Part 4 (1/2)

[7] Schleiermacher.

[8] _St. Andrews Addresses_.

[9] Appendix XIII.

[10] Martineau, _Hours of Thought_, ii. p. 110.

[11] Martineau, _Hours of Thought_, ii. p. 114.

[12] _Faith of a Christian_.

[13] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 203.

[14] _Religion of the Universe_.

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IV

THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY

'And G.o.d said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'--GENESIS i. 26.

'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour.'--PSALM viii. 3-5

Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see Jesus Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that He by the grace of G.o.d should taste death for every man.'--HEBREWS ii. 8, 9.

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IV

THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY

The position which Religion, and especially the Christian Religion, a.s.signs to man, to man as he ought to be, is very high. He is made in the image of G.o.d, he is a little lower than the angels, a little lower than G.o.d, he is a partaker of the Divine Nature. But as the corruption of the best is the worst, there is nothing in the whole creation more miserable, more loathsome, than man as he has forgotten his high estate and plunged himself into degradation. 'What man has made of man,' is the saddest, most deplorable sight in all the world. Amid the awful splendour of the winning loveliness of Nature, 'only man is vile.'

That is the terrible {94} verdict which may be p.r.o.nounced upon him renouncing his birthright, surrendering himself to the powers which he was meant to keep in subjection. It is not the verdict to be p.r.o.nounced on Man as Man, the child of the highest and the heir of all the ages. The appeal of Religion, the appeal of Christianity above all, has continually been, O sons of men, sully not your glorious garments, cast not away your glorious crown.

I

It is irreligion, it is unbelief, which comes and says, Lay aside these fantastic notions as to your greatness: you are the creatures of a day: you belong, like other animals, to the world of sense, and you pa.s.s away along with them: a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast. Banish your delusive hopes; confine yourselves to reality; waste not your time in the pursuit of phantoms: make the best of the world in {95} which you are: seize its pleasures: shut your eyes to its sorrows: enjoy yourselves in the present and let the future take care of itself: follow the devices and desires of your own hearts in the comfortable a.s.surance that there is no judgment to which you can be brought, save that which exists in the realm of imagination.

Listening to such whispers, obeying such suggestions, walking in such courses, the spectacle which man presents can be viewed only with compa.s.sion, with horror, or with disdain. His ideals, his aspirations, his self-sacrifices are only so many phases of self-deception. The natural conclusion to be drawn from denying the spiritual origin and eternal prospects of man must be that he is of no more account than any of the transitory beings around him, that, if he has any superiority over them, it is only the superiority of a skill with which he can make them the instruments of {96} his purposes. With no glimpses of a higher world, with no inspirations from a Spirit n.o.bler than his own, he can hardly regard the achievements of heroism as other than acts of madness, he can be fired with no desire to emulate them, he cannot well be trusted to perform ordinary acts of honesty and morality, let alone extraordinary acts of generosity and magnanimity, should they come in collision with his objects and ambitions.

Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how mean a thing is Man!

Deny his divine fellows.h.i.+p, extirpate his heavenly antic.i.p.ations, and it might seem as if no race on earth would be so poor as do him reverence.

II

One thing is a.s.sumed by not a few, the absurdity of the Almighty caring for such a race, and therefore the impossibility of the Incarnation.