B.F. Westcott - Thoughts on Revelation and Life

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THOUGHTSON

REVELATION & LIFE

ALFRED BEERYBIBLE DEPOT8 STATION ROAD

ASRFORD, KENT


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THOUGHTSON

REVELATION & LIFEBEING

SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OFBROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D., D.CL

BISHOP OF DURHAMLATE REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, CAMBRIDGE, AND

CANON OF WESTMINSTER

ARRANGED AND EDITED BYSTEPHEN PHILLIPS, M.A.

READER AND CHAPLAIN OF GRAY's INN

HontionMACMILLAN AND CO.

AND NEW YORKI 891

All ri^lits reserved


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First Edition printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh, iJReprinted 1891


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PREFACEThis volume contains, besides selections from thewell-known works of Dr. Westcott, passages fromhis occasional Sermons, Essays, and Addresseshitherto familiar only to a few.

To students of Divinity it is thought it will bean advantage to possess in a compendious formcharacteristic passages from Dr. Westcott's writ-ings on the theological problems of our time.

The " Lessons of Literature and Art," withtheir unique teaching on the mission of poet andpainter " to present the truth of things under theaspect of beauty," must have a special value tomany.

There is much also in these pages that cannotfail to be acceptable to a wide circle of readers,whose interests centre rather in the course ofordinary life.

To all, it is believed, this volume will bewelcome in proportion as they realise the truth


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VI PREFACEwhich Dr. Wcstcott, throughout his writings, withso much force and beauty teachesthat '' Christi-anity takes account of the whole nature of man,consecrating to its service the natural exercise ofevery power and the fulfilment of every situationin which he is placed."

For the choice of the passages selected theEditor alone is responsible.


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CONTENTSPART I

E\)t 5^ccortis of IXcOclnticin

The Vision of God is the Call of theProphet . . .

The Old Testament Scriptures .The Meaning of RevelationThe PvEVELation of the Father .The Revelation of the Risen LordThe Gospel of the ResurrectionThe Historic FaithThe Incarnation a Devout StudyThe Communion of Saints .Christianity as the Absolute ReligionThe Bible the Charter of Hope

PAGE

38131429406181859399


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VIU CONTENTS

PART II

1051 10118125131136

Cije :j)ristian ^ocietg: its (See anti rolnt!)PAGEThe Two Empires : the Church and the

World ......Crises in the History of the ChurchThe Faith One and Progressive .Missions and the UniversitiesIndian Missions .....The Colonial Church ....The Incarnation Independent of the Fall 139Collegiate Life in the English Church . 141Our Debt to the Past . . . 144The Benedictine Order . . . . 149King's College Chapel, Cambridge . . 152"Ye are Witnesses" . . . . -155Combination in Diversity . . . .157Some Thoughts from the Ordinal . -165"From Strength to Strength" . . .175The Constructive Work of the Ministry . 183Waiting for Power from on High . .187The Spiritual Office of the Universities . 189


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CONTENTS IX

The Universities and the Training of theClergy .....The Mission of the Schoolmaster

The Ministry of the Laity .The Trials of a New Age .Destiny fulfilled through SufferingThe King-Priest ....The Universal Society

PAGE

1972002022052 11

217

PART IIIAspects of ilifc

A Poet's View of LifeBrowningSteps in the Christian LifeThe Incarnation and CreationThe Incarnation and NatureThe Incarnation and Life .Disciplined Life .Life Consecrated by the AscensionMany GiftsOne SpiritThe Resurrection as Influencing the LifeSocial Aspects of Christianity

223233244247249250258261263265


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CONTENTS

Aspects of IjfeTvrES OF Apostolic Service

I'AGE290322

PART IVHcssons of Eftcratiirc nnti xirt

The Dramatist as Prophet : ^schylusThe Dramatist as Thinker : EuripidesVentures of Faith : The Myths of PlatoDiONYSIUS THE ArEOPAGITEA Christian Phil(^sopherOrigenA Christian PlatonistWhichcoteThe Lesson of Biblical RevisionThe Relation of Christianity to Art

331336342347349353356363

^1-


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PART ICf)e iRecorD0 of iRetielation


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THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONJxsaiafj's Fision is Esafaij's (JTallT1 HE vision of God is the call of the prophet. No-

where is the thought presented to us in the Bible withmore moving force than in the record of Isaiah's mission(Isa. vi. i-io).

Isaiah, a layman, as you remember, was, it appears,in the Temple court, and he saw in a trance the way intothe holiest place laid open. The veils were removedfrom the sanctuary and shrine, and he beheld more thanmet the eyes of the High Priest, the one representativeof the people, on the day on which he was admitted, yearby year, to the dark chamber which shrouded the DivinePresence.He beheld not the glory resting upon the symbolicark, but the Lord sitting upon the throne high and liftedup ; not the carved figures of angels, but the seraphimstanding with outstretched wings, ready for swift service ;not the vapour of earthly incense, but the cloud of smokewhich witnessed to the Majesty which it hid.

This opening of " the eyes of his heart," was God's gift,God's call to him. Other worshippers about the youngprophet saw, as we must suppose, nothing but " the light ofcommon day," the ordinary sights of the habitual servicethe great sea of brass, and the altar of burnt offering, and


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THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONthe stately portal of the holy place, and priests andLevites busy with their familiar work. But for aneternal moment Isaiah's senses were unsealed. He sawthat which is, and not that which appears. For him thesymbol of God dwelling in light unapproachable, wastransformed into a personal presence ; for him thechequered scene of labour and worship was filled withthe train of God ; for him the marvels of human skillwere instinct with the life of God.

Such a vision, such a revelation taken into the soul,was for Isaiah an illumination of the world He couldat last see all creation in its true nature through the lightof God. So to have looked upon it was to have gainedthat which the seer, cleansed by the sacred fire, was con-strained to declare. Humbled and purified in hishumiliation, he could have but one answer when thevoice of the Lord required a messenger, " Here am I,send me."

Wi)z 3Incarnation a fuller Ffsion of otjW HEN the prophet Isaiah looked upon that augustsight, he saw, as St. John tells us, Christ's glory ; he sawin figures and far off that which we have been allowed tocontemplate more nearly and with the power of closerapprehension. He saw in transitory shadows that whichwe have received in a historic Presence.

By the Incarnation God has entered, and empoweredus to feel that He has entered, into fellowship withhumanity and men. As often as that birth rises beforeour eyes, all heaven is indeed rent open, and all earth isdisplayed as God made it.

For us, then, the vision and call of Isaiah find a fullerform, a more sovereign voice in the Gospel than theJewish prophet could know.


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VISION OF GOD THE PROPHET'S CAILWqz l^ealitg of t!)e 3Ji0i0n

1 HERE is nothing in life more real than such avision. It is the pure light of heaven so broken by theshadows of earth that we can bear it. Do not then turnfrom it, or dismiss it as a dream. Meet it with theresponse of glad devotion.

It is easy, alas, to question the authority of thegreatest thoughts which God sends us. It is easy todarken them and to lose them. But it is not easy to liveon to the end without them. There is, happily, a noblediscontent which disturbs all self-centred pleasure.You are stirred with truest joy, and braced to labourbest at your little tasks, w^hile you welcome and keepbefore you the loftiest ideal of the method and the aimof work and being which God has made known to you.That is, indeed, His revelation, the vision of Himself.So He declares what He would have you do, what Hewill enable you to do. So He calls you to be prophets.

Wiyt 3Intrprtatton of tfje Uisfon1 HE prophet's teaching must be the translation of his

experience. He bears witness of that which he has seen.His words are not an echo but a living testimony. Theheart alone can speak to the heart. But he who hasbeheld the least fragment of the divine glory, he whohas spelt out in letters of light on the face of the worldone syllable of the Triune Name, will feel a confidenceand a power which nothing else can bring.

Wc^t @03pel a roirimc( JHcssncjf, not a StereotgpctiSTratiitiou

1_>ET us thank God that He has called us, in the fulfil-ment of our prophet's office, to unfold a growing message,and not to rehearse a stereotyped tradition.


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THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONThe Gospel of Christ incarnate, the Gospel of the

Holy Trinity, is new now as it has been new in all thepast,as it will be new, new in its power and new in itsmeaning, while the world lasts.

