Part 2 (1/2)
Let it never be forgotten, that the Christian religion is founded upon certain alleged _historical facts_ that must be disposed of before it falls.[A] The holy temple of a loving soul filled with the glory of Christ is spiritual, but it is nevertheless based upon facts as on foundation-stones, the chief corner-stone being Jesus Christ the personal Saviour, ”who was dead and is alive, and liveth for evermore!” Without these facts Christianity could not exist. The duty, for example, of supremely loving and devotedly serving Jesus Christ, implies the truth of other facts, such as the fulfilment of prophecies, miracles, the life and character of Jesus, His atoning death, resurrection, &c., all of which establish His claims to our faith. But in addition to these, and as their evidence also and result, there is the experience of the whole living Church, derived from faith in Jesus as the resurrection and the life.
[Footnote A: Neander, in his preface to his ”Life of Christ,” quotes from Niebuhr what he calls ”the golden words of one of the greatest minds of modern times.” ”The man,” says Niebuhr, ”who does not hold Christ's earthly life, with all its miracles, to be as properly and really historical as any event in the sphere of history, and who does not receive all points in the Apostles' Creed with the fullest conviction, I do not conceive to be a Protestant Christian. As for that Christianity which is such according to the fas.h.i.+on of the modern philosophers and pantheists,--without a personal G.o.d, without immortality, without an individuality of man, without historical faith,--it may be a very subtle _philosophy_, but it is no Christianity at all. Again and again have I said that I know not what to do with a metaphysical G.o.d, and that I will have no other but the G.o.d of the Bible, who is _heart to heart_.”]
But before Christianity can be destroyed, it is absolutely necessary to destroy the evidences of those historical facts on which it rests.
This, as I have said, is no easy task. There are many high walls, many encircling lines of defence around the old fortress, each and all of which must be taken, ere the citadel itself can be reached and laid in ruins. _Now this has never yet been done_. The enemy has made many attacks during the last eighteen centuries, and on several occasions the last grand a.s.sault which was to decide the long campaign has been threatened. Every method has been adopted which critical skill could apply, which the most subtle genius could invent, and the most untiring perseverance execute; but, in spite of all, ”the strong city,” with ”salvation for walls and bulwarks,” still remains strong as ever. For, to drop all metaphor, in whatever way we may account for it, the fact is undeniable, that Christianity, in the form of supreme love to Jesus Christ as the Son of G.o.d, not only survives, but in no age of the world's past history has it been so strongly rooted in the convictions and affections of so many men, nor has it ever been given such promise of filling the whole earth.
Let us suppose, however, for the sake of argument, that by some process. .h.i.therto undiscovered, Christianity, as the religion of supreme love to this living Person, Jesus Christ, is at last proved to be a fiction; that the millennium of infidelity has arrived; that the religion taught by Christ and His apostles has become as dead to the world as that of Buddh or Confucius is now to the mind of Europe; that our Christian churches, like the heathen temples of Greece or Rome, remain but as monuments of a superst.i.tion long ago exploded by the light of science and philosophy; that all those supernatural Christian facts and truths, which like a mighty firmament of stars, now cl.u.s.ter around the name of Jesus, have departed as lights from the visible universe; that Christian truth is as silent before the world as Christ himself was when He stood before Herod, and answered him nothing; until even the wailing cry has ceased of the last desponding and disconsolate believer on earth, ”They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where to find him!” Well, then, the work is done! The energetic teachers of the propaganda of unbelief have accomplished their long-cherished purpose, and the professors of an earnest and devoted faith in Christ have perished, leaving no memorial behind them except their ”curious books,” or their h.o.a.ry tombstones, which record their old faith in Him as the resurrection and the life.
When such a crisis as this has at last arrived, the world will surely pause, and count the fruits of victory. Wise men will then doubtless consider with an earnest spirit what has been gained to humanity by this tremendous revolution in all those opinions and ideas cherished during so many ages; and the well-wishers of mankind will examine the spoils which the conquerors have ready for enriching the poor and needy as the result of this triumph over a religion that was clung to by the best and n.o.blest men with a tenacity overcome only when earth was old, and time was well-nigh ending. But may we not now antic.i.p.ate such a solemn review, by asking those who are wishful to destroy Christianity, what they intend to put in its place when their object is accomplished. If they have anything else to give us, let us know what it is, that we may see and judge if it is better than the old religion; if it is better suited to meet the wants of man in every period and condition of his varied life; if it is likely to do better work on earth, and produce better fruit; if its truth rests on better evidence, and if, in short, it is such a gift from heaven that angels with songs of joy might announce this new gospel of peace on earth, and this new message of good-will to man. Strange to say, such questions, though often asked, have hitherto remained unanswered. If there be a something better in store for us than what we profess, the blissful secret has not yet been revealed. Infidelity, often so loud in attacking Christianity, is silent as a G.o.d of iron or bra.s.s when we ask at its shrine. If I give up faith in Christ, what wouldest thou have me be and do, and how live and rejoice as an immortal being?
