09 - Chapter 09
IX. CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN.
Man shall not live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4).
He shall give thee the desires of thine heart (Psalms 37:4). As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22). THE Christian Church is a visible result of the coming of Christ; and there is, in the opinion of many, no stronger argument in behalf of Chris-tianity than the facts of the Church’s history, its origin and growth, the changes effected by Chris-tianity on the convictions, the characters, the lives of an ever-increasing number of men and women. The Church owes its origin to Christ, and was meant to be the abiding place on earth of the Divine Spirit, the treasure house of God’s grace, the channel of God’s gifts. It was to be the home of God’s saints, where they were to be confirmed in the faith, trained in the Christian life, and built up towards the life eternal by the ministry of word and sacrament. It was to be a city set on an hill, a light shining in a dark place, an instrument for the effective working of God among men, a means for the conversion and regeneration of the world. But the story of the Church in its first days did not seem to be pro-phetic of its future greatness and glory. When Christ was crucified all His disciples forsook Him and fled, and the penitent thief may be said to have constituted the whole Christian Church in himself. And nothing in the New Testament is more remarkable than the quiet confidence with which our Saviour predicted the future greatness of His Church when as yet it had scarcely an existence. Its founder said that the Church would not fail, and it has not failed. He said that He would be with it always, and He has fulfilled His promise. The growth of the Church is fore-shadowed in these words: ’ The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof/ ’ The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.’ And the prophecy contained in these words has been fulfilled. Truly marvellous has been the progress made by the Church. Strangely wonder-ful has been the influence which Christ has exerted and even now exerts in the world. The change which Christ wrought upon His disciples and which was perfected only when He had gone away, that same change has the unseen Christ been working on men and women all down the Christian ages; and the effects of this working are to be seen not merely in the number of those who are consecrated to His service, or in that vast multitude of men and women who to a greater or less extent have learned of Him, but also in the innumerable ameliorations, improvements, re-forms, which in the course of the centuries have been effected on the outward lot of man. The history of the Church, it is true, has been a troubled one. Over and over again there have come up against her waves of what the world thought disaster, but storm after storm she has weathered and wave after wave she has sur-mounted. Now her existence was threatened from without and the great ones of earth per-secuted her almost to death. And now great danger came to her from within: for heresy arose to weaken her, or schism came to shatter her, or intellectual doubt killed her energies, or moral corruption threatened her existence. But the Divine Life and the Divine Spirit were in her and they could not perish, and her grand faith and noble aspirations and high ideals would not be crushed out of her, and ’ One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all ’ was a bond of union infinitely stronger than all the forces that were making for division. And so, notwithstanding all the dangers which menaced her in the past, the Christian Church using the word not in a sectarian manner, but in the broad sense which regards unity of spirit, harmony of aim and homogeneity of life as a more funda-mental and essential unity than unity of organisation is alive to-day, and, in spite of her present difficulties and dangers, she is as earnest, active, and successful as ever, adapting herself to the changes necessitated by time, but trusting in her great Head and looking forward with hope, with confidence, to a success greater than she has yet achieved. But the question arises, To what are we to attribute the growth, yea, the origin of Christ’s Church on earth? The Church owes its origin to the impression made by Christ on those who knew Him best of all, and to the conviction of which they became possessed a conviction which has not been im-possible to men and women of the later genera-tions a conviction towards which many in these days have been favourably disposed by the Teach-ing of Christ and by the fact that Christianity answers to the true nature and fundamental needs of man. In what remains of this paper let us consider how Christianity answers to the nature, the needs, the aspirations, and the hopes of man.
Possessed as we are of a physical nature, with its clamorous appetites and its innumerable bodily needs, we are tempted at times to believe that man is merely a superior kind of animal, living by bread alone, and with no interest in anything save what he can see and touch and taste.*J And yet in our better moods we are certain that this is not a true description of our nature and character.
“ For what is man If the chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.”