It was new when St. John at Ephesus was enabledto express its fundamental truth in the doctrine of theWord ; new when Athanasius at Nicsea affirmed throughit the living unity of the Godhead without derogatingfrom the Lord's Deity ; new when Anselm at Bee soughtin it, however partially and inadequately, a solution ofthe problem of eternal justice ; new when Luther atWittenberg found in it the ground of personal communionwith God ; new in our own generation, new with anuntold message, when we are bidden to acknowledgein it the pledge of that ultimate fellowship of createdthings which the latest researches in nature and historyoffer for consecration.

W] Efje STransfatmatiou of 3LifeE, as we behold the Divine Image under the lightof our own da}^, must labour to bring to our view of " theworld "the order for a time separated from Godthatthought of God which makes it again a fit object of ourlove as it is the object of the love of God ; to bringto our view of the present that sense of eternity whichtransfigures our estimate of great and small, of successand failure.

The transformation of life requires no more ; it ispossible with no less. And to us Christians the chargeis given to bear this prophetic message to men.Wi)z ^otocr of l^ebcrmce a iflcasurc of t|) Poincr of Eismrj

JLi. E that wonders shall reign ; " " He that is nearme is near fire," are among the few traditional sayings


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VISION OF GOD THE PROPHET'S CALLattributed to the Lord, which seem to be stamped asdivine.

Awe, awe the lowHest and the most self-suppressing,is a sign not of Httleness, but of nobiUty.

Our power of reverence is a measure of our power ofrising.

As we bow in intelligent worship before the face of ourKing, His Spirita spirit of fireenters into us. Wefeel that we are made partakers of the Divine naturebecause we can acknowledge with a true faith its spiritualglories, and lay ourselves

Passive and still before the awful Throne . . .Consumed, yet quickened, by the glance of God.

IWi)t IJision nt once ^basinrj nnti ^kljatinrf

N the stress of restless occupation we are tempted toleave too much out of sight the inevitable mysteries oflife. We deal lightly with the greatest questions. Weare peremptory in defining details of dogma beyondthe teaching of Scripture. We are familiar beyondapostolic precedent in our approaches to God. Wefashion heavenly things after the fashion of earth.

If we are cast down by the meannesses, the sorrows,the sins of the world, it is because we dwell on somelittle part of which we see little ; but let the thought ofGod in Christ come in, and we can rest in that holysplendour. At the same time let us not dare to confineat our will the action of the light. It is our own irre-parable loss if in our conception of doctrine we gainclearness of definition by following out the human con-ditions of apprehending the divine, and forget thatevery outline is the expression in terms of a lower orderof that which is many-sided.


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THE RECORDS OE REVELATION

Wiyt Prospect of one purpose openeti to us Jjg tl^ein ^Testament

1 HERE are difficulties in the Old Testament, difficultieswhich perhaps we cannot explain. We have no desireto extenuate or to hide them. It would be strange if wehad : for it is through these, as we believe, that we shallin due time learn to know better God's ways of dealingwith us. But we are also bound to remember that theOld Testament offers to us something far higher, deeper,more majestic, more inspiring than materials for literaryproblems. The Old Testament, on any theory as to theorigin of the writings which it contains, shews to usbefore all other books the philosophy of history in re-presentative facts and in conscious judgments. It opensto us the prospect of one purpose variously reflected inwritings spread over a thousand years : of one purposemoving onwards with a continuous growth among thebarren despotisms of the East : of one purpose fulfilledin an unbroken national life which closed only when itsgoal was reached. The records in which this history iscontained are strangely contrasted in style, in composi-tion, in scope. They are outwardly disconnected, broken,incomplete : they belong to different ages of society :they are coloured by the natural peculiarities of differenttemperaments : they appeal to different feelings. Butstill in spite of this fragmentariness which seems toexclude the possibility of vital coherence : in spite ofthis variety which seems to be inconsistent with thepresence of one informing influence, they show a con-tinuity of progressive life which is found nowhere else,even in a dream. They enable us to see the chosenpeople raised step by step through failure and rebellionand disaster to a higher level, furnished with larger con-ceptions of truth, filled with nobler ideas of a spiritual


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THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRITTURES 9kingdom, fitted at last to offer to the Lord the discipleswho should be the first teachers of His Gospel, and toprovide a home where, as we read, " Jesus increased inwisdom, and in favour with God and man." The worldcan show no parallel to this divine growth, no parallelto this divine narrative of a divine growth, in all thestirring annals of time. The great monarchies rose andfell around the little Jewish state. Other nations shonewith more conspicuous glory, but the people of Godlived on. They were not endowed with splendid gifts,which at once command the admiration of this world.They appealed to no triumphs of victorious enterprisethey showed no monuments of creative art. They weredivided, oppressed, carried captive, "persecuted, but notforsaken, cast down, but not destroyed." By the powerof their consecration they lived on ; by the power ofthat " spirit of prophecy " which was in them they con-verted to the service of their faith the treasures of theirconquerors; they lived on because they saw the invisible,and they were inspired to interpret, for all who shouldcome after, the law of their life.

What then, we ask, are the characteristics of thisSpirit of prophecy, of this Spirit of the Old Testamentof which we speak ? What are the main ideas by whichIsrael witnessed for centuries to the future advent ofChrist ? Briefly, I think, these : that Spirit witnessed tothe unity of the human race as made by God in Hisown image ; and it witnessed further to the belief thatGod would of His own love, and in His own wisdom,bring man and men into conformity with Himself. Godis the one Creator of men : (jod is the one Kingof men. These thoughts breathe through the OldTestament from beginning to end. These thoughtsChrist the Son of man fulfilled. By these thoughts"the spirit of prophecy," and "the testimony of Jesus''


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lo THE RECORDS OE REVELATIONare shewn to be related as promise and accomplish-ment.

N ^utiaism not CrsscntiaKg ^xclusibeO view of Judaism can be more false than that whichseems to be most common, that it was essentially ex-clusive. It was exclusive, and necessarily exclusive, sofar as it was a beginning, a preparation, a discipline.But it was always pointing to a consummation. It wasexclusive in its decay and fall, when general faithlessnesshad reduced it to the level of a sect. But from thefirst it was not so.

t!9[nfqumes0 of Jcim'sj f^fstorgI T is possible to find in the great teachers of othernations premature and fragmentary visions of truth,sometimes more attractive in themselves than the corre-sponding parts of the Old Testament ; but they are visionspremature and fragmentary. The Old Testament teachesby facts, by the organic and continuous development ofa body. The Lord is not an abstraction, but a King,speaking, chastening, saving. The theatre of man'shighest energies is not an imaginary Elysium of souls,but the earth with all its trials and contradictions. Theprospect of the invisible future is almost excluded, lestmen should forget that the world and all the powers ofthe world have to be conquered. One eternal counselis carried forward, interpreted, applied, as those canbear it to whom its practical fulfilment is intrusted.

Let any one strive to concentrate his attention uponthe life of which the Bible is the record, and not uponthe record itself, and I venture to affirm that the thoughtwill rise in his soul, to which Jacob gave utterance when


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THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES 1he had seen in a vision earth and heaven united : Sicrdythe Lord is in this place^ mid I knew it not.

If it is certain that the writings of the Old Testamentoffer to us many grave difficulties which we are at presentunable to overcome, it is no less certain that they offera revelation of a purpose and a presence of God whichbears in itself the stamp of truth. The difficulties lie inpoints of criticism ; the revelation is given in the facts ofa people's life.

5rj)e ^Tcstimonu inc are to BearI T would have been hardand we may thank Godthat we are spared the trialto acknowledge a Galilseanteacher, as He moved among men in His infinitehumility, to be the Son of God. It is hard still to findthat He is with us, to discern His message in lessonsperhaps as strange as those which startled His firsthearers ; to recognise His form in those whom fashiondespises. Yet is it not the duty to which we are called ?Is not this the office for which we have been furnishedwith a divine equipment ?

The last voice of the Lord has not yet spoken. Thelast victory of the Lord has not yet been won.

We have known the facts of which all divine utterancesare the exposition : we have looked upon the end inwhich all other ends are included. For us the dark andmysterious sayings of lawgiver, and seer, and psalmisthave been changed into the simple message of thatwhich has been fulfilled among men : for us the languageof struggling hope has been changed into the confessionof historic belief : for us, not only as the confirmation ofour faith, but as the guide of our Christian effort, tJictestimo?iy ofJesus is tlie spirit ofpfopliay.


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14 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONmaking it in its whole fulness the final test of necessarytruth.

