky guess, 
 that he must be inspired with the knowledge ot 
 it ; though another account equally exact, given 
 by a person on the spot, would be ascribed to 
 no inspiration at all. — P. Doddridge, D.D., 
 1702-1751. 
 
 III. The Connection between its two 
 Main Aspects, Objective and Sub- 
 jective Inspiration. 
 
 I In regard to the inspired writers. 
 
 [1589] Inspiration may be viewed as — 
 
 (i) Objective: the Holy Ghost's agency in 
 the composition of Scripture (2 Tim. iii. 16 ; 2 
 Peter i. 21). 
 
 (2) Subjective : the gift of the Holy Ghost 
 conferred upon the Church of the new covenant. 
 Those spiritual gifts of which the object is the 
 moral improvement of man. 
 
 See Collect in Communion Office : that for 
 the fifth Sunday after Easter; and the hymn, 
 Veni Creator Spiritus. 
 
 [1590] The inspiration of the authors of the 
 Bible was an energy altogether objective, and 
 directed to the moral improvement of the in- 
 dividual. 
 
 See McCIintock and Strong's Cyclopsedia, 
 " On Inspiration," 4th ed., p. 243. 
 
 [1591] That inspiration is that divine influ- 
 ence under which the Bible has been com-
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 1591—1599] 
 
 279 
 ^INSPIRATION 
 
 posed, was absolutely unique, and specifically 
 different from those preventing and assisting 
 graces of the Holy Ghost (i Cor. xii. 14), where 
 he expressly lays down that " there are diversi- 
 ties of gifts, but the same spirit " (xii. 4), St. Paul 
 pauses (chap, xiii.) in order to point out that the 
 objective gifts may exist without the subjective 
 {ex. Balaam, Caiaphas, Disobedient Prophet). — 
 Davidson. 
 
 2 In regard to the readers of the inspired 
 lecord. 
 
 [1592] By the infallibility of the Bible I 
 simply mean that it is the infallible record of 
 an infallible revelation. The infallibility is 
 purely and simply objective. It is the attribute 
 of the revelation and of the record, viewed alto- 
 gether apart from the interpretation which each 
 may receive, and the impression which it may 
 make, in the subjective mind with which it 
 comes in contact. The revelation, as given by 
 God, is infallible ; it may not be so, as appre- 
 hended by men. The record of it, as prompted 
 or superintended by God, is infallible ; it may 
 not be so, as read by us. — Principal Candlish, 
 Reason and Revelation. 
 
 IV. VIEW'S RESPECTING ITS NATURE, PER- 
 MANENCE AND Completeness. 
 
 1 Verbal view. 
 
 [1593] It appears to me no very probable 
 supposition that an inspired writer should be 
 permitted in his religious discourses to affirm a 
 false proposition in any subject, or in a7iy his- 
 tory to misrepresent a fact ; so that I would not 
 easily, nor indeed without the conviction of the 
 most cogent proof, embrace any notion in phi- 
 losophy, or attend to any historical relation, 
 which should be evidently and in itself repug- 
 nant to an explicit assertion of any of the sacred 
 writers. — Bp. Horslcy, Sermons. 
 
 2 Dynamical view. 
 
 [1594] The ORTHODOX, or generally accepted 
 view, which contents itself with considering 
 Scripture to be inspired in such a sense as to 
 make it infallibly certain when apprehended in 
 its legitimate sense, and of absolute authority 
 in all matters of faith and conscience. This 
 theory has lately been, with propriety, desig- 
 nated as the dynamical, purporting that the 
 power, or influence, is from God, while the action 
 is human. — McClintock and Stroi{^, Cyclopcedia. 
 
 [1595] This theory regards inspiration as the 
 actuating energy of the Holy Spirit, in whatever 
 degree or manner it may have been exercised, 
 guided by which the human agents chosen by 
 God ojjiciaUy proclaimed His will by word of 
 mouth, or have committed to writing the several 
 parts of Scripture. 
 
 [1596] In part or whole, deeds and sentiments 
 not approved by God, (Sec, are recorded ; but 
 
 there is a uniform and uninterrupted exercise 
 of the Holy Spirit's influence from Genesis to 
 Revelation. — Rev. J. H. Blunt. 
 
 [1597] We may presume, from all that we can 
 know on the subject, that when the Holy Spirit 
 communicates with our souls It does so in a 
 direct manner, independent of sensation, by in- 
 fusing ideas into the mind at once through the 
 capacity of apprehension, as also by stimulating 
 the reason, and influencing the emotions, in the 
 same way that information in general is com- 
 municated to us and affects us, except that in 
 this case the material organs are not exerted. 
 Inspiration may therefore be defined to be an 
 immediate and direct communication from the 
 Holy Spirit, in whom exists the infinity of know- 
 ledge of every description, to the soul of man of 
 information and ideas of a particular kind, for 
 a special purpose. Nevertheless, beyond such 
 special knowledge and ideas, and beyond what 
 is necessary for the object in ciuestion, it is not 
 to be supposed that any information is commu- 
 nicated. Nor does inspiration imply the impart- 
 ing of ideas or knowledge relating to collateral 
 matters connected with the subject which are 
 not necessary for its right understanding, or to 
 answer the purpose directly intended. Thus, 
 from the Scripture narrative it would appear 
 that, while to apostles and prophets knowledge 
 and ideas were communicated relative to some 
 special matters which it was desirable they 
 should know, and to answer special purposes ; 
 beyond what was necessary for these particular 
 ends no knowledge was imparted, and they 
 were left in, and allowed to evince, an ignorance 
 common to the rest of mankind, to whom no 
 inspiration was aftbrded. But if ideas are thus 
 communicated to us by God or by any spirits 
 in this way now, may they not have been com- 
 municated to us before, and antecedent to the 
 period of our birth ? And hence many ideas 
 and notions may be in reality innate, or origin- 
 ally communicated to, and implanted in, the 
 mind directly by God. — G. Hants. 
 
 [159S] God deals with man through the in- 
 strumentality of man, communicating by men 
 His will to man. The rain in its descent from 
 heaven falls upon the surface of our earth, per- 
 colates through the porous soil, and flowing 
 along rocky fissures and veins of sand, is con- 
 veyed below ground to the fountain whence it- 
 springs. Now, although rising out of the earth,, 
 that water is not of the earth, earthy. The 
 world's deepest well owes its treasures to the 
 skies. So was it with the revealed will of God. 
 It flowed along human channels, yet its origin 
 was more than celestial ; it was Divine. Those 
 waters at whose pure and perennial springs 
 faith drinks and lives, while conveyed to man 
 along earthly channels, have their source far 
 away, even in the throne of God. Their 
 fountain-head is the Godhead. — Guthrie. 
 
 [1599] The human mind in inspiration re- 
 sembles an JEoY\^.n harp — all its faculties are
 
 2oO 
 
 1599— 1606] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [inspiration. 
 
 ready strung within ; there are the chords of 
 the imagination, the memory, the judgment ; 
 but it cannot give forth the sound of a divine 
 oracle until the breath of God and Christ — even 
 His gracious influence, who came down from 
 heaven with a sudden great sound, as of a rush- 
 ing mighty wind — sweeps across it and wakens 
 the chords into harmony. — Dean Goiilburfi. 
 
 [1600] However the Spirit of God may have 
 used for His higher purposes the minds of men, 
 we can be assured that He did not overpower 
 their natural habits of expression, or hold indi- 
 vidual genius, as one might catch a song-bird, 
 passive and palpitating, in the grasp of His 
 Almighty hand. — Dr. Newman Smyth, Old 
 Faiths in New Light. 
 
 3 Mystical viev/. 
 
 [1601] The MYSTICAL, or extremely strict 
 view, thought to have been held by Philo, 
 Josephus, and some of the primitive Christian 
 Fathers, but condemned by the early councils as 
 savouring of heathenish /lavran, which regarded 
 the sacred writers as wholly possessed by the 
 Spirit, and uttering its dicta in a species of 
 frenzy. This, in opposition to the former, has 
 justly been characterized as the mechanical 
 view, denoting the passivity of the inspired 
 object or agent. — McClinioik and Strong, 
 ■Cyclopcedia. 
 
 4 Latitudinarian view. 
 
 [1602] The LATITUDINARIAN view, enter- 
 -tained by rationalists of all orders, which deems 
 inspiration but a high style of poetic and reli- 
 gious fervour, and not inconsistent with errors 
 in fact and sentiment. This last view is not to 
 be confounded, however, with that of those who 
 limit inspiration to such matters in holy Scrip- 
 ture as directly pertain to the proper material 
 of revelation, i.e., to strictly religious truth, 
 whether of doctrine or practice. 
 
 See article " Inspiration," IMcClintock and 
 Strong's Cyclopaedia. 
 
 [1603] That school of theologians claiming to 
 guide the Church in more liberal lines of 
 thought, having carefully striven to show that 
 inspiration, after all, has in it really nothing 
 supernatural, but who yet contend for the im- 
 portance of Scripture, reminds one of a person 
 who, having removed the works from a chrono- 
 meter, and the jewels from the case, should 
 imagine that, in this mutilated and denuded 
 form, it will retain its original use and value, 
 and l3e accounted worth prizing as a heirloom, 
 to be handed down from generation to genera- 
 tion— C. N. 
 
 V. Proofs of the Scriptures being an 
 Inspired Book. 
 
 I From the nature and structure of reve- 
 lation made in the Scriptures. 
 
 [1604] In the first place, and to take the 
 broadest and most general view, it is absolutely 
 
 impossible to deny that the Bible occupies a 
 unique position with regard to mankind. I do 
 not say that the Bible is the only volume which 
 professes to contain sacred writings ; but cer- 
 tainly the Bible is bound up with the progress 
 and civilization of the world in a manner in 
 which no other book is : civilization and the 
 Bible are almost co-extensive with regard to 
 territory ; and if there be a book which contains 
 a special message from God, I presume that 
 few will be found to argue in favour of any book 
 except the Bible. — Bishop of Carlisle. 
 
 [1605] I. Revelation was to be gradual and 
 progressive, not immediately and at once com- 
 plete. 2. It was to be practical and pointed ; 
 springing out of exigencies, and framed for the 
 occasions, of ordinary human life and experi- 
 ence, from day to day, and from age to age ; 
 plastic, therefore, in its susceptibility of adapta- 
 tion to human modes of thought and feeling ; 
 not rigidly stereotyped in a Divine mould of 
 absolute perfection. 3. It was to be natural 
 and free, not stiff and formal. 4. It was, never- 
 theless, to be throughout limited and restricted; 
 not ranging over the field of possible knowledge, 
 but embracing only what concerns the moral 
 government of God and the salvation of man. 
 Under such conditions as these let us assume 
 an infallible revelation to be given, and an infal- 
 lible record of it to be framed ; and let us ask 
 if that record would not present very much the 
 appearance which the Bible, as we now have it, 
 presents ? — Principal Cafidlish, Reason and 
 Revelation. 
 
 [1606] Open the Bible, examine the fifty 
 sacred authors therein, from INIoses, who wrote 
 in the wilderness four hundred years before the 
 siege of Troy, to the fisherman son of Zebedee, 
 who wrote fifteen hundred years later in Ephe- 
 sus and Patmos, under the reign of Domitian, 
 and you will find none of those mistakes which 
 the science of every country detects in the works 
 of preceding generations. Carefully go through 
 the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, in search 
 of such faults, and as you carry on the investi- 
 gation remember that it is a book which treats 
 of everything, which describes nature, which 
 recounts its wonders, which records its creation, 
 which tells us of the formation of the heavens, 
 of the light, of the waters, of the air, of the 
 mountains, of animals, and of plants ; that it is 
 a book which acquaints us with the first revolu- 
 tions of the world, and which foretells also its 
 last ; that it is a book which describes them 
 with circumstantial details, invests them with 
 sublime poetry, and chants them in fervent 
 melodies ; that it is a book replete with Eastern 
 imagery, full of majesty, variety, and boldness ; 
 that it is a book which treats of the earth and 
 things visible, and at the same time of the 
 celestial world and things invisible ; that it is a 
 book in which nearly fifty writers, of every 
 degree of cultivation, of every order, of every 
 condition, and separated from one another by 
 more than fifteen hundred years, have been
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 !8l 
 
 1606- 
 
 [INSPIRATION. 
 
 engaged ; that it is a book written variously in 
 the centre of Asia, in the sands of Arabia, in 
 the deserts of Judaea, in the porches of the 
 Jewish temple, and in the rustic schools of the 
 prophets of Bethel and Jericho, in the magnifi- 
 cent palaces of Babylon, and on the idolatrous 
 banks of the Chebar, and afterwards in the 
 Western centre of civilization, in the midst of 
 the Jews and their ignorant councils, among 
 Polytheism and its idols, and, as it were, in the 
 bosom of Pantheism and its foolish philosophy; 
 that it is a book whose first writer was, during 
 forty years, brought up among the magicians of 
 Egypt, who regarded the sun, planets, and 
 elements as endowed with intelligence, reacting 
 upon and governing our world by their con- 
 tinual evaporation ; and that it is a book whose 
 first pages preceded by more than nine hundred 
 years the most ancient philosophers of Greece and 
 Asia — Thales, Pythagorus, Zaleucus, Xenophon, 
 and Confucius ; that it is a book which carries 
 its records into the scenes of the invisible world, 
 the hierarchy of angels, the latest periods of 
 futurity, and the glorious consummation of all 
 things. Well, search in its 50 authors, its 66 
 books, its 1,189 chapters, and its 31,173 verses ; 
 search for a single one of the thousand errors 
 with which every ancient and modern author 
 abounds when they speak of the heavens or 
 of the earth, of their revolutions or of their 
 elements, and you will fail to find it. — Gaussen. 
 
 2 From the universality of its spirit. 
 
 [1607] No volume ever commanded such a 
 profusion of readers, or has been translated 
 into so many languages. Such is the univer- 
 sality of its spirit, that no book loses less by 
 translation, none has been so frequently copied 
 in manuscript, and none so often printed. King 
 and noble, peasant and pauper, are delighted 
 students of its pages. Philosophers have humbly 
 gleaned from it, and legislation has been thank- 
 fully indebted to it. Its stories charm the child, 
 its hopes inspirit the aged, and its promises 
 soothe the bed of death. 
 
 3 From the mighty and inspiring influence 
 which the Scriptures have exerted. 
 
 [1608] Its lessons are the essence of religion, 
 the seminal truths of theology, the first principles 
 of morals, and the guiding axioms of political 
 economy. Martyrs have often bled and been 
 burnt for their attachment to it. It is the theme 
 of universal appeal. In the entire range of 
 literature no book is so frequently cjuoted or 
 referred to. The majority of all the books ever 
 published have been in connection with it. The 
 Fathers commented upon it, and the subtle 
 divines of the middle ages refined upon its 
 doctrines. It sustained Origen's scholarship 
 and Chrysostom's rhetoric. It whetted the 
 penetration of Abelard and exercised the keen 
 ingenuity of Aquinas. It gave life to the revival 
 of letters, and Dante and Petrarch revelled in 
 its imagery. It augmented the erudition of 
 Erasmus, and roused and blessed the intre- 
 
 pidity of Luther. Its temples are the finest 
 specimens of architecture, and the brightest 
 triumphs of music are associated with its poetry. 
 The text of no ancient author has summoned 
 into operation such an amount of labour and 
 learning, and it has furnished occasion for the 
 most masterly examples of criticism and com- 
 ment, grammatical investigation, and logical 
 analysis. It has also inspired the English muse 
 with her loftiest strains. Its beams gladdened 
 Milton in his darkness, and cheered the song of 
 Cowper in his sadness. It was the star which 
 guided Columbus to the discovery of a new 
 world. It furnished the panoply of that Puritan 
 valor which shivered tyranny in days gone by. 
 It is the Magna Charta of the world's regenera- 
 tion and liberties. The records of false religion; 
 from the Koran to the Book of Mormon, have 
 owned its superiority, and surreptitiously pur- 
 loined its jewels. Among the Christian classics 
 it loaded the treasures of Owen, charged the 
 fulness of Hooker, barbed the point of Baxter, 
 gave colour to the palette and sweep to the 
 pencil of Bunyan, enriched the fragrant fancy 
 of Taylor, sustained the loftiness of Howe, and 
 strung the plummet of Edwards. In short, this 
 collection of lives and letters has changed the 
 face of the world, and ennobled myriads of its 
 population. 
 
 4 From the Scriptures' unique effect upon 
 the human heart, life, and civilization. 
 
 [1609] This remains, after all possible deduc- 
 tions for "ignorance of physical science," "errors 
 in numbers and chronology," " interpolations," 
 " mistakes of transcribers," and so forth, whereof 
 we have read of late a great deal too much, and 
 ought to care for them and for their existence, or 
 non-existence, simply nothing at all, because, 
 granting them all (though the greater part of 
 them I do not grant, as far as I can trust my 
 critical faculty), there remains that unique ele- 
 ment beside which all these accidents are but 
 as spots on the sun compared to the great glory 
 of his life-giving light. The unique element is 
 there ; and I cannot but still believe, after much 
 thought, that it — the powerful and working ele- 
 ment, the inspired and Divine element, which 
 has converted, and still converts, millions of 
 souls — is just that which Christendom in all 
 ages has held it to be — the account of certain 
 "noble acts" of God, and not of certain noble 
 thoughts of man ; in a word, not merely the 
 moral, but the historic element ; and that, there- 
 fore, the value of the Bible teaching depends 
 on the truth of the Bible story. — Rev. C. 
 Kingsley, Life and Letters. 
 
 5 From the witness of the Spirit given to the 
 faithful readers of the Scriptures. 
 
 [1610] This view of inspiration Rothe estab- 
 lishes by appeal to the experience of all devout 
 minds : " Every one who claims to be heard in 
 this matter should be reminded to bring with 
 him some experience of the quickening influences 
 of the Divine Spirit in the depths of his own 
 soul."
 
 282 
 i6ii — 1616] 
 
 ■THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [mosaic cosmogony. 
 
 [161 1] The witness of the Spirit is a proof 
 of the inspiration of Scripture, supplied by the 
 testimony which the Holy Ghost Himself con- 
 veys to each reader of the Scriptures. " This 
 argument is one which may always be employed 
 wdth reserve. It contains no proof whatever 
 for those who profess insensibility to the evidence 
 on which it rests. Its proper function is to 
 cojifirm, not to prove; it may be addressed to 
 the affections, not to the understanding."— -ff^x^. 
 J. H. Blunt. 
 
 6 General summary of proofs. 
 
 [1612] The apostolic claim as infallible 
 teachers was authenticated by (i) the nature of 
 the truth communicated ; (2) the power which 
 that truth had over the minds and hearts of 
 men ; (3) the witness of the Spirit ; and (4) 
 miraculous gifts.— Condensed from Dr. C. Hodge, 
 Systematic Theology. 
 
 137 
 
 MOSAIC COSMOGONY. 
 I. jMethods of Interpretation. 
 
 1 Their nature. 
 
 [16 1 3] There are three methods of interpret- 
 ing this portion of the Bible : (ij the historical ; 
 (2) the allegorical ; (3) the mythical. 
 
 In support of the first are these considera- 
 tions : 
 
 (i) It purports to be a veritable history. 
 
 (2) It is an appropriate introduction to the 
 acknowledged history which follows. 
 
 (3) It is referred to in other parts of Scripture 
 as a true account of the creation, specially the 
 fourth commandment. 
 
 (4) The facts here recorded lie at the founda- 
 tion of the whole revealed plan of redemption. 
 — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theology. 
 
 2 The consequences of false or presump- 
 tuous methods. 
 
 (i) Loss of Cod's presence and of the pozver 
 of believing in Him. 
 
 [1614] With respect to this whole chapter, we 
 must remember always that it was intended for 
 the instruction of all mankind, not for the learned 
 reader only ; and that, therefore, the most simple 
 and natural interpretation is the likeliest in 
 general to be the true one. . . . Whether 
 taught or untaught, whether of mean capacity 
 or enlarged, it is necessary that communion 
 with their Creator should be possible to all ; and 
 the admission to such communion must be rested, 
 not on their having a knowledge of astronomy, 
 but on their having a human soul. In order to 
 render this communion possible, the Deity has 
 stooped from His throne, and has not only, in 
 the person of the Son, taken upon Him the veil 
 of our human flesh, but, in the person of the 
 Father, taken upon Him the veil of our human 
 
 thoughts, and permitted us, by His own spoken 
 authority, to conceive Him simply and clearly 
 as a loving Father and Friend : a being to be 
 walked with and reasoned with ; to be moved 
 by our entreaties, angered by our rebellion, 
 alienated by our coldness, pleased by our love, 
 and glorified by our labour ; and, finally, to be 
 beheld in immediate and active presence in all 
 the powers and changes of creation. This con- 
 ception of God, which is the child's, is evidently 
 the only one which can be universal, and there- 
 fore the only one which for us can be true. The 
 moment that, in our pride of heart, we refuse 
 to accept the condescension of the Almighty, 
 and desire Him, instead of stooping to hold our 
 hands, to rise up before us into His glory — we 
 hoping that by standing on a grain of dust or 
 two of human knowledge higher than our fellows, 
 we may behold the Creator as He rises — God 
 takes us at our word ; He rises into His own 
 invisible and inconceivable Majesty; He goes 
 forth upon the ways which are not our ways, and 
 retires into the thoughts which are not our 
 thoughts; and we are left alone. And presently 
 we say in our vain hearts, "There is no God.'^ — 
 Riiskin. 
 
 II. Mythological :Mosaic Cosmogony. 
 
 1 Statement in scientific form of the popular 
 error about the six days in Genesis. 
 
 [161 5] Even so eminent a person as Professor 
 Tyndall — forsaking his scientific province — 
 commits and encourages the following blunder 
 about Bible cosmogony : " It is hardly neces- 
 sary to inform you that the domain of the 
 naturalist has been immensely extended — the 
 whole science of geology, with its astounding 
 revelations regarding tlae life of the ancient 
 earth, having been created. The rigidity of 
 old conceptions has been relaxed, the public 
 mind being rendered gradually tolerant of the 
 idea that not for six thousand, nor for sixty 
 thousand, nor for six thousand thousand thou- 
 sand, but for ceons, embracing untold millions 
 of years, this earth has been the theatre of life 
 and death. The riddle of the rocks has been 
 read by the geologist and palaeontologist, from 
 Sub-Cambrian depths to the deposits thickening 
 over the sea-bottoms of to-day. And upon the 
 leaves of that stone-book are, as you know, 
 stamped the characters, plainer and surer than 
 those formed by the ink of history, which carry 
 the mind back into abysses of past time, com- 
 pared with which the periods which satisfied 
 Bishop Butler cease to have a visual angle." — 
 Address delivered before the British Association 
 assembled at Belfast. 
 
 2 Refutation of the erroneous view regarding 
 the six days in Genesis. 
 
 (i) We must 710 1 confamd the processes in 
 nature previous to the introduction of man, or 
 '■''the life of the ancient earth^' with the six days' 
 vjork, which introduced a new era. 
 
 [1616I "The riddle of the rocks," as "read 
 
 I
 
 THR HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 1616— 1625] 
 
 283 
 [mosaic cosmogony. 
 
 by the geologist," is altogether a difterent book 
 to that of "the Old Testament," and the subject 
 and testimony of that book is on a different 
 subject, and refers to a different time. 
 
 [161 7] There is such a thing as mythological 
 chronology or inverted dates, and confusion of 
 distinct and distant occurrences, which palms 
 off itself as scriptural, and gives some show of 
 plausibility to all manner of popular fallacies 
 regarding the six days' work. 
 
 (2) 77^1? Bible gives zis the start of the universe 
 and the start of man, and leaves ns to trace in 
 that universe anything that happened between 
 these two primary events. 
 
 [161 8] The first verse in the Bible gives the 
 true date of the origin of the earth and the 
 universe. Many " leaves of the stone-book " 
 have to be turned over, and much care is 
 required in reading that book, to find the geo- 
 logical date ; but without turning a leaf, and by 
 looking only at the first verse of Genesis, we 
 have the Bible date — " In the beginning." 
 
 (3) The geological epoch lies between the 
 creation " in the hegintiiji^" and the reformatioji 
 or " inaking" of the world " in six daysP 
 
 [161 9] The Bible contains no other date of 
 the world's age ; this is " the chronology of the 
 Old Testament," and it finds room enough for, 
 and never can be exceeded or disproved by, 
 any " deposits thickening over the sea-bottoms 
 of to-day," or of any former day, through all 
 those "abysses of the past time," into which 
 cosmical philosophers retire, to find room in 
 the dark and in the distance, for those " integra- 
 tions and disintegrations," or conflicts and com- 
 binations of atoms, or molecules, out of which 
 man arose by the "formative laws" of conjec- 
 tural science, according to the Bible of the 
 atomical philosophers. However far they run 
 back for a start, they cannot get beyond " the 
 beginning." So the first wcrd in the Bible 
 destroys all the confident objection to " Old 
 Testament cosmical chronology," and explains 
 "the riddle of the rocks" better than all the 
 eftbrts of those who see in " the riddle" a date 
 that contradicts the Bible, only by assuming 
 the possibility of going back further than " the 
 beginning." — B. G. 
 
 (4) The time element involved in the creation 
 is designedly kept in the background of rev e la- 
 tion. 
 
 [1620] It is noticeable that the modern theo- 
 logical abuse of the Mosaic word day — so 
 admirably chosen for its purpose — does not 
 occur throughout the Bible itself. Revelation, 
 that is, does not misinterpret itself, or use, so as 
 to perpetuate false notions, its own accommo- 
 dations to man's limited intelligence. Those 
 passages of Scripture which are the later com- 
 mentaries and expansions of this primeval 
 Hebrew " Song of the Creation," contain no 
 sign or trace of any six-day theory of the 
 making of the world. On the contrary, the 
 question as to the time-element involved in the 
 
 creation was a question kept in the background 
 of revelation ; it does not come to the front 
 among the truths of God's power, law, and 
 omnipresent efficiency, which occupy the fore- 
 ground of revelation. It is a scientific question 
 reserved for a scientific age, and we are still 
 very much at sea with regard to it. — Dr, New- 
 man Sjnyth, Old Faiths in New Light, 
 
 III. True Mosaic Cosmogony. 
 
 I Facts and leading principles. 
 
 [162 1] The two leading points of information 
 in Gen. i. and ii. are the origin of the universe, 
 and afterwards of man. These, with related 
 subjects, may be enumerated under five points : 
 I. The origin of the universe. 2. A subsequent 
 chaotic condition of this world. 3. The living 
 agent by which new life and order were re- 
 introduced. 4. The stages of this work in the 
 six days. 5. The recapitulation of the whole, 
 with the special make and nature of man, his- 
 responsibility, social and religious relationships, 
 recognized in the institutions of marriage and 
 the Sabbath.—^. G. 
 
 [1622] First, that this world and the world?, 
 around us were not self-caused or the result of 
 the long-continued action of forces directed by 
 no Intelligence, but, on the contrary, were made 
 and created by an All-wise and Omnipotent 
 God. " In the beginning God created the 
 heavens and the earth." Secondly, that the 
 reduction of the primordial state of things to the 
 present was by stages, and in a certain grada- 
 tional order. Thirdly, that all this was con- 
 siderably anterior to the appearance of the 
 human race on the earth, which race was called 
 into being separately and distinctly from other 
 races, only a few thousand years ago. — Bishop 
 Ellicott. 
 
 2 Its three distinct historical periods and 
 events as to this world and the universe. 
 
 (i) That of creation. 
 
 [1623] The origin of the universe: in "the 
 beginning God created the heavens and the 
 earth" (Gen. i. i). This is an independent, 
 separate proposition ; and was treated as such 
 before modern science originated. This em- 
 braces three points: — i. The Bible "chron- 
 ology" of the universe. 2. The Divine act of 
 creation. 3. The product of that fiat — " the 
 heavens and the earth." 
 
 [1624] Note : — The main geological pro- 
 cesses lie between the first historical period and 
 the end of the second period. This chaos, or 
 second historical stage, is given in Gen. i. 2, as 
 a change and subsequent condition of things on 
 the surface of the earth ; proved as follows : — 
 
 (2) That of desolation. 
 
 [1625] Desolation, the changed condition of 
 this world, at some period subsequent to the 
 creation ; a state of desolation preceding the 
 re-formation and re-inhabitation of this world.
 
 284 
 
 1626 — 1633] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [mosaic cosmogony. 
 
 [1626] I. The word "was," means "be- 
 came," and has that meaning necessarily in 
 every case in this account. It does not mean, 
 and does not say that the earth had always, at 
 and from creation, been "without form and 
 void,'' but this had become the case before the 
 six days' work, which restored it to a habitable 
 condition. 
 
 [1627] That this part of the second verse — 
 " and the earth was," or became, "without form 
 and void, and darkness was upon the face of 
 the deep " — was a change from a former, dif- 
 ferent condition, is seen for certain in two 
 points, and is implied in the third point con- 
 tained in these words, 
 
 [162S] 2. The second fact, proving that the 
 state of desolation was a change from a former 
 state of life and order, is contained in the words 
 translated — "without form and void." The 
 whole phrase occurs only three times in the 
 Bible: here in Gen. i. 2, Isa. xxxiv. 11, and 
 in Jer. iv. 23, 24. In both the prophets the 
 phrase of Gen. i. 2 is applied to a state of dis- 
 order following after a state of order. 
 
 [1629] 3. The third proof of this is, the fact 
 noted that " darkness was upon the face of the 
 deep," which means, not that the sun v/as blotted 
 out, or not yet created, but that its rays had 
 been shut out from the surface of the earth. 
 
 This is plainly noted as another difference 
 from a previous condition. It had become dark. 
 
 Let it further here be observed, that the dark- 
 ness was circumscribed — to " the face of the 
 deep," which means that there was light around 
 outside, waiting to penetrate, when permitted 
 by a change in the atmosphere, now laden with 
 impervious vapours. 
 
 3 That of re-formation or re-construction. 
 
 (i) The six days' re-formation attd the 
 cT-iginal creation. 
 
 [1630] Before noticing separately the case of 
 7nan, which in this history stands out distinctly 
 from all others, it will be useful to observe that 
 their re-formation, or work of the week, is not to 
 be confounded with "the creation of the heavens 
 and the earth." They are different stages and 
 different processes. The six days' work is never 
 called "the creation of the heavens and the 
 earth" in the Bible. This is a mystical confu- 
 sion adopted by scientific opponents of the 
 Bible, from loose and popular language, and 
 wants what Professor Huxley, in his "Physio- 
 graphy," calls "that precision which dis- 
 tinguishes science from common information." 
 The commandment enforcing the Sabbath day 
 (Ex. XX. 1 1) gives the reason for it : " For in six 
 days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, 
 and all that in them is." This refers to the six- 
 days' icork which was subseqjiejit to the orginal 
 creation, " in the beginning." 
 
 (2) The stages in the six days' work. 
 
 [1631] First day (vv. 3, 4, 5), the re-introduc- 
 tion of "light ;" not its creation, but its admis- 
 sion into the atmosphere whence it had been 
 excluded, namely, over " the face of the deep." 
 Second day (vv. 6, 7, 8), the fuller clearance of 
 the air, or opening of the expanse, to make the 
 heavens visible ; not to make, nor to create, the 
 visible heavens — the creation of the heavens is 
 in the first verse. Third day (vv. 9, 10, 11, 12, 
 13), causing the retirement of the waters into 
 distinct seas ; the elevation of the lands, and 
 the springing up of vegetation. Fourth day 
 (vv. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19), the complete clearance 
 of the atmosphere, so that the sun's disc might 
 be visible in the daytime, and the moon and 
 stars visible at night ; not creating these, but 
 giving or appointing them again " to shine upon 
 the earth," whence their rays had been ex- 
 cluded during chaos ; restoring the " rule " of 
 these rays in night and day, and appointing 
 them for the future to continue as the chro- 
 nologers " for signs and for seasons, and for 
 days and years," as they are to this day. Fifth 
 day (vv. 20, 21, 22, 23), the formation of fishes 
 and fowl. Here it is to be noted that the phrase 
 "and fowl that may fly above the earth in the 
 open firmament of heaven," is — as translated in 
 the margin — "let fowl fly," &c. Sixth day 
 (vv. 24, 25, 26, 27), the formation of animals 
 and man. All this was the production of the 
 vivifying spirit as the fat of the presiding 
 Worker. 
 
 3 The living and Divine agent by which 
 the restoration of life on the earth was 
 affected. 
 
 [1632] The living agent, by which the new life 
 and order were to be introduced into the modern 
 earth, after the extinction of what is called in 
 the Belfast address, "the life of the ancient 
 earth " (p. 35), is given in the conclusion of the 
 second verse in the Bible : " and the Spirit of 
 God moved upon the face of the waters." 
 
 This word " moved," represents the Hebrew 
 term for broodeth, and is " tropically," for in- 
 fusing life into dead matter. It is a term of 
 very pregnant meaning, full of the deepest 
 suggestion as meeting the very difficulties and 
 confessed " mysteries " with which the biolo- 
 gists and more speculative scientists of the 
 present day are helplessly struggling. 
 
 [The foregoing extracts are abridgments f/om 
 " Ktema," a prize essay by Rev. Brewin Grant, 
 B.A.] 
 
 IV. Evidence in Favour of its Super- 
 natural Origin. 
 
 I It furnishes a sublime account of crea- 
 tion compared with the monstrous fables 
 and puerile concurrent conceits among 
 pagan nations. 
 
 [1633] I know, indeed, no greater contrast 
 than that between the childish, monstrous, and 
 often immodest mythologies of India, Egypt,
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 1633—1640! 
 
 285 
 
 [mosaic cosmogony. 
 
 Greece, and Rome, and those opening pages of 
 the Book of Genesis, where God appears on the 
 scene— calling creation into being by His simple 
 but almighty word; establishing order amid 
 unimaginable confusion ; evoking light out of 
 primeval darkness ; assigning their different 
 offices to the elements of earth and the shining 
 orbs of heaven ; building up the grand pyramid 
 of nature, and on its lofty apex placing man, 
 made in His own image, and enthroned lord of 
 all. Believe seme, and this is all a fancy, a 
 mere fable. Foiled at every point, and on every 
 occasion, where they employed history, and 
 mental or moral science to attack the Christian 
 faith, compelled also to acknowledge that the 
 most formidable sceptics of other days, Hobbes 
 and Voltaire, David Hume and Tom Paine — 
 ■without followers now save among the dregs of 
 society — were ignominiously defeated, the in- 
 fidels of our day have changed their plan of 
 attack. Obliged to seek new weapons, they are 
 now attempting to overthrow the authority of 
 Moses by the authority of physical science ; and 
 ever as some old bone, some fragment of ancient 
 pottery, some stone axe or arrowhead turns up 
 which they fancy will serve their purpose, there 
 is great shouting in the camp of the Philistines, 
 and fear seizes some that " the ark of God is 
 taken." Looking at the future in the light of 
 the past, we can only wonder at the timidity 
 of those who fear these assaults, and at the 
 credulity of such as, however fond of novelties, 
 allow such crude and silly arguments to seduce 
 them from the faith. — Dr. Gtithrie. 
 
 2 It contains the only workable hypothesis 
 which explains the beginning of the 
 creation, 
 
 [1634] We have no objection whatever to 
 investigate with the utmost accuracy and to 
 enumerate one by one the steps by which the 
 present state of the world has come into exist- 
 ence. Nothing in any of these inquiries touches 
 the action of God, and we have no fear whatever 
 that those extraordinary facts of nature, when 
 they are reduced to their original principles, will 
 be shown to be unworthy of God. The phe- 
 nomena w'ill be as the language by which God 
 speaks, and the principles underlying them will 
 be the gramruar of the Divine language. We 
 have no fear whatever that the more they are 
 studied the less they will show of the wisdom 
 that created them. Nay, rather are we sure 
 that the more man learns of the laws of God 
 and of the principles of God's government, the 
 more will he acknowledge the truth that their 
 architect and builder is God. Of the beginning 
 of all these things men have never even been 
 able to form even a plausible conjecture how it 
 came to pass, unless by the action of a first 
 cause. They have never told us how the be- 
 ginning commenced, and they never can imagine 
 or conjecture any reasonable, workable hypo- 
 thesis which can be set for one moment side by 
 side with the first verse of the first chapter of 
 the Book of Genesis. — Hev. IV. Andersofi, A/. A. 
 
 3 It alone gives as part of the general scrip- 
 ture-scheme, a consistent account of man's 
 existence and supplies an adequate answer 
 to all deeper questions. 
 
 [1635I This is the great moral argument 
 which, when fully and carefully developed, does 
 seem to bear with it a steadily increasing and 
 deepening conviction, and to appeal more and 
 more strongly to the soul, in proportion as time 
 and life's experiences are vouchsafed to us, — 
 Bj!>. Ellicoit. 
 
 4 It coincides in many remarkable respects 
 with fully verified geological discoveries. 
 
 [1636] Moses has left us a cosmogony, the 
 exactitude of which is confirmed day by day in 
 a very wonderful manner. — Ibid. 
 
 [1637] Taking into account the want of scien- 
 tific knowledge of the structure of the earth in 
 far past ages and the representations incon- 
 sistent with facts which found currency, the 
 true marvel is that the statements of Scripture 
 so simply and naturally harmonize with dis- 
 coveries not made till the sixteenth century of 
 the Christian era. This is a marvel which will 
 more deeply impress the longer it is pondered. 
 — Professor Calderwood, D.D., on the Relations 
 of Science and Religion. 
 
 [1638] (i) It acknowledges the common origin 
 and, substantially, the common chemical com- 
 position of all organic things ; (2) it indicates a 
 progression upwards from simpler to more com- 
 plex forms of life, culminating in man. In a 
 document emanating from an unscientific race, 
 in an unscientific age, this is remarkable, for 
 the tendency of semi-barbarous myths is to 
 imagine the more perfect state of things as pre- 
 ceding the less perfect, as in the case of the 
 Golden Age. It seems very improbable that 
 the unaided imagination of the ancient Hebrews 
 or other Semitic race should have originated a 
 story of progress which undoubtedly agrees in 
 its general principle with the results, speaking 
 roughly and approximately, of modern geological 
 science. — Spectator. 
 
 [1639] The corn-plants are utterly unknown 
 throughout all the geological periods. Not the 
 slightest trace or vestige of them occurs in any 
 of the strata of the earth until we come to the 
 most recent formations, contemporaneous with 
 man. . . . The testimony of geology, therefore, 
 confirms unequivocally the testimony of Reve- 
 lation, and shows that corn was not only 
 specially created for man's use, but also got 
 ready specially for the appointed hour of his 
 appearance on earth. — Macmillan, Bible 
 Teachings in Nattcre. 
 
 [1640] They who are curious to learn the 
 latest discrepancies and coincidences between 
 geology and Genesis, can find the subject 
 treated in detail in Principal Dawson's recent 
 book on the " Origin of the World." Some of 
 the coincidences which are to be found between
 
 286 
 
 1640 — 1644] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 [undesigned coincidences of old and new testament. 
 
 the two, such as the Mosaic account of the ex- 
 istence of light before the creation of the sun, 
 the comparatively late appearance of mammals 
 on the earth, and the indication that the great 
 geological periods were completed and the 
 world given over to the operation of existing 
 causes on the fourth day, would seem to be im- 
 portant confirmations of the truthfulness of the 
 Mosaic account. — Dr. Newman Smyth, Old 
 Faiths in New Light. 
 
 V. Moot Points as to Hypotheses nega- 
 tived BY THE Mosaic Account. 
 
 [1641] Many, both believers and unbelievers, 
 imagine that if the supposed discovery of traces 
 of pre-Adamite man were confirmed, it would 
 go verj' far to invalidate the authority of the 
 Scriptures, and would, at all events, be incon- 
 sistent with the biblical cosmogony. Is this so 
 certain ? I am far from saying it has yet been 
 satisfactorily made out, or even that reasonable 
 grounds have been shown for thinking it prob- 
 able that any rational beings in human or even 
 in gorilla form did exist before Adam ; but is it 
 so clear from the words of the Bible that there 
 could not have been a prior type of humanity 
 which appeared and disappeared in one of those 
 periods of mundane existence, anterior to the 
 present state of things, at which Scripture hints, 
 though it makes no definite revelation? — Rev. 
 Dr. Robinson Thornton in Christian Opinion. 
 
 VI. Summary of Chief Points in regard 
 to the Present Conflict between 
 Science and Scripture. 
 
 [1642] I. Questions are raised as to the ^r<i(Vr 
 of creation. 
 
 2. Questions are raised as to the time-element 
 of creation : (i) Touching the age of the world. 
 (2) Touching the antiquity of man. 
 
 3. Scripture account is not to be dealt with as 
 a work written for scientific but spiritual pur- 
 poses, and in an age which was not scientific. 
 
 4. The Scripture account and interpretations 
 of that account are two perfectly distinct things. 
 
 5. The right principles upon which to inter- 
 pret the Mosaic economy may not yet be fully 
 understood or clearly enunciated. 
 
 6. Sciences are at present a vast network of 
 hypotheses in ditlerent stages of verification, and 
 which claim various degrees of confidence. 
 
 7. The right interpretations of the Scripture 
 account and well-established scientific dis- 
 coveries and principles will be mutually helpful. 
 
 8. Prejudices and pre-conceptions and mis- 
 understandings on both sides are being over- 
 come, and there are not a few hopeful signs of a 
 better spirit between students of Scripture and 
 science being manifested towards each other. 
 
 9. If modern science has brought to notice 
 real or apparent discrepancies, it has afforded 
 a knowledge of more coincidences confirmatory 
 of Christian truth. 
 
 10. The principle of law, and nearly con- 
 
 nected with this, of evolution, has not been so 
 demonstrated as to contradict (or rather, it may 
 be said, to do without the necessity of) the 
 creative fiat or fiats at various periods of the 
 Creation, or of God's continual providential 
 agency, or chief of all of His miraculous inter- 
 vention at the Incarnation for man's redemption. 
 The book of nature without the book of revela- 
 tion will always be a mystery, while the book of 
 revelation without the book of nature will lose 
 much of its reality. 
 
 II. The perfect hannony of principles botl 
 within and without revelation is not possibU 
 v.'ith our present limited knowledge and facul 
 ties.— C. iV. 
 
 [1643] We may rest assured that the trut 
 " vestiges of creation " will never contradict 
 Genesis, nor will a correct " Cosmos " be found 
 at variance with the narrative of IMoses. He is 
 the wisest who uses both the world -book and the 
 word-book as two volumes of the same work, 
 and feels concerning them : " ]\Iy Father wrote 
 them both." 
 
 See article No. 132, "Chronology of Scrip- 
 ture." 
 
 138 
 
 UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES OF 
 OLD AND NE IV TESTAMENT. 
 
 I. Facts which they help to Establish. 
 
 I The several books of Scripture as indepen- 
 dent witnesses. 
 
 [1644] The argument deduced from coinci- 
 dence without design has further claims, be- 
 cause, if well made out, it establishes the authors 
 of the several books of Scripture as indepen- 
 dent witnesses to the facts they relate ; and this, 
 whether they consulted each other's writings or 
 not; for the coincidences, if good for anything, 
 are such as cotild not result from combination, 
 mutual understanding, or arrangement. If any 
 which I may bring forward may seem to be 
 such as might have so arisen, they are only to 
 be reckoned ill-chosen, and dismissed; for it is 
 no small merit of this argument that it consists 
 of parts, one or more of which (if they be 
 thought unsound) may be detached, without 
 any dissolution of the reasoning as a whole. 
 Undesignedness must be apparent in the co- 
 incidences, or they are not to the purpose. 
 In our argument we defy people to sit down 
 together or transmit their writings one to an- 
 other, and produce the like. Truths known 
 independently to each of them must be at the 
 bottom of documents having such discrepan- 
 cies and such agreements as these in ques- 
 tion. The point, therefore, whether the authors 
 of the books of Scripture have or have not 
 copied from one another, which in the case 
 of some of them has been so much laboured, is
 
 i644— 1644] 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 287 
 
 [undesigned coincidences of old and new testament. 
 
 thus rendered a matter of comparative indifter- 
 ence. Let them have so done, still by our argu- 
 ment their independence would be secured, and 
 the nature of their testimony be shown to be 
 such as could only result from their separate 
 knowledge of substantial facts. 
 
 2 The Scripture narration of the super- 
 natural which is embedded in that of the 
 natural. 
 [1645] I will add another consideration which 
 seems to me to deserve serious attention : that 
 in several instances the probable truth of a 
 miracle is involved in the coincidence. This is 
 a point which we should distinguish from the 
 general drift of the argument itself. The general 
 drift of our argument is this, that when we see the 
 writers of the Scriptures clearly telling the truth 
 in those cases wlaere we have the means of 
 checking their accounts ; when we see that they 
 are artless, consistent, veracious writers, where 
 we have the opportunity of examining the fact — 
 it is reasonable to believe that they are telling 
 the truth in those cases where we have not the 
 means of checking them — that they are veracious 
 where we have not the means of putting them 
 to proof. But the argument I am now pressing 
 is distinct from this. We are hereby called 
 upon, not merely to assent that Moses and the 
 author of the Book of Joshua, for example, or 
 Isaiah and the author of the Book of Kings, or 
 St. Matthew and St. Luke, speak the truth when 
 they record a miracle, because we know them to 
 speak it in many other matters (though this would 
 be only reasonable where there is no impeach- 
 ment of their veracity whatever), but we are 
 called upon to believe a ;payticiclar miracle, 
 because the very circumstances which attend it 
 furnish the coincidence. I look upon this as a 
 point of very great importance. I do not say 
 that the coincidence in such a case establishes 
 the miracle, but that, by establishing the truth 
 of ordinary incidents which involve the miracle, 
 which compass the miracle round about, and 
 which cannot be separated from the miracle 
 without the utter laceration of the history itself, 
 it goes very near to establish it. 
 
 n. The Strength of the Argument 
 
 DRAWN FROM THEM FOR THE TRUTH 
 OF CHRISTIANITY ITSELF. 
 
 I On account of the providentially unique 
 and complex' arrangements in the author- 
 ship of the Bible. 
 [1646] On the whole it is surely a striking 
 fact, and one that could scarcely happen in any 
 continuous fable, however cunningly devised, 
 that annals written by so many hands, em- 
 bracing so many generations of men, relating 
 to so many difterent states of society, abound- 
 ing in supernatural incidents throughout, when 
 brought to this same touchstone of truth, unde- 
 signedness, should still not flinch from it ; and 
 surely the character of a history, like the 
 character of an individual, when attested by 
 vouchers, not of one family, or of one place, or 
 of one date only, but by such as speak to it 
 
 under various relations, in different situations, 
 and at divers periods of time, can scarcely 
 deceive us. 
 
 in. The Practical Value of the Argu- 
 ment DRAWN from them FOR THE 
 
 Truth of Christianity itself. 
 
 1 Generally and for the mass of men. 
 
 (i) It is an argume7it easily grasped and 
 readily handled. 
 
 [1647] An argument thus popular, thus ap- 
 plicable to the affairs of common life as a test 
 of truth, derives no small value when enlisted 
 in the cause of revelation, from the readiness 
 with which it is apprehended and admitted by 
 mankind at large, and from the simplicity of 
 the nature of its appeal ; for it springs out of 
 the documents the truth of which it is in- 
 tended to sustain, and terminates in them ; so 
 that he who has these, has the defence of 
 them. 
 
 2 Specially and for students dealing with 
 modern Biblical criticism. 
 
 (i) // is a weapon providentially placed in 
 our hands to neutralize the force of the ^ com- 
 bined assaults against the truth of Scripture 
 from the whole circle of tJie sciences. 
 
 [164S] The turn which Biblical criticism has 
 of late years taken, gives the peculiar argument 
 here employed the advantage of being the word 
 in season ; and whilst the articulation of Scrip- 
 ture (so to speak) occupied with its component 
 parts may possibly cause it to be less regarded 
 than it should be in the mass, and as a whole, 
 the effect of this argument is to establish the 
 general truth of Scripture, and with that to 
 content itself— its general truth, I mean, con- 
 sidered with a reference to all practical pur- 
 poses, which is our chief concern— and thus to 
 pluck the sting out of those critical difficulties, 
 however numerous and however minute, which 
 in themselves have a tendency to excite our 
 suspicion and trouble our peace. Its effect, I 
 say, is to establish the general truth of Scripture, 
 because by this investigation I find occasional 
 tokens of veracity, such as cannot, I think, 
 mislead us, breaking out, as the volume is un- 
 rolled—unconnected, unconcerted, unlocked for ; 
 tokens which I hail as guarantees for more 
 facts than they actually cover ; as spots which 
 truth has singled out whereon to set her seal, 
 in testimony that the whole document, of which 
 they are a part, is her own act and deed; as 
 passwords with which the providence of God 
 has taken care to furnish His ambassadors, 
 which, though often trifling in themselves, and 
 having no proportion (it may be) to the length 
 or importance of the tidings they accompany, 
 are still enough to prove the bearers to be in 
 the confidence of their Almighty Sovereign, and 
 to be qualified to execute the general com- 
 mission with which they are charged under His 
 authority.— 77//^ article chiefly taken from J. 
 J. Bliinfs " Coincidences."
 
 SECTION II. 
 NAMES AND TITLES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 VOL. I. 19
 
 290 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 NAMES AND TITLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 DIVISIONS OF TOPICS ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 PAGF 
 
 A.— NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS NATURE 293 
 
 B.— NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE RELATIONS 300 
 
 [i] In regard tc God the Father. 
 [2J In regard to God the Son. 
 
 C— NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES 3U 
 
 [i] Bestowal of Redemptive Privileges. 
 [2] Imparting of Wisdom. 
 
 (i) Generally. 
 
 (2) Specifically. 
 [3] Work of Sanctification (generally). 
 [4] Execution of Judgment.
 
 agi 
 
 CLASSIFIED CONTENTS, SECTION II., 
 
 BEING 
 
 T/ie Names and Titles, Alphabetically arranged under their Respective Divisions and Subdivisions^ 
 with Consecutive Numbers at left hand for facility of reference. 
 
 (See Sectional Index, p. 533, and General Index at the end of last volume.) 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 Names Extkessivk of — 
 
 A.— HIS NATURE. page 
 
 1 God 203 
 
 2 Lord, The cq5 
 
 3 Spirit, Eternal ... ... ... 296 
 
 4 Spirit, The z^l 
 
 B.— HIS DIVINE RELATIONS. 
 
 [i] In regard to God the Father. 
 
 5 Breath of the Almighty ... ... 300 
 
 6 Power of the Higlicst ... ... 301 
 
 7 Seven Spirits of God ... ... ... 302 
 
 8 Spirit of God ... ... ... },CiTj 
 
 9 Spirit of the Father ... ... ... 303 
 
 10 Spirit of the Lord ... ... 303 
 
 11 Spirit of the Lord God ... ... 303 
 
 [2] In regard to God the Sox. 
 
 12 Spirit of Christ ... ... ... 306 
 
 13 Spirit of God (Holy) 307 
 
 14 Spirit of Promise (iloly) 308 
 
 15 Spirit cf ihe Son ... ... ... 309 
 
 16 Voice of ihe Lord ... ... 310 
 
 C— HIS OFFICES. PAGE-- 
 
 [i] Bestowal of Redemptive Privileges. 
 
 17 Adoption, Spirit of ... ... ... 31 j. 
 
 iS Glory, Spirit of ... ... ... 314 
 
 19 Grace, Spirit of ... ... ... "^15, 
 
 20 Life, Spirit of ... 316 
 
 21 Might, Spirit of 318 
 
 [2] Imparting of Wisdom. 
 (i) Generally. 
 
 22 Knowledge, Spirit of ... ... xzz' 
 
 23 Prophecy, Spirit of ... ... ... y,2 
 
 24 Revelation, Spirit of ... ... 323 
 
 (2) Specitically. 
 
 25 Counsel, .Spirit of ... ... ... 324 
 
 26 Fear of the Lord, Spirit of ... 324 
 
 27 Truth, Spirit of ... ... ... 324 
 
 28 Understanding, Spirit of ... 327 
 
 29 Wisdom, Spirit of ... ... ... 327' 
 
 [3] Work of Saxctificatiox (generally). 
 
 30 Comforter ... ... ... ... 33c- 
 
 31 Free Spirit ^y^ 
 
 32 Good Spirit ... ... ... 334, 
 
 33 Holiness, Spirit of ... ... ... ^35 
 
 34 Holy Spirit ... ... ... 336 
 
 35 Truth, Spirit of ... ... ... 337 
 
 [4] Execution of Jl'dgment. 
 
 36 Spirit of Judgment 339
 
 DIVISION A 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS NATUR] 
 
 Pages 293 to 29S. 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 I 
 
 GOD. 
 
 2 
 LORD, THE. 
 
 SPIRIT, ETERNAL. 
 
 SPIRIT, THE. 
 
 J92 

 
 '95 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 DIVISION A. 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS NATURE. 
 
 GOB. 
 (I John V. 7.) 
 
 I. Scripture Basis. 
 
 I The Holy Spirit possesses Divine attri- 
 butes and perfections. 
 
 [1649] Divine properties are assigned to 
 Him— as eternity : He is the " Eternal Spirit." 
 Immensity : " whither shall I flee from Thy 
 Spirit?" Omnipotence: "the Spirit of the 
 Lord is not straitened." Prescience : " this 
 scripture must be fulfilled, which the Holy 
 Ghost, by the mouth of David, spake concerning 
 Judas." Omniscience: "the Spirit searcheth 
 all things, even the deep things of God." — yo/m 
 Owen. 
 
 [1650] He is the true God. He is called by 
 the incommunicable name Jehovah. He has 
 all the perfections of the Deity : eternity, omni- 
 presence, omniscience. He does the works that 
 are proper to God alone : He formed the body 
 of Jesus in the Virgin's womb; cjualified Him 
 for the office He was to sustain ; is the Author 
 of every good work in us ; inspired from the 
 beginning all the prophets and apostles, that 
 they might communicate to us with infallible 
 certainty the mind and the will of God. He 
 receives also the worship that is due to God 
 only, and is joined with the Father and the Son 
 as the glorious Being to whom we are conse- 
 crated in our baptism, and is equally with Them 
 the source of all spiritual blessings. — C. Simeon. 
 
 [1651] The Holy Spirit is God, co-essential to 
 God the Father and God the Son. One Divine 
 nature, with all its attributes and perfections, is 
 common to Him with the Father ; or (which is 
 the same) the Holy Spirit is God, that Most 
 High God, most absolute, and properly so called 
 (for, seeing the Holy Scriptures do frequently 
 inculcate that there is but one God, if the Holy 
 Spirit be God, He must necessarily be co-essen- 
 tial with the Father and the Son). 
 
 Divine operations, transcending the power of 
 
 any created thing, are ascribed to the Holy 
 Ghost. Such are, to create things and make the 
 world ; for it was the Spirit which, resting upon 
 the unshapen mass, did hatch the world. "By 
 His Spirit," saith Job, " He hath garnished the 
 heavens." And, " By the word of the Lord," saith 
 the Psalmist, "were the heavens made, and all 
 the host of them by the breath of His mouth," or 
 by His Spirit. " But He," as the Apostle to the 
 Hebrews saith, " who made all things is God." 
 
 In fine, there is no work either of nature, or 
 of providence, or of grace, so sublime, or so 
 difficult, which is not ascribed to the efficacy of 
 the Holy Spirit ; the which doth show His 
 sovereign authority and His almighty power; 
 for surely by no more plain and cogent argu- 
 ments than by these can the omnipotence of the 
 Supreme Deity itself be demonstrated. — Isaac 
 Barrozc/. 
 
 2 The Holy Spirit performs Divine offices. 
 
 [1652] We are agreed that the miraculous 
 gifts, of whatever kind they were, proceeded 
 from "that one and self-same Spirit," the third 
 Person in the ever-blessed Trinity. And here 
 we wish it to be distinctly noticed, how re- 
 peatedly that adorable Person is mentioned as 
 the author of the gifts. " To one is given by the 
 Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the 
 word of knowledge, by the same Spirit ; to 
 another, faith by the same Spirit ; to another, 
 the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit ;" and 
 then, after mention of many other gifts, "All 
 these worketh that one and self-same Spirit." 
 This shows what a jealousy the apostle felt for 
 the honour of that Divine agent.— C Simeon. 
 
 [1653] The Spirit of God in Christians is like 
 an organ : one man is one stop ; another, 
 another ; the sound is different, the instrument 
 the same, but music in all." — T. Adams. 
 
 [1654] Mark the rain that falls from above ; 
 the same shower that drops out of one cloud 
 increaseth sundry plants in a garden, and 
 severally, according to the condition of every 
 plant. In one stalk it makes a rose, in another 
 a violet ; diverse in a third, and sweet in all.
 
 294 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIEIT. 
 
 1664] 
 
 [god. 
 
 So the Spirit works its multifarious eftects in 
 several complexions, and all according to the 
 increase of God. — Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 [1655] The inditing of the Scriptures was a 
 clear argument of His Deity. Whom did the 
 prophets mean when they said, "Thus saith the 
 Lord of Hcsts ?"' Who was this Lord of Hosts 
 that instructed them to speak or write ? Was 
 it God the Father, or God the Son? No, it 
 was God the Holy Ghost. " For the prophecy 
 came not in old time by the will of man, but 
 holy men of God spake as they were moved by 
 the' Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost therefore 
 being the Lord of Hosts, He needs be God. — 
 Ecveridgs. 
 
 3 The Holy Spirit shares Divine honour. 
 
 (i) As seen in the case of Ananias. 
 
 [1656] Peter views the act of Ananias and 
 Sapphira solely in its relation to the Divine 
 Spirit. Their sin is a trespass against the 
 Holy Ghost. Now we have in this procedure 
 of the apostle, essentially and directly, the evi- 
 dence both of the personality and of the Deity 
 of the Holy Ghost. He says : " Satan hath 
 filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost. 
 Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. 
 Ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of 
 the Lord." — Lange^s Commentary. 
 
 [1657] The lie of Ananias, when he lied to 
 the Holy Ghost, and when he lied to God, is 
 ■unquestionably one and the same sin. — Bengel. 
 
 [1658] The truth that the Holy Ghost is the 
 true God is awfully demonstrated in the death 
 of Ananias. — Apost. Past. 
 
 [1659] The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person ; 
 He is really God. ... It is revealed to us in 
 Scripture in the plainest manner. The same 
 names are applied to Him that are applied to 
 God ; the same infinite perfections attributed, 
 the same works ascribed, and the same worship 
 enjoined. To be born of the Spirit is to be 
 born of God ; to lie to the Holy Ghost is to lie 
 unto God. The mind of God, which is known 
 only to God Himself, this Spirit knows, and 
 knows perfectly. " He searcheth all things, yea 
 the deep things of God." Are these a creature's 
 honours, or a creature's claims ? No more than 
 they are yours or mine. — C. Bradley. 
 
 (2) As involved in St. PauTs use of the meta- 
 phor of a temple. 
 
 [1660] This also can be gathered from i Cor. 
 iii. 16 : " Know ye not that ye are the temple of 
 God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.'" 
 For none can be the temple of God but he in 
 whom God dwells ; for it is God's dwelling in a 
 place that makes that place the temple of God. 
 Another express scripture is Acts v. 3, 4. Peter 
 asks Ananias, "Why hath Satan tilled thine 
 heart to lie to the Holy Ghost ?" and then tells 
 him in the next verse, " Thoi» hast not lied to 
 
 men, but to God ; " and so expressly asserts the 
 Holy Ghost to be God. — Beveridge. 
 
 (3) As proclaimed iji the specially terrible 
 nature of the sin against the third Person in 
 the Trinity. 
 
 [1661] Moreover, what dignity belongs to 
 the Holy Spirit ; what reverence is due to 
 Him, appears clearly from that the blasphemy 
 against Him is peculiarly unpardonable, where- 
 as the faults committed against God the Father, 
 and obloquy against the Son, are capable 
 of remission ; for the nature of things doth 
 scarce bear that to detract from a creature 
 should be a crime so capital, or receive such 
 aggravation ; it cannot well be conceive'l that 
 the honour of a creature should in sach a 
 manner be preferred to the honour of God 
 Himself. — Isaac Barrow. 
 
 II. Laiport. 
 
 [1662] I freely and resolvedly assent unto 
 this, as unto a certain and infallible truth, that 
 beside all other whatsoever, to whom the name 
 of spirit is or may be given, there is one parti- 
 cular and peculiar Spirit, who is truly and pro- 
 perly a Person, of a true, real, and personal sub- 
 sistence, not a created but an uncreated Person, 
 and so the true and one eternal God ; that 
 though He be that God, yet He is not the 
 Father, nor the Son, but the Spirit of the Father 
 and the Son, the third Person in the Blessed 
 Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the 
 Son. I believe this infinite and eternal Spirit 
 to be not only of perfect and indestructible 
 holiness in Himself, but also to be the imme- 
 diate cause of all holiness in us, revealing the 
 pure and undefiled will of God, inspiring the 
 blessed apostles, and enabling them to lay the 
 foundation, and by a perpetual succession to 
 continue the edification of the Church, illumina- 
 ting the understandings of particular persons, 
 rectifying their wills and affections, renovating 
 their natures, uniting their persons unto Christ, 
 assuring them of the adoption of sons, leading 
 them in their actions, directing them in their 
 devotions, by all ways and means purifying and 
 sanctifying their souls and bodies, to a full and 
 eternal acceptation in the sight of God. — Bp. 
 Pearson. 
 
 [1663] There are three eternal acts of con- 
 sciousness, and the entire Divine Ego is in each 
 of these three acts. Each hypostasis has Being 
 solely through the other two. Here there is no 
 temporal first or last. The entire Trinity stands 
 in one present Now, three eternal flames in the 
 one light. — Martenscn. 
 
 [1664] None can deny that Scripture assigns to 
 the Holy Ghost attributes and operations which 
 are simply Divine. There can be no doubt as 
 to the Scripture testimony to His Godhead. . . , 
 Everywhere we hear hints both of personal dis- 
 tinctions and unity of essence. A striking
 
 COD THE HCLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1664—1669] 
 
 [the lokd. 
 
 ^95 
 
 indication of this may be found in the observa- 
 tio:i that whereas each Divine Hypostasis has a 
 special work and mode of revelation assigned 
 Him, the other two are throughout associated 
 with Him in its discharge. The creation and 
 preservation of the universe is, for instance, the 
 special work of God the Father. . . . But it is 
 by the co-operation of the Word and the Spirit. 
 The special work of the Son is redemption. 
 But here, too, the Father and the Spirit are co- 
 witness. The special work of the Spirit is sanc- 
 tification, but He is sent forth to that work by 
 the Father and the Son. ... No communion 
 with one Divine Person is possible for man 
 without a like fellowship with the others. He 
 that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of His ; 
 he that denieth the Son hath not the Father. 
 
 We might venture to express this unity and 
 distinctness by three predicates : the Father is 
 the Holy One ; the Son, the Healing One ; the 
 Spirit, the Hallowing One." — Chrisilicb {con- 
 densed). 
 
 HI. Its Practical Bearing. 
 
 [1665] That Jehovah, therefore, exists in three 
 Persons, is a truth which He, who only could 
 know it, hath been pleased to reveal in His 
 word. But it may be an everlasting truth in 
 itself, and yet no more truth to us, respecting 
 our comfort from it, than it is to fallen angels, 
 or the ground beneath our feet. The question 
 then occurs, " What interest has the soul of a 
 believer in this truth of a Trinity, and of the 
 Divine personality and self-existence of the 
 Holy Ghost?" All Divine truth hath its use ; 
 and the more clearly it shines (and clearly it 
 would ever shine but for the clouds of sin and 
 corruption), the more comfortable and reviving. 
 ~A. Serle. 
 
 [1666] The first great advantage which the 
 Christian perceives to belong to him in this 
 doctrine of a Trinity is — the covenanted, cer- 
 tain, and unchangeable purpose of the whole 
 Godhead, both in establishing the means, and in 
 securing the end, of his eternal salvation. He 
 perceives that the means are ecjual to the end, 
 and that the end must be the result of the 
 means ; because the great Agents who use the 
 means are Divine and infinite, can neither be 
 mistaken in their views, nor be disappointed in 
 their purposes. Jehovah, "who fainteth not, 
 neither is weary," is the Alehim, and is engaged, 
 by an everlasting covenant existing in His 
 Divine personality, to create, recover, and pre- 
 serve the souls of His people. Nothing, there- 
 fore, can arise which hath not been foreseen ; 
 no impediment thrown in the way which was 
 not foreknown ; no difficulty but which was de- 
 signed to be overcome. The great sin of Adam, 
 that fountain from which innumerable streams 
 of iniquity have overflowed the world, hath only 
 rendered this covenant more illustrious, by 
 proving that where "sin did abound, grace could 
 much niore abound," and that nothing, which 
 concerned the happiness or misery of myriads 
 
 of souls for everlasting ages, " is too hard for 
 Jehovah." It is not too hard indeed for Him ; 
 but it would be infinitely too hard for all created 
 strength, whether in earth or heaven. None 
 but Jehovah could reconcile to Jehovah. None 
 but Himself had either will, or love, or power, 
 to accomplish the reconciliation. This cer- 
 tainty and perfect ordination, then, of the ever- 
 lasting covenant, is a ground of great consola- 
 tion to all who, through faith, have an interest 
 in it. — Ibid. 
 
 [1667] Another comfort which the believer 
 hath a right to draw from these truths is, that 
 having the earnest of the Spirit in his soul, first 
 in quickening from the "death of sin," and 
 then working faith, hope, and love toward 
 Christ, he is privileged to receive some de- 
 gree of assurance from the word of God, in 
 proportion to the evidence of this earnest from 
 the Spirit of God, that He who hath begun the 
 good work will carry it on to perfection. The 
 written word declares the Divinity of this spiri- 
 tual agent ; and this agent brings the heart to 
 the word, by which He gives His own Divine 
 persuasion ; so that the believer can say, " I set 
 to my seal upon God's revealed truth, and I am 
 enabled to do it by the grace of God's enlight- 
 ening Spirit : upon this united testimony in my 
 behalf, I believe that God's love cannot 'fail,' 
 but that I am ' saved in ' Jehovah ' with an 
 everlasting salvation.' " — Ibid. 
 
 [1668] In thyself originates every cause of com- 
 plaint, not in thy merciful Lord. Thou canst not 
 exhaust an infinite ocean of everlasting good ; but 
 thou mayest, as all too often do, shut thine own 
 mouth, and taste for a time not a drop of it. O 
 the depth of unbelief! may we all cry, as well 
 as " O the depth of the riches of God ! " If this 
 " deep " did not answer to the other, and con- 
 found it, the strongest believer in the world 
 would not swim long upon the surface, but must 
 be sv.-allowcd up in the dismal abyss, — Ibid. 
 
 2 
 
 THE LORD. 
 (2 Cor. iii. 17.) 
 
 7. Its Scriptural Basis. 
 
 I Old Testament allusions read in the 
 light of the New. 
 
 [1669] The Lord Jesus was as fundamental 
 a reality under the old covenant as under the 
 new. He was that Spirit which was truly u-nder 
 the letter, and the Lord from whom the people 
 then turned. The incarnation was not the first 
 and abrupt entrance of a Divine Person into our 
 humanity. Christ was not only the body to 
 every shadow (Col. ii. 17), but the agent in 
 every event and institution of the ancient cove- 
 nant ; and whatever falsehood we discover under 
 the Rabbinic fables of the " Angel Jehovah," we
 
 296 
 
 1669 — I6791 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [the eternal spirit. 
 
 must recognize "the Lord the Spirit" under the 
 Jehovah of the ancient covenant. — C. F. Kling. 
 
 [1670] He who is called by Isaiah "Jehovah," 
 is called by Paul "the Holy Ghost." {^See Acts 
 xxviii. 25, and Isa. vi. 8, 9.) — Dr. Angus. 
 
 [167 1] With Jer. xxxi. y^, 34 compare John 
 xvi. 13. This is the accomplishment of the 
 promise, that Jehovah the Spirit guides into all 
 truth, and makes Himself known to His people. 
 An obvious distinction is here made between the 
 teaching of God and of man. And as obvious 
 a fact it appears that the Spirit guiding, in one 
 text, is Jehovah promised in the other. — A. 
 Scrle. 
 
 2 Direct Nev/ Testament teaching. 
 
 [1672] We find here (2 Cor. iii. 7) such an 
 identification of Christ and the Holy Spirit, that 
 the Lord, to whom the heart turns, is in no 
 practical respect different from the Holy Spirit 
 received in conversion. The fellowship of Christ 
 into which it entered when it turned to the 
 Lord, was in truth the fellowship of the Holy 
 Spirit. — C. F. Kling. 
 
 [1673] The apostle (2 Thess. iii. 5) meant only 
 to express a benevolent wish on behalf of the 
 Church at Thessalonica ; but he expressed it in 
 such terms as a person habituated to the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity would naturally use : he 
 prayed that " the Lord (the Spirit) would direct 
 their hearts into the love of God (the Father), 
 and into the patient waiting for Christ." — C. 
 Simeon. 
 
 THE ETERNAL SFIEIT. 
 
 (Heb. ix. 14.) 
 
 I. The Allusion of the IMetaphor 
 
 CONTAINED IN THE TITLE. 
 
 [1674] The Spirit is opposed to the condition 
 of irrational animals (ver. 13). The epithet 
 "eternal" is understood from vers. 12, I5,vii. 
 16 ; and is opposed to the ashes of a heifer. — 
 Dengel. 
 
 n. Its Import. 
 
 [1675] The Spirit's work is the enduring 
 miracle. The human Saviour does the outward 
 and spiritual work ; the Eternal Spirit sets up 
 the inward and spiritual kingdom ; the man 
 heals the body, the Spirit renews the soul. 
 
 Which is the greater miracle — to heal a leper, 
 or to renew a soul ?— to quiet the storm, or to 
 give peace to " a mind diseased ? " — Dr. Joseph 
 Parker. 
 
 III. Its Theological Bearing. 
 
 I It bespeaks the atoning efficacy of the 
 blood of Christ. 
 
 [1676] The Eternal Spirit in Hebrews ix, 14 
 
 is viewed as the Holy Spirit dwelling in Christ. 
 . . . Stress is laid on the spiritual power of 
 the offering of Christ, as an unblemished and 
 spotless Mediator, in its attribute of eternal. In 
 this epithet is, of course, then implied a contrast. 
 The words express a contrast with that which 
 originates and perishes in time, and they bring 
 the offering of Christ upon the cross into im- 
 mediate dependence upon the ministry of a 
 Spirit whose agency for this purpose at once 
 reaches back into the eternity of the past, and 
 carries its influence forward into the eternity of 
 the future. By the agency of this Eternal 
 Spirit, the atoning efficacy of the blood of Christ 
 is secured. — Moll [condensed). 
 
 2 It affords a hope full of immortality. 
 
 [1677] It is not enough to bring into prami- 
 nence the thoroughly moral character of the 
 sacrifice of Christ ; neither is it sufficient tD lay 
 stress on the religious purity and acceptableness 
 in the sight of God of this act, with its moving 
 grounds and impelling causes. To the real 
 Christian this title of Eternal Spirit affords a 
 hope full of immortality. He is led to perceive, 
 from the eternity of His nature, that He is 
 capable of performing all the glorious operations 
 ascribed to Him in the Scriptures. — A. Serle. 
 
 3 It proclaims the world-embracing signifi- 
 cance of Christ's sacrifice. 
 
 [1678] In this case we should merely have a 
 sacrifice accomplished such as, in respect of 
 conscientiousness, love of truth, zealous faith, 
 and fidelity of compassion, all true Christians 
 are enabled by the influences of the Holy Spirit 
 to accomplish in a death by martyrdom. We 
 have to do with a movement and working of 
 the Spirit in Christ, which has its ground and 
 beginning not within the limits of time and 
 humanity, and thus with a sacrifice freely de- 
 termined upon in eternity, and accomplished 
 within the limits of time in perfect unity with 
 the Eternal Spirit, who works perpetually 
 through Christ's whole career of life and suffer- 
 ing — a sacrifice which, for this reason, has a 
 world-embracing significance. — Moll [Langc). 
 
 IV. Personal Bearing. 
 
 I It points to the stability of Christian 
 work. 
 
 [1679] Unless I die, nothing will be done ; 
 you will continue as you are ; and everything 
 will continue in its old state, as it was before, 
 and is now — the Jews under the law of Moses, 
 the heathen in their blindness, all under sin and 
 death ; and no man can be redeemed from them 
 or saved. No Scripture would then be fulfilled ; 
 and I should have come in vain . . . But if I 
 go and die . . . the Holy Ghost will come to 
 you, and give you such courage that you shall 
 convert the whole world . . . and your doctrine 
 shall stand fast for ever. . . . You shall help 
 many, and make many blessed. — Luther
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIKJT. 
 
 1680 — 1690] 
 
 297 
 [the spirit. 
 
 2 It implies the settledness of the Christian 
 position. 
 
 [1680] Saith our Saviour, Fear it not, this is 
 the last dispensation ; there is to be no altera- 
 tion when 1 am gone, the Comforter is to do all 
 the remaining work. There is not another to be 
 looked for, and I promise you Him ; nor shall 
 He depart from you, but always abide with you. 
 — y. Owen. 
 
 3 It announces the absolute security of the 
 believer. 
 
 [16S1] As He is the Eternal Spirit, so He is 
 the Church's eternal guest ; each saint's eternal 
 indweller, who shall abide with us for ever. 
 " The communion of the Holy Ghost (2 Cor. 
 xiii. 14) is that which no time, no change, can 
 affect ; which neither life nor death, things 
 present, or things to come, can dissolve." — //. 
 Boiiar. 
 
 THE SPIRIT. 
 
 (i Cor. ii. 10.) 
 
 I. Thoughts suggested by the Title 
 
 ITSELF. 
 
 1 As to the spirituality of God. 
 
 [1682] Man has always wanted to sec God, 
 and God has always refused to be seen. — Dr. 
 Joseph Parker. 
 
 2 As to the spirituality of man. 
 
 [1683] God is a spirit — so is man. Man has 
 a body, but he is a spirit. — Ibid. 
 
 3 As to the order of the revelation respect- 
 ing the Godhead. 
 
 [16S4] The succession indicated by the words 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is a philosophi- 
 cal progress and culmination. — Ibid. 
 
 4 As to the law of order and progress 
 generally. 
 
 (i) Tlie luJiole movement of history, in all 
 that is vital and permanent, is a movement 
 from the outzvard and visible to the inward and 
 spiritual. 
 
 [16S5] The order of creation is a movement 
 toward the spiritual. The succession runs thus : 
 
 (1) The elements, (2) animal life, (3) spiritual 
 life— man made in the image of God. — Ibid. 
 
 (2) The order in redemption is a movevicjit 
 toward spii'itnality. 
 
 [1686] (i) The'Levitical ritual, (2) the Incar- 
 nation, (3) the Spirit— Jesus Christ. Christ did 
 not pass away as a figure complete in itself; 
 He ascended. Henceforth we know not Jesus 
 after the flesh. Mankind is now placed under 
 the tuition of a spiritual monitor.— /iJ/V/. 
 
 (3) TJie order of written testimony moves 
 precisely in the same direction. 
 
 [1687] (i) The Old Testament, (2) the Sy- 
 noptic Gospels, (3) St. John's Gospel. You 
 have heard what the evangelists have had to 
 tell, and have seen the wonderful things which 
 they remember of their Master's ministry ; now 
 let me explain the deep meaning of the whole 
 — the Spirit. — Ibid. 
 
 (4) Precisely the same movement takes place 
 in the consciousness and experience of every 
 ■pros^ressive life. 
 
 ['1688] (i) The child, (2) the youth, (3) the 
 middle-aged man, (4) the hoary-headed thinker. 
 
 Whatever we may believe about the person- 
 ality of the Holy Ghost, we cannot get away 
 from the fact of spirituality in our own con- 
 sciousness. The spiritual world of the wise 
 man increases every day ; and, strangely enough, 
 in point of coincidence, that very increase 
 becomes to him what the Holy Ghost becomes 
 to the Church, viz., a Comforter, so much so 
 that a fool cannot trouble his peace. To this 
 spiritual consciousness Jesus Christ would add 
 a spiritual personality, and the spirit of sanctifi- 
 cation : " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." 
 
 In the onward march of history the soldier 
 gives place to the missionary (=" the foolishness 
 of God") . . . The alphabet and the picture- 
 book will be found indispensable by the mis- 
 sionary. Then will come the narrative of Jesus 
 Christ's outward life — miracle, parable, and 
 startling word, then the prxtorium and the cup, 
 then the Holy Ghost. There is no escape from 
 this line : it is the line of spiritual training and 
 progress (and = first the natural, afterwards the 
 spiritual). — Ibid. 
 
 II. Import. 
 
 I As to His nature. 
 
 [1689] He is called the Spirit, intimating His 
 nature as well as His office. The Third Person 
 of the Godhead is specially tlie Spirit, and a 
 Spirit ; the truest manifestation of the spiritual 
 character and being of that God who is a Spirit. 
 — H. Bonar. 
 
 [1690] What is the doctrine of the Holy 
 Spirit ? It is the doctrine of the inter-working 
 of the Spirit of God upon the souls of men. I 
 have no philosophy about it. All I say is this 
 — that God knows what is the secret way in 
 which mind reaches mind. I do not ; you do 
 not. I do not know why words on my tongue 
 wake up thoughts corresponding to those words 
 in you. I do not know why the soul of man, 
 like a complex instrument of wondrous scope, is 
 played upon by my words, so that there are 
 waked up in it notes along the whole scale of 
 being. I do not understand why these things 
 are so ; but uncjuestionably they are so. I do 
 not know how the mother pours her affection on 
 the child's heart ; but she does. Two stars 
 never shone into each other as two loving souls 
 shine into each other. I know it is so ; but I
 
 29« 
 
 1690— 1695] 
 
 GUD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [the spirit. 
 
 do not know why it is so. I do not know how 
 soul touches soul, how thought touches thought, 
 or how feeling touches feeling ; but I know it 
 does. Now that which we see in the lower de- 
 partments of life — that which exists between you 
 and your friends, and me and my friends — that 
 
 1 take, and by my imagination I lift it up into 
 the Divine nature, and give it depth and scope 
 and universality ; and then I have some con- 
 ception of the doctrine of God's Spirit poured 
 upon the human soul. — H. IV. Beechc7: 
 
 [1691] This other Agent, Representative, and 
 Counselloi", now receives in immediate connec- 
 tion another name, derived from that influence 
 upon us which is primarily necessary — as further 
 in the Old and New Testaments we find many 
 names of the Holy Spirit designating Him ac- 
 cording to His energies and gifts in us. It is 
 the Spirit : this at once diverts from any such 
 expectation of a visible Person, as the "AXXoc 
 might have c>:cited, while it also points back to 
 all which from the Old Testament had been 
 
 recognized as the Q'"'!?.^ nil or J^npn nil. 
 
 2 As to His office. 
 
 [1692] The Lord Jesus Christ was here long 
 enough to remove all doubt as to His personal 
 identity, yet He withdrew Himself immediately 
 He had secured for His personality an unques- 
 tioned place in human history. Nothing more 
 was to be gained by His visible continuance on 
 earth ; His bodily mission had been wholly ful- 
 filled, and therefore He vanished out of the 
 sight of men. But what of the future of His 
 work.'' Then, according to Christian teaching, 
 was to come manifestation without visibility ; 
 instead of bodily presence, there was to be a 
 new experience of life, spirituality, insight, sen- 
 sibility, and sympatliy ahnost infallible in holy 
 instinct. In one word, the Holy I\Ia)i was to 
 be followed by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 As the disciples were to be sent abroad into 
 all coasts, to be scattered all over the earth to 
 preach the gospel, and not to stay together still, 
 in one place, Christ's corporeal presence would 
 have stood them in small stead. He could have 
 been resident but in one place, to have comforted 
 some one of them. . . . The Spirit, that was 
 to succeed, was much more fit for men dispersed. 
 He could be, and was, present with them all, 
 and with every one by himself, as filling the 
 compass of the whole world. — Bp. Andrewes. 
 
 III. Practical Bearing. 
 I The need of spiritual enlightenment. 
 [1693] I Cor. ii. 14. The natural man, the 
 
 man that hath not the Spirit, cannot discern 
 the things of God, for they are spiritually dis- 
 cerned. 
 
 He that shall discourse Euclid's Elements to 
 a swine, or preach (as Venerable Bede's story 
 reports him) to a rock, or talk metaphysics to a 
 boar, will as much prevail upon his assembly 
 as St. Peter and St. Paul could do upon uncir- 
 cumcised hearts and ears, upon the indisposed 
 Greeks and prejudiced Jews. An ox will relish 
 the tender llesh of kids with as much gust and 
 appetite as an unspiritual and unsanctified man 
 will do the discourses of angels, or of an apostle, 
 if he should come to preach the secrets of the 
 gospel. And we find it true by a sad experience. 
 How many times doth God speak to us by His 
 servants the prophets, by His Son, by His 
 apostles, by sermons, by spiritual books, by 
 thousands of homilies ; and we sit as uncon- 
 cerned as the pillars of a church, and hear the 
 sermons as the Athenians did a story, or as we 
 read a gazette ? . . . and the reason of this is 
 a sad condemnation to such persons ; they have 
 not yet entertained the Spirit of God, they are 
 in darkness. They were washed in water, but 
 never baptized with the Spirit. — Bp. JcrcDiy 
 Taylor. 
 
 2 Assurance of needed spiritual enlighten- 
 ment. 
 
 [1694] Remember that the words (of the 
 Bible) are Spi}it, and can only be profitably 
 received by the teaching of the Spirit. Thus 
 reading, and thus praying, you have a scriptural 
 warrant to expect that He who wrote the Bible 
 will tell you words in secret which shall not 
 only be life to your own soul, but which, when 
 you proclaim them as you have opportunity to 
 others, shall be to the glory of God and the 
 good of men.— Browfiloru Nortli. 
 
 [1695] In the Old Testament the law was in 
 the foreground, the Holy Spirit less prominent; 
 in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is promi- 
 nent, the law in the background. Jesus was 
 anointed with the Spirit without measure ; we 
 receive a measure out "of His fulness" (John i. 
 16 ; iii. 34). Jesus by His unction became 
 Messiah or Christ (Isa. Ixi. i). We receive a 
 share of this " unction," whereby " we know all 
 things" needful for salvation (i John ii. 20). 
 The full outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Israel 
 and on the nations is yet future (Isa. xliv. 3 ; 
 xxxvi. 25-27 ; Zech. xii. 10 ; Joel ii. 2S). Of 
 which the earnest was given on Pentecost (Acts 
 ii. 16-21). The law of the Lord is love, being 
 written on the heart instead of on stone as the 
 Decalogue (Jen xxxi. -^li 34; Heb. viii. 8, 12; 
 X. 16, 17 ; 2 Cor. iii. 3). — Faussct.
 
 DIVISION B. 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE 
 RELATIONS. 
 
 [i] IN REGARD TO GOD THE FATHER. 
 
 /^(7^'es 3CO ^0 304. 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 5 
 EREATII OF THE ALMIGHTY. 
 
 6 
 POWER OF THE HIGHEST. 
 
 7 
 SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD. 
 
 S 
 SPIRIT OF GOD. 
 
 9 
 SPIRIT OF THE FATHER. 
 
 10 
 SPIRIT OF THE LORD. 
 
 II 
 
 SPIRIT OF THE LORD GOD. 
 
 299
 
 300 
 
 DIVISION B. 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE RELATIONS. 
 
 [i] IN REGARD TO GOD THE FATHER. 
 
 BREATH OF THE ALMIGHTY. 
 
 (Job xxxiii. 4.) 
 
 I. Origin of the Allusion contained 
 IN Title itself. 
 
 [1696] Ghost is Spirit, Wind, Breath, &c. 
 Herein is an allusion to the breath of man; for 
 as the vital breath of man has a continual 
 emanation from him, and yet is never utterly 
 separated from his person, so the Spirit of the 
 Father and the Son proceedeth from them by a 
 continual Divine emanation, still abiding one 
 with them. Hence our Saviour signified the 
 communication of the Spirit to His disciples, 
 by breathing on them. 
 
 II. Aspects. 
 
 I In reference to creation. 
 
 [1697] "And the Lord God formed man of 
 the dust of the ground, and breathed into His 
 nostrils the breath of life, and man became a 
 living soul." God " breathed the breath of life" 
 — a vital immortal spirit ; something of Him- 
 self ; something immediately of His own; not 
 of any pre-created matter. — JoJin Owen. 
 
 [1698] The breath of God became the soul 
 of man ; the soul therefore is nothing but the 
 breath of God. — Zieglcr. 
 
 [1699] The life of the animal is only the indi- 
 vidualizing of the breath of the Divine Spirit 
 already existing in matter. The spirit of man, 
 on the contrary, is an inspiration directly coming 
 forth from God . . . originated by the Spirit of 
 God, and endowed with life from the inbreathed 
 breath of the Almighty. — Delitzsch. 
 
 [1700] Man was made last because he was 
 worthiest. The soul was inspired last, because 
 yet more noble. No air, no earth, no water 
 was here used to give help to this work ; Thou, 
 that breathedst upon man and gavest him the 
 Holy Spirit, didst also breathe upon the body 
 and gavest it a living spirit ; we are beholden 
 to nothing but Thee for our soul. Our flesh is 
 from flesh, our spirit is from the God of spirits. 
 —Bp. Hall. 
 
 [1701] The Spirit of God and the Breath of 
 
 God are the same ; only one 
 proper, the other metaphorical 
 
 expression is 
 The creation 
 
 of body and soul are both ascribed to Him. 
 
 "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the 
 
 Breath of the Almighty hath given me life." — 
 
 John Owen. 
 
 [1702] While man is dust taken from dust, 
 he is not like what preceded — a mere product 
 of the earth, impregnated with life by the Spirit 
 of God brooding over it. . . . The carrying out 
 of this supreme work is by inspiration of the 
 Divine Breath. — Dorner. 
 
 [1703] Analogous to the air or breath in the 
 animal life is the Almighty Spirit by which al! 
 spiritual beings exist. — A. Serle. 
 
 2 In reference to regeneration. 
 
 [1704] Three points of comparison between 
 the wind and the Spirit in the work of I'egenera- 
 tion : (1) Freedom and independence; (2) the 
 irresistible effect ; (3) the incomprehensibility, 
 both as to origin and termination. — P. Schaff. 
 
 III. Import. 
 
 1 As to the act, 
 
 [1705] Inspiration = inbreathing ; and is so 
 called from the nature and name of the Holy 
 Ghost. The name by which He is revealed to 
 us signifies breath ; and therefore when our 
 Saviour gave Him to His disciples He "breathed 
 upon them." — John Otuen. 
 
 [1706] "Spirit" means breath; and then, 
 since breath is the concomitant and proof of 
 life, it means emphatically life. The Psalmist 
 says to God, " When Thou takest away their 
 breath they die, but when Thou sendest forth 
 Thy Spirit they are made alive" (Psa. civ. 29). 
 — T. Griffith. 
 
 2 As to its mode of operation. 
 
 [1707] This expression also denotes the gentle- 
 ness and facility of His operations on their 
 minds, whereby He gently and softly breathed 
 into them, as it were, the knowledge of holy 
 things. — Jolin Owen. 
 
 IV. Practical Bearing. 
 
 [1708] He is invoked in prayer to revive' 
 Israel, long dead spiritually and politically :
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1708-1717] 
 
 301 
 [power of the highest. 
 
 " Come, O Life-Breath, and breathe upon these 
 slain, that they may live." — Faicsset. 
 
 [1709] It agrees with the nature of God, who 
 is goodness, that, as all the fountains of the 
 great deep were broken up, and the windows of 
 heaven were opened, and so came the flood 
 o\-er all, so there should be diluvium Spiriius, 
 a flowing out of the Holy Ghost upon all, as He 
 promises, " 1 will pour it out upon all." For 
 this Spirit breathes where it pleases Him ; and 
 though a natural wind cannot flow east and 
 west, north and south, together, this Spirit 
 breathes upon the most contrary dispositions 
 . . . that they become partakers of the Divine 
 nature, and be the same spirit with the Lord. — 
 Donne. 
 
 V. Thoughts suggested. 
 
 1 Inspiration viewed in regard to its simplest 
 forms. 
 
 [1710] It must never be forgotten that man 
 himself is an inspiration, seeing that God 
 " breathed into him the breath of life," and in 
 the Bible man is thus described : " There is 
 a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the 
 Almighty giveth him understanding." The 
 Bible, therefore, is addressed to a being who 
 has himself received some degree of the inspi- 
 ration of which the Book is probably the most 
 distinct and copious expression. — Dr. Joseph 
 Parker. 
 
 [171 1] The man born Avith what we call 
 *' genius," which will mean, born with better 
 and larger understanding than others ; the man 
 in whom " the inspiration of the Almighty," 
 given to all men, has a higher potentiality . . . 
 he, and properly he only, is the perpetual priest 
 of men ; ordained to the office by God Himself, 
 whether men can be so lucky as to get him 
 ordained to it or not. — TIios. Carlyle. 
 
 2 Inspiration viewed in regard to the feeble- 
 ness of its human agents. 
 
 [17 1 2] The musician is limited by his instru- 
 ment. Though he may have ravished a world 
 by his strains, he could be almost angry with 
 the instrument which has failed to express the 
 still finer tones which madden him with in- 
 describable joy. In the matter of inspiration 
 the Almighty proposed to dwell in houses of 
 clay : what wonder if they were unequal to 
 such a Presence. — Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 3 Inspiration viewed in regard to the idio- 
 syncrasy of its human agents. 
 
 [1713] Persons under inspirations were not 
 like so many drawers, wherein the Holy Ghost 
 put such and such things, which they then took 
 out as something ready-made, and laid before 
 the world ; so that their recipiency with refer- 
 ence to the Spirit inspiring them was like that 
 of a letter-box. — Ackermann {Jrom Hare). 
 
 [1714] Water springing up through the earth's 
 strata tastes of the various ingredients of the 
 soil through which it has passed — chalybeate, 
 saline, &c., hence its peculiar and medicinal 
 properties, as at Bath, Buxton, and elsewhere. 
 So the Holy Spirit, although using men as His 
 agents, " does not destroy the idiosyncrasies of 
 each." Their several prophecies taste, so to 
 speak, of the mental and other peculiarities by 
 which one man is distinguished froin another. 
 The hopefulness of Isaiah, the despondency of 
 Jeremiah, and the sternness of Ezekiel, formed 
 the natural substratum through which the Holy 
 Spirit flowed. Man, as he is, is the organ upon 
 which the Holy Spirit discourses sweet music. 
 " Holy men spake, as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost."— /^ B. Proctor. 
 
 4 Inspiration viewed in regard to its quicken- 
 ing influence on the memory. 
 
 [17 1 5] There is an inspiration of meinory. 
 Readers of the Gospels must have been surprised 
 at the minuteness of recollection which is shown 
 in their pages. Conversations are reported ; 
 little turns of dialogue which seem to be merely 
 artistic are not omitted ; records of occasions 
 on which the disciples were actually not present, 
 and of which they could only have heard from 
 the lips of the Lord Himself, are presented with 
 much particularity and vividness : how, then, 
 was this done, and especially done by those 
 who certainly were not conspicuous for the kind 
 of learning which is needful for making literary 
 statements ? The explanation of this artless art, 
 and this tenacious memory, is in the promise of 
 our Lord, " He shall bring all things to your 
 remembrance, whatsoever 1 havesaiduntoyou :" 
 you shall live it all over again, and you shall be 
 so taught how to gather up the fragments that 
 nothing be lost. — Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 6 
 
 POWER OF THE HIGHEST. 
 
 (Luke i. 35.) 
 
 I. Scripture Basis and Origin. 
 
 [17 16] The Holy Ghost is the Power of the 
 Highest. The parallel between these two ex- 
 pressions exacts that the one should be inter- 
 preted by the other ; and their mutual light 
 teaches that the Holy Spirit has verily a life- 
 producing power, but by no means that He is 
 only power, without personality. 
 
 The conception of the Son of God, by the 
 Holy Spirit, is the beginning of the intimate 
 union between the Word made flesh and the 
 Spirit not of measure. The same Spirit who 
 formed the body of Christ forms also the 
 mystical body of Christ the Church. — J. J. 
 Van Oosterzee. 
 
 II. Practical Bearing. 
 
 [1717] The Virgin Mary was told that the 
 Holy Ghost, who at the first creation " moved
 
 3o: 
 
 con THE HOLV SPIRIT. 
 
 1717— 1723] 
 
 SEVEN SPIKITS OF GOD. 
 
 upon the face of the waters," and reduced the 
 chaotic mass to order and beauty, should, by 
 His ahnighty power, form in her that holy 
 Being who should, in His human as well as 
 His Divine nature, be the Son of God. God is 
 never at a loss : " with Him nothing is im- 
 possible." — C. Simeon. 
 
 [1718] The Holy Ghost denotes here the 
 Divine Power, the life-giving breath which calls 
 into developed existence the germ of a human 
 personality slumbering in Mary's womb. Thus 
 m this birth the miracle of the first creation 
 is repeated on a scale of greater power. Two 
 elements concurred in the formation of man : a 
 body taken from the ground, and the Divine 
 breath. With these two elements correspond 
 here the germ derived from the womb of Mary, 
 and the Holy Ghost who fertilizes it. — Codet. 
 
 [1719] The New Testament writers with most 
 startling abruptness invert the ancient method, 
 so that instead of man being made by God, 
 God Himself becomes man — a virgin is found 
 to be with child of the Holy Ghost— and for 
 "thus saitJi the Lord" we have "thus is the 
 Lord ! . • . A miraculous birth must not be fol- 
 lowed by a commonplace life ... In the work 
 of one who has been begotten by the Holy 
 Ghost we must never meet with almost a 
 miracle, we must have omnipotence. . . . He 
 must be more than powerful — He must be 
 Power : strength must be swallowed up in Al- 
 mightiness. The concurrent evidence of the 
 four evangelists is this : " The people were as- 
 tonished, and said, Whence hath this man this 
 wisdom and these mighty words?" "Whence 
 hath this man all these things?" "No man 
 can do those miracles that Thou doest, except 
 God be with him," &c. The secret of this 
 power can be best accounted for by the ministry 
 of the Holy Ghost. — Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD. 
 (Rev. iii. i.) 
 
 L Import. 
 
 X It mdicates the perfection of the Spirit's 
 operations. 
 
 [1720] There is no doubt that by the seven 
 Spirits we are to understand not indeed the 
 sevenfold operations of the Holy Ghost, but 
 the Holy Ghost sevenfold in His operations. 
 Neither need there be any difficulty in recon- 
 ciling this interpretation with the doctrine of 
 His Personality. It is only that He is regarded 
 here not so much in His personal unity as in 
 His manifold energies ; for " there are diver- 
 sities of gifts, but the same Spirit " (i Cor. xii. 4). 
 The manifold gifts, operations, energies of the 
 Holy Ghost are here represented under the 
 number seven, being as it is the number of 
 
 completeness in the Church. We have antici- 
 pations of this in the Old Testament. When 
 the prophet Isaiah would describe how the 
 Spirit should be given not by measure to Him. 
 whose name is the Branch, the enumeration of 
 the gifts is sevenfold (xi. 2) ; and the seven eyes 
 which rest upon the stone which the Lord had 
 laid can mean nothing but this (Zech. iii. 9). — 
 Abp. Treneh. 
 
 [1721] "The seven Spiritsof God" — the fulness 
 of the Spirit. The number seven denotes both 
 variety and perfection : and Christ has, both 
 for His own personal endowment and for the 
 benefit of His people, the Holy Spirit in all His 
 diversified operations. It was said, " The Spirit 
 of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of 
 wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel 
 and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and the 
 fear of the Lord, and shall make Him of quick 
 understanding in the fear of the Lord." So en- 
 dowed, He was able to discern every motion of 
 men's hearts : not the slightest " imagination of 
 a thought" could escape His notice. "Every 
 spirit could be weighed by Him" in a perfect 
 balance ; and His "judgment could not but be 
 according to truth." Hence, "All things are 
 naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with 
 whom we have to do." — C. Simeon. 
 
 [1722] The seven Spirits before the throne are 
 the Holy Spirit of God considered as the perfect 
 fountain of every perfect gift and dispensation. 
 . . . John prays for grace and peace from the 
 seven Spirits that are before the throne, in the 
 Holy Ghost, whose operations are perfect and 
 complete. — J. Oiuen. 
 
 II. Interpretation. 
 
 [1723] Jehovah acknowledges Him (Christ), 
 and consecrates and equips Him for His great 
 work with the seven Spirits. The Spirit of 
 Jehovah is the Divine Spirit, as the communi- 
 cative vehicle of the whole creative fulness of 
 Divine powers. Then follow the six Spirits, in 
 three pairs, of which the first relates to the 
 intellectual life, the second to the practical life, 
 and the third to the direct relation to God. 
 For wisdom is the power of discerning the 
 nature of things through the appearance, and 
 understanding the power of discerning the dif- 
 ferences of things in their appearance. . . . 
 Counsel is the gift of forming right conclusions, 
 and might the ability to carry them out with 
 energy. The knowledge of the Lord is know- 
 ledge founded upon the fellowship of love ; 
 and the fear of the Lord (Jehovah), fear ab- 
 sorbed i'n reverence. There are seven Spirits, 
 which are enumerated in order from the highest 
 downwards ; since the Spirit of the fear of the 
 Lord is the basis of the whole (Prov. i. 7), and 
 the Spirit of the Lord is the heart of all. In 
 these seven powers the Holy Spirit descended 
 upon the second David for a permanent pos- 
 session. The seven Spirits are His seven e^■c3 
 (Rev. V. G).—Dclitzsch.
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 I'^l 
 
 1724— 1731 
 
 [spirit of the lord god. 
 
 [1724] The seven gifts of the Spirits (Prayer- 
 Boo'.c version) may be thus summed up : — 
 (i) Wisdom, to choose the one thing needful. 
 (1) Understanding, to know how to attain it. 
 
 (3) Counsel, the habit of seeking guidance of 
 God. 
 
 (4) Strength, to follow where He shall lerd 
 us. 
 
 (5) Knowledge, that we may learn to know 
 God. 
 
 (6) Godliness, that, knowing Him, we may 
 grow like Him. 
 
 (7) Holy Fear, meaning reverence and ado- 
 ration. — Canon Norris. 
 
 [1725] " Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, 
 And lighten with celestial fire ; 
 Thou the anointing Spirit art, 
 Who dost Thy sevenfold gifts impart." 
 
 Ordination Hymn, Church of England. 
 
 8 
 
 SPIRIT OF GOD. 
 (Gen. i. 2.) 
 
 I. Aspects. 
 
 I In regard to natural gifts and to technical 
 skill. 
 
 [1726] Exod. xxxi. 2-5. The theologian is 
 entitled to claim astronoiny, geology, botany, 
 agriculture, and chemistry, as sections of theo- 
 logy. If he trifle with this claim he will mistake 
 brethren and friends for rivals and enemies. 
 *• I have called Bezaleel, and I have filled him 
 with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in under- 
 standing, and in knowledge, and in all manner 
 of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to 
 work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in 
 cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of 
 timber, to work in all manner of workmanship." 
 Bezaleel was an inspired theologian. . . . The 
 ministration of the Spirit is various : by it 
 Moses was made wise, Bezaleel was made skil- 
 ful, and Samson was made strong. "All these 
 worketh that one and selfsame Spirit, dividing to 
 every man severally as He will" (i Cor. xii. 
 \\).—Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 "• In regard to the energies of the religious 
 life. 
 
 [1727] Every one knows the testimony of 
 Scripture to the exaltation of men's natural gifts 
 through the inrush of the Spirit of God. As in 
 Moses, of the gift of administrative wisdom 
 when "the Lord came down and talked with 
 him, and put His Spirit upon him, that he 
 might bear the burden of ruling his people." 
 And in Paul, of the gift of apostolic diligence 
 and success, when he could testify, " I will not 
 dare to speak of anything but what Christ hath 
 wrought by me, through the power of the Spirit 
 of God'- (Rom. xv. 191.— r. Griffith. 
 
 3 In regard to the inspiration of the Bible. 
 
 [172S] The Bible is a page torn out of the 
 great volume of human life ; only, torn by the 
 hand of God, and annotated by His Spirit. — 
 Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 9 
 
 SPIRIT OF THE FATHER. 
 (Matt, X. 20.) 
 
 I. Christological Aspect. 
 
 [1729] The expression is used by the Saviour 
 when commissioning His apostles, and its exact 
 form is worthy of notice. " For it is not ye that 
 speak, but the Spirit of your Father which 
 speaketh in you" (Matt. x. 20). The Saviour 
 often says, "My Father" (Matt. x. 32, 33 ; xi. 27 ; 
 xii. 50, &c.) He also says, "My Father and 
 your Father " (John. xx. 17). But He never puts 
 Himself on an equality with His disciples, as to 
 say " Our Father." While He realized that His 
 own Sonship was the mould of His disciples' 
 sonship. He could not lay aside the conscious- 
 ness of His very peculiar and peculiarly unique 
 filial relationship. He was His Father's " own 
 Son" (Rom. viii. 32), and His "only begotten 
 Son" (John. iii. 16). — James Morrison. 
 
 II. Practical Bearing. 
 
 [1730] There are moments in the Christian's 
 experience when he feels filled and flooded from 
 above. — Ibid. 
 
 10 and 11 
 
 SPIRIT OF THE 10 RD GOD. 
 
 (Judges xi. 29.) 
 
 I. Interpretation and Import. 
 I Generally. 
 
 [1731] The Spirit of God is the spiritual 
 principle of life in the world of nature and man ; 
 and in man it is the principle both of the natural 
 life which we receive through birth, and also of 
 the spiritual life which w-e receive through regen- 
 eration. In this sense the expressions " Spirit 
 of God " (Elohim) and " Spirit of the Lord " 
 (Jehovah) are interchanged throughout the 
 books of the Old Testament ; the former de- 
 noting the Divine Spirit generally in its super- 
 natural causality and power, the latter the same 
 Spirit in its operations upon human life and 
 history in the working out of the plan of salva- 
 tion. In its peculiar operations the Spirit of 
 Jehovah manifests itself as a spirit of wisdom 
 and understanding, of counsel and might, of 
 knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isa. vi. 2). 
 The communication of this Spirit under the Old 
 Testament was generally made in the form of 
 extraordinary and supernatural influence upon 
 the human spirit. The e-xpression used to
 
 304 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [spirit of the lord god. 
 
 denote this is usually " The Spirit of the Lord 
 (Jehovah) came upon him." (See Judges xi, 29 ; 
 
 1 Sam. xix. 20, 23 ; 2 Chron. xx. 14 ; Numb. xxiv. 
 2.) The recipients and bearers of this Spirit 
 were thereb}- endowed with the power to perform 
 miraculous deeds, . . . ability to prophesy, . . . 
 also with power to work miracles or to accom- 
 plish deeds which surpassed the courage and 
 strength of the natural man. — Keil. 
 
 2 As to physical and mental energies. 
 
 [1732] The phrase " the Spirit of the Lord 
 coming on Jephthah," is explained in the Tal- 
 mud as " Force of mind for great undertakings, 
 and bodily strength," being granted him : a sense 
 which has a deep and wise meaning. — Cicnning- 
 kcDH Geikic. 
 
 3 As to moral and spiritual energies. 
 
 (i) 77^1? 7L'ork of tJie Spirit compared to an 
 otttpoured flood. 
 
 [1733] The Spirit of the Lord is, in Gideon, 
 the gift of martial valour, when " the Spirit of 
 the Lord came upon him, and God saved Israel 
 by his hand" (Judges vi. 34-36,) ; in Samson, 
 the gift of bodily strength, when " the Spirit of 
 the Lord" began to stir in him, and "came so 
 mightily upon him that he rent the lion as he 
 would have rent a kid" (Judges xiii. 25; xiv. 6) ; 
 in ]\licah, the exaltation of the gift of moral 
 boldness, when he could declare, " I am full of 
 power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judg- 
 ment and of might, to make clear to Jacob his 
 transgression and to Israel his sin" (Micah iii. 
 8).— r. Griffith. 
 
 [1734] The Comforter,as the Spirit of the Lord 
 is compared to the inanimate and natural crea- 
 tion, to water and to wind, which are of so subtle 
 a nature, of so penetrating a virtue, and of so 
 extended a range. And most exactly have these 
 figures been fulhlled. His operation has been 
 calm, equable, gradual, far-spreading, overtak- 
 ing, intimate, irresistible. \Vhat is so awfully 
 silent, so mighty, so inevitable, so encompass- 
 ing as a flood of water? Fire alarms from the 
 first : we see it, and we scent it ; there is crash- 
 ing and downfall, smoke and flame ; it makes 
 an inroad here and there ; it is uncertain and 
 wayward. But a flood is the reverse of all this. 
 It gives no tokens of its coming ; it lets men 
 sleep through the night, and they wake and find 
 themselves hopelessly besieged ; prompt, secret, 
 successful — and equable ; it preserves one level ; 
 it is everywhere ; there is no refuge. And it 
 makes way to the foundations ; towers and 
 palaces rear themselves as usual ; they have 
 lost nothing of their perfection, and give no 
 sign of danger, till at length suddenly they 
 totter and fall. And here and there it is the 
 same, as if by some secret understanding ; for 
 by one and the same agency the mighty move- 
 ment goes on here and there and everywhere, 
 and all things seem to act in concert, and to 
 conspire together for their own ruin. And in 
 the end they are utterly removed, and perish 
 from off" the face of the earth. — J. H. Neiuman. 
 
 (2) The "working of the Spirit compared to an 
 invisible wind. 
 
 [1735] Such was the power of the Spirit in the 
 beginning, when He vouchsafed to descend as 
 an invisible wind, as an outpoured flood. Thus 
 He changed the whole face of the world. For 
 a while men went on as usual, and dreamed not 
 what was coming ; and when they were roused 
 from their fast sleep, the work was done ; it was 
 too late for aught else but impotent anger and 
 a hopeless struggle. The Kingdom was taken 
 away from them and given to another people. 
 The ark of God moved upon the face of the 
 waters. It was borne aloft by the power, greater 
 than human, which had overspread the earth, 
 and it triumphed "not by might, nor by power, 
 but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [1736] The only true test of the presence of 
 the Holy Spirit is its sanctifying influence on 
 our hearts and lives. It is evidenced only by 
 its effects. So much indeed would appear to 
 be conveyed to us even by the name by which 
 the Almighty Comforter has been pleased to 
 reveal Himself to us in the pages of His word. 
 The Spirit, Trrufia — the imperceptible, yet vital 
 breath, which is, and there is life and will and 
 motion ; which departs, and all is cold and 
 senseless and still ; — the impalpable and view- 
 less, but powerful and beneficent tuindj now 
 rending the rocks and laying low the forests ; 
 now purifying the stagnant air or opening the 
 blossoms of spring ; now wafting the seeds each 
 to its appointed place. And thus it was said by 
 our blessed Lord Himself: "The wind bloweth 
 where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
 thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and 
 whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born 
 of the Spirit." As the vital principle of our 
 material frame — which science may search for 
 but cannot detect, and when it has dissected 
 the members, and analyzed the fluids, and un- 
 tied the muscles and ganglions, and followed 
 line by line the delicate tracery of the nerves, is 
 forced to confess that it has had to do but with 
 the instrumentsand mechanism of the mysterious 
 power within — may yet be recognized by a 
 child's intellect, in the fire of the eye, the force 
 of the arm, and the immediate certainty with 
 which action follows on the determination of 
 the will ; so the presence of the Holy Spirit of 
 God in the hearts of His people, though secret 
 itself — the presence of the Invisible — is dis- 
 cernible by its effects. — Bp. Jackson. 
 
 II. Christological Aspect. 
 
 \Myi'\ "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" 
 (Luke iv. 18 ; Isa. Ixi. i). Jesus, in reading these 
 words, could not but apply them to His recent 
 
 baptism. — Godet. 
 
 [1738] Though Christ be the Head, yet is 
 the Holy Ghost the heart of the Church, from 
 whence the vital spirits of grace and holiness 
 are issued out unto the quickening of the body 
 mystical. — Heylin.
 
 DIVISION B 
 
 {Continued). 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE 
 RELATIONS. 
 
 [2] IN REGARD TO GOD THE SON. 
 
 Pages 306 to 311. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 12 
 SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 
 
 SPIRIT OF GOD (HOLY). 
 
 H 
 SPIRIT OF PROMISE (HOLY). 
 
 15 
 
 SPIRIT OF THE SON. 
 
 16 
 VOICE OF THE LORD. 
 
 305 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 20
 
 3c6 
 
 DIVISION B 
 
 {Continued). 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE RELATIONS. 
 
 [2] IN REGARD TO GOD THE SON. 
 
 12 
 
 SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 
 (Rom. viii. 9; i Pet. i. il.) 
 
 I. Theological Import. 
 
 [1739] The Spirit with which Christ was 
 anointed at His baptism, and which was there- 
 fore His Spirit during His official life, was 
 already, before He received it, active in the 
 prophets. This Spirit is none else than the 
 Eternal Spirit of God, in which the decree 
 relating to the IMessianic salvation was formed 
 from eternity, and which could therefore testify 
 in the prophets, regarding this decree, in the 
 same way as it afterwards qualified the Messiah 
 Himself for its execution. — Weiss. 
 
 II. Christological Interpretation. 
 
 [1740] "The Spirit of Christ" used inter- 
 changeably with " the Spirit of God," or the 
 " Holy Spirit " (Rom. viii. 9 ; Phil. i. 19 ; i Pet. 
 i. 11), denotes the self-existent Divine Spirit. 
 Therefore the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit that 
 is the common possession of God and Christ, 
 not the Spirit sent by God and Christ to men, 
 proceeding from both in time. ... If God 
 sends the Spirit of His Son, He cannot be called 
 the Spirit of the Son because the Son sends 
 Him into the heart. But if He is called the 
 Spirit of the Son because He is the possession 
 of the Son, so much the more must He be called 
 the Spirit of God because He is God's posses- 
 sion ; for this reason, that the Son possesses only 
 what the Father does. Were He merely called 
 God's Spirit because God sends Him, it would 
 be said indeed " God sent forth His Spirit," but 
 not "the Spirit of His Son." . . . Because God 
 and Christ possess Him they can impart Him 
 to men ; or, in dogmatic terminology, the tem- 
 poral sending of the Spirit into believers' hearts 
 by the Father and the Son is based upon His 
 eternal procession from both. Thus Rom. viii. 
 9 contains, without doubt, a diction probans for 
 the western doctrine of the procession of the 
 Holv Spirit from the Father and the Son. — 
 Phi'lippi. 
 
 [1741] "The Spirit of Christ" is the Spirit 
 which Christ imparts, or the Spirit which makes 
 us like to Christ. ... It is remarkable that ia 
 
 this short paragraph (Rom. viii. 9-1 1) "Spirit 
 of Christ," "Christ," and "the Spirit of Him 
 who raised up Jesus," i.e., the Spirit of God 
 the Father, should be exchanged for each other, 
 and plainly stand for one and the same thing. 
 Is this not evidence that the apostle saw and 
 felt no inconsistency in speaking of Christ, and 
 of the Spirit of God or of Christ, as in some 
 respects distinct, and yet in others as constitu- 
 ting a unity of nature 1 The simple facts that 
 Christ and the Spirit are Divine, are one in nature 
 with God, and yet in some respect distinct from 
 the Father, seem to be the basis of the apostle's 
 language here and elsewhere ; while all specu- 
 lation on the subject, all attempts to make out 
 nice distinctions or metaphysical definitions, 
 are entirely neglected. Whenever the time 
 shall come that Christians are content with 
 simple facts relative to this great subject, much 
 that has proved to be injurious to the prosperity 
 of religion will be done away. — Moses Stuart. 
 
 III. Pr.actical Bearing. 
 
 [1742] Rom. viii. 9. It is remarkable that 
 "the Spirit of Christ" is here used as the 
 equivalent for "the Spirit of God" in the pre- 
 ceding proposition. The Spirit of Jesus is that 
 of God Himself, whom He has converted by 
 appropriating Him perfectly here below into 
 His personal life, so that He can communicate 
 Him to His own. It is in this form that the 
 Holy Spirit henceforth acts in the Church. 
 Where this vital bond does not exist between a 
 soul and Christ, it remains a stranger to Him 
 and His salvation. 
 
 . . . The Holy Spirit, by whom Christ, cruci- 
 fied andrisen, reproduces Himself in the believer. 
 — Codet. 
 
 [1743] Christ's Spirit is the true Spirit ; men 
 out of Him are spiritless, however "full of the 
 Spirit " such unchristian people may fancy them- 
 selves. — Heubner. 
 
 [1744] Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, illus- 
 trious testimony of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 He who has the Spirit, has Christ : and he 
 who has Christ, has God. — Bengel. 
 
 [1745] As Christ fulfilled the will and work of 
 the Father upon earth, so does the Holy Spirit 
 administer the will and work of Christ in the
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1745— 1751] 
 
 [spirit of god (holy). 
 
 human soul. What Christ effected in the world 
 of history, the Spirit inwardly appropriates and 
 brings into the inner world of the human soul. 
 — C. E. Lntha}-dt. 
 
 [1746] The Scriptures make the want of the 
 Spirit a sign that a man is no true and sincere 
 Christian : " If a man have not the Spirit of 
 Christ, he is none of His;" and, on the 
 contrary, makes our having the Spirit of 
 God a mark of a child of God : "As many 
 as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons 
 of God." But our Saviour hath assured us 
 that men may have the miraculous gifts of the 
 Spirit of God, may prophesy in Christ's name, 
 and cast out devils in His name, and in His 
 name do many wonderful works, and yet be 
 workers of inic^uity, and shut out of the kingdom 
 of God. And, on the other hand, men may 
 not have these miraculous gifts, and yet be the 
 children of God. — Abp. Tillotson. 
 
 13 
 
 SPIRIT OF GOD {HOLY). 
 
 (Eph. iv. 30.) 
 
 I. Scripture Basis. 
 
 [1747] David, in the 68th Psalm, predicting, 
 according to St. Paul's interpretation of the 
 passage, these miraculous gifts of the Spirit, 
 speaks of them as subsequent to the Messiah's 
 ascension : " Thou hast ascended up on high, 
 thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast 
 received gifts for men." What these gifts 
 should be is declared in the concluding verse — 
 "that the Lord God may dwell among them." 
 This dwelling of God must signify something 
 more than God's residence in the Jewish sanc- 
 tuary ; for whatever might be in the mind of 
 the prophet, the prophetic spirit looked for- 
 ward to later times. It cannot signify the Son's 
 dwelling among men, when He came to preach 
 the doctrine of life and to pay the forfeit of 
 their crimes, because it is described as sub- 
 sequent to His ascension. It can signify, 
 therefore, no other dwelling of God than the 
 residence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian 
 Church. You have here an instance of a name 
 proper to the Deity applied to the Holy Spirit, 
 provided we are right in the application of this 
 last clause to Him. — Bp. Horsley. 
 
 II. Import. 
 
 [1748] "The Holy Spirit of God'] (Eph. iv. 30). 
 This full designation shows the importance of 
 the matter (viz., grieving the Holy Spirit), and 
 compels us to recognize the objective reality 
 and personality of the Holy Ghost. . . . The 
 Holy Ghost, like God, is not apathetic, but 
 capable of being affected. He feels what occurs 
 in us, as a loving Friend, who does not Himself 
 
 change, but will help us, and change us. so long 
 as we grant that He be not rejected. — Langc. 
 
 III. Practical Bearing. 
 
 [1749] It may be said to a prodigal son, 
 Grieve not your father, lest he cut you off; or. 
 Grieve not your mother, lest you break her heart. 
 Which of the twain is the stronger appeal ? — 
 Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 [1750] "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." 
 In this expression the apostle seems to refer to 
 those who had " grieved the Lord in the wilder- 
 ness," and had therefore been e.xcluded from 
 the promised land, and to those who "by 
 rebelling against God had provoked His Holy 
 Spirit, so that He was turned to be their enemy." 
 Yet at the same time He informs them that 
 the Holy Spirit had sealed them, as the Lord's 
 property, unto the day of redemption, when He 
 would claim them as His own. . . . That we: 
 may grieve the Holy Spirit, and that believers. 
 are sealed by Him unto the day of redemption,, 
 is equally certain : nor is there any great diffi- 
 culty in reconciling the two. Man never loses, 
 his proneness to fall, notwithstanding God's 
 counsel shall ultimately stand ; and therefore 
 he needs at all times the caution in the te.xt.— 
 C. Simeon. 
 
 IV. Thoughts suggested. 
 
 I The influences of the Holy Spirit are 
 an earnest of final salvation. 
 
 [175 1] The proposition implied ... is this, 
 that the ordinary influences of the Holy Spirit 
 on the heart of every true believer, are to every 
 such person an earnest of his final salvation. 
 These influences are an immediate action of 
 the Holy Spirit of God upon the mind of man,, 
 by which he is brought to will and enabled to- 
 do according to God's pleasure ; to master the 
 importunity of appetite ; to curb the impetuosity 
 of passion ; to resist the temptations of the 
 world; to baffle the wiles of the devil; to 
 deny himself ; to take up his cross, and follow 
 his crucified Lord through the strait and 
 thorny paths of virtue to the peaceful seats of 
 endless bliss and glory. It is the doctrine 
 of the Scriptures, that a strength conveyed 
 from God into the Christian's mind renders 
 his sufficient for these great performances. 
 And the text, assuming the doctrine as a con- 
 fessed and certain truth, teaches him to con- 
 clude that God's enabling to do what with- 
 out God's assistance could not be done, is a 
 certain argument of God's merciful design to 
 promote him to that happiness hereafter for 
 which the habits of a religious temper here are 
 the natural preparative. ... It was wisely said 
 by the philosophers of old, that nature does 
 nothing in vain. ... It is, however, only a 
 consequence from a higher and more general 
 principle, "that God never acts in vain." This 
 principle obtains universally in the moral no 
 less than in the material world. No act of the
 
 3o8 
 1751—1757] 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIR'.T. 
 
 [spirit of promise (holy). 
 
 Deity can be without end : and when God 
 enables the believer to become that character 
 which shall be the object of His mercy in a 
 future life, the only end to which this action 
 can be directed is, to bring the person on whom 
 it is performed to that state of future happiness 
 in which this character fits him to be placed. 
 So that if the principle be true, that without a 
 constant action of God's Spirit on the mind of 
 man no man can persevere in a life of virtue 
 and religion, the Christian who finds himself 
 empowei'ed to lead this life cannot err in his 
 conclusion, that God's power is at present 
 exerted upon himself in his own person for his 
 final preservation. — Bp. Horsley. 
 
 2 Evidences of being a subject of the sancti- 
 fying influence of the Spirit are tangible 
 and visible. 
 
 [1752] But here it may be asked by what 
 sensible evidence any private Christian may 
 be assured that he is himself a sharer in these 
 sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. . . , 
 It may be said of the Holy Spirit what Christ 
 has said of other spirits, "by His fruits ye 
 shall know Him." "The fruit of the Spirit is 
 love : " love of God ; love of man, as created in 
 ,the image of God ; a more especial love of 
 ■Christians, as brethren and members of Christ. 
 "Joy :" a mind untroubled and serene amidst 
 .all the discouragements and vexations of the 
 world. . . . "Peace:" a disposition and en- 
 -deavour to live peaceably with all men. . . , 
 ■ " Longsuffering : " a patient endurance of the 
 evil qualities and evil practices of men, ... a 
 temper more inclined to bear than to retaliate, 
 . . . esteeming injury and reproach a lighter 
 evil than the spirit of contention and revenge. 
 " Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem- 
 perance." These are the fruits by which the 
 Spirit of God is known. 
 
 If a man's conscience is void of offence to- 
 ward God and toward man ; if he makes 
 it the business of this life to prepare for his 
 future existence ; if he uses the present world 
 without abusing it ; if he is patient in affliction, 
 not elated in prosperity, liberal in wealth, 
 honest in poverty, fervent in devotion, tem- 
 perate in pleasure ; if he does not rate the 
 present world above its real worth, and sets his 
 chief affection on eternity— this is the undoubted 
 work of God's Holy Spirit.— /i^/V/. 
 
 14 
 
 SPIRIT OF PROMISE {HOLY). 
 (Eph. i. 13.) 
 
 I. Interpretation. 
 
 [1753] The Spirit is here the attesting seal. 
 The phrase " The Holy One " compels us to 
 accept a reference to the Holy Spirit ; it is 
 added with emphasis, so as to guard against 
 
 mistake, that the Spirit inherent in the promise 
 was meant. — Lange. 
 
 II. Scripture Applications. 
 
 I The sealing with the Holy Spirit of 
 Promise. 
 
 [1754] Assurance of election is definitely 
 pointed out in vers. 13, 14, "Ye were sealed with 
 the Holy Spirit of Promise, who is the earnest 
 of our inheritance," and although in consequence 
 of faith, still on the ground of the promise of the 
 Holy Ghost, and the resulting bestowal of the 
 same — in the means of grace, the word, through 
 which Christ's merit, that is and suffices for all, 
 is attributed to us. On the ground of the cer- 
 tainty that God's word is true, that God has 
 loved the world, that Christ has died for the 
 sins of the whole world, and that God has called 
 you also — must have called you, because He has 
 loved you in Christ, have been accepted as a 
 child, endowed with the Holy Ghost, renewed, 
 regenerated, even though it be but germinally, 
 potentially, I am certain of my election before 
 the foundation of the world, and my inheritance 
 in eternity. — Ibid. 
 
 [1755] "The Holy Spirit of Promise" is the 
 seal of Christians, the stamp which they receive 
 that they are real children of God, the token by 
 means of which they appear and pass current as 
 Christians before celestial spirits. Without this 
 character faith is vain, and all Christianity a 
 mere sham. How many sham Christians there 
 are who have not this seal ! This Spirit is to 
 the Christian the strongest proof also of eternal 
 life, because in itself it is something eternal, 
 imperishable. — Heiibner. 
 
 [1756] Is there any test by which the pur- 
 chased possessions are distinguished from the 
 world 1 The text answers it by teaching us that 
 there is the seal of the Spirit. The object of 
 a seal is to denote property ; and here we may 
 trace the connexion between the seal andthe pur- 
 chased possession. He hath sealed those whom 
 He hath made His own. They are in the world, 
 but yet not of the world ; moving amongst 
 other men, engaged in similar pursuits, subject 
 to the same laws, concerned in kindred interests, 
 but yet they are no more one with them than 
 the gold is one with the rough ore in which it 
 lies embedded ; and could we see as God seeth, 
 we should perceive on each heart the stamp 
 of the Holy Spirit separating them as God's 
 property, sealing them as God's people. The 
 great Agent in impressing this seal is plainly 
 the Holy Ghost, here called "the Holy Spirit of 
 Promise." — E. Hoare. 
 
 III. Historical Aspect. 
 
 [1757] The gift of the Holy Ghost is that 
 peculiar blessing which the Church in all ages 
 was taught to look for under the Christian dis- 
 pensation. A measure indeed of the Spirit was 
 vouchsafed to the godly at all times ; but the
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1757— 1763] 
 
 [spirit of the son. 
 
 fuller effusion was reserved for the times of the 
 apostles ; as it is said, "The Spirit was not yet 
 given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." If 
 we go back as far as the days of Abraham, we 
 shall find that the promise of the Spirit was 
 made to him, not so much for his decendants 
 after the flesh, but as for his spiritual progeny 
 among the Gentiles, to whom it was fulfilled in 
 the apostles' days. And the prophets taught 
 the Jews, in every successive period, to look 
 forward to the same time for the full enjoyment 
 of this privilege. The prophet Joel in particular 
 spoke strongly on this subject, and St. Peter 
 refers to his words as accomplished on the day 
 of Pentecost. Our blessed Lord also, both 
 before and after His resurrection, instructed 
 His disciples to expect a more abundant measure 
 of the Spirit than had ever yet been vouchsafed 
 to the world : and to that very instruction of 
 His did St. Peter refer, when the Spirit was first 
 poured out upon the Gentiles. — C. Simeon. 
 
 15 
 
 SPIRIT OF THE SON. 
 (Gal. iv. 6.) 
 
 I. Interpretation. 
 
 [1758] "The Spirit of the Son" expresses both 
 the Spirit who proceeds from the Son, and also 
 who works in believers the spirit of a son. — C A^. 
 
 [1759] A peculiar expression — equivalent to 
 the Spirit which the Son of God has ; plainly, 
 moreover, which He has peculiarly as Son, 
 and implies His consciousness of Sonship, and 
 so means the Son of God's Spirit of Sonship. 
 God gives the very same Spirit into the hearts 
 of those whom He has accepted as His sons for 
 the sake of His Son Jesus Christ ; and there- 
 with they also attain to the consciousness of 
 sons relatively to God, so that they cry " Abba, 
 Father." — Lange. 
 
 II. Doctrinal Import. 
 
 [1760] The Holy Spirit is here called "the 
 Spirit of the Son." Not that we are to conceive 
 of the Godhead as consisting of persons of 
 unequal majesty and glory ; for the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost are in glory equal, and in 
 majesty co-eternal. But each person in the 
 ever-blessed Trinity sustains a distinct office in 
 the economy of redemption : the Father send- 
 ing the Son to work redemption for us ; and 
 the Son sending the Holy Spirit to apply that 
 redemption to us. Agreeably to this distinc- 
 tion, we must go to the Father through the 
 Son and by the Spirit ; and expect blessings 
 from the Father in the very channel by which 
 we gain access to Him. Now if we go to 
 God in this way He will send His Holy Spirit 
 into our hearts as the Spirit of (His Son) 
 sonship. — C Simeon. 
 
 III. Practical Bearing. 
 
 1 The filial spirit is the simple and indis- 
 pensable qualification necessary for the 
 knowledge of God. 
 
 [1761] Father and Son ! Let philosophers 
 and divines discover what they may about God, 
 they will never discover anything so deep as 
 the wonder which lies in those two words, 
 
 Father and Son Who is God ? What 
 
 is God like ? Where shall we find Him, or 
 what is His likeness.? So has mankind been 
 crying in all ages, and getting no answer, or 
 making answers for themselves in all sorts of 
 superstitions, idolatries, false philosophies. And 
 then the gospel comes, and answers to every 
 man, to every poor and unlearned labourer : 
 Will you know the name of God? It is a 
 Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit of love, joy, 
 peace ; a Spirit of perfect satisfaction of the 
 Father in the Son, and of perfect satisfaction 
 of the Son with the Father, which proceeds 
 from both the Father and the Son. It needs 
 no scholarship to understand that Name ; every 
 one may understand it who is a good father ; 
 every one may understand it who is a good 
 son, who looks up to and obeys his father with 
 that filial spirit of love and obedience, and 
 satisfaction with his father's will, which is the 
 likeness of the Holy Spirit of God, and can only 
 flourish in any man by the help of the Holy 
 Spirit which proceeds from the Father and the 
 Son. — C. Kings ley. 
 
 2 The filial spirit is a Divine work as well as 
 an inestimable privilege. 
 
 [1762] O how great a task is it for a poor 
 soul that comes, sensible of sin and the wrath, 
 of God, to say in faith but this one word" 
 Father ! The spirit must be sent into the 
 heart for this very thing ; it being too great a. 
 ^york for any man to do knowingly and be- 
 lievingly without it. That one word spoken im 
 faith is better than a thousand prayers in a 
 formal, lukewarm way. I myself have often 
 found that when I can say but this word 
 Father, it doth me more good than when I call 
 Him by any other Christian name. — Bicnyan. 
 
 3 The filial spirit is the necessary result of 
 faith. 
 
 [1763] There is in every one, who receives 
 the gospel aright, a change, both in his state 
 before God and in the secret habit of his mind. 
 From an enemy to God, he is made a friend 
 and a son ; and from serving God by restraint, 
 as a slave, he comes to Him with a spirit of 
 adoption as a beloved child. . . . Taking this 
 view of Christianity, we must say that it has 
 been, and yet is, productive of incalculable 
 good : for still, as well as in the apostolic age, 
 God begets sons to Himself by means of it ; 
 and " when they are made sons, He pours 
 forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, 
 crying, Abba, Father." — C. Simeon.
 
 3IO 
 
 1764— i77o] 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [voice of the lokd. 
 
 4 The honour of Divine sonship implies 
 true holiness. 
 
 [1764] In professing to be led of the Spirit of 
 God you claim, of course, the honour of being 
 the children of God. And if you claim this 
 honour, O think what manner of conversation 
 yours should be — how holy, spiritual, heavenly ! 
 Not merely blameless, but you should shine as 
 lights in the midst of a dark world, and walk 
 worthy of Him who hath called you to His 
 kingdom and glory. Read the particulars in 
 St. Paul's direction to the Colossian Church : 
 Col. iii. 12-14. Herein is living Christianity ; 
 this is to walk as Christ walked, and by this 
 shall all men know that ye are the disciples 
 of Christ, " the sons and daughters of the Lord 
 Almighty.'-— /(^zV/. 
 
 5 The folly and sin of curtailing even in 
 thought the privilege of sonship. 
 
 [1765] For what is the duty of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ is our duty, if we are the sons of God in 
 Him. He is the Son of God by an eternal 
 never-ceasing generation _; we are the sons of 
 God by adoption. The way in which we are to 
 look up to God, the Holy Spirit must teach us ; 
 what is our duty to God, the Holy Spirit must 
 teach us. And who is the Holy Spirit ? He is 
 the Spirit who proceeds from the Son as well 
 as the Father. He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 
 the Spirit of the Son of God, the Spirit which 
 ■ descended on the Lord Jesus when he was 
 baptized, the Spirit which gave to Him without 
 measure. He is the Spirit of the Son of God ; 
 and we are the sons of God by adoption, says 
 St. Paul ; and because we are sons, he says, 
 God hath sent forth into our hearts the Spirit 
 of His Son, by whom we look up to God as 
 •our Father ; and this Spirit of God's Son, by 
 whom we cry Abba, Father, St. Paul calls in 
 another place the " Spirit of adoption,'' and 
 declares openly that He is the very Spirit of 
 God. 
 
 Therefore in whatever way the Spirit of God 
 is to teach you to look up to God, He will 
 teach you to look up to Him as a Father ; 
 the Father of Spirits, and therefore your Father, 
 for you are a spirit. Whatsoever duty to God 
 the Holy Spirit teaches you. He teaches you 
 first, and before all things, that it is filial duty, 
 the duty of a son to a father, because you are 
 the son of God, and God is your Father. 
 
 Therefore, whatsoever man or book tells you 
 that your duty to God is anything but the duty 
 of a son to his father, does not speak by the 
 Spirit of God. Whatsoever thoughts in your 
 heart tempt you to distrust God's forgiveness, 
 and shrink from Him, and look up to Him as 
 a taskmaster, and an austere and revengeful 
 Lord, are not the Spirit of God. Fathers 
 and mothers ! if your son or daughter came 
 home to you thus, though they had insulted 
 you, disgraced you, and spent their substance 
 in riotous living, would you shut your doors 
 upon them 1 . . . Do you fancy God less of a 
 Father than you are 't Is He not TJie Father, 
 
 the perfect Father, " from whom every father- 
 hood in heaven and earth is named.'"' God is 
 as much better a Father than you are, as Jesus 
 Christ is a better Son than you are. . . . And 
 believe, that whatsoever makes you distrust 
 God's love is neither the Spirit of God, who is 
 the spirit of sonship, nor the spirit of man ; 
 but the spirit of the devil, who loves to slander 
 God to men, that they may shrink from Him, 
 and be afraid to arise and go to their Father, 
 to be received again as the sons of God. — 
 C. Kmgsley, 
 
 16 
 
 VOICE OF THE LORD. 
 
 (Acts xxviii. 25.) 
 
 I. Scripture Basis. 
 
 [1766] "The Spirit of God moved upon the 
 face of the waters " at creation. Psalm xxix. says, 
 " The voice of the Lord is upon the waters." 
 Isaiah vi. 8, " The voice of the Lord said ; " 
 Acts xxviii. 25, &c. This F(7zV^ is indentical with 
 the Holy Ghost, who spake by Isaiah to the 
 fathers, " saying, Go unto this people." From 
 these texts it appears that the Voice of the Lord 
 is the Spirit of Jehovah. — A. Serle. 
 
 II. Historical Aspects and Signifi- 
 cation. 
 
 [1767] The words recorded in i Kings xix. 11, 
 " The Lord passed by Elijah," &c., naturally 
 suggest themselves in this connexion. Here, 
 too, the Lord Himself truly came, not in the 
 great and strong wind, nor in the earthquake, 
 nor in the fire, but in the still small voice, when 
 He entered into the hearts of His disciples and 
 spake by their mouth. — Williger. 
 
 [1768] We now hear another language, which 
 does not fill the heart with terror like the 
 voice heard on Mount Sinai ; it neither alarms 
 nor slays us, but rather inspires us with courage 
 and joy ; indeed, Christ had promised His 
 disciples that He would send to them the Holy 
 Ghost, who should not be a spirit of fear, but 
 a Comforter, imparting to them boldness, and 
 power to overcome every fear. — Luther, 
 
 [1769] The natural man would never have 
 conceived that the glory of God would manifest 
 itself in the still small voice. He wants some- 
 thing grand, splendid, pompous — temples, 
 mosques, and cathedrals, white and purple 
 robes and processions, incense offerings and 
 solemn chants, things that strike the eye and 
 the ear. — J. Hare. 
 
 III. Personal Realization. 
 
 [1770] A new tongue and effective eloquence 
 in the sphere of religion are gifts, not of naturei 
 but of thQ Spirit. — Laiige^ A post. Past
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 I771— 1773] 
 
 3ir 
 
 [voice of the lord. 
 
 [1771] The Holy Ghost is never inactive, but 
 always worketh wherever He dwells ; one of 
 His principal instruments is the tongue. — 
 Starke. 
 
 [1772] Compare three well-known pictures 
 presented by the Holy Scriptures : — 
 
 (i) Ge}i. xi. : The human race, as one nation, 
 speaking one language. They attempt to pre- 
 serve this unity by building a metropolitan city, 
 where the whole race might dwell, under one 
 government and one chief. Their leading idea 
 was that oneness of nationality^ of speech, and 
 oi gover7iment would bind the whole race in the 
 closest bonds of brotherhood. But God was 
 left out of their thoughts. He had said, replenish 
 the earth. Hence apostasy of heart had already 
 taken place, and their idea was, as we should 
 say, anti-christian. A man of sin doubtless 
 sat as God opposing himself to His purposes, 
 and aimed at a universalism of sin. Akin to 
 this scheme of theirs are the many combinations 
 of men into guilds, brotherhoods, and great in- 
 ternational societies, whose avowed object is to 
 bring about a union of the human race in some 
 othei than God's appointed way. And the 
 teaching of the New Testament is that Anti- 
 christ will seize hold upon this spirit of the age 
 and attempt universal empire. To stop the 
 human plan, and thwart sinful intention, God 
 interfered by confounding their language, and 
 the race was split up into fragments, which be- 
 came the starting-points of nations, and peoples, 
 and kindreds and tongues ; and men iDecame, 
 henceforth. Barbarians, Scythians, Bond, Free 
 — anything but Brothers. 
 
 (2) Acts a. : is the companion picture. The 
 two should be studied side by side. That 
 showed how men became strangers and aliens : 
 this shows how God unites them into one family. 
 On the Day of Pentecost visible tongues de- 
 scended upon the Church of Christ, and forth- 
 with, being filled with the Holy Ghost, each 
 member thereof began to speak with foreign 
 tongues "the wonderful works of God." And the 
 whole community was really cemented into one 
 brotherhood, and had all things common. This 
 indicated God's way of uniting them : not by all 
 dwelling in one city, or kingdom, or speaking 
 one tongue ; not by any external bond ; but by 
 giving each individual man His Holy Spirit. 
 They may speak all the languages of the earth, 
 but their voice is one, the leaven is one, their 
 communion is one ; all kindreds and tongues, 
 nations and people, are being gathered together 
 from the dispersion caused by sin. 
 
 (3) Rev. vii. 9, 10, is the third picture. It is 
 a scene in heaven, where all is completed which 
 was only signified at Pentecost. The whole 
 family are gathered together — once separated 
 physically by seas and continents, and morally 
 by sin. 
 
 This great family is composed of the same 
 diversities that existed on earth. They are still 
 
 kindreds, and nations, and peoples, and tongues, 
 and yet they are united — one family, all speak 
 the same praises, all sing one song. Ask, What 
 has made them so ^ Clearly not one tongue, as 
 was attempted at Babel, but it is the possession 
 of one spirit, which has attuned them all, and 
 brought them into fellowship with the Father 
 and the Son. " The Lamb is the light thereof," 
 and His magnetic power attracts these once- 
 scattered units, now no longer under the centri- 
 fugal power of sin, but under the centripetal 
 influence of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 IV. Suggested Thoughts. 
 
 I Contrast betw^een the voice of the Holy 
 Spirit and that of the spirit of the age. 
 
 [1773] There are two spirits which on either 
 side perpetually address the soul of man. How 
 shall we know them apart.'' Or rather, what 
 constitutes their difterence? It is marked and 
 strong. The time-spirit preaches boastfully 
 of man, of the world, of life ; the Holy Spirit 
 of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. The 
 spirit of the age applauds and flatters us, the 
 Holy Spirit rebukes, reproves, convicts. The 
 time-spirit talks to us of the glory and greatness 
 of man, of temporal things as all-sufficient, of 
 the world as the measure of our destinies, of 
 a free and reckless life without responsibility, 
 faith, or fear. The Holy Spirit, on the contrary, 
 speaks of the sin of man, his weakness and 
 corruption, of a righteousness which consists 
 in faith, obedience, and self-denial, of a battle 
 against the world, of a coming judgment on 
 the earth and its guilty tenants. Of sin, of 
 righteousness, and of judgment to come, the 
 time-spirit never speaks ; it avoids those subjects, 
 it makes no allusion to them unless by way of 
 contradiction and denial. . . . And this is the 
 essential difterence between the voices — the one 
 bids to indulgence, the other to discipline ; the 
 one addresses the physical, the other the moral 
 nature ; the one displays the kingdoms of this ■ 
 world and all the glory of them, the other 
 points to that strait and narrow gate through 
 which we enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 The one says to man, " Lo, thou hast much 
 goods laid by for many years ; the lust of the 
 eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life 
 are h^re ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be 
 merry." The other utters the stern, brief words, 
 "Thou fool ! this night thy soul shall be re- 
 quired of thee ; then where shall all this be 
 when for thee the world with its affairs is at an 
 end for ever.'"' Diverse are the voices, and 
 never to be harmonized ; the one that of a 
 proud and reckless tempter, the other that of a 
 calm, holy, and thoughtful counsellor. They 
 reach our souls together ; we hear both or have 
 heard both in our day ; our choice is between 
 them, and there is no middle path of safety. — 
 Rev. iMorgan Dix.
 
 DIVISION C. 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES. 
 
 [i] THE BESTOWAL OF REDEMPTIVE 
 PRIVILEGES. 
 
 Pages III to 320. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 17 
 
 ADOPTION, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 18 
 GLORY, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 19 
 GRACE, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 20 
 LIFE, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 21 
 MIGHT, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 312
 
 313 
 
 DIVISION C. 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES. 
 
 [i] THE BESTOWAL OF REDEMPTIVE PRIVILEGES. 
 
 17 
 
 ADOPTION, SPIRIT OF, 
 
 (Rom. viii. 15, 16.) 
 
 I. Scripture Basis. 
 
 [1774] The "Spirit of adoption" here is the 
 Spirit of God : cf. Gal. iv. 6, where there is no 
 uncertainty. "Spirit" in vers. 15 and 16 is not 
 the difference between an inward disposition 
 and the Spirit of God, but that which distin- 
 guishes two different modes of acting, followed 
 by one and the same Holy Spirit. — Codet, 
 
 II. Import. 
 
 [1775] The " Spirit of adoption " is the Spirit 
 of God producing the spiritual state correspond- 
 ing to sonship ; He may even be called the Spirit 
 of the Son Himself. He puts us relatively to 
 God in the same position as Jesus when He 
 said, Father ! The term adoption reminds us 
 that Jesus alone is Son in essence (only Son). 
 To become sons, we must be incorporated into 
 Him by faith. — Ibid. 
 
 ni. Personal Realization. 
 I The witness of the Spirit. 
 
 [1776] The witness of the Spirit is a con- 
 sciousness of our having received, in and by the 
 Spirit of adoption, the tempers mentioned in the 
 word of God as belonging to His adopted chil- 
 dren — a loving heart toward God and toward 
 all mankind, hanging with childlike confidence 
 on God our Father, desiring nothing but Him, 
 casting all our care upon Him. — Wesley. 
 
 [1777] That the world deny any such testi- 
 mony in the hearts of believers, and that they 
 look on it with scorn and treat it with derision, 
 proves only that they are unacquainted with it — 
 not that it is an illusion. It was a sensible and 
 true remark of the French philosopher, Hem- 
 sterhuys, in regard to certain sensations which 
 he was discussing, " Those who are so unhappy 
 as never to have had such sensations, either 
 through weakness of the natural organ, or be- 
 cause they have never cultivated them, will not 
 comprehend me." — Moses Stuart. 
 
 [1778] The testimony of the Spirit is imme- 
 diate, by His secret influence upon the heart, 
 quieting and calming all distrust and diffidence 
 
 concerning its condition, by His own immediate 
 power. Fear is banished by a soft whisper 
 from the Spirit of God in the heart ; and this 
 in such a way that, though the spirit of man is 
 calmed by it, yet it cannot tell how it comes to 
 pass. — Simon Ford. 
 