We know that we have a reason and a conscience which ought to be our guide; and we are all con-scious, at least at times, of feelings, wishes, aspira-tions which material things can never satisfy. We all feel that we are capable of and meant for a higher and nobler life than that of an animal: even for a life guided by reason and conscience, a life of faith, love, righteousness, holiness, a life of self-denial and self-sacrifice for our own good and for the good of our brethren; and we all somehow or other have a belief that no life can be at its best or worthiest which is not after this pattern.
Now, Christianity recognises the spiritual nature of man. Even in the first chapter of Genesis we read of our exalted origin: ’ God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.’ And did not our blessed Lord and Master give utterance to these words: ’ Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God’? ’What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? ’
Moreover, our religion is a religion of faith in that spiritual world whose centre and origin is God.
However much our senses may appear to ignore or deny the existence of such a world, the deepest and truest instincts of our being are in harmony with this faith. Somehow or other we believe that the supernatural is always present in the natural.
Behind what the outward eye sees we feel that there is the great unseen. And so we think that if we could only get behind the vesture by which God reveals and yet conceals Himself, if only we could abolish the intervening medium which hides God from our view, we would find ourselves in the presence of a glory unspeakable. We are convinced that somewhere within the wonderful temple of the universe there is an inner temple, a holy of holies; and we yearn for a fuller knowledge of that holy place.
“O for a nearer insight into heaven,
More knowledge of the glory and the joy, Which there unto the happy sons is given, Their intercourse, their worship, their employ.” And to this desire of ours Christianity most provi-dentially responds: not with full and detailed information, it is true, for now we see through a glass darkly, now we know in part. Nevertheless, Christianity does respond to our yearning, giving us an assurance which otherwise we could not have, and telling us everything we require to know.
’ The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.’ ’ Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’ ’The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.’ ’ There remaineth a rest for the people of God.’ ’ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.’ But further, Christianity answers to the needs of sinful man. And what is it which, above all things, sinful man requires? “ What humanity needs is to be saved from itself, its fallen and perverted self: what it craves is to be left to itself.”
What sinful man needs most of all is the assurance of the divine forgiveness, a new heart, a soul so thoroughly in love with the things that are just and pure and true and holy and so certain of the worth and of the final victory of these things, that he is constrained and enabled thereby, in spite of life’s many and great temptations, to walk with confidence in the straight path of duty, and to follow on where Christ doth lead the way. Our circumstances and surroundings mean much to us, for they have an unmistakable effect upon our hearts and lives. When, therefore, you change for the better the outward lot of a man whose surroundings are unfavourable to his growth in grace and his increase in virtue, you do well, for in blessing him outwardly you are, it may be, making a contribution towards his moral and spiritual prosperity.
Moreover, education is a matter of great moment in a man’s life, for, as we all know, much of the evil in this world is, in great part, due to ignorance. But the great and fundamental source of evil in this world is the self-willed, selfish, sinful heart of man; and this, as every one admits, is not, of necessity, re-made or even re-formed by a re-shaping or re-arranging of our circumstances. You may educate men, and place them in the most fortunate circumstances, and yet they may continue to be the slaves of sin and the instruments of evil. The inner, secret self, the unseen spiritual seat of thought and desire and will, is not inevitably and always affected by a change in our outward circumstances. And so long as that inner self is unchanged, so long as we are sinful and self-condemned, linked fast to a guilty past and to an evil present, what the better are we of any change that may be effected in our surroundings? But change a sinful man’s heart and you change the whole world for him. Enable him to see the beauty of holiness, and to love and to have con-fidence in truth and goodness, and you have made everything new for him. Give him the happiness, the hopefulness, the confidence, and the strength of those who are rejoicing in the consciousness of the forgiveness and love of Him who first loved us, who loves us still, and will always love us, and that man has entered another world, where “ he breathes a lighter air, sees an intenser sunlight, and moves to the impulses of a more generous spirit.”