The Bible itself teaches us by its antithetic utterancesthat no single expression of the truth is co-extensivewith the truth itself. And life proves beyond questionthat words gather wealth in the course of the ages.

It is not too much to say that no formula which ex-presses clearly the thought of one generation, can conveythe same meaning to the generation w^hich follows.

The language of the Bible grows more harmoniouslyluminous with the growing light. When its words areread and interpreted simply, as words still living, theyare found to give the spiritual message w^iich each agerequires, the one message made audible to each hearerin the language wherein he was born.

Holy Scripture is unexhausted and inexhaustible.All later know^ledge is as a commentary which guides usfurther into the true understanding of prophets, aj^ostles,and evangelists : through old forms, old words, oldthoughts old and yet new the Spirit of God speaksto us with a voice never before clearly intelligible as wecan hear it.

1 F Christ be Son, then we who are in Christ are sonsalso. That relationship does not depend upon anyprecarious exercise of our own choice.We do not determine our parentage. We arechildren of a heavenly Father by His will ; and in thatfact lies confidence which no failure can annul.

The Incarnation of Christ sets forth the reality of our


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1 THE RECORDS OE REVELATIONrevelations of Himself. Partial knowledge when it wasmaintained by selfishness was hardened into unbelief:partial knowledge when it was inspired by love was(quickened into faith.

The Son of man came to fulfil all teaching of pasthistory, to illuminate all the teaching of future history ;and therefore He first revealed Himself by this title"Christ," the seal of the fulfilment of the Divine Willthrough the slow processes of life.

raaitmg, OTatdjmtj, nnti f^opfncjJUo not we assume that all things will go on as theyhave gone on for eighteen hundred years ? And yet arenot these centuries as full of divine warnings, of signs ofjudgment, of movements towards a kingdom of heaven, asthe ages which preceded the first Advent ?

Without hasting without resting let us move forwardswith our faces towards the light to meet the Lord. Inyour patience ye shall win your souls : here is Hispromise.

There is the danger now which there was in old time,lest we mistake the reflection of our own imaginings forthe shape of God's promises. We see a little, and forth-with we are tempted to make it all. We yield to thetemptation, and become blind to the larger designsof Providence.

Our faith, our wisdom, our safety, lie in keeping our-selves open to every sign of His coming.

Life if we look at it in Christ is transfigured : Deathif we look at it in Christ is conquered.

"Christ." That one word is a historic Gospelhallowing all time.


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THE RE VELA TION OF THE FA THER 1Not to a teacher of Israel, not to the disputants at

Jerusalem, not to the eager multitudes who offered anarmy and a throne, but to a simple, sinful woman, anoutcast from the Synagogue, an alien, the Lord declaredHimself to be the Christ.

Christ is at once our remote and future aim, and ourimmediate and present stay.

W^z Breati of 3LifeTHE phrase "to eat the flesh of Christ" expresses, asperhaps no other language could express, the great truththat Christians are made partakers of the human natureof their Lord, which is united in One Person to HisDivine nature ; that He imparts to us now, and that wecan receive into our manhood, something of His man-hood, which may be the seed, so to speak, of theglorified bodies in which we shall hereafter behold Him.

/ am the Bread of Life.It is equally wrong to regardthe words as a simple prophecy of the Holy Eucharistand to dissociate them from it.

He in us, that w^e may never despair when we arebeset by difficulties ; we in Him, that when we haveattained something we may reach forward to greatervictories.

2rf)e Hi'sit of tljE TOorlti

/ AM the Light of the World. Any one who haswatched a sunrise among mountains will know how thelight opens out depths of beauty and life where but latelythe eye rested on a cold monotony of gloom or mist. Atone moment only the sharp dark outHne of the distant


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iS THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONranges stands out against the rosy sky, and at the next,peak after peak catches the Hving fire, which then creepsslowly down their rocky slopes, and woods and streamsand meadows and homesteads start out from the dullshadows, and the grass on which wê stand sparkles witha thousand dewdrops.Now all this represents in a figure what is the effectof the presence of Christ in the world when the eye isopened to see Him.

All that hath come into being luas life in Hini^before time, a7id the life was the light of men.

Let the thought of Christ rest on anything about us,great or small, and it will forthwith reflect on theawakened soul some new^ image of His power and love.Whatever is, was made through Him and subsists inHim.

And it is by the living apprehension of this truthalone that we can gain any deep insight into the marvelsby which we are encompassed.

Iam the Light of the World.The light which revealsthe wôrld does not make the darkness, but it makes thedarkness felt.

If the sun is hidden all is shadow, though we callthat shadow only w^hich is contrasted with the sunlightfor the contrast seems to intensify that wiiich is, howêver,left just what it was before.And this is what Christ has done by His coming.He stands before the world in perfect purity, and W'efeel, as men could not feel before He came, the imper-fection, the impurity of the world.

The line of separation is drawn for ever, and theconscience of men acknowledges that it is rightly drawn.

Nothing is more truly one than light, yet nothing ismore manifold.


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THE REVELATION OE THE FATHER 19For us the glory of heaven is tempered in a thousand

hues, but we know even now that these thousand huesspring from and issue in the light which God is, and inwhich He dwelleth.A Christian cannot rest in anything which has been

already gained. New acquisitions of knowledge, newmodes of thought, new forms of society, are always callingfor interpretation, for recognition, for adjustment.

No one can mistake the problems which the presentgeneration is called to face : no one who has felt in theleast degree the power of Christ can doubt that he hasin his faith that w^herewith to illuminate them.

There are the trials of wealth burdened by an inherit-ance of luxury, which checks the growth of fellow-feeling,and enfeebles the energy of Christian love.

There are the trials of poverty worn by the strugglefor bare existence, which exhausts the forces properlydestined to minister to the healthy development of thefulness of life.

There is the separation of class from class whichseems to become wider with increasing rapidity throughthe circumstances of modern labour and commerce.

There is the concentration of the population in crowdedtowns where the conditions of dwelling exclude largebodies of men from all share in some of the noblestteachings of nature.

There is the exaggerated extension of empires, whichbrings as its necessary consequence the crushing burdenof military expenditure, and at the same time lessens theresponsibility of the individual citizen.

There is the impatient questioning of old beliefs, whichgives an unreal value to the appeal to authority and castssuspicion upon sympathetic efforts to meet doubt. Butto meet all these dark problems, our lightthe Light ofLifeis unexhausted and inexhaustible.


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20 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONAnd this only is required of us if we would know its

quickening, cheering, warming energies, that we shouldfollow it.

Only if we " cling to our first fault," if we pause whenwe are called to swift advance, if we faithlessly dis-believe that anything is offered to us which was notgiven to those before us, the darkness will overtake us,and our true road will be hidden.We smile at evil, we dally wath it, we do not confessin act that we hate it with a perfect hatred.And the temptation to this false indifferentism is themore perilous because it comes to us in the guise ofhumility and self-distrust.

Cfjrist tfje 00r of tl^e ^{jecp1 HE fold which the Christian enters through Christ,

the fold which gives safety to the flock, is a place forshelter, and not a place for isolation. He who has passedinto it, and found in it his proper home, finds it also avantage-ground for wider action. When the time comeshe passes out, but he still observes the law that he passesout through Christ./ am the door^ by Me if any man enter in he . . .shall go in and go out ajtd shallfind pasture.

The world is a barren wilderness only to those whodo not approach it through Christ.

The Christian then passes into the world, doing hisMaster's work there, by the way which his Master opens,but he does not remain in the world. He never wandersso far, he never is so deeply engrossed in the pursuits towhich he is guided, as not to return to the fold whenthe darkness falls and the time of -working is over.


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THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER 21

V_JF all the images of Christ this is that which has everappealed most forcibly to the universal instincts of men.It has been illustrated by art : it has been consecratedby history. When believers first sought to write thesymbols of their faith upon the walls of the catacombs,they drew Christ as a Shepherd. And that earliestfigure has never passed away from us.

Many who care little for painting must have hungwith affection over the picture in which the Saviour isshown patiently and lovingly disentangling the lamb fromthe thorns by which it is imprisoned and torn. Manywho care little for music must have been soothed by theair in which the office of Messiah the Shepherd hasbeen described in universal language. All that we canimagine of tenderness, of endurance, of courage, ofwatchfulness, of devotion, is gathered up in the thoughtof the pastoral charge ; and that charge Christ has takenover us.

