The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-07-10

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things as circumcision, additions, sac
rifices, feasts and did not at all refer
to deeds Of kindness, and words of love.
They did not contradict the saying that
fell from the lips of Jesus, "Whosoever
shall give cup of cold water even to a
disciple, in the name of a disciple, shall
not lose his reward" James taught
that without such works, could none
be justified. The clamor of ignorant
evangelists and shallow zealots against
''goOd works." as Jesus and James
defined them, is without sense or war
rant. The works condemned in the
New Testament are those prescribed
with minuteness in an effete ritual
not such as brighten the earth, gladden.
the hearts of men. By such works may
we all be justified, speedily and forever
more!
2. From the fall of Jerusalem, on
ward, Christianity became modified by
Greek culture. The Greek mind was
speculative the language adapted to
its uses. When Christianity was re-
ceived in Greek cities, the minds of the
leaders fashioned it according to Greek
modes of thought. In this age, syste-
matte theology had birth. The church
became rent with discussions about
the person Of Christ, the Trinity, the
Holy Spirit, the nature of God, and
many things not debated in the apos-
tolic age. The great councils of Nicea,
Constantinople, Chalcedon, were held.
Controversy ran high, and the heated
rabble decided point when argument
failed. Christian mobs disgraced heath
en- cities. The Athanasian creed tri-
umphed over the Arian by an appeal to
the emperor and to clubs.
The sweet and simple words of Jesus
were put into doctrinal molds and un-
der theological presses, until every
thing lovely was squeezed out. They
lost all semblance to the original. His
talks were fragrant with the breath of
flowers the rustic of waving wheat
fields was in them the birds of the air
sang there; the prattle and laugh of
children were heard. His words glowed
with the hues of sunset, were cool with
the plash of Galilee's waves. They
throbbed with sympathy for toiling men
and sad eyed women, for the weary and
heavy laden, the suffering and bereaved.
But you would not recognize the SER
mon on the mount in the writings of
Athanasius and his theological descend
ants. The controversial spirit that
survives to day has come from Alex
andria, Ephesus, and other cities of the
East. Jesus himself was not theolo-
gian.
From this source has come much
of the exclusiveness and denunciation
that die so hard in the Christian world.
Their creeds often closed each article
by consigning him who refused to be-
lleve it to eternal perdition. This was
not the spirit of Christ. 1--WE have"
says Matthew Arnold, "the three creeds:
the so.called apostles creed, popular
science; the Nicene creed, learned sci
ence; the Athanasian creed, learned
science, with strong dash of violent
and vindictive temper" Jesus did,
indeed, use denunciation, but against
whom and for what 1t was against
those whose professions were mighty,
and whose performance small against
those who bound heavy burdens and
grievous to be borne, and laid them
upon mems shoulders, without helping
to lift them with a single finger. 1t
was against those who devoured wild
ows' honses, and for pretence made
long prayers. His spirit was reused
when he saw injustice and oppression
when he saw the chief religious sect of
his day grinding the faces of the poor,
and screening their guilt behind multi
piled devotions. Against these his an
ger famed not against those who
failed in the exactness Of a mere be-
lief. This was the difference between
Christ and the creed-makers.
8. While all this was going on at the
East, Christianity was passing through
still another manifestation at the West
Under Roman influence and at the I'm
perial City, were developed the genius
for ruling, the disposition to exercise
authority, the tendency to centraliza-
tion, the fondness for reducing every
detail of conduct to law that character
ICES the Catholic Church to-day, and
that remains wherever there is dis
position to lord it over Gods heritage
and construct ecclesiastical machinery.
The papacy could not have grown up
At Corinth or Jerusalem it
would have been impossible; at Rome,
1 might almost say, it was inevitable.
Many subordinate features of Roman
ism came from Rome. The worship
of angels and saints grew out of the
of subordinate deities, great
heroes, emperors their reverence for
shrines and relics, out Of the pagan idea
that cities and countries were rendered
sacred by relics of fallen heroes. Image
and picture worship grew up out of the