 [1779] How a man may know whether the 
 testimony which is within him be of the Spirit 
 or not. But how, say you, may I know whether 
 the testimony doth proceed from the Holy 
 Ghost, and therefore whether it be a true and 
 certain testimony ? I answer first, by the per- 
 suasion ; secondly, by the manner of the per- 
 suasion ; lastly, by the effects of this testimony 
 and persuasion. For the first, the Holy Ghost 
 doth not simply say it, but doth persuade with 
 us, that we are the sons of God, and no flesh 
 can do this. Again, He persuades us by reasons 
 drawn not from our works or from any worthi- 
 ness in us, but from the alone goodness of God 
 the Father, and grace of Christ. In this man- 
 ner the devil will never persuade any. Lastly, 
 the persuasion of the Holy Ghost is full of 
 power and sweetness, for they which are per- 
 suaded that they are the sons of God cannot 
 but needs must call Him Abba, Father, and in 
 regard of love to Him do hate sin, and whatso- 
 ever is disagreeing to His will. And on the 
 contrary they have a sound and hearty desire to 
 do His will. If at any time thou hast felt in 
 thyself any such testimony, persuade thyself it 
 was the testimony of the Holy Ghost, and that 
 very true and certain too, and therefore that 
 thou art the child of God and predestinate to 
 eternal life. This is the prop by which we must 
 underset that weak belief we have of our cer- 
 tain election to eternal life ; hold this without 
 wavering whatsover thou art that art tempted 
 to doubt of thy election. Even as nothing is 
 required at our hands to work our election (for 
 God chose us His alone of mere goodness) so 
 that we may truly know whether we be elect 
 or not, this one thing shall be sufficient, namely, 
 if we shall attain to the certain knowledge of 
 this, that we are in Christ and partakers of Him, 
 for He that is now engrafted in Christ and is 
 justified, it cannot be but that he was elected in 
 Christ before the foundation of the world. — H. 
 Zanc kites, 1603. 
 
 [17S0] The witness of the Spirit is a thing 
 that we cannot express ; a certain inexpressible 
 assurance that we are the children of God ; a
 
 3M 
 
 lySo— 1786] 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [GLORY, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 certain secret manifestation that God hath 
 received us and put away our sins. No one 
 knows it but they that have it. I confess it is 
 a wondrous thing, and if there were not some 
 Christians that did feel it and Icnow it, you 
 might believe there was no such a thing ; but it 
 is certain there is a generation of men that 
 know what the seal of the Lord is. — Prcstoti. 
 
 2 Enjoyment of sonship. 
 
 [1781] The adoption must entirely depend on 
 the will of the adopter. The Scripture hath 
 not left us in darkness here. God never 
 appoints an end but He always provides the 
 means. As we are the " firstfruits " in Christ, 
 we ai-e to have also the firstfruits of the Spirit ; 
 and " because we are sons and first-born, God 
 hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our 
 hearts, crying Abba, Father : wherefore, we are 
 no more servants, but sons ; and if sons, then 
 heirs of God through Christ." We are brought 
 therefore into this state, or born again, " not of 
 blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
 will of man, but of God." By this Spirit of 
 adoption it is that we can freely call upon God, 
 claim to be His sons, style Him our Father, 
 and plead all the benefits of our adoption. — A. 
 Scrle. 
 
 [1782] Men conceive of Christianity as a 
 system of restraints ; or, at best, as a system of 
 doctrines and duties. But it is in reality a 
 system of privileges ; it " takes men from the 
 dunghill to set them among princes," and 
 " translates them from the kingdom of darkness 
 into the kingdom of God's dear Son." Con- 
 template Christianity in this view, as taking 
 " strangers and foreigners,'' and bringing them 
 not only into " the household of God," but mak- 
 ing them "sons and daughters of the Lord 
 Almighty." Well might St. John express his 
 wonder, saying, " Behold, what manner of love 
 is this, wherewith the Father hath loved us, that 
 we should be called the sons of God ! " Truly 
 this is the light in which we should view the 
 gospel. — C, Suneon. 
 
 3 The enjoyment of holy fellowship with the 
 Father and the Son. 
 
 [1783] To those who are converted He works 
 as a Spirit of adoption. He enables them with 
 confidence to cry "Abba, Father." Hegivesthem 
 an assured testimony of their acceptance with 
 God as a reconciled God and Father ; setting, 
 as it were, upon their hearts the Father's seal, 
 and witnessing with their spirits that they are 
 the children of God. Thus drawing them with 
 His gracious influences, He brings them into a 
 state of hol> " fellowship with the Father and 
 the Son," causing them to walk with God as 
 clear children, and to live habitually as in His 
 presence ; they " dwelling in God, and God in 
 them ; " yea, being " one with God, and God 
 with them." — Ibid. 
 
 4 The ennobling of our nature. 
 
 [1784] If we would but thus remember how 
 
 we spring from God, in such a way as no earthly 
 creature does, we surely never could indulge 
 any thoughts or deeds unworthy of God. What 
 if Ceesar had adopted you into his family ? How 
 elated would you thenceforth be ! And shall 
 not, then, your being of the family of God rouse 
 up your spirit to its proper height ? Alas, that 
 so many should rather incline toward their 
 relationship with brutes than their relationship 
 with God ! — Epictettis {T. Griffith). 
 
 [1785] The truth which the most enlightened 
 heathens saw dimly and very rarely on the hori- 
 zon becomes a living factor in the experience of 
 the believer, as evidenced by the following sub- 
 lime address to the Third Person of the ever- 
 blessed Trinity by Augustine : — " O Holy Spirit, 
 love of God, who proceedeth from the Almighty 
 Father and His most blessed Son, powerful 
 Advocate, and sweetest Comforter, infuse Thy 
 grace and descend plentifully into my heart : 
 for in whomsoever Thou dwellest, the Father 
 and the Son come likewise and inhabit that 
 breast. Oh ! how happy is that breast which 
 is honoured with so glorious, so Divine a guest, 
 in whose company the Father and the Son 
 always come and take up their abode. O come, 
 Thou cleanser of all inward pollutions, and 
 healer of spiritual wounds and diseases ! 
 Come, Thou strength of the feeble knees, and 
 raiser up of them that fall. Come, Thou star 
 and guide of them that sail in this tempestuous 
 sea of the world ; Thou only haven of the 
 tossed and shipwrecked. Come, Thou glory 
 and crown of the living ; Thou only stay and 
 shield of the dying. Come, in much mercy ; 
 come, and make me fit to receive Thee. And 
 all this I beg for the sake of Jesus, my only 
 Saviour, who, in unity of Thee, O Holy Spirit, 
 liveth and reigneth with the Father, one God, 
 world without end. Amen." 
 
 18 
 
 GLORY, SPIRIT OF, 
 (i Peter iv. 14.) 
 
 L Interpretation and Import. 
 
 [1786] "Spirit of glory" denotes the Holy 
 Spirit, because He brings glory and seals it in 
 the suffering. Their state of bliss is inferred 
 from the glory already existing, although in- 
 visible to ordinary eyes. This Spirit being given 
 to you with the communion of Christ, you are 
 even now, by faith and hope, partakers of 
 future glory ; you anticipate it in the Spirit, and 
 therefore you are blessed. Hence Paul, in the 
 farther development of this thought, called the 
 Spirit the earnest of the inheritance (Eph. i. 14). 
 ... It is not the spirit of Elijah, or of an 
 angel, but the Spirit of God. " This is to the 
 apostle so great and so blessed a thing, that 
 though the world is against them God is for 
 them, as their shield and exceeding great 
 reward." — La/nre and Wicsiiis:cr.
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1787— 1795 
 
 [grace, spirit of. 
 
 [1787] The Holy Ghost, who rests upon saints, 
 protects them, shines forth from them, is called 
 "the Spirit of glory" because He is holy, and 
 causes His holiness to eradiate, and because He 
 is worthy of being glorified by men and all 
 other creatures. — Laiige. 
 
 II. Practical Bearing. 
 
 X Need to exhibit more the Spirit of glory 
 in our daily life. 
 
 [178S] The Spirit is here called "the Spirit of 
 glory and of God ; " as being one with the 
 Father, who is " the God of glory ; " and one 
 with the Son, who is " the Lord of glory." His 
 office is to descend and dwell with the saints 
 as their Comforter. And when we really suffer 
 for Christ's sake, it is both an evidence that He 
 does rest upon us, and a pledge that He will be 
 with us in a more abundant measure. If the 
 Holy Spirit had not already wrought faith in 
 our hearts, and put somewhat of the image of 
 Christ upon our souls, the world would have 
 suffered us to rest in peace : for if we were of 
 the world, the world would love its own ; but 
 because we are not of the world, but Christ has 
 chosen us out of the world, therefore the world 
 hateth us. ... I cannot but think that if God 
 were to pour out His Spirit upon us as He did 
 on the primitive Church, and our light were to 
 burn as bright as theirs, there would yet be 
 found much the same rancour in the hearts of 
 men against vital godliness now as there was 
 in former days ; for there are not wanting at 
 this hour many proofs of what men would do to 
 suppress real piety, if the toleration accorded 
 to us by the laws did not restrain them. — C. 
 SitJieon. 
 
 2 The present possession of the Spirit of 
 glory is the pledge of future glory. 
 
 [17S9] The less the Christian finds esteem 
 and acceptance in the world, the more he turns 
 his eye inward to see what is there ; and there 
 he finds the world's contempt counterpoised by 
 a weight of excellency and glory, even in this 
 present condition, as the pledge of the glory 
 before him. The reproaches be fiery ; but the 
 Spirit of glory resteth upon you — doth not give 
 you a passing visit, but stays within you, and is 
 indeed yours. — Abp. Leigh ton. 
 
 3 The present possession of incipient glory, 
 and the future prospect of perfected glory, 
 is a sustaining thought amid trials. 
 
 [1790] And in this the Christian can take 
 comfort, and let the foul weather blow over ; let 
 all the scoffs and contempts abroad pass as 
 they come, having a glorious Spirit within, such 
 a guest honouring him with His presence, abode, 
 and sweet fellowship — being, indeed, one with 
 Him. So that rich miser at Athens could 
 say (when they scorned him in the streets he 
 went home to his bags, and hugging himself 
 there at the sight, let them say what they 
 would), " The crowd hiss me abroad ; but I 
 applaud myself at home, as soon as I contem- 
 
 plate my money in my chest." How much more 
 reasonably may the Christian say, Let them re- 
 vile and bark ; I have riches and honour enough 
 that they see not. — Ibid. 
 
 19 
 
 GRACE, SPIRIT OF. 
 (Heb. X. 29.) 
 
 I. Interpretation and Import, 
 
 [1791] There is here a sin against the Holy 
 Ghost — that is, the sin of all sins which, as 
 here implied, is impossible without an inward 
 experience of grace. . . . The phrase (Spirit 
 of grace) is to be interpreted in connection 
 with Zech. xii. 10, as designating the Spirit as 
 the source of grace ; and this interpretation is 
 favoured by the strong personal term ivvjioLGaQ. 
 — Delitzsch. 
 
 [1792] The outpouring of the Spirit (Zech. 
 xii. 10) points back to Joel iii. i, &c., except that 
 there the Spirit of Jehovah generally is spoken 
 of, whereas here it is simply the Spirit of grace 
 and of supplication. . . . The Spirit of grace is 
 the Spirit which produces in the mind of man 
 the experience of the grace of God. — Keil. 
 
 [1793] The perfected Mediator of the New 
 Testament first imparts His gift of eternal 
 redemption to the souls of men through the 
 Holy Spirit, who takes everything from Him 
 (John xvi. 13, 14). For the gaining of the re- 
 demption (Heb. ix. 12) is one act; the bestowal 
 of it upon individual men is a different one. 
 The procuring of salvation (i Cor. ii. 12) is dif- 
 ferent from its appropriation (Heb. iii. i ; vi. 4). 
 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is distinct 
 from the grace of the Holy Spirit. By the 
 former the whole world is reconciled (i John 
 ii. I, 2) ; by the latter an ever-increasing number 
 of individuals is reconciled to God (2 Cor. 
 v. 20). — Nitzsche. 
 
 II. Practical Bearing. 
 
 I As regards the sin against the Spirit of 
 grace. 
 
 (i) Its nature, 
 
 [1794] It is as a loving, living, gracious 
 Person that such despite is done to the Holy 
 Spirit. All gifts of grace under the New Testa- 
 ment are here summed up in, and referred to, the 
 Spirit of grace. To contemn or to do despite to 
 this Holy Spirit is to blaspheme the whole work 
 of grace of which one has once been the sub- 
 ject, and to exhibit it as a deception and a lie. 
 It is profanely to contradict the very truth of 
 God, and draw down upon one's self a vengeance 
 which cannot fail. — Delitzsch. 
 
 [1795] Apostasy is a doing " despite unto the
 
 3i6 
 
 1/95— 1799] 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [life, spirit of. 
 
 Spirit of grace." The Holy Spirit, both before 
 and after the death of Jesus, bare witness to 
 Him by signs and wonders innumerable ; and 
 when we are brought to the knowledge of the 
 truth, it is by that same blessed Spirit illumina- 
 ting our minds, and sealing the truth with power 
 upon our souls. But when we renounce the 
 truth we have received, we insult that Divine 
 Agent as having borne witness to a falsehood ; 
 and we ascribe all His miracles either to 
 Satanic agency, or to some mysterious impos- 
 ture. We even laugh also at the impressions 
 A'hich He hath made upon our minds, and 
 deride all His merciful suggestions as fanaticism 
 and delusion. — C, Simeon. 
 
 (2) Its heitwusness. 
 
 [1796] If the only true atoning sacrifice, the 
 Son of God and His blood, have, in view of the 
 earlier experience of its sanctifying power, been 
 rejected as useless, and the Spirit of grace 
 spurned and scorned, not only is there nothing 
 to replace the sacrifice thus rejected and dis- 
 honoured, but this itself can no longer exercise 
 a saving influence upon him who has made 
 wilful and wanton wreck of all the previous 
 influences of grace.— Car/ Moll. 
 
 [1797] Against the apostate there are three 
 witnesses : the Father, who hath given to him 
 His Son ; the Son, whose blood he tramples 
 underfoot ; and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of 
 grace, to whom he does despite. — Starke. 
 
 2 As regards the evidence of the bestowal 
 of the Divine gifts. 
 
 [1798] The gifts of grace are directly apphed 
 in Holy Scripture to the Holy Spirit ; and so 
 directly are they applied to Him, that it is 
 affirmed that no man can say that Jesus is the 
 Lord but by the Holy Ghost, because without 
 the Holy Ghost he can know nothing of the 
 matter. — A. Serle. 
 
 20 
 
 LIFE, SPIRIT OF. 
 (Rom. viii. 11.) 
 
 I. Christological Aspect. 
 
 [1799] Succession is distinctly traceable in 
 the mind of Christ, making his life a model 
 of moral progression. ... He thus becomes 
 our visible and outward conscience ; revealing 
 to us not only the end to which we must attain, 
 but the successive steps by which our nature 
 reaches it— the process as well as the result. 
 He is the type of the pure religious life : all its 
 development being crowded by the rapid ripen- 
 ing of His soul into His brief existence ; and 
 the gospel is a Divine allegory of humanity, 
 through which a holy mind rises to its most 
 godlike power. 
 
 The thoughts which constitute religion are 
 
 too vast and solemn to remain subordinate. 
 They are germs of a growth which, with true 
 nurture, must burst into independent life, and 
 overshadow the whole soul. When the mind 
 ponders the ideas of the infinite and the eternal, 
 it detects, as if by sudden inspiration, the im- 
 mensity of the relations which it sustains to 
 God and immortality : the old formulae of re- 
 ligious instruction break their husk, and give 
 forth the seeds of wonder and love ; everything 
 that seemed before great and worthy is dwarfed, 
 and human affinities and duties all sink into 
 nothingness compared with the heavenly world 
 which has been discovered. There is a period 
 when earnest spirits thus become possessed ; 
 disposed to contrast the grandeur of their new 
 ideal with the littleness of all that is actual. At 
 such a crisis it was that Jesus gave the answer 
 to His parents ; when His piety first broke into 
 original and self-luminous power, and not only 
 took the centre of His system, but threatened to 
 put out those lesser and dependent lights which, 
 when their place is truly understood, appear no 
 less heavenly. ... It was inevitable that the 
 spiritual force within Him should make insur- 
 rection against the narrow and cramping condi- 
 tions by which it was confined ; that it should 
 strive to burst its fetters, and find or create a 
 career worthy of itself : in short, that we should 
 find Jesus no longer at Nazareth, but in the 
 wilderness ; led thither in spite of Himself, of 
 interest and comfort, of habit and home, by the 
 beckoning of the Divine image in His heart. 
 . . . His holy spirit won the victory ; and the 
 transition was made from the obscurity of ordi- 
 nary toil to the glory of His everlasting ministry. 
 . . . Even the last change in Christ appears to 
 be an internal development of His perfect char- 
 acter, the last unfolding of its progressive beauty : 
 to which also there is a corresponding stage, 
 wherever the true religious life fulfils its course- 
 When the first sanguine enterprises of con- 
 science seem to fail ; when a cloud descends 
 upon the prospects of the good ; when the evils 
 against which he has taken up his vow with- 
 stand the siege of his enthusiasm, and years ebb 
 away and strength departs with no visible im- 
 pression made ; and friends become treacherous, 
 and foes alert, and God's good providence seems 
 tedious and cruel — then weak spirits may suc- 
 cumb, able to keep faith alive no more, and 
 even the man mighty of heart may find the 
 controversy great whether to go on and bear 
 up against such sorrow of soul. But if he be 
 wise he clings more fully to his fidelity, and 
 thinks more truly of his mission, wherein he is 
 appointed not to do much, but to do well. He, 
 too, takes counsel of the prophets of old — the 
 sainted spirits of the good, who rebuke his im- 
 patience, and tell him that they followed each 
 other at intervals of centuries, and as they found, 
 so after true service did they leave, the mighty 
 work of good undone ; that the fruits of heaven 
 will not ripen in some sunny hour, but every 
 noble mind must lend its transitory ray ; and 
 then, when the full year of Providence has 
 gone its round, perchance the collective sunshine
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT, 
 
 1799—1809] 
 
 [life, spirit of. 
 
 of humanity may have matured the tree of life. 
 — James Martmeau. 
 
 [1800] Jesus was the realized possibility of 
 life in God. His thoughts, His feelings, His 
 desires, His plans, were regulated by the Spirit 
 of His Father dwelling in Him, as the hands of 
 a watch, down even to the seconds, are regulated 
 by the mainspring within. — Martincmi and T. 
 Griffith. 
 
 II. Theological Import. 
 
 [iSoi] Here is the Father's authoritative 
 quickening, He raised Christ from the dead, 
 and He shall quicken you (Rom. viii. 11) : and 
 the Son's mediatory quickening, for it is done 
 in the death of Christ : and the Spirit's imme- 
 diate efficacy. He shall do it by the Spirit that 
 dwelleth in you. — J. Owen. 
 
 III. Personal Realization. 
 
 I A life of God in the soul. 
 
 [1802] Herein lies the new life provided in 
 Christ to empower His people for righteousness. 
 It is His own resurrection life, infused into the 
 soul of the believer by His Spirit. Paul's one 
 direction for overcoming all the lust of the flesh 
 — all the rebellious workings of our lower nature 
 — is "Walk in the Spirit ;" z>., live habitually 
 as persons raised up out of this lower nature 
 into a higher and Divine world. . . . After all 
 the insults that have been hurled at what the 
 world calls " enthusiasm," and notwithstanding 
 all the suspicion raised by the excesses of fana- 
 ticism against the truth and beauty of this 
 exalted temper, it still remains undeniable that 
 religion, to have any power over us — to be any- 
 thing better than a cold assent to dogmas, and 
 a mechanical round of ceremonies — must be- 
 come what that word enthusiasm essentially 
 means, "a dwelling in God and God in us" — a 
 life of God in the soul. — T. Griffith. 
 
 [1803] My teaching is not of doing and 
 leaving undone, but of a radical change in the 
 man, so that it is not new works done, but a 
 new man to do them ; not another life only, but 
 another birth. — Liithcr. \ 
 
 [1804] Our Lord replies. It is not learning, [ 
 but life, that is wanted for the Messiah's king- 
 dom ; and life begins by birth. — Alford. 
 
 [1805] The Spirit is to the soul as the soul is 
 to the body. What is the body without the 
 soul ? A carcase — a loathsome, dead thing. 
 What is the soul without the Spirit.'' A chaos 
 of darkness and confusion. — Sibbes. 
 
 [1806] What are our souls without His grace? 
 As dead as the branch in which the sap circu- 
 lates not. What is our Church without Him.'' 
 As parched and barren as the fields without 
 heaven's dew and rains. Where is the hope of i 
 the world's conversion, or of the salvation of I 
 
 dear loved ones, out of Christ ? If the Spirit 
 of God come not to our aid, our eyes may fail 
 with looking for these much valued blessings. — 
 Leivis, 
 
 [1807] The renewed man is entitled to talk to 
 himself in some such fashion as this : — 
 
 " I know that I am born again because of the 
 complete change of my convictions, sympathies, 
 and habitudes ; old things have passed away 
 and all things have become new ; still I am 
 often tempted, and often sorrowful on account 
 of sin ; when I would do good, evil is present 
 with me ; I delight in the law of God after the 
 inward man, but I see another law in my mem- 
 bers, warring against the law of my mind, and 
 bringing me into captivity to the law of sin 
 which is in my members ; yet through all my 
 conflict there comes a voice which tells me that 
 my Divine sonship is a fact, but that not until 
 resurrection has done for my body what re- 
 generation has done for my soul can I have 
 perfectness of spiritual release and enjoyment ; 
 this is the witness of the Spirit which calms me 
 with ineffable tranquility." The witness is not 
 that the whole work is done, but simply that it 
 is begun ; and after all, that is the great diffi- 
 culty. How to re-establish life was the cjuestion 
 which astounded and baffled the universe. — Dr. 
 Joseph Parker. 
 
 IV. Practical Bearing. 
 
 1 Dejection of heart sometimes an evidence 
 of the Holy Spirit being at work. 
 
 [1808] It may be a comfort to know that de- 
 jection of heart may of itself be a fruit and an 
 evidence of the Holy Ghost having been at work. 
 . . . When the Psalmist complained that his 
 heart clave unto the dust, and therefore prayed 
 that God would quicken him, he perhaps did not 
 know that the quickening process had begun 
 with him already. One of the firstfruits of the 
 Spirit, in the apostle and his converts, was that 
 they groaned inwardly, being burdened, being 
 now touched as they never were before with a 
 feeling of their infirmities; . . . sin before unfelt 
 is now nearly overwhelming. The dead know 
 not that they are dead. — Dr: Chalmers. 
 
 2 Life in the soul is not the result of rea- 
 son, but the gift of the Spirit. 
 
 [1809] " Is it possible that these dry bones 
 can live ? " The prophet knew nothing was too 
 hard for God, though everything of this kind 
 must be too hard for the creature, and therefore 
 referred the answer to His wisdom and power. 
 He was commanded to preach to these bones 
 in the name and by the word of the Lord. Could 
 his feeble voice avail ? No. He might sooner 
 turn the tides of the sea, and cause the winds to 
 be still, than impart life by his speaking to the 
 least of these dry bones. But he did not reason 
 like a rationalist : he obeyed like a true believer 
 in that God who cannot lie, who orders nothing, 
 and who will do nothing, in vain. As he spoke, 
 while the words were in his mouth, the effect
 
 3i8 
 
 1809—1815! 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [might, spirit of. 
 
 began : the wind breathed upon the bones, and 
 they lived, and stood up upon their feet, even an 
 exceeding great army. Immediately afterwards 
 is subjoined the explanation : " I will put My 
 Spirit in you, and ye shall live ; " i.e., My word 
 by My appointed instruments must come forth ; 
 and My Spirit must accompany that word to 
 make it effectual for your regeneration. — A. 
 Serle, 
 
 21 
 
 MIGHT, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 (Isa. xi. 2.) 
 
 I. Origin. 
 
 [1810] "Mighty signs and wonders were 
 worked by the power of the Spirit of God." 
 " Greater works than these shall ye do." How 
 is this possible ? By the Holy Ghost, who 
 should endow them with power from on high. 
 . . . And this power was exercised in the greater 
 and more difficult wonders of converting the 
 soul. . . . This was the demonstration of the 
 Spirit, who clothed the apostles' words with 
 power. . . . Hence He is styled the Spirit of 
 power. — A. Serle. 
 
 n. Historical Aspect. 
 
 [18 11] The working of the Holy Ghost begins 
 with the glorification of Jesus and the effusion 
 of the Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost. Hence 
 there is a kind of truth in the view which has 
 often been entertained in the Church concerning 
 difficult dispensations of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost. The working of the Godhead 
 under the Old Testament was that of the Son ; 
 that of the Holy Ghost begins with the Feast of 
 Pentecost. The special work of the Holy 
 Ghost is that of regeneration, and the Avhole 
 creative action of God in the souls of men. 
 Hence regeneration belongs essentially to the 
 New Testament, because under this dispensa- 
 tion the Holy Ghost first manifested His specific 
 power. — Olshaitscti. 
 
 [18 1 2] As the Son was working in the world 
 long before His incarnation, so did the Holy 
 Ghost also act upon mankind long before His 
 effusion. But as it was at the incarnation of 
 the Son that the fulness of His life first mani- 
 fested itself, so it was not until the effusion 
 which took place on the day of Pentecost 
 that the Spirit poured forth all His power. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 III. Ecclesiastical Aspect. 
 
 X The Spirit of Might alone explains the 
 early triumphs of the gospel. 
 
 [1813] On the apostles His power was seen 
 in opening their minds, removing their preju- 
 dices, emboldening them for their work, and 
 enabling them to confirm their testimony with 
 miracles such as none could question or explain. 
 
 On the Jews who heard the gospel He displayed 
 His power by convincing them of sin, and 
 changing the very murderers of our Lord into 
 patterns of excellence. To the same power we 
 are taught to ascribe the union of the first 
 Christians ; their consecration and liberality ; 
 their joy in the conversion of the Gentiles, 
 though it seemed a mysterious arrangement ; 
 their steadfastness and faith. Stephen's wisdom 
 and love, his zeal and peace, had the same 
 origin ; "he was full of the Holy Ghost," and 
 even whole Churches shared the blessing. How 
 instructive and consolatory that the dispensa- 
 tion of the Spirit should be introduced not only 
 with peculiar promises, but with a history of 
 rich manifestations of grace. If in the Gospels 
 we see the work of our Lord, in the Acts we 
 see the work of that blessed Agent, to whom, 
 so far as man is concerned, the first owes all its 
 success. We need but more of His influence to 
 complete the triumphs which this history begins. 
 — Dr. Angus. 
 
 2 The Spirit of Might alone explains the 
 success of the Reformation commenced 
 by Martin Luther. 
 
 [18 14] Well indeed did Luther know the 
 j power of God's word, the power which goes 
 I along with it when it is truly the sword of the 
 i Spirit. He knew it from what he himself had 
 I felt ; in fact he could not have spoken of it as 
 ! he does except from personal experience. He 
 I knew it also from the effect which he had often 
 ; seen it produce when it issued with the power 
 ; of the Spirit from his own lips. So far as any 
 written words can yield us a conception of that 
 power, his do. As he has somewhere said of 
 Paul's words, they are not dead words, but 
 living creatures, and have hands and feet. It 
 no longer surprises us that the man who wrote 
 and spoke thus, although no more than a poor 
 monk, should have been mightier than the 
 pope, and the emperor to boot, with all their 
 hosts, ecclesiastical and civil ; that the rivers of 
 living water which issued from him should 
 have swept half Germany, and in course of time 
 the chief part of northern Europe, out of the 
 kingdom of darkness into the region of evan- 
 gelical light. — J. Hare, The Solitary Monk and 
 the Mighty IVorld. 
 
 [1S15] What made the fierce, rough jailer 
 tremble before a power whose mysterious influ- 
 ence he had never before felt .'' How was it that 
 when his faculties were, one would think, en- 
 grossed about physical danger and personal 
 safety, he could ask the great question, " What 
 must I do to be saved .^" It was the work of 
 the Holy Spirit. What was the meaning of 
 that thrill of emotion that passed through the 
 assembled disciples at Jerusalem, and of the 
 new life that first poured itself into their souls, 
 and then out of their souls on to the wondering 
 multitude? It was the work of the Holy 
 Spirit who gave Savonarola his deep sense of 
 the Divine presence, and John Huss his clear
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1815— 1821] 
 
 [might, spirit of. 
 
 views of God's free love. Who enabled John 
 Wyclifte at Lr,tter\vorth to forestall the truths 
 of the Reformation, and in later times Cranmer, 
 Latimer, and Ridley to bear a brave witness for 
 them ? Who woke the slumbering energies of 
 Luther, and gently opened the door of Erasmus's 
 tender soul? Who inspired Carey with mis- 
 sionary zeal, and led forth Henry ]\Iartyn to die 
 a martyr for the gospel ? Who sent forth illu- 
 mination into the inquiring spirits of the Wesleys, 
 and made Whitfield a burning and shining light 
 to thousands of otherwise ignorant souls ? We 
 trace every grace and every power which these 
 men possessed to the operation of the Holy 
 Spirit. We live in the dispensation of the 
 Spirit ; it is He who ministers to us, now that 
 Christ's bodily presence is taken from His 
 Church ; and it is from Him that the li'e-giving 
 streams are to come that will refresh the people 
 of God in the nineteenth century. " Not by 
 might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the 
 Lord of Hosts." — Sanmel Pearson^ M.A., Facets 
 of Ti'iith. 
 
 IV. Practical Bearing. 
 
 I The Spirit of Might can alone quicken 
 souls. 
 
 [1S16] The promise of this Spirit is unto all 
 that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our 
 God shall call. And what is this call but the 
 word Qipoiver with which the Holy Spirit pene- 
 trates tke heart ? A minister might traverse the 
 churchyard and call up the dead from their 
 graves by saying the word live over them with 
 more ease than they, by saying the word live to 
 a congregation of people dead in soul, could 
 induce their conversion. People often think 
 that it is the multitude of words, or the strength 
 of an argument, which converts sinners. But 
 what was the force of argument when Christ 
 said to Matthew, "Follow Me?" Exactly the 
 same as when He said to the dead son of the 
 widow of Nain, " Arise ! " The objects were 
 different, but the power was one. ... In pro- 
 portion as ministers are led to depend upon and 
 acknowledge Him — the Spirit of Power — is the 
 success. of their ministry. Such are above play- 
 ing the orator ; . . . their desire is to please 
 God. — A. Serle. 
 
 [18 1 7] It is very difficult work to draw a soul 
 out of the hands of Satan, and out of the en- 
 tanglements of the world, and out of its own 
 natural perverseness, to yield itself unto God. 
 . . . The strongest rhetoric, the most moving 
 eloquence, is all too weak. . . . Only the Father 
 of spirits hath absolute command of spirits, viz., 
 the souls of men, to work on them as He 
 pleaseth, and where He will. 1h\s powerful, this 
 sanctifying Spirit knows no resistance ; works 
 sweetly, and yet strongly ; it can come into the 
 heart, whereas all other speakers are forced to 
 stand without. That still small voice within 
 persuades more than all the loud crying with- 
 out. 
 
 When the Lord Himself speaks by this His 
 Spirit to a man, selecting and calling him out of 
 the lost world, he can no more disobey than 
 Abraham did, when the Lord spoke to him 
 after an e.xtraordinary manner to depart from 
 his own country and kindred. There is a secret 
 but very powerful virtue in a word, or look, or 
 touch of thi^ Spirit upon the soul by which it is 
 forced, not with a harsh, but a pleasing violence, 
 and cannot choose but follow it — not unlike that 
 of Elijah's mantle upon Elisha. — Abp. Leighton. 
 
 [18 1 8] In a mill where the machinery is all 
 driven by water, the working of the whole 
 machinery depends on the supply of water. Cut 
 off that supply, and the machinery becomes use- 
 less. Let on the water, and life and activity is 
 given to all. The whole dependence is placed 
 upon the outward supply of water ; still, it is 
 obvious that we do not throw away the machi- 
 nery through which the power of the water is 
 brought to bear upon the work. Just so in the 
 believer ; the whole man is carried on by the 
 Spirit of Christ, else he is none of His. The 
 working of every day depends upon the daily 
 supply of the living stream from on high. Cut 
 off that supply, and the understanding becomes 
 a dark and useless lump of machinery ; for the 
 Bible says that unconverted men have the 
 understanding darkened. Restore the Divine 
 Spirit, and life and animation is given to all — ■ 
 the understanding is made a new creature. 
 Now, though the whole leaning or dependence 
 here is upon the supply of the Spirit, still it is 
 obvious that we do not cast away the machinery 
 of the human mind, but rather honour it far 
 more than the world does. — McCheyne. 
 
 2 The Spirit of Might necessary for cur 
 transformation into the Divine image. 
 
 [1S19] It must be something of heaven in our 
 mind that shall resist the devil and hell. Open 
 thou thy window and let in the beams of the 
 Divine light ; then shalt thou find the shadows 
 of the night dispelled, and the warm breath of 
 love transforming thee from darkness to light, 
 from the similitude of Satan into the Divine 
 image.— /(?//« Smith. 
 
 [1S20] Suppose a blacksmith were sent for to 
 mend a number of old broken iron vessels, and 
 told that he must do it without fire, what would 
 he say to the proposal ? Yet sinners' hearts are 
 as hard and cold I and just as foolish are they 
 who think that all that is needed is to begin and 
 go on hammering at them, and that will convert 
 them. No ; heat the iron, and it may be mended 
 and remoulded. Melt the soul with the Spirit 
 of burning, or we are without hope of seeing any 
 saving change. 
 
 3 The Spirit of Might necessary to the 
 fulfilment cf duties and overcoming of 
 difficulties. 
 
 I [1821] How seldom does this indwelling of
 
 320 
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1821— 1826] 
 
 Tmight, spirit of. 
 
 the Spirit of God in us seem to be considered 
 indispensable to all moral excellence ! You may 
 turn over volume after volume of dreary ethical 
 disquisitions and find, amidst the clearest classi- 
 fication of duties, almost nothing about Iw'u these 
 duties are to be accomplished. The upshot of 
 their practical suggestions is simply, " Heal 
 thyself." The only counsel for the taming of 
 the passions is like the physician's advice to 
 poor Queen Mary — 
 
 "He says 
 That rest is all ; tells me I must not think ; 
 That I must rest ! . . . 
 Catch the wild cat, cage him, and when he 
 
 springs 
 And maims himself against the bars, say. Rest." 
 
 Not like Jesus, who first tamed the writhing 
 demoniac by casting out the devil that possessed 
 him ; who first healed the thirty years' cripple, | 
 and put new life into him, and then said, when ! 
 He had made him whole, "Sin no more." The ■ 
 spark (of life) must come to us from the Son of j 
 God ; must be fanned into flame by the Spirit 
 of God ; must kindle hope and power and 
 patience in all our conflicts with sin through the 
 stirring consciousness of God's indwelling in our 
 inner man. No one is made good but through 
 the indwelling of God. . . . Gaze at that 
 noble picture of " Diana or Christ." See how 
 the delicate, feeble girl is being raised out of 
 herself and her position, with no ear and no eye 
 for the quivering crowds around her ; nay, with 
 no heart for the agonizing looks of the lover 
 close to her. " Her eyes are homes of silent 
 prayer." She is filled with one single image, 
 sensible of one single Presence, gazing into one 
 single countenance, which eclipses all things 
 else. 
 
 " She sees a Hand they cannot see, 
 Which beckons her away ; 
 She hears a Voice they cannot hear, 
 Which says she must not stay." 
 
 Instinctively we " fall down on our face, con- 
 fessing that Cod is in her of a truths 
 
 The Christian experiences through the in- 
 coming of his Master's Spirit that he is made 
 the habitation of God. . . . Life and power 
 constitute that " firstfruits of the Spirit." — T. 
 Griffith. 
 
 [1822] Suppose we saw an army sitting down 
 before a granite fortress, and they told us that 
 they intended to batter it down. We might ask 
 them, how ? They point us to a cannon-ball. 
 Well, but there is no power in that. It is 
 heavy, but not more than a hundredweight, or 
 half a hundredweight. If all the men in the 
 army were to throw it, that would make no 
 impression. They say, No, but look at the 
 
 cannon. Well, but there is no power in that ; 
 it is a machine, and nothing more. But look at 
 the powder. Well, there is no power in that ; 
 a child may spill it, a sparrow may pick it up. 
 Yet this powerless powder and this powerless 
 ball are put into this powerless cannon ; one 
 spark of fire enters it, and then, in the twinkling 
 of an eye, that powder is a flash of lightning, 
 and that cannon-ball is a thunder-bolt, which 
 smites as if it had been sent from heaven. So 
 is it with our Church machinery of the present 
 day. We have our instruments for pulling 
 down the strongholds, but oh! for the baptism 
 of fire. — Rev. W. Arthur. 
 
 4 The needed supply of might granted. 
 
 (i) For the ficlfilme7tt of the duties of the 
 Christian life. 
 
 [1823] The new position of the Christian is 
 like that of a bankrupt, for whom his liabilities 
 have been met, and who is set up with a new 
 capital, in a new partnership, to make a new 
 start in a new world. God interests Himself 
 for His client's future righteousness. God frees 
 him from the obligations of the past that he 
 may henceforth labour, unencumbered with any 
 liabilities, at this righteousness. God supplies 
 power for this righteousness by a special grant 
 of His own Spirit from Himself. — T. Griffith. 
 
 (2) To dispel troubles. 
 
 [1824] Comfort from the words and promises 
 of Christ doth sometimes break in through all 
 opposition, into the saddest and darkest con- 
 dition imaginable ; it comes and makes men 
 sing in a dungeon, rejoice in flames, glory in 
 tribulation, (Sec. Whence is this ? The Spirit 
 works effectually ; His power is in it ; He will 
 work, and none shall let Him. . . . The saints 
 who have communion with the Holy Ghost know 
 to their advantage that their consolation nor 
 trouble depend not on any outward condition, 
 nor inward frame of their own hearts, but on the 
 powerful and effectual workings of the Holy 
 Ghost. — y. Ozvefi. 
 
 (3) In accordance ivith persoftal character. 
 [1825] The Holy Spirit acts now like the 
 
 gentle breeze upon minds as tenderly consti- 
 tuted as John, Melancthon, Zinzendorf, now 
 like a sweeping storm or whirlwind upon cha- 
 racters as strong as Paul, Luther, Calvin, Knox. 
 —P. Schaff. 
 
 (4) According to our special circumstances 
 
 and exig^encies. 
 
 [1826] The so forming us, by a second birth, 
 into new creatures ; that what was doubted 
 becomes certain, what was closed becomes 
 opened, what was difficult becomes easy, what 
 had seemed impossible becomes within our 
 power. — Cyprian.
 
 DIVISION C 
 
 ( Coniinucd] . 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES. 
 
 [i] THE IMPARTING OF WISDOM. 
 
 Pages 322 to 328. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 (i) Generally. 
 
 22 
 
 KNOWLEDGE, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 23 
 PROPHECY, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 24 
 REVELATION, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 (2) Specifically. 
 
 25 
 COUNSEL, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 26 
 FEAR OF THE LORD, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 27 
 TRUTH, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 28 
 UNDERSTANDING, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 29 
 
 WISDOM, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 321 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 21
 
 32a 
 
 DIVISION 
 
 {Contimicd). 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES. 
 
 [2] THE IMPARTING OF WISDOM, 
 (i) Generally, and (2) Specifically. 
 
 22 
 
 KNOWLEDGE, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 (Isa. xi. 2.) 
 
 [1827] The Spirit gives the knowledge of the 
 deep things of God (Matt. xi. 27). 
 
 :Sce " Seven Spirits of God," No. 7, p. 502. 
 
 23 
 
 PROPHECY, SPIRIT OF. 
 (Rev. xix. 10.) 
 
 T. Scripture Basis and Purport. 
 
 [1828] St. Peter tells us, "The prophets testi- 
 fied beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the 
 glory that should follow." By whose agency 
 also they were made known he tells us ; it was 
 " the Spirit of Christ ; " and so far were the 
 prophets from being the authors of their own 
 report, that they were forced " to inquire and 
 search diligently what the Spirit of Christ, which 
 was in them, did signify." In another place he 
 extends this observation to all the prophets from 
 the beginning of the world : " Prophecy came 
 not in old time by the will of man, but holy men 
 of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." St. Paul also affirms : " All Scripture 
 is given by inspiration of God." What the 
 motives were which induced God thus to reveal 
 His purposes to men, we are at no loss to 
 declare. He did it first to prepare the world 
 for the reception of the Messiah ; next, to point 
 out that Messiah when He was come, so that 
 no doubt could exist respecting Him ; and lastly, 
 to make us know that all which He had revealed 
 respecting the ultimate state of the righteous 
 and the wicked shall surely be fulfilled in its 
 season. The Spirit of Prophecy reveals it. — 
 C. Simeo7i {^condensed). 
 
 [1829] The whole Christian, spiritual life in 
 individuals, as well as in the Church, is to the 
 seer the result of the Spirit's work. But the 
 Spirit is to him sevenfold ; he recognizes, there- 
 fore, in Christendom a manifold variety of 
 powers or existence-forms, gifts, or modes of 
 manifestation of the one Spirit, which in their 
 
 union express His entire fulness. From the 
 manifoldly various gifts of the Spirit, from the 
 universal activity of the Spirit in Christians and 
 Christendom, from the individual peculiarities 
 of the Christian life in their relation to the 
 Divine principle, or, as the seer himself would 
 express it, from the number of the seven Spirits, 
 the Spirit comes before him especially and 
 almost exclusively as the Spirit of prophecy. . . . 
 Those who have the Spirit of prophecy enter 
 into the Spirit, or a state of inspiration. — 
 Gebhardt. 
 
 II. Christological Aspect. 
 
 [1830] The theme or burden of the Bible is 
 Jesus. Not philosophy, nor science, nor theo- 
 logy, nor metaphysics, nor morality, but Jesus. 
 — H. Bonar. 
 
 III. Extended Meaning. 
 
 [1831] Preaching is that ordinance in the 
 Church of later times which answers to the 
 prophesying in the apostolic age. Its subject 
 is the same ; Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, 
 the Crucified Saviour of the world. Its purpose 
 is the same, and if it be faithful it will have 
 the same power — the power of the Spirit. — J. 
 Hare. 
 
 IV. Practical Basis. 
 
 I The spirit of prophecy not sufficiently 
 appreciated. 
 
 [1832] Many are far more willing to believe 
 that the power of the Spirit lies in outward acts 
 and symbols. Thus the fetish-worshipper and 
 the idolater have still their counterparts in 
 Christendom. There are the worshippers of 
 the mere elements in the Sacraments. There 
 are those who fancy the dead stones in God's 
 house more precious than the living. There 
 are those who attach more importance to 
 gestures and postures, to crossings and genu- 
 flexions, to surplices and copes, than to the 
 doctrine of truth and the practice of love. 
 There are those who long to see the presence of 
 miracles in the Church, and would regard these 
 as a more certain token of the presence of God 
 than the prophesying of faith, the conviction of 
 the Spirit. — Ibid.
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1833—1840] 
 
 [revelation, spirit of. 
 
 24 
 
 REVELATION. SPIRIT OF. 
 
 (Eph. i. 17.) 
 
 I. The Work of the Spirit is Revela- 
 tion, NOT Creation. 
 
 [1833] The work of the Spirit is revelation, 
 not creation. He does not make Christ, He 
 explains Him. His text is Christ. From that 
 theme He never strays. The Christian student 
 sees a Christ which he did not see twenty years 
 ago — the same,yet not the same ; larger, grander, 
 tenderer every day ; a new music in His speech, 
 an ample sufficiency in His grace ; a deeper 
 humiliation in His cradle ; a keener agony in 
 His cross. This increasing rev'elation is the 
 work of the Holy Ghost. — Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 [1834] "Conceived by the Holy Ghost" is 
 the beginning ; " He shall glorify Me " is the 
 end. The Incarnation of the Son of God was 
 the work of the Holy Ghost ; how natural that 
 the explanation of Him should be by the same ! 
 —Ibid. 
 
 II. Practical Bearing. 
 
 1 The need of spiritual insight to discern 
 spiritual truth. 
 
 [1835] "Any tyro can see the facts for him- 
 self if he is provided with those not rare articles 
 — a nettle and a microscope." These words 
 are Mr. Huxley's. But why the microscope ? 
 Suppose the " tyro " should be provided with 
 "a nettle" only? 
 
 These inquiries point in a direction which 
 materialists are not willing to pursue. The 
 introduction of the microscope is an admission 
 that even the keenest eyes cannot see certain 
 substances, forms, and movements with the aid 
 of optical instruments. Great store is to be set 
 by this admission, for it requires in material 
 investigation precisely what is demanded in 
 spiritual inquiry. Suppose any one should in- 
 sist upon examining the nettle without the aid 
 of the microscope, and should declare that he is 
 unable to verify Mr. Huxley's observations. 
 Mr. Huxley would properly reply that the inner 
 structure and life of the nettle could not be seen 
 by the naked eye, for they are microscopically 
 *' discerned." 
 
 Now this is precisely what St. Paul states 
 \yhen treating the subject of spiritual investiga- 
 tion : "The natural man receiveth not the things 
 of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness 
 unto him, neither can he know them, because 
 they are spiritually discerned." Without the 
 microscope we cannot scientifically examine the 
 plant, neither can any inquirer discern and 
 understand "the things of the Spirit of God" 
 without a spiritual organ adapted to the difficulty 
 of the investigation.— /^/rt'. 
 
 [1836] This is the very life of Divine faith, 
 
 touching the mysteries of salvation, firmly to 
 believe their revelation by the Spirit of God. 
 This word carries the lively stamp of Divine 
 inspiration, but there must be a spiritual eye to 
 discern it. He that is blind knows not that the 
 sun shines at noon, but by the report of others ; 
 but they that see are assured they see it, and 
 assured by no other thing but its own light. 
 
 The soul is nothing but darkness and blindness 
 within, till that same Spirit that shines without 
 in the word shines likewise within it, and eftec- 
 tually makes it light ; but that once done, then 
 is the word read with some measure of the 
 same Spirit by which it was written, and the 
 soul has ascertained that it is Divine. 
 
 The Spirit of God within brings evidence with 
 it,_ and makes itself discernible in the word ; 
 this all arguments, all books and study cannot 
 attain unto. . . The things of God, even such 
 as are revealed in His word, cannot be known 
 but by His own Spirit ; so that though revealed, 
 yet they remain unrevealed till the Spirit teach 
 them within as well as without, because they 
 are intelligible to none but by those who are the 
 private scholars and hearers of the Holy Ghost. 
 — Abp. Leighion. 
 
 [1837] Scripture can only be savingly under- 
 stood by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. 
 The gospel is a picture of God's free grace to 
 sinners. Now, were we in a room hung with 
 the finest paintings, and adorned with the most 
 exquisite statues, we could not see one of them 
 if all light were excluded : the Spirit's light is 
 the same to the mind that outward light is to 
 the bodily eyes. The most correct and lively 
 description of the sun cannot convey either the 
 light, the Nvarmth, the cheerfulness, or the fruit- 
 fulness which the actual shining of that luminary 
 conveys ; neither can the most laboured and 
 accurate dissertation on grace and spiritual 
 things impart a true idea of them, without an 
 experience of the work of the Spirit upon the 
 heart. The Holy Spirit must shine upon your 
 graces, or you will not be able to see them ; 
 and your works must shine upon your faith, or 
 your neighbours will not be able to see it. — 
 Toplady. 
 
 [1838] The inward teaching of the Holy 
 Ghost alone could make the Godhead ji Jesus 
 a certainty of faith, as well as a conclusion of 
 the intellect. — Canon Liddon. 
 
 [1839] Revelation is made by a Spirit to a 
 spirit. "God hath revealed them to us by His 
 Spirit." Christ is the voice of God wiihout the 
 man ; the Spirit is the voice of God within the 
 man. The highest revelation is not made by 
 Christ, but comes directly from the universa'l 
 Mind to our minds. Therefore Christ said 
 Himself, "He, the Spirit, shall take of Mine 
 and shall show it unto you."— i^ W. Robertson. 
 
 [1840] This is the way and manner in which 
 we, too, receive the Holy Ghost, and in which 
 He begins to glorify the Saviour in us. Often
 
 324 
 
 1840— 1847] 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [counsel, spirit of. 
 
 years will pass away over us, as over the dis- 
 ciples, long years, during which we may hear 
 the word of the Lord daily, and are yet not 
 penetrated thoroughly thereby. He evermore 
 opens the fountains of His grace to refresh us 
 with His life-giving water ; but we let it dry up, 
 without drinking it into our hearts. We take 
 pleasure in His words ; but that which is 
 deepest and most precious in them is totally 
 lost to us, because our sense for it has not been 
 awakened yet. He has so many things to say 
 to us ; but we cannot hear them yet ; for the 
 life-giving Spirit has not come and enlightened 
 us. — Hossbach. 
 
 2 The Spirit as the Spirit of Revelation 
 supplies the needed spiritual insight. 
 
 [1841] "God hath revealed them unto us by 
 His Spirit." So the Christian sees a world 
 which is invisible to others. The horizon is the 
 prison line of other men, but to the man who is 
 enlightened and ruled by the Holy Ghost it is 
 the door of his Father's higher kingdom. He 
 has spiritual foresight^ because he has spiritual 
 ittsight. 
 
 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by wishing 
 for another ministry than His own, pining after 
 the revelations given to the infantile world. . . . 
 He is all gifts in one. 
 
 One great office of this Holy Comforter 
 should never be wanting from the memory of 
 His people. He doth not call them to a set of 
 notions and opinions only ; but He works in 
 them a change of heart and newness of life. 
 Their tenets, therefore, are tilings rather than 
 words, and exist in facts more than in specula- 
 tions. A carnal man may know the form of the 
 gospel, but the true believer only knows the 
 matter of it. — Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 3 Love is the principle upon which spiritual 
 insight is given. 
 
 [1S42] It maybe difficult to express in one 
 word the nature of this spiritual organ ; im- 
 possible, indeed, unless we go to Jesus Christ, 
 who came to reveal the Father. He will give 
 us the universal term. . . . 
 
 God is love. Thou shalt love. I will mani- 
 fest Myself to him that loveth Me. 
 
 To whjra will nature reveal itself? To the 
 clown or to the poet? The poet gets some- 
 thing out of "the meanest flower that blows." 
 The wise man hears music in the wind, the 
 stream, and the twitter of birds. What does 
 the clown hear, or the sordid man ? Noises — 
 tongues unknown and uninterpreted. Nature 
 says precisely what Jesus Christ says : " I will 
 manifest Myself to him that loveth "^lQ."—Ibid. 
 
 4 Joy is the accompanist of spiritual in- 
 sight. 
 
 [1843] To talk of Divine things, and to enjoy 
 them, are as different as substance and shadow ; 
 and to dispute about Christ without the Spirit 
 of Christ is only beating the air. Let me then 
 have the unction from the Holy One, that I 
 
 may not only know the things of God, but know 
 them aright — know them to be His— know them 
 to be mine in Him. May I ever be afraid of 
 naked, barren speculations, as children are of 
 spectres ! May it be my aim by the help of 
 this Spirit of revelation to seek not only for 
 substance in Divine things, but for their endur- 
 ing substance. Let me grow rich in faith 
 rather than in notions. Amidst a world ot 
 opinions may I see it my privilege and duty to 
 rest upon Him who can never change, and upon 
 His Word which can never be broken ! Let me 
 never be taken with any fine-spun speculations 
 of salvation. This is the joy of the believer's 
 heart, with which a stranger to God inter- 
 meddleth not. — A. Serle. 
 
 25 
 
 COUNSEL, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 (Isa. xi. 2.) 
 
 [1844] The spirit of counsel and might are 
 closely related. They stand in juxtaposition in 
 Isa. xi. The former is the facility of forming 
 counsels, while the latter is that of executing 
 them (Isa. xxviii. 29). 
 
 See " Seven Spirits of God," No. 7, p. 302. 
 
 26 
 
 FEAR OF THE LORD, SPIRIT OF. 
 (Isa. xi. 2.) 
 
 [1845] This refers to a reverential obedient 
 fear. This is a very different thing to a servile 
 fear, which, like a distant sun, brings no fruit 
 to perfection. 
 
 See *' Seven Spirits of God," No. 7, p. 302. 
 
 27 
 
 TRUTH, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 (John xiv. 17.) 
 
 I. Christological Aspect. 
 
 [1846] The Holy Spirit will not come unless 
 He Himself departs. Why is this ? Could not 
 Christ, remaining on earth in His bodily pre- 
 sence, send the Holy Spirit? Yes; but we 
 cannot receive the Spirit so long as we know 
 Christ only according to the flesh. — Bp. Words- 
 -d/orth. 
 
 II. Questions Respecting its Interpre- 
 tation. 
 
 I The progressive character of the revela- 
 tion of the truth by the Spirit. 
 
 [1847] No one can be taught faster than he 
 can learn. — Anon.
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1848—1855] 
 
 [truth, spirit of. 
 
 [1848] In theology, as in every other depart- 
 ment of human knowledge, there is a law of 
 progress. . . . Truths, which in one age are 
 almost latent, are recognized simply and insu- 
 latedly by faith, on the authority of a positive 
 declaration, are brought out more distinctly by 
 subsequent ages, and ranged in their mutual 
 connection, in their position as parts of the 
 system of truth. . . . Not, however, that this 
 progress is always an advance along the line 
 ■of truth in theology, any more than in other 
 sciences. Man's path bends aside, winds, twists, 
 seems often to return upon itself. His orbit has 
 its aphelia as well as its perihelia. When he 
 has made a lodgment in a new field of know- 
 ledge, he will set about building a tower, the top 
 of which, he fancies, shall reach to heaven ; and 
 generations, it may be, will spend their lives in 
 working at such a tower {e.g., the schoolmen), 
 until the spirit of division and confusion comes 
 down among the workmen. Thus one system 
 after another has passed away, each however 
 leaving behind some contribution, greater or 
 less, to the general stock of theological truth. 
 Meanwhile God's word stands fast, even as the 
 heavens and the earth. To the words of Scrip- 
 ture we cannot add ; nor may we take away 
 from them. But truth in Scripture is set before 
 us livingly, by examples, by principles, in the 
 germ, not by the enunciation of a formal dog- 
 matical system, according to which the thoughts 
 of men were to be classed and rubricated for 
 ever after ; nor can any human scheme or 
 system make out a title to the possession of 
 such an absolute, conclusive ultimatum. . . . 
 The right theory of development by no means 
 implies that each later age must necessarily 
 have a fuller and deeper knowledge of Divine 
 things than its predecessors. The very reverse 
 having notoriously been often the case. For 
 the world is always wrestling to draw man 
 away from the truth, and will often prevail, as 
 Jacob did over the angel ; and when faith is at 
 a low ebb, when the visible and material pre- 
 dominate in men's hearts and minds over the 
 invisible, the ideal, the spiritual theology must 
 needs dwindle and decay. But when there is a 
 revival of faith, if this revival coincides with, or 
 is succeeded by, a period of energetic thought, 
 a deeper or clearer insight will be gained into 
 certain portions of truth, especially appropriate 
 to the circumstances and exigencies of the age, 
 and which have not yet been set forth in their 
 fulness {e.g., the true doctrine of the Trinity in 
 the fourth century ; that of justification by faith 
 in the sixteenth). — J. Hare {condc?ised). 
 
 2 Necessary limits to be assigned to the 
 truth revealed by the Spirit. 
 
 [1849] It is not omniscience that is promised, 
 but all necessary religious knowledge. — Caf?tp- 
 iell. 
 
 [1850] '■'■All the truth"— Xho. truth as it is in 
 Jesus, the whole counsel of God.— 7. Scott. 
 
 [1851] This truth, which the Holy Ghost is to 
 
 teach them, is not such a doctrine and know- 
 ledge as reason of itself can understand and hit 
 upon : for the Holy Ghost and Christ's Church 
 do not concern themselves with things which 
 are subject to man's understanding, and which 
 belong to this temporal life ; . . . . but treat of 
 far other matters, how God's children are to be 
 begotten out of sin and death unto righteous- 
 ness and everlasting life — how God's kingdom 
 is to be established, and the kingdom of hell to 
 be destroyed — how we are to fight against the 
 devil and to overcome him — how to cheer, 
 strengthen, and uphold faith, so that a man shall 
 continue alive in the midst of death, and even 
 under the consciousness of sin shall preserve 
 a good conscience and the grace of God. — 
 Luther. 
 
 [1852] One cannot too often urge that it is 
 necessary to lay aside the common meaning 
 which we attach to the word truth, if we would 
 form a right conception of St. John's aXifina. 
 By this word he denotes, not an object of theo- 
 retical knowledge, but a relation to God and 
 the things of God. The religions of the heathens 
 are represented in the Old Testament as mere 
 lies and nonentities ; and agreeably thereto a 
 right conception of the things of God, in accord- 
 ance with the will of God, on the part of man, 
 is termed truth. — J. C. Hare. 
 
 3 Evil consequences of failing to assign 
 the necessary limits to the truth revealed 
 by the Spirit. 
 
 [1853] The misprision of this passage (John 
 xiv. 17) has aided in fostering the delusive notion 
 that the Bible is a kind of encyclopaedia of uni- 
 versal knowledge, and that every expression in it 
 bearing, however allusively, upon astronomy, or 
 geology, or history, has the same Divine attes- 
 tation of its infallibility as what it reveals con- 
 cerning God, and concerning man in his relation 
 
 to God By reason of this notion man 
 
 would save himself from the labour of patient 
 and continuous thought . . . would fain believe 
 himself to be omniscient, without taking the 
 pains to become so. — y. Hare. 
 
 III. Questions respecting its Practical 
 Bearing. 
 
 I The nature and reality of the Spirit's 
 office as the revealer of Christian truth. 
 
 [1854] So imperfectly do we yet understand 
 the redemption wrought for us by Christ, and so 
 obstinate are we in separating what God has 
 united, as though it were impossible for the Tree 
 of Knowledge to stand beside the Tree of Life. 
 Yet in the redeemed world they do stand side 
 by side, and their arms intermingle and inter- 
 twine, so that no one can walk under the shade 
 of the one but he will also be under the shade of 
 the other. — J. Hare. 
 
 [1855] The Holy Ghost is the living, personal, 
 Divine unity of complete revelation, and, as
 
 326 
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [truth, spirit of. 
 
 such, the Spirit of Truth. He is the Spirit of 
 Truth inasmuch as He makes objective truth 
 subjective in believers, in order to the knowledge 
 of the truth. Objectively He is the Spirit of 
 God (Rom. viii. 14), and God Himself (Acts v.) ; 
 the Spirit of the Father (Matt. x. 20) ; the 
 Spirit of Christ (Rom. viii. 9) ; the Spirit of the 
 Lord (2 Cor. iii. 17) ; the Holy Spirit (Acts ii.) 
 Subjectively He is the Spirit of Trjcth. the 
 Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. i. 17) ; the 
 Spirit of power, of love, and of sound mind (2 
 Tim. i. 7) ; the Spirit of sanctification (Rom. i. 4) ; 
 the Spirit of adoption and prayer (Rom. viii. 
 15), of life (Rom. viii. 10), of meekness (i Cor. 
 iv. 21), of comfort (Acts ix. 31), of glory (i Pet. 
 iv. 14), of sealing, of the earnest of eternal life 
 (Eph. i. 13, 14), of all Christian gifts (i Cor. xii. 
 4). As the Spirit of Truth the Holy Ghost 
 applies to believers the full truth of the perfect 
 revelation of God. — Lange. 
 
 [1856] The Saviour here promises a new, 
 higher, and till then unknown principle, the 
 Spirit of Truth. This expression implies no 
 less that the Spirit produces the truth in those 
 who receive Him, than that He Himself is the 
 Tnith. As God Himself is the Truth, and the 
 Son as the revealer of the unseen Father, so the 
 Spirit also, the highest manifestation of the God- 
 head, is the Truth in Himself and only imparts 
 the truth in that He imparts Himself. T7'uth 
 here is not the intellectual truth of reflection, 
 but that absolute Truth which is Life itself. — 
 Olshausen. 
 
 [1857] The object of faith must be triith. 
 The doctrine of the Deity of Christ and of the 
 Holy Spirit in union with the Father, so that 
 they are not three Gods but one God, is not 
 merely a proposition expressed in words to which 
 our assent is required, but it is absolutely 
 necessary to be known, since without it no one 
 truth respecting salvation can be rightly under- 
 stood ; no one promise duly believed ; no one 
 duty spiritually performed. . . . This doctrine 
 must appear irrational and absurd in the eye of 
 reason. • . . No man can say that Jesus is the 
 Lord but by the Holy Ghost. — John Newton. 
 
 [1858] The Holy Spirit reveals to me no new 
 truths, but has only shown me the meaning of 
 His own written word ; nor is His light a par- 
 ticular revelation, it is common to all who are 
 born again. And thus though you and I cannot 
 fully agree about it, yet I almost daily meet with 
 persons from the east, west, north, and south, 
 whom, though I never saw them before, I find 
 we understand each other at once. 
 
 I believe that the Holy Spirit (the gift of God, 
 through Jesus Christ) is the sure and only guide 
 into all truth, and the common privilege of all 
 believers ; and, under His guidance, I believe the 
 Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto 
 salvation, and to furnish us thoroughly for every 
 good work. — Ibid. 
 
 a The believer's recognition of the Spirit as 
 the Spirit of Truth. 
 
 [1859] Faith knows infallibly that the Spirit, 
 who reveals to us at once our adoption and the 
 Divine Fatherhood, and who glorifies Christ, is 
 Truth (i John v. 8). For we know the truth by 
 the presence of truth in the spirit, which truth 
 makes itself evident as light does, and proves 
 itself efficacious by contact with our spirit, im- 
 parting knowledge ; and by contact with the 
 Spirit of God, we know the Spirit of God has 
 imparted this certainty, which is infallible. — 
 Dorner. 
 
 3 The absolute need of the Spirit to reveal 
 Christian truth. 
 
 [i860] John xiv. 17 ; xv. 26 ; xvi. 13. The 
 Spirit of Truth: In Him is all truth; He is 
 the Spirit of Him who is truth ; He is the Spirit 
 who communicates the truth to the soul. In a 
 world of falsehood and an age of error, how 
 needful is such a spirit ! Truth is that which is 
 congenial to Him ; error that which he hates. 
 It is in opposition to this Spirit of Truth that 
 the lie of the last days comes specially forth — 
 " The strong delusion " leading men to " believe 
 the lie." It is this Spirit of Truth that we are 
 to seek fellowship with ; and to do so specially 
 by cultivating the knowledge of the word of His 
 truth. — H. Bonar. 
 
 [1861] The word truth contains a sense in the 
 original which is both precious to the soul and 
 confirmed by experience. It signifies not only 
 truth in the abstract, but also signifies to nourish 
 with the truth. In the former view the truth is 
 a rock, and full of perfection ; but in the latter 
 view it is nourishment with the truth communi- 
 cable, with all its train of blessings. . . . The 
 infallible rule is the Word of Truth ; and the 
 infallible guide is the Spirit of Truth. 
 
 If all the saints and apostles could descend 
 from heaven to instruct one soul, and if all had 
 the eloquence of angels, vain would be their 
 united efforts, unattended by this Holy Spirit, 
 to "translate" that soul "from darkness to 
 light," and to give it a right understanding of 
 the truth. They would " plant and water in 
 vain" unless God (by His Spirit) should "give 
 the increase." — A. Serle. 
 
 IV. Objections met. 
 
 [1862] "Because" our Saviour had forborne 
 to reveal several truths to His disciples, which 
 they were not then capable of. He would supply 
 this difiiculty afterwards by His Holy Spirit, 
 who should instruct them fully in those truths, 
 which He, in condescension to their prejudice 
 and incapacity, had in His lifetime forborne to 
 do ; that is. He would take a fitter season to 
 instruct them fully by His Spirit in those truths 
 which, when He was upon earth, they were not 
 capable of receiving. ..." Ye cannot bear 
 them now.-' . . . He shall take up and supply 
 what is wanting.
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1862—1872] 
 
 [wisdom, spirit of. 
 
 It is not necessary at all times to preach all 
 truths which are of importance to be known. 
 . . . There ought to be a due regard to what 
 the people can bear ; we ought, in imitation of 
 our Saviour's example, patiently to expect and 
 endeavour to remove prejudice, before we ex- 
 pose truth to be rejected by those who have 
 taken up a violent prejudice against it. — Abp. 
 Tiliotson. , 
 
 [1863] The writers of the Gospels,who were un- 
 learned and illiterate men, were enabled by the 
 Holy Ghost to record with minuteness and ac- 
 curacy the sublime sayings and marvellous acts 
 of Christ. Here is the refutation of all objec- 
 tions to their veracity. They were inspired by 
 the Spirit of Truth, who taught them all things, 
 and brought to their remembrance all things 
 that Christ had said to them. — Bp. Wordsworth. 
 
 [1864] A disciple of the school of Voltaire 
 might indeed object that what the learned 
 divines at any period in the history of the 
 Church did not know, was, at all events, known 
 to the Holy Ghost, and that He might have 
 taught it to them. To which I would only reply 
 by asking. Why did the same Spirit, who 
 spake by the mouth of the prophets under the 
 old covenant, merely declare the unity of the 
 Godhead, and not the Trinity, by the mouth of 
 Moses to the chosen people .''... For my own 
 part I am satisfied with an answer, which en- 
 ables us to discern the wisdom of the Saviour 
 already working under the old covenant : " I 
 have many things to say unto you, but ye can- 
 not bear them now." — Giinther, 
 
 28 
 
 UNDERSTANDING, SPIRIT OF. 
 (Isa. xi. 2.) 
 
 [1865] This is a spirit of discernment and 
 prudence. For instances turn to our Lord's 
 replies to His adversaries. Matt. xxii. 18, Mark 
 xii. 34 ; and His insight into man, John ii. 25. 
 By the Spirit's aid we alone can have a right 
 judgment in all things, sanctified common sense, 
 and a quick discernment between good and 
 evil, and between the good things themselves 
 when they differ in excellence, and thus be- 
 come a matter which upon choice has to be used. 
 —C.N. 
 
 See " Seven Spirits of God," No. 7, p. 302. 
 
 29 
 
 WISDOM, SPIRIT OF. 
 (Eph. i. 17.) 
 
 I. Import. 
 
 [1866] The Spirit of Wisdom Avas given that 
 we might know, be enlightened. It teacheth 
 
 us to profit. The kind of wisdom is not to be 
 raised by the intellect or industry of man — 
 it is life— and is the very principle of spiritual 
 being. ... It is from above. ... In this way 
 He renders His people (however ignorant in 
 worldly science) truly learned and deeply wise. 
 — A. Serle. 
 
 II. Practical Bearing. 
 
 1 The Spirit, as the Spirit of Wisdom, 
 not needed on account of Scripture ob- 
 scurity, but man's moral obtuseness. 
 
 [1S67] Men need Divine teaching, not be- 
 cause of the peculiar difficulty of Scripture 
 language, nor because of the incomprehensi- 
 bility of Scripture doctrine — for the things most 
 misunderstood are the things which are revealed 
 most clearly — but because, without that teach- 
 ing, men will not learn, nor can they know those 
 truths which are revealed only to those who 
 tell them. When Christ appeared, the light 
 shone in the darkness, and the darlcness com- 
 prehended it not. Unholy affection had sur- 
 rounded the mental eye with the very opposite 
 of clear, "dry light," and had impaired the 
 organ itself. Blindness of heart produced igno- 
 rance ; and alienation " from the life of God " 
 was at once the cause and the aggravated effect 
 of an "understanding darkened." The source 
 of this teaching is clearly revealed. Christians 
 are " all taught of the Lord ; " and He who gave 
 to the Ephesian Church " the Spirit of W'isdom 
 and revelation," was " the God of our Lord Jesus- 
 Christ, the Father of Glory." — Dr. Angus. 
 
 2 The Spirit gives us no new revelation,, 
 but new views of the old revelation. 
 
 [1868] This is certain, that no new revelation 
 is to be expected by us. . . . The Spirit now 
 enlightens men by shining upon the written 
 word. . . . He will give us just views. 
 
 [1869] It is necessary to add, that the Spirit 
 of God does not communicate to the mind of 
 even a teachable, obedient, and devout Chris- 
 tian any doctrine or meaning of Scripture which 
 is not contained already in Scripture itself. He 
 makes men wise up to what is written, but not 
 beyond it. When Christ opened the under- 
 standing of His apostles, it was "that they might 
 understand the scriptures." — Dr. Angus. 
 
 [1870] I call by the name of wisdom— know- 
 ledge, rich and varied, digested and combined, 
 and pervaded through and through by the light 
 of the Spirit. — Dr. Arnold. 
 
 [1871] Though God will not catch you up to 
 Paradise, as He did the apostle Paul, or make 
 the heavens open to you, as He did to the dying 
 Stephen, yet will He shine into your hearts, to 
 give you light and knowledge, of which you have 
 at present scarcely any conception. — Tv'fz/. C. 
 Simeon. 
 
 [1872] The things which the Holy Ghost 
 discovers to us are no other for substance than
 
 328 
 
 1872-1877] 
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 lwisdom, spirit of. 
 
 those very things which are contained in the 
 written word ; only He affords regenerate per- 
 sons clearer light to discern them by than they 
 had before conversion. Turn a learned man to 
 the same author which he perused when a young 
 student ; he will find the same author, but see a 
 great deal further into it, because he hath now 
 got further light and knowledge. — Arrows?mth. 
 
 [1873] If I am asked how we distinguish be- 
 tween what is revealed to us by the Spirit of 
 God, and what we discover by the energy and 
 penetration of our own thought, I can only reply 
 that the question seems to me to rest on a mis- 
 conception of the nature of spiritual illumination. 
 The " wisdom which the Spirit grants us is not 
 a " wisdom " separable from the ordinary activity 
 and discernment of our own minds ; it is not 
 something alien to our own higher life ; it be- 
 comes our own wisdom, just as the vision which 
 Christ miraculously restored to the blind men 
 "eras not something foreign to them but their own. 
 They saw what before they had only handled, 
 ?ind the nobler sense revealed to them what the 
 inferior sense could not make known ; they saw 
 for themselves what they had only heard of from 
 others. The reality of the supernatural work 
 was ascertained by the new discoveries it 
 enabled them to make of the world in which 
 they were living. Analogous effects follow the 
 ■illumination of the Holy Spirit. When the 
 "Spirit of wisdom and revelation " is granted to 
 us, "the eyes " of our heart, to use Paul's phrase 
 in the next verse, are " enlightened " — our own 
 eyes — and we see the glory of God. Apart 
 from this illumination no true knowledge of God 
 'is possible to man. — R. W. Dale. 
 
 ■[1874] Perhaps the safest description of the 
 -gift which is promised to all Christians is that 
 which is contained in the text. It is the "spirit 
 of wisdom." It is not a blind impulse, resulting 
 in a conviction having no intelligible grounds ; 
 it is not an impression having nothing to justify 
 it except the obstinacy with which we hold to 
 it. When the Spirit of God illuminates the 
 mind, we see the meaning of what Christ said 
 and what Christ did. We simply find what was 
 in the Christian revelation from the beginning. 
 The discovery is no private and personal dis- 
 tinction. What we have seen in Christ, if our 
 vision is clear and true, other Christian men will 
 be able to see in Him for themselves. There is 
 nothing violent, nothing abnormal, in the expe- 
 rience of those who are thus illuminated by the 
 Holy Spirit ; they simply obtain the more effi- 
 cient use of a faculty which is necessary to the 
 integrity of human nature.— /^/^. 
 
 3 The Spirit gives us just views. 
 
 ■{1)0/ God Himself. 
 
 [1875] Somewhat of God maybe known from 
 books, without any supernatural aid ; but the 
 knowledge gained in that way will be merely 
 theoretical ; it will have no suitable influence 
 upon the heart and life. But the very same 
 truths, when applied by the Spirit to the soul, 
 make a deep impression on the mind : they fill 
 the soul with wonderful love, and constrain the 
 enraptured saint to exclaim, " I have heard of 
 Thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine 
 eye seeth Thee!" How precious does Christ 
 appear at such seasons ! how " unsearchable 
 the length, and breadth, and depth, and height 
 of His incomprehensible love ! " These are the 
 manifestations of Himself which our blessed 
 Lord promised to His Church, and without 
 which we cannot know aright either Him or 
 His Father. . . . Let us pray, then, for the 
 Spirit of Wisdom and revelation, in and for the 
 knowledge of Him. — C. Simeon. 
 
 (2) Of the hope of our calling. 
 
 [1876] How low are our apprehensions of the 
 Christian's portion, when no particular revela- 
 tion of it is made to the soul ! We can speak 
 of pardon and acceptance, of grace and glory ; 
 but we speak of them with no more feeling than 
 if they were mere fictions. But, oh, what a 
 gloriously rich inheritance does ours appear, 
 when our eyes are opened by the Spirit to 
 behold it ! One Pisgah view of the Promised 
 Land, how does it transport the soul to heaven, 
 and make us long to be dissolved, that we may 
 be with Christ ! As for the inheritances of 
 princes, they then appear as worthless as the 
 toys that amuse a child. The realities of the 
 eternal world surpass all sublunary things. — C. 
 Siineo7t. 
 
 (3) Of the work He has wrought in tis. 
 [1877] We are apt to undervalue the work 
 
 that is already wrought in us, because so much 
 remains to be done. But when God shines 
 upon His own work, we entertain very different 
 thoughts respecting it. It is no light matter, 
 then, in our eyes to have been quickened from 
 the dead, and " created anew in Christ Jesus." 
 It seems no less a work than that which was 
 " wrought for Christ when God raised Him from 
 the dead," and "set Him at His own right hand, 
 above all the principalities and powers," whether 
 of heaven or of hell. We were dead and buried ; 
 and Satan set, as it were, the stone, the seal, the 
 watch, to keep us securely under the power of 
 the grave. But our God came " by the mighty 
 working of His power," and made us triumphant 
 over all the powers of darkness. — Ibid.
 
 DIVISION C 
 
 (Continued). 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES. 
 
 [3] THE WORK OF SANCTIFICATION 
 (GENERALLY). 
 
 Pa-es 330 to 337. 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 30 
 COMFORTER. 
 
 31 
 FREE SPIRIT. 
 
 32 
 GOOD SPIRIT. 
 
 33 
 HOLINESS, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 34 
 HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 35 
 TRUTH, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 329
 
 330 
 
 DIVISION C 
 
 [Continued). 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES. 
 
 [3] THE WORK OF SANCTIFICATION (GENERALLY). 
 
 30 
 
 COMFORTER. 
 
 (John xiv. 26.) 
 
 I. Interpretation. 
 
 [1878] A Comforter: The word is a Avide one. 
 It means one who comforts, or who pleads, or 
 who exhorts ; one who " calls us to His side," as 
 a father does his child when he has some special 
 thing to say. — H. Bonar. 
 
 [1S79] We should not forget, in measuring 
 the fitness of Comforter "as the meaning of the 
 word Paraclete," that the fundamental idea of 
 Comforter, according to its etymology and its 
 early uses, is that of strengthener, and not con- 
 soler ; even as the TrapciKXij-oc was one who, 
 being summoned to the side of the accused or 
 imperilled (hence the word advocate), stands by 
 to aid and encourage. — AdJ>. Trench. 
 
 II. Christological Aspect. 
 
 [1S80] The Son of Man was to be glorified 
 before the Spirit was to be given. Humanity 
 was to ascend to heaven before the Spirit could 
 be sent to humanity on earth. The revelation 
 of saving truth was to be complete before in- 
 spiration was to breathe it as the breath of life 
 into man's soul. 
 
 He is another Advocate, to be to believers in 
 all time what Christ was to the first disciples ; 
 to be in men an Advocate on earth, as Christ is 
 for men an Advocate with the Father, — H. W. 
 Watkins. 
 
 [1881] In our Lord's esteem, the Divine gift 
 of the Spirit, in a manner, surmounted the 
 benefit of His presence : God having designed 
 that His absence should be supplied by the 
 Comforter's more beneficial presence. And 
 wonderfully beneficial surely must that presence 
 be which could not only compensate but render 
 advantageous their loss. Could there be a more 
 indulgent IVIaster, a more discreet Guide, a more 
 delightful Companion, a more faithful Friend, 
 a mightier Protector, a sweeter Comforter than 
 He? Yes, it seemeth that our Saviour did ap- 
 prehend, that upon some accounts those benefits, 
 with greater advantages, might accrue to them 
 by the gift of His Spirit, than by His own 
 
 immediate presence. Him, therefore, did our 
 Saviour leave the guardian of His otherwise 
 orphan disciples ; Him did He substitute to 
 undergo the care and tuition of them, to con- 
 duct them in the right way, to preserve- them 
 from danger, to comfort them in distresses, to 
 manage all their concernments, to be their 
 Counsellor, Monitor, Advocate, and Patron ; by 
 Him He meant fully to make good His word, 
 that He would be with them till the end of the 
 world. — Isaac Barrow. 
 
 III. Suggested Thoughts. 
 
 1 The failure of creature comforts. 
 
 [1882] How pleasant always to have con- 
 verse with the Comforter ! How many wretched 
 grounds of vain consolation does he devise to 
 himself who walks with the world ! One secretly 
 applauds himself, and says, " I enjoy a robust 
 body and strong health ;" another, " JNIy reputa- 
 tion is unsullied, and I am in great esteem 
 amongst my neighbours ;'' another,"! have a 
 great friend at court ;" another, "I have heaps 
 of money in store." Alas ! when the dreadful 
 day of calamity approaches, what will become 
 of all these things? " Miserable comforters are 
 ye all," shall the soul say ; and be forced to 
 confess that no true satisfaction can ever be 
 expected but from the Father of all mercies and 
 the God of all comfort, who, as the Shepherd 
 of Israel, shall feed me in green pastures, and 
 lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. — 
 Bp. Hall. 
 
 2 The reality of the comfort afforded by the 
 Spirit. 
 
 [1883] The Comforter: The Paraclete, Sup- 
 port, Advocate. Wherever the Holy Spirit is 
 received. He is a Comforter. \Ve may see it 
 in the pity and love of Christ. His disciples 
 were much cast down, for He had told them He 
 was going to leave them. He promises to send 
 the Spirit to abide with them and supply His 
 place ; and in doing so He speaks chiefly of that 
 one act or operation of the Spirit which He 
 knew would meet their present feelings. It was 
 comfort they needed, and a Comforter, He tells 
 them, they shall have His special em- 
 ployment on earth is to watch over the comfort 
 
 of the people of God The disciples were 
 
 made happier by Him when their Master was 
 
 I
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1883— 1S87I 
 
 [comforter. 
 
 o^one than they had ever been in His presence. 
 They were happier in prison and bonds, in 
 affliction, with Christ out of their sight, than 
 they were with Christ by their side in security 
 and quiet. — C. Bradley. 
 
 [1884] Another Comforter. This word rt;/(?//;^r 
 is full of meaning, and helps to link the Holy 
 Spirit and Jesus together. His office is not to 
 hide, but to show Jesus ; not to make us forget, 
 but to remember Him. 
 
 Another instead of myself. He will fill up my 
 place — my place of fellowship, counsel, comfort, 
 and love. He will be to you, for your consola- 
 tion, what I have been to you. 
 
 Another like myself. Another, and yet not 
 another : in having Him you have me. 
 
 A Comforter, who is the fruit of my inter- 
 cession. I will pray the Father, and He will 
 give. He does so still. There is always a 
 praying, and always a giving. We deal with 
 Him ; and He deals with the Father for us. 
 "Ask of Me, and I will give thee" (Psa. ii. 8). 
 — H. Bonar. 
 
 [1885] This discourse of Christ's is His great 
 antidote for human trouble. In its chief promise 
 He incidentally teaches us some of the most 
 important truths of our holy religion. Let us 
 notice : — 
 
 (i) The work of the Incarnate Christ, as im- 
 plied in the alltesiott to Himself 
 
 If He says He will send "another comforter," 
 it is clearly implied that He Himself is a Com- 
 forter. He virtually says, " I also am a Con- 
 soler." This aspect of His work is involved — 
 {a) In the needs He came to meet. To have 
 had no special mission to the sorrowful would 
 have been for Him to have neglected the most 
 evident of the world's wants. For if sin is worse 
 than sorrow, it does not appear so. {b) In the 
 predictions of Scripture concerning Him. " He 
 hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted," &c. 
 {c) In the nature of His works and words. To 
 alleviate pain, to console bereavement, to meet 
 doubt, to lighten death, He set Himself with all 
 the absorbing interest of a master passion. 
 
 (2) Tlie work of the Holy Spirit resembles the 
 work of the Incarnate Christ. 
 
 The life of Jesus Christ is an index of the 
 work of " the Holy Ghost, the Comforter." 
 [a) What we read of Jesus Christ doing as a 
 Consoler, we read also of the Holy Spirit doing. 
 {b) What men saw Jesus Christ doing in Judaea, 
 we may see and feel is being done by the Holy 
 Spirit now. We may expect that, as Christ led, 
 and inspired, and soothed, and elevated human 
 hearts, so the Spirit of God will ever continue 
 to do. Men are not left " Comfortless." 
 "Another Comforter" has come, -who will abide 
 with us for ever. 
 
 (3) The work of the Holy Spirit transcends 
 the similar work of the Incarnate Christ. 
 
 So far we have only said the one resembles 
 the other. Now we are led to consider that the 
 work of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is in 
 
 many respects superior even to the work, in His 
 earthly history, of our Blessed Saviour. There 
 is indeed a unity in the work. In the deepest 
 senses it is one. For the coming of the Holy 
 Ghost is a great revisitation. The points in 
 which this work of the Spirit is transcendent 
 are — [a) In its permanence. Jesus Christ spoke 
 to His followers of His going away. His stay 
 amongst them was only for " a little while." At 
 the time of His uttering these words the air was 
 full of farewells. But the Holy Ghost is to abide 
 with men for ever, to take up His abode with 
 them. (1^) In its universality. Jesus Christ was 
 only known in His bodily form to those who 
 were around Him, to the comparatively few- 
 dwellers in Judaea. But on every shore, in every 
 zone, under every sky, the Holy Ghost dwells 
 with men. (t) In its nearness. They who came 
 nearest to Christ but kissed His feet, or lay in 
 His bosom, or were led by His hand, or were 
 carried in His arms. This is immeasurably 
 distant in comparison with the dwelling in men, 
 the making the soul a temple, as is promised of 
 the Holy Ghost. Not as an external presence, 
 an external voice, an external touch, but as an 
 inner presence, voice, and touch, they who have 
 the Holy Spirit recognize and possess Christ. 
 Here we begin to understand what the Lord of 
 Love must have meant when, promising"another 
 Comforter," He said to His distressed and cling- 
 ing disciples, " It is expedient for you that I go 
 away." Christ in us is better than Christ with 
 us. — Urijah R. Thomas, 
 
 [1886] All evangelical privileges which be- 
 lievers enjoy in this world centre in the person 
 of the Holy Spirit. He is the great promise 
 that Christ made to His disciples, the legacy 
 which He has bequeathed to them. The grant 
 made to Him by the Father, when He had done 
 all His will, was this of the Holy Spirit, to be 
 communicated by Him to the Church. This 
 He received of the Father. This Spirit He 
 now gives to believers ; and no tongue can ex- 
 press the benefits which they receive thereby. 
 Therein they are anointed and sealed ; therein 
 do they receive the earnest and first fruits of 
 immortality and glory. In a word, therein are 
 they taken into a participation with Christ Him- 
 self, in all His honour and glory. Hereby is 
 their condition rendered honourable, safe, and 
 comfortable, and the whole inheritance is un- 
 changeably secured unto them. In this one 
 privilege therefore of receiving the Spirit, all 
 others are included. What greater pledge can 
 we have of the favour of God, what greater 
 dignity can we enjoy, what greater assurance 
 can we have of future glory, than that God hath 
 given unto us His Holy Spirit.'* Hence also it 
 is manifest how abundantly willing He is, that 
 the heirs of promise should receive strong con- 
 solation in all their distresses, when they fly for 
 refuge to the hope that is set before them. — 
 J. Owen. 
 
 [18S7] He is em;->hatically styled the Com-
 
 332 
 
 1887— 1896] 
 
 COD THE HOLY SPiKIT. 
 
 [comforter. 
 
 forter, and no office does He more delight in 
 fulfilling to the faithful. He would have them 
 happy ; He bids them rejoice ; He proffers 
 them every blessing and comfort, that "their 
 joy may be full." — Patterson. 
 
 [1888] The Heavenly Bridegroom calls for 
 the Holy Spirit first as the "North Wind" to 
 " awake," that is, arise strongly as a Reprover, 
 then like the South Wind, to " come'' gently as 
 the Comforter. — Fansset. 
 
 [1889] Christ came to tell us all, "That to as 
 many as received Him He gave power to be- 
 come the sons of God." The Holy Ghost comes 
 to tell thee that thou art one of them. — Donne. 
 
 3 The Holy Spirit, as the Comforter, best 
 understood in times of persecution. 
 
 [1890] The Comforter was to abide with 
 Christ's Church for ever. Hence it has been 
 repeatedly seen that, when He was forgotten, 
 and His abiding presence and influence were 
 almost denied, by those who occupied the chief 
 places in the outward Church, He has mani- 
 fested Himself to others, who, as of old, have 
 been mocked, and said to have been " full of 
 new wine," nay have been persecuted, and even 
 cast out from the outv/ard communion of the 
 Church. — y. Hare. 
 
 [1891] In the day of persecution God ever 
 did, and ever will, support His people with His 
 comforting grace. 
 
 This Comforter has show to'the strong of the 
 world that "they are but as tow" with Him, 
 and that He can make the weakest of the weak 
 more than a match for all their strength. 
 
 Wherever the religion of Jesus was concerned, 
 it was often observed that persons who were 
 the most humane, civil, and polite upon all other 
 occasions, laid aside their usual character. . . . 
 Education may make men exceedingly accom- 
 plished, but no education and no habit can root 
 out the severity of the carnal mind against God. 
 It will discover itself to be perfectly the same, 
 whether it exists is a Roman emperor or a 
 reviling thief on the cross, in the highest or the 
 lowest, in the proudest or the meanest of man- 
 kind. The politician brings reasons of state ; 
 the religionist reasons of superstition ; the 
 tyrant, his strong reasons of power. It was the 
 same of old, " Christianos ad ItonQS.'"— Ambrose 
 Serle. 
 
 IV. Enforcements. 
 
 I Rejecting the Holy Ghost the sin of the 
 present time. 
 
 [1S92] The world sees no need for the Spirit 
 at all. It can do without Him. By means of 
 science, reason, intuition, the verifying faculty, 
 it can find its way to truth ! The sin of the 
 world is not only the rejection of Christ, but 
 of the Holy Ghost. Is not this the special sin 
 of our intellectual age ? — H. Bonar. 
 
 2 The blessedness of receiving the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 [1893] Who has ever consoled like Him? 
 There may be situations when an angel's word 
 would bruise the heart. But the Holy Spirit 
 does not articulate a single word ; He only 
 pours drop by drop the l3ivine oil upon the 
 wound, and the wound closes. — Casparin. 
 
 [1894] What should we do in our times of 
 deep distress and sorrow — sorrow, I mean, such 
 as that which God sometimes sends upon us in 
 the loss of all our earthly stays and supports — 
 if it were not for the Holy Ghost the Com- 
 forter .'' What is it, think you, that keeps the 
 bereaved parent's heart, the widow's heart, from 
 breaking, but the Holy Ghost the Comforter ? 
 What is it that gives to prayers their wonderful 
 efficacy in soothing the agitated spirit and turn- 
 ing despair into the sweet current of resigned 
 tears, but the Holy Ghost the Comforter? 
 What is it that in the midst of earthly bereave- 
 ments lifts the poor mourner's soul to think of 
 God and heaven and the invisible world, and the 
 meeting again in the other world, except the 
 Holy Ghost the Comforter ? What is it that 
 teaches the Christian soul to become more than 
 conqueror over pain and distress, and anguish, 
 to triumph in Christ over the worst assaults of 
 evil, and even when it is weakest then to be 
 strongest, except the Holy Ghost the Comforter? 
 Blessed be the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who, departing from the world in the flesh, did 
 not leave us orphans, but sent the Holy Ghost 
 thus to be another, a very deep, and holy, and 
 blessed Comforter to us ! . . . May God give 
 us His grace that, never grieving Him, nor 
 quenching His blessed fire within us, nor re- 
 sisting His holy motions, we may each of us 
 taste of His comfort — His comfort in our sin, 
 leading us to true repentance and amendment ; 
 His comfort in our weakness, leading us to 
 strength and victory in our secret spiritual 
 battle ; His comfort in our sorrow, leading us to 
 that triumphant resignation which is like the 
 first realization of the holier and happier life 
 prepared in heaven foi those who love and 
 follow Christ. — Bp. Aloberly. 
 
 II. Objections met, 
 
 [1895] The Spirit in comforting His people 
 does not always remove the cause of grief. But 
 He draws happiness out of unhappiness. He 
 makes the subject of our tears the element of 
 our smiles. He does not take away the cloud, 
 but He makes a rainbow of the shower. — G, S. 
 Bowes. 
 
 [1896] Dc not wonder if that evidence of 
 which we speak vary and change in its clear- 
 ness and force in your own heart. " The flesh 
 lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
 the flesh." Do not think it cannot be genuine 
 because it is variable. There is a sun in the 
 heavens, but there are heavenly lights, too, that
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1896 — 1902] 
 
 Zll 
 
 [free spirit. 
 
 wax and wane ; they are lights, they are in the 
 heavens, though they change. — Maclarcn. 
 
 [1S97] A Comforter is accepted by all Christ's 
 disciples. " Ye know Him." He is no stranger 
 to you. He is your companion, your teacher, 
 advocate, friend, comforter. You cannot do 
 without Him. He is and shall be in you ; fill- 
 ing you as His house. His temple, His holy 
 vessels. Filled with the Spirit, is not that a 
 description of a Christian man ? " Having not 
 the Spirit," is that not the description of the man 
 of the world ? O disciple of the Lord, prize this 
 gift of the ascended Christ, even the Comforter. 
 Live in the Spirit ; walk in the Spirit ; pray in 
 the Spirit. Thus shalt thou be a holy and 
 blessed man. — H. Bonar. 
 
 31 
 
 FREE SPIRIT. 
 
 (Psalm 11. 12.) 
 
 L Lmport. 
 
 I The Holy Ghost is not tied unto any rules 
 or course of pio:edure. 
 
 [1898] Much of the variety of the dispensation 
 of consolation by promise depends upon the 
 freedom of the Spirit's operation. Hence it is that 
 comfort is given unexpectedly, when the heart 
 hath reasons for distress and sorrow. The life 
 and soul of all our comforts lie treasured up in 
 the promises of Christ. They are the breasts of 
 cur consolation. Who knows how powerless 
 they are in the bare letter, even when improved 
 to the uttermost, by our considerations of them, 
 and meditation on them ; as also how unex- 
 pectedly they sometimes break in upon the soul, 
 with a conquering, endearing life and vigour : 
 here faith deals peculiarly with the Holy Ghost; 
 it considers the promises themselves ; looks up 
 to Him, waits for Him, considers His appear- 
 ances ; in the word depended on, owns Him in 
 His work and efficacy. No sooner doth the 
 soul begin to feel the life of a promise warming 
 his heart, relieving, cherishing, supporting, de- 
 livering from fear, entanglements, or troubles, 
 but it may, it ought to know, that the Holy 
 Ghost is there. — J. Owen. 
 
 [1899] The manner of the Spirit's working is 
 effectually, voluntarily, and freely. Hence some- 
 times the dispute hangs long ; the cause is 
 pleading many years ; the law seems some- 
 times to prevail, sin and Satan to rejoice, and 
 the poor soul is filled with dread about its inhe- 
 ritance ; perhaps its own witness, from its faith, 
 sanctification, former experience, keeps up the 
 plea with some life and comfort. But the work 
 is not done, the conquest is not fully obtained, 
 until the Spirit, who worketh fully and effectu- 
 ally, when and how He will, comes in with His 
 testimony also ; clothing His power with a word 
 of promise, He makes all parties concerned to 
 
 attend unto Him, and puts an end to the con- 
 troversy. — J. Owen. 
 
 [1900] John iii. The necessity of regeneration 
 and faith to salvation is absolute ; the necessity 
 of baptism, or anything else, is merely relative. 
 Only unbelief — /.d'.,the rejection of the gospel — 
 with or without baptism, condemns. — P. Schaff. 
 
 [1901] The grace of the Holy Ghost is free, 
 not bound either to means, persons, or times. — 
 Alajits. 
 
 2 The Holy Spirit sometimes works alto- 
 gether outside the regular course of things. 
 
 [1902] Perhaps the most remarkable incident 
 in modern history is not the Diet of Worms, 
 still less the battle of Waterloo, or any other 
 battle ; but an incident passed carelessly over 
 by most historians, and treated with some degree 
 of ridicule by others ; namely, George Fox's 
 making himself a suit of leather. This man, the 
 first of the Quakers, and by trade a shoemaker, 
 was one of those to whom, under ruder or purer 
 form, the Divine Idea of the Universe is pleased 
 to manifest itself; and shine through, in un- 
 speakable awfulness, unspeakable beauty, on 
 their souls : who therefore are rightly accounted 
 prophets, God-possessed. Sitting in his stall, 
 working on tanned hides, amid pincers, paste- 
 horns, rosin, swine -bristles, and a nameless 
 flood of rubbish, this youth had, nevertheless, a 
 living spirit belonging to him ; also an antique 
 inspired volume, through which, as through a 
 window, it could look upwards and discern its 
 celestial home. The task of a daily pair of 
 shoes, coupled even with some prospect of vic- 
 tuals, and an honourable mastership in cord- 
 wainery, and perhaps the post of third-borough 
 in his hundred, as the crown of long faith-sew- 
 ing, — was nowise satisfaction enough to such a 
 mind ; but ever amid the boring and hammer- 
 ing came tones from that far country, came 
 splendours and terrors ; for this poor cordwainer, 
 as we said, was a man ; and the temple of im- 
 mensity, wherein as man he had been sent to 
 minister, was full of holy mystery to him. 
 
 The clergy of the neighbourhood, the ordained 
 watchers and interpreters of that same holy 
 mystery, listened with unaffected tedium to his 
 consultations, and advised him, as the solution 
 of such doubts, to "drink beer and dance." 
 Bhnd leaders of the blind ! For what end were 
 their tithes levied and eaten ; for what were 
 their shovel-hats scooped out ; and their sur- 
 plices and cassock-aprons girt on ; and such a 
 church-repairing, and chaffering, and organing, 
 and other racketing, held over God's earth ; if 
 man were but a patent-digester, and the belly 
 with its adjuncts the grand reality. Fox turned 
 from them with tears and a sacred scorn, back 
 to his leather-parings and his Bible. Mountains 
 of encumbrance, higher than Etna, had been 
 heaped over that spirit ; but it was a spirit, and 
 would not lie buried there. Through long days 
 and nights of silent agony, it struggled and
 
 334 
 
 1902 — 1908] 
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [good SPIRtT. 
 
 wrestled, with a man's force, to be free : how 
 
 its prison-mountains heaved and swayed tumul- 
 tuously, as the giant spirit shook them to this 
 hand and that, and emerged into the Hght of 
 heaven ! That Leicester shoe-shop, had men 
 known it, was a hoher place than any Vatican 
 or Loretto-shrine. " So bandaged, and ham- 
 pered, and hemmed in," groaned he, " with 
 thousand requisitions, obligations, straps, tatters, 
 and tagrags, I can neither see nor move : not 
 my own am I, but the world's ; and time flies 
 fast, and heaven is high, and hell is deep. Man ! 
 bethink thee, if thou hast power of thought ! 
 Why not ; what binds me here ? Want, want! 
 Ha ! of what? Will all the shoe-wages under 
 the moon ferry me across into that far land of 
 light ? Only meditation can, and devout prayer 
 to God. I will to the woods ; the hollow of a 
 tree will lodge me, Avild berries feed ; and for 
 clothes, cannot I stitch myself one perennial 
 suit of leather !" — Thos. Carlyle. 
 
 II. Personal Realization. 
 I Freedom from sin. 
 
 [1903] To know the way to heaven, sometimes 
 to cast a longing eye in that direction, and by 
 lit and start to make a feeble eftbrt heavenwards, 
 can end in nothing. ]\Ian must get the Spirit 
 of God. Thus only can we be freed of the 
 shackles that bind the soul to earth, the flesh, 
 and sin. I have seen a captive eagle, caged far 
 from its distant home, as he sat mournful-like 
 on his perch, turn his eye sometimes heaven- 
 wards ; there he would sit in silence, like one 
 wrapt in thought, gazing through the bars of 
 his cage up into the blue sky ; and, after a 
 while, as if noble but sleeping instincts had 
 suddenly awoke, he would start and spread out 
 his broad sails, and leap upward, revealing an 
 iron chain that, usually covered by his plumage, 
 drew him back again to his place. But though 
 this bird of heaven knew the way to soar aloft, 
 and sometimes, under the influence of old in- 
 stincts, decayed but not altogether dead, felt the 
 thirst of freedom, freedom was not for him, till 
 a power greater than his own proclaimed liberty 
 to the captive, and shattered the shackles that 
 bound him to his perch. Nor is there freedom 
 for us till the Holy Spirit sets us free, and, by 
 the lightning force of truth, breaks the chains 
 that bind us to sin. — Guthrie. 
 
 32 
 
 GOOD SPIRIT, 
 
 (Neh. ix. 20.) 
 
 I. Scripture Basis. 
 
 [1904] "Thou gavest Thy good Spirit to in- 
 struct them" refers to the occurrence (Num. xi. 
 17, 25) where God endowed the seventy elders 
 with the spirit of prophecy for the confirmation 
 of Moses' authority. — Keil. 
 
 II. Its Significance. 
 
 [1905] "Thy good Spirit shall lead me." So 
 called because His nature is essentially good ; 
 and also because His operations are all good ; 
 and to believers, full of goodness in their efifects. 
 —J. Owen. 
 
 III. Practical Bearing. 
 
 1 The Spirit leads us into the good and 
 pleasant way. 
 
 [1906] The Lord, with whom the Psalmist 
 hides himself, alone is able to make known to 
 him what is right and beneficial in the position 
 in which he finds Himself, and is able to teach 
 him to carry out the " will of God, good, well- 
 pleasing, and perfect" (Rom. xii. 2) ; and this it 
 is for which he prays .... The Lord is indeed 
 his God, who cannot leave him who is assailed 
 and tempted without and within in error ; may 
 His good Spirit then lead him in a level country, 
 for " the path which the righteous man takes 
 is smoothness ; Thou makest the course of the 
 righteous smooth." — Delitzsch, 
 
 2 The Spirit, as the Good Spirit, strives with 
 us, despite our waywardness and stub- 
 bornness. 
 
 [1907] "Thou gavest Thy good Spirit to 
 instruct them." To such it was said, " Turn ys 
 at my reproof : I will pour out my Spirit to you, 
 I will make known my words unto you," Szc. 
 (Prov. i. 23, 24). We see whence their destruc- 
 tion came, not from God's first restraint of His 
 Spirit, but their refusing, despising, and setting 
 at nought His counsels and reproofs. And 
 when it is said, "They rebelled and vexed His 
 Spirit ; and He therefore turned and fought 
 against them, and became their enemy," it 
 appears that before His Spirit was not withheld, 
 but did variously and often make essays and 
 attempts upon them. And when Stephen, im- 
 mediately before his martyrdom, thus bespeaks 
 the descendants of these Jews, " Ye stifthecked 
 and uncircumcised, ye do always resist the Holy 
 Ghost ; as your fathers did, so do ye, " it is im- 
 plied, the Holy Ghost had been always striving 
 from age to age with that stubborn people. — 
 yo/in Hotve. 
 
 [1908] Every vain thought and idle word, and 
 every wicked deed, is like so many drops to 
 quench the Spirit of God. Some quench it with 
 the lust of the flesh ; some quench it with cares 
 of the niind ; some quench it with long delays, 
 that is, not plying the motion when it cometh, 
 but crossing the good thoughts with bad thoughts, 
 and doing a thing when the Spirit saith not. 
 The Spirit is often grieved before it be quenched. 
 —H. Smith.
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT, 
 
 1909— 1919] 
 
 335 
 
 [holiness, spirit of. 
 
 33 
 
 HOLINESS, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 (Rom. i. 4.) 
 
 I. Christological Aspect. 
 
 [1909] "Spirit of Holiness" is"the inner man," 
 i.e.f the whole inner life of Christ, which was 
 elevated above all purely human spirits, filled 
 with the Spirit of God, sinless and perfect. — 
 Meyer. 
 
 [19 10] The Spirit of Holiness is the very force 
 by which Christ has taken away the power of 
 death, and has destroyed mortality, through the 
 triumph of His impei-ishable life. — Besscr. 
 
 II. Suggested Thoughts. 
 
 1 The truth in itself, apart from the Spirit 
 of Holiness, does not sanctify. 
 
 [191 1] It has been seen from the days of 
 Balaam downward, that a man may have a hold 
 on the truth intellectually without its producing 
 any effect on his moral being. — J. Hare. 
 
 [1912] Every thing connected with the actual 
 endowment and sanctification of the Church 
 belongs to the Holy Spirit. He directs our eyes 
 to the Sun of Righteousness ; He opens in our 
 hearts the streams of refreshing which make 
 glad the city of God ; He relaxes the grasp of 
 the destroyer, and dissolves the enchantment 
 which sin and the world have thrown over us ; 
 He brings light into our darkness, and into the 
 cold region of sin and death life, and peace, 
 and joy. He is the £';//4''///^/;t7'. — Rev. William 
 Graham, D.D., of B 01m. 
 
 2 The Spirit, as the Spirit of Holiness, is 
 the sole principle of sanctification. 
 
 [1913] This is the Spirit of God, who, as the 
 sanctifying Spirit in the world, constitutes the 
 complete opposition and counteraction to the 
 entire corruption of sin ; who was first the 
 cause of the holy birth of Christ, and then of 
 His resurrection ; and who now proceeds from 
 the glorified Christ as the principle of the sanc- 
 tification of humanity and the world. — Lange. 
 
 [1914] His sa7ictifying grace and assisting 
 grace subdues our affections to a willing com- 
 pliance with our inwrought convictions, enlarges 
 our moral capacity, infuses new energies, cherishes 
 and develops and brings to maturity the seeds 
 of virtue and benevolence, gives intensity to our 
 devotions, warmth to our charity, consistency 
 to our daily conduct ; in a word, newly " creates 
 us in Christ Jesus unto good works," destroys 
 the whole body of sin, clothes us with "the new 
 man in righteousness and true holiness," and 
 fits us for a habitation of God through the Spirit. 
 —Bp. Blomjleld. 
 
 [1915] Holiness is a word not easily written 
 
 on the rugged surface of human life, but it shall 
 in the long run be graven upon it indelibly. It 
 aims at universal empire ! It is now the one 
 condition of seeing the Father everlasting : 
 "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." 
 It is the peculiar characteristic of the sanctuary 
 in the heavens : " Nothing that is unholy shall 
 enter therein." It is the appellation of the 
 inhabitant of eternity : " His Name is Holy." 
 Toward holiness human life is being moved, 
 how slowly soever, by the ministry of the Holy 
 Ghost. — Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 [1916] The Holy Ghost is in Himself holiness, 
 and the source and worker of holiness, and 
 Author of this holy doctrine, which breathes 
 nothing but holiness, and urges it most press- 
 ingly upon all who receive it. — Abp. Leighton. 
 
 [1917] The Spirit of Holiness (Rom. i. 4). 
 And since in ourselves we are unholy and im- 
 pure, and without holiness no man shall see the 
 Lord (Heb. xii. 14), He inspires us with holy 
 desires, and prompts us to good counsels (Eph. 
 v. 9). He renews us unto repentance (Heb. vi, 
 6) ; His voice speaks to us through our con- 
 science ; and if we are careful not to quench 
 the Divine light He kindles within us (i Thess. 
 v. 19), or to resist Him when He prompts us to 
 pure thoughts and holy acts, or to grieve Him 
 by wilful sin (Eph. iv. 30), He "sanctifies us 
 and all the elect people of God," that is, all 
 members of the Church of Christ. — Dr. Maclear. 
 
 3 The Spirit of Holiness within us is the 
 evidence of our election and the earnest 
 of our salvation. 
 
 [1918] Indissoluble as the agents are, the 
 Father, the Son, and the Spirit, so are election, 
 and vocation, and sanctification, and justifica- 
 tion, and glory. Therefore, in all conditions, 
 believers may, from a sense of the working of 
 the Spirit in them, look back to that election, 
 and forward to that salvation ; but they that 
 remain unholy and disobedient have as yet no 
 evidence of this love. 
 
 Men may please themselves in profane scoff- 
 ing at the Holy Spirit of grace, but let them 
 withal know this, that that Holy Spirit, whom 
 they mock and despise, is that Spirit who seals 
 men unto the day of redemption. 
 
 Now this Spirit which sanctifieth, and sancti- 
 fieth to obedience, is within us the evidence of 
 our election, and the earnest of our salvation. 
 Let us not delude ourselves ; this is a truth, if 
 there be any in religion ; they who are not made 
 saints in the state of grace shall never be saints 
 in glory. — Abp. Leighlon. 
 
 4 The Spirit of Holiness within us is the 
 chief miracle. 
 
 [1919] The miracle of miracles is this, "A new 
 
 heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put 
 
 within you ; and I will take away the stony 
 
 heart out of your flesh, and I w^ill give you an 
 
 I heart of flesh." ... To put the law " in the
 
 336 
 
 1919— 1929] 
 
 COD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 [holy spirit. 
 
 inward parts," and to " write it in the heart," 
 is more than to fill the firmament with stars. — 
 Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 34 
 
 110 L Y SPIRIT. 
 
 (Eph. iv. 30.) 
 
 I, Scripture Basis. 
 
 [1920] The Spirit of Holiness is distinguished 
 from Jehovah as a personal existence (Isa. Ixiii. 
 10, 11; Luke xi. 13). For just as the angel 
 who is His face, i.e., the representation of His 
 nature, is represented as a person, so also i£ the 
 Spirit of Holiness, by the fact that He can be 
 grieved, and therefore can feel grief. " Grieve 
 not the Holy Spirit of God" (Eph. iv, 30). — 
 Delitzsch. 
 
 [1921] This is the most usual appellation of 
 Him in the New Testament, but it is derived 
 from the Old (Psa. li. 11 ; Isa. Ixiii. 10, 11), 
 and we must inquire into the special reasons for 
 this adjunct. Some suppose that it is only from 
 His peculiar work of sanctifying us, or making 
 us holy. . . . But this is not the whole reason, 
 for when He is first so mentioned He is called 
 the Spirit of God's Holiness (Psa. li. 11 ; Isa. 
 Ixiii. 10, II), and in the New Testament abso- 
 lutely, "the Spirit of Holiness." And this 
 respects His nature in the first place, and not 
 merely His operations. As God absolutely is 
 called "Holy," "Holy One," &c., so is the 
 Spirit called "Holy,'Vto denote the holiness of 
 His nature. And on this account is the oppo- 
 sition made between Him and the unholy or 
 unclean spirit (Mark iii. 29,30). And herein first 
 His personality is asserted, for the unclean spirit 
 is a person, and if the Spirit of God were only 
 a quality or an accident there could be no 
 comparative opposition. ... So also are they 
 opposed with respect unto their natures. His 
 nature is holy, whereas that of the unclean 
 spirit is evil. This is the foundation of His 
 being called " Holy,'' even the eternal holiness 
 of His nature. — J. Owen^ D.D.^ 1616-1683. 
 
 II. Import. 
 
 [1922] Holy Spirit is so called because He is 
 God Himself. Holy both in nature and office. 
 If He were not holy in His nature He could not 
 perform that office in the covenant of grace, 
 which begins, is carried on, and is completed, 
 in the exercise and communion of holiness, to 
 the redeemed. He could not impart what is 
 not His own. No stream of holiness could pro- 
 ceed from Him were He not the fountain of it. 
 "—A. Serle. 
 
 [1923] He is the Holy Spirit through whom 
 the holiness of Godhead specially reveals itself, 
 and is communicated to the creature. He is 
 
 specially the doer of holy deeds, the speaker 
 of holy words, the maker of holy men. As 
 the Holy Spirit, He dwelt in the Holy One ; 
 and dwells in the Church, and in all saints. — 
 H. Bo liar. 
 
 III. Suggested Thoughts. 
 
 1 The Holy Spirit is the essence of all 
 good gifts. 
 
 [1924] The Holy Spirit is the essence of all 
 good gifts which the Father in heaven can 
 bestow on His praying child. . . . The Holy 
 Spirit is the Christian's first necessity ; the 
 Holy Spirit is the Father's holy gift ; the Holy 
 Spirit in the heart is the fruit of believing 
 prayer. — Lange. 
 
 [1925] To remove our bad dispositions, and 
 to beget those contrary to them, God in mercy 
 hath appointed the Holy Spirit to beget Divine 
 knowledge and faith in our minds . . . and all 
 pious and virtuous inclinations in us (which is 
 the work of sanctification). — Isaac Barrow. 
 
 [1926] God, for Christ's sake, has given us 
 the earnest of His Spirit in baptism to the end 
 that we may live under the continual govern- 
 ance of the Spirit, and may bring forth the 
 fruits of the Spirit. — Bp. Wilson. 
 
 [1927] Without the Spirit of God, as the per- 
 fective principle, nature would not have been 
 nature (Gen. i. 2). . . . All things would not 
 have been good and very good but by the com- 
 munication of goodness ; and without somewhat 
 of that Spirit there would be no moral goodness 
 in any of mankind. . . . No man can be a 
 Christian, indeed, without the quickening, illu- 
 minating, and sanctifying work of the Spirit 
 upon his soul. — Baxter. 
 
 2 The Holy Spirit is the constant inspirer 
 of prayer in the believer. 
 
 [1928] Where a Christian is, there is really 
 the Holy Spirit, who does nothing there than 
 continually pray, for although He does not con- 
 tinually move the mouth or make words, yet 
 the heart goes and beats, even as the pulses of 
 the veins and the heart in the body, without 
 cessation or ceasing ; so that one can find no 
 Christian without prayer, as little as a living 
 man w-ithout the pulse, which stands never still, 
 but stirs and beats ever on, although the man 
 sleeps or does other things, so that he does 
 not become aware of it. — Luther. 
 
 3 The Holy Spirit's grace is continually 
 needed. 
 
 [1929] It would be no blessing for men to be 
 convinced of the truth of the Christian religion 
 by considering the miraculous powers of the 
 Holy Ghost, by which it was first established, 
 unless they afterwards live answerable to what 
 that religion requires of them, which they can- 
 not possibly do without the continual grace and 
 assistance of the Holy Spirit. — Bp. Wilson, 
 
 I
 
 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 1930—1934] 
 
 337 
 
 [truth, spirit of. 
 
 4 The Holy Spirit may be grieved and 
 quenched in us by a continual neglect. 
 
 [1930] Practically we must constantly keep in 
 view that communion with Christ may be lost 
 again by a continued grieving of the Holy Spirit 
 of God, by thoughts, words, and actions that 
 are unworthy of our Christian standing ; by a 
 continued resistance of His Spirit ; by con- 
 tinued indifference, lukewarmness, and neglect ; 
 by continued sins of weakness, against which 
 one does not strive ; by a continued quenching 
 of the Spirit. The inner life may imperceptibly 
 wither and die ; that communion may have 
 already ceased, whilst the man still imagines 
 that it exists. — I\Iartensen. 
 
 35 
 
 TRUTH, SPIRIT OF. 
 (John XV. 26). 
 
 I. Relation of the Spirit's Working 
 TO THE Word of God. 
 
 I Onwards, not independently of it, but 
 through its medium. 
 
 (i) He does not make us wise beyond what is 
 written, but He makes wise tip to that which is 
 writte7t. 
 
 [1931] The word of God is called the sword 
 of the Spirit. It is the instrument by which 
 the Spirit worketh. He does not tell us any- 
 thing that is out of the record ; but all that is 
 within it He sends home with clearness and 
 effect upon the mind. When a telescope is 
 directed to some distant landscape, it enables 
 us to see what we could not otherwise have 
 seen ; but it does not enable us to see any- 
 thing which has not a real existence in the 
 prospect before us. It does not present to 
 the eye any delusive imagery — neither is that 
 a fanciful and fictitious scene which it throws 
 open to our contemplation. The natural eye 
 saw nothing but blue land stretching along the 
 distant horizon. By the aid of the glass there 
 bursts upon it a charming variety of fields, and 
 woods, and spires, and villages. Yet who 
 would say that the glass added one feature to 
 this assemblage? It discovers nothing to us 
 which is not there ; nor out of that portion of 
 the book of nature, which we are employed in 
 cultivating, does it bring into view a single cha- 
 racter which is not really and previously in- 
 scribed upon it. And so of the Spirit. He 
 does not add a single truth or a single character 
 to the book of revelation. He enables the 
 spiritual man to see what the natural man can- 
 not see ; but the spectacle which He lays open 
 is uniform and immutable. It is the word of 
 God which is ever the same ; and he whom the 
 Spirit of God has enabled to look to the Bible 
 
 with a clear and affecting discernment, sees no 
 phantom passing before him ; but, amid all 
 the visionary extravagance with which he is 
 charged, can, for every one article of his faith, 
 and every one duty or his practice, make his 
 triumphant appeal to the law and to the testi- 
 mony. — Dr. Chq-liners, 1780-1847. 
 
 (2) He teaches over again the doctrine left 
 behind in the letter, but Himself first gives it 
 life. 
 
 [1932] The phrase, " The Spirit of the truth," 
 which repeats the article, expresses more than 
 our common translation, " Spirit of truth," or 
 merely, " The true Spirit." Beck says well 
 ("Christl. Reden." ii. 65), "They receive from 
 Him not merely a dead word, such as all 
 scholars have from their teachers ; but they 
 have a living word, the Spirit of truth — for the 
 life of the word is the Spirit." He has suffi- 
 ciently shown already that he does not mean 
 this in the sense which we must sometimes op- 
 pose in others, as if the Spirit was not coming 
 in the future, but left behind ; we would, how- 
 ever, prefer to say, in more scriptural language, 
 that they have now from their Lord and Master 
 not merely the word, the doctrine left behind 
 Him, the most precious legacy of humanity, the- 
 words of the Word — but in addition to the 
 word comes to them the Spirit, and that the 
 Same who thought and spoke in Jesus, in order 
 to re-awaken and vivify that word in them ; for- 
 the quickening of the word is the Spirit. 
 
 II. Moral and Spiritual Conditions' 
 TO His Reception. 
 
 I Negatively. 
 
 [1933] A French lady of great personal beauty 
 was smitten with small-pox. It destroyed her' 
 beauty, and as she became convalescent, her" 
 friends, fearing the consequences, would not 
 acquaint her with the fact. But one day, not 
 getting an answer to her questions, she de- 
 manded a mirror to be given her ; and when 
 she saw the calamitous fact, that her beauty 
 was gone, she, in a fit of passion, smashed the 
 glass. It had told her the truth about herself; 
 so the Spirit of God, as the Spirit of Truth, tells 
 us what we are ; and some people, rather than 
 believe its witness, deny its existence. — F. IV. P. 
 
 See No. 27, where "the Spirit of Truth" is 
 treated under Division C, Subdivision [2]. 
 2 Positively. 
 
 [1934] But to receive this Divine teacher a 
 moral preparation is needed. The scw.il in which 
 He comes to dwell must have been withdrawn 
 from the profane sphere. This is the reason that 
 Jesus said at the head of this passage (verse 15), 
 "Keep my commandments," and here also 
 added, " whom the world cannot receive." — F. 
 Godct, D.D., Commentary on the Gospel of St. 
 John. 
 
 VOL I 
 
 22
 
 DIVISION C 
 
 [Cojiiimiid). 
 
 NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES. 
 
 [4] THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENT. 
 
 Page 339- 
 TABLE OF TOPICS. 
 
 36 
 JUDGMENT, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 338 
 
 ( 
 
 i
 
 339 
 
 DIVISION G 
 
 {Coniiniecd). 
 
 IIAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES. 
 
 [4] THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENT. 
 
 36 
 
 JUDGMENT, SPIRIT OF. 
 
 (John xvi. II.) 
 
 I. His Work as such in the Christian 
 Dispensation. 
 
 I Its nature. 
 
 (i) He reproves men of their former or false 
 Judgments as to the realities of things. 
 
 [1935] The Comforter " reproves the world of 
 judgment, because the prince of this world is 
 judged." The designs of Satan are carried on 
 by means of delusion. Deceiving men : caus- 
 ing them to believe that things are different 
 from what they really are, he persuades them to 
 form erroneous "judgments." But the work of 
 Christ has detected him. His cheats are ex- 
 posed. Even now he is "judged," and this 
 present detection or judgment is an anticipation 
 of that future and final judgment in which he 
 shall be completely detected and cast out. 
 Those then whom the Comforter has reproved 
 of sin and of righteousness, will have their eyes 
 opened to see this delusion of Satan. They 
 will see how erroneous and destructive their 
 former judgments were, and what bondage they 
 were under ; and they will be able with true 
 spiritual discrimination to separate the false 
 from the true, and to understand things as they 
 really are. They will be " reproved " of their 
 former judgment. That judgment will be re- 
 futed and cast aside, and a new, and more 
 correct, and more trustworthy judgment, will 
 arise in its place. — Co)-dou Caltlirope. 
 
 3 Its three successive stages. 
 
 (i) As indicated by our Saviour and recorded 
 by St. JoJin. 
 
 [1936] The first thing which the Comforter 
 does for the man who is brought out of the 
 world, is to "reprove" him of sin, and that sin, 
 the sin of unbelief. The man awakened by the 
 gentle yet powerful touch of the Spirit of God, 
 will bewail, of course, his special transgression 
 of the Divine law, but more than all will he 
 shame himself and humble himself, on account 
 of the one pervading transgression of his past 
 
 life, his resolute turning away from and rejection 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 [1937] Then comes the second step : in the 
 revelation of the righteousness of Christ which 
 may be his own, and in which he may stand 
 before God ; and of the invisible life of Christ, 
 by which his spiritual life is nourished and 
 maintained. 
 
 [1938] And lastly, and as the consequence of 
 the two preceding steps, it is the office of the 
 Comforter to impart to him spiritual discern- 
 ment : the power of distinguishing, the power of 
 detecting, the power of separating the falsehood 
 from the truth ; by virtue of which power he 
 judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no 
 man, 
 
 [1939] After the descent of the Holy Ghost 
 no lot-drawing was needed to make Peter to see 
 in Cornelius the Gentile an elect saint, and to 
 detect in Simon the sorcerer a child of the 
 devil. So much for a true spiritual instinct. 
 We hear no more of lot-casting (under which 
 Matthias was elected to the apostleship and to 
 obscurity : he was never heard of more). A 
 new and higher order has been established ; 
 they who live in the Spirit know what is right 
 by a sympathy sensitive and unerring, and when 
 they come into practical difficulties, instead of 
 resorting to signs and tokens, not far removed 
 from jugglery, they quietly wait for the salvation 
 of the Lord. — Dr. Joseph Parker. 
 
 (2) As anstvering in their inverted order to 
 the tliree stages or acts in redemftion mentioned 
 by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinl/iians. 
 
 [1940] Invert the order, and you have the 
 three stages, or acts, of which I have just been 
 speaking : " redemption " — the setting free from 
 the curse and power of sin ; " righteousness and 
 sanctification" (i Cor. i. 30^ the position and 
 the privilege, the status and the progressive 
 blessing, won for us by the righteous One, who 
 has been accepted of the Father; "wisdom," 
 the clear insight into mysteries, the understand- 
 ing and knowledge of all things, bestowed upon 
 those who are partakers, through grace, of the 
 anointing of God the Holy Ghost. — Ibid.
 
 I
 
 SECTION in. 
 THE BEATITUDES.
 
 THE EIGHT BEATITUDES. 
 
 Matt. V. 3-12. 
 
 1st. Blc00cti are tlje pooc in spirit: for tljeic'0 
 10 tlje IxingDom of Ijcabciu 
 
 2nd. Ble00eti are tijep ttjat mount: foe tijcp 
 0ljaU lie comfoiteti* 
 
 3rd. Ble00et) ace tlje iiieeU: foe tljcp 0ljaU 
 fnljen't tlje earrlj* 
 
 4th. Ble00eti ace ttjej? toljiclj tio Ijungec anti 
 tljirst aftec ci'iyljteou^ne^^ : foe tlje^ ssljall be 
 ftUcti. 
 
 5th. Ble00eti ace tlje mecci'ftil: foe tljep jJljall 
 oliraiit niece?* 
 
 6th. Ble0<seti ace rlje puce in Ijeact: foe ttjcp 
 0l)aU 0ee (Boti* 
 
 7th. Ble00etJ ace tlje peacemakers: foe tljej? 
 0ljaU lie callen tlje cljiltircn of CPoti* 
 
 8th. 3le00el5 aretljcp \ioljiclj arepec^ecuteti foe 
 ein:ljteou0ne00' Sake: foe tlje(e'0 10 tlje IxingDont 
 orijcaticn, 
 
 Ble00ei3 ace ?e, loljen men 0ljaU ectjile pou, 
 ant! persecute pou, and 0ljaU 0ap all mannee of 
 *et3il against ?ou fal^elp, foe SBp sake* 
 
 lUjoice, anti lie ejcceetiinn: fflat) : foe great 10 
 ^oue ccloarD in Ijeatjcn: for 00 pcesccuteU tljcp 
 tlje peopljet0 Volji'clj Vocrc liefore ^m. 
 
 342
 
 i4 
 P 
 .-1 
 
 H 
 to 
 
 O 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 Q 
 e< 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 H 
 
 >-r e - 
 
 oj u5 to £., 
 
 
 -CT3 
 
 ^ OJ 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 5 Oh" 
 
 rt a 
 
 —' a 
 
 
 K -4. s 
 
 -3 -;i -° 
 O 
 
 O >> 
 
 '3 Si 
 
 s t= 
 
 
 O rt 'S 
 
 vO-2 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 V 
 
 'S ^ 
 
 
 -^g 
 
 
 , 3 
 
 
 <vj- 
 
 
 
 << ^ 
 
 
 « «3 
 
 
 Si ^^ 'r^ 'n .'-^ 
 
 O « ts 
 
 « M P.O 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 C/3 
 
 O 
 H 
 
 O 
 12; 
 t— I 
 Q 
 c4 
 O 
 
 u 
 u 
 
 w 
 
 Ph 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 
 (,).|i 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 3 " 
 
 
 H-l ~ 
 
 w 
 
 C 
 
 Q 
 
 
 D 
 
 
 H 
 
 j: 
 
 1— ( 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 >'"" 
 
 
 T3 3 iD 
 
 >.o t=' 
 
 ^ o 
 
 ■r) S 
 
 a a -3 J= O 
 
 „ S rt j-^ _^ 
 
 3 'O ^C5 
 
 
 
 l_ ^ -* 
 
 
 
 
 •-> I- '^ I- 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 fa W 
 
 a H . 
 
 ^ H S 
 
 t3 w '^ 
 op 
 
 •s. 
 
 ^ 2 I §e 
 
 "? ^ -^ fc 
 
 ^ OS 
 
 
 o 'u 2 . 
 
 •55 S C C -O o 
 
 -a a. 
 
 ifi G 
 
 c3 y:; 
 
 !— ^?: to 
 
 S-^ 
 
 opo't:xorrv-ts,„ 
 
 
 
 V. .fc^' 
 
 
 c3 G 
 
 C rt 
 
 Ei)-d 
 
 ?^ rt fU 'J^ 
 
 <J rt ^ C 13 
 
 o o n 
 
 to J- 
 
 •"" o 
 
 o 3 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 ««« 
 
 ^ 
 
 •^ 
 
 •is 'it 
 
 '3 
 
 
 >3 <^ 
 
 !/• G <" 
 
 ••p.^ 
 > 
 
 2 G 
 
 c o 
 
 Z M'2:5 
 
 O O— " G 
 
 >^ ^^ &> o 
 
 _g a; o •£ u 
 
 S^^ rt '^ "^ 
 
 343 
 
 
 S ? 
 
 •^5 "« << 
 
 <u Vj S 
 
 J -S :^ .2 
 J S ■* 
 
 ; 'o '^ 'o 
 I- - I- 
 
 ^"^ 
 
 
 ~ U5 >-i N 
 
 '3 w i; w 
 
 ^ •• -^ w 
 
 S jj o 
 
 ? 5f^ "0. 
 
 ?» > »! "-I 
 
 5 )3 cs 
 
 -S G y 
 
 to !-c l-l 
 
 3 rt a, 
 
 C 5 (u 
 
 .to O^y 
 
 iH aj 1) 
 
 ,0 CU.Q 
 
 5 5.2 
 •■ %! e ^ 
 
 rs.^ W tv» t' O Q 
 ^ O !v O fe g 
 
 ^ ^ Jj 3 Jj .2- 
 ts .- t> .^ CN .« 
 
 <, g^; 
 
 ^ c3 1/) O 
 
 
 ii HJ "^ G 
 - S J3 i; :3" G 
 
 2 S; " <u S 
 
 .^' 
 
 aj <u 
 
 .S « S 
 
 t;}^ aj 
 
 r? rg ^ _ 
 
 "1 ^ 1) •" rt 
 
 CJ 
 
 .j;, G >> aj .i 
 
 ^ "^ .t^ aJ 
 
 t^ O o aj 
 
 8 lU tj-^ b 
 
 P- TJ O 
 
 aj aj 
 
 dH 
 
 c 2 - 
 
 fe^.*??
 
 Tt 
 
 IE 
 
 EIGHT BEATITUDES. 
 
 1 
 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 
 PAGES 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 345 
 
 FIRST BEATITUDE. POVERTY IN SPIRIT 
 
 348 
 
 SECOND 
 
 i> 
 
 ... SPIRITUAL MOURNING ... 
 
 351 
 
 THIRD 
 
 >. 
 
 ... MEEKNESS 
 
 353 
 
 FOURTH 
 
 „ 
 
 ... HUNGER AND THIRST 
 
 
 
 
 AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 355 
 
 FIFTH 
 
 s> 
 
 ... THE MERCIFUL 
 
 359 
 
 SIXTH 
 
 ,, 
 
 ... PURITY IN HEART 
 
 361 
 
 SEVENTH 
 
 >> 
 
 ... PEACEMAKERS 
 
 364 
 
 EIGHTH 
 
 1 
 
 " 
 
 ... THE PERSECUTED 
 
 366 
 
 344
 
 345 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 INTROD UCTION. 
 
 I. Their Matchless Sublimity. 
 
 [1941] Perhaps the best materials the con- 
 structive imagination can use may be found 
 (after the beginning and end of the Apocalypse) 
 in reflection on the Beatitudes. To see God, 
 to obtain mercy, to be comforted, to be called 
 the children of God by Him, in the beatific 
 Presence ; to be filled with righteousness : these 
 words convey positive ideas as well as negative. 
 To be comforted, for example, means not only 
 to be cured of immediate sorrow, but to have 
 inexpressible pleasure in God's actually and 
 personally comforting us. The whole passages 
 in Matthew v. and Luke vi. 20 may amount to 
 descriptions of perfect spiritual happiness ; and 
 an impartial observer might think such Chris- 
 tian conjectui"e both loftier and more subtle 
 than any other heaven or heavenly state he 
 knew of, whether Hindu, Greek, or Moham- 
 medan. — Church Quarterly Review, 1880. 
 
 II. Their Structural Character. 
 
 I A general correspondence between the 
 whole. 
 
 [1942] As sources of happiness, they agree 
 in three things — they are all spiritual, unpopular, 
 and present. First. They are all spiritual : 
 they are states of heart. They are not some- 
 thing out of man, after which he has to reach, 
 nor something that is put into him as an entity 
 distinct from his being ; they are states into 
 which his heart is to pass — they are habits of 
 the soul. This is a feature of Christ's theory of 
 happiness that gives it a universal application, 
 that puts blessedness within the reach of every 
 man. Had Christ represented the elements of 
 happiness as consisting in any particular con- 
 dition of life, then it is clear that, whatever con- 
 dition that might have been, it would have 
 come not only partially without the reach of all, 
 but wholly without the reach of many ; or had 
 He represented them as connected with a cer- 
 tain order of intellectual talent, or a certain 
 amount of intellectual acquirement, it is perfectly 
 obvious that a large portion of every successive 
 generation, from the diversity of capacity and 
 opportunity, would be excluded from the blessed- 
 ness of being. But when He makes them to 
 consist in states of the heart; then he puts them 
 
 within the reach of all. Humility, meekness, 
 mercifulness, desire for rectitude, &c., are they 
 not states as attainable by the child as the 
 adult, the poor as the rich, the untutored as the 
 sage "i " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for 
 out of it are the issues of life."— Z>r. Thomas. 
 
 III. 
 
 Points of Difference between St. 
 Matthew's and St. Luke's Record. 
 
 [1943] Of eight beatitudes given in St. Mat- 
 thew, four only are recorded in St. Luke ; and 
 those four are in that Gospel accompanied 
 by corresponding denunciations of woe, which 
 are not found in St. Matthew. Blessed are the 
 poor, the hungry, the mourners, and those who 
 are evil spoken of by men ; woe to the rich, the 
 full, to those who laugh now, and to those whom 
 men speak well of. Moreover, the blessings 
 promised in St. Luke are fixed — both by the 
 omission of the loftier and more spiritual words 
 which occur in St. Matthew, and by their cor- 
 responding denunciations — to more outward, 
 and, so to speak, more superficial cases than 
 those intended in St. Matthew. Poverty, actual 
 poverty, hunger, sorrow, unpopularity amongst 
 men — these actual things are (no doubt because 
 of the opportunities which they offer the exercise 
 of high Christian graces) pronounced to be 
 blessed in St. Luke. Richness, fulness of bread, 
 mirth, popularity amongst men — these outward 
 things (no doubt because of the manifold and 
 dangerous temptations with which they are ac- 
 companied) are the precise things against 
 which in that Gospel woe is pronounced. — Bp. 
 Hloberiey. 
 
 IV. Contrast between the giving of 
 the Decalogue and the Sermon 
 ON the Mount. 
 
 I Circumstances connected with the giving 
 of the Decalogue. 
 
 [1944] I. At Mount Sinai, in the desert. 
 
 2. At Mount Sinai, with bounds set round it, 
 and the people at a distance. 
 
 3. The people fleeing from Mount Sinai. 
 
 4. Moses alone with God, hidden in the 
 darkness. 
 
 5. Moses receiving the law through the min- 
 istry of angels. 
 
 6. One, addressing a particular nation. 
 
 7. The law given amid thunder and light-
 
 346 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 1944— 1952.] 
 
 [introduction. 
 
 8. In the one case producing terror. 
 
 9. In the one case appeaUng to fear. 
 
 10. In the one successive demands. 
 
 11. In the one case the ancient Gospel law 
 transformed into law. 
 
 12. In the one case temporal things. 
 
 2 Circumstances connected with the Sermon 
 on the Mount. 
 
 [1945] I. At Mount of Beatitudes, in a popu- 
 lous district in the holy land. 
 
 2. At Mount of Beatitudes, encompassed by 
 multitudes. 
 
 3. The people flocking to the Mount of 
 Beatitudes. 
 
 4. Jesus speaking sitting amidst His dis- 
 ciples. 
 
 5. Jesus speaking from the depths of His 
 own Divine spirit. 
 
 6. The other, addressing all mankind. 
 
 7. Jesus speaking in holy calmness and 
 peace. 
 
 8. In the other drawing the heart to the 
 Lord. 
 
 9. In the other case appealing to love. 
 
 10. In the other successive blessings. 
 
 11. In the other, even the law transformed 
 jnto the Gospel. 
 
 12. In the other, promises of spiritual things. 
 See Van Doren Series. 
 
 V. Their Purport. 
 
 X To correct carnal and unworthy notions 
 of the gospel kingdom. 
 
 [1946] The purport of all these beatitudes was 
 not to tell all men, who were the happy persons 
 that were fit for the Messiah's kingdom and to 
 give such descriptions of them, as were directly 
 contrary to the bad dispositions of mind they 
 laboured under, occasioned by their carnal 
 notions of that kingdom. What more contrary 
 to covetousness and ambition than poverty in 
 spirit? What more contrary to a sensual, 
 luxurious life than a spirit of humiliation, 
 mourning, and repentance .'' What more con- 
 trary to fierceness, fuiy, and revenge than a 
 spirit of meekness and humility ; or to rapine 
 and unjust conquest, than a spirit of justice and 
 righteousness? What more inconsistent with 
 hard-heartedness and cruelty than mercifulness 
 and compassion ; or with lust and uncleanness, 
 than purity of heart ? What more contrary to 
 litigiousness, insurrections, and rebellions, than 
 to be peaceable and peacemakers ? Or to per- 
 secuting others, than patience and martyrdom ? 
 —J. Blair, M.A., 1723. 
 
 [1947] It is impossible to regard, with any 
 serious attention, the successive dispositions 
 pronounced blessed in this sermon, without 
 observing the perfect acquaintance with the 
 heart of man which this great prophet discovers. 
 He knew the roving of his spirit in quest of 
 happiness, and he would, therefore, direct its 
 attention to some suitable course where it may 
 be obtained. He saw that men were bent on 
 
 fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the 
 mind, and that the current of their aflections 
 was towards the riches, honours, and shadows 
 of the present world. He, therefore, pitied 
 their mistake and their folly. Perfectly aware 
 that this state of mind was vicious, and that the 
 objects which it had been accustomed to seek 
 were as worthless as the pursuit was delusive, 
 he calls its attention from such as are transitory, 
 and directs it to such as are permanent ; from 
 the sordid to the spiritual, and from those which 
 are polluted and earthly to such as are pure 
 and heavenly. — Goocf (of Salisbury). 
 
 2 To lay broad and deep the foundations 
 of the gospel kingdom. 
 
 [194S] In this sermon our Lord is laying 
 broad and deep the foundations of His spiritual 
 edifice. A pure and loving heart, an open and 
 trustful conscience, a freedom of communion 
 with the Father of spirits, a love of man as man, 
 the measure of which is to be nothing less than 
 a man's love of himself; above all, a stern de- 
 termination at any cost to be true, such the 
 moral material of the first stage of our Lord's 
 public teaching. — Canon Liddon. 
 
 VI. Suggested Remarks about their 
 Teaching. 
 
 [1949] There are three things noticeable 
 about the beatitudes, i. Their intense spiri- 
 tuality; 2. The possibility of exemplifying their 
 practical conditions in daily life ; 3. The pre- 
 sent and personal blessedness which they affirm, 
 —J. Parker, D.D. 
 
 [1950] We see (i) that some of them look to- 
 wards God, and others towards man ; theology 
 and morality should be united. 2. That some 
 persons are included and others are excluded 
 beyond our expectations ; the poor in spirit, the 
 mourners, and the weak are here ; but where 
 are the rich, the famous, and the mighty ? 3. 
 That right moral relations to Christ are always 
 associated with the richest personal rewards ; 
 the good enjoy not only a blessed condition, but 
 shall enjoy an ample compensation. 4. That 
 men have always mistaken the direction in 
 which " blessedness " lay. 5. That the enemy 
 himself shall be a contributor to the saints' joy. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 [195 1] The beatitudes are descriptive (I.) of 
 the longing spirit. I. In its humility before 
 God (ver. 3), 2. In its humility before men (ver. 
 5). 3. In its earthly sorrow (ver. 4). 4. In its 
 heavenly aspirations (ver. 6). (II.) Of the satis- 
 fied spirit, " pitiful " toward the sorrowing ; (2) 
 pure before God. (3) " Peace-loving towards 
 all. (4) "Persecuted" by the world.— 6". G. 
 Green, D.D. 
 
 VII. The Graces commended. 
 
 I They are intimately connected together. 
 
 [1952] Into which beatitude can I come? 
 Let each man ask for himself. I am not all
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 1952—1958] 
 
 347 
 
 [INTKODUCTION. 
 
 these eight. Which is my little wicket gate, 
 through which I pass into God's reward. There 
 is only one gate that I see here that I ever have 
 any hope of getting in at. " Blessed are they 
 that hunger." If I cannot get through that gate, 
 
 1 fear all the others are shut. There is a gate 
 for all of us. And yet, methinks, that all the 
 gates somehow interfold, and that if we get 
 through one we shall seem to have gone through 
 all.— 7. Parker, D.D. I^condaiscct). 
 
 2 They exist independently of particular 
 Church government. 
 
 [1953] The beatitudes put before us what 
 are those qualities, and what are those results 
 which alone the Founder of our religion regarded 
 as of supreme excellence. He does not say 
 blessed are the Churchmen, or the Noncon- 
 formists, the Episcopalians or the Baptists, the 
 Roman Catholics or the Protestants, but those 
 who show those graces in the character which 
 may be found in every one of these communions, 
 and under every one of these forms of belief. — 
 Dean Stanley. 
 
 3 They are of another order altogether than 
 that of human virtues as pourtrayed by 
 heathen writers. 
 
 [1954] Though an occasional glimpse of the 
 superior heroism of the meek and enduring, as 
 compared with the self-exalting and violent 
 forms of goodness, appears to have been at- 
 tained, as it were, for a moment, by one or other 
 of the ancient writers, yet when they come to 
 elaborate their pictures of virtue, they seem to 
 lose themselves altogether in the admiration of 
 those showy and outwardly successful traits of 
 character which have their scope and obtain 
 their reward upon the earth. They have no 
 eyes for anything beyond. They are like men 
 looking, not without some natural powers of 
 sight and discrimination, at a vast and compli- 
 cated assemblage of objects, seeking in vain for 
 a point of view in which all may be seen to- 
 gether, and in their due relations to one another, 
 and therefore for ever mistaking the compara- 
 tive greatness, and true relative bearing and real 
 measure of the things that are before them, and 
 sure to be misled in their judgments in favour 
 of those which are nearest and brightest, and 
 which loom largest to their eyes. Open the 
 Sermon on the Mount, and it is plain at once 
 that the standpoint is gained. Human virtue, 
 on the grandest and truest scale, is seen in its 
 relation to God and eternity, to Christ and judg- 
 ment ; and forthwith the whole confusion is 
 gone. All falls instantly into perfect perspec- 
 tive. The scene is uniform and harmonious, and 
 can be read. For the light of God is on it, and 
 all is seen by Him who made it, and is con- 
 ducting it towards His own great ends. — Bp. 
 Moberley. 
 
 4 They form a higher standard of duty than 
 that of the law. 
 
 [1955] Christ was herein the author of a Neiu 
 Law. He improved the Moral Law, delivered 
 
 by God and Moses to the Jeivs, to a much 
 greater height and severity of duty than it was 
 thought to extend to, or really did extend, 
 before (Matt. v. 20). — J. Gardiner, M.A., 1706. 
 
 5 There is a gradation observable in the 
 order in which they are mentioned. 
 
 [1956] I. T/ie poor in spirit. — The death of 
 self-righteousness and self-assertion. 
 
 2. They that mourn. — The burial of self- 
 righteousness and self-assertion. 
 
 3. TJie meek. — The frame of mind which 
 takes the place of self-righteousness and self- 
 assertion. 
 
 4. Hiaiger and thirst after righteousness.— 
 The flow of spiritual life through the soul. 
 
 5. The merciful. — The soul conscious of 
 mercy received, exhibits enthusiastically mercy, 
 and so realizes the doctrine of mercy, or, other- 
 wise expressed, of grace. 
 
 6. The pure in heart. — The soul vigorous in 
 its struggle against sin, and in its exclusion of 
 foreign and polluting elements. 
 
 7. The peacemakers. — The soul pure within, 
 and so at peace with God, and itself, and the 
 world, seeks to realize the reign of the Prince of 
 Peace, and to make all others likewise at peace. 
 
 8. The persecuted for righteousness' sake.-^ 
 The consequence of Christian aggressive move- 
 ments to increase the kingdom of peace, leads 
 to conflict with the vested interest of the king- 
 dom of evil, and ends in personal suffering. 
 This, however, gives scope for the exercise of 
 a new grace, patience or endurance. — C. N. 
 
 6 They describe not so much eight different 
 classes of people as eight different traits 
 or points of character in the same man. 
 
 [1957] Two of them relate to virtues which 
 are purely mward, absolutely confined to the in- 
 terior depths of a Christian man's spirit— ^z^r/^ 
 of heart, and hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness. Two of them are virtues inward indeed, 
 but having relation to our position among men 
 — poverty of spirit and meekness. Two of them 
 rather belong to the passive condition of human 
 virtue, placed in the midst of a sad and unkind 
 world — sorrow and persecution. The seventh, 
 7nercy, is the special virtue of the Christian in 
 his active and outward dealings with other men ; 
 and in peace-fnaking, the last of the eight, he is 
 regarded as going altogether out from himself, 
 and entering into the transactions which arise 
 between other people, and in which he himself 
 has no personal share. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 7 They form the complete portraiture of the 
 Christian man. 
 
 [1958] None but a Christian man can have 
 them perfectly ; for they require the onward, 
 faithful looking forward to glory in Christ, 
 through His atoning blood ; and they require 
 the indwelling aid of the Holy Ghost, which, 
 richly offered to Christian men in the Church of 
 Christ, is not, so far as we know, given save in 
 that Church. None but a Christian man can 
 ha-'e them perfectly ; and he who has them not
 
 348 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 1958 — 1969. FIRST BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [poverty in spirit. 
 
 at all can hardly be called a Christian man at 
 all. He may have the position, the opportuni- 
 ties, the offered hopes, the responsibihties^ of a 
 Christian man, but in all the character, in all 
 the moral acceptableness, in all that should 
 adorn and justify his profession, he is surely no 
 Christian man at all. — Ibid. 
 
 8 They are possible for, and only for, the 
 members of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 [1959] The beatitudes may be truly regarded 
 as an exposition of morality purely Christian ; 
 and in attempting to make some examination 
 of them, we are to consider ourselves as being 
 under the full light of Christian truth and grace, 
 not dealing wiih abstract or general morality, 
 but with that which belongs to God's saints in 
 the Church of Christ, and is only possible to 
 them — and to them possible only by the help 
 and in the strength of that Holy Spirit of whose 
 blessed influences the saints are permitted to 
 drink in the Church. — Ibid. 
 
