Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-22

who think that they are Calvinists. This was the impression of Ar. Angell James. He said to me once with great energy-rsising his arm and clenehing his hand as he said it-T hold the doctrines of Cslvinism with 8 firm grasp But said I, you mover preach about them swen,' he replied, you know that there is not much about them in the Bible Bees, when one hap pens to die in the hive, leave the dead body where it lies, but seal up the cell with wax. Our modern Calvinists treat doc Urine very much in the same way But some thing more than Calvinistic teaching is gone. The spirit which belonged to the Augustinian and Calvinistic theology is gone (that spiritual root which made God everything, man nothing) The creed has gone. Christ is our brother only; he is hardly our Lord"
 For better or for worse the mind of Christendom now understands God, as Mohammed, in one of his rare moments did, when he said:
 "When God created the creation he wrote book, which is near him upon the sovran throne; and what is written in it is this, Verify, my compassion overcometh my wrath" --, it:
 s'The true God is a God of love and con- solation; who makes us. feel to the core our own weakness and his infinite mercy" -- Christ is understood more and more, on the human side, as providentially called to an exemplary and didactic station, at the head of all human example and all human teaching, yet with no presumption of divinity of character and authority oth- CT than that of human natural reflection of the mind and character of God the infinite father. MT. John Stuart Mill said:
 "Whatever else may be taken away from us by rational criticism Christ is still left unique figure, not more unlike all his precursors than all his followers, even those who had the direct benefit of his personal teaching" @ P, -..
 The Rev. John E. Todd is known as @ zealous opponent of conscious new de- parture, and yet he is on record in a statement which takes the new ground fully and clearly, against the protest of divinity teachers who are trying to have the new without letting go the old. I refer to Dr. Todd's letter published in the Andover Review of January. 1886, (pp. 80, S1), in which he wrote as follows:
 "When you speak of the indispensable ness of faith in Christ, what Christ-or rather what revelation of Christ-do you mean2 I think you must admit that, owing to mental idiosyncracies, preju- dices, educational bias, men often get very incorrect and distorted, and always get very partial and inadequate, views of Christ, even from the gospels, and that the methods of presentation of him, at least by sorthodox' preachers, are often such as convey very erroneous notions of him; so that we must include among these who never have the gospel fairly offered to them in this life not only the heather and certain classes that never hear preaching in Christian lands, but also very many, if not most, of those who, hear the gospel preached all their lives. ..-f,--'',
 'It seems to me that Christ is presented to men not only in the Gospels, but also in humanity. The man who loves and serves his fellow men really accepts and embraces that humanity which merely finds its per lection in Jesus Christ, and so really ac- cepts Christ, though he may never have heard of his story in the Gospels, or may even have rejected some false conception of him. Whereas the man who has no sympathy with or love for men really re- jects Christ, though he may fairly worship some imaginary conception of him which he has created for himself out of the mate rials supplied by the Gospels. This view seems to me to be of immense practical importance, for there is among evangelical Christians much too great tendency to regard an attitude of mind toward an ideal conception as saving faith instead of 8 devotion of the life to him as he stands before us in humanity"
 To this the Andover Reviewers made the | following reply-a reply required by Inc | common orthodox view, but not required by just view of the truth of Christ: 'Dr. Todd advances the view that hu- | manity merely finds its perfection in Jesus &l..~A N~1 1A.-- 1 f.1 | bowman is to love and serve Christ Christ is revealed in humanity. He is the | ideal man. This view robs Christianity of | its distinctive signiication and power. We had supposed that Christ reveals God as | we'll as man; that he brings the love of God to sinful men so that they may be re- | deemed from sin and brought to their | true condition of holiness. In Christ God
 seeks man, bringing in that truth and mo- | tive by which man can become new crea- ture. We agree with Dr. Todd in con.
 demning dead orthodoxy, which substi- tutes an ideal conception for devotion of | life to human needs. But we regard as
 most dangerous and pernicious any repre-,
 setation of Christianity which reduces it
 to level with natural religion. "We can
 not weaken the fundamental principle
 out of Christ is no pardon or salvation Gange)."
 No doubt the view so well expressed by
 Dr. Todd radically rids Christianity of ortho
 dox signifcation and power. But it doe
 this by taking stumbling block out O
 the way of the truth of Christ It is yer,
 true that Christ reveals God and bring
 Gods love home to man, but he does it b,
 love of man and service of man. That i
 to say, he reveals the character of low
 which belongs to God. No other revela | ,s io ,1aocih1a nd a,,l,
 Every erroneous notions" of Christ are go
 by those who imagine, after the purel.
 heathen method, that in the figure ant form of Christ God was in his person, hi
 nature, his power, uncovered to the ey
 and disclosed to man. The kind of reveal
 ing God which was done by Christ wa
 such as man can do, such Christia
 man can do, and does do. Tn
 object of Christianity is to give pur
 ligion up to an ideal level, to plan
 or rather educe what creation plants, pur | religion in our nature. If 'out of Chris is no pardon be fundamental, it is onl ) when we put proper meaning upon be , ing in Christ, and see that loving service o man is being in Christ. In short, th essence, center and substance of Christian , ity is ethical, is of life, of the moral att } tuue, and is not of the intellect and C , dogma. It rises into knowledge of Goo t of Christ as person, by one path only | that of respect for the characte of love in God and in Chris 7 It reads scripture to one end, an in one way only, that of the spirit of loy , for increase of that spirit, t,-never, as th 8 heather do, to make the writings divir B and make bondage of the mind to te, 8 and tenet Not only that, it judges scril 7 ture, judges what has been thought sacre 1 history, to cut away and cast away ever, : thing which obstructs the spirit of love, l puts any other ideal in its place. It scou ? as the very antithesis of faith the error , 2 false belief, the narrow idea of any peep : or any writings specially shutting up 8 themselves the revelation of God, the min 8 of Christ, the power of true Christianit @ In the Oxford Hampton lectures of Canc ? Freemantle a defence is made at gre l, length of this sound spiritual way of col a ceiving Christianity. Thus Freemsnt o says:
 "There is proleptic, or anticipatol l. Christianity, of which we may see trac J. deep down in the convictions of the val e ous races of men. There is also an u n scious Christianity in modern times, l. which men are being trained. Ideas ar y moral influences pass from man to mi Il and from nation to nation, through s- the forms of human intercourse, witho | as well as within the pale of ChristsndoI l. We can find no standing ground un