From the earliest times men have felt the beauty andthe truth of the image.

The oldest of Greek poets speaks of kings as "shepherdsof men," but for the Jews this aspect of authority wasset forth by living parables in each great crisis of theirnational growth. The patriarchs were shepherds ; Moseswas a shepherd ; David was a shepherd.

Christ the Good Shepherd transfigured for ever themethod, the conception, the fulfilment of leadership.

Nor can we forget that by consecrating this figure asthe image of His power, Christ has given us a revelationof the character of all true government. While He tellsus what He is to us, He tells us what we should strive tobe to others. That which He makes known of His


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22 THE RECORDS OE REVELATIONrelationship to His people is true of all right exercise ofauthority. It does not matter whether authority beexercised in the Church, or in the nation, or in the city,or in the factory, or in the school, or in the family ; thetwo great principles by which it must be directed are thesame ; and these are self-sacrifice and sympathy. Govern-ment which rests on any other basis is so far a tyrannyand no true government.

Jalse Ficiris of ^utfjoritgJr ERHAPS the most urgent perils of our age springfrom the forgetfulness of this divine theory of govern-ment. There is much of the spirit of the hirelingamong us ; there is more of the affectation of the spirit.We hide ourselves, and we make but little effort topenetrate to the hearts of others. The nobility ofleadership has been degraded in conception if not in act.The transitory accessories of popularity and wealth andsplendour have obscured that absolute devotion to otherswhich is its life. It has been supposed to end in loftyisolation and not in the most intense fellowship.

% truer Uicirt attainable for our fenerationOUT with all this, there are among us nobler strivingsafter a truer and more abiding order : there is animpatience of the unnatural ignorance by which we areseparated from one another as classes and as individuals ;there are generous impulses which move men withaspirations towards silent yet complete self- surrenderthere is something of an awakened capacity to embodyin the nation and in society the central truths of theGospel. Here it seems lies the work of England in thisgeneration ; and while our thoughts are turned to theGood Shepherd, may we pray for ourselves and for


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THE REVELATION OE THE EATIIER 23others that He will infuse the virtue of His Life andPassion into each oflice which we have to dischariie forour families, for our country, for our Church ; that He willlay the print of His Cross upon all the symbols of ourpower, and enlighten our counsels with the insight ofHis Love.

T Cfjn'st \^z 5lAfsurrfctton anti tfjc 3LifeHE raising of Lazarus is nothing more than thetranslation of an eternal lesson into an outward andintelligible form.

The command of sovereign power, Lazarus^ comeforthîs but one partial and transitory fulfilment of the absoluteand unchanging gospel, / a))i the Resii7'rcciion and theLife.

Li these wôrds Christ turns the thoughts of Hishearers from all else upon Himself. The point at issueis not any gift wdiich He can bestow^ not any blessingwhich He can procure, but the right perception of whatHe is.

The Galilaeans asked Him for the bread fromheaven ; He replied, / am the Bread of Life, Thepeople wêre distracted by doubt ; their leaders wereblinded by prejudice; and Lie said, L am tlie Light oftlie World. Martha, after touching with sad yet faithfulresignation upon aid apparently withheld, fixed her hopeon some remote time, when her brother should rise againat the last day ; and He called her to a present andpersonal joy. He revealed to her that death even in itsapparent triumph wins no true victory : that life issomething inexpressibly vast and mysterious, centred inone who neither know^s nor can know any change ; thatbeyond the earth-born clouds, which mar and hide it,there is an infinite glory of heaven in which men aremade partakers.


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24 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONCl^rist t]^c OTag to men Pcrplcicti

/\LL that Christ said to the. apostles on the eve ofHis Passion He has said, and still says, to men in everygreat crisis of history.

The trial to which the first disciples were exposedwas peculiar rather in its form than in its essentialcharacter.

It was the trial which belongs to every period oftransition. It was a trial which presses, and will press,most heavily on our generation.

Men are perplexed. The infinite complexity andhurry and intensity of modern life confuses our percep-tion of its general tendency. The old paths appear tobe lost in a wild maze. Eager voices call us to followthis track or that. If we pause a moment we are atonce left behind by our fellow-travellers. There is norepose, no strength of quietness, no patient waiting forfuller knowledge. We are almost driven to ask if therebe any way, any end at all before us ? And if there be,whether it is not hopeless for us to look for it ?

At such times let us hearken to Christ's voice, / amthe Way, and the purpose and order will come back tothe world. We shall see that through all the ages theredoes run one way of self-sacrifice, and that way is Christ.All other ways soon disappear. They are drawn to thisor lost in the darkness.

CJrt'st t{)e (ITrut]^ for mm SlnccrtainIViEN are uncertain. So much that has been heldsacred for ages has been questioned or found false ; somany social theories have been rudely scattered ; somany noble traditions have been resolved into legends


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THE REVELATION OF 'JHE FATHER 25so many popular interpretations of Holy Scripture havebeen found baseless, that, when we look round on theruin of old beliefs, we can hardly wonder that the ques-tion should arise whether there is anything on whichfaith can still repose.

When the trial is sorest the words of Christ, / am theTruth, at once lift us into that loftier region wherein nodoubt or falsehood enters. Christ, the Son of God andthe Son of man ; Christ, the Uniter of the seen and theunseen ; Christ, the Reconciler of the sinful and the Sin-lessHe is the Truth. In Him ts, is essentially andeternally, all that is presented to us in the images oforder and beauty and purity and love which surround us.

Sfjrist tlje Hffe ta ti^ose Bounti bg ^cnsciVi EN are sense-bound. The claims of the world uponus are so many and so urgent : the triumphs of physicalscience are so unquestionable and so wide : the marvelsof that which we can see and feel are so engrossing andinexhaustible, that it is not surprising that we should betempted to rest on them : to take the visible for ourheritage : to close our souls up against those subtlequestionings whereby they strive after the knowledge ofthat which no eye hath seen or ear heard or hand felt,that life of the plant, of the man, of the world, whichcomes as we know not and goes as we know not.

But strong as the charm may be to lull to sleep thatwhich is noblest within us, the words of Ciirist, / a/n theLife, can break it. We feel that that thought of a Divinepersonality underlying outward things, quickening them,shaping them, preserving through dissolution the sum oftheir gathered wealth, answers to a want within us.


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26 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION

Cj}ri0t ti)c ^Triic Fine/VmONG the parables of the Lord no one moved thepeople more deeply than that of the wicked husbandmenwho would have made the Lord's vineyard their own bythe murder of the true heir.

The thoughts of fifteen hundred years of beauty, ofgrowth, of luxuriance, of fertility, of joy, were gatheredround the vine, and at the end Christ says that all thosethoughts were fulfilled in Him : / a))i the true theideal Vific.

Each living part of the true Vine is ideally the same,and yet individually different.

Our differences are given us to fit us for the dischargeof special offices in its life. If, therefore, we seek toobliterate them or to exaggerate them, we mar itssymmetry and check its fruitfulness.

We may have noticed how in a rose the colouredflower-leaf sometimes goes back to the green stem-leaf,and the beauty of the flower is at once destroyed. Justso it is with ourselves. If we affect a work other thanthat for which we are made, we destroy that which weought to further.

Our special service, and all true service is the same,lies in doing that which we find waiting to be done by us.

^Ve cannot compare the relative value of the leavesand the tendrils and the flowers on the vine : it is healthyand vigorous and fruitful because all are there, ^^^ecannot clearly define the minute features by which leafis distinguished from leaf, or flower from flower, but wecan feel how the whole gains in beauty by the endlesscombination of their harmonious contrasts.


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THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER 27From the figure we turn to ourselves ; and when we

look upon our own restless and ambitious strivingsupon our efforts to seem to be what we are not ; uponour unceasing mimicry of those about us ; upon ourimpatience of the conditions of our little duties ; can weventure to think that we have learnt, as we may yetlearn, the first lesson of the Vine ?

C Cfjc ^nitu bctijjcen Past anti presentUT down the tree, and you will read its history inthe rings of its growth. We count and measure them,and reckon that so long ago was a year of dearth, so longago a year of abundance. The wound has been healed,but the scar remains to witness to its infliction. Thevery moss upon its bark tells how the trunk stood to therain and the sunshine. The direction of its branchesreveals the storms which habitually beat upon them.AVe call the whole perennial, and yet each year seeswhat is indeed a new tree rise over the gathered growthsof earlier time, and die when it has fulfilled its work.