 III. The Blessings promised. 
 X Their appropriateness. 
 
 [i960] The blessings promised in each case is 
 the appropriate reward, we may say, the natural 
 result, of the particular character and line of 
 conduct commended. 
 
 [1961] I, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of heaven. — When emptied 
 of self and sin, we are capable of receiving the 
 heavenly riches. 
 
 2. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall 
 be comforted. — God, who has broken the heart 
 for sin, will mend it. God who has caused the 
 tears of genuine sorrow to flow, will wipe them 
 away. 
 
 3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit 
 the earth. — Submission to God's will, and a 
 right tameness of spirit alone fits for the en- 
 joyment of possessions in time or eternity. 
 
 4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness, for they shall be filled. — God 
 does not implant religious desires and instincts 
 in His servants to mock or torture them. 
 
 5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall ob- 
 tain 7nercy. — The holy law of retaliation is 
 obvious the moment it is stated. 
 
 6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
 see God. — Sin is darkness, and righteousness is 
 light. The soul kept pure gains m mental and 
 spiritual powers to approach and hold commu- 
 nion with God. 
 
 7. Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall 
 be called the children of God. — Peace- makers 
 prove their heavenly origin and their spiritual 
 affinity with the Prince of Peace and the blood 
 royal of heaven. 
 
 8. Blessed are they that are persecuted for 
 righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of 
 heaven. — When stript for the Lord's sake and 
 the truth's sake by the Lord's enemies, we shall 
 have more than ample compensation for all pos- 
 sible loss. — C. N. 
 
 2 Their fulfilment, 
 
 [1962] In all these seven (rather eight) pro- 
 mises no interval of space or time intervenes 
 between the longing and the satisfaction — Latige. 
 
 FIRST BEATITUDE. 
 
 {Poverty in Spirit.) 
 
 I. The Grace commended in Persons 
 blessed, 
 
 I Negatively interpreted, 
 
 (i) Not the destitution of temporal good. 
 
 [1963] Although physical poverty may be 
 overruled for spiritual good, it is nevertheless 
 an evil in itself. — Dr. Thomas. 
 
 [1964] It is not poverty in the body, so as to 
 mean the mere want of money, or the luxuries 
 or comforts which money brings. This sort of 
 poverty may have its blessedness under the 
 beatitudes of St. Luke, but it is irrelevant to 
 that recorded by St. Matthew. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 [1965] This beatitude rightly interpreted 
 effectually excludes the Ronlan Catholic in- 
 terpretation, that it is an outward poverty or 
 riches of which Christ is speaking : that, for 
 example. He is fore-announcing here any mendi- 
 cant orders, with some singular beatitude which 
 should be theirs. 
 
 [1966] Outward poverty does not itself consti- 
 tute humility, however it might be a help to 
 it, nor were they necessarily " poor in spirit " 
 because poor in worldly goods. Every beggar 
 was not a Lazarus ; while on the other side 
 there were Abrahams and Jobs who were 
 adorned with this true poverty, even in the 
 midst of their worldly abundance. — Abp. Trench. 
 
 [1967] We should not confound " the poor in 
 spirit " with the poor in worldly circumstances. 
 A man may be poor, very poor as it regards the 
 things of this world, and yet be proud, haughty, 
 and insolent. Our circumstances in life do not 
 regulate our piety. The poor are not always 
 humble, nor are the affluent and the noble 
 always arrogant. — J. Jordan. 
 
 (2) Not the destitution of intellectual know- 
 ledge. 
 
 [i 968] This is a greater evil still than temporal 
 destitution. " For the soul to be without know- 
 ledge is not good." Better be without food for 
 the body than without ideas for the mind. 
 Great ideas are the pinions of the soul : by them 
 we soar, with eagle swiftness, from the earth, 
 cleave the clouds, and bask high up in the 
 bright day-beams of truth. — Dr. Thomas. 
 
 (3) Not the destitution of mental independency. 
 [1969] Nor is it the destitution of mental in-
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 1969— 1979. FIRST BEATITUDE.] 
 
 349 
 
 [poverty in spirit. 
 
 dependency that is here meant. That fawning 
 spirit, the brand-mark of little souls, which 
 sacrifices the rights of manhood for the smiles 
 of power, has ever been, and still is, one of the 
 greatest obstructions in the path of human pro- 
 gress. It is the broad base in society on which 
 all despotisms, political and religious, rear their 
 crushing iron thrones. — Ibid. 
 
 [1970] Still less is it poverty in the lower or 
 specific soul and its desires, so as to mean a 
 feeble and ignoble disposition, falling naturally 
 below the energy of man's wishes or ambition. 
 This sort of poverty has no blessing in either 
 gospel ; nor is it blessed. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 2 Positively interpreted. 
 
 (i) An absence of spiritual pride. 
 
 [197 1] But the destitution Jesus means is that 
 of self-importance — the entiie absence of all 
 pride and egotistic thought and feeling. Where 
 this humility is not, where there is pride in any 
 mind, there can be no blessedness. By pride 
 the pure spirits of heaven sank to hell ; by 
 humility the imperfect spirits of earth ascend 
 to heaven. He that humbleth himself is exalted. 
 — Dr. Thomas. 
 
 [1972J This poverty of spirit implies a mind 
 not agitated by any sinful emotions which 
 worldly pride is apt to suggest. If the rich man 
 is willing to part with his wealth rather than 
 betray the honour of the giver ; or if those in 
 low estate abstain from murmuring against 
 God's providence ; both are poor in spirit : in 
 the rich man, God sees a Moses who preferred 
 the afflictions of Israel to the splendours of 
 Pharaoh ; — in the other, Christ says, as to the 
 Church of Smyrna, " I know thy tribulation and 
 thy poverty ; but thou art rich ; " even in 
 patience, contentment, and faith. — Abp. Trench. 
 
 [1973] True humility of spirit knows nothing 
 of ostentation — seeks not to exhibit its beauty 
 — wishes not the approval of men. It has its 
 residence in the heart, like all the other graces, 
 and is awakened by that power which nothing 
 can resist. The heart is the habitation of God. 
 — 7' Jordan. 
 
 (2) A consciousness of poverty in regard to 
 the true riches. 
 
 [1974] They felt poor when they thought of 
 (i) truth, (2) holiness, (3) happiness. 
 
 [1975] "In spirit" — r^ irvevfian — denotes 
 that in respect of which the righteous are 
 "poor." They are pronounced "poor," not in 
 respect of attainment or possession, but of their 
 spirit. A certain frame and certain exercises 
 of spirit, which are distinctive of the poor, are 
 found with them, an.d so far, and in this respect, 
 they are such as are properly denominated " the 
 poor." The manner of spirit they are of is one 
 of the characteristics to which the designation 
 is attached ; and, therefore, in reference to this 
 
 characteristic, and under the limitation of this 
 reference, it is applicable to them. Accordingly 
 they are here denominated " the poor," not in 
 all respects, and without limitation, but "in 
 spirit." Thus " in spirit " denotes that from 
 the presence of which, and not, as some have 
 held, that from the want of which, " the poor" 
 intended are denominated. — Mcltityre. 
 
 [1976] The term "poor" excludes the false 
 riches of pride and self-sufficiency, while " in 
 spirit " marks the region in which this poverty 
 should find place ; that He is not now speaking 
 of worldly riches or worldly poverty, not of the 
 things outside of a man, but of those which are 
 within. It is as much as to say, Blessed are 
 they that are inwardly poor, who in their hearts 
 and spirits have a sense of need, of emptiness, 
 and poverty. — Abp. Trc7ich. 
 
 [1977] Hence, as the things which are unseen 
 and eternal are not to be fully possessed and 
 enjoyed here, the present state, at the best, is 
 characterized by much want. The spiritually 
 enlightened perceive and experience this ; and, 
 consequently, their feeling is that they are poor, 
 that they have not yet attained to their proper 
 portion and rest. Whatever they already 
 possess, or have already reached, they cannot 
 look upon it and receive it as sufficient to afford 
 them satisfaction. Hence, though they may be 
 rich comparatively, as already possessing much, 
 yet as regards their bearing towards what they 
 possess, being unable to rest in it, they are 
 " poor in spirit." Thus, to be " poor in spirit " 
 is to be " strangers and pilgrims upon the earth, 
 desiring a better country, that is an heavenly." 
 —Mclntyre. 
 
 (3) A consequent beseechingness of spirit. 
 [197S] May we not remember that the poverty 
 
 of spirit of this beatitude is, if we pursue the 
 Greek word exactly, rather a beseechingness, a 
 beggingness, if I may coin such a term, of 
 spirit ? I do not doubt indeed that it is rightly 
 translated, for in the Greek of the New Testa- 
 ment the word has greatly lost its original mean- 
 ing, and is generally used to signify "poverty" 
 only. Yet in its true, first force, it signifies that 
 lofty, lowly beocring wherewith the spirit of man 
 lays itself in supplication before the Holy Spirit 
 of God, ever begging, ever lon«ging, never satis- 
 fied, desiring more and more always of that 
 Divine indwelling wherein is its own strength, 
 and happiness, and peace. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 (4) A consequent acquiescence in God's order- 
 ing concerning us. 
 
 [1979] It must be a willing poverty, of grace, 
 not of nature, in the higher and spiritual part of 
 man ; not an outwardly imposed condition, nor 
 an inward deficiency of force, but a willing and 
 gracious selection and acquiescence by the spirit 
 of a Christian man enlightened and enabled by 
 the Holy Spirit of God, in a place, condition, 
 desires, and the like, analogous to that which
 
 35° 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 1979 — 1983. FIRST BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [poverty in spirit. 
 
 belongs to the outwardly and literally poor. It 
 must be a weakness, so to say, that comes of 
 strength ; a poverty, so to call it, on the earth, 
 that comes of riches not on the earth. For the 
 word poverty plainly belongs to this world, and 
 the poor in spirit is surely he who, -ivhile he 
 remahis here, is in his spirit as a poor man 
 among men, content to take and occupy the poor 
 man's place, having no personal ambition nor 
 desire of anything greater upon the earth, lowly, 
 and content with lowliness, unaffectedly, sin.ply 
 lowly among men, and in respect of the things 
 which belong to this world. — Ibid. 
 
 II. The Blessing pronounced : " For 
 
 THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." 
 
 1 Its nature and import. 
 
 [19S0] The kingdom of heaven meets the poor 
 in spirit : — 
 
 First : In the reveIatio7i of Divitie truth. He 
 that humbles himself and becomes as a little 
 child enjoys Divine disclosures of truth. The 
 hungry soul is filled with the food of Divine 
 revelation ; the poor in spirit partake of truth, 
 specially of the truth of Christ. Yea, that truth 
 becomes their inseparable possession. The 
 Spirit so brings it home to them, to their mind 
 and heart, that it becomes as it were a part of 
 their being, and they are thereby ennobled and 
 enriched. It develops itself in thought, feeling, 
 principle, and is thus indeed a rich possession, 
 a real blessedness, a joy for ever. 
 
 Secondly : hi the bestownient of moral purity . 
 To the poor in spirit Jesus is made of God both 
 righteousness and sanctification. The poor in 
 spirit can name Jesus by this name, " The Lord 
 our righteousness." And they are besides re- 
 newed in true holiness. In them a work of 
 sanctification, in its nature complete and pro- 
 gressive, is being carried on. They are being 
 changed into the very image of Jesus, from glory 
 to glory. 
 
 Thirdly : In the securing of unending bliss. 
 The poor in spirit have blessedness here and 
 happiness in reserve. They have blessedness in 
 possession, the blessedness of pardoned sinners, 
 of a life of holiness, of Divine disclosures of 
 truth, of Divine sonship, &c. But in its full 
 glory and fruition it is a thing reserved. Here 
 their happiness is often mixed ; in heaven it 
 will be complete and without alloy, and never 
 withdrawn. 
 
 Are you in search of blessedness? Then here 
 Is true blessedness, the only true blessedness, 
 namely, to be in possession of " the kingdom of 
 heaven." Here are boundless provisions to 
 meet the deepest spiritual poverty— truth for 
 spiritual ignorance, purity for moral depravity, 
 bliss for merited wretchedness. Only be "poor 
 in spirit," " set your affections on things above," 
 ■"seek first the kingdom of God and his right- 
 eousness." — Glcnbervie. 
 
 2 Its special point. 
 
 [1981] The consideration of the kingdom of 
 
 heaven assures the poor in spirit of the fulness 
 of fruition and blessedness, and it assures the 
 persecuted of ultimate triumph and security. 
 The poor in spirit and the persecuted are both 
 in depressing circumstances, and to both, there- 
 fore, the most elevating view is presented — that 
 of a kingdom, the kingdom of heaven ; and the 
 most elevating announcement is made, that this 
 kingdom is X\v€\xs.—Mclntyre, 
 
 3 Mistakes guarded against. 
 
 (i) 77^1? kingdom is not of an earthly atid 
 politically revohitionary character. 
 
 [1982] The kingdom of heaven, of which this 
 sermon is the earliest manifesto, was not to be 
 of this world in its moral or spiritual temper ; 
 but it certainly was to be, in the fullest possible 
 sense, in this world ; " fulfilling" — here again — 
 and not "destroying," those domestic, civil, and 
 social moulds into which the original design of 
 God meant human life to run. — Dykes. 
 
 (2) The kingdojn not to be restricted to ofie or 
 other of its two legitimate meanings. 
 
 [1983] Even to say "It is yours" might seem 
 to imply some exertion on our part in order to 
 secure or get the good of the gift ; and for this 
 a man may feel he has no might. To enter in 
 and possess a kingdom given may be too much 
 for him. Let me bring, then, to the weak soul's 
 aid an ambiguity in these words of Jesus which 
 may not be quite undesigned. When Jesus said 
 of little children '"''of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven," and when He said of men poor in 
 spirit that the kingdom is theirs, He used the 
 same expression. It is capable of both senses. 
 Not only in grammar, but in fact, the relation 
 of Christ's kingdom to His disciples may be 
 apprehended from two sides. It consists of 
 them as its subjects or citizens — its population, 
 so to say ; or it belongs to them and is theirs as 
 their country, their city, their birthright and pos- 
 session. One may say either, "It has me, for 
 it includes me within the range of its laws and 
 protection ; I am counted in the census of its 
 people, and its King claims me for His own ;" 
 or one may say, " I have it, for I have within my 
 soul as my personal experience the spiritual 
 righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Ghost 
 in which it consists ; I realize what it implies of 
 Divine favour and holy rule." In this double 
 sense the kingdom of heaven, like any earthly 
 one, consists of all, even of the little children 
 whom it has just registered in its roll, and for 
 whom, as for its still helpless citizens, it under- 
 takes to care ; but the kingdom can only be 
 said to belong to the adult and veteran saint 
 whom Christ receives after trial and conquest to 
 sit with Him upon His throne. In the first 
 beatitude, blessed are the poor, because already, 
 in the dawn of spiritual life, the King counts 
 them for His own, and of them is the kingdom; 
 in the last beatitude, blessed are the martyrs 
 who have kept the faith, and been made like 
 unto the King, for now in full fruition the king-
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 1983—1991. SECOND BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [sriBlTUAL MOURNING. 
 
 dom of heaven is theirs. Let it not therefore 
 grieve any one if in the poverty of his spirit he 
 cannot as yet claim liis inheritance. — Ibid. 
 
 4 Means necessary to be used for its reali- 
 zation. 
 
 (i) Self-inspection and pe?-/ect honest dealiftg 
 with ourselves. 
 
 [1984] Does not each one of us require to 
 remind himself of this ? to check himself, and 
 bring himself, as it were, forcibly back to re- 
 member that it is not worldly success or fame 
 that has the blessing and the promise of God, 
 but true Christian poverty of spirit ? Do not 
 worldly maxims surround us, and, as it were, 
 penetrate all our life ? Do not worldly feelings 
 intrude upon us continually, almost whether we 
 will or no .'' How many a heart-ache are they 
 spared whose humility is real, wliose inner 
 spirit is lowly and spiritually poor in the sight 
 of God ! Let us not be misled by deceitful 
 imaginations, as though we desired the high 
 places of the earth, in order, as men say, to be 
 more useful, or the like. This is a very common 
 salve of conscience in the ambitious. But it is 
 a delusive one. We know not where we are 
 most useful. A devoted. Christian man, doing 
 his Christian work with all his might, is of un- 
 speakable use wherever he is. Only let us keep 
 our eyes and our hearts fixed on the eternal 
 kingdom, fixed on the return of the Judge in 
 judgment, and humbling ourselves in daily 
 penitence and confession of sin, and, growing 
 stronger daily in holiness and the strength of 
 the Holy Ghost, we shall by His grace realize 
 more and more the lofty lowliness of the blessed 
 poor in spirit, for whom, whatever be the lowness 
 of their place on earth, the high places are 
 surely appointed in the kingdom of heaven. — 
 Bp. Moberley. 
 
 in. Connection between the Condition 
 OF the Persons blessed and the 
 Blessing itself. 
 
 1^1985] Poor enough to bring nothing but 
 empty hands to God, and an empty heart ; 
 poor enougli to take the heavenly kingdom as 
 a gift from the most rich and bountiful Lord of 
 it ; poor enough to have a simple accepting 
 faith when He says, " It is yours ! " — Dykes. 
 
 [1986] The disposition of their minds is such, 
 that' they are immediately capable of receiving 
 and entertaining all the precepts of the Christian 
 doctrine ; their hearts are, as it were, ploughed 
 up, and ready for the seed, the greatest obstacle, 
 viz , the world and their affections to it, being 
 already conquered. — J. Gardiner. 
 
 [1987] Poverty in spirit is the fruit of the law, 
 and the germ of the gospel. The triumph of the 
 law consists in that it makes poor : that of the 
 gospel, in that it makes rich. — Lajige, 
 
 SECOND BEATITUDE. 
 
 {Spiritual Mourning) 
 
 L The Grace commended in Persons 
 blessed. 
 
 1 Negatively interpreted. 
 
 [19S8] Mourning arises from various causes. 
 Disappointments, bereavements, poverty, dis- 
 eases, social slander, oppression, moral con- 
 trition, are some of the sources from which 
 proceed those manifold streams of sorrow which 
 roll their turbulent billows over human souls. — 
 Dr. Thomas. 
 
 [1989] There is a mourning which has no 
 compensating blessing attached to it ; there is 
 misery enough among men, which yet has no 
 blessing, for it leads to no repentance, or at 
 best is only a " sorrow of the world." One is 
 groaning for one thing, one for another — for 
 this temporal loss, for that worldly tribulation, 
 for the 'hail that has laid waste his vineyard, 
 for the death that has entered into his dwelling, 
 for the powerful foes that are seeking his harm. 
 . . . This mourning gives too sure an augury 
 that there is reserved for him a mourning of 
 another kind, and which shall not be exchanged. 
 — Abp. Trench. 
 
 2 Positively interpreted, 
 (i) A godly sorrOiU. 
 
 [1990] It is to moral mourning — mourning on 
 account of sin — that Jesus here refers. This 
 penitential sorrow does not arise merely from 
 the fear of the consequences of sin, either tem- 
 poral or eternal, but from a deep sense of its 
 enormity as rebellion against the God of infinite 
 holiness and love. This "godly sorrow, which 
 worketh repentance to salvation not to be re- 
 pented of," is truly a " blessed " sorrow. Though 
 painful, it is only the Great Physician probing 
 the moral wound before He applies the " sove- 
 reign balm ; " it is but the passing tempest, 
 whose frowning fury is clearing the air, watering 
 the earth, making bright the sky, and unveiling 
 in fairer beauties the face of the world. This 
 element of well-being is not necessary in heaven, 
 because there is no sin there ; but it is indis- 
 pensable to the happiness of every depraved 
 soul on earth. Christ announces an irrevocable 
 law in this beatitude, and that is, that penitential 
 sorrow must precede human happiness : " Ex- 
 cept ye repent ye shall likewise perish." 
 
 E'er since the fall man's penitence his blessed- 
 ness precedes ; 
 'Tis grief that tunes his heart to music, 
 'Tis tribulation fits him for the skies. 
 
 — Dr. Thomas. 
 
 [1991] Worldly men know not of a mourning 
 which springs from a higher source, a mourning 
 for our own sins, for the sins of others, out of a 
 sense of our exile here, of our separation from
 
 352 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 1991 — 2004. SECOND BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [spiritual mourning. 
 
 the true home of our spirits, out of a longing for 
 the eternal Sabbath. And yet it is only this 
 nobler grief that has the promise linked to it, 
 that shall be followed by any true consolation. 
 To be thus miserable is indeed to be happy.— 
 Abp. Trench. 
 
 II. The Blessing pronounced : " For 
 
 THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED." 
 
 1 Its nature and import. 
 
 (i) As to the present. 
 
 [1992] Spiritual mourners shall be comforted 
 (i) by an assurance of their personal interest in 
 Christ ; (2) by the promise that the cause of 
 their mourning shall be removed ; (3) by the 
 expression of Divine approval ; (4) by the pros- 
 pect of an eternity of happiness in heaven. — 
 J. Jordan. 
 
 [1993] He is the subject of "exceeding great 
 and precious promises " (Psa. cxxvi. 5, 6 ; Isa. 
 xl. I, 2), and of the ministry of the Holy Ghost 
 the Comforter. — Good (of Salisbury) 
 
 (2) As to the ftttiire. 
 
 [1994] The mourner shall forget his sorrows 
 vn the comforts of eternity. — Pitman. 
 
 2 Its accessibleness. 
 
 [1995] This true comfort, which modulates 
 all the jarrings, reconciles all the differences, 
 smooths all the inequalities, and sweetens all 
 the bitterness of life, is within the reach of every 
 one of uSj — may be this moment our own. — 
 Monsell. 
 
 3 Its special point. 
 
 [1996] The sorrows themselves contribute (i) 
 in the present state to the Christian's joys 
 (Rom. v. 2, 3 ; viii. 35-37) ; (2) to the increase 
 of his future glory (2 Cor. iv. 15-17). 
 
 [1997] This comfort consists in something 
 more than mere support under his burdens. It 
 is a surplus of peace and joy, over and above 
 the measure of his grief. It would be pleasant 
 indeed for the soldier always to have succour 
 equal to his necessity, and strength according 
 to his conflict ; but that does not amount to the 
 fulness of this promise. The idea which it con- 
 veys is that the consolations of the Christian 
 far surpass his sorrows ; and that his bitterest 
 afflictions, under the Divine blessing, conduce 
 to swell the magnitude of his triumph. — Good 
 {of Salisbury). 
 
 [1998] It is not every sort of comforting a 
 mourner will call " blessed." If you cannot let 
 me in through this gateway of distress to a 
 peace, a largeness of delight unfelt before ; if 
 you do not turn my very tears to showers of 
 sunshine, and lift me from my valley up to 
 heights of glorious bliss on which I could not 
 otherwise have stood : where, I pray you, is the 
 " blessedness " of my " mourning ? " — Dykes. 
 
 III. Connection between the Condition 
 of the Persons blessed and the 
 Blessing itself. 
 
 [1999] All around him changes, everything 
 seems brighter than before. And yet, nothing 
 without is changed, no more than the outer 
 world is changed to the senses of a man return- 
 ing to health. The whole change is within. 
 The heart is changed, it is new ! The man is 
 changed, he is born again ! The roseate colour 
 which life takes is not in itself, but in the medium 
 through which he gazes on it ; " He is a new 
 creature, old things are passed away, behold, 
 all things are become new." This is his comfort, 
 this is the way in which the blessing is realized, 
 and the promise fulfilled. It is thus those 
 lessons end, which he at first thought tended 
 only to melancholy and gloom. He was allured 
 into the wilderness, and God spake comfortably 
 to him there. 
 
 [2000] Sorrow because I am still wrestling 
 with sin, because mine eye, purified by living 
 with God, sees earth and sin, and life and death, 
 and the generations of men and the darkness 
 beyond, in some measure as God sees them ! 
 And yet the sorrow is surface, and the joy 
 central ; the sorrow springs from circumstance, 
 and the gladness from the essence of the thing, 
 and therefore the sorrow is transitory, and the 
 gladness is perennial. — Maclareti. 
 
 [2001] You must taste the sorrows of religion 
 in their verity, ere you can know the joys of re- 
 ligion in their reality and truth. There is no 
 surer sign of the Divine Life being in our souls 
 than the existence of this mourning in our hearts. 
 — Dykes. 
 
 [2002] What lies so near to a mourner's heart 
 as the bitterness of having thus departed from 
 the living God, unless it be the sore need which 
 the soul has of that absent and, it may be, angry 
 One's return, to be Himself the upbinder of His 
 own wounds ? To this spiritual issue all "mourn- 
 ing " tends. For this Divine comfort it always 
 seems to call. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. New Light thrown by this Beati- 
 tude upon the Philosophy of Life. 
 
 [2003] We are apt to think. Blessed are " the 
 merry ;" but Christ, who was Himself a great 
 mourner, says, Blessed are "the mourners." — 
 Matthew Henry. 
 
 [2004] " If the world addressed your majesty 
 (Louis XIV.) from this place, the world would 
 not say, ' Blessed are they that mourn,' but 
 'Blessed is the prince who has never fought but 
 to conquer; who has filled the universe with his 
 name ; who, through the whole course of a long 
 and flourishing reign, enjoys in splendour all 
 that men admire — extent of conquest, the esteem 
 of enemies, the love of his people, the wisdom
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 353 
 
 2004 — 20l5. THIRD BEATITUDE.! 
 
 [meekness. 
 
 of his laws.' But, sire, the language of the 
 gospel is not the language of the world." — 
 Massillon, 1662-1742. 
 
 [2005] " Blessed are they that mourn, for they 
 shall be comforted." " O God," some one prays, 
 "teach us how to grieve \"—D_y^es. 
 
 [2006] What a mercy in tears, when they 
 cause the loving hand of God to come so near 
 us. — Flavel. 
 
 THIRD BEATITUDE, 
 [Meekness^ 
 I. The Grace com^^ended in Persons 
 
 BLESSED. 
 
 X Its counterfeits. 
 
 (i) Cowardice. 
 
 [2007] It is not cowardice— i\ie opposite of 
 the intrepid and the brave in feeling— but it is 
 calm energy of soul. Jesus meek, yet the Lion 
 of the tribe of Judah (Rev. v. 5). 
 
 (2) Stoical insensibility. 
 
 [2008] Jesus was meek, and yet no nature 
 was more sensitive than His : the softest zephyr 
 rippled the deep crystal current of His heart. — 
 Dr. Thomas. 
 
 [2009] Not those who grieve at nothing, be- 
 cause they know nothing ; who are not discom- 
 posed at evils which occur, because they discern 
 not evil from good. Not those who are sheltered 
 from the shocks of life by a stupid insensibility, 
 who have either by nature or art the virtue of 
 stocks and stones, and resent nothing, because 
 they feel nothing. Apathy is as far from meek- 
 ness as from humanity. — y. Wesley. 
 
 2 Its origin. 
 
 [2010] The state which results from the two- 
 fold process of breaking and of softening — the 
 attitude to God in which the "hammer" and the 
 " fire " leave a man — is meekness. — Dykes. 
 
 [201 1] Meekness is first of all a state toward 
 God, not man. It is tameness of spirit before 
 our Heavenly Father. Hence one of old 
 (Gregory of Nyssa) called " humility, the mother 
 of meekness ;" and one of the moderns (Ram- 
 bach) has said, "It grows out of the ashes of 
 self-love and on the grave of pride." Rooting 
 itself deep in these antecedent beatitudes, in 
 undesert, the sense of which is soul-poverty, 
 and ill-desert, which worketh soul -sorrow, it 
 holds itself ready to fall in with anything, the 
 least or the worst, which God may give. This 
 blessed frame of spirit toward God has its con- 
 sequent and counterpart in the meek man's social 
 temper. — Ibid. 
 
 VOL I. 
 
 [2012] Christian meekness results chiefly (i) 
 from a deep sense of our own unworthiness ; (2) 
 from an earnest love of our fellow-men. He 
 who is humble in the meek consciousness of his 
 own vileness as a sinner will invariably be averse 
 from all overbearing ; and he who is zealous for 
 the well-being of others will forbear and forgive, 
 and keep down resentment, however injurious 
 the conduct of others ; thus we think that humi- 
 lity and love are among the chief ingredients of 
 meekness. — H. JSIelvill^ Golden Lectures. 
 
 3 Its growth. 
 
 [2013] The naturally meek man being for the 
 most part the naturally timid and irresolute, \yill 
 be so stimulated by grace that, while he retains 
 what is gentle, he acquires what is firm and 
 unbending. On the other hand, the naturally 
 vehement man, after having been renewed by 
 the Holy Ghost, is still as strong as before, and 
 as determined, but stripped of his impetuousness, 
 and softened with patience. Thus, in each case, 
 grace supplies the wanting quality ; or, to speak 
 more correctly, it takes the existing qualities, 
 removes the excess, and imparts all that was 
 heretofore deficient. — Ibid. 
 
 [2014] Your good-natured people, who by 
 constitution take the world as it comes, vviir 
 display, to begin with, a bastard species of 
 meekness, a wild slip on which perhaps may be 
 the sooner grafted the new grace. It will be 
 different with ardent and imperious natures, 
 with men impatient of injustice, or with such as 
 are aspiring and strong. To tame the leopard 
 into lying down with the kid, will ask a longer 
 and sterner education. The old nature will for 
 long be breaking out at times through super- 
 imposed lessons of gentleness. Still, the nevx- 
 meek heart must be found in every converted 
 character, in fuller or in slighter development;, 
 for meekness is the seed of childlikeness. It is 
 the mark of the " little one " who has a Father, 
 and, being weak and small, leaves all things to 
 that Father's Z2ite.— Dykes. 
 
 4 Its main characteristics. 
 
 (i) Viewed from its ne^s^ative side. 
 
 [2015] A willingness to take wrong without 
 retaliation. It bears with provocations, con- 
 trols all feelings of irritation, and refuses to 
 regard personal injury and wrong. In the- 
 natural imitations of Christian meekness, which 
 are not Christian meekness, but are outwardly 
 like it, this is perhaps the single, certainly 
 the one most characteristic, trait of all. — Bp. 
 JMobcrley. 
 
 [2016] It is that willingness to suffer wrong, 
 or pain, or insult, from our neighbour patiently, 
 and as a medicine from God, not a poison from 
 man, w^hich flows from the conviction that we 
 deserve at God's hand far heavier chastisements 
 than we receive ; and that all things, even the 
 unkindnesses of others, are permitted for our 
 good, and may be converted into blessings,— 
 Mottsell. 
 
 23
 
 354 
 
 2017 — 2026. 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 THIRD BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [meekness. 
 
 [2017] The meek are those bowed down in 
 humility before God. They patiently endure 
 evils and injuries in the strength of love : they 
 murmur not when God afflicts and punishes 
 them for their sins. They lie passive in His 
 hand, having wholly surrendered their will. — 
 Van Doren Series. 
 
 [2018] It is that high and radiant state of 
 mind in which all the faculties act as if they 
 were held in the sweetness of the faith of God, 
 and in the spirit of sympathy and love which is 
 in God. It is all that is in a man, thinking, 
 willing, acting, but acting under calmness, 
 under sweetness, under the law of benevolence. 
 It exists when a man's nature is so under the 
 Divine impress as that the agitations which 
 come from the passions cease, and the passions 
 themselves become only auxiliaries, and are 
 entirely subservient to the Divine Nature. It 
 is the best side of a man under provocation 
 maintaining itself in the best mood, and con- 
 trolling all men. — H. W. Beeclier. 
 
 (2) Vieivcd utorefrom its positive side. 
 
 {a) How the meek allow others to treat them. 
 
 [2019] A meek man, in a Christian sense, 
 Iiaving his place in life, and with it his duties, 
 thinks nothing of himself, his claims, his dig- 
 nities, his station, but holding under God, and 
 discharging his duty to God, puts himself, and 
 all that relate to himself, out of his sight. 
 
 {b) How he treats others. 
 
 [2020] A Christianly meek man having duties 
 which affect other people, is gentle in treatment 
 of others, loving and modest, but firm and 
 simple, allowing no provocation to ruffle him, 
 not recognizing himself or his own claims, but 
 acting as God's minister, and lovingly ruling, 
 teaching, or otherwise directing those whom 
 God has put under his care. With total ab- 
 sence of the thought of self, he discharges to- 
 wards men the duties which it owes to God. — 
 Bp. Moberley. 
 
 [2021] It is power blended with gentleness — 
 boldness with humility— the harmlessness of 
 the dove with the prowess of the lion. It is 
 the soul in the majesty of self-possession, ele- 
 vated above the precipitant, the irascible, the 
 boisterous, and the revengeful. It is the soul 
 throwing its benignant smiles on the furious 
 face of the foe, and penetrating his heart 
 and paralyzing his arm with the look of love. — 
 Dr. Thomas. 
 
 5 Relation of the meekness of grace with that 
 of nature. 
 
 [2022] Natural meekness is very nearly allied 
 with timidity, sometimes with meanness, and 
 sometimes with insensibilty. It is the tameness 
 which belongs to a weak, though a placid and 
 amiable nature. But the meekness which is of 
 grace is essentially a brave thing. It is not the 
 natural product of a tasteless tree. It is the 
 
 Divine product of a strong natural stock. 
 Divine meekness requires strength, self-control, 
 tranquil courage — and all these in a high 
 degree. Perhaps the natural traits which suit 
 best with the ingrafted element of Divine meek- 
 ness, are rather such as, without grace, might 
 have ripened into a character the reverse of 
 meek, than into the soft and yielding disposition 
 which men call meekness. This, I say, it is 
 very important to remember ; in this, and in 
 similar cases. For the natural imitations of 
 Divine virtues are often so very unlike them 
 inwardly and really, as in fact to indispose 
 rather than to predispose the person in \\jhom 
 they are found for the exalted and angelic 
 virtues, the strong and noble virtues, which 
 they counterfeit. Such is natural credulity as 
 compared with Divine faith, natural softness of 
 affection as compared with Divine love, natural 
 insensibility to offence as compared with Divine 
 forgiveness, natural tameness of mind as com- 
 pared with Divine meekness. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 II. The Blessing promised : "For they 
 
 SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH." 
 
 I The manner of its fulfilment. 
 
 (i) Literally in the present. 
 
 [2023] The words are a literal citation from 
 the Septuagint version of Psalm xxxvii. 11. The 
 original meaning (perhaps suggested to David 
 by his own experience in the matter of Nabal), 
 refers probably to the temporal blessings pro- 
 mised by God under the old dispensation, 
 especially to Canaan, under the condition of 
 trusting in God and waiting patiently, instead 
 of attempting to obtain possession by human 
 power and violence. Our Lord gives a fuller 
 and more spiritual meaning to the temporal 
 promises of the older covenant. The Christian 
 faith, the representative of this virtue especially, 
 has brought, and will continue to bring, the 
 kingdoms of the earth under its influence : the 
 Church has gained by this, more than any other 
 quality, its spiritual dominion over men. — 
 Mofisell. 
 
 [2024] The Church of God outlasts all the 
 kingdoms of this world (Daniel vii. 17, 18). 
 
 [2025] The inheritance of the earth is that 
 world dominion which Christians, as organs of 
 the Spirit of Christ, are ever more and more to 
 obtain, as the kingdom of God shall win in- 
 creasing sway over mankind and the relations 
 of society, until, in its final consummation, the 
 whole earth shall own its dominion ; and the 
 quiet might of gentleness it is, with which God's 
 kingdom is to subjugate the world. — Neander. 
 
 [2026] These words are a quotation from 
 Psalm xxxvii. 11, and considered in relation to 
 this reference and to our Saviour's words in 
 Luke xii. 15, they mean (i) God's blessing and 
 protection when His judgments should over- 
 take and cut off the wicked (Psa. xxxviii. 9).
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 3020 — 2034. THIRD BEATITUDE.] 
 
 355 
 
 [meekness. 
 
 (2) The enjoyment of our portion with quiet- 
 ness, contentment, and satisfaction (l Tim. iv. 
 8; Matt. vi. 33).— 7. ^A?/r, 1723. 
 
 [2027] It is now about a hundred and fifty 
 years since there hved in this country two well- 
 known persons, whose character and history 
 may well illustrate the doctrine and truth of 
 which I speak. The one was one of the 
 greatest men of his time, one whose name 
 occupies one of the principal and brightest 
 pages of common history. A principal agent 
 in the revolution which placed William the 
 Third on the throne of England, he became in 
 the following reign the most powerful and 
 wealthiest of subjects. Through his wife he 
 obtained unlimited power over his sovereign. 
 He was the greatest general of modern history, 
 unequalled until this generation. He repressed 
 the pride and checked the conquests of the 
 Great Monarch, and conquered his most 
 famous leaders. His victories rank among the 
 foremost achievements of the British arms. 
 The result of his wars was a peace which, in 
 the very lowness of the terms on which it was 
 concluded, promised to settle upon a new and 
 equitable basis the contending claims of many 
 and mighty nations. 
 
 The other had, in earlier years, been lifted 
 from obscurity and made a bishop of the 
 Church of England ; but at the time I speak 
 of he was deprived of all position and emolu- 
 ment because he refused the oaths to the new 
 government. He was poor, evil-spoken of, 
 and watched with jealousy even in his gifts of 
 charity. So little apparent weight had he, or 
 those who acted with him, in the apparent 
 events of English history, that in a recent work 
 of considerable ability and fame, which records 
 that history from the early part of the last 
 century, neither his name nor theirs, neither 
 his conduct nor theirs, neither his existence nor 
 theirs, is so much as mentioned. And yet, if 
 any man should attempt to gauge the influence, 
 the real lasting influence of these two men 
 upon mankind, the real essential enduring 
 power, the true weight on man, on his being, 
 on his heart, on his prospects, on his real self 
 — which, think you, has most truly inherited 
 this earth in power, the author of the Morning 
 and Evening Hymns, or the conqueror of 
 Blenheim ? he whose simple words and few, 
 not in themselves either particularly able or 
 particularly beautiful, whose few simple words 
 make, and have made, and no doubt will make, 
 sweet Christian music in the hearts of millions 
 who have never heard nor known his name, 
 or he whose station, ability, and success blazed 
 before the world's eyes for a few years, and, 
 their effects swept away after a time by other 
 events, then disappeared absolutely and for 
 ever. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 (2) Literally in the future. 
 
 [2028] Such qualities are enforced as Christ 
 deemed to be the fundamental principles of the 
 new kingdom which he now announced. Since 
 
 that kingdom was not of this world, the land 
 which forms the inheritance of the meek can- 
 not, by consistency of argument, be considered 
 as an exception ; but must figuratively denote 
 that new earth whevein dwelleth righteousness. 
 — Pitman. 
 
 [2029] Our prime reason for insisting on the 
 expression "inherit the earth," is our thinking 
 that much of the present fulfilment of the 
 promise depends on the time which such an 
 expression denotes. The season of its ac- 
 complishment is to be future ; for in this life 
 the heir is nothing more than a son who has 
 not yet reached an age on which to enter into 
 possession. — H. Melvill, Goldoi Lectures. 
 
 (3) Figuratively in the future. 
 
 [2030] That this "inheritance" which "excels 
 in beauty," the inheritance of the meek Son to 
 be co-inherited by His meek brethren, is to be, 
 not in a figure but in literal fact, the earth 
 regenerated and made new, redeemed from 
 corruption and reconstructed in glory ; this is 
 the last light which revelation suffered to fall 
 upon the ancient Abrahamic promise ere its 
 curtain fell in Patmos. — Dykes. 
 
 2 Its special point. 
 
 [2031] There is a designed emphasis in the 
 shape which the promise assumes, "for they 
 shall inherit the earth ; " and that in more ways 
 than one — " the earth,"' possession in land 
 always remaining the surest of earthly posses- 
 sions, — and " inherit," possession by inheritance 
 in the orderly succession of father and son being 
 ever counted to have the strongest promise and 
 pledge of continuance. — Al>p. Trench. 
 
 [2032] To the meek, the earth is not a stage 
 for self-e.\ertion and the graspings of desire, 
 but an " inheritance " which they have received 
 from their Father. — Dean Plianptre. 
 
 [2033] The allusion here may be to Canaan ; 
 and as the Jews in the wilderness looked forward 
 to the inheriting of Palestine as the highest 
 good, probably Jesus uses the expression to 
 convey to their minds the idea that the meek 
 in spirit shall receive the best of blessings. — Dr. 
 Thomas. 
 
 3 Its apparent exceptions. 
 
 [2034] We often see meek men go to the wall, 
 but it is because they are weak. The declara- 
 tion is not that each meek man shall be victorious 
 over everybody else, but that in any given man 
 meekness is the strongest mood in which he 
 can carry himself; and that in regard to multi- 
 tudes of men, in the long run, those who carry 
 themselves according to their highest nature 
 shall succeed, and shall overtop those who 
 carry themselves by their lower nature. — H. W. 
 Beecher.
 
 35^ 
 
 2035 — 2043- THIRD BEATITUDE.] 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 [hunger and thirst after righteousness. 
 
 III. Connection between the Con- 
 dition OF THE Person blessed and 
 THE Blessing itself. 
 
 1 Negatively considered. 
 
 [2035] Although the treasures, the greatness, 
 the delights of all men living, were in the 
 present possession of one, yet somewhat be- 
 sides and above all this there would still be 
 sought, and earnestly thirsted for. Nay, it is 
 certain, if one man were not only crowned 
 with the sovereignty of all the kingdoms of 
 the earth, but besides were made commander 
 of the motions of the sun, and the glory of 
 the stars, yet the restless eye of his unsatisfied 
 understanding would peep and pry beyond the 
 heavens for some hidden excellency and sup- 
 posed felicity, which the whole compass of this 
 created world cannot yield. So unquenchable 
 is the thirst of man's soul, until it bathe itself 
 in the river of life, and in the immeasurable 
 ocean of goodness and wisdom. So impossible 
 is it, that this material world, with all her per- 
 fections, should be a proportionable object to 
 so precious a nature, or that so divine a spark 
 should cease rising and aspiring, until it joined 
 itself to that infinite flame of glory and majesty 
 from whence it first issued. — R. Bolton^ ^^37' 
 
 2 Positively considered. 
 
 [2036] Men count that in a world of violence 
 and wrong, the meek will inevitably make them- 
 selves a prey ; that an Isaac, who gives up the 
 well again and again rather than contend for it, 
 will at length have nothing left him which he 
 may call his own (Gen. xxvi. 20). But it is not 
 so. Wonderful under God is the strength and 
 power of meekness ; with it is ever the victory 
 at the last : in the words of the eastern proverb, 
 " The one staff of Moses breaks in shivers the 
 ten thousandspears of Pharaoh." These "meek" 
 shall in the end inherit all things, even this 
 " earth," from which it seemed at the outset as 
 if they would be thrust out altogether. — AdJ>. 
 Trencfu 
 
 [2037] Meekness builds up ; hot and rash 
 zeal pulls down. Blessedness of being free 
 from anger, jealousy, and hatred. Blessedness 
 of being free from suspicion and distrust. 
 Blessedness of being saved from strife and 
 contention. Blessedness of understanding the 
 truth and ways of God. Blessedness of being 
 like God, and having the mind of Christ. — Van 
 Dor en Series, 
 
 [2038] The meek man has nought to dowith 
 the motives of others ; all that concerns him is 
 the manner in which he himself may be trained 
 and disciplined by those disquietudes, and dis- 
 comforts, and disheartenings of life, which the 
 conduct of others may bring. The result of this 
 is that he goes through the world, hurting, vexing, 
 irritating no one. He is taking the poison from 
 every sting. He is receiving upon his shield of 
 Faith every fiery dart of the wicked one. He is 
 neutralizing every bitter— he is enjoying every 
 
 sweet. And thus he appropriates the blessing, 
 thus he inherits earth, with a reality and a glad- 
 ness which the selfish, self-satisfied, dissatisfied, 
 proud man never can know. — Monsell. 
 
 [2039] Who is the man that most truly inherits 
 the earth 1 Not the man of an ambitious and 
 restless spirit, though he may call a million 
 acres his own. Such a man has no spirit-home : 
 his soul roams through his estates, like the 
 unclean spirit in the desert, seeking rest, but 
 finding none. It is the man of holy meekness 
 that inherits the earth. Though, on legal 
 grounds, he has no claim to a foot of soil, he 
 feels a vital interest and a spiritual property in 
 all. He is the master of himself ; he can sit 
 upon the throne of his own being, bid his intel- 
 lect turn the phenomena of the universe into 
 joyous realms of thought ; his heart, the wide 
 earth into a temple of devotion ; and his faith, 
 the fiercest roar of the elements into music. 
 He inherits the earth — feels at home in all — 
 appropriates all — makes all serve the high ends 
 of his being. — Dr, Thomas. 
 
 IV. Contrast between the Teaching 
 OF THIS Beatitude and Prevailing 
 Sentiments. 
 
 [2040] This beatitude, like the two preceding, 
 contains a maxim which the world generally 
 disbelieves. It pronounces a class of persons 
 happy whom, of all others, the children of men 
 account contemptible and cowardly ; and it 
 promises them a reward which, above all men 
 on the earth, they are the most unlikely to 
 enjoy. — Good {of Salisbury). 
 
 V. Suggested Duties. 
 
 [2041] We should cultivate meekness, i. In 
 order to be conformed to the example of the 
 Son of God. 2. To refute the calumnies of the 
 infidel and to confound the scoffer. 3. In 
 obedience to Scripture precept and example. — 
 J. Jordan. 
 
 [2042] On this beatitude we have one of 
 Augustine's striking antithetic sayings : " Dost 
 thou wish to possess the earth ? beware then 
 lest thou be possessed by it." 
 
 FOURTH BEATITUDE. 
 {Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness.) 
 
 I. Its Relation to the other Beati- 
 tudes. 
 
 I To the preceding beatitudes. 
 
 [2043] Our Lord has hitherto been more im- 
 mediately employed in removing hindrances — 
 pride, which is taken away by poverty of spirit ; 
 levity, which is removed by holy mourning ;
 
 ao43 — 2050. THIRD BEATITUDE.] 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 357 
 
 [hunger and thirst after righteousness. 
 
 anger, impatience, discontent, which are healed 
 by meekness. When once these evil diseases 
 of the soul are removed, the native appetite of 
 a heaven-born spirit returns ; it hungers and 
 thirsts after righteousness. — j. Wesley, 1703- 
 1791. 
 
 2 To the succeeding beatitudes. 
 
 [2044] What Jesus here calls blessed is not 
 yet the unmixed gladness of attainment, of 
 being actually merciful and pure of heart and 
 makers of peace. As yet, it is the beatitude 
 only of desire, not of possession ; turbid still, 
 and urgent and unappeased. Nevertheless, 
 thanks to our Lord Christ, it is a beatitude. 
 Even to hunger and to thirst after righteousness 
 is, under the gospel, blessed. — Dykes. 
 
 II. Its Doctrinal Aspect. 
 
 [2045] In no other of the beatitudes does 
 Christian doctrine come so near to the surface 
 of the words as in this one. It is quite true that 
 doctrine is not really absent from any. All the 
 eight belong to the Christian man alone, and 
 presuppose Christian truth accepted and be- 
 lieved, the aid of the sanctifying Spirit, and the 
 hope of heaven : but the subject of the other 
 seven is more precisely the Divine morality of 
 the Christian man — his hopes, his strength, his 
 belief being presupposed indeed, but not im- 
 mediately kept in view. In this one the case is 
 otherwise. Christ is Himself our righteousness. 
 We have none, nor can have any, save in Him. 
 Blessed is he who hungereth and thirsteth after 
 that righteousness — for none other — for right- 
 eousness in Christ, for righteousness which is 
 Christ.— Z?^. Moberlcy. 
 
 III. Explanations of Terms employed. 
 
 [2046] The word righteousness does not mean 
 the " righteousness of faith," by which, through 
 the merits of the Cross, we are freed from sin, 
 and justified before God. The word, in this 
 sense, occurs only in the epistles of St. Paul. 
 The Jews, whom our Saviour now addresses, 
 had no apprehension that the Messiah was to 
 die ; and much less that they were to be justi- 
 fied by His death : and, therefore, if Christ had 
 spoken of an imputed righteousness, they would 
 not have understood Him. — Pitman. 
 
 [2047] The reference in the word " righteous- 
 ness" is not (i) to the Christian religion, nor (2) 
 to uprightness, nor (3) the restoration of man, 
 but (4) to righteousness generally in all its re- 
 lationships, self-ward, man-ward, God-ward ; 
 (5) to the righteousness of heaven ; (6) to 
 righteousness not as a natural but super- 
 natural gift — a gift not of the outer but of the 
 inner life ; (7) to Christ Himself as the Sun of 
 Righteousness. — C. N. 
 
 IV. The Grace commended in Persons 
 BLESSED : Hungering and thirsting 
 after Righteousness. 
 
 I Its origin. 
 
 [2048] It is not so much an active movement 
 of our will, or our thoughts toward God and 
 holy things, as it is a kind of involuntary appe- 
 tite rising and moving within us, for which we 
 deserve no more credit than we do for being 
 hungry for our natural food, which we can no 
 more produce in ourselves than we can pro- 
 duce our natural propensions, but which 
 we can mar, and spoil, and destroy by one 
 course of conduct, and cherish and strengthen 
 by another. It is, in fact, the healthy action of 
 the Divine life within our souls ; the acknow- 
 ledgment of being conferred, the craving for 
 its enlargement and continuance ; the pulse of 
 the new life which we have, the longing that we 
 should have it more abundantly. We should 
 ever remember that though we cannot create 
 life, we can starve it ; that, though the new man 
 can be born only of God, he can be hurt, and 
 dwarfed, and ruined by man. — Monsell. 
 
 [2049] There are in the body many condi- 
 ditions of inanition and resemblance ot hunger, 
 which yet are not real hunger, nor tend at all, 
 like real hunger, to strength, and growth, and 
 invigorated life. We all know what it is when 
 we are ill to feel as if we were hungry, and yet 
 not be able to eat when the food comes ; to feel 
 as if we wanted the food (as indeed we do, as a 
 matter of real need), and desired it eagerly, and 
 yet when it comes to have no stomach for it, to 
 turn away from it with disgust, or force ourselves 
 to eat it without benefit. There is a very close 
 parallel to this in the matter of spiritual hunger 
 — when men, in the deepest and saddest need 
 of God's forgiveness, conscious more or less of 
 need, and in a sort of way desirous of the supply 
 of it, are yet unable to embrace it when it is 
 offered them, cannot bring themselves to do 
 what is necessary in order to become partakers 
 of it, preferring rather the death of spiritual in- 
 anition, or atrophy, to the life of sacred forgive- 
 ness in Christ. Spiritual hunger, then, as it 
 requires the grace of the Holy Ghost to make it 
 hopeful, loving, longing, so it requires also the 
 faithful, eager search for that freely offered 
 pardon which is its food. If grace quicken it 
 not into loving faith, if loving faith do not seek 
 eagerly and by all appointed means for the 
 offered food, surely it is no hunger which is 
 blessed or shall be filled, nor can it be more 
 than starvation, famine, death. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 2 Its nature and significance. 
 
 [2050] It indicates desire so intense as to be 
 almost painful. The dead hunger not : spiritual 
 hungering a sign of life. The diseased hunger 
 not : spiritual hungering a sign of health.— Van 
 Doren Series.
 
 358 
 
 2051 — 2059- FOURTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 [hunger and thirst after righteousness. 
 
 [2051] There is to be a longing for purity in 
 the inward man : a longing for truth, ardent and 
 unquenched ; a longing for all that is Godlike ; 
 for perfect manhood; for that vigour and valour 
 which work with the gentleness, the sweetness, 
 the meekness, the humility which belongs to true 
 love ; for wealth of character ; for all that goes 
 to make the angelic conceptions of men ; a long- 
 ing for symmetry, and harmony, and intensity, 
 and continuity in the inward life ; above all, the 
 cutreaching of the soul, along the line of its 
 ideals, for those after-states which hang hovering 
 over life to many of us. — H. W. Beecher. 
 
 [2052] The hunger of a Christian soul after 
 righteousness is now a hunger simply to be like 
 Jesus, a hunger whetted evermore by the vision 
 of Him in His beauty. The conformity of 
 righteousness is desired now, not as conformity 
 to a hard or cold imperative from heaven, but 
 as assimilation through sympathy to the very 
 heart which for ever beats and glows in holy 
 love within the Beloved of our hearts. — Dykes. 
 
 [2053] Such is the "hunger and thirst" of 
 the Christian soul — a something which is never 
 satisfied, which, the more it receives, desires the 
 more ; which, having tasted that the Lord is 
 gracious, rests not until it tastes again ; which, 
 having found strength for duty in spiritual com- 
 munion, finds, in the discharge of that duty, the 
 return of a healthful appetite for spiritual com- 
 munion again. — Moitsell. 
 
 [2054] It is like the ravenous hunger that 
 comes on when a person is beginning to get 
 well of some desperate sickness. He may be 
 supposed to have been altogether incapable of 
 eating or drinking, at least with the slightest 
 appetite or relish, for many days or weeks, and 
 all that time may be compared with his many 
 years of unrepented sin and total forgetfulness 
 of God ; and then as he begins to get better, 
 and with the improvement of health the appe- 
 tite begins to spring, we all know with what in- 
 tense eagerness a person longs for food, never can 
 be satisfied, would be, if he were allowed, always 
 eating, seems to gain, almost visibly, strength 
 from every meal, almost from every mouth- 
 ful that he eats ; well, that is the sort of hunger 
 and thirst with which a real penitent, one who 
 has many, and heavy, and long-continued sins 
 to be sorry for, for which he has never sorrowed 
 before, longs for God's pardoning righteousness, 
 when by the grace of the Holy Spirit the sacred 
 appetite is wakening up within him, and with it 
 the first symptoms of recovery and restoration 
 from his dire illness begin to show themselves. 
 ~Bp. Moberley. 
 
 [2055] As a man that is full, who cares not for 
 eating grapes, and therefore stands looking and 
 gazing on them ; or as a man that is not athirst, 
 he will gaze more on the graving of the cup, 
 than he will desire to drink that which is in the 
 cup ; whenas the hungry or thirsty man, he will 
 
 not so much gaze on the grape or respect the 
 outside of the cup as to eat and to drink ; so a 
 truly humbled man, he will not regard eloquence 
 and wit in the Word ; this is unto him but as a 
 graven cup, that will not satisfy him, but the 
 pure Word alone is that which will satisfy him, 
 and nourish him up in grace. — y. Presiojt, 1634. 
 
 V. 
 
 The Blessing promised 
 they shall be filled." 
 
 "For 
 
 I Scriptural parallels. 
 
 (i) /;/ the Old Tesiamcnt. 
 
 [2056] The Old Testament is full of gracious 
 words for yearning souls, " As the hart panteth 
 after the water-brook, so panteth my soul for 
 Thee, O God." So says David. Hear the 
 answer : ''As for me, I will behold Thy face in 
 righteousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake 
 with Thy likeness." When I awake ! Ah, we 
 must all go to sleep, as David, first. But, when 
 we awake 1 God grant us David's awakening. 
 
 We must quote Isaiah, too. In the sixty- 
 fourth chapter and 4th verse, he says, " For 
 since the beginning of the world, men have no* 
 heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath 
 the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He 
 hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him." 
 And in the 13th and 14th verses of the next 
 chapter, he says, " Therefore, saith the Lord 
 God, Behold my servants shall drink, behold 
 my servants shall rejoice, behold my servants 
 shall sing for joy of heart." — E. T. Davies {iji 
 Hotnilist). 
 
 (2) In the New Tesfaineni. 
 
 [2057] Such were the glorious anticipations 
 of the men who lived in the twilight of ante- 
 Christian times. How much more clearly do 
 Christ Himself and the writers of the New Tes- 
 tament speak of these hopes for which the incar- 
 nate Son of God was both the pledge and the 
 fulfilment in one and the same person. 
 
 He says to the Samaritan woman, "Whoso- 
 ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him 
 shall never thirst, but the water that I shall 
 give him shall be in him a well of water spring- 
 ing up into everlasting life." And John echoes 
 his Master's words when he writes," Whosoever 
 will, let him take the water of life freely." There 
 is also that glorious passage in John vi. 35, where 
 Christ tells us, " I am the bread of life : he that 
 cometh to Me shall never hunger : and he that 
 believeth on Me shall never thirst." — Ibid. 
 
 2 Its Christological basis. 
 
 [2058] Christ and righteousness are contro- 
 vertible terms. Christians assume this as one 
 of the axioms of their faith. Christ is the em- 
 bodiment of all righteousness, and therefore 
 the complete satisfaction of all our soul-hunger 
 and soul-thirst. — Ibid. 
 
 3 Mode of its fulfilment. 
 
 [2059] When He confirms, by some auspi- 
 cious providence or word in season, a wavering
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 359 
 
 2059—2068, FIFTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [the merciful. 
 
 purpose to do well, or secretly softens afresh a 
 hardening heart, or braces up the mind to en- 
 durance, or makes envy yield to kindness, and 
 revenge relent ; when He checks equivocation 
 on the tongue, drives the tempted soul to kneel 
 for help, or coaxes the anxious to leave its care 
 on God ; then He is filling soui after soul with 
 righteousness. — Dykes. 
 
 VI. Connection between the Condition 
 OF THE Person blessed and the 
 Blessing itself. 
 
 [2060] It is not that the hunger and thirst 
 are in themselves the blessing, but only as 
 they create a longing for the heavenly aliment, 
 which except for this hunger would be slighted 
 or loathed. — Abp. Trench. 
 
 [2061] Those who hunger for things higher 
 than social life, than civil life, than physical 
 attainments, who hunger for moral excellence — 
 for God and for the heavenly land — have worked 
 out in them by that very hunger its supply. It 
 is an incitement to meditation, to faith, to 
 prayer, and to noble actions, out of which come 
 both instruction and fruit. They shall be sup- 
 plied even here ; and more gloriously hereafter, 
 when the present shall pass away, and they 
 shall see God as He is, and shall be like Him, 
 and shall be satisfied. — H. IV. Bcecher. 
 
 [2062] Augustine cannot find the entire fulfil- 
 ment of the appended promise, " for they shall 
 be filled," in the present life ; for now our lips 
 are but sprinkled, as it were, with a few drops 
 from that river of jcy, whereof then we shall 
 drink to the full : yet the longing now is need- 
 ful, if there is to be a satisfying of the longing 
 hereafter ; and the more longing, the ampler 
 satisfaction, for this longing is itself the dilating 
 of the vessel that it may contain the more. — 
 Abp. Trench. 
 
 [2063] We have not all the same capacity. 
 But we can all be filled. No human soul is 
 large enough to contain the whole of Christ. 
 The finite cannot grasp the infinite within its 
 tiny hand. But we may all make good the 
 poet's dream, and 
 
 " Be filled of God-head as a cup 
 Filled with a precious essence," 
 
 each one according to his measure, and thus 
 help to sweeten the world with the fragrance 
 we have borrowed from the source of all sweet- 
 ness, and light, and beauty. — E. T. Davies {in 
 Honiilisi). 
 
 [2064] It is in vain for God to put off the 
 soul that seeks Him, His kingdom, His right- 
 eousness, with lesser things : He knows that 
 cannot be (Psa. Ixxiii. 25). — Thomas Cole. 
 
 6 
 
 FIFTH BEATITUDE. 
 
 {The Merciftd.) 
 
 I. The Class of Persons blessed 
 Merciful. 
 
 The 
 
 I Their previous spiritual history. 
 
 [2065] Before we can read the text as it 
 stands, " The merciful shall obtain mercy," we 
 must take for granted this earlier word : The 
 merciful have obtained mercy. It is they wh» 
 have first obtained mercy for themselves who 
 are able to show it to others. It was because 
 God for Christ's sake had forgiven the disciples 
 at Ephesus, that St. Paul urged them to forgive 
 one another. That this is entirely in a line 
 with the lessons of Jesus Himself, we gather 
 from His parable of the unmerciful debtor. — 
 Dykes. 
 
 [2066] He pities, not from above, not as a 
 higher, holier being than they, but from their 
 own level ; as one who knows by his own sad 
 experience the weight of temptation and the- 
 bitterness of sin, and nov/ cheerfully hopes that, 
 he has obtained mercy of God to be faithful.. 
 And thus the Christian assurance of mercy 
 already received, and the firm Christian hope- 
 of the consummation of mercy yet to come,, 
 become the real Christian basis of that Divine 
 pitifulness which the Lord in this precious verse 
 provided. — Bp. Moberley, 
 
 [2067] Christian pitifulness, then, is based 
 upon the consciousness of sin as upon its ulti- 
 mate foundation. Whatever Divine or angelic 
 pitifulness we might feel if we were unfallen 
 creatures, or creatures of a higher race or stock 
 than human, the pitifulness of Christian men 
 rests on this, that they desire pity for them- 
 selves, that blessed pity from God which is 
 truly called "mercy." The Christian _ man 
 knows himself to be deeply, and in himself 
 hopelessly, sinful. He has in himself neither 
 the conscience of past innocence, nor the con- 
 fidence of future goodness. — Ibid. 
 
 II. The Grace commended in Persons- 
 blessed : Mercy or AIercifulness. 
 
 I Its difference. 
 
 [2068] Neither the prudent and calculating 
 pity of the colder-hearted, nor the instinctive 
 warmth and sympathy of the naturally com- 
 passionate, is the pitifulness meant in this 
 beatitude ; nor has it, consequently, any claim 
 to this blessing. This pitifulness is altogether 
 a Christian one ; based on Christian reasons, 
 proceeding on Christian rules, done for Christ's 
 sake, and looking for Christian rewards. In- 
 deed, I hardly know whether a large natural 
 pitifulness may not be regarded as less than 
 helpful towards the high Christian pitifulness of 
 this beatitude. For Christian pitifulness is a 
 strong thing. It has its own sure grounds, and
 
 360 
 
 2o68 — 20S0. 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 FIFTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [the merciful. 
 
 it has its own clear scope. But the large 
 natural pitifulness of which I spoke is rather a 
 weak thing, which is apt to yield to instinctive 
 impulses rather than to be based on principle. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 2 Its comprehensiveness as a Christian 
 duty. 
 
 [2069] Mercy is that mental quality which 
 comprises not merely an idle pain at viewing 
 the sorrows of others ; but a sincere and ardent 
 desire to relieve them. — Pit)na7i. 
 
 [2070] I. This mercifulness signifies relief of 
 the temporal needs of our brethren. 2. A piti- 
 fulness embracing the whole outcomings of a 
 Christian's heart, whether in inward sympathies 
 or outward acts, in relation to the sorrows and 
 sufferings of his brethren. — Abp. Trench. 
 
 [2071] Perhaps the word here translated by 
 '" merciful " might with greater propriety have 
 ■been rendered into English by the word " piti- 
 ful." ISIercy seems, at least in modern English, 
 to involve the idea of a person in a higher posi- 
 tion showing leniency or kindness to an inferior. 
 A prince to a subject, a judge to a criminal, 
 a superior in any position in life may show 
 mercy to an inferior. But the Greek word 
 does not carry this idea in it of necessity : it is 
 equally applicable to all people who pity — who 
 pity those below them, those on their own level, 
 ■.or those above them. And again, " mercy" 
 involves the further idea of pardon ; of guilt 
 . incurred, and forgiveness given ; which is not 
 in the Greek adjective. Pity, then, which more 
 nearly represents the original word, may be 
 felt alike for persons above us or below us ; or 
 for sufferings deserved or undeserved ; for those 
 who are guilty and justly liable to suffering, 
 or those who are altogether guiltless. — Bp. 
 Moberley. 
 
 [2072] This " mercy" of the text, and of all 
 these texts, is a very wide word. It covers both 
 the kindly feeling and the kindly act ; and it 
 stretches itself over both the great departments 
 of human necessity — men's sufferings and men's 
 sins. The same attitude of mind which makes 
 one relenting or forgiving to the penitent 
 offender, makes one also pity and relieve the 
 supplicant sufferer. He who sins becomes a 
 candidate for mercy so soon as he acknow- 
 ledges his sin. — Dykes. 
 
 [2073] God is merciful to us, else we could 
 not be merciful to others (Lam. iii. 22, 23). 
 The merciful not only "weep with those who 
 weep," but also, when possible, bestow time, 
 influence, money, as well as tears, upon the 
 sad and unfortunate. *' Forgive, and ye shall 
 be forgiven." 
 
 [2074] Its acts : I. Consideration. 2. Com- 
 passion. 3. Prayer. 4. Helpfulness, according 
 to the need of the object. — J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 3 Objects for its exercise. 
 
 [2075] Its objects : Our neighbour, i. Erring 
 (James v. 19, 20). 2. Offending. 3. Under 
 persecution. 4. In want. 5. In sickness. 6. 
 In misfortune by the loss of good friends, or 
 untowardness of bad relations. — Ibid. 
 
 [2076] Hence the objects on which mercy is 
 exercised are as numerous as the wants and 
 calamities incident to human nature. The mer- 
 ciful man labours, as far as his means allow, 
 to instruct the ignorant ; to reclaim the wan- 
 derer; to shelter the persecuted ; to console the 
 mourner ; to forget injuries ; to relieve the indi- 
 gent ; to comfort the sick. If this world's goods 
 are wanting to him, he offers the tribute of 
 Christian sympathy, and beseeches God, with 
 earnest supplication, for their support. — Pitman. 
 
 4 Manner of its exercise. 
 
 [2077] Acts of mercy are to be performed. 
 I. With readiness and forwardness of miind 
 (2 Cor. ix. 7). 2. With modesty and humility 
 (Matt. vi. i). 3. From a kind and merciful, not 
 from a selfish and mercenary temper (Luke 
 vi. 32). 4. Without delay (Prov. iv. 28). 5. 
 Bountifully (i Tim. vi. 18). 6. With minds 
 full of gratitude to God (i Chron. xxix. 13, 7). 
 7. As to Christ Himself (Matt. x. 42). —y. 
 Blair, 1723 {conde7ised). 
 
 5 Its necessity in a world of sin and 
 suffering. 
 
 [2078] Mercy is another element indispen- 
 sable to the happiness of a moral being in this 
 world of sin and suffering. Mercy is a modi- 
 fication of benevolence : it is benevolence called 
 out in a certain direction, and feeling for a 
 certain class, and that class the sufiering. 
 Mercy is benevolence commiserating the suf- 
 ferer. Nature, in her ten thousand modes, 
 expresses God's benevolence. Christ, in His 
 sympathies and prayers. His doctrines and 
 doings, His sufferings and death, expresses 
 God's mercy. He is benevolence in contact 
 with suffering. So long as we are in a world of 
 suffering it is required of us that our bene- 
 volence should go out in the form of mercy. — 
 Dr. Thojuas. 
 
 6 Its fitness in this world of sin and 
 suffering. 
 
 [2079] Mercifulness beseems our situation, 
 and is essential to our spiritual culture. This 
 form of love is not required in heaven, because 
 of the absence of suffering from that happy 
 scene. "The merciful," says Christ, "shall 
 obtain mercy." We all here, as children of 
 woe, need mercy — Ibid. 
 
 7 As illustrated in the pattern Life. 
 
 [2080] The Son of God gave us a most illus- 
 trious pattern of mercy. The great inducement 
 to vail His original glory in assuming our nature 
 was not our merit, but our misery. He came
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 2080—2090. SIXTH BEATITUDE. 1 
 
 361 
 
 [purity in heart. 
 
 to seek and to save them that are lost. When 
 He beheld the multitudes wandering as sheep 
 without a shepherd, He was moved with com- 
 passion (Matt. ix. 36). When His hearers 
 opposed the designs of His instructions, " He 
 is grieved for the hardness of their hearts " 
 (Mark iii. i).— Dykes. 
 
 8 Its Christological aspect, 
 
 [2081] I take Jesus, then, to be the mercy of 
 God translated into act, embodied in a person : 
 it follows that the fundamental grace ot His 
 kingdom's righteousness is mercy. Tender- 
 heartedness flowing out into practical helpful 
 beneficence is the world's want ; it is the Divine 
 response to human selfishness ; it is, in a word, 
 Christ's life ; therefore it is the first virtue of a 
 Christian. — Ibid. 
 
 g Personal reflections as to the cultivation 
 of its various aspects. 
 
 (i) Are "ive vierciftil in our judgments of our 
 fcllow-me7i f 
 
 [2082] Do we remember that we, like them, 
 are sinful creatures .'' Do we strive to believe 
 against appearances, that the act may not be 
 what it appears .'' — Bp. Magee. 
 
 (2) Are we viercifid in our speech to men ? 
 [2083] Do we not sometimes take pleasure in 
 
 making a criticism as sharp and pungent as we 
 can make it ? Do we in our literature, in our 
 judgments of the political work or social life of 
 others, strive to speak charitably ; or rather, is it 
 not a keen gratification to think that the world 
 enjoys the criticism when the writer is sharp 
 and piquant, and seasons his criticism with that 
 unkindness which sends it home, as the feather 
 sends the arrow ? — Ibid. 
 
 (3) Are we merciful as employers of others ? 
 [2084] Do we feel that those around us in 
 
 domestic service, in business, should have their 
 feelings carefully considered? Surely there is 
 a sad want ot thoughtful mercy amongst us all ! 
 There is no lack of that mercy which comes of 
 being strongly appealed to, and which moves a 
 man to give largely of his money, time, and 
 energy, for the removal of suffering. But the 
 thoughtful, considerate mercy that seeks to 
 prevent suffering and to hinder crime is what 
 we desire to see. — Ibid. 
 
 III. The Blessing promised. 
 I Its nature and import. 
 
 [2085] As for external mercies, the Bible 
 promises them very fully to the merciful : i. 
 Deliverance out of trouble (Isaiah Iviii. 10; 
 Psa. xli. i). 2. God's blessing on his labours 
 and undertakings (Deut. xv. 7-10). 3. The 
 staving off of his trouble, and the lengthening 
 of his tranquillity (Dan. iv. 27). 4. Plenty 
 (Prov. xix. 17; iii. 9). 5. Honour (Psa. cxii. 9). 
 
 6. Deliverance from enemies (Psa. xli. 2). 
 
 7. God's comforts in his sickness (Psa. li. 3). 
 
 8. A blessing on his posterity (Psa. xxxvii. 26). 
 
 9. More particularly man's help in distress and 
 God's providence. — f. Blair, 1723 {condensed). 
 
 IV. Connection between the Condi- 
 tion OF the Persons blessed and 
 the Blessing itself. 
 
 [2086] I. The merciful soul is in sympathy 
 with the Divine nature. The standard of 
 Christian mercifulness is the mercy of God. 
 2. The merciful soul is in sympathy with those 
 who are in need of help (James i. 27). 3. The 
 merciful soul in the exercise of mercy is pre- 
 pared for the final mercy of God. — T. Davies. 
 
 [2087] As men sow, they shall reap. By an 
 infallible decree, they shall have judgment with- 
 out mercy who have shown no mercy ; while 
 those who, Christ-like, go about doing good, 
 forgiving such as wrong them, helping such as 
 need, pitying such as suffer, seeking to save 
 others from sin as well as succour them in sor- 
 row, shall, Christ-like also, on leaving the world, 
 go to the Father. " Blessed are the merciful," 
 says our Lord, " for they shall obtain mercy." — 
 Thomas Guthrie. 
 
 [2088] Do, and it shall be done. Do with 
 another, that it may be done with thee ; for thou 
 aboundest and thou lackest. Thou aboundest 
 in things temporal, thou lackest things eternal. 
 A beggar is at thy gate, thou art thyself a beggar 
 at God's gate. Thou art sought, and thou 
 seekest. As thou dealest with //// seeker, even 
 so God will deal with His. Thou art both empty 
 and full. Fill thou the empty out of thy fulness, 
 that out of the fulness of God thine emptiness 
 may be filled. — August inc. 
 
 SIXTH BEATITUDE. 
 
 {Purity iti Hcai't) 
 I, The Grace commended in Persons 
 
 BLESSED. 
 
 I Its origin and nature. 
 
 [2089] It consists of an inward change and 
 renovation of the heart by the infusion of such 
 a principle into it as naturally suits and corn- 
 plies with whatsoever is pure and holy. It is 
 not a thing born with us, nor reared upon the 
 stock of nature. It is the product of "a new 
 creation."— A'. South, 1633-1716. 
 
 [2090] It was because men either had not 
 these gifts naturally, or because they had them 
 most imperfectly, that our Lord came to estab- 
 lish His kingdom. If men had been naturally 
 pure in heart, «S:c., there had been no need for 
 our Lord's mission. But because men were not
 
 3b2 
 
 2090- 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 -2099. SIXTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [purity in heart. 
 
 SO, He came to establish the kingdom in which 
 all these qualities should be supernaturally given 
 to men. — Bp. Magce. 
 
 [2091] Among the Jews, as afterwards among 
 the monks, holiness was chiefly considered in 
 a certain ceremonial condition. Scribes and 
 Pharisees made clean "the outside of the cup 
 and of the platter," but within was corruption 
 (Matt, xxiii. 25). Unless the heart be pure, the 
 life cannot be pure. Christianity invariably 
 works from the centre to the circumference. 
 This purity is not merely the exclusion of some 
 gross sin — it is the exclusion of all. It is 
 * righteousness as the ruling principle of the 
 heart and inner life. It is the steady direction 
 of the whole soul towards God. Purity in 
 thought, and affection, and aim, because the 
 heart is fully set upon Him who is absolutely 
 and eternally pure. — Van Dorcn Series. 
 
 2 Its analysis. 
 
 (i) Coiiqicest of the evil luiihin. 
 
 [2092] This is the beatitude of them that 
 have overcome ; overcome, that is, not yet in 
 the outward conflict with the sin of the world, 
 seeking to make peace on earth, and being per- 
 secuted for it — for that is a beatitude still to 
 come ; but it is the beatitude of those who in 
 the first and sorest strife, the strife within, have 
 overcome the lawlessness of their own bad 
 selves, and, by expulsion or subjugation, have 
 really set up within their own hearts the king- 
 dom of God. — Dykes. 
 
 (2) Freedom from foreign elements. 
 
 [2093] The Greeks usually explain Ka9apbe, 
 " pure," by cIpKaToc, and «/tiy/}c, " unmixed." 
 Thus gold is said to be pure, when there is no 
 dross, nor any alloy of other metals in it ; honey 
 is said to be sincere and pure when it is sine 
 cerd, without wax or other recrements ; water 
 is said to be pure when there is no earth, nor 
 other elements in it, nothing but water itself: 
 for whatsoever is heterogeneous, or of another 
 nature, being mixed with a thing, alters the 
 nature of that thing, by communicating some- 
 thing of its own to it, by which means it ceaseth 
 to be purely and entirely the thing itself, and 
 therefore it is truly said to be impure and un- 
 clean, because corrupted or polluted by some- 
 thing that should not be there. Now these 
 things being put together, we may easily dis- 
 cover who may be truly said to be " pure in 
 heart.'' — Bp. Beveridge, 1638-1708. 
 
 [2094] Peevishness, hot temper, envy, malign 
 displeasure, excessive pursuit of gain, the puffed- 
 up vanity of possession, and ambition, are all 
 so many evil breaths blown into the heart, to 
 dim the tender purity of its motives, divide the 
 singleness of its aim, and obscure its vision of 
 Divine and heavenly things. The heart cannot 
 be pure if, in its loyalty to the will of God, 
 there mix some interested purpose of its own, 
 or some secret homage to another lord. — Dykes. 
 
 [2095] Purity in the heart, then, means no 
 doubt the absence of all manner of defilement, 
 whether it be of one sort or another, in it. Cor- 
 rupt and corrupting desires — some absolutely 
 and in themselves corrupt, some corrupt in their 
 excess, and faulty direction — all such, of what- 
 ever particular kind they be, are destructive of 
 perfect purity in the heart. Bodily desires of 
 all sorts, desires of ambition, of covetousness, 
 of dislike, of indignation — all these, and such 
 as these, as soon as they pass the limit of entire 
 innocence in degree and direction, begin to be 
 destructive of that perfect purity of heart which 
 is surely meant in this beatitude. Purity is the 
 freedom from all these. It is a clear brightness 
 of the soul in respect of things moral : a trans- 
 parent clearness, not arising from stillness, or 
 original feebleness in the natural desires, but 
 from the perfectly ordered activity of naturally 
 vigorous desire towards its legitimate objects, 
 whereby, in respect of all things moral, the soul 
 of a man is clear before God of everything that 
 defiles — the lively springs of feeling and desire 
 welling continually up with nothing but the 
 bright and crystal waters of a pure and holy 
 activity. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 [2096] It is opposed to all formalism and 
 hypocrisy, for it is the establishment within of 
 that kingdom which is not meat and drink, but 
 righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 3 Means by which its process is carried on. 
 
 [2097J When once the love of Christ begins 
 to fill the heart, the process of purification 
 begins in very deed ; when the love of Christ 
 fills the soul, the lower and impurer things of 
 the old nature cannot live there ; the love of 
 Christ, entering into and spreading through the 
 soul, fills it so entirely with His new self, that 
 there is no room for the wretched old self there. 
 — Monsell. 
 
 II. The Blessing promised: "For they 
 SHALL see God." 
 
 I The ideas involved. 
 
 (i) Recognition of God's providential guidance 
 and orderifig. 
 
 [2098] In all His providences relating to 
 themselves, the pure in heart see God. They 
 see His hand over them for good, giving them 
 all things in weight and measure, numbering 
 the hairs of their head, making a hedge round 
 about them and all that they have, and disposing 
 of all the circumstances of their life according 
 to the depth both of His wisdom and mercy. — 
 J. Wesley, 1 703-1 791. 
 
 (2) Direct spiritual communion luith God. 
 
 [2099] You know that your friend is never 
 seen by the eye of the body ; you can discern 
 a form, a figure, a countenance, by which you 
 know that he is near ; but that is not the friend 
 you love ; you discern him spiritually ; you un- 
 derstand his inner character ; you know his 
 truth, nobleness, affection — all these the eye of 
 
 i
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 2099—2109. SIXTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 303 
 
 [purity in heart. 
 
 sense cannot see. It is in this sense — in under- 
 standing the truth and goodness, in feeling the 
 pity and charity, in holding communion with 
 the loving spirit of the Father, that we see God. 
 —E. L. Hull. 
 
 (3) Knowledge of redemptive mysteries. 
 
 [2100] We may be like the living creatures 
 of the Apocalypse, "full of eyes round about 
 and within.'"' Around us, not the Creator's 
 works, but the Creator. The love of God to us 
 sinners may be seen in its conception, and the 
 revelation of every event in its history : the- fair 
 idea springing from the First Mind, and work- 
 ing itself out in the unspeakable gift of Christ, 
 in all the gifts that streamed upon us with 
 Christ, in the countless ministers of these gifts, 
 and in the degrees of illumination and blessing 
 by which they advanced one upon the other ; 
 prophecy succeeding type, and history accom- 
 plishing prophecy, and all converging with ac- 
 cumulations of glory upon Christ. Blessed are 
 the pure in heart, for they shall see. Every 
 mystery will open itself at their approach, and 
 ten thousand voices of loving invitation will cry 
 to the gazers, "losing themselves in the beatific 
 vision," Come and see ! And Christ Himself 
 shall lead them, the God of heaven and the 
 Brother of man. — E. E. Jenkins. 
 
 2 Its special point. 
 
 [2101] What a weight of glory is in reversion 
 for the heirs of God and the joint heirs with 
 Christ ! They shall see God. Sight is a beau- 
 tiful sense. It surpasses its fellows in rapidity 
 of acquisition, facility of action, and breadth of 
 command. Touch creeps, sight has an angel's 
 wing, and sweeps the firmament. It seems to 
 extend your presence with your gaze. You seem 
 to be everywhere within the limits of your 
 horizon, and in proportion to know what you 
 see. And waiting upon the sight is the imagi- 
 nation, storing itself with the patterns of the 
 seen, and then with these patterns transporting 
 itself and you into the illimitable void of thought 
 to make firmaments and people worlds of its 
 own. By the nimbleness, ethereal command of 
 sight on earth, supported and outstripped by 
 the wonderful endowment of fancy, we may learn 
 alittle, perhaps, of the meaning of the expression, 
 " seeing God." — Ibid. 
 
 3 Its nature and effects. 
 {l) It clothes life luith glory. 
 
 [2102] The beatific vision is the sight which 
 supersedes faith, drowns conjecture, and sweeps 
 up doubt in certainty. — Dykes. 
 
 [2103] That vision you cannot destroy. Once 
 let a man obtain it and no storm will sweep 
 his world — no blast wither ; he is living in God, 
 and God in him. He may be poor — the calmest 
 contentment is seen in his cottage. Men broken 
 down have known it, and grown noble. Under 
 Its influence, martyrs have found the rack full 
 of peace. With it all life becomes the presence- 
 chamber of the King.— £". L. Hull. 
 
 (2) // meets a natural craving of the human 
 heart in its best nionents. 
 
 [2104] The dream which has haunted the 
 earnest of this world has ever been this— to be 
 blessed, man must know the Eternal. It pro- 
 claims that dream to be a fact — they are blessed 
 who see God. — Ibid. 
 
 [2105] To see God satisfies the longings of 
 the heart. Men have ever longed for that — 
 longed for an immortal love — longed to lose the 
 misery of self-consciousness and be at rest. Old 
 mystics, old philosophers spoke of it. These 
 longings are all fulfilled here. The restlessness 
 vanishes. The distractions of change cease. 
 Man's soul is a home with God. — Ibid. 
 
 (3) // imposes no impracticable and impossible 
 condition for the work-a-day people. 
 
 [2106] This vision requires no abstraction 
 from the world's daily cares, no crushing of the 
 affections, no alienation from the companion- 
 ships of life, no severe intellectual culture, but 
 may come to common men engaged in all the 
 distractions of the world's daily toil, if their 
 hearts be pure. — Ibid. 
 
 4 Method of realization. 
 
 (l) // 7iecds moral discipline. 
 
 [2107] We love the darkness; and the light 
 which we do not love we cannot see. The moral 
 discipline of Christian life ought to be one life- 
 long education of the heart in this faculty which 
 appreciates God, this power of seeing goodness 
 with thorough love and enjoyment of it. — 
 Dykes. 
 
 [2 108] One daily defect or infirmity, overcome 
 by God's aid, is worth whole years of supposed 
 security and highly-wrought feeling, without 
 such earnest self-mastery. — f. Keble. 
 
 III. Connection between the Condi- 
 tion OF THE Persons blessed and 
 THE Blessing itself. 
 
 [2109] That the seeing of God at all involves, 
 and itself rests upon, the Divine constitution of 
 man, his original creation in the Divine image ; 
 and hence, to use an image of the later Pla- 
 tonists, as, because the eye is soliform (yXioeidi'is), 
 it therefore can see the sun, so man, because 
 made in a Divine image, is therefore capable of 
 knowing and seeing God. But this image of 
 God in which man was first created is not 
 outward but inward — "created after God in 
 righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. iv. 24). 
 The seeing, then, which rests upon this must be 
 an inward seeing ; not, as some said, whom 
 Augustine earnestly rebukes, with these eyes of 
 flesh, but it must be through the restoration of 
 the effaced likeness of God in the soul that the 
 forfeited capability of seeing Him must be re- 
 stored. The enlightened eyes of the under- 
 standing, the heart purified by faith — these, 
 and no bodily eyes, are the organs by which 
 God is seen. In proportion as we are unlike to
 
 3^4 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 2109— 2118. SEVENTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [peacemakers. 
 
 Him, we are incapable of seeing Him ; in pro- 
 portion as we grow in likeness to Him, as we 
 are " renewed in knowledge after the image of 
 Him that created" us, we grow in the power of 
 this vision. — Abp. Trench. 
 
 [2110] As the soul becomes purified by that 
 love, its perception of all spiritual things be- 
 comes more clear. The heart that, like the 
 prophet's servant in the vale of Dothan, sees 
 nothing but sensible evidences of danger, and 
 therefore fears, cleansed by Divine power from 
 the film of sin, sees "chariots and horses of fire 
 around," and therefore is at peace. — Monsell. 
 
 [2 1 11] We are surrounded by earthly desires 
 and heavenly longings. The latter cannot be 
 too numerous ; they are as so many wings which 
 raise us up to God, even as " the wings of a 
 dove," which David craved for, that he might 
 fly away and be at rest. But of earthly longings, 
 longings after the fleeting joys and gifts of this 
 life, we cannot have too itw. St. Augustine 
 compares them to birdlime, hindering our spiri- 
 tual flight. I wish for few things, and I do not 
 wish eagerly for those. I have scarcely any 
 longings ; were I to begin life again, I would 
 fain have none. Earth is but a poor place, or 
 rather it is nothing at all to those who aim at 
 heaven. Time is no more than the shadow 
 which points to eternity. — Si. Fi-ancis de Sales. 
 
 [2 1 1 2] When God hath so determined that 
 only " the pure in heart shall see Him ; " that 
 " without holiness none shall," He lays no 
 other law upon unholy souls, than what their 
 own impure natures lay upon themselves. If, 
 therefore, it should be inquired, Why may not 
 the unrighteous be subjects of this blessedness, 
 " see God," and " be satisfied with His likeness," 
 as well as the righteous ? the question must be 
 so answered as if it were inquired. Why doth 
 the wood admit the fire to pass upon it, suffer 
 its flames to insinuate themselves till they have 
 introduced its proper form, and turned it into 
 their own likeness ; but we see water doth not 
 so, but violently resists its first approaches and 
 declines all commerce with it ? The natures of 
 these agree not. And is not the contrariety 
 here as great ? — J. Howe., 1668. 
 
 [2 1 1 3] None but the pure in heart can see 
 God. The proof of this lies in the fact that the 
 vision of the soul rises from the affections. Tell 
 the selfish of the beauty of unselfishness ; you 
 might as well tell the blind man of the glory of 
 form and colour, of shadow and splendour. Tell 
 the impure man of purity ; you might as well 
 tell the deaf to listen to strains of music. Most 
 profoundly is this true of spiritual life. The 
 man whose heart is unholy sees not God. — E. 
 L. Hull 
 
 [2 1 14] If thy heart were sincere and upright, 
 then every creature would be unto thee a look- 
 ing-glass of life and a book of holy doctrine. 
 
 There is no creature so small and abject that it 
 representeth not the goodness of God. If thou 
 wert inwardly good and pure, then wouldst thou 
 be able to see and understand all things well 
 without impediment. — Thomas d, Kevipis. 
 
 8 
 
 SE VENTH BE A TITUDE. 
 (PeaceDiakers.) 
 
 I. Class of Persons blessed : Peace- 
 makers. 
 
 1 Their influence. 
 
 (i) Magical. 
 
 [2 1 1 5] What two men want whose ill-temper 
 and mutual distrust are daily becoming worse, 
 is a common friend whose hearty affection for 
 both of them will utterly drive away their evil 
 thoughts. There are people of that kind. Their 
 face, their tones, their gestures, are_ all "con- 
 ductors " of a mysterious but most Divine force 
 which is not to be resisted. — R. IV, Dale. 
 
 (2) Co?itagioi(S . 
 
 [2 1 1 6] Peaceableness is a form of that charity 
 which suffereth long and is kind (i Cor. xiii.) 
 And when this spirit reaches its highest develop- 
 ment, a man becomes, not peaceable merely, but 
 the author and giver of peace to others. — ibid. 
 
 2 Relations which they seek to rectify. 
 
 [2 1 1 7] But, while the righteous are thus peace- 
 makers within the sphere of men's relations to 
 each other, it is, we apprehend, as labouring to 
 rectify men's relations to God, so that they shall 
 become relations of peace, that they are de- 
 signated "peacemakers." This is the peace- 
 making to which they are specially called as 
 subjects of the Messiah's kingdom, and which 
 alone furnishes a suflicient basis for the beatitude. 
 —Mc Jakyn. 
 
 II. The Grace of the Persons blessed : 
 
 Peacemaking, or Pacification. 
 
 I Its counterfeits. 
 
 ( 1 ) Coivardice and selfishness. 
 
 [2 118] Peaceableness is not to be confounded 
 with cowardice. Men who always run away 
 when there is danger of a fight, no matter how 
 necessary, are not to mistake their want of 
 courage for the spirit of charity. Nothing would 
 be easier than to live a quiet life, if we were at 
 liberty to throw off God's uniform and leave 
 other men to defend the cause of righteousness 
 and truth. To evade all unpleasant duties, to 
 refuse all public offices in which we are likely 
 to be brought into collision with rough and 
 selfish and ignorant men, never to touch politics 
 or religious controversies because we do not like 
 to lose the kindly feeling of our neighbours, is 
 neither a human virtue or a Christian grace. — 
 R. W. Dale.
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 2119— 2126. SEVENTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 365 
 
 [peacemakers. 
 
 [21 19] This sort of spurious peacemaking 
 consists simply in "letting things alone,"" not 
 meddling," " being sure that all will come right," 
 "taking things easily," "minding one's own 
 business, and letting one's neighbours mind 
 theirs." 
 
 Now this "let alone" sort of peacemaking 
 makes — if it can be said to make anything — a 
 very shabby sort of peace. It leaves vice un- 
 checked, it leaves ungodliness rampant, it leaves 
 ignorance untaught, it leaves secret grudges to 
 fester in people's hearts : I know not whether 
 selfishness or cowardice have the greater part 
 in it ; for selfishness and cowardice are both 
 very largely present in it, and selfishness and 
 cowardice are the very opposites of Christian 
 peace-making. And such miserable peace is no 
 peace at all ; for though it may be quiet for a 
 time, yet there is no security whatever that it 
 may not blaze out at any moment into the wildest 
 excesses of strife or evil. 
 
 (2) Inoffcnsivencss and iveahiess of cliarader. 
 
 [2120] What Pope said about "most women" 
 is certainly true about many men, they "have 
 no character at all." It is impossible they 
 should ever quarrel. They cannot. They have 
 nothing to quarrel for. In the course of an hour 
 they will passively agree to a long succession of 
 opinions, no two of which can possibly be held 
 by the same man at the same time. Men who 
 have no vigour or moral principle to grasp or 
 maintain a principle, and are incapable of resist- 
 ing the persuasion of the first friend, may have 
 other virtues, but they have no right to claim 
 respect for their weakness, and to expect the 
 reward of those who "seek peace and ensue it." 
 — R. IV. Dale {condensed). 
 
 [2121] He may be a good-natured man; he 
 may be one who likes to see other people com- 
 fortable and peaceable, rather than uncomfort- 
 able or quarrelling ; he may be liberal, or careless 
 of his money, and free in giving, or a lover of 
 quiet — but all this is hollow, uncertain, and un- 
 discrim.inating. A man who is only this may 
 change his mind, or he may take offence, or he 
 may become soured by troubles or disappoint- 
 ments, or by ingratitude, so as to become harsh 
 in his judgments, and unkind in his words. 
 Any way he is no Christian peacemaker ; nor 
 can he be called— for a softness which is of 
 nature and not of grace, which comes rather of 
 human weakness than of Divine strength — the 
 child of God, doing, like his Father, God-like 
 work in the world. — Bp. Moberley. 
 
 2 Its true elements. 
 
 (i) A peaceable temper. 
 
 [2122] Nothing more effectually exorcises the 
 evil spirits of strife than the gentle presence of 
 a pure and spiritual character. Such sweet and 
 holy influence breathes around a saint, a true- 
 hearted Christian woman, or a guileless child, 
 that from their very presence malign tempers 
 flee, and at their feet, like Una in our great 
 
 English poem, fawns the lion like a lamb. The 
 peaceful pure are thus involuntary peacemakers ; 
 and of such is the kingdom of God. — Dykes. 
 
 (2) Taking active steps as the world's recon- 
 cilers. 
 
 [2123] It is not enough for them now, when 
 that fire burns, to sit still and enjoy the peace 
 of God, or strive to be, as far as in them lies, at 
 peace with all men. That is good, but it is not 
 enough. To give no offence, and where possible 
 take none ; to stand clear of strife ; to look on 
 when hearts are torn and lives are spent in a 
 mad contention with the laws of God ; to let 
 human nature fret itself to death, out of peace, 
 hateful and hating, rebellious and proud : this 
 is not to be like the Eternal Father. Had He 
 done so of old, the Son had kept His pure and 
 peaceful heaven ; no angels had sung peace on 
 earth at His birth ; no sweet message, like an 
 olive leaf, had grown out of His cross. Pacifi- 
 cation at His own cost and pain is the supreme 
 idea of our Christian God : His name is Recon- 
 ciler. They who have been born of Him, and 
 are so like him that they can see Him, are in 
 this world as He was in it — the world's recon- 
 cilers. — Dykes. 
 
 III. The Blessing promised: "For they 
 
 SHALL be called THE CHILDREN OF 
 
 God." 
 
 1 Its import. 
 
 [2124] The expression, when taken in con- 
 nection with other parts of Scripture, intimates 
 that the " peacemakers " shall be accredited and 
 accounted, by a kind of general consent, " the 
 children of God." The men of the world, in 
 general, are not very ready to acknowledge the 
 existence of any real good in the persons whose 
 holiness of life condemns their own impurity ; 
 nor are they willing to allow them the privilege 
 of any peculiar relation to the Divine Being. 
 But there is, notwithstanding this reluctance 
 to admit it, something in the conduct of such 
 Christians which constrains all men to respect 
 them. — Good {of Salisbioy). 
 
 2 Its special point. 
 
 [2125] To the "poor in spirit," and to those 
 who are " persecuted for righteousness' sake," 
 Christ promises mere citizenship in "the king- 
 dom of heaven ;" the peacemakers are to receive 
 more distinguished honour. Christ came to 
 make peace between man and God, and to make 
 peace between men themselves ; those who had 
 been trying to do the same work, though in an 
 inferior form, He is prepared to recognize at 
 once as His brethren, and as the true children 
 of His Father.— A". W. Dale. 
 
 3 Its fulfilment irrespective of the success 
 or failure of Christians as peacemakers. 
 
 [2126] They manifest their likeness; for in 
 the divinest steps of their Father they tread ; 
 His most godlike deeds they do. If, as is most 
 likely, their peaceniaking awaken hostility; if,
 
 366 
 
 2126 — 2136. 
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 EIGHTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [the persecuted. 
 
 coming like Jesus to preach peace to earth, they 
 seem at first to send only a sword ; if men hate 
 them as they hated the Master, and take up 
 stones to cast at the heralds of mercy : this too 
 will but manifest afresh their Godlikeness, and 
 introduce them to a further and final blessed- 
 ness. — Dykes. 
 
 EIGHTH BEATITUDE. 
 
 {The Perseaeted.) 
 
 I. Its Relation to the other Beati- 
 tudes. 
 
 [2127] The seven are all beatitudes of cha- 
 racter ; the eighth is the beatitude of condition. 
 The seven describe the inward and moral quali- 
 ties of a true disciple or subject of the Divine 
 King ; the eighth defines his external position 
 in relation to this world. — Dykes. 
 
 [2128] People sometimes speak as if there 
 were no more than seven beatitudes. The 
 reason why this eighth is apt to be thus over- 
 looked is, that it stands apart from all the rest, 
 forming a class by itself, rather than, what some 
 call it, a mere appendix or supplement. The 
 seven are blessed attainments of the spiritual 
 life, which the Christian bears with him sub- 
 stantially into his hereafter, however in their 
 exercise they may be hereafter modified ; the 
 eighth is an unfortunate result of the circum- 
 stances which surround a Christian so long as 
 he lives here, but is to be exchanged hereafter 
 for a contrasted state of felicity and reward. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 II. Explanation of Terms. 
 
 1 Persecuted for righteousness' sake. 
 
 [2129] This may refer to the following: — (i) 
 The profession of the Christian faith, or the 
 adherence to some eminent fundamental article 
 thereof ; (2) worship of God in the way of his 
 own appointment ; (3) the practice of a religious 
 and holy life in general ; or (4) the discharge of 
 some particular duty laid down in Holy Scrip- 
 ture, or rationally inferred from thence ; as (5) 
 the refusing to do any thing which is plainly 
 forbidden in the word of God. — J. Gardiner, 
 1716. 
 
 III. The Relation in which Persecu- 
 tion stands to the Christian Life. 
 
 I Its inevitable attendant. 
 
 [2130] One would imagine that such a person 
 as here described, humbly unselfish, so devoted 
 to God, such a lover of men, should be the dar- 
 ling of mankind. Our Lord knew better. He 
 therefore closes this character of the man of 
 God with showing him the treatment he is to 
 expect in the world. — J. JVes/ty. 
 
 [2 1 31] Now none of us can be sure that what 
 befell the early Christians will not befall us ; 
 therefore it is always incumbent on us to cherish 
 this spirit, so that if we were called to choose 
 between worldly comfort on the one hand, and 
 poverty and persecution for Christ's sake on the 
 other, we should not hesitate one moment as to 
 our choice. And though in many ways there is 
 more toleration now, yet the spirit of the world 
 is unchanged, the enmity of the carnal heart to 
 God remains, and who can tell but it may break 
 out even yet in persecuting ways as wild as 
 ever ? — liev. W. G. Blaikie. 
 
 [2132] To be misunderstood, to be abused, to 
 be bid hold their peace for fanatics or mad- 
 men, were the lightest forms of resistance to be 
 looked for. Resistance might become animosity, 
 and words turn to blows, and the attempt to 
 silence becomes an attempt to extirpate or to 
 crush. In such a world as this is, such men as 
 Jesus designed to make His disciples could find 
 no paradise ; they could find only persecution. 
 —Dykes. 
 
 2 An indispensable factor in its continued 
 development. 
 
 [2133] Persecution is not simply inevitable as 
 soon as the development of active Christian life 
 leads into collision with evil ; it is an indispen- 
 sable factor in the very development and per- 
 fecting of Christian life. Persecution is not 
 indeed a grace ; but persecution is the creator 
 of a grace, as St. James teaches us. "The trying 
 of your faith," says he, " worketh patience/' 
 that is, endurance. — Idid. 
 
 [2134] The old lessons of submission and 
 patience are put to proof by the things which 
 he has to suffer, that he may enter the 
 triumphant kingdom, not doing, but enduring. 
 Blessed, therefore, above all former blessed- 
 nesses are they whose very righteousness brings 
 on them persecution. Blessed, because through 
 slander and hardship chased out of earthly 
 kingdoms for the heavenly King's sake, they are 
 added to " the noble army of martyrs," and ad- 
 mitted to the most splendid rewards of Him 
 who Himself is " the Martvr faithful and true." 
 —md. 
 
 3 Tests its reality. 
 
 [2135] This is, I believe, the practical way 
 to deal with this subject, to make it a kind of 
 test or trial for us all : how far those graces ot 
 Christian character which the former beatitudes 
 referred to, have been wrought into our souls, 
 so as to make us true and humble followers of 
 Christ. How far our religion is of that real, 
 earnest, fervent, distinctive kind which stands 
 out from, and witnesses against, the corruption, 
 and coldness, and sinfulness of man. — Monsell. 
 
 [2136] Persecutions, then, belong to times of 
 reality. So long as there is nothing very real, 
 or distinctive, or protestant against error in the
 
 THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 367 
 
 2136—2140. EIGHTH BEATITUDE.] 
 
 [the persecuted. 
 
 religion of either an individual or a church, so 
 long the world will let it be. But let that 
 religion once come out in its truthfulness, and 
 let men feel themselves interfered with in their 
 sins, their pleasures, their pursuits, by its incon- 
 venient reality ; and then hatred and persecution 
 follow as a natural result. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. The Relative Trial of Outward 
 AND Violent and Secret and 
 Domestic Persecution. 
 
 [2137] I cannot but think that it has been, on 
 the whole, not less trying than those outward 
 and violent persecutions. For persons assailed 
 by it have to bear their troubles mostly in secret. 
 They have little sympathy from others ; nor 
 any of the rising of the spirit of passive (pass- 
 ing into active) heroism which, when men's eyes 
 are on it, is naturally roused into energetic 
 resistance. For, indeed, there are several things 
 which tend to hold a man up in his visible en- 
 durance of visible persecution. He is as a 
 champion of a cause ; his personal bravery and 
 earnestness, as well as his conscience, are on 
 trial. He knows that even among those who 
 hound on the cry of persecution against him, 
 there are those who admire his firmness in 
 bearing it. Ke believes that though over- 
 powered himself, and put to death perhaps, yet 
 suffering and death bravely borne leave a seed 
 behind them, which germinates and grows in 
 spite of persecution, and is wont to outlive it. 
 All these things and such as these mingle them- 
 selves up with the convictions of conscience, 
 and strengthen it, when the persecution for 
 righteousness' sake takes place in the sight of 
 men. But it is otherwise with all the secret, 
 and, if I may so call it, unpicturesque suffering 
 of social or domestic life — the chill, and the 
 estrangement, and the unkindness, and the evil 
 report, and the misrepresentation, the thwarting 
 and jealousy, all the details of inward and un- 
 seen misery which goes to make up the real 
 persecution which has visited, and no doubt 
 visits still, thousands of people whose hearts' 
 desire it is to serve God faithfully, and are con- 
 tent to bear with evil for Christ's sake. And so 
 I can hardly doubt that " when that last account 
 'twixt heaven and earth shall be made up," it 
 will be found that the persecution of private and 
 social life has been in total amount greater, and 
 maybe its actual bitterness not less, and so its 
 ultimate title of blessedness in Christ under 
 this beatitude as great, as that of those who 
 have been the well-known and admired sufferers, 
 the "persecuted unto blood" for Christ's sake. 
 —Bp. Moberley. 
 
 V. Grounds of Blessedness in the Case 
 of the Persecuted. 
 
 [2138] The blessedness of the persecuted. 
 They are happy — 
 
 1. Because of their conformity with their Lord 
 (Phil. i. 29 ; iii. 10). 
 
 2. On account of the honour conferred upon 
 them. 
 
 3. With respect to the promises given them 
 (Mark x. 29, 30). 
 
 4. Because of their abundant consolation (2 
 Cor. i. 3, 4). 
 
 5. The Christian is happy in the cause for 
 which he suffers — the name of Christ and the 
 cause of righteousness. 
 
 6. In the noble army of martyrs which have 
 gone before him. 
 
 7. In the greatness of the heavenly reward.— 
 y. Gardiner, 17 16. 
 
 VI. Rules to guide our Conduct in 
 Aggressive Measures against Evil. 
 
 [2139] TTie difficulties in such cases are very 
 great and very various ; nor can they be settled 
 in the abstract. Each case much be dealt with 
 as it rises. Only let these points be quite clear 
 in our minds : — 
 
 1. That we must be holding fast by Christ's 
 righteousness, and not confounding with it our 
 own selves, or our wishes, or our likings, or any 
 such thing. 
 
 2. That if people oppose us, the opposition, 
 or ill-treatment if it should so be, must be 
 wholly their doing, and in no degree courted, 
 provoked, or desired by us. 
 
 3. That we are utterly and completely charit- 
 able to them ; both in the way of forgiving their 
 wrong, and in endeavouring to win them from 
 it ; not aggravating it by needless resistance, 
 not embittering it by hard words, but doing our 
 best to make their sin as small as possible, and 
 gain them to repentance. — Bp. Mobcrky. 
 
 VII. Homiletical Sketch. 
 
 [2140] I. The persecutions which attend the 
 followers of Christ. Not to mention the suffer- 
 ings of the early Christians and the Reformers, 
 Christians still sufter persecution. (i) In 
 marked disrespect ; (2) their society is shunned ; 
 (3) they are ridiculed and slandered. 
 
 2. The causes of persecution : (i) the de- 
 generate state of men ; (2) the influence of 
 Satan over the minds of men ; (3) the conduct 
 of Christians in the world. 
 
 3. The manner in which it is to be received. 
 It is not to be courted, but when it comes we 
 are to rejoice : (i) because the time of our 
 suffering is short ; (2) because we suffer in a 
 righteous cause ; (3) because we have the most 
 illustrious examples ; (4) because of the assur- 
 ance that if we sufter with Christ we shall also 
 reign with Him. 
 
 4. The encouragement : (i) Fellowship with 
 the prophets ; (2) reward — heaven. — J. Jordan.
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 VOT,. 1. ?4
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 Matt. vi. 
 
 €^ur jfatljci' toljiclj art in tjcatien. 
 
 ^allotocti be ^\}v lumt. 
 
 ^\)v ki'ngiDoni tome* 
 
 'cTljp VdiU t)c tionc III cartl), ai it i0 in Ijcabcn. 
 
 6itic u0 tlji0 tiflp our Dflilp lireaD. 
 
 anti forffllic u0 our Debts, as t^e forgibe our Debtor^, 
 
 £iiD lealJ us not into temptation -, 
 
 25ut lieliber us from eijiU 
 
 jfor tlj inc 10 ttje liinijriDm, 
 
 nnD tlje poteier, 
 
 anD tlje glorp, for elier* 
 
 ^men.
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION ^ 
 
 ADDRESS "OUR FATHER," &c. 
 
 FIRST PETITION. "HALLOWED BE THY NAME' 
 
 SECOND „ ... "THY KINGDOM COME," &c. 
 
 THIRD „ ... "THY ^YILL BE DONE," &c. 
 
 FOURTH „ ... "GIYE US THIS DAY," &c. 
 
 FIFTH „ ... " AND FORGIVE US," &c. 
 
 SIXTH „ ... "AND LEAD US NOT," &c. 
 
 SEVENTH „ ... "BUT DELIVER US," &c. 
 
 DOXOLOGY ... "FOR THINE IS," &c. 
 
 371 
 
 3S5 
 396 
 405 
 418 
 
 434 
 44S 
 
 03 
 474 
 483 

 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 I""ges 373 to 3S3. 
 
 I 
 
 ITS STRUCTURE. 
 
 2 
 
 ITS AUTHORITY. 
 
 3 
 ITS EXCELLENT E. 
 
 ITS NATURE. 
 
 5 
 ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 ITS USES. 
 
 ITS RELATION TO EXISTING FORMS. 
 
 OBJECTIONS MET RESPECTING ITS FREQUENT USE. 
 
 372
 
 373 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. Its Structure and Structural de- 
 sign. 
 
 1 Analysis. 
 
 [2 141] It teaches us to pray — 
 
 lit. Concerning the glory of God, 
 
 (i) Regarding His character. 
 
 We are taught to address Him as " Our 
 Father, which art in heaven." — The in- 
 vocatioji. 
 
 (2) Regarding His name. 
 
 We are to say " Hallowed be Thy name." 
 — T lie first piiition. 
 
 (3) Regarding His kingdom. 
 
 We are to pray " Thy kingdom come." — 
 The second petition. 
 
 (4) Regarding His will. 
 
 We are to desire " Thy will be done in 
 earth, as it is in heaven." — The third peti- 
 tion. 
 
 (5) Regarding His praise. 
 
 We are to plead '' For Thine is the king- 
 dom, the power, and the glory, for ever and 
 ever. Amen." — The doxology. 
 
 2nd. Concerning the necessities of ourselves. 
 (i) Respecting the procuring of good. 
 Hence we ask for — 
 
 (a) Daily bread, " Give us this day our 
 
 daily bread." — Thefoui'th petitioti. 
 {b) And forgiveness, *' Forgive us our 
 trespasses." — The first part of the 
 fifth petition. 
 (2) And respecting the preventing of evil. 
 Hence we ask for — 
 
 (a) Guidance, "Lead us not into tempta- 
 tion." — 7 he sixth petition, 
 {b) And deliverance, " But deliver us 
 from evil." — The seventh petition. 
 
 3rd. Concerning onr duty toiuard others. 
 
 Remembering the two great lessons of — 
 
 (i) Intercession for them. 
 
 Notice we are to say not " My Father," 
 but " Our Father," not "Forgive ME," but 
 Forgive US." 
 
 (2) And forgiveness of them. 
 
 We are to profess our feeling in regard to 
 others after the following manner, '' As we 
 forgive them that trespass against us."— 
 The second part of the fifth petition. The 
 absolute necessity of this duty is enlarged 
 upon by our blessed Lord at the end of 
 the prayer, "For if ye forgive men their 
 trespasses, your heavenly Father will also 
 forgive you : but if ye forgive not men 
 their trespasses, neither will your Father 
 forgive your trespasses " (Matt. vi. 14, 15). 
 — C. Neil^ Holy TcacJiijigs. 
 
 [2142] It has put upon our lips the definite 
 mention of a name, and a kingdom, and a will, 
 of which men reck not, and a prayer concerning 
 each-— a hallowing, and a coming, and a doing 
 —which it assumes to be desirable, and which 
 it would educate us to desire.— Z^tv?;; I'aughan. 
 
 2 Division. 
 
 [2143] Invocation— " Our Father, which art 
 
 in heaven," 
 \si Petition — " Hallowed be Thy name." 
 ■2nd Petition — "Thy kingdom come." 
 ^rd Petition — " Thy will be done in earth, 
 
 as it is in heaven." 
 ^th Petition — " Give us this day our daily 
 
 bread." 
 ^th Petition, part 1st — "And forgive us our 
 
 trespasses," 
 ^th Petition, part 2nd — " As we forgive them 
 
 that trespass against us." 
 6th Petition — " And lead us not into tempta- 
 tion ; " 
 yth Petition — " But deliver us from exW : " 
 Doxology — "For Thine is the kingdom, the 
 
 power, and the glory, for ever and ever. 
 
 Amen." 
 
 [2144] Of the arrangement of this prayer 
 many things have been noticed ; some fanciful, 
 some just. It has been compared to the law 
 of the Decalogue, inasmuch as, like it, this 
 prayer has two tables, the first pertaining to 
 the things of God, the second to the things of 
 man. There has also been noticed (if not with
 
 374 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2144—2151] 
 
 [introduction. 
 
 more justice, at least with more meaning) a 
 reference to the Trinity througriout ; the first 
 petition of either part of the prayer referring to 
 God as Creator and Preserver ; the second 
 petition of either part referring to God as 
 Redeemer ; and the third to God the Holy 
 Spirit. This has considerable foundation in 
 the form of the prayer, and not a little sig- 
 nificance with regard to the completeness of 
 the blessing we should seek. But the obvious 
 division is the useful one to bear in mind. 
 There are two parts. In the first part the 
 object of worship rivets the thought that has 
 been turned towards Him, and those desires 
 which concern His great purposes are first 
 uttered ; and only after that follows the second 
 part, in which the attention turns to our own 
 condition and wants. The petitions of the first 
 part are inseparable from one another; each 
 includes the one which follows ; the name of 
 God must be recognized and hallowed before 
 His kingdom can be established, and only when 
 His kingdom has come can His will be done. — 
 Dods. 
 
 [2145] Such is this prayer in its compass : 
 now as to the general spirit which it breathes. 
 It has been remarked by some of the early 
 writers of the Church that the first petitions 
 correspond very much to the commandments of 
 the first table, and the last petitions to those of 
 the second ; and this comparison between the 
 commandments of the old dispensation and 
 the prayer of the new, may be extended to the 
 general spirit which breathes in each. For as 
 our Lord summed up the commandments of 
 the first table under the general head, " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 strength ;" and these of the second table in the 
 words, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
 self," adding, that " on these two commandments 
 hang all the law and the prophets ;" so we may 
 say that the love and service of God and of our 
 neighbour sums up the general spirit of the 
 Lord's Prayer, as it is that of the gospel at 
 large. The love and service of God — that is 
 the one chief aspiration throughout the prayer, 
 the one chief object to the desire of which our 
 spirit is impelled by it ; and with this is inter- 
 mingled the desire for the good of all other 
 men as well as our own, in the largest spirit of 
 Christian love — Karslake. 
 
 3 Subject-matter and order. 
 
 [2146] By almost all commentators the num- 
 ber of petitions in this prayer has been regarded 
 as seven. 
 
 (i) In the first petition we pray that all things 
 done on earth, all our actions as well as those 
 of our brethren, may minister to the glory of 
 God, that by our lives and in our hearts His 
 name may be hallowed. 
 
 (2) In the next petition we desire that all 
 things here may tend to the propagation of the 
 gospel, the establishment of God's kingdom in 
 
 ail the world, and to the subjection of ourselves 
 to the rule of our heavenly Father. 
 
 (3) In the third petition we pray that we and 
 all men may keep the commandments and do 
 the whole will of God. 
 
 (4) In the fourth petition we beseech God to 
 give us day by day the bread we need, the food 
 necessary for the strengthening and nourishing 
 our body and soul ; so that, sustained by His 
 hand, we may be enabled to live to His glory. 
 
 (■5) In the next petition we ask God io forgive 
 lis those trespasses which have separated us from 
 Him, and to restore us to that peace which by 
 our actions we have disturbed, even as we for- 
 give our brethren, and renew that concord which 
 has been broken by our quarrels. 
 
 (6) In the sixth petition we pray for the pro- 
 tection and support of God against the assaults 
 of the evil one, the flesh, and the world, for 
 deliverance from all temptations. 
 
 (7) By the seventh petition we seek deliver- 
 ance from all evil, temporal and spiritual, and 
 for the consummation of the work of God in our 
 hearts and lives. 
 
 [2147] (i) The invocation. Our Father which 
 art in lieaven. 
 
 (2) The petitions, being six in number, of 
 which the three first relate to God ; and the 
 three last to ourselves. The first are drawn 
 with an aspect to God's glory, and the last with 
 an aspect to our own good and advantage. — 
 7. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [214S] Now if we look first at the parts of 
 which it is composed, we find it is evidently 
 divisible into three portions : the invocation at 
 the beginning, tha petitions in the middle 
 portion, and the doxology at the close. — 
 Karslake. 
 
 [2149] The petitions of the Lord's Prayer 
 may thus be ranked : The four first concern the 
 obtaining of good ; and the two last the removal 
 of evil — either the removal of evil past, and 
 already committed, or the removal of evil future, 
 and such as may be admitted by the temptation 
 of the devil. Among the former, those things 
 that do more immediately concern the glory of 
 God have the first place. — T. M anion, 1629- 
 1677. 
 
 [2150] This prayer consists of two parts : the 
 former of which, containing three petitions, 
 relates to Christian perfection ; the other, to 
 those methods by which that perfection is to be 
 obtained. The one part represents the end, and 
 the other the means of religion ; since the glory 
 of God's name, the advancement of His kingdom, 
 and the full performance of His will, are only 
 to be brought about by that pardon of sins, and 
 that supply of our wants, which are asked for 
 in the progress of this prayer. — T. Mangey, 
 16S4-1755. 
 
 [2 1 51] The first three petitions then refer tc
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2151 — C163] 
 
 375 
 
 [introduction. 
 
 the celestial life, the life in heaven ; for though 
 they concern what must be begun here, they 
 can only be consummated in heaven. The 
 three last refer to this present world : for in the 
 next life will neither be sin, temptation, nor 
 aught that is evil. — Hugo de S. Charo. 
 
 [2152] In the first, second, and third petitions 
 we look up to hcavcii, in the fourth and fifth we 
 stand 071 earth, in the si.xth and seventh we look 
 down to hell. — C. N. 
 
 [2153] These are petitions and more than 
 petitions ; for they are both hallelujahs and 
 hosannas : for we glorify God by the first, that 
 He is our Father ; by the second, that He is 
 our King ; by the third, that He is our Master : 
 and they are petitions : also the first, that we 
 may be His obedient children ; the second, that 
 we may be His loyal subjects ; the third, that we 
 may be His dutiful servants ; and fi'om these 
 first three gives a confidence unto us of obtain- 
 ing the last three, which, therefore, seem subor- 
 dinate to them, that as a Father, He will give to 
 us, His children, bread and sustenance ; and as 
 a King, He will grant to us, His subjects, a 
 pardon of our trespasses ; and as a Master, He 
 will not lay upon us, His servants, greater 
 burdens than we can bear. — Sir Richard Baker. 
 1568-1645. 
 
 [2154] The first three petitions refer to the 
 worship of God, and these in their appropriate 
 order : (i) We pray that the name of God may 
 be recognized by all men ; His love and mercy 
 made known throughout the world. (2) That 
 His rule with all its blessings may be extended 
 to all ; that it may come to all mankind. (3) 
 That all those who outwardly acknowledge His 
 rule, who know and who own themselves to be 
 His children, may willingly obey Him in their 
 hearts, and show that obedience by their lives 
 and actions. — Estiits. 
 
 [2155] Perfect in the subjects which are intro- 
 duced, and which form the parts of the prayer ; 
 perfect also in the order in which they are 
 arranged. First there is the order in which the 
 two great classes of petitions stand to one 
 another. Human desire, if not human wisdom, 
 feeling most pressingly its need of earthly 
 things, and only rising from these to aspiration 
 after the glory of God, would perhaps have 
 reversed the order ; but the Divine wisdom, 
 which has bidden us in precept to " seek first 
 the kingdom of God and His righteousness," 
 has applied this principle in the prayer of our 
 Lord, where the first place is assigned to the 
 petitions referring to God and His glory, the 
 second to those which relate to human needs. 
 
 [2156] The seven petitions, besides the full 
 meaning of each separately, indicate at the 
 same time the progress of human life in indi- 
 vidual man. The child cries out to his Father 
 and learns His Name, that it may be sanctified 
 in him ; the kingdom begins to come in him ; 
 
 the will begins to be revealed to him in instruct 
 tion and discipline, that it may be done ; then 
 grows up the adult into life, to eat his own 
 bread, who should not forget in praying for it 
 his spiritual necessities ; rather should all the 
 more fully discern the gift of God which is 
 infinitely necessary ; then follows, commonly in 
 the second half of life, the thorough seeking for 
 forgiveness, the warfare of temptation ; finally, 
 in old age, the longing, ever increasing till 
 death, for deliverance from all evil, which is the 
 closing petition of the dying man, that merges 
 into the doxology of heaven. — Stier. 
 
 [2157] The conclusion, or doxology, intimates 
 the reason why we beg these things of God. — 
 J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 4 Persons for whom framed. 
 
 (i) The faithful. 
 
 [2158] The dailyprayer of the faithful. — Aug. 
 
 [2159] It is a special gift to believers. This 
 prayer was taught by our Lord Jesus, and the 
 several requests contained in it are only to be 
 procured in and through Him. Both the title to 
 use this prayer, and all the expectations of suc- 
 cess from it, belong to us only as we are the 
 faithful disciples of our Saviour. — T. Mangey, 
 1684-1755. 
 
 [2160] We cannot too earnestly insist that the 
 Lord's Prayer is beyond the use of mere world- 
 lings. They have no heart for it. It is the- 
 possession and badge of the disciple of Jesus- 
 Christ. It belongs to those who can offer it in, 
 humble and hearty faith. They whose own it 
 is are, like its words, free from doubt and hesi- 
 tation, and full of confidence and afiection. — 
 Robi7ison. 
 
 [2 161] The Lord's Prayer is the saint's Amen 
 to the Apostle's Creed, his way of saying the 
 Ten Commandments in his Father's ear, his 
 echoing acceptance of God's unchanging law, 
 his song of hope to the blessed angels, the ■ 
 liturgy of sanctified self and universal love. 
 All that God says to us is replied to in the 
 Lord's Prayer, and prayers that derive from it 
 their inspiration. — Ibid. 
 
 [2162] The early Christians did not allow any 
 to use this prayer till they were baptized 
 
 II. Its Authority. 
 I Its use is obligatory. 
 
 [2163] The Church has ever understood the 
 words of Christ, " When ye pray, say," as a posi- 
 tive command enjoining the use of this prayer. 
 Though, even were the words of our blessed 
 Lord less stringent, the mere fact that we are 
 permitted to use this prayer, and that it was 
 consecrated to us by having come from His lips 
 who spake as never man spake, would have all 
 the force of a command to those whose highest
 
 376 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2163—2177] 
 
 [introduction. 
 
 glor>' it is that they are called by His name, 
 have been redeemed by His blood, have been 
 made members of His body, and derive their 
 whole spiritual life from Him. — Denton. 
 
 [2164] We require no greater commendation 
 than this, that it is the Lord's Prayer ; for the 
 declaration that "the mouth of the Lord hath 
 spoken it" (Isa. xl. 5) is conclusive as to the 
 authority of any precept and the sanctity of any 
 law. In this respect it excels all other prayers, 
 whether in the Old or in the New Testament ; 
 for the Lords Prayer has not for its author any 
 one of the patriarchs, prophets, or apostles, nay, 
 not an angel from heaven, not man's speaking 
 by inspiration and at the command of God; but 
 it was given and commanded to be used by the 
 eternal Son, who with the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost is God and Lord. — Siella and Salnieron 
 {combined) . 
 
 [2165] "After this manner pray ye." This is 
 the lawful manner. " When ye pray, say " this 
 prayer. L'nderstand it, and saynothing different 
 from it. It is to be always your model. You 
 •may say what it says in other and various 
 words ; but you must say what it says. You 
 are not at liberty to say anything in prayer 
 which it does not contain warrant, or suggest. 
 Only when, by His blessing, we are hearing 
 what God says to us, is God in His mercy hear- 
 ing what we say to Him. To go from the 
 Lord's Prayer is to go from the Lord ; no longer 
 to be with and behind the "one Mediator" at 
 the throne, but in advance and disrespect of 
 Him, exposing ourselves to God's anger. Never 
 may the soul or the Church dispense with the 
 guidance and aid of our "Advocate with the 
 Father." — Robinson. 
 
 III. Its Excellence. 
 
 [2 166] How brief it is ! Like the flask of musk 
 one sees locked in the chemist's safe with his 
 papers and his money, which, though it is so 
 small, is powerful enpugh to perfume thousands 
 of his preparations. So brief that we never can 
 want time to repeat it, however hurried in the 
 morning, busied during the day, or wearied at 
 night.— £■. B. 
 
 [2167] For this great prayer, in the compre- 
 hensive variety and exquisite harmony of ail its 
 petitions, is at once a manual of Christian in- 
 struction and a model of Christian devotion, 
 and is given to teach the true spirit, as also to 
 give the true expression, of the humbly prayerful 
 soul. — Loraine. 
 
 [2168] It is a prayer unexampled, for it is a 
 prayer given in answer to prayer. " Lord, teach 
 us to pray," said the disciples, The ^Master 
 answered, " When ye pray, say, Our Father." — 
 E.B. 
 
 [2169] "Five words with understanding" pre- 
 ferable to ten thousand of formality or repetition. 
 
 Here is no vain and heathenish babbling, as if 
 the length of our prayer were to measure the 
 value of its answer ; nor any explanatory repeti- 
 tion, as if God did not know what things we 
 have need of. But there is here only a straight- 
 forward laying before God of one desire after 
 another. — Dods. 
 
 [2170] All we mean to say is, that no man 
 should wish, expect, or ask anything which is 
 not summarily comprehended in this prayer. 
 Though the words may be very difterent, there 
 must be no difference in the sense. In this 
 way all prayers, both those which are contained 
 in the Scripture and those which come forth 
 from pious breasts, must be referred to it ; 
 certainly none can ever equal it, far less surpass 
 it in perfection. It omits nothing which we can 
 conceive in praise of God, nothing which we 
 can imagine advantageous to man ; and the 
 whole is so exact that all hope of improving it 
 may be well renounced. In short, let us re- 
 member that we have here the doctrine of 
 heavenly wisdom : God has taught what He 
 willed ; He willed what was necessary. — Calvin. 
 
 IV. Its Nature. 
 
 I A form. 
 
 [^2171] I suppose nobody hath so mean an 
 opinion either of St. John's or our Saviour's dis- 
 ciples as to think they were ignorant how to pray ; 
 therefore it is plain that they could mean nothing 
 else by their request but that Christ should give 
 them this particular form as a badge of their 
 belonging to Him, according to the custom of 
 the Jewish doctors. — Wheatley. 
 
 [2172] Since He has said, "W^hatsoever ye 
 shall ask of the Father in My name. He shall 
 give it you," how much more efficaciously shall 
 we obtain it if we ask it in this prayer! — 
 Cyprian. 
 
 [2173] Our Lord gave His new disciples of 
 the New Testament a new form of prayer. — 
 TertuUian. 
 
 [2174] Christ, among many other wholesome 
 admonitions and Divine precepts by which He 
 provided for the salvation of His people, has 
 given us also a form of prayer, teaching and 
 admonishing us what we are to pray for. — 
 Cyp7-ia7i. 
 
 [2175] God alone could teach how He would 
 have Himself prayed to. — Tertulliati. 
 
 [2176] Christ Himself gave us a form of 
 prayer, and commanded us to use it, because, 
 when we speak to the Father in the Son's words, 
 we shall be more easily heard. — Cyprian. 
 
 [2177] It is a prayer — one of the six prayers 
 — brief, strong, explicit — of the one weighty and 
 solemn liturgy which our Lord Jesus Christ left 
 behind Him to regulate and to quicken the
 
 THE LORDS PKAVER, 
 
 2177— 2187] 
 
 377 
 
 [introduction. 
 
 perpetual worship of His strugglino^, suffering, 
 and aspiring^ people. — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [2178] Let us remember that we have here 
 nothing short of a Divine form, given to us by 
 Him who, Himself God, knew of what God 
 would approve ; who, Himself the only-begotten 
 Son, by whom all things were made, knew what 
 His creatures needed to ask ; and who, Himself 
 Man as well as God, knew by the experienced 
 feelings of humanity what was most conducive to 
 the due performance of that most needful act. 
 As His holy name is above every name, so is 
 His holy prayer above every prayer. — Thomas 
 Hugo. 
 
 [2179] That our Saviour did but set men a 
 bare example how to contrive or devise prayers 
 of their own, and no way bind them to use this, 
 is no doubt an error. John the Baptist's dis- 
 ciples, which had been always brought up in 
 the bosom of God's Church, were not so brutish 
 that they could be ignorant how to call upon 
 the name of God ; but of their master they 
 had received a form of prayer amongst them- 
 selves, which form none did use save his dis- 
 ciples, so that by it as by a mark of special 
 difference they were known from others. And 
 of this the apostles having taken notice, they 
 request that, as John had taught his, so Christ 
 would likewise teach them to pray. — Hooker. 
 
 [21S0] "And it came to pass that, as He was 
 praying in a certain place" — perhaps Gethse- 
 mane, " for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with 
 His disciples," and both discoursed on prayer 
 and prayed among the olive-trees — "when He 
 ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him," 
 apparently in the name of all, " Lord, teach us 
 to pray, as John also taught his disciples." He 
 who had warned them against "vain repetitions," 
 to which the hypocrites and the heathen were 
 addicted, did not blame them for making this 
 request. He did not seize the opportunity to 
 condemn the use of forms of devoticn. — Dods. 
 
 [2181] Jesus Christ has been just praying 
 Himself. The disciples have been watching 
 Him from a little distance. They have seen 
 Him kneeling down upon the bare ground. 
 They have seen His hands clasped and His 
 eyes raised to heaven in humble, earnest suppli- 
 cation. The sight of Jesus praying made the 
 disciples long to be able to pray also. They 
 knew that John the Baptist, as you have already 
 heard, had taught his disciples a form of prayer, 
 and so the first thing which they did, when 
 Jesus returned to them, was to ask Him of His 
 great mercy to teach them a prayer too. — 
 Ketinaway, 
 
 2 A model or pattern. 
 
 [2182] The painter who is copying a picture, 
 the sculptor who is copying a bust, in the first 
 instance sets before him that which he designs 
 to copy. This being done, he casts from time 
 
 to time his eyes upon his model, and guides his 
 hand accordingly. Now this was the view 
 which the ancient Church took of the Lord's 
 Prayer. This is not the only view which may 
 be taken of the prayer, but it is a most true, and 
 just, and scriptural view. Let us consider how 
 we can bring our own private prayers into a 
 closer conformity with the model. Let us bear 
 in mind that the Lord's Prayer teaches us not 
 only what to pray for, but also, if I may so 
 say, what should be the proportions of our 
 prayers. From the order of the petitions we. 
 learn the blessings we should most covet, and 
 from the spirituality of the greater number ot 
 them we learn how sparing, modest, and reserved 
 should be our prayers. — Dean Goulbiirn. 
 
 [2183] St. Matthew's model, as contained in 
 our Authorized Version, is adopted in the West- 
 minster Assembly's Catechisms ; and, with only 
 the ancient change in the fifth petition, taken 
 partially from St. Luke, and warranted fully by 
 a comparison of both records, and a variation 
 in the concluding doxology, it is also followed 
 in the Book of Common Prayer. To the usual 
 form there is no reason why all of us should 
 not, in our public services, scrupulously adhere. 
 — Robinson. 
 
 [2184] The Church of Christ did use to begin 
 and end her services with the Lord's Prayer, 
 this being the foundation upon w'.iich all other 
 prayers should be built ; therefore we begin 
 with it, that so, the right foundation being laid, 
 we may justly proceed to our ensuing requests; 
 and it being the perfection of all prayer, there- 
 fore we conclude our prayers with it. — Bp. 
 Sparrow. 
 
 [2185] It is, doubtless, an outline which we 
 are encouraged to fill up, and which comprises 
 almost everything we may have occasion to ex- 
 press before the footstool of mercy. That we 
 are at liberty to enlarge upon it, according to 
 the variety of our wants and the state of our 
 feelings, is evident from the fact that the primi- 
 tive churches, and all their successors, so under- 
 stood it. — Good [of Salisbury.) 
 
 [2186] When the disciples said, " Lord, teach 
 us to pray," the prayer that we are now reading 
 was shown as a pattern. Here we have a 
 ground plan to fill in, and on whose lines we 
 may build the structure of our petitions every 
 time we pray. — Sian/ord. 
 
 [2187] The Divine order and plan is the only 
 right order and plan of every prayer which men 
 offer to God. The object, first in dignity, is the 
 honour of God. Next, the salvation of man. 
 First, the great reward in the future, for " we 
 seek a country ; " next, the way to that " coun- 
 try " which we seek. First, for that glimpse of 
 highest truth which is not given but to the pure 
 in heart ; and that reaching up into the greatest 
 heights, which is granted only unto royal hearts
 
 378 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2187- 
 
 [INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whereby they take the kingdom ; and that en- 
 tering in within the highest good, which only 
 they attain whose wills are moulded into the 
 Divine will. And then for the power which 
 brings men up to such bliss — the in-gathering 
 of all good and precious gifts — the removing far 
 away of all evil and hurtful things. 
 
 The petitions of the Lord's Prayer are seven. 
 The gifts of the Holy Ghost are seven. The 
 deadly sins are seven. So in sevenfold or com- 
 plete prayer there come sevenfold or com- 
 plete gifts of the Divine Spirit to save the soul 
 from sevenfold or complete evil. — The Church- 
 inan^s Guide to Faith and Piety. 
 
 [2188] By the framework of devotion here 
 raised for us Christ teaches us this right order, 
 showing not only what we should ask for, but 
 what we should ask for first, what next, and on 
 to the end. If in the mere mechanism of our 
 prayers we may not always choose this pro- 
 gressive sequence, we must, at least, keep this 
 pattern before us as a general guide to their 
 spirit and structure. "It is a regulator by 
 which all ages should set their devotions." — 
 Stanford. 
 
 [2189] Take note of the fact that this pattern 
 was given twice. Christ had already given it 
 once, that is, in the Sermon on the Mount. 
 These suppliants, as if they had never heard of 
 it, asked Him to give what He had already 
 given. How was this ? We suppose that, be- 
 sides the disciples who came from John to Jesus 
 at the commencement of His ministry, and the 
 story of whose call is told in the opening of the 
 fourth Gospel, there were others whose en- 
 rolment came later, and that some of these 
 having been with John during the first delivery 
 of the Lord's Prayer, made the appeal which led 
 to this, the second delivery. — Ibid. 
 
 [2190] The prayer recorded by Luke was 
 delivered by our Lord at a time and under 
 circumstances differing from those to which 
 Matthew refers. The one was spoken in Galilee, 
 the other in Judeea. The one unasked for, the 
 other at the request of a disciple. The one 
 as He was preaching, the other after He had 
 been praying. — Van Doren. 
 
 3 Both a form and a model. 
 
 [2 191 J Our Saviour's express injunction, Luke 
 xi. 2, is, "When ye pray, say ;" and what should 
 they say but the words immediately following, 
 " Our Father which art in heaven ".^ &c. One 
 evangelist says, " Pray after this manner ; " the 
 other saith, *' When ye pray, say ; -' from both 
 which, compared together, it is easy to collect, 
 that it is both a pattern for us to form our 
 prayers by, and that it is a prayer itself. — Bp. 
 Hopkins, 1 63 3- 1 690. 
 
 [2192] A specimen of the Christian's prayer 
 no less than its pattern. — Dein Atford. 
 
 [2193] It seems probable that the disciples 
 did not so distinctly understand our Lord to be 
 giving them a form when He first delivered the 
 prayer, but only received it as part of the 
 general instruction on the spirit of the Chris- 
 tian life which our Lord was giving them then ; 
 and that He repeated it when asked by them for 
 a set form. — Karslake. 
 
 [2194] In like manner our Master and 
 Saviour has Himself given us a form, which He 
 repeated twice in substance ; once to the multi- 
 tude, and once to His twelve disciples. This 
 He gave both as a pattern of prayer and a form 
 of prayer. — Pagan. 
 
 [2195] Did the Lord by "after this manner," 
 signify these very words, or only their substance 
 and their manner? No rational man can think 
 that it was his meaning that we should use these 
 words exclusively. But that it was His design 
 that they should be adhered to and used, as His 
 Church has understood Him and acted accord- 
 ingly, we have a most decisive proof in the re- 
 petition of the same words upon a subsequent 
 request of His disciples for a form of prayer. 
 For there they wished for a directory and form 
 for daily use, as John also taught his disciples. 
 The Lord did not refuse it, but most emphatically 
 referred them in their need to that which He had 
 given them a long time before. He knew no- 
 thing, and had nothing better for them, and now 
 says, more distinctly than on the former occa- 
 sion. When ye pray, and have need of prescribed 
 expressions, then say ye the same words. There 
 is a prayer of the heart without word, but let 
 him who should think himself so qualified and 
 capable for that at all times, as to be able to 
 despise the prayer of words, reflect upon this 
 saying of our Lord, " When ye pray, say." Fur- 
 ther, the spirit of prayer does give the special 
 and ever new and appropriate words of prayer ; 
 but this does not remove the necessity of the 
 weak to fall back upon a given form of words, 
 yea, even of the strongest, v;ho are, sometimes 
 at least, equally weak, and know not either what 
 they ought to ask or how to ask it. — Stier. 
 
 [2196] After the regular form of prayer {i.e.., 
 the Lord's Prayer) has been first said by wav of 
 foundation, there is the privilege of building 
 thereon petitions. — Tertullian. 
 
 [2197] All other prayers being of human com- 
 position, can neither deserve so much reverence 
 nor promise so much benefit in the use of them ; 
 and they are all more or less perfect, accord- 
 ingly as they resemble this Divine form. — T. 
 Man gey, i6S4-i755- 
 
 [219S] It is not only a form to be spoken, but 
 also a pattern to be 'followed. Though the letter 
 of it is given by Christ, yet we are not to wor- 
 ship its letter, but only the Lord by whom it 
 was framed and commanded. The letter itseK, 
 as found in the New Testament, directs us 
 
 1
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 379 
 
 2198—2209] 
 
 [iNTKODUCTION. 
 
 to the Divine Spirit to whom it owes its vitahty 
 and power. As if for the purpose of showing 
 that the language alone is insufficient, St. 
 Matthew and St. Luke have been permitted to 
 record it with some verbal difference. Its con- 
 nection in the Sermon on the Mount with the 
 sentences in which we are called to retired and 
 thoughtful devotion, proves that merely saying 
 it is'not enough. Its style and construction 
 almost make it evident that only to use its letter 
 would be a vain repetition. The expression, 
 " after this manner," in both its superficial and 
 its deeper signification, teaches the necessity, 
 especially in private devotion, of extempora- 
 neous prayer. — Robinson. 
 
 4 A prayer of Christ for us, not His prayer 
 lor Himself. 
 
 [2199] What is usually called the Lord's 
 Prayer is not such in the sense that Jesus 
 offered it in His own Person as the expression 
 of His wants. Not merely was it impossible for 
 Him, who was sinless, to use the fifth petition, 
 but we never find that the Lord, in addressing 
 God, or speaking of Him, uses the expression 
 "Our Father." He invariably says either 
 " Father," or " My Father," or " Your Father." 
 For even, when He gave to Mary Magdalene 
 the assurance that the disciples were His 
 brethren, He carefully reminded her that He is 
 the only begotten, and that His relation to 
 the Father is essentially different from ours. 
 But there are several prayers of Christ recorded 
 in the Gospels, and they are an invaluable trea- 
 sure and comfort to the Church. — Saphir. 
 
 [2200] We are to be like Christ, not in doing 
 the like deeds, or in saying the like words, but 
 in having the like spirit, animating us in the in- 
 finitely different offices we have to fill, and 
 works we have to do as saved sinners. It is out 
 of the question that we should offer for our daily 
 prayer the very words once used to express the 
 prayers of Christ for Himself. When, there- 
 fore, the disciples asked for a pattern that they 
 might pray just like Christ, the spirit of this the 
 opening sentence in His reply was — "No, your 
 prayers are not to be just like Mine. I pray after 
 that manner. After iliis manner pray ye. I 
 pray as the Lord ; but when yc pray, say," and 
 then He gave them these words — Sian/of'd. 
 
 V. Its Characteristics. 
 
 I Spirituality. 
 
 [2201] There is only one petition for any 
 worldly want — "our daily bread," and that, 
 spiritually understood, means "all things 
 necessary for our souls and bodies." — E. B. 
 
 [2202] '• For what prayer can be more spi- 
 ritual than that which was given to us by Christ, 
 by whom the Holy Spirit was also sent to 
 us ? The Father recognizes the words of His 
 own Son." — Cyprian. 
 
 [2203] I conclude with a remarkable saying 
 
 of a cabalistic work, which contains a most 
 beautiful, though unintentional, summary of the 
 Lord's Prayer. 
 
 " When the Schechina— that is the glory of 
 the Lord— is in His temple, all the prophets 
 ascend to Him, knock at the door, and say 
 ' Lord, open Thou my lips.' The first three 
 petitions which they then offer are in refer- 
 ence to the soul, that through them they may 
 be brought to the Origin of all things, for in 
 this consists the life of the soul. The middle 
 petition refers to the supply of our bodily wants. 
 The last three obtain from the King the turn- 
 ing of evil unto good. And before all these 
 petitions there is a Hand which writes, and 
 after all these petitions is a Hand which seals.' 
 — Sohar {quoted by Sciioitgcn). 
 
 [2204] The Lord's Prayer, short, simple as it 
 is, tries to the uttermost the spirituality of His 
 people. — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [2205] " When ye pray, say." And there is 
 no getting past the evident precept here de- 
 livered, that we ought habitually to use these 
 words. And as we use them, we shall find 
 that though we learnt them at our mother's 
 knee, it takes a lifetime to fill them with their 
 meaning, and eternity to give them all their 
 answer. — Dods. 
 
 [2206] The variations in the two Evangelists 
 allow us. when repeating it, a limited choice ot 
 expressions. We may use one form ox the 
 other, or, from the two, construct a third, in- 
 cluding what we consider preferable in either ; 
 and we may somewhat accommodate the lan- 
 guage of the several petitions, as our devotions 
 have respect to the body or the soul, to the 
 spirit or the conduct, to time or to eternity. \t 
 may always be well first to speak it literally in 
 some usual shape ; but it is a foundation from 
 which a temple may rise according to inspiration 
 and ability ; it is a root from which a tree ma> 
 grow and branch itself according to atmosphere 
 and season. 
 
 [2207] J. Blair describes the Spirit which 
 should mark our petitions : (i) That nothing 
 is to be prayed for but what makes either foi 
 God's glory or our own or our neighbour's 
 good. (2) That of these two, the glory of God 
 ought to be preferred. (3) That the petitions 
 for the glory of God are to regulate and limit 
 all our other petitions ; for ourselves or others. 
 
 [2208] Regarded as a whole, the Lord's 
 Prayer contains but one thought — the desire 
 for the kingdom of God. Luther is right, there- 
 fore, in saying, "The true Christian prays an 
 everlasting' Lord's Prayer, inasmuch as his 
 whole desire centres in God's kingdom." — 
 Olshaicse?:. 
 
 [2209] The Church of all space and of all 
 time meets, and is one, in the Masters prayer.
 
 3So 
 2209- 
 
 THE LORDS FRAY Ex. 
 
 2220I 
 
 [INTRODUCTION, 
 
 It is itself a sacrament of holy communion. 
 The aspirations of eighteen centuries have gone 
 up to God in it. — Dean Vaicglum. 
 
 [2210] Elaborate language, then, is no essen- 
 tial of prayer ; nor yet ingenious thought, nor 
 the observant penetration of spirit which dis- 
 covers the minute or hidden wants of man. 
 Only so much language is required as makes 
 the desire audible. We are backward in prayer, 
 not because it is too difficult, but because it is 
 too simple for us. It is so unlike our other 
 ways of gaining and getting, that we are always 
 trying to make it something more than it is, an 
 asking for what we want. — Dods. 
 
 2 Comprehensiveness. 
 
 [22 11] All subjects for thought are repre- 
 sented in this prayer which begins with God, 
 comprehends heaven and earth, and terminates 
 in eternity. — W. N. Pcrcival. 
 
 [2212] If you run over and through all the 
 words of all holy prayers, you shall find nothing 
 ■which this prayer of the Lord doth not compre- 
 hend and contain. — Aii(^usiinc. 
 
 [2213] For like as the law of love is the sum 
 and abridgment of the other laws, so this prayer 
 is the sum and abridgment of all other prayers : 
 all the other prayers are contained in this 
 prayer ; yea, whatsoever mankind hath need of 
 to soul and body, that same is contained in this 
 prayer. — Bp. Latimer. 
 
 [2214] Any clause of it might suffice a whole 
 day as a fountain of pious thought, a base of 
 manifold petition, a medium of rich communi- 
 cation with the Father. — Robinson. 
 
 [2215] I. In opposition to ostentation our 
 Saviour calls us away from the eyes of men 
 to mind Our Father which is in Heaven. 
 
 2. In opposition to vain repetitions, and a 
 great luxuriancy of words He has set us a 
 model of a very short compendious prayer. 
 