Now, Christianity in this respect answers to the greatest and most fundamental needs of man. By revealing to us, in Christ, the length, breadth, height, and depth of the love and mercy of Him whose will it is that all men, even the chief of sinners, should be saved, and who is ceaseless in His efforts for the realisation of His loving purposes towards man, the Gospel can touch and soften the hardest hearts, can transform the lives that are most accustomed to evil, and can so strengthen and encourage us in holiness and well-doing that we are afraid no longer of even the strongest assaults of the Evil One. And yet, strange to say, in the very act of enabling us to perceive the lost ideal of our nature, Christianity deepens within us the consciousness of sin. ’ Come unto me,’ said Christ, ’ all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ And yet the first thing which the coming of Christ effected was to make careless, worldly, or sinful men uneasy, restless, and dissatisfied with themselves. The life which Christ lived stood up in solitary grandeur before the eyes of men, and it was in painful contrast with the life which they were living. And so they were shaken out of their carelessness and indifference, and they saw and realised their imperfections and sins as they had never realised them before, and they became uneasy, uncomfortable, alarmed. And as it was then, so it is now. The sense of sin has never perhaps been altogether absent from the heart of man, but it has been deepened and intensified by Christianity. We cannot think of Christ’s absolute sinlessness and of His perfect purity without realising the awful chasm that separates us from Him. When we look on this picture and on that we see at once that we have failed to realise the design of our being, that we have fallen from the estate wherein we were created, and that we have grievously sinned against the Lord. What a world of meaning there is in the simple words we repeat so often, ’ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ But not only does the Gospel convince us of our sin and show us what we ought to be, it constrains and enables us to become that to which we are called of the Lord. We may not like the way in which what is called the doctrine of the atonement is often stated, but we know that God must of necessity hate sin, and we cannot help believing that our sins separate between us and Him whose approbation we earnestly desire. And thinking of the displeasure of a righteous God, our souls are disquieted within us, yea we are well nigh driven to despair. Now, when this is our condition, how is light to arise in the darkness?
How is hope to come to our despairing souls?
Words may then help us, but facts alone can bring complete relief. Hope may be ours, when we are told that God loves us in spite of our sins, and that with Him there is forgiveness for all who are truly penitent. But it is only when we see God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself that our hope is transformed into certainty. “ When,” says Harnack, “the Holy One descends to sinners, when He lives with them and walks with them, when he does not count them unworthy, but calls them His brethren, when He saves them and dies for them, then the terror of the awful judge melts away, and they believe that the Holy One is Love, and that there is something mightier still than Justice Mercy.”
If the Incarnation of Christ be the wise and fitting means used by God for showing Himself as He really is unto those who could not or would not know Him aright, then the sufferings of Christ are a profounder manifestation of God’s love for man, and a more thorough realisation of His desire to save sinners than could have been pos-sible otherwise: and the Cross is the culmination of the sufferings of Christ the ultimate experience in the sacrifice made for the salvation of sinners. “ On the Cross Christ suffered what was necessary for the going forth of the divine forgiveness in all its fulness to a sinful world, and for bringing to bear upon it all those divine influences by which alone its salvation can be secured.” The Cross is thus the measure of God’s hatred of sin and of His love of the sinner. It is the realisation and mani-festation of that love for man which even death could not conquer, that love by which the hearts of sinful men are touched and renewed, that love by which they are drawn away from their old sinful life and constrained to live for Him who suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. When we remember that the sorrows and sufferings of the Holy One and the Just were willingly borne for our good, though they were brought about by the sins of men, are not our hearts melted within us, and do we not feel drawn towards Him who hath done such great things for us? And when we remember that Christ our great Elder Brother, who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, has been completely vic-torious over temptation and sin, and that He appears before God as the Head of a redeemed humanity, and the victorious leader of those who are returning to the Father, do we not feel as if we had part and lot in an offering with which God must be well pleased, for it is a harvest of souls that can come to an end only when man has ceased to live upon the earth?
It is only, as it were, from a distance that even the best and wisest of men can obtain a glimpse of the truth on this great subject, but we neces-sarily miss much when we fail to bear carefully in mind the great fact of the solidarity of humanity.
We make a mistake when we look upon ourselves as isolated individuals, living a life wholly un-connected with the lives of others, a life in which we are unindebted to those who have gone before us, and uninfluenced by those who are round about us.