And all this is true of the society of men. We arewhat a long descent has made us. Times of supersti-tion and misgovernment and selfish indulgence have left,and ever will leave, their marks upon us. There areunhealthy parts on which the cleansing light has notfallen. There are distorted outgrowths which havesuffered for want of shelter and want of care. And thereare too, let us thank God for it, solid and substantialsupports for developments yet to come : great boughs,as it were, towering heavenward, through which our littleresults of life may be borne aloft ; ripe fruits which maybe made the beginnings of wider vitality through ourservice.


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Wi}t fl]uman Conception of ot( gi'ijcn iack antiJalloinctJ m C^tist

1 N the earliest ages God was pleased to satisfy man'sinstincts by transferring to Himself in a figure the sensesand feelings of men. The saints of old time, withchildlike minds, rejoiced to think that His "eye" wasupon them; that His "ear" was open to their prayers.

The thought of His "wrath" or "jealousy" movedthem with wholesome fear ; the thought of His " com-passion " and " repentance " raised them from hopelessdespair., It was as easy as it was vain for philosophy to pointout that in all this they were extending finite ideas to aninfinite Being. They could not surrender what was thesoul of religion. And when the fulness of time came,all that had been figure before was made reality. Christin His ow^n Person reconciled the finite and the infiniteman and God.

God in Christ gives back to us all that seemed tohave been lost by the necessary widening of thoughtthrough the progress of ages. We can without misgivingapply the language of human feeling to Him whom weworship.

We can give distinctness to the object of our adora-tion without peril of idolatry. The limitations of ourbeing do not measure the truth, but they are made fitto express it for us.

W^z Ecbelation of a ijlcto 3Lffe1 HE Resurrection, if w^e may so speak, shows us thechange which would have passed over the earthly life ofman if sin had not brought death.


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THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 29Nothing perhaps is more surprising in the wholesum of inspired teaching than the way in which the

different appearances of Christ after His Resurrectionmeet and satisfy the aspirations of man towards a know-ledge of the unseen world.

As we fix our thoughts steadily upon them we learnhow our life is independent of its present conditions ;how we also can live through death ; how we can retainall the issues of the past without being bound by thelimitations under which they wxre shaped. Christ rosefrom the grave changed and yet the same; and in Himwe have the pledge and type of our rising.

C Christ Cfjangeti "^zi tje 5ameHRIST was changed. He was no longer subject tothe laws of the material order to which His earthly lifewas previously conformed. As has been well said :" What w\is natural to Him before is now miraculouswhat was before miraculous is now natural."

Or, to put the thought in another form, in our earthlylife the spirit is manifested through the body ; in the lifeof the Risen Christ the Body is manifested (may we notsay so ?) through the Spirit.He " appears," and no longer is seen coming. Heis found present, no one knows from whence ; He passesaway, no one knows whither.

Thus Christ is seen to be changed, but none the lessHe is also seen to be essentially the same. Nothinghas been left in the grave though all has been transfigured.

It is not that Christ's soul lives on, divested of theessence as of the accidents of the earthly garments inwhich it w^as for a little arrayed. It is not that His body,torn and wounded, is restored, such as it was, to its former


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30 THE RECORDS OE REVELATIONvigour and beauty. But in Him soul and body, in theindissoluble union of a perfect manhood, are seentriumphant over the last penalty of sin.

In Him first the corniptible puts o?i iucorruptionâjid t/ie mortal puts o?i immortality^ without ceasing to" be " so far as it has been, that in Him we may learnsomething more of the possibilities of human life, which,as far as we can observe it with our present powers, issad and fleeting; that in Him we may lift our eyes toheaven our home, and find it about us even here ; that inHim we may be enabled to gain some sure confidenceof fellowship with the departed ; that in Him we mayhave our hope steadfast, unmovable, knowing that ourlabour cannot be in vain.

13Efje Btbclatiou mat( of i^ccessitg to BclicbcrsHAT which is of the earth can perceive only that

which is of the earth. Our senses can only grasp thatwhich is kindred to themselves. We see no more thanthat for which we have a trained faculty of seeing.

The world could not see Christ, and Christ could notthere is a Divine impossibilityshow Himself to theworld. To have proved by incontestable evidence thatChrist rose again as Lazarus rose again, would have beennot to confirm our faith but to destroy it irretrievably.

2Ef)e lêijelatfon t]^rotirj][) SLoheLove first sought the lost Lord ; and in answer tolove He also first revealed Himself.

ûrsum (JTortiaIN OT on the first Easter jMorning only have those whohave truly loved Christ, those who have felt His healing


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THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 31power, those who have offered up all to His service, beentempted to substitute the dead Body for the living Lord :not on the first Easter Morning only have devout andpassionate worshippers sought to make that which is ofthe earth the centre and type of their service : not onthe first Easter Morning only have believers been inclinedto claim absolute permanence for their own partial ap-prehension of truth : not on the first Easter Morningonly, but in this later age I will venture to say more thanthen.

For it is impossible, when we look at the subjects andmethod of current controversy, not to ask ourselves sadlywhether we ourselves are busy in building the tomb ofChrist, or really ready to recognise Him if He comes tous in the form of a new life ; whether we are fruitlesslymoaning over a loss which is, in fact, the condition of ablessing, or waiting trustfully for the transfigurement ofthe dead past.

It is impossible to open many popular books ofdevotion, or to read many modern hymns, without feelingthat materialism has invaded faith no less than science,and that enervating sentimentalism is corrupting the freshsprings of manly and simple service.

It is impossible not to fear, when in the widespreadsearching of hearts men cling almost desperately totraditional phrases and customs, that we may forget thecall of Christ to occupy new regions of thought, andlabour in His name. The dangers are pressing, butthe appearance to Mary, while it reveals their essentialcharacter, brings to us hope in facing them.

He made Himself known through sympathy. Suchis the law of His working. His earliest words to everysuffering child of man will always be, "Why weepcstthou ? Whom seekest thou ? "


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32 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONThe sorrow which partly veils the Presence quickens the

search. And if the voice, when it comes to each one ofus, awakens in the silence of our souls the true convictionthat we do want a living Friend and Saviour, and not adead Body, some relic which we can decorate with ourofferings or some formula which we can repeat with easypertinacity, then we in our turn shall be strengthenedto bear the discipline by which Christ in His glory leadsus to a fuller and truer view of Himself and of Hiskingdom.We shall endure gladly the removal of that whichfor the time would only minister to error : we shall beprivileged to announce to others that He whom we havefound through tears and left in patient obedience, ismoving onwards to loftier scenes of triumph : we shalllearn to understand why the Lord's own message of HisResurrection was not "I have risen," or "I hve," but,"I ascend:" we shall listen till all experience and allhistory, all that is in the earth of good and beautifuland true, grows articulate with one command, the familiarwords of our Communion Service, Siirsmn Coj'da, " Liftup your hearts ;" and we shall answer in humble devo-tion, in patient faith, in daily struggles within and without," We lift them up unto the Lord," to the Lord Risen andAscended.

(ITfje lAebelation tSroutji Efjotirj^jt ^Tlje journeg toCmmaiis an ^llcfjorg of Hife

1 HE journey to Emmaus is, both in its apparent sad-ness and in its final joy, an allegory of many a life.We traverse our appointed path with a sense of a voidunfilled, of hopes unsatisfied, of promises withdrawn.The words of encouragement which come to us, oftenfrom strange sources, are not sufficient to bring back theassurance which we have lost. Yet happy are we if we


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THE REVELATION OF I'lIE RISEN LORD ZZopen our griefs to Him y;A\o indeed knows them better thanourselves, if we keep Him by our side, if we constrainHim to abide with us. Happy if at the end, when the dayis far spent and darkness is closing round, we are allowedto see for one moment the fulness of the Divine Presencewhich has been with us all along, half cloud, half light.But happier, and thrice happy if, when our hearts firstburn within us, while life is still fresh and the way isstill open, as One speaks to us in silent whisperings ofreproof and discipline, speaks to us in the ever- livingrecord of the Bible, we recognise the source of thespiritual fire. This we may do,nay, rather, if our faithbe a reality, this we must do,and so feel that there hasdawned upon us from the Easter Day a splendour overwhich no night can fall.