 3. In opposition to our prescribing to God in 
 a great many minute particulars we are taught 
 here to propose our wants and requests in 
 general terms, leaving the particulars to Al- 
 mighty God to answer those wants in which 
 particular manner He pleases. — J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2216] Other prayers, however good, are in- 
 evitably deficient : this is the voice of all human 
 want, the summary of heaven's law, and the 
 reception of every gospel blessing. The Church 
 learnt it in its infancy, and has breathed it in its 
 growth. It was styled '"the daily prayer" in 
 the first centuries, and has been well called 
 *' the salt of all Divine offices." It is the germ 
 and finish of Christian devotion. — Robinson. 
 
 .^2217] As we look into this well, we look 
 through words of wonderful clearness down 
 
 into a wonderiul depth. The oldest saint has 
 not sounded it, yet it is so simple that even a 
 child can understand enough of its real meaning 
 to make it his own real prayer. It names the 
 whole world's wants, yet that little one can use 
 it. It fits the child, it fits the man, it fits the 
 father and mother, it fits the youngest saint, 
 and the saint with reverend head — 
 
 " On which from opening gates have shone, 
 The glories of the great white throne." 
 
 If Christ had left for our pathway of praying 
 language, words of passion, or utterances of 
 sublime expression, true only in moments of 
 rare light or exaltation, that sometimes would 
 not have been true prayer for us, for it would 
 not have fitted our average life, but this always 
 fits us. It fits every mood and stage of our 
 soul's history — it fits us when our wants are 
 few, when our pulsations are quiet, when our 
 thoughts are level ; it fits us when we are just 
 beginning and when we are just ending our 
 journey. So, when I am but a very young child 
 of the Most High, the moments of weakness 
 will be rare indeed when I cannot speak this 
 language, and be stronger for it, but if I have 
 just come down from the third heavens, feeling 
 that henceforth I shall be more than I ever yet 
 have been, all the life of my soul rides out in 
 these words. — Stanford. 
 
 [2218] The honouring of God in the Father, 
 the testimony of faith in the Name, the 
 offering of obedience in the will, the remem- 
 brance of hope in the kingdom, the petition for 
 life in a twofold sense in the bread, the con- 
 fession of debts in the prayer for forgiveness, 
 the anxious care about temptations in the call 
 for defence. — Tertullian. 
 
 [2219] The same general spirit of desire for 
 the glory of God first, and then for the good of 
 our fellow-men, should be the pervading aim of 
 our active being, as well as the general inward 
 aspiration of the heart in prayer. — Karslake. 
 
 [2220] I used to think the Lord's prayer was 
 a short prayer ; but as I live longer, and see 
 more of life, I begin to believe there is no such 
 thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying 
 that prayer, were to be stopped by every word 
 until he had thoroughly prayed it, it would take 
 him a lifetime. "Our Father" — there would 
 be a wall a hundred feet high in just those two 
 words to most men. If they might say " Our 
 Tyrant," or "Our Monarch," or even "Our 
 Creator," they could get along with it ; but 
 " Our Father'' — why, a man is almost a saint 
 who can pray that. You read, " Thy will be 
 done ; " and say to yourself, " Oh ! I can pray 
 that ;" and all the time your mind goes round 
 and round in immense circuits and far-off 
 distances : but God is continually bringing the 
 circuits nearer to you, till He says, " How is 
 it about your temper and your pride .' how is it
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 -2230] 
 
 [introduction. 
 
 about your business and your daily life ? " This 
 is a revolutionary petition. Who can stand 
 at the end of the avenue along which all his 
 pleasant thoughts and wishes are blossoming 
 like flowers, and send these terrible words, 
 "Thy will be done," crashing down through it ? 
 I think it is the most fearful prayer to pray in 
 the world. — Beesher. 
 
 [2221] The words in which the wisdom of 
 God, descending upon us in perfect love, has 
 condensed and enshrined for us neither more 
 nor less than all, all which ever has ascended, 
 does now, or ever will ascend, from human 
 hearts in prayer to heaven. Yes, verily, what- 
 soever m<'>y not be included in this cannot be 
 fit subject of prayer, and may not be asked. 
 Such unlicensed prayer is, indeed, no prayer at 
 all in spirit and in truth ; for God's Spirit hath 
 not permitted it, neither can it be real com- 
 munion of the heart with the living God, for 
 presumption and error have neither the con- 
 fidence of faith. — Stier. 
 
 3 Catholicity. 
 
 [2222] Not only all who profess the faith of 
 Christ, by whatever denomination known, but 
 all believers in God may use this prayer accept- 
 ably, though it is the especial heritage of the 
 disciples of Jesus. — E. B. 
 
 [2223] From personal experience I know how 
 the Lord's Prayer commends itself to the mind 
 and conscience of a devout Israelite. The 
 following anecdote, mentioned by Arndt ("Vater 
 unser," p. 166), still further illustrates this point : 
 "A traveller in the East (Hay) was pitching his 
 tent near an Arab village, when he was sur- 
 rounded by an excited crowd, who cursed him 
 as an atheist. He addressed a venerable man, 
 whom he supposed to be a priest. How can 
 you say that we do not believe in God ? L'!sten 
 to my daily prayer, and then judge. He repeated 
 the Lord's Prayer. The people listened with 
 amazement. At length the priest exclaimed, 
 ' Never will I speak against the followers of such 
 a faith ; your prayer shall be mine till my hour 
 of departure comes. Repeat it, I beg of you, O 
 Nazarene, that we may learn it and write it in 
 golden letters.'" — A. Sapliir. 
 
 [2224] It is man's common prayer. It is the 
 Redeemer's great legacy to any and every needy 
 soul that would draw near in worship to the 
 Eternal Father. It is the simplest and sublimest 
 form of words with which any human creature 
 can approach his God. Let it be the first 
 prayer with which the unwonted lips of the 
 awakened heathen are taught to plead with 
 " the Father of the spirits of all flesh." Let it 
 be the daily prayer of the Christian man, as he 
 struggles to live nearer to his Father-God, and 
 more kindly with his brother-man. Let it be 
 the earliest prayer with which you familiarize 
 the lisping accents of childhood. Let it be 
 among the last utterances of the dying saint^ as 
 
 the final kingdom comes, and he is about to 
 attain eternal deliverance from the evil. It is 
 man's common right— his great charter of 
 prayer. When the hearts of mankind shall 
 have learned to feel, and their lives to manifest 
 the principles that this daily prayer involves, 
 Christianity shall have completed its mission on 
 earth. Man's next work will be to learn the 
 praises of heaven. — Loraine. 
 
 VI. Its Uses. 
 I Suitable for public worship or private 
 devotion. 
 
 [2225] The very petitions of the prayer, running 
 all along in the plural number, do evidently 
 show that it was primarily intended for the use 
 of the congregation. — Wheatley. 
 
 [2226] This prayer, being spoken privately 
 to the disciples (Luke xi, 1-4), is suitable as a 
 form of private prayer ; but since it uses the 
 words "our " and "us," it seems to have been 
 intended specially for public worship."— Pa^^?;?. 
 
 [2227] It is a social prayer. " Souls are not 
 saved in bundles ; the Spirit saith to the man, 
 how is it with \\it&—thee personally ? " So, in 
 teaching us to pray, Jesus begins with the in- 
 dividual. After He has said to each apart, 
 " Thou, when thou prayest enter into thy closet, 
 and when thou hast shut to thy door, pray to 
 thy Father, which is in secret," He goes on to 
 say, "After this manner pray j^;" then when 
 each child has been with the Father alone, he 
 comes out into the family circle and joins with 
 the other children in this praying concert. — 
 Stanford. 
 
 2 Helpful as a summary of our previous 
 prayers. 
 [2228] The Lord's Prayer may be regarded in 
 two distinct lights— as a summary of prayer, and 
 as a model of prayer. In the first of these lights 
 it is the modern fashion to regard it, and under 
 this view it is naturally introduced, not at the 
 beginning, but at the end of prayer. We feel 
 that our prayers are imperfect at best, and 
 greatly need supplementing by some form in 
 which there are no defects ; and so at the end 
 of our private prayers, or at the end of our 
 family prayers, we 'recite the Lord's Prayer as 
 summing up all that we can want or wish for in 
 a few pregnant words.— Z^lVz/j Gonlburn. 
 
 [2229] We must all feel that we are then least 
 unfit to address our heavenly Father in the 
 prayer of His children, when we are most 
 strongly moved to contrition, to thankfulness, or 
 fervour of ^t.\Q)'(\oVi.—Sciidamore. 
 
 [2230] Though, in the Ancient Liturgies, it 
 was always used at the beginning or very early 
 in the service— and in public worship the custom 
 is still followed, yet it is also introduced towards 
 ihe end, and in private prayer we generally 
 make it.
 
 332 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2231—2236] 
 
 [IKTRODUCTIOV. 
 
 3 Corrective of our private prayers. 
 
 [2231] Let me recommend, as a method of 
 counteracting our partial tendencies in prayer, 
 that we should from time to time, in our private 
 devotions, enlarge upon the Lord's Prayer by 
 way of paraphrase. As in religious thought 
 generally, so in prayer particularly, we are sadly 
 apt to run in our own groove ; and thus the 
 frequent recurrence to and study of the Lord's 
 Prayer is very desirable, as tending to give 
 us a larger and more comprehensive range of 
 sympathies. — Dean Goulbtirft. 
 
 [2232] Most warily and wisely do they, who 
 refer all their prayers unto the Lord's Prayer, 
 unto the which they attribute the chief and 
 principal place ; and keeping it continually in 
 their mind, do meditate thereupon, and exercise 
 themselves therein. — Bulling^er. 
 
 VII. Its Relation to Existing Forms. 
 I Its similarity to Jewish forms of prayer. 
 
 [2233] The first petition, " Hallowed be 
 Thy Name," would be one familiar to the mind 
 of the Jews, amongst whom there was one 
 prayer : " O Lord our God, may Thy Name be 
 hallowed, and Thy memory be glorified, O our 
 King, in heaven above and on earth beneath." 
 
 And the third of their eighteen prayers was : 
 *'Thou art holy, and Thy Name is holy, and 
 Thy saints do praise Thee every day. Selah. 
 For a great King, and a holy, art Thou, O God. 
 Blessed art Thou, O Lord God, most holy." 
 
 And this first petition is found coupled in 
 some prayers with that which stands second in 
 the Lord's Prayer, " Thy kingdom come." One 
 of the Jewish prayers which Schottgen gives 
 runs thus : " May His great Name be magnified 
 and hallowed in the world, which according to 
 His good pleasure He has created, and may He 
 make His kingdom to prevail ; may His redemp- 
 tion flourish, and may Messiah come and set 
 His people free." 
 
 And another prayer was : " O, our God, who 
 only 2.rt in heaven, may Thy Name be established 
 for ever ; may Thy kingdom reign over us for 
 ever, and may Thy holy Name be sanctified 
 through our works." 
 
 And Lightfoot remarks that it " obtained as 
 an axiom in the Jewish schools, that prayer, in 
 which there is not mention of the kingdom of 
 God, is not a prayer." 
 
 The third petition, "Thy will be done inearth 
 as it is in heaven," finds a very imperfect parallel 
 in the " short " prayer, or prayer composed for 
 His disciples by one of the Jewish doctors: 
 " Do thy will in heaven, and give quietness of 
 spirit to them that fear Thee beneath," or in 
 earth. 
 
 Thus the first three petitions of the prayer 
 had already, in a certain measure, found their 
 place in Jewish worship, and were familiar to 
 Jewish minds ; and it may be regarded as a 
 striking evidence of the peculiar nearness in 
 which the Jews were placed, spiritually, to God, 
 
 that they should thus have been permitted and 
 directed to offer up to Him petitions so closely 
 allied to those which form the most lofty portion 
 of the Lord's Prayer. — Karslake. 
 
 [2234] The passages collected from ancient 
 prayers and from modern Jewish writers are 
 generally given as follows : " Our Father which 
 art in heaven [Maimonides, in Tephillot] ; Thy 
 name be sanctified [ex Euchologiis Juda^orum] ; 
 Thy kingdom reign [ex libro Musar] ; Do Thy 
 will in heaven [Rab. Berachoth] ; Forgive us ou/ 
 sins [in most prayers] ; Lead us not into the 
 hand of temptation [ex libro Musar] ; and de- 
 liver us from Satan [in precib. Judceorum] ; For 
 Thine is the kingdom, and Thou shalt reign 
 gloriously for ever and ever." — DentoJi. 
 
 [2235] This prayer, except "as we forgive our 
 debtors," is said to be contained in the Jewish 
 Liturgy. — l'^a7i Doreii. 
 
 [2236] The more we make this prayer our 
 own, the more will it interpret itself to us with 
 ever deepening impressiveness, from the name 
 of Father, the word which it places first on our 
 lips, down to the Amen of faith, with which we 
 seal and conclude the prayer. It is Christ who, 
 having first taught it to us and impressed it upon 
 our hearts, draws it again to our lips, that so 
 out of our own mouth our heart may be streng- 
 thened and confirmed through the power of 
 God's Holy Spirit. 
 
 A verbal resemblance between certain clauses 
 in the Lord's Prayer and expressions occurring 
 in some of the prayers used in the worship of 
 the synagogues, or in the writings of the Rabbis, 
 has led to the supposition that our blessed 
 Lord selected these particular expressions, and 
 united them in one prayer. The supposition, 
 however, receives but little support from fact. 
 It is by no means certain, that the prayers in 
 which these casual resemblances to the petitions 
 in the Lord's Prayer have been found, are older 
 than the Incarnation of Christ ; so that if the 
 one were really borrowed from the other, it may 
 be that the synagogue borrowed its petitions 
 from the Lord's Prayer, and not the Lord's 
 Prayer from those of the synagogue. But the 
 resemblances pointed out are so slight, and the 
 passages which contain the same thoughts as 
 those in the Lord's Prayer, are scattered over 
 so wide a surface, that they seem rather to ht 
 accidental than intentional resemblances. It 
 has been thought absurd to suppose that the 
 Great High Priest who taught us to pray, and 
 who also prayed for us, who was the Wisdom of 
 God as well as the Son of God, should have 
 taken the various petitions of this prayer from 
 the writings of obscure Rabbis. Again, though 
 it may be granted that most of the petitions 
 bear some resemblance to passages in Jewish 
 writings, yet they are never found joined in one 
 prayer, nor, though the words employed in the 
 one instance may be the same as those used in 
 the other, have they the same meaning and 
 emphasis. — Denton.
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2237—2244] 
 
 [introduction. 
 
 [2237] After Lightfoot. Schottgen, Wetstein, 
 Drusius, Vitringa, Witsius, and Surenhusius, 
 have laid under requisition every conceivable 
 parallel passage, even from much later Jewish 
 prayer-books, the result of their learning and 
 industry shows that only the first two petitions 
 of the Lord's Prayer contains what, after all, 
 amounts to no more than allusions to well- 
 known Old Testament or Messianic ideas and 
 expressions. Besides, it is quite possible that 
 the Jews may have borrowed even these from 
 the Lord's Prayer. — Lange. 
 
 [2238] There is very slender proof of what 
 is often asserted that our Lord took nearly the 
 whole of this prayer from existing Jewish 
 formulcC. Not that such a view of the matter 
 would contain in it anything irreverent or ob- 
 jectionable ; for if pious Jews had framed such 
 petitions, our Lord who came to fulfil everything 
 that was good under the old covenant, might in 
 a higher sense and spiritual meaning have re- 
 commended the same forms to His disciples. 
 But such does not appear to have been the fact. 
 Lightfoot produces only the most general com- 
 monplace parallels for the petitions, from the 
 Rabbinical books. — Dcari Alford. 
 
 [2239] Lightfoot writes, " That it was cus- 
 tomary with our Saviour, for the most part, to 
 conform Himself to the Church and nation, both 
 in religious and civil matters, so they were law- 
 ful, most evidently appears in this form of 
 prayer." If this be true, it would be more right 
 to regard the Lord's Prayer, not so much as 
 drawn from earlier forms, but as harmonizing 
 with them. — Karslake. 
 
 [2240] The Lord's Prayer was not culled from 
 Pharisaic rosaries, and was not merely made up 
 of pearls picked from the dust-heaps of the 
 Talmud. 
 
 [2241] The Lord's Prayer and the earlier 
 Jewish forms are alike, and yet different; dif- 
 ferent as being the one the higher and more 
 perfect utterance of what had in the others been 
 oftered to God by the faithful Jews before our 
 Lord came ; all that was best in the old Jewish 
 prayers being taken up into a more simple, more 
 
 orderly, more elevated form, in the same way in 
 which all that was lasting in the old Dispen- 
 sation is taken up into the new, and passes into 
 a more perfect revelation in it. — Karslake. 
 
 VI IL Objections met respecting its 
 Frequent Use as savouring of 
 Vain Repetition. 
 
 [2242] Using the Lord's Prayer often is much 
 praying, not much speaking. Lightfoot points 
 out the Jewish error to which our Lord refers 
 (Matt. vi. 7): " Omnis qui multiplicat orationem 
 auditur." — XVheatley. 
 
 [2243] They are taught to shun vain repe- 
 tition. Perhaps the term " battology," which is 
 thus translated in our English New Testament, 
 does not merely refer to the repetition of words, 
 but also to their senseless multiplication,' re- 
 peating the sameprayer incur devotional appeal 
 is not always a vain thing, for Christ has sanc- 
 tioned it by His own example. — Siaji/ord. 
 
 [2244] "When ye pray," whether your prayer 
 be long or short, free or not from iteration, with 
 or without book, " use not vain repetitions." 
 The repetitions to be avoided are those without 
 reason or advantage. Other repetitions you 
 may use. Such as are occasioned by the pres- 
 sure of conviction and necessity, the forth- 
 burstings of desires kindled by God Himself, 
 are pleasing to our heavenly Father. What is 
 wanted is, not much speaking, but speaking 
 much. Luther comments thus : — " When thou 
 prayest, let thy words be few, but thy thoughts 
 and affections many, and, above all, let them be 
 profound. Few words and many thoughts is 
 Christian ; many words and few tlioughts is 
 heathenish. External and bodily prayer is that 
 buzzing of the lips, that outward babble, which 
 is gone through without any attention, and 
 which strikes the eyes and the ears of men ; but 
 prayer in spirit and in truth is the inward desire, 
 the motions, the sighs, which issue from the 
 depths of the heart. The former is the prayer 
 of hypocrites, and of all those who trust in 
 themselves : the latter is the prayer of the 
 children of God, who walk in His fear. — 
 Robinson. 
 
 Matt. vi. 7. The charge /x'} (3arro\oy{j(7i]TS is explained by Tro\v\oyia, " much speaking."
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 INVOCATION OR ADDRESS. 
 
 Pages 3S5 to 394. 
 
 I 
 
 ITS RELATION TO THE PETITIONS OF THE PRAYER. 
 
 2 
 
 GENERAL IMPORT OF THE CLAUSE TAKEN AS A 
 
 WHOLE. 
 
 POINTS OF ANALOGIES SUGGESTED BY THE CLAUSE 
 
 TAKEN AS A \YHOLE, BET\YEEN OUR HEAYENLY 
 
 FATHER AND OUR EARTHLY PARENT. 
 
 4 
 IMPORT OF THE WORD "FATHER." 
 
 5 
 INTERPRETATION OF THE WORD "FATHER." 
 
 6 
 CHRISTOLOGICAL ASPECT OF THE WORD "FATHER." 
 
 7 
 
 THE CONDITION ON OUR SIDE NECESSARY FOR 
 
 THE REALIZATION OF THE WORD "FATHER " 
 
 IN ITS FULL MEANING. 
 
 8 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE WORD "FATHER." 
 
 9 
 IMPORT OF THE WORD "OUR." 
 
 10 
 LESSONS SUGGESTED BY THE vrORD " OUR." 
 
 II 
 
 IMPORT OF THE WORDS "WHICH ART." 
 
 12 
 
 IMPORT OF THE WORDS "IN HEAYEN." 
 
 13 
 
 LESSON TAUGHT BY THE V;ORDS " IN HEAYEN." 
 
 14 
 
 REASONS FOR THE ADDITION OF THE WORDS 
 
 "WHICH ART IN HEAVEN," TO THOSE OF 
 
 "OUR FATHER." 
 
 OBTECTIONS MET RESPECTING THE ALLEGED 
 ABSENCE OF CHRISTOLOGY FROM THIS CLAUSE. 
 
 3S4
 
 3S5 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 ( Co7iiinned). 
 
 INVOCATION OR ADDRESS. 
 
 {Our Father which art in heavc/i.) 
 
 I. Its Relation to the Petitions of 
 THE Prayer. 
 
 X Not only its preface, but its ground-work 
 and foundation. 
 
 [2245] These words are the preface and 
 proem, and make way to bring in the petitions 
 themselves ; a "fair frontispiece " set over the 
 whole work, as Pindar speaks. No art can 
 reach it, no oratory can equal it. It is not long, 
 nor doth it grow into a bulk : but three words, 
 " Our heavenly Father ; " but these three are all 
 weighty, and in this narrow compass comprise 
 a world of matter. For, first, they are fitted 
 and proportioned to the petitions, and bear a 
 resemblance to every part, as light doth to the 
 colour of that glass through which it shines. 
 Whose name should be more holy to us than 
 our Father's 1 Nature and equity consecrate 
 His name. Who should be my King and reign 
 within me but He whom I know to be as much 
 for me as He is above me ? Whom should I 
 obey more than my Father? Let His will be 
 done, whose will is my salvation. Whom 
 should I ask my bread of, of whom should I 
 ask forgiveness, of whom should I crave 
 succour when evil assaults me, but of my 
 Father, who being our Father will, and being in 
 heaven can, give us whatsoever we want ? So 
 these words are not only a preface, but also a 
 groundwork and foundation on which every 
 petition is built up, and stands firm like Mount 
 Sion which cannot be moved. — Fariftdon. 
 
 A preparative to prayer. 
 [2246] Our Father which art in heaven. 
 
 This 
 
 is used as a preparative to prayer : and what 
 greater inducement can there be to dispose us 
 into an holy awe and reverence of God, than 
 to set before us the greatness and glory of that 
 Majesty before whom we prostrate ourselves!' — 
 Bp. Hopkins, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 II. General Import of 
 
 TAKEN AS A WHOLE. 
 
 THE Clause 
 
 [2247] In this invocation we may observe (i) 
 that God is the sole object of Divine worship. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 25 
 
 (2) That God would have us to address ourselves 
 to Him, under the notion of a heavenly Father. 
 
 (3) That in our prayers we are not to content 
 ourselves with particular regards, but ought to 
 extend the charity of our prayers to all man- 
 kind, saying, " Our Father," <S:c.— 7. Blair, 
 1723. 
 
 [2248] The word "Father" teaches Christians 
 faith and dependence, the word " our " unity 
 and love, the words "which art in heaven" 
 temper that faith and love with awe and rever- 
 ence. — Ramsay. 
 
 [2249] God is a Father, i. By an eternal 
 generation, having in an inconceivable and in- 
 effable way begotten His Son, God co-equal, 
 co-eternal with Himself (John iii. 16). 2. By 
 temporal creation, as He gives a being to His 
 creatures, creating them after His image and 
 similitude (Heb. xii. 9 ; Job i. 6 ; Luke iii. 38). 
 3. By spiritual regeneration and adoption, by 
 which all true believers are said to be born of 
 God and to be the sons of God (John i. 12, 13 ; 
 Rom. viii. 17). — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633-1 690 {con- 
 densed). 
 
 [2250] I. The recognition of a Divine Father- 
 hood. 2. The expression of an appropriated 
 Fatherhood. 3. The declaration of a celestial 
 Fatherhood. — A. F. Miiir. 
 
 [2251] I., The Almighty God is our Father, a 
 privilege more lofty than anything which this 
 earth can offer. 
 
 2. He is not only a Father, but a heavenly 
 Father, who, because He is so, has made us 
 inheritors of heaven, not of the possessions of 
 this changing earth, and of a temporal and ter- 
 restrial heritage. 
 
 3. He is the Father of all, as He is the :\Iaker 
 and Disposer of all things in heaven as well as 
 on earth. So that all things necessary to us, 
 whether spiritual or temporal, shall be given to 
 us. — Giiiltiaicd. 
 
 [2252] " Our Father," our Creator, the Author 
 of our being, who raised us from the dust of the 
 earth, who breathed into us the breath of life, 
 and we became living souls. " Our Father," 
 our Preserver, who day by day sustains the life 
 He has given ; of whose continuing love we now 
 and every moment receive life, and breath, and 
 all things. Who hath received us fur His own 
 children by adoption and grace ; and, "because
 
 386 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 2252 — i.262] 
 
 [invocation or address. 
 
 we are sons, hath sent forth the spirit of His 
 Son into our hearts, crying "Abba, Father.'' 
 Therefore, we know that He heareth us always; 
 therefore we pray to Him without ceasing. 
 
 And we say "our" Father, for He is the 
 Father of the universe ; of all the families both 
 in heaven and earth ; therefore with Him there 
 is no respect of persons. 
 
 Further we add, " Which art in heaven," high 
 and lifted up, God over all, blessed for ever. 
 The Lord and Ruler of all, superintending and 
 disposing all things ; Almighty, for whatsoever 
 He willeth to do is present with Him. — Wesley. 
 
 [2253] In other words, He made us, and is 
 our Father by creation : He preserves us, and is 
 our Failierhw His providential care : He has in 
 His mercy taken us into His family, and is 
 therefore our Father by adoption : He has re- 
 deemed us by His infinite love, and delivered 
 us from the yoke of our sins and fi-om bondage 
 to Satan, and is our Father by that act of re- 
 demption. — Maldo?iatus ami Dion. Carthusianus 
 {combined). 
 
 [2254] Since God is our Father we should 
 address Him with childlike trust. Since God 
 is our Father in heaven we should address Him 
 with holy reverence. Since God is our Father 
 we should address Him with universal charity 
 in our hearts. — C. N. 
 
 [2255] Thou art my Father, I will leave Thee 
 to give me what is best. 
 
 Thou art our Father, and we all are brethren. 
 I pray not therefore for myself only, but for all 
 men, since all are my brethren. 
 
 I am a very child, weak, and ignorant, be Thou 
 a Father, and a guide, and a help to me. 
 
 Thou art our Father, I will not fear to go to 
 Thee, since Thou wilt not cast off Thy child. 
 
 Thou art my Father, Thou hast therefore a 
 right to correct me, and I will bear with patience 
 that which must needs be for my good. 
 
 I have done amiss, but I will go to Thee, my 
 Father, and will say unto Thee, " Father, I have 
 sinned against heaven and in Thy sight, and 
 am no more worthy to be called Thy son." 
 
 Our Father is in heaven. This earth, there- 
 fore, is not the inheritance of those whose Father 
 is in hea\'en. — Denton. 
 
 in. Points of Analogies suggested by 
 THE Clause taken as a Whole, 
 
 BETWEEN our HEAVENLY FATHER 
 
 AND OUR Earthly Parent. 
 
 I God has adopted us independently of our 
 own will. 
 
 [2256] This is a relation prior to action, prior 
 to volition, prior therefore to merit and demerit 
 — a fact for all time ; a substantial reality over 
 which change and sin can have no power. God 
 the Creator, God the Redeemer, God the Com- 
 forter, is " Our Father" whether we will or no. — 
 Dean Vau^han. 
 
 [2257] It is not presumptuous, in a thankful, 
 loving, and obedient spirit, to call God our 
 Father. He has chosen for Himself this name. 
 
 — Robinson. 
 
 2 The relationship between us and God is 
 indissoluble. 
 
 [2258] " I will be a Father unto you, and ye 
 shall be My sons and daughters." In other 
 places it is said, " Ye shall be called My sons," 
 but here, " You shall be My sons ;" you shall not 
 only be called so, but be so. He will really 
 perform all the parts of a father to us ; yea — no 
 father like God. The outward father is but a 
 shadow ; as in all comparisons, outward things 
 are but the shadow and similitude, the reality 
 is in inward things. A servant is not always a 
 servant, there may be a release ; a liusband is 
 not always a husband, there may be a separation 
 by divorce ; but a father is always a father, and 
 a child a child. . . . The outward father is but 
 a shadow and similitude, the reality is in God ; 
 none so fatherly and kind as He : " If ye, being 
 evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children, how much more shall your Father 
 which is in heaven give good things to them that 
 ask Him.''" There is a hoiu much more upon 
 the fatherly care of God. — T. AlantoJi, 1629-1677. 
 
 3 God's love is parental. 
 
 [2259] God is Father ; government is personal. 
 All the tenderness which now is stored up in the 
 word " mother " was of old included in the name 
 " father." The household was governed by law, 
 and yet it was small enough to enable the father 
 to make himself the exponent of love and law. 
 In the household, strength and weakness are 
 bound together by the mysterious tie of love. 
 . . . " Our Father" is itself a whole theology. — 
 Beecher. 
 
 [2260] God is more a Father than our natural 
 parents are. They concur to our being but 
 instrumentally, God originally (Psa. cxxxix. 14 ; 
 Mai. ii. 10).— T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2261] It is the glory of princes to have titles 
 to express their greatness, but it is Thy glory, O 
 God, to have a title to express Thy love, and 
 therefore Thou hast given Thyself a name, re- 
 specting more the subject than the prince ; and, 
 lest it should be too big for us, Thou hast made 
 it too little for Thyself. 
 
 4 God's actions to us are those of a Parent. 
 [2262] How will God perform the part of a 
 
 Father, (i) In allowing; us full leave to come to 
 Him in all our necessities. Gal. iv. 6. (2) In 
 supplying all our wants. Matt. vi. 26. (3) In 
 pitying our miseries, Psa. ciii. 13; Mai. iii. 17. 
 
 (4) In disciplining and treating us with much 
 indulgence and wisdom and care, Heb. xii. 10. 
 
 (5) In providing able guardians for us, Heb. i. 
 14. (6) In laying up an inheritance for us, Luke 
 xii. 32. — T. Si'xntoji, 1629-1677 {condensed).
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 a26s — 2271] 
 
 3S7 
 
 [invocation or address. 
 
 [2263] As a Father God (i) teaches us, Isa. 
 liv. 13. (2) Corrects us, Heb. xii. 9. (3) Pities 
 r.s, Psa. ciii. 13. (4) Protects us against temp- 
 tation, danger, &c. (5) Provides for us ; tem- 
 porally, Matt. vi. 25-31. Spiritually, Eph. i. 3. 
 Eternally, i Pet. i. 3. — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 IV. Import of the Word " Father." 
 
 I The word "Father" implies a Personal 
 Deity and a special Providence. 
 
 [2264] Father ! The word Father implies 
 personality. He is therefore a personal God 
 whom man is to worship. It is not a principle, 
 but a Person we are to invoke ; not nature, but 
 God, " our Father." All worship which loses 
 itself in vague generalities addressed to some 
 great abstraction, or trust in such a thing as 
 men call nature, is at once condemned by the 
 opening words of this pattern prayer. " After 
 this manner, therefore, pray ye," to a living, 
 ever-present Person ; Himself moving amid 
 and regulating all His works, not estranging 
 Himself from His creation, and leaving it to 
 the unintelligent control of destiny or law, but 
 a Father ever working through all. — Lorainc. 
 
 [2265] It is not the almighty Artizan con- 
 structing a marvellous piece of mechanism. It 
 is not the all-wise Artist touching into beauty 
 the temple that is built. It is not the irrespon- 
 sible Tyrant whom trembling slaves obey. It is 
 the Father. It is not the "unknown," the 
 "unthinkable"; He is the Father. True, you 
 cannot see Him through microscope or tele- 
 scope. If it were a picture or a poem, a moun- 
 tain or a molecule, a nettle or a nerve centre, 
 material instruments might aid you. But the 
 affairs of the Spirit have to be seen by Spirit. 
 The vision of the soul goes farther than the 
 stars and sees the Father. — R. JSIitckell {con- 
 densed). 
 
 [2266] It is a grand thing to be told that the 
 title which God assumes is the first which we 
 are taught to lisp in infancy — with which, in the 
 dawning-tide of the understanding, we connect 
 an overshadowing love which covers our weak- 
 ness and toils for our support ; whose grave 
 labours are suspended to look on our weakness, 
 and whose careworn countenance is lit up with 
 our first laughter. — B. Kent. 
 
 3 The word "Father" rightly believed in 
 inspires conscious joy, and is an ever- 
 lasting spring of hope. 
 
 [2267] He is never alone. Nothing to him 
 appears empty or desolate. The solitary cham- 
 ber, the savage desert, for him is fiUed with a 
 Being whom he loves and adores. He throws 
 open his window to the night-sky, and, while all 
 is still and slumbering below, above him, farther 
 than eye can reach or thought ascend, kindles 
 the outspread gloiy of the Father. He rejoices 
 to come with filial trust in all perplexities, and 
 shelter himself under this brooding Paternity. 
 
 He feels the heart of infinite Love beating close to 
 his heart, and throbbing through all the pulses 
 of the universe. — Chapin. 
 
 3 The word "Father" realized affords both 
 a spiritual anchorage-ground and an 
 homestead. 
 
 [2268] This, instead of being less true than 
 earthly relationship, is the one relationship, 
 which, when a man enters into, he ceases 
 to be homeless and a wanderer, a fugitive 
 and vagabond upon the face of the earth, 
 and from the face of God — ceases to be a 
 mere withered leaf borne helpless on the wind, 
 whose origin none cares to trace, and whose 
 destiny none turns to see ; he has found his 
 place in the universe, he has found a hold and 
 a hope, and however in himself unstable, weak, 
 and incapable, he rests enduringly in the un- 
 changeable Father. He has been outside, 
 thinking the world a strange, cold, barren, 
 friendless, and unsatisfying place ; he has wan- 
 dered about, not seeing " through the thick 
 cloud," and still less dreaming that One was 
 seeing and caring for him, and now he finds he 
 has a Father, One to love, One to serve, One to 
 glorify, One to worship. — Dods. 
 
 V. Interpretation of the Word " Fa- 
 ther." 
 
 I He is our Father by the act of creation. 
 
 (i) As understood by the heathen. 
 
 [2269] The heathen application of the name 
 Father to God was only a dim recognition of 
 man's springing from some supreme Source, 
 some unknown Creator. A few nobler spirits 
 half deciphered from creation and human 
 aftairs, and half guessed, that unknown Source 
 of life to be good, and hence, in some unknown 
 way, Father peculiarly of the good. — Loraine. 
 
 (2) As revealed in the Scriptures. 
 
 [2270] In theScripturesof the Jewish economy 
 the word " Father" occurs a few times in its ap- 
 plication to God. To the Israelite this word 
 brought a somewhat deeper and richer truth 
 than'to the heathen. To the former the story 
 of creation was no guess ; nor was the Divine 
 Being entirely a mystery. The Israelite wor- 
 shipped a revealed God. Pie knew — his nation's 
 matchless history told him with many tongues — 
 that God specially provides for the wants, and 
 interposes for the protection of His children ; 
 and, therefore, the Jew could say," Have we not 
 all one Father.? hath not one God created us?" 
 (Alal. ii. 10.)— Ibid. 
 
 [2271] God \s 02/r Father, \n respect of— Our 
 creation. He made us. Thus He pleads with 
 us, " Is not He thy Father that hath bought 
 thee ? Hath He not made thee, and established 
 thee? Have we not all one Father? hath not 
 God created us ? " (Deut. xxxii. 6 ; Mai. ii. 10 ) 
 — Denton.
 
 388 
 
 THE LORDS PR AVER. 
 
 ■22-J2 — 2281] 
 
 [invocation or address. 
 
 2 He is our Father by the blessing of pre- 
 servation. 
 
 [2272] This blessing of preservation makes 
 God our Father in a nearer relation than that 
 of creation ; the one is a single act of that power 
 we should admire ; the other is a repeated act 
 of that mercy we should love ; the one gives us 
 only life ; the other, all the comforts and con- 
 veniences of it. — T. Mangey, 1684-175 5. 
 
 3 He is our Father by the work of redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 [2273I What, then, shall only those who have 
 been thus renewed and adopted into the Divine 
 family use the blessed and encouraging words 
 "Our Father?" Surely not. They only can 
 use it in its fullest meaning ; but this is man's 
 prayer everywhere and in every condition. All 
 men are not regenerate, but all men are re- 
 deemed. By the freedom of their redemption 
 let them say', " Om- Father:' 
 
 In ancient Judaism, the bond-servants were 
 not allowed to apply the term " father " to their 
 master, but the free-servants were allowed this 
 privilege ; and their use of the word was under- 
 stood as indicating their desire to obtain adop- 
 tion into the family. The purchased price of 
 freedom is paid. — Loraine. 
 
 .4 He is our Father by the blessing of 
 adoption. 
 
 [2274] The Father of our Lord Jesus and 
 of us ; but not in the same way as of us. In 
 His Divine nature, Jesus is the etf7'>ialSoYi. In 
 that human nature of our Lord, " born of a 
 woman,'' by a manner incoaiceivable to us, He j 
 is the only-begotten of God. But man's son- ' 
 ship is only that of sinning but redeemed, and, ' 
 in his best estate, regenerate and adopted, 
 humanity. St. Augustine truly says, " Christ 
 never so unites us as to make no distinction 
 between us and Himself." Therefore, we find \ 
 Christ praying for His disciples and teaching 
 them to pray, but never praying with them. — I 
 Ibid. i 
 
 [2275] More especially there is a particular 
 sort of men to whom God is a Father in Christ, 
 and that is to believers (John i. 12). Those 
 which in their natural state and condition were 
 children of wrath, and slaves to sin and Satan, 
 when they come, and are willing to welcome and 
 receive Christ into their hearts, in a sense of 
 their misery, are willing to make out after God 
 .and Christ ; they have an allowance to call God 
 Father, and may have child-like communion 
 with Him, and run to Him in all straits, and lay 
 open their necessities to Him. — T. IManton, 
 1629-1677. 
 
 5 He is our "Father" by sanctification. 
 
 [2276] In calling Himself otir Father, God 
 recalls to our mind the benefits of our creation, 
 our preservation, and redemption, the blessing 
 of adoption, and of that sanctification which He 
 has given to His children. — Denton. 
 
 [2277] Thus in the Divine Fatherhood is ex- 
 hibited the work of the blessed Trinity — 
 
 1. That of the Father, in creation, providence, 
 and adoption. 
 
 2. That of the Eternal Son in redemption. 
 
 3. That of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. — 
 E.B. 
 
 VI. Christological Aspect of the 
 Word " Father." 
 
 [2278] The Christian, at the outset, invokes 
 God as Father, in the true filial spirit. " God 
 hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into our 
 hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Hitherto it had 
 not been so : Abraham knew God as " Al- 
 mighty ; " Moses as "Jehovah," or as a " Mer- 
 ciful and gracious God ; " David and the Psalmists, 
 as " The Lord is my Shepherd," or as " The 
 Shepherd of Israel." And each invoked God 
 as he knew Him. But it was not until the Son 
 of God came that men knew God, and invoked 
 Him as a Father. Nor could men have this 
 knowledge before, or by any other means. Only 
 the Son can reveal the Father. No one else 
 knows Him. — Proctor. 
 
 [2279] We need an objective representation, 
 a personal expression of God. We need some 
 name that shall signify the complete qualities of 
 His nature — that shall combine our sublimest, 
 devoutest, and tenderest ideas of Him. We 
 want an image of the Deity that this finite in- 
 tellect can steadily see, that this wandering 
 will and insufficient conscience can intelligently 
 represent and obey, that this yearning and agi- 
 tated heart can rest upon and love ; and we 
 want one epithet which will express all these 
 characteristics at the same time — which shall 
 tell their essential unity, and speak their highest 
 meaning. ]\Iy friends, that Image has been 
 given us in Jesus Christ. That epithet He has 
 taught us in that word expressive at once of the 
 giving of life, the claims of authority, and the 
 quality of goodness — that name of cause, and 
 veneration, and love — the name of Father. — 
 Chapin. 
 
 [22S0] Learn from Christ what sonship means, 
 what election means, what liberty means. 
 
 Sonship means humility. Election means 
 separateness or holiness unto God. Liberty 
 means service. — A. Saphir. 
 
 VII. The Condition on our side neces- 
 sary FOR the Realization of the 
 Word " Father " in its Full 
 Meaning. 
 
 [22S1] Faith in the sonship of man to God in 
 Christ is the realization of the truth of God's 
 Fatherhcod. Faith is indeed the blending of 
 the spirit of man with the spirit of God — the 
 enclasping of the Parent by the offspring, of 
 the oftspring by the Parent. Indeed, faith is 
 the operation of the Divine affinities between 
 the spirit of man and the spirit of God. Unfaith
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 389 
 
 2281 — 229CJ 
 
 [invocation or ADDRKbb. 
 
 is the untruthful denial of those affinities. Man 
 is what he is, whether he believes it or not : he 
 only realizes his true relation to God by belief 
 in Christ. Unfaith so far unfilializes as to turn 
 the truth of God into a lie. Denial of man's 
 sonship is the denial of Christ, who Himself 
 became a member of the race of which He is 
 the Root and Redeemer. " Because the children 
 were partakers of flesh and blood, He also Him- 
 self likewise took part of the same." Christ is 
 the Universal Brother. The sonship of Christ 
 to God, and therefore of humanity in Christ to 
 God, is the rock upon which the Church is 
 built. The foundation is laid, and faith only 
 can build upon it. No man truly believes in 
 God and His Christ until he believes that he 
 himself is a child of God. " Because ye are 
 sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son 
 into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." — W. N. 
 Percival. 
 
 VIII. Lessons taught by the Word 
 " Father." 
 
 s The duty of holy desire and filial trust. 
 
 [2282] (i) He would have us ever listen to 
 Him with filial love, and not with servile fear. 
 
 (2) The very name Father should inspire us 
 with love, and He would have us speak to Him 
 out of a heart full of love, for the name itself 
 creates and increases our love. 
 
 (3) He would give us confidence in His will- 
 ingness to bestow upon us all that we can ask 
 or rightly desire. — Denton. 
 
 [2283] These views of the Great Being, "Who 
 is over all, God blessed for evermore," are being 
 displaced by such as harmonize more completely 
 with the wants of the heart. He is not a God 
 of merely terrible and wondrous might, of in- 
 conceivable and unattainable holiness, before 
 whom we must bend in abject silent fear as 
 slaves before their master, but One who loves 
 us all as our Father ; concerning whom an 
 ancient psalmist sang, " Like as a father pitieth 
 his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
 Him." W^e do not turn our eyes upwards to 
 heaven as though we beheld One whose very 
 aspect causes us to tremble with alarm, but as 
 if expecting to catch a glimpse of a gracious 
 Friend, who places at our service a wealth of 
 loving and tender help for every time of need. 
 We do not worship a Being who must be ap- 
 proached with awe and dread, for fear He 
 should crush us, and take away our remem- 
 brance for ever, but a beneficent Father, whose 
 heart beats with a yearning tenderness of love 
 for us all. 
 
 [2284] This revelation of " The Father " has 
 swept away all the barriers of distance, it has 
 streamed into our souls through all the glories 
 of the universe, it has touched us with the 
 intimate nearness, the infinite condescension of 
 God, and gathered into that one name all that 
 is venerable with all that is lovely. Let us 
 
 habitually avail ourselves, then, of the privilege 
 made known to us. In every experience of life, 
 let us bring to His footstool hearts of reverence 
 and of penitence, of holy desire and of filial 
 trust. — Chapin. 
 
 2 That we should imitate Him as our Father. 
 
 [2285] We are to listen to conscience, which 
 tells us that a likeness of character is expected 
 between father and child. This likeness is 
 found in all who call God Father in truth. 
 Such an assimilation Christ supposes, saying, 
 in this same Sermon on the Mount, " Love 
 your enemies, do good to them that hate you, 
 that ye may be the children of your Father 
 which is in heaven." — Dods. 
 
 [2286] Quesnel says justly, " Dieu est plus 
 imitable par ses enfans dans les perfections 
 ou il paroit Pere, que dans ceux oil il paroit 
 Dieu." 
 
 [2287] When once there has settled itself in 
 the soul the thought, " God is my Father," it 
 seems natural that we should be on His side — 
 natural that we should take interest in His will, 
 His work, and His glory. — Deaji Vaicghan. 
 
 IX. Import of the Word "Our." 
 
 I The word "our" implies the universal 
 brotherhood of mankind. 
 
 [2288] Secondly, " Our," is the first word ia 
 the English version of the paternoster. Who 
 but the Giver of the prayer has uttered that 
 word "our" in the entireness of its significancy.'' 
 He who knew there was something to honour 
 in all men, and has therefore commanded us to 
 "honour all men," comprehended all who ever 
 needed daily " bread " and daily " forgiveness '* 
 in the petitions that compose the prayer of 
 the Lord, which is the true universal prayer. 
 Chronology and geography do not aftect the 
 relationship of man to God which Christ came 
 upon earth to expound, to sustain, to realize. 
 Not more certainly does the vital atmosphere 
 enwrap the earth, than Christ's redemption en- 
 wraps the race of man . — W. N. Pefcival. 
 
 [2289] The key to the theology which is win- 
 ning its way, and which will rule in the Church 
 of the future, is the Father's authority and 
 government of a household — that household of 
 God being, not an elect company, but the wide 
 human world. The problem of the future is 
 the reconciliation of all the dark and difficult 
 passages of the Divine government, as we gather 
 our knowledge of it from the Scriptures on the 
 one hand, and from the history of this sad 
 world on the other, with the fatherly heart and 
 the fatherly reign of God. — Baldiain Brown. 
 
 [2290] If God be not the Father of every 
 child of man, there is no gospel to be preached 
 to every creature. The missionary has no glad 
 tidings to take to heathen lands. The sense of
 
 39° 
 
 2290— 22991 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [invocation or ADlyRESS. 
 
 wrong, the experience of grief, the dread of 
 death, the honour of a devil-god, can never be 
 removed from the darkened mind of heathendom 
 until the truth, as it is in Jesus, that "there is 
 one God the Father of all," is proclaimed, and 
 all human lips are taught to pray in spirit and 
 in truth, "Our Father which art in heaven," 
 " Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them 
 that trespass against us." There is nothing for 
 the believer to believe if God be not the Father 
 of humanity. There is no warrant for God 
 being my Father, if He be not the Father of 
 the race of which I am a member. I can re- 
 pose in no exception made in favour of myself. 
 Whoever makes an exception in my favour, or 
 in his own favour, or in favour of any upon 
 whom he may fix as the elect, is making his 
 notions and interpretations of Scripture the 
 measure of God's love, and Christ's redemption, 
 and the Holy Spirit's operation. 
 
 [2291] There are many and great circles in 
 that word " our." The child's soul, as he folds 
 his little hands in the midst of brothers and 
 sisters, runs round our circle. The two or three 
 met in the name of Christ send their thoughts 
 round another. The larger congregation, touched 
 with a sense of wider kinship, make the word 
 ■enclose a larger space. The annual congress, 
 with currents of grateful feeling flowing into, or 
 out of, or around the representative gathering, 
 speaks to us of a larger circle still. Difterent 
 nationalities, finding a voice in connection with 
 some religious alliance, carry us outward more 
 and more. And yet the circles widen. Any 
 man stepping out as representing the race may 
 gather up all human relations, possibilities, and 
 wants, and say. Our Father. — T. Mitchell. 
 
 [2292] It is " a common prayer to the common 
 Father of all mankind." He who says and 
 means "Our Father," acknowledges his brother- 
 hood with the whole human race, but feels that 
 he is especially allied with those who, like 
 himself, are God's adopted and regenerate 
 children. — Robinson. 
 
 [2293] For He does not say, "My" Father 
 which is in heaven, but " our " Father, offering 
 supplications for the common body {rov kolvov 
 (Tw/xaTog), — ChrysostODi. 
 
 [2294] God revealed in Christ is not the 
 Father of the Jew only, but of the Gentile also. 
 The Father of a " whole family" (Eph. iii. 14). 
 Not the partial Father, loving one alone, the 
 elder^ but the younger son besides ; the outcast 
 prodigal, who had spent all his living with 
 harlots and sinners, but the child still, and the 
 child of a father's love. This our Lord taught 
 us in His own blessed Prayer, Otcr Father; 
 and we lose the meaning of that single word 
 oitr, as we say my Father ; the Father of 
 me and of my faction, of me and 7)iy fellow- 
 believers ; instead of otcr Father, the Father of 
 the outcast, the profligate, of all who choose to 
 claim a Father's love. — Robertson. 
 
 [2295] It is in the universal that the individual 
 finds its standing-place and its starting-point. 
 Any limitation is fatal to the trust. Any con- 
 dition, introduced at that point, bars the entrance. 
 Yet the force and the fire of the universal lies 
 in the personal. The logic is perfect — If of all, 
 then of me — draw the inference ! " Loved us" 
 — then " loved me." And from the individual 
 we go back strongly and irrefragably to the uni- 
 versal. If " Our Father," then " iMy Father "— 
 if mine, then ours. 
 
 We press this thought again and again, 
 because we feel that in it lies, not only the 
 one hope, but the one possibility, of fallen 
 humanity. 
 
 In this one word lies revelation — lies the 
 gospel. Jesus Christ stands upon the earth, 
 and declares God a Father. — Deati Vaughan. 
 
 2 The word "cur" is a confession of the 
 special brotherhood of believers. 
 
 [2296] Alone on the vast ocean, the sole 
 survivor of the wreck ; cast away on the desert 
 island, apparently " out of humanity's reach," 
 the words " our Father " bring our souls into 
 communion with the great body of the faithful, 
 and God, the Father of us all. — E. B. 
 
 [2297] For He who calls God Father, by that 
 single word confesses at once the forgiveness of 
 sins, the adoption into the family of God, the in- 
 heritance of the kingdom of heaven, the brother- 
 hood which he has with the Only-Begotten, and 
 the gifts of the Holy Spirit. — Cyprian. 
 
 3 The word " our " links us with the 
 departed saints. 
 
 [2298] The noblest motive is offered, the 
 furtherance of God's glory and the advance- 
 ment of that kingdom, to found which anew, 
 and thereby restore the true sovereignty of God, 
 was the purpose of the coming of the Son of 
 God to earth ; the surest ground of confidence 
 that our prayer will be granted, our endeavours 
 made successful, is laid in the absolute power 
 of Him whom we address, alike over the world 
 of inanimate and irrational being, and over the 
 free, and, in that freedom, rebellious heart of 
 man. The whole race of mankind, in their 
 various degrees of nearness and interest to our- 
 selves, are brought into our thoughts, that their 
 needs as well as our own may be presented 
 before the throne of the Most High ; the whole 
 company of heaven is imaged before us, to 
 be an example and incitement for ourselves ; 
 the one true personal God is set before us to be 
 addressed in prayer, in the most loving aspect 
 in which He can be portrayed, as our Father, 
 and yet in all His sublime and awful majesty as 
 dwelling in the glories of heaven. — Karslake. 
 
 [2299] Death does not divorce : the first letter 
 of the Lord's Prayer is like a marriage-ring : 
 husband and wife, one of them deceased, join 
 hands still, saying together, "Our Father." 
 Pleasantly conscious that we are on our journey
 
 THE LORD S PR A YER. 
 
 2299 — 231 i] 
 
 [IN'VOCATION OR ADDRESS. 
 
 home, we pray and sing with saints and angels, 
 " Our Father which art in heaven." — Robinson. 
 
 [2300] As it is not merely in the character of 
 a member of the human race, so it is not simply 
 in that of a member of the Church on earth, 
 that the Christian says, " Our Father." He 
 knows that the words he uses are, so far, still 
 on the lips of brethren who have gained the 
 skies. The apostle speaks of " the whole family 
 in heaven and earth." 
 
 " One family we dwell in Him, 
 One church above, beneath, 
 Though now divided by the stream, 
 The narrow stream, of death." 
 
 — Robinsoft. 
 
 X. Lessons suggested by the Word 
 " Our." 
 
 1 That our prayers shall not be selfish. 
 
 [2301] The very object of prayer is to prac- 
 tise suicide of self. You will find that your very 
 sufferings have shrunk to small dimensions ; 
 you will have seen how light they are in com- 
 parison with the cries and groans of a creation ; 
 you will have seen how absolutely trifling they 
 are when weighed against the Name, and the 
 Kingdom, and the Will ; you will have seen, 
 too, how safely they can be trusted in His 
 hands. — Dean Vanghan. 
 
 [2302] Do you not see how by the very first 
 word of this Divine formulary all selfishness is 
 banished } how the thought of others is intro- 
 duced — the thought of our brethren, represented 
 by us at the throne oi %'C2.c&'i —Thomas Htigo. 
 
 [2303] The religion of Christ is individual in 
 its requirements, but general in its applications. 
 It demands the solitary discipline and the social 
 work, and even in our most secret devotions we 
 must not indulge the limitations of selfishness, 
 but remember all with whom God has linked us, 
 and for whom we should labour ; remember all, 
 kindred, friends, enemies, the world. — Chapiti. 
 
 2 That v/e should love as brethren. 
 
 [2304] As the word "Father" reminds you of 
 your duty towards God, so the word " our" may 
 remind you of your duty towards your neigh- 
 bour. The word " Father " may teach you faith, 
 and the word "our" charity. — Ramsay. 
 
 [2305] My Father, and not Our Father 1 But 
 is it not, that prayer, and especially this prayer, 
 is not a common, or rather is not a private 
 speech ; but must be said, as well in charity as 
 in faith : and charity can abide no singular 
 numbers ; it is against her nature to be without 
 company ; and company she will find to join 
 with her in praying, though she say her prayers 
 by herself alone? — i)ir Richard Baker, 1568- 
 1645. 
 
 [2306] This word "our" strikes at all those 
 
 barriers, reared by pride or prejudice, that 
 estrange man from his brother-man. Not those 
 that distinguish station, but those that destroy 
 sympathy ; not those that strengthen and stab- 
 lish convictions, but those that generate and 
 foster intolerance. This word " our "' carries in it 
 the sublime purpose of the gospel, towering as 
 it does above the petty schemes of all religious 
 impostures, which have ever sought only a tribe 
 or nation — it demands the homage of a world. 
 It goes forth to do in the moral world what 
 science endeavours to do in the physical world 
 — to unite the islands of the sea and the con- 
 tinents of the earth in one electric bond of 
 fellowship.— Loraine. 
 
 [2307] Oitr Father should teach us (i) to 
 esteem one another as brethren ; (2) to be con- 
 tented with our present state and condition, for 
 God is a Father to us equally with the greatest ; 
 (3) to interest one another in our prayers ; (4) 
 our high privilege, inasmuch as we have a stock 
 of prayers going to heaven for us from our 
 fellow saints throughout the world. — Bishop 
 Hopkins {condeiised), 1 633-1 690. 
 
 [230S] We are all fraternally related. Hu- 
 manity is one great brotherhood, and the senti- 
 ment of brotherhood should animate and rule 
 all. It should be stronger than nationality, 
 stronger than patriotism, stronger than eccle- 
 siastical affinities, stronger than commercial 
 competitions. Love for the common Father 
 should unite all hearts together in carrying out 
 His paternal purposes and pleasing His paternal 
 heart. — Chapin. 
 
 [2309] In the word "our" two golden threads 
 begin together, which continue interwoven 
 throughout the Lord's Prayer. Expressing a 
 filial spirit to God, the language breathes a 
 fraternal love to man. It agrees with the 
 maxim of the Jews that, whether alone or not, 
 a worshipper should speak in the plural, not 
 saying, " My Father," but, " Our Father." 
 Much more is implied in the use of the plural 
 than that the Lord's Prayer is adapted to public 
 worship. It is as appropriate in the closet as 
 at the domestic altar, or in the crowded church. 
 The Christian repeats it with a feeling of mem- 
 bership in God's universal family. — Robinson. 
 
 3 That we should pray for one another. 
 
 [2310] If you pray only for yourself, you will 
 be the only person who will pray for you. But 
 because each individual prays for all — all pray 
 for each individual. — Ambrose. 
 
 [231 1] Some of us are burdened with many 
 wants and many sorrows which are not our own ; 
 and we find it difficult to pray them. We find 
 self busy even in our prayers — and when self is 
 satisfied, prayer ends. We imagine some sepa- 
 rate chapter of intercession — and we never 
 reach it. But Christ says, Bear others upon 
 your heart all through — pray for yourself and
 
 392 
 
 23II— 2322J 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [invocation or address. 
 
 them in one— say, " Our Father," and prayer is 
 intercession at once. — Vaughan. 
 
 4 That we allow no rivals to usurp His 
 place. 
 [2312] The term "our" protesteth that we will 
 have no other Elohim but Him : none other 
 patrons for our life and soul but Him, who is 
 our Creator : by Him we came into the world, 
 to His providence only we commit our state : 
 His angels pitch their tents about us, when He 
 commandeth. — Hugh Broughton. 
 
 XI. Import of the Words "Which Art." 
 
 1 They teach personality and eternity of 
 God. 
 [2313] To no other alleged divinity could we 
 say with truth, " Our Father which art." Other 
 gods are not. Our Father is. He lived in the 
 past, will live in the future, lives now. He is 
 the Ever-living. He calls Himself " I am." " I 
 am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
 ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which 
 was, and which is to come, the Almighty." W^e 
 have to say, with deep conviction and feeling, 
 '' Our Father which art." We realize Thy awful 
 presence. Thou art a Person. Thine eye sees ; 
 Thine ear hears ; Thy heart beats ; Thy hand 
 moves ; Thou art. — Robinsoji. 
 
 [2314] Here even those words which seem of 
 least importance have a weight of their own ; 
 for when we say of God " Thou who art," the 
 word in its original form directly involves the 
 personality of God ; it speaks of Him as a real 
 personal Being, no mere abstraction, no power 
 at work throughout all the realm of nature ; 
 while further, it suggests, though it does not by 
 any means involve, what is the nature of that 
 mighty Being, namely, that He can be described 
 only by the words, " I am that I am ;" i.e., as 
 the one self-existent Being, existing in the depths 
 of eternity past, to exist in the depths of eternity 
 to come. — Karslake. 
 
 XII, The Import of the Words "In 
 Heaven." 
 
 I They refer to the Divine immensity. 
 
 [2315] God is in heaven, which comprehends 
 earth and underlies all that is visible. The 
 Eternal is indeed above all time and beyond all 
 space. In the heaven of devout thought and 
 pure feeling does God dwell as well as in the 
 heaven of eternity and infinity. Philosophy 
 places God at a cold and terrible distance, 
 idolatry lowers Him to the earthly and sensual 
 and even to the devilish ; but God's unveiling 
 of Himself shows Him to be the illimitable 
 presence and personality pervading existence. — 
 W. N. Pcrcival. 
 
 [2316] For heaven is here wherever that here 
 may be. The hell of wickedness is the presence 
 of an antagonized heaven. The consuming fire 
 will cause a man to cry out, " If I make my bed 
 in hell Thou art there." — Ibid. 
 
 [2317] But the word in the original here is in 
 the plural form (Iv role ovpavoig),"\n the heavens." 
 In the tenth verse it is said, " Thy will be done 
 on earth as it is in heaven," where the word is 
 singular, and doubtless alludes to that "heaven 
 of heavens," of which we have spoken, where 
 worshipping hosts delight to do His will ; but 
 here the words, " in the heavens," suggest at 
 least what Holy Scripture elsewhere affirms, 
 " Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens 
 cannot contain Him ;" He filleth immensity, 
 inhabiting all the heavens of space, making the 
 pavilions of the universe the temple of His 
 glorious presence. — Loraine. 
 
 XIII. Lesson taught by the Words 
 "In Heaven." 
 
 I Heavenly-mindedness. 
 
 [2318] "Which art in heaven" tells us where 
 our hopes and our hearts must be fixed, whither 
 our desires and our prayers must tend. Sursum 
 corda: where our treasure is, there must our 
 hearts be also. — Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 XIV. The Reasons for the Addition 
 OF THE Words "Which art in 
 Heaven " to those of " Our 
 Father." 
 
 I To distinguish the idea of our heavenly 
 Father from that of our earthly parents. 
 
 [2319] "In heaven" is added to distinguish 
 God from our earthly parents, who, though they 
 may have natural parental affection, have it so 
 mixed with infirmities, and are so limited in 
 their abilities, that sometimes they will not, and 
 often cannot, relieve the wants of their children, 
 which our heavenly Father is always both able 
 and willing to do. — J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2320] The first words of this prayer inspire 
 confidence, the second awaken awe. Not our 
 Creator, Lord, King, or Judge — but Father: 
 yet not for a moment are we to approach Him 
 or think of Him as an earthly parent, with err- 
 ing judgment and changeful will ; but as "the 
 Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, 
 neither shadow of turning." Thus the thoughts 
 are raised to a higher sphere of life, in confident, 
 yet lofty adoration. — Loraine, 
 
 [2321] The thought that our Father is in the 
 heavens restrains us from such light familiarity 
 as that with which children commonly approach 
 their parents, and fills us with adoring awe. 
 " Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine 
 heart be hasty to utter anything before God : 
 for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth ; 
 therefore let thy words be few." — Robinson. 
 
 [2322] There is but one God, therefore but 
 one Father, w^ho is in heaven ; and therefore 
 but one object of worship. In worship, trust, 
 respect, obedience, we can recognize no " di- 
 vided duty," as in the case of our human parents. 
 —E. B.
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 393 
 
 2323— 2334I 
 
 [invocation or address. 
 
 2 To inspire reverence. 
 
 [2323] We are bidden to add, " Which art in 
 heaven," lest that love degenerate into anything 
 Hke famiharity or irreverence, that trust into 
 presumption. — Karslake. 
 
 [2324] Whilst we say, " Our Father," we are 
 prevented from allowing the familiar to encroach 
 on the reverential feeling by the solemn addi- 
 tion, "which art in heaven." — Thomas Ht^oo, 
 
 [2325] For as considering God in heaven, we 
 have just cause to be astonished with admira- 
 tion at the greatness of His majesty ; so, con- 
 sidering Him our Father, we have juster cause 
 to admire Him with astonishment for the great- 
 ness of His love ; and so, while familiarity, 
 where it findeth effects of defect, breeds cause 
 of contempt, here, where it finds cause of admi- 
 ration, it breeds effects of respect. — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2326] The love of a Father may fill us with 
 confidence, but the majesty of God must strike 
 us with fear. I dare speak to God, because He 
 is my Father ; but I speak in trembling, because 
 He is in heaven. If we do not thus begin, we 
 lose our petitions before we utter them ; as the 
 mariner which unskilfully thrusts forth his ship 
 from shore, shipwrecks in the very haven. — 
 Fari}idofi. 
 
 [2327] God is described by two of His most 
 eminent attributes, His grace and glory, His 
 goodness and His greatness ; by the one, in 
 that He is styled our Father ; by the other, in 
 that He is said to be in heaven ; and both these 
 are most sweetly tempered together to beget in 
 us a holy mixture of fihal boldness and awful 
 reverence, which are so necessary to the sanc- 
 tifying of God's name in all our addresses to 
 Him. We are commanded to come to the 
 throne of grace with boldness (Heb. iv. 16), and 
 yet to serve God acceptably with reverence and 
 with fear (Heb. xii. 28]. Now, this excellent 
 mixture of awful and encouraging attributes 
 will keep us from both the extremes, of despair 
 on the one hand, and of presumption on the 
 other. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690. 
 
 3 To give us confidence in His power. 
 
 [2328] And this name, by suggesting God's 
 love and care, should give us coiifidcnce in our 
 prayers. (See Matt. vii. 7-1 i.J — Catechisfs 
 Manual. 
 
 [2329] The name itself of Father prayeth for 
 us. — Maldonaius, 
 
 [2330] This is our comfort, that while we are 
 involved in this world we can appeal to One 
 who is above it, and uncontrolled by it. Or 
 this might be our comfort, did we not bring God 
 also down to earth, and either lose sight of Him 
 amid its confusion, or bind Him helpless with 
 His own laws. Our prayer will not proceed in 
 
 faith until we raise God high above us and all 
 that we know, to the very supreme of power. 
 When the utmost skill and strength of the child 
 have failed, he runs to his father, never doubting 
 that with him is more skill and sufficient 
 strength. And we must learn to cease from 
 measuring the power of God by our own, and 
 reasoning from the one to the other. We must 
 learn to set God above His own laws ; not that 
 He will reverse them, but use them as we know 
 not how. We are not to think that, where we 
 see no possibility, God sees none ; that, when 
 all human skill has been fruitlessly spent, there 
 is no more that God can do ; that when every- 
 thing goes wrong with us, and we are ready to 
 sit down and wait for ruin, there is no help for 
 us in God. Too often we pray to a God whom 
 we do not set in the heavens ; to whom we do 
 not in fact ascribe as much wisdom and power 
 as we do to men, whose help we do not as fully 
 trust in as we should in the combined help of 
 some on earth we know of ; whom we scarcely 
 trust in much more than in ourselves, else we 
 should not be found despairing when we see no 
 remedy for our ills, and when our own strength 
 is exhausted. — Dads. 
 
 4 To remind us of His inaccessibility and so 
 bring us to Christ. 
 
 [2331] What is God like? We cannot tell. 
 The imagination of man only combines the 
 materials of his past experience into new forms. 
 But " who has seen God at any time ? " Where 
 is heaven ? We say " above ; '' while the earth 
 moves through space, and, as we raise our hand, 
 the place, to which we would have pointed, has 
 already changed. Alas ! who will show us 
 God ? Who will guide us to heaven ? Why, 
 who but God — incarnate ! The man Jesus and 
 the God Christ. Who being God took man's 
 nature upon Him. Through whom alone we 
 have access to the Father in heaven. — E. B. 
 
 5 To give us hope of immortality. 
 
 [2332] God has fixed His dwelling-place in 
 heaven : (i) Because mortal men cannot endure 
 His glorious presence (Deut. V. 23). (2) To try 
 our faith and obedience (Heb. xi. i). (3) 
 That there should be a better place into which 
 the saints should be translated when their course 
 is run. — T. Manto7t, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2333] All good sons suffer from " home-sick- 
 ness " when they are in trouble, sorrow, or want 
 in foreign lands, and even when they are well 
 and happy. But where our Father lives, there 
 is our home, and there we long to be, and hope 
 for welcome. — E. B. 
 
 6 To make us realize the dignity of our 
 sonship. 
 
 [2334] It is a great honour to be the son of a 
 prince ; and the greater the prince is, the 
 greater the honour to be his son. Oh, then, my 
 soul, what honourisit to thee tobe the son of Him 
 who is the Prince of princes, whose kingdom is 
 everlasting, and power infinite ?
 
 394 
 2335—2341] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [invocation or address. 
 
 XV. Objections met respecting the 
 
 ALLEGED ABSENCE OF CHRISTOLOGY 
 
 FROM THIS Clause. 
 
 [2335] Some strangely contend that the Lord's 
 Prayer is not for the use of Christians, inas- 
 much, say they, as it is not offered in the 
 Saviour's name, and does not plead His merit. 
 We maintain that it is offered in the name, and 
 does plead the merit, of the only Advocate and 
 Mediator. True, it does not conclude with the 
 usual words, "through Jesus Christ ;" but are 
 not those words spoken by it in all its parts and 
 as a whole ? As the plea may be implied and 
 intended in every request, it cannot be said to 
 be impossible before God, who knows the heart, 
 to found prayer on Christ's merit and mediation 
 without literally repeating the prevailing name. 
 — Robinson. 
 
 [2336] ''Xvl calling God our Father," writes 
 Calvin, "we certainly plead the name of Christ. 
 For with what confidence could any man call 
 God his Father ? Who would have the pre- 
 sumption to arrogate to himself the honour of a 
 son of God were sve not gratuitously adopted as 
 His sons in Christ? He, being the true Son, 
 has been given to us as a Brother, so that that 
 which He possesses as His own by nature be- 
 comes ours by adoption, if we embrace this 
 great mercy with firm faith. As St. John says 
 (i. 12), ' As many as received Him, to them gave 
 He power to become the sons of God, even to 
 them that believe in His name.''' 
 
 [2337] Not to find Christ in the Lord's Prayer 
 is to enter the sanctuary without the kindled 
 lamp. The light of the gospel shows it to be 
 His temple. The Lamb Himself is the light 
 thereof. It is bright with His presence, as the 
 firmament with the shining of the sun. He leads 
 our devotions in it. opening His lips to open 
 ours, saying for and with us, "Our Father." — 
 Robinson. 
 
 [2338] There He hath more especially estab- 
 lished His throne of grace, and there sits upon 
 it. Though He hears our prayers wheresoever 
 they are uttered, yet He nowhere hears them 
 with acceptance but in heaven, where they are 
 presented before Him through the intercession 
 of Christ. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690. 
 
 [2339] And where, in all this prayer (in which 
 we ask all things) do we ask anything in Christ's 
 name, but only in these words, by saying, " Our 
 Father ? " for if we come with saying iMy Father, 
 we leave Christ clean out, and come not at all 
 in His name, and so have neither warrant to 
 call God Father, nor promise to receive His 
 blessing ; but when we say '' Our Father," as we 
 challenge the adoption, so we acknowledge the 
 Author, and in these two only words we ex- 
 press the three great virtues, Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity, in the word " Father," our Hope ; in the 
 word our, our charity ; and in the words " Our 
 Father," our faith in Christ, in whom He is our 
 Father. — Sir Richard Baker, 156S-1645. 
 
 [2340] It is impossible to offer it up, unless'it 
 be in the name of Christ ; for we have no right 
 or title to call God " our Father," unless it be 
 through the merits and mediation of Jesus 
 Christ, who hath made us heirs of God, and 
 joint-heirs with Himself. — Wheathy. 
 
 [2341] When from the absence of the Spirit 
 of Adoption you cannot say " Our Father" : (i) 
 Disclaim other confidences. If thou canst nor 
 say Father, plead fatherless (Hos. xiv. 3). (2) 
 Own God in a mumbling way (Luke xv. 19). 
 (3) Call Him Father in wish — Optando, si non 
 affirniando. (4) Come to Him as the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. iii. 14), 
 and whatsoever you ask in His name shall be 
 given you. — T. Manton, 1629-1677.
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 FIRST PETITION. 
 
 Fages 396 to 403. 
 
 I 
 
 REASONS WHY THIS PETITION STANDS FIRST. 
 
 2 
 IMPORT OF THE EXPRESSION "THY NAME." 
 
 3 
 MEANING OF THE AVORD "HALLOWED." 
 
 WAYS IN WHICH GOD'S NAME IS HALLOWED BY 
 HIMSELF. 
 
 WAYS IN WHICH GOD'S NAME MAY BE, AND OUGHT 
 TO BE, HALLOWED BY MEN. 
 
 395
 
 396 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 (JJonthitted). 
 
 FIRST PETITION. 
 
 {Hallowed be thy Name.) 
 
 I. Reasons why this Petition stands 
 First. 
 
 1 Structural reasons. 
 
 (i) Because it has aft essential connection with 
 the invocation. 
 
 [2342] The connection between this and the 
 preceding clause is not accidental, but essential. 
 In the natural order of things we cannot pray 
 " Hallowed be Thy name " until we know what 
 that name is ; and, when we do know it, we 
 cannot refrain from this as the next and imme- 
 diate expression. It is the outbursting flame of 
 a kindled heart. It is the spontaneous utter- 
 ance of a soul rapt with the excellence of God, 
 and postponing its personal requests in a 
 general desire. — Chapin. 
 
 [2343] The name of God here has respect to 
 the benignant appellation the Saviour bids us 
 employ when we call upon Him ; and that we 
 are, therefore, to pray, that He may be uni- 
 versally known and beloved as the almighty 
 and gracious Parent of the family of man.— 
 Good {of Salisbury). 
 
 [2344] God would have us, first of all, to 
 worship Him not as the Ruler of all worlds, but 
 as bound to this world ; not as attending to all 
 parts of an infinite universe, but as regarding 
 us ; not, in short, as the Head of all things that 
 are, but mainly and in the first instance as 
 " Our Father.'' He confines our view that we 
 may see more distinctly ; this name does not 
 show any part of His nature nor any portion of 
 His dealings with which we are not concerned, 
 but it runs directly between us and Him, and as 
 through a glass which by confining magnifies 
 and renders distinct, so through this name we 
 are separated from distracting views of God, 
 and led straight to all that He means to kindle 
 our worship. 
 
 Learning what God is, we ask that His name 
 may be hallowed or held sacred, regarded by all 
 as a true and holy thing that is at any cost to 
 be maintained in esteem, and under all tempta- 
 tion still believed in. — Dods. 
 
 [2345] For having called God " Our Father," 
 and this petition coming so immediately upon 
 it, we seem to pray that His name of Father 
 
 may be hallowed by us ; and, if we understand 
 it so, what have the angels to do to say it ? 
 They may say. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of 
 Sabbaoth, and so hallow Him in His name of 
 Lord, as servants ; but to hallow Him in His 
 name of Father, as sons, they cannot. — Sir 
 Richard Baker ^ 1 568-1 645 . 
 
 [2346] Dwelling upon the character of the 
 Most High, and addressing Him as our Father 
 in heaven, it is as if we read the first and fifth 
 commandments together ; the first command- 
 ment of the first table, and the first command- 
 ment of the second table, each in the other. 
 At once adoring the living God and honouring 
 our heavenly Father, we breathe out, " Hal- 
 lowed be Thy name." — Stanford. 
 
 [2347] But though these words, " Hallowed 
 be Thy name," are a distinct petition, and not a 
 mere appendix to the invocation, yet without 
 the invocation we cannot understand nor use 
 this first petition. For to think of God as we 
 natu7-ally do, and pray that His name may be 
 hallowed, is impossible. But such is not the 
 God to whom we have been introduced by 
 Christ ; He has taught us to say, " Our Father." 
 '^Loraine. 
 
 (2) Because all the sticceeditig petitions are 
 implied in it. 
 
 [2348] And indeed, if we mark this petition 
 well, we shall find a peculiar majesty, an 
 extraordinary pre-eminence in it above all the 
 others ; for it is not only the Primum Mobile, 
 from which all the others have their motions, 
 but it is the centre also to which all the others 
 bend their motions. For, when we say, " Thy 
 kingdom come," it is but to come that we may 
 hallow God's name ; and when we say, " Thy 
 will be done," it is but for this, that we may 
 hallow God's name ; and when we pray for 
 "daily bread," it is but to strengthen us, that we 
 may hallow God's name ; and when we say, 
 " Forgive us our trespasses," it is but to cleanse 
 us, that we may hallow God's name ; and when 
 we say, " Lead us not into temptation," it is but to 
 remove impediments that we may hallow God's 
 name. " O Lord our God, how excellent is Thy 
 name in all the world ! " — Sir Richard Baker, 
 1568-1645. 
 
 2 Spiritual reasons. 
 
 (i) To sliow the spirit in which all our 
 prayers should be offered. 
 
 [2349] The key-note for the great chorus of
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 )97 
 
 2349—2361] 
 
 [first petition. 
 
 human prayer, by which the jarring voices of 
 individual needs are harmonized into an un- 
 selfish hymn to the glory of the Giver of all 
 good. — E. B. 
 
 [2350] Oh ! if one of us could honestly say, 
 "/do not signify — I, a very insignificant, very 
 worthless, very sinful being — I, who am but of 
 yesterday, and to-morrow shall not be — it 
 matters not what I have or lack, what I enjoy 
 or suffer for this little moment of time, on this 
 little atom of space ; but it is all important that 
 the great God should be honoured and obeyed 
 and glorified ; it is all important that the 
 blessed Saviour should spread far and wide His 
 wonderful gospel, His universal reign ; it is all- 
 important that the holy and blessed Spirit 
 should take up His abode in sorrowful, discon- 
 solate, sin-possessed hearts, bringing order out 
 of chaos, and heaven out of hell — and therefore, 
 disregarding myself, I will put God first, in all 
 my thoughts, and in all my supplications " — 
 I say, not only, what a grand life would this 
 make out of our littleness and our pauperism, 
 but, which is the point now in our view, what 
 ease, what freedom, what sweetness, would this 
 spirit breathe at once into our prayers ! — Dea}i 
 Vaughan. 
 
 [2351] By this petition, set at the head, we 
 regulate, correct, and renounce, whatever may 
 be amiss in all our following petitions. As if 
 we should say. Lord, we know not what to pray 
 for, and therefore beg that we may be directed 
 to pray for such things as tend to Thy honour 
 and glory ; and if we should happen to ask 
 anything disagreeable thereto, we beg that 
 either it may not be granted at all, or at least 
 only in so far as may consist with this our first 
 and chief petition. — J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 (2) To teach that faith, ivorship, and 
 obedience are our first duties. 
 
 [2352] As this is the first petition, it shows 
 that the belief and worship of God, especially as 
 laid out in the f«ur commandments of the first 
 table, are the first of all duties. — Pagan. 
 
 [2353] The first petition is a prayer for 
 strength and zeal to keep the first four com- 
 mandments. — E. B. 
 
 II. The Import of the Expression "Thy 
 Name." 
 
 I It refers to God Himself, in regard to His 
 nature and personality. 
 
 [2354] God's name stands for God Himself, 
 and for what His words and works reveal to us 
 about His nature and His attributes. God's 
 nature is the essential property which belongs 
 to the Godhead. God's attributes refer to the 
 several qualities of the Divine nature. — C. N. 
 
 [2355] Since men are said to call upon His 
 name, and to build a temple to it ; and since 
 God and His name are used as alike and of the 
 
 same power, we see that the name of God is 
 used for Himself, or the Divine nature. — Pagan. 
 
 [2356] Creatures have a nature and a name ; 
 but God's nature is His name. His name is 
 Himself ; for whatsoever we can rightly name 
 of God is the name of God : for when we say, 
 " Hallowed be Thy name," we say as much as 
 hallowed be Thy majesty. Thy eternity, Thy 
 glory, Thy substance. Thy self, Thy all in all. — 
 Sir Richard Baker, 1 568- 1645. 
 
 [2357] His name is the expression of Him, or 
 the discovery of Him, written out or spoken out, 
 in this, that, or the other language. — Stanford. 
 
 [235S] By God's name in Holy Scripture is 
 most commonly signified God Himself : as in 
 speaking to a king, instead of thou and thee, 
 we say your majesty ; to a lord, your lordship ; 
 to a commander-in-chief, your excellency. By 
 which yet we mean no more than that we make 
 application to the person himself. So in speak- 
 ing to God, we say, " Glorify Thy Name," instead 
 of " Glorify Thyself ; " " Let Thy name be magni- 
 fied;" " I will sing praises to Thy name," and a 
 great many more of the like nature, which signify 
 the very same thing as if we should say, "Glorify 
 Thyself;" "Be Thou magnified;" "I will sing 
 praises to thee," &c. — J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2359] 'tt is well, however, to preserve a 
 wholesome fear of a semi-pantheism, which is 
 only too apt to steal into the hearts of men, often 
 betraying itself in their language ; a pantheism 
 that is in danger of confounding God with 
 nature ; and in the precision and constancy of 
 law, and in the well-ordered forces of creation, 
 seeing only a great system., and not the presence 
 of a living Intelligence, a Divine Person, that 
 originally established and that still moves in 
 and controls His works. The intelligent use of 
 this prayer precludes such an error, teaching us 
 to acknowledge His personality in the words 
 " our Father." — Loraine. 
 
 [2360] Consider how it addresses itself to the 
 intellect, and reminds us of the true nature of 
 God. There have been those, we know, who 
 have either set their gods on a level, if indeed 
 on a level, with man, or else have held God to 
 be but an element, the Divine element, which 
 enters into all things, and especially into man. 
 But as the word " Father" reminds us of God's 
 personal being, so this portion of the prayer 
 recalls to our thought all that Holy Scripture 
 teaches us respecting Him, as a being wholly 
 distinct from all earthly things, however He 
 may manifest Himself in them ; wholly raised 
 above them, as the Creator above the works of 
 His hands ; and therefore to be honoured with 
 an honour quite distinct from that given to any 
 of the noblest objects upon earth. — Karslake. 
 
 a It refers to God Himself, as revealed in 
 creation and revelation. 
 
 [2361] Alford, quoting a famous German com*
 
 398 
 
 2361 — 2372] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [first petition. 
 
 mentator, says, "God's name is not merely His 
 appellation, which we speak with the mouth, 
 but also, and principally, the idea which we 
 attach to it — His being, as far as it is confessed, 
 revealed and known." Stier has some remarks 
 precisely similar to the foregoing of De Wette. 
 Alfordalso himself adds, " The 'Name of God' 
 in Scripture is used to signify that revelation of 
 Himself which He has made to men, which is 
 all that we know of Him ; into the depth of His 
 being, as it is, no human soul can penetrate." 
 The word in Hebrew which we render Navie, 
 (Dw'), signifies more than a mere appellation or 
 denomination, it implies distinction and charac- 
 ter ; so in Gen. vi. 4, it is rendered " renown," 
 in Eccl. vii. i, "good name," and in i Chron. v. 
 24, it is represented by "valour" and "famous." 
 The name of God is, therefore, to us, the in- 
 transferable representation of the Divine charac- 
 ter. — Loraine. 
 
 [2362] The word "name" is sometimes used 
 for " person." By the " name " of God is here 
 to be understood God Himself, as portrayed in 
 His revealed perfections. His name brings 
 before us what He is. — Robinson. 
 
 [2363] From all that God has done and said, 
 gather up the various features of His character, 
 and express these, and in that expression you 
 have the name. The name of God is that which 
 we can contemplate and say " God is that." — 
 Dods. 
 
 [2364] There is this, always, in the " name " 
 of God — that it precludes the false, the erroneous 
 or idolatrous, conception of Him. The nam3 
 of God is always the real, the true, the revealed 
 God, as opposed to all man's ideas and man's 
 imaginations concerning Him. — Dean Vaiighan. 
 
 [2365] "Hallowed be Thy name" means — 
 Be Thou honoured in the hallowing of Thy 
 name. It will ever be impossible for us to 
 understand Thee in all Thy perfections, and 
 follow Thee in all Thy ways ; but Thou hast 
 sufficiently and abundantly made Thyself known 
 to us in the volumes of Thy works, providence, 
 and words, and especially in the gospel of Thy 
 redeeming love ; and Thou hast sent forth to 
 us Thy Holy Spirit as Thy infallible Interpreter. 
 By this gracious help and teaching we are 
 humbly learning, if not mastering. Thy saving 
 name ; and in every fresh discovery we love and 
 admire Thee more. — Robinson. 
 
 [2366] The name of God must be regarded 
 as equivalent to God Himself as He is known 
 to us. Know Him indeed, as He is, we can- 
 not ; we cannot see Him who is a Spirit, so 
 long as our own spirit lives in its present 
 material tabernacle of the flesh ; but in so far 
 as He has, as it has been expressed, " projected " 
 Himself upon creation, has exhibited His attri- 
 butes of wisdom, and power, and mercy, and 
 justice, either in outward nature or in the moral 
 government of the world ; in so far as He has 
 
 revealed them in His word, or declared them 
 in the Person of His Son, and His life among 
 men upon earth ; in so far, lastly, (may we not 
 add ?) as He sets forth some faint image of them 
 even in those whom He makes more or less like 
 to Himself among men : so far may we attair> 
 to a knowledge of the name, that is, of the 
 nature, of God. — Karslake. 
 
 3 It refers to God Himself, as revealed to 
 us in Christ Jesus. 
 
 [2367] Emmanuel, " God with us." There- 
 fore in Him whose name was Emmanuel must 
 be found the attributes of God, separating from 
 them the distinctive characteristics which belong 
 to the Man Jesus.— ^. B. 
 
 [2368] But there is yet another and higher 
 source in which we are to learn the name of 
 God : in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His Perso7i, 
 and in His offices. Christ in Himself is a 
 revelation of God, impersonating the Divine 
 attributes and perfections, that man, having a 
 clearer apprehension of the Divine Being, might 
 more intelligently and heartily adore and hallow 
 His name. — Loraiiie. 
 
 [2369] This name we are not left to find out 
 for ourselves. From the first it has been the 
 care of God "to spell out Himself to us, some- 
 times by one perfection, and sometimes by 
 another." One feature after another of His 
 character has been revealed, until at length all 
 has been shown us in Him who is "the express 
 image of His Person." — Dods. 
 
 [2370] There is no manifestation or Divine 
 dispensation whatever wherein the Divine glory 
 so appeared as in and by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 in whom His name is said to be, and who is 
 said to come in His name, and to declare His 
 name. — Beverley. 
 
 [2371] This was the name that our Saviour 
 came to comment on, showing His mercy in 
 pardoning us, and His justice in punishing our 
 sins in His Son, His truth in fulfilling that first 
 gospel preached in Paradise, " The seed of the 
 woman shall bruise the serpent's head." And 
 this name of God He manifested to His disciples 
 and to us. — Sir Matthew Hale. 
 
 4 It designates that by which God is dis- 
 tinguished from all other beings. 
 
 [2372] What is a "name?" What is it for us ? 
 A name is the brief summary of a person. I do 
 not mean that a name, as some have dreamed, 
 can express the qualities, or the chief quality, of 
 a complex human character. But I mean that 
 the use of a name, the object of each man 
 having a name, is to supersede the necessity of 
 interminable descriptions, and to set before us, 
 by a sort of telegraphic despatch, the whole 
 person— face, form, and properties— of him 
 whom we know and of whom we would make 
 mention. The " name" is the catchword which
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2372—2383] 
 
 399 
 
 [first petition. 
 
 renders amplification needless, by bringing up 
 to us the person, figure and qualities and cha- 
 racteristics in one. The name is the man. 
 The absent, distant, inaccessible man is made 
 present to us in the naming of the name. Even 
 thus is it — with reverence be it spoken — with 
 the name of God. — Deati Vau^Iian. 
 
 [2373] Is the name of God of similar use and 
 meaning to the name of a man ? A man's 
 name is that by which we speak of him to dis- 
 tinguish him from every one else. When we 
 use the name of any one, it calls up to our 
 minds a certain character, not always according 
 to truth, but according to our idea of the man. 
 And so, when we hear or use the name of God, 
 there is also present to our minds a certain 
 character ; too often a character made up of 
 the ideas which we have thoughtlessly suffered 
 to cluster round the name ; sometimes, however, 
 a character which does on the whole agree with 
 what God has taught us to believe about Him. 
 The name of God is not God Himself, neither 
 is it our idea of God, but it is that expressed 
 idea of Him which He Himself would have us 
 to possess, and which may be gathered from 
 His own revelation. The name of God is not 
 the nature of God, nor His relationship to us ; 
 but if the conception which God would have us 
 to cherish of Him can be summed up in one 
 word, then that word is the name of God. — 
 Dods. 
 
 [2374] So, then, we conclude that the " Name 
 of God " is to be taken in a twofold sense : first, 
 as equivalent to God Himself, of whom it is the 
 sign and whom it denotes ; second, as the name 
 simply of God whom it denotes, the sensible 
 emblem, representative, and sign on earth of 
 cur idea of the invisible God in heaven. — 
 Karslake. 
 
 5 It includes any and all of His particular 
 appellations. 
 
 [2375] {a) The Hebrews give to God gene- 
 rally the name "Jehovah," He who exists by 
 Himself, and gives being and existence to 
 others. 
 
 {b) They had such a veneration for this 
 name that they never pronounced it, but in- 
 stead of it made use of that of Adonai, which 
 signifies properly, '• My Lords," in the plural 
 number ; and of Elohi, Eloi, or Elohim. 
 They likewise called Him El, which signifies 
 "strong;" or Shaddai, whereby may be meant 
 one who is "self-sufficient;" or, according to 
 another pronunciation, "the Destroyer," the 
 "Powerful one ;" or Elion, the " Most High ;" or 
 El-Sabaoth, the "Lord of Hosts;" or Jah, 
 " God." — Criidcn. 
 
 [2376] This mode of speech was perfectly 
 intelligible to the Jews, because the Divine 
 Being was pleased to describe Himself to His 
 ancient people, by some significant appellation 
 suited to the occasion on which it was delivered. 
 — Good {of Sails bury). 
 
 [2377] God called Himself " I Am," to indi- 
 cate His existence without beginning or end — 
 the Eternal Present. — E. B. 
 
 [2378] He calls Himself Jehovah, the I Am, 
 the living God, who alone has life in Himself, 
 the eternal and unchangeable One, which is 
 and which was and which is to come. So 
 hallowed was this name by the Jews, that they 
 would not pronounce it. — Dods. 
 
 [2379] His name is : i . I Am (Exod. iii. 14), 
 2. Merciful (Exod. xxxiv. 6). 3. Holy (Isa. Ivii. 
 15). 4. A strong tower (Prov. xviii. 10). 5. 
 Great (Psa. lx.xvi. i). 6. Excellent (Psa. cxlviii. 
 13). — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 \\\. The Meaning of the Word "Hal- 
 lowed." 
 
 1 Made holy, i.e., manifested or treated as 
 holy ; kept apart from all that is common 
 01 unclean. 
 
 2380] Under the name of God here to be 
 sanctified, understand, besides the majesty of 
 His Godhead, that also whereupon His name is 
 called, or that which is called by His name (as 
 we in our Bibles commonly express this phrase 
 of Scripture) ; that is, all whatsoever is God's, 
 or of which God is the Lord and owner by a 
 peculiar right ; such as are things sacred, 
 whether they be persons, or whether things by 
 distinction so called, or times, or places which 
 have upon them a relation of peculiarness 
 towards God. For such as these are said in 
 Scripture to have the name of God called on 
 them, i.e., to be His. Thus we read of a house 
 which had the name of God upon it, i.e., was 
 God's house ; of a city upon which the name of 
 God was called, to wit, the holy city, Jerusalem, 
 the city of the great King, the Lord of Hosts ; 
 of a people upon which the name of God was 
 called, i.e., were His peculiar and holy people 
 as is said in like manner, and with like mean 
 ing, of the Church of the New Testament. 
 
 [2381] Now sanctity or holiness isa condition 
 of discretion and disjunction from other things ; 
 and therefore to sanctify must be either to put 
 a thing into that state which we call to " con- 
 secrate," or, if it be such already, to put a 
 difterence between it and other things, by way 
 of excellency, by appropriating and severing it 
 in the use thereof from things of ordinary and 
 common rank. — Mcde. 
 
 [2382] A thing may be hallowed (i) by dedi- 
 cation, setting it apart for holy uses, Exod. xiii. 
 
 2 ; Eph. v. 26 ; (2) by infusion, or implanting 
 the real principles of holiness, John xvii. 17 ; (3) 
 by declaration, when we acknowledge and 
 reverence that as holy that is indeed so, Isa. 
 xxix. 23. This latter is the only way in which 
 the creature may sanctify the name of the 
 Creator.— ^^i?^. HopJcins, 1633- 1690. 
 
 [2383] For, first, it expresses to "make holv", a
 
 400 
 
 2383—2392] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [first petition. 
 
 meaning which may be left out of consideration 
 here, since God, being perfectly holy, cannot 
 be made more holy than He already is. But 
 it means also, secondly, to " exhibit as holy," 
 with a reference rather to the thing hallowed ; 
 and also, thirdly, to " treat as holy," with a 
 reference rather to the person hallowing ; " to 
 give to that which is separate and pre-eminent 
 its due and special regard." So that, since 
 God, being absolutely holy, does not admit of 
 the idea of making holy as applicable to Him, 
 the word "hallow" in this petition must be 
 confined to the two meanings, to " exhibit as 
 holy," and to " treat as being so." 
 
 [2384] Think of the word "hallow" as express- 
 ing not so much two meanings, but rather two 
 or (if we include the intermediate step) three 
 stages in one process expressed : viz., first, to 
 manifest as holy ; second, to comprehend with 
 the mind and accept with the heart as holy ; 
 and third, to treat in a manner befitting that 
 which is so. — Karslake. 
 
 [2385I When we pray for the hallowing of 
 God's name, we pray implicitly for all things 
 necessary and conducing to it ; we pray for the 
 agent and for the instrument ; we pray for the 
 time and place ; we pray for the speaker and 
 for the hearer ; and, in one word, we pray for 
 the propagation of the gospel, that doors may 
 be opened to all men of faith, that so the build- 
 ing may go up of the new Jerusalem. That 
 labourers may be sent into God's harvest, that 
 so the weeds may be plucked up, and the good 
 corn brought into the barn ; that there may be 
 joy in Sion and peace within her walls ; that 
 not the trumpet of war, but the trumpet of 
 praise and thanksgiving may be heard amongst 
 us ; that all ears may be circumcised, and all 
 tongues touched with coals from the altar ; that 
 so nothing be spoken, nor anything be heard ; 
 but tending all to the honour and glory of God's 
 name. — Sir Richard Baker, 1568-1645. 
 
 IV. The Ways in which God's Name is 
 
 HALLOWED BY HiMSELF. 
 I In making Himself better known. 
 
 [2386] In breathing this prayer, we ask that 
 God would hallow His own name, or cause it to 
 be hallowed. The amount of this petition, the 
 condition of its fulfilment, is simply this : that 
 our Father in heaven would make Himself 
 known, would more and more reveal Himself 
 unto us and unto all men. For we see that the 
 gravest errors issue from undue conceptions of 
 Him ; error itself is the partial perception 
 rather than the total ignorance of truth. In 
 breathing this petition, we desire that God 
 would reveal Himself as He is, and thus dispel 
 our false images of Him. For too much we 
 fashion God after our own hearts, and project 
 an idea of Him from among the lights and 
 shadows of our own souls. In saying, " Hal- 
 lowed be Thy name," we pray that God would 
 beam out in the blended qualities of His nature. 
 
 So, everywhere, shall the altars of superstition 
 crumble, its fearful rites cease, its mental clouds 
 disperse in that great light. So, everywhere, 
 shall a superficial morality and a nerveless 
 sentimentalism be changed to a strenuous virtue 
 and a devout life. — Cliapin. 
 
 [2387] Which is not so asked for as if the 
 name of God were not holy ; but that it may be 
 reckoned holy by men, and that God may be so 
 known to them, that they may think nothing to 
 be more holy ; by which they may the more 
 fear to offend Him. — Augustine. 
 
 [2388] What is it to be hallowed ? We desire 
 that the name of God may be revealed, opened, 
 manifested, and credited throughout all the 
 world. What is God's name? All that is 
 spoken of Him in Holy Scripture, that is His 
 name. He is called " Gracious," " Merciful," 
 "Righteous," a "Punisher of wickedness," 
 "True," "Almighty," "Long-suffering," "A 
 Consuming Fire," " The King over the whole 
 earth," "A Judge," "A Saviour." These and 
 such like are the names of God. Now, when I 
 make my petition unto Him, saying, " Hallowed 
 be Thy name," I desire that His name may be 
 revealed, that we may know what Scripture 
 speaketh of Him, and so believe the same and 
 live after it. I do not desire that His name may 
 be hallowed of Himself, for it needeth not — He is 
 holy already ; but I desire that He will give us 
 His Spirit, that we may express Him in all our 
 doings and conversations ; so that it may appear 
 by our deeds that God is even such an one 
 indeed as Scripture doth report Him ; and that 
 He, through His goodness, will remove and 
 put away all infidelity, and all things that may 
 let and stop the honour of His name. — Bp. 
 Latimer. 
 
 [2389] But, again, God's name can only be 
 hallowed where His nature is known. As God 
 more and more discovers Himself to the soul of 
 the worshipper, he becomes able to render a 
 homage increasingly worthy of that awful name. 
 Thus this petition asks that God will reveal 
 Himself. How fitting that this should be the 
 first cry of prayer ! — Loraine. 
 
 2 By His indwelling. 
 
 [2390] " What is this ?" asks Augustine, " can 
 God be holier than He is ? " Not so, but our 
 conception of Him may be holier than it is. 
 We pray that He who is separated only by His 
 perfections from all other beings may be so 
 regarded ; and that more and more, in our own 
 souls as well as in the souls of all men — in our 
 thoughts, motives, desires, and actions, also in 
 theirs — He may be thus venerated and glorified. 
 — Stanford. 
 
 [2391] We pray that God may be hallowed by 
 us, and that He may be hallowed in us. — Thomas 
 Hjigo. 
 
 [2392] Hallow, O Lord, Thy name, that all
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2392—2404] 
 
 401 
 
 [first petition. 
 
 may know how holy and pure Thou art. Do 
 Thou, O Father, who by the incarnation of 
 Thine only-begotten Son hast made us to be 
 Thy sons, make manifest to all men Thy work 
 of sanctification in us, that they may see how 
 holy, true, pure, and good Thou art. Amen. — 
 Stella. 
 
 [2393] We say not by whom we desire it may 
 be hallowed ; we ask therefore that it may be 
 known, and may be hallowed by all in earth or 
 heaven. Hallowed by all means, and therefore 
 in and by us, but not limited to us. Not by a 
 small portion of the world, not by some tribe or 
 family only, but that His name may be glorified 
 in all parts of the world, in ourselves and in all 
 our brethren. — Denton. 
 
 [2394] In us, by us, and in and by all men, 
 *' let Thy name be magnified for ever." " Hal- 
 lowed be Thy name." — Stanford. 
 
 3 By preventing profanity. 
 
 [2395] We say not " May we hallow Thy 
 name," though that is included in the prayer. 
 We say impersonally " Hallowed be Thy name," 
 that is, may it be hallowed by all. God hallows 
 His own name when He prevents it from being 
 profaned : " Say unto the house of Israel, Thus 
 saith the Lord God ; I do not this for your 
 sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy 
 name's sake, which ye have profaned among 
 the heathen, whither ye went. And I will 
 sanctify my great name, which was profaned 
 among the heathen, which ye have profaned in 
 the midst of them ; and the heathen shall know 
 that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when 
 I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes " 
 (Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 23). — Denton. 
 
 [2396] (i) That God may lay so strong re- 
 straints upon us by His grace and providence, 
 that we never so much as aim at any ill thing. 
 
 (2) That if we do aim at it, we may be dis- 
 appointed, and not permitted to bring it to 
 effect. 
 
 (3) That God would interpose to defeat all 
 the evil works and designs of men, that their 
 machinations may not prosper. 
 
 (4) That in all our good works, our intentions 
 may be purely set on His honour and glory. 
 
 (5) That in all our indifferent actions, we 
 endeavour so to sanctify them, that they may 
 be directed to God's honour and glory. 
 
 (6) That God would be pleased so to over- 
 rule the wickedest actions of men, that they may 
 likewise turn to His honour. — J . Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2397] In calamity, in the convulsions of 
 nature, in the unexpected developments of His 
 providence, in the changing of designed evil 
 into unforeseen good, God "hallows" His name. 
 For in the contemplation of causes which we 
 cannot set in motion, and of effects which we 
 cannot control, profane thoughts perish in our 
 minds unformulated and unspoken. — E. B. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 V. The Ways in which God's Name may 
 be and ought to be hallowed by 
 Men, 
 
 1 By putting God above all. 
 
 [239S] We must hallow God's name in our 
 lives — in our habitual conduct. Many a man 
 whose lips are clean from oaths, and who never 
 uses God's name lightly, may live without any 
 reference to His claims. Every man docs live 
 so who has some object that is, practically, 
 higher than God, and that stands in the place 
 of God. — Chapin. 
 
 [2399] They who would hallow God's name 
 do not blot it over with the name of any human 
 master, Calvin, Arminius, or Wesley, or of any 
 ecclesiastical centre, Canterbury, Geneva, or 
 Rome ; but find His presence in all Christian 
 societies. His children in all Christian believers, 
 His name in all Christian catechisms, con- 
 fessions, and creeds. 
 
 2 By holiness. 
 
 [2400] We say " Hallowed be Thy name," 
 not that we wish God to be sanctified by our 
 prayers. But what we ask of Him is that His 
 name may be sanctified in us. By whom, in- 
 deed, could God be sanctified, who Himself 
 sanctifies ? We need a daily sanctification, 
 that we who daily sin may cleanse our faults by 
 an unceasing sanctification. — Cyprian. 
 
 [2401] It was an inscription upon the mitre 
 of Aaron, as not only due to God, but due to Him 
 in the highest place, " holiness to the Lord." 
 O Lord God, so sanctify the faculties of my 
 soul, that I may love Thee for Thy goodness ; 
 and glorify Thee for Thy love ; and admire 
 Thee for Thy glory ; and hallow Thee in them 
 all.— vS"/r Richard Baker, 1 568-1 645 . 
 
 [2402] We conclude, then, it is not enough 
 to breathe these words into the air ; we must 
 really and in act will that sanctity v/hich W3 
 desire in our prayers. Otherwise, to pray and 
 to sit still ; to pray for holiness, and run on in 
 the ways of profaneness ; to pray that God's 
 name may be hallowed, and not strive to sanc- 
 tify it, is rather a feint than a devout prayer, 
 and makes us guilty of a kind of blasphemy, 
 even when we pray " Hallowed be Thy name." 
 — Farindon. 
 
 [2403] Make us holy, that Thou too mayest 
 be glorified in us ; for as God is blasphemed 
 through me, so is He also hallowed, that is, 
 glorified as holy. — Theophylact. 
 
 [2404] Since, therefore, we are baptized, con- 
 secrated, and sanctified in this name, and as 
 this name is now made our name, it follows 
 that all the sons of God are, and ought to be 
 called, kind, merciful, chaste, just, true, simple, 
 benevolent, peaceable, and sweetly affectionate 
 in heart towards all men, even towards those 
 who are their enemies. Behold, then, you here 
 26
 
 40^ 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER . 
 
 =4-24:3, 
 
 fFiKsr ri:Tiri ON. 
 
 see what it is to sanctify God's name and be a 
 saint. Even as a church is dedicated, and set 
 apart for the use of Divine worship only, so also 
 we ought to be sanctified in the whole of our 
 lives, that there may be found in us no use of 
 anything but of the name of God, that is, of 
 kindness, righteousness, truth, &c. Therefore the 
 name of God is either sanctified or profaned, 
 not by the tongue only, but by all the powers 
 of the soul and the body. — Luther. 
 
 3 By reverence. 
 
 [2405] The Greek word for "ungodly" is 
 borrowed from the want of " revering " — from 
 the absence of a spirit of reverence in the heart 
 and in the life. To "hallow" is to make holy. 
 It is to set God's mark, the mark of His owner- 
 ship and of His consecration, upon a thing, or 
 upon a person — upon a day, or upon a building, 
 or upon a miountain — upon a portion of time, or 
 a piece of matter — or else upon a particular 
 man, or a particular family, or a particular 
 nation — according to the subject, and according 
 to the context, in each case. Instances of each 
 of these uses will readily occur to students of 
 the Bible. 
 
 But none of these applications of the word 
 are suitable here. 
 
 When we pray, " Hallowed be Thy name," we 
 pray that God, the true God, may be regarded 
 by us and by all men — regarded, remembered, 
 and therefore dealt with — as that Holy God 
 which He is. That we and all men — let me 
 rather say, that, without thinking of ourselves, 
 all men — all God's creatures everywhere — may 
 reverence Him as He ought to be reverenced. 
 That all unworthy conceptions, and all irre- 
 verent thoughts of Him, may be done away 
 with throughout His universe, and that He may 
 be known, and worshipped, and reverenced, by 
 all that He has made, according to His nature 
 and according to His self-revelation. — Dean 
 V\iii(:;han. 
 
 [2406] They who hallow the Creator's name 
 do not always substitute for it the word 
 " nature." Where others find only the laws of 
 nature, they are not ashamed to read aloud the 
 volitions and decrees of their Heavenly Father. 
 When they see any excellence in the creature, 
 they know and own that it exists in its perfec- 
 tion in the Creator. Remembering and eager 
 to acknov/ledge His unsleeping and unfailing 
 providence, they do not seriously talk of things 
 happening by chance. They honour the Bible, 
 in which God's name is written ; not quoting its 
 language with lightness and jesting ; not daring 
 to call its histories fables ; and not presuming to 
 alter one jot or tittle, while studious to distin- 
 guish every true point and letter of its inspired 
 pages. They " reverence the sanctuary," the 
 "house called by His name," "the dwelling- 
 place of His name," which He has "chosen and 
 sanctified, that His name may be there." and 
 where His "eye? and heart are perpetually," 
 where " incense is offered unto His name, and 
 a pure ohering." — Sianjord. 
 
 [2407] They observe God's positive institu- 
 tions : "The Lord's Day," set apart, not for 
 recreation or mere repose, but for the special 
 contemplation and praise of His holy name ; 
 the sacrament of baptism, administered empha- 
 tically " in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; " and the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper, the church's united 
 and repeated recognition of Jehovah's name in 
 Jesus. — Ibid. 
 
 [240S] To hallow or to sanctity God, supposes 
 a thorough sense of His excellences, and a 
 readiness to express it with becoming respect 
 and reverence. This petition abridgeth those 
 who use it, not only of all criminal, but even 
 indecent liberties, and obligeth them to suit 
 their whole behaviour to the credit of religion. 
 —Mangcy, 16S4-1755. 
 
 4. By shunning blasphemy. 
 
 [2409] So great respect was paid to the word 
 Jehovah by the Jews, that they were not only 
 cautious of taking it in vain (a vice common 
 enough among Christians), but even of express- 
 ing it upon solemn occasions. They wrote the 
 word in their books, but reckoned it next to 
 blasphemy to repeat it ; and it was spoken 
 only once in the year by the High Priest in a 
 solemn benediction. This particular reverence 
 to God's name was older than the gospel, and is 
 in all probability alluded to by our Saviour in 
 this petition.— y. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2410] We know what reverence the Jews 
 paid to the holy name : and shall it be pro- 
 faned by us Christians.'' It was never pro- 
 nounced among them but upon the most solemn 
 occasions : and shall we use it in jesting and 
 ridicule, in anger and passion? No; let us 
 give to the Lord the honour due to His name ; 
 for His name only is excellent, and His praise 
 above heaven and earth. — Bp. Neivton. 
 
 [241 1] Certainly, if the heart be so thoroughly 
 possessed with a sad awe of that Infinite 
 ^Majesty as it ought, the tongue dares not pre- 
 sume, in a sudden unmannerliness, to blurt out 
 the dreadful name of God, but shall both make 
 v.-ay for it, by a premised deliberation, and 
 attend it with a reverent elocution. — Bp. Hall. 
 
 [2412] Too many have the name of God, that 
 great and awful name, in their mouth or ear, 
 and have no correspondent thought in their 
 mind ; it passes with them as a transient sound, 
 as soon over as another common word of no 
 greater length, and leaves no impression. Per- 
 haps there is less in their minds to answer it 
 than most other words which men use in 
 common discourse. For they have usually dis- 
 tinct thoughts of the things they speak of. But 
 the holy and reverend name of God is often so 
 slightly mentioned, as in common oaths, or in 
 idle talk is so merely taken in vain, that if they 
 were on the sudden stopped, and asked what 
 they thought on or had in their mind when they
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2412 
 
 2423] 
 
 [first petition. 
 
 mentioned that word, and were to make a true 
 answer, they cannot say they thought of any- 
 thing ; as if the name of God, the All, were the 
 name of nothing. — J. Hoivc, 1630-1705. 
 
 5 By devotion. 
 
 [2413] The success of this petition tends to 
 our advantage. If we go on to honour God we 
 grow by every expression of this respect into an 
 habitual devotion ; which as it is the beginning 
 of the next hfe's perfection, so it is the best 
 pledge of its enjoyment. — Majigcy, 16S4-1755. 
 
 [2414] By hallowing God's name, we mean, 
 not to make it holy, for it is holiness itself; nor 
 to make it more holy, for it is infiniteness itself; 
 nor to keep it holy, for it is eternity itself ; but 
 to join with the heavens in declaring His glory, 
 and with the firmament in showing His handi- 
 work : as then only hallowing His name when 
 we name Him only holy, and therein consisting 
 our work of sanctifying Him when in Him we 
 acknowledge our works to be sanctified. — Sir 
 Richard Baker, 1 568-1 645 . 
 
 [2415] There are five principal ways of hallow- 
 ing the name of God. (i) By thinking of the 
 glory of God; (2) by standing or kneeling before 
 Him with awful reverence ; (3) by praise and 
 adoration, as the angels and seraphim praise 
 and adore it ; (4) by never taking it in vain, but 
 by always pronouncing it with solemn thought ; 
 (5) by love and trust, because the title of our 
 God is the name of jtsus.—Keiniaiuay. 
 
 6 By the consecration of our lives and 
 conduct. 
 
 [2416] We do not really desire that God's 
 name may be hallowed, unless we resolve our- 
 selves to reverence it. That is no prayer which 
 does not join conduct to aspiration. We say : 
 " Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be 
 Thy name," but the pointed question presses 
 home upon us — do we hallow it ? — do we Jiiean 
 to hallow it ? Or does it signify nothing with 
 us ? Is it merely a form that we learned in 
 childhood ? A familiar petition, that we mutter 
 without regard to what it implies or requires .'* 
 If, on the other hand, this is a sincere prayer 
 with us, then will we resolve and endeavour to 
 consecrate this great name on our lips, in our 
 lives, and in our hearts. — Chapin. 
 
 [2417] His name of Father must be hallowed 
 by love ; of Lord, by obedience ; of judge, by 
 uprightness ; of almighty, by fear ; and of 
 everlasting, by constancy. — Sir Richard Baker, 
 I 568-1 645. 
 
 [2418] We hallow God's name with (i) our 
 hearts ; (2) our voices ; (3) our bodies ; (4) our 
 daily conduct. That is (i) by loving and fear- 
 ing Him ; (2) by worshipping Him in public 
 and in private ; (3) by personal holiness and 
 
 outward reverence ; (4) by reverencing every- 
 thing that belongs to Him — His Word, His day, 
 His house. His sacraments. His ministers, and 
 His people ; and by leading such a life as may 
 tend to the praise and glory of His Holy Name 
 — Ramsay. 
 
 [2419] We hallow God's name (i) when we 
 confess our guilt ; (2) when we promote His 
 glory ; (3) when we are consistent in the pro- 
 fession of religion ; (4) when we are conformed 
 to the Divine image. — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 [2420] The Christian's shining practice is an 
 ornament to his profession, and whilst he hath 
 the comfort of a good conscience, his heavenly 
 Father, whose name he professes, will have the 
 praise of it. Religion will have the honour, and 
 his neighbour the instruction and encourage- 
 ment of his example, and in both these ends 
 God's name will be more especially glorified 
 (Matt. v. \G).—Mangcy, 1684-1755. 
 
 [2421] Not in Thee, but in us: for if through 
 sinners the name of God is blasphemed among 
 the Gentiles, on the other hand, through the 
 just it is hallowed. — Hieronyinus. 
 
 [2422] Essentially, I repeat, He is the Father 
 of all men ; but practically, subjectivel)^. He is 
 not the Father of the man v/ho forgets His- 
 existence, overlooks His providence, disregards 
 His requirements, and, in fact, lives "without 
 God in the world." For there are no filial 
 aspirations in the heart of such a man. He has 
 no child-like trust or communion. To him 
 there is no spiritual life in the motions of the 
 universe, no expression of infinite tenderness 
 upon its face. Worshipping the objects of 
 sense, he does not notice the intense longings ot 
 his own soul. Swept in the sounding tide ot 
 passion, he hears not "the still, small voice," 
 inviting to a holier and serener course. God's 
 love is over him, and God's mercy waits on 
 him ; but, in his sensualism and sin, he does 
 not see the Father. He does not realize his 
 relationship to God, and therefore, so far as it 
 depends upon his action, that relationship is as 
 though it were not. — Chapin. 
 
 [2423] God's name is hallowed (I.) in our 
 hearts, I Peter lii. 15 ; (i) when we have awfui 
 thoughts of His majesty, Psa. cxi. 9 ; (2) when 
 in difficulties or dangers we trust in His power 
 and sufficiency so as to go on cheerfully with our 
 duty. (II.) With our tongues when we use 
 God's name, ordinances, and word, as holy 
 things, when we speak of Him with reverence, 
 and are deeply affected with His praise, Psa. 
 li. 15. (III.) By our actions: (i) our worship, 
 Lev. X. 3 ; Eccles. v. i. ; (2) our lives {a) in 
 remembering that we have a holy God, Josh, 
 xxiv. 19 ; (d) in discovering to others that we 
 have a holy God, i Peter ii. 9. — T. Mantcn. 
 1629-1677.
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 SECOND PETITION. 
 
 Fagcs 405 /^ 416. 
 
 I 
 
 CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS AND PRECEDING 
 PETITION. 
 
 2 
 
 DEFINITION OF THE WORD "KINGDOM." 
 
 THE KINGDOM VIEWED AS THE SOVEREIGNTY OF 
 GOD. 
 
 THE KINGDOM VIEWED AS THE MESSIANIC 
 • KINGDOM. 
 
 THE IMPORT OF THE WORD "THY" PREFIXED TO 
 "KINGDOM." 
 
 ITS MODES OF REALIZATION. 
 
 ITS NEED TO BE OFFERED FROM THE CONDITION 
 OF MANKIND. 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PRESS THE REQUEST. 
 
 9 
 THE WAYS IN WHICH WE HASTEN THE COMING 
 OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 404
 
 405 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 (JJontinned.) 
 
 i 
 
 SECOND PETITION. 
 
 {Thy Kingdom come). 
 
 I. Connection between this and Pre- 
 ceding Petition. 
 
 [2424] We have seen that the first two sen- 
 tences of the Lord's Prayer have an organic 
 connection. The same relation exists between 
 the words of the text and the preceding clause. 
 When God's name is everywhere hallowed, 
 His kingdom will have come. He will not be 
 truly worshipped until every hand and every 
 heart shall have rendered Him its allegiance. 
 — Chapi7t, 
 
 [2425] Accordingly, as the first petition of 
 the Lord's Prayer laid the foundation of religion, 
 the second and third go on to rear the super- 
 structure. The first carried up the thoughts 
 and desires to God as He is in Himself, the all- 
 holy, all-glorious Being ; the second carries 
 them up to Him as He stands in relation to all 
 things above and below, as He is the great 
 King, the Lord and Ruler of all things both in 
 heaven and in earth. The first bore up to 
 heaven our desire that God might be more 
 known and loved, as He is in Himself, and that 
 He, His name, and all that is consecrated to 
 Him, might receive the reverence which are 
 their due. The second goes up to the throne 
 of grace, bearing our desire that He may be 
 known as the sovereign of the universe, and 
 may have — not a place, or even a special place 
 — but the one supreme place in our thoughts 
 and affections, and may sit spiritually upon the 
 throne of our hearts. In a word, in the first 
 we desire and pray that we and all mankind 
 may reverence Him as God ; in the second that 
 we may submit ourselves to Him, as Lord and 
 King. — Karslake. 
 
 [2426] The words " in earth as it is in heaven," 
 belong chiefly to the clause, " Thy will be 
 done;" but they also belong to this, and that 
 which went before. They are the end, as the 
 words " Our Father " are the beginning, of 
 each of the first three petitions. "Thy name 
 be hallowed, in earth as in heaven ; Thy king- 
 dom come in earth as in heaven ; Thy will be 
 done in earth, as it is in heaven." Not the 
 kingdom of triumph and rest beyond the grave, 
 but, to end in that, and endure in it for ever, a 
 
 kingdom that may be enjoyed below, established 
 speedily, and experienced now, is the kingdom 
 contemplated. We say not, Lift us without 
 delay to Thy kingdom in heaven, but, " Thy 
 kingdom come " to us here on earth. — Robinson. 
 
 [2427] Martin Luther, writing in the year 
 1 5 18, remarks, that when the children say, 
 "Hallowed be Thy name," the Father asks,. 
 " How can my honour and name be sanctified 
 among you, seeing that all your hearts and 
 thoughts are inclined to evil, and you are in the 
 captivity of sin, and none can sing My song in 
 in a strange land ?" 
 
 Then the children speak again, thus : — 
 
 " O Father, it is true. Help us out of our 
 misery ; let Thy kingdom come, that sin may 
 be driven away, and we be made according to 
 Thy pleasure, that Thou alone mayest reign in 
 us, and we be Thy dominion ; obeying Thee 
 with all the powers of body and soul." 
 
 These antique sentences help to show the 
 vital connection between the first and second 
 petitions. It is not a connection without con- 
 sequence, like that of pearls in a circlet, or 
 links in a chain ; but thought grows out of 
 thought, and prayer out of prayer, like bough - 
 out of bough in a stately, flowering tree. — 
 Statiford. 
 
 [2428] It is placed after that petition by 
 which we pray for the honour and glory of 
 God ; we may therefore infer that we are to do 
 nothing to the dishonour of God, even for so 
 noble an end as the propagation of the gospel, 
 or the advancement of God's kingdom in the 
 world. It goes before all other petitions, ex- 
 cept that one which sets God's glory as the 
 ultimate end ; we may infer, therefore, that the 
 seeking the kingdom of God by all lawful ways 
 and means is an endeavour duly subordinate 
 to the honour and glory of God. — J. Blair, 
 
 II. Definition of the Word "Kingdom." 
 
 [2429] I. The kingdom. The phrase "Thy 
 kingdom " means Thy " reign." In our language 
 we have one word for a kingdom, another for 
 the reign in it ; for instance, we make a dis- 
 tinction between the kingdom of Queen Vic- 
 toria and her reign in that kingdom. In the 
 original language of the New Testament, one 
 word is used for both meanings — in one place
 
 40t) 
 2429—2438] 
 
 THE LORD S PRAYER. 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 it stands for the territory under kingly rule, 
 in another place for the kingly rule itself. Here 
 it stands for the kingly rule. — Stanford. 
 
 III. The Kingdom viewed as the Sove- 
 reignty OF God. 
 
 I Nature. 
 
 (i) Its universality and eternity. 
 
 [2430] There is a universal kingdom over all 
 things ; over angels and devils ; over men elect 
 and reprobate ; over beasts and living crea- 
 tures ; and over inanimate things, sun, moon, 
 and stars (i Chron. xxix. 11). 
 
 There is no such monarch as God is, for 
 largeness of empire, for absoluteness of power, 
 and sublimity of His throne. This is not prin- 
 cipally understood here, but is implied as a 
 foundation and ground of faith, whereupon we 
 may deal with God about that kingdom, which 
 is specially intended in this request. — T. Ma?i- 
 to?i, 1 629-1 677. 
 
 [2431] It has always been. In some of its 
 essentials, it is as ancient as man's fall. So 
 long as God has dealt with our race on a footing 
 of mercy and judgment, so long there has 
 existed the " kingdom" which we speak of. — 
 Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [2432] "Thy kingdom come" does not imply 
 that God has not reigned and does not reign. 
 He is the Ruler and Governor of the world from 
 Creation even till now. It is a petition that 
 God's kingdom may be manifested to men, and 
 accepted by them. — E. B. 
 
 [2433] As among earthly kingdoms there are 
 some so superior to others that it becomes a 
 point of ambition to be enrolled as their citizens, 
 because in them our rights are protected and 
 our safety secured, because our laboiir receives 
 its fullest recompense, and our liberty its freest 
 exercise ; so there is this kingdom of God, 
 founded from everlasting, and destined to en- 
 dure when time shall be no longer, the which, 
 if we enter into, we shall at once be installed in 
 a secure liberty, which is protected by the 
 Almighty, cared for by that King the meanest 
 of whose subjects knows no grievance, certified 
 of our eternal well-being, associated with all 
 that is joyous and with all that is holy in the 
 universe, and confirmed in every good resolve, 
 and rewarded for every good service by the 
 favour of a loving King. — Dods. 
 
 (2) Its reality and various elements. 
 
 [2434] " Kingdom of God " is not in fact a 
 figurative expression, but most literal : it is 
 rather the earthly kingdoms and the earthly 
 kings that are figures and shadows of the true. 
 —Ibid. 
 
 [2435] If we would understand it, we must 
 picture to ourselves an earthly kingdom, with 
 the various elements which go to make it up — 
 
 its king, its subjects, its laws, &c. ; and then we 
 must let this earthly picture become " trans- 
 figured," as it v/ere, into a heavenly one — the 
 outline remaining, while spiritual things take the 
 place of temporal in each element of detail. 
 
 We are to conceive, then, of one great King, 
 dwelling, indeed, unseen amid the glories of 
 heaven, but yet ruling with ever-watchful care 
 this our globe which He has called into being. 
 
 Its inhabitants are the subjects of the King. 
 And the law of the kingdom is the perfect law 
 of God, controlling the irrational portion of the 
 creatures with irresistible power, while to the 
 rational portion, bearing more expressly the 
 Divine Image, is given the high privilege of 
 freedom of action, enabling them to yield a free 
 and conscious obedience to the laws of their all- 
 wise, all-beneficent King ; and to these last, the 
 rational portion, is appointed a dominion over 
 the remaining works of God's hand, and they are 
 made in a measure His vicegerents upon earth. 
 
 Such was the original economy of God's king- 
 dom among men. But man fell away from 
 obedience to his King, instigated by those spirits 
 who had themselves fallen first, and who seem 
 to have some mysterious connection with our 
 globe. — Karslake {condensed). 
 
 [2436] This government is a perfect kingdom. 
 He hath majesty for His crown, mercy for His 
 seat, and justice for His sceptre. He hath 
 wisdom for His counsellor, almightiness for His 
 guard, and eternity for His date. He hath 
 heaven for His palace, the earth for His foot- 
 stool, and hell for his prison. He hath laws to 
 which nature assents, and reason subscribes ; 
 that do not fetter us but free us, for by them 
 nature gets the wings of grace, and transcends 
 the earth. Reason gets the eyes of faith, and 
 ascends up to heaven. He hath a yoke indeed, 
 but it is easy ; a burthen, but it is light. His 
 reward is with Him, and His work before Him. 
 He is established in His sovereignty, not by His 
 subjects' election of Him, but by His election of 
 His subjects ; not as raising Himself to a higher 
 title, but as humbling Himself to a lower calling ; 
 and as not receiving it from a predecessor who 
 is before all, so never leaving it to a successor, 
 who is after all. — Sir Richaj-d Baker, 1568-1641. 
 
 (3) Punishment for those who rebel against 
 His rule. 
 
 [2437] Let us remember, that though God is 
 ever King over all, for nothing can resist His 
 will, yet He may not reign in all ; nor are all 
 men within His kingdom of grace, but only 
 those who own Him as their King, and do His 
 will. — Hitgo de S. Charo. 
 
 [2438] Man, in his fallen nature, is outside 
 the Father's kingdom. He threw it off to set up 
 for himself. To be his own master, he became 
 the slave of his own lusts. Refusing to serve 
 Him whose throne is in the heavens, he made 
 himself the prey of "the rulers of the darkness 
 of this world." — Robinson.
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 =439 -=449] 
 
 4^^ 7 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 [2439] It is true, in this universal kingdom 
 there are many rebels that would not have Him 
 to reign over them ; but they are subject to His 
 power and providence, and that in three respects : 
 as it grants permission ; as it imposeth re- 
 straints ; and as it inflicts punishments. — Bp. 
 Hopkins, 1633-1690. 
 
 IV. The Kingdom viewed as the Mes- 
 sianic Kingdom. 
 I Its different aspects. 
 
 [2440] It will be seen that what are commonly 
 called the different meanings of the expression 
 "kingdom of heaven," have been represented 
 here rather as different aspects of the one 
 general idea. — Karslake. 
 
 [2441] There are three different kingdoms of 
 God — first, the kingdom of God in the heart ; 
 second, the kingdom of God in this world 
 through His Church ; and, third, the kingdom of 
 God in the holy and the happy heavens. For 
 all these three kingdoms you pray, when you 
 say, " Thy kingdom come." — Keimaway. 
 
 [2442] We pray for (i) the coming of His 
 kingdom of glory ; (2) the spread of His king- 
 dom of grace. — Ramsay. 
 
 [2443] The present kingdom is partly visible 
 and partly invisible. Every church of baptized 
 Christians makes up part of the visible kingdom 
 of Christ : we can see them, and we know that 
 that seal of the cross has been marked upon 
 their brows, and the Spirit of God presented to 
 their acceptance. But hundreds and thousands 
 deny their baptism every day by their conduct. 
 They live to Satan, and they lie to God. 
 
 In that other glorious kingdom it shall not be 
 so. All shall be His from the least to the 
 greatest. Every man shall be a good and holy 
 man ; every child shall be a good and holy 
 child. This will be happiness. This will make 
 that kingdom a kingdom of joy. — Kennaivay. 
 
 [2444] Of this especial kingdom there are two 
 notable branches and considerations. One is 
 that administration which belongeth to the pre- 
 sent life, and is called "the kingdom of grace ;" 
 and the other belongeth to the life to come, and 
 is called " the kingdom of glory." — T. M ant on, 
 1629-1677. 
 
 [2445] The kingdom of grace and of glory are 
 the same kingdom, but under a dift'erent mani- 
 festation : that a concealed kingdom, a seed in 
 the ground ; this a manifestation of that king- 
 dom, a seed in the tree. — Sir JMattJiczo Hale. 
 
 [2446] This kingdom signifies the visible 
 Christian Church, and by howsoever dift'erent 
 appellations it is called, it only means the same 
 thing in different lights. As it is called " the 
 kingdom of God," it sets forth those more per- 
 fect methods of obedience to His will which we 
 are taught by the gospel. As it is called " the 
 kingdom of Christ," it represents the immediate 
 
 founder and governor of it, our Lord Jesus. 
 And, lastly, as it is called " the kingdom of 
 heaven," it signifies that merciful dispensation 
 which will carry us thither, which must now 
 improve us in grace, and hereafter consummate 
 us in glory. — JMangty, 1684-1755. 
 
 [2447] These two kingdoms of grace and 
 glory differ not specifically, but gradually ; they 
 differ not in nature, but only in degree. The 
 kingdom of grace is nothing but the incohation 
 or beginning of the kingdom of glory ; the king- 
 dom of grace is glory in the seed, and the king- 
 dom of glory is grace in the flower ; the kingdom 
 of grace is glory in the daybreak, and the king- 
 dom of glory is grace in the full meridian ; the 
 kingdom of grace is glory militant, and the 
 kingdom of glory is grace triumphant. There 
 is such an inseparable connection between these 
 two kingdoms, grace and glory, that there is no 
 passing into the one kingdom but by the other. 
 At Athens there were two temples, a temple of 
 virtue and a temple of honour ; and there was 
 no going into the temple of honour but through 
 the temple of virtue ; so the kingdoms of glory 
 and grace are so joined together that we cannot 
 go into the kingdom of glory but through the 
 kingdom of grace. Many people aspire after 
 the kingdom of glory, but never look after grace : 
 but these two, which God hath joined together, 
 may not be put asunder ; the kingdom of grace 
 leads to the kingdom of glory. — T. Watson. 
 
 2 Its place in the Divine economy. 
 
 [2448] The Son of God Himself would come 
 to this our earth, would take the nature of man 
 into union with His Deity, and so become 
 Mediator between God and man, the one true 
 Son of God in heaven interceding for the fallen 
 children of God on earth ; He would pay Him- 
 self the penalty for our sins ; restore to us the 
 love and favour of God ; enable us to draw near 
 through Him, spiritually, to our offended Lord ; 
 become the immediate King on earth ; reinstruct 
 man as to the nature and the will of God ; 
 counteracting thus all the various elements of 
 anarchy and evil introduced by the fall, restor- 
 ing to man in a measure all that was lost, and 
 opening out to him again the prospect of dwell- 
 ing for ever in bliss unspeakable in the presence 
 of God. Accordingly, a rrew economy was 
 introduced into the original one of the kingdom 
 of God on earth. Christ became our immediate 
 King. — Karslake {condensed) . 
 
 [2449] In these words the Lord Jesus sanc- 
 tioned and perpetuated a prayer that was com 
 mon among the Jews. They said, " He prays 
 not at all, in whose prayers there is no mention 
 of the kingdom of God ; " and one of their daily 
 petitions to the Father of Israel was, " Let Him 
 make His kingdom reign, let His redemption 
 flourish, and let His Messiah come and deliver 
 His people." The Messiah's kingdom foretold 
 by the prophets was what they meant by the 
 kingdom of God ; and such was also the under- 
 standing of the Baptist, of Christ Himself, and
 
 40O 
 
 2449—2454] 
 
 THE LORD.'; PRAYER. 
 
 [second petition*- 
 
 of the Lord's disciples, when they went about 
 preaching, " The kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand." — Robinson. 
 
 3 Appropriateness of its title. 
 
 [2450] In this kingdom there is a Monarch, 
 Jesus Christ, to whom all power and authority 
 is given. God the Father calls Him "My 
 King" (Psa. ii. 6). This King hath His throne 
 in the consciences of men, where thoughts are 
 brought into captivity to Him (2 Cor. x. 5) ; His 
 royal sceptre (Psa. ex. 2); His subjects, and they 
 are the saints (Rev. xv. 3) ; His laws and con- 
 stitutions — we read of " the law of faith " and 
 "the law of liberty." In this kingdom there are 
 privileges and royal immunities ; there is free- 
 dom from the curse of the law, and from the 
 power of sin, and from the destructive influence 
 of Satan and the world. And here are punish- 
 ments and rewards both for body and soul : 
 there is hell and heaven. Now because all these 
 things do so fitly suit, therefore is the gospel 
 called a kingdom. — 7". Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 4 Its nature and character. 
 
 (i) // is vitally connected with the Saviour's 
 life and personality. 
 
 [2451] Considered externally it is an historical 
 fact, and it has an organized form. It is vitally 
 connected with the life and personality of Jesus. 
 It is a progressive principle, but it is not the 
 mere "principle of progress" in the ordinary 
 use of that phrase. It harmonizes with that law 
 of development by which the flower unfolds and 
 the tree grows ; it coalesces with that method 
 through which the intellect of man attains its 
 excellence ; but it is distinguished from these ; 
 it is something more than these. It is not what 
 we usually term a natural law. It springs from 
 a fixed point, it starts from a known era in the 
 world's history, it streams out from the central 
 Personage of the Gospels. I do not mean to say 
 that there were no preparations for it. There were 
 — in the world at large as well as in the Jewish 
 economy. But I do say that these preparations 
 owe their significance to Christ's coming. By 
 His coming we learn that they were prepara- 
 tions. I do say that by Him these preliminary 
 elements were first systematized. By Him they 
 were first concentrated and became a peculiar 
 force, as they were not while isolated. At His 
 coming they were drawn to a focus, brought to 
 bear upon the world, and produced an eff"ect in 
 the world, as never before. As a special law of 
 progress, then — as "the kingdom of God" — this 
 spiritual force dates as an historical fact ; and 
 from the life and the teachings of Christ it first 
 begins to leaven the earth and to change its 
 complexion. — CJiapin. 
 
 [2452] He became one of us that He might 
 be our King ; He clothed Himself in our dust 
 that we might wear His royal robe ; He lay in 
 our grave that we might sit on His throne ; He 
 founded our joy in the deep bitterness of His 
 own soul, our kingdom in His own obedience 
 
 and subjection. Has He not claim to reign 
 over us .'' — Dads. 
 
 [2453] We must have an intimate knowledge 
 of the King. For the laws of His kingdom are 
 the laws of His own nature — the extent of His 
 kingdom is the extent of His power, the duration 
 of His kingdom is the duration of His being. I 
 confess to delight in the thought that Christ is 
 an absolute King. Parliaments of men, the 
 grand confederations of the world, have been and 
 are necessary, because of the feeble character of 
 earthly sovereigns. But Christ has been mani- 
 fested in the midst of circumstances the most 
 difficult and trying, and so passed through those 
 circumstances as to be enabled to throw out 
 this challenge, " Which of you convinceth me of 
 sin t " 
 
 (2) // is essentially personal and spiritual in 
 its true development. 
 
 [2454] Our decision as to the success or defeat 
 of any great cause will depend very much upon 
 our scale of measurement. If we measure by 
 years, or by generations even, it may appear to 
 have gained nothing ; nay, owing to the limita- 
 tion of our vision, it may seem to retrograde, 
 instead of moving, as it really does, steadily 
 onward, as the stars seem to turn backward 
 when we forget the motion of the earth and 
 mistake it for a fixed centre. In studying the 
 fact of human progress as affected by Chris- 
 tianity, then, we must employ a standard equal 
 to the magnitude of the movement. We must 
 not consider merely the access or recess in 
 isolated instances. We must examine the tide- 
 water marks of centuries, and then we shall find 
 that the great deep, as a whole, has been heaved 
 up to a higher level. The great doctrine of 
 human brotherhood, of the worth of a man, that 
 he is not to be trod upon as a footstool, or 
 dashed in pieces as a worthless vessel ; and the 
 doctrines that grow out of this, the doctrines of 
 popular liberty, education, and reform, all these 
 have become active and every-day truths only 
 under the influence of Christianity. 
 
 Consider, too, those ideas of religion which 
 breathe around us in the atmosphere of every 
 sabbath, which consecrate and lift up the 
 humblest congregation — the conceptions of God, 
 of human life, of immortality. How changed is 
 the attitude of men respecting spiritual things ! 
 How has this material sphere burst into infinite 
 relations, and the grave lost its terror ! How 
 are the guilt and privation of life girdled about 
 with institutions of philanthropy, and its afflic- 
 tions spanned by the midnight firmament of 
 faith ! 
 
 But contrast the general moral aspects of 
 humanity before and since the advent of Chris- 
 tianity, and, moreover, select the most unfavour- 
 able point for modern morality. It is a per- 
 plexing question whether, as nations advance in 
 refinement, they do not inevitably decline in their 
 moral life. We may inquire, therefore, whether 
 Christianity itself has a conservative influence 
 sufficiently vigorous to prevent its communities
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2454—2463] 
 
 409 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 from sliding into the worst abominations of 
 Pompeii or Corinth. In one word, let us take 
 the problem presented by great cities — Paris, 
 London, New York — and we shall detect, I 
 think, even in such societies the indications of 
 a moral life far better than the best results of 
 ancient civilization. Think of the brutality of 
 those ancient times. Contrast the feelings with 
 which grave senators and chaste women thronged 
 the bloody amphitheatre with the disgust and 
 indignation which so generally follow the least 
 imitation of such spectacles at the present day. 
 Well has it been observed, too, that " Chris- 
 tianity has expurgated the literature of Greece 
 and Rome." While now immorality is intro- 
 duced by stealth among the productions of the 
 pen, and these are productions of the meanest 
 sort, how unblushingly did the best minds of 
 old, not only by permission but by expectation, 
 blot their pages with filth and vice. If such 
 things are done now, they are not done openly 
 by wi iters like Catullus and Juvenal. Again, 
 consider how vice now, even when practised, 
 hides itself, is protested against, is repudiated 
 even by the hypocrite who indulges it. Certainly 
 the respected and the wise condemn it, and such 
 a protest is essential to both their wisdom and 
 their reputation. Even when corruption in 
 modern society is deep, and seems deepening, 
 the true conception remains. There is a moral 
 ideal, a popular standard of virtue, that rebukes 
 this corruption, and that furnishes a recuperative 
 influence. — Chapin. 
 
 [2455] -^s this kingdom makes its bloodless 
 conquests, and erects its beneficent throne 
 among men, the prophecies of "the latter-day 
 glory" shall have their noblest fulfilment. When 
 "righteousness, peace, and joy" dwell in every 
 heart, it may be that the lower creation shall be 
 infected with the spirit of gentleness and peace, 
 so that even, with an almost literal exactness, 
 " the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and 
 the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the 
 calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; 
 and a little child shall lead them. And the cow 
 and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall 
 lie down together : and the lion shall eat straw 
 like the ox. And the sucking child shall play 
 on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child 
 shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den" (Isa. 
 xi. 6-8). But of this we are assured, that the 
 fiercer and less tameable passions of men shall 
 be subdued — " they shall not hurt nor destroy," 
 and love, as a little child, shall lead them. — 
 Loraine. 
 
 [2456] All our desires and faculties, our ima- 
 gination and our will, belong to this kingdom, 
 in which God is Sovereign. Man is like a 
 many-stringed instrument, on which God is to 
 be praised. All within us must be brought into 
 subjection to Him, and thus into harmony. He 
 is the great Musician who, by His Spirit, 
 touches the lyre ; for He works in us both to 
 will and to do. And yet is it our work in the 
 truest 6ense. And this is the beginning as well 
 
 as the soul of our work, that we ask Him, "Thy 
 kingdom come." Rule Thou in me by the sweet 
 influence of Thy grace, by the power of Thy 
 Spirit, by the love of Christ, by the guidance of 
 Thy providence, by the teaching of Thy word, 
 by the fellowship of Thy saints. — A. Saphir. 
 
 [2457] Heaven must be in me before I can be 
 heaven, and I need the power of the new life to 
 master the sickness of sin. My heart would lift 
 its gates daily that the King of glory may come 
 in. I want Him "to lodge in the castle, with 
 His mighty captains and men of war, to the joy 
 of the town of Mansoul." Therefore, on my 
 own account, my prayer shall be daily this, 
 "Thy kingdom come." — Stanford, 
 
 [2458] The kingdom of God is within, amongst 
 us ; a power subjecting the wills of men to the 
 Spirit of God, that is, the rule of the Spirit of 
 God in the soul. — Hugo de S. Charo. 
 
 [2459] He came to found a monarchy more 
 splendid than any that had ever appeared to the 
 most ambitious dreams of former princes — the 
 monarchy of mind. He came to achieve con- 
 quests within the very spirit of man ; winning 
 the profoundest devotion of His affections and 
 the exultant homage of His thoughts. — Loratne. 
 
 [2460] Now the roots of this kingdom are not 
 in nationalities, or constitutions, or societies, but 
 in men, individually. We might have a perfect 
 constitution of things as far as national order 
 went to begin with ; but the order would soon 
 be disordtr if men were wrong. — R. T. 
 
 [2461] It was the purpose of Christ to reveal, 
 to claim, to institute, a kingdom. "Art Thou a 
 king, then?" "Thousayest that I am a king." 
 But " My kingdom is not of this world." The 
 kingdom spoken of is a spiritual kingdom. It 
 is the sovereignty of God in hearts. — Dean 
 Vatighan, 
 
 (3) // has an outer and inner circle, known 
 in these dizn'sions, howez'er, to God alone. 
 
 [2462] The visible kingdom of God upon earth 
 are a company of people openly professing the 
 fundamentals of religion, and those truths neces- 
 sary to salvation, which God hath made known 
 unto the world, and joining together in the 
 external communion of ordinances. 
 
 The invisible kingdom are a company of true 
 believers who have internal and invisible com- 
 munion with God by His Spirit and their faith. 
 The visible Church is of a much larger extent 
 than the invisible, for it comprehends hypocrites 
 and formalists. — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 (4) Its manifest principles and consequent 
 blessings. 
 
 [2463] The burden of John the Baptist's 
 ministry was, " the reign of heaven is at hand, 
 get ready for it." While this herald's voice was 
 sounding, the King came. He had not been 
 long here — in fact, had not yet in a formal way
 
 410 
 24-53—2470] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 commenced His undertaking, when, all eyes 
 being fastened on Him, all minds exercised 
 on the question what His kingdom would be 
 like, he issued a manifesto, and we have it in 
 the Seven Beatitudes. The hrst beatitude is, 
 *' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven." " This," says Augustine, 
 " is inclusive of all the beatitudes, for all the 
 beatitudes that follow are the unfolding of this 
 first one. We have here the beginning both 
 of the principles and the blessings that make up 
 the kingdom of God." Let but these principles, 
 with their consequent blessings, have ascend- 
 ancy, and there, in all its perfection, is the 
 kingdom. 
 
 (5) Its subjects viewed as trophies of Chrisfs 
 sj)ifif2ial achieveinaits. 
 
 [2464] Of men wildly rebelling against all 
 righteous and conscience - binding authority, 
 Christ took in hand to make a people so 
 submissive that they may be called "living 
 sacrifices." Of men wha scorned His rule with 
 a special scorn, He has to make subjects who 
 gladly lay down their lives for their King : of 
 men hating one another, envying, maligning, 
 and despising one another. He has to form a 
 community so attached, that all possessions, 
 and even life itself, are held as common pro- 
 perty, and willingly yielded for the good of the 
 whole ; of men who as soon as He leaves 
 them are invaded by His enemies, tempted, 
 threatened, bribed, allured to disatiection. He 
 undertakes to create faithful and stanch sup- 
 porters ; of those who are emphatically " not a 
 people," He has to form a peculiar people, a 
 people of God. And this He actually does. — 
 Dods. 
 
 (6) The cross of Christ is the instrument by 
 luhich its subjects nizist strive to extend its rule. 
 
 [2465] Christian men sometimes seem as if 
 they only half believe in the power of the cross. 
 They seem as if, like the Emperor Constantine, 
 they see a glorious cross, and read the celestial 
 inscription under it, " by this conquer," yet, 
 believers as they nominally are, it is not by 
 this, that is, not by the cross alone, that they 
 €xpect to conquer, but by the fitness of the 
 means they employ in using the cross, and 
 their real hope seems to be, after all, in the 
 instrument of the instrument. — Stanford. 
 
 (7) Scope and sphere of its action. 
 
 [2466] The primary meaning of this petition 
 is not so much of an intensive as of an extensive 
 force. The kingdom of God must indeed first 
 be within us as a subjective fact, before we can 
 rightly pray that it may be co-extensive with 
 the whole world. The kingdom of God, for 
 which we pray, is the visible Church of Christ. 
 And this petition is for the success of all mis- 
 sionary effort ; that the kingdoms of this world 
 may become the kingdoms of our God and His 
 Christ ; that, in fact, they may become Christian 
 nations, and the ancient prophecy be fulfilled, 
 The earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
 
 God, as the waters cover the sea." When it 
 shall not, as now, be necessary for one man to 
 say to another, " Know the Lord," for all shall 
 know Him, from the least unto the greatest. 
 When the gospel of Christ shall have done its 
 work and leavened the whole world, as the 
 leaven leaveneth the whole lump of meal. — F. 
 B. Procter. 
 
 [2467] We must not, however, confound His 
 kingdom's origin with its position and the scope 
 and sphere of its action. Though not of this 
 world as derived from it, it is of it, as in it, and 
 playing a most important part among the visible 
 concerns of the sons of men. Christ's kingdom 
 is a real and integral part of human society, 
 and to ignore either its presence or its influence 
 would lead to inextricable confusion. — Tiiomas 
 Hugo. 
 
 [2468] It is impossible for any great earthly 
 dominion to be solitary and uninfluential ; it is 
 appealed to and must interfere, is imitated and 
 must mould others ; so it is impossible for this 
 kingdom of God to be side by side with other 
 influences and not reverse, increase, or some 
 way operate on them. As little is this possible, 
 as it is possible to carry a light through a dark 
 room and scatter no darkness, but confine the 
 light to the flame. This is the mode of the 
 kingdom's increase, and the promise is that it 
 will so increase. It will grow till there is no 
 room for any opposing dominion on earth. — 
 Dods. 
 