What, then, I again ask, would be lost and gained on both sides after the war, in the event of Christianity being destroyed? We Christians know full well what we would gain and lose;--we know that we would gain nothing, and lose everything! We would lose all which we most love in the universe of G.o.d,--all which makes us rejoice in existence,--all which enables us to look at the past, present, and future with perfect peace; and of all men we would be most miserable!
It is true that in regard to many an object of affection, it may be said--
”Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all!”
But not so in regard to our love of Jesus Christ. Better never to have seen that glory filling the heavens and earth, and making life a constant thanksgiving and praise, than, after having seen it, to be persuaded by any witchery that it was all a dream--a fiction of the imagination--a ghostly superst.i.tion--which it is wisdom to banish from the memory. For once we have lost Jesus Christ as our ever-living, ever-present, all-sufficient Friend and Saviour, what are we to do?
Can we contentedly fall back upon our own being, or upon any other person, and live on ”without Christ in the world!” Or are we in those circ.u.mstances to be told that we may still have comfort in ”religion without the supernatural,” and rejoice in ”the eternal and essential verities of morality!” Only think of it, Christians! The living man, the light and hope of the family, is murdered; but a disciple of pure science and calm philosophy enters it, and tells its agonised members that it is folly and ignorance to indulge in such grief, for science has a.n.a.lysed their friend, and preserved in a series of neat phials, which they may easily carry about with them, all his const.i.tuent elements, his ”essentials,” his carbon, his silica, this and that gas--everything, in short, which made up the substance of him whom they were accustomed to call their beloved; therefore they may ”comfort one another with these words!” And thus would the enemy of Christianity presume to comfort us with his ”essentials,” when our living Lord is gone! Comfort indeed!
”Comfort? comfort scorn'd by devils! this is truth the poet sings, That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things!”
But what can the unbeliever himself expect to gain by its destruction?
”I have nothing to do with consequences,” may be his reply, ”but with truth only; let every lie be tested and exposed, whatever may be the real or imaginary gain or loss to myself or others.” Brave words! with which we have the deepest sympathy; for if they are the utterance of a truly sincere heart, they evidence belief, and not unbelief; they a.s.sume that there is an order and government in the universe, which is on the side of truth, and that we may therefore, at all hazards, discover what is true, and cling to it in the full a.s.surance of faith,--that ultimately the right and true are in harmony with all that is worth loving and worth living for. Amen! we say from our heart. At the same time, it is well to look at some of the consequences which the destruction of Christianity would involve even to him who destroys it.
It is obvious, for example, that should it cease to exist to us as a reality, other realities would remain irrespective of our belief.
Existence would remain, and it _may_ be one as eternal as the life of G.o.d; sorrow and suffering would remain, to gnaw the heart, darken the world, and cast deep shadows over a life which must end with that dread event, death, and the pa.s.sing away of ourselves and of all we have from the memories of mankind as if we had never been--and whither I Worst of all, _sin_ would remain--dark, mysterious, and terrible sin! And ”obstinate questionings” would remain to disturb and perplex the mind in moments of earnest and silent thought. Men would still ask, What if we are responsible to G.o.d for this whole inner and outer life of ours, with its beliefs, purposes, and actions? What if sin and its consequences continue beyond the grave, with no remedy there unless found here? What if there is no possible happiness but in fellows.h.i.+p of spirit and character with G.o.d; and what if this is morally impossible for us to attain without a Saviour and Sanctifier What, in short, if all the evils which Christianity professes to deliver us from remain as facts in our history, just as diseases remain though the aid of the physician, who reveals their nature, and who offers to cure them, is rejected? or, as a vessel remains a wreck in the midst of the breakers after the life-boat which comes to save the crew is dismissed? or, as the lion remains after the telescope is flung aside which revealed his coming, and revealed also the only place of safety from his attack? For it is obvious that Christianity does not create the evils and dangers from which it offers to deliver us, and that these must remain as facts should it be proved a fiction.
So far, then, the infidel has gained nothing by the overthrow of our religion. ”Except truth!” does he exclaim? Yet, I again repeat it, truth in its negative form only, as destroying supposed falsehoods, but not in its positive form as establis.h.i.+ng something to rest upon.
Is there any other conceivable gain, then, which would accrue to the unbeliever by his supposed success? Does he wish, for example, to relieve oppressed souls of some great burden which crushes them?
