Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-22

teach, will be thoroughly converted to the
 primitive religion of Christ, and that such
 persons, after they have gained their lib
 erty from anti Christ, will return freely to
 the original doctrine of Jesus" Luther and Calvin did not get back to
 Christ. They were not thoroughly con-
 verted to the primitive religion of Christ | They returned only to the Latin Africa of
 Augustine, and to so much of Paul as Au- gustine could teach them, with the result of organic Latin Africanism put over Christ's truth, with most erring use of Paurs name, in system of theology
 which still faunts its black gown in pull
 pit and divinity school and upiEersity. The change everywhere coming is that of getting rid of a heathenism of dogma which clung to the vulgar side of the He brew mind, even in Paul, and became an
 organic system in the Latin African di- vines, from whom Luther and Calvin bor-
 rowed, under an inspiration of selfish ter
 TOT and gloomy fear totally contrary to
 the mind of Christ. MT. Beecher said Plymouth pulpit, volume 5ySNo. 22):
 t'The moral sense of Christendom is
 obliged to review, in every few centuries,
 to take out the naturalism and heathenism
 which there is in them, and substitute for them the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.n
 MT. Froude, the historian, who wrote Q840 his The Nemesis of Faith, to pie lure the damage to life done by a creed of dogmatic strictness, put this expression of himself into the mouth of the Oxford stu dent of his story: -,.''',.:A.-- '--..-.- s5 TT believe that we may find in the Bible
 the highest and purest religion, most of all in the history of him in whose name we are all called. His religion-not the Christian religion, but the religion of Christ-the poor mans gospel; the mes- sage of forgiveness, of reconciliation, of
 love; and, oh, how gladly would spend my life, in season and out of season, in preaching this. But must have no hell terrors, none of these fesr doctrines; they were not in the early creeds. God knows whether they were ever in the early gos- pels, or ever passed his lips"
 MT. Froude set down his judgment as a reader of the documents of early Chris tianity in these words: ''The religion of Christ ended with his life, and left us in stead but the Christian religion" What Mir. Froude meant seems to have been that discipleship overlaid the pure truth of Christ with system of views about Christ which became the recognized Christian re- ligion, while the true religion of Christ was lost sight of in great part. An emi- nent English Broad churchman, Dr. Row
 land Williams, left this record of his judg- II Christian religion" in contrast with Wyckliff's, "the primitive religion of Christ, ,"-a succinct statement of unques- tionable historical facts, which many liv- ing scholars would conform, if they let appear now what they have reason to most surely believe, but think it not judicious to utter:
 "Whosoever will know the truth, before all things let him avoid the creed called A1 ,al,
 thinks that Athanasius wrote it, without doubt he is utterly deceived. A monk of l the west wrote it in Latin hundred years after Greek Athanasius died in the east There was one faith of Christ, and anoth- ! CT of the apostles and men after the apos- l ties, and yet another of the monks after Athanasius. The Godhead of the father of Jesus was all one, but wisdom it's eter- | nal offspring, and life its eternal breath ing. Whosoever would know the truth, before all things it is necessary that he be- ! lieve in God our saviour. We know God | by reason, for he made us, and by faith l for he teaches us, though we see him not ! with the eye. He whose reason is strong ! est will believe most firmly; and he whose love is deepest will understand most truly. | The infinite is not man, that we should | measure his thought, nor the son of man, | that we should ascribe to him weakness. II | them $for they are the children of one father Mankind is the only-begotten of God in the flesh; and by breathing the di- | vine love we become one spirit with the father. I believe in the eternal spirit, l whose scripture is the world, and whose
 son is mankind"
 Mir. w. R. Greg, one of the most acute and sagacious of modern essayists, wrote:
 sI am disposed to believe, that when we | kaI &~
 ing of Christ, and fairly disinterred that
 religion of Jesus which preceded all creeds | and schemes and formulas, and which we l trust will survive them all, we shall find
 that, so far from this, the true essence of
 Christianity, being renounced or outgrown
 by the progressive intelligence of the age,
 it's rescue, rediscovery, purifcation and
 -enthronment as guide of life, a foun-
 tain of truth, an object of faith, law
 written on the heart, will be recognized as
 the grandest and most benefcent achieve
 ment of that intelligence"
 Rev. Dr. Martineau closes long life of
 conservative devotion to advanced study
 of Christian faith and thought, with this
 double judgment upon the present out
 look: I. "The conception of canonized
 literature belongs to stage of culture
 that has passed away; what was once used
 as divine textbook has become human
 | tive textbook of divine truth and human
 duty; so we must open our minds to all that speaks divinely to them, whether in
 the Bible or elsewhere; we are not to ac- cept from the Bible any doctrine or duty on the mere ground of it's being sanctioned there, but are to make our acceptance of it conditional on it's standing the tests ot , truth and obligation. claim it as a no , ble though severe advantage that, through failure of the text book principle, we art driven from words to realities, and must ) sink right home to the inward springs ot religion in our nature and experience; il f l is the unwritten oracles of God that have l most deeply stirred the hearts of the de r | vout; the ever-iving God is the one reali ty that is ever with us, from moment tt f moment speaking within us, not lees pres g ent to us for knowledge and love than t. t ancient seekers and servants of his will. l II. "From the person of Jesus every 6 thing official, attached to him by evangel l ists or divines, has fallen away; and he i !, | simply the divine flower of humanity, tn b realized possibility of life in God-n s consciously exceptional part to play. I " was inevitable that by his disciples Jesu ' should be identified with the ideal mes J. siah. When he was so, whether and hoy !, far with sanction from himself, are secon f dary questions. I will only say that l. when the really historical clements in tn n gospels are cleared from later addition # and editors coloring, it appears to m !, very doubtful whether he personal d claimed the messianic character. Eve # with the apostles themselves. the messiah l. ic drama was not to be inaugurated ii }, his return from heaven, for which the o were on the watch until death. So lon e as the scriptures were to us divine text l. book, and the statements of the author @ were taken on trust, we believed in thi n drama as reality yet to come. I hay IT spoken of it as having lost it's c-edibilit g. and reality, because the central condition le which held it all together-the retur B. from heaven-has failed and come { B. nought eighteen centuries ago. An e r. chatology thus unfulfilled in it's very n, n cleus cannot retain our faith. in its acce B. sories. The poor device of slipping tt of date and putting it all off ad ibitum is a y evasion which can satisfy no honest mint D. And with the eschatology must fall aws or from the person of Jesus all the ofici I'd claims of which it is the sequel. It b a longed to his age to see in him the mess ln anic king. It belongs to every age to fo ,h low him with venerating spirit as the d ly vine-souled Galilean prophet, the supren an representative of the flial life in God ar th self identification with humanity to whit
 the pure in heart are called"
 Dr. Martineau tells fully and clearly oh more than nominally orthodox thinker sl | ,,1,,la-e oy1 aorxouf rl-:nk:.- -..-Jo o