 [2469] Anything that is even of worldly worth 
 comes in the track of the knowledge of Christ, 
 and Him crucified. " Thy kingdom come " is a 
 prayer not only for all spiritual and moral good ; 
 it is a prayer for all political and all material ! 
 If each of us, if all around us, if all the nations 
 of the earth, were what Christianity would make 
 them, acted out in their dealings with one 
 another its teaching and spirit, what a happy 
 world this would be ! — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 (8) Its ultimate sticcess and the fruitlessness 
 of opposing its progress. 
 
 [2470] " Thy kingdom come." You may not 
 believe it now, but if you are progressing in a 
 right direction you will believe it by and by : 
 when you are brought to see that all secondary 
 causes are insufficient to account for the shakings 
 and upheavals and revolutions which must and 
 will come. Everything in national life which 
 opposes the principles on which this kingdom 
 is founded must totter at its progress. There 
 is nothing which appears in this material world 
 but it has some unseen spiritual cause. The 
 fact of men refusing to acknowledge these 
 spiritual causes does not alter the greater fact 
 of their existence. 
 
 While men are arguing the facts are working, 
 and in the long run the facts will always have 
 the best of it. Yes, my brethren, tyrants may 
 tyrannize, and the powerful may abuse their 
 power, and the rich grow wanton because of 
 
 Ji
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 2470—2479] 
 
 4:1 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 their wealth, and in their wantonness oppress 
 and grind down the poor, and institutions dis- 
 posed to favour wealth and tyranny may for a 
 time exist and flourish, and adulterous unions 
 of various kinds may be perpetuated ; but 
 tyranny must succumb, and power must confess 
 itself weak, and wealth own its poverty, and 
 unjust institutions become things of the past, 
 the corrupt unions be dissolved by that power 
 which may seem long in its working ; but 
 though it be slow, it is sure, and because it is 
 slow, it is mighty ; aye, and terrible to those 
 who are found in opposition to it. — R. T. 
 
 [2471] In one word, Christianity, although 
 introduced by miracle, has fallen into the or- 
 dinary current of Providence. Not by external 
 ruptures and sudden shocks, but with an inner 
 life it gradually fills every pore and artery. It 
 is adjusted to the conditions of a progressive 
 race. And yet this adjustment is not a servile 
 compliance, but a condescending and uplifting 
 sympathy. Mingling thus with the conditions 
 of one age, it induces the better estate of 
 another, and creates those yet deeper wants 
 which it alone can satisfy. It exalts humanity 
 by accompanying it, and, ever creating higher 
 ideals, it always appears in the van as the only 
 help and interpretation. — Chapin. 
 
 [2472] Great is truth, and mighty above all 
 things. The ought, which is ours now, will one 
 day become the final imest be of the universe. — 
 W. Jackson. 
 
 (9) Its future consujiiniation. 
 
 [2473] However correctly, in some instances, 
 the phrase "kingdom of God," or "kingdom 
 of heaven," may be applied to the setting up of 
 the Christian dispensation, or to the blessedness 
 of the immortal world, no doubt the original 
 term should frequently be translated " reign," 
 instead of " kingdom " — " reign of God," 
 "reign of Heaven." It indicates a principle 
 rather than a form ; a progressive force, and 
 not a fixed dominion. In this sense it is em- 
 ployed in the Lord's Prayer, and, therefore, the 
 text should be rendered — " Thy reign come." 
 But, however we render the term, it certainly 
 signifies a consummation not yet attained. The 
 petition, " Thy kingdom come," is as proper 
 now as it was in the days of Jesus. 
 
 [2474] This word " come " implies a kingdom 
 yet in progress and imperfect. Therefore we 
 do not pray that God's universal kingdom may 
 come, for that is always the same. But we pray 
 that His peculiar kingdom may come, both mili- 
 tant and triumphant. — Bp. Hopkifis, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 [2475] We neither hope nor pray for that 
 which is. The prayer, " Thy kingdom come," 
 teaches us to distinguish the era of grace from 
 the era of glory. It is a direct prayer for that 
 consummation which shall be the final subjuga- 
 tion of all enemies— unbelief, misery, sin, at last 
 death itself — to the great Lord of life and 
 
 salvation, the final rolling away of the reproach 
 of His people, the final entrance upon the ever- 
 lasting inheritance, for which a toiling and 
 suffering creation has been throughout its gene- 
 rations waiting and watching. — Dean Vavghan. 
 
 [2476] It is proper to this petition, that where 
 all the other have their present dispatches, and 
 are put in possession of their suits, this only 
 lives in expectation, and is put off with a 
 dilatory answer for God knows how long ; yet 
 is as well pleased with this expectation as the 
 others are with their present possessions ; and, 
 therefore, may justly be called the petition of 
 hope ; but hope that makes not ashamed, seeing 
 it consists not in the uncertainness of the mat- 
 ter, but only of the time. — Sir Richard Baker, 
 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2477] If you refer to the internal part of this 
 kingdom, then we beg (i) The beguming of it, 
 or die erection of a throne for Christ in our 
 hearts, and the hearts of others, that He may 
 fully exercise regal power. (2) The increase of 
 it by holiness and obedience and sincere sub- 
 jection to Him ; for the kingdom of grace is so 
 come already, that it will still be coming yet 
 more and more. So long as we need to pray, 
 so long shall we have cause to say, " Thy 
 kingdom come." (3) The cojtsuinmation of it, 
 when the fulness of glory in the second coming 
 of Christ shall be revealed ; when our head 
 shall be glorious, and His day shall come, j///fpa 
 Kvpiov. For the present it is man's day, so the 
 Scripture seems to call it ; but then it is the day 
 of the Lord, when all the devils shall stoop, and 
 enemies receive their final doom, and the saints 
 shall have the crown of glory put upon their 
 heads in the sight of all the world. — 7'. Jllanton, 
 1629-1677. 
 
 [2478] While these last shall go into eternal 
 punishment, together with those evil spirits 
 who have led them away from their allegiance, 
 and for whom alone the terrors of hell are 
 properly prepared, the faithful servants of Christ 
 shall pass from the earthly and spiritual into 
 the heavenly and actual kingdom. And then, 
 we seem clearly taught in Scripture, the media- 
 torial kingdom of Christ shall come to an end, 
 with those needs which called it into being ; 
 He shall give up all power to the Father, and 
 " God shall be all in M."—A'ars/ake. 
 
 [2479] Whilst we heartily thank God for the 
 unspeakable gift of His Son, we cannot but feel 
 that so long as we have no access to Him but 
 through a Mediator, we have not altogether 
 recovered our forfeited privileges. The media- 
 torial office, independently oif which we must 
 have been everlastingly outcasts, is evidence 
 throughout the whole of its continuance that 
 the human race does not yet occupy the place 
 from which it fell. But with the termination of 
 this office shall be the admission of man into 
 all the privileges of direct access to his Maker. 
 Then shall he see face to face ; then shall he 
 know even as he also is known. — Jlle/vi7/e.
 
 412 
 
 2480— 24S9] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 FSECOND PETITION. 
 
 (10) Evil consequences of departure from its 
 rule. 
 
 [2480] There is one great reason for all that 
 is terrible and saddening and perplexing in 
 life ; this reason — men have departed, and are 
 departing, from the order which is in Christ 
 Jesus. I mean, that they are living contrary to 
 His laws. By their sins and their selfishness 
 men are doing what they can to darken the 
 light which He has shed upon life— to confound 
 and confuse what He has made plain ; to crook 
 what He has made straight ; to fritter down the 
 majesty of the truth which He taught ; to over- 
 wrap it and hide it by their own devices. — R. T. 
 
 V. The Import of the word "Thy" 
 PREFIXED to " Kingdom." 
 
 1 It distinguishes God's from all other 
 kingdoms and influences. 
 
 [2481] The kingdom here spoken of is limited 
 by particular reference to God, not only to 
 difference it from the kingdoms of men, which 
 are subordinate to it, but those adverse king- 
 doms which are set up against God ; as the 
 kingdom of sin, Satan, antichrist, the destruction 
 of which we intend when we pray for the 
 advancement of God's kingdom. — T. Manton, 
 1629-1677. 
 
 [24S2] Everywhere in the material world there 
 ctre the highest order and harmony ; whilst the 
 great forces of the moral world are in strife, 
 perplexity, conflict, disorder, for " where envy- 
 ing and strife is, there is confusion" (Jas. iii. 
 16). There is, therefore, manifestly some rebel 
 principle at work, at war with the moral govern- 
 ment of God and destructive of the highest 
 interests of the commonwealth. — Loraitie. 
 
 [24S3] For we " fight not with flesh and blood, 
 but with principalities and powers ;" and seeing 
 we have a kingdom to assault us, we must like- 
 wise have a kingdom to assist us. Neither 
 our own forces, nor succour of saints, nor aid 
 of angels will stand us in stead. God Himself 
 must go forth with our armies, or we shall never 
 be able to overcome. — Sir Richard Baker,i^6Z- I 
 1645. I 
 
 [2484] Of course the earth is already the , 
 kingdom of God in the first sense of the word, j 
 It cannot come to be so, for so it already is. I 
 But other lords have dominion in it. An ! 
 impious war has been declared by the subjects I 
 on earth against the Sovereign in heaven ; 
 there has been a revolt of the heart, of the 1 
 intellect, of the senses, and of all the faculties. 
 A general insurrection of the human race 
 against the Creator has been organized in this 
 world. — Stanford. 
 
 [2485] Our gaze reaches infinity, over all 
 created spirits from earth to heaven. Over 
 each one of us He must reign. Child of dust ! 
 each act of thy hand must be subject to the 
 sceptre of thy King ; each word of thy mouth. 
 
 each most secret desire that arises in the dark- 
 ness of thy breath. So ought it to be ; but 
 when we regard it, what is it ? Oh, what a 
 world of rebellion ; rebellion among the fallen 
 archangels in the depths of hell ; rebellion 
 among the children of earth ; rebellion without, 
 in the scene of their actions ; rebellion within, 
 in the scene of their thoughts. O holy King, 
 Thou who art our Father, when will Thy sceptre 
 rule entirely over us and all the world ? So 
 cries the soul in prayer, "Thy kingdom come." 
 — Thohtck. 
 
 [2486] Shall we not then pray that this king- 
 dom come, obliterating all hostile distinctions, 
 using all diversity of gifts for one common Lord, 
 , and putting one language and oath of allegiance 
 ! in the mouths of all, "We are Christ's, and 
 Christ is God's ? " — Dods. 
 
 I [2487] Every kingdom is renowned for some 
 distinctive feature. Rome was conspicuous for 
 ! its warlike propensities. The Grecian states 
 I were celebrated for their love of the fine arts. 
 France is eminent for its taste. The American 
 states are famous for their enterprise. England 
 is illustrious for its business-like habits. But the 
 distinguishing mark of the kingdom of God is 
 " righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost" (Rom. xiv. 17).— C N. 
 
 [2488] Mere acknowledgment of Christ's 
 kingship is not enough. The confession of 
 His right to reign on the throne of the universe, 
 King of kings and Lord of lords, is not enough. 
 His kingdom is but an expression of His own 
 nature. What Christ is, that His kingdom is. 
 The manifestation of Christ was a revelation of 
 what that kingdom is and will be. In this case, 
 the kingdom is but the kingly nature dominant 
 — the kingly nature ruling— the kingly nature 
 diffused — the kingly nature understood — the 
 kingly nature admired — the kingly nature re- 
 ceived — the kingly nature loved — the kingly 
 nature realized. And in this it differs from every 
 other kingdom. Other kingdoms cannot repre- 
 sent it nor show it forth. They are but fingers 
 pointing to it. It is important to distinguish 
 between human and Divine kingship. Let us 
 not think that "man is the measure of the 
 universe," or that human institutions fully repi-e- 
 sent Divine truths bearing similar names - 
 R. T. 
 
 [2489] We do not pray "my kingdom come," 
 but " Thy kingdom come." Not the kingdom 
 which I have conceived, but Thine ; not the 
 kingdom of my false ideas and evil imaginations, 
 but the kingdom which Thou didst intend for 
 Thy own glory, and the expression of Thy own 
 fulness. Hence it is that this kingdom comes 
 under a form altogether foreign to our wishes 
 and anticipations. As in the Incarnation 
 Christ came to realize a kingship which had 
 never entered into the Jewish thought, came 
 to establish a dominion of which their ideas
 
 THE LORD S PRAYER. 
 
 2489—2498] 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 were only the faint picture. Hence it was that 
 " When He came to His own, His own received 
 Him not." And so, in answer to our oft-repeated 
 prayer, " Thy kingdom come," that every king- 
 dom may come to us under an aspect which 
 we never looked for, and our minds having 
 determined what the kingdom shall be, when 
 it comes we may reject it as the Jew rejected 
 Christ, in utter blindness. We have been 
 praying, " Thy kingdom : " secretly, almost 
 unconsciously, to ourselves, we have meant 
 "my kingdom." — Ibid. 
 
 [2490] We pray to the Father, saying — " Thy 
 kingdom come ! " Not ours — not a deliverance 
 we can achieve, an ideal we have wrought. A 
 "kingdom of heaven." Not something we can 
 project from our unguided intuitions, or pluck 
 from the suggestions of science, or from systems 
 of philosophy. Before the advent of Jesus, 
 something was needed by humanity, and sought 
 for, which it could not obtain of itself. It is 
 this desire, this want, that sighs wistfully from 
 the great heart of heathenism. It is this that 
 heaves up in broken longings from among the 
 symbols of a declining worship. It is this that 
 clouds with dissatisfaction the glory of the 
 oracle, and strips the veil from the beautiful 
 deceits of mythology. It is this that breathes 
 in snatches of fragmentary music, wandering as 
 if in search of the full harmony. It was because 
 of this that philosophy struggled but could not 
 attain, and the wisest intellects groped among 
 strange splendours and awful shadows. It was 
 this that made the world look at the time Christ 
 came like a world in echpse, an exhausted 
 world, a world of orphanage. He filled a great 
 want which until then was unsatisfied. He 
 realized an ideal which until then was incom- 
 plete. He imparted a power to the soul which 
 until then it did not possess. — Chapin. 
 
 VI. Its Modes of Realization. 
 X In the hearts of men. 
 
 [2491] When our own hearts come under the 
 control of Divine affections, and are moved by 
 holy aspirations ; when Divine truth is clear to 
 our minds, and we are obedient to its dictates, 
 then is that prayer answered for ourselves — 
 then for us has that kingdom come. — Ibid. 
 
 [2492] The kingdom of heaven is not come 
 even when God's will is our law— it is come 
 when God's will is our will. While God's will 
 is our law, we are but a kind of noble slaves ; 
 when His will is our will, we are free children. 
 Robiftson. 
 
 [2493] So will the kingdom of God come. 
 Man works with his hands, and this kingdom 
 will come as such a stone comes, " without 
 hands." It will come, that is, without that 
 power of motion which begins in man's working, 
 here fitly symbolized by " hands." It will come 
 by the power of its own Divine vitality and 
 momentum. It will come in gospel truth, in- 
 
 stinct with the life of the Holy Spirit, reigning 
 in the lives of more and more believers, until 
 "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord as the waters cover the sea." So mighty 
 and universal shall this reign be. — Stanford. 
 
 [2494] Nor should we obscure the true idea 
 of this consummation even with the glories of 
 heaven. It is true, we cannot fix a limit to the 
 whole idea which is involved in the prayer of 
 the text. We cannot say how much is external 
 and how much is internal in that desired con- 
 dition, or to what degree the blessedness of 
 heaven mingles with the possibilities of earth. 
 But again I "say, let us remember that however 
 or wherever that consummation may appear, it 
 is essentially a state of the soul — it expresses 
 the bliss and excellence of holy and loving 
 spirits, and no material figures can adequately 
 symbolize \t.—C/iapin. 
 
 [2495] As Christ saith, " No man can come 
 unto me except the Father draw him," so we 
 most properly understand the kingdom to come 
 to us when the Father draws us and makes us 
 come unto it : and so in effect our petition is 
 this, that God by His Spirit would so rule 
 over us that our spirits may wholly be ruled by 
 Him and that His kingdom of grace may so 
 come unto us that we may come at last to His 
 kingdom of glory.— 5/>- Richard Baker, 1568- 
 1645. 
 
 2 In the evangelization of the world. 
 
 [2496] If you apply it to the external kingdom 
 of grace, then when we say, " Thy kingdom 
 come," the meaning is, let the gospel be pub- 
 lished, let churches be set up everywhere, let 
 them be continued and maintained against all 
 the malignity of the world and opposition of the 
 devil : and in the publication of the gospel, 
 where t'he sound of it hath not been heard, that 
 God would come there in the power of His 
 Spirit, and draw people into communion with 
 Himself (Matt. xii. 28).— r. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2497] The kingdom of grace may be con- 
 sidered (i) as externally administered in the 
 means of grace ; (2) as internally received, ruling 
 the heart and causing the elect to submit to 
 Christ's sceptre. — Ibid. 
 
 [2498] Its establishment was on the great day 
 of Pentecost, when having ascended into heaven 
 He sent forth the Holy Spirit, in all the varied 
 offices of His gospel grace, to be the Presence 
 and the Power and the Life of God Himself in 
 the hearts of them that believe. From that day 
 to this the kingdom has been a reality and a 
 power upon the earth. Men have entered it 
 outwardly by baptism, inwardly by faith — the 
 former a sacrament, involving promise, oppor- 
 tunity, responsibility — transferring a man from 
 heathenism into a state of knowledge and 
 grace, profitable or perilous according to its use 
 —the latter a gift of God, answering prayer, and
 
 2498— 2508J 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 turning heart and life into a new capacity and a 
 new nature. — Dean Vaiighan. 
 
 [2499] The truth of Christ, therefore, taught 
 and preached, accompanied by the Spirit of 
 Christ, is the agency of the world's renovation. 
 It is this that is to change the whole moral and 
 spiritual condition of this disordered and suffer- 
 ing world, the means by which the conquests 
 of this new kingdom are to be achieved, its 
 government established over the life, its princi- 
 ples implanted in the heart, and the millennial 
 blessings of its beneficent reign bestowed on 
 universal man. Gospel truth is the instrumental 
 •Tieans, and the Holy Spirit, who is so emphati- 
 cally termed in the New Testament "the Spirit 
 of Christ," is the c^uickening and efficient power. 
 — Loraine. 
 
 [2500] And in these latter days there is no 
 desire more common to all Christians than that 
 the Church may extend her influence ; nor are 
 there any more conspicuous features of modern 
 Christianity than missionary zeal. — Dods. 
 
 VII. Its Need to be offered from the 
 Condition of Mankind. 
 
 [2501] The kingdom has not yet come — i. 
 From the narrow extent of Christianity. 2. 
 From the want of due obedience in the mem- 
 bers. 3. From the fact that its true members 
 have not received their reward. 4. Its comple- 
 tion therefore is not to be until the second 
 coming of the King (Matthew xxv.) — Man^ey, 
 1684-1755. 
 
 [2502] The kingdom of providence is not fully 
 revealed ; the righteous suffer, while the wicked 
 flourish ; the poor lack bread ; the cruelty and 
 oppression of man are very grievous ; God per- 
 mits it, and yet it is not according to His will. 
 When the true Son of David reigns, the poor 
 shall have bread, and be satisfied ; justice and 
 equity, truth and mercy, shall rule on earth ; in 
 His day shall the righteous flourish. — A. Saphir. 
 
 [2503] If heaven itself may be liable to any 
 defects, or capable of any additions — (i) It is 
 not yet full, nor shall it be till the whole number 
 of the elect shall be called, and the whole num- 
 ber of the called glorified. Many as yet are 
 conflicting here below, and fitting themselves 
 for their eternal reward ; many are as yet un- 
 born. (2) Those glorified saints that are now in 
 heaven, though their joys be perfect, yet their 
 persons are not — one part of them, their bodies, 
 continue still under the arrest of death and the 
 power of the grave. — Bp. Hopkins. 
 
 [2504] We should pray, " Thy kingdom 
 come," because : (i) Common benevolence re- 
 quires it. (2) Patriotism dictates it, Joel iii. 16- 
 18. (3) Philanthropy recommends it. (4) The 
 Divine command obliges us to it. (5) Personal 
 obligation should constrain us to it, Rom. xii. i. 
 • — Good (of Salisbnry). 
 
 [2505] But what need we to pray for the com- 
 ing of this kingdom 'i for seeing it is infinite, it 
 must needs be everywhere ; and being every- 
 where, it must needs be here already. But is 
 it not that there is a ditference between the 
 being of thisJ:ingdom and the coming.'' It is 
 indeed everywhere, but it comes not everywhere. 
 It is in the wicked upon earth, and it is in the 
 damned in hell, but it comes only to the faith- 
 ful on earth, or to the saints in heaven : for 
 where it only is, it is in power or justice ; but 
 where it comes, it is in love and bounty ; where 
 it only is, it leaves us at sea, and suffers us to 
 suffer shipwreck ; but where it comes, it brings 
 us into the haven and sets us safe on shore. — 
 Sir Richard Baker, 1 5 68- 1 64 5 . 
 
 VIII. Encouragements to press the 
 Request. 
 
 I Answers already vouchsafed. 
 
 [2506] "Thy kingdom come." The answer to 
 this petition may be seen in the following 
 figures, which have been given as a probable 
 estimate of the increase of Christians in the 
 world. 
 
 500,000 
 2,000,000 
 5,000,000 
 10,000,000 
 15,000,000 
 20,000,000 
 24,000,000 
 30,000.000 
 40,000,000 
 50,000,000 
 70,000,000 
 80,000,000 
 75,000,000 
 80,000,000 
 
 100,000,000 
 
 125,000,000 
 
 155,000,000 
 
 200,000,000 
 
 300,000,000 
 -Sharon Tnrner, 
 
 [2507] The prayer cannot be offered without 
 thankfulness. Since the Church began to utter 
 it, how Christianity ■ has spread! Since the 
 Christian began to use it, how he has grown in 
 grace ! But neither can it be presented without 
 concern. Is the kingdom so advanced in the 
 world or in the soul as, considering the prophe- 
 cies of the Spirit and the merit of the Son of 
 God, was to have been expected .'' While we 
 thank our Heavenly Father for its present ex- 
 tent, let us with truer self-upbraiding and 
 stronger faith than ever cry, " Thy kingdom 
 come.'"' — Robinson. 
 
 [2508] " The kingdom of God cometh not 
 with observation " (Luke xvii. 20). As in the 
 kingdom of nature, so in the kingdom of grace, 
 the grandest operations are perfonned "without 
 observation." It is not the volcano, nor the 
 
 1st 
 
 :entury 
 
 2nd 
 
 
 3rd 
 4th 
 5th 
 6th 
 
 
 7th 
 
 Sth 
 
 9ih 
 
 loth 
 
 7) 
 
 nth 
 
 
 I2th 
 
 
 13th 
 14th 
 15th 
 
 J) 
 
 1 6th 
 
 
 17th 
 I Sth 
 
 J) 
 5) 
 
 19th 
 
 5J
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 2508—2520] 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 cataract, but the gentle dew and genial sun- 
 shine that freshen and fertilise the earth ; so 
 truth operates silently, and without ostentation. 
 As the advancing season moves in creation with 
 silent and unobserved energy, stirring the frozen 
 currents of natural life with the pulses of re- 
 viving vigour, obliterating the bleak and barren 
 traces of winter with the mantling beauty of the 
 spring ; so the mighty but silent influences of 
 truth work into the individual or national heart, 
 quickening it with the energy of new and nobler 
 principles, and adorning it with the beauty of 
 nobler life. — Lofaine. 
 
 [2509] Much of the progress around him is in 
 directions which prepare a way for the kingdom 
 of God. Increased intelligence snd a more 
 general and careful education, attencJon to the 
 outcast, the distressed, and the criminal, more 
 liberal ideas of civil liberty, the cordial, frequent, 
 and increasing reference to union among dif- 
 ferent sections of the Church, and many other 
 features of the age that are continually men- 
 tioned, all make our prayer more hopeful. — 
 Dods. 
 
 [2510] In the fact that this kingdom is to 
 come, then, we see an evidence of its Divine 
 authenticity. In its adjustment to the law of 
 progress, in its ministration to the uplifting 
 sentiment of hope, we have an answer to the 
 troubled faith, or the sceptical sneer, which 
 asks — why Christianity did not come at once in 
 its full glory, and why, even yet, it has accom- 
 plished so little of its work. — Chapin. 
 
 [251 1] Blessed are they who see the day of 
 glory, but more blessed are they who contribute 
 to its approach. 
 
 IX. The Ways in which we hasten the 
 Coming of the Kingdom. 
 
 1 By prayer and personal self-consecration. 
 
 [2512] What kingdom, then, dost thou wish 
 for ? That of which it is written in the gospel, 
 " Come ye blessed of my Father, receive the 
 kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
 of the world." We pray that it may come in us ; 
 we pray that we may be found in it. Therefore, 
 when thou dost say this, thou dost pray for thy- 
 self that thou mayest live well. Let us have 
 part in Thy kingdom ; let that come even to 
 us, which is to come to Thy saints and righteous 
 ones. — Aiigiisiiiie. 
 
 [2513] I do not say, you have no right to pray 
 this prayer for others ; on the contrary, I would 
 urge you to pray it with all your heart, but 
 chiefly for yourself. There are some men who 
 are very charitable and kind and loving towards 
 all people on earth, except their own families. 
 Abroad they are angels— at home they are 
 either brutes or devils. The house would be 
 happier without them. Something similar are 
 they who join the fashionable moan because of 
 darkness and evil, and leave their own natures 
 
 in the hardly disputed possession of everything 
 sellish and worldly. — R. T. 
 
 [25 14] Standing by the open grave, we pray, all 
 of us in our turn, as the hand of God smites us 
 with a fresh bereavement, " that it may please 
 Him shortly to accomplish the number of His 
 elect, and to hasten His kingdom." Yet whose 
 heart has not misgiven him, as he prayed that 
 prayer, lest perhaps he be asking his own con- 
 demnation, his own exclusion from the grace 
 of life ? This is the Church's prayer — this is 
 the Lord's Prayer — is it, can it be, ours? — 
 Dean Vaughan. 
 
 2 By holiness. 
 
 [2515] The clean soul can say with boldness, 
 Thy kingdom come ; for he who has heard Paul 
 saying, " Let not sin reign in your mortal body," 
 and has cleansed himself in deed, thought, and 
 word, will say to God, " Thy kingdom come." — 
 Cyril of Jerusalem. 
 
 [2516] See how it pledges us to the warfare 
 with evil. See how it places us on the side of 
 God in the great war — how it makes it a 
 treachery and a falsehood, afterwards, to go 
 over to the sin and to the denial which is sure 
 to assail and to entice it again. — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [2517] Not with untrained mobs, but dis- 
 ciplined legions, the Romans conquered the 
 world. Their word for an army was derived 
 from the verb to exercise. To say, "Thy king- 
 dom come," is to accept the icommandment, 
 "Exercise thyself unto godliness." What can 
 be thought of the loyalty of those who repeat 
 this prayer, and yet are negligent of the means 
 of grace ? — Robinson. 
 
 3 Obedience. 
 
 [2518] Let this kingdom be so within us, that 
 I we show a._ willing obedience in all things. — 
 I Abelard. 
 
 I [2519] By obedience to Thy laws : and in my 
 soul, by confidence in Thy promises : frame my 
 tongue to praise Thee, my knees to reverence 
 Thee, my strength to serve Thee, my desires to 
 covet Thee, and my heart to embrace Thee : 
 that as thou hast formed me to Thine image, so 
 Thou mayest frame me to Thy will ; and as 
 Thou hast made me a vessel by the stamp of 
 Thy creation to serve Thee on earth, so Thou 
 mayest make m.e a vessel of honour by the 
 privilege of Thy grace to serve Thee in Thy 
 kingdom. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 i 4 By cultivating the gifts of the Spirit. 
 
 I [2520] "Thy kingdom come." When you 
 say these words, you ask God to endow you 
 
 ' with all those graces of character— love, joy, 
 peace, gentleness, zeal, faith, truth, obedience — 
 which must be found wherever the kingdom of 
 
 j God prevails. If you have tried to-day, or if 
 you will try to-morrow, to be more obedient,
 
 4i6 
 
 2520 — 2527] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [second petition. 
 
 more gentle, more affectionate, more dutiful to 
 your parents and teachers, you ^vill do what in 
 }-ou lies to advance the kingdom of God in 
 your hearts. — Kentiaway. 
 
 5 By example. 
 
 [2521] INIuch more the use of this prayer 
 pledges us to open our own hearts to receive 
 this kingdom in all its power and fulness, and 
 to give the most diligent heedfulness that we 
 are tolerating no habits that may enfeeble the 
 influence of our Christian life or mar the beauty 
 of its integrity ; but rather let us endeavour, 
 before and above all other means, to hasten the 
 fulfilment of our own prayers, by diffusing the 
 silent but mighty influence of a Christian life, 
 through personal life in Him who is the life 
 of men (John xi. 25, 26). 
 
 [2522] From praying that God's kingdom 
 may come, (i) we assuredly expect that in due 
 time it certainly will come ; (2) we should 
 learn to be cheerful in any outward distress of 
 the Church ; (3) we should be disposed to 
 unity ; (4) we should do our best to promote 
 the interests of this kingdom, or our wishes 
 will be but so much useless breath. — Mangey^ 
 1684-1755. 
 
 6 By labour. 
 
 [2523] It is to be fulfilled by our labour as 
 well as our supplications. — Chapm. 
 
 [2524] By the Spirit of God working through 
 His inspired truth, in the page of literature, by 
 the eloquence of the living voice, by teaching 
 and preaching, by the operation of mind upon 
 mind, and heart upon heart — so silently and 
 steadily it is to prevail. — Lorauie. 
 
 [2525] That Christendom has prayed this 
 second petition so long, and prays it now so 
 much, without the corresponding missionarj' 
 impulse and missionary work, is the most 
 
 mournful evidence that could have been ad- 
 duced of the great blindness which opposes 
 everywhere this prayer and its clearest words of 
 light. — Stier. 
 
 [2526] By the use of this prayer, " Thy king- 
 dom come," we are pledged to activity in en- 
 deavouring to diffuse that gospel truth by which 
 the immortal triumphs of that kingdom are to 
 be won ; for I need not remind you of central 
 inlands into which the name of the Prince of 
 Peace has never been carried, of vast continents 
 upon which His flag has scarcely been unfurled. 
 I need not name empires, that count their popu- 
 lations by hundreds of millions, across whose 
 frontiers even the ambassadors of the new 
 kingdom have but just borne the treaties of 
 salvation. — Loraine. 
 
 [2527] If -we sincerely and truly saj', "Thy 
 kingdom come," we not only pray in word, read 
 the sacred volume, profess to be religious, 
 attend public services, and support missionary 
 societies, but are ourselves directly engaged in 
 Christian work. How? In what department? 
 God helping us as His subjects, what are we 
 doing, or have we done, to extend His kingdom ? 
 What post do we hold in His army? Whom 
 have we defeated for Christ, and whom be- 
 friended ? Where are the converted who be- 
 came such by our instrumentality ? Where are 
 the skilled soldiers of the Lord whom we trained 
 and disciplined ? What are the names of those 
 whom we guided when they were lost, whom 
 we raised when they fell, whom we healed when 
 they were wounded, whom we revived when 
 they were dying ? What tents of the army are 
 there to which we contributed post or canvas, 
 cord or stake — what schools or chapels in which 
 we placed a board or brick ? Have we given 
 mind and strength to our duties ? Would it 
 have been worse for the church if we had never 
 been reckoned among its members ? The 
 appeal is to conscience. Let prayer and practice 
 agree. Let good works keep pace with good 
 wishes. — Robinson.
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 THIRD PETITION. 
 
 Pa^es 418 to 432. 
 A. Introditctory Remarks. 
 
 I 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE OMISSION OF THIS CLAUSE IN ST. 
 LUKE'S REPORT. 
 
 2 
 CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS AND PRECEDING PETITIONS. 
 
 3 
 VARIOUS AGENCIES BY WHICH GOD HAS MANIFESTED HIS 
 
 WILL. 
 
 B. T7cat77icnt of the Petition in detail. 
 
 FIRST CLAUSE. 
 
 4 
 IMPORT OF THE WORDS "THY WILL," i.e. GOD'S WILL. 
 
 5 
 PRi\CTICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE WORDS "THY WILL." 
 
 6 
 IMPORT OF THE WORDS "THY WILL BE DONE." 
 
 7 
 METAPHYSICAL REFLECTIONS UPON THE WORDS "THY WILL 
 
 BE DONE." 
 
 SECOND CLAUSE. 
 8 
 
 MEANING OF THE WORD " HEAVEN." 
 
 9 
 
 PRECISE FORCE OF THE WORD "AS," IN THE PHRASE "AS IN 
 
 HEAVEN." 
 
 10 
 
 VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF THE PHRASE "IN EARTH" 
 
 AS IT IS "IN HEAVEN." 
 
 II 
 
 NATURE OF THE ANGELIC OBEDIENCE HELD UP FOR OUR 
 IMITATION IN THE WORDS "AS IT IS IN PIEAVEN." 
 
 12 
 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE ADDITION OF THE WORDS "AS IT 
 
 IS IN HEAVEN." 
 
 C. Reviciv of the Petition as a whole. 
 
 13 
 
 GENERAL IMPORT OF THIS PETITION. 
 
 14 
 SPIRIT IN WHICH THIS PETITION SHOULD BE PRAYED. 
 
 IS 
 NECESSITY OF THIS PETITION. 
 
 16 
 BENEFICIAL RESULTS WHICH WOULD FOLLOW IF THIS PETI- 
 TION WAS PRACTICALLY CARRIED OUT IN OUR LIVES. 
 
 417 
 
 VOL I. 
 
 27
 
 4i8 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 ( Conh'nued ). 
 
 THIRD petition: 
 
 (Thy ivill be done in eivth as it is in heaven.) 
 
 I. Explanation of the Omission of 
 THIS Clause in St. Luke's Report. 
 
 1 From a critical point of view. 
 
 [2528] According to the revisers, this sentence 
 is given only in St. Matthew. His report of 
 the wonderful prayer appears to be the standard ; 
 the report in St. Luke to be, in some respects, 
 an abridgment ; the design of our Lord in 
 this renewed utterance, not being to tell it over 
 again word for word, but to recall the attention 
 of His disciples to it, as to something which 
 they had not properly kept in mind. — Statiford. 
 
 2 From an ethical or religious point of view. 
 
 [2529] St. Luke omits altogether, according 
 to the best authorities, the petition, "Thy 
 will be done." He saw it, no doubt, in the 
 two former. He saw the Will included and 
 enveloped in the Name and the Kingdom. 
 Very beautiful is that freedom — that protest, so 
 to say, against formalism, against the idolatry 
 of the letter. — Deaji Vaughan, 
 
 n. Connection between this and Pre- 
 ceding Petitions. 
 
 [2530] To add this petition is not to repeat, 
 though it be to develop and follow out the 
 preceding. The three petitions are to one 
 another as root, stem, and fruit ; as beginning, 
 middle, and end. In the hallowing of God's 
 name the foundation is laid for the establish- 
 ment of His kingdom ; it is the first opening of 
 the human eye to the majesty of God. Then 
 the kingdom is established, the heart of man 
 prostrates itself before its King, forgetting and 
 cancelling its old laws, and rejoicing in its new 
 allegiance. But this is not all ; no one praying 
 would stop here. It is not enough that the 
 kingdom be established, that its boundaries be 
 enlarged, and its glory delighted in ; there is an 
 end for which all this is brought about ; and 
 that end is, that the will of the Ruler may be 
 done. We desire that God may assert his 
 dominion over us and all men, and may give us 
 to know that He is a living and near God by 
 the force of His will upon us. From the 
 
 I "name" we pass to the work (as displayed in 
 His kingdom), and from the work to the will. 
 From the outskirts of His personality we pass to 
 its heart. — Dods. 
 
 [2531] 1st. With regard to their meaning— 
 
 (1) That God's name may be hallowed. His 
 kingdom must be established. 
 
 (2) And that His kingdom may be established, 
 His will must be obeyed. 
 
 " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
 Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; 
 but he that doeth the will of my Father which 
 is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21 : see also i John 
 ii. 17). 
 
 2nd. With regard to the extent of iheir use — 
 
 (i) In hallowing God's name we are joined by 
 the holy angels. 
 
 "The angels stood round about the throne, 
 . . . and fell before the throne on their faces, 
 and worshipped God, saying. Amen : blessing, 
 and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and 
 honour, and power, and might, be unto our God 
 for ever and ever" (Rev. vii. ir, 12). 
 
 (2) In the use of the second petition we are 
 joined by the souls of the departed just. 
 
 " I saw under the altar the souls of them that 
 were slain for the word of God, and for the 
 testimony which they held : and they cried 
 with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, 
 holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge 
 our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" 
 (Rev. vi. 9, 10). 
 
 (3) The third is the special petition of man, 
 and of man while still on earth. 
 
 "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" 
 (Acts ix. 6: comp. John ix. 4). — Catechisfs 
 Manual. 
 
 [2532] The unspeakable love and bounty of 
 God, expressed towards us in these three 
 petitions ! For by the first, we are assured of 
 eternity : by the second, of a kingdom : by the 
 third, to be like the angels. Or if we like it 
 better to say : by the first, we are informed 
 what we shall be, as angels ; by the second, 
 what we shall have, a kingdom ; by the third, 
 what we shall do, the will of God. — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 156S-1645. 
 
 [2533] We see how this petition rises be- 
 yond the two preceding. For if we look at
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2533—2543] 
 
 419 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 them in reference to God, the first respects 
 Him as He is in Himself, all holy ; the second, 
 as He stands in relation to all other things, as 
 their Lord and King ; the present petition, the 
 third, as He puts forth His power over all 
 things, either controlling them by an irresistible 
 law, or suffering them to be partakers, in their 
 sphere, of His own freedom, co-operators with 
 Him in that which He wills to have done. 
 And so, if we look at them with reference to 
 man, the first desires only that God's Name 
 may have a place in the thoughts and affections 
 of men, and be reverenced there ; the second, 
 that it may have its due place, its throne, there, 
 all the objects of thought and affection being 
 controlled by it ; and this third petition, that 
 as the thought of God occupies both the ele- 
 ments of the will, so it may support and govern 
 and quicken all the motions and outgoings of 
 that will, making it submissive with legard to 
 all that is to be borne, energetic to execute 
 faithfully all that is to be done by it. — Kajslake. 
 
 [2534] As all intelligent prayer must be, so 
 this prayer is addressed to a Person. Its 
 opening words demand the recognition of this 
 fact from him who offers it. As a Person, He 
 to whom the prayer is offered is possessed of 
 will — a will founded in His nature. The words 
 of invocation reciuire the acknowledgment of 
 His personality, and the first petition suggests 
 the glory of His Name— that is, of His nature, 
 of Himself, who is to be " hallowed " by us. 
 As that nature in itself is essentially perfect — 
 perfect in every physical attribute and moral 
 perfection — so the will which springs out of 
 that nature must also be perfect. In it in- 
 justice, untruth, fallibility, or feebleness, can 
 find no place. — Loraine, 
 
 [2535] This follows upon the former in a 
 most rational and admirable method ; for as 
 before we pray that the kingdom of God might 
 come, as the best adapted means to hallow His 
 name ; so now we pray that His will may be 
 done by us, as the clearest declaration that we 
 are the subjects of His kingdom. — Bp. Hopkins, 
 1632-1690. 
 
 [2536] We may judge of our respect to His 
 name and kingdom by our obedience to His 
 will, without which we neither sanctify His 
 name nor submit to His kingdom. Before, we 
 pray that God would rule us, and now, for a 
 soft and pliable heart, that we may be ruled 
 by Him. Christ is not our king when we do 
 our own will. — T. Miuiion, 1 629-1 677. 
 
 [2537] In the former petition, we pray not 
 only for the flourishing state of Christ's Church, 
 but for inward grace and assistance by which 
 the outward means may be made successful. 
 But as no means have a physical and certain 
 power, but only moral and persuasive, here 
 follows a petition for the actual good success of 
 the means in bringing us to a cheerful com- 
 pliance with the will of God.— y. Blatr, 1723. 
 
 [253S] As this petition, then, teaches us to do 
 God's will, it very fitly follows that respecting 
 the kingdom. For, as that prays for Him to 
 reign, so this for us to obey ; as that prays for 
 the spread of His kingdom among men, so this 
 that its inward power may appear in their 
 godly conversation ; and as that sets before 
 us the obedience of the Church on earth, so 
 this a higher obedience, even that of the family 
 of heaven, and shows us how we are best to 
 prepare for the kingdom in glory. — Pagan. 
 
 [2539] But how do these petitions hang to- 
 gether ? or how is not this directly contrary to 
 that which went before .'' For, there we desire 
 a kingdom, that we may do what we list : and 
 here we desire subjection, and to be at another's 
 command. Yet here is no contrariety : for there, 
 we desire to reign over our own wills ; and here 
 Ave desire to be subject to His will ; and this 
 subjection is our true reigning ; this service, our 
 perfect freedom. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2540] The Divine will may contradict man's 
 desires ; it cannot oppose his best interests. 
 It may frustrate his schemes, but only to further 
 his salvation. Therefore, as we are taught to 
 hallow in our every thought the Divine Name,. 
 we must also hallow the Divine will — it is a 
 part of that Name — in our thoughts, feehngs, 
 desires, prayers ; learning day by day to say,. 
 "Thy will be done." — Loraine. 
 
 [2541] The happiness of the kingdom of God 
 will be, that His will must then be done ; and 
 the preparation for the doing of His will in 
 heaven must be the performance of that will in 
 the earth and in our hearts. 
 
 When we say our prayers, therefore, and ask 
 that the W'ill of God may " be done on earth as. 
 it is in heaven," we ask that means may be 
 taken by which the kingdom of God may 
 speedily be brought about. — Kennaway. 
 
 III. Various Agencies by which God 
 
 HAS MANIFESTED HiS WiLL. 
 1 The order of nature. 
 
 [2542] It is by the exercise of God's own 
 will that the material creation obeys Him. He 
 himself sways to unsinning obedience the tides 
 in their beat and the stars in their courses. It 
 is by Himself that Plis will is done in the 
 happy things of the earth, and air, and water. — 
 Stanford. 
 
 [2543] Whatever the mystery of substance, 
 of power, of form, and of motion may be, we 
 are certain that all the energies of the visible 
 heaven and earth are under the guidance of 
 that Divine will which called them into exis- 
 tence, and which teaches us what we cannot do 
 by what He does. He maintains the order of 
 that assemblage of powers which visible creation 
 is. And by these things which do appear He 
 teaches us to understand the invisible things or 
 Himself which have been named His Eternal
 
 420 
 
 2543—2552] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 Power and Godhead, which must comprehend 
 all things. — Percival. 
 
 [2544] And in looking to heaven as the model 
 of our service, we need not pass by the visible 
 heavens from which David so constantly drew 
 lessons for himself. To see how God's will 
 should be done, we have but to turn the eye to 
 the " unworn sky," old in the service of God, 
 but fulfilling His will as at first. We see the 
 precise regularity which should characterize our 
 service also. We see how unweariedly all per- 
 form their parts, the great sustaining the small, 
 the small reflecting and enhancing the glory of 
 the great ; all as members of one system, obeying 
 in peaceful harmony Him who calls them all by 
 their names. We see how the sun morning after 
 morning comes forth rejoicing to run his race, 
 how the moon observes her appointed seasons, 
 and the sun knoweth his going down ; how all, 
 though it be in an unvarying course, fulfil the 
 will of God untiringly. And is our glory to be 
 our shame? Is the only result of our being 
 gifted with will and intelligence to be that we 
 rebel against God, and revolt from His will ? 
 Ought not the order of nature, which we admire, 
 and to which we trust, be a perpetual rebuke to 
 .us. — Dods. 
 
 .-a His overruling providence. 
 
 [2545] That will of God which set nature (as we 
 speak) in motion^that will of God which keeps 
 providence (as we speak) in action — the one 
 securing the orderly course of material systems, 
 the other overruling the anxious, perilous, ter- 
 rible march of cause and consequence, of reap- 
 ing and sowing, in matters which have lives 
 and souls for their factors and for their results 
 — these two wills of God none can help and 
 :none can hinder. — Vanghan. 
 
 [2546] Outward nature tells to the ear of 
 •every one who will but listen to her voice, that 
 a law has been laid upon her which she may 
 not disobey, save at His bidding who first im- 
 posed it ; but it is only at occasional times and 
 in slight degrees that the veil is withdrawn 
 which hides the counsels of the Lord with 
 reference to man, and man is permitted to 
 see that each individual in his limited sphere, 
 and nations in their comparatively mighty in- 
 fluence, are but instruments working out the 
 counsels of the Most High. Pharaoh, or Cyrus, 
 or the great Assyrian monarchs, or the Jewish 
 race — how great the influence which they exer- 
 cised on the destinies of mankind ! Yet the 
 Almighty God declares of each of them, that in 
 the exercise of that influence they were but 
 carrying out His will ; thereby intimating to 
 us (what our own natural conception of the 
 Almighty might lead us to expect) that all 
 things, small and great, good and evil, are 
 foreseen by His omniscient eye, and work out 
 the purposes of His wisdom and His love. — 
 Ka?-slake. 
 
 [2547] There is no difficulty in this petition 
 
 when God's will runs parallel with man's will. 
 And often men congratulate themselves that 
 they are doing God's will, when really it is only 
 their own will that they are doing, which hap- 
 pens to agree with God's will. The child finds ■ 
 no difficulty in obedience, so long as the com- " 
 mand corresponds with its own dispositions and 
 desires ; but when the parental authority for- 
 bids the enjoyment of some pleasure, or com- 
 mands some unpleasant duty, then appear the 
 impatient tear and the fretful frown. So when 
 the currents of life run smoothly, when pros- 
 perity fills the sails of business, health flushes 
 the cheek, and happiness cheers the household, 
 the prayer soars lightly from the lip, " Our 
 Father— Thy will be done." But when the 
 Supreme Father interposes the authority of 
 His paternal love and wisdom between man 
 and the attainment of some cherished purpose 
 of his life, or when He deprives him of that 
 with which the strong fibres of his affections 
 have been interwoven, then too often the spirit 
 resists, while the lips feebly falter as they utter 
 the prayer, " Thy will be done?" — Loraine. 
 
 3 The Holy Scriptures. 
 
 [2548] Though the will of God is distinctly 
 impressed upon the material universe, and 
 clearly seen in those fixed laws by which it is 
 regulated ; and is discerned, though not so 
 plainly, in those circumstances, which we recog- 
 nize as providential, within the sphere of the 
 operation of His moral laws, yet it is in His 
 revealed word, disclosing to us the plan of 
 salvation, that His eternal purpose towards man 
 is fully made known. — E. B. 
 
 [2549] The precepts and commands of God 
 are likewise His will (Rom. xii. 2), His revealed 
 will, whereas the other is God's secret will until 
 it be manifested unto us by the events and 
 effects of it. — Bp. Hopkitis, 1633-1690. 
 
 [2550] God's will is made known to us by the 
 (i) revelation of His word, and (2) by the dis- 
 pensations of His providence. We show our 
 desire to do His will by (i) studying His word, 
 and (2) submitting to the decrees of His pro- 
 vidence. — Ramsay. 
 
 IV. Import of the Words, " Thy Will," 
 i.e., God's Will. 
 
 X When viewed generally. 
 
 [2551] God's will is His purpose towards His 
 creatures, revealed in His works and in His 
 word, and fulfilled in the exercise of His power. 
 —E.B. 
 
 [2552] His purpose, whereby He guides and 
 governs all events whatsoever ; so that there 
 is not the most inconsiderable occurrence that 
 happens, not the least flight of a sparrow, nor 
 the falling off of a hair, nor the motion of an 
 atom in the air, or a dust, or a sand on the 
 earth, but as it is effected by His power and 
 providence, so it was determined by His will 
 and counsel. — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633-1 690.
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2553—2562] 
 
 421 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 [2553] Nor must we confound His will with 
 His sovereignty. His sovereignty is His abso- 
 lute control. His will is the disposition with 
 which He wields that control. Power is but 
 the instrument, Will is the intention which 
 wields the instrument. Power is not a moral 
 quality. It may command our awe and our 
 admiration, but of itself it cannot claim our 
 worship. When we pray — " Thy will be done," 
 then we must have reference to the character 
 of the Deity ; to His wisdom, justice, and 
 goodness, as well as His power. Otherwise, 
 the ejaculation is slavishness, not true worship. 
 It is a forced acquiescence, not a devout desire. 
 The Christian always regards the moral signi- 
 ficance unfolded in every display of God's su- 
 premacy, and in all His workings. In one 
 word, he recognizes God in all. But the man 
 who sees only the power and not the intention ; 
 who says, " Thy will be done," because he 
 must, without discrimination as to whose will 
 it is, or what it is, hardly feels, in any sense, the 
 sentiment of the text. He would express the 
 same acquiescence if there were no God — if he 
 were chained to the wheel of destiny and driven 
 by the blind forces of nature. — Chapin. 
 
 2 When viewed in relation to human agency. 
 
 [2554] Though we recognize with awe the 
 action of God's will in creation, and with trust- 
 fulness in the operations of His providence, yet 
 in practice this prayer is the cry of human need, 
 and its answer is to men on earth. — E. B. 
 
 [2555] God, of whose will it cannot be so 
 truly said that it is ruled by reason, as that it is 
 the very rule of reason, nothing being otherwise 
 reasonable but as it is conformable to His will ; 
 and therefore He gave reason to man that he 
 might be capable to do His will, which because 
 He hath not given to beasts they are not. — .5"/;- 
 Richard Baker, 156S-1645. 
 
 [2556] By this will is not meant His will in 
 His providence and rule over things, for this 
 He always does Himself; and it is not only 
 done in heaven, but in earth also ; and more- 
 over, we do not pray for Him to do it, but that 
 it may be done — i.e., by others. Hence, His 
 will here signifies what He commands or ap- 
 points to be done by men. — Pagan. 
 
 [2557] I. The earth is the place of our exer- 
 cise and trial (John xvii. 4). 2. The earth is 
 the only place where this work is begun ; it 
 never can be hereafter. 3. On earth, to stimu- 
 late our longings for that happy estate v/herein 
 we shall serve God in heaven. 4. On earth, 
 to show that we pray not for those in the other 
 world. — T. Manion, 1629-1677 {condensed). 
 
 [2558] Feeling that there is a wide sphere in 
 which He acts irresistibly, we also feel that 
 there is a wide sphere in which He is not 
 served ; and so, with a mingled desire, we pray 
 — " Thy will be done !" — Chapin. 
 
 [2559] One step further. God's will is not 
 only to be done in us, but by us. " Thy will be 
 dene on earth as it is in heaven " (literally, Thy 
 will be done as in heaven so in earth). r^Ien 
 are agents by which God is pleased to advance 
 the purposes of His will among men, especially 
 as regards the diffusion of that revealed truth 
 by which His will is made known. Therefore, 
 by personal activity in every good and noble 
 cause, that aims either to improve the physical 
 or intellectual, and especially the spiritual con- 
 dition of men, and by exhibiting in life the 
 principles of Christian virtue, every one who 
 consistently prays " Thy will be done," must 
 endeavour to do God's will as in heaven so in 
 earth. — Lo7-aine. 
 
 3 When viewed in relation to human con- 
 duct. 
 
 [2560] "The will of God," saith the apostle, 
 " is our sanctification ;" it contains all those 
 rules of duty that He hath imposed upon His 
 creatures in order to make them holy, as He 
 is holy, and perfect, as He their Father is per- 
 fect. It is called therefore, in respect of our 
 own narrow and imperfect dispositions, "the 
 good and acceptable and perfect will of God," 
 and is set forth in those several laws which he 
 hath made the condition and measure of His 
 favour. — Mangey, 16S4-1755. 
 
 [2561] And upon this foundation of God's 
 mercy we may build our assurance, that God's 
 will is not then done when His creatures are 
 undone ; but that, as it was His pleasure at first 
 to make us, so it is His pleasure still to pi-eserve 
 us ; and as from His everlasting will we alL 
 have our life, so by His will we should all have- 
 everlasting life. When as yet we were not. His 
 will was we should be ; now that we are. His 
 will is that we should be holy. And if any 
 man sin. His will is He should repent ; and if 
 a man repent, His will is he should be saved. 
 Let this will, O Lord, be as thy last will, which, 
 yet can come but as streams from the fountain 
 of thy first will ; for, as it was merely thy will 
 that at first made thee to make us, so it is 
 merely thy will that must make us to be holy, 
 that must make us to repent, that must make 
 us to be saved. These wills in God are as the 
 chain of His mercy, whereof every link is fas- 
 tened to one another, and all of them firmly 
 fastened upon us, unless by the violence of our 
 sins and the sinfulness of our wills we do wil- 
 fully break them. O God, so frame our wills, 
 that they may be fit links to be fastened to this 
 chainof thy will. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2562] The will— the great will — that which 
 is all love — that which would have all men 
 happy — that which would have consecration co- 
 extensive with existence — grant, O Father, that 
 that beautiful, that beneficent will may be done, 
 not only by a few, not amidst weariness and 
 painfulness, but as it is done in heaven. — Dean 
 Vaus;han.
 
 422 
 
 2563—2573] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 [2563] The whole spirit of Christ was, "Lo, 
 I come to do thy will, O my God ; yea, thy 
 law is within my heart." Whoever possesses 
 the spirit of Christ delights in the will of God. 
 DDwn to the depth of the agony and bloody 
 SM'<;at, and the cross and passion, the submissive 
 spirit descends in suffering, that the will of God 
 may be done. That goodness should suffer, is 
 a problem that is solved in the joy of yielding 
 to the will of God, which is the sanctihcation of 
 those who consecrate themselves to His service. 
 \Vhen God's shall is man's will, then it is that 
 God's will is done in earth as it is in heaven. 
 Then the depth of human submission and obe- 
 dience will respond harmoniously to the depth 
 of Divine determination and volition. Then 
 the reasons of the will of God will be seen to 
 comprehend all truth. — Percival. 
 
 [2564] Consider how much this petition im- 
 plies ! It is, if used sincerely, the giving up of 
 all your affairs into the hand of God, to dispose 
 of them as He wills, so that if He gives or takes 
 away you will still say, " Blessed be the Name 
 •of the Lord ;" but, further, it is to ask Him 
 to transfigure your whole moral and spiritual 
 xature, to make you "a new creature in Christ." 
 — Loraine. 
 
 [2565] The regulative power of the universe 
 is the will of the Eternal Father, which Christ 
 prayed to " be done in earth as it is done in 
 heaven." That there is the will of God ; that 
 that will is done in heaven ; that it is not done 
 in earth as it is in heaven as yet, but that it 
 may be so done, we have the full assurance of 
 our Redeemers uttered heart. He is the Amen 
 of that Father's uttered will, which is that He 
 will have all men to be saved, and to come to 
 the knowledge of the truth. — Fercival. 
 
 4 When viewed in relation to human obli- 
 gations. 
 
 [2566] This was Christ's prayer when He was 
 about to redeem us by the shedding of His own 
 precious blood. He wills that it should be our 
 prayer also ; that what the Saviour prayed on 
 our behalf we should pray for ourselves. {See 
 Luke xxii. 42.) — Denton. 
 
 [2567] This will of God should be doubly 
 engaging, both in the authority and usefulness 
 of it ; in the one, as it is the command of Him, 
 who, by creating us, has a right to all that we 
 can do ; in the other, as it is the advice of a 
 merciful Father, who hath no other design by 
 revealing it, but to make his children eternally 
 happy. — Mangcy, 1684-1755. 
 
 [2568] Consider these motives : (i) God's 
 absolute authority to command, i Tim. vi. 15. 
 (2) The equity of what He hath commanded, 
 Rom. vii. 12. (3) To be given up to our own 
 will is a great calamity, Psa. Ixxxi. 12. (4) It 
 is the truest liberty to be subject to the will of 
 God, John viii. 26. (5) He whose heart is bent 
 
 on God's will hath the clearest knowledge of 
 the Divine mind, John vii. 17. (6) God will 
 surely punish the violation of His will, James _| 
 iv. 12. — T. Ma?iton, 1629-1677. 11 
 
 [2569] 7'i^_y will carries in it both an emphasis 
 and an exclusion, i. It emphatically signifies 
 that God's will ought to be preferred above and 
 before all others. Because (i) God's will is 
 most sovereign ; (2) most perfect. 2. It may 
 be taken exclusively. Thy will and not our own 
 be done, to teach us the hard lesson of self- 
 denial. — BJ>, Hopkins, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 V. Practical Reflections on the Words 
 " Thy Will." 
 
 1 Each one has a " My will." 
 
 [2570] "My will— let that be done," is the 
 prayer we are commonly disposed to offer. We 
 repeat it, not only in effect, but in plain words, 
 and without the disguise of circumlocution. It 
 is so often said, that it ceases to strike us in 
 every instance as being too bold and most ir- 
 reverent. Only occasionally are we checked 
 and made ashamed by the recollection that 
 " Thy will be done " is what the Lord tells us 
 to say. — Robinson. 
 
 2 God has a "Thy will" for each one. 
 
 [2571] Care not what causes beyond thy con- 
 trol from without placed thee in that sphere ; 
 care not what aid from heavenly influences thou 
 mayest need to assist thee in that sphere ; care 
 not what consequences may flow out from thy 
 conduct in that sphere, in carrying out the 
 designs of God in the world. In that sphere, 
 wherein thy being moves, thou art free ; accept 
 that sphere cheerfully, and in it act freely, in 
 obedience to God's law, so far as thou canst 
 know it, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, 
 working with but not controlling thy will ; and 
 thus, moving in thy sphere according to the law 
 of God, thou wilt accomplish thy destiny, and in 
 thee and by thee will the will of God, whatever 
 it be, be fulfilled. — Karslake. 
 
 [2572] There is another aspect of the petition. 
 God has made a will concerning our actions. 
 He has given to each one his work and his 
 talent. It is a wonderful thought — but perfectly 
 true — that God, in the high and holy heaven, 
 cares what we do ; would have us occupied 
 thus, not thus, this day, this hour ; would 
 have us go hither, not thither ; see this person, 
 not that ; express ourselves thus, use our influ- 
 ence thus, write this letter, attend this service, 
 say this prayer.— Z't^aw Vaiighan. 
 
 3 God's "Thy will" and man's "My will" 
 necessarily often in collision. 
 
 [2573] Why are the purposes of life broken 
 off and its desires defeated .'' God is all-wise, 
 all-powerful, all-loving ; why does He not con- 
 trol the course of events, and shape the plans
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2573—2582] 
 
 423 
 [third petition. 
 
 of His providence to harmonize more nearly 
 with man's desires, and to agree with his judg- 
 ments ? Nay, my brethren, but is it not certain, 
 just because God is all-wise, all-powerful, all- 
 loving, that " His ways cannot be our ways, nor 
 His thoughts our thoughts ; " that when infinite 
 love, wisdom, and power are working for man's 
 interest, they must frequently oppose man's 
 judgment and desire. — Loraine. 
 
 4 Which of the two wills, "Thy will" or 
 " my will," is our actuating principle. 
 
 [2574] In all my choosing, I am referring to 
 God's will, having resolved to do it ? Or I am 
 snatching my short time of wretched self- 
 government, before God calls me to account ? 
 Am I doing my best to shape my life, so as to 
 carry out God's will ? or, having schemed a life 
 for myself, am I wresting God's will so as to 
 bring it near to my own .? Am I acting from 
 God's will as my reason, and motive, and guide, 
 or from my own untutored and unsubdued will ? 
 —Dods. 
 
 [-575] Grant that we may never seek to bend 
 the straight to the crooked, that is, Thy will to 
 ours, but that we, and all doers, may bend the 
 crooked to the straight, our will to Thine, "that 
 Thy will may be done." — Augustine 
 
 VI. The Import of the Words "Thy 
 Will be done." 
 
 I Negatively. 
 
 (i) By abstention from wrong-doing. 
 
 [2576] This is the prayer of all Christian 
 people who desire to do God's will ; but those 
 impenitent sinners who are not yet weary of 
 their sins do never pray ; for though they say 
 the words, it is to no purpose, it is but lip 
 labour, it is but the devil's service ; for a man 
 may serve the devil by saying this prayer, when 
 he saith it with a defiled mind. Let us, there- 
 fore, order ourselves so that we may say it 
 worthily, as it ought to be said. Let us put 
 away all wickedness and evil living, that we 
 may say from the bottom of our hearts, " Thy 
 will be done." — Latimer. 
 
 [2577] "As it is in heaven : " there there is no 
 disobedience, nothing disorganized, nothing but 
 the will, the kingdom, the honour of God ; as 
 in the courses of suns and stars, so among the 
 morning stars and sons of God (Job xxxviii. 7), 
 there is the festal service of those who, active in 
 rest, shout for joy in their ranks of blessedness. 
 So should it be upon earth. Vast is the mean- 
 ing which carries the promise in this prayer far 
 above all the stir and tumult of humanity, invit- 
 ing and urging all the children of God to rest- 
 less wrestling in prayer and receiving, and 
 fervour in doing His will. By this petition, if he 
 ventures to take it into his lips, the godless 
 man condemns himself; with it the sufferer 
 comforts himself, and is assured that through 
 
 the gracious will of God all evil shall lose its 
 hold upon the meek, who have already in hope 
 the earth for their inheritance ; by it the sloth- 
 ful man invigorates himself, the self-willed 
 rebukes himself; and by it the will of the 
 Spirit, which must conquer, prays itself through 
 all the impediments of an opposing flesh to per- 
 fect victory. The Forerunner Himself, in the 
 weakness of our flesh, prayed this prayer before 
 us, yet without sin. — Sticr. 
 
 [2578] There is here a note of appropriation. 
 Thy will in opposition (i) to our own will, which 
 is the proudest enemy Christ hath on earth, 
 and cause of all the mischief that doth befall us 
 (Eph. ii. 3). (2) To Satan's will. Our lusts are 
 called his lusts, because they are of his in- 
 spiring and cherishing. (3) To the wills of 
 men (i Peter iv. 2). — T. Manion, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2579] In heaven there is no disobedience, no 
 indolence, and no selfishness. In heaven all is 
 holiness, all is alacrity, all is love. Do we pray 
 that we may do the will of God as it is done in 
 heaven ? By this prayer we condemn ourselves 
 if we live sinfully, if we live indolently, if we live 
 selfishly. By this prayer we strengthen ourselves 
 for a life of purity, for a life of diligence, for a 
 life of love. By this prayer we comfort our- 
 selves in sadness and sorrow, when we look 
 upward into the indefinite heaven, and see it 
 inhabited by glorified and blessed spirits, our 
 companions, our friends, our fellow-worshippers, 
 already one with us in spirit, soon to be our 
 associates in the bright and holy Presence for 
 ever. — Dean Vauglian. 
 
 [2580] If not among them, among whom 
 shall we be ? The will of God must take effect. 
 If we do not pray in the third petition for our 
 salvation by obedience, do we not pray in it, if 
 we use it, for our damnation because of dis- 
 obedience ? And do not all God's people pray 
 in it for the triumph of His will over that of His 
 enemies, including us.-' If we say to God, 
 " Thy will be done," and intend not to do it, 
 we shall but turn the petition from active into 
 passive, God's will into His anger, and draw it 
 down to be done upon us in earth, as it was done 
 in heaven upon the angels. W^ithout holiness 
 " no man shall see the Lord." — Robinson, 
 
 1 Positively. 
 
 (i) By active obedience. 
 
 [2581] It may justly be called the petition 
 of obedience ; seeing all the others have their 
 ends in enjoying ; this only hath no end but in 
 obeying. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 5 68- 1 645 . 
 
 [2582] By doing God's will we enter into His 
 kingdom (see Matt. vii. 21): "Not every one 
 that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the 
 will of my Father which is in heaven." It is not 
 the blandishment of a spiritual compliment, but 
 a true and hearty subjection to the will of God,
 
 424 
 
 2582—2591] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 that availeth in God's kingdom, and is intended 
 by this petitionary clause, " Thy will be done." 
 — T. Mant07i, 1629-1677 (abridged). 
 
 [2583] And let all be done out of that only 
 true principle of obedience,, love to God, and 
 presented unto Him upon that only ground of 
 acceptation, Jesus Christ, and seasoned with the 
 acceptable grace of humility. If when I have 
 done all that is enjoined I am but an unprofit- 
 able servant, how unprofitable am I when I 
 infinitely fail of what I am commanded ! — Sir 
 Matthew Hale. 
 
 [2584] When we pray "Thy will be done," 
 we beg I, a heart to do it (Deut. v. 29) ; 2, skill 
 to do it (Psa. cxliii. 10) ; 3, strength to do it 
 (Heb. xiii. 21). — Ibid. 
 
 [2585] And as we may try to bear, so we may 
 try also to do God's will in some one thing in 
 which we feel that we have fallen short hereto- 
 fore. — Karslake. 
 
 [2586] I. Some pretend to do God's will in 
 generals, but stick at particulars. 2. Some com- 
 mend the will of God, but do not practise it 
 (Matt. xxi. 29, 30). 3. For the moment, under 
 present conviction and persuasion, some have 
 high thoughts of doing the will of God (Deut. 
 v. 27). 4. A seeming awe rests upon the con- 
 science, and so many are urged to do God's 
 will ; yet the heart is averse from God all the 
 Avhile, as Balaam. 5. Others have an idea that 
 they were brought under the power of it, as he 
 that stretched himself upon his bed and said, 
 Oh, that this were to labour ! 6. In many cases 
 the will of God is halved, and men do part of it 
 but not all (Matt. v. 19). 7. There are those 
 who are reluctant either to know it or to come 
 under the power of it. — T. Mafito?i, 1629-1677 
 {condensed) . 
 
 [2587] The will of the Father and of the Son 
 harmonized in the prayer of Christ, and in 
 the practices of Christ. The Redeemer of man 
 did the will of God His Father on earth as 
 that will is done in heaven : — Christ's obedience 
 to death being the measure of the obedience of 
 heaven and earth — Percival. 
 
 [2588] And here it is to be observed, that in 
 order to our carrying out the mightiest schemes 
 of God, it is not necessary that we know what 
 these are. God gives to each what each can do, 
 and by the various gifts and labours of all fulfils 
 His own grand purpose. What we need to 
 know is only the commands of God, what He 
 sees fit for us to do. And doing this we may be 
 sure that, so far as we are concerned, the secret 
 purposes of God are accomplished. All mur- 
 muring and excusing is in vain, for these three 
 things, God's commandment, our circumstances, 
 and God's eternal purpose, are all of them 
 springing from one source, the will of God, and 
 do therefore harmonize. Our circumstances 
 
 are allotted by the same will which commands 
 us. — Dods. 
 
 (2) By passive submission. 
 
 [2589] So that when we pray "Thy will be 
 done," we pray that God may so rule, that to 
 the utmost ends of the earth, and in the minutest 
 actions of men, and in all the arrangements of 
 life, there may be the easily visible impress of 
 God's will. This we pray for, but more directly 
 that our circuiiistances may be so ordered as 
 to enable us to carry out most effectually the 
 design of God with us, and that we may be so 
 gifted with wisdom, courage, and self-command, 
 as to see and follow out the line of conduct 
 most appropriate to us where God has set us. 
 Praying thus, we are strengthened for all duty, 
 whether it be active or sorely passive. We find 
 in all chat happens to us an answer to this 
 prayer, and instead of being dismayed, as those 
 who have not prayed that the will of God may 
 be done, we find, in every change and seemiag 
 chance of life, new scope for carrying on the 
 work of God, our share in His plan ; and for 
 our ordinary days which pass as yesterday 
 passed, we find no healthier influence to give 
 them a uniform tone and character than to write 
 on the threshold of each, " Thy will be done." — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [2590] In regard to God's absolute decrees, 
 we must use the words, "Thy will be done," 
 not, as devils might use them, because we can- 
 not hinder His sovereign will, but in cordial 
 acquiescence, like that of the holy angels, 
 because His will is best ; and we have seen that, 
 as to the ways of His unerring providence, our 
 spirit and speech must be like David's when, 
 fleeing from Absalom, he said, "Carry back the 
 ark of God into the city : if I shall find favour 
 in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again, 
 and show me both it, and His habitation : but if 
 he thus say, I have no delight in thee ; behold, 
 here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good 
 unto him" (2 Sam. xv. 25). While His will is 
 the cause of all that is done, it is also the stan- 
 dard of all that we should do. Acquiescing in 
 His appointing will, we must obey His directing 
 will. — Robinson. 
 
 [2591] But may not this petition be thought 
 superfluous ; to pray for that which is, and will 
 be done, whether we pray for it or no \ For, 
 God doth whatsoever he will both in heaven and 
 in earth : and who hath resisted His will? But 
 we must consider, that we pray not for God, but 
 to God for ourselves ; that having undone our- 
 selves by doing our own will, we may be re- 
 paired by doing of His will ; and not of His will 
 absolute, but of His will in relation. Not when 
 He commands, as when He said, " Let there be 
 light," but when He gives commandments : as 
 when He said, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart." We therefore pray that 
 this will of His may be done of us, by our 
 obedient and cheerful acting it ; and done in us, 
 by our patient and thankful suftering it ; that
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2591 — 2600] 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 concerning the first, we ma)' do, as the captains 
 said to Jeremy, " Whether it be good or evil, 
 we will obey the voice of the Lord ; " and con- 
 cerning the latter, we may say as Eli said, "It 
 is the Lord, let him do to me as seemeth good 
 in his eyes." — Sir Ricliai'd Bakcr^ 156S-1645. 
 
 [2592] The will of God is revealed two ways, 
 in His word and in His works ; the one to be 
 done by us, the other to be done upon us : the 
 one is Vohcntas de nobis, God's will concerning 
 us ; the other, Volinttas in ttvbis, God's will in 
 us, and to be done by us ; the one maketh way 
 k for our active, the other for our passive obedi- 
 ence. Our active obedience hath respect to His 
 laws and commands, but our passive to His 
 providence. We show as much obedience in 
 tlie one as in the other, in patience as in holi- 
 ness ; for as in holiness we own God as the 
 supreme lawgiver, so in patience we own Him as 
 the supreme Lord, that hath a dominion over 
 all events and all things which fall out in the 
 world. — T. M'anion, 1629-1677. 
 
 VIL Metaphysical Reflections upon 
 THE Words, "Thy Will be done." 
 
 1 The possibility of disorder was God's wilL 
 
 [-593] The doing of God's' will is simply the 
 doing right, because God's will is rooted in His 
 righteousness. We dare not assert that God 
 could not have prevented disorder, or the pos- 
 sibility of disorder. We must assert that the 
 possibility of disorder was His will. The All- 
 Father has made provision in His government 
 for the co-existence of His will with the violation 
 of it. But the violation of God's will is only a 
 progress towards absolute submission to it. For 
 God's will is eternally righteous and almighty, 
 and He must, therefore, subdue all things to 
 H imself. — Percival. 
 
 2 God does not force man's free will, but 
 appeals to it and inclines it. 
 
 [2594] God works morally, so as to preserve 
 man's nature, and the principles thereof; there- 
 fore he works by sweet inclination, not with 
 violence. So He comes with blandishments 
 and comfortable words (Hosea ii. 14). Really 
 along with this persuasion there is an almighty 
 power ; for bare persuasion cannot make the 
 blind to see, the dead to live, or open the 
 heart of man, that is so desperately and 
 obstinately wicked, until He puts His fingers 
 upon the holes of the lock, until He begins to 
 open the heart. — T. Illant07i, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2595] Yet with this consciousness mingles 
 another — that of spiritual affinity to the Creator. 
 We know that we are not merely His creatures, 
 but His offspring. We share His nature. And 
 the glory of that nature is Jiioral ftredo7n — 
 power to act or to resist, to choose or to reject. 
 So although as finite existences we hang upon 
 the Infinite, although as material creatures we 
 are held in an irresistible control, as spiritual 
 beings we have a sphere of our own, a realm of 
 
 voluntary action. Into this circle God does not 
 intrude His absolute power, but His intrinsic 
 righteousness. He does not fo7-ce it, but He 
 appeals to it. He does not bind its service as 
 the omnipotent Maker, but demands its free 
 allegiance as the moral Governor. — Chapin. 
 
 [2596] His will is done in the birds, insects, 
 and flowers ; but we, who are beings with wills 
 of our own, " are required to do willingly what 
 the flowers do unconsciously." W^e, by our 
 own choice, are to spread ourselves out to His 
 light, drink it in, and pour it out again in the 
 beauty and fragrance of holiness. We would 
 not obey His will against our own will, as slaves 
 do, but would be as happy children delighting 
 in the " dear God who loveth us." — Stanford. 
 
 3 Obedience to the Divine does not destroy 
 but renovates our will. 
 
 [2597] In praying that God's will may be 
 done, we are not to understand that man's will 
 is to be suspended, but only that it is to be sub- 
 ordinated to God's will. Not that man shall 
 not will, but that his erring will shall be harmo- 
 nized with the all-perfect and unerrable will of 
 God. — Loraine. 
 
 [259S] Some Christians dimly think that a 
 Christian is to have no will at all, and that the 
 consummation prayed for here is that our own 
 wills may die, and that the 07ily will left living 
 should be God's. God's will is that our will 
 should by renovation be more energetically 
 alive than ever, working in harmony with His 
 own. — Sta7iford. 
 
 [2599] We do not pray that our will should 
 be wholly absorbed and lost in the will of God, 
 but only that it should be conformed to His will, 
 and subordinated to it ; that God's will may 
 indeed be done, but so that His will may be our 
 own. 
 
 That we may will the same which Thou 
 wiliest, do Thou, O Lord, enable us to do that 
 which Thou desirest, and to hate that which 
 Thou hatest, so that our corrupt and evil will 
 may not frustrate or hinder Thy gracious will 
 which v,-illest our good. 
 
 It is not enough that we do not resist God's 
 will, it must be done by us. — Dc7iton. 
 
 [2600] Thus should man, self-regulating, regu- 
 late by a law his every thought and word and 
 deed ; self-controlling, he yet should keep in 
 check by it the motions of his will ; perfectly 
 free, and yet perfectly under law ; exhibiting the 
 apparent contradiction of a will in which, as it 
 has been beautifully expressed, "perfect law 
 commeasures perfect freedom ; " ever freely 
 doing his own will, yet ever doing as entirely 
 the will of his Lord and his God. Here, then, 
 we seem to have reached the jneaning of the 
 petition, " May Thy will be done on earth, O 
 Lord." — Karslake.
 
 426 
 
 26oi — 26 lo] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 4 Obedience to the Divine will alone gives 
 true freedom of will. 
 [2601] He allows you not to gratify your own 
 will in all things. You find a barrier to your 
 power of doing what you will to do. In that 
 limitation of your power you meet with God. 
 Confess your unwillingness to pray and to suffer 
 and to do your known duty to the uttermost. 
 Confess that you cannot do the will of God 
 without His continual help. You will solve the 
 problem of necessity and freedom in action 
 alone. In all wrong action you will find en- 
 slavement. In all right doing you will find 
 freedom. It is the Son of God alone who can 
 make you free in His life and love and truth, 
 and then you will be free indeed. — Pcrcival. 
 
 [2602] O wretch that I am ! I now see how 
 unhappy I am that I have a will, yet cannot but 
 think myself happy for having a will. For if I 
 had not a will, I could not love God ; and having 
 a will I cannot love Him as I should, for my 
 will is divided, and cannot love Him entirely ; 
 my will is corrupt, and cannot love Him 
 sincerely ; my will is wavering, and cannot love 
 Him constantly ; for I am not master of my 
 will, nor ever shall be, nor ever can be, unless 
 Thy will, O God, come and help me to master 
 it. That it is not the making the petition that 
 makes us to be bondslaves, but it is our being 
 bondslaves that makes us make the petition, as 
 having no other way to recover our freedom, but 
 only the virtue of this petition : " Thy will be 
 done in earth, as it is in heaven.'" — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2603] The will, the spiritual within us, when 
 it is "good will,"' becomes the highest expression 
 of our freedom, lifting the reason into its loftiest 
 sphere and delivering the heart from the thral- 
 dom of inferior motives. The obedience of this 
 nobler will to grace is the fiat which unites man 
 with God ; and faith, the light of the soul, is the 
 child of that union. The Creator's primal fiat 
 hex was an act of supreme authority ; the crea- 
 ture'syfrt/ voluntas tua is an act of humility, and 
 irradiates the world within. — Aubrey de Vcre. 
 
 vni. Meaning of the Word "Heaven" 
 
 AS HERE USED. 
 
 [2604] There are in Scripture three heavens 
 — the airy heaven, the starry heaven, and the 
 heaven of heavens. In all these heavens 
 God's will is done, God is obeyed in them 
 (Psa. cxlviii. 8). Winds and storms, and 
 all those things which seem to be most tem- 
 pestuous and unruly, to be the disorders of 
 nature, they are at God's beck. Then in the 
 starry heaven (ver. 4) they are under a law and 
 statute, and are not exorbitant and eccentric ; 
 the sun riseth, sets, and knows the just point 
 of his compass. But it is chiefly meant of the 
 heaven of heavens, where angels and blessed 
 we spirits are and they obey God perfectly (Psa. 
 ciii. 20, 21). — T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2605] To what do we refer here by the term 
 " heaven .'' " Do we mean the material firma- 
 ment, the starry canopy above our heads ? The 
 reference is appropriate, even if this is our 
 meaning. For how beautifully is God's will 
 done by those revolving spheres, those bright 
 and circling systems ! A common influence 
 binds them ; and how diligent their obedience, 
 how peaceful their motions, how calmly the 
 eternal law shines out from them through all 
 the changing years ! And do we pray that thus 
 we and all men may move in harmony each 
 with each, and all with God ? That thus we 
 may obey, and feel the beating of His influence, 
 the current of His consent, mingling eternally 
 with ours ? — Chapin. 
 
 IX. Precise Force of the Word "As," 
 IN THE Phrase "As in Heaven." 
 
 I It is rather a note of similitude than 
 equality and identity. 
 
 [2606] " As " is rather a note of similitude than 
 of equality. But though our obedience on earth 
 cannot be equal to the obedience that is yielded 
 to God in heaven, yet we pray that it may bear 
 as much similitude, proportion, and conformity 
 unto it as is possible for us to attain unto while 
 we are here in the body. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633- 
 1690. 
 
 [2607] It is not too great a boldness in this 
 petition, that where all the other make suit for 
 great, yet possible things, this only makes a 
 suit which is impossible ? For how can earth 
 bring forth as good fruit as heaven? How can 
 men perform as perfect duties as the angels ? 
 Indeed not in equality, but in similitude. Not 
 to do as well as they, but to do our best as well 
 as they. Not that our vessels can be as bright 
 as theirs, but be as clean ; and not hold as 
 much, but be as full. — Sir Richard Baker, 1568- 
 1645. 
 
 [2608] Here He illustrates by the services of . 
 heaven the nature and the compass of obedience 
 below. — Dean Vatighan. 
 
 [2609] His will, being done by obedience to 
 Him, will consist of two parts : either in ful- 
 filling His commands, or in submitting to what 
 He appoints. It is according to the former 
 alone the angels can do it. — Pagan. 
 
 [2610] When our Lord here teaches us to 
 make such a petition, he does not mean that 
 we should do what angels or celestial spirits do 
 in heaven. The will of God concerning them 
 may widely differ from the will of God con- 
 cerning us. Now there is a wide difference 
 between the state of the inhabitants of heaven, 
 and the state of mankind upon earth, and this 
 will make a wide difference between His will 
 concerning them and concerning us. 
 
 I. They are merely spiritual beings. "He 
 maketh His angels spirits;" and the rest are 
 the " spirits of just men made perfect." Now 
 we are not spirit only, but flesh and blood also. 
 Here is a great difi"erence.
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2610—2617] 
 
 427 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 2. The inhabitants of heaven dwell in His 
 immediate presence. They live around His 
 throne. They are the servants in waiting, the 
 courtiers of heaven, but we are removed to a 
 distance from Him. 
 
 3. They are not like us, exposed to temp- 
 tation. I speak on the supposition that the 
 fall of some of them is the establishment of the 
 rest. They have overcome, and are tempted no 
 more. We have to live in the flesh, without 
 living after the flesh. He who is now driven 
 out from among them is become the prince of 
 this world. " Our adversary the devil, as a roar- 
 ing lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may 
 devour." " We wrestle therefore against princi- 
 palities, against powers, against the rulers of 
 the darkness of this world, against spiritual 
 wickedness in high places." 
 
 4. We are encompassed about with afflictions. 
 We live in a disordered world. We dwell in a 
 body which is liable to weakness, weariness, 
 pain, and a thousand diseases. But the in- 
 habitants of heaven are strangers to all those 
 things, and God is pleased to require nothing 
 of the kind from them. 
 
 5. We are fallen, while they retain their 
 original rectitude and keep their first estate, or 
 have regained it. But a great part of the will 
 of God concerning us (perhaps all of it), is a 
 discipline for our correction, a regimen for our 
 cure. Now all these things, however suited to 
 us, are not all adapted to them, any more than 
 the medicine prescribed to the sick is suited to 
 those who are in perfect health. 
 
 X. Various Interpretations of the 
 Phrase, "In Earth as it is in 
 Heaven." 
 
 [2611] What is "in heaven and in earth," or 
 "as in heaven so in earth.?" The angels do 
 Thy will. May we do it also. Again, all 
 the holy patriarchs, all the prophets, all the 
 apostles, all the spiritual are, as it were, God's 
 heaven ; and we, in comparison of them, are 
 earth. Again, the Church of God is heaven ; 
 His enemies are earth. So we wish well for 
 our enemies, that they too may believe and 
 become Christians, and so the will of God be 
 done, as in heaven so in earth. Again, our 
 spirit is heaven, and the flesh earth. As our 
 spirit is renewed by believing, so may our flesh 
 be renewed by rising again. Again, our mind, 
 whereby we see truth, and delight in the truth, 
 is heaven ; as "I delight in the law of God 
 after the inward man." What is the earth ? "I 
 see another law in my members, warring against 
 the law of my mind." When this strife shall 
 have ended, and a full concord be brought 
 about of the flesh and the spirit, the will of 
 God will be done, as in heaven so also in earth. 
 When we repeat this petition, let us think of all 
 these things and ask them of the Father. — 
 A2tgusti)ie, 
 
 [2612] One may easily solve the question here 
 by taking "heaven" in a figurative sense for 
 
 " Christ," and " earth " for " the Church ; " and 
 then the meaning will be that each member of 
 the Church should pray that he may so fulfil 
 the will of his Father as Christ fulfilled it, who 
 came to do the will of His Father, and per- 
 formed it perfectly in every part. For a man 
 may so be united to Christ as to become one 
 spirit with Him, and thereby so to fulfil God's 
 will on earth as it is fulfilled in heaven. For 
 he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, as St. 
 Paul saith (i Cor. vi. 17). — Origen. 
 
 [2613] "As in heaven so in earth" may be 
 understood in various ways : so that we may 
 say, " as in heaven," that is, in Christ, in whom 
 (our Lord being man) the Deity dwells : " as in 
 earth," that is, in the Church, that God'c will 
 may be done. Or, "as in heaven," that is, the 
 angels ; " so in earth," that is, among men. 
 Or, "as in heaven," that is, in the soul of the 
 just man ; " so in earth," that is, in the flesh, so 
 that the flesh may in no manner be contradictory 
 to the Spirit, but agree with it in the same will. 
 Or, " as in heaven," that is, in holy men ; " so 
 in earth," that is, in sinners. — Be7-nard. 
 
 XI. Nature of the Angelic Obedience 
 
 HELD UP for our IMITATION IN THE 
 
 Words "As it is in Heaven." 
 I It is comprehensive in its range. 
 
 [2614] The obedience of the angels is abso- 
 lutely perfect, and that both with a perfection of 
 parts and degrees (Psa. ciii. 20; Rev. xiv. 14). — 
 Bp. Hopkins, 1 633- 1 690. 
 
 [2615] The consecration of the holy angels is 
 not the putting on of a robe, or the exercise of 
 a ministry — it is the Divine ownership going 
 through and through them, so as to exclude 
 and preclude any faintest spot or taint of the 
 thing which is not God's. — Dean Vaicghan. 
 
 [2616] As the obedience of the angels of God 
 is universal, peacefully and cheerfully shown, 
 and their ministry speedily fulfilled, so it ex- 
 tends to all that is appointed them to do. — 
 Ward and Blackall {combined). 
 
 [2617] The petition, "Thy will be done." 
 For so far as it can refer at all to " God's will" 
 as it rules, and that by a fixed decree, the order 
 of nature or events in which we have no part, it 
 can only be an expression of our adoration of 
 the infinite power and wisdom of God. But, to 
 put this out of view, in so far as it refers to that 
 which God would have done, but which yet 
 depends for its performance on ourselves, we 
 desire that we and all men may more and more 
 perfectly conform to and carry out what God 
 would have done ; that in all things, small as 
 well as great, men, remembering the absolute 
 power, the infinite wisdom, and the perfect love 
 of God, may lovingly and humbly try to keep, 
 and be enabled to keep, the motions of their 
 wills within, and the actions of their outer life,
 
 428 
 
 2617 — 2631] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 in harmony with the will of God, even as the 
 angels in heaven do ; and submit willingly to 
 all which He may lay upon them to be borne, 
 however repugnant to their natural desires, after 
 the example of Job, of Eli, of St. Paul, still more 
 after the perfect pattern of our blessed Lord. — 
 Karsiake. 
 
 [2618] But let it be granted that we are 
 satisfied concerning the knowledge of His will ; 
 seeing we have an oracle for it, God's word is 
 a lantern to our feet, and a light to our path : 
 yet what reason have we to pray that it may " be 
 done in earth as it is done in heaven?" For 
 what do we know how it is done in heaven ? 
 And so we pray we know not for what. But 
 do we not know that there are none in heaven 
 but saints and angels, who are all ministering 
 spirits, and being spirits must needs serve God 
 in spirit. And Christ fetcheth this argument 
 higher, that "God Himself is a Spirit, and they 
 that worship Him must worship Him in spirit 
 and truth." If, then, we worship God in spirit 
 and truth, we do His will in earth as it if in 
 heaven.— ^*r/;' Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2619] In heaven the angels do the will of 
 God without the intervention of any evil, any 
 rebellious spirit : in heaven there are none to 
 thwart His will, for into heaven can nothing 
 come that is opposed to the will of God. 
 
 2 It is spontaneous in its principle. 
 
 [2620] Their obedience is cheerful, not ex- 
 torted from them by violent constraints of fear 
 or of suffering ; but it is their eternal delight, 
 and their service is their felicity. — Bp. Hopkins, 
 1633-1690. 
 
 [2621] They do it willingly and cheerfully, 
 and therefore they are described to be winged, 
 to show that they fly about it. 
 
 [2622] The angels serve Thee in heaven, so 
 we may serve Thee on earth. For His holy 
 angels obey Him ; they do not oft'end Him ; 
 they do His commands through the love of 
 Him. — Augitsiiiie. 
 
 [2623] Whatever they are engaged in doing, 
 they do without needing to be urged, as though 
 God's will were displeasing to them. 
 
 [2624] They do God's will from a principle 
 of obedience, and for us other motives than 
 because He is plet-.sed to impose them. They 
 have no little interests distinct from their 
 Master's service, and therefore whatever they 
 do they do it singly for His 'i^ik.t.—Mangey, 
 1684-1755. 
 
 [2625] It is a prayer, "not that God should 
 do what He wills, but that we may be able to 
 do what God wills ; " able to do with a will 
 what He wills we should do. The wicked do 
 His will, but against their own will. His will 
 is done in earth by all, but not by all in earth as 
 
 by all in heaven. The nature of the obedience 
 of the holy angels must be considered, to know I 
 the significance of this prayer. — Robinson. 
 
 [2626] We are not mere masses of matter ; 
 machines moved only by a foreign touch, and 
 propelled upon the orbit of an inflexible destiny. 
 We are spirits, we are moral, we ai^e free ! And 
 if we would behold the ideal result of this 
 prayer, then we must look into the spiritual 
 heaven, the abode of angelic hosts, and of " the 
 just made perfect." " Let Thy will be done, O 
 God ! " we would say, " as it is there — in the 
 heaven of spiritual order but of voluntary 
 obedience ; where every will is free, yet is in 
 unison with Thine." That heaven whose glory 
 is the consciousness in each of a self-balanced 
 power gravitating to the Infinite Centre of all. 
 Where the bliss of each is to be like the will 
 that each does. Let Thy will be done, O God ! 
 harmoniously, as in the material, freely, as in 
 the spiritual heaven. The convulsed and groan- 
 ing earth sends up the cry — our erring, guilty 
 hearts send up the cry : "Let Thy will be done 
 in earth," as it is done far above these sins and 
 sorrows, in the realm of obedience and joy, ot 
 perpetual worship and perpetual action, of 
 boundless peace and boundless love I " — CJiapin. 
 
 [2627] We may know what it is to do God's 
 will in earth as it is in heaven : by the which 
 St. John tells of the four and twenty elders, 
 " That they cast down their crowns before the 
 throne of God, saying, Thou art worthy, O God, 
 to receive glory, and honour, and power : " for so 
 we must do by our wills, which are indeed our 
 crowns : cast them down, and resign them up 
 to God ; but cast them down, not cast them 
 away ; resign them, but yet retain them ; for 
 without wills of our own, we can never do God's 
 will. Unwilling service is never acceptable : as 
 St. Paul saith, " If I do it willingly, I have a 
 reward ;" and thus, if we can have wills of our 
 own, and yet not do our own wills, if we can 
 willingly renounce our own wills, and take God's 
 will in their room, and make it our own will : 
 we shall then do with our wills, as the elders 
 did with their crowns ; and then we shall do 
 God's will as it is done in heaven, — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 3 It is prompt in its execution. 
 
 [262S] As they readily undertake to do the 
 work which is allotted them, so they speedily 
 execute whatever is commanded them to do. 
 
 [2629] The will of God is done in heaven 
 with celerity and ready despatch (Isa. vi. 2). — 
 Bp. Hopkins, 1633- 1690. 
 
 [2630] The will of God is done in heaven 
 with zeal and ardency (Psa. civ. 4). — Ibid. 
 
 4 It is lasting in its duration. 
 
 [2631] They do it constantly, as well at one 
 time as at another. — y. Smith, 1629,
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2632 — 2645] 
 
 429 
 Tthird petition. 
 
 [2632] The will of God is done in heaven 
 with constancy and perseverance (Rev. vii. 15). 
 — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633- 1 690. 
 
 5 It is reverent in its attendant circum- 
 stances. 
 
 [2633] The will of God is Aom in heaven 
 with all possible prostration, reverence, and 
 humility (Rev. iv. 10). — Ibid. 
 
 XII. Lessons taught by the Addition 
 OF THE Words " As it is in H eaven." 
 
 1 The heavenly regulates the earthly, and 
 not the earthly the heavenly. 
 
 [2634] It is thus that the heavenly in all 
 things regulates the earthly, and not the earthly 
 in anything the heavenly. The standard of all 
 being is God's being. The will of the Eternal 
 is the regulating will of the universe. So all 
 things are of God. — Percival. 
 
 [2635] As if the example of men were not 
 sufficient, a heavenly example is set before us ; 
 as God has given to sailors to guide their 
 course, not headlands and beacons of the earth, 
 but chiefly the sun and the stars of the sky. — 
 Pagaft. 
 
 [2636] Our thoughts are earned to "heaven," 
 the home of those angelic spirits who, with 
 enlightened intelligence and cheerful will, wor- 
 ship God, and as His messengers of mercy or 
 of judgment go forth with swift and strengthful 
 wing to execute His behests. So we are to 
 propose their willing and intelligent homage to 
 our imitation, and to ask God, as they do in 
 heaven, so He may enable us to do in earth. — 
 Loraine. 
 
 2 The heavenly is the sphere for which we 
 are now being trained. 
 
 [2637] We pray then that as we shall, if 
 glorified, do God's will hereafter in heaven, so 
 now we may do it on earth. — Dcnlon. 
 
 [2638] Since the life of man after the resur- 
 rection will be like that of angels, it follows that 
 our life in this world should be so ordered with 
 respect to that which we hope for hereafter. — 
 Gregory. 
 
 [2639] As our Lord hath told us that "They 
 which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that 
 world shall be equal to the angels," so He would 
 have us take them as patterns for our obedience. 
 — Williams. 
 
 [2640] In endeavouring thus to do God's will, 
 we are bidden to take as our example the 
 heavenly beings, that is the angels, as it is 
 commonly understood, though the example of 
 our Lord Himself must, it should seem, be in- 
 cluded also. Why the angels should be set 
 before us as patterns of obedience we can see 
 m some measure ; since we know that we are 
 
 one day to be joined to them, and made " equal 
 to the angels," filling up, as St. Anselm con- 
 ceives, the vacancies which rebellion had caused 
 in their ranks. — Karslake. 
 
 [2641] Certainly if ever we would do the will 
 of God in heaven, we must accustom ourselves 
 to do it here on earth. Here we are as appren- 
 tices that must learn the trade of holiness, that 
 when our time is out, we may be fit to be made 
 free denizens of the New Jerusalem. Here we 
 are to tune our voices to the praises of God, 
 before we come to join with the heavenly choir. 
 Here we are to learn what we must there for 
 ever practice. — Bp. Hopki}is, 1633-1690. 
 
 [2642] "As it is in heaven," is added (i) to 
 sweeten our subjection to God's will. W"e are 
 not held to a harder task than they in heaven. 
 (2) To show the reasonableness of this obedi- 
 ence. If we would have the happiness of the 
 angels, it is but equal we should imitate their 
 holiness. (3) That we might not miscarry by a 
 low example. (4) To teach us not only the 
 matter but the manner of our obedience. — T. 
 Manlon, 1629-1677 [condensed). 
 
 XIII. General Import of this Petition 
 VIEWED AS A Whole. 
 
 [2643] This clause of the Lord's Prayer, as 
 applied to guidance in all our future, amounts 
 to saying, as to time or place, health or sickness, 
 life or death, and all possibilities, " Lord, what 
 Thou wilt, where Thou wilt, when Thou wilt " — 
 Baxter's last words. 
 
 [2644] The aid we have to expect is not the 
 very precarious aid we might receive from 
 dexterously availing ourselves of the power that 
 resides in the laws of God's kingdom ; we do 
 not bring influences to bear on this earth which 
 may or may not reform it ; it is the will of the 
 Almighty we appeal to. It is a new hope which 
 possesses us, when we come to the persuasion 
 that the will which we have opposed, and which 
 is yet our sole hope for ourselves and all men, 
 is powerful as it is loving. And it is a new 
 resignation which possesses us, when we see 
 God, our Fa.ther, the living, loving, ordaining 
 Will, in the midst of our lot, and can say, " Thy 
 will, Thy will '' — then it is altogether good. — 
 Dods. 
 
 [2645] If you would do the will of God, then 
 — (i) There must be some solemn time of 
 resigning the will to Him. (2) It must be with- 
 out bounds and reservations. (3) The things 
 whereof God hath more expressly signified His 
 will must be made the greatest conscience of 
 — Repentance, Faith, Sanctification, Obedience, 
 Submission to providence. (4) We should be 
 willing to obey God whatever it costs us. (5) 
 For the greatest good that can possibly come 
 of it we should not cross God's revealed will. 
 — T. Manton, 1629- 1677 {condensed).
 
 430 
 
 2646—2654] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 i THIRD PEHTIO.N. 
 
 XIV. Spirit in which this Petition 
 
 SHOULD BE PRAYED. 
 
 [2646] We pray that God's will may be done 
 in us. We put off all 'i€ii-\s\\\.— Thomas Hugo. 
 
 [2647] We pray not that God may do what 
 He wishes, but that lue may be able to do what 
 God wishes. — Cyprian. 
 
 [2648] Let us pray this prayer. It shall not 
 be cast out. Not in a spirit of indolent ac- 
 quiescence, not in a spirit of reluctant resig- 
 nation, not in the spirit of one who has tried all 
 turns and all escapes, and has to confess him- 
 self outmatched by a subtler, or vanquished by 
 a mightier — but rather as one v;ho recognizes a 
 Fathers hand and a Father's love in the power 
 that constrains him, and Avould not, even if he 
 could, have any one thing other than it is, or 
 any voice at all of his own, in the arrangement 
 of his circumstances of joy or sorrow — thus let 
 us pray the prayer, "Thy will be done with 
 me." — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [2649] (0 The prayer that God's will may be 
 done, is in those that use it a tacit promise of 
 obedience to it. (2) The different obedience on 
 earth and in heaven should teach us to endeavour 
 for greater perfection. (3J Great humility should 
 be the effect of thus praying, because we are 
 taught by it that virtue is not the single effect 
 of our own strength, but is owing to the influ- 
 ence of Divine grace. — Mangey, 1684-1755. 
 
 [2650] In order that we may do that for -which 
 we here pray, we seek (i) for grace to perform 
 the commandments of God, and to abstain from 
 all sin. (2) We desire that all things which we 
 do may thwart the designs of the enemies of 
 God ; that we may not merely resist the temp- 
 tations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, 
 but that we niay grow in all virtue and godliness. 
 
 (3) We pray God that in all our ways and 
 doings He would make known His will to us. 
 
 (4) We ask that if, through the infirmity of our 
 nature, we at any time seek those things which 
 conduce not to the glory of our Heavenly Father, 
 He would frustrate our self-will, and bring to 
 pass His own will. — Coster. 
 
 [2651] Doubtless, there are many who assume 
 the attitude of pious resignation, without the 
 sentiment. They cast upon Providence the 
 burden of their own follies and sins. The slug- 
 gard mourns over his barren fields, and says : 
 " Thy will be done ! " " Thy will be done ! " 
 exclaims the improvident man entangled among 
 the miseries of poverty. And he who has care- 
 lessly strained the laws of his physical being, 
 and lies wasting to death, utters the same 
 devout language. But let us understand that 
 fatalism, whether it assume the form of torpid 
 acquiescence, or of inconsiderate reliance, is not 
 resignation. It is right to recognize an over- 
 
 ruling Providence, but it is a Providence that 
 works with us, not for us. The impatience with 
 which we beat the walls of difficulty, and heave 
 against misfortune is not an impious discontent, 
 but a spring of noble enterprize, which God 
 encourages, for which He has opened a wide 
 sphere of action, and by which alone we can 
 achieve success. To suppose that He prevents 
 this effort is to suppose that He infringes His 
 own ordinances, established for the wisest and 
 most benevolent ends. To attribute calamity 
 to Him without making this effort is to con- 
 found faith with folly and religion with laziness. 
 Only by the diligent exertion of our will can we 
 realize the will of God mysteriously working 
 with us. Only when we have reached the 
 boundary of our extremest effort can we see the 
 superior purpose which encircles us. — Chapin. 
 
 [2652] This is the corresponding feeling on 
 our parts. The answer to absolute care and 
 infinite love is absolute resignation and absolute 
 trust. The resignation and the trust are bound 
 together. We must be resigned because we 
 trust. There is a resignation conceivable which 
 simply expresses the despair of a creature in 
 the hands of a Being, a Law, mightier than 
 himself. " I will be resigned because all 
 struggle is hopeless, and I will not fight against 
 what is inevitable." Such might be the resig- 
 nation of one who believed that all things were 
 governed by a fixed fate, regardless of all but 
 its own certain course ; or of one who believed 
 that all things were the sport of chance, and 
 contained no spark of intelligence to guide 
 them. But our resignation is the resignation 
 of children absolutely trusting a Father who 
 knows us, and knows what is best for us, and 
 whose love guides even His wisdom. — Bishop 
 Temple. 
 
 XV. Necessity of this Petition. 
 
 I The fact of this world being a sort of har- 
 mony with the Divine will. 
 
 [2653] See how much woe man has mingled 
 with the inevitable evils of the universe ! See 
 now the fierceness of his passion, the folly of 
 his wickedness, witnessed by the torn standards, 
 the broken wheels, the pools of clotted blood, 
 the charred earth, the festering heaps of slain. 
 Nature did not make these horrors, and, when 
 those fattening bones shall have mouldered in 
 the soil, she will spread out luxuriant harvests, 
 to hide those horrors for ever. 
 
 No, my friends, the moral world, the world of 
 man's action, is not in harmony with the will of 
 God. The earth, like a huge whispering gallery, 
 reverberates with echoes of unnecessary woe. — 
 Chapin. 
 
 [2654] While, in bowing to the irresistible 
 evils of our lot, the human soul frequently illus- 
 trates its dignity, in yielding to difficulties which 
 it might resist, and that spring from its own 
 depths, it exposes its weakness and its shame. 
 And while from the desolations of the material
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2654 — 2660] 
 
 [third petition. 
 
 universe— from the torn mountain, the earth- 
 quake's wrinkles, the scars of the tempest — 
 come rich suggestions of subhmity and beauty, 
 how striking, often, is the contrast between the 
 aspects of nature and the world that man 
 makes ! Sunny lands overspread with indolence 
 and vice ; fair cities, Avhose splendours are 
 tarnished by streams of corruption ; while the 
 morning and the night look down upon crimes 
 that mock their loveliness and insult their 
 purity. — Ibid. 
 
 2 The ever-recurring difficulty of obedience 
 to the Divine will. 
 
 [2655] It is not that a man gives up willing, 
 nor resigns any property of his being whatso- 
 ever, when his will is conformed to that of God ; 
 it is not that he becomes either the unwilling 
 victim or the passive tool of another will, but 
 that the whole strength and bent of his will now 
 lead him in God's direction. 
 
 This yielding to the will of God, being a will 
 so different from our own, is a great difficulty. 
 We yield to-day, and to-morrow it seems as 
 hard as ever. We gather together all the 
 reasons there are for yielding, and at length 
 we are able sincerely to pray " Thy will be 
 done ; " we are very peaceful and very glad, 
 and do not doubt that this is a final decision ; 
 but an hour undeceives us and shows us that 
 the decision has to be made again, and in still 
 more trying circumstances. If any petition 
 needs to be daily repeated, it is this. — Dods. 
 
 [2656] It is very hard often to believe that 
 temptations are good for us, when we meet with 
 them, and fall before their attacks. Our con- 
 sciences reprove us for yielding. But we put 
 off the burden of our guilt upon the temptation, 
 and complain that we should have been tried 
 so sorely. Especially is this the case with 
 sudden and violent temptations, which assail us 
 unexpectedly, just when we had made many good 
 resolutions and had fancied ourselves safe ; or, 
 again, with small but numerous temptations, 
 which beset our path and seem to make escape 
 from them an impossibility. Then, when we 
 have fallen, we are apt to get discontented with 
 our place, and to feel as if Providence had not 
 treated us fairly. We say that we have not had 
 a fair chance. We look with envy on others 
 whose trials are not so visible as ours, or it may 
 be (for who can settle such a point ?) not really 
 so severe as ours. We fancy that we alone 
 have these impulses to wrong ; we alone fall 
 into such tempting opportunities to sin ; we 
 alone are hampered and fettered, and cannot 
 tell how to get free ; we alone have longings 
 which we cannot gratify rightly while others 
 can ; we alone do not get the sympathy that 
 our nature needs. — Bp. Temple. 
 
 [2657] And so again it is very often hard 
 when not our spiritual growth, but our imme- 
 diate happiness is marred, to be able to say at 
 once, " Thy v.-ill be done." Disappointments in 
 
 our wishes for our own pleasure do not perhaps 
 perplex us so much as trials which have caused 
 our fall ; but they try us keenly for all that. To 
 have some dreadful thing happen to ourselves 
 or to those whom we love, to have a very pain- 
 ful thought ever present to the mind the moment 
 our attention is not occupied by what is before 
 our eyes, to bear a dead weight about, which 
 cannot be quite forgotten even when it is not 
 quite consciously remembered, this may some- 
 times be the lot of a Christian, and may make 
 it very hard for him to say, with full and entire 
 resignation, " Thy will be done." And even 
 short of this there are sure to be many trials 
 of this kind which are quite capable of trying 
 our faith, and if our faith fails, of souring our 
 temper. Not to get what you had set your 
 heart upon, to see another obtain what you had 
 hoped for yourself, to find others more highly 
 appreciated, and yet, as it seems to you, without 
 fair reason, to find others more successful, to be 
 tormented with all kinds of unsatisfied longings, 
 perhaps for more affection than you get, perhaps 
 for more trust, perhaps for more praise, perhaps 
 for more distinction— these are common trials, 
 but they are hard to bear. — Ibid. 
 
 XVI. Beneficial Results which would 
 
 FOLLOW IF this PETITION WAS PRAC- 
 TICALLY CARRIED OUT IN OUR LIVES. 
 
 [2658] They who, looking to God as their 
 common Father, do His will in earth as angels 
 do in heaven, excel without vanity and emulate 
 without envy. Hearts and congregations taking 
 this prayer for their key-note have unity in 
 their worship, whatever its diversities, and har- 
 mony in their organizations, whatever their 
 variety. The Church below, reflecting the Church 
 above, is not like a mob, where every man is a 
 law to himself, but like an army ; not like a 
 parliament, where parties bitterly oppose one 
 another, but like a family ; not like the world 
 with its changing tempests of babbling voices, 
 but like heaven, eternally fair, one-tongued, and 
 tuneful. Disciplined and united, "the sons of 
 God," in earth, as in heaven, perform their 
 allotted duties with mutual good-will and ad- 
 miration. Adoring and obeying the " one God 
 and Father of all," they love and help one 
 another as comrades and brethren. — Robinson. 
 
 [2659] This beautiful and happy state of mind 
 is called conformity to the will of God. Re- 
 member that this conformity to the will of God 
 is the state of all the blessed in heaven. Just 
 as the sorrows of earth spring from self-will and 
 disobedience, so will the happiness of heaven 
 arise from perfect obedience. Submission and 
 conformity of the will of the creature to the will 
 of the Creator will be the happiness of heaven. 
 — Kennaway. 
 
 [2660] And how blissful is the state of one 
 whose will has been brought thus, by the aid of 
 the Holy Spirit, into harmony with the will of 
 God. Like some stately ship as she passes
 
 432 
 
 256o — 2663] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 THIRD PETITION. 
 
 over the waters of the deep, so, steered by the 
 unerring compass of God's law, wafted by the 
 breath of the Spirit of God, ht up at times with 
 gleams of brightness caught from the glory of 
 the heavenly world, he passes lightly over the 
 waves of time, and is borne fiimly onward to 
 the other shore. And what a world would this 
 become were all thus brought to do God"s will I 
 How would there be in each individual soul 
 that fulness of joy which can flow only from 
 thoughts and affections centred upon God, and 
 a will conscious of acting ever in harmony with 
 His v.'ill. How would there be perfect agree- 
 ment among communities of men. that agree- 
 ment which can only be where the wills of men 
 are brought into union with one another by 
 being in union with the one great Will ! How 
 would the glory of God, the one great end of 
 man's being on earth, abound, so that God, 
 looking down on His obedient children, imaging 
 His will on earth, might declare Himself well 
 pleased with the children of men, and pour 
 down on them His blessings with an unsparing 
 hand 1 This indeed cannot be. But still, as 
 each one tries to deny his own evil will more, to 
 check himself wherever he feels he is contra- 
 
 vening the will of God, and to quicken his en- 
 deavours actively to do that will, in so far he 
 contributes something towards this blessed 
 result. — Karslake. 
 
 [2661] When the strife shall have passed 
 away, and full concord be brought about of the 
 fiesh and spirit, the will of God will be done, as 
 in heaven so in earth. — Aiignstine. 
 
 [2662] When the subjective spiritual corre- 
 sponds to the objective natural, we shall find all 
 the felicity of Divine harmony in the universe 
 — Percival. 
 
 [2663] Some of you may have seen the Avaves 
 dashing and foaming in angry violence against 
 a rock, which stood unmo\'ed amid them all ; 
 and then you may have visited the same spot 
 again, and seen the waves resting in calm un- 
 ruffled quiet round the rock, seeming to cling to 
 it in trustful reliance, and reflecting in their still 
 waters the image of its strength. So it is with 
 a soul which has been brought to submit itself 
 wholly to the will of an all-powerful, all-loving 
 God. — Kiwslake.
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 FOURTH PETITION. 
 
 Pages 434 to 446. 
 
 A. Introihtctory Remarks. 
 
 I 
 
 ITS CONNECTION WITH THE PRECEDING AND 
 FOLLOWING PETITIONS. 
 
 B. Treatment of the Petition in Detail. 
 
 FIRST HALF. 
 
 2 
 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE WORD "GIVE." 
 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE PLURAL WORDS "US 
 AND "OUR." 
 
 EXPOSITION OF THE WORDS "THIS DAY." 
 
 LESSON TAUGHT BY THE WORDS "THIS DAY." 
 
 SECOND HALF. 
 
 6 
 EXPOSITION OF THE WORD "DAILY." 
 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE WORD J' DAILY." 
 
 8 
 LMPORTANCE OF THE WORDS "DAILY BREAD." 
 
 C. Rez'iew of the Petition as a 7vhole. 
 
 9 
 
 LESSONS FROM THE PETITION VIEWED AS A 
 
 WHOLE. 
 
 433 
 
 VOL. 7. 
 
 28
 
 434 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 {Conimued). 
 
 FOURTH PETITION. 
 
 {Give us this day our daily bread) 
 
 I. Its Connection with the Preceding 
 AND Following Petitions. 
 
 [2664] They mistake greatly who imagine 
 that Christianity is merely contemplative, vision- 
 ary, transcendental. Like the ladder of the 
 patriarch's dream, it is " set upon the earth, 
 and the top of it reacheth to heaven." So this 
 model prayer, the true expression of Christi- 
 anity, is raised in adoration of the Eternal 
 Name, asks the speedy coming of the kingdom 
 
 • of grace and glory, yet it begs for bread. — 
 , Loraine. 
 
 [2665] It has been noticed also that the first 
 
 • three petitions regard the life eternal ; the last 
 three the life temporal. " Now these first three 
 petitions regard the life eternal ; for God's 
 Name ought to be hallowed in us always, we 
 ought to be in His kingdom also always, we 
 ought to do His will always. This will be to all 
 eternity. But daily bread is necessary now ; 
 the forgiveness of our debts is necessary in this 
 life ; for when we shall have arrived at the other 
 life there will be an end of all debts. In this 
 life there is temptation ; in this life the sailing 
 is dangerous ; in this life something is ever 
 stealing its way through the chinks of our 
 frailties, which must be pumped out. But when 
 we shall be made equal to the angels of God, 
 no more need to say and pray to God to forgive 
 our debts when there will be none. Here it is 
 we pray to be delivered from evil ; for in that 
 life there will be no evil, but eternal and abiding 
 good. — A iigiistiiie. 
 
 [2666] This petition commences what Calvin 
 calls " the second table " of the Lord's Prayer. 
 The first says, " Thy name," " Thy kingdom," 
 " Thy will ; " the second, " Give us," " forgive 
 us,^' " lead tes," " deliver tts." This is the true 
 order of prayer — first, God and His glory ; 
 secondly, man and his interests. — Loraine. 
 
 [2667] How gracefully has the Divine Wisdom 
 arranged the order of the prayer, so that after 
 things heavenly, that is, after the name of God, 
 the will of God, and the kingdom of God, it 
 should give earthly necessities also room for a 
 
 petition ! For the Lord withal issued His edict, 
 " Seek ye first the kingdom, and then even these 
 shall be added." — Tc7-tuUian. 
 
 [2668] This petition is placed first among 
 those which refer to " us," since the natural life 
 is prior to the spiritual. — BeiigeL 
 
 [2669] We are now come to the second sort 
 of petitions, that concern ourselves, as the former 
 did more immediately concern God. Now you 
 may observe the style in the prayer is altered. 
 It was before Thy, now it is tis. Before, our 
 Lord had taught us to speak in a third person, 
 now, in a second person ; which is not so to be 
 understood as if we were not at all concerned 
 in the former part of the Lord's Prayer. In 
 those petitions the benefit is not God's but 
 ours. When His name is sanctified, His king- 
 dom cometh, and His will is done ; these things 
 do not only concern the glory of God, but also 
 our benefit. It is our advantage when God is 
 honoured by the coming of Christ's kingdom 
 and the subjection of our hearts unto Himself 
 But these latter petitions do more immediately 
 concern us. — T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2670] Although, as has been shown, indi- 
 vidual reference is implied in preceding sen- 
 tences of this prayer, the text is the first in 
 which personal supplication is actually expressed. 
 The foregoing petitions are more largely quali- 
 fied by the sentiment of homage, this contains 
 more specially the sentiment of desire. When 
 we pray that God's name may be hallowed, or 
 His kingdom come, or His will be done, we 
 virtually pray that we may hallow His name, 
 that His kingdom may be established in our 
 souls, that His will may be accomplished 
 through the harmonious consent of our natures 
 with His. Yet these may be uttered as ejacu- 
 lations, breathed in the posture of worship, 
 general aspirations kindled by a contemplation 
 of God's glory, and only after reflection, drawn 
 down and applied to our personal wants and 
 duties. But the prayer of the text is, as it were, 
 forced out by the pressure of immediate necessi- 
 ties, and lifted as a stringent desire. In the 
 consciousness not only of God's power and 
 excellence, but of our human weakness and 
 solicitous need, we cry, " Give us this day ou/ 
 daily bread ! " — Chapin.
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2671 — 2680] 
 
 435 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 [2671] If we have truly prayed, " Hallowed 
 be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be 
 done," all other things are ministered unto us 
 by the petitions following ; for we have a deed 
 of gift of all temporal things by one, and a 
 general pardon of all faults by another, and 
 protection royal from all evil by the last. — 
 Sir Richard Baker, 1568- 1645. 
 
 [2672] When our minds are saturated with 
 the spirit of the foregoing words — when our 
 hearts are full of the life that says, " Our Father 
 which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name, 
 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, 
 as it is in heaven " — when we have the thorough 
 understanding that our desires are to be fenced 
 within these holy limits — and that what we ask 
 on our own account is to be ruled by the law 
 of subordination thus declared, then we begin 
 to pray for ourselves, and this is our first 
 petition — " Give us this day our daily bread." — 
 Stanford. 
 
 [2673] First, we seek God's glory as the end ; 
 His kingdom as the primary means ; our sub- 
 jection to that kingdom as the next means ; and 
 last of all, our comfortable subsistence in the 
 world as a remote subservient help, that we 
 may be in a capacity to serve and glorify God. 
 ~T. Manton, 1 629-1 677. 
 
 [2674] Since we do not come before God as 
 heathens or unregenerate persons, but as His 
 children, we, like children, first ask for daily 
 bread before we ask for forgiveness. We also 
 place the petition for daily bread first, because 
 of its connection with the third petition, since 
 without this bread we cannot do God's will. — 
 Pagan. 
 
 [2675] Our Saviour hath placed this petition 
 in the very midst and centre, being encompassed 
 round about with petitions for heavenly and 
 spiritual blessings. And this may intimate to 
 us, that we are only to bait at the world in our 
 passage and journey to heaven, that we ought 
 to begin with spirituals and end with spirituals, 
 but only to take up and refresh ourselves a 
 little with our daily bread in our way. — Bp. 
 Hopkins, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 [2676] This petition of asking bread is placed 
 here in the midst of these petitions, not as 
 some carnal man would think, to serve as a bait 
 in the midst of a journey ; nor yet as some 
 worldly man would think, lest if we should 
 speak of our trespasses first, we might haply be 
 denied it ; but therefore it is placed here be- 
 tween saints and sinners to show that temporal 
 blessings are distributed indifferently to them 
 both ; and that they lie as the commons of 
 God's general goodness, not as the severals of 
 His special favour. Or may it not give us to 
 observe that it stands below the petition of 
 saints, to show that temporal blessings are 
 below their consideration, and that with them 
 he doing of God's will is before the providing 
 
 for their own necessities ; but it stands above 
 the petition oi sinners to show that temporal 
 benefits are the highest of their thoughts, and 
 that they set them before even their very salva- 
 tion.— ^/r Richard Baker, 1568-1645. 
 
 [2677] Are there not few who have chosen 
 the trade or business they follow because they 
 thought that therein they could best work out 
 God's will with them, compared to those who 
 have made their choice as being the most plea- 
 sant, or most rapid, or most secure way of 
 earning their bread : few to whom the supports 
 and comforts of this life are practically of less 
 importance than the doing of God's will .'' If we 
 divide men into two classes, those 'who work 
 because they are hungry and have to work, and 
 those who work because there is something 
 to be done ; those who consider how they 
 may best win a livelihood, and trust that in it 
 they shall somehow find opportunity of doing 
 God's will ; and those who make it their first 
 consideration how they may best serve God, 
 and trust that in doing so bread shall be given 
 them ; we need not say which will be the larger 
 class, and as little need we say which will be 
 the most Christlike class. — Dods. 
 
 II. Lessons taught by the Word "Give." 
 
 I Concerning the nature of God's giving. 
 
 (i) // is free, i.e., of grace. 
 
 [2678] Here, first, in this prayer, we come 
 upon the word " Give," the key to the treasury 
 of God's riches ; a word that opens over us the 
 windows of heaven, that wakes the omnipotence 
 of God, and causes the fulness of His resources 
 to flow forth. — Dods. 
 
 [2679] When we ask God to " give us," the 
 meaning is that the thing asked is simply and 
 freely the gift of God, whatever be the quartef 
 from which it comes to us, even when it seems 
 to have been specially prepared by our own art 
 and industry, and procured by our hands ; since 
 it is to His blessing alone that all our labours 
 owe their success. 
 
 As nothing is more difficult to human pride 
 than the admission of this truth, the Lord de- 
 clares that He gave a special proof for all ages, 
 when He fed His people with manna in the 
 wilderness, that He might remind us that man 
 shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 
 that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. It is 
 thus intimated that by His power alone our life 
 and strength are sustained, though He ministers 
 supply to us by bodily instruments. — Calvin. 
 
 [2680] All good things from God are gifts. 
 " Gratis " is written on every one, but most 
 vividly of all on this. Do you ask "How much.^" 
 Do you dream that salvation is for sale ? Can 
 God sell pardon ? sell a new heart ? sell love ? 
 sell righteousness ? sell strength ? sell any or all 
 of the things included in what we call grace ?
 
 436 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2680— 2693I 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 It is a gift, and you can give nothing for a gift. 
 You may, however, ask for it ; indeed, you must. 
 — Stanford. 
 
 [2681] Grace is the highest attributeof royalty 
 to exercise. Grace sits enthroned above the 
 sceptre of justice ; it forms the top stone of the 
 whole edifice of human society. Justice is its 
 foundation, but grace is its crown. We cannot 
 dispense with grace in human society ; how, 
 then, in our communion with God? — C. N. 
 
 [2682] O Lord, Thou didst at first freely give 
 me my being. I could not deserve it when I 
 was not ; the same title that I have to my being 
 I have to my preservation and support of my 
 being ; it is still free gift, and therefore I come 
 to Thee for my bread upon no other terms than 
 as a poor beggar to a bountiful Lord. . . . 
 Give me, I pray, bread for this day, and when 
 tomorrow comes, I will beg bread of Thee for 
 to-morrow. — Sir Matthew Hale. 
 
 [2683] O my soul, make much of this word 
 " Giving," and give it not over in any wise, but 
 account it the greatest strength of thy title, the 
 best title of thy tenure, for if thou look for any- 
 thing at God's hands, unless by his free gift, 
 thou mistakest thy case clean, and mayst stand 
 without doors amongst the foolish virgins. For 
 are there not many that spend the day in care- 
 fulness and the night in watchfulness, and yet 
 thrive not.' Many that tire their bones with 
 labour and their brains with thinking, and all 
 because they seek to have that by purchase 
 which must be had by gift, and strive, as it were, 
 to e.xtort that from God by violence which is not 
 to be obtained but by prayer. When ye want 
 it, ask God for it, and He will give it ; when ye 
 have it, thank God for it, and He will bless it. — 
 Sir Richard Baker, 1 568- 1 645 . 
 
 (2) It is, in a sense, iiidiscriminate, i.e., to all 
 alike, good and bad. 
 
 [26S4] Some have even ventured the saying, 
 that the bread of the wicked is given at the 
 prayer of the just — that the " us " and the " our " 
 are of universal compass, and that the supply 
 of a world is the fruit of the intercession of a 
 Church. — Dea7i Vatighan. 
 
 [26S5] God gives equally to the evil and to 
 the good. This which is said to be the privilege 
 of the faithful is shared with them by the prayer- 
 less and by the profane. It is true. But is 
 there no difference — none even in outward things 
 — none even as to enjoyment — between the man 
 who idly takes and selfishly uses the gifts of 
 God, and the man who knows and confesses 
 whence they come, and is able to say, with 
 humble faith, " My Father giveth me all things 
 richly to enjoy." Is there no difference, in value 
 and in preciousness, between the thing which 
 you bought with your money and the thing 
 which was the keepsake of your friend 1 — Ibid. 
 
 [2686] Sinners hold mercies by common 
 fivcur, believers by covenant title. — Vati Dorcn. 
 
 2 Concerning the design of God's giving. 
 
 (i) It does not discourage but encourages 
 thought and industry. 
 
 [2687] But does this forbid planning of all 
 kinds? Does this preclude all saving or storing? 
 Assuredly not. It forbids nothing which does not 
 interfere with present duty. It precludes no- 
 thing which does not indicate mistrust of God, 
 and beget fearfulness and depression of spirit. 
 —Dods. 
 
 [2688] We mean " Give us " our daily bread 
 through a blessing on our own use of right 
 means. One evening, we are told, Mahomet was 
 conversing with his followers and overheard one 
 of them say, "I will loose my camel, and trust :" 
 on which he said, " Friend, tie thy camel, and 
 trust." Do whatever is yours to do, then trust. 
 Work and trust, watch and pray. " If a man 
 will not work, neither shall he eat," is a law of 
 the kingdom. — Stanford. 
 
 [26S9] He does not thrust His manna into 
 our mouths, but calls us to supply ourselves 
 from the ground. We have to stoop and fill our 
 vessels. We must collect and prepare the food 
 He creates and gives. In spiritual, as in temporal 
 matters, it is our duty and interest to work with 
 Him. To obtain the grace made manifest, we 
 are to use the means of gxdiCQ.— Robinson. 
 
 [2690] The man who thinks Providence exists 
 simply to make up his lack of service despises 
 Providence. — Fairbairn. 
 
 [2691] Do not for a moment suppose that 
 there is here any curbing of our energies, any 
 surrender of our natural talents. Far from it : 
 use them all ; heartily, bravely, lovingly, use 
 them all ; only let us beware that we use them, 
 first, in entire dependence upon God ; secondly, 
 in entire submission to His will ; thirdly, with- 
 out using, or allowing others to use, any unlaw- 
 ful means ; and, once more, remembering always 
 the true end which, in exercising them, should 
 be always in our view. The necessaries of life 
 must indeed be sought through them, as the 
 very condition of our continuing to employ 
 them ; but beyond this we may not go : this 
 end gained, the true end of all talents, health, 
 wealth, intellectual ability, influence, from what- 
 ever source derived, comes into view, namely, 
 the glory of God and the good of our fellow- 
 men, not our own abundance and the luxurious 
 enjoyment (as we are apt to speak) of life. — 
 Karslake. 
 
 [2692] Stier quotes a striking proverbial say- 
 ing, " We lift our empty hands to heaven, and 
 God lays work upon them." 
 
 3 Concerning our frame of mind in regard 
 to God. 
 
 (i) // implies our dependeJice on Him, and our 
 trust in Him. 
 
 [2693] And here this word " Give " stands in 
 
 {
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 2693 — 2702] 
 
 437 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 its simplicity, without apology, without circum- 
 locution ; in its childlike boldness and straight- 
 forwardness of request. It is the wide opening 
 of the mouths of the young birds hungering 
 round the parent. — Dods. 
 
 [2694] This phrase implies acknowledgment 
 of dependence. It amounts to this, Father, give 
 us our daily bread or we shall never have it. 
 Our personal and unceasing dependence on 
 Him for the supports of mere existence is a fact 
 that few would formally question, but which, 
 perhaps, few adequately feel. — Simiford. 
 
 [2695] Is it not too much the case that we 
 recognize God only in the whirlwind and the 
 flame ? What I wish to urge under this head, 
 then, is that we should constantly realize our 
 dependence upon the Deity — that we should 
 habitually and sincerely acknowledge Him as 
 the source of all our good. With clear faith, 
 with spontaneous emotion, we should own that 
 our most minute and ordinary blessings, the air, 
 the sunshine, our daily bread, come from God. 
 • — Chapiti. 
 
 [2696] Do they not, virtually, consider some- 
 thing else than God as the source of their bless- 
 ings ? Is He not lost sight of, is He not put out 
 of view — as the Maker who has left the machine, 
 as the Creator who is hidden by His works ? 
 Nay, plenty itself, the most profuse evidence of 
 God, is often that which most shuts us in from 
 Him. In the blasted harvest and the unfruitful 
 year, perhaps, we fall upon our knees, and think 
 of His agency who retains the shower and veils 
 the sun. But when the wheels of nature roll on 
 their accustomed course — when our fields are 
 covered with sheaves, and our garners groan 
 with abundance — we may lift a transient offering 
 of gratitude ; yet, in the continuous flow of 
 prosperity, are we not apt to refer largely to our 
 own enterprize and bless our "luck?" We are 
 apt to regard merely secondary causes, to glorify 
 our own power and skill, and, in the customary 
 flow of success, to feel but faintly our constant 
 dependence upon the great Giver. — Ibid. 
 
 [2697] For, when God gives us our bread, it 
 comes easily to us, because our labours are suc- 
 cessful, and leave us fresh to the enjoying ; but 
 when we think to have it only by our labour, it 
 tires out our spirits ; we make ourselves but 
 silkworms and spin ourselves to death. — Sir 
 Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2698] He who made us, knowing us infinitely 
 better than we know ourselves, has so ordered 
 it that the greater number of his children have 
 to depend on His daily bounty — daily opening 
 of the hand which supplieth the want of every 
 living thing. He knows, and we too know, how 
 ready we are to forget the unseen arm that up- 
 holds us — the unseen hand that feeds us. It is 
 then, as even we can see, a gracious wisdom 
 which makes most of us live very much like the 
 
 fowls of the air. It is, in a high sense, well for 
 us that we are kept on the edge of extremity, 
 for, drawn into false security by the " good laid 
 up for many years," we cease to look trustfully 
 upward. Standing on the foundation of the 
 good stored up, the heart lets go its hold on the 
 invisible. 
 
 [2699] We are taught to fly fearless as those 
 who, year after year, have been fed on the wing, 
 flying they knew not whither. Thus we are 
 trained to undoubting trust in God. We have 
 for many years been found in food and raiment, 
 and sometimes in a truly wonderful way, and 
 here we are this day living proofs of a Providence 
 in whom we can trust with reliance absolute. — 
 y. Cameron. 
 
 III. Lessons taught ey the Plural 
 Words "Us" and "Our," implying 
 AS they do the Community of 
 God's Gifts. 
 
 I Thoughtfulness for others. 
 
 [2700] Note here that our Saviour biddeth us 
 to say " us." This " us " lappeth in all other 
 men with my prayer : for every one of us prayeth 
 for another. When I say, " Give us," &c., I 
 pray not for myself only, if I ask as He biddeth 
 me, but I pray for all others. Wherefore say I 
 not, " Give me my daily bread.'' " For because 
 God is not my God alone. He is a common God. 
 And here we be admonished to be friendly, 
 loving, and charitable to one another ; for what 
 God giveth I cannot say, " This is my own," 
 but I must say, " This is ours." For the rich 
 man cannot say, " This is mine alone ; God 
 hath given it me for mine own use." Nor yet 
 hath the poor man any title to it, to take it away 
 from him. No, the poor man may not do so ; 
 for when he doth so, he is a thief afore God and 
 man. But yet the poor man hath title to the 
 rich man's goods ; so that the rich man ought 
 to let the poor man have part of his riches to 
 help and to comfort him withal. Therefore, 
 when God sendeth unto me much, it is not mine, 
 but ours ; it is not given unto me alone, but I 
 must help my poor neighbours withal. — Latimer. 
 
 [2701] Last of all, here I may see Thy good- 
 ness, which, as Thou wilt give me all things 
 necessary for this life (or else Thou shouldest 
 not bid me ask), so Thou commandest all men 
 to pray and care for me, and that bodily ; much 
 more then, if they be able, are they commanded 
 to help me both in body and in soul. — Bradford. 
 
 [2702] Charity is diffusiva sin : and asks as 
 well for others as for ourselves ; and though it 
 begin at home, yet it tarries not at home, but 
 dilates and spreads itself. If, therefore, any 
 man's charity be so wedded to keep home, that 
 it means not much to stir abroad, what should 
 he do using these spreading terms of '" Us " and 
 " Our bread," but rather speak plainly as his 
 meaning is, "Give me this day my daily bread"-? 
 — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
 
 438 
 
 2703—2714] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 [2703] The voice of charity is still clear in the 
 prayer, in the words " our " and " us." Avarice 
 and jealousy say, "Give me," and mean no 
 more. Love says, " Give us." We will share 
 with others what Thou givest. Or, we will be 
 content to receive Thy gifts through others. — 
 Robinson. 
 
 [2704] It is not meant thereby that we should 
 limit our prayers or endeavours to what will 
 barely keep body and soul together. Nay, it is 
 certain that we are encouraged to endeavour 
 after not only the supply of our own wants, but 
 that we may have wherewithal to supply the 
 wants of others (i Thess. iv. 11-12; Eph. iv. 
 28).— 7. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2705] Not give me bread only, but give my 
 fellow-creatures generally bread also. In this 
 our Lord would teach us charity, and to exercise 
 a compassionate concern for all the poor and 
 needy. — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 [2706] But it is " our daily bread " for which 
 we are to pray. Christianity tolerates no selfish 
 exclusiveness in prayer, nor does it allow us, 
 even in the eager cry for the supply of our own 
 wants, to forget our brother's need. As we 
 say, " Our Father," in confession of a common 
 brotherhood, so we are to say, " Give us," in ac- 
 knowledgment of a joint interest in the common 
 needs of mankind. — Loraine. 
 
 [2707] To be a possession of safety and glad- 
 ness, it must be used as a means of dispensing 
 happiness. Your emaciated neighbour cannot 
 fill his jar with manna. Your stronger arm 
 must help him. A Christian is to "labour, 
 working with his hands the thing which is good, 
 that he may have to give to him that needeth." 
 " Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink 
 thy wine with a merry heart ; for God now ac- 
 cepteth thy works." — Robinson. 
 
 [270S] The duty which this petition brings 
 before us has reference rather to our fellow-men. 
 ^Ve are recipients of the Divine bounty, de- 
 pendants from hour to hour upon the hand of 
 God. What a lesson does this teach us of our 
 duty to others ! How clearly does it exhibit us 
 as bound to give to others even as God gives to 
 us, if we are to be imitators of the Most High. 
 "Freely ye have received, freely give," is His 
 express command. — Ka7-slake. 
 
 [2709] As we ask God for our daily bread, the 
 answer to our prayer should remind us not only 
 of our dependence upon Him, but of the relative 
 dependence of others upon 11s. Have we, after 
 all, ever known what it is to lack bread ? Have 
 we ever lifted this ciy in the bitterness of intense 
 hunger, and in absolute want .'' While we have 
 thus prayed, have we not always been surrounded 
 with plenty, and a plenty which sometimes in- 
 duces forgetfulness of God ? But if this usual 
 abundance were removed from us, perhaps we 
 should discover that then, for the first time, we 
 had prayed in sincerity ; " Give us this day our 
 
 daily bread." And yet this piercing cry does 
 go up from wasted fields and family-smitten 
 nations, from the lanes and cellars of cities, from 
 homes of destitution all around us. Nor does 
 this prayer issue merely from the lips of those 
 who would have their daily bread without exer- 
 tion, without using the means. A more sad and 
 fearful utterance is the cry : ** Give us luork, 
 that we may earn, and eat, and live." — Chapin. 
 
 [2710] This prayer is the recognition of 
 common brotherhood and common depend- 
 ence upon " our Father." Let, therefore, the 
 rich distribute of his wealth with discreet and 
 generous hand. Let the educated man endea- 
 vour to impart of his knowledge. But because 
 the spiritual life is the most momentous, let aD 
 men feel a bounden duty to help each othei 
 towards Him who is its source and centre ; and 
 in proportion as we have His life in us, we may 
 help others to Him : "Give us ^/^r daily bread.' 
 — Loraine. 
 
 [271 1] And so it is when we ask from God 
 our daily bread. Continue us in life, we say to 
 God ; and not from heaven but from within 
 there comes an answering voice. Why should 
 God continue us in life? Is it to cumber His 
 ground ; to take up room others might better 
 occupy ; to waste His goodness and abuse His 
 forbearance ? Was it to do nothing more than 
 you have done, that God gave you this life, and 
 made you what you are ? Have you done all 
 for yourself that you could, so that now you are 
 as like to Christ as possible .'' Have you done 
 all for others that you could, so that none are 
 hungering now, who might have been fed by 
 you ; none in sorrow now, whom a word or 
 deed of yours might have relieved ; none in 
 bitterness of spirit or enmity against you now, 
 whom a slight humiliation on your part might 
 have saved from sin ; none mistaken as to the 
 character of Christ and His religion, who might 
 have known differently had you done what you 
 could ? — Dods. 
 
 2 Avoidance of covetousness. 
 
 [2712] We would next place emphasis on the 
 word "our" in this connection. We only ask 
 for oicr bread, not for the bread belonging to 
 others. One man is not to have more than his 
 share, or to live on that which ought to support 
 another man's life. — Stanford. 
 
 [2713] We are to ask for our oiun bread, and 
 we are not allowed to ask the bread of others — 
 we must not covet our neighbour's goods, but 
 must be content with what God gives us in the 
 way of honest industry, or by the kindness of 
 our friends. — Broivti. 
 
 [2714] Not only " Give us bread," but "our 
 bread." The first truth which this suggests, 
 when we pray, is that what we ask for must be 
 ours and not another's. We must, that is, ask 
 for what God may give us without detriment to 
 others. We are not to expect to reap what 
 
 i
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 4.^9 
 
 :7i4— 2729] 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 others have anxiously sown, nor to enter into 
 other men's labours. — Dods. 
 
 [2715] Hereour Lord would teach us honesty. 
 We are not to ask for the bread of our neigh- 
 bours, nor the bread of deceit, nor the bread of 
 idleness, but bread which we have obtained in 
 an honest manner. — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 IV. Exposition of the Words "This 
 
 Day." 
 
 I Its relation to the rest of the petitions in 
 this second division of the prayer. 
 
 [2716] To day; that though it be expressed 
 only in this petition, yet it is to be understood 
 also in the petitions following? For the three 
 former are common to us with the saints in 
 heaven ; but the three latter are proper only to 
 us, and no way communicable to any of them ; 
 the three former are without limitation of time, 
 but these three latter are bounded with time ; 
 they must be obtained either now or never, 
 in this life or not hereafter ; they prepare us 
 indeed for another life, but when another life is 
 once come, both the prayers and the things 
 prayed for shall all cease ; for after the day of 
 this life, there shall be no more eating of bread. 
 — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1 645. 
 
 V. Lesson taught by the Words "This 
 Day." 
 
 1 The sin of over-anxiety for the morrow. 
 
 [2717] We are to pray for this day only. 
 And this is a point of so much importance to 
 the right ordering of the godly life on earth, 
 that our Lord follows it out in the subsequent 
 discourse, and impresses it with a beauty and 
 force of persuasion which have made this a 
 marked passage of Scripture. He anticipated 
 the objection that we must provide for to- 
 morrow as well as to-day, and reminds us that 
 he who clothes the lilies of the field, and makes 
 provision for the birds of the air, knows that we 
 also have lives to be maintained, and constantly 
 recurring necessities. — Dods. 
 
 [2718] Properly therefore the discipleof Christ 
 asks sustenance for himself day by day, since he 
 is forbidden to take thought for the morrow ; 
 because it would be contradictory in itself, and 
 repugnant to us, to ask to live long in the world, 
 when we pray that the kingdom of God may 
 come quickly. — Cyprian, 
 
 [2719] He who has what he needs for to- 
 day, and says. What shall I eat to-morrow ? has 
 not faith. He who creates the day, creates the 
 food for it. — Talmud, quoted by Dr. Gill. 
 
 [2720] Even the Arabs rebuke you by their 
 proverb, "The bread of to-morrow, to-morrow." 
 — Stanford. 
 
 [2721] We are to take no thought for the 
 morrow. For this very end has our wise 
 
 Creator divided life into these little portions of 
 time, so clearly separated from each other, that 
 we might look on every day as a fresh gift of 
 God, another life, which we may devote to His 
 glory, and that every evening may be as the 
 close of life, beyond which we are to see nothing 
 but eternity. — Wesley. 
 
 [2722] About to start on a long and perilous 
 journey, Burckhardt secreted a small piece of 
 bread in the folds of his dress. His Arab host 
 exclaimed, " Now I have found you out : you 
 could not trust God for a single day." The act 
 was not foolish. Prudence and forethought 
 are not forbidden in the holy book which tells 
 us to imitate the industrious ant, and be ready 
 for wintry days, condemns unwatchful and 
 slothful servants, and teaches that parents ought 
 to lay up for their children, but the timid fear, 
 which is unbelief in God, and the profane curi- 
 osity, which restlessly complains that it cannot 
 lift the sacred veil of the future. Wise as was 
 the traveller's precaution, there was equal wis- 
 dom in the Bedouin's words. — Robinson. 
 
 [2723] It is not a full granary, but a day's 
 food that we are to ask, and that of the day we 
 are entered upon. We do not, in the proper 
 offering up this petition, desire to have an estate 
 settled upon us for life, that so afterwards we 
 may live of ourselves on our own income ; but 
 we are contented to live every day upon the 
 fresh supplies of providence, and we in effect 
 say that we shall be well pleased if we do not 
 want, although we have nothing beforehand. — 
 Bp. Blackhall. 
 
 [2724] W'e cannot make food, do what we 
 will ; and as little can we store it up for years 
 and centuries. That which shall sustain us in 
 the years to come has now actually no existence. 
 —Dods. 
 
 [2725] God did not at once give Elijah store- 
 houses full of provision to last him through the 
 famine, but just enough day by day for his 
 wants ; so He gives His people just the strength . 
 they need, and no more. 
 
 [2726] He would have us to be on every 
 hand unencumbered and winged ready for flight, 
 yielding just so much to nature as necessity 
 compels. — Chrysostoni. 
 
 [2727] We are thankful for the crumbs now 
 in the company of Lazarus, if we may feast with 
 him and Abraham hereafter. — Robinson. 
 
 [2728] It is a foolish thing to load ourselves 
 with much provision in our inn, when we know 
 not whether we shall stay one night. We only 
 ask from day to day, that we may always show 
 our readiness to depart whenever God shall call 
 us ; for too much plenty makes us unwilling to 
 die. — Comber. 
 
 [2729] Our bread, though in itself st^Je and
 
 440 
 
 2729— 2736J 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [fourth PETi?ION. 
 
 mouldy as that ot the Gibeonites, is every 
 day new, because a new and hot blessing, as I 
 may say, is daily begged and bestowed of God 
 upon it." — Thomas Ficller. 
 
 VI. Exposition of the Word "Daily." 
 
 2 Its various meanings. 
 
 [2730] We will just record the fact, for what 
 it may be worth, that here is one original word 
 (at least) in the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 Here is a word to which different scholars, 
 from very early times, have given at least three 
 widely different senses. 
 
 That of the old Latin Version, so venerable 
 in its antiquity, so extensive in its circulation, is 
 "• st{pcrs!ibstan/iaP' — meaning, I suppose, im- 
 material, or incorporeal. This would at once 
 •elevate and restrict the petition to a spiritual 
 .-sense. 
 
 A second conjectural rendering of the word 
 .'has been '■'■sufficient." It has been imagined to 
 be the opposite of another Greek word imagined 
 to mean " superfluous " — and so to be the brief 
 compendium of the well-known prayer of the 
 Old Testament, " Give me neither poverty nor 
 riches : feed me with food convenient for me." 
 
 The remaining possible interpretation is one 
 which derives the adjective from a common 
 Greek expression for "to-morrow" — "the day 
 which is coming on." 
 
 " Our bread for the morrow," a morrow al- 
 ready (in one sense) begun, " give us," Father, 
 ■*' to-day." It is the Evening Prayer of the 
 Hebrew Christian Church. The bread for the 
 coming day is asked overnight. That coming 
 day will end, as it begins, at evening, and then 
 the prayer for the next twenty-four hours' sup- 
 plies will naturally and of course succeed this. 
 
 " Our bread — for the coming day — give us 
 to-day." The want, the sum of the want, is 
 carried to the Father, and one little word 
 "give" transfers the whole from the region of 
 weakness and confusion into the region of per- 
 fect Wisdom, of limitless Power, and infinite 
 Love. — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [2731] " Daily." The original word, it is 
 well known, is nowhere else found, either in 
 sacred or classical literature. It is conjectured 
 that Matthew and Luke coined it, as a transla- 
 tion of the Aramaic phrase used by our Lord. 
 More than thirty different explanations of it 
 have been suggested, and the revisers make no 
 attempt to settle its derivation or meaning. As, 
 however, grammarians have found much to 
 say for the rendering " our bread for the coming 
 day," they have, in both evangelists, inserted 
 this in the margin, but have retained in the 
 text the word " daily." — Stanford. 
 
 [2732] The word rendered "daily" is impor- 
 tant, if for no other reason than that it is no- 
 where found but in the Lords Prayer. Some 
 have supposed that the apostles coined it, cor- 
 rectly to transfer the sentence, as given by the 
 
 Lord, from the vernacular of the Jews into the 
 language in which the Gospels are written. It 
 signifies " daily," but with a deeper meaning 
 than, in its ordinary use, the English word con- 
 veys. What was the exact expression from the 
 lips of our Lord is not discovered. It may have 
 been that in the prayer of Agur, " Give me 
 neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food 
 convenient for me." — Robinson. 
 
