The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-17

belief, namely, that human nature
Is essentially and entirely corrupt.
In early Christian thought begin
ming at least as early as Paul, the evil
cent evil in human life was Joined with
the Biblical story of the fall of man.
The theory of the complete corruption
and perverseness Of man was the re-
suit. on such n theory IL was natural
| to think OF God as bringing salvation
/ to man solely through a miraculous in
, carnation. Thus arose the necessity, n
the minds of the thinkers OF that day
for regarding Jesus as the Goodman"
in the historic meaning of that term
namely. God and man in one Person
forever"
That God is continually incarnating
| himself in human life. religious man
must surely hold; and the one differ
entiating mark of the Christian believer
F.; IL that he believes Jesus to have been
! the supreme incarnation Of the God-lifc
] in man. As Sabatier says, The
Heavenly Father lives within the Son
Of Man, and the dogma OF the God Man,
Interpreted by the piety OF each Chris
tian, not by the subtle metaphysics Of
the doctors and the schools, becomes the
CENTRAL and distinguishing dogma OF
4 ipul OIt hhlltulA9 WIN
the position OF historic Trinitariansm
is that II fails to recognize the fundu -
mental view OF man revealed in the
| Synoptlc Gospek--a view which is sup
ported by modern psychology and by
our everyday SUPPLEMENTARY, that
human nature Is not totally corrupt;
that, as Jesus taught. all men are po-
tentlally children OF God; that is,
there is in man. by nature, q divine
element to build on. Hebrew tradition
expresses the same view in Gen. i. 26-27,
where we read And God said. Let as
make man In our image, after our like
ness and God created man IN
His own image. In the image Of God
created He him" The story of the fall
whatever II may have meant to the
ancient Hebrew, did not succeed in eff
facing from his mind this belief.
What is needed for salvation, then, is
such an incarnation OF the divine life in
human form as to lead men to turn
their backs on their lower. animal origin
and turn their faces toward God AMI
His will. Many leaders Of mankind
have performed this task m,hsurably,
hut one may easily come 10 the convc-
| ton that Jesus has done II .,upremely
and for all time. II one Yields TO him
the practical lordship Of life, salvation
will inevitably follow. We may con-
! slider this salvation as sudden. when II
involves "A complete change OF attitude,
| as is often the Case--conversion, in the
root sense of the word. Or we may re-
gard 1t as gradual, in that it means the
steady and often long drawn out at
| tempt to realize the Christian attitude
in all the relationships of life. Again
we may regard II as present and this
worldly. in that 1t brings true Satisfac-
ton, Joy and achievement in this life
2 Finally, we may think OF II as future
possession or state of being after death.
/ Under certain conditions the Contlnu-
ance OF life after death would be in
tolerable. Can We conceive OF its hein :
blessed" apart from capacity to APP
/ preciate and appropriate the divine life
revealed In Jesus? For such a saliva
I tioii--and who would not coIc5dc Is
sufiiciency?-it Is not necessary to sub
scribe to the historic definition OF tho
incarnation which the church has
formulated and insisted upon. II one
/ can say with Paul, God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself ~
. a true Christian must he able to say, he
/ Is in position to secure all the religious
and ethical benefits which Christianity
in any form has ever hccn able to prof
fer.
We may cast hulwarks about tins
position, AT this point. by reminding
ourselves OF Jcsus's own teaching ana
also OF the position Of the earliest d.scI-
piles. To my mind Jesus clearly taught
that he was the Messiah: and to the
first disciples, this was the true aud
/ final word by which to describe him.
This term did not mean then what
later Christian thcoloCiaEs, saturated
with phllosophic conceptions, considered
It to mean. II meant merely that
member Of the Jewish race who was
divinely Amounted" TO Introduce aud
head the Kingdom OF God" why may