20. XVIII. Christ a Power in Man?

XVIII. Christ a Power in Man?

Now comes the question, whether this way of looking at life is justifiable in philosophy or in common practical sense. It is of course admitted by the questioner that the power of a true and noble idea in history has been extraordinarily great. The influence of such ideas can hardly be exaggerated. The history of mankind is made by them and transformed by them through all the stages of its progress. Without such ideas there is no progress, for they are the Divine element in the world, and the Divine within the collective thought of nations responds to the impulse of a noble idea, where the nation is fitted to receive and comprehend it. The memory of every educated person will supply to him countless examples from past history; and it is needless to linger over this subject, except to say that often a historical process has been in reality originated and impelled by an idea rather than by the more apparent reasons of material advantage or political strength which also may seem to be involved. This topic may, however, be left to a historical survey.

It will also be admitted that the transforming and impelling and regenerative power of an idea over the individual man is extraordinarily great. In one’s own experience every one knows how even the reading of a noble thought can rouse the emotions and quicken the pulse; and how occasionally the contact of one’s mind with such an idea has affected the whole of one’s thought, and even given a new direction to one’s subsequent life. This is not merely an analogy: it is a slighter example of the same nature and the same force. In all such cases the Divine nature within us recognises and responds to the Divine without, and grows stronger by taking into itself a new yet kindred element. I believe it is allowable to say that the mind of Jesus embraces the sum and perfection of all great ideas, and His influence on the world operates in the same fashion but to an immeasurably stronger degree, through infinite love, perfect truth, and absolute power, all combined to influence the human mind that it has laid hold upon.

How far it may be right to say that the intensification of that kind of influence to an infinite degree raises it into a higher category I do not presume to decide. Who can gauge the difference between the finite and the infinite power? But that this is the right way of attempting to understand the process of faith, and that this places a true philosophic interpretation on it, and that this power is vouched for by common and universal experience, I believe. In every case where a great idea impels the mind of one man or of a nation, it works through the belief which it rouses; and this belief and confidence strengthen the human nature to the daring and achieving of what otherwise would lie far above and beyond the human powers.

Those who have studied the remarkable book of Nevius on “Demoniac Possession” will be inclined to say that this is far from exhausting the phenomena under consideration, and will be inclined to claim for the name of Jesus an immeasurable and limitless power over man. Nevius, who at the beginning of his missionary experience in China had no belief in the reality of demoniac possession, but regarded all cases so classed as examples of obscure phenomena of a nervous or hysterical character, found himself obliged by the facts that came within the range of his own observation, and were corroborated by the observations of many trustworthy colleagues, to change his opinion. He came to believe that there was such a thing as real obsession or possession by diabolic power; and he recognised that in numerous cases — almost every case where it was tried — the appeal to the name of Jesus exercised a soothing and more or less curative influence even on obstinately or ignorantly pagan minds.

Here we trench on the sphere of the miraculous, that is, on what has not yet been properly understood. The book is worthy of study, and the subject deserves more careful and systematic observation. Do such cases occur especially or only in China? Are not many of them readily explicable through the power of a latent idea which is revivified by the mention of the name?