 [2733] Jerome and Abelard translate upTo%> 
 iinovaiov by "panem superstantialem," and 
 would confine its meaning to the Holy Eucharist; 
 but there is no need of thus limiting the mean- 
 ing to either spiritual or bodily nourishment. 
 Both Beza and Erasmus translate " panem 
 quotidianum ;" and "bread sufficient for our 
 subsistence " (which seems the real force of 
 iniovijioQ) comes to much the same thing as 
 " daily bread." The lesson to be learned is 
 " moderation in our desires." — Ramsay, 
 
 [2734] Its precise meaning has been differently 
 interpreted, but it appears that the most respect- 
 able authorities render the words ^^ daily bread" 
 — "bread iox stibsistenceP '•'' Give us bread for 
 subsistence." Using the term ^^ bread" — as I 
 have throughout this discourse — as an equivalent 
 for all temporal provisions, I draw from this 
 translation of these words the inference that we 
 should be careful as to what ends we apply our 
 earthly blessings, and for what purposes we 
 desire them. " Bread for subsistence" necessary 
 temporal good, that is ; not provisions for luxury, 
 ostentation, or pride. — Chapin. 
 
 VII. Lessons taught by the Word 
 " Daily." 
 
 I As to time. 
 
 (i) Every inorni7tg and evenings especially 
 seasonable ofi the Lord^s day. 
 
 [-735j Consider then, I beseech you, the force 
 of this word daily. Is not the petition of the 
 text one that should be daily lifted up ? Are 
 not our wants always new ? Are not His 
 mercies fresh every morning and evening.? — 
 Chapin. 
 
 [2736] We may, indeed, be thankful for the 
 variation, for each sentence throws light on the 
 other. St. Luke's phrase reaches farther into 
 the future, implying day after day till life shall 
 come to a close. That of St. Matthew requires 
 that the prayer, either in the words he records, 
 or words equivalent, shall every day be repeated. 
 We are not once for all, or by fits and starts, to 
 pray, " Give us day by day our daily bread," 
 but every day to ask, " Give us this day our 
 daily bread." One might be inclined to the 
 opinion that St. Matthew's form is the fitter 
 prayer for the morning, and St. Luke's for the 
 evening; but the Jew might use St. Matthew's in 
 the evening, as the beginning of his day ; and it 
 may be spoken by us as expressing the night's 
 wants as well as those of the daytime, asking 
 
 I
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 2736—2746] 
 
 441 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 for protection, rest, and restoration, in asking 
 for food and health. — Robinson. 
 
 2 As to occasions. 
 
 (i) Family worship, viewing the family as a 
 congregation. 
 
 [2737] This prayer is especially seasonable on 
 the Lord's Day. The fourth petition answers 
 to the fourth commandment. So sacred a day 
 was the Sabbath that God, on behalf of His 
 people, provided for it the day before. A 
 miracle was wrought rather than the day of 
 rest should be dishonoured. As God had His 
 day of preparation for the Sabbath on behalf of 
 Israel, let us on our part, according to His com- 
 mandment, have our day of preparation for it in 
 honour of the God of Israel, and of the holy 
 day. On no account must we willingly toil on 
 the Lord's day for the bread that perisheth. 
 The world must be swept aside. Offensive to 
 God, and poisoning the bodies and souls of 
 men, profit is loss made on the day appointed 
 for pious rest. Property then gathered is not 
 manna from God, but mere tamarisk gum of 
 the wilderness. — Robittson. 
 
 [2438] This prayer is a strong implied com- 
 mand for family prayer (as that family forms a 
 congregation which meets "daily"). It can no- 
 v/here else be used so as fully to come up to the 
 meaning of the original intention ; and nowhere 
 else can it be breathed forth with so much pro- 
 priety and beauty, as from the lips of a father, 
 the venerable priest of his household, and the 
 pleader with God for those rich blessings which 
 a parental bosom desires on his beloved off- 
 spring. — Barnes. 
 
 VIII. Importance of the Words " Daily 
 Bread." 
 
 X When viewed temporally. 
 
 (i) All things necessary to sttstain life. 
 
 [2739] The words before us show that earthly 
 interests and animal wants have an appropriate 
 place in our prayers. The body is not essentially 
 vile. It is marred by our passions, and having 
 broken down the fences of the soul, we yield 
 to evil suggestions which steal in through its 
 agency. But it is the intricate and beautiful 
 workmanship of God, the consummate evidence 
 of His skill, and the instrument of countless 
 blessings. The earth, though often called "a 
 den of wickedness," and " a vale of tears," is 
 not wholly so. It is a world which the Creator 
 has adorned with loveliness and filled with 
 wonder. \iwe will, it may prove to us a porch 
 of knowledge, a temple of devotion, and a noble 
 theatre of duty. Life is to be cherished as a 
 sacred thing ; health is to be cared for as a 
 precious gift ; in short, the means of temporal 
 welfare are to be sought and preserved as a 
 religious duty — for in our holiest moods, in our 
 prayers, we are instructed to say : " Give us 
 this day our daily bread." — Chapin. 
 
 [2740] Temporal mercies may be lawfully 
 
 prayed for (Gen. xxviii. 20). They are need- 
 ful as the means God hath appointed for the 
 preservation of our temporal life and being 
 (Matt. vi. ■})2). Being needful and promised he 
 is a self-murderer who neglects them. — Bp. 
 Hopkins, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 [2741] This is, then, in other words, the wise 
 prayer of Agur, " Feed me with food convenient 
 for me." 
 
 [2742] The word " bread," as it is used in the 
 Lord's Prayer, and was commonly used by the 
 Jews, does not mean only moistened, fermented, 
 kneaded, and baked flour, but food in general. 
 Cakes, milk, butter, flesh, fruit, wine, all come 
 under the denomination. In the time when our 
 Lord gave this form, " breaking bread " was an 
 expression in common use for taking a meal 
 together. Bread signifies even more than what 
 is requisite as food : it includes " those things 
 which are needful to the body,'' that it may be 
 "warmed" as well as "filled." Like the Latin 
 word victus, it extends to dress. It not only 
 means meat and drink, but everything necessary 
 to health, " food and raiment " or " covering," 
 both clothing and habitation. — Robinson. 
 
 [2743] This word bread, representing a primary 
 and universal need, also suggests to us, by a 
 common figure of speech, temporal blessings 
 generally. Bread, the staff of life, is made re- 
 presentative of all the requirements of bodily 
 life. Gregory Nyssen says, "Bread, including 
 every bodily need." — Loraine. 
 
 [2744] Because we have need of very many 
 things for our present subsistence, as food, rai- 
 ment, habitation, and each of these comprehend 
 many other necessaries in them, all which would 
 have been too long particularly to enumerate in 
 this compendious prayer, therefore our Saviour 
 hath summed them up in the word bread ; figu- 
 ratively denoting all kinds of provisions neces- 
 sary for this natural life, whereof bread is the 
 most usual and the most useful. — Bp. Hopkins, 
 1633-1690. 
 
 [2745] Our Saviour hath not directed us to 
 pray for superfluous wealth, for luxury, or any 
 gratifications of that kind, but only for bread, 
 and in that for the mere necessaries of life. — 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 [2746] Each word of Christ is significant. 
 " Bread," we know, nourishes not without con- 
 ditions. There must be the frame adapted to 
 it ; and that frame must be in health, not in 
 disease. There must be a process, which it is 
 not man's to direct or to rule over, of digestion 
 and assimilation within, else the food will lie 
 useless, and worse than useless, however excel- 
 lent its quality, or however moderate its use. 
 When we pray for bread, we pray for health ; 
 for all that is necessary to make bread nutri- 
 tious. — Dean VansJian.
 
 442 
 
 2747—2757] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 [2747] Or is it that, as bread feeds us in the 
 day, so sleep feeds us in the night ? and then, if 
 sleep be bread for the night, in praying for bread 
 for the day, we pray as well for sleep for the 
 night : for the evening and the morning make 
 but one day. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2748] Prayer for " daily bread " is prayer that 
 we may have enough. The word "bread " points 
 to what is simple and moderate. We have no 
 encouragement to say give us this day a ban- 
 quet. — Stanford. 
 
 [2749] In connection with gifts for the sup- 
 port of existence, think of His gifts for its en- 
 joyment. If this world had been meant as a 
 place for the bare physical life of man during 
 his allotted time, " a world less beautiful would 
 have served the purpose. ... A big, round 
 island, half of it arable, and half of it pas- 
 ture, with a clump of trees in one corner, and a 
 magazine of fuel in another, might have held 
 and fed ten millions of people ; and a hundred 
 islands, all made on the same pattern, big and 
 round, might have held and fed all the popula- 
 tions of the globe. There was no need for the 
 carpet of verdure or the ceiling of blue ; no need 
 for the mountains and cataracts and forests ;no 
 need for the rainbow, no need for the flower. — 
 Hamilton. 
 
 (2) All things suitable to our stafioft and cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 [2750] We ask for " bread." It ought not, 
 I think, to be doubted that " bread " here 
 stands for all necessary supplies, whether of 
 food, clothing, dwelling-place, health, reason, 
 bodily faculties, or suitable companionship — 
 leaving entirely and absolutely to God the de- 
 cision, in kind and in degree, what these are for 
 us. — IDean Vaughan. 
 
 [2751] Breathing contentment, this petition 
 condemns censoriousness. It is not a levelling 
 prayer. It does not in its spirit break the tenth 
 commandment. It does not insist upon the 
 same lot for all. It does not demand that others 
 should do more than the petitioner according to 
 his circumstances. It does not say, The daily 
 bread for me is enough for anybody, or. The 
 daily bread of another ought to be mine. It 
 sees the prosperity of a neighbour without envy 
 and without displeasure. It allows that what is 
 a daily supply for one is not the daily bread of 
 another, and that it is God who allots the dif- 
 ference. — Robinson. 
 
 [2752] Besides things that are naturally neces- 
 sary, there are things which are necessary to the 
 state and condition in which Providence hath 
 set us ; as for men of high birth, or of public 
 note or employment, for cedars require more 
 sap than shrubs. But we must take care that 
 neither covetousness nor ambition impose upon 
 us and make us measure necessaries by our in- 
 ordinate desires. — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 [2753] The bread we pray for includes that 
 
 which is needful to support all our life in 
 this world. This is manifold more than the 
 life of the body. Our life is compound, made 
 of earth and heaven, dust from the ground 
 and breath from Deity. It is even more than 
 this, for it must mean the life suitable to the 
 particular station we have to fill. — Stanford. 
 
 [2754] This subsistence is not in all men 
 alike, but differs according to the different sta- 
 tions of men, and according to the greater or 
 lesser charge of children, and other domestics 
 and relatives they have to provide for. For 
 what would be a good competency for a single 
 person in a private station, would fall much 
 short for a man with a great family, or in a 
 public station. — J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2755] There are different stations in life, each 
 having its own necessities. What would be 
 proper and necessary for one sphere of life, 
 would be altogether out of place and mischiev- 
 ous even to desire in another. Men are to pray 
 for such things as are proper for subsistence, 
 and that in the various spheres in which they 
 are placed. Let the several classes of society 
 not become envious and imitative of those 
 which are immediately above them, but let each 
 work and pray for such gifts and blessings as 
 are suitable to their station. Let not the poor 
 be envious of the rich, " for a man's life consist- 
 eth not in the abundance of the things which 
 he possesseth." Let not the rich become the 
 victim of artificial wants, forgetful of the poor 
 man's need. — Loraine. 
 
 (3) All the means 'whereby necessaries are 
 provided. 
 
 [2756] In asking for our daily bread, we vir- 
 tually ask for ability and opportunity to obtain 
 it. Nor is this inconsistent with the truth upon 
 which I have just been dwelling. For, of course, 
 in saying that we are dependent upon God for 
 our daily bread, I have not intended to say that 
 it is to be acquired without the use of means. 
 I have only urged the fact that God is in the 
 means. And, therefore, I observe now, that, in 
 this prayer, we ask God/t^rthe means, for those 
 faculties and agencies by which our food and 
 all temporal necessaries are to be secured. No 
 sane man will be apt to run into the extreme of 
 fatalism in regard to these interests. As to his 
 spiritual welfare, he may sink into an apathetic 
 and presumptuous reliance upon the work of the 
 Deity, and may make no effort for righteousness 
 because he expects all the movement to come 
 from on high. Nevertheless, he sees clearly 
 that food, raiment, animal comforts cannot be 
 possessed without diligent exertion. — Chapi)t. 
 
 [2757] In the spirit of this prayer we ask Him 
 to give us the means of supporting life lawfully 
 and honourably, and to give us working facul- 
 ties. If we live by the skill of our fingers, we 
 ask Him to give us this skill ; if by the sight of 
 our eyes, to let no curtain of darkness fall over 
 them ; if by strength of limbs, to let no evil
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 2757—2707] 
 
 443 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 strike that strength ; if our minds have to work, 
 that our minds may be kept from weakness or 
 edipse, that so, giving us these, He may give us 
 our daily bread. — Stanford. 
 
 [2758] God gives us our bread when He gives 
 the earth strength to bring forth bread : God 
 gives us our bread when He sends seasonable 
 weather to gather in our bread : God gives us 
 our bread when He grants us peace and quiet 
 to eat our bread : God gives us our bread when 
 He gives us heaUh and strength to earn our 
 bread : and if we could reckon up all the ways 
 of God giving us our bread, we should find them 
 to be more than the very grains of corn of the 
 bread we eat. — Sir Richard Baker ^ 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2759] It is not true that, in the prayer for 
 daily bread, I pray only for what people call a 
 physical blessing. As this world goes I cannot 
 eat a crust without the loyalty of a cook, with- 
 f out the skill of a millwright, without the endur- 
 ance of the stoker of a steam-engine. I pray 
 God for such loyalty, skill, and endurance. Nor 
 do I pray for my own behoof alone. I pray for 
 the whole world — the great organism of which 
 
 1 am part ; not for my lonely crumbs, but for our 
 daily bread. — E. Hale. 
 
 [2760] "Laws of Nature'' indeed! Why, 
 just what we want is to have the laws of nature 
 continued. Wliat we know is, that somehow or 
 other, in this world as it is, when loyal men 
 work bravely and truly — when they do the duty 
 that comes next their hand — when boys do this 
 on the prairie, when millers do it in the mills, 
 when stokers work for us day and night in Mis- 
 sissippi steamers, when firemen drive engines 
 day and night across Canada and New York 
 for us, when poor canal boys trudge on behind 
 hard-strained horses for us, and then after the 
 flour has come a thousand miles from its birth- 
 place, when ten thousand hard hands speed it 
 on its way, when a thousand other hands store 
 it, handle it, move it here, move it there, and at 
 last leaven it, knead it, and bake it, with the fire 
 that has lain hidden for that end for some 
 thousand thousand years, till a thousand other 
 hard hands brought the coal to the kneaded 
 dough — what we know is, that by the common 
 effort of millions of hard-working men and a 
 million " laws of nature," we have some chance 
 of daily bread. Just what I am asking God for 
 is, that that chance may continue ; not for me 
 alone who pray, but for this whole world. — E. 
 Hale. 
 
 2 When viewed spiritually. 
 
 (i) All things necessary for soul as well as 
 body. 
 
 [2761] God has made man of a twofold sub- 
 stance, namely, bodily and spiritual. Because, 
 therefore, man is composed of two substances, 
 a twofold sort of bread is necessary to him, 
 namely, that suitable to the body and that suit- 
 able to the soul. That suitable to the body 
 
 refreshes the body, and that suitable to the soul 
 refreshes the soul. — Abclard. 
 
 [2762] Thus the deepest and most sacred 
 needs of man's spiritual being are linked by an 
 ever-suggestive figure, with the commonest and 
 most regularly recurring wants of his daily life. 
 As though the Eternal Father would remind us, 
 by the various necessities of the physical life 
 that force themselves upon our attention, of 
 those deeper though more silent necessities of 
 the soul. For what are these bodily appetites 
 but the shadows and symbols of spiritual need ? 
 They are the voices of the soul telling, with all 
 the eloquent urgency of physical hunger, thirst, 
 and desire, its inmost and immortal necessities. 
 — Loraine. 
 
 [2763] As in regard to the outward life, so in 
 relation to spiritual food, we ask for "daily 
 bread," for what is indispensable, for " grace to 
 help in time of need." Thank God for the 
 Christian prince who, among his many demon- 
 strations of wisdom, suggested the inscription 
 on the architrave of the^Royal Exchange of the 
 saying of Israel's king, " The earth is the Lord's 
 and tiie fulness thereof ; " so keeping the people 
 of London, visitors from the country, merchants 
 of every land, and strangers of every com- 
 plexion, in mind of the needful prayer, " Give 
 us this day our daily bread." — Robinson. 
 
 [2764] He will starve in eternity, who secures 
 not the bread of life in ti?ne. — Van Dorcn. 
 
 [2765] But above all, ever give me the Bread 
 of Life, that whilst my body is fed my soul may 
 not be starved, either for the want of that ever- 
 lasting Bread, or for want of an appetite for it. 
 — Sir Matthew Hale. 
 
 [2766] The word rendered " daily " is an un- 
 common word ; indeed, it seems to have been 
 formed specially for this prayer ; but words are 
 the representatives of thought. Surely, then, 
 the Inspirer of truth intended to suggest some 
 special thought by this special word. It sug- 
 gests deeper wants than those that belong to 
 mortal life ; it signifies that which is necessary 
 for the subsistence of our life in all the fulness 
 of our complete humanity. — Loraine. 
 
 [2767] We are creatures of manifold needs. 
 The phrase " necessaries of life " includes many 
 other things than those which are required for 
 our physical well-being. The higher part of 
 our nature requires its *' daily bread." To 
 starve our finer faculties is no more allowable 
 than to starve our bodies. To cultivate the 
 mind, to feed it, is a duty. Books and all the 
 means of intellectual instruction are among the 
 necessaries of life ; they are necessary to our 
 mental health and growth, and to the full de- 
 velopment of our nature. But the majority of 
 men and women do not realize what it is to 
 starve the mind. The fainting and failing of 
 intellectual faculty for want of anything to feed
 
 444 
 
 2767— 2775I 
 
 THE LORD S PR A VER. 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 upon they do not understand. They live in 
 their lower nature, live to eat, and drink, and 
 sleep, and make money, and enjoy themselves ; 
 they look well after their bodies and everything 
 which concerns them, but they neglect the cul- 
 ture of their minds. When they pray for " daily 
 bread" their thoughts rise no higher than the 
 dinner-table and its bill of fare. If they be- 
 lieved that the mind was more than the body 
 they would be quite as anxious to supply it with 
 the food which is necessary to its growth and 
 strength. 
 
 But man is a social as well as an intellectual 
 being. He is not complete in himself. His 
 finest life is rooted in the social affections. 
 Much that is grandest in human character is 
 nourished out of those deep and sweet fountains 
 of feeling of which some men are weak enough 
 to be ashamed. The social nature therefore 
 requires its appropriate food. We cannot be 
 satisfied from ourselves. We require help and 
 sympathy from others, and we require to give 
 help and sympathy to others as our daily bread. 
 
 But we have wants deeper still, and which 
 cannot be satisfied by the hardest work, the 
 largest knowledge, or the dearest love. For 
 something more we cry. We have a nature 
 that touches God, and which keeps us unquiet 
 till it finds its satisfaction in Him. We have an 
 inward spiritual life which can only be fed in 
 communion with the Divine. We need God. 
 He is the Bread of our life. Only as we are 
 filled with His fulness do we " hunger no more." 
 Would that always we could be faithful to the 
 claims of our greatest need. 
 
 [2768] All commentators say that in these 
 words we pray for everything necessary for the 
 sustenance and refreshment of both body and 
 soul. And the bread for which we ask is our 
 bread, the bread which is suited to us, food tem- 
 poral and spiritual, which is good and necessary 
 for our maintenance, in order that we in our whole 
 nature, body and spirit, may be strengthened to 
 do the will of God, and to perform those duties 
 which He has assigned us. — Deniofi. 
 
 (2) Spiritual food properly so called, 
 
 I. The Word of God. 
 
 [2769] The word of God, which is daily ex- 
 plained to us in words, and is, in a manner, 
 broken, is daily bread. And as our bodies eat 
 that bread, so our minds eat this. — Augustine. 
 
 [2770] Again, what I am handling before you 
 now is daily bread ; and the daily lessons which 
 ye hear in church are daily bread, and the 
 hymns ye hear and repeat are daily bread. For 
 all these are necessary in our state of pilgrimage. 
 But when we shall have got to heaven shall we 
 hear the word, we who shall see the Lord Him- 
 self, and hear the Word Himself, and eat and 
 drink Him, as the angels do now.^ Surely not. 
 Therefore has it been said, touching our daily 
 bread, that this petition is necessary for us in 
 this life.— /^/cf. 
 
 [2771] Christ is received, indeed, in the Sacra- 
 ment, but that Sacrament is in vain unless there 
 be a distributing and teaching of the word at 
 the same time. For it is the doctrine of the 
 word that brings Christ forth unto the people, 
 and makes Him known to their hearts, without 
 which He can never be understood in the Sacra- 
 ment. Secondly, internally, when God Himself 
 sheds abroad the power of His own doctrine. 
 There must be this internal communication of 
 the Divine word added to that which is done 
 externally, or else all the external act of preach- 
 ing will be attended with no fruits. But when 
 the external act is rightly performed (as it ever 
 ought to be) then the internal effect will not be 
 wanting, because God will not permit His Word 
 to pass by without being attended with fruits ; 
 for He is ever present, and teaches that within 
 which is brought forth by the minister without, 
 as He Himself saith by the Prophet Isaiah : 
 " As the rain cometh down, and the snow from 
 heaven, and returneth not thither, but wateretb 
 the earth and maketh it bring forth and bua, 
 that it may give seed to the sower and bread to 
 the eater : so shall My word be, that goeth 
 forth out of My mouth : it shall not return unto 
 Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I 
 please, and it shall prosper in the thing where- 
 unto I sent it"(Isa. Iv. 10, 11). Hence they 
 who know Christ, and feel and taste Him by in- 
 ward experience — such are made true Christians. 
 — Luther. 
 
 1. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 [2772] The early Christians considered that 
 this petition had special reference to the Bread 
 of Life, given in the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, which they used to partake of daily. — 
 Ramsay. 
 
 [2773] " Daily bread " means either all those 
 things which minister to the necessity of this 
 life, or the sacrament of the body of Christ 
 which we daily receive. — Augustine. 
 
 [2774] There is a necessary supply of bodily 
 food, for the preservation of our daily life, with- 
 out which we cannot live. This is food and 
 clothing, but the whole is understood in a part. 
 W^hen we ask for bread, we thereby understand 
 all things. There is a spiritual food also, which 
 the faithful know, which ye too will know, when 
 ye shall receive it at the altar of God. This 
 also is daily bread, necessary only for this life. 
 For shall we receive the Eucharist when we 
 shall have come to Christ Himself, and begun 
 to reign with Him for ever ? So then the 
 Eucharist is our daily bread ; but let us in such 
 wise receive it that v»e be not refreshed in our 
 bodies only, but in our souls. For the virtue 
 which is apprehended there is unity; that, 
 gathered together into His Body, and made His 
 members, we may be what we receive. Then 
 will it be indeed our daily bread. — Ibid. 
 
 [-775] When, therefore. He says, that who- 
 ever shall eat of His bread shall live for ever;
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2775—2783] 
 
 445 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 as it is manifest that those who partake of His 
 body and receive the Eucharist by the right of 
 communion are Hving, so, on the other hand, 
 we must fear and pray lest any one who, being 
 withheld from communion, is separate from 
 Christ's body, should remain at a distance from 
 salvation ; as He Himself threatens, and says, 
 " Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and 
 drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you." 
 And therefore we ask that our bread, that is, 
 Christ, may be given to us daily, that we who 
 abide and live in Christ may not depart from 
 His sanctification and body. — Cyprian. 
 
 [2776] Thousands, who do not every day 
 partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
 pray every day with success, " Give us this day 
 our daily bread." It is impossible to allow that 
 the sacramental elements are expressly spoken 
 of in this petition, when we remember that the 
 Lord's Prayer was given and used before the 
 institution of the Lord's Supper. — Robinson. 
 
 3. Christ Himself. 
 
 [2777] We request the Lord to give us spiritual 
 bread. 
 
 Christ is spiritual bread (John vi. 35). 
 Christ as bread (i) has been bruised, Isa. liii. 5 ; 
 (2) begets, maintains, and perfects spiritual 
 life in the soul, John vi. 35 ; (3) satisfies the 
 soul ; (4) enriches the soul. 
 
 The word of God is spiritual bread (Psa. 
 cxix. 103). If we feed upon it (Psa. cxix. 11) by 
 faith and meditation, we shall become strong in 
 the Lord, and in the power of His might, and be 
 nourished up into everlasting life (Psa. i. 2, 3). 
 
 Divine grace is spiritual bread, (i) It sup- 
 ports the soul, 2 Cor. xii. 9 ; (2) it causes the 
 soul to grow, Hosea xiv. 5 ; (3) produces health 
 in the soul, Isa. xxxv. 5-7; (4) makes the soul 
 happy ; (5) everlastingly preserves the soul. — 
 H or lock {of Box). 
 
 [2778] Bread from heaven (John vi. 51), 
 which is the body and blood of Christ ; bread 
 of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and 
 His grace, feeding the starving inner man, and 
 refreshing him with the nourishment of holy 
 habits ; and bread from the earth to strengthen 
 man's heart (Psa. civ. 15), wherewith his bodily 
 life is sustained. — Churchinaiis Guide to Faith 
 atzd Piety. 
 
 IX. Lessons from the Petition viewed 
 AS A Whole. 
 
 General lessons. 
 [2779] 
 
 " Give," a lesson of dependence. 
 
 " Bread," „ „ contentment. 
 
 " Our bread," ,, ,, industry. 
 
 "To-day," a lesson against care. 
 "Daily," „ of trust. 
 
 " Give us," „ „ love. 
 
 — J'an Dorcji. 
 
 Or, again — 
 
 " Give us," teaches us dependence on God. 
 " Our," „ „ industry. 
 
 "Daily," „ „ frequency in devotion. 
 
 "Bread," „ „ moderation. 
 
 — Ramsay. 
 
 [27S0] I. The text shows us how we ought to 
 content ourselves with the necessaries and con- 
 veniences of life, and how we should retrench 
 the superfluities of it. 2, Reproves the sin of 
 covetousness, and teaches us to wean our hearts 
 from the world, and if God blesses us with 
 riches, to put them to a charitable use. 3. Con- 
 demns those whose dependence is on costly 
 things, and on their own skill and industry, but 
 in whose thoughts God is not. 4. Suggests that 
 as God bestows our bread not by miracle, but 
 by blessing our endeavours, we must set upon 
 nothing upon which that blessing cannot be 
 bestowed. 5. Inculcates gratitude to the giver 
 of every good and perfect gift. — J. Blair, 1723 
 {condensed). 
 
 [2781] I. It tends to deliver the mind more 
 from anxious cares and fears than straightened 
 circumstances. 2. It enlarges the heart more 
 in thanksgivings to Almighty God. 3. It puts 
 us in a capacity to do more good in works of 
 piety and charity. 4. It helps better to carry 
 on the public good, which often suffers egre- 
 giously for want of having wherewithal, and for 
 want of a public spirit, which want is occasioned 
 by pinching circumstances. — Ibid. 
 
 [2782] And in bidding us pray for this bread, 
 and to pray for it every day of our lives, Christ 
 teaches us what we are to avoid. 
 
 1. We are not to seek more even of these 
 necessary things than is sufficient for us. We 
 are warned by the terms of this petition against 
 inordinate appetite, gluttony, surfeiting, and 
 drunkenness. 
 
 2. We are not to permit ourselves to obtain 
 these things which are necessary to us by fraud 
 or by robbery, we are to seek them only in ac- 
 cordance with the will of God ; in other words, 
 we are not to covet. 
 
 3. We are not to be unduly careful, nor 
 anxious even, for those things, which are most 
 needful for us, but are to remember that all good 
 things come from God, and are the fruits of His 
 bounty and love towards us, and that He giveth 
 to all His creatures that which is necessary for 
 them. — Avendano. 
 
 [2783] Christ saith, "give us this day." i. 
 That every day we may pray to God. There- 
 fore it is not this month or year (i Thess. v. 17). 
 2. Because there should be family prayer. All 
 that taste their meat are to come and say. Give 
 t(S. 3. To make way for our gratitude for God's, 
 mercies as they individually come (Psa. Ixviii. 
 19). 4. To show us to renew our dependence 
 daily upon God whose mercies are needed every
 
 446 
 
 2783— 27941 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [fourth petition. 
 
 day. 5. That we may not burden ourselves 
 \\\i\\ over-much thoughtfulness (Matt. vi. 34). 
 6. That worldly things should be sought in a 
 moderate proportion : if we have sufficient for a 
 day that should be enough. 7. That we might 
 be trained up with thoughts of our life's uncer- 
 tainty (Jas^ iv. 13). 8. To awaken us after 
 heavenly things Qohnvi. 27). — T. Manton^ 1629- 
 1677. 
 
 2 Particular lessons. 
 
 (i) Concerning the relative imp07-ta7ice of 
 duties. 
 
 I. Worldly things rank after the things of God. 
 
 [2784] The position of this petition may in- 
 instruct us in the government of our lives, to use 
 worldly comforts as here we pray for them. 
 Spiritual and heavenly things are our greatest 
 concernments, and should be our greatest care ; 
 wiih these we should begin, and with these we 
 should end. — Bp. Hopki^ts, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 (2) Concerning the performance of daily 
 duties. 
 
 [2785] The answer therefore to this petition 
 will be, that our spirits will be cleansed from 
 worldliness, covetousness, and hardness of 
 heart ; from high-mindedness, self-confidence, 
 and dishonesty ; from discontent, envy, and in- 
 dolence ; and that we shall be enabled, without 
 repining at what is past, or fretting ourselves 
 with thoughts of the future (though repenting of 
 the past and preparing for the futurej, to sum- 
 mon all the powers given us to this day's duty. — 
 Dods. 
 
 (3) Concerning the principles and dispositions 
 befitting ns in the performance of daily duties. 
 
 1. Self- ward. 
 
 a. Contentment. 
 
 [2786] Contentment is one of God's blessings 
 that we ask in this prayer, " Give us this day 
 our daily bread ; " that is, such provisions as 
 are necessary for us, contentment and quiet of 
 mind in the enjoyment (Joel ii. 19). — T. Manton, 
 1629-1677. 
 
 [27S7] In this petition God almost audibly 
 cries to the ear of all who will understand, 
 " Cease, O men, from your covetous longings 
 after things that profit not." — Cregoty. 
 
 b. Moderatio7i in our desires. 
 
 [2788] By teaching us to ask for bread, our 
 Lord indicates that our desires for worldly good 
 should not be passionate, but moderate. For 
 this the word bread naturally suggests to us. 
 We say that we do not desire a great deal, but 
 enough to enable us to do God's will effectively, 
 to be the most we can. — Dods. 
 
 [2789] Let the child be content to "ask 
 bread." If he cry for poisonous dainties, fine 
 clothes, expensive parties, costly playthings, he 
 may deserve and provoke disease, disaster, dis- 
 cipline. Teaching us to ask for no more than 
 
 "our daily bread," our Lord commands modera- 
 tion. In this petition we accept His law of 
 self-denial, and pledge ourselves to Him that 
 we will be Christianly temperate. — Robinson. 
 
 2. Man-ward. 
 a. Generosity. 
 
 [2790] This is one way, and a perfect one, for 
 getting of bread, by praying for it ; yet Solomon 
 telleth us of another, a more active way, which 
 yet hath its force from this : " Cast thy bread 
 upon the waters, and after many days thou shalt 
 find it." For, indeed, as poor men stand beg- 
 ging at rich men's gates, so rich men stand 
 begging at God's gate. And the next way to 
 receive it is to give it ; and if they will have 
 their need helped and their hunger filled, they 
 must help the needy and fill the hungry. — Sir 
 Richard Baker^ 1568-1645. 
 
 [2791] They to whom God has given abun- 
 dantly can select from His gifts, and present to 
 Him not a richer sacrifice than the widow's 
 mite, but a larger oftering. " For if there be 
 first a willing mind, it is accepted according to 
 that a man hath, and not according to that he 
 hath not." The "daily bread" determines the 
 daily sacrifice. — Robinsoji. 
 
 3. God-ward. 
 
 a. Faith in God. . 
 
 [2792] Grant us food for the day and faith for 
 the morrow. — Vajt Doreti. 
 
 [2793] This prayer for daily bread should 
 direct us to great comfort and cheerfulness. 
 If we have much ease and comfort from the 
 interest of a common friend, whose capacity to 
 serve us is but short, and his affections, like all 
 other mortal things, very uncertain ; how rich 
 should we think ourselves in the friendship of 
 that " Father of lights, with whom is no variable- 
 ness, neither shadow of change ? " — Mangey, 
 1684-1755- 
 
 b. Thanksgiving for daily mercies. 
 
 [2794] Wherever there is material for prayer, 
 there is material for thanksgiving. If we need 
 to pray to God even for our bread, then even for 
 our bread let us give thanks to Him. If to-day's 
 supply does not come by chance, nor because 
 we were similarly supplied yesterday and the 
 day before, but because God regards our wants 
 of to-day and for this day also grants us life ; 
 then this day ought we to thank Him for this 
 day's mercies, though they be but the same as 
 yesterday's, and what all other men are enjoying. 
 As each rising sun, touching the wing of the 
 sleeping birds, wakes through the woods a fresh 
 burst of glad melody, as if sun had never risen 
 before ; so let each day's mercies awake our 
 hearts afresh to the sense of God our Father's 
 smile, and turn our lives towards His light. 
 " Where nothing is deserved, everything should 
 be received with thanksgiving ; " how then shall 
 we ever discharge our debt of thanks, who 
 deserve to know the power of God's anger, but 
 experience the power of His mercy ?—Z?^^/^.
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 FIFTH PETITION. 
 
 Pages 44S /^ 461. 
 
 A. Ititrodtictory Remai-ks. 
 
 I 
 
 STRUCTURAL CHARACTER AND INTER-RELATIONS. 
 
 B. T)-eatmait of the First Clause of ike Petition. 
 
 2 
 
 ETYiMOLOGICAL MEANING OF THE WORD "FORGIVENESS." 
 
 3 
 THE GRATUITOUS AND ABSOLUTE CHARACTER OF THE FORGIVENESS SOUGHT. 
 
 4 
 ORIGIN AND METHOD OF THE BESTOWAL OF THE FORGIVENESS SOUGHT. 
 
 5 
 LESSONS TAUGHT CONCERNING SIN OR TRESPASS BY THE VERY DUTY ITSELF 
 
 OF SEEKING FORGIVENESS. 
 
 6 
 
 FORCE OF THE PLURAL "OUR" IN THE WORDS "OUR DEBTS." 
 
 7 
 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE WORD "DEBTS "AND THAT OF "TRESPASSES." 
 
 8 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE PHRASE "OUR DEBTS." 
 
 9 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS RESPECTING THE WORDS "OUR DEBTS" WHICH GIVE 
 
 SPECIAL POINT TO THE REQUEST "FORGIVE." 
 
 10 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS RESPECTING THE WORDS " OUR TRESPASSES " WHICH GIVE 
 
 SPECIAL POINT TO THE REQUEST "FORGIVE." 
 
 C. Treatment of the Second Clause of the Petition. 
 
 II 
 
 THE INFERENCE TO BE DRAWN FROM THE WORD "AS." 
 
 12 
 QUESTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE WORD " AS," IMPLYING THE TERMS OF 
 
 OUR FORGIVENESS. 
 
 13 
 
 THE ASSERTION "AS WE FORGIVE" VIEWED IN REGARD TO THE FUNDA- 
 MENTAL (SUBJECTIVE) PRINCIPLES OR REQUIREMENTS OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 14 
 
 THE COMPREHENSIVE MANNER IN WHICH THE WORDS "AS WE FORGIVE" 
 
 ARE TO BE CONSTRUED. 
 
 15 
 SOLEMN REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE ADDITION OF THE WORDS 
 
 "AS WE FORGIVE." 
 
 16 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE CARRYING OUT OF THE ASSERTION "AS WE 
 
 FORGIVE." 
 
 17 
 THE COMPREHENSIVE MANNER IN W^HICH THE WORDS "OUR DEBTORS" 
 
 ARE TO BE CONSTRUED. 
 
 D. Concluding Reinai-ks. 
 
 18 
 
 THE HERESIES OF EARLY TIMES INFERENTIALLY CONDEMNED IN THIS 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 447
 
 4i8 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 {^Continued), 
 
 FIFTH PETITION. 
 
 {And forgive us our trespasses as ive forgive 
 them that trespass against tis.) 
 
 AS GIVEN BY ST. MATl-HEW. 
 
 " And forgive us our debts {rd a(p(t\i]fia7a) as 
 we forgive {d(pis^tv) our debtors (vi. 12). For 
 if ye forgive men their trespasses (r«pa7rra»/i«ra) 
 your heavenly Father will also forgive you,"' &c. 
 (vi. 14). 
 
 AS GIVEN BY ST. LUKE. 
 " And forgive us our sins (-«V ajiapnac) ; for 
 we [ourselves, R.V.] also forgive every one that 
 is indebted to us" (xi. 4). 
 
 I. Structural Character and Inter- 
 relations. 
 
 1 This petition marks a division in the 
 prayer itself. 
 
 [2795] We have now done with the supplica- 
 tions of this prayer, and are come to the depre- 
 cations. The supplications are those petitions 
 which we make to God for obtaining of that 
 which is good. The deprecations those for 
 removing of evil. — T. Afanton, 1629-1677. 
 
 2 This petition related to all the preceding 
 ones. 
 
 [2796] This petition is strictly connected 
 with the former ; for though we have received 
 grace and gifts from God, yet we often misuse 
 them, and therefore have need to ask for for- 
 giveness. — Pagan. 
 
 3 This petition specially related to the pre- 
 ceding one. 
 
 (i) Vieii'ed by themselves. 
 
 [2797] The grace of God in Christ is seen in 
 the very order of its sentences. If the ^Master 
 had written them on separate slips of parch- 
 ment, and told the disciples to arrange them, 
 would they have thought of placing the prayer 
 for food before that for forgiveness ? Jesus's 
 plan reminds us that our Heavenly Father's 
 bountifulness preceded man's disobedience and 
 is unimpaired. Adam began his course sur- 
 rounded by God's gifts, and in the midst of the 
 plenty of Eden he learned to transgress. If we 
 
 are born in the wilderness, it is under the star 
 of Bethlehem, and the Lord prevents us with 
 His flowing goodness. 
 
 [2798] After supply of food, pardon of sin is 
 asked for, that he who is fed of God may live 
 in God ; care being had not only for the life 
 that now is, but for that which is to last for 
 ever. — Cyprian. 
 
 [2799] Forgiveness is as much the basis of a 
 day's duty as bread. If we are to serve on 
 earth, we must have bread ; but if we are to 
 serve either on earth or elsewhere, we must 
 have forgiveness. As surely as we faint and 
 die without bread, so surely do we faint and 
 die from all godly life, and for all godly pur- 
 poses, if we have not forgiveness. — Dods. 
 
 [2S00] A former petition was " as in heaven 
 so in earth." Now it is " as in earth, so in 
 heaven." — Bengel. 
 
 (2) Viewed by the aid of the instructive con- 
 jmiciion unititig them together. 
 
 [2801] This clause of the divinely given prayer 
 begins with " and." Christ uses no waste words, 
 and be sure this is not one. It marks the con- 
 nection and fixes the order between this and 
 the preceding request. " Forgive us our sins " 
 fitly follows " Give us this day our daily bread." 
 Even life would not be a boon if not connected 
 with pardon. When the great Inspirer gives 
 continuous life through the continuous gift of 
 that which feeds it, we find to our sorrow that 
 in this world the life thus given goes wrong — 
 it is always sinning, and therefore, always need- 
 ing forgiveness. — Stanford. 
 
 [2S02] There is a word which though it be no 
 part of the petition, yet because it brings the 
 petition in, it is not itself to be left out ; namely, 
 the conjunction atid : which in all the former 
 petitions was never used, because indeed there 
 was no use of it. For they went all singly by 
 themselves, as chiefly referred to the honour of 
 God, who is actus simplicissinius, and chiefly 
 fltted for the mouths of angels, who are sub- 
 stantics simplices. But now that \\e are come to 
 the petitions for the only use of men, now there 
 is use of this conjunction : for all blessings in 
 this world are tied as it were by links together, 
 and are not good but in conjunction ; and there
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 449 
 
 2802—2814] 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 fore this conjunction and is now here used : 
 that as the first use of it that ever was was to 
 join the bodies themselves of heaven and earth 
 together, so the use of it here is to join the 
 blessings of heaven and earth together ; for as 
 an earth without a heaven would have made but 
 a miserable world, so these earthly blessings 
 without the heavenly will make but a miser- 
 able man. And therefore we have no sooner 
 said, " Give us this day our daily bread," but it 
 presently follows, " And forgive us our tres- 
 passes ; " as if it would infer, that unless the 
 spiritual blessings be added also, these temporal 
 blessings will do us small good, or rather in- 
 deed will do us more hurt than good. But all 
 this is helped by this conjunction a7id, for if 
 the spiritual blessing be added to the temporal; 
 thy riches will prove a good unto thee, as being 
 a purse for charity ; thy honour will prove a 
 good unto thee, as being a stage for humility ; 
 thy wisdom will prove a good unto thee, as 
 a lantern for devotion and a shield against 
 temptations. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2803] " Give us this day our daily bread," is 
 not the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer ; and it 
 is not a petition which we may offer once more, 
 until we have gone on to the end. The word 
 " and " tells us that there is a serious continu- 
 ation. Before we ask again for the supply of 
 our temporal wants, we must say, " And, our 
 Father which art in heaven, forgive us our 
 debts." — Robinson. 
 
 [2804] The particle and links this petition to 
 the former, showing us (i) that without pardon 
 all the good things of this life will do us no good. 
 (2) Our unworthiness. Our sins are so many 
 and so grievous that we are not worthy of one 
 morsel of bread. Gen. xxxii. 10. (3) That sin 
 is the great obstacle and hindrance of all the 
 blessings we expect from God, Jer. v. 25. — 
 T, Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 4 This and the succeeding petitions are 
 governed by the preceding one. 
 
 [2805] The expression, " this day," also im- 
 plies that Christians themselves are to pray for 
 pardon. As the words, " in earth as in heaven," 
 belong to each of the first three prayers, so the 
 phrase " this day " is a part of each of the last 
 three. " This day, give us our daily bread. 
 This day, forgive us our debts. This day, de- 
 liver us from evil." — Robinson. 
 
 II. Etymological Meaning OF THE Word 
 " Forgiveness." 
 
 [2806] "Forgive" — the original word is 
 "Dismiss" — our trespasses. — Dean Vanghan. 
 
 [2807] This word " forgive " (cKpiTjui) signifies 
 to set at liberty, to loose, to free from oblisjation, 
 to emancipate, and from this verb is derived 
 the word which is generally used in the New 
 Testament to express the remission of sins or 
 forgiveness. The year of jubilee was called the 
 
 vol. I. 29 
 
 year of setting free, of remission, of forgiveness 
 {iviavTOQ d(pEffe(iJCj Lev. xxv. 10, <S:c., Sept.), be- 
 cause the debts were cancelled, the captives 
 were set free — the obligations were " forgiven." 
 So possibly this word grew up to the nobler use 
 of the New Testament. — Loraine. 
 
 III. The Gratuitous and Absolute 
 Character of the Forgiveness 
 
 SOUGHT. 
 
 [2808] Forgiveness of sins, then, signifies that 
 gracious pardon which God, the lawgiver, ex- 
 tends to man, the law-breaker. — Ibid. 
 
 [2809] For pardon is one of the things that 
 we can only have by asking. It is a thing 
 which must come from another — from him, 
 namely, whom we have wronged. It is his to 
 forgive, and nothing we can do can earn it. We 
 cannot pass a free pardon upon ourselves, remit 
 the debts we owe to another, absolve ourselves. 
 But God whom we have offended, and in whose 
 debt we are, says we may have pardon for the 
 asking. — Dods. 
 
 [28 10] We are represented here as pleading 
 in fort/ta pauperis, and applying ourselves to 
 God's mercy not as a composition but as a 
 pardon. — y. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2811] God's forgiveness is (i) extensive — AUl 
 offences, Psa. ciii. 3 ; all characters, Manasseh,. 
 Saul, &:c. (2) Willing, Nehem. ix. 17. (3) 
 Complete, thorough, hearty, both to forgive and 
 forget, Micah vii. 18, 19. (4) Constant, daily,, 
 hourly, Lam. iii, 22-32. — Ho)lock {of Box). 
 
 [2812] The word " debts" is here used figura>- 
 tively. Debtors are those who are bound to - 
 others for some claim in commercial transac- 
 tions. Literally there can be no such transac- 
 tion between God and man. We have not met ■ 
 the claims of law. We have violated its obliga- 
 tions. We are exposed to its penalty. We are 
 guilty. And God only can forgive, in the same 
 way, as none but a creditor can forgive a 
 debtor. Debts therefore mean sins, or offences 
 against God — offences which none but God 
 can forgive. — Barnes. 
 
 IV. Origin and Method of the be- - 
 
 STOWAL OF the FORGIVENESS SOUGHT. 
 
 [2813] I. Jehovah is the source of forgive- 
 ness (Isa. xliii. 25). 2. Christ is the channel 
 through which forgiveness flows (Acts xiii. 
 38). 3. Prayer is the means by which forgive- 
 ness is obtained (2 Chron. vii. 14). — Horlock [of 
 Box). 
 
 V. Lessons taught concerning Sin or 
 
 Trespass by the very Duty itself 
 OF seeking Forgiveness. 
 
 I That we are all sinners. 
 
 [2814] Lest any man should flatter himself 
 as if innocent, when no one is innocent, and
 
 45° 
 
 2814 — 2825I 
 
 THE LORDS PR AVER. 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 should the more perish by exalting himself, he 
 is taught that he sins daily, by being com- 
 manded to pray daily for his sins. — Cyprian. 
 
 [2815] Prayer for pardon is confession, be- 
 cause he who seeks for pardon confesses a 
 fault. — Tertnllian. 
 
 [2816] All are concluded under sin, and con- 
 sequently under guilt, the effect of sin, and con- 
 sequently under death and a curse, the wages 
 of sin. And this sin, guilt, and curse is so 
 closely bound to every one of Adam's posterity, 
 that there is no possibility in the best of them 
 to deliver themselves from it ; therefore, O 
 Lord, teach us to pray, " Forgive us our sins." 
 — Sir Matthew Hale. 
 
 [2817] After the preservation of our beings 
 (the foundation of our enjoying other good 
 things), our first care, we see, ought to be con- 
 cerning the welfare of our better part and 
 state, which chiefly consists in the terms where- 
 on we stand toward God, upon whose favour all 
 our happiness dependeth, and from whose dis- 
 pleasure all our misery must proceed ; since, 
 therefore, we all do stand obnoxious to God's 
 wrath and justice, having omitted many duties 
 which we owe to Him, having committed mani- 
 fold offences against Him, it is therefore most 
 expedient that we first endeavour to get Him 
 reconciled to us, by the forgiveness of our debts 
 and offences. — Barrow. 
 
 [2818] To say that we do not sin is itself a 
 sin. Sure as that we sin daily, do we need 
 forgiveness daily. What we may think to be 
 our sanctities need it as well as what we call our 
 sins. Our tears need it, our prayers need it, our 
 holiness, our humility, our love. — Stanford. 
 
 [2819] Like one who has been for some time 
 amid the dazzle of the banquet or the dance, 
 and now the chamber is empty and its bril- 
 liancy has gone, and the sober light in his 
 hand serves only to show the tinsel character of 
 all that had seemed so bright ; so is one from 
 whom, amid the silence of the sick chamber, or 
 the solitudes of nature, or the retirement of the 
 house of God, the fascinations which threw a 
 lustre over the things of earth have vanished, 
 and he sees the pomp and the splendour of 
 life in its true character, and he feels that he 
 has been lured along a false path in forgetful- 
 ness of God, if not in direct violation of His 
 laws, and so in sin, if indeed all that is not 
 of faith — all, that is, which is not done as in 
 the thought of God and with a desire to serve 
 Him — is sin. And is not this the case more or 
 less with all of us, as we look fixedly on our 
 own past life in the light of God's word.'' Do 
 not its condemnations meet us perpetually, and 
 say to each one of us, Thou art the man .'' — 
 Karslake. 
 
 2 That though believers are justified, yet 
 they still need daily cleansing from sin. 
 
 [2820] By this petition then it appears that 
 
 every man commits sin, because every man is 
 here enjoined to ask forgiveness. But are there 
 not the just? Yes, but they were just before 
 God in His mercy, not in His justice; before 
 God as a father, not as a judge ; before God in 
 Christ, not in themselves. And, in a word, to 
 make good David's words — they are just be- 
 fore God, not by their not committing, but by 
 God's not imputing sin unto them. — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2821] The one sweeping forgiveness may lie 
 far in the past — yet is there day by day a for- 
 giveness needed, and a forgiveness vouchsafed. 
 "He that hath bathed himself " all over, once 
 for all, in the ocean of atonement, "needeth 
 not" afterward "save to wash his feet" — yet 
 that partial washing he needs, and here it is 
 provided for. " When ye pray, say, Forgive us 
 our sins," and He that hears in heaven His 
 dwelling-place, when He hears, forgives. — Dean 
 Vattghati. 
 
 [2S22] But seeing God hath forgiven our 
 sins already in Christ, what need we to trouble 
 God or ourselves to ask forgiveness again, as 
 though our words could do more than Christ's 
 deeds ? but is it not as when a king proclaims a 
 general pardon to all offenders, yet none shall 
 have benefit by it but only such as sue it forth 
 and fetch it out ; so God indeed hath granted a 
 general pardon to all sinners in the merits of 
 His Son, but none shall have benefit by it but 
 such only as sue it forth by the tongue of faith 
 and fetch it out by the feet of charity, and this 
 is the tongue of faith when we say, " Forgive us 
 our trespasses." These are the feet of charity, 
 when we " Forgive them that trespass against 
 us." — Sir Richard Baker, 1 56S-1645. 
 
 [2823] Even the best works we can do, as of 
 ourselves we do them, have all of them a need 
 of saying this petition. That as the devil in 
 the swine told Christ his name was legion, 
 because they were many, so we more truly 
 may say of our trespasses that their name is 
 legion, because they are exceeding many. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [2824] After the petition for the sustenance 
 of life, then follows most naturally this petition 
 for forgiveness. 
 
 "Give" and "Forgive." We pass on from 
 the thought of existence to that of guiltiness. 
 For "there is no man that liveth and sinneth 
 not." 
 
 This petition is for pardon ; not merely the 
 pardon of justification, but that daily cleansing 
 from sin indicated by our Lord, when He taught 
 His disciples, saying, " He that is washed 
 needeth not, save to wash his feet ;" i.e., from 
 the defilement contracted by us in each day's 
 walk through life, and contact with others from 
 our citizenship in this world. — Procter. 
 
 [2825] Seest thou surpassing mercy ? After 
 taking away so great evils, and after the un-
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2825—2834] 
 
 451 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 speakable greatness of His gift, if men sin 
 again, He counts them such as may be forgiven. 
 For that this prayer belongs to believers is 
 taught us both by the laws of the Church and 
 by the beginning of the prayer. For the un- 
 initiated could not call God Father. If, then, 
 the prayer belongs to believers, and they pray, 
 entreating that sins may be forgiven them, it 
 is clear that not even after the laver is the profit 
 of repentance taken away. Since, had He not 
 meant to signify this. He would not have made 
 a law that we should so pray. — CJirysostoin. 
 
 [2826] "Duty," the thing (//^^, has not been paid, 
 and out of our own resources we have no means 
 of payment. In the world of commerce, the 
 secret consciousness of being bankrupt is often 
 mastered by reckless levity or forced composure. 
 Sometimes debtors, in despair of paying their 
 debts, afraid to look into their books, or to face 
 the facts of their position, put the whole question 
 I away, launch into extravagance, run up tremen- 
 ' dous bills, and get into a rate of expenditure 
 beyond their calculations. So does the sinner 
 sometimes act with reference to sin, until God 
 in tender mercy, by His sovereign Spirit, brings 
 him out of his delirium, and makes him cry, 
 " God be merciful to me a sinner ! " Sin after 
 conversion is the same thing as sin before it. 
 Sins are always debts. — Staiiford. 
 
 [2S27] " Debt " is a designation of sin which 
 calls to mind a large class of sins, which we are 
 very prone to forget in seeking pardon — sins of 
 omission. These have no palpable and visible 
 existence, such as glaring acts of sin possess. 
 While they rival positive acts of wrong-doing in 
 their iniquity, they outrival them in their power 
 of eluding conscience. — Dods. 
 
 [2828] Both converted and unconverted per- 
 sons may be exhorted to a more feeling and 
 intelligent use of this petition. They are both 
 God's debtors ; the unconverted, shamefully and 
 guiltily ; the converted, lovingly and thankfully, 
 but not with sufficient love and thankfulness. 
 — Robinson. 
 
 [2829] How wonderful that Christ the Re- 
 deemer should thus mercifully recognize by 
 anticipation the very failure of His own re- 
 demption — that He should thus incorporate in 
 His own Prayer the recognition of that failure 
 — that, whereas He came "that we should not 
 sin," He yet bids us pray on the supposition 
 that we have sinned ! I know nothing more 
 human, more Divine, anywhere in His gospel, 
 than this recognition. — Dean Vaicghan. 
 
 VI. Force of the Plural " Our" in the 
 Words "Our Debts." 
 
 X It marks the fact that our trespasses are 
 our absolute property. 
 
 [2830J In " our Father " others have a right ; 
 in " our bread " others may claim a share ; but in 
 "our trespasses" none can challenge any part 
 
 with us, for every man must bear his own 
 burden ; every man must be accountable for his 
 proper debts. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 2 It reminds us of our responsibility for sins 
 of others caused through our influence. 
 
 [2831] But why say we "our trespasses.?" 
 have we not trespasses enough of our own to 
 pray for, but we must pray also for the trespasses 
 of others .'' Indeed not only charitably, but most 
 justly, seeing the trespasses of others are often- 
 times the trespasses of our trespasses. For if 
 we infect others by our counsel, or by our ex- 
 ample, are not our trespasses a cause of theirs ? 
 or, if they infect us, are not their trespasses a 
 cause of ours ? — Ibid. 
 
 VII. The Relation between the Word 
 "Debts" and that of "Trespasses." 
 
 I They are but slightly different and supple- 
 mentary aspects of the one Hebrew word 
 " choba," sin. 
 
 (i) The former is negative and the latter 
 positive, referriiig respectively to acts 0/ omission 
 and cojnmission. 
 
 [2S32] A term including the two meanings 
 was probably employed by our Lord. " The 
 word which Christ used, as interpreters note, 
 was choba, a Syriac word, and signifies both 
 debts and trespasses, which as to the purpose 
 here are both as one ; unless we may say that 
 sins may more properly be called debts, being 
 taken as omissions when we leave that undone 
 which we ought to have done ; and more pro- 
 perly trespasses, being taken as commissions 
 when we do that we ought not to do." — Robinson. 
 
 [2833] He that sins against God or man is in 
 Syriac termed a debtor, and so a sin is a debt ; 
 " This people have sinned a sin" (Exod. xxxii. 
 31). The Targum reads, " hath o\yed a debt." 
 — Van Doren. 
 
 [2834] How happens it that St. Matthew, 
 making mention of this petition, sets down 
 debts, and St. Luke trespasses t which cannot 
 both be true ; for if Christ said debts, then St. 
 Luke is in an error, who sets down trespasses ; 
 and if Christ said trespasses, then St. Matthew 
 is in an error, who sets down debts. This, 
 indeed, may seem a knot, but it is none, at 
 least, not hard to be untied ; for the word which 
 Christ used (as interpreters note) was choba, a 
 Syriac word, and signifies both debts and tres- 
 passes ; which, as to the purpose here, are both 
 as one ; unless we may say that sins may more 
 properly be called debts, being taken as omis- 
 sions when we leave that undone v.-hich we 
 ought to have done, and more properly tres- 
 passes, being taken as commissions, when we 
 do that we ought not to do ; and the evangelists, 
 being not able in a translate tongue to express 
 Christ's word in one, have expressed his sense 
 in two, which shows not so much a diversity in 
 the writers as an unity of the spirit by which
 
 452 
 
 2834—2844] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 they write. And yet withal we may observe, 
 that though St. Matthew in the petition itself 
 sets down debts, yet in the repetition presently 
 after he sets down trespasses ; and St. Luke, 
 also, though in the forepart of the petition he 
 sets down sins, yet in the latter part he sets 
 down debtors ; that it is but a knot sought in a 
 bulrush, to seek from these words to lay asper- 
 sion upon these holy writers. — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2835] The parallel place in St. Luke is some- 
 what different, " Forgive us our sins, for we also 
 forgive every one that is indebted to us ;" from 
 whence it appears that the Lord's Prayer in 
 our Liturgy follows rather the sense than the 
 words of both places ; the meaning however is 
 the same, whether we with St. Matthew read 
 " debts," or with St. Luke, sins or " trespasses.'' 
 — Mangey, 1684-175 5. 
 
 (2) The former refers more to the fact itself 
 •while the latter marks the moral significance of 
 that existing indebtedness, 
 
 [2836] By the word "trespass" is meant, a 
 going beyond the bounds of the law of God. It 
 has, then, a like meaning with the word " sin," 
 which is a missing, or going away from, the 
 path of the Law. Hence, both words really 
 describe the same thing, viz., a breaking of 
 the commands of God. They are also called 
 "debts." For, first, they are the neglect of 
 duty ; and since duty is what we owe to God, 
 the neglect of it is a debt ; and, secondly, they 
 are like an account owing to the justice of God, 
 which He may exact to the uttermost or freely 
 forgive. — Pagan. 
 
 [2837] The parallel passage in St. Luke's 
 Gospel (chap. xi. 4) guides us at once to the 
 meaning of this prominent word " debts " 
 (o^eiX/; juara), by supplying the word "trespasses" 
 (afiapTiac, sins), showing us that these " debts " 
 allude to the moral obligations under which 
 man lies to God. His law is the supreme and 
 constant rule of human life. God's right is 
 man's obedience. Every infraction of the 
 Divine law is a violation of the Divine rights. 
 To disobey is to incur a debt. — Loraine. 
 
 VI IL Lessons taught by the Phrase 
 " Our Debts." 
 
 1 As to the far-reaching nature of sin. 
 
 (i) Sin is an evil in ourselves which is not 
 only our own affair, but an evil in its aspect 
 towards God, 
 
 [2838] Here, speaking of man's relation to 
 God, and his transactions with Him, the Saviour 
 calls our sins our debts. The principle taught 
 is, that sin is not as some would have us think, 
 a. weaknesSj a sickness, an evil in ourselves. — 
 Stanford, 
 
 [2839] When we confess, we are helped by 
 viewing them as debts ; an expression which 
 leads us to consider, not so much the evil dis- 
 
 positions from which our sins proceeded, as the 
 relation to God in which they have left us. 
 And manifestly it is this which is most appro- 
 priate to be on our minds (and which, in truth, 
 must be on our minds), when we come before 
 God to ask His forgiveness. This view of sin 
 takes us and sets us down in our true position 
 before God as His debtors. It throws into my 
 soul the confession, " I am connected with God, 
 and the connection is — debt." It is not a word 
 which directly points to the moral evil of sin, 
 but it very distinctly declares the position of 
 the sinner. It exhibits the relation I hold to 
 God. And this is just what we need to see 
 clearly when we pray for pardon — that we are 
 debtors, not only miserable sinners, whose 
 pitiable case may well move God to com- 
 passion, but His servants who, in sinning and 
 ruining themselves, have been most grievously 
 wronging and defrauding Him, and whose sins 
 have done as much injury (so He represents it) 
 to Him as to themselves. — Dods. 
 
 2 As to the evil qualities and energies of sin. 
 
 (i) // produces universal mischief and misery. 
 
 [2840] When an individual has contracted a 
 large debt, unless payment can be made, he 
 loses his property, his comforts, his companions, 
 his character, and is reduced to poverty and 
 misery. And sin has wrought a similar change 
 in man. — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 [2841] A sin committed is a seed of sorrow, 
 suffering, shame, it may be death, flung out 
 into the world, bringing forth its harvest of 
 mischief and misery, " in some thirty, in some 
 sixty, in some an hundred fold." — Loraine, 
 
 [2842] We are in debt. We have known, 
 perhaps, at some moment of our boyhood or 
 manhood, what the burden of a debt may be 
 towards man — how it undermines strength, 
 destroys rest, makes cowards and criminals of 
 the bravest and the most upright. " The one 
 owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty : " 
 what matters the sum, if we " have not to pay?" 
 — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 (2) // casts a dark shadow over hwnan life. 
 
 [2843] It strikes us that in all the variety and 
 wealth of words used to show the evil qualities 
 and energies of sin, not one is more graphic 
 than this, and not one more mournful. 
 
 Even in this earthly life, and with reference 
 to earthly creditors, while still the conscience is 
 sensitive, and the soul alive, scarcely a word in 
 the English language drops on to us with such 
 a deadening blow. It is the horror that holy 
 poverty shrinks from. — Stanford. 
 
 IX. Considerations respecting the 
 Words "Our Debts" which give 
 Special Point to the Request 
 " Forgive." 
 I The two chief classes into which our debts 
 naturally fall, 
 (i) Inherited or original sin. ^ 
 
 [2844] As a man who is heir to his fathers
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 453 
 
 2844—2854] 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 estate takes upon him likewise the burden of 
 his debts, so that his father's debts, being 
 transmitted to him, become his debts; so it is 
 ■with original sin — it is a heavy debt trans- 
 mitted to us from our father Adam, which, if we 
 had not a friend to help us out and to discharge 
 it for us, would utterly sink and ruin us. — 
 J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 (2) Personal or actual sin. 
 
 1. Viewed generally. 
 
 [2845] We have followed our father's steps, 
 and have infinitely increased this debt by our 
 own bad conduct, to that degree that if the 
 creditor will deal rigidly with us, we must be 
 utterly miserable to all intents and purposes. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 2. As suggested by the antecedent sentences 
 in the prayer itself. 
 
 [2846] The antecedent sentences suggest, as 
 perhaps they were intended to suggest, what our 
 debts are. Is God our Father.'' We owe Him 
 loving reverence. Is He in heaven? We owe 
 Him a life of heavenly affections and aims. 
 Should we say, "Hallowed be Thy name" ? We 
 owe devotion to His glory. Is it right to say, 
 " Thy kingdom come " ? We owe Him the tri- 
 bute of subjects. Is it right to say, " Thy will 
 be done".'' We owe Him, not only the 
 service of the active, but the surrender of the 
 choosing faculties. Is it right to say, " Give 
 us this day our daily bread"? We owe Him 
 the worshipping sense of dependence. These 
 things we owe. — Sian/ord. 
 
 •2 Extent of our debts. 
 
 (i) As individuals. 
 
 I. With regard to the nature of the claims 
 against us. 
 
 [2847] He makes all the law and prophets to 
 hang upon a whole-hearted love to God and to 
 our neighbour (Mark xii. 28, et scq.) Thus 
 God's laws reach the deepest seats of hfe.— 
 Loraifie. 
 
 [2848] Obedience being a debt we owe to 
 God, any one who commits sin thereby con- 
 tracts a kind of obligation to be paid, by suffer- 
 ing the punishment awarded to delinquency. 
 And "forgive" means to remit the penalty. — 
 Bloonifield. 
 
 [2849] As debts stand upon record, so God 
 hath His book of remembrance (Mai. iii. 16). 
 And as men's writings or bonds, which they 
 have to show for their debts owing them, are 
 sealed up in a bag, so are our iniquities (Job 
 xiv. 17). — T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2850] Sin is called a debt, not indeed 
 properly, as if we owed it, but by a metonymy, 
 as it is the meritorious cause of that punish- 
 ment, the suffering of which we owe to Divine 
 justice (Rom. vi. 23). — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690. 
 
 (2851] As we are creatures, we owe the debt 
 of obedience. And to the payment of this debt 
 
 we stand bound both to the absolute sovereignty 
 of God, who is the supreme Lord of all His 
 creatures, and therefore may oblige them to 
 what He pleaseth ; and, likewise, by His mani- 
 fold favours and mercies conferred upon us. — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [2852] The law requires oiws, perfect obedience. 
 By breaking the law we become debtors, as God 
 requires us to adhere to each and to every pre- 
 cept contained in the decalogue, and, moreover, 
 to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and 
 strength, and our neighbour as ourself. — Horlock 
 \ofBox). 
 
 2. With regard to our inability to meet our 
 obligations. 
 
 a. Man-ward. 
 
 [2853] Upon me lies a burden which I cannot 
 shift upon any other human creature — the 
 burden of duties unfulfilled, words unspoken, or 
 spoken violently and untruly ; of holy relation- 
 ships neglected, of days wasted for ever. Are 
 they debts to our fellows? Often we think so. 
 We are bound to them by sacred ties which 
 were forgotten ; the friend repulsed, because we 
 did not understand him, or his opinions seemed 
 dangerous, or because we took a cry of agony 
 for a mocking laugh ; the child petted and 
 fondled into sin, or driven into it by roughness 
 and what we call parental authority ; those who 
 looked to be raised and purified by us, degraded 
 through our weak and grovelling ways ; those 
 who would have entered into the kingdom ot 
 heaven hindered, because we cared not that 
 they should be wiser and better than ourselves. 
 
 b. Cod-ward. 
 
 [2854] But if our debts are to our fellow- 
 creatures, they cannot discharge them. If we 
 could hear each one distinctly saying out of the 
 grave or from heaven, " I forgive," though the 
 words might be unspeakably delightful, we feel 
 they would not penetrate deep enough, they 
 would not set us free from that which has 
 seemed to become a part of our own being. 
 Are they debts to God ? The first vague con- 
 sciousness of such a belief, how terrible it is ! 
 All the former aspects of the debt seem mild to 
 this one ; yet all were surely prophetical of this 
 one. That sense of permanence, of eternity 
 being bound up with our acts and the results of 
 them, what was this but a witness that they had 
 a relation to God Himself? He surely was 
 speaking some ; t/ange conjuring ! Why cannot 
 he cast them ; side as dreams of the night? 
 Are they anything more ? They come back with 
 fearful distinctness, the very act of which con- 
 science testifies, every circumstance, look, tone, 
 clearly recorded : it is no dream of the night. 
 The voice, be it from heaven or hell, is a real 
 one, which says, " It is done," that voice which 
 we thought came from ourselves, and which was 
 echoed by every person in the world around. 
 Yes, debts are trespasses j we have not only for- 
 feited an obligation, but committed a sin ; we 
 have broken a law which was not formed on
 
 454 
 
 2854—2865] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 earth, and cannot be repeated on earth. — 
 Mau7ice. 
 
 [2S55] As a debtor is bound to make satis- 
 faction to the creditor, or else is liable to the 
 process of the law, so are we all (Rom. iii. 19) 
 become bankrupt. We can never pay the 
 original debt of obedience, and must therefore 
 be left to lie under the debt of punishment. — 
 T. Manton, 162 9- 1677. 
 
 [2S56] This debt of obedience is irremissible, 
 and we are eternally and indispensably bound 
 unto it, otherwise it would make the creature a 
 deity. To this His sovereignty obligeth our 
 subject condition, and His mercy and goodness 
 our ingenuity. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690. 
 
 [2857] Is the faithful and full observance of 
 these penetrating laws, God's right at man's 
 hand .'' Who, then, has not defrauded his 
 [Maker ? Thoughts are the soul's acts ; God 
 judgeth the soul. "As a man thinketh in his 
 heart, so is he.'' Where is the self-righteous 
 man that can justify himself before Jehovah ? 
 Who can set aside this legal claim ? Who can 
 discharge this accumulated obligation ? Bank- 
 rupt through this " debt," burdened with these 
 " trespasses," crushed with such " sins," there is 
 but one attitude for all — helpless but hopeful 
 supplication. " Our Father — forgive ! " — Loraine. 
 
 [2858] Thou canst never pay God, nor dis- 
 charge the least of thy debts for ever. Thou 
 canst not possibly do it by any duties or ser- 
 vices in this life ; for whatsoever thou dost is 
 either required or not required. If it be not re- 
 quired, it will be so far from being a satisfaction 
 for thy sins that it will be an addition to them, 
 and a piece of will-worship, which will meet 
 with that sad greeting at the last day, " Who 
 hath required these things at your hands?" If 
 it be required, it is no more than thou owest to 
 God before, and if thou hadst never sinned wert 
 obliged to pay it. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633- 1690. 
 
 (2) As communities. 
 
 [2859] As the sins of the individual, so are 
 the sins of the community, debts due to God 
 — debts of duties unperformed, of trespasses 
 actually committed. In the dark ages of the 
 Church's history, in the troubled periods of the 
 nation's life, Avhat a fearful debt of wrong-doing, 
 of neglect of truth, mercy, and justice, has been 
 incurred ! " The sins of the fathers upon the 
 children to the third and fourth generation ! " 
 The debts of the fathers must be paid by the 
 children to the third and fourth generation. A 
 great part of our indebtedness is by inheritance. 
 The national sins form the national debt to 
 God. Alas ! in enduring the consequences of 
 past evil we pay only the interest on the debt, 
 the vast principal remains unreduced. — E. B. 
 
 3 Steps necessary to avoid the penalties in- 
 curred by us as debtors to God. 
 
 [2860] First, the Scriptures declare repent- 
 ance necessary in order to remission of sins. 
 
 The second step is appealing to God's mercy. 
 We can never cancel our debts by works. If 
 our Father has no mercy, we have no salvation. 
 Here is no case for an appeal to justice. Jus- 
 tice is our stern creditor. We are the prisoners 
 of justice. Justice points us down to dungeons. 
 Blessed be God, we may look to mercy. If we 
 are the prisoners of justice, justice has been 
 hitherto the prisoner of mercy. We have been 
 spared because visited and screened by mercy. 
 To justice we shall always be debtors. But a 
 third step is necessaiy, that they pray not in 
 vain. Divine love is not blind to righteousness. 
 The mercy that would save the sinner honours 
 justice, and prevails for the sinner by satisfying 
 justice ; and the sinner is turned into a saint, in 
 proportion as he is converted into the resem- 
 blance of justice as well as of mercy, taught and 
 enabled " to do justly, and to love mercy, and to 
 walk humbly with his God." " jNIercy and truth 
 are met together ; righteousness and peace have 
 kissed each other." — Robinson. 
 
 [2S61] I. There is required an acknowledg- 
 ment of the debt. 2. The satisfaction of Christ 
 must be pleaded in the court of heaven, that 
 there may be an owning of the surety. 3. Sin 
 must be forsaken. He that hath been released 
 of his debt must not run into new arrears. — 
 T. M anion, 1629-167 7. 
 
 [2S62] See that you feel as well as call your- 
 self a sinner — but know and believe that God 
 knows all things, and trust Him to apply your 
 prayer to the history of the life open before 
 Him. One earnest gaze upon Christ is worth a 
 thousand scrutinies of self — the man who be- 
 holds the cross, and beholding it weeps, cannot 
 be really blind nor perilously self-ignorant. — 
 Dean Vaughan. 
 
 4 Penalties incurred by non-payment of our 
 debts. 
 
 [2S63] As we are transgressors, so we owe 
 God a debt of punishment, to be suffered by us 
 to make God some reparation to His honour, 
 of satisfaction to His justice, for our trans- 
 gression of His law. It is this debt that we 
 pray God that He would forgive us. — Bp. Hop- 
 kins, I 633- I 690. 
 
 [2864] After this reckoning there is execution. 
 A bankrupt that cannot satisfy his creditor is 
 cast into prison ; so God hath His prison for ob- 
 stinate, impenitent sinners, and no getting out 
 again until they have paid the utmost farthing : 
 Luke xii. 59. — T. Manton, 1629-1677. <. 
 
 [2865] If we die impenitent, sin places us in : 
 the prison of hell. The natural debtor may be 
 released from his confinement, as his debt may 
 be paid oft", or he may be forgiven on earth. But 
 the spiritual debtor can never be freed from the 
 prison of hell, the office of a mediator having 
 been laid aside, and the loving-kindness of the 
 Almighty having been shut up in eternal dis- 
 pleasure. — Horlock {of Box).
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 455 
 
 2866—2875] 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 [2S66] There is a creditor to whom the debt 
 is due. God is a creditor as our creator and 
 benefactor, from whom we received all we have ; 
 as a lawgiver^ inasmuch as we are under a law 
 to serve and honour Him who made us and gave 
 us what we have, and did not dispossess Him- 
 self of His right ; as ?i judge who will call us to 
 account for our stewardship. ?Ie obligeth us 
 as our creator, imposeth a necessity of obedience 
 as lawgiver,and will reckon with us as judge. And 
 he who abuseth God's mercy as a creator oftends 
 Him as a lawgiver, and will be punished by Him 
 as a judge. — T. Manton, 1629-1677 (abridged). 
 
 5 Grounds upon which cur debts are for- 
 given. 
 
 ( 1 ) Viewed negatively. 
 
 I. Not the sufficiency of human repentance. 
 
 a. As testified to by natural religion. 
 
 [2867] By the general prevalence of propitia- 
 tory sacrifices over the heathen world, this 
 notion of repentance alone being sufficient to 
 expiate guilt appears to be contrary to the 
 general sense of mankind. — Bp. Butler. 
 
 [2868] Moreover, we hold that the insuffi- 
 ciency of repentance to atone for sin, and the 
 consequent doctrine of substitution, are ex- 
 hibited by the analogy of nature, the general 
 constitution of the Divine government, and 
 the history of the world's various religions. — 
 Loraine. 
 
 b. As ini'olved in the very idea of sin. 
 [2869] Seeing that sin is not simply an offence 
 
 done against God, but also against the deepest 
 interests of men, would it be consistent with a 
 just, not to say with a loving regard to the well- 
 being of all, that sin should be pardoned on re- 
 pentance alone ? — Ibid. 
 
 c. As involved in the very admission of the 
 act itself. 
 
 [2870] What want is there of vicarious merit ? 
 Were his penitence and confession unavailing 1 
 No ; but they were insufficient ; they might have 
 been unavailing ; they were no satisfaction to 
 offended justice ; they did not pay the suppliant's 
 debts. Instead of being meritorious, penitence 
 is a discovery of lack of merit, and confession a 
 declaration of that discoveiy. — Robiiison. 
 
 (2) Viewed positively. 
 
 I. The all-sufficiency of Christ's vicarious 
 sufferings. 
 
 a. Formal stateinents. 
 
 1st. By Anglican standards and Anglican 
 divines. 
 
 [2871] The Church of England, in her second 
 Ai'ticle says, there " is one Christ, very God and 
 very man ; who truly suffered, was crucified, 
 dead and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, 
 and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, 
 but also for actual sins of men.'' It is therefore 
 true that our Lord Jesus Christ, by one most 
 precious and propitiatory sacrifice, which was 
 His body, a gift of infinite worth, offered for the 
 
 sins of the whole world, hath thereby once re- 
 conciled us to God, purchased His general free 
 pardon, and turned Divine indignation from 
 mankind. — Hooker. 
 
 [2872] God was pleased to provide a sacrifice 
 in nature so pure, in value so precious, as might 
 be perfectly satisfactory for our offences ; in 
 regard to which obedience, God has become 
 reconciled, and opens His arms of grace to 
 mankind; in respect to which sacrifice He 
 tenders remission to all men that, upon His 
 terms (most equal and easy terms), are willing 
 to embrace it. — Barroiv. 
 
 [2S73] Man who violated, by sinning, the law 
 of God, and by that violation offended God, and 
 was thereby obliged to undergo the punishment 
 due unto sin, and to be inflicted by the wrath of 
 God, is, by the price of the most precious blood 
 of Christ, given and accepted in full compensa- 
 tion and satisfaction for the punishment which 
 was due, restored unto the favour of God, who, 
 being thus satisfied, and upon such satisfaction 
 reconciled, is faithful and just to take off all 
 obligation unto punishment from the sinner : 
 and in this act of God consisteth iho. forgiveness 
 of sins. — Pearson. 
 
 2nd. By Puritan and modern writers. 
 
 [2874] A debtor that is insolvent is undone, 
 unless there be some means found out to satisfy 
 the creditor : so we must altogether lie under 
 the wrath of God, unless satisfaction be made. 
 Therefore Jesus Christ comes under the notion 
 of a surety. Because He took the debt of man 
 upon Himself, therefore (Heb. vii. 22) He is 
 called, "the surety of a better testament." 
 
 Christ satisfying as our surety, all those which 
 had an interest in His death are set free from 
 the wrath of God, and have a release from this 
 great debt owed. As when the ram was taken, 
 Isaac was let go ; so when Christ was taken, 
 the sinner is released and discharged (Job xxxiii. 
 24). 
 
 From hence in His name there is proclaimed 
 redemption to the captives, freedom to poor 
 prisoners that were in debt, and weak, and 
 could not acquit themselves. And therefore 
 the publication of the gospel is compared to the 
 year of jubilee : Luke iv. 19, Christ came "to 
 preach the acceptable year of the Lord." It 
 relates to the year of jubilee, wherein all debts. 
 were cancelled. — T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2875] How is this forgiveness to be obtained, 
 consistently with the integrity of these laws? 
 How are the attributes of the eternal to be re- 
 conciled, in the dispensation of mercy and the 
 iust guardianship of Divine commandments.^ 
 How is the law-breaker to be dealt with as a 
 law-keeper, the transgressor to be treated as 
 just? By the great law of substitution, by the 
 mediation of another, who says, 
 
 "Behold me, then; me for Him— life for 
 life I offer."
 
 I 
 
 456 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2875—28 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 This doctrine of salvation through a living faith 
 in the Great Substitute — "forgiveness of sin" 
 through the alone merits of Christ's atonement — 
 we urge upon you as the doctrine of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, the doctrine of the apostolic fathers, the 
 doctrine of the Church of England, the doctrine 
 of her greatest divines of the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, and the doctrine most 
 agreeable with human consciousness. Holy 
 Scripture points us to one who " hath borne our 
 griefs and carried our sorrows," upon whom 
 hath been laid "the iniquity of us all," "by 
 whose stripes we are healed" (Isa. liii.) "For 
 He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew 
 no sin, that we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in Him." — Loraine. 
 
 b. Popular statements. 
 
 [2876] In processes ot commerce you see a 
 double page ; there is a column on the left hand 
 and a column on the right. The one is called 
 ■charge., the other ^zjcharge. You observe in 
 settled accounts that although on the side of 
 charge a vast page may be crowded with entries, 
 on the side of discharge there is but a single 
 line : yet accounts at the bottom are equal and 
 balancing. There is a name written under- 
 neath the second column ; that stands for all the 
 money, and that alone secures the discharge. In 
 the day when God's books are opened, revealing 
 in long lines our heavy debts, Christ's name 
 marked to our account is our discharge. — 
 William A mot. 
 
 [2877] Christ hath not only satisfied for the 
 punishment, but He hath procured favour for us ; 
 wherein he differeth from an ordinary and com- 
 --mon surety. Christ does not only free us from 
 bonds, but also hath brought us into grace and 
 iavour with the Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge. — 
 T. Matiton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2878] To save His people from their sins is 
 represented as the leading work of the Saviour ; 
 and even from an Old Testament point of view 
 this was indispensable, since the forgiveness of 
 -sins is regarded as the foundation and condition 
 ■of all the other blessings of salvation ; and 
 •therefore the Messiah would be no true Saviour, 
 if He were unable to grant this first of all. All 
 the rest may be regarded as simply additional. 
 The forgiveness of sins is, strictly speaking, the 
 fundamental benefit of which the poor human 
 family stands in need. David, who was merely 
 a king, might very well bring the judgment of 
 God upon the nation by his sin, but he could 
 never atone for the nation. He therefore looks 
 forward with longing eyes for the King, who is 
 also High Priest. A nation of sinners could 
 only be sure of the victory spoken of in Psalm 
 ex., when the King was also High Priest. — 
 Hengstenbcrg. 
 
 [2879] Is not all this accomplished by the 
 mediation and vicarious sufferings of Christ — 
 Himself bearing the just penalty of sin, and 
 thereby providing a way of mercy for the sinner ? 
 Does not this evangelical doctrine of atonement 
 
 blend the most solemn requirements of law and 
 the most tender accents of love ! Is not Calvary 
 more awful than Sinai, even while it discovers 
 such a scheme of mercy as shall quicken the 
 pulses of a world " dead in trespasses and in 
 sin," to "love Him, because He first loved us?" 
 — Loraine. 
 
 2. The all-prevailing nature of Christ's inter- 
 cession. 
 
 [2880] But then there comes the question, 
 how can this prayer be answered? How can 
 God forgive? How can He, who is perfect 
 justice as well as perfect love, forgive the dis- 
 obedience of His creatures to His will? The 
 Christian has at once an answer : he knows how 
 mercy and truth are met together, he knows of 
 the one perfect atonement made for the sins of 
 God's rebellious world ; he knows that he has a 
 Saviour who sympathizes with all our difficulties, 
 and is ever ready to intercede for man. — Kars- 
 lake. 
 
 X. Considerations respecting the 
 Words "Our Trespasses" which 
 GIVE Special Point to the Request 
 " Forgive." 
 
 I The multitudinous character of cur tres- 
 passes. 
 
 [2881] Call not yourselves righteous, as though 
 ye had no cause to say, " Forgive us our debts." 
 Though ye abstain from murder, and adulteries, 
 and fornications, and all such other sins which 
 
 1 do not name, for which it is necessary that 
 the sinner be cut off from the altar, still there is 
 no want of occasions whereby a man may sin. 
 A man sins when he sees with pleasure what he 
 ought not to see. How great sins doth the 
 deadly tongue commit ? How often do we pray 
 and our thoughts are elsewhere, as though we 
 forgot before whom we are standing, or before 
 whom we are prostrating ourselves? If all 
 these things be collected together against us, 
 will they therefore not overwhelm us because 
 they are small faults? What matter is it whether 
 lead or sand overwhelm us ? The lead is all 
 one mass, the sand is small grains, but by their 
 great number they overwhelm thee. So thy 
 sins are small. Seest thou not how the rivers 
 are filled, and the lands are wasted by small 
 drops ? They are small, but they are many. — 
 Augustine. 
 
 2 Aspects in which our trespasses may be 
 regarded. 
 
 [28S2] Duties unfulfilled, words unspoken or 
 spoken lightly, violently or untruly, holy relation- 
 ships neglected, days wasted and now gone for 
 ever, evil thoughts once cherished, which are 
 ever reappearing as fresh as when they were 
 first admitted into the heart, talents cast away, 
 affections trifled with, light within turned to 
 darkness. — Maurice. 
 
 [2883] We commonly employ the word "tres- 
 passes," but either word is sufficiently expressive. 
 The man who has trespassed on his neighbour's
 
 THE lord's PR aver. 
 
 2883—2894"] 
 
 457 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 property and has thereby done him injury, is so 
 far indebted to him. So he who trespasses the 
 law of God, and transgresses His salutary and 
 righteous precepts, is "a debtor" to Him. 
 
 XI. The Inference to be drawn from 
 THE Word "As." 
 
 t That God's forgiveness is conditional on 
 ours. 
 
 [28S4] Necessarily this "as" grows into a 
 condition, on which the answer of our prayers is 
 suspended. " If ye forgive not, neither will ye 
 be forgiven." If you have not learned to forgive 
 men their trespasses against you, you are not 
 in a moral condition to have your sins forgiven 
 by God. — Loraiiie. 
 
 [2885] This is the invariable rule by which 
 God dispenses pardon. He that comes before 
 Him unwilling to forgive, harbouring dark and 
 revengeful thoughts, how can he expect that 
 God will show him that mercy which he is 
 unwilling to show to others ? — Barnes. 
 
 XII. Questions suggested by the Word 
 *' as," implying the terms of our 
 Forgiveness. 
 
 I In what sense God's forgiveness is con. 
 ditional on ours. 
 
 (i) Forgiveness is tiot the meritorious cause, 
 but the required conditioti on our part to receive 
 the gratuitous gift. 
 
 [2886] It is not because we forgive that we 
 ought to be forgiven ; but because we are for- 
 given that we ought to forgive. — E. B. 
 
 [2887] The words then are a sort of mutual 
 stipulation and covenant between God and 
 man ; and as one part contains the petition of 
 what we desire Him to do for us, so the other 
 sets forth a profession of what we are ready to 
 do for him. — Mangey, 1684-175 5. 
 
 [2888] It is not for a moment to be thought, 
 that our forgiveness of those that trespass 
 against us is, in any way, a meritorious cause 
 of the forgiveness of our sins by God ; that 
 because we forgive, we ought also to be forgiven ; 
 for there is no proportion (as the original words 
 suggest) between our "sins," or debts," (o^aX/;- 
 \iaTd) to God, and our " trespasses" {TrapaiTTw- 
 fiara) against one another. The Lord Christ 
 alone is the meritorious cause of forgiveness. — 
 Loraine. 
 
 [2889] By "as we forgive," we do not mean 
 " in the same measure," but only " in the same 
 manner." Not meaning that our forgiveness is 
 to be the cause of God's, but that it is the con- 
 dition, or thing required on our part, or that 
 without which we cannot be forgiven. — Pagatt. 
 
 [2890] It is clear that our forgiveness of sin 
 committed against ourselves, is not the ground 
 and reason of God's forgiveness of our sins 
 
 against Him. It is not as if we said, "seeing 
 that we forgive those who are indebted to us, 
 therefore, O Father ! forgive what we owe 
 Thee!" A supposition that would not only 
 attribute to man the meritorious initiative in 
 obtaining his own pardon, but vvould imply an 
 estimate that brings down to the low level of an 
 insignificant human injury our sins against the 
 Majesty of Heaven. — Stanford. 
 
 [2891] There is something standing in the 
 way of your forgiveness, which you must re- 
 move. Something is to be done before God 
 can forgive you, which you must do. But then 
 it is a thing which you cannot but be doing, if 
 you are compelled to seek God's forgiveness 
 from any just sense of your own sin. For just 
 in proportion as your own sin against God 
 appears great, so will the offences of others 
 against yourself appear small. It is not that 
 our forgivingness of spirit wins the forgiveness 
 of God, but that our unforgivingness cannot 
 accept the forgiveness of God. By forgiving 
 others we do not earn our own forgiveness, but 
 most assuredly we cannot receive that forgive- 
 ness until we forgive others. We are not pre- 
 pared to seek it ; we have not seen our own 
 great debt, and are merely asking God for we 
 know not what, unless humility and joy in the 
 hope of God's pardon have excluded from our 
 hearts all malice against our neighbour. — Dods. 
 
 2 How far it is a qualification ("as"). 
 
 (i) Negatively. 
 
 [2892] I. It is not a meritorious cause, or a 
 price given to God why He should pardon us, 
 for that is only the blood of Christ. 2. It is not 
 a pattern or rule. We imitate God, but God 
 doth not imitate us in forgiveness, and it would 
 be ill with us if He should. 3 It doth not 
 denote priority of order. In all acts of love God 
 is first, and His mercy to us is the cause of our 
 mercy to others. 4. It doth not import an 
 exact quality, but some kind of resemblance. 
 It is a note of similitude, and implies that there 
 is some correspondent action on our part. — 
 T. Manton, 1629-1677 (co7idc?ised). 
 
 (2) Positively. 
 
 [2893] I. It is a condition or moral qualifi- 
 cation found in the persons pardoned. 2. It is 
 a sign or note of a pardoned sinner. 3. It 
 is a necessary effect of God's mercy shed abroad 
 in our hearts ; for mercy begets inercy as heat 
 doth heat. 4. It is a solemn undertaking that 
 if God will show mercy to us this will incline 
 us to show mercy to others. 5. It is an 
 arrangement breeding confidence in God's 
 pardoning mercy. We that have so little grace 
 forgive our debtors ; if this be so, much more 
 God.— Ibid 
 
 [2894] Until we have been first forgiven, we 
 clearly cannot forgive, in a real sense, those 
 who ihwart, stand in our light, misunderstand, 
 misrepresent, injure, or hate us. It is by a
 
 458 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 2S94— 2903J 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 sense of forgiveness in our own souls that we 
 exercise the supernatural power or grace of for- 
 giveness. But in the normal state of the Chris- 
 tian life, this fact cannot be too clearly realized 
 and enforced, that our forgiveness of others is 
 that frame of mind without which God's for- 
 giveness of us does not and cannot, according 
 to His own spiritual laws, flow to our souls from 
 the infinite ocean of His love. — C. N. 
 
 3 The reason why God's forgiveness is con- 
 ditioned by ours. 
 
 [2895] I. A simili, from a like disposition in 
 us. Thus, what is good in us was first in God, 
 for He is the pattern of all perfection. If we 
 have such a disposition planted in our hearts, 
 and if it be a virtue in us, surely the same dis- 
 position is in God, for the First Being wanteth 
 no perfection. 
 
 2. The argument may be taken a dispari, or 
 a mtnofi ad vw.jics, from the less to the greater. 
 If we, that have but a drop of mercy, can for- 
 give the oftences done to us, surely the infinite 
 God, that is mercy itself, He hath more bowels 
 and more pity. 
 
 3. The argument may be taken from the con- 
 dition or the qualification of those that are to 
 expect pardon. They are such that, out of a 
 sense of God's mercy to them, and the love of 
 God shed abroad in their hearts, are inclined 
 and disposed to show mercy to others. So 
 Christ explains it, making it a condition or quali- 
 fication on our part. — T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [2896] For God's mercy can never enter 
 where man's cruelty keeps possession ; and it is 
 impossible a pardon should be sealed to him 
 in whom hardness of heart suffers not the seal 
 to make impression. — Sir Richard Baker, 
 1568-1645. 
 
 4 The light in which we should regard God's 
 forgiveness being conditioned by ours. 
 
 (i) As an aid to realize the iiaticre of Divine 
 jHcrcy in the case of our oivn forgiveness. 
 
 [2897] So in this great prayer our Lord sup- 
 plies a test to prove whether we really and 
 spiritually know how great is the extent of our 
 debt, and wonderful the mercy required for its 
 forgiveness, by teaching us that we are to for- 
 give men's trespasses against us, as we expect 
 God to forgive our sins against Him : "Forgive 
 us our trespasses, as we forgive them that 
 trespass against us." — Loraine. 
 
 (2) As a test of Christian vieinbership, 
 standino;, a]id ciiaractcr. 
 
 [289S] Our Lord partly uses this expression 
 as a badge by which He excludes from the 
 number of His children all who, prone to 
 revenge and reluctant to forgive, obstinately 
 keep up their enmity, cherishing against others 
 that enmity which they deprecate from them- 
 selves, so that they should not venture to 
 invoke Him as a Father. In the Gospel of St. 
 Luke we have this distinctly stated in the words 
 of Christ. — Calvin. 
 
 [2S99] When we say, " Forgive us our tres- 
 passes,'' doth not Christ seem to take our person 
 upon him .'' and when we say, " As we forgive 
 our debtors," do not w^e seem to take Christ's 
 person upon us ? seeing in the petition that 
 seems verified which was spoken of Christ, "He 
 was accounted among the wicked," and in the 
 condition that seems verified which is spoken of 
 us, " Of His fulness we have all received.'' — 
 Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2900] This petition at once excludes all anti- 
 nomianism from our heart — the mere selfish 
 dead faith that confesses but disbelieves. It is 
 a test of the depth of our convictions and reality 
 of our prayer. " Forgive, as we forgive.'' " As 
 we forgive." — Loraine. 
 
 [2901] For hard indeed it is ; so hard, that 
 (as has been remarked) it was a duty scarcely 
 required of the Gentiles, or even of the Jews ; 
 and the disciples themselves, when it was pro- 
 pounded to them by our Lord that an offending 
 brother was to be forgiven seven times a-day, 
 immediately replied, " Lord, increase our faith." 
 — Karslake. 
 
 (3) As an opportunity to render God accept- 
 able service. 
 
 [2902] For in contrast between God and us, 
 there are indeed two kinds of values : a value 
 of worth and a value of acceptance ; and in the 
 value of worth we are, God knows, nothing 
 worth ; for what have we that we have not 
 received? but in the value of acceptance, there 
 comes in our wealth, which, as it chiefly con- 
 sists in sacrifices, so of all our sacrifices, there 
 is none more acceptable to God. None that 
 makes a SAveeter incense to God's sense (though 
 to common senses of no scent) than our for- 
 giving of trespasses. — Sir Richard Baker, 
 1568-1645. 
 
 (4) As a solace to the weakness of our faith. 
 [2903] The condition of being forgiven as we 
 
 forgive our debtors is not added because by 
 forgiving others we deserve forgiveness, as if 
 the cause of forgiveness were expressed ; but 
 by the use of this expression the Lord has been 
 pleased partly to solace the weakness of our 
 faith, using it as a sign to assure us that our 
 sins are as certainly forgiven as we are certainly 
 conscious of having forgiven others, when our 
 mind is completely purged from all envy, hatred, 
 and malice. This conformity to the mind of 
 Christ is an evidence unto a man of his partici- 
 pation of Him, and that God heareth him as a 
 father heareth his child ; and by this means 
 faith is strengthened, and the soul argues in 
 this petition, " O Lord, I am guilty in myself of 
 many sins, but yet, if I am found in Thy Son, 
 Thou wilt look upon me with the same tender- 
 ness that a father looks upon his child, and wilt 
 be more ready to forgive me than I can be to 
 ask it ; I find Thy Son was merciful, and ready 
 to forgive even His enemies ; and I thank Thy 
 good grace I find in myscK the same mind that
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2903 — 2911] 
 
 459 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 my Saviour bore, a mind ready to forgive the 
 injuries that were offered Him ; and this dis- 
 position I have not from myself, nor my own 
 spirit, for that spirit lusteth after envy ; but 
 surely it comes from that meek and gentle 
 Spirit that is in Thy Son.'' — Sir Matthew Hale. 
 
 (5) As a jneafis to increase our own peace and 
 happiness. 
 
 [2904] So that the beginning is of us, and we 
 ourselves have control over the judgment that 
 is to be passed upon us. . . . If, saith He, thou 
 forgive thy fellow servant, thou shalt obtain the 
 like favour from Me ; though, indeed, the one 
 be not equal to the other. For thou forgivest 
 in thy need, but God having need of none ; 
 thou, thy fellow slave, God, His slave; thou 
 liable to unnumbered charges, God, being with- 
 out sin. 
 
 But yet even thus doth He show forth His 
 loving-kindness towards man ; since He might 
 indeed, even without this, forgive thee all thine 
 offences ; but He wills thee hereby also to 
 receive a benefit, affording thee on all sides 
 innumerable occasions of gentleness and love 
 towards man, casting out what is brutish in thee 
 and quenching wrath, and in all ways cement- 
 ing thee to him who is thy own member. For 
 what canst thou have to say 1 That thou hast 
 wrongfully endured some ill from thy neighbour '? 
 But thou, too, art drawing near to receive for- 
 giveness for such things, and for much greater. 
 — Chrysostoni. 
 
 [2905] It is not that He establishes harsh 
 conditions as barriers between us and Him. 
 " I command thee this day,'' the old lawgiver 
 said to Israel, "for thy good." Tell me, ye who 
 have tried both states, which is the happier — the 
 state of discord, or the state of peace .? Was 
 the effort unrewarded, was it unblessed, by 
 which you, the injured, constrained the love of 
 the injurer .'' Was it without even a present, a 
 human recompense, that you sought out him 
 who had done the wrong, took all the blame 
 upon yourself, and so sent him, and went your- 
 self, loved and loving, to the throne of grace ? 
 These are gospel struggles, gospel victories — in 
 making them duties, God has but bound us to 
 our own peace and to our own happiness. — Dean 
 Vaughati. 
 
 (6) As an expedient to promote theforgivejiess 
 of injicries. 
 
 [2906] It is hardly possible to imagine a more 
 effectual expedient to promote the forgiveness 
 of injuries than this — of making it a part of our 
 daily prayers, to ask such pardon from God, 
 as_ we impart to our offending brother. For 
 this circumstance, every malicious purpose 
 against him would turn this petition into an 
 imprecation, by which we should, as it were, 
 bind down the wrath and vengeance of God 
 upon ourselves. — Doddridge. 
 
 XIII. The Assertion "As we forgive" 
 
 VIEWED IN REGARD TO THE FUNDA- 
 MENTAL (subjective) Principles or 
 Requirements of the Gospel. 
 
 [2907] (i) Considering this petition with the 
 context, we may easily discover faith in Christ ; 
 for everywhere in the New Testament we find 
 that our privilege to call God our Father, or to 
 expect forgiveness of sins from Him, is solely in 
 and through Christ (Rom. viii. 1 5). It is ascribed 
 to our adoption that avc cry " Abba, Father.'' 
 And (Gal. iv. 5) one of the ends of sending ' 
 Christ is said to be "That we might receive the 
 adoption of sons." This liberty then of address- 
 ing God as His adopted children, and the liberty 
 of asking forgiveness of our sins is owing to 
 faith in Christ. (2) We are taught here to 
 come unto God as humble supplicants, confess- 
 ing our sins, and begging pardon ; so here is 
 the qualification of repentance. (3) We are 
 taught here that though God is now rendered 
 propitious to mankind in Christ, yet it is 
 requisite that we continually sue out our pardons 
 by incessant prayer. (4) We are put in mind 
 here of the necessity of charity, particularly 
 that highest kind of it, consisting in the for- 
 giving our enemies, by putting it expressly into 
 our prayers. "Forgive us our debts as we 
 forgive our debtors." — J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2908] Do we not pray for faith, when we 
 pray for the having of that which cannot be 
 had but by the hand of faith — forgiveness ol 
 our sins ? Certainly, seeing we pray for the 
 causes and the effects, for the root and the fruit 
 of faith, it is not the want of naming faith that 
 can be a reason to make us doubt that we pray 
 not for faith, no more than the want of naming 
 Christ in this prayer is any reason to prove that 
 we pray not here in the name of Christ. — Sir 
 Richard Bake?-, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2909] The apostles had afterwards the 
 power of working miracles to convert the world, 
 as had also the other first Christians ; and yet 
 it was seen and allowed that no miracle which 
 they wrought in changing the course of nature 
 had so great an effect in converting the world 
 as this miracle of faith, which they carried about 
 in their own hearts, by which they overcame all 
 injuries by forgiving them. — Williavis. 
 
 [2910] To forgive, however, is but one thing 
 really required of us. Besides forgiving, we 
 must believe, especially in Jesus Christ ; and 
 also be sony for, repent of, confess and forsake 
 sin. And then, if we forgive, God will forgive 
 us for Christ's sake. — Pagan. 
 
 XIV. The Comprehensive Manner in 
 WHICH the Words "As we for- 
 give" ARE to be construed. 
 
 I It implies the absolute nature of our for- 
 giveness of others. 
 
 [291 1] Forgiving our debtors consists in the
 
 460 
 
 2gii — 2922J 
 
 THE LORD S PR A YER. 
 
 [fifth petition*. 
 
 inward frame and temper of our hearts towards 
 them, that we bear them no mahce, no ill-will ; 
 but be as much in charity with them as though 
 they never had offended us. — Bp. Hopkins, 
 1633-1690. 
 
 [2912] There are persons who repeat this 
 petition, and are yet not afraid to say, " I for- 
 give, but cannot forget." In those words there 
 is little agreement with the prayer. They may 
 have the spirit and sound of cherished animosity. 
 • They are self-contradictory, professing to put 
 out the flame while pouring on oil. Such charity 
 is hypocrisy. It is unforgiveness wearing the 
 affectation of benevolence. — Robinson. 
 
 2 It implies the absolute re-consecration of 
 our lives. 
 
 [2913] The prayer, "Forgive, as we forgive," 
 more than denotes relation and similitude ; it 
 expresses a full purpose of living nearer than 
 ever to God in the sense of being like Him 
 (Ephes. ii. 11-13, 17). Alluding with humble 
 thankfulness to the possession already of a. God- 
 like spirit. — Robinson. 
 
 XV. Solemn Reflections suggested by 
 THE Addition of the Words " As 
 
 WE FORGIVE." 
 
 X Those unable honestly to repeat this 
 clause are placed in a spiritual dilemma. 
 
 [2914] But must I say to you, " If ye do not 
 love your enemies, say not in the Lord's Prayer, 
 'forgive our debt?'" Suppose I were to say, 
 " Do not use these words." If ye do not, your 
 debts are not forgiven ; and if ye do use them 
 and do not act thereafter, they are not forgiven. 
 In order, therefore, that ye may be forgiven, ye 
 must both use the prayer, and do thereafter. — 
 Augustine. 
 
 [2915] How imprudent is it, either to pass the 
 day without prayer, while you omit giving satis- 
 faction to your brother ; or to make vain your 
 prayer by persevering in anger. — Tertulliati. 
 
 [2916] Remember that he who cannot use in 
 sincerity the " Lord's Prayer," can use no prayer 
 that is acceptable unto God ; but this prayer re- 
 quires us to say, " forgive us, as we forgive " — 
 to make our forgiveness the standai'd by which 
 we are to be forgiven, therefore he who uses this 
 prayer, unless he himself forgives men their 
 trespasses, asks God, in the solemn language of 
 prayer, to refuse him forgiveness. " Forgive us 
 our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass 
 against us." — Loraine. 
 
 [2917] Be merciful to my sins— for they are 
 few, or small, or easily to be apologized for — 
 because " the serpent beguiled me," or because 
 " the woman whom Thou gavest to be with me 
 gave me of the fruit" — this is the prayer which 
 defeats and contradicts itself — the prayer of the 
 self-excuser for whom Christ Himself died in 
 vain. 
 
 XVI. Practical Hints for the carry- 
 ing OUT OF THE Assertion " As we 
 
 FORGIVE." 
 
 1 As to what really is implied in the duty 
 of Christian forgiveness. 
 
 [2918] I. All private revenge is certainly for- 
 bidden, and it is left entirely to the magistrate's 
 office to do right between man and man. 2. All 
 rancour and malice in the heart are forbid ; and 
 the duty of love and charity enjoined, which is 
 very consistent with the doing of right to all. 
 
 3. The rigour of justice, where it borders upon 
 cruelty, exaction, or severity, is condemned. 
 
 4. Where there is probability of reclaiming an 
 enemy by a seasonable kindness, such as neither 
 encourages transgression in general, nor wrongs 
 any third person in particular, it is commend- 
 able to pass by a personal injury, and to be the 
 first in breaking off contention ; for the retali- 
 ating injury with injury is the way to perpetuate 
 strife, and to increase animosities. 5. As to 
 debts and injuries, where the party offending 
 has not capacity or ability to repair them, and 
 shows no malice in the case, then the Christian 
 part is rather to forgive than to use the offenders 
 rigidly.—,/. Blair, 1723. 
 
 2 As to what is not implied in the duty of 
 Christian forgiveness. 
 
 (i) It refers to forgiveness i/i a personal, not 
 official or judicial capacity. 
 
 [2919] We cannot forgive our enemy's sin, 
 only his debt to us. — Van Doreft. 
 
 [2920] Our Saviour did not intend to en- 
 courage the doing of injuries to others ; as it 
 would certainly be a great encouragement to all 
 manner of injuries if they were all to escape 
 unpunished. Nor did He design that injustices 
 should be passed by or connived at, and that 
 innocent persons should suffer. Our Saviour 
 did not design to interfere with the magistrates' 
 office, or to hinder their calling offenders to 
 account, that tending very much to the peace 
 and quiet of the world, and the good of human 
 society.^/. Blair, 1723. 
 
 (2) VVe are 7iot required in all cases to forgive 
 debts in a pecuniary sense. 
 
 [2921] To them we have a right, though it 
 should not be pushed with an overbearing and 
 oppressive spirit ; nor so as to sacrifice the feel- 
 ings of mercy in order to secure the claims of 
 right. No man has a right to oppress ; and 
 when a debt cannot be paid, or when it would 
 greatly distress a wife and children, a widow 
 and an orphan ; or when calamity has put it out 
 of the power of an honest man to pay the debt, 
 the spirit of Christianity requires that it should 
 be forgiven. — Barnes. 
 
 (3) We are not required to court the intifnate 
 society of implacable enemies or otherwise in- 
 jurious persons. 
 
 [2922] It is, indeed, not altogether impossible
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2922 — 2926] 
 
 461 
 
 [fifth petition. 
 
 truly to forgive those with whom it may be our 
 duty to have no further familiar intercourse. 
 We may "heap coals of fire on their head" 
 (Rom. xii. 20) ; and yet, as we cannot, like God, 
 burn out the dross of their malice, and melt 
 their hearts into loyalty, we are not required to 
 court their intimate society. — Robinson. 
 
 XVII. The Comprehensive Manner in 
 WHICH THE Words " our Debtors" 
 are to be construed. 
 
 [2923] " Our debtors " is not meant in the 
 vulgar sense only of those who stand engaged 
 for a sum of money due to us ; but such as have 
 offended us in word or deed. — T. Ma7iton, 
 1629-1677. 
 
 [2924] As the word is used in the prayer, we 
 may have many more debtors than such as owe 
 us money. They who, of whatever grade, and 
 in whatever particular, neglect their duty to- 
 wards us, are our debtors ; especially when they 
 wilfully injure us by word or deed. It may oc- 
 casionally be necessary to exact restitution or 
 reparation from them ; but we must never do 
 so unforgivingly. We must be so charitable as 
 not hastily to take steps even to defend our- 
 selves, or enforce our lawful claims. Never 
 must we clamour for the fulfilment of the bond, 
 like Shylock. We must be very content with 
 bad debts sometimes, and eager to do good to 
 our unfortunate debtors. We are debtors our- 
 selves to our neighbours, until we have learnt to 
 say with truth to our heavenly Judge, " Forgive 
 us our sins ; for we also forgive every one that 
 is indebted to us." — Robinson. 
 
 [2925] Ye have enemies ; for who can live on 
 this earth without them ? Take heed to your- 
 selves : love them. In no way can thy enemy 
 so hurt thee by his violence as thou dost hurt 
 thyself if thou love him not. And let it not seem 
 to you impossible to love him. Believe first 
 that it can be done, and pray that the will of 
 God may be done in you. For what good can 
 thy neighbour's ill do to thee? If he had no 
 ill, he would not even be thine enemy. Wish 
 him well, then, that he may end his ill, and he 
 will be thine enemy no longer. For it is not the 
 human nature in him that is at enmity with thee, 
 but his sin. . . . Let thy praj'er be against the 
 malice of thine enemy, that it may die, and he 
 may live. For if thine enemy were dead, thou 
 hast lost, it might seem, an enemy, yet hast 
 thou not found a friend. But if his malice die, 
 thou hast at once lost an enemy and found a 
 friend. — A ugustine. 
 
 XVIII. The Heresies of Early Times 
 inferentially condemned in 
 this Petition. 
 
 [2926] In this petition two notable heresies of 
 early times are inferentially condemned. The 
 Novatian idea that sin, when once committed 
 after baptism, can never have forgiveness ; and 
 the Pelagian notion that sin is a mere idea, or, 
 at least, that original sin is but a fancy. The 
 prayer " Forgive us," implies that God will for- 
 give ; and this daily cry for pardon proves that 
 man does commit sin, and that he is unable of 
 himself to expel its power or evade its conse- 
 quences. — Hugo.
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 SIXTH PETITION. 
 
 Pages 463 to /^T2. 
 
 A. Introductory Remarks. 
 
 I 
 COMPREHENSIVE CHARACTER OF THIS AND THE THREE LAST PRECEDING 
 
 PETITIONS. 
 
 2 
 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE ADDITION TO THE LAST PRECEDING PETITION OF 
 
 THIS, WITH ITS APPENDED SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 B. Treatment of the Separate Words in the Petition. 
 
 3 
 
 THE DIFFERENCE OF MEANING BET^YEEN "LEAD" IN AUTHORIZED VERSION 
 
 AND " BRING " IN REVISED VERSION. 
 
 4 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORD "US^' IN THE PHRASE "LEAD US." 
 
 5 
 IN WHAT SENSE WE USE THE WORD "NOT" IN THE PHRASE "LEAD US NOT 
 
 INTO TEMPTATION." 
 
 6 
 
 MEANING AND FORCE OF THE WORD "TEMPTATION" IN THE PHRASE 
 
 " LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION." 
 
 C. Treatment of the Petition as a liJioIe. 
 
 7 
 MEANING AND IMPORT OF GOD'S LEADING US INTO TEMPTATION, AS IMPLIED 
 
 IN THIS PETITION. 
 
 8 
 
 WAYS IN WHICH GOD ANSWERS THIS PETITION. 
 
 9 
 FALSE VIEWS REMOVED CONCERNING TEMPTATION BEING A POSITIVE EVIL. 
 
 10 
 REASONS WHY GOD ALLOWS US TO BE LED INTO TEMPTATION, AS IMPLIED 
 
 IN THIS PETITION. 
 
 II 
 
 GROUNDS FOR CONSOLATION IF GOD SEES FIT, NOTWITHSTANDING OUR 
 
 r^EQUEST TO THE CONTRARY, TO LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION. 
 
 12 
 LESSONS AND REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THIS PETITION. 
 
 D. Concluding Pe marks. 
 
 13 
 REALITY OF THIS PRAYER AS DEALING IN A REAL WAY WITH THE REALITIES 
 
 OF LIFE. 
 
 14 
 FRAME OF MIND IMPLIED IN THIS PRAYER. 
 
 462
 
 463 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 ( Continued). 
 
 SIXTH PETITION. 
 
 (And lead \pnng, R. V. (nVf j/jy/cye)] tis not into 
 temptation.) 
 
 I. Comprehensive Character of this 
 AND THE Three Last Preceding 
 Petitions. 
 
 I They include spiritual overthrow of Satan's 
 kingdom. 
 
 [2927] When you seriously set yourselves to 
 call upon God, Satan saith within himself, " This 
 man will pray for God's glory, and then I am at 
 a loss ; for the coming of Christ's kingdom, and 
 then mine goeth to wreck ; that God's will may 
 be done upon earth as it is in heaven, and that 
 minds me of my old fall, and my business is to 
 cross the will of God ; he will pray for daily 
 bread, and that strengtheneth dependence ; for 
 pardon and comfort, and then I lose ground (for 
 the devils are the ' rulers of the darkness of this 
 world,' Eph. vi. 12) ; he will pray to be kept from 
 sin and temptation, and that is against me." 
 Thus Satan is afraid of the prayers of the saints. 
 — T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 II. Lessons taught by the Addition 
 TO the Last Preceding Petition of 
 THIS, with its Appended Supplement. 
 
 1 Prayer which ended with the past and 
 made no mention of the future would 
 leave a hopeless hiatus. 
 
 [2928] If the Lord's Prayer had ended with 
 forgiveness, I should have felt confident that it 
 was mutilated. Christ would not leave it so. 
 St. Luke leaves out the petition about the will. 
 Doubtless he felt it to be included in the "name " 
 and the "kingdom.'' St. Luke leaves out the 
 " Deliver us from evil." Doubtless he felt that 
 it was involved in the " Lead us not into tempta- 
 tion." St. IMatthew and St. Luke both (accord- 
 ing to the best authorities) omit the doxology 
 — end with the petition before us. Doubtless 
 that was an early, though a perfectly pure and 
 reverent, addition by the Church, for purposes 
 of worship, to the actual liturgy of Jesus Christ. 
 — Deafi Vaiiglia?i. 
 
 2 We not only require pardon for the past, 
 but grace and guidance for the future. 
 
 ^2929] This ought to teach us that it should 
 
 be our care not only to seek for the pardon of 
 our past sins, but to endeavour the prevention 
 of sin for the future. — Bp. Hopkins^ 1633-1690. 
 
 [2930] Our Saviour directed His disciples in 
 the foregoing petition to avoid the guilt and 
 punishment of their past sins, and in this 
 teacheth them to prevent their danger for the 
 future : in the former, they ask forgiveness from 
 God's mercy ; in the latter, protection from His 
 providence and assisting grace from His Spirit. 
 — Mangey, 1684-1755. 
 
 [2931] You therefore see the connection 
 between what we now are saj-ing and what has 
 just been said. This connection is suggested 
 by the introductory use of the word *' and." 
 Now, as in the last instance in which the 
 particle has this peculiar place — it links two 
 petitions together, so that the spirit of the first 
 still runs on into the second. If the hurry of 
 our joys at the ans^v'er to our prayer " forgive 
 us our debts," should make us forget to add, 
 "lead us not into temptation," the weight of 
 debt may be scarcely lifted before we are in 
 debt again. That sentence is therefore followed 
 up by this. Having pardon for the past we want 
 grace for the future. — Stanford. 
 
 [2932] In the last two petitions we have first 
 looked upon ourselves as we are in our own 
 being, and seen ourselves to be entirely depen- 
 dent upon God, from whom, therefore, we have 
 asked for a supply of what is necessary for our 
 temporal and spiritual life ; and then we have 
 looked on ourselves as we have used that being 
 which we possess, in the past, and, finding our- 
 selves to have lived, at least in great measure, if 
 not wholly, in the neglect of God's will, we have 
 in earnest prayer besought Him to forgive us all 
 our trespasses for Christ's sake. And thus we 
 trust that we are made clean. Morning and 
 evening, as we say this prayer, we trust that the 
 soils contracted during the hours of the dark- 
 ness or in the business of life are washed away, 
 and we go forth pure again. But then there is 
 the future. — Karslake. 
 
 3 Not to rest in the quiet calm of forgive- 
 ness, unmindful of the awful possibility 
 of sinning in the future. 
 
 [2933] " Thy sins be forgiven thee" is followed 
 forthwith not by " Well done, good and faithful
 
 464 
 
 2933—2941] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [sixth PF.TITION. 
 
 servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord," 
 but by "Go and sin no more." But this "go," 
 what a bleak and dangerous world does it launch 
 us into ; to what possibilities of disaster and 
 hurt, to what likelihood of ruin does it dismiss 
 us! How contradictory it seem.s to add "sin 
 no more ! " We cannot but turn and say, "Do 
 thou, then, Lord, lead us ; and lead us not into 
 temptation." — Dods. 
 
 4 Daily pardon of sin is not to diminish 
 our dread of sin. 
 [2934] No sooner have we asked and received 
 forgiveness than we look forward with fear and 
 anxiety to the power and subtlety of temptation ; 
 having washed our garments and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb, we are anxious 
 to keep ourselves unspotted from the world ; we 
 therefore pray, " And lead us not into tempta- 
 tion." The forgiven soul fears God and dreads 
 sin. — A. SapJiir. 
 
 [2935] Yet, there is the world, and our prayer 
 has not altered it. There is the flesh, and our 
 prayer has not altered it. There is the devil — 
 waiting to devour— and our prayer leaves him 
 as he was, alike in power and in malignity. 
 The soul forgiven, its trespasses must go back 
 into the world in which it has trespassed. Can 
 it do so in a light or confident spirit? — Dean 
 Vaughan. 
 
 [2936] Those who have nothing to lose are 
 very little put about by the presence of thieves; 
 and of those whose hopes are small, the fears 
 also are few and slight. The fear of defilement 
 found no place in our souls until the grateful 
 sense of purity introduced it. It seemed a small 
 thing to risk all temptation before we experienced 
 the peace and joy of the goodwill of God ; but 
 now that we have tasted His goodness, and 
 prize his favour as our choicest possession, it 
 seems a hazardous thing to venture into a sea 
 of temptations, one or other of which will almost 
 inevitably sweep over our soul, and leave it bare 
 of its prize under the displeasure of God. I do 
 not purpose to sin ; I have no present and special 
 resolve which I know to be wrong, but am I 
 therefore secure ? Or has it not often happened 
 with me that, when least I expected it, evil was 
 very powerfully present with me ? Besides sin- 
 ning deliberately, have I not sinned through 
 ignorance, through weakness, through surprise, 
 through habit ? — Dods. 
 
 5 To pray not only for forgiveness of sins, 
 but for deliverance from the evil out of 
 which these have sprung. 
 
 [2937] Some suppliants seem to be concerned 
 only that they may have forgiveness, but sin 
 itself seems to give them but little concern. 
 Although they take deep interest in their own 
 spiritual symptoms ; they are nervous rather 
 than penitent, and what they want is simply 
 impunity. They will tell you that they glory 
 
 in the cross, because the righteousness of Jesus 
 there " finished "' is the only righteousness that 
 will satisfy the justice of God and save the soul 
 of man. They watch the Lamb of God, not as 
 bearing away sin, but simply the consequences 
 of sin. Like the priest of old, who in the name 
 of the people laid his hand over the head of the 
 scape-goat, and ceremonially transferred their 
 sins to it ; they in fancy put a hand on the 
 mystic burden-bearer, and think with a selfish- 
 ness that passes for Christian joy that their sins 
 are now clean forgiven and taken for ever out of 
 sight. This is the one thing they seem to think 
 of, or to care for. — Stanford. 
 
 [2938] In this petition we pass from sins — of 
 omission and commission —to be forgiven, to 
 sins to be avoided. As sanctification succeeds 
 justification, so this petition succeeds the pre- 
 vious one. It is our side of " Go, and sin no 
 more." It is a prayer that God would not with- 
 draw His protecting and guiding hand from us ; 
 nor leave us unguarded, like sheep without a 
 shepherd ; or, like inexperienced children, in the 
 midst of crafty people, who, with the tempter's 
 guile, decoy the young and unwary to their ruin. 
 Against which danger we are forewarned : 
 " Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temp- 
 tation." Temptation will come : God permits 
 it to try us. Trial is as necessary for us as the 
 wintry blast is to the blade of grass. Blessed 
 is the man that endureth it. But the flesh is 
 weak, and help must be sought. — F. B. Proctor, 
 
 [2939] Often it calls us to give up prospects 
 ot great attraction, but which we fear would 
 be adverse to our spiritual growth. We see the 
 beauty of the prospect, it allures us on, but we 
 know not whether the flowers wave and rustle 
 with the healthy breath of heaven or with the 
 subtle windings of the serpent. We will not ven- 
 ture where there may be danger, and where there 
 is not a necessary call, but will pray still to God, 
 " Lead us not thither." And this fear to go 
 where we may ofifend God is the same feeling 
 as gives us absolute courage to go wherever we 
 may serve Him. — Dods. 
 
 III. The Difference of Meaning be- 
 tween " Lead" in Authorized Ver- 
 sion AND "Bring" in Revised VeR' 
 sion. 
 
 [2940] The word " bring " (tiVfvsy/fpc) in our 
 prayer points to the act of God in taking us 
 into temptation, and in this case our consent of 
 will takes the form of resignation rather than of 
 active obedience. — Stanford. 
 
 [2941] The authorised version, in every other 
 instance where the Greek word in question is 
 used, renders it " bring," and there seems to be 
 no good reason why we should not so translate 
 it here. 
 
 Every one sees the meaning of the word lead;
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 465 
 
 2941—2952] 
 
 [sixth petition. 
 
 we put the same meaning into the word bring, 
 only giving it greater strength. " Leading " 
 may mean the gentlest of directive help along 
 the road, but "bringing" is something more 
 energetic. In order to bring, a leader may have 
 sometimes to carry, sometimes to fight, some- 
 times to clear away obstructions. The pilgrim 
 is his charge, therefore by all needful processes, 
 and in the most effectual way, he fulfils what he 
 undertakes. — Ibid. 
 
 IV. Significance of the Word "Us" in 
 THE Phrase " Lead us." 
 
 I We are reminded of the effect of our con- 
 duct upon that of those engaged with us 
 against a common foe. 
 
 (i) In regard to stumbling. 
 
 [2942] " Lead tis not into temptation," brings 
 before our thoughts all mankind also, and es- 
 pecially those who are connected with us, as 
 engaged in the same struggle with ourselves. 
 And thus we are required to aid others in their 
 warfare, far more not to side with their adver- 
 sary in the fight. Think ! the battle-field is the 
 soul of some brother, or dependant, or friend 
 — eternity hangs on the issue — and our evil 
 counsel, our evil example, nay, perhaps our in- 
 difference, has turned the scale, and enabled 
 the hosts of the evil one to triumph, and that 
 soul has lost part of its brightness, perhaps 
 fallen for ever, and we have been fellow-workers 
 with Satan in leading that soul into temptation, 
 and delivering it to the evil one for time and 
 for ever ! Who can tell the horror of such a 
 thought clinging perhaps to us through eter- 
 nity ? — Karslake. 
 
 (2) In regard to steadfastttess. 
 
 [2943] Think, on the other hand, if, through 
 some word spoken in season, through some good 
 example set, some carefulness shown for the 
 spiritual interests of our servants or those in any 
 way influenced by our example or committed to 
 our charge, if such a soul has been thus saved 
 from the temptation which was assailing it, and 
 we have been found fellow-workers with God, 
 and have gained a soul for Christ to its own 
 salvation and the glory of the crown of Christ, 
 what momentary charm of sin, or even of inno- 
 cent enjoyment, could compare with such bliss 
 as would be ours for ever from this.? — Ibid. 
 
 V. In what Sense we use the Word 
 " Not " in the Phrase " Lead us 
 NOT into Temptation." 
 
 [2944] "Lead." Suffer us not to be led by others, 
 nor by our hearts (Jer. xvii. 9). Providentially 
 led, we may be tempted, but never compelled 
 to sin (Matt. iv. 3). Humbly shrinking from 
 trials of our loyalty to heaven. It confesses our 
 strength as well as oViX innocence'is lost. It sup- 
 presses all presumption and flattery of the heart 
 (Prov. xxviii. 26j. — Van Daren. 
 
 VOL, I. 30 
 
 [2945] We ask of God in this petition that 
 assistance of His Holy Spirit that may enable 
 us to go through temptations. — Mangey, 1684- 
 1755- 
 
 [2946] Temptation is the arrow of the evil 
 one. We pray that, if directed against us, we 
 may be defended by the shield which God in- 
 terposes, so that the arrow may not wound us. 
 
 [2947] Trying enough it is to fall into temp- 
 tation after praying, but to fall into it without 
 prayer is a confounding and disastrous thing. 
 It may be good for us to meet temptations, but 
 it is never good to hope for them. It is God's 
 prerogative to lead us into them, for He also — 
 and He only — can bring us through them : it is 
 ours to watch and pray against them, knowing 
 our own weakness. — Dods. 
 
 [2948] Humility, the base of every virtue, and 
 the indispensable condition of God's indwelling, 
 breathes in the closing petitions of the Lord's 
 Prayer. As the believer comes to maturity, like 
 the ripened, rich grain, he bends in lowliness. — 
 C. N. 
 
 [2949] A family of tourists climbed up certain 
 perilous rocks on the coast of Cornwall ; as the 
 father went on first, with his little son, the 
 mother from below called out to her boy, " Have 
 you fast hold of your father ? " Then was heard 
 the shrill ring of a voice, answering with perfect 
 sense of safety in its tone — " No, mother, but 
 he has fast hold of me." So is our Father in 
 heaven leading us by bringing us up through 
 danger, and out of it. Catching sight of certain 
 dangers called temptations, we utter this cry. — 
 Stanford. 
 
 [2950] Temptation is always in our midst, 
 therefore we pray, not that it may not exist, but 
 that it may not touch or conquer us. — Bengel. 
 
 [2951] (i) We pray here for the staving off of 
 such temptations as are disproportioned to our 
 measure of strength and grace ; (2) for prevent- 
 ing grace to keep our minds in a good frame 
 and temper, well fortified against all temptations 
 we may be encountered with ; (3) that God 
 would not desert us in the hour of temptation, 
 but that His grace may be sufficient for us to 
 bring us off victorious ; (4) that if we are en- 
 snared by any temptation, we may be quickly 
 delivered from the power of it, and rendered 
 more humble, penitent, and watchful.— y. Blair, 
 1723. 
 
 [2952] We pray of Him to keep us secure, as 
 far as may be, and as far as it is good for us 
 that we should be, amid the dangers, known 
 and unknown, which beset us from Satan, from 
 the world around us, and from ourselves, either 
 (i) withdrawing us from them, or (2) enabling 
 us to meet them victoriously, though humbly, in 
 His strength, and so to carry us safe through 
 the spiritual struggle of life into that blessed 
 state where there shall be no more evil, and
 
 466 
 
 2952— 2963! 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [sixth petition. 
 
 sorrow, and temptation, but all shall be good- 
 ness, and joy, and peace. — Karslake. 
 
 [2953] In this petition, according to the com- 
 mon idiom of Scripture, which assigns, as in the 
 case of Pharaoh, actions to the Almighty which 
 He permits others to do, we entreat Him not to 
 sufi'er us to be led either by providence or by 
 our own delusions and inclinations into circum- 
 stances of strong temptation ; or if brought into 
 them, that He would not leave us to struggle in 
 our own strength, but enable us to resist, and 
 finally overcome. — Good {of Salisbury). 
 
 [2954] We by this petition desire the blessing 
 of God's providence. We here desire a merciful 
 God so to crder our external affairs, that no 
 difficulties in them may tempt us to distrust or 
 to forfeit His goodness. — Mangey, 1684-1755. 
 
 [2955] Here we pray : (i) that we may not 
 be tempted ; or (2) if the Lord see it fit we 
 should be tempted, that we may not yield ; or 
 (3) if we yield, that we may not totally be over- 
 come. 
 
 VI. Meaning and Force of the Word 
 "Temptation" in the Phrase "Lead 
 us NOT into Temptation." 
 
 [2956] We find that in the Bible the word 
 " temptation" is used with two different meanings. 
 Sometimes it simply means to "try ;" sometimes 
 to "entice ;" the purpose in the one case being 
 good, in the other evil. — Stanford. 
 
 [2957] In the Greek language the term "temp- 
 tation" here signifies " trial," which is always the 
 signification of the word when it is used with 
 reference to God. — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 [2958] " Temptation " (in the original Greek 
 Treipaa^toc) is simply "trial," so that anything 
 whatever which tends to try and discover what 
 is in the heart or will of man is and may be 
 called a " temptation." — Karslake. 
 
 [2959] Words frequently exhibit a tendency 
 either to turn entirely aside from their original 
 meaning, or considerably to enlarge its sphere. 
 In the course of its common use, a word is often 
 brought into such a close connection with some 
 thought, nearly allied with that which the word 
 itself primarily represents, that at length this 
 secondary thought is gathered up also to share 
 the use and divide the meaning of the original 
 term ; thus words come to have occasionally a 
 dubious or double, and often a deteriorated 
 sense. So it is with the Greek word {Tnioaunui') 
 in my text rendered by temptation — as also, 
 indeed, with this its English equivalent, signify- 
 ing originally to test, put to the proof, as applied 
 only to an intelligent agent, and so was used to 
 signify the various trials with which God is 
 pleased from time to time to prove His children, 
 testing their fortitude and fidelity. But just 
 because, alas ! the moral nature so often yields 
 
 beneath the proof, fails in the day of trial, 
 because the test, trial, temptation, though hav- 
 ing no evil in itself, so often finds evil in man, 
 and becomes the occasion of bringing it out into 
 activity, the word sinks into a lower stratum of 
 meaning, and then conveys, along with the 
 thought of trial 01 test, that also of evil, through 
 failure in the proving hour, or because it de- 
 velops evil. — Lorame. 
 
 [2960] I need scarcely say that the Greek has 
 but one word for "trial" and "temptation." 
 The idea is the same. It is exploration. It is 
 the idea of piercing or penetrating the outer shell 
 and husk of a man, to discover what is within 
 him. You know how ambiguous is the cha- 
 racter of a human being, while he simply goes 
 his way, does his business, mixes in society, and 
 makes his little mark upon a street, a town, or a 
 congregation. You do not know him — does 
 he know himself? — as he is in God's sight, as 
 he is for eternity. At last something occurs. 
 He is placed in circumstances which must be 
 dealt with. ^Many have been " explored " by 
 an opportunity of advancing themselves by 
 means not perfectly upright — by some possible 
 secret venture with another's credit or another's 
 property — by an opportunity of screening that 
 which, if known, wculd be fatal — of covering up 
 some fraud, of disguising some guilt, of which 
 they dare not confront the exposure and the 
 ruin. Many more, ten thousand in comparison 
 with one, have been " explored " by a suggestion 
 of sinning. Some one has too much trusted 
 them — they have won an affection which it 
 is possible to abuse — they have gained a reputa- 
 tion which may be the opportunity of deception 
 — they have to settle, on the instant, no man 
 seeing their motive, how this shall be. — Dean 
 Vaughan. 
 
 VII. Meaning and Import of God's 
 
 LEADING us INTO TEMPTATION, AS 
 
 Implied in this Petition. 
 
 I Negatively. 
 
 (i) Vietued gene7'ally. 
 
 [2961] By the word, leading into temptation, 
 as it is applied to God, must not be understood 
 the ensnaring us in sinful courses, as if He were 
 the author or contriver of sin, which is far from 
 the purity of His nature (Jas. i. 13).— y. Blair, 
 1723. 
 
 [2962] In these three last petitions we beg 
 daily bread, daily pardon, daily strength. We 
 can neither live without the one nor the other : 
 we cannot lii'e without daily bread, nor live 
 comfortably without daily pardon, nor live holily 
 witiiout daily grace.— T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 (2) Vic'i'cd in connection luith St. fatnes' 
 statement. 
 
 [2963] In Gen. xxii. i, it is said, God did 
 tempt Abraham. The Hebrew M-ord there sim- 
 ply means to try, test, prove. The same word
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 2963—2972] 
 
 467 
 
 [sixth petition. 
 
 occurs in i Kings x. i, where it is said the 
 Queen of Sheba came to "prove" Solomon. 
 So also in Deut. iv. 34 ; where the word is re- 
 presented by " assayed," and likewise " tempta- 
 tion." The same word occurs in several other 
 passages also, in which God is represented, 
 either in fact or in explicit terms, as tempting, 
 i.e., trying or proving His servants ; the one 
 case we have quoted teaches plainly what the 
 whole analogy of Scripture only confirms. Then 
 the question arises, how is this passage (Gen. 
 xxii. i) to be harmonized with that in St. James 
 i. 13, " Let no man say when he is tempted, I 
 am tempted of God : for God cannot be tempted 
 with evil, neither tempteth he any man." Does 
 not the word temptation here carry in it that 
 secondary meaning of which I have spoken, as 
 often attaching to the word .'' Does it not mean 
 more than simply trial or testing, and imply an 
 admixture of evil with the trial, and that taking 
 some hold, too, upon the moral nature of the 
 tempted ? Indeed, does not the text suggest 
 this, by the remarkable addition of the words, 
 " with evil ? " " God cannot be tempted with 
 evil, neither tempteth He any man," i.e., with 
 evil. In this sense, indeed, only he who is 
 himself the evil one can tempt men. — Loraine. 
 
 [2964] Temptation is sometimes taken in a 
 middle and indifferent sense, for any occasion 
 by which the moral quality of persons (their 
 virtue or vice) is examined and discovered. So 
 God is said to have " tempted Abraham," when 
 He propounded to him the offering up of his 
 son ; and because affliction is of such a nature 
 as to try the temper, disposition, and intentions 
 of men, therefore temptation is often used for 
 affliction. It seemeth also sometimes put in a 
 good sense, for an occasion designed to exercise, 
 or to improve, or to declare the virtues of a 
 person ; so the inconveniences and crosses in- 
 cident to our nature and condition here, the 
 which our Lord did undergo, are by St. Luke 
 and others of the apostles styled temptations. 
 But the word is commonly taken in a worse 
 sense, for an occasion presented with ill purpose, 
 or naturally tending and not easily avoided of 
 falling into sin, a stumbling-block, a snare ; as 
 when St, Paul saith, "They that will be rich do 
 fall into temptation and a snare;" thus St. 
 James assureth us, that " God tempteth no 
 man ;" that is, doth not intend to seduce or 
 inveigle any man into sin. — Barrow. 
 
 [2965] If we take this petition generally, doth 
 it not seem to make us speak exceeding strangely ? 
 as though we thought God a seducer, and where 
 all this while we have expected He should do 
 us good, we should now begin to fear He would 
 do us hurt ? But the truth is, we are not dis- 
 trustfU of God, but of ourselves ; not of His 
 leading, but of our following. Not that God 
 tempts us, for St. James hath cleared Him of 
 that, where he saith, " God tempts no man." 
 But we have other tempters, the world, the flesh, 
 and the devil, who have all their several ways 
 of tempting. — Sir Richard Baker, 1568-1645. 
 
 [2966] There is no discrepancy with Jas- 
 i. 13, which speaks not of the providential 
 bringing about, but of the actual solicitation of 
 the temptation. — Alford. 
 
 [2967] God tempts no man to evil (Jas. 
 i. 13). God, however, tries His servants' faith, 
 to manifest its reality to the world, as in the 
 case of Abraham (Gen. xxii. 1-12). All trials 
 are calculated in themselves to do us real good, 
 though they often prove through our own evil 
 hearts the occasion of our sinning. — C. N. 
 
 2 Positively. 
 
 ( I ) By the pe7'initfcd agency of Satan. 
 
 [2968] The praj'er is an example of a form of 
 speech occurring frequently in the Scriptures, 
 in which God is said to do that which He 
 permits to be done. — Robinson. 
 
 [2969] Yet because nothing in the world, either 
 good or bad, doth happen without God's per- 
 mission and governance, and the devil himself 
 must obtain license from God before he can 
 tempt any man or do any mischief (as we see in 
 Job's case and in the history of Ahab), since 
 God seeth whatever is done, and with greatest 
 ease could hinder it, and doth not otherwise 
 than for some good end suffer any evil to be 
 designed or achieved, it is the style of Scripture 
 to attribute such things in some sense to Him. 
 — Barrozi'. 
 
 [2970] This phrase must be used in the sense 
 o{ permitting. Do not suffer us or permit us to 
 be tempted to sin. In this it is implied that 
 God has such control over us and the tempter, 
 as to save us from it if we call upon Him. — 
 Barnes. 
 
 [2971] There is the subtle seduction of 
 Satan who, with his host of attendant spirits, 
 is bent on gaining souls to share his awful ruin, 
 and to do further despite to his God, while yet 
 his little time of power lasts, and is for ever 
 placing attractions to evil in our path, suggest- 
 ing evil imaginations, prompting vain or sinful 
 desires within ourselves. — Karslake. 
 
 [2972] There lies deep down in eveiy man's 
 nature an unsuspected weakness to which temp- 
 tation may make a sudden appeal with success, 
 and he may do some wicked thing in conse- 
 quence unlike his general character altogether. 
 The tempter may come, and the tempter does 
 come in — to storm and command the very cita- 
 del of his soul. In that instant the man is not 
 himself, but another. He is himself in so far 
 as that he himself is responsible. He is not 
 himself but another, and that other the evil one, 
 in so far as that the evil one is for the moment 
 master in that house of clay, and the man him- 
 self seems to be living, breathing, thinking, 
 doing by substitution. It is then that he acts 
 as he never acted before, and never will, God
 
 468 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2972—2980] 
 
 [sixth petition. 
 
 helping him, again. It is then the great con- 
 tradiction takes place. He will do that to 
 which his nature has most instinctive repulsion, 
 and which will rob his after life of all tranquility. 
 — Rev. Page Robo'ts. 
 
 [2973] No sooner has Christ come out of the 
 waters of baptism, than He comes into the fire 
 of temptation. No sooner does the Spirit come 
 in the form of a dove, than He is " led by the 
 Spirit into the wilderness." No sooner doth 
 God say " this is my beloved Son in whom I 
 am well pleased," than Satan darts the sugges- 
 tion of doubt, " z/Thou be the Son of God." — 
 Bp. Hall. 
 
 [2974] To tempt us is properly the work of 
 Satan : to lead us into temptation is oftentimes 
 the work of God. It was God that led Christ 
 into the wilderness to be tempted ; but it was 
 the devil that tempted Him in the wilderness. 
 And even this is our case ; if God lead us into 
 temptation the devil will be sure to fall a tempt- 
 ing us, to lead us into sin ; and to resist the 
 devil's temptings, Christ found it so difficult for 
 Himself, that He knows it to be impossible for 
 lis ; and, therefore, what He knows we cannot 
 resist, He teacheth us to prevent, which is only 
 done by this petition. For if God lead us not 
 into temptation, the devil may have the will to 
 fall a tempting us ; but he shall never have the 
 power to tempt us to falling. — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 [2975] Though the first Adam was tempted 
 in a garden, the second was tempted in a wil- 
 derness. There it was that through forty days, 
 \vith no rich fruits to stay the sting of hunger, no 
 clear stream rippling over golden sands to slake 
 His thirst, no shelter from the fiery day or the 
 freezing night, and where — beauty banished, 
 grim desolation sat enthroned — He who after- 
 wards died for us was tempted, and the wilder- 
 ness was the memorable field in which man's 
 great representative fought with man's great 
 foe. After this, let no follower of His hope to 
 escape "the fiery darts of the wicked one," by 
 living in any wilderness of self-inflicted poverty 
 jor pain. The principle of seeking retirement 
 from the world of temptation, either in some 
 kind of Eden or in some kind of wilderness, is 
 .-always being tried in some form or other, and 
 always fails. — Stanford. 
 
 (2) By Divitie non-intervenlion. 
 
 [2976] God is said to lead us into temptation 
 when He leaves us as we are rushing on to sin. 
 ^- Chrysologus. 
 
 (3) By ivithdrawal of preventing grace. 
 [2977] In some sort God is said to "lead into 
 
 temptation." First, by withdrawing that grace 
 of His, whereby we are prevented from, and 
 defended against, temptation. We walk in the 
 midst of enemies and snares ; the prince of the 
 air hath his instruments, that most vigilantly 
 take all opportunities to draw us into sin — evil 
 
 angels, and evil men. And were there not a 
 devil or his instruments without us, to tempt us 
 to evil, we have an old man within us, a foun- 
 tain, a sea of corruption, a deceitful and wicked 
 heart, a body of sin and death, that can with 
 much advantage, and doth with much ease, 
 draw us into sin ; and the merciful God that 
 seeth these snares which the evil one lays for 
 us in our way, though we see them not, sends 
 out His own grace and Spirit, and sometimes 
 removes the snare out of our way ; sometimes 
 leads us another way, that we miss the snare ; 
 He overrules and restrains this raging sea of 
 our corruptions, and, as our Saviour did to the 
 winds and seas, commands them, " Peace, be 
 still ; " He doth by the same Spirit strengthen 
 and enable our hearts to resist, oppose, and 
 subdue those temptations that rise from within, 
 and that come from without. And this grace ot 
 His He owes not to us. It is merely of His 
 free mercy, " For I withheld thee from sinning 
 against Me " (Gen. xx. 6) ; and yet, such is His 
 goodness, that He seldom withdraws this grace 
 from us, except we thrust it away and reject it ; 
 and then He withdraws that grace of His, and, 
 that being withdrawn, that cruel and subtle 
 enemy of our souls falls in upon us and subdues 
 us, and that sea of corruption within us, that hath 
 now no banks to keep it in, breaks in and over- 
 whelms us. — Sir Maitheiu Hale. 
 
 (4) By Divine direction. 
 
 [2978] What God often does, what He did in 
 the case of Abraham, of Job, and especially of 
 our Lord Himself, is to expose a man in a very 
 critical and precarious position, to bring him in 
 the course of his life into circumstances where 
 sin is very easy, holiness very difficult. We 
 read that it was "of the Spirit" that "Jesus was 
 led up into the wilderness to be tempted of the 
 devil ; " a very instructive intimation, giving us 
 in one view all the parties concerned. The 
 human nature, with its liability to temptation, 
 its capability to suffer and to enjoy ; the Divine 
 nature, ordering the circumstances which may 
 permit the temptation to take place ; and the 
 diabolical nature, the tempter. — Dods. 
 
 [2979] " God is said to lead us into temptation" 
 when He providently presents outward objects 
 and occasions, which do solicit and draw forth 
 our inward corruptions. When the temptations 
 of our inward lusts meet with external induce- 
 ments that are cast in a man's way by God's 
 providence, then, as we may be said to tempt 
 Him, so God may be said to "lead us into temp- 
 tation." — f. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [2980] If we believe at all in God's oversight 
 of our life — in other words, in His guiding and 
 "leading" hand — we must feel that there are 
 times and, as it were, places of "exploration" 
 to which we do come under His direction ; cir- 
 cumstances of trial, opportunities, in other 
 words, of choosing between good and evil, 
 which we cannot avoid, which confront us with- 

 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 2980 — 2987] 
 
 469 
 
 [sixth petition. 
 
 out our seeking. " God did tempt Abraham " 
 — His word scruples not at the saying — He 
 brought upon him a great "crisis" — what is 
 "crisis" but the Greek word for "trial"? — 
 which formed a decision as to his faith. If he 
 was entirely faithful, he would act thus — if not, 
 he would act thus. God " led him into tempta- 
 tion " that He might bring out his faith as gold 
 from the furnace. Was there no specimen there 
 of God's dealing ? Has God ceased thus to 
 " tempt " His people ? — Dean Vaughaii. 
 
 3 Homiletical summary. 
 
 [29S1] Man is tempted by God (Gen. xxii. i) 
 when He trieth what is in him (Deut. viii. 2). 
 Either i. What of grace, by (i) affliction (i Pet. 
 i. 6) ; (2) delay of promises (Psa. cv. 19) ; or, 2. 
 What of sin (i) by offering occasions in the 
 course of His providence sometimes by want 
 (John vi. 5,6) ; sometimes by fulness (Deut. viii. 
 16) ; (2) by withdrawing His grace (2 Chron. 
 xxxii. 31) ; (3) by permitting the temptations of 
 Satan and his instruments (Matt. iv. i). Con- 
 cerning this notice (i) God's tempting is not to 
 inform Himself, but to discover His creatures to 
 themselves and others ; (2) is always good and 
 for good; (3) never as a solicitation to sin. — T. 
 Manton, 1629-1677 {condensea). 
 
