The Advocate and news., 1898-12-07
THE CONFLICT OF CHRIST AND CHRIS
TIANETY.
by HEBRON Applied Christianity
q IOWn College.


Jesus teaching to the people, or to his
immediate disciples. Noble Jewish schOl-
ars who are friendly to Jesus, such as
DR.. Emil G. Hirsch, have shown us that
the term was the social cry in the Judea
of Jesus day It was commonly used to
signify social justlce--a justice to be
fully realized when the Messiah should
come. While Jesus idea Of the kingdom
was surprisingly purer than the popular
or orthodox ideal and his conception Of
the kingdoms law and methods radi-
cally different, 1t was none the less the
same kingdom he intended. He did not
expect, nor did he once lead the people
to expect, anything other than the real
ization of the kingdom of heaven as a
holy society Of universal justice His
interpretations Of the kingdom have far
more to do with human relations, with
social facts and forces, than with what
we understand by religion. They deal
more specifically and frequently with
the subject Of property than we care to
know. 1t could not be otherwise, with
the early Christian apostolate borne on
by Jesus idea Of the kingdom Of God as
a heavenly economy Of the earthly life,
with all its things and persons. For the
redemption of human life to this king
dom Jesus endured the cross, with his
glorious disgrace, and gained the secret
Of power.
The age that finally changed the reve-
lation Of Jesus from social ideal to an
ofIicial religion, from mode Of life to a
theological system, was one OF moral and
religious anarchy, insanely wicked and
licentious. 1t is strange thing, but not
so strange as the small account we make
of It, that the great councils that for
mulated the church's system Of truth
were composed Of members from whom
the sense Of truth had almost died out
When the philosophers Of Alexandria
and Athens finally got the Christian
directorate and the Roman upper classes
began to make Christianity fad its
springtime of moral glory had gone
while the summer was soon ended, and
the long winter of the faith Of Jesus
began.
RECOVERY OF CHRISTIANITY.
Though men know not what they see,
and see 1t dimly yet, the recovery Of
Christianity from the system of religion
imposed upon 1t by Greek theology and
Roman law, from the baneful moral and
social effects which this system has so
deeply wrought, with the restoration Of
the idea Of Jesus to Christendom, is the
process now at work In society, and Is
the beatific vision nightly and hope
fully attracting the common life to
wider and nobler faith.
The new social faith in Christ comes
not to destroy, but to fulfill, the Chris
tian past. It asks to have Jesus idea
restored as program Of social faith,
upon which men may take their stand
and consecrate their lives. The church
has lost its power OF moral appeal and
has no program of faith to offer the So
Cial cry. To merely conserve the pres
ent religious system, in the face Of the
social epoch, means death to faith and
anarchy to action. To continue in the
system because of what God has wrought
through 1t in the past Is to be guilty Of
the very apostasy that hurried Jesus to
the cross.
There will have to be done for Chris
tianity what Jesus did for Judaism be-
fore Jesus can have his day and social
way. The Christian religion, we know,
is not the religion OF Christ. Jesus Is no
more the author of existing Christianity
than Moses was the author of the Juda-
ism out Of which Christianity was born.
You say we have been making progress
OF course. For some thousands Of years
the world had been making progress,
before Jesus was crucifled by "the
conservatively progressive" The world
had been making progress before Ber-
pard or Francis came; before Huss and
Luther arose; before oliver Cromwell
was hurled as the incarnate judgment Of
God against political vice and religious
tyranny; before the French revolution
put history backward as we'll as forward,
changing the shadow of progress on the
dial OF history.