Doubtless every man has a distinct and separate personality of his own, a freedom of action which is undoubted, and a responsibility which cannot be denied. Our lives are practically in our own keeping, and to an unlimited extent we can make or mar them.
Nevertheless, the human race is one. For good or evil we are closely linked together, and innumer-able multitudes of the dead and of the living have had something to do with the forming of every individual character and with the shaping of every individual life.
After all, we are the sons of our fathers, the descendants of our ancestors, the heirs of the past, the inheritors of what has come down to us, the outcome of our circumstances and surroundings.
“ Old faces long buried look out of our eyes; voices from out of forgotten and unknown graves speak through our lips.” Hereditary features, hereditary tendencies, hereditary characteristics; who has not noticed the existence of these things in those whom we know best of all? The negative side of this great truth is apparent to every one.
It is often because the fathers have eaten sour grapes that the children’s teeth are set on edge.
It is true that sin is never our sin, or sin for which we are to be blamed, until we have given way to it and made it our own. Nevertheless, there may be in us a taint or tendency, a weakness or wilfulness which we have inherited from those who have gone before us, and which predisposes us to deeds of sin. Moreover, the evil done by men lives after them, and the thoughtlessness, the folly, the sinful-ness of the fathers may involve the children and the children’s children in sorrow, mischief, and disaster. And we all know that men and women are often subjected to suffering and loss through the thoughtlessness, the selfishness, and the sinful-ness of others. Subtract from the sum total of our life’s account the injuries directly or indirectly inflicted upon us by our fellowmen, and what reason would there be for the great majority of our murmurs and complaints? Nor does faith or piety or goodness exempt a man from the hostility of the worldly and the sinful. On the contrary, just because the spirit of the world is opposed to the spirit of faith and goodness, just because lies are in every case antagonistic to truth, the hatred of sinful men is often manifested in the most bitter and determined manner towards those whose characters and lives are altogether different from their own. But we must not overlook the fact that this truth has a positive as well as a negative side. And if we see the losses, we must not be blind to the gains that come from heredity.
Good as well as evil comes to us from the solidarity of humanity, from the fact that the human race is one, and that the individual members of it are closely bound together. In every domain of life we are constantly face to face with the blessings we have inherited from those who have lived before us. A sweet disposition, a good temper, unselfish inclinations; do not these things often seem to be inherited by us? The extent to which our country has been brought under cultiva-tion, the wisdom of our laws, the worth of our system of government, the mechanical inventions which we owe to those who lived before us, the wealth of literature which has been handed down to us here, as elsewhere, we see the truth of the saying, ’ Others have laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.’ And in our ordinary daily experiences we may all see something of the way in which the lives of multitudes in every age are blessed by the un-selfishness, the self-denial, the self-sacrifice of those noble and devoted souls who consciously or uncon-sciously are followers of Him who suffered for us. Does it not indeed seem to be a fact pervading all Nature, as well as all human life, that there are results desirable, yea, absolutely necessary, which can only be brought about by self-sacrifice, suffering, decay, death? The hard rock has to be shattered and pul-verised ere it can be the soil on which the shrub will grow. The leaves of the trees have to decay and die and fall, if we are to have that rich and nutritious earth so necessary for the support of vegetable life. ’ Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’ The anguish and travail of the mother are the condition of the child’s life, and the self-sacrifice of the parents is necessary for the proper up-bringing of their children. To advance the well-being, increase the happiness, extend the liberty, add to the knowledge and heighten the virtue of mankind this requires love, thought, toil, self-denial, and self-sacrifice on the part of many men and women. And ever and again for the accom-plishing of some great end, for the carrying out of some noble purpose, it would seem to be expedient that one man should die for the people.
After all, it is not selfishness or self-assertion, but self-sacrifice, which is the greatest power on earth, “ and the supreme act of sacrifice is death.” Hence it is that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church: and hence it is that the life of Christ is “ the archetype of all true lives.”