 [2982] Indeed, life is one grand temptation. 
 And it is necessarily so. Temptation is in- 
 volved in the very idea of probation. Tempta- 
 tion is one of the chief forces of the disciplinary 
 system of this life ; one of the mightiest agencies 
 in that great educational process by which the 
 Parental Ruler of the spirits of all flesh seeks to 
 qualify man for a life beyond life. For by 
 education, in its truest sense, is meant, as one 
 of the greatest of modern writers has said, 
 " That mighty system of central forces hidden 
 in the deep bosom of human life, which by 
 passion, by strife, by temptation, by the ener- 
 gies of resistance, works for ever — resting not 
 day nor night, any more than the mighty wheel 
 of day and night itself, whose movements, like 
 spokes, are glimmering for ever as they re- 
 volve." — Loraifte, Suspi?'ia de Profimdis. 
 
 [2983] According to that which we saw was 
 the simplest notion of temptation, as merely 
 equivalent to trial, God does so tempt man as 
 to put before him special circumstances which 
 may try or prove him, and so bring out that 
 good or evil within him which, though known 
 to God, is perhaps unknown to the man him- 
 self, and still more to his fellow-men. In this 
 way God was said to tempt Abraham, where 
 the true nature of the temptation is well ex- 
 pressed in one of the old Greek versions, that 
 of Symmachus, who paraphrases it " God glori- 
 fied Abraham," i.e., gave him a special oppor- 
 tunity of showing his entire trust in God, and 
 thus of obtaining the glorious title of the " father 
 of the faithful" to all times. In this sense 
 then, first, God is said to tempt men when He 
 specially tries them, in order either to bring out 
 
 the good which is in them, or else give them, 
 and others by their example, a warning of the 
 evil which lurks unsuspected within their hearts, 
 this being wholly for man's good. — Karslake. 
 
 VIII. Ways in which God answers this 
 Petition. 
 
 [2984] How the answer shall come to this 
 petition it is not for us to decide. God, in one 
 way or other, may either make it a physical 
 impossibility for us to be in the way of tempta- 
 tion, or He may add to our condition some 
 balance, which keeps us from rushing into the 
 arms of sin at every invitation. So that, whether 
 the temptations we have reason to fear be in 
 the way of our callings, or have been voluntarily 
 and recklessly encountered by us, this petition 
 is suitable ; and it will inevitably rise to our 
 lips, if we be fearing sin. — Dods. 
 
 IX. False Views removed concerning 
 Temptation being a Positive Evil. 
 
 [2985] You shall not think that it is an ill 
 thing to be tempted. No, for it is a good thing, 
 and Scripture commendeth it, and we shall be 
 rewarded for it ; for St. James saith, " Blessed 
 is the man that endureth temptations patiently." 
 The devil moveth me to do this or that. Now^ 
 this is a good thing ; for if I withstand his- 
 motions, and more regard God than his sug- 
 gestions, happy am I, and I shall be rewarded 
 for it in heaven. Temptations be a declaration 
 of God's favour and might ; for though we be 
 most weak and feeble, yet through our weak- 
 ness God vanquisheth the great strength and 
 might of the devil. Let us remember that our 
 life is a warfare ; let us be contented to be 
 tempted. There be some, when they fall into 
 temptations, they be so irksome that they give 
 place — they will fight no more. Again, there be 
 some so weary that they rid themselves out of 
 this life ; but this is not well done. They do 
 not after St. James's mind. — Latimer. 
 
 [2986] Temptation is like a winter torrent^, 
 difficult to cross. Some, then, being most skilful 
 swimmers, pass over, not being whelmed beneath 
 temptations, nor swept down by them at all, 
 while others who are not such, entering into 
 them, sink in them. As, for example, Judas, 
 entering into the temptation of covetousness, 
 swam not through it, but, sinking beneath it, 
 was choked both in body and spirit. Peter 
 entered into the temptation of the denial, but 
 having entered it, he was not overwhelmed by 
 it, but manfully swimming through it he was 
 delivered. — Cyril. 
 
 X. Reasons why God allows us to be 
 
 Led into Temptation, as implied in 
 this Petition. 
 
 I For the development of Christian graces 
 and character in regard to ourselves. 
 
 [2987] Sometimes the " exploration" comes in
 
 470 
 
 2987—2999] 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 [sixth petition. 
 
 love — to reveal the thoroughness of the faith, 
 the absoluteness of the self-devotion. Some- 
 times it comes, rather, to show to the man 
 what is in him of evil. — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [2988] Temptations are offered by Satan, not 
 by his own power, but by permission of God, 
 either for the purpose of punishing men for 
 their sins, or proving and disciplining them 
 in accordance with the Lord's mercy. — Augics- 
 ti?ie. 
 
 [2989] It is a necessary thing to be tempted 
 of God ; for how should we know whether we 
 have the love of God in our hearts or no except 
 we be tried. Therefore Da\id saith, " Lord, 
 prove me and tempt me." — Latv/ier. 
 
 [2990] There is another sort of temptation, 
 which is called a proving. Of this kind of 
 temptation it is written, " The Lord your God 
 tempteth (proveth) you, to know whether ye 
 love Him," (Deut. xiii. 3). What means "to 
 know." To make you know, for He knoweth 
 already. — Augustine. 
 
 [2991] As a father seeing his child to be busy 
 about the fire catcheth his finger and thrusts 
 it to a coal, to make him the more afraid of it 
 after ; so God sometimes lets us taste of sin 
 that we may the more detest it and hate it 
 while we live. 
 
 [2992] This petition stands last, and is the last 
 which we can rightly understand. Its true need 
 -only becomes manifest as we grow in ripeness 
 of experience. It only gradually dawns upon us 
 the strategical skill of Satan and the strength 
 and unconquered virus of sin in us. " Tempta- 
 tions are," as Fe'nelon puts it, "a file which 
 rub off much of the rust of self-confidence." 
 Again, temptation may be regarded as the spade 
 which breaks up the ground of a believer's heart, 
 and helps to discover the corruptions of the 
 fallen nature. — C. A\ 
 
 [2993] The shepherd sets his dog upon the 
 strayed sheep, not to worry him, but to lodge 
 him, and bring him back again into the fold : 
 so doth God suffer His children to be bufteted 
 and exercised by Satan, to their great trouble, 
 but for their good in the issue ; for He knoweth 
 how to turn all these things for good. — T. 
 Mcifiton, 1629-1677. 
 
 3 For the advancement of His own glory. 
 
 [2994] God permits His own children to be 
 tempted, that by their victory over temptations 
 He may confound the malice of Satan, and com- 
 mend the excellency of His own ways and 
 service. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633- 1690. 
 
 [2995] The general may, according to his 
 discretion, lead which band he pleaseth, and 
 set them in the forlorn hope, and appoint 
 others for reserves. So God may single out 
 
 His champions to combat for His glory, and 
 leave others in a more quiet posture according 
 as He pleaseth. 
 
 3 For judicial purposes. 
 
 [2996] Power is used against us for two pur- 
 poses, either for punishment when we give way, 
 or for glory when we endure the test. — Cyprian. 
 
 [2997] For the punishment of former sins, 
 God may give up the wicked to be blinded and 
 hardened by Satan to their own destruction, 
 which is one of the most dreadful of God's 
 judicial acts. — T. Manton, 1629-1677. 
 
 4 Homiletical summary. 
 
 [2998] Why God leads His people into temp- 
 tation. I. For His own glory, to discover the 
 power, fulness, and riches of His grace. 2. 
 For the trial of the grace He hath wrought in us 
 (Matt. XV. 25-28). 3. To humble us that we may 
 never be proud of what we have, or conceited 
 of what we have not (2 Cor. xii. 7). 4. To con- 
 rorm us to Christ who was tempted (Heb. ii. 7). 
 5. To mortify sin ; not only that to which we 
 are tempted, but others that we may not be 
 heedless (Psa. li. 6). 6. To make us meek to 
 others. 7. To give us experience of the care, 
 providence, and promises of God. — Ibid. 
 
 XI. Grounds for Consolation if God 
 
 SEES FIT, NOTWITHSTANDING OUR RE- 
 QUEST TO THE Contrary, to Lead us 
 INTO Temptation. 
 
 I They include the necessary elements for 
 our success as children of the heavenly 
 kingdom. 
 
 [2999] But seeing God is in power, almighty ; 
 in wisdom, infinite ; in care, most tender ; in 
 watchfulness, most vigilant — what need we to 
 fear, or can we be afraid of, if He be our leader ? 
 No cause indeed of any fear on God's part ; all 
 the fear is on our parts ; for though God be 
 powerftd, yet we are weak, as Christ saith, "The 
 spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Though 
 God be wise, yet we are foolish j that God saith 
 of us, " iMy people have no understanding." 
 Though God be careful, yet we are wilful ; that 
 it may be said as well of us as of the Jews, that 
 we are a stiff-necked generation. Though God 
 be watchful, yet we are drowsy ; that Christ may 
 say to us, as He said to the apostles, " Could 
 ye not watch with me one hour?" And now if 
 God should leave us to our infirmities, and add 
 His leading to our own aptness of falling into 
 temptations, it were impossible that this house of 
 ours, which is built upon the sands, should ever 
 be able to stand upright. O Lord, let Thy 
 Spirit lead me, for without leading I am afraid 
 to fall ; but let him not lead me into temptation, 
 for by such leading I am sure to fall. So lead me 
 in the way that I be not led captive away ; yet 
 know, O my soul, and despair not, that if it 
 should so ill befall thee, yet He which led 
 
 I
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 2999— 3010 1 
 
 An 
 
 [sixth petition. 
 
 captivity captive is able to deliver thee. — Sir 
 Richard Baker, 1 56S-1 645 . 
 
 [3000] There is a third class of temptations 
 against which we have urgent need to use this 
 petition. There are sudden surprises, which 
 neither occur in the ordinary duties of our em- 
 ployments, nor as we might have anticipated. 
 They emerge unexpectedly, and we cannot take 
 precautions against them. A special importance 
 attaches to these, for it is thus that many of our 
 greatest sins have been committed ; and, when 
 resisted, it is then that we have taken the 
 greatest steps in advance Godwards. In short, 
 these are the temptations in which, beyond all 
 others, it is evident that God is making proof of 
 us. — Dods. 
 
 [3001] The temptations of God and Satan 
 are very different : Satan tempts that he may 
 destroy, confound, throw headlong ; God, that 
 by proving His people He may make trial of 
 their sincerity, and by exercising their strength 
 confirm it ; may mortify, tame, and cauterize 
 their flesh, which, if not curbed in this manner, 
 would wanton and exult above measure. Be- 
 sides, Satan attacks those who are unarmed and 
 unprepared, that he may destroy them unawares ; 
 whereas, whatever God sends. He "will with 
 the temptation also make a way to escape, that 
 ye may Idc able to bear it." — Calvin. 
 
 [3002] God tempts one way, the devil another. 
 The devil tempts that he may overwhelm us ; 
 God tempts that He may crown us. — Ambrose. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Lessons and Reflections 
 gested by this petition. 
 
 SUG- 
 
 I Generally. 
 
 (i) The duty of not parleying ivith tempta- 
 tions of any sort. 
 
 [3003] To have parleyed with temptation is to 
 have lost strength already. Go a mile with the 
 tempter, and the chances are that he will per- 
 suade you to go two. He will first tell you that 
 you are not going out of your way at all, and 
 forthwith he will tell you that you have gone too 
 far to go back. — Dods. 
 
 [3004] Stay not to meet temptation face to 
 face from a fancy of the strength of your deter- 
 mination and the glory of the conquest, but 
 " escape for thy life," like Lot from Sodom, 
 without once looking behind thee, or abiding in 
 the perilous proximity of a thing so dangerous 
 to thine eternal peace. — Hugo. 
 
 (2) The duty of not stepping into posts of 
 tnoral hazard 7itiless at the call of duty. 
 
 [3005] But however charged with the Spirit's 
 influence, we shall not step into a post of great 
 moral hazard without clear orders. Once, 
 while William of Orange was laying siege to a 
 towri on the Continent, an ofticer with a mes- 
 sage \ entured to go to the spot where he was in 
 
 the act of directing the operation of his gunners. 
 When the message was delivered, and the an- 
 swer to it received, he still lingered. " Sir," 
 said the Prince, " do you know that every mo- 
 ment you stand here is at the risk of your life ? " 
 " I run no more risk," replied the gentleman, 
 " than your Highness." " Yes," said the 
 Prince, " but my duty brings me here, and yours 
 does not." While only led by our own inclina- 
 tion into a risk, we have no Divine guarantee of 
 protection. Led and filled by God Himself, our 
 souls are safe anywhere. Not only so, but 
 temptations will be made subservient to the 
 highest purposes of profit to man and glory to 
 God. — Stanford. 
 
 (3) The duty of taking active and precaution' 
 aty measures against things, perso7is, or places 
 likely to tempt us. 
 
 [3006] And it carries with it two great lessons 
 for the conduct of our daily life. What we pray 
 God to do for us, that we must do, so far as we 
 can, for ourselves. We ask Him not to lead us 
 into temptation, and we must then fly from it, 
 and watch against its assaults. W'e may not 
 live just on the borders of the enemy's country, 
 and think ourselves safe in the stronghold of our 
 principles and {■sS.'Ca..—Karslake. 
 
 [3007] A man conscious of suicidal mania 
 will designedly put away from him the imple- 
 ments of death, and avoid occasions of loneli- 
 ness, so far as his disease will permit him. So 
 should we put away from us the materials of 
 evil, and avoid the occasions of sin. — E. B, 
 
 [300S] We in this petition desire God to ex- 
 cite our own care and watchfulness. The way 
 then to prevent temptations is with a religious 
 foresight to guard against their most distant 
 approach. — Mafigey, 1684-1 755. 
 
 [3009] The wind, when it has ceased raging 
 from one point, after a short calm frequently re- 
 news its violence from another quarter. — C. N. 
 
 (4) The duty of extricating ourselves from 
 certain conditions, in luhich we alniost invari- 
 ably, if 7tot invariably, sin, despite all our re- 
 solves to the contrary. 
 
 [3010] The harder we purpose in our souls to 
 live to God, the more clearly do we see how we 
 displease Him. We begin to take account of 
 this, that there are certain conditions, in which 
 we almost invariably, if not invariably, sin, des- 
 pite all our resolves to the contrary. We re- 
 member our resolves, nay, we remember how a 
 few hours ago we besought pardon of similar 
 sin, and yet we yield. There are persons whose 
 company always betrays us into slandering or 
 scoffing, or bitter envy, or hypocrisy, or some 
 evil passion ; there are places in which we can- 
 not maintain, or have at least never yet main- 
 tained, even our usual regard to the will of God, 
 and from which we return less disposed than we 
 ought to remember Christ, or engage in any re-
 
 47: 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 3010— 301SJ 
 
 [sixth petition. 
 
 ligious duty ; there are books we read, or trains 
 of thought we indulge in, which lower our tone 
 and unhinge the mind for serious, vigorous, and 
 devout exercise. Now it is very often the case, 
 that it is quite at our option that we thus put 
 ourselves in the way of temptation. — Dcds. 
 
 2 More in detail. 
 
 (i) The danger of weakly dallying with for- 
 bidden desires, 
 
 [301 1] Weak dallying with forbidden desires 
 is sure to end in wicked clutching at them. 
 Young men, take care ! You stand upon the 
 beetling edge of a great precipice, when you 
 look over, from your fancied security, at a wrong 
 thing ; and to strain too far and to look too 
 friendly, leads to a perilous danger of toppling 
 over and being lost ! If you know that a thing 
 cannot be won without transgression, do not 
 tamper with hankering for it. Keep away 
 from the edge, and shut your eyes from behold- 
 ing vanity. — Maclaren. 
 
 (2) The hazard of trifling with the purity of 
 our thoughts. 
 
 [3012] But if through the furnace, heated even 
 seven times hotter than its wont, you pass un- 
 scathed through the gracious protecting pre- 
 sence of " One like unto the Son of Man," yet 
 surely upon the garments of the tempted soul 
 the smell of the fire will have passed. Remem- 
 brance will demand its retribution in after- 
 years. There will be pictures in the gallery of 
 memory that he cannot remove ; ghostly recol- 
 lections that he cannot lay, moving to and fro 
 in the haunted corridors of thought. What 
 would many a troubled spirit give to blot from 
 memory scenes and stories that, in his eager- 
 ness to " know life," he too rashly sought ! 
 Young man, " Keep thy heart with all dili- 
 gence "(Prov. iv. 23). " Blessed are the pure in 
 heart : for they shall see God" (Matt. v. 8). 
 
 Dally not with temptation. Do not, I be- 
 seech you, hazard the integrity of your charac- 
 ter, nor trifle with the purity of your thoughts. 
 
 " Be wise ; know what to leave unknown." 
 
 — Loraine. 
 
 (3) The risk of frequenting old scenes of temp- 
 tation. 
 
 [3013] If you had a ditch to cross on your 
 way to work, and it was so broad that you could 
 not leap over it, after trying and tumbling once 
 or twice perhaps, you would go round by the 
 bridge. It would be no reason to you that 
 neighbour such a one could leap it. You would 
 say, " He is welcome to leap it then ; but I can 
 only leap into it ; I have tried twice already : 
 twice have I only wetted myself and dirtied my 
 clothes : so I will not run the risk again ! The 
 safe way over the bridge is good enough for me." 
 
 In like manner, if by frequenting such a place, 
 or such a company, you have fallen once or 
 twice into sin, listen not to the tempter when he 
 bids you try again. Say within yourself: "I 
 
 have tried too often. I will run no further risk 
 of hurting and dirtying my soul. Christ has 
 cleansed it with His blood ; it is too precious a 
 thing to be polluted." — Augustus W. Ware. 
 
 XIII. Reality of this Prayer as deal- 
 ing IN A Real Way with the 
 Realities of Life. 
 
 [3014] Want is real, sin is real, temptation is 
 real. The prayer which left out these would be 
 the prayer of dreams and fancies, pious senti- 
 ments, and unpractical emotions ; not of real 
 life, not of manly sympathy, not of Divine help. 
 — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [3015] Indeed, what is life but temptation? 
 Every sphere presents its own tests. " Every 
 condition of life and feeling is a temptation, a 
 dangerous temptation ; every condition of life 
 and feeling is pregnant with a blessing or a 
 curse." — Loraine. 
 
 [3016] Riches, we know, are temptations ; 
 poverty, we know equally, is a very great one. 
 The king, in the Proverbs, was judicious in 
 desiring a mean ; but therein, too, lies a peril of 
 its own ; a kind of secure hardness, self-indul- 
 gence comforting itself with the assurance that it 
 is not luxury, the rich and the poor man's sins 
 both regarded with abhorrence because they 
 interfere with us, and because there is no know- 
 ledge of either. — Maurice. 
 
 [3017] We have sinned greatly in the past ; 
 we have fallen even where we thought we were 
 most strong ; and how shall we not fall again ? 
 Temptation is all around us ; temptation from 
 within, temptation from without ; temptation in 
 health, temptation in sickness ; in wealth and 
 in poverty ; in youth and in age ; in solitude 
 and in society ; in wisdom and in ignorance ; 
 in labour and in rest ; in joy and in sorrow ; in 
 hope and in despair ; in every sphere and under 
 all circumstances temptation is all around us, 
 pressing upon us on every side, like the atmo- 
 sphere in which we move, and we are for ever 
 being drawn away to forget or disobey God. — 
 Karslake. 
 
 XIV. Frame of Mind implied in this 
 Prayer. 
 
 I The tremulous recoil of the mind from sin. 
 
 [3018] It is essential to the reality of this, as 
 of the connectional petitions, that before coming 
 to it we should pray, " Thy will be done." The 
 larger petition governs the smaller. It may 
 seem like inconsistency first to say, " Lead us 
 into temptation if it be Thy will ; " then to say, 
 " Lead us not into it" — but there is no incon- 
 sistency. It is only akin to the Saviour's prayer, 
 when He went into Gethsemane, saying with 
 shrinking and tremulous dread, " Father, if it be 
 possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, 
 not my will, but Thine be done." — Stanford.
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 SEVENTH PETITION. 
 
 Fngcs 474 to 4S0. 
 
 A. Introductory Kcuiarks, 
 
 I 
 
 STRUCTURAL CHARACTER. 
 
 B. Treatment of the Petition in detail, 
 2 
 
 SENSE OF THE WORD "EVIL" AS HERE USED. 
 
 3 
 
 MISTAKEN NOTIONS ABOUT EVIL. 
 
 4 
 
 MODES (CHIEFLY DIRECT) OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE 
 
 WHEN EVIL IS REGARDED AS SIN. 
 
 5 
 
 MODES (CHIEFLY INDIRECT) OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE 
 
 WHEN EVIL IS REGARDED AS TRIALS. 
 
 6 
 
 MODES OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE VIEWED IN REGARD 
 
 TO THE SOURCE OF TEMPTATION. 
 
 7 
 EXTENT OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE. 
 
 C. Coneluding Rejnarks. 
 
 8 
 NECESSITY OF THIS PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE. 
 
 9 
 
 FRAMES OF MIND AS REFLECTED IN THE VERY FACT 
 
 OF SEEKING DELIVERANCE. 
 
 10 
 
 PRE-REQUISITES TO RIGHTLY OFFER UP THIS 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 473
 
 474 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 {^Continued). 
 
 SEVENTH PETITION. 
 
 {Bui deliver us frotn evil— " the evil one" 
 Revised Version.) 
 
 'AXXa pvirai t'lfias cnrb rov irovrjpov. 
 
 I. Its Structural Character. 
 
 I As simply explanatory of the immediately 
 preceding petition. 
 [3019] The sixth and seventh petition are 
 closely connected, so that they are by some 
 considered as one. — BetigcL 
 
 [3020] Origen tells us in his treatise De 
 Oratione, that the words a'Wa pvaai ijiidc a-rrh 
 rov TTovnpov are not a part of the prayer as found 
 in the Gospel of St. Luke. We believe that no 
 reference is to be found to this in the writings of 
 any Greek Father before his time. He died 
 about A.D. 254. 
 
 [3021] This sentence and the following one, 
 *' But deliver us from evil," are regarded here as 
 making up but one petition, as was noticed in 
 the first Dissertation. " They belong," writes 
 St. Augustine, " to one sentence. By delivering 
 us from evil He leadeth us not into temptation ; 
 by not leading us into temptation He delivers us 
 from evil." — Kar slake . 
 
 [3022] I am prevented from agreeing with 
 those who divide it into sevefi by the adversa- 
 tive diction used by the evangelist, who appears 
 to have intended to unite two members toge- 
 ther ; as if he had said, Do not allow us to be 
 overcome by temptation, but rather bring assis- 
 tance to our frailty, and deliver us that we may 
 not fall. Ancient writers also agree with us, 
 that what is added by St. Matthew as a seventh 
 head, is to be considered as explanatory of the 
 sixth petition. — Calvin. 
 
 2 As supplementary to the immediately 
 preceding petition. 
 
 [3023] A person may use these words as two 
 distinct petitions ; but, as they here stand, they 
 are connected and form one double request. 
 It is one utterance of the soul. The soul does 
 not first view temptation and utter its desire 
 about this, and then view evil and utter a new 
 
 desire about that ; but seeing at one view temp- 
 tation and evil, and knowing, moreover, how 
 they are joined together, a prayer is uttered 
 which, though it has two parts, is one. There 
 is no end that we can propose for ourselves 
 short of deliverance from evil, and no means 
 can be suggested as more necessary to the at- 
 tainment of this than being kept from temptation. 
 —Dods. 
 
 [3024] In this petition we pray directly for 
 this, that God in His consideration of our frailty 
 would so order our life day by day that as little 
 as possible we may be exposed to temptation. 
 But it will be asked, " Has this petition, then, 
 no reference to the temptations we do actually 
 meet ? Does it only avert possible temptations, 
 and bring no strength to help us in those that 
 actually occur ? " Directly it does not ask from 
 God any such aid. And it seems a profitless 
 exercise of ingenuity, to wrest the words so that 
 they shall include what is evidently included in 
 the second part of the petition, "Deliver us 
 from evil." He who prays these concluding 
 words will surely be little concerned to make 
 the former words mean "bring us out of temp- 
 tation safely " as well as " lead us not into it." — 
 Ibid. 
 
 [3025] Deliver us from (the) evil into which, 
 under temptation, we are apt to slide, or to 
 which we are apt to yield. — C. N. 
 
 3 As comprehending the three previous 
 petitions, and going beyond them in its 
 scope. 
 
 [3026] It sums up the whole of our wants, 
 since in it we seek to be delivered from all 
 kinds of evil, whether they be the consequences 
 of our past sins, or the grief, affliction, and 
 suffering which befall God"s servants here. 
 Poverty, nakedness, the want of bread and of 
 shelter ; the trespasses which we commit, and 
 which are evil to us ; the temptations which 
 surround us, and which we so often turn into an 
 occasion of evil. — Tostatiis. 
 
 [3027] " Ddiver us from evil." These words 
 are a summary of the Lord's Prayer, as it is a 
 summary of the whole gospel. Is it not evil 
 that has alienated and disinherited man from 
 his Divine Father .'' and which impedes his re- 
 conciliation and re-adoption ? Is it not evil 
 that estranges man from man, and makes it
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 3027—3037] 
 
 475 
 
 fSEVENTH PETITION. 
 
 difficult to say ^' our Father?" Is it not evil 
 that dishonours the Divine Name? Is it not 
 evil that stays the coming of His kingdom ? Is 
 it not evil that resists His will on earth ? Is it 
 not evil that pollutes and impoverishes the 
 supplies of daily life ? Is it not evil that has 
 induced those trespasses through which man 
 needs "a Saviour and a great one?" "Our 
 Father, deliver us from evil." — Loraifie. 
 
 [3028] These words form a seventh and most 
 affecting petition, reaching far beyond the 
 last. They are the expression of the yearning 
 for redemption of the sons of God (Rom. viii. 
 23), and so are fatly placed at the end of the 
 Prayer, and as the sum and substance of the 
 personal petitions. — Al/oj'd. 
 
 II. Sense of the Word "Evil" (rrovripov) 
 
 AS HERE USED. 
 
 I Evil may be viewed in a comprehensive 
 sense. 
 
 [3029] There are two senses of the word 
 " evil." For it may signify evil in general, or 
 in particular the evil one, the principle and 
 fountain of all evil. If we take it in the former 
 sense, we desire God to deliver us from evil, 
 without expressly naming what is so, leaving 
 that to be determined by His infinite wisdom, 
 which judges better for us than we can do for 
 ourselves, and will do for us exceeding abun- 
 dantly, above all that we can ask or think (Eph. 
 iii. 20). If we take it in the latter sense, the 
 j)etition is still much the same, and differs only 
 as the cause from its effect. For most of 
 the evils which happen to mankind are effected, 
 I conceive, by the permission, indeed, of God, 
 but by the agency of the devil and his instru- 
 ments. — Bp. Newton, 
 
 [3030] Evil one, meaning the devil ; whether 
 as the principal or head of the temptation, or 
 as the tormentor, to whose lot we shall fall, if 
 the temptation succeeds. Others mean in 
 general the evil of sin, that God by His grace 
 and pi'ovidence would so fortify, defend, and 
 extricate us, that we be not led into sinful 
 courses or actions ; or if we are, that we be 
 quickly delivered by a thorough repentance and 
 amendment. — J. Blair, 1723. 
 
 [3031] The word translated "evil," in the 
 connection with which it stands in this verse, 
 denotes either the " evil thing," or the " evil 
 one : " which is to be understood, either of sin, 
 or of Satan — or both. But it appears, accord- 
 ing to the comprehensive import of all the ex- 
 pressions which our Lord uses in this model of 
 supplication, to comprise every species of evil 
 to which man, in the present state of his 
 existence, is liable. — Good (of Salisbury). 
 
 [3032] Many interpreters have understood 
 this word evil {rov 7rovi]pov) here as alluding to 
 the evil one. Ijut surely this is unwarrantably 
 
 to narrow the comprehensive completeness of 
 this great petition. Is it not a brief but full 
 translation into simple words of the restless 
 longing of humanity for freedom from that many- 
 shaped but ever-hideous thing evil, which de- 
 forms, distresses, and disorders life through 
 countless agencies ? Satan is not the sole 
 source of temptation, for St. James says, " Every 
 man is tempted, when he is led away of his own 
 lust, and enticed" (chap. i. 14). If, therefore, 
 we would be delivered from evil, and our Lord 
 taught us so to pray, we must not only ask to 
 be delivered from Satan, but also from self. — 
 Loraine. 
 
 2 Evil may be viewed in a restricted sense. 
 
 (i) Personally. 
 
 [3033] He saith not, " Deliver us from evil 
 men," for it is not they who injure us, but " the 
 evil one." — Thcophylact. 
 
 [3034] He is the chief author of evil, his temp- 
 tations are all unto evil, his delight is only in 
 evil, he is the father of all those that do evil. 
 And therefore this is the most proper and sig- 
 nificant character of the devil. But yet it is also 
 ascribed unto men according to their resem- 
 blance of him. — Bp. Hopkins^ 1633-1690. 
 
 [3035] 'O irovtipog, " the evil one," IMatt. xiii. 
 19 ; I John ii. .<.3 ; v. 18 ; Eph. vi. 16. In 
 all these places the devil is so called, be- 
 cause his great business is to draw and 
 drive others to sin ; and therefore, as God 
 is "the holy one," so Satan is called "the 
 wicked one." The devil may fitly be called " the 
 evil one," for he is the oldest sinner, i John 
 iii. 8. And he is the greatest sinner, Eph, vi. 12. 
 And he is the father of sin, John viii. 44. So all 
 the sins in the world are by his furtherance, both 
 actual and original. Again, he hath a great 
 stroke in temptation, that he is the artificer, the 
 designer, the improver of them ; therefore he is 
 called 6 TrupdZiov, "the tempter," RIatt. iv. 3. — 
 T. Man/on, 1629-1677. 
 
 [3036] The Divine Author seems to have in- 
 terpreted at the same time also the other saying 
 — " Deliver us from evil." The original is am- 
 biguous. It may be rendered, " from evil," or, 
 " from the evil one." I think the latter is the 
 more probable meaning. Considering our Lord's 
 frequent references to a personal tempter — con- 
 sidering the special instance just quoted, " Satan 
 hath desired you . . . but I have prayed for 
 thee" — it seems natural to suppose that it is 
 from " the wicked one" that He here bids us 
 pray for deliverance, rather than from the less 
 definite, more abstract thing to which we give 
 the impersonal name of "evil." — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [3037] I am not about to enter on the discussion 
 of the vexed question as to the translation of the 
 Lord's Prayer, which has been debated so ex- 
 haustively by such masterly scholars and theo- 
 logians as Bishop Lightfoot and Canon Cook.
 
 476 
 
 3037—3041] 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 [seventh petition. 
 
 It has struck me, however, that the following 
 contribution towards the solution of that prob- 
 lem — which, so far as I remember, has not as 
 yet been noticed on either side — may not be 
 without interest. It will be seen that the great 
 poet of medijeval Christendom, the student of 
 Aquinas, the follower of Francis of Assisi, and 
 therefore, in the highest sense, the representative 
 at once of the religious philosophy and of the 
 devotion of his age, throws the weight of his 
 authority into the scales of the Revised Version, 
 and tells us in what sense Latin Christendom 
 has used the prayer. Libera nos a malo. 
 
 In the opening of the nth Canto of the 
 Purgaiorio, Dante gives a paraphrase of the 
 Lord's Prayer as sung by souls who are being 
 purified from the stains of earth. It would, of 
 course, be sufficient for my immediate purpose 
 to quote the lines that correspond with the clause 
 of that prayer now in question ; but the whole 
 paraphrase is of such exceeding beauty, and is 
 so little known (but few readers of Dante seem 
 to get beyond the Inferno), that I think your 
 readers will not blame me for asking you to 
 permit me to give the whole from an unpublished 
 translation — 
 
 " Our Father, Thou Who dwellest in the heaven. 
 Not circumscribed, save as by greater sense 
 Of love which Thou to Thy first works hast 
 given, 
 
 Praised be Thy Name and Thine Omnipotence 
 By every creature, as is meet and right, 
 To render thanks to Thy sweet effluence. 
 
 Thy Kingdom come to us in peace and might, 
 For of ourselves we may not it attain. 
 If it come not, with all our reason's height. 
 
 As of their will Thine angels chant their strain, 
 And high hosannas offer up alway, 
 So may men also wills for Thy will gain. 
 
 Our daily IVIanna give to us to-day. 
 
 Without which whoso through this desert 
 
 bleak 
 Journeys, goes back, though pressing on 
 his way. 
 
 And as the trespass men upon us wreak 
 
 We each forgive, so, Lord, do Thou forgive 
 Of Thy great goodness, nor our merits seek. 
 
 Our virtue, which so soon doth harin receive, 
 Put not to peril with our ancient Foe, 
 But from his evil sting deliverance give. 
 
 This final prayer, dear Lord, from us doth flow, 
 Not for ourselves, for that we no more need. 
 But for their sakes whom we have left be- 
 low." 
 
 It may be well, perhaps, that I should give 
 the original text of the three lines for the sake 
 of which I have quoted the whole — 
 
 '' Nostra virtu che di leggier s'adona 
 Non spermentar con 1' antico avversaro, 
 IVIa libera da lui, che si la sprona." 
 
 Dean Plumptre, Letter to The Guardian, 1882. 
 
 [3038] Thoughts and feelings of humility and 
 godly fear must stir within us always as we 
 
 meditate on, or offer up, this prayer. How 
 forcibly it brings before the mind all the great 
 truths of faith which Scripture teaches respect- 
 ing the fall of our first parents, and its conse- 
 quences to mankind, and respecting the person- 
 ality of the evil spirit who both tempted them, 
 and now, with his hosts of attendant angels, is 
 for ever seeking the destruction of each indi- 
 vidual man. — Karslake. 
 
 [3039] Is the word translated " evil " mascu- 
 line or neuter? Does it signify the evil one, or 
 that which is evil ? According to the majority 
 of interpreters, ancient and modern, it means 
 the evil one. Such is thought to have been 
 the meaning of the corresponding word of the 
 Jewish prayer from which probably the clause 
 is taken. Satan is undoubtedly called the evil 
 one in Holy Scripture. In agreement with a 
 saying of the Lord recorded by St. John, in 
 which sinners are described as " of their father 
 the devil," the expression occurs in the Gospel 
 according to St. ]\Iatthew, in the passage, " The 
 tares are the children of the wicked one ;" and 
 in the same chapter we read, " When any one 
 heareth the word of the kingdom, and under- 
 standeth it not, then cometh the wicked one ; " 
 as St. Mark writes, " Satan ;" as St. Luke says, 
 " the devil." — Robinson. 
 
 (2) Impersonally. 
 
 a. Import of the word evil in its neutral 
 rendering. 
 
 [3040] All evils are here meant, whether they 
 be of sin or sorrow, whether they be transgres- 
 sions or punishments ; and that either temporal 
 punishments in those judgments which God 
 inflicts upon sinners here, or eternal judgments. 
 — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633- 1 690. 
 
 b. Negative argument for the neuter render- 
 ing. 
 
 ist." Biblical criticism leaves t{S perfectly free 
 to adopt the neuter rendering which accords 
 best with Scripture analogy and spiritual in- 
 stiftcts. 
 
 [3041] The words "deliver us from" {pvaai 
 aizb) may refer to deliverance either {a) from a 
 personal enemy, or {b) from an impending 
 calamity or a moral evil. 
 
 {a) In Romans xv. 31, and in 2 Thess. iii. 2, 
 the apostle refers to deliverance from unbeliev- 
 ing Jews, a very different thing from praying to 
 be delivered from Satan. 
 
 {b) I Thess. i. 10 : " Jesus which delivereth 
 (A.V. delivered) us from the wrath to come." 
 The amendment is necessary as St. Paul speaks 
 of a continuous action on the part of our Lord. 
 2 Tim. iv. 18 : "The Lord will (A.V. shall) de- 
 liver me from every evil work." 
 
 These passages certainly add force to the 
 assumption that in the Lord's Prayer deliver- 
 ance from evil, specially from moral evil, guilt 
 and its punishment, is primarily intended. It 
 seems to me, and I think to the generality of 
 Christians, more in accordance with the position
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 477 
 
 3041—3047] 
 
 [seventh petition. 
 
 of those whom Christ has dehvered from the 
 power of Satan, to pray to be delivered from 
 moral evil, the sin that besets us continually, and 
 from its penalty, than from " the evil one," the 
 devil who will flee from those who resist him 
 (James iv. 7). 
 
 The real question, however, is whether roD 
 ■Kovi^pov is masculine or neutei . 
 
 1. If it is certainly masculine, it is correctly 
 rendered " the evil one," whether that evil one 
 be a spiritual or human adversary. 
 
 2. If it is neuter, "evil" is the only true 
 rendering. 
 
 3. If, again, the gender is doubtful, a double 
 rendering — one in the text, another in the mar- 
 gin — is admissible, or necessary. 
 
 Wfc must not forget, however, the important 
 fact that 6 irov^poQ, " the evil one," is a designa- 
 tion of Satan in the New Testament. Thus, in 
 Matt. xiii. 19, we read, "then cometh the evil 
 one." 
 
 St. John, moreover, in his First Epistle, four 
 times uses the masculine adjective, with the 
 definite article, as equivalent to Satan. This 
 leaves no doubt as to the admissibility of the 
 rendering " the evil one," when it is supported 
 by the context ; but it must be observed, first, 
 that the Epistle of St. John was written more 
 than half a century after the delivery of the 
 parable in St. Matthew, i.e., at a time when the 
 expression, taken from the exposition of the 
 parable itself, had probably become idiomatic ; 
 and secondly — a point of great importance — 
 that St. John does not represent the evil one as 
 a foe, or tyrant from whom the Christian has to 
 be delivered, but as an enemy whom even the 
 young men have overcome (i John ii. 13, 14), 
 and who is powerful over those only who aban- 
 don themselves to his influence (chap. v. 18, 19). 
 As for the Christian, St. John assures us " that 
 evil one toucheth him not." 
 
 But further, St. Paul uses the Greek word 70 
 ■jrovtjpov (Rom. xii. 9) in the precise sense of 
 ^' evil : " " Abhor that which is evil," literally 
 abhorri77g evil, i.e. wickedness. To -Kovt^pov is 
 the antithesis to rh ayaQov to kcCKov kcu utpiXi/Aoi'. 
 
 These are the only passages in the New 
 Testament in which the gender is distinctly 
 marked. They certainly do not settle the ques- 
 tion, so far as the grammatical construction is 
 concerned. We are free to choose that sense 
 which is most in accordance with scriptural 
 teaching. In my opinion, it is that which fixes 
 our mind upon the real point of spiritual danger, 
 — the sinful thought, word, or act which alone 
 gives access to "the evil one," from which 
 Christ has delivered every true child of God. — 
 Canon F. C. Cook. 
 
 [3042] To pray that we may be delivered 
 from evil generally, seems to be all that might 
 be required of us ; nor are we, if our prayer be 
 granted, a bit less safe from the evil one than if 
 hs is expressly named in the supplications which 
 we offer up. In the latter case, however, we 
 take no note of the various evils to which human 
 
 life is physically liable, w^hilst we pray for pro- 
 tection against the devil, whose agency is of 
 a spiritual nature. And yet the word irovrjpov 
 is primarily and principally discriptive of phy- 
 sical or bodily evil, as well as of the mind. — 
 Rev. J. A. Giles. 
 
 [3043] The introduction of " the evil one " 
 would here be quite incongruous and even 
 absurd. — Alford. 
 
 c. Positive arguments for the neuter rendering. 
 
 (i) On account of its origi)ial ineaning. 
 
 [3044] The word Trovijpog has first of all a 
 reference to pain, hurt, and bodily evil gene- 
 rally, and from that meaning is transferred 
 to moral evil, sorrow, grief, and other mental 
 sufferings. The poet Theognis well expresses 
 this where he says that the ingratitude of chil- 
 dren whom you have well and carefully brought 
 up is the most painful (ponerotaton) of all 
 diseases. This also will be seen from an 
 analysis of the passages in which this word is 
 used in the New Testament. — y. A. Giles. 
 
 (2) On accoimt of this appellative for Satan 
 being unknown to our Lord's hearers. 
 
 [3045] My argument is this. Our Lord's 
 countrymen and the readers of the first Gospel 
 would naturally and instinctively understand 
 any words of doubtful signification in the sense 
 with which they were already familiar. This 
 would involve the meaning of "evil," not the 
 " evil one," the latter sense not being found in 
 any contemporary or previously existing docu- 
 ment. I further state that, according to the 
 usage in Palestine in our Lord's time and for 
 many years after, the term corresponding to 
 6 TTovripoQ was not employed as an equivalent for 
 Satan. — CaiioJi F. C. Cook. 
 
 (3) On account of St. Mattheis/s use of an 
 unambiguous term for Satan iti his description 
 of the temptatioji. 
 
 [3046] It is a point worth noting that since, 
 in the record of our Lord's temptation, Satan is 
 distinctly named, it might be expected that, if 
 his personality were meant, it would here be 
 marked by the same, or an equally unmistak- 
 able, designation. In the former instance, the 
 readers of St. Matthew's Gospel might be as- 
 sumed to be familiar with the word 6 Trovtjpog had 
 it been commonly understood as an appellative; 
 but in this prayer the multitude who heard it 
 would surely need the clearest and most un- 
 ambiguous designation, had our Lord intended 
 to fix their attention upon Satan. — Ibid. 
 
 (4) On account of the designed afnbiguousness, 
 or rather comprelicnsiveness, of the word itself 
 
 [3047] The only literal and truthful rendering 
 of d-Ko Tov Tzov))pol is either "from evil," or "from 
 the evil." The old versions read — Sjt., P. and 
 Phil., Georg., Armen., Slav., Goth., cnrb tov
 
 478 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 3047—305 
 
 [seventh petition. 
 
 irovi]pn': ; Memph., "from the evil ;" but Sahid.> 
 "from the evil one" (compare i John v. 18, 19); 
 Cod. aur and Vulg., "a male.'' The Greek has 
 only one word, Tvov^pov, so let the English have 
 only one too— "evil ;" and let every one under- 
 stand it as he will. Had our Saviour meant it 
 to be aught but an open question He would 
 have explained it as He did His parables. But 
 He did not. Whence we may safely conclude 
 that the rendering of Authorized Version, " de- 
 liver us from evil," is best, since it implies not 
 only our great enemy " the evil one," with his 
 hosts of evil spirits, but all sin and shame, 
 trouble and sorrow, grief and sickness, pain, 
 suffering, and loss of every kind ; so that in the 
 words of St. Isidorus (Eph. iv. 24), iraaav 
 elowvtiav vmpjSdWn, " it is above all cavil." — 
 S. C. Malan. 
 
 (5) Oil account of the climatic positioti ivhich 
 the clause sustaining the word occupies in the 
 Prayer. 
 
 [3048] The Gothic version has "af thamma 
 ubilin ; " a Lord's Prayer of the eighth century 
 has " fona allem sunton ; " one of the twelfth 
 century, "von dem ubilem ;" and, in accordance 
 with these, Luther has rendered the expression, 
 both in ^Matthew and Luke, "von dem uebel" 
 (from the evil, or, from evil). Many, on the 
 other hand, prefer to render it "from the evil 
 one," meaning not evil in the abstract, but 
 Satan. But the place occupied by the petition, 
 at the close of the Lord's Prayer, is in favour of 
 Luther's translation. Deliverance in the most 
 comprehensive sense of the word, for which we 
 ask here, is more than deliverance from the 
 devil. — Evangelical Review. 
 
 in. IMisTAKEN Notions about Evil. 
 
 I Regarding trials as necessarily eviL 
 
 [3049] Faith is awake to the fact that our 
 heavenly Father, in infinite wisdom and mercy, 
 may answer our prayer by present disappoint- 
 ments and troubles. The very means He uses 
 for our protection and escape may be another 
 trial. Amen. If He grant the petition, what 
 matters it how ! He is delivering us from evil, 
 and He only knows what will save us. The 
 artist on the lofty scaffolding was so intent upon 
 the picture on the ceiling at which he was 
 working, that he forgot the danger of his situa- 
 tion. Back and back he stepped, reviewing his 
 painting — back to the very edge of the platform. 
 Another step and he would have been a mangled 
 corpse below. Quick as thought, too sagacious 
 to speak to him of his peril, one seized a brush, 
 and proceeded to disfigure his beautiful picture. 
 Rushing forward to arrest the rude arm, the 
 indignant painter cried, "What have you done?" 
 " Saved your life, sir," was the answer. We are 
 often taken up with our picture-painting till 
 "there is but a step between us and death." 
 Suddenly, in severe mercy, God causes our 
 pleasant handiwork to be marred. Shall we 
 complain ? Nay, we must thank our Deliverer. 
 
 We are drawn from the verge of perdition, 
 snatched from the power of temptation, saved 
 from eternal evil. Our trials are thus our life. 
 
 — Robinson. 
 
 [3050] Only as you call a flail evil, that sepa- 
 rates the grain from the chaff; a wheel evil that 
 grinds jewels to burn in a crown ; a knife evil 
 that prunes a tree ; a tree evil that bears good 
 fruit ; a plough evil whose colter crashes 
 through the hard soil, opens it to the chemistry 
 of nature, and makes it a soft, porous, receptive 
 seed-plot for the harvest ; the medicine evil that 
 brings back the colour of health to the white 
 face, and the flash of gladness to the dim eye ; 
 the hand evil that snatches back a heedless 
 child from the nest of the serpent, or the lip of 
 the river, just in time to save its life— only in 
 this qualified sense can you call an affliction an 
 evil. Out of our greatest sorrows grow our 
 greatest joys. The worst of all these is not evil 
 itself ; not all these together could make what 
 is here set down as " the evil." — Stanford. 
 
 2 Regarding the existence of evil without 
 the agency of the devil. 
 
 [3051] The evil one and that which is evil are 
 as closely connected as source and stream, root 
 and tree, substance and shadow, fang and 
 poison, fire and flame. Everything done by the 
 devil, and whatever he suggests, is evil. All 
 his aims and hopes are evil. He has pleasure 
 in nothing but scheming, practising, instilling, 
 and encouraging evil. His malice is at the 
 bottom of most developments of wickedness 
 and woe. He rules in the kingdom of evil, 
 from the chains and darkness of which God's 
 people have escaped ; against the power of 
 which they, in the prayers preceding, beseech 
 the Almighty to uplift His arm ; and the guilt 
 and misery of relapsing into which they depre- 
 cate in this petition. It may not be impossible 
 to imagine the existence of evil without the 
 devil ; but it does not exist without him. — 
 Robinson. 
 
 3 Regarding sin in any other light than 
 essentially and absolutely evil. 
 
 [3052] There is no good at all in sin. First, 
 there is no good of entity, or being. God hath 
 a being ; and everything that hath a being hath 
 some good in it, because it is of God. But sin 
 is a 7ion-entity, a no-being ; it is rather the de- 
 privation of a being than any being at all ; and 
 here is a great mystery of iniquity, that what is 
 a non-entity should have such a mighty efficacy 
 to trouble heaven and earth. Secondly, it hath 
 no good of causality; that is, sin is so evil that 
 it can bring forth no good. Afflictions do bring 
 forth good. Sin is such an evil that it cannot 
 be made good nor an instrument for good. 
 When God brings good out of sin. He does so 
 occasionally, not instrumentally. An instrument 
 gives some efficacy towards the effect; but sin 
 has in itself not even an instrumental efficacy 
 towards a good effect, as afflictions have ; 
 though God may take occasion to bring good
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 3052—3064] 
 
 479 
 
 [seventh petition. 
 
 out of sin committed, He never makes sin itself 
 an instrument oi good.— yereiniah BioTOughs. 
 
 [3053] The greatest evil is sin. i. In the 
 nature of it, as being contrary to the greatest 
 good, even God. 2. In the effect and con- 
 sequences of it here and hereafter. 3. There- 
 fore to pray is to pray against all other evils 
 whatsoever ; for the devil, the evil one, cannot 
 hurt us but by sin. And no other evil can befall 
 us but for sin, God inflicting them as the due 
 guerdon and reward of our transgressions. — 
 Bp. Hopkins, 1 633- 1 690. 
 
 IV. Modes (chiefly direct) of Divine 
 Deliverance when Evil is regarded 
 
 AS Sin. 
 
 1 Negatively. 
 
 (i) Not removal from scene of temptation. 
 
 [3054] In the prayer which sums up His 
 intercession for all disciples, our High Priest 
 draws a distinction between the world and the 
 evil in it. " I pray not that thou shouldest take 
 them out of the world, but that thou shouldest 
 keep them from the evil." — Stanford. 
 
 2 Positively. 
 
 (i) By circumstance enabling Providence. 
 
 [3055] That if it shall please God to " lead us 
 into temptation," yet that He would not leave 
 us under the power of temptation, but with 
 " every temptation He would make a way for 
 us to escape, that we may be able to bear it." — 
 Bp. Hopkins, 1 63 3- 1 690. 
 
 (2) By restraining Providence. 
 
 [3056] God sometimes delivers by putting an 
 hook into men's nostrils, and a bridle into their 
 jaws, and by a powerful hand reining them in 
 when they are most fiery and furious. — Ibid. 
 
 (3) Bv restraining grace. 
 
 [3057] God pi'eserves men from sin by pro- 
 pounding to them such considerations and argu- 
 ments as may be sufficient to engage conscience 
 against it, when yet the will and affections are 
 still bent towards it. — Ibid. 
 
 [3058] God keeps men from sin by special 
 and sanctifying grace. His grace is habitual 
 and exciting, and God by the one quickens and 
 stirs up the other, which else would lie sluggish 
 and dormant. Both concur to produce actual 
 grace as necessarily as there must be both the 
 concurrence of the heat of the sun and the life 
 of the root to the production of a HoyfQr.—Ibid. 
 
 [3059] Blind and feeble, we gratefully yield 
 ourselves to Thee, O Heavenly Father, to give 
 us light and strength, or, which is the same 
 thing, to hold our hand. Thou knowest what 
 is evil, when we do not ; and we humbly confide 
 in Thee. — Robinson. 
 
 (4) By rectify i7ig grace. 
 
 [3060] That if at any time temptation should 
 
 get the upper hand, and prevail over us to the 
 commission of sin, yet that God would not 
 leave us under the power of that sin, but raise 
 us up again by true repentance and godly 
 sorrow, that so at last we may be delivered from 
 the great and soul-damning evil of obduration 
 and impenitency. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633- 1690. 
 
 [3061] Now as there are two things in sin 
 which make it so exceeding evil, the guilt of 
 it whereby it damns, and the filth of it whereby 
 it pollutes the soul : so God hath two ways to 
 deliver us from it. First, by removing the guilt 
 already contracted, which He doth in justifying 
 and pardoning the sinner. Secondly, by prevent- 
 ing us from falling into the filth and pollution 
 of it for the future. — Ibid. 
 
 [3062] Evil. Should we be led into temp- 
 tation, then, " Deliver us from evil." 
 
 Evil of sin, the greatest, because the cause of 
 all others. — Van Doren. 
 
 V. Modes (chiefy indirect) of Divine 
 Deliverance when Evil is regarded 
 AS Trials. 
 
 [3063] God, in various ways, answers this 
 petition, and delivers us from evil. 
 
 1. When, however much we are afiflicted, we 
 are not weighed down by evils, but are enabled 
 to rise superior to them. 
 
 2. When we are surrounded by evil, and 
 God consoles us by His gracious presence, and 
 comforts " us in all our tribulations, that we 
 may be able to comfort them which are in any 
 trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves 
 are comforted of God :" and these consolations 
 of God are as numerous and varied as the evils 
 which befall us ; so that the Christian is able 
 to say with David, " In the multitude of my 
 thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my 
 soul." 
 
 3. We are delivered from evil when, after 
 we have suffered evil, God sends us those good 
 things which more than compensate us for any 
 sorrow which we have endured, and blots out 
 by present good the memory of those evils which 
 are past. 
 
 4. He delivers us from evil when the evil 
 itself is turned into good, and becomes the 
 means of blessing to us. Thus when St. Paul 
 besought God that the evil under which he 
 suffered might depart from him, instead of the 
 removal of the thorn in the flesh, we read — 
 " He said unto me. My grace is sufficient for 
 thee ; for my strength is made perfect in weak- 
 ness." 
 
 5. God delivers us from evil when the evil 
 itself is manifestly taken from us, or when that 
 which we fear is not allowed to approach us. — 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 VI. Mode of Divine Deliverance 
 viewed in regard to the Source 
 OF Temptation. 
 
 [3064] I. If the force and strength of a temp-
 
 THE lord's PR aver. 
 
 3064—3075] 
 
 [seventh petition. 
 
 tation be chiefly from the vehement, restless, 
 and incessant importunities of the evil spirit, 
 God often puts an issue to the temptation, by 
 rebuking and commanding down the tempter 
 himself. 
 
 2. If the force of a temptation be from the 
 weakness of a man's mind, rendering it unable 
 of itself to withstand and bear up against the 
 assaults of the tempter, God oftentimes delivers 
 from it by mighty, inward, unaccountable sup- 
 plies of strength, conveyed to the soul im- 
 mediately from Himself. 
 
 3. If the force of a temptation springs chiefly 
 from the unhappy circumstances of a man's life, 
 continually exposing him to tempting objects 
 and occasions of sin, God frequently delivers 
 such an one by a providential change of the 
 whole course of his life and the circumstances 
 of his condition. 
 
 4. And lastly, if the force and strength of a 
 temptation be chiefly from the powerful sway 
 and solicitation of some unruly and corrupt 
 affection, God delivers from it by the over- 
 powering influence and operation of His Holy 
 Spirit, gradually weakening, and at length 
 totally subduing it. — South, 1633-17 16. 
 
 VII. Extent of Divine Deliverance. 
 
 [3065] That God would not only deliver us 
 from gross and self-condemning impieties, but 
 from every evil way and work, and preserve us 
 blameless to the heavenly kingdom of His Son. 
 — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633-1 690. 
 
 [3066] That He would be pleased not only to 
 deliver us from that which is in itself evil, but 
 from all the occasions and all the appearances 
 of evil, for these also are evil, if not in effect, 
 yet in tendency. — Ibid. 
 
 VIII. The Necessity of this Prayer 
 FOR Deliverance. 
 
 I On account of thcs deadly influence and 
 vitality of indwelling sin. 
 
 [3067] Unless we have a right sense of the 
 power of evil, sin that dwelleth in us, we soon 
 drift away from the true attitude of suppliants 
 and the place of children. — C. N. 
 
 [3068] Take from this world all that sin has 
 wrought, and you will have a world fairer than 
 your imagination, though not than God's pur- 
 pose, can conceive. No doubt we inherit a 
 troop of evils, and fall heirs to the ills that men 
 have been aggravating from the first, but there 
 is that in each one ot us which, if we be not de- 
 livered from it, will turn the happiest and most 
 faultless inheritance into sorrow and confusion. 
 Our evil dispositions do not show all their 
 deadly influence now, only because what they 
 would do is done already. They do not destroy 
 the world, because the world is already destroyed. 
 —Dads. 
 
 ' [3069] When, in the course of our fight with 
 sin, we are in the very act of exulting over some 
 
 great victory, it shoots us down again, and we 
 are gnashing our teeth in the dust. When it 
 seems to sink in one part of our nature, it seems 
 to rise in another. As we felt the first bliss of 
 forgiveness, we almost thought that we had done 
 with it for ever, and that Christ would make it 
 as easy to be holy as it is to breathe. We felt 
 ready to borrow the exclamation, " O my soul 
 thou hast trodden down strength." But sin 
 seems to be strongest when it has had its death 
 blow. The eagle when down strikes at you with 
 a beak like a bolt of iron, and may flap you dead 
 with its wing. The red deer when down may 
 fell you with its antlers. The dying horse may, 
 in the plunge of its agony, break a man's limb. 
 A harpooned whale may dash a boat over. Sin 
 is like that. Speared through by its conqueror, 
 it may grasp us in its last convulsions, and seem 
 to be stronger dying than living ; but we shall 
 soon spring out from it, and cry, " Deliverance ! " 
 — Stanford. 
 
 2 On account of the unalterable and seduc- 
 tive influence of the world. 
 
 [3070] The world has not changed to suit our 
 condition. We would not now sin as once we 
 did, but the world will still be as pressing in its 
 offers of easy helps to sin as ever it was. — Dods. 
 
 [3071] The world is called evil (Gal. i. 3, 4). 
 I. Its amusements are evil. 2. Its society 
 (Rom. xii. 2). 2. Its riches (i Tim. vi. 9, 10; 
 Prov. xxviii. 20). 4. Its dress (Matt. vi. 25-32 ; 
 I Tim. ii. 9, 10). 5. Its communications. — 
 Horlock {of Box). 
 
 3 On account of the subtle powers of evil 
 banded against us. 
 
 [3072] " Deliver us from the evil one." Put 
 forth Thy Almighty power for my rescue in the 
 unequal struggle with leagued and banded 
 spirits of wickedness. The very air is peopled 
 with them. By night and by day they find 
 access. Every unguarded point in my armour 
 is perceived and made advantage of. A wily 
 and experienced foe watches my going out and 
 my coming in, my lying down and my rising 
 up. — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 [3073] " Where the devil cannot come, he 
 will send," shows the penetrative character of 
 temptation ; the certainty that it will find men 
 out in the most secret retreats. No outward 
 arrangements, cloistral retirements, flights into 
 the wilderness, can keep sin at a distance. 
 Temptation will assuredly overleap all such 
 barriers. The enemy is formidable, eminus as 
 well as cominus. — Tretich. 
 
 4 On account of the degradation of being 
 the slaves of the evil one. 
 
 [3074] To be kept from the evil of sin is a 
 greater mercy than to be kept from the trouble 
 of temptation. — T. iManton, 1629-1677. 
 
 [307 5] I remember to have read a story of one 
 Gunno, king of the Danes, that having over- 
 
 I
 
 THE LORD S PRAYER. 
 
 481 
 
 3705—3803] 
 
 [seventh petition. 
 
 corne a people, he set a dog over them to be 
 their governor : that is, he would have his com- 
 mands to go out under the name of the dog 
 and they should be under the government of 
 the dog; this he did in disdain and indignation 
 against those people he overcame. ]Much more 
 debasement is it for a soul to be under com- 
 mand of the devil. — Jeremiah Burroughs. 
 
 IX. Frames of Mind as reflected in 
 
 THE VERY FACT OF SEEKING DELIVER- 
 ANCE. 
 
 1 A st)irit of self-distrust and of trust in 
 God' 
 
 [3076] When we say, "Lead us not,'' we seem 
 to doubt God ; but when we say, " Deliver us,'' 
 we show our trust in God. When we say, 
 "Lead us not," it implies we are fearful ; but 
 when we say, " Deliver us," it implies we are 
 confident. And how should this variation come 
 to happen ? In the first, we look upon ourselves 
 ana can see nothing but weakness, and there- 
 fore can see nothing but doubtfulness and fear ; 
 but in the second we look upon God, and can 
 see nothing but goodness, and therefore can 
 feel nothing but hope and confidence. In the 
 first we consider the great hate and power of 
 tne devil over us, and this ir.akes us fearful. 
 In the second we consider the great love of 
 God to us and his great power over the devil, 
 and this makes us confident. In the first we 
 consider the law and what is threatened to 
 transgressors, and have cause to fear. In the 
 second we consider the gospel and what is 
 promised to believers, and have cause to hope. 
 Thus the law sends us to Christ. — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 156S-1645. 
 
 2 A sense of helplessness. 
 
 [3077] This petition tells us that we are bound 
 and tied by various evils ; that we are unable to 
 extricate ourselves from the various forms of 
 suffering and of woe, and need the hand of God 
 to rid us of those evils which encompass us on 
 all sides. — Coster. 
 
 [3078] This prayer, to be delivered from evil, 
 is a cry to "the stronger than the strong" for 
 help in an unequal contest ; to the " Advocate 
 with the Father" for His interposition on our 
 behalf; to the "Good Shepherd" to deliver His 
 sheep from the teeth of the destroyer, and to 
 save them to the uttermost, both of peril and of 
 need. — F. B. Proctor. 
 
 [3079] I. Because we cannot deliver our- 
 selves (John vi. -I4-2). Because God is the only 
 D eliverer. — Horlock {pf Box). 
 
 3 A sense of ignorance. 
 
 [30S0] Plato, seeing the ignorance of men in 
 presenting their desires to God, desires which, 
 if granted, would often be most injurious to 
 them, declares the best form of prayer to be 
 that which an ancient poet has furnished — " O 
 King Jupiter, give v.-hat is best, whether we wish 
 it or wish it not ; but avert from us what is evil, 
 even though we ask it." — Karslake. 
 
 X. PrE-REQUISITES TO RIGHTLY OFFER UP 
 
 THIS Petition. 
 
 1 Personal experience of the antagonism of 
 sin and the awful possibility of falling. 
 
 [3081] In proportion as any one has striven 
 to be like his great Ensample, holy, harmless, 
 undefiled, in that proportion will he realize the 
 intensity of the struggle, the anguish of the 
 antipathy which pervades a nobler nature when 
 it has been dragged into even apparent prox- 
 imity to the possibilities of evil. — Farrar. 
 
 2 Honesty of purpose to struggle against 
 sin in all its forms. 
 
 [30S2] And who, brethren, can pray this 
 prayer with a good conscience ? Not he who 
 trifles with evil. Not he who "runs" into 
 danger. Not he who can tranquilize a false 
 heart by praying for protection, and then, 
 thrust himself upon the place or the com- 
 panionship or the meditation which he has . 
 a thousand times found to be the threshhold .. 
 and the vestibule of sinning. Not he, certainly, . 
 who here intercedes for his brother, " Lead us 
 . . . deliver us ... " and goes forth to weaken 
 his decision for good, or to overbear and over- 
 power it for tv^S..—Dea7i Vaughan. 
 
 3 The actual abandonment of sin, in mea- 
 sure at least. 
 
 [3083] The love of sin is pretty well broken 
 within us, if we can use this petition always and 
 fully ; if, considering the persons we shall this 
 day meet, the things that may be said to us, 
 the gratifying offers that may be made to us, 
 the opportunities of pleasure or advancement 
 that may occur, we can yet say, "Rather let me 
 meet none of these than that they should so 
 much as tempt me to evil." Happy indeed is 
 the man who, in the fulness and depth of this 
 petition, can say, " I this day wish to be far 
 from everything which will nourish evil within 
 me, and I desire the presence of such things 
 only as will mature a Christian disposition. — ■- 
 Dods. 
 
 VOL. L 
 
 31
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 THE DOXOLOGY. 
 
 Pages 4S3 to 4S7. 
 
 A. Introductory Remarks. 
 
 I 
 
 ITS STRUCTURAL CHARACTER. 
 
 2 
 
 ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 3 
 THEORIES AS TO THE METHOD BY Vv"HICH IT CREPT INTO THE TEXT. 
 
 4 
 ITS RELATION TO CHRISTIAN LITURGIES. 
 
 5 
 ITS ANGLICAN USE. 
 
 B. Treatment of the Separate Words, 
 
 6 
 FORCE AND I^H>ORT OF THE CONNECTING PARTICLE " FOR." 
 
 7 
 IMPORT OF THE WORDS "THE KINGDOM." 
 
 8 
 IMPORT OF THE WORDS " THE POWER." 
 
 9 
 
 LESSON TAUGHT BY THE WORDS "THE POWER" FOLLOWING, AND NOT 
 
 PRECEDING, THAT OF "THE KINGDO^L" 
 
 10 
 IMPORT OF THE WORDS "THE GLORY." 
 
 II 
 
 IMPORT OF THE PHRASE "FOR EVER." 
 
 12 
 
 IMPORT OF THE WORD "AMEN." 
 
 13 
 
 LITURGICAL USES OF THE WORD "AMEN." 
 
 14 
 CONSIDERATIONS WHY WE SHOULD NOT PASS LIGHTLY OVER, BUT EARNESTLY 
 
 UTTER, THE WORD " AMEN." 
 
 15 
 
 THE FRAME OF MIND OF WHICH THE WORD "AMEN" IS INDICATIVE. 
 
 16 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE WORD "AMEN." 
 
 C. Concluding Remarks, 
 
 17 
 
 IMPORT OF THE DOXOLOGY VIEWED AS A WHOLE. 
 
 18 
 
 PRE-REQUISITE AND ACCOMPANYING FRAME OF :\HND IN REGARD TO DAILY 
 
 DUTIES OF LIFE FOR ITS RIGHT USE. 
 
 482
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER 
 
 ( Coiiiinucd), 
 
 10 
 
 THE D 0X0 LOGY. 
 
 " For Thine is the kingdom^ the power, and the 
 glory, for ever and ever. Amen " {omitted in 
 R. V. Matt. vi. 13). 
 
 I. Its Structural Character. 
 
 1 It harmonizes with the preface and the 
 body of the prayer. 
 
 [3084] In the beginning of this Prayer our 
 Saviour teacheth us to strengthen our faith in 
 the mercy of God, by teaching us to call Him 
 Father, and in the power of God by teaching 
 us to call Him our Heavenly Father ; that under 
 both these considerations we may look upon 
 Almighty God in the entrance into our prayers ; 
 and, because our thoughts are easily taken off 
 from these considerations, and, like Moses' arm, 
 our faith soon declines, and our light soon burns 
 out, and because there is an equal necessity of 
 intention of spirit, as well in our last request as 
 in our first, our Saviour teacheth us to remind 
 those considerations that may support and for- 
 tify our souls in the close of the prayer as well 
 as in the beginning ; that so the consideration 
 of Almighty God, His power and goodness, who 
 is the Beginning and the End, the First and the 
 Last, may be also the beginning and the end, as 
 of our prayers, so of all our services. — Sir M. 
 Hale. 
 
 [3085] As the commencement of the prayer 
 expresses the Unity, so the conclusion the three 
 Persons of the Godhead. It is the kingdom of 
 Christ which is now come ; in the power of the 
 Holy Ghost ; and to the glory of God the Father. 
 — Williams. 
 
 [3086] And first we ascribe to God all domi- 
 nion, in the words, " For Thine is the kingdom," 
 which carry us back to the thoughts suggested 
 by the second petition, " Thy kingdom come." — 
 Karslake. 
 
 2 It forms a natural climax to the ascend- 
 in3 scale observable in the whole prayer. 
 
 [3087] For the three first petitions seem 
 chiefly referred to the honour of God, in whom 
 all His attributes are equal ; and therefore in 
 them we go, as I may say, upon even ground. 
 
 We can find neither rising nor falling in them ; 
 we seem to see nothing that carries any higher 
 than the earth, or that carries any longer than 
 this life (and therefore that clause, " In earth as 
 it is in heaven," though it be expressed only in 
 the third petition, yet it is by many understood 
 also in the other two) : but in the three latter, 
 which are referred to our own benefit, we seem 
 to be climbing up Jacob's ladder, for at every 
 petition we take a step higher. In the first, we 
 begin very low, and ask, as Jacob did, but only 
 meat and raiment. In the second, we take a 
 step higher, and ask a pardon of our faults. In 
 the third, we go yet higher, and ask an absolute 
 protection from all dangers and deliverance 
 from all evil ; wherein we may be said to have 
 wrestled with the angel, and obtained a blessing, 
 for this is the highest step we can possibly at- 
 tain to in this mortal life. But how does this 
 stepreach so high as Jacob's ladder, which reach- 
 eth up to heaven t Mark, therefore, O my soul, 
 for,havingbegun in humility, it seems as if Christ 
 should here say unto us, ''Friend, sit up higher ;" 
 for this step of our deliverance from evil seems 
 to deliver us to heaven, seeing it is contiguous, 
 and joins immediately to the first step we shall 
 take in heaven, when all tears shall be wiped 
 from our eyes, and they be made clear to behold 
 the blessed vision of God, which is the highest 
 step of all, and in which consists the sum and 
 sunwmm of our eternal happiness. — Sir Richard 
 Baker, 1 568-1645. 
 
 II. Its Origin. 
 
 I Liturgical, not textual, on both critical 
 and historical grounds- 
 
 [3088] I shall not trouble you with a dispute 
 which is among the learned, whether these 
 words were put in by our Saviour Himself as a 
 part of this excellent prayer, or whether, being 
 a common conclusion of prayers in use in the 
 Jewish Church, as such they were added to this 
 prayer by the Church. It is certain there are 
 several eminent fathers who leave out this Dox- 
 ology, even where they expressly explain the 
 Lord's Prayer, and others of them put it in. St. 
 Luke leaves it out ; our Church sometimes puts 
 it in, and sometimes leaves it out in the Common 
 Prayer. But none will object to the usefulness 
 of it, and it has now for a long time, ever since 
 St. Chrysostom's days, at least, been used in the 
 Greek Church. — Bp. Hopki?is, 1633-1690. 
 
 [30S9] The doxology at the close of the Lord's
 
 484 
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 ?— 3099 
 
 [the doxci.^gv. 
 
 Prayer is found in one of the three oldest and 
 most important manuscripts. In another it is 
 said to bear evidence of not having been writ- 
 ten by the original copyist. It is wanting in 
 the third. We do not read it in the Gospel 
 according to St. Luke ; but in frequent instances 
 verses are absent in one evangelist which are 
 supplied in another. Of the fathers who wrote 
 on the Lord's Prayer, some make no mention of 
 the doxology. Cyprian remaiks, " We conclude 
 by saying,' But deliver usfrom evil.' " — Robinson. 
 
 [3090] The doxology must on every prin- 
 ciple of sound criticism be omitted. Had it 
 formed part of the original text, it is absolutely 
 inconceivable that all the ancient authorities 
 should with one consent have omitted it. They 
 could have no reason for doing so ; whereas the 
 habit of terminating liturgical prayers with as- 
 criptions of praise would naturally suggest some 
 such ending, and make its insertion almost cer- 
 tain in course of time. — Alford. 
 
 [3091] As doxologies of this kind were much 
 in use among the Jews and early Christians, 
 there is great reason to suppose that it was in- 
 terpolated from the ancient liturgies, in which 
 we know it formed the response of the people, 
 the prayer alone being pronounced by the 
 priest. It is surely far more likely to have been 
 introduced from the liturgies, than to have been 
 removed from the passage, because of its not 
 being contained in the parallel one of St. Luke. 
 — Bloomjield. 
 
 [3092] The closing doxology wanting here is 
 wanting also in all the best and most ancient 
 copies of St. Matthew's Gospel. Perhaps our 
 Lord purposely left that part open ; and as the 
 grand Jewish doxologies passed immediately 
 into the Christian Church, probably this prayer 
 was never used in the Christian assemblies, but 
 in its present form, as we find it in St. Matthew, 
 while in St. Luke it h.ir. been allowed to stand 
 as originally uttered. — D. Brown, 
 
 in. 'I'HEORIES AS TO THE ^METHOD BY 
 WHICH IT CREPT INTO THE TEXT. 
 
 [3093] It is supposed that, during public wor- 
 ship, in the simple liturgy used immediately 
 after the apostolic times, the elder or minister 
 having repeated the Lord's Prayer to the end of 
 the sixth petition, the people, educated to the 
 habit, as the Gloria Patri became subsequently 
 added to the Psalms, continued with united 
 voice, " For Thine is the kingdom, and the 
 power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." It is 
 further conjectured that, in making copies of the 
 Gospel according to St. jNIatthew, the tran- 
 scribers inserted it in ink of a difterent colour, 
 or, as in several manuscripts, wrote it in the 
 margin, regarding it as an inseparable adjunct, 
 until, as copies were multiplied, it was gradually 
 admitted, without any distinctive mark, into the 
 body of the text, and came to be viewed as an 
 integral portion of the Lord's Prayer. — Robinson. 
 
 W. Its Relation to Christian Litur- 
 gies. 
 
 I It was the first of those supplements to the 
 Lord's Prayer cut of which a liturgy gradu- 
 ally grew up. 
 
 [3094] "And He said unto them. When ye 
 pray, say." The conclusion is inevitable that 
 the Lord's Prayer is a form of devotion pre- 
 scribed by the Saviour for literal adoption and 
 use. 
 
 It was the only formula used by the new-born 
 church. The first appendage to it, as will be 
 subsequently explained, was the doxology, " For 
 Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the 
 glory, for ever. Amen." Thus extended, it 
 seems to have sufficed for a time as the sole 
 consecration prayer in the service of the Holy 
 Communion. Gradually there flowed from it, 
 and were attached to it, not superseding it, 
 numerous sentences of devotion. — Robinson. 
 
 V. Its Anglican Use. 
 
 1 With discrimination in regard to the cha- 
 racter of the office where it occurs. 
 
 [3095] The doxology is used in our liturgy 
 not capriciously but usually with studied care. 
 In eucharistic parts it is added, in penitential 
 or supplicatory it is omitted. — C. N. 
 
 2 In harmony with its eucharistic principles 
 of Divine worship. 
 
 [3096] The doxology at the close is greatly 
 to be prized, as possessed by us alone among 
 Western churches. It also serves to impart to 
 this Divine summary of our worship, as the 
 general thanksgiving does to the office itself, 
 the dominant and pervading aspect of praise. — 
 Frccniati. 
 
 "VI. Force and Import of the Connect- 
 ing Particle " For " (ynp)- 
 
 I In regard to the doxology as a whole. 
 
 [3097] The doxology or ascription of praise 
 is connected with the prayer by the word "'for," 
 to signify that it is not because we are to be 
 benefited, but that God's name and perfections 
 may be manifested. — Barnes. 
 
 [309S] The doxology points out what should 
 be our motive in view at once in our living and 
 in our prayers ; and also our ground of confi- 
 dence that our prayers will be answered, and 
 we be enabled to live as we pray. — Karslake. 
 
 [3099] As an additional praise and thanks- 
 giving, which is always very fit to be joined 
 with prayer, q.d.., we humbly hope for a grant ' 
 of these our petitions, when we reflect and con- 
 sider that " Thine is the kingdom," and that 
 Thou hast hitherto defended it against all the 
 attempts of Thine and our enemies, and that 
 Thine is " the power," and that whenever Thou 
 hast been pleased to exert it, there is nothing 
 
 I
 
 THE LORD S PR A YF.R. 
 
 485 
 
 3099—3112] 
 
 [the doxologv. 
 
 too hard for Thee ; and that Thine is the glory, 
 i.e.. Thou hast always gained honour to Thy- 
 self by answers to prayer ; and as it has been so 
 in time past it will be so for ever and ever. — 
 J.Blair, 1723. 
 
 [3100] "Thine is the kingdom;" Thou hast 
 control over these things, and canst so order 
 them as to answer these petitions. " The 
 power ; " we are weak, but Thou art almighty, 
 and all things are possible with Thee. " The 
 glory," that is the honour, the praise, not our 
 honour. But Thy glory. Thy goodness, will be 
 displayed in providing for our wants ; Thy 
 power in defending us ; Thy praise in causing 
 Thy kingdom to spread throughout the earth. — 
 Barnes. 
 
 [3101] The do.xology teaches us the ground 
 on which the several petitions are made ; 
 namely, because the kingdom for the further- 
 ance of which we pray is God's ; because His 
 is the power to grant the mercies we ask for ; 
 and His the glory which springs from the hal- 
 lowing of His name, the extension of His king- 
 dom, and the performance of His will. — Ramsay. 
 
 [3102] All these attributes of God are annexed 
 to the petitions of this prayer by the illative 
 particle "for." And this carries in it the strength 
 and force of a reason, both why we pray unto 
 God, and likewise why God should grant us 
 those things that we pray for. 
 
 1. We pray unto God, for His is the "king- 
 dom," and the " power," and the " glory for 
 ever," and therefore He alone is able to relieve 
 and supply us. 
 
 2. We plead for the obtaining of those good 
 things which we ask of Him ; therefore grant 
 them unto us, "for Thine is the kingdom, and 
 the power, and the glory for ever." This adds 
 strong consolation and assurance to our faith, 
 that we shall be heard in these requests that 
 we present to God. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690. 
 
 2 In regard to each word in the doxology. 
 
 [3103] I. His "is the kingdom," and we are 
 His subjects, and therefore we may depend 
 upon Him as our King for help and protection. 
 
 2. His "is the power," and therefore He is 
 able to supply and help us, and to do abundantly 
 for us above what we can ask or think. 
 
 3. His " is the glory," and therefore since 
 what we ask is for His honour and praise, we 
 may firmly believe our requests shall be granted 
 unto us. And, 
 
 4. All these are His " for ever," and therefore 
 we may rest assured that at no time our prayers 
 shall be in vain. — Ibid. 
 
 VII. Import of the Words "The King- 
 dom." 
 
 [3104] For Thine is the kingdom; here we 
 acknowledge God's absolute and universal 
 dominion. — J. Boyle, 
 
 [3105] Earthly princes have a kingdom, a 
 kingdom of power, and a certain glory in this 
 world, but it is not the kingdom which endureth 
 for ever and ever. — Bp. Attdrews. 
 
 [3106] The Lord's property as here set forth. 
 The kingdom, (i) God's universal dominion 
 over all things. (2) The visible Church of 
 Christ. (3) The covenant state of the saints, 
 Rev. i. 6. (4) Future glory. — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 VIII. Import of the Words "The 
 Power." 
 
 [3107] For Thine is the p07i'er, which knows 
 of no limit, and which can admit of no inter- 
 ruption. — y. Boyle. 
 
 [3108] As His kingdom, or authority and 
 right, is absolute over all, so also is His power 
 or ability to do what He wills in that kingdom 
 infinite likewise. In earthly rulers we see these 
 two, the right and the power, separate at times ; 
 but in God alone they are both for ever and 
 entirely united in one. — Karslake. 
 
 [3109] God is powerful (i) in Himself, as 
 evidenced by the works of creation, redemption, 
 conversion, and preservation ; (2) through the 
 creature ; (3) through His forces — natural, 
 angelic, human. — Horlock {of Box). 
 
 IX. Lesson taught by the Words "The 
 Power" following, and not pre- 
 ceding, that of "The Kingdom." 
 
 [3110] This order was probably chosen for 
 this reason, that it is not the Divine Omnipo- 
 tence in general that is meant, but the entire 
 prayer presupposes its application in the estab- 
 lishment of the kingdom of God. Hence the 
 doxology being, as it were, an assurance of the 
 certain fulfilment of the prayer, declares very 
 appropriately, first, that the kingdom is the 
 object of God's desire, i.e., its realization is 
 willed by God : and connected with this is the 
 idea that He Himself completes it, and will 
 assuredly bring it to a consummation ; other- 
 wise it looks as if the power should have been 
 mentioned before the kingdom, as the more 
 general idea by the instrumentality of which the 
 kingdom is realized. — Olshausen. 
 
 X. Import OF THE Words "The Glory." 
 
 [31 11] For Thine is the ^/t^r/, which neither 
 time nor accident can diminish. — J. Boyle. 
 
 [3112] The essential glory of God is the col- 
 lection and system of those attributes which 
 eternally and immutably belong unto the Divine 
 nature. 
 
 The declarative glory of God is the manifes- 
 tation of those His attributes, so that His 
 creatures may take notice of them with praise 
 and veneration. Both are here intended by our 
 Saviour when He teacheth us to ascribe the 
 "Glory unto God."— Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
 
 486 
 
 THE lord's prayer. 
 
 3113-3122] 
 
 [the doxolcgy. 
 
 [3 1 1 3] The glory. God is glorious (1) in 
 Himself; (2) in His works ; (3) in His attend- 
 ants, Isa. vi. ; (4^^ in His residence. — Horlock, 
 of Box [condensed). 
 
 XI. Import of the Phrase "For Ever." 
 
 [31 14] And to this ascription of dominion, 
 and power, and glory to God, we add the words 
 " For ever." The kingdoms of the world crumble 
 into decay, empire after empire rising and ful- 
 filling its destiny in the order of events, and 
 then passing away ; the glory of earthly mon- 
 archs and of the great men of the world shines 
 for its little day and then sets, and is at most 
 remembered only as a thing of the past ; the 
 mightiest energies of man, the most powerful 
 agencies of nature, gradually lose their force ; 
 but in striking contrast is all that belongs to the 
 Most High. His power never fails ; His king- 
 dom lasts on through ages and ages that shall 
 never end ; His glory remains unchanged, the 
 same in the past, and the present, and for ever. 
 — Karslake. 
 
 XII. Import of the Word "Amen." 
 
 [3 1 1 5] "Amen" is a word of Hebrew origin, 
 from a word which signifies to be firm, secure, 
 true, and faithful. — Barnes. 
 
 the Holy 
 verify, be 
 the sense 
 signifying 
 It is a 
 ntain and 
 saith the 
 -Robinson. 
 
 [31 16] This word is met with in 
 Bible as a verb, meaning to trust, 
 firm, be faithful ; as an adjective, in 
 of true and stable ; and as a noun, 
 truth, reliance, firmness, constancy, 
 title of Jesus Christ as the great Fou 
 Teacher of truth. " These things 
 Amen, the faithful and true Witness.''— 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Liturgical 
 
 "Amen." 
 
 Uses of the Word 
 
 [3 1 1 7] As this particle "Amen" used in the 
 beginning of a speech is assertory of the un- 
 doubted truth of it, so when it is subjoined and 
 used at the end of it is precatory, and signifies 
 our earnest desire to have our prayers heard, 
 and our petitions granted.— i?/. Hopkins, 1633- 
 1690. 
 
 [31 1 8] Amen must vary, obviously, with the 
 place in which it occurs in our services. _ Some- 
 times it stands at the end of a confession, and 
 then it means, "The sins which have been con- 
 fessed are my sins ; the pardon which has been 
 implored I also need and ask." Sometimes it 
 stands at the end of an absolution, and then it 
 means, " The release from condemnation and sin- 
 fulness here announced I also believe in and I 
 also claim." Sometimes it stands at the end of 
 the Lord's own prayer, and then it means, "I 
 too regard God as my Father ; desire that His 
 name, His kingdom, His will, niay be hallowed, 
 be established, be done ; look to Him for the 
 supply of my daily needs, the forgiveness of my 
 daily sins, the preservation of my soul from 
 temptation, and my life from evil." Sometirries 
 U stands at the end of an ascription of praise, 
 
 and then it means, " I too acknowledge God as 
 worthy of all adoration, as the alone Great, and 
 Good, and Holy." Sometimes it stands at the 
 end of a creed, and then it means, "This God, 
 this Saviour, this Holy Spirit, is my God : I 
 too am persuaded that He is, and is that He is." 
 Sometimes, most often, it stands at the end of a 
 prayer, properly so called, and then it means, 
 " That which the voice of another has read in my 
 hearing is the voice of my heart : I too need, 
 I too desire, I too ask, that which another has 
 asked for himself and for the congregation ; God 
 grant it, even this special gift, to me also, for 
 His Son's sake." — Dean Vaughan. 
 
 XIV, Considerations why we should 
 not pass lightly over, but 
 earnestly utter, the word 
 " Amen ! " 
 
 1 Its interesting association. 
 
 [3119] With this word did our Lord Jesus 
 Christ Himself introduce most of His most im- 
 pressive revelations. The phrase so constantly 
 recurring in His discourses, "Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you," is in the original language, 
 " Amen, Amen, I say unto you." — Dean 
 Vaughan. 
 
 2 Its catholicity. 
 
 [3120] In this one instance we pray or give 
 thanks, not only in the sense, but in the very 
 sound and form, in which patriarchs and pro- 
 phets under the law, as well as apostles and 
 evangelists under the gospel, prayed and gave 
 thanks before us. We have not translated but 
 transferred their language into our own. The 
 Greek Church and the Latin, the French, the 
 German, and the English, every Church, so far 
 as we know, in which the name of Christ is 
 named, has adopted and naturalized this one 
 Hebrew utterance, and, so far as we know, this 
 one only. A sound which in itself would be un- 
 meaning in the tongue in which we were born, 
 has been invested by the piety of ages with a 
 force and a significance which belongs to few of 
 the sounds of that tongue itself. — /bid. 
 
 3 Its prevailing power. 
 
 [3121] He that says Amen, if he heartily 
 desire what the other perfunctorily and with his 
 lips only utters, not praying with his heart and 
 with the acceptabilities of a good life, the Amen 
 shall be more than all the prayer, and the peo- 
 ple shall prevail for themselves when the priest 
 could not.—yereniy Taylor. 
 
 XV. The Frame of Mind of which the 
 Word "Amen" is Indicative. 
 
 [3122] The " Amen" at the close is e.xpressive ^ 
 both of faith and praise. 
 
 1. Of praise, as signifying "so it is ;" that is, 
 "These things are indeed true of Thee." 
 
 2. And of faith, as signifying " so be it," or 
 " so shall it be ;" that is, " this I trust He will 
 do of His mercy and goodness, and therefore I 
 say, Amen, so be it." — Catechist's Manual.
 
 THE LORDS PRAYER. 
 
 487 
 
 3123— 3129] 
 
 [the doxology. 
 
 [3123] Amen (so let it be) is thus enlarc^ed by 
 Bp. Ken : " For the sake, O heavenly Father, 
 of Thy Beloved, in whom all ' Thy promises are 
 Amen,' and who is Himself 'the Amen, the 
 faithful and true witness' of Thy love to us, 
 hear me, and pardon my wanderings and cold- 
 ness, and help me to sum up and enforce my 
 whole prayer, all my wants, and all the wants 
 of those I pray for, in a hearty, and fervent, and 
 comprehensive Amen." 
 
 [3124] This particle "Amen," therefore, sig- 
 nifies " certainly," " surely," " fimily," and is a 
 term expressing a solid soul-faith. It is as if 
 one should say, " I do not doubt, O Divine 
 Father, since these things are certain for which 
 I have prayed, that they will be done and ac- 
 complished ; not, however, because I have 
 poured out my prayer for these things, but be- 
 cause Thou hast commanded that they should 
 be prayed for, and hast promised that Thou 
 wilt bestow them. Therefore, I am certain that 
 Thou art true and canst not lie. And therefore, 
 also, it is not the worthiness of my prayer, but 
 the all-persuasion of Thy truth, that makes me 
 to believe, and to be persuaded beyond all 
 doubt, that all is, and will be, 'Amen.'" — 
 Luther. 
 
 XVI. Lessons taught by the Word 
 
 "Amen." 
 
 [3125] This teacheth us to put up all our 
 petitions, first, with understanding, duly weigh- 
 ing and considering what it is we ask of God. 
 Secondly, it teacheth us to present all our 
 requests to the throne of grace, with fervent 
 zeal and afifection : "Amen" is a wing to our 
 prayers ; it is the bow that shoots them up to 
 heaven. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690. 
 
 XVII. Import of the Doxology viewed 
 
 AS A WHOLE. 
 
 [3126] We have here God's sovereignty, om- 
 nipotence, excellency, and eternity. In ascrib- 
 ing to Him these attributes, we may consider, 
 (i) the eminency of them in the particle " the ; " 
 for His kingdom is that which ruleth over all ; 
 His power that which no created power can con- 
 trol ; His glory such as stains all other excel- 
 lences, and makes all their light and lustre to 
 be only the shadow of God. (2) The propriety 
 of them in the particle " thine." Though others 
 may have kingdoms, and power, and glory, yet 
 
 these in their eminency belong only unto God. 
 They are Thine originally, infinitely, and un- 
 changeably. — Ibid. 
 
 [3127] That is, for Thou hast a perpetual and 
 unmovable authority, whereby justly to dispose 
 of all things ; Thou hast an indefectible and 
 irresistible power, whereby Thou canst effect 
 whatever seems just and good to Thee ; where- 
 fore we profess only to rely upon and seek help 
 from Thee ; with hope and confidence we ad- 
 dress ourselves to Thee for the supply of all our 
 needs ; Thine is the glory ; all honour and 
 reverence, all love and thankfulness are due to 
 Thee ; therefore we render our adorations and 
 acknowledgments to Thee. Even so to Thee, 
 God the leather, God the Son, and God the Holy 
 Ghost, be for ever ascribed all glory and praise. 
 Amen. — Barrow. 
 
 [3128] "O Lord God of our fathers, art not 
 Thou God in heaven ? and rulest not Thou over 
 all the kingdoms of the heathen ? and in Thine 
 hand is there not power and might, so that none 
 is able to withstand Thee ?" or again, "The Lord 
 hath prepared His throne in the heavens ; and 
 His kingdom ruleth over all (2 Chron. xx. 6 ; 
 Psa. ciii. 19). — Denton. 
 
 XVI 1 1. Pre-requisiteand accompanying 
 Frame of Mind in regard to 
 Daily Duties of Life for its . 
 Right Use. 
 
 [3129] I might go on and give you a thou- 
 sand instances more, but they all come alike to 
 this, that whensoever you fancy that you cannot 
 earn your daily bread without doing wrong your- 
 self, or leaving your children to do wrong, then 
 you do not believe that the kingdom, and power, 
 and glory of this earth on which you work is 
 your heavenly Father's. For if you did, 
 you Avould be certain that gains, large or 
 small, got by breaking the least of His com- 
 mandments, could never prosper you, but must 
 bring a curse and a punishment with them j 
 and you would be sure also that, because God 
 is your Father, and this earth and all herein 
 is His, He will feed you with food sufficient for 
 you, if you do but seek first His kingdom — that 
 is, try to keep His laws ; and seek first His 
 righteousness— that is, strive and pray day by 
 day to become righteous even as He is right- 
 eous. — Kingsley.
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER; 
 
 BEING DESCRIPTIVE AND CLASSIFIED LISTS, 
 FORMING AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SUCCEEDING SECTIONS 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT. 
 V.\x.Oi creavroi'.
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 
 
 pa;e 
 493 
 
 FIRST PART. :MAN"S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION 
 
 SECOND PART. LAWS BY ^VHICH MAN IS CONDITIONED... 499 
 
 THIRD PART. VIRTUES, INCLUDING EXCELLENCES ... 501 
 
 FOURTH PART. VICES, INCLUDING FAULTS AND DEFECTS 510 
 
 490
 
 491 
 
 MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 
 
 TJie foUozuing distinctions zi'ill prove helpful in the studying of the succeeding 
 
 classification : — 
 
 Feelings refer to emotional capacity or inner excitement of the mind viewed as an abstract or 
 purely mental state. 
 
 Emotions (Lat. emovere, to move forth) are the feelings, tending to manifest themselves by their 
 effect upon the body. They are the feelings externalizing themselves. The feelings may be com- 
 pared to the waters in the spring before it reaches the surface working their way upward, or in 
 hidden cavern ; while the emotions would be the stream as it follows downward to the river's bed. 
 
 Sensation is the impression produced upon the mind by the external world, whether material or 
 mental. It is feeling in its simplest and most elementary form. We are acted upon, and the 
 mind and will are not definitely active on our side. We are like a man struck, and who does not 
 know whence the blow comes. 
 
 Perception is the conscious reference of sensation to the cause which produced it. We are like 
 a man struck, but who can trace whence the blow came. 
 
 Sensibilities are the feelings viewed in regard to both physical and mental conditions. They 
 are the feelings of the soul acted upon and intensified by the nervous system, and refined and 
 rendered acute by aesthetic instincts as well as by intellectual endowments and accomplishments. 
 
 Virtues and rices have to do respectively with RIGHT and WRONG, good and bad, true and false. 
 Vices are on either side, in moral things, of the boundary line of virtues. They are faults and 
 defects, negative in idea, but positive in reality. Virtues may be compared to fruit when it is 
 perfectly ripe, and vices to fruit either unripe and sour, or else over-ripe and rank. 
 
 The following summary of the nature and effects of virtues, if carefully kept in mind in the study 
 of moral philosophy, will be a useful guide, and prevent much confusion of thought. 
 
 1st. Virtues are qualities or actions, either in conformity with the principles of truth and justice, 
 benevolence and wisdom, or else connected with the ri^ht control of man's complex being. 
 
 2nd. Virtues are qualities or actions in accordance with the bye-laws of local standards, 
 political, domestic, and ecclesiastical, in so far as these do not contradict nor contravene the 
 higher and general laws of moral government. 
 
 3rd. Actions to be regarded as virtues must have the approval of the conscience. 
 
 4th. Actions to be virtues must be done from a right and pure motive. 
 
 5th. Virtues or right actions in their tendencies and effects will be found to be useful, profitable, 
 beneficial, and productive of the highest happiness. 
 
 6th. Virtues or right actions will be found to agree with man's intuitions and judgments, in so 
 far as man is true to himself and reaches his proper perfection. 
 
 7th. Virtues or right actions will be found to agree with the public opinion of society, of the State, 
 and of the Church, so far as these are permanent expressions or founded upon ultimate 
 principles. 
 
 There is no near cut, such as Hedonism or Eudaemonism, utilitarianism, sensationalism, or 
 intuitionism, to the discovery of moral standards. In fact, without outward revelation there can 
 be no fixed ethical principles or science, and without inward illumination there can be no love 
 or abiding loyalty to duty in its higher phases.
 
 492 
 
 FI RST PART. 
 
 MAN'S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION. 
 
 SYLLABUS.' 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A.— MAN'S MATERIAL SIDE ... ... ... ... .„ ... 493 
 
 1. The Five Senses. 
 
 (i) Those which more immediately refer to the Mind, [i] 
 
 (2) Those which more remotely refer, if at all, to the Mind. [2] 
 
 2. The Appetites. 
 
 (i) Those for the preservation of Man as an Individual. [3] 
 
 (2) Those for the preservation of Man viewed as a Social Being. [4] 
 
 B.— MAN'S MENTAL SIDE ... ,.. ... ... ... .^ ... 493 
 
 1. The (Mental) Desires. 
 
 (i) As being linked with the Material. [5] 
 
 (2) As having a Mental or Intelleetual side. [6] 
 
 (3) As having a Moral side. [7] 
 
 2. The Emotions. 
 
 A. The more simple Emotions — 
 (i) Oi a. repelling na.t\xre. [8] 
 
 (2) Of an attractive nature. [9] 
 
 (3) Oi a. disturbing a.\-\<l n?ideji?ied r\^.\.\irQ. [ro] 
 
 B. The more complex Emotions. [11] 
 
 3. The Passions. 
 
 (i) Of a. re/>e I ling nature. [12] 
 (2) Of an attractive na.iure. [13] 
 
 4. The Affections and Sentient Attachments. [14] 
 
 5. The Intellectual Endowments. 
 
 (1) Consciousness. [15] 
 
 (2) Belief. [16] 
 
 (3) Understanding. [17] 
 
 (4) Reason. 
 
 (7. Spontaneous and Common Sense. [iS] 
 d. Cultured and Scientinc Sense. [19] 
 
 (5) Memory. 
 
 a. Passive side, viz.. Retention. [23] 
 d. Active side, viz.. Recollection. [21] 
 
 6. The Intellectual Accomplishm.snts. 
 
 (i) Language. 
 
 a. Natural. [22] 
 l>. Artificial. [23] 
 
 (2) Wit. [24] 
 
 (3) Taste. [25] 
 
 7. The Faculty of Genius. [26] 
 
 (i) Origination, including Imagination and Fancy. 
 
 C— MAN'S MORAL SIDE ^ .- J97 
 
 1. The Will. [27] 
 
 (i) Its Motive Power. 
 
 (2) Its relation to the Mind. 
 
 2. The Conscience, viewed as to— [:S] 
 
 (i) The Mind. 
 
 (2) The Will. 
 
 (3) The Emotions. 
 
 » Numbers en right-hand side of page, in brackets, refer to numbers so placed in the classification.
 
 493 
 
 FIRST PART 
 
 MAN'S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION. 
 
 CLASSIFICA TION. 
 A.— MAN'S MATERIAL SIDE.' 
 
 1. THE FIVE SENSES.2 The Media between the soul and the external world.— The Avenues 
 
 to the soul. Namely — 
 
 A. THOSE WHICH MORE IMMEDIATELY REFER TO THE MIND, as [l] 
 
 Seeing (light, colour, signs of disfance, form, (S:c.). 
 
 Hearing (loudness, softness, shrillnessi. 
 
 Touch (distinguishing between soft and rough, cold and heat). 
 
 B. THOSE WHICH MORE REMOTELY REFER, IF AT ALL, TO THE MIND, aS [2] 
 
 Smelling (The distinguishing between the pleasant and oftensive). 
 Tasting (The distinguishing between the sweet and acrid). 
 
 2. THE APPETITES. Restless, urgent cravings, after certain objects, without which the 
 
 bodily emotions cannot be satisfied — spurs to work with a view to 
 provide for absolute necessities. 
 Those — 
 
 A. FOR THE PRESERVATION OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. [3] 
 
 Hunger and ) Centrifugal Forces. 
 Thu'st ) -^ -^ 
 
 B. FOR THE PRESERVATION OF MAN VIEWED AS A SOCIAL BEING. [4] 
 
 Sexual instinct — Centripetal Force. 
 
 B.— MAN'S MENTAL SIDE. 
 
 I. THE (OMENTAL) DESIRES. Mental Appetites. Spurs to action with a view to human 
 
 progress and civilization. 
 Occasioned by the several conditions of the Nature and Constitution of Man — 
 
 A. As being linked with the material, hence [5] 
 
 The Desire of Possession (or, the affinity of the Material). 
 
 B. As having a mental (or intellectual) side, hence — [6] 
 
 The Desire of Society (or the affinity of Mind and Heart). 
 The Desire of Knowledge (or, the cravings of the Soul). 
 C As having a moral side, hence — [7] 
 
 The Desire of Liberty and Independence (or, the self-asserting nature of the Freedom 
 
 of the Human Will, as regards itself). 
 The Desire of Power and Superiority . (or, the self-asserting nature of the Freedom 
 
 of the Human Will, as regards others). 
 The Dei.ire of Praise (or, on its higher side, the effect of Con- 
 science, and, on its lower, the desire of 
 Society). 
 2. THE EMOTIONS. Conditions of excitement tending to action — the Tides and Currents, or 
 the Counter-Tides and Counter-Currents of the Soul, by which the Soul's 
 equilibrium is disturbed and its course affected. 
 Namely — 
 
 A. THE MORE SIMPLE EMOTIONS, those 
 
 (i) Of a repelling xizXwxt, as — [8] 
 
 I'The effects of an outrage committed 
 a. Pain and its usual complement . . - against the laws and constitutions of the 
 
 (human mechanism. 
 
 j The effect of realizing the cause of our 
 ^ Grief J pain so as to allow the loss of the pleasure 
 
 j sustained by it to become a weight pre- 
 i venting the mind rising to its normal level. 
 
 ' Comprises those various characteristics and endowments which are of an intermediate class, where mind and 
 matter touch. 
 
 2 If we were regarding man from a purely physical and not physico-mental point of view, "General Sensibility" 
 would have preceded the Five Senses ; " bleep," " Exercise," and " Repose " have been included in the Appetites ; 
 and " Speech " [see " Language") and also ' ' Instinct '' would have come into this group.
 
 494 
 
 ^/A^' S NATURE AXD CONSTITUTIOX. 
 
 (2) Of an attractive nature, as — [9] 
 
 /The eftect produced by the realization of 
 I our wants being supphed and evils re- 
 
 a. Pleasure, and its usual complement . - moved, wholly or approximately, up to 
 
 I the standard of our anticipations, aspira- 
 tions, and gratifications. 
 I The effect of the mind so regaling itself 
 
 z T J in the sense of the pleasure received so 
 
 ' ^ ^ I as to feel that it has been lifted above its 
 
 i normal level. 
 
 (3) Of a distininngdsi^ nndcJiiiidxi-:x\\x\Q., 
 as — [10] /The sense of uneasinesss and unrest 
 
 I produced upon the mind by causes, in- 
 
 a. Irritation ' - ^^™;?^ °^ external, which persistently 
 
 ' * ! challenge and provoke either by way of 
 
 I disturbing its repose^ or intensifying its 
 
 wonted activity. 
 'The effect produced upon the mind by 
 
 an event happening in a manner contrary 
 
 b. Surprise^ - to ordinary laws and currents of thoughts, 
 
 j so as momentarily to paralyze the faculty 
 lof identiftcation. 
 B. The more complex emotions^ — [11] 
 Namely — Occasioned by 
 
 (i) Attachment A sense of pleasure f arising from the discovery and reali- 
 
 (A desire of union.) (zation of identities and affinities. 
 
 (2) Aversion A sense of pain and /arising from the perception and 
 
 (A desire of severance.) grief - realization of antipathies and anta- 
 
 (gonistic influences. 
 
 (3) Fear Asense (or rather ap- larisingfrom the perception of im- 
 
 (A recoil from anticipated prehension) of grief \ pending evil, 
 evil.) 
 
 (4) Hope A sense of probable f arising in the belief in anticipated 
 
 (An expectation of future pleasure and joy. . (good, 
 good.) 
 
 (5) Sorrow A sense of grief. . /arising from reflecting upon the 
 
 (The permeating of grief J causes, and attending circum- 
 
 into the whole being of "] stances, of our trials and losses as 
 
 man.) I irremediable. 
 
 (6) Mirth A sense of joyous ir- [arising from the appreciation of 
 
 (Venting the buoyancy of ritation or surprise . j those things which affect sanguine 
 the spirits, as, for example, "j and buoyant {i.e., the youthful) 
 
 manifested in youthful (temperament. 
 
 sportiveness.) 
 
 (7) Suspense The combined sense /arising from inability to discern the 
 
 (The sense of uncertainty of fear and hope . jangle of vision from which to see 
 
 concerning the foothold for -, things clearly, so as to set our 
 
 the present, and concerning minds at rest concerning them as 
 
 its character in the future.) I they affect the present or the future. 
 
 (5) Curiosity 3 The sense of pleasure /arising from the hope of gratifying 
 
 (The desire to gratify the J the mere desire of acquiring know- 
 natural craving for know- "j ledge without regard to its right or 
 ledge without regard to the (higher uses, 
 means by which it is ob- 
 tained.) 
 
 (9) Pride 3 Thesenseofpleasure [arising from taking an exaggerated 
 
 (The desire to excel for \ estimate of the deference in some 
 
 selfish objects.) [degree due to ourselves. 
 
 ' Both irritation and surprise are capable of being analysed. Surprise, for instance, is (i) breach of expecta- 
 tion and (2) shock of contradiction ; but both of these emotions are less complex than those given in the next group. 
 Hence the division— not of simple and complex, but of the more simple and of the viore complex, has been adopted. 
 " Nos. I, 4, 6, 8, 12 are of an attractive nature. 
 ,, 2, 3, 5, 10, 13 ,, a repelling ,, 
 
 .. 7. 9. II .. a conflicting ,, (?.^., attractive and repelling). 
 
 3 Curiosity and pride may have also a good side. The former, then, would be the desire of knowledge ; the 
 latter, the sense of self-respect and superiority. 
 
 II
 
 HI 4X'S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION. 
 
 495 
 
 The sense of pain 
 
 (lo) Shat^ie ' The sense of pain 
 
 (The recoil of the soul, 
 darkened by guilt, from the 
 glare of truth upon it, mak- 
 ing the darkness visible and 
 felt, and so intensifying the 
 light, and rendering it in- 
 tolerable.) 
 
 (ii) Pity 
 
 (The approach of the 
 sensitive side of our nature 
 toward the sufterer, caused 
 by our sense of his suffering, 
 without necessarilyinvolving 
 the admixture of affection.) 
 
 (12) Admiration The sense of pleasure 
 
 (The homage rendered 
 by our moral and aesthetic 
 nature to moral and aesthetic 
 excellence.) 
 
 (13) Envy 
 
 (Grudging theenjoyments 
 of moral or material posses- 
 sions by others, through a 
 lack of benevolence or 
 otherwise.) 
 
 The sense of pain 
 and uneasiness . . 
 
 farising from the consciousness of 
 something done or left undone, 
 which, if exposed, would bring upon 
 us merited or even unmerited con- 
 
 ktempt, or self-reproach. 
 
 arising from the effects of distress 
 without necessarily involving sym- 
 pathy with the sufferer. 
 
 arising from the inspiring effects of 
 superiority or excellence in pro- 
 duction in others. 
 
 arising from hostile contemplation 
 of the e:ood fortune of others. 
 
 3. THE PASSIONS. The intensified emotions, i.e., 
 
 Those — 
 
 1. Of a REPELLING nature, as [12] 
 
 (i) Anger and hatred Active 
 
 (2) Terror Passive 
 
 2. Of an ATTRACTIVE nature, as [13] 
 
 [both Passive 
 
 (i) Love \ 
 
 (and Active 
 
 those emotions excited by some specific 
 object in regard to which they are directed 
 and excited. The volcanic convulsions 
 of the soul. 
 
 In which you repel — the drawing of the 
 
 dagger. 
 
 In which you are repelled — the dagger 
 
 thrust at the breast. 
 
 The magnetic influence of the loadstone 
 drawing us to itself. 
 
 The rowing in spite of wind and tide, 
 storm and tempest, rocks and shoals, to 
 the Delectable Isle. 
 
 THE AFFECTIONS AND SENTIENT ATTACHMENTS. [14] The settled and quiet 
 
 attraction of love towards some particular 
 object with which we are in some way 
 Namely — connected — the tie of Love. 
 
 (i) Natural Affection That which is accidental, belonging to 
 
 our original environments, and indepen- 
 dent of our choice. 
 
 (2) Acquired Affection That which is a matter of choice. The 
 
 landing upon the Delectable Isle, tying 
 up our boat, exploring the country, and 
 quietly enjoying its beauties. 
 
 5. IHE INTELLECTUAL ENDOWMENTS . 
 
 Namely — 
 I. Consciousness [15] 
 
 The instruments by which we arrive at 
 the knowledge of the world (material or 
 spiritual) external to ourselves. 
 
 The knowledge which the mind has of 
 itself, and of the facts of its own experi- 
 ence—the accompaniment and "the 
 echo" of all our faculties. It is the very 
 keystone of the philosophy of mind. 
 
 • The crimary aspect of shame is here taken, shame as connected with giiilt.
 
 496 MAN-''S NATURE AXD COySTITUTIOX. 
 
 2. Belief ' " The recognition of the reality of an 
 
 object which is neither present in con- 
 sciousness nor discovered by the senses." 
 
 3. Understanding. [17] 
 
 Its elements being the capacity of — 
 
 APPREHENSION ....'. The realization of the external, and thus 
 
 introducing a picture into the studio of 
 the Mind. Ideas. 
 
 ADJUSTMENT The placing the picture in any position, 
 
 and at any angle, for the purpose of ex- 
 amination. Comparison of ideas. 
 
 INVESTIGATION The examining the picture in all its de- 
 tails. Scrutiny. 
 
 COMPREHENSION ^ The seeing the picture definitely — i.e., as 
 
 a whole. Grasping the subject. 
 
 4. Reason— 
 
 Its elements being — 
 
 (i) The capacity of SPONTANEOUS and COMMON SENSE, and may be viewed — [18] 
 
 a. As to its APPLIANCES, viz., 
 
 {a) Those intuitive powers which are found in every sound and well-balanced mind. 
 
 b. As to its EXERCISES, viz., 
 
 (a) The forming a correct judgment upon objects in regard to ihtxr gejieral character 
 and purpose. 
 (2) The capacity of CULTURED and scientific sense, and may be viewed — [19] 
 
 a. As to its appliances, viz., 
 
 (a) Common Sen^e enlarged in its powers by Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, or 
 Technical Education. 
 
 b. As to its exercises — Comparison, Analysis, Judgment, or in more detail, viz., 
 
 {a) The dividing the objects in the mental storehouse into their constituent elements 
 or component parts. 
 
 (b) The discerning the character and relations of the several parts thus divided. 
 
 {c) The forming a complete and adequate judgment upon the objects (as a whole), 
 especially with reference to the laws and principles by which they are governed, 
 and with due regard to their proper order, relative importance, and specitic ends. 
 
 5. Memorv, viewed in regard to— ^lind as a storehouse. 
 
 (i) Its Passive side, viz., [20] 
 
 a. Retention,3 which is dependent upon — 
 
 {a) The sensitiveness of the mind, and The mind may be compared to the sensi- 
 
 interest in the subject. tive plate of the photographer. 
 
 {b) The intensity with which the facts The more striking the event, the deeper 
 are presented. the event. Every one remembers an 
 
 earthquake. 
 (2) Its Active side, viz., [21] 
 a. Recollection, which is dependent upon — Recollection is collecting again what is 
 
 scattered. 
 [a) The degree of the intensity with which the facts were first presented, and the 
 
 interest m them. 
 {b) The method with which the received impressions have been stowed away with a 
 
 design for ready reference in the classified cabinet of the mind. 
 {c) The association of ideas or the recurrence of associated circumstances. 
 
 6. THE INTELLECTUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS. Those gifts, partly natural and partly 
 
 acquired, which have to do with artistic 
 combinations and esthetic elements. 
 I. Language Expression of thought, feeling, and pur- 
 pose, whether spoken or written. The 
 ends of language are (i) to make known 
 one's thoughts or ideas to another with 
 ease and quickness ; (2) to convey and 
 increase the knowledge of things. {See 
 Locke, " Essay on Human Understand- 
 ing,"' vol. iii. ch. 10, and Mons. Duval- 
 Jouve, " Logic,'' p. 201.) 
 
 ' The mind's assent to the truth of a proposition is the secondary meaning of belief, but is rather a habit or 
 frame of mind than an endowment. 
 
 ^ Comprehension includes what is often termed abstraction, generalization, and conception. 
 
 3 Repetition, associations of similarity and contrast and incongruity, and concentration of mind, as attention, iS:c., 
 though useful as mechanical aids, are no part of memory itself. 
 
 I
 
 MAN^S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION. 
 
 497 
 
 (i) Natural. [22] 
 
 Absolute, i.e Cries and gestures. 
 
 Conventional, z.e Speech, music. 
 
 (2) Artificial. [23] 
 
 Absolute, i.e Painting, sculpture. 
 
 Conventional, i.e Emblems, telegraphic signs,hieroglypliics, 
 
 and writings, 
 
 2. Wit, including — [24] Congruous incongruity coupled with in- 
 
 tuitive felicity, so as to produce an electric 
 and pleasing effect. 
 
 (i) Humour, with reference to sentiments or It runs in the vein of a man's nature, and 
 things. though apparently capricious, like the 
 
 wind in its course, is still under control, 
 and governed by subtle laws of its own 
 good nature. 
 
 (2) Satire of all kind, vlf., direct or indirect, Wit tripping up his opponent. Saying 
 simple or assisted by heart. what is not meant, but which is under- 
 
 stood in a sense not said. 
 
 3. Taste [25], and may be viewed as to — The sense of, or the extempore judgment, 
 
 in regard to the beautiful or the pictur- 
 esque ; that is, the beautiful associated 
 in the mind with art. ^Esthetic culture. 
 
 (i) Its Exercises, viz., 
 
 7. THE FACULTY OF GENIUS. [26] 
 
 I. The capacity of origination, viz., 
 
 (i) Fancy' 
 
 (2) Imagination' 
 
 The power to appreciate the good and the 
 true in, or with a view to, their combi- 
 nation. 
 
 The power to harmonize the good and the 
 true, and to discern such harmony where 
 it exists. 
 
 Instructive discernment in art and man- 
 ners or the fitness of things. 
 
 The man of genius is one who does not 
 obtain his excellence by dint merely of 
 labour, but by an endowment distinctly per- 
 sonal, and his superiority may be regarded 
 as steam power versus horse power. 
 To discern a want, and to supply the 
 means to meet it, or else giving life to 
 new ideas, or breathing new life into old. 
 The imaging through the Feelings — 
 through likes and dislikes. 
 The imaging through the Intellect — the 
 mind soaring, piercing, penetrating — 
 creative and constructive. 
 
 C— MAN'S MORAL SIDE. 
 
 I. THE WILL. The power of self-determination. 
 
 I. Its motive power. [27] 
 
 The turning of the wheel at the helm of 
 man's being. " The essential character- 
 istic of volition consists in the conscious- 
 ness of a power of choosing between two 
 alternative determinations." — Mansel. 
 The result of some active influence, direct 
 or indirect, external or internal. 
 Its EXERCISES— 
 (i) It starts and keeps the mind going. 
 
 (2) It fixes the mind to the object to be studied. 
 
 (3) It enables the mind to bring up from the treasure-house of the memory facts material 
 to the case, as well as to use, as required, its proper faculties and capacities. 
 
 (4) It removes intercepting thoughts and clears generally the mental atmosphere. 
 
 (5) It stirs the mind to exert and to concentrate its full power on the subject under 
 consideration. 
 
 (6) It is the self- regulating power of the whole man, constituting his moral agency. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 ' In their ordinary form rank as a species of intellectual endowment. 
 3^
 
 'igS man's nature and constitution. 
 
 2. THE CONSCIENCE [28], and may be viewed as It is what a man knows in himself or 
 to— with himself. Man's Arbitrator, Regu- 
 
 lator, Prosecutor for the Crown, and 
 Judge, all in one. 
 
 N.B. — Conscience as to the Moral 
 Faculty tells us that there is such a thing 
 as right and wrong, enables us, by the aid 
 of the mind, to discern between these, and 
 so suggests that there must be a Moral 
 Standard, Lawgiver, and a Judge. 
 
 1. The Mind, since 
 
 (i) Conscience works through the aid of the mind to determine right and wrong according 
 to the standard possessed. 
 
 2. The Win, since 
 
 (i) Conscience authoritatively announces to the will, its decisions to be carried out. 
 
 3. The Emotions, since 
 
 (i) According as its decisions are obeyed or disobeyed, Conscience works throughout the 
 whole consciousness of man pleasurable or painful effects, satisfaction or dissatisfaction, 
 peace or remorse. 
 
 N.B. — It maybe noted that the faculties "are not distinct entities, but modes of operation of 
 the conscious mind. The tuhole mind thinks, the whole mind feels, th; whole mind wills." They 
 are the distinct phases of the one Mind or Man.
 
 499 
 
 SECOND PART. 
 
 500 
 
 LAWS BY WHICH MAN IS CONDITIONED. 
 
 SYLLABUS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 A.— PHYSICAL LAWS 499 
 
 1. Hereditary Tendencies, [i] 
 
 2. Distinctive Organization. [2] 
 
 3. Temperament. [3] 
 
 4. Animal Spirits. [4] 
 
 B.— METAPHYSICAL LAWS 
 
 1. Impressibility. [5] 
 
 2. Habit. [6] 
 
 3. Reaction. [7] 
 
 C— MORAL OR IDEAL LAWS (Purely) 500 
 
 1. Light of Nature. [8] 
 
 2. Political, Social, and strictly Ethical Codes. [9] 
 
 D.— REVEALED LAWS 50a 
 
 1. Supernatural Revelation. [10] 
 
 2. Divine Grace, [ii] 
 
 CLASSLFLCATION, 
 A— PHYSICAL LAWS. 
 
 1. HEREDITARY TENDENCIES, [i] . We derive from our parents, or even remote • 
 
 ancestors, not only material organization, but 
 mental and moral qualities and opinions. 
 
 2. DISTINCTIVE ORGANIZATION. [2] There is a peculiarity of texture and tempera- 
 
 ment, and vital fluid and gaseous substances, 
 in every human being, which indirectly affects 
 his mental and moral being. 
 
 (i) Physical Health or disease, perfection or imperfection, 
 
 of bodily members or organs influences our 
 lives. 
 
 (2) Physico-mental The nature and extent of our knowledge is 
 
 determined by nature, range, and conditions 
 of our cognitive powers. In knowing, we 
 know not the thing itself, but the thing as 
 related to our facuhies and capacities. This 
 is termed the Relativity of human knowledo-e. 
 
 3. THE TEMPERAMENT. [3] Is apart of personal idemity, can be modified, 
 
 but not essentially changed. Temperament 
 in different persons is like the variation in the 
 colour which exists in such plants as the 
 dahlias. Temper, on the other hand, is a very 
 variable state, and changes in the same person 
 several times in the course of the day, like 
 the flowers of the common pink phlox, which 
 early in the morning have a light blue colour, 
 and alter as the sun advances and becomes 
 quite pink. 
 
 <l) The Phlegmatic Due to the abundance of fatty matter. The 
 
 statics of temperament. Persons of such 
 temperament require extraneous powers con- 
 stantly to be exerted to augment their natural 
 leverage. They want r^purs.
 
 500 LAIFS BV WHICH MAN IS CONDITIONED. 
 
 (2) The Sanguine Due to the velocity of the flow of blood. The 
 
 dynamics of temperament. Persons of such 
 temperament require an extraneous power to 
 be exerted for restraint and discipline. They 
 want reins. 
 
 (3) The Choleric Passionate, feeling strongly, acting with 
 
 vigour. They want a brake. 
 
 (4) The Bilious and Melancholic . This is the disposition to eliminate the 
 
 brighter elements from the lot of life. Per- 
 sons of such temperament magnify the evil 
 and diminish the good, making the bright 
 dark and the dark very dark, and refuse to 
 see the silver lining in the cloud. They espe- 
 cially need the '"kindly light "of 'religious hope. 
 
 (5) The Lymphatic A species of the melancholic temperament. 
 
 This temperament arises from poisonous 
 sediments in the saccharine matter of the 
 constitution. Persons of such temperament 
 convert the sweet into the acid, and have a 
 predisposition to mental aberrations. They 
 need mental correction of bodily tendencies. 
 
 (6) The Nervous Such are overborne by the hyper-sensitive- 
 
 ness of their highly strung nervous system. 
 
 They need tonics, bracing up, as astringents. 
 
 4. THE ANIAIAL SPIRITS. [4] ... These are the vibrations of the tightly strung 
 
 cords of the constitution ; they are the 
 reasoning elements of life, like the salt to 
 food. They are preserved by culture, purity, 
 and noble aspirations. 
 
 B.— METAPHYSICAL LAWS. 
 
 1. IMPRESSIBILITY. [5] Effects are produced by the accidents attend- 
 
 ing our lives. 
 
 (i) Early, or First Impressions . . While we are in a passive state impressions 
 
 have been stamped upon us with moulding 
 effect upon our character and disposition. 
 
 (2) Public Opinion and La\vs of Asso- The insinuating effect of the prevailing tide 
 
 CIATION of thought and feeling which insensibly 
 
 affects, like the washing of the waves upon 
 the rocks, and if not above the ground causes 
 the landslip. 
 
 \{3) The Spirit of the Age .... This is but the outer circle of the circum- 
 ference of public opinion. It is frequently 
 
 l.";-.^. " the rush of a panic crowd, to be avoided by 
 
 stepping aside. 
 
 2. HABIT. [6] .......... . The compliance and submission to laws and 
 
 practices either of a free choice or imposed 
 upon the will. 
 
 3. REACTION. [7] This is the tendency of conduct after ten- 
 
 sion. If the contraction is not too violent as 
 to stop future tension, this is a healthy state. 
 Sometimes, however, reaction is simply wilful 
 contrariness. 
 
 C— MORAL OR IDEAL LAWS. 
 
 1. LIGHT OF NATURE. [8] 
 
 2. POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND STRICTLY ETHICAL CODES OF THE DAY. [9] 
 
 D.— REVEALED LAWS. 
 
 1. SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. [10] 
 
 2. DIVINE GRACE. [11] 
 
 {^Hcre ive arrive at the rc\c;ion of Theology.)
 
 SOI 
 
 THIRD PART. 
 
 VIRTUES, INCLUDING EXCELLENCES. 
 
 SYLLABUS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 A.— TRUTH .„ 532 
 
 1. Generally. 
 
 2. In relation to Personal Character. 
 
 3. As shown in dealing with Others. 
 
 4. Its Negative Aspects. 
 
 5. In regard to the Habits requisite to Fulfil Duty. 
 
 (i) As to Time. 
 (2) As to Manner. 
 
 B.— JUSTICE 503 
 
 1. Generally. 
 
 2. Specifically. 
 
 3. In regard to the Rights of Others. 
 
 (i) By Prerogative. 
 
 (2) By Equality or Generally. 
 
 4. In regard to the Merits of Others. 
 
 5. In regard to the Demerits of Others. 
 
 6. In regard to the Good Offices of Others. 
 
 C— WISDOM 504 
 
 1. Generally. 
 
 2. As shown in guarding against Hurtful Influences and Opposing Forces. 
 
 3. As SHOWN IN securing THE MATERIAL RESOURCES AND COMFORTS OF LiFE. 
 
 4. As TO THE Habits requisite for training the Mental Endowments. 
 
 D.— BENEVOLENCE 505 
 
 1. Generally. 
 
 (i) As to Inward Character. ' ''^■■i^~- 
 (2) As to Outward Expression. 
 
 2. In connection with the Distress of Others. 
 
 (1) As to Inward Character. 
 
 (2) As to Outward Expression. 
 
 3. In connection with the Faults of Others. 
 
 4. In connection with the Good Qualities of Others. 
 
 5. In regard to the doing Good to Others as related to us. 
 
 (i) Family Love. 
 (2) Social Love. 
 
 6. In regard to the Disposition requisite for doing Good to Others. 
 
 (i) As to their Inward Expression. 
 (2) As to their Outward Expression. 
 E.-SELF-CONTROL 506 
 
 1. In regard to the Enthronement or Dethronement of a Desire or Set of 
 
 Desires (or both), 
 (i) Generally. 
 (2) As to the Means Employed. 
 
 2. In regard to the Enlisting the Passions (Love in Particular) on the side 
 
 OF the Enthroned Desire or Set of Desires. 
 
 3. In regard to the Control of the Bodily Appetites. 
 
 4. In regard to the Control of the Emotion of Fear. 
 
 5. In regard to the Regulation and Healthy Development of the Emotion of 
 
 Hope through the Control of Fear. 
 (i) As to its Active Side. 
 (2) As to its Passive Side. 
 
 6. In regard to the Control of the Emotion of Pride. 
 
 (i) As to its Passive Side. 
 (2) As to its Active Side. 
 
 7. In regard to the Control of the Animal Spirits (also Capacity for Wit, and other 
 
 exhilarating and disturbing elements). 
 
 8. In connection with the Right Development of the Taste, chiefly. 
 
 (i) In regard to dealing with Things. 
 (2) In regard to Conduct. 
 
 9. In regard to the Control of the (repelling) Passions, and all Elements 
 
 IN us OF A Discordant Temperament. 
 10. In regard to the Control of the Temper, chiefly.
 
 502 
 
 VIRTUES. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 A.— TRUTH ) 
 B.— justice! 
 C— WISDOM 
 
 D.— BENEVOLENCE 
 
 E.— SELF-CONTROL 
 
 //(r/t'i^/ Virtues — i.e., Virtues which have reference chiefly to a 
 (standard of duty. 
 
 ^ InfeHectiial Virtues — i.e.. Virtues which have relerence chiefly 
 (to the reasoning and reflective powers of man. 
 
 1 Instinctive Virtues — i.e., Virtues which are dependent on 
 natural impulse or affection rather than on standards of duty 
 or on the reasoning faculties, and yet to be modified by such 
 standards and faculties. 
 
 (Intermediate Virtues — i.e., Virtues which belong to that 
 region where the physical touches the mental and the mental 
 touches the physical, and which includes all the appetites, 
 desires, passions, and other like elements of man's complex 
 nature which constantly act and re-act upon each other, and 
 kneed regulation and self-adjustment. 
 
 CLA SSIFICA TION.' 
 
 A.— TRUTH. 
 
 1. GENERALLY. 
 
 ^ Exact conformity of thought, word, and deed with the Real. 
 
 1. TRUTH . . .) J The idea of Truth runs up into that of the Divine Law — an 
 
 2. TRUTHFULNESS)" ' * * 1 ideal Standard. It is "the eye of reason" and the only possible 
 
 (basis of human happiness. 
 
 3. VERACITY The true representation of things. 
 
 2. IN RELATION TO PERSONAL CHARACTER. 
 
 4. RECTITUDE Absolute conformity to the rule of right in principle and prac- 
 
 tice. A Chinese copy : page answering to page, line to line, 
 dot to dot, as in Bagster's editions of the Bible. 
 
 5. UPRIGHTNESS .... Fulfilling obligations from right principles. 
 
 6. INTEGRITY Fulfilling one's obligations from a high Standard of self-respect. 
 
 7. PROBITY Fulfilling one's obligations from a sense of honour and duty. 
 
 S. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS . . Fulfilling one's obligations according to the dictates of con- 
 science. 
 •9. HONOURABLE Action animated by a just and proper aim, or intentions. 
 
 10. GENUINENESS .... Real to the standard in question, and noble. 
 
 11. CONSISTENCY .... Unchangeableness (in principle) of conduct. 
 
 12. CONSTANCY Continuity in conduct. The northern star. 
 
 3. AS SHOWN IN DEALING WITH OTHERS. 
 
 13. FAITHFULNESS .... Fulfilling obligations DOt merely to the letter but to the spirit. 
 
 14. GOOD FAITH To act faithfully to the extent of confidence pledged Or engaged. 
 
 15. TRUSTWORTHINESS. . . Proved fidelity. 
 
 16. CANDOUR Openness of conduct with moral effort. 
 
 17. FRANKNESS Natural openness of conduct. Saying what you mean, and 
 
 meaning what you say. 
 
 18. STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS . Unrestrained frankness of character. 
 
 19. INCORRUPTIBILITY . . . Proof against debasing Overtures. Not to be bribed or seduced. 
 
 4. ITS NEGATIVE ASPECTS. 
 
 20. NATURALNESS .... Conformity to nature, truth, or reality. 
 
 21. TRANSPARENCY .... Using no arts to hide one's motives. Human glass beehives. 
 
 Open and above-board. 
 
 22. INNOCENCE Freedom from guilt. " Is like polished armour ; it adorns and 
 
 defends." A virtue of youth. 
 
 23. GUILELESSNESS .... Freedom from dissembling. A virtue of riper years. 
 
 24. SIMPLICITY Freedom from duplicity. The expression of truth. A virtue 
 
 of youth. 
 
 ' See Sectional Index p. 534, and General Index at the end of last volume. See also Introductory Note, p. 491.
 
 VI R TUES. 
 
 503 
 
 IN REGARD TO THE HABITS REQUISITE TO FULFIL DUTY. 
 
 (i) As to Time, namely, 
 
 25. DILIGENCE Losing no time, keeping close to the work to fulfil one's duty. 
 
 26. PROMPTNESS Readiness for practical purposes. 
 
 27. EXPEDITIOUSNESS . . . Acting with celerity. 
 
 28. PUNCTUALITY .... Scrupulous regard to time. 
 
 (2) As to Manner,' namely, 
 
 29. ACCURACY With regard to the care bestowea. 
 
 30. CORRECTNESS .... With reference to some rule or standard. 
 
 31. EXACTNESS Without defect or redundance as compared with the original. 
 
 32. PRECISION Conformity with some rule or model in the mode of action. 
 
 2,Z- STRICTNESS Rigorously nice. 
 
 34. SYSTEMATICALLY . . . Formed with regular connection and adaptation or subordina- 
 
 tion of parts to each other, and to the design of the whole 
 (symmetry — adjustment). 
 
 35. ORDERLY According to rule and in a regular and successive manner. 
 
 36. METHODICALLY .... Acting according to a natural or convenient order. 
 
 37. SCIENTIFICALLY .... Evincing profound and systematic knowledge. Acting con- 
 
 sistently with principles, ultimate laws ; in fact, with truth. 
 
 B.— JUSTICE. 
 
 1. GENERALLY. 
 
 38. JUSTICE Rendering to every one his due right or desert. " Honour all 
 
 men." Having always an even balance and honest weights. 
 " Justice is the keynote of the world, and all else is ever out of 
 tune." Truth rests upon revelation. Justice is intuitive. 
 
 ► 39. EQUITY Rectified human justice. Human law on account of the rotation 
 
 of circumstances continually deviates from the strict line of 
 right and needs adjustment. 
 
 2. SPECIFICALLY. 
 
 40. HONESTY Acting with conscious regard to justice. " A straight line is the 
 
 shortest in morals as well as in geometry." 
 
 41. FAIRNESS Honesty in dealing. 
 
 42. IMPARTIALITY • . . . Honesty in dealing to the exclusion of one's personal interest, 
 
 prepossessions, and bias. 
 
 3. IN REGARD TO THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS, namely, 
 (i) By Prerogative. 
 
 43. OBEDIENCE Subjection to rightful restraint or control. " The virtue c^ 
 
 paganism was strength. The virtue of Christianity is obedj 
 ence." 
 
 44. LOYALTY ...... Obedience united to reverence or love. Truth and affection, 
 
 (2) By Equality or Generally. 
 
 45. CIVILITY Avoiding to be rude, and acting as a polished citizen. 
 
 46. POLITENESS Trying to please. Treating others just as you love to be treated. 
 
 47. CHIVALROUS Homage to weakness, involving courage and self-sacrifice. 
 
 48. COURTESY Elegance of manner, as becomes or adorns a court. 
 
 49. URBANITY Polished refinement. Not acting as a rude rustic, but as a 
 
 cultured citizen. 
 
 4. IN REGARD TO THE MERITS OF OTHERS, namely, 
 
 50. RESPECT Regard to rank or worth. 
 
 51. REVERENCE Respect coupled with love, or fear, or esteem. 
 
 52. DEFERENCE Yielding our opinions to those of persons of acknowledged 
 
 superiority. 
 
 53. ADMIRATION Respect coupled with affection. 
 
 54. VENERATION Respect for tried and matured excellence. 
 
 55. AWE ,....,.. Respect and fear at overwhelming degree of superiority. 
 
 Homage to power and greatness. 
 
 5. IN REGARD TO THE DEMERITS OF OTHERS, namely, 
 
 56. INDIGNATION (just) . . Revolt of feeling against injustice. 
 
 57. RESENTMENT (PROPER) . Feeling roused to retaliation. A weapon for defence only. 
 
 ' See Group No. 8, p. 508.
 
 504 VIRTUES. 
 
 6. IN REGARD TO THE GOOD OFFICES OF OTHERS, namely, 
 
 58. GRATITUDE An inner state : thankfulness mingled with affection. 
 
 59. THANKFULNESS .... An acknowledgment of favours. 
 
 C— WISDOM. 
 I. GENERALLY. 
 
 f o. WISDOM The selection of right ends as well as right means. Wisdom is 
 
 the right use or exercise of knowledge, and differs from know- 
 ledge as sight from sccmg. The union of high mental and 
 moral excellence. 
 
 61. JUDGMENT The comparing of ideas to find their mutual relations. Every 
 
 thought has its pedigree, and belongs to one of the trees in the 
 garden of knowledge. 
 
 62. DISCERNMENT .... Accuracy and keenness of mental vision. The telescope needs 
 
 to be kept steady, and to have its lenses clean. 
 
 63. DISCRIMINATION , . . The tracing out minute distinctions and the nicest shades 
 
 of thought. The microscope is, in many branches of know- 
 ledge, a necessity. 
 
 64. ACUTENESS ..... The faculty of nice discrimination. A surgeon must have 
 
 fingers to discern to a nicety. 
 
 65. ACUMEN The faculty of quick discernment, owing to the increase of 
 
 mental stores. 
 
 66. PENETRATION .... The power of seeing deeply into a subject in spite of everj'thing 
 
 that intercepts the view. The mind must bring a powerful 
 and intense flame of its own in order to render luminous the 
 truth which is usually hid beneath a thick and opaque covering. 
 
 2. AS SHOWN IN GUARDING AGAINST HURTFUL INFLUENCES AND OPPOS- 
 
 ING FORCES. 
 
 67. PRUDENCE Using right means rather in avoiding danger than in taking 
 
 decisive measures for the accomplishment of an object. Sir 
 Robert Walpole was in many respects q. prudent statesman, buf 
 he was far from being a luise man. 
 
 68. DISCRETION Judgment and calm thought in the proper use of the right 
 
 means. " The greatest parts without discretion may be fatal 
 to their owner, as Polyphemus, deprived of his eyes, was only 
 the more exposed on account of his enormous size." — Addison. 
 
 69. WATCHFULNESS .... Careful and diligent observation for the purpose of preventing 
 
 or escaping danger, or of avoiding mistakes and misconduct. 
 Being on the watch-tower. 
 
 70. VIGILANCE Careful not only to escape danger but to detect evil. Keeping 
 
 both eyes wide open on the watch-tower. 
 
 71. FORETHOUGHT .... Provision against forseen dangers and wants. 
 
 72. CAREFULNESS .... Persistently guarding against danger. 
 
 T2). CIRCUMSPECTION . , . Looking with Argus eyes at things all around before acting. 
 
 74. CAUTIOUSNESS .... Prudence in regard to contingencies. " When clouds are seen, 
 
 wise men put on their cloaks."' — Shakespeare. 
 
 3. AS SHOWN IN SECURING THE MATERIAL RESOURCES AND COMFORTS 
 
 OF LIFE. 
 
 75. FRUGALITY Cuts off all unnccessarics. All riches have a limit. "The 
 
 daughter of prudence, the sister of temperance, and the parent 
 of liberty." 
 
 76. ECONOMY The right use of necessaries. " I will study rather how to giv* 
 
 a good account of my little, than how to make it more." — Bp. 
 Hall. 
 
 "]"]. THRIFT Economy and frugality, in order to accumulate, with a view to 
 
 independence, advancement, and provision against casualties. 
 
 \. IN REGARD TO THE HABITS REQUISITE FOR TRAINING THE MENTAL 
 ENDOWMENTS. 
 
 78. OBSERVATION .... The FIXING of thought with a view to acquire knowledge 
 
 *' The hearing ear and the seeing eye." 
 
 79. ATTENTION ..... The FIXITY of thought with a view to make progress in know- 
 
 ledge. 
 So. EXAMINATION .... The SCRUTINY of thought Or things with a view to attain 
 
 accurate knowledge. 
 
 i
 
 VIRTUES. 
 
 505 
 
 81. APPLICATION The INTENSITY of thought with a view to attain complete 
 
 knowledge. 
 
 82. STUDY, involving cai-c,~| -pj^g ABSORPTION of thought with a view to dive into the very 
 
 pain, and toil . . . . ^ depths of knowledge. 
 
 83. REFLECTION j 
 
 /Diligence is the steady and constant application of our energies 
 
 1 and powers to a selected and set purpose. Industry is a settled 
 
 o, „j^^__^_„ 'and high-principled diligence. Diligence is of a more fitful cha- 
 
 8 INDUSTRY i ^'^^'^^'^ than industry. Fox was industrious, but Burke was 
 
 ■'■ j eminent both for diligence and industry; he was always at 
 
 work, and always looking out for some new field of mental 
 leffort. 
 
 86. SEDULOUSNESS .... Industry in a particular department that leaves little or no 
 
 room for other matters. Sitting down to it ; sitting at it. 
 
 87. ASSIDUOUSNESS .... Industry in a particular department. As specialists. As the 
 
 range of knowledge increases this quality is increasingly 
 necessary for success. 
 
 D.— BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 1. GENERALLY. 
 
 (i) As to Inward Character. 
 
 88. BENEVOLENCE ^ . . . . The motive which prompts us to seek the good of others for its 
 
 own sake. " These are as real and the same kind of indica- 
 tions that we were made for society, and to do good to our 
 fellow-creatures, as that we were intended to take care of our 
 own life, and health, and private good." — Bp. Butler. 
 
 89. CHARITY, LOVE .... Seeking the welfare of others by the exercise of our moral 
 
 sensibilities. 
 
 90. HUMANE FEELINGS . . Motive power of action due to civilizing influences around us. 
 
 91. KINDNESS Rather a social than a moral virtue. 
 
 92. LOVING-KINDNESS . . . An intensified kindness. 
 
 93. DISINTERESTEDNESS ' . . Refers to the purity of motive, as for others, and not for our 
 
 own interest. 
 (2) As to Outward Expression. 
 
 94. SELF-DENIAL Giving up something for a person or a cause. 
 
 95. SELF-DEVOTION .... Consecration of ourself to a cause. 
 
 96. SELF-SACRIFICE .... Giving up one's self to a cause regardless of consequences to 
 
 ourselves. 
 
 2. IN CONNECTION WITH THE DISTRESS OF OTHERS. 
 
 (i) As to Inward Character. 
 
 97. SYMPATHY Puts'one's self on a level with the sufferer. " The transfusion of 
 
 mind into mind." The extent of our sympathy is determined 
 by that of our sensibility. 
 
 98. COMPASSION Sympathy merely on the ground of mercy. 
 
 99. PITY Sympathy, with a certain recoil of the mind toward the 
 
 sufferer. 
 
 100. KIND-HEARTEDNESS . . Readily disposed to benevolent actions. 
 (2) As to Outward Expression, 
 
 loi. LIBERALITY Refers to the warmth of spirit, and to largeness of giving. 
 
 102. GENEROUSNESS .... Refers to the extent of the sacrifice made. 
 
 103. MUNIFICENCE .... Refers to the quality and quantity of things bestowed. 
 
 104. BENEFICENCE .... Respects everything done for the good of Others. 
 
 3. IN CONNECTION WITH THE FAULTS OF OTHERS. 
 
 105. FORGIVENESS Passing over the offence instead of vindictively punishing the 
 
 offender; restraining angry feelings ; forgetting the offence save 
 so far as to prevent, if possible, its recurrence, and not allow- 
 ing it to lead to alienation. 
 
 106. MERCIFULNESS .... Justice restrained through love. 
 
 107. INDULGENCE Yielding freely to the wishes and feelings of those under our 
 
 care. 
 
 108. TENDERNESS Dealing feelingly with the offender. 
 
 ' See foot-note to p. 508. 
 
 * The qualities in other aspects might otherwise be grouped ; yet in their primary forms they are impulses of 
 love, e.g., a mother's self-sacrifice, &c.
 
 5o6 VIRTUES. 
 
 109. CLEMENCY The disposition which does not enforce justice to the lull 
 
 against the offender. 
 no. LENIENCY Marks the character of an act which is clement. 
 
 111. PEACEMAKING .... Ardently endeavouring to rouse and to bring into play feelings 
 
 of amity and concord around us. Peacemaking in which we 
 are in/erested parties. 
 
 112. PEACEABLENESS . . . . Trying to conciliate the offender, and not to insist too strictly 
 
 upon our rights and claims. Not giving offence. 
 
 4. IN CONNECTION WITH THE GOOD QUALITIES OF OTHERS. 
 
 113. ESTEEM Our appreciation of the good qualities in Others. 
 
 114. REGARD Our sense of approbation of the exercise of good qualities in 
 
 others. 
 
 5. IN REGARD TO THE DOING GOOD TO OTHERS AS RELATED TO US. Hence— 
 
 (i) Family Love, as— 
 
 115 PATERNAL & MATERNAL Self-Originating love Springing from our relationships. 
 
 116. FILIAL Responsive love of children to parents. 
 
 117. FRATERNAL Social love of children to each Other. 
 
 118. CONJUGAL Social and sexual love of husband and wife. 
 
 (2) Social Love, as regards — 
 
 119. FRIENDS Love from affinities and interest, and association. 
 
 120. NEIGHBOURS Love from Convenience and interest, and acquaintance. 
 
 !•'•'! FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN * ^^^'^ ^^°"^ ^ ^^"^^ °^ common danger, from training, con- 
 CPatriotism ) ) venience, and a sense of duty, and common interest. 
 
 123. MASTER AND SERVANT . Love from respcct and Convenience of mutual dependence. 
 
 6. IN REGARD TO THE DISPOSITION REQUISITE FOR DOING GOOD TO 
 
 OTHERS, 
 (i) As to their Inward Expression. 
 
 124. GOOD WILL Being favourably disposed to help. 
 
 125. GOOD HUMOUR .... A happy frame of mind. 
 
 126. GOOD NATURE .... A readiness to oblige Others. An easy disposition. 
 
 127. AGREEABLENESS ... A readiness to please others. 
 
 128. AMIABILITY The easy manners of a character desirous to please. A kind 
 
 disposition. 
 
 129. GENIALITY Sympathetically cheerful and cheering. A healthy develop- 
 
 ment of animal spirits. Pleasantness of manner. 
 
 130. AFFABILITY The easy manners of a character desirous to win or gain one's 
 
 end. Ready to speak with, and to be spoken to by others. 
 
 131. GRACIOUSNESS .... A generous disposition on the part of a superior to appreciate 
 
 and honour the good qualities in an inferior. 
 
 132. BENIGNITY The disposition on the part of a superior to act kindly to an 
 
 inferior. 
 (2) As to their Outward Expression. 
 
 133. OBLIGING Being ready with more than mere courtesies cf demeanour, and 
 
 taking pleasure in doing some actual service. 
 
 134. ACCOMMODATING . . . Meeting the particular or Specific requirements of the time and 
 
 occasion in favour of others, even at the cost of a little personal 
 inconvenience. 
 
 135. COMPLAISANT .... Desiring to please best befits those who have superiority or 
 
 power on their side. 
 
 136. CONSIDERATE .... Meeting the wants of others, or relieving them of trouble, b) 
 
 placing one's self thoughtfully in their place and circumstances. 
 
 137. SUAVITY Pleasantness of manner. 
 
 138. ACCESSIBLE Sacrifice of time, inclination, and convenience for the accom- 
 
 modation of others. Readiness to receive and hear applicants. 
 
 E.— SELF-CONTROL. 
 
 r. IN REGARD TO THE ENTHRONEMENT OR DETHRONEMENT OF A DESIRE 
 
 OR SET OF DESIRES (or both), 
 (i) Generally — 
 I or. Qi?T T? /-nvTTPriT (The government and regulation of all our natural appetites, 
 
 I desires, passions, and affections.
 
 VIRTUES. 507 
 
 140. SELF-CONQUEST .... To have one's self in his own power. Those who can com- 
 
 mand themselves, command others. 
 
 141. TEMPERANCE Moderation as to pleasure, chiefly of touch and taste. 
 
 (2) As to the means employed. 
 
 142. DECISION Choice out of several courses after deliberation. Taking a 
 
 stand, and keeping to the stand taken. 
 
 143. DETERMINATION . . . The adhering to our choice uninfluenced by circumstances. 
 
 144. RESOLUTION Adhering to our choice regardless of consequences. 
 
 145. FIXITY OF PURPOSE . . Unmovableness in the pursuit of the object of our choice. 
 
 146. TENACITY OF PURPOSE . Pursuing one's course with dogged persistency spite of dangers 
 
 and temptations. 
 
 Q c-rM5TrTTv r • . . . Uniformity of action, on principle, in pursuit of one's choice. 
 
 149. UNCHANGEABLENESS . . Habit of mind leading to steaGincss. 
 
 2. IN REGARD TO THE ENLISTING THE PASSIONS (LOVE IN PARTICULAR) 
 
 ON THE SIDE OF THE ENTHRONED DESIRE OR SET OF DESIRES. 
 