But what alleged truths or doctrine of Christianity, if blotted out to-morrow from the circle of belief, would ease a single soul, while it would unquestionably be an irreparable loss to millions? Would a G.o.d be more acceptable, and appear with greater moral beauty, who was different from the G.o.d and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Would He be more attractive to our hearts if He did not forgive our sins fully and freely, or if forgiveness was not offered through such Divine self-sacrifice? Would it be a relief to our moral being to be freed from the privilege or duty of supremely loving Jesus Christ? Would it lighten our hearts to be freed from the burden of having communion with Him in prayer? Would we have more security for light, life, strength, holiness, peace, or comfort, if there was no such Person revealed as the Spirit of G.o.d, who freely imparts His aid to all?
Would it be glad tidings to hear that men were not to be born again, nor to repent, nor to deny themselves, nor to do G.o.d's will, but their own? What is there which a good man would gain by the destruction of the Christian religion!
I have one question more to suggest with reference to the duty of an unbeliever towards us as Christians, and it is this, Why should he disturb our faith, or, as he might term it, our superst.i.tion? If he retorts by asking why we should disturb his unbelief, our answer is ready--because we wish with our whole soul to share with him the blessings which G.o.d our common Father has for him as well as for us; because we truly lament the loss to our brother who refuses the eternal good which he may now enjoy with the whole family of G.o.d; because we love our G.o.d, and his G.o.d and Saviour, and desire our brother to know and to love them too; because it is so unjust, so selfish, so hateful, not to love and obey such a glorious Person as Jesus Christ, who knows us, loves us, and has died to gain our hearts!
These are some of the reasons, rudely and roughly stated, why we desire, with all our heart, that every man should believe in Jesus Christ. But if any man, for any reason which may be beyond our understanding or sympathy, desires to destroy this faith in all that is most precious to us, then I ask, not in Christ's name,--for it is unnecessary to appeal to Him,--but in the name of common sense and common philanthropy, why he should not only labour to do this, but to do it without apparently any apprehension of the untold misery which he must occasion if he succeeds in his attempt? Do not tell us, with a boast, that ”the truth must be spoken, come what may!” Be it so; but surely the _kind of_ truth which must be spoken must ever regulate the manner in which it is spoken? Again, I bid you picture to yourselves a person entering a family whose members were rejoicing in the thought of a father's return, and announcing the intelligence of that father's death, with a smile of pity or a sneer of contempt at their ignorant happiness! Imagine such a one professing to be actuated by a mere love of truth! Oh! if the terrible duty has been laid upon any one with a human heart, of announcing to others intelligence which, if true, must leave a blank to them in the world that can never be filled up, what tender sympathy, what genuine sorrow becomes him who breaks the heavy tidings! And such _ought_ to be the feelings of every man who, from whatever cause, feels called upon to announce that the Christian religion is false. If he _must_ make known that terrible fact to believers in Jesus; if he _must_ tell them that the supposed Source of all their life and joy has no existence, and that their faith in Him is vain, let this be done with the solemnity and the sorrow which a true brotherly sympathy would necessarily dictate. If the missionaries of Christianity are warranted in preaching their gospel with joy, the missionaries of an infidelity which professes only to destroy and not to build up, should go forth on their dreadful vocation with the feeling of martyrs, and with no other notes of triumph than sounds of lamentation and woe! For if Christianity is false, we are ”yet in our sins, all who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished, and we are of all men most miserable!”
THOUGHTS UPON THE FINAL JUDGMENT.
There is no ”fact of the future” more clearly revealed in Scripture, or more certainly believed in by the Christian Church, than that ”G.o.d hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given a.s.surance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
No doubt this fact is denied or explained away by many modern critics.
But it would be difficult to say what revealed fact, from Genesis to Revelation, is admitted by them, or what things may now be ”_most surely_ believed among us.” We retain our first faith in the future judgment, and shall endeavour to look at it in a practical rather than in a speculative light.
There is, indeed, among mankind a general antic.i.p.ation of a coming time when the mystery of G.o.d's providence will be cleared up, and His righteousness displayed in the final judgment to be then pa.s.sed on the evil and on the good. What the human race are led to antic.i.p.ate, as likely to occur hereafter, from the many unsettled questions here between man and his brother, and between man and his G.o.d, Scripture reveals to us as certain.
While, however, every Christian believes in the coming of Jesus to judge the world as firmly as he does in the fact of His having risen from the dead, there seems to us to be very inadequate conceptions in the minds of many as to the designs of this day, or the ends which it is fitted to accomplish in the kingdom of G.o.d.