It is true that there are burdens so peculiarly our own that each one must bear them for him-self. If, for example, we are conscious of the divine disapproval, the divine displeasure, the divine wrath, it is because we ourselves have sinned. However much the sin of another may vex us and trouble us, it would not bring about the consciousness in us of the divine wrath against us. “ The stings of conscience, the darkening of the moral perceptions, the extinction of the light of purity in the soul, the hateful bondage of evil passions, the bitterness of remorse, the shrinking from hateful memories of the past, the vague foreboding of the unknown future” these terrible penalties, says Principal Caird, come not to us from the iniquity of others, but follow in the train of our own sin: and however much we may be aided by the sympathy and the help of others, each one of us, so far as such things are concerned, has his own burden to bear. And yet even in reference to such things as these, it may be said of Christ that He suffered with us, and through us, and for us.
Christ had a fellow-feeling with us in our infirmities, and He could not look on suffering without suffering. From all frivolity and un-earnestness His pure and sincere soul drew back as with an instinctive recoil. To His divinely wise mind blindness and thoughtlessness and folly were a terrible vexation, and to His loving heart worldliness and sin were a grief past understand-ing. “ Not only can a good man suffer for sin, but,” says Principal Caird, “ it may be laid down as a principle that he will suffer for it in propor-tion to his goodness. Not only can the sinless suffer for sin, but there are sufferings for sin which only he who is himself sinless can in the fullest measure undergo. It was possible for Him who knew no sin to bear on His soul a burden of humiliation, shame, sorrow for our sins, which in one aspect of it was more profound and intense than we could ever feel for ourselves.” And so Christ was wounded for our transgres-sions and bruised for our iniquities. So truly, indeed, did He bear our griefs and carry our sorrows, and so surely was the chastisement of our peace upon Him, that for a moment, in the closing scene of His life, in the agony on the Cross, it seemed as if the face of His Father was turned away from Him. ’ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ He thus experienced all the consequences of sin, though in them all He recog-nised and honoured the justice and righteousness of God’s condemnation of sin. Yea, underlying them all He clearly saw the love of God for men who thoughtlessly or wilfully would destroy them-selves by their sin. Our iniquities were thus laid upon the Holy One and the Just, and the willing manner in which He bore them, and the spirit of perfect love to man which was revealed in His profound sorrows and most tragic agonies, have touched the hearts and opened the eyes of multi-tudes of men and women, and have been the means of binding them to Him in the sure bonds of love and trust. Moreover, they have dispelled the cloud of separation which sin caused to arise between us and God, for they have given us the assurance that a loving Father yearns and strives for the return of every prodigal, and freely pardons and willingly restores to His favour all in whom is the earnest of better things to come in virtue of their union with Him whose life was one of perfect obedience to the will of God. And what a hopeful, helpful thing it is for us to know that there is forgiveness even to the chief of sinners. Does not such knowledge introduce into the lives of the most sinful a transforming influence which may renew their lives, and an upward current which may carry them on to the haven they fain would reach, the end they earnestly desire to see.
Yes, the Advent of Christ is a fresh start for the human race a new beginning for the religious life of man. By becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh Christ linked himself to humanity in the closest possible way, and gave an upward impulse to the life of man, so that we rise with Him into newness of life. “ God as man elevated humanity from its own self-contempt,” revealed to us the pos-sibilities that lay hid in our being and infused new aims, new motives, new desires, new hopes, new energies into mankind. Yea, God as man has intro-duced a new life into the world of men. ’ I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’ And this new and more abundant life ceased not when Christ passed away from the earth, but has been poured down upon man through the centuries, and still comes to us from Christ through the new and living way which he conse-crated and left open for ever through the sacred portal which He opened and no man shutteth.
There is a solidarity in the human race: a solidarity even in our salvation.
Say what we may of our individuality, we are closely bound together. In innumerable ways we influence each other for good or evil. Is it not a blessed thing for us to know, therefore, that while the good suffer for the bad, the bad are greatly blessed and benefited by the good that while the race may be cursed through the sin of Adam, it is blessed through the perfect righteousness of Christ. ’ As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.’ ’ For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’