 150. ENERGY Power efficiently and forcibly exerted. 
 
 151. ENTHUSIASM Aspiration inspired by firm belief in the ideal perfection of 
 
 one's cause. 
 
 152. ZEAL Fired energy. 
 
 153. EARNESTNESS .... Intensity of desirc with a sense of the gravity of the cause. 
 
 154. ARDOUR Concentration of energy until it is wrought up to a white heat. 
 
 155. FERVOUR With not quite as intense but a steadier flame than that of 
 
 ardour. 
 
 3. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE BODILY APPETITES. 
 
 156. TEMPERANCE Regulated indulgence as to eating and drinking. Keeping the 
 
 reins well in hand. 
 
 157. ABSTEMIOUSNESS . . . Restricting eating and drinking on account of special circum- 
 
 stances. 
 
 158. SOBRIETY Freedom fram intoxication. Keeping our balance. 
 
 159. MODERATION .... Imposing due restraint upon our appetites. A gentle touch of 
 
 the hand in playing, 
 ifin PHAciTTTv 1 (Imposing due restraint upon the desire of the sexes. Re- 
 
 t6i' roNTiNKNCFl ' ' ' • 1 Straining coujugal indulgence within ties. 
 
 151. CONTINENCE J ^g^^^^ ^^^^^ j^ ^^^ j^^^ f^jj^^^^ 
 
 162. PURITY Chastity with reference more to the mind. 
 
 163. CLEANLINESS The removal of any element of impurity by which either body 
 
 or mind is disfigured or dishonoured. 
 
 164. MODESTY AND RESERVE. Womanly adjuncts to virtue. The eyelids to the eyes. 
 
 \. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE EMOTION OF FEAR. 
 
 165. BOLDNESS Meeting danger — defensive attitude. 
 
 166. DARING Courting danger — offensive attitude. 
 
 167. BRAVERY Laudable contest with danger and difficulties. 
 
 168. RESOLUTE Having a purpose and sticking to it. 
 
 169. ENTERPRISING .... Prompt to undertake and seeking spheres of action. 
 
 170. VALOUR Bravery in war. 
 
 171. UNDAUNTEDNESS . . . Awed by nothing but sin and wrong-doing. 
 
 172. INTREPIDITY A firm unshaken confidence without fear or trepidation. 
 
 173. FORTITUDE ... . Endurance with perseverance. 
 
 174. HEROISM The genius of courage. 
 
 ;. IN REGARD TO THE REGULATION AND HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
 
 EMOTION OF HOPE THROUGH THE CONTROL OF FEAR. 
 (i^ As to its Active Side. 
 
 175. CHEERFULNESS .... A disposition to discern and enjoy the bright side of things and 
 
 not to take too gloomy a view of one's fortune. 
 
 176. HOPEFULNESS .... A disposition to rise above the depressing effect of present 
 
 circumstances by consideration of the probable brighter future. 
 (2) As to its Passive Side. 
 
 177. ENDURANCE Carrying the load uphill to the very summit without fainting. 
 
 178. CONFIDENCE Freedom from doubts. Having faith in success. 
 
 179. RELIANCE Trusting to the efficacy and sufficiency of the means employed 
 
 to secure the end. 
 
 180. SELF-RELIANCE .... Trusting to one's own powers and resources as sufficient to 
 
 the end.
 
 508 VIRTUES. 
 
 l3i. CALMNESS Freedom from agitation. 
 
 182. COLLECTEDNESS ... A quality requisite for determined promptitude. Calmness in 
 
 a storm. 
 
 183. COMPOSEDNESS .... Calmness fT/Z^r a storm. 
 
 6. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE EMOTION OF PRIDE. 
 (.1) As to its Passive Side. 
 
 184. HUMILITY The thinking truly and thus little of ourselves, because of the 
 
 knowledge of the required standard for human perfection. 
 
 185. LOWLINESS The spirit in which humility is exercised. 
 
 186. DIFFIDENCE - . . . . Distrust in our own powers. 
 
 187. TRACTABLENESS . . . Easily managed or taught. Willing to.be guided. 
 18S. MODESTY Absence of all over-confidence and conceit. 
 
 189. DOCILITY A consciousness of our own ignorance and a childlike readiness. 
 
 (2) As to its Active Side. 
 
 190. INDEPENDENCE .... ^'tT^r^rj/tv/ in directing one's Own affairs, without being burden- 
 
 some to others, and resenting improper interference. 
 
 191. NOBLENESS Elevation of mind above what is low, mean, degrading, dis- 
 
 honourable. 
 
 192. MAGNANIMITY .... Sacrificing one's feelings and interests, or yielding up one's 
 
 claims for the accomplishment of some noble object. " Strike 
 but hear me." Ex. — The daring excursion of David's three 
 worthies to fetch a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem 
 at the risk of their lives. 
 
 7. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE ANIMAL SPIRITS (also Capacity for Wit, 
 
 and other exhilarating and disturbing elements). 
 
 193. SOBERNESS Opposed to the extravagant in thought or action. 
 
 194. QUIETNESS Opposed to nervousness and restlessness. 
 
 195. SEDATENESS Opposed to the undignified and unbecoming. 
 
 196. TRANQUILLITY .... Freedom from agitation. 
 
 197. STAIDNESS Opposed to the frivolous. 
 
 198. SERIOUSNESS Opposed to the jocose. 
 
 199. SOLEMNITY Opposed to unseemly ebullition of mirth and to irreverence. 
 
 200. GRAVITY Opposed to the light. 
 
 201. SERENITY Tranquillity of the highest order. Might be ranked as the reflex 
 
 influence of wisdom. 
 
 8. IN CONNECTION WITH THE RIGHT DEVELOPMENT OF THE TASTE, chiefly. 
 (i) In regard to dealing with Things. 
 
 202. TIDINESS Things in good order. 
 
 203. NEATNESS Things free from what spoils their beauty or effect ; cleanliness 
 
 and tidiness with a view to effect. 
 (2) In regard to Conduct. 
 
 204. DECENCY The becoming in conduct. 
 
 205. DECORUM The becoming in behaviour. 
 
 206. PROPRIETY Consonance with established principles, rules, or customs. 
 
 207. SEEMLINESS Decency in minor morals. 
 
 208. FITNESS Regulated by local circumstances. 
 
 209. SUITABLENESS .... With reference to the person, occasion, &c. 
 
 210. BECOMING That which presents a pleasant exterior. 
 
 9. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE (REPELLING) PASSIONS, AND ALL 
 
 ELEMENTS IN US OF A DISCORDANT TEMPERAMENT. 
 (N.B. — These, as also next group (No. 10), are virtually Christian graces, and may be 
 regarded also as developments of love and benevolence).' 
 
 211. GENTLENESS Acting without offending, or unnecessary violence. 
 
 212. MEEKNESS Forbearing under injuries, a disposition which delights in exer- 
 
 cising forbearance and gentleness. 
 
 213. MILDNESS An absence of everything which is acrid, harsh, or discordant 
 
 in action. 
 
 214. TOLERANCE In regard to the opinions of others ; or, rather, as to their 
 
 right humanly considered to hold such. 
 
 215. INDULGENCE In regard to the/««//'j of Others. 
 
 « This group in some of its aspects might be classed under Benevolence. See p. 505.
 
 VIRTUES. 5°9 
 
 2i6. LONG-SUFFERING . . . In regard to the /r^j>wji?J of Others. 
 
 217. FORBEARANCE .... In regard to the trespasses of others (only more or less con- 
 
 ditional). 
 
 10. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE TEMPER, chiefly. 
 
 218. UNCOMPLAININGLY. . . The negative side of patience. 
 
 219. PATIENCE Carrying the load of cares withQ-^t irritation, and so to suffer 
 
 no damage. Medicine which leaves no bad effects. 
 [■The acquiescence of the mind in the portion of good which 
 
 220. CONTENTMENtI J we possess. "A restless and timid man is never content ; an 
 
 221. SATISFACTION j' • * • • ] avaricious man is never satisfied." "A tub was large enough 
 
 (for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander." 
 
 222. RESIGNATION The submission of the will to another. It acknowledges both 
 
 the power and the right of a superior to afflict. 
 
 223. SUBMISSION Bowing to the will of a superior, with unresisting, unmurmuring 
 
 acQuiescence.
 
 5X0 
 
 FOURTH PART. 
 
 VICES, INCLUDING FAULTS AND DEFECTS, 
 
 SYLLABUS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A.— LACK OF TRUTH 512 
 
 1. Generally. 
 
 2. As INVOLVING THE NON-FULFILMENT OF A PROMISE OR OF A DUTY 
 
 3. In regard TO THE CHARACTER OF OTHERS. 
 
 4. Through Cowardice or Sinister Motives. 
 
 (i) To stand well with others. 
 
 (2) To get others to stand well with us. 
 
 5. As displayed in Indeterminateness. 
 
 6. As displayed in Plausibility. 
 
 7. As displayed in Pretence. 
 
 8. As involving Stealth. 
 
 9. As involving Fraud. 
 
 B.— LACK OF JUSTICE ... „. ... 515 
 
 1. Generally. 
 
 2. As TO Offences against Rights and Usages. 
 
 (i) By Defect. 
 (2) By Excess. 
 
 3. When Governing. 
 
 4. When Governed. 
 
 5. As Failing to acknowledge the Good Offices of Others. 
 
 C— LACK OF WISDOM 517 
 
 1. As TO Defective Knowledge and Judgment. 
 
 2. As TO Defective Common Sense. 
 
 3. As TO Disregarding the Means of guarding against Hurtful Influences 
 
 AND Opposing Forces. 
 
 4. As TO Disregarding the Material Resources and Comforts of Life. 
 
 D.— LACK OF BENEVOLENCE .« ... ... 518 
 
 1. Generally. 
 
 2. In regard to the Distress of Others, chiefly. 
 
 3. In regard to the Faults of Others, chiefly. 
 
 4. In regard to Social Relations. 
 
 5. In regard to Dispositions connected with the Want of Benevolence. 
 
 (i) As to the Inward Character. 
 (2) As to the Outward Expression.
 
 5" 
 
 PAGE 
 
 E. LACK OF SELF-CONTROL « ^. ... ^ ^ 520 
 
 1. As EXHIBITED IN WANT OF ENERGY. 
 
 2. As TO Defective Will-Power and Misapplied Energy, 
 
 3. As to Ill-regulated Will-Power. 
 
 (The sequel to Want of Energy and Ruined Will-Power.) 
 
 4. As TO the Appetites. 
 
 (i) Generally. 
 
 (2) Hunger. 
 
 (3) Thirst. 
 
 (4) Sexual Instinct. 
 
 5. As TO THE Mental Desires. 
 
 (i) Desire of Possession. 
 
 6. As TO THE Emotions. 
 
 (i) Fear. 
 
 i. By its Absence. 
 ii. By Excess. 
 
 a. Passively, 
 d. Actively. 
 
 (2) Hope. 
 
 (3) Curiosity, 
 
 (4) Pride. 
 
 i. By Excess. 
 
 a. As a Personal Quality. 
 
 <5. As manifested in External Display. 
 
 c. In our Treatment of Others. 
 
 ii. By Defect. 
 
 (5) Envy. 
 
 7. As to the Passions. 
 
 (i) Anger. 
 
 i. Generally. 
 
 ii. As displayed in Noise chiefly, 
 iii. As displayed in Words chiefly. 
 iv. As displayed in Disputes chiefly. 
 
 V. When accompanied with Ill-humour and Bitterness especially^ 
 
 a. As to Temper and Disposition, 
 
 d. As displayed outwardly. 
 
 vi. W^hen accompanied with Fierceness. 
 
 S. As TO THE Mental Endowments. 
 
 (i) Taste. 
 
 i. By Deficiency. 
 ii. By Extravagance or Excess, 
 
 0. As to the Animal Spirits.
 
 5" 
 
 CLASSIFICA TION.' 
 
 A. LACK OF TRUTH. 
 
 1. GENERALLY. 
 
 1. LYING (from O. Eng. he, a lie ; A. S. leogaii). Untruth uttered for 
 
 the express purpose of deceiving. " Like the arrow directed at 
 a god, flies back and wounds the archer." 
 ^(from h.fallere, to deceive). A statement uttered usually with 
 
 2. falsehood' .... J the intention to deceive. Little less criminal than lying. "No 
 
 3. FALSITY ) j watches, however, so effectually deceive the wearers as those 
 
 (that are sometimes right." 
 
 4. MISREPRESENTATIONS . (from prasentare^ to place before, to present). False or 
 
 erroneous representations. 
 
 5. PERJURY (from L. per, through, over, and jware, to swear). Wilfully 
 
 taking a false oath. 
 
 6. INCONSISTENCY .... (from L. co7isistere, to stand together). Statements or actions 
 
 opposed to each other, so that they cannot be adjusted to some 
 recognized standard. 
 
 7. UNTRUTH (from O. Eng. truthe). A statement uttered without intention 
 
 necessarily to deceive, or through ignorance. 
 
 8. ERROR* Arises from absence of knowledge. "Ignorance is a blank 
 
 sheet on which we may write ; but error is a scribbled one 
 from which we must first erase." 
 
 9. MISTAKE* Arises from insufficient or false observation. "They most 
 
 assume who know the least." 
 
 10. EXAGGERATION .... (from L. aggerare, to heap up). Representations greater than 
 
 truth or justice will warrant. We always weaken whatever we 
 exaggerate. 
 
 11. INCOHERENCE .... (from L. hcsrere, to stick, adhere). Defective form of state- 
 
 ment, no interdependence of one part with another. 
 
 12. INCONGRUITY .... (from L. ill, and congruere, to agree). Disagreement of parts, 
 
 want of symmetry, statements, or actions. 
 
 2. AS INVOLVING THE NON-FULFILMENT OF A PROMISE OR OF A DUTY. 
 
 13. UNFAITHFULNESS . . . (from L._/frtVr^, to trust). Violation of vows, promises, allegi- 
 
 ance, or other duty. 
 
 14. TREACHERY (from F. tricher, to cheat, to trick). Violation of allegiance, 
 
 faith, or confidence. " Men are oftener treacherous through 
 weakness than design." 
 
 15. PERFIDY (from L./t'r, through, beyond, and yfrt'ZiJj', faithful; _/?i/£'i-, faith). 
 
 Violation of a trust reposed. Aggravated treachery. 
 
 16. PROCRASTINATION . . . (from L. /w and <:rrti-//;«^j', of to-morrow). Postponing acting 
 
 when one might or ought to have begun. " By the street of 
 By and by one arrives at the town of NeverP 
 
 17. UNPUNCTUALITY . . . {{rom L. punctus, punc/uM, a. point). Failing to act when the 
 
 clock of duty strikes. 
 
 18. DILATORY Going tardily and after time about one's work in any of its 
 
 stages. 
 
 3. IN REGARD TO THE CHARACTER OF OTHERS. 
 
 19. VILIFICATION (from L. z'lVis, cheap, and/acere, to make). Indirect reviling. 
 
 20. REVILING Eloquent defamation. " No sword bites so fiercely as an evil 
 
 tongue." 
 
 21. CALUIMNY ...... (L. caliimnia, false accusation). The inventing as well as the 
 
 propagating an evil report. " There is nobody so weak of in 
 vention that cannot make some stones to vilify his enemies." 
 
 22. DETRACTION .... (from L. de and trahere, to draw). Discounting unfairly the 
 
 conduct of another, attributing actions to less worthy motives 
 than actuated them. " Silky moths that eat an honest name." 
 
 ' See Sectional Index, p. 536, and General Index at the end of last volume. See also Introductory Note, pp. 
 491 and 502. 
 
 * Aslerisks are prefi.xed to the names of Qualities which, though ranked here as vices, are not necessarily so.
 
 VICES. 
 
 513 
 
 23. ASPERSION (L. aspersio, from aspergere, aspersum, from ad and spargere, 
 
 to strew, scatter). The casting upon unsullied worth the 
 imputation of dishonourable conduct. " Cutting honest throats 
 by whispers." " Throwing dirt, and hoping some may stick." 
 
 24. DEFAMATION .... (from L. de and fama, fame). The spreading far and wide 
 
 what is injurious to the good name of another. 
 
 25. LIBEL (from L. h'ber, a book). Holding a person up to public con- 
 
 tempt and ridicule. The pestilence which rages at noon-day. 
 
 26. SLANDER (from L. scandaluiii, Gr. cKavSaXov, a snare laid for an enemy). 
 
 Secret and underhand defamation. The arrow shot in the 
 dark. " The revenge of a coward." 
 
 27. DEPRECIATION .... (from L. de and pretium, price ; F. dcpriser, to disparage). 
 
 Lowering from personal motive the reputation of another. 
 
 28. DISPARAGEMENT . . . (from L. (Y/j- ?ivA paragitim., paraticum, parity of condition or 
 
 birth). Making others think less highly of the reputation of 
 another. " They are not the worst fruits on which the wasps 
 alight." 
 
 29. SCANDAL (L. scandalum, Gr. t^KavSaXov, a snare laid for an enemy). Un- 
 
 founded and injurious imputation upon reputation. Silence is 
 golden respecting those we dislike, 
 /(from A..S. godsibb, from god, God, and sib, alliance, relation). 
 
 30. GOSSIPING •].... I The circulation of (groundless) rumours in social circles. Gos- 
 
 31. TITTLE-TATTLE) * * * 1 sipers " murder characters to kill time." Gossiping need not, 
 
 Vhowever, be definite untruth. 
 
 32. BACKBITING Speaking evil in the absence of the person traduced. Perhaps 
 
 more mean and petty than slander. 
 
 4. THROUGH COWARDICE OR SINISTER MOTIVES. 
 
 (i) To stand well with others. 
 
 22. COMPROMISE (L. coinpromittcre, to promise mutually, from con and promit- 
 
 tere, to promise). Selling the truth for the sake of peace. To 
 be liberal with another's property. 
 
 34. TEMPORISING .... (from L. iempus, temporls, time). Yielding to the current of 
 
 opinion or circumstances against our own convictions. A reed 
 shaken by the wind. 
 
 35. TRIMMING (from A.S. trymian, iry7nman, to prepare, dispose, make 
 
 strong). Fluctuating between parties so as to appear to favour 
 either. Running with the hare and following the hounds. A 
 weathercock. Ex. Lord Halifax. 
 
 36. TIME-SERVING .... (from L. temp'is, time, and servus, a slave). One who oose- 
 
 quiously compl.es with the ruling power. Ex. The Vicar of 
 Bray, and Dryden. 
 
 (2) To get others to stand well with us. 
 
 yj. FLATTERY ..... Praise and admiration for the sake of gratifying vanity or 
 
 gaining favour. Improves upon existing excellences. Cor- 
 rupts both the receiver and the giver. 
 
 38. ADULATION (L. adulatw, from adulari, to flatter). Excessive and exag- 
 
 gerative flattery, with a mingled spirit of falsehood and 
 hypocrisy. Praises non-existing excellences. Adulatioti is 
 practised by co\.\n\trs,flaite}yhy lovers. 
 
 39. PARASITE To play the (L. parasitiis, Gr. -KapciGiroQ, literally eating be- 
 
 side, with, or at the table of another, from Trapa, beside, and 
 tjiTiiv, to feed). A parasite was among the Greeks an overseer 
 and apportioner of the corn brought for the public sacrifices. 
 The earning invitations to the tables of the wealthy by flattery 
 and conversational arts. 
 
 40. SYCOPHANT To play the (L. sycophanta, Gr. <jvKO(pdvTT]c, from crvicov, a fig^ 
 
 and ^aivEiv, to show). The acting an obsequious and servile 
 part, in which flattery is necessarily used. "No flattery so. 
 adroit or effectual as that of implicit assent." 
 
 41. FAWNING (from A.S. fahnian, to rejoice, flatter, wheedle). Courting 
 
 favour by low cringing, as a dog ; flattering meanly. " Spaniels 
 love not their master's good, but their master's goods." 
 
 42. SERVILITY (from L. servirc, to serve). Slavish deference. "Through 
 
 dirt to dignity." 
 
 VOL. T. ''^2>
 
 5 1 4 VICES, 
 
 5. AS DISPLAYED IN INDETERMINATENESS. 
 
 43. PREVARICATION , . . (from L. /rij-zw/VaZ/^j-, to walk crookedly). Talking all round 
 
 the question, hoping to " dodge" it, and disclose nothing : like 
 putting a blot in the writing so that it is illegible. 
 
 44. EQUIVOCATION .... (from L. ccqints, equal, and vox, vocis, word). Using words 
 
 which have a double meaning, so that in one sense he can 
 claim to have said the truth, though he does in fact deceive, 
 and intends to do so. Showing the obverse instead of the right 
 side of the medal. 
 
 45. EVASION (from L. e, out, from, and vadere, to go, walk). Avoiding a 
 
 definite answer. Ostensibly answering a question, but really 
 turning aside to some other point. 
 
 46. AMBIGUITY ; . . . t (L. rt;;/^/]^///A?j, from awz^/jcTtw, to wander about with irresolute 
 
 mind, from ambi, round about, or a>nbo, two, and agere, to 
 drive). Leaving the sense of an expression doubtful. Having 
 two strings to one's bow. 
 
 47. SHUFFLING o . . . « (from A.S. sctifan, to shove, push). Evading fair questions. 
 
 Shifting one's ground. 
 
 48. QUIBBLING (from L. qtcid., what, and iibet, it pleases). Trifling in argu- 
 
 ment. 
 
 49. CAVILLING (from L. cavillari, to practise jesting, to censure, from cavilla, 
 
 bantering jests, sophistry, literally an empty, vain speech, 
 from cavils, hollow, vain). Raising captious and frivolous 
 objections. 
 
 50. VAGUENESS . ■ . . . {^xowil.. vagHs). Becoming indefinite from want of clearness 
 
 of statement or conception. 
 
 51. LOOSENESS (from KS. lesan, lysan),ox\ Wanting in logical strictness and 
 
 52. LAXITY (from L laxare, to unloose) J propriety. 
 
 53. INDEFINITENESS . . . (from L. Ji7iis, a boundary, limit, end). Not precise or cer- 
 
 tain. No well-defined horizon. No scientific frontier. 
 
 6. AS DISPLAYED IN PLAUSIBILITY. 
 
 54. SPECIOUSNESS .... (from L. specere, to look, to behold). Appearing well at first 
 
 view, yet covering something unsound or false. 
 
 55. PLAUSIBILITY .... (from L. plaudere, plaiisu7n, to applaud). Pleasing the ear, 
 
 but yet leaving distrust in the judgment. 
 
 56. SOPHISTRY (from Gr. o-o^of, wise). Reasoning, sound in appearance only. 
 
 " Like poison, at once detected and nauseated when presented 
 to us in a concentrated form." 
 ■57. SUPERFICIALITY . . . (from L. super, above, over, and fades, make, figure, shape). 
 
 Comprehending only what is obvious or apparent. 
 
 58. SHALLOWNESS .... (from A.S. scelfe, a shelf). Wanting in depth. A term of 
 
 reproach. 
 
 7. AS DISPLAYED IN PRETENCE. 
 
 59. DOUBLE-DEALING . . (from L. ^////Vi", double, etc.). The profession of one thing and 
 
 the practice of another. The inner and outside of man are not 
 counterfoils. 
 
 60. HYPOCRISY (from L. hypocrisis, Gr. hnoKpiaic,, the playing a part on the 
 
 stage, simulation, outward show). Pretending to virtue or 
 piety. " The homage which vice pays to virtue.'' 
 
 61. INSINCERITY ..... (from L. sincerus, from sine, without, and cet-a, wax). Failing 
 
 to be in reality what one appears to be. A thin coating of 
 veneer. 
 
 62. DISSEMBLING .... (from L. dis and siimdare, to make like another ; from similis, 
 
 like, resembling). Disguise is general, dissembling is specific. 
 "A prince might disguise himself as a beggar ; but unless he 
 held such communications with others as to practically deceive 
 them, he would not be dissembling." 
 
 63. DISGUISE (L. dis and F. guise, manner, from L. visus, appearance). 
 
 Cloaking by what is fitted to mislead. 
 
 64. HOLLOWNESS (A.S. hoi, hole, allied to Gr. KoLXof, hollow). Lacking sound- 
 
 ness and reality. JNIen of straw in the world of morals. 
 
 65. FEIGNING (from 'L.Jingere, to form). Putting out false appearances. 
 
 66. PRETENCE (from L. /6Wtr6', to stretch). Putting out false facts as well as 
 
 false appearances.
 
 VICES. 515 
 
 67. SIMULATION (from L. svnilis, like). Feigned exliibition of what does not 
 
 exist — stiggcstio falsi. 
 
 68. DISSIMULATION .... (from L. siniilis, lilce, resembling). Feigned concealment of 
 
 what really exists — suppressio vc7'i. 
 
 69. AFFECTATION .... (from L. <r?^vA?;v, to Strive after, from (Tc/ andyi^tm', to make). 
 
 A forced and often an awkward imitation of what should be 
 genuine and easy. Wanting the beauty that accompanies 
 what is natural. "A greater enemy to the face than small- 
 pox." 
 
 8. AS INVOLVING STEALTH. 
 
 70. CRAFTY (from A.S. crafty strength, power, art). Wide awake, and 
 
 making a cunning use of one's experience and knowledge. A 
 talent for dexterously deceiving. 
 
 71. WILINESS (from A.S. zvile^ fraud ; vela, to deceive). Mischievously 
 
 artful in attack, defence, or escape. A talent for the use of 
 stratagems. 
 
 72. ARTFUL (from L. ars, artis, skill in joining or fitting, from Gr. upHv, to 
 
 join, to fit together ; apTueiv, to arrange, prepare^. Unfairly 
 exercising means which bafifle the interpretation or escape the 
 observation of others. Trained or scientific use of the quality 
 of cunning. 
 
 73. SLYNESS A vulgar kind of cunning. The sly man goes with muffled 
 
 tread. 
 
 74. DECEITFUL (from L. deeipere, to deceive, from de and capere, to take, 
 
 catch). Trying to lead others astray. The betrayal of truth. 
 
 75. CUNNING (from A.S. eininan, to know, to be able). Acting conceal- 
 
 ment and disguise, as applied to the lower order of wants or 
 designs. The characteristic quality of the fox. 
 
 76. DESIGNING (from L. de and signare, to mark out, from sign7e?n, mark, 
 
 sign). Scheming for desired objects even to the injury of 
 others. 
 
 77. DISINGENUOUS .... (from L. ^/j and zw^^wz/z/j, inborn, innate, noble, frank). Want- 
 
 ing in candour, unworthily or meanly artful. Hiding the real 
 purpose. 
 
 78. CLANDESTINE .... {(rovn h. cla?idestinus, irom cla!n,SQcrt\.\y,ixom. celare,ioh.\6.Q.). 
 
 A purposed and unlawful secrecy. Acting on the quiet. 
 
 79. UNDERHAND Using secret and often fraudulent means. 
 
 80. INTRIGUE (from L. /r/t^, hindrances). Schemes, usually complicated, for 
 
 effecting some purpose by secret artifices. Backstairs influence. 
 
 81. GUILE (from O. Fr. guile, A.S. ivile). A wily regard for one's own 
 
 interests. 
 
 82. CONCEALMENT "••= . . . . {Uom h. C071 ^vid cehire, to hide). Hiding from the knowledge 
 
 of others. 
 
 S3. SECRECY " (from L. secernere, to put apart, to separate). Keeping to one's 
 
 self a fact. Purposed concealment. 
 
 84. SUBTLE" (from L. i-/^^ and /d'A/, a web, warp). Finding both the means 
 
 for executing one's purpose, and weighing and dissecting the 
 purpose itself. The bringing analytical and scientific skill t? 
 bear in the executing of one's purposes. 
 
 9. AS INVOLVING FRAUD.' 
 
 85. KNAVERY {{xon\ K.'^. cnapa^ox cnafa,^xog\!i€). A term of contemptuous 
 
 reproach for a dishonest man. 
 
 86. FRAUD (from 'L.fraus,fraHdis). Deceiving our neighbour to his loss 
 
 and our benefit. 
 
 ^1. IMPOSITION (from L./(3;/frt', to place). A trick or deception laid upon others 
 
 to exact more than is due. 
 
 88. DISHONEST {{xoxi\\^.dis?i\\^honestHs,{x':)\\\honoSt\\Qx\Q\xx). Robbing others 
 
 of their rights. 
 
 B.— LACK OF JUSTICE. 
 I. GENERALLY. 
 
 89. INJUSTICE (from L.y//.f///;j, just). Violation of the rights of the individual 
 
 by deprival or infliction. 
 
 ' This involves want of Justice as well as want c I'ruth.
 
 5 r 6 VICES. 
 
 90. UNPRINCIPLED .... Sinning against justice and integrity. 
 
 91. UNFAIRNESS Showing unjust preferences. 
 
 92. UNREASONABLENESS . . (from L. ft:ri, ratiis, to reckon, think). Excess of demand and 
 
 claim. Beyond all reason or right. 
 
 2. AS TO OFFENCES AGAINST RIGHTS AND USAGES. 
 
 (i) By Defect. 
 
 93. OUTRAGE (from L. /^'/r^, beyond). Gross and violent insult and indignity, 
 
 or overbearing or cruel violation of the feelings or the person. 
 
 94. INSULT (from L. /;;j///>t', to leap upon). Words or actions of au offen- 
 
 sive and derogatory kind. 
 
 95. INDIGNITY (from L. indie;nari, to disdain). An insult to a person entitled 
 
 to respect. Unmerited contemptuous treatment. 
 
 96. AFFRONT (from L. ad and frofis, forehead, front). A marked breach of 
 
 politeness. 
 
 97. COARSE Want of mental refinement. 
 
 98. ROUGH {hovxh. 7-aucus). Want of polite training and natural gentle- 
 
 ness. 
 
 99. BLUNT (G. ambluno, to dull ; Ger. bladde, a dull knife ; Sw. and I eel. 
 
 hlunda, to sleep). Abrupt in address, unceremonious. 
 100. PERT (from 1^. aper ire, io uncoxtv, to open). Sprightliness without 
 
 dignity, or proper regard to the respect due to others, 
 loi. RUDE (from L. rudis, allied to raw, rough, and crude). Personally 
 
 offensive to others from roughness of manners (intentional or 
 
 unintentional). Violation of the proprieties of social life either 
 
 from ignorance or carelessness. 
 
 102. GROSS (from L. rr^jj"//j", thick, dense, fat). Unrestrained exhibition of 
 
 the animal part of human nature. Ex. Henry VIII. 
 
 103. DISCOURTEOUS . . . . (L. dis, and F. coiirtoisie, courtesy). Rude and disrespectful 
 
 actions. A want of dignified complaisance and kindness. 
 
 104. UNCIVIL (from L. m'/i", citizen). Withholding customary attentions and 
 
 the amenities of civilized and social life. 
 
 105. IMPOLITE (from L. zV/z/^/ZZ/^j-, unpolished). Wanting in easy and graceful 
 
 manners, and the desire to anticipate the wants and wishes of 
 others, and to avoid causing them pain. 
 
 106. OBSTRUCTIVE {{x<d\Vi V.. ob ?iVi^ stru£re,\.Q) pile up). Throwing hindrances or 
 
 impediments in the way of any one's progress. The Irish 
 Members of Parliament, 18S1, 1882, made a science of this 
 method of procedure, and hence the closure. 
 
 107. IMPUDENT A jaunty disrespect. 
 
 108. INJURY (from L._;«i',7w;7>, right, law, justice). Wronging another. 
 
 (2) By Excess. 
 
 109. INTERFERENCE .... (from L. zVz/^r, between, and /t77>r, to strike). Intermeddling 
 
 with others' concerns. 
 
 1 10. OFFICIOUS (from L. ob, and faccre, to make or do). Obtruding one's 
 
 offices or assistance when not needed. A want of tact. 
 
 111. IMPERTINENCE .... (from L. pcrtinere, to pertain to). Intermeddling in affairs 
 
 which do not concern us. A want of breeding, or a spirit of 
 sheer impudence. 
 
 112. STIFFNESS (from A.S. j///). Affected precision. 
 
 113. FORMALITY (from L-y^irw^, make, shape, manner). Conventional slavery. 
 
 " Red-tapeism." 
 
 114. FUSSINESS (from A. S.///J-, ready, quick). Over-anxiety about trifles. To 
 
 make a bustle or ado. 
 
 115. BUSY-BODIES (A.S. bystg, to see, and bodig, body). Meddling persons. 
 
 3. WHEN GOVERNING. 
 
 116. TYRANNICAL (from h. tyramius, Gv. rvpari'oc, an absolute sovereign, after- 
 
 wards a cruel ruler). Domination and caprice, involving 
 suffering or oppression. Tyranny and anarchy are never far 
 asunder. 
 
 117. ARBITRARY (from L. rtrfoVnzr/, to hear, decide). Making one's own will the 
 
 principle of government. Being a law to one's self in that and 
 no worse sense, htncejic/c/e. 
 
 Iio. DESPOTIC (from Gr. cftr-6r?;c, master, lord). Regardless of constitutions 
 
 and laws, hence imperious. " Making one person more than 
 man makes the rest less."
 
 VICES. 5 1 7 
 
 119. SEVERITY (from L. scvcrus). Extreme strictness, insisting upon things 
 
 without regard to others. 
 
 120. STRICTNESS (from L. j/;7;^i,'-^r^, to draw or bind tight). Abridging hberty in 
 
 favour of method. 
 
 121. RIGOUR (from L. r/Vv;^, to be stiff). An unbending adherence to rule 
 
 or principle. Deaf to entreaty. " The bow snaps that is bent 
 too stiffly." 
 
 122. STERNNESS (from A.S. sfeme, sfyrnc, allied to Ger. starr, staring, storrig, 
 
 stubborn). Applicable to look, and demeanour, and manners. 
 (Often anything but a fault.) 
 
 123. THREATENING .... (from A.S. tkredtiaii, to urge, threaten). Alarming with the 
 
 promise of evil. 
 
 124. DICTATION (from L. (/ztY;r, to say). Prescribing beyond our province. 
 
 125. AUSTERITY (from L. a«i-/'t77/i-, Gr. «i;(T-?;/3oc, harsh, like the flavour of unripe 
 
 fruit). Exacting upon one's self as well as upon others. 
 " Taking a slighting view of the enjoyments and relaxations 
 of life." 
 
 126. BRIBING (from Y. bribe, a hunch of bread, scrap, leavings of meals). 
 
 Perverting the judgment of another, or corrupting his action by 
 some gift or promise. '' The universe would not be rich enough 
 to buy the vote of an honest man." 
 
 4. WHEN GOVERNED. 
 
 127. TREACHERY Violation of allegiance. 
 
 128. SEDITION (from L. se, aside, and tlis, a going). Public discontent. 
 
 Seething rebellion. 
 
 129. INSURRECTION .... (from L. i?tsurgere, insiirreciwn, to rise up against). A rising 
 
 up of individuals against the laws of a community or state. 
 
 130. INSUBORDINATION) j (L. /,'/, not, sub, under, and ordo, ordinis,\\\\€). Not submissive 
 
 or DISLOYALTY [ ' * '( to authority. Definite manifestation of disloyalty. 
 
 131. REBELLION (from L. MAzrt', to make war). Efflorescence of disloyalty. 
 
 132. REVOLUTION (from L. ?r, back, and vt^/z^t'r,?, z'^//////'///, to turn). The fructifi- 
 
 cation of disloyalty. 
 
 133. LAWLESSNESS (from O. Eng. Azyy A.S. /tVi^-^r;/, to lay. A law is that which is 
 
 laid, set, or fixed, like statute, constitution). Not subject to the 
 law of morality or of society. 
 
 134. DISOBEDIENCE . . . . (L. dis and obedientia, obedience). Not observant of duty or 
 
 rules prescribed by authority. 
 
 135. DISRESPECTFULNESS . . (from L. dis and 7'e, again, back, and speccre, spicere, to look, to 
 
 view). Failing to hold others in their right esteem. 
 
 136. UNDUTIFULNESS . . . (from L. debere, to owe). Not submissive to natural or legal 
 
 superiors. 
 
 5. AS FAILING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE GOOD OFFICES OF OTHERS. 
 
 137. UNTHANKFULNESS . . . (from A.S. tJiancian, to thank). Failing to acknowledge 01 
 
 make returns for favours received. 
 13S. INGRATITUDE .... (from L. ^ra/z^j-, agreeable). Want of a disposition to repay. 
 
 Is treason to mankind. 
 
 C— LACK OF WISDOM. 
 
 1. AS TO DEFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE AND JUDGMENT. 
 
 139. IGNORANCE- {{xom.!.. ig?:ora7itia). Want of knowledge of such matters as 
 
 we ought to know. 
 
 140. INFATUATION . . . (from L. /r///«j, foolish). Inclining to anything in a manner 
 
 not justified by reason. 
 
 141. INJUDICIOUSNESS . . • (from L. judicium, judgment, decision). Acting without due 
 
 attention to the mutual relations of things, and without suffi- 
 ciently examining circumstances. 
 
 142. SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS . . {ixom. h.'i. scort, sceort ; L. t-i/rZ/^x, short ; and A.S. j////, sight). 
 
 Inability to see far into things deep or abstruse, or not evident 
 at first sight. 
 
 2. AS TO DEFECTIVE COMMON SENSE. 
 
 143. ECCENTRICITY '■= . . . . (L. eccentricus J Gr. 'kkcptpoc, out of the centre, from k-, out of, 
 
 and KivTpov, L. centrwn, centre). Deviating from the usual or 
 common-sense course. " He that will keep a monkey should 
 pay for the glasses he breaks."
 
 5i8 
 
 VICES. 
 
 144. FOOLISHNESS 
 
 145. SENSELESSNESS . 
 
 146. GARRULOUSNESS ■■ 
 
 147. TALKATIVENESS 
 I4S. LOQUACIOUSNESS 
 
 Failing to act according to the principles of practical wisdom. 
 A weak mind. " Letting down buckets into empty wells, and 
 growing old with drawing up nothing.'' 
 
 (from L. sentirc, scnsuni, to perceive, to feel). Acting contrary 
 to reason or sound judgment. A warped mind. 
 
 {As shown in 'ii>0}'ds.) 
 
 (from L. gart'h-c, to chatter, from gar, to shout). Prosy talk, 
 
 with frequent and lengthened details. Ex. An old man in his 
 
 dotage. 
 
 (from Prov. Ger. talken, to speak indistinctly). Talking for 
 
 talking's sake. "An unbraced drum which beats a wise man 
 
 out of bounds." Ex. A child. 
 
 (from L. loqui, to speak). A great flow of words at command. 
 
 The less persons think, the more they talk. 
 
 3. AS TO DISREGARDING THE MEANS OF GUARDING AGAINST HURTFUL 
 
 INFLUENCES AND OPPOSING FORCES. 
 
 149. NEGLIGENCE (from L. «4'^, not, and /i'^^r^, to pick up, gather). A term more 
 
 of reproach than mere remissness. 
 
 150. REMISSNESS (from L. rcmittcrc, to send back, to relax). Inattention in 
 
 regard to matters of duty and responsibility. 
 
 151. IMPRUDENCE (from L. prudens, prudent). Want of due regard to conse- 
 
 quences. 
 
 152. CARELESSNESS .... (from L. r«n?, care). Inattention to matters usually of minor 
 
 or ordinary moment, from unawakened interest. 
 
 153. HEEDLESSNESS .... (from A.S. /rtVa«). Inattention to the consequences of conduct 
 
 respecting the passing matters of the moment. 
 
 154. THOUGHTLESSNESS . . {ixom. h.'s>. thcncan, to think). Serious inattention to matters 
 
 of graver moment. 
 
 155. UNWARINESS (from A.S. waru, caution). Failing to guard against deception 
 
 and artifices. 
 
 156. INATTENTION .... (from L. rt//^;/</d7r, to Stretch). Impatience of persistent thought 
 
 respecting casual matters. 
 
 157. INCONSIDERATION . . . (from L. r^// and JzV/t'rd', to sit). Inattention to the circumstances 
 
 which regard safety or propriety. 
 
 158. FORGETFULNESS . . . (from A.S. /('r and _^^/a/z, to get). Letting facts and duties slip 
 
 from the mind. " Men are men ; the best sometimes forget." 
 
 4. AS TO DISREGARDING THE MATERIAL RESOURCES AND COMFORTS OF 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 159. IMPROVIDENCE .... (from L. /;v, before, and tz/^^r^, to see). Neglect of foresight. 
 
 160. WASTE . {iroxn.'L. vas tare, \.o lay waste). Want of care in spending or 
 
 using. " More water glideth by the mill than wots the miller 
 of." 
 
 161. SQUANDERING .... (from Ger. sclnvindcn, to vanish, dwindle). Spending lavishly 
 
 or profusely without need and without return. 
 
 162. PRODIGALITY (from L. /r^, forward, forth, and rt^t'rt', to drive). Spending to 
 
 excess and recklessly, and usually for improper purposes. 
 
 D.— LACK OF BENEVOLENCE. 
 I. GENERALLY. 
 
 163. MALICE ffrom L. mains, bad, ill, evil). Delighting in doing harm for 
 
 harm's sake. " Sucks up the greatest part of her own venom, 
 and poisons herself." 
 
 164. MALEVOLENCE .... (from L. male, ill, and volo, to wish)^ Malice directed against 
 
 others. 
 
 165. MALIGNITY (from L. inaUgnari, to do or act maliciously). Virulently bent 
 
 upon harm or evil. " Malicious carries the idea of designing ; 
 malevolence that of impulse of nature ; malignant, intrinsic 
 vice or harmfulness." 
 
 166. CRUELTY Inflicting pain regardless of the feelings of those injured. 
 
 167. INHUMANITY (from L. homo, man). Destitute of the tenderness which 
 
 belongs to a human being.
 
 VICES. 
 
 5'9 
 
 l68. SARDONIC 
 
 169. SELFISHNESS 
 
 170. UNKINDNESS 
 
 2. IN REGARD TO THE 
 
 171. INSENSIBILITY . . 
 
 172. HARD-HEARTEDNES3 
 
 173. RUTHLESSNESS . . 
 
 174. CHURLISHNESS . . 
 
 175. ILLIBEKALITY . . 
 
 176. SENTIMENTALITY • 
 
 3. IN REGARD TO THE 
 
 177. IMPLACABLE . 
 
 178. UNRELENTING 
 
 179. UNFORGIVING 
 
 180. TACITURN 
 
 181. 
 182. 
 183. 
 
 merciless 1 
 unmerciful) 
 uncharitable 
 
 184. HARSH 
 
 (L. sardonicus, Gr. aalpiiv, to grin like a dog, or from aap$6vtov, 
 a plant of Sardinia, Gr. 'Eapho, which was said to screw up the 
 face of the eater). Sarcasm, with heartless or bitter elements, 
 (from A.S. si7/, self). Supremely caring for one's self, 
 (from A.S. ^y;z, kin). Want of natural affection. 
 
 DISTRESS OF OTHERS, Chiefly. 
 
 (from L. sensus, feeling). Want of susceptibility of emotion 
 
 and passion. 
 
 (from A.S. //^(7n/ and licorte). Without feelings of pity. "A 
 
 man whose blood is very snow-broth." 
 
 (from A.S. hcrozuan, to be ashamed). Without any mercy or 
 
 compassion. 
 
 (from A.S. ceorl, a freeman of the lowest rank, man, husband). 
 
 Wanting in softness and liberality. 
 
 (from L. liberalise liberal). "Withholding more than is meet." 
 
 (from L. senlire, to perceive, think, feel). Mawkish feeling. 
 
 FAULTS OF OTHERS, Chiefly. 
 
 (from 'L.placere, to please). Not to be appeased, 
 (from L. lenlus, pliant, flexible, slow). Having no pity, 
 (from A.S. yir and ^//rt;/, to give). Not disposed to overlook, 
 or to condone. 
 
 (from L. tacere, to be silent). Habitually silent, not free to 
 converse. 
 
 (from L. inerces, hire, pay, reward). Acting without compas- 
 sion for the offender. 
 
 (from L. carus, dear, costly, loved). Severity in judgment,, 
 failing to make due allowances. 
 
 (from Ger. harsch, hard ; D. haerseh, hoarse). Dealing with 
 others without regard to their affections and feelings, or rights. 
 
 4. IN REGARD TO SOCIAL RELATIONS. 
 
 185. inhospitable .... (from L. hospes, guest). Want of tenderness to strangers. 
 
 186. inaccessible .... (from L. cedere, to move, to yield). Standing at bay. 
 
 187. UNSOCIABLE (from L. socius, a companion). Averse to companionship or 
 
 conversation. 
 
 5. IN REGARD TO DISPOSITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE WANT OF BENE- 
 
 VOLENCE. 
 
 (i) As to the Inward Character. 
 
 188. UNGRACIOUSNESS . . . (from L. grains, beloved, dear, agreeable). Failing to show 
 
 grace or tenderness of heart. 
 
 189. ILL-NATURE (from A.S. j7/tY, evil and L. natus, born). A nature in which 
 
 the bitter or bad elements predominate. 
 
 JOG. ILL-WILL (from h."^. yvel, evil, and iville). A nature which carries a. 
 
 grudge against others. 
 
 (2) As to the Outward Expression. 
 
 {TJie following resemble a nest oftuasps.) 
 
 191. ANNOYING (from L. nocere, to hurt). Molestation from continued acts or 
 
 inconvenience. 
 
 192. PROVOKING (from L. pro, forth, vox, voeis, voice, cry, call). The awaken- 
 
 ing of some open expression of decided anger. The calling 
 out to combat. 
 
 193. TEASING (from A.S. /(S-J-^z;;, to pluck, pull). The repetition of unpleasant 
 
 acts or words. 
 
 194. VEXING (from L. 7/t'.i7r;-,?, to shake). Making angry by little provocations. 
 
 195. AGGRAVATING .... (from L.^nzz//j-, heavy). Making worse the burden or grievance 
 
 of another. 
 
 196. IRRITATING (from L. in and ira, wrath). Exciting slight resentment. 
 
 197. EXASPERATING .... (from L. asper, rough, harsh). A provoking of anger in its 
 
 unrestrained exercise. " Susceptible and nervous people are 
 most easily irritated : proud people are o;}:i\(:^y provoked ; hot 
 and fiery people are soonest exasperated."
 
 520 VICES. 
 
 1 98. TANTALISING (from Tantalus, in mythology, a Phrygian king, condemned in 
 
 Tartarus to perpetual thirst with tempting fruits and water near 
 him, which he could never reach). To torment by exciting 
 hopes or expectations which can never be realized. 
 
 E.— LACK OF SELF-CONTROL. 
 
 I. AS EXHIBITED IN WANT OF ENERGY. 
 
 199. INDIFFERENCE .... (from L. rt^^^Td', 10 put off", to separate, be Unlike). Unaffected 
 
 iDy the presence or absence of a person or thing. 
 
 200. APATHY (Gr. UTTuQtia, from a priv. and TraQoc, from TraOav TraffxsiJ/, to 
 
 suffer). Incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain, or passion. 
 
 201. INSENSIBILITV .... {ixova Y. znsensibilitc). Want of power to be readily moved or 
 
 affected. 
 
 202. LUKEWAKMNES3 .... (from A.S. ivUcC, warm, warmish, remiss). Never hot nor 
 
 cold. 
 
 203. INACTIVE (from L. age7'e, to do, act). From mere want of stimulus to 
 
 effort. 
 
 204. COLDNESS (from A.S. ceald, from colian, to be cold ; akin to_ L. gelii, 
 
 frost). The absence of heat as regards the feelings and 
 passions. 
 
 1.0';). LETHARGY (L. lethafgta, Gr. XifiapyoQ, forgetful, from \/j0»;, forgetfulness, 
 
 and apyoQ, idle, lazy). Invincible sluggishness. 
 
 206. IDLENESS (from A.S. idel, idle, vain, empty). Reluctance to force one's 
 
 self to what one does not like. 
 
 207. INDOLENCE (from L. dolere, to feel pain). A habitual love of ease, a 
 
 settled dislike of movement or effort. 
 
 208. LAZINESS (from O. Eng. lasie, O. Ger. lassen, to leave off). Is opposed 
 
 to industry, and is frequently found among those who are 
 compelled to work for others. 
 
 209. SLUGGISHNESS .... (from slcac, side, slack). Implies some defect of temperament 
 
 which directly impedes action. 
 
 210. LISTLESSNESS .... {ixoxw A.S. lystan). The absence of desire. 
 
 211. SUPINENESS (from L. i'^/zw^w, bent or thrown backward). The absence of 
 
 interest, the wilful absence of interest and will-interest. 
 
 212. INERTNESS (from L. iners, i?tertis, unskilled, idle). Has something in his 
 
 constitution or his habits which operates like a weight holding 
 him back from exertion. 
 
 -f. AS TO DEFECTIVE WILL-POWER AND MISAPPLIED ENERGY. 
 
 213. IMPULSIVENESS .... (from L. /^//^r^, to drive). Hasty inclination. 
 
 214. CAPRICE (from F. caprice, L. caper, a goat, as it were a fantastical 
 
 goat-leap). Acting on the slightest preference of the moment, 
 and from one moment to another without such choice as is 
 founded on deliberation. It manifests itself in abrupt changes 
 of feeling, opinion, or action. 
 
 215. HUMOUR (from L. /zz/w^r^:-, to be moist ; allied to Gr. xi'A^oc, liquid, juice). 
 
 Making the indulgence of one's temper or mood the principle 
 of action. 
 
 216. WHIM (from Welsh cJizvIjh, a brisk motion). Expresses not any 
 
 quality or temper of mind, but something external. A passing 
 wish or fancy, generally an unreasonable one. Personal 
 eccentricity. 
 
 217. FANTASY {horn L. pkantasla J- Gr. 0aj'r«ffi'a, a making visible, from (pal- 
 
 vHv, to bring to light). The product of an eccentric or unregu- 
 lated imagination. It invests objects without attention or 
 inquiry, with supposed charms or otherwise. 
 
 21 8. RESTLESSNESS .... (from L. re, again, back, and stare, to stand, stay). Disposed 
 
 to wander or to change place or condition. 
 
 219. FICKLENESS (from A.S. yf^t?/, crafty, from//V<:j«, to touch lightly, to flatter). 
 
 Belongs rather to the disposition, the others to the temper and 
 mood. It is that inconstancy of mind and tastes which shows 
 itself in inconstant preferences and attachments. 
 
 220. CHANGEABLENZSS . . . (from L. ca?nbire, to exchange, barter). Refers to humour, 
 
 disposition, and temper. 
 
 221. VARIABLENESS .... (from L. z-^r/wj, various). Refers to mood. 
 
 II
 
 VICES. 
 
 521 
 
 222. OSCILLATION (from L. osctlluin, a swing). Moving backward and forward, 
 
 fluctuating between fixed limits. 
 
 223. VACILLATION (from L. %'acillare). Going backward and forward in his 
 
 opinions and purposes, without any fixity of mind or principles. 
 
 224. WAVERING (from A. S. Wi^z/frt;;, to hesitate). Distrust of an opinion actually 
 
 formed. Is applied to matters of intellectual decision. Shrink- 
 ing back at the approach of difficulty or danger. 
 
 225. HESITATING (from L. kcerere, to hang or hold fast). Pausing or delaying 
 
 from fear, or doubt, or cowardice. 
 
 226. FLUCTUATING .... (from L. fliiere, to flow). As applied not only to matters of 
 
 intellectual decision, but to states of feeling. To move as we 
 are acted upon. 
 
 227. INDECISION (from L. deddere, to determine). Want of settled purpose, or 
 
 of firmness in the determination of the will. 
 
 228. PLIABILITY (from L. plicare, to fold). Capable of being bent about, being 
 
 cats' paws. 
 
 229. WEAKNESS (from A.S. li'ican, to yield, to totter). That kind of failing 
 
 which comes from insufficient energy or judgment to resist, a 
 propensity unrestrained, though acknowledged to be unwise. 
 
 230. YIELDING (from A.S. gelaan, gildan, to pay, to render). Incapacity of 
 
 resistance to the will of another, even when such resistance is 
 lawful or needful. Nose of wax. 
 
 231. OBSEQUIOUSNESS . . . (from L. ob and scqiti, to follow). Over-compliant, or demon- 
 
 stratively, over-courteously, and almost servilely attentive to 
 the wishes of another. 
 
 232. PRECIPITOUS (from L./r^^'tt'/i', headlong). Evincing rash haste. 
 
 233. HURRY (A.S. /zr^'rrt:;;, to move hastily). Not allowing sufficient time or 
 
 not taking sufficient thought for necessary steps. 
 
 3. AS TO ILL-REGULATED 
 
 234. WAYWARDNESS 
 
 235. WILFULNESS . 
 
 236. PERTINACITY . 
 
 237. OBSTINACY 
 
 238. CONTUMACY . 
 
 239. UNRULY . . 
 
 240. HEADSTRONG . 
 
 241. INTRACTABLE 
 
 242. UNGOVERNABLE 
 
 243. HEADY . . . 
 
 244. PERVERSENESS 
 
 245. REFRACTORINESS 
 
 246. STUBBORNNESS . 
 
 247. INCORRIGIBLE . 
 
 248. UNCONTROLLABLE 
 
 249. UNMANAGEABLE . 
 
 250. HARDENED , . 
 
 Wilfully and unreasonably 
 
 WILL-POWER. 
 
 (from A.S. lucd, woe, evil, malice) 
 following one's own course, 
 (from wili and/z///). Governed by the will without yielding to 
 reason. 
 
 (from L. per, through, and toiax; tenacious, from tenere, to 
 hold). Holding on, clinging to one's own purpose or opinion, 
 (from L. obstare, to stand before). Inflexible conduct, standing 
 out against persuasion, instruction, intreaty. Holding out 
 unreasonably when one ought to give in. 
 
 (L. coniuinax, insolent, either from C07i and titmere, to swell, or 
 from contcmnere, to despise). Resistance to the demands of 
 constituted authority. 
 
 (from L. regcre, to govern, to direct, to keep straight). Dis- 
 posed to violate law. Not submissive to rule, 
 (from A.S. hcdfud, allied to L. caput, Gr. Kt<pa\)') ; and A.S 
 Strang), Directed by ungovernable will, or proceeding frorr 
 obstinacy. 
 
 (from L. tractare, to draw violently, to handle, treat). Refusing 
 to be taught, disciplined, or tamed. 
 
 (from 'L. guberna?-e, Gr. Kv[3ipvdi'). Not capable of being ruled 
 or restrained. 
 
 (from A.S. hedfiid). Hurried on by will or passion, 
 (from L. pervertere, to turn around). A settled obstinacy of 
 the will, and likes and dislikes by the rule of contradiction to 
 the will of others. 
 
 (from h. /ranger e, to break). Perverse or sullen obstinacy in 
 opposition or disobedience, 
 (from O. Eng. stub, or stock), 
 (from L. corrigere, to correct), 
 or amended. 
 
 (from L. rotula, a little wheel), 
 by right and lawful influence, 
 (from L. vianere, to dwell). Incapable of being brought round 
 to the plans of those we co-operate with or serve, 
 (from A.S. heardian; allied to Gr. Kparog, strength, vigour). A 
 settled disregard of, and habit of resistance against, the claims 
 of persuasion, duty, and sympathy. 
 
 A high degree of obstinacy. 
 Incapable of being corrected 
 
 Incapable of being restrained
 
 522 
 
 VICES. 
 
 251. OBDURATE 
 
 -DJ- 
 
 :54- 
 
 256. 
 
 CALLOUS 
 
 DOGGEDNESS . 
 INFLEXIBILITY 
 
 . . (from L. ditrus, hard). The state of being hardened against 
 
 moral influences, a moral determination in opposition to both 
 
 moral principle and natural feeling. 
 . . (L. callosiis, hard-skinned, from callcrc, to be thick). Having 
 
 the sensibilities deadened. 
 . . (from dog). Surlily obstinate, sourly impracticable. 
 . . (from 'L.Jicdere^ to bend). Obstinacy of temper or will. Not 
 
 to be turned. 
 
 [The sequel to luant of Energy ajid Rtimed Will-Power^ 
 
 DECLENSION (from L. r/zVz.a:/'^, to lean, incline). A falling off from excellence 
 
 or perfection. 
 DEGENERATION .... (from L. degenerare, to degenerate, from de and genus, generis, 
 
 birth, race). Having become worse than one's kind, having 
 
 declined in goodness. 
 DETERIORATION. . . . (from L. deterior, worse). The state or result of growing 
 
 worse. 
 
 4. AS TO THE APPETITES. 
 (i) Generally. 
 258. LUXURIOUSNESS . . . , 
 
 259. VOLUPTUARY .... 
 
 260. IMMODERATION . . . 
 
 261. INTEMPERANCE . . . 
 
 262. SENSUALITY . 
 
 (2) Hunger. 
 
 263. EPICURE . , 
 
 264. GOURMAND . 
 
 265. GLUTTONY. . 
 
 (3) Thirst. 
 
 266. DRUNKENNESS 
 
 267. INTOXICATION 
 
 (from L. liixus, excess). Indulging freely or excessively in 
 pleasure. 
 
 (from L. volupfas, pleasure). The voluptuary lives for pleasure, 
 but is nice in his tastes. 
 
 (from L. nioderatus, moderate, from viodiis^ measure). Is 
 statical, belonging to quantity ; exceeds just, reasonable, or 
 ordinary bounds generally. 
 
 (from L. tempus, time ; Gr. ri}ivHv, to cut off). Unrestrained 
 indulgence of the desires, undue licence given to will, or the 
 acting or speaking without self-control. Is dynatnical^ belong- 
 ing to force and action. 
 
 (L. sensualis, settsus, sense). Gratifying the animal propensi- 
 ties with little discrimination. Immoral indulgence. 
 
 To act as an (L. Epicurus ; Gr. 'ETiKorpoc, the Greek philoso- 
 pher, who assumed pleasure to be the highest good). Devoted 
 to the luxuries of the table ; with him quality is their recom- 
 mendation. 
 
 To act as a (from F. gourmcr, to sip, to lap ; gourmacher, to 
 eat improperly). Quantity is the point, 
 (from L. glutire, to swallow). Eating voraciously or to excess. 
 
 Being intoxicated by strong drink. 
 
 (from L. ioxicuni; Gr. toIikov [sc. (papjiaKov), a poison in which 
 
 arrows were dipped ; from to^ov. bow, arrow). A wider term 
 
 than drunkenness. 
 
 /■(from L. ebrius, drunk). The former is the result of drunken- 
 \ ness. The process or the state (not the habit). The latter 
 (expresses the state and the habit, but not the process. 
 
 268. INEBRIATION 
 
 269. INEBRIETY 
 
 (4) Sexual Instinct. 
 
 270. LICENTIOUS (from L. licere, to be permitted). Implies sensual indulgence. 
 
 271. DISSOLUTE (from L. <7'/j-j-(7/zvr^, to let loose). Wanton disregard of every- 
 
 thing intervening between desire and its gratification. 
 
 272. ABANDONED . . , . . (F. rt^7;;rt'^;/«^r, from rt, to, /^i^;/, proscription, exile, and rt'ij/z^^r, 
 
 to give). A voluntary surrender of self to a life of self-indul- 
 gence regardless of every consideration. Sinning against 
 sobriety and self-control. 
 
 273. REPROBATE (from L. rcprobarc^ reprobaium, to disapprove, condemn). Cast 
 
 away without hope of lecovery. 
 
 274. PROFLIGATE (from L. ;5r(?, forward, and_/7/i,vn', to Strike down). The throw- 
 
 ing away of honour, principle, and virtue, and all such-like 
 moral wealth. 
 
 275. DEPRAVED (from L. dcpravare, to corrupt, from de and p7-avus, crooked, 
 
 wicked, distorted, perverse, vicious}. Perversion of the standard 
 of right
 
 VICES. 
 
 523 
 
 276. 
 
 INDELICATE 
 
 277. 
 
 INDECENCY 
 
 278. 
 
 IMMODESTY 
 
 279. 
 
 IMMORALITY 
 
 2S0. 
 
 INCONTINENT . . . . 
 
 281. 
 
 UNCHASTITY 
 
 282. 
 
 UNCLEANNESS . . . . 
 
 283. 
 
 WANTONNESS 
 
 284. 
 
 LEWDNESS 
 
 2S5. 
 
 DEBAUCHERY 
 
 2S6. 
 
 FORNICATION . . . . 
 
 287. 
 
 ADULTERY 
 
 2S8. 
 
 LECHERY 
 
 (from L. dcHcicE, delight). Offending against refined propriety, 
 
 good manners, or perfect purity of mind. 
 
 (from L. dccere, to become). Impure as to outward acts and 
 
 appearance or expressions. 
 
 (L. immodestus ; from /;/ and modcstus, modest ; from modus, 
 
 measure). Impure as to character and disposition. 
 
 (from L. in and vioralis, moral ; from iiios^ iiioris, manner, 
 
 custom). Violation of morality. 
 
 (from L. coiiti?!en\ to restrain) 
 
 passions and appetites. 
 
 (from L. cast us, pure, chaste). 
 
 sexual appetites. 
 
 (from A.S. clacne, of Celtic origin). 
 
 degrading and polluting the body. 
 
 (W. gzaantan, variable, fickle ; gwantivy, apt to move away ; 
 
 givantu, to sever). Without rule or restraint of the appetites. 
 
 (from O. Eng. leivcd, Iciud, lay, ignorant, vile). The unlawful 
 
 indulgence of lust. 
 
 (from F. debauchcr, orig. to entice away from the workshop, 
 
 from bauche, workshop). Excessive indulgence of lust. 
 
 (from L. /orm'x, arch, vault, a brothel). The incontinence of 
 
 an unmarried person. 
 
 (from L. adulter, unchaste). The unfaithfulness of married 
 
 people. 
 
 (^from L, lecator, gluttonous). Wholesale indulgence of lust. 
 
 Incapacity to restrain the 
 Unlawful indulgence of the 
 Immorality viewed as 
 
 5. AS TO THE MENTAL DESIRES. 
 
 (i) Desire of Possession. 
 
 289. AVIDITY (from L. avidus, eager, az'crc, to long). Intense desire foi 
 
 matters of enjoyment and possession. However, more fre- 
 quently used in its good than in its bad sense. 
 
 290. COVETOUSNES.s .... (from L. cupidus, eager, from cupere, to desire). Desire of 
 
 obtaining what we have not ; regardless, in measure at least, 
 of the means used. 
 
 291. GREEDINESS (from A.S. ^ra^i^/?, to Cry, Call). A low, animal, or selfish form 
 
 of desire, 
 
 292. AVARICE (from L. avere, to covet). Inordinate desire of gain. Eager- 
 
 ness to get, and hugging the gain when got. 
 
 293. SORDIDNESS (from L. sordcre, to be filthy or dirty). The sacrifice or loss of 
 
 what is noble, and the adoption of what is mean in feeling and 
 conduct in reference to the acquisition of gain. 
 
 294. NIGGARDLY (from Icel. hnoggr, sparing, economical). Unwilling to part 
 
 with one's money, and hard upon others. Might be placed 
 under " lack of benevolence." 
 
 295. MISERLY (from L. miser, wretched, miserable). Hard upon himself as 
 
 well as others. 
 
 296. AGGRANDISEMENT . . . (from L. ad and grandis, large, great). Seeking to exalt one's 
 
 self in power, wealth, rank, or honour. " That join house to 
 house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they 
 may be placed alone in the midst of the earth ! " (Isa. v. 8.) 
 
 297. GAMBLING (from A.S. gamian, to play). Playing or gaming for money or 
 
 other stake. 
 
 6. AS TO THE EMOTIONS. 
 (i) Fear. 
 
 i. By its Absence. 
 
 29S. RASHNESS (from A.S. lirysaji, to rush). The courage of unreflectiveness 
 
 and inexperience. 
 
 299. TEMERITY (from L. tcmcre, by chance, rashly). The underrating or dis- 
 
 regarding personal danger or consequences. The passive state 
 of which rashness is the active quality. 
 
 300. AUDACITY (from L. audere, to dare). Presumptuous boldness. 
 
 301. RECKLESSNESS .... Rashness in its wild abandonment of self-rcspect and restraint. 
 
 ii. By Excess. 
 a. Passively. 
 
 302. ALARM (F. alarme, from al, very, and garm, noise, cry). Dread of 
 
 possible harm.
 
 524 
 
 303. AGITATION 
 
 304. FEAR 
 
 305. FRIGHT 
 
 306. DISMAY 
 
 307. TERROR . . . 
 
 308. SHYNESS . . . 
 
 309. BASHFULNESS . 
 
 . , (from L. agitare, to put in motion, to drive). Tbe inquietude 
 
 and restlessness of the soul. 
 , . (A.S.yar, a coming suddenly upon, deceit, fear, anger). Giving 
 
 way before the nearness of the perilous. 
 , . (from A.S./;-//;/^?;;, to terrify). Sudden confusion of the senses 
 
 by an external appearance which produces in an instant an 
 
 unreflecting fear. 
 , . (connected with magiii, to be able, like our English word may). 
 
 Gloomy apprehension destroying the spirit of energy and 
 
 enterprise. 
 , . (from L. terTcrc, to frighten). A strong confusing sense of fear. 
 . . (A. S. .yav//', to shun, avoid). Easily frightened. Oversensitive- 
 
 ness to criticism. 
 , . (from baisser, to lower, abash, to hang one's head). Excessive 
 
 or extreme modesty, arising from self-distrust, awkwardness, 
 
 and oversensitiveness. 
 
 310. SHAMEFACEDNESS . . . (from A.S. scca/nfasi, restrained by shame). Easily confused 
 
 or put out of countenance. 
 b. Actively. 
 
 311. COWARDICE (from L. Cauda, tail; one who turns tail, like a scared dog). 
 
 Slinking back like a terrified beast with the tail between the legs. 
 
 312. CRAVEN (from A.S. c7-ajian). Begging one, or shrinking at the 
 
 approach of danger. 
 
 313. POLTROON (It. poltrotie, an idle fellow, sluggard, coward ; usually errone- 
 
 ously derived from L. pollice tric7icus, maimed in the thumb, it 
 being once a practice of cowards to cut off the thumbs to avoid 
 military service). A mean-spirited coward. 
 
 314. DASTARD (A.S. adastrigan, to frighten). A strong term of reproach for 
 
 a coward. 
 
 315. SNEAKING (from A.S. Sfiacan, snicaji, to creep, to snea'k). Telling in a 
 
 cowardly manner against another. 
 (2) Hope. 
 
 316. DEJECTION .... 
 
 317. DOLEFULNESS 
 
 318. DEPRESSION . 
 
 319. DESPONDENCY 
 
 3:0. MELANCHOLY 
 
 321. DESPAIR . . . 
 (3) Curiosity. 
 
 322. INQUISITIVENESS 
 
 323. CURIOUSNESS 
 
 324. PRYING 
 
 (4) Pride. 
 
 i. By Excess. 
 
 a. As a Personal 
 325. PRIDE ■■■ 
 
 (from L. dejicere, dejectwitjirom de and j'accre, to throw). A 
 
 state of sadness or sorrow as affecting the countenance and 
 
 demeanour, giving a downcast look. 
 
 (from L. dolcre, to feel pain, to grieve). Full of grief. 
 
 (from L. de and preniefe, pressuvi, to press). Lowness of spirit, 
 
 chiefly constitutional. 
 
 (from L. de and spondere, to promise solemnly). A state of 
 
 mind, the result of sad or disheartening reflections, as upon a 
 
 loss which cannot be recovered, or a failure which cannot be 
 
 retrieved, or a hope which is likely to be frustrated, or an 
 
 unfavourable aspect of personal affairs. 
 
 (from Gr. jiiXac, black, and x6\oq, gall, bile). Such dejection 
 
 or depression as is either constitutional or chronic in the 
 
 individual, and often results from a number of impressions 
 
 which cannot be resolved into any one direct cause of grief or 
 
 sadness. 
 
 (from L. de and sperare, to hope). Loss of hope. 
 
 (from L. inquircre, to search into). Busying one's self with 
 
 inquiries on a small scale of no intrinsic importance or concern 
 
 to himself. 
 
 (L. ctiriosus, careful, inquisitive, from cura, care). Eager for 
 
 information generally of things of little intrinsic importance, or 
 
 of little concern to himself. 
 
 (probably contracted from per-eye, to eye or look through). 
 
 Using one's own powers of observation, rather than questions 
 
 put to others, for the purpose of discovering their secret affairs, 
 
 from a low-minded curiosity. 
 
 Quality. 
 . (from A.S. pryt, honour, ornament). An exaggerated estimate 
 of the deference due to something which really exists in us, 
 or belongs to us. Disdains others, converting superiors into 
 equals, and equals into inferiors.
 
 p:cf.s. 
 
 525 
 
 326. HAUGHTINESS .... (from L. alh/s, high). Intense consciousness of a superiority, 
 
 real or imagined. 
 
 327. SELF-CON'CEIT .... (from A.S. silf, self, and L. con and capere, to take). The 
 
 entertaining an overweening opinion of one's self. 
 
 328. ARROGANCE {l^- arrogafitia,{xom ad 2ind roga}-e,\.o a.s\<.,rec\}.\ts,i). Exclusive 
 
 self-deference. The extreme of self-assertion. 
 
 329. DOGMATISM Asserting with overbearing and arrogance. 
 
 330. VANITY (from L. 7/(7;;//j-, empty, vain). An excessive desire of applause, 
 
 approbation, or admiration. Subjects of vanity are good looks, 
 talents, personal infiuence, or success, etc. 
 
 331. PRESUMPTION .... (from L. /)r^, before, and j/^;;zt7'^, to take). Blind or unreason- 
 
 able confidence arising from rashness or conceit. 
 
 332. AMBITION * (L. ambit io, a going around, especially of candidates for office 
 
 in Rome, to solicit votes ; hence, desire for office or honour, 
 from ambire, to go around). An eager and sometimes an in- 
 ordinate desire of preferment. 
 
 333. SELF-WILL .-. . . . (from A.S. J'/Z/jj-r^and L.Tw/^7, 7'£'//6',to will). Thinks nothing 
 
 of right or wrong ; whatever the impulse of the moment suggests 
 is the motive to action. 
 
 334. SELF-SUFFICIENCY . . . (from A.S. silf , self , ^.xi^ L. sub, under, and /^avr, to make). 
 
 Through conceit refusing the assistance of every one. 
 
 b. As manifested in External Display. 
 
 335. OSTENTATION .... (from L. ostciuiere, to show). Studied display and parade of 
 
 possessions or qualities. 
 
 336. DISPLAY (from L. dis, abroad, and plicare, to fold). Courting publicity. 
 
 337. PARADE (from 'L. parare, to prepare). Ostentation of anything calcu- 
 
 lated to impress the minds of others in relation to one's own 
 capacities, powers, possessions, or superiority and excellences 
 of any kind. 
 
 338. BOASTING (O. Eng. bosi; Ger. pausfen, to swell). Speaking in ostenta- 
 
 tious language, with a view to self-praise or self-exaltation. 
 Connected with vattity. 
 
 339. VAUNTING (from L. vanus, vain). Bringing forward anything to show it 
 
 off. Connected with pride. 
 
 340. BOMBAST (from L. boi/ibasium, a doublet of cotton). Swelling words 
 
 without much meaning. 
 
 341. PEDANTRY (from Gr. nciiQ, TT-aicoQ, a boy, and dyuv, to lead, guide). A 
 
 boastful display of one's learning. 
 
 342. FOPPISHNESS (from Ger. foppoi, to make a fool of one, jeer). Courting 
 
 admiration by personal extravagances. 
 
 c. In our Treatment of Others. 
 
 343. CONDESCENSION - . . . {(xom h. dc, do\vr\,^r\6. sca7tdere,\.o cWmh). Arrogant politeness. 
 
 344. SUPERCILIOUSNESS . . (from L. super, above, over, and ciliuni, an eyelid). Lofty with 
 
 pride. 
 
 345. SCORN (from L. ^.t-, from, and (:(5ir;i'«, a horn). Extreme and passionate 
 
 contempt. 
 
 346. DISDAIN (from L. (t'/j- and rt'/V;?^;-/, to deem worthy ; digitus, worthy). A 
 
 feeling of mingled contempt and aversion. 
 
 347. VAIN-GLORIOUS .... (from L. vanus, empty, vain, and gloria, glory). Vain to 
 
 excess of one's achievements. 
 
 348. CENSORIOUSNESS . . . (from L. censorius, pertaining to the censor, from censere to 
 
 value, to tax). Severe in making remarks on others. 
 
 349. CONTEMPTUOUS . . . (from L. conteninere, con and temncre, to slight). Treating 
 
 others as greatly inferior to ourselves, and as not worthy of 
 notice. 
 
 350. SNEERING (Prov. Eng. sncrt, to sneer at, snort, to laugh loudly). Casting 
 
 contempt indirectly or by covert expressions. 
 
 351. OVERBEARING .... (from L. super, Gr. v-Kip, and h.ferre, to bear, carry, produce ; 
 
 Gr. (p'ipuv). Tending to repress or subdue by insolence or 
 effrontery. 
 
 352. IMPERIOUS (from L. imperare, to command). Exercising one's authority 
 
 in a manner highly offensive for its spirit and tone. 
 
 353. DICTATORIAL .... (from L. diccrc, to say). Acting like one with absolute power 
 
 and regardless of others. 
 
 354. DOMINEERING .... (from L. doniinus, master, from domus, house). Ruling with 
 
 insolence and arbitrary sway. Giving orders in a way to make 
 others feel their inferiority.
 
 526 
 
 VICES. 
 
 355. RIDICULE . . . ". . . (from L. ;7'c/t7't', to laugh). Contemptuous derision. 
 
 356. MOCKERY (from Gr. hCjkoc, buffoon, scorner). iNIimicking the words or 
 
 actions of another. 
 
 357. DERISIO:.' (from L. de and ridere, to laugh). Scornful or contemptuous 
 
 treatment. 
 
 358. SCOFFING (from Dan. jZv//^, to deceive, delude ; Icel.j'^z///<z, to laugh at). 
 
 The use of insolent mockery and derision. 
 
 359. JEERING (O. Eng._£,'t't'ri?,^<:'^?;Y, perhaps a modification of ^//^^r, to salute 
 
 with cheers or shouts of joy, taken in an ironical sense). The 
 use of severe sarcastic reflections. 
 
 ii. By Defect 
 
 360. LITTLENESS 
 
 3 
 
 61. MEANNESS 
 
 362. PALTRINESS . 
 
 363. BASENESS . . 
 
 364. SHAMELESSNESS 
 
 365. VENALITY . . , 
 
 366. UNMANLINESS , 
 
 (from A.S. lytet). Dissembling for want of spirit. 
 
 (from A.S. mane, gcmccjic; L. cotnfnunis). The morally 
 
 paltry. 
 
 (from G&r. paitt', a rag, tatter). Anything that is low, shuffling, 
 
 or marked by equivocation, is paltry. 
 
 (from L. bassiis, thick, fat, short, humble). The morally 
 
 degraded. 
 
 (from A.S. scaniK, sccamu, shame, and /dssa, less). An absence 
 
 of shame where a feeling of shame is due. 
 
 {horn. L. venus^ sale ; venire, to be sold). Prostration of talents, 
 
 offices, or services for money. 
 
 Not worthy of a noble mind. The predominance of feminine 
 
 elements ; want of courage ; often allied with meanness. 
 
 (5) Envy. 
 
 367. RIVALRY (from L. rivalis, from rivus, a river, hostile tribes being ofter 
 
 thus separated). Trying to get something for one's self which 
 is of the nature of a possession, against one or more others 
 who are trying for the same thing. 
 
 368. MISTRUST Withholding trust through doubt or envy. 
 
 369. SUSPICION (from L. specere, to look, view). A painful apprehension of 
 
 wrong or harm. 
 
 370. ENVY (L. i7ividid]. The feeling of unhappiness or uneasiness pro- 
 
 duced by the contemplation of any good belonging to another. 
 
 371. JEALOUSY (from L. 5-^'///'j-, Gr. s»A"c, emulation, zeal, jealousy). A painful 
 
 apprehension of rivalry. 
 
 7. AS TO THE PASSIOxXS. 
 0) Anger. 
 
 i. Generally. 
 372. ANGER . . 
 
 373. WRATH 
 
 374. CHOLERIC 
 
 375. PASSIONATE 
 
 376. RAGE . . 
 
 377. RESENTMENT 
 
 378. VEHEMENCE 
 
 (L. angor, from a7igere, to choke, strangle, torture, vex ; con- 
 nected with Gr. ayx"*'j to press tightly). Keen displeasure 
 against wrong, real or supposed, whether in the case of others 
 or themselves. 
 
 (from A.S. zvrcedh, violent). Violent and continuous anger, 
 accompanied with vindictiveness, or, at least, by a desire -ol 
 inflicting suffering upon its object. 
 
 (L. choleru'us, Gr. \o\tptKoc, from x'oXoc, bile). The constitu- 
 tional aspect of anger, or the feeling as it affects the frame, 
 gestures, and countenance of men. 
 
 (from l^. pati, passus, to suft'er). Easily excited or agitated by 
 injury or insult. 
 
 (from L. rabe?-e, to rave). A vehement, ungovernable ebullition 
 of anger akin to the influence of a disease ; breaking forth into 
 extravagant expressions and violent demeanour. Wrath may 
 be justifiable, and anger may be just, but rage is a distemper 
 of the soul, to be regarded only with abhorrence, 
 (from L. ?-e, again, and soitire, to feel). Anger inflamed by 
 sense of personal injury or insult, and hence is too often a 
 moody feeling, leading one to brood over real or supposed 
 wrongs with a deep and lasting hatred. 
 
 (from L. vehciiiens, probably a protracted form for venicns, from 
 ve, an inseparable particle denoting privation, and mens, the 
 mind). Acting with greater force than is necessary or expe- 
 dient.
 
 VICES. 527 
 
 379. VIOLENCE (from L. vis, strength, force). Excited by strong feeling or 
 
 passion, beyond limits of law. 
 
 380. FIERCENESS (from l^.ferus, wild). Vehement in anger. Marks the haste 
 
 and violence of the act. 
 
 381. FURY (from h.fiirerc, to rage). Excess of rage, amounting almost 
 
 to madness. 
 
 ii. As displayed in Noise chiefl}\ 
 
 382. BOISTEROUS '..... (W. bzuysf, stormy, furious ; O. Eng. boist, a swelling, threat ; 
 
 Scot, boist and boast, to threaten). Violence and rudeness of 
 noise in words and movements. The result of conflicting, 
 contrariant, and irregular forces, exerted without uniformity or 
 self-control. 
 
 383. CLAMOROUS (from L. r/^zw^ri", to cry out). A noisy use of the voice in con- 
 
 tinuous or reiterated angry cries. 
 
 384. TURBULENT (from L. iiirba, disorder). A disposition not only to disorder, 
 
 but to insubordination. 
 
 385. TUMULTUOUS .... (from L. tiimere, to swell). Inclined to make a noise in turbu- 
 
 lence or in merriment ; but the effect is direct, while that of 
 boisterous is unintended. 
 
 iii. As displayed in Words chiefly. 
 
 386. SATIRE (from L. sat, satis, enough). Lively sallies of the imagination 
 
 against the character and acts of others. 
 
 387. SARCASM (from Gr. aapKan^ioc, from (japKu^ni', to tear flesh like dogs, to 
 
 bite the lips in rage, to speak bitterly, to sneer, from aap^, 
 oapKOQ, flesh). Satire with poisoned fangs. 
 
 388. IRONY (from Gr. tJ'iOfij', to speak). A mode of censuring by contraries. 
 
 It ridicules by pretending to admire, and condemns by feigned 
 approval. 
 
 389. INVECTIVE ..... (from L. veho'e, to carry). Aimed at character or conduct, 
 
 and may be conveyed in writing and in refined language, and 
 dictated by indignation against what is itself blameworthy. 
 Public abuse under such restraints as are imposed by position 
 and education. 
 
 390. ABUSE • {L,. abiis!is,ivom ab a.T\d. »ti,\.o ust). More personal and coarse 
 
 than invective, being conveyed in harsh and unseemly terms, 
 and dictated by angry feelings and bitter temper. 
 
 iv. As displayed in Disputes chiefly. 
 
 391. MISUNDERSTANDINGS . . Slight quarrels. 
 
 392. DISSENSIONS (from L. lUssentire, to disagree, from dis and seniire, to think). 
 
 Partisan and contentious divisions. 
 
 393. ALTERCATION .... (from L. altercare, altercari, from alter, another). An angry 
 
 dispute between two parties, involving an interchange of severe 
 language. 
 
 394. SQUABBLES (from L. Ger. qicabbeln, to quarrel). Debating peevishly, con- 
 
 tending for superiority. 
 
 395. WRANGLING (from A.S. luringan, to wring, strain, press). A confused and 
 
 noisy altercation. 
 
 396. VARIANCE (from L. variiis, various). A difference upon some practical 
 
 and not merely an abstract matter of opinion, the result of 
 previous faults. 
 
 397. QUARRELSOMENESS . . (from L. qtieri, to complain). Inclined to petty fighting. 
 39S. PUGNACIOUSNESS . . . (from L. _^«^;/d:rt', to fight). Inclined to fight. 
 
 V. When accompanied with Ill-humour and Bitterness especially. 
 a. As to Temper and Disposition. 
 
 399. TARTNESS (from A.S. tearan, to tear, split). Slight asperity, which is 
 
 more unbecoming than bitter, and indicates inconsiderateness 
 and self-conceit. 
 
 400. SOURNESS (from A.S. sihian, to sour). Harsh in temper, cross, crabbed, 
 
 peevish, discontented. 
 
 401. BITTERNESS (from A.S. biter; Goth, baitre, bitan, to bite). An excessive 
 
 degree of implacableness of passions or emotions. 
 
 402. PIQUE {iroiw ¥. piqaer, to prick or sting). A quick sense of resent 
 
 ment for some supposed neglect or injury, but the feeling is 
 not usually permanent or marked by malevolence. 
 
 403. IRRITATION (L. z>r/Az;v, from /;■/>, anger). E.xcitement of quick and slightly 
 
 angry feeling.
 
 528 VICES. 
 
 404. EXASPERATION .... (from L. ^j'/^^r, rough, fierce). Increase of violence or malignity. 
 
 405. VEXATION (from L. vexare, to shake). Making angry by little provoca- 
 
 tions. 
 
 406. MORTIFICATION .... (from L. mors, mortis, death, and faccre, to make). Depres- 
 
 sion of self-approval. That mortifies which both disappoints 
 and humiliates us ; or, while it vexes us, interferes with our 
 self-complacency, reverses what we had set our minds upon. 
 
 407. DISCONTENTMENT . . . (from L. dis and contentus, contented, from con and tcnere, to 
 
 hold). Uneasiness and inquietude of mind. 
 
 408. CHAGRIN (from F. chagrin or chagrain, shagreen, a particular kind of 
 
 rough and grained leather ; also a rough fish-skin used for 
 graters and files ; hence, figuratively, for a gnawing, corroding 
 grief). A state of vexation, and also the keenest sense of 
 mortification. 
 
 b. As displayed outwardly. 
 
 409. COMPLAINING .... (from L. ^<7;z and ^^/^/z^^tVT, to bewail). Making a formal asser- 
 
 tion of injuries. 
 
 410. FRETFULNESS .... (from h. fricare, friciuJH, to rub). A disposition which exag- 
 
 gerates and feels unduly causes of annoyance or irritation, and 
 so exhibits itself in a complaining impatience. 
 
 411. CROSSNESS (L. crux, crucis, a cross). A thing of humour, and often 
 
 quickly passes away. Peevishness mixed with vexation or 
 anger. 
 
 412. PEEVISHNESS (Etymology uncertain.) A sour, fretful temper. 
 
 413. SNAPPiSHNESS .... (from GtT. scknappc/i). Sharp in reply, apt to speak angrily 
 
 or tartly. 
 
 414. PETULANCE (from h. pctcre, to seek, provoke). Temporary or capricious 
 
 irritation. 
 
 415. HARSHNESS Sometimes similar to ajr^^rz/yy refers rather to some incidental 
 
 act than to the manner or nature. 
 
 416. ASPERITY {irom l-.. aspcr, rough). Relates rather to the W(?^;;?^r than to 
 
 the disposition. A rough way of dealing with others which is 
 not incompatible with kindness of heart. Opposed to mildness. 
 
 417. ACRIMONY (L. acrihionicij from acer, sharp). A deep-seated bitterness of 
 
 feeling which shows itself in language and manner. A kind of 
 habitual bitterness of character showing itself in small things. 
 
 418. ANIMOSITY {!,. ajiiinositas, {rom a/7imiis, soul, spirit, courage). A violent, 
 
 irritable, and inconsiderate hatred. 
 
 419. GRUDGE (from O. Eng. grutche, gruiche, to murmur, grumble, com- 
 
 plain). Cherished and secret enmity, with an unforgiving 
 spirit. Ex. Esau and Jacob. 
 
 420. SPITE (abbreviated from despite, from L. despicere, to look down with 
 
 contempt on). A temper which delights to express itself in 
 biting and cutting language, or in low and irritating actions. 
 A disposition to vex and cross others in trifling matters. 
 
 421. HOSTILITY (from L. //(?i-//j, enemy). A desire to thwart and injure. 
 
 422. RANCOUR (from L. raticcre, to be rank or rancid). Deep-seated and 
 
 malignant enmity. 
 
 423. VITUPERATION .... (from L, vitium, a fault, and parare, to prepare, or parere, to 
 
 bring forth). Severe censure. 
 
 424. SCURRILITY (from L. scurra, a buffoon, jester). Vulgar abuse. 
 
 425. INSOLENCE (from L. solere, to be accustomed). Pride and haughtiness 
 
 manifested in contemptuous and overbearing treatment of 
 others. 
 
 vi. When accompanied with Fierceness. 
 
 426. RAPACIOUS (from L. rapcre, to seize and carry off, to snatch away). Given 
 
 to seizing from a desire of possessing. 
 
 427. RAVENOUS (from L. rapere, to seize and take away). Ready to devour an 
 
 opponent. 
 
 42S. FEROCIOUS (from L. ferox, fierce, allied to fcrits, wild). The dispositior 
 
 marking wildness and cruelty. 
 
 429. FIERCE (L./t77^^, wild, savage, cruel). Implies haste and violence in 
 
 cruelty. 
 
 430. SAVAGE A cruel and unfeeling spirit. 
 
 431. BARBAROUS (L. barbarus, Gr. fSdpiSapog, foreign, barbarous). Implies the 
 
 coarseness and brutality by which the ^ct 'vas marked.
 
 VICES. 529 
 
 432. ATROCIOUS (from L. airox, cruel, fierce). Implies extreme heinousness or 
 
 cruelty. 
 
 433. SANGUINARY (from L. Sanguis, blood). Anger, thirsting for bloodshed. 
 
 434. BRUTISH (from P. brut, raw, rough, rude ; L. brutus, stupid, irrational). 
 
 Unfeeling, unintelligent in carrying out one's rage. 
 
 435. RUFFIAN ...... (from L. r;(/^^?;///'j, a pimp, a follower of ;7^?, loose women, so 
 
 called from wearing red or auburn hair, from riibus, red). 
 Boisterous, brutal conduct. 
 
 8. AS TO THE MENTAL ENDOWMENTS, 
 (i) Taste. 
 
 i. By Deficiency. 
 
 436. AWKWARD (O. Eng. rtTf/l', left, and w^zr^f). Untowardness of movement. 
 
 437. CLUMSY (from Prov. Eng. clu/nps, a stupid fellow). Natural and 
 
 general heaviness of limb. 
 
 438. UNGAINLY (from A. S., z^.^, not, and ^^t?;?_^(?, strong). Cnronic clumsiness. 
 
 439. UNCOUTH (from A.S. ciaitian, to know). Is in matters of demeanour 
 
 what the awkward and clumsy is in matters of action or move- 
 ment. 
 
 440. ABRUPT (L. abfupfus, {rom ab and riimpere,iQ break). Want of ease 
 
 in passing from one thing to another. 
 
 441. ROUGH {ivorxv h. 7-aucus). Lacking refinement. 
 
 442. UNSEEMLY (from O. Eng. seem, to become, befit). Acting in an un- 
 
 becoming manner. 
 
 443. INDECOROUS (from L. decoris, gracefulness). Violating the established rules 
 
 of propriety, or the duties of respect which age or station 
 recjuires. 
 
 ii. By Extravagance or Excess. 
 
 444. DAINTINESS (O. Fr. dain. dainty, fine, quaint, curious, probably from L. 
 
 digtius, worthy, suitable). Requiring the choicest of every- 
 thing. 
 
 445. SCRUPULOUSNESS . . . (from L. scrupulus, a doubt). A small sharp or pointed stone, 
 
 the twenty-fourth part of an ounce, a scruple. Hesitation 
 as to action from the difficulty of determining what is right or 
 expedient. 
 
 446. FASTIDIOUSNESS . . . (from L. fastidcre, to disdain ; fastiis, haughtiness). Taste 
 
 and feeling are offended by trifling defects or errors. Diffi- 
 cult to please. 
 
 447. SQUEAMISHNESS . . • (from A.S. ciuellan, to slay ; Ger. qualm, a disposition to 
 
 vomit). Vicious, or rather pretended delicacy of taste. 
 
 9. AS TO THE ANIMAL SPIRITS. 
 
 44S. GIDDINESS (from A.S. ^y^^//cz;z, to be giddy). Exuberance of spirits with- 
 out the checks of experience and reflection. 
 
 449. VOLATILITY (from L. T/tf/ari?, to fly). Lightness of disposition ; a tendency 
 
 to fly from one thing to another from curiosity and petty 
 interest, and to extract pleasure of a passing kind from a 
 variety of objects and pursuits. 
 
 450. LIGHTNESS (from L. levis, light in weight). Holding on to principle in 
 
 thought and action with a perilously attenuated thread. 
 
 451. FLIGHTINESS [ixoiw h..'^. fleogan, lo '?\.y). Comes of mental unsteadiness or 
 
 deficiency, which may show itself in capricious fancies, irregular 
 conduct, and disordered conceptions. 
 
 452. LEVITY (from L. levis, light in weight). A disrelish for ideas of 
 
 principle and duty. A disregard of the proprieties of time and 
 place. 
 
 VOL. I. 34
 
 SECTIONAL INDEX. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 
 
 {See pp. I— 2S8.) 
 
 Reference is given not only to the page where the article occurs, but to the number of the article marked on the leU-hand side 
 of Classified List (pp. 4, 5), as well as in ike body of the look; and with botit these aids the subjects sought should invariably 
 be studied. 
 
 Agnosticism 
 
 Altrtiistic Secularism 
 
 Analogy as a Guide to Truth ... 
 
 ,, as an Aid to Faith 
 Anthropological Argument 
 Antinomianism ... 
 ApoUinarianism ... 
 A posteriori and a priori Argument 
 Archaeology 
 Arianism ... 
 Atheism ... 
 
 ,, Materialistic ... 
 Authority of tfie Canon 
 
 ,, „ Scriptures 
 
 Basis of Faith 
 Belief, Primary ... 
 Bible, Chronology of the 
 
 ,, Difficulties 
 Brahminisra 
 Buddhism 
 
 Canon, Authority of the 
 
 Character of Christ, sec Teaching of ... 
 
 Characteristics, Christian 
 
 Christ, Divinity of 
 
 ,, Resurrection of ... 
 ,, Teaching of, see Character of ... 
 Christian Characteristics 
 
 ,, Church, Existence of 
 
 ,, IMorals (generally) 
 
 ,, Philosophy 
 
 ,, Heathen, and Jewish Systems 
 
 Christianity, as adapted to Man's Nature 
 
 and Needs ... 
 Christianity, see Divine Origin of 
 
 ,, sec Modern Civilization ... 
 
 ,, j-(.v Moral Philosophy 
 
 ,, see Philosophy of 
 
 ,, see Progress of 
 
 ,, sec Reasonableness of 
 
 ,, see Temporal Benefits of... 
 
 ,, sec Theistic Elements of... 
 
 Chronology of the Bible 
 Church, .fft' Christian Church ... 
 
 ,, of the Future and its Conflicts 
 Civilization, see Modern Civilization ... 
 Coincidences, see Undesigned ... 
 Communism 
 
 PAGE 
 
 14S 
 151 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 74 
 
 230 
 
 232 
 
 74 
 112 
 
 232 
 160 
 166 
 265 
 266 
 
 SI 
 64 
 270 
 268 
 210 
 211 
 
 265 
 127 
 125 
 7 
 116 
 127 
 125 
 "5 
 121 
 126 
 23 
 
 ART. 
 69 
 70 
 24 
 24 
 
 37 
 
 no 
 
 III 
 
 3S 
 
 54 
 
 112 
 
 74 
 
 76 
 
 129 
 
 130 
 
 25 
 
 33 
 
 132 
 
 131 
 
 102 
 
 103 
 
 129 
 
 62 
 
 60 
 
 I 
 
 57 
 62 
 60 
 56 
 59 
 61 
 
 13 
 
 21 
 
 12 
 
 33 
 
 36 
 38 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 iS 
 
 40 
 
 19 
 
 42 
 
 20 
 
 4j 
 
 44 
 
 47 
 
 270 
 
 IIS 
 27 
 36 
 
 2S6 
 206 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 23 
 
 132 
 56 
 14 
 17 
 
 13S 
 99 
 
 Confucianism 
 
 Connection of Science and Philosophy 
 
 with Religion 
 Cosmogony, Mosaic 
 Cosmological Argument 
 Cosmologism, Philosophical 
 Constitution and Course of the World 
 Continuity of the Scriptures 
 Conversion of St. Paul ... 
 Credibility of the Gospel History 
 Critical and Verifying Faculty of Man 
 
 Deism 
 
 Difficulties, Bible 
 
 ,, of Infidelity 
 
 Divine Government, The 
 ,, Legation of Moses 
 ,, Origin of Christianity ... 
 
 Divinity of Christ 
 
 Dogmatic Faith ... 
 
 Doubt 
 
 Dualism ... 
 
 Efficacy of Prayer 
 
 Ethical Argument 
 
 Evolutionism 
 
 Existence of the Christian Church 
 
 Faith and Freethought ... 
 
 ,, ,, Philosophy ... 
 
 ,, Dogmatic ... 
 
 ,, see Busis of 
 Fatalism ... 
 Fetishism... 
 
 Final Causes of Natural Things 
 First Cause 
 Formalism 
 Freethought 
 
 Freethought, JiTt.' Faith and 
 Future, .ftv Church of the 
 
 „ Life, The 
 
 ,, State, Jtv Soul ... 
 
 God, Personality of 
 
 Gospel History, Credibility of the 
 
 Gnosticism 
 
 Heathen Systems, see Christian and ... 
 Heresy (generally) 
 Histoiical Arr;unient 
 
 PAGE 
 
 art; 
 
 217 
 
 104 
 
 28 
 
 15 
 
 2S2 
 
 137 
 
 75 
 
 39 
 
 195 
 
 94 
 
 53 
 
 26 
 
 271 
 
 133 
 
 114 
 
 55 
 
 272 
 
 134 
 
 254 
 
 123 
 
 1S4 
 
 84 
 
 268 
 
 131 
 
 13S 
 
 64 
 
 54 
 
 27 
 
 276 
 
 135 
 
 ZZ 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
 255 
 
 123 
 
 152 
 
 71 
 
 236 
 
 113, 
 
 256 
 
 124 
 
 7S 
 
 40 
 
 191 
 
 93 
 
 "5 
 
 56 
 
 260 
 
 126 
 
 260 
 
 125 
 
 255 
 
 123 
 
 53 
 
 25 
 
 237 
 
 114 
 
 21S 
 
 I OS 
 
 55 
 
 28 
 
 58 
 
 29 
 
 200 
 
 97 
 
 190 
 
 91 
 
 260 
 
 126 
 
 27 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 68 
 
 35 
 
 J7 
 
 8 
 
 272 
 
 134 
 
 237 
 
 IIS 
 
 23 
 
 13 
 
 228 
 
 109 
 
 80 
 
 41
 
 532 
 
 SECTIONAL INDEX. 
 
 History (generally) 
 ,, of Unbelief 
 Holy Ghost, Personal Agency of the ... 
 
 Immortality (Individual) of Man 
 Incarnation, The 
 Indifterentism 
 
 Infidelity, Difficulties of 
 
 ,, (viewed generally) ... 
 Inspiration ... 
 
 Instincts, Religious 
 Intuitionalism 
 Inward Witness ... 
 
 Jewish Systems, see Christian and 
 Judaism (Modern) 
 
 Legation of Moses, see Divine 
 
 Jvlan as a Spiritual Being 
 ,, Free and Responsible 
 
 IVIan's Nature and Needs, ^^c' Christianity 
 
 Materialism 
 
 ,, Philosophical 
 
 Materialistic Atheism ... 
 
 Messianic Prophecy 
 
 ^Metaphysical Argument 
 
 Miracles and Science ... 
 
 „ (generally) 
 
 ,, of Pagans and Papists 
 
 Modern Civilization in Relation to 
 Christianity ... 
 
 Modern Thought 
 
 Mohammedanism 
 
 Monotheism 
 
 Moral Philosophy in Relation to Chris- 
 tianity ... 
 
 Morals, Christian 
 
 Mosaic Cosmogony 
 
 Moses, see Divine Legation of ... 
 
 Mysticism 
 
 Mythology 
 
 Natural Philosophy ... 
 
 Isature 
 
 ,, Uniformity of ... 
 Naturalism 
 Necessity of Revelation, see Possibility 
 
 of 
 
 _Neology ... 
 Nihilism ... 
 
 Number, a Link between the Divine 
 Intelligence and Human 
 
 • -Ontological and Metaphysical Argu- 
 ment ... 
 
 Tagans, 5i?^ Miracles of ... 
 
 Pantheism 
 
 Papists, 5^<f Miracles of ... 
 
 Pelagianism 
 
 Personality of God 
 
 Pessimism 
 
 Philosophical Cosmologism 
 
 ,, Materialism 
 
 Philosophy, Christian ... 
 
 ,, see Moral Philosophy 
 
 ,, Natural 
 
 Philosophy, see Connection of Science and 28 
 
 P.\GE 
 
 ART. 
 
 III 
 
 53 
 
 140 
 
 65 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 II 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 199 
 
 96 
 
 138 
 
 64 
 
 147 
 
 68 
 
 278 
 
 136 
 
 67 
 
 34 
 
 176 
 
 81 
 
 134 
 
 63 
 
 23 
 
 13 
 
 219 
 
 106 
 
 276 
 
 135 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 
 12 
 
 164 
 
 75 
 
 167 
 
 n 
 
 166 
 
 76 
 
 96 
 
 47 
 
 81 
 
 42 
 
 106 
 
 49 
 
 97 
 
 48 
 
 107 
 
 50 
 
 36 
 
 17 
 
 141 
 
 66 
 
 221 
 
 107 
 
 185 
 
 86 
 
 3S 
 
 18 
 
 121 
 
 59 
 
 282 
 
 ^Zl 
 
 276 
 
 135 
 
 241 
 
 116 
 
 226 
 
 108 
 
 61 
 
 31 
 
 60 
 
 30 
 
 70 
 
 36 
 
 186 
 
 87 
 
 108 
 
 51 
 
 189 
 
 90 
 
 167 
 
 78 
 
 62 
 
 32 
 
 81 
 
 42 
 
 107 
 
 50 
 
 174 
 
 So 
 
 107 
 
 50 
 
 242 
 
 117 
 
 17 
 
 8 
 
 168 
 
 79 
 
 195 
 
 94 
 
 167 
 
 77 
 
 126 
 
 61 
 
 38 
 
 18 
 
 61 
 
 31 
 
 d28 
 
 IS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Philosophy, j^^ Faith and ... ... 260 
 
 ,, of Christianity ... ... 40 
 
 ,, Speculative ... ... 178 
 
 ,, of Unbelief 144 
 
 Physico-Theological, &r Teleological 
 
 Argument ... ... .. ... 85 
 
 Possibility and Necessity of Revelation loS 
 
 Prayer, Efficacy of ... ... ... 256 
 
 Primary Belief ... ... ... ... 64 
 
 Progress of Christianity ... ... 42 
 
 Prophecy (generally) ... ... ... 95 
 
 Providential Argument ... ... ... 92 
 
 Province of Reason ... .. ... 262 
 
 Psychological Argument ... ... 84 
 
 Rationalism ... ... ... ... 188 
 
 Reason, Province of ... ... ... 262 
 
 ,, Things above ... ... ... 261 
 
 Reasonableness of Christianity ... 43 
 
 Redemption, Moral Necessity of ... 18 
 
 Religion, see Science and ... ... 28 
 
 Religious Instincts ... ... ... 67 
 
 Resurrection of Christ, The ... .. 1 16 
 
 Revelation, j-cv Possibility of ... ... 108 
 
 Sabellianism ... ... ... ... 245 
 
 Scepticism ... ... ... ... 153 
 
 Science, see Connection of Science ... 28 
 
 ,, .f^^ Miracles and ... ... 106 
 
 Scienlism ... ... ... ... 196 
 
 Scriptures, Authority of the ... ... 266 
 
 ,, Continuity of the ... ... 271 
 
 Secularism ... ... ... ... 157 
 
 207 
 
 ,, Altruistic ... ... ... 151 
 
 .Semi-Pelagianism ... ... ... 247 
 
 Sin, The Reality of 18 
 
 Socialism... ... ... ... ... 208 
 
 Socinianism ... ... ... ... 248 
 
 Soul, The, and the Future State ... 68 
 
 Speculative Philosophy ... ... ... 178 
 
 Spiritualism ... ... ... ... 187 
 
 St. Paul, JcV Conversion of ... ... 114 
 
 Supernatural, The ... ... ... 109 
 
 Superstition ... ... ... ... 204 
 
 Teaching and Character of Christ ... 127 
 
 Teleological Argument ... ... ... 85 
 
 Temporal Benefits of Christianity ... 44 
 
 Theism 185 
 
 Theistic Elements of Christianity ... 47 
 
 Things above Reason ... ... ... 261 
 
 Thought, Modern ... ... ... 141 
 
 Tradition ... ... ... ... II9 
 
 Transcendentalism ... ... ... 178 
 
 Trinity, The Holy ... ... ... 19 
 
 Unbelief, Philosophy of ... ... 144 
 
 Undesigned Coincidences of the Old 
 
 and New Testament ... ... 286 
 
 Uniformity of Nature ... ... ... 70 
 
 Unitarianism ... ... ... ... 191 
 
 Universalism ... 248 
 
 Verifying Faculty, .f<:c' Critical and ... 254 
 
 Witness, Inward ... ... 134 
 
 138 
 
 36 
 92 
 
 63
 
 533 
 
 SECTIONAL INDEX. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 NAMES AND TITLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 Reference is given not only to the page where the articles occur, but to the number of the article marked 
 of Classified List (p. 219), as well as in the body of the book; and with both these aids the subject sought 
 studied. 
 
 Adoption, Spirit of 
 
 Breath of the Almighty 
 
 Christ, Spirit of ... 
 Comforter 
 Counsel, Spirit of 
 
 Eternal Spirit, The 
 
 Father, Spirit of the 
 
 Fear of the Lord, Spirit of the 
 
 Free Spirit 
 
 Glory, Spirit of ... 
 
 God 
 
 God, Spirit of ... 
 Good Spirit 
 Grace, Spirit of ... 
 
 Holiness, Spirit of 
 Holy God, Spirit of the 
 Holy Spirit 
 
 Judgment, Spirit of 
 
 J'AGE 
 
 313 
 300 
 
 306 
 330 
 324 
 
 296 
 
 324 
 
 314 
 
 293 
 303 
 
 334 
 315 
 
 335 
 307 
 336 
 
 339 
 
 ART. 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 30 
 25 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 31 
 18 
 
 32 
 19 
 
 33 
 13 
 
 34 
 
 36 
 
 Knowledge, Spirit of ... 
 
 Life, Spirit of 
 
 Lord, The 
 
 Lord, Spirit of the 
 
 Lord God, Spirit of the... 
 
 Might, Spirit of 
 
 Power of the Highest ... 
 Promise, Spirit of Holy 
 Prophecy, Spirit of 
 
 Revelation, Spirit of 
 
 Seven Spirits of God 
 Son, Spirit of the 
 
 The Spirit 
 
 Truth, Spirit of 
 
 Understanding, Spirit of 
 Voice of the Lord 
 Wisdom, Spirit of 
 
 on the left-hand sids 
 should invariably be 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ... 322 
 
 ART.- 
 22- 
 
 ... 316 
 
 ... 295 
 
 ••• .303 
 ... 303 
 
 ... 318 
 
 20 
 2 
 10 
 II 
 21 
 
 ... 301 
 ... 308 
 ... 322 
 
 6 
 14 
 23 
 
 ... 323 
 
 24 
 
 ... 302 
 ... 309 
 
 7 
 15 
 
 ... 297 
 ... 324 
 ." 337 
 
 4 
 27 
 35 
 
 ... 327 
 
 28 
 
 ... 310 
 
 16 
 
 ... 327 
 
 29
 
 534 
 
 SECTIONAL INDEX. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 
 
 THE 
 
 Third Part. 
 VIRTUES, INCLUDING EXCELLENCES. 
 
 (See Classified Descriptive List, p. 502). 
 
 Abstemiousness .., 
 Accessible 
 Accorrynodating ... 
 Accuracy ... 
 Acumen ... 
 Acuteness 
 Admiration 
 
 Affability 
 
 Agreeableness ... 
 
 Amiability 
 
 Application 
 
 Ardour 
 
 Assiduousness 
 
 Attention 
 
 Awe 
 
 I3ecoming 
 Beneticence 
 Benevolence 
 J3enignity 
 Boldness ... 
 Bravery ... 
 
 Calmness 
 
 Candour ... 
 
 Carefulness 
 
 Cautiousness 
 
 Charity (Love) .. 
 
 Chastity ... 
 
 Cheerfulness 
 
 Chivalrous 
 
 Circumspection .. 
 
 Citizens ... 
 
 Civility 
 
 Cleanliness 
 
 Clemency 
 
 CoUectedness 
 
 Compassion 
 
 Complaisant 
 
 Composedness ., 
 
 Confidence 
 
 Conjugal ... 
 
 Conscientiousness 
 
 Considerate 
 
 Consistency 
 
 Constancy 
 
 Contentment 
 
 Continence 
 
 Correctness 
 
 Courtesy ... 
 
 Daring 
 Decency ... 
 Decision ... 
 Decorum ... 
 
 507 
 
 157 
 
 Deference 
 
 
 506 
 
 I3S 
 
 Determination 
 
 
 506 
 
 134 
 
 Diffidence 
 
 
 503 
 
 29 
 
 Diligence 
 
 
 504 
 
 65 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 504 
 
 64 
 
 Discernment 
 
 
 503 
 
 53 
 
 Discretion 
 
 
 506 
 
 130 
 
 Discrimination ... 
 
 
 506 
 
 127 
 
 Disinterestedness 
 
 
 506 
 
 128 
 
 Docility ... 
 
 
 505 
 
 81 
 
 
 
 507 
 
 154 
 
 Earnestness 
 
 
 505 
 
 87 
 
 Economy 
 
 • A 
 
 504 
 
 79 
 
 Endurance 
 
 
 503 
 
 55 
 
 Energy ... 
 Enterprising 
 
 
 508 
 
 210 
 
 Enthusiasm 
 
 
 505 
 
 104 
 
 Esteem 
 
 
 505 
 
 88 
 
 Equity 
 
 
 506 
 
 132 
 
 Exactness 
 
 
 507 
 
 165 
 
 Examination 
 
 
 507 
 
 167 
 
 Expeditiousness 
 
 
 508 
 
 181 
 
 Fairness ... 
 
 
 502 
 
 16 
 
 Faithfulness 
 
 
 504 
 
 72 
 
 Fellow-countrj'mcn (Pati 
 
 iotism 
 
 504 
 
 74 
 
 Fervour ... 
 
 
 50s 
 
 89 
 
 Filial 
 
 
 507 
 
 160 
 
 Fitness 
 
 
 507 
 
 175 
 
 Fixity of Purpose 
 
 
 503 
 
 47 
 
 Forbearance 
 
 
 504 
 
 73 
 
 Forethought 
 
 
 506 
 
 121 
 
 Forgiveness 
 
 
 503 
 
 45 
 
 Fortitude... 
 
 
 507 
 
 163 
 
 Frankness 
 
 
 506 
 
 109 
 
 Fraternal.., 
 
 
 508 
 
 182 
 
 Friends 
 
 
 505 
 
 98 
 
 Frugality 
 
 
 506 
 
 135 
 
 
 
 508 
 
 183 
 
 Generousness 
 
 
 507 
 
 178 
 
 Geniality 
 
 
 506 
 
 118 
 
 Gentleness 
 
 
 502 
 
 8 
 
 Genuineness 
 
 
 506 
 
 136 
 
 Good Faith 
 
 
 502 
 
 II 
 
 Good Humour ... 
 
 
 502 
 
 12 
 
 Good Nature 
 
 
 509 
 
 220 
 
 Goodwill... 
 
 
 507 
 
 161 
 
 Graciousness 
 
 
 503 
 
 30 
 
 Gratitude... 
 
 
 503 
 
 48 
 
 Gravity ... 
 Guilelessness 
 
 
 507 
 
 166 
 
 
 
 508 
 
 204 
 
 Heroism ... 
 
 
 507 
 
 142 
 
 Honesty ... 
 
 
 508 
 
 205 
 
 Honourable 
 
 
 AGE 
 
 ART. 
 
 503 
 
 52 
 
 507 
 
 143 
 
 508 
 
 186 
 
 503 
 
 25 
 
 505 
 
 84 
 
 504 
 
 62 
 
 504 
 
 68 
 
 504 
 
 63 
 
 505 
 
 93 
 
 508 
 
 1 89 
 
 507 
 
 153 
 
 504 
 
 76 
 
 507 
 
 177 
 
 507 
 
 150 
 
 507 
 
 169 
 
 507 
 
 151 
 
 506 
 
 "3 
 
 503 
 
 39 
 
 503 
 
 31 
 
 504 
 
 80 
 
 503 
 
 27 
 
 503 
 
 41 
 
 502 
 
 13 
 
 506 
 
 122 
 
 507 
 
 155 
 
 506 
 
 116 
 
 508 
 
 208 
 
 507 
 
 145 
 
 509 
 
 217 
 
 504 
 
 71 
 
 505 
 
 105 
 
 507 
 
 1-73 
 
 502 
 
 17 
 
 506 
 
 117 
 
 506 
 
 119 
 
 504 
 
 75 
 
 505 
 
 102 
 
 506 
 
 129 
 
 508 
 
 211 
 
 502 
 
 10 
 
 502 
 
 14 
 
 506 
 
 125 
 
 506 
 
 126 
 
 506 
 
 124 
 
 506 
 
 131 
 
 504 
 
 5S 
 
 508 
 
 2CO 
 
 502 
 
 2Z 
 
 507 
 
 174 
 
 503 
 
 40 
 
 502 
 
 9
 
 SECTIONAL INDEX. 
 
 535 
 
 Hopefulness 
 Humane Feelings 
 Humility... 
 
 Incorruptibility .. 
 
 Indignation 
 
 Indulgence 
 
 Impartiality 
 Independence 
 Industry ... 
 Innocence 
 Integrity ... 
 Intrepidity 
 
 Judgment... 
 Justice 
 
 Kind-heartedness 
 Kindness... 
 
 Leniency... 
 
 Liberality 
 
 Long-suffering .. 
 
 Love 
 
 Loving-kindness 
 
 Lowliness 
 
 Loyalty .> 
 
 Magnanimity 
 Master and Servant 
 Meekness 
 Methodically 
 Mercifulness 
 Mildness ... .„ 
 Moderation 
 Modesty ... 
 Munificence 
 
 Naturalness 
 
 Neatness 
 
 Neighbours 
 Nobleness 
 
 Obedience 
 Obliging ... 
 Observation 
 Orderly 
 
 Paternal and Maternal 
 
 Patience ... 
 
 Peaceableness 
 
 Peacemaking 
 
 Penetration 
 
 Pity 
 
 Politeness 
 
 Precision ... 
 
 Probity ... 
 
 Promptness 
 
 Propriety... 
 
 Prudence... 
 
 Punctuality 
 
 Purity 
 
 Quietness 
 
 Rectitude 
 Reflection 
 Req-ard ... 
 
 PAGE 
 50S 
 
 ART. 
 
 176 
 
 90 
 
 184 
 
 ^02 
 
 19 
 
 503 
 
 5& 
 
 .S05 
 
 107 
 
 50S 
 
 215 
 
 .So.l 
 
 42 
 
 508 
 
 190 
 
 505 
 
 «5 
 
 502 
 
 22 
 
 502 
 
 b 
 
 507 
 
 172 
 
 504 
 
 61 
 
 503 
 
 Z'^ 
 
 505 
 505 
 
 506 
 
 505 
 509 
 
 505 
 50s 
 508 
 
 503 
 
 508 
 506 
 508 
 503 
 505 
 508 
 
 507 
 
 508 
 
 50s 
 
 502 
 508 
 
 506 
 
 508 
 503 
 
 506 
 
 50s 
 503 
 
 506 
 509 
 
 506 
 506 
 504 
 505 
 503 
 503 
 
 502 
 
 503 
 508 
 
 504 
 503 
 507 
 
 508 
 
 5C2 
 
 505 
 
 5c6 
 
 100 
 91 
 
 no 
 
 lOI 
 
 216 
 
 89 
 
 92 
 
 185 
 
 44 
 
 192 
 
 123 
 
 212 
 
 36 
 106 
 
 213 
 
 159 
 188 
 103 
 
 20 
 203 
 120 
 191 
 
 43 
 
 78 
 35 
 
 115 
 219 
 112 
 III 
 
 66 
 
 99 
 46 
 
 32 
 7 
 
 26 
 206 
 
 67 
 
 28 
 162 
 
 194 
 
 4 
 
 83 
 
 114 
 
 Reliance ... 
 Resentment 
 Reserve ... 
 Resignation 
 Resolute ... 
 Resolution 
 Respect ... 
 Reverence 
 
 Satisfaction 
 
 Scientifically 
 
 Seemliness 
 
 Sedateness 
 
 Sedulousness 
 
 Self-conquest 
 
 Self-control 
 
 Self-denial 
 
 Self-devotion 
 
 Self reliance 
 
 Self-sacrifice 
 
 Serenity ... 
 
 Seriousness 
 
 Simplicity 
 
 Soberness 
 
 Sobriety 
 
 Solemnity 
 
 Stability 
 
 Staidness 
 Steadiness 
 Straightforwardness 
 Strictness 
 
 Study 
 
 Suavity ... 
 Submission 
 Suitableness 
 Sympathy 
 Systematically ... 
 
 Temperance ... 
 
 Tenacity of Purpose 
 
 Tenderness 
 
 Thankfulness 
 
 Thrift 
 
 Tidiness ... 
 
 Tolerance 
 
 Tractableness 
 
 Tranquillity 
 
 Transparency 
 
 Trustworthiness ... 
 
 Truth 
 
 Truthfulness 
 
 Unchangeab'.enc^s 
 Uncomplainingly 
 Undauntedness ... 
 Uprightness 
 Urbanity ... 
 
 Valour 
 Veneration 
 Veracity ... 
 Vigilance 
 
 Watchfulness 
 Wisdom ... 
 
 Zeal 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ART. 
 
 507 
 
 179 
 
 503 
 
 57 
 
 507 
 
 164 
 
 509 
 
 222 
 
 507 
 
 168 
 
 507 
 
 144 
 
 503 
 
 50 
 
 503 
 
 SI 
 
 509 
 
 221 
 
 503 
 
 37 
 
 508 
 
 207 
 
 508 
 
 , 19s 
 
 505 
 
 86 
 
 506 
 
 140 
 
 506 
 
 139 
 
 505 
 
 94 
 
 505 
 
 95 
 
 507 
 
 180 
 
 505 
 
 96 
 
 508 
 
 201 
 
 50S 
 
 198 
 
 502 
 
 24 
 
 508 
 
 193 
 
 507 
 
 158 
 
 50S 
 
 199 
 
 507 
 
 14S 
 
 508 
 
 197 
 
 507 
 
 '^'^ 
 
 502 
 
 iS 
 
 503 
 
 Zl 
 
 5C-5 
 
 82 
 
 506 
 
 ^Zl 
 
 509 
 
 223 
 
 508 
 
 209 
 
 50s 
 
 97 
 
 503 
 
 34 
 
 S07 
 
 141 
 
 507 
 
 156 
 
 507 
 
 146 
 
 505 
 
 108 
 
 504 
 
 59 
 
 504 
 
 77 
 
 508 
 
 202 
 
 508 
 
 214 
 
 508 
 
 187 
 
 508 
 
 196 
 
 502 
 
 21 
 
 502 
 
 IS 
 
 502 
 
 I 
 
 503 
 
 2 
 
 507 
 
 14:9 
 
 509 
 
 21^ 
 
 507 
 
 171 
 
 502 
 
 5 
 
 503 
 
 49 
 
 507 
 
 170 
 
 503 
 
 54 
 
 502 
 
 3 
 
 504 
 
 70 
 
 504 
 
 69 
 
 504 
 
 60 
 
 507 152
 
 536 
 
 SECTIONAL INDEX. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 
 
 Fourth Part. 
 THE VICES, INCLUDING FAULTS AND DEFECTS. 
 
 {Sc: Classified Descriptive List, p. 512.) 
 
 Abandoned 
 
 Abrupt 
 
 Abuse 
 
 Acrimony... 
 
 Adulation 
 
 Adultery ... 
 
 Affectation 
 
 Affront ... 
 
 Aggrandisement 
 
 Aggravating 
 
 Agitation... 
 
 Alarm 
 
 Altercatioa 
 
 Ambiguity 
 
 Ambition ... 
 
 Anger 
 
 Animosity 
 
 Annoying 
 
 Apathy 
 
 Arbitrary . 
 
 Arrogance 
 
 Artful 
 
 Asperity 
 
 Aspersion 
 
 Atrocious 
 
 Audacity 
 
 Austerity 
 
 Avarice 
 
 Avidity 
 
 Awkward 
 
 Backbiting 
 Barbarous 
 Baseness ... 
 Bashfulness 
 Bitterness 
 Blunt 
 
 Boasting ... 
 Boisterous 
 Bombast ... 
 Bribing ... 
 Brutish 
 Busybodies 
 
 Callous ... 
 CaJumny ... 
 Capsice ... 
 Carelessness 
 
 P.^GE. 
 222 
 
 ART. 
 272 
 
 Cavilling... 
 
 529 
 
 440 
 
 Censoriousncss 
 
 527 
 
 390 
 
 Chagrin ... 
 
 528 
 
 417 
 
 Changeab]enes5 
 
 513 
 
 38 
 
 Choleric ... 
 
 523 
 
 2S7 
 
 Churlishness 
 
 515 
 
 69 
 
 Clamorous 
 
 516 
 
 96 
 
 Clandestine 
 
 523 
 
 296 
 
 Clumsy ... 
 
 519 
 
 195 
 
 Coarse 
 
 524 
 
 303 
 
 Coldness ... 
 
 523 
 
 302 
 
 Complaining 
 
 527 
 
 393 
 
 Compromise 
 
 514 
 
 46 
 
 Concealment 
 
 525 
 
 332 
 
 Condescension 
 
 526 
 
 372 
 
 Contemptuous 
 
 528 
 
 418 
 
 Contumacy 
 
 519 
 
 191 
 
 Covetousness 
 
 520 
 
 200 
 
 Cowardice 
 
 516 
 
 117 
 
 Crafty ... 
 
 525 
 
 328 
 
 Craven ... 
 
 515 
 
 72 
 
 Crossness... 
 
 52S 
 
 416 
 
 Cruelty ... 
 
 513 
 
 23 
 
 Cunning ... 
 
 529 
 
 432 
 
 Curiousness 
 
 523 
 
 300 
 
 
 517 
 
 125 
 
 Daintiness 
 
 523 
 
 292 
 
 Dastard ... 
 
 523 
 
 289 
 
 Debauchery 
 
 529 
 
 436 
 
 Deceitful ... 
 Declension 
 
 SI3 
 
 32 
 
 Defamation 
 
 52S 
 
 431 
 
 Degeneration 
 
 526 
 
 363 
 
 Dejection... 
 
 524 
 
 309 
 
 Depraved... 
 
 527 
 
 401 
 
 Depreciation 
 
 516 
 
 99 
 
 Depression 
 
 525 
 
 338 
 
 Derision ... 
 
 527 
 
 382 
 
 Despair ... 
 
 525 
 
 340 
 
 Designing 
 
 517 
 
 126 
 
 Despondency 
 
 529 
 
 434 
 
 Despotic ... 
 
 516 
 
 "5 
 
 Deterioration 
 Detraction 
 
 522 
 
 252 
 
 Dictation ... 
 
 512 
 
 21 
 
 Dictatorial 
 
 520 
 
 214 
 
 Dilatory ... 
 
 518 
 
 152 
 
 Discontent men 
 
 514 
 
 49 
 
 525 
 
 348 
 
 528 
 
 40S 
 
 520 
 
 220 
 
 526 
 
 374 
 
 519 
 
 174 
 
 527 
 
 383 
 
 5IS 
 
 78 
 
 529 
 
 437 
 
 516 
 
 97 
 
 520 
 
 204 
 
 528 
 
 409 
 
 513 
 
 33 
 
 515 
 
 82 
 
 52s 
 
 343 
 
 525 
 
 349 
 
 521 
 
 238 
 
 523 
 
 290 
 
 524 
 
 311 
 
 51S 
 
 70 
 
 524 
 
 312 
 
 528 
 
 411 
 
 51S 
 
 166 
 
 515 
 
 75 
 
 524 
 
 323 
 
 529 
 
 444 
 
 524 
 
 3^-^ 
 
 523 
 
 285 
 
 515 
 
 74 
 
 522 
 
 255 
 
 S^Z 
 
 24 
 
 522 
 
 256 
 
 524 
 
 316 
 
 522 
 
 275 
 
 513 
 
 27 
 
 524 
 
 318 
 
 526 
 
 357 
 
 524 
 
 321 
 
 5IS 
 
 76 
 
 524 
 
 319 
 
 516 
 
 118 
 
 522 
 
 257 
 
 512 
 
 22 
 
 517 
 
 124 
 
 525 
 
 353 
 
 512 
 
 iS 
 
 52S 
 
 407
 
 SECTIONAL INDEX. 
 
 537 
 
 Discourteous 
 
 Disdain 
 
 Disguise ... 
 
 Dishonest 
 
 Disingenuous 
 
 Dismay ... 
 
 Disobedience 
 
 Disparagement ... 
 
 Display ... 
 
 Disrespect fulness 
 
 Dissembling 
 
 Dissensions 
 
 Dissimulation 
 
 Dissolute... 
 
 Doggedness 
 
 Dogmatism 
 
 Dolefulness 
 
 Domineering 
 
 Double-dealing ...' 
 
 Drunkenness 
 
 Eccentricity 
 
 Envy 
 
 Epicure ... 
 
 Equivocation 
 
 Error 
 
 Evasion ... 
 
 Exaggeration 
 
 Exasperating 
 
 Exasperation 
 
 Falsehood 
 
 Falsity 
 
 Fantasy ... 
 
 Fastidiousness ... 
 
 Fawning ... 
 
 Fear 
 
 Feigning ... 
 
 Ferocious 
 
 Fickleness 
 
 Fierce 
 
 Fierceness 
 
 Flattery 
 
 Flightiness 
 
 Fluctuating 
 
 Foolishness 
 
 Foppishness 
 
 Forgetfulness 
 
 Formality 
 
 Fornication 
 
 Fraud 
 
 Fright 
 
 Fretfulness 
 
 Fury 
 
 Fussiness... 
 
 Gambling 
 
 Garrulousness 
 
 Giddiness... 
 
 Gluttony ... 
 
 Gossiping 
 
 Gourmand 
 
 Greediness 
 
 Gross 
 
 Grudge ... 
 
 Guile 
 
 Hardened 
 Hard-heartedness 
 
 Harsh 
 
 Harshness 
 Haughtiness 
 
 PAGE 
 
 516 
 525 
 514 
 515 
 515 
 524 
 
 513 
 
 525 
 517 
 514 
 527 
 515 
 522 
 522 
 525 
 524 
 525 
 5t4 
 522 
 
 103 
 
 346 
 
 63 
 
 88 
 
 77 
 306 
 
 134 
 
 28 
 
 336 
 
 135 
 62 
 
 392 
 68 
 271 
 253 
 329 
 317 
 354 
 59 
 266 
 
 517 
 
 143 
 
 526 
 
 370 
 
 522 
 
 263 
 
 514 
 
 44 
 
 512 
 
 8 
 
 514 
 
 45 
 
 512 
 
 10 
 
 519 
 
 197 
 
 528 
 
 404 
 
 512 
 
 2 
 
 512 
 
 3 
 
 520 
 
 217 
 
 529 
 
 446 
 
 513 
 
 41 
 
 524 
 
 304 
 
 514 
 
 65 
 
 52S 
 
 428 
 
 520 
 
 219 
 
 528 
 
 429 
 
 527 
 
 3S0 
 
 513 
 
 37 
 
 529 
 
 451 
 
 521 
 
 226 
 
 518 
 
 144 
 
 525 
 
 342 
 
 518 
 
 15S 
 
 516 
 
 "3 
 
 523 
 
 2S6 
 
 515 
 
 86 
 
 524 
 
 305 
 
 528 
 
 410 
 
 527 
 
 381 
 
 516 
 
 114 
 
 523 
 
 297 
 
 518 
 
 146 
 
 529 
 
 448 
 
 522 
 
 265 
 
 513 
 
 30 
 
 522 
 
 264 
 
 523 
 
 291 
 
 516 
 
 102 
 
 528 
 
 419 
 
 515 
 
 81 
 
 521 
 
 250 
 
 519 
 
 172 
 
 519 
 
 184 
 
 528 
 
 415 
 
 525' 
 
 326 
 
 Headstrong 
 
 Heady 
 
 Heedlessness 
 
 Hesitating 
 
 Hollowness 
 
 Hostility 
 
 Humour ... 
 
 Hurry 
 
 Hypocrisy 
 
 Idleness ... 
 Ignorance 
 lUiberality 
 Ill-nature... 
 
 Ill-will 
 
 Immoderation ... 
 
 Immodesty 
 
 Immorality 
 
 Imperious 
 
 Impertinence 
 
 Implacable 
 
 Impolite ... 
 
 Imposition 
 
 Improvidence 
 
 Imprudence 
 
 Impudent 
 
 Impulsiveness 
 
 Inactive ... 
 
 Inaccessible 
 
 Inattention 
 
 Incoherence 
 
 Incongruity 
 
 Inconsideration ... 
 
 Inconsistency 
 
 Incontinent 
 
 Incorrigible 
 
 Indecency 
 
 Indecision 
 
 Indecorous 
 
 Indefiniteness 
 
 Indelicate 
 
 Indignity... 
 
 Indift'erence 
 
 Indolence 
 
 Inebriation 
 
 Inebriety... 
 
 Inertness... 
 
 Infatuation 
 
 Inflexibility 
 
 Ingratitude 
 
 Inhospitable 
 
 Inhumanity 
 
 Injudiciousness ... 
 
 Injury 
 
 Injustice ... 
 
 Inquisitiveness ... 
 
 Insensibility 
 
 Insincerity 
 
 Insolence... 
 
 Insubordination or Di.sloyalty 
 
 Insult 
 
 Insurrection 
 
 Intemperance 
 
 Interference 
 
 Intoxication 
 
 Intractable 
 
 Intrigue ... 
 
 Invective... 
 
 Irony 
 
 Irritating... 
 
 Irritation... 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ART. 
 
 521 
 
 240 
 
 521 
 
 243 
 
 518 
 
 153 
 
 521 
 
 225 
 
 514 
 
 64 
 
 528 
 
 421 
 
 520 
 
 215 
 
 521 
 
 233 
 
 514 
 
 60 
 
 520 
 
 206 
 
 517 
 
 139 
 
 5'9 
 
 175 
 
 519 
 
 189 
 
 519 
 
 190 
 
 522 
 
 260 
 
 523 
 
 278 
 
 523 
 
 280 
 
 525 
 
 352 
 
 516 
 
 III 
 
 519 
 
 177 
 
 516 
 
 105 
 
 515 
 
 87 
 
 ^'l 
 
 159 
 
 518 
 
 151 
 
 516 
 
 107 
 
 520 
 
 213 
 
 520 
 
 203 
 
 519 
 
 186 
 
 518 
 
 156 
 
 512 
 
 II 
 
 512 
 
 12 
 
 518 
 
 157 
 
 512 
 
 6 
 
 523 
 
 280 
 
 521 
 
 247 
 
 523 
 
 277 
 
 521 
 
 227 
 
 529 
 
 443 
 
 514 
 
 53 
 
 523 
 
 276 
 
 516 
 
 95 
 
 520 
 
 IS9 
 
 520 
 
 207 
 
 522 
 
 268 
 
 522 
 
 269 
 
 520 
 
 212 
 
 517 
 
 140 
 
 522 
 
 254 
 
 5'7 
 
 138 
 
 519 
 
 185 
 
 518 
 
 167 
 
 517 
 
 141 
 
 516 
 
 108 
 
 515 
 
 89 
 
 524 
 
 322 
 
 520 
 
 201 
 
 519 
 
 171 
 
 514 
 
 61 
 
 528 
 
 425 
 
 517 
 
 130 
 
 516 
 
 94 
 
 517 
 
 129 
 
 522 
 
 261 
 
 516 
 
 109 
 
 522 
 
 267 
 
 521 
 
 241 
 
 515 
 
 80 
 
 527 
 
 389 
 
 527 
 
 388 
 
 519 
 
 196 
 
 427 
 
 403
 
 538 
 
 SECTIONAL riTDEX. 
 
 
 PACE 
 
 ART. 
 
 
 Jealousy 
 
 526 
 
 371 
 
 Prodigality 
 
 Jeering 
 
 526 
 
 359 
 
 Profligate 
 
 Provoking 
 
 Knavery 
 
 515 
 
 85 
 
 Prying 
 
 Pugnaciousness 
 
 Lawlessness 
 
 517 
 
 133 
 
 
 Laxity 
 
 514 
 
 52 
 
 Quarrelsomeness 
 
 Laziness 
 
 520 
 
 208 
 
 Quibbling 
 
 Lechery ... 
 
 523 
 
 288 
 
 
 Lethargy 
 
 520 
 
 205 
 
 Rage 
 
 Levity 
 
 529 
 
 452 
 
 Rancour ... 
 
 Lewdness 
 
 523 
 
 284 
 
 Rapacious 
 
 Libel 
 
 513 
 
 25 
 
 Rashness 
 
 Licentious 
 
 522 
 
 270 
 
 Ravenous 
 
 Lightness 
 
 529 
 
 450 
 
 Rebellion 
 
 Listlessness 
 
 520 
 
 210 
 
 Recklessness 
 
 Littleness 
 
 526 
 
 360 
 
 Refractoriness 
 
 Looseness 
 
 514 
 
 51 
 
 Remissness 
 
 Loquaciousness ... 
 
 51S 
 
 148 
 
 Reprobate 
 
 Lukewarmness ... 
 
 520 
 
 202 
 
 Resentment 
 
 Luxuriousness ... 
 
 522 
 
 258 
 
 Restlessness 
 
 Lying 
 
 512 
 
 I 
 
 Reviling ... 
 
 Revolution 
 
 Malevolence 
 
 51S 
 
 164 
 
 Ridicule ;.. 
 
 ^Malice 
 
 518 
 
 163 
 
 Rigour 
 
 Malignity 
 
 518 
 
 165 
 
 Rivalry ... 
 
 Meanness 
 
 526 
 
 361 
 
 Rough 
 
 Melancholy 
 
 524 
 
 320 
 
 ,, 
 
 Merciless... 
 
 519 
 
 181 
 
 Rude 
 
 Miserly 
 
 523 
 
 295 
 
 Ruffian ... 
 
 Misrepresentations 
 
 512 
 
 4 
 
 Ruthlessness 
 
 Mistake 
 
 512 
 
 9 
 
 
 Mistrust 
 
 526 
 
 368 
 
 Sanguinary 
 
 Misunderstandings 
 
 527 
 
 391 
 
 Sarcasm 
 
 Mockery 
 
 526 
 
 356 
 
 Sardonic ... 
 
 Mortification 
 
 528 
 
 4c6 
 
 Satire 
 
 Savage 
 
 Negligence 
 
 518 
 
 149 
 
 Scandal ... 
 
 Niggardly 
 
 523 
 
 294 
 
 Scoffing 
 
 Scorn 
 
 Obdurate 
 
 522 
 
 251 
 
 Scrupulousness ... 
 
 Obsequiousness 
 
 521 
 
 231 
 
 Scurrility 
 
 Obstinacy 
 
 521 
 
 237 
 
 Secrecy ... 
 
 Obstructive 
 
 516 
 
 106 
 
 Sedition 
 
 Officious ... 
 
 516 
 
 110 
 
 Self-conceit 
 
 Oscillation 
 
 521 
 
 222 
 
 Selfishness 
 
 Ostentation 
 
 525 
 
 335 
 
 Self-sufficiency 
 
 Outrage ... 
 
 516 
 
 93 
 
 Self-will 
 
 Overbearing 
 
 525 
 
 351 
 
 Senselessness 
 Sensuality 
 
 Paltriness 
 
 526 
 
 362 
 
 Sentimentality ... 
 
 Parade ... 
 
 525 
 
 337 
 
 Servility ... 
 
 Parasite ... 
 
 513 
 
 39 
 
 Severity ... 
 
 Passionate 
 
 526 
 
 375 
 
 Shallowness 
 
 Pedantry 
 
 525 
 
 341 
 
 Shamefacedness ... 
 
 Peevishness 
 
 528 
 
 412 
 
 Shamelessness 
 
 Perfidy 
 
 512 
 
 15 
 
 Shortsightedness... 
 
 Perjury ... 
 
 512 
 
 5 
 
 Shuffling 
 
 Pert 
 
 516 
 
 100 
 
 .Shyness ... 
 
 Pertinacity 
 
 521 
 
 236 
 
 Simulation 
 
 Perverseness 
 
 521 
 
 244 
 
 Slander ... 
 
 Petulance 
 
 528 
 
 414 
 
 Sluggishness 
 
 Pique 
 
 527 
 
 402 
 
 Slyness 
 
 Plausibility 
 
 514 
 
 55 
 
 Snappishness 
 
 Pliability 
 
 521 
 
 228 
 
 Sneaking... 
 
 Poltroon 
 
 524 
 
 313 
 
 Sneering ... 
 
 Precipitous 
 
 521 
 
 232 
 
 Sophistry 
 
 Presumption 
 
 525 
 
 331 
 
 Sordidness 
 
 Pretence ... 
 
 514 
 
 66 
 
 Sourness ... 
 
 Prevarication 
 
 514 
 
 43 
 
 Speciousness 
 
 Pride 
 
 524 
 
 325 
 
 Spite 
 
 Procrastination 
 
 512 
 
 16 
 
 Squabbles 
 
 PAGE 
 
 518 
 
 ART. 
 162 
 
 522 
 
 274 
 
 519 
 
 192 
 
 524 
 
 324 
 
 527 
 
 398 
 
 527 
 
 397 
 
 514 
 
 4S 
 
 526 
 
 376 
 
 528 
 
 422 
 
 528 
 
 426 
 
 523 
 
 29S 
 
 528 
 
 427 
 
 517 
 
 131 
 
 523 
 
 301 
 
 "^^l 
 
 245 
 
 518 
 
 150 
 
 522 
 
 273 
 
 526 
 
 377 
 
 520 
 
 218 
 
 512 
 
 20 
 
 517 
 
 132 
 
 526 
 
 355 
 
 517 
 
 121 
 
 526 
 
 367 
 
 516 
 
 98 
 
 529 
 
 441 
 
 516 
 
 lOI 
 
 529 
 
 435 
 
 519 
 
 -i^ll 
 
 529 
 
 433 
 
 527 
 
 387 
 
 519 
 
 168 
 
 527 
 
 386 
 
 528 
 
 430 
 
 513 
 
 29 
 
 526 
 
 358 
 
 525 
 
 345 
 
 529 
 
 445 
 
 528 
 
 424 
 
 515 
 
 83 
 
 517 
 
 128 
 
 525 
 
 327 
 
 519 
 
 169 
 
 525 
 
 334 
 
 525 
 
 333 
 
 518 
 
 145 
 
 522 
 
 262 
 
 519 
 
 176 
 
 513 
 
 42 
 
 517 
 
 119 
 
 514 
 
 58 
 
 524 
 
 310 
 
 526 
 
 364 
 
 517 
 
 142 
 
 514 
 
 47 
 
 524 
 
 308 
 
 515 
 
 67 
 
 513 
 
 26 
 
 520 
 
 20^ 
 
 515 
 
 73 
 
 528 
 
 413 
 
 524 
 
 315 
 
 525 
 
 350 
 
 514 
 
 56 
 
 523 
 
 293 
 
 527 
 
 400 
 
 514 
 
 54 
 
 528 
 
 420 
 
 527 
 
 394
 
 SECTIONAL INDEX. 
 
 539 
 
 Squandering 
 
 Squeamishness . 
 
 Sternness 
 
 Stiffness ... 
 
 Strictness 
 
 Stubbornness 
 
 Subtle 
 
 Superciliousness . 
 
 Superficiality 
 
 Supineness 
 
 Suspicion 
 
 Sycophant 
 
 Taciturn ... 
 
 Talkativeness 
 
 Tantalising 
 
 Tartness ... 
 
 Teasing ... 
 
 Temerity ... 
 
 Temporising 
 
 Terror 
 
 Thoughtlessness 
 
 Threatening 
 
 Time-serving 
 
 Tittle-tattle 
 
 Treachery 
 
 Trimming 
 Tumultuous 
 Turbulent 
 Tyrannical 
 
 Uncharitable 
 
 Unchastity 
 
 Uncivil ... 
 
 Uncleanness 
 
 Uncontrollable 
 
 Uncouth ... 
 
 Underhand 
 
 Undutifulness 
 
 Unfairness 
 
 Unfaithfulness 
 
 Unforgiving 
 
 Ungovernable 
 
 Ungainly ... 
 
 518 
 
 529 
 517 
 516 
 517 
 521 
 515 
 525 
 514 
 520 
 526 
 513 
 
 519 
 518 
 520 
 527 
 519 
 523 
 513 
 524 
 518 
 517 
 513 
 513 
 512 
 517 
 513 
 527 
 527 
 516 
 
 519 
 523 
 516 
 
 523 
 521 
 
 529 
 51S 
 517 
 516 
 512 
 
 519 
 
 521 
 
 529 
 
 ART. 
 161 
 
 447 
 122 
 112 
 120 
 246 
 
 84 
 344 
 
 57 
 211 
 
 369 
 40 
 
 I So 
 
 147 
 198 
 
 399 
 193 
 299 
 
 34 
 307 
 154 
 123 
 
 36 
 
 31 
 
 14 
 
 127 
 
 35 
 3S5 
 384 
 116 
 
 183 
 
 2S1 
 
 104 
 
 2S2 
 
 248 
 
 439 
 
 79 
 
 136 
 
 91 
 
 13 
 
 179 
 
 242 
 
 438 
 
 Ungraciousness .. 
 
 Unkindness 
 
 Unmanngeable .. 
 
 Unmanliness 
 
 Unmerciful 
 
 Unprincipled 
 
 Unpunctuality .. 
 
 Unreasonableness 
 
 Unrelenting 
 
 Unruly 
 
 Unseemly... 
 
 Unsociable 
 
 Unthankfulness .. 
 
 Untruth 
 
 Un wariness 
 
 Vacillation 
 Vagueness 
 Vain -glorious 
 Vanity 
 Variableness 
 Variance ... 
 Vaunting 
 Vehemence 
 
 Venality 
 
 Vexation ... 
 
 Vexing ... 
 
 Vilification 
 
 Violence ... 
 
 Vituperation 
 
 Volatility 
 
 Voluptuary 
 
 Wantonness 
 
 Waste 
 
 Wavering 
 
 Waywardness 
 
 Weakness 
 
 Whim ... 
 
 Wilfulness 
 
 Wiliness ... 
 
 Wrangling 
 
 Wrath ... 
 
 Yielding ... 
 
 PAGE 
 519 
 
 ART. 
 188 
 
 519 
 
 170 
 
 521 
 
 249 
 
 526 
 
 366 
 
 519 
 
 182 
 
 516 
 
 90 
 
 512 
 
 17 
 
 516 
 
 92 
 
 519 
 
 178 
 
 521 
 
 239 
 
 529 
 
 442 
 
 519 
 
 187 
 
 517 
 
 ^Zl 
 
 512 
 
 7 
 
 518 
 
 155 
 
 521 
 
 223 
 
 514 
 
 50 
 
 525 
 
 347 
 
 525 
 
 330 
 
 520 
 
 221 
 
 527 
 
 396 
 
 525 
 
 339 
 
 526 
 
 378 
 
 526 
 
 36S 
 
 528 
 
 405 
 
 519 
 
 194 
 
 512 
 
 19 
 
 527 
 
 379 
 
 528 
 
 423 
 
 529 
 
 449 
 
 522 
 
 259 
 
 523 
 
 283 
 
 518 
 
 160 
 
 521 
 
 224 
 
 521 
 
 234 
 
 521 
 
 229 
 
 520 
 
 216 
 
 521 
 
 235 
 
 515 
 
 71 
 
 527 
 
 395 
 
 526 
 
 373
 
 t!rtc ©rfsitiam Pregfi, 
 
 L'NWIN BROTHERS, 
 CHILWORTH AND LONDON.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-Series 4939
 
 ih^i^S^imI" ^^'O'^^^L LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 001099 866 4 
 
 I 
 
 PLE^E DO NOT REMOVE 
 THIS BOOK CARD 2 
 
 
 iTi- - 
 
 
 
 University Researcli Library 
 
 a 
 
 « 
 a 
 
 a 
 s 
 
 H 
 iS 
 8