T STj^e Resurrection interprets nil 3LifeHE Resurrection of Christ is no isolated fact. It isnot only an answer to the craving of the human heartit is the key to all history, the interpretation of thegrowing purpose of life : Christ hath been raised^ not assome new, strange, unprepared thing, but Christ hathbeen raised according to the Scriptures. So God fulfilledthe promises which in many parts and in many fashionslie written in the whole record of the Bible.

Wi}z (ireat Comnu'ssionv^HRIST comes not to sweep away all the growths ofthe past, but to carry to its proper consummation everyundeveloped germ of right. Even so He sends us totake our stand in the midst of things as they are ; toguard with tender thoughtfulness all that has beenconsecrated to His service, and to open the way forthe many powers which work together for His glory.

D


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34 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONIn Christ's name we take possession of every fact

which is established by thought or inquiry. We fail induty, we fail in faith, if we allow^ any human interest orendowment or acquisition to lie without the domain ofthe Cross.

5rje ^î^^fstljaoti of all Bclicijcrs1 HE greatest danger of the Church at present seems

to be not lest wê should forget the peculiar functions ofthe ministerial office, but lest we should allow this tosupersede the general power which it concentrates andrepresents in the economy of life.

^pfrttxml îrjljtW E have not lost more than we have gained by theremoval of the events of the Gospel history far from ourown times. The last beatitude of the Gospel is thespecial endowment of the later Church. Blessed ai'e theythat Jiave not seen and yet have believed. The testimonyof sense given to the apostles, like the testimony of wordgiven to us, is but the starting-point of faith.

The substance of faith is not a fact w^hich we cannotexplain away, or a conclusion which we cannot escape,but the personal apprehension of a living, loving Friend.

JBoubtsW E must notice how tenderly the Lord deals waththe doubter who is ready to believe, and with what wîsetolerance the Christian society keeps within its pale himwhom a ruthless logic might have declared to be adenier of the Gospel.

Doubts are not unbelief, and yet they open theway to unbelief If they are not resolutely faced, if


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THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 35they are allowed to float about like unsubstantialshadows, if they are alleged as excuses for the neglectof practical duties, if they are cherished as signs ofsuperior intelligence, the history of St. Thomas has noencouragement for those who feel them.

The Lord revealed Himself to Thomas not while hekept himself apart in proud isolation, or in lonelydespondency, but when he was joined to the companyof his fellow-apostles, though he could not share theirconfidence.

Doubts are often dallied with : and still worse, theyare often affected.

It is strange that the hypocrisy of scepticism should belooked upon as less repulsive than the affectation of be-lief, yet in the present day it has become almost a fashionfor men to repeat doubts on the gravest questions withoutthe least sense of personal responsibility.

Nothing is more common than to be told by easytalkers that this is impossible and that has been dis-proved, where a very little inquiry will show that thesedoubters upon trust have never even seriously attemptedto examine the conditions of the problems which theypresume to decide. For such hope lies in spiritualconversion.

Christ has no promises for dishonest doubt any morethan for unreal faith.

Christianity shrinks from no test, but it transcends all.

W Wo^t Eeijclation m tlje TOorlt of 3LifeE must work. We must pursue our appointed tasktill a new command comes. It may seem a poor and


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THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONdull thing to go back from scenes of great excitementand lofty expectation to simple duties which belongedto an earlier time. But that is the method of God.Perhaps it will be through these that the higher call willcome ; perhaps no higher call will ever come to us.But our duty is still the same. We cannot tell thevalue of any particular service either for the society orfor our own training. Much must be done to the endof the workman's life which is a preparation only. TheBaptist continued to labour as he had first laboured,though he knew and confessed, / nmst decrease.

He does not leave His people desolate, though theydo not always or at once recognise their visitation. Notonce or twice only, but as often as the cleansed eye isturned to revolutions of society or to revolutions ofthought, to the breaking of a new day over the restlesswaters of life, the believer knows by an access of power,of knowledge, of love, that His words are true: I cometo you.

W^z Sntfce of raorkfncj.ll E saitJi to Iii/Ji, Tendshepherd (not simply feed)my sheep (not lambs). If there are the young and theweak and the ignorant to be fed, there are also themature and the vigorous to be guided. The shepherdmust rule no less than feed. And to do this wiselyand well is a harder work than the first.

If we are to do Christ's work we must consider morepatiently than we commonly do the requirements ofthose whom we have to serve. There is not one method,one voice for all. Here there is need of the tenderestsimplicity : there of the wisest authority : there of theripest result of long reflection.


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THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 37Cfje Seitice of OTnitinrj

1 HE comings of the Lord are not such events as welook for. Perhaps they are unregarded by those whowitness them ; but they are not therefore less real orless momentous.

No one who feels the sorrows of the age would wishto disparage the new earnestness which impels men atpresent even to undisciplined and self-willed efforts forChrist's sake. We say rather : Would God that all theLord^s people were prophets. But there are dangers inthis tumult of reawakened life. Patient watching is toooften treated at present with suspicion and stigmatisedas lukewarmness. Judgments on the deepest mysteriesare received without reflection and repeated withoutinquiry. Humility is interpreted as a confession ofweakness, and reserve is condemned as a cloke fordoubt. Nothing brings such sad misgivings as thishasty intolerant temper, peculiar to no one party orclass, which is characteristic of the age.

Sit Peter, 5t. Paul, antJ ^t. M}xiSt. peter, St. Paul, and St. John occupy in suc-cession the principal place in the first century, eachcarrying forward in due measure the work to which heministered. So, it is said, we may see the likeness ofSt. Peter in the Church of the Middle Ages, and thelikeness of St. Paul in the Churches of the Reformation.There remains, then, such is the conclusion, yet onemore type of the Christian society to be realised in theworld, which shall bear the likeness of St. John.

raaititttj a fHartm*"CiomAITING, as we must recognise and remember, is a

sacrifice of self, a real martyrdom no less than working.W.


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38 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONSt. John by his long life, as truly as St. James by his

early death, drank of the Lord's Cup and shared in theLord's Baptism according to His own words.To win the soul in patience, to bear the trial ofdelays, to watch for the dawn through the chill hoursw^hich precede it, to keep fresh and unsullied the greathope that Christ will come, without presuming to decidethe fashion of His Coming, is a w^itness to the powers ofthe unseen world, w^hich the Spirit of God alone canmake possible.

L CJrfst Present all tjje SagsO I am with you, Christ said, all the daysall thedays unto the end of the world. And this peculiarphrase in which the promise is expressed in the originalturns our thoughts to the manifold vicissitudes of fortunein which the Lord is still present with His people.He does not say simply "always," as of a uniformduration, but " all the days," as if He would take accountof the changing aspects of storm and sunshine, of lightand darkness, which chequer our course.

The sense of this abiding Presence of God in Christboth with the Church at large and with individualbehevers, brings patience, and with patience, peace.

There is something deadening in the strife of words.The silence which follows controversy is very commonlythe sign of exhaustion and not of rest. It is not bynarrowing our vision or our sympathy, by fixing oureyes simply on that which is congenial to our feelings,by excluding from our interest whole regions of Christen-dom, that we can gain the repose of faith.

It is a natural but false feeling which leads us tothink that at some other time God was nearer to the


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THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 39world than He is now ; that His voice was clearer andmore intelligible ; that His government was more directand uniform. He is, if only we will look, still amongus, speaking to those who listen through the manifolddiscoveries of the age, guiding even our fierce and selfishconflicts so as to minister to His purpose.And we ourselves consciously or unconsciously areserving Him. He itses us if we do not bring ourselvesto Him a willing sacrifice.

Ieparturc m Blessmrj

N ordinary life nothing is treasured up with moresacred affection, nothing is more powerful to move uswith silent and abiding persuasiveness, nothing is moreable to unite together the seen and the unseen than thelast words, the last look of those who have passed awayfrom us, the last revelation of the life which trembles,as it were, on the verge of its transfigurement. The lastwords of Christ were a promise and a charge. The lastact of Christ was an act of blessing. The last revelationof Christ was the elevation of the temporal into theeternal, beyond sight and yet with the assurance of anunbroken fellowship.

That promise, that charge, that blessing, that revela-tion, are for us, the unchanged and unchangeablebequest of the Risen Lord. His hands are stretchedout still. His Spirit is still hovering about us. Hiswork is waiting to be accomplished.


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THEGOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION

^^t Bcsurrcctioit STrite or iFalscno fHcniti HE power of the Resurrection, as the ground of

religious hope, Ues in the very circumstance that theevent which changed the whole character of the discipleswas external to them, independent of them, unexpectedby them.

It is a real link between the seen and the unseenworlds, or it is at best the expression of a human instinct.Christ has escaped from the corruption of death ; ormen, as far as the future is concerned, are exactly wherethey were before He came.

Whatever may be the civilising power of Christianmorality, it can throw no light upon the grave.

If the Resurrection be not true in the same sense inwhich the Passion is true, then death still remains thegreat conqueror.

We cannot allow our thoughts to be vague and un-certain upon it with impunity. We must place it in thevery front of our confession, with all that it includes, orwe must be prepared to lay aside the Christian name.

If the Resurrection be not true, the basis of Christian


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THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 41morality, no less than the basis of Christian theology, isgone. The issue cannot be stated too broadly. AVe arenot Christians unless we are clear in our confession onthis point.To preach the fact of the Resurrection was the firstfunction of the Evangelists ; to embody the doctrine ofthe Resurrection is the great office of the Church ; tolearn the meaning of the Resurrection is the task, notof one age only, but of all.

2rje Falue of an f^fstorical 3^cl3elati0nx\ SUBJECTIVE religion brings with it no elementof progress, and cannot lift man out of himself Ahistorical revelation alone can present God as an objectof personal love.

Pure Theism is unable to form a living religion.Mohammedanism lost all religious power in a few genera-tions. Judaism survived for fifteen centuries every formof assault in virtue of the records of a past deliveranceon which it was based, and the hope of a future Deliverer,which it included.

In proportion as the Resurrection is lost sight of inthe popular Creed, doctrine is divorced from life, andthe broad promises of divine hope are lost in anindividual struggle after good.

Like all historical facts, the Resurrection differs fromthe facts of science as being incapable of direct andpresent verification. And it differs from all other foctsof history because it is necessarily unique. Yet it is nottherefore incapable of that kind of verification which isappropriate to its peculiar nature.

Its verification lies in its abiding harmony with all the


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42 THE RECORDS OF .REVELATIONprogressive developments of man, and with each discoverywhich casts hght upon his destiny.

Completeness, indeed, is but another name for ascer-tained limitation. The grandest and highest faculties ofman are exactly those in which he most feels his weak-ness and imperfection. They are at present only half-fuliilled prophecies of powers which, as we believe, shallyet fmd an ample field for unrestricted development.

Special prayer is based upon a fundamental instinctof our nature. And in the fellowship which is establishedin prayer between man and God, we are brought intopersonal union with Him in Whom all things have theirbeing.

In this lies the possibility of boundless power ; forwhen the connection is once formed, who can lay downthe limits of what man can do in virtue of the communionof his spirit with the Infinite Spirit ?

That which on one occasion would be felt to be apersonal revelation of God might convey an impressionwholly different at another. The miracles of one periodor state of society might be morally impossible inanother.

2njcolo(j0 anil ^cifure1 HE requirements of exact science bind the attention

of each student to some one small field, and this littlefragment almost necessarily becomes for him the measureof the whole, if, indeed, he has ever leisure to lift up hiseyes to the whole at all.

For physical students as such, and for those who taketheir impressions of the universe solely from them.


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THE GOSPEL OF. THE RESURRECTION 43miracles can have no real existence. Nor is this all : notmiracles only, and this is commonly forgotten, but everymanifestation of will is at the same time removed fromthe world : all life falls under the power of absolutematerialism, a conclusion which is at variance with thefundamental idea of religion, and so with one of theoriginal assumptions on which our argument is based.

Theology deals with the origin and destiny of things :Science with things as they are according to humanobservation of them. Theology claims to connect thisworld with the world to come : Science is of this worldonly. Theology is confessedly partial, provisional,analogical in its expression of truth : Science, that ishuman science, can be complete, final, and absolute inits enunciation of the laws of phenomena.

Theology accepts without the least reserve the con-clusions of Science as such : it only rejects the claim ofScience to contain within itself every spring of knowledgeand every domain of thought.

This holds true of the lower and more exact forms ofScience, which deal with organic bodies ; but as soon asaccount is taken of the Science of organic bodiesofBiology and Sociologythen Science itself becomes aprophet of Theology.

In this broader and truer view of Science, Theologycloses a series, "a hierarchy of Sciences," as it has beenwell called, in which each successive member gains indignity what it loses in definiteness, and by takingaccount of a more complex and far-reaching play ofpowers, opens out nobler views of being.

While we admit that the tendency of a scientific ageis adverse to a living belief in miracles, we see that thistendency is due, not to the antagonism of science and


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THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 45the old order is violently overthrown, the new order isbuilt in part out of its ruins and not only upon them.

C STfje (Connection of Cljrfstianitg initlj llje ^P^istHRISTIANITY cannot be regarded alone andisolated from its antecedents. It is part of a wholewhich reaches back historically from its starting-point onthe day of Pentecost for nearly two thousand years. Itwas new but it was not unprepared. It professed to beitself the fulfilment and not the abolition of that whichwent before : to reveal outwardly the principle of aDivine Fatherhood by which all the contradictions anddisorders of life are made capable of a final resolution ;and to possess within it that universal truth which cantransfigure without destroying the various characteristicsof men and nations.It is then possible that what we feel to be difficultiesin its historic form are removed or lessened if we placeit in its due relation to the whole life of mankind ; and,on the other hand, the obvious fitness with which itcarries on and completes a long series of former teachingswill confirm with singular power its divine claims.

There have been attempts in all ages to separateChristianity from Judaism and Hellenism ; but to carryout such an attempt is not to interpret Christianity, butto construct a new religion. Christianity has not onlyaffinities with Judaism and Hellenism, but it includesin itself all the permanent truths to which both wit-ness.

It was bound up (so the apostles said) with promisesand blessings by which the Jewish people had beenmoulded through many centuries. It answered to wantsof which the Gentiles had become conscious throughlong periods of noble effort and bitter desolation.


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STfje ITictorfcs cf CtjristianitgV_^HRISTIANITY conquered the Roman Empire, andremained unshaken by its fall. It sustained the shockof the northern nations, and in turn civilised them. Itsuffered persecution and it wielded sovereignty. Itl)reserved the treasures of ancient thought and turnedthem to new uses. It inspired science, while it cherishedmysteries with which science could not deal. It assumedthe most varied forms and it moulded the most discord-ant characters.

Cj^ristianitg tcntrcti in tlje octrmc of tljeperson of Cfjrist

1 HERE have been conquerors who, in the course ofa lifetime, have overrun half the world and left lastingmemorials of their progress in cities and kingdomsfounded and overthrown. There have been monarchswho have, by their individual genius, consolidated vastempires and inspired them with a new life. There havebeen teachers who, through a small circle of devotedhearers, have rapidly changed the modes of thought of awhole generation. There have been religious reformerswho, by force or eloquence, have modified or reconstructedthe behef of nations. There have been devotees whoselives of superhuman endurance have won for them fromposterity a share of divine honour. There have beenheroes cut off by a sudden and mysterious fate, forwhose return their loyal and oppressed countrymenhave looked with untiring patience as the glorious andcertain sign of dawning freedom. There have beenfounders of new creeds who have furnished the ideal ofsupreme good to later generations in the glorified imageof their work. But in all the noble line of the mighty


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THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 47and tlie wise and the good in the great army of kingsand prophets and saints and martyrs, there is not onewho has ever claimed for liimself or received from hisfollowers the title of having in any way wrought outsalvation for men by the virtue of his life and death, asbeing in themselves, and not only by moral effect oftheir example, a spring of divine blessings.

The reality of the Resurrection is an adequate explana-tion of the significance which was attached to the deathof Christ. It seems impossible to discover anything elsewhich can be.

Wi}z fHiraclcs of Itjc first ^pIN OTHING indeed can be more unjust than thecommon mode of discussing the miracles of the firstage. Instead of taking them in connection with a crisisin the religious history of the world, disputants referthem to the standard of a period of settled progress suchas that in which we live.

The epoch at which they are said to have beenwrought was confessedly creative in thought, and that ina sense in which no other age ever has been, and thereseems a positive fitness in the special manifestation ofGod in the material as in the spiritual world.

The central idea of the time which, dimly appre-hended at Rome and Alexandria, found its completeexpression in the teaching of the apostles, was the unionof earth and heaven, the transfiguration of our wholeearthly nature; and the history of ancient speculationseems to show that nothing less than some outwardpledge and sign of its truth could have led to the boldenunciation of this dogma as an article of popularbelief.


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^\)z ^^Drorjrrss nf Eclirjfon anti tje ^rorjrcss of .ScienceIT is said that while science is progressive rehgion isstationary. The modes of advance in the two are certainlynot the same, but the advance in science is not morereal than the advance in religion. Each proceedsaccording to its proper law. The advance in rehgion isnot measured by an addition to a former state, whichcan be regarded in its fulness separately, but by achange : it is represented not by a common differencebut by a common ratio.

Viewed in this light, we can trace on a great scalethe triple division of post-Christian history as marked bythe successive victories of the Faith.

The fact of the Resurrection is its starting-point, therealisation of the Resurrection is its goal.

The fulness of the Truth is once shewn to men, as inold times the awful splendours of the Theocracy, andthen they are charged to work out in the slow strugglesof life the ideal which they have been permitted tocontemplate.

Thus it is that we can look without doubt or mis-givingupon the imperfections of the sub-apostoHc Church,or the corruptions of the middle ages, or the excesses ofthe Reformation. Even through these the divine workwent forward. The power of the Resurrection wasever carried over a wider field.

At first Christianity moved in the family, hallowingevery simplest relation of life. This was the work of theprimitive Church. Next it extended its sway to thenation and the community, claiming to be heard in theassemblies of princes and in the halls of counsellors.This was the work of the mediaeval Church. Now it has


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50 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONthe point which it occupies in history is absolutelyunique also.To this point all former history converges as to acertain goal : from this point all subsequent historyflows as from its life-giving spring.

On a large view of the life of humanity the Resur-rection is antecedently likely.

So far from being beset by greater difficulties thanany other historical fact, it is the one fact towards whichthe greatest number of lines of evidence converge.

In one form or other pre-Christian history is aprophecy of it, and post-Christian history an embodi-ment of it.

W^t Cbantjelfsts* Ui'ciri of tfjc Resurrection1 HE Evangelists treat the Resurrection as simply, un-

affectedly, inartificially, as everything else which theytouch.

The miracle to them seems to form a natural part ofthe Lord's history. They shew no consciousness thatit needs greater or fuller authentication than the otherevents of His life. Their position and office indeedexclude such a thought. They wrote not to createbelief, but to inform those already believing.

2rf)e 3xtien of ^\\\It is evident that the possibility of sin is necessarilyincluded in the creation of a finite, free being ; for thesimplest idea which we can form of sin is the finitesetting itself up against the infinite. Selfishness, whichexists potentially as soon as "self" exists, is the groundof all sin. Hence we can see how a perfect, finite beingmay yet be exposed to tem|)tation, for the sense of


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THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 51limitation brings with it the thought, or the possibihtyof the thought, of passing the hmit.

ICbil not tfje Contiition of ooli

T may be said that if moral evil were removed fromthe world "life would be impoverished." So indeed itappears at first sight to us who are habituated to thestartling contrasts of life : for us shadow is a necessity ofdistinct vision. Yet it would be difficult to shew thatthe more splendid qualities which are brought out (forinstance) by war are better, in any sense, than theircorrelatives which need no such field for their display :that the heroic forgetfulness or contempt of danger orsuffering, which springs from a great passion or a generousimpulse in the midst of a fierce conflict or under thesense of a deep wrong, is better than that rational self-control which we have seen can exist in the highestdegree without the pressure of evil. We are too apt tothink that virtue which is seen on a larger scale is itselfmagnified.

On the other hand it may be allowed that evil itselfserves as a part of our discipline : that it gives occasionfor the exercise of special virtues, and by antagonismcalls them into play ; yet this is only to say that it hasbeen so ordered that evil shall in some degree ministerto its own defeat.

Evil, while it may be the occasion of good, is nevertransmuted into good. Evil remains evil to the lastin whatever form it may shew itself. Sin remains sin :pain remains pain : ignorance (so far as it is culpable)remains ignorance : though sin and pain and ignorancemay call forth efforts of love and fortitude and patience.

Nor can it be said that sin realised, and not merely


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52 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONthe possibility of sin by the action of a free will, is thenecessary condition of human virtue, and consequentlyof human happiness. For if this were true, then itwould follow either that evil in itself will be eternal, orthat human life in its true sense will cease to be.

W(st i^fsuruction of t^e BotigvJuR present body is as the seed of our future body.The one rises as naturally from the other as the flowerfrom the germ.

We cannot, indeed, form any conception of the changewhich shall take place, except so far as it is shewn in thePerson of the Lord. Its fulfilment is in another state,and our thoughts are bound by this state. But there isnothing against reason in the analogy.

If the analogy were to explain the passage of manfrom an existence of one kind (limited by a body) to anexistence of another kind (unlimited by a body), it wouldthen be false ; but as it is, it illustrates by a vivid figurethe perpetuity of our bodily life, as proved in the Resur-rection of Christ.

The moral significance of such a doctrine as theResurrection of the body cannot be overrated. Bothpersonally and socially it places the sanctions if not thefoundations of morality on a new ground.

Each sin against the body is no longer a stain onthat w4iich is itself doomed to perish, but a defilementof that which is consecrated to an eternal life.

In this w^ay the doctrine of the Resurrection turnedinto a reality the exquisite myth of Plato, in which herepresented tyrants and great men waiting for their finalsentence from the judges of Hades, with their bodiesscarred and wounded by lust and passion and cruelty.


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Wi

THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 53'' SEfje Hains of i^alurc "

HxA.T we call " laws of nature " arc nothing morethan laws of our present observation of nature.

To the Christian the laws of nature are not laws onlybut prophecies. In the light of the Resurrection they aresymbols of something broader and more glorious beyondthese. They do not confirm hope but guide it.

^Tijc Cjjurdj a litintjtiotn1 HE kingdom of God" has been the watchword

equally of those who have cast aside the restraints andclaims of life and of those who have sought to mould itsform by the most merciless fanaticism.

The Church is itself the record of its history : it is amonument and a shrine.

Each race, each nation, each century, nay, each faith-ful workman, has left some mark upon it. Time gradu-ally harmonises parts which once seemed incongruous.

CTj^tistfanitg ant( paganism1 HERE is a dark side to the picture which we are aptto forget, but still there is an abiding grace and manliness

in classical life as it is seen in history and literature andart.

Unaffected interest in every human feeling, many sidedculture, stern and indomitable will, claim our respect andawaken in us responsive efforts.

But so far as we admire Paganism, there is nothingin Christianity antagonistic to it.Paganism closed its eyes to suffering and death.Christianity takes account of the whole nature of

man, of its good and of its evil, and justifies, in the face


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54 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONof the contradictions of life, tlie instinct which affirms itsdignity. It looks death face to face not as an inevitablenecessity but as a final consequence of sin, and yetrealises even now more than victory,

Christianity differs from Paganism as a whole differsfrom a part. It takes up into itself and harmonises withthe rest of our experience isolated truths to which Pagan-ism bears witness.

Paganism proclaims the grandeur of man : Judaismthe supremacy of God. Christianity accepts the anti-thesis and vindicates by the message of the Resurrectionthe grandeur of man in and through God.

Wiyt raark of (!i:fjristianit21 HIS then is the work of Christianity, first to establishthe common dignity of men as men, and to place on a

sure basis all purely human virtues ; and next to connectthe life of men wath its source and consummation, andbring it into fellowship with God.

W[)z Principle of Initg m CJristianftijIt may not, indeed, be a mere fancy to regard themanifold appearances of the Lord after His Resurrectionas prefiguring in some way the varieties which shouldexist in after time in His Church.

The unity of His Person w\as not in any way impaired,and yet He shewed Himself to His disciples in different"forms."

And it may be still that the faithful eye can see aBody of Christ where His Presence is hidden from others.For even in the one body there are many bodies ; andas the whole Church is sometimes contemplated in itscompleteness as distinct from Christ, though most closely


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THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 55bound to Him as His bride ; so is the same true ofseparate Churches. " Ye are a body {jiot the body) ofChrist, and members in particular," St. Paul says tothe Church of Corinth. The definite article destroysthe force of his argument.And so again in his second epistle : "I espousedyou "the congregation to which he is writing" to onehusband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin toChrist."

Of the life of the Church part is open, part is hidden.We can see divisions, differences, limitations ; but allthat is eternal and infinite in it, all that controls actionswhich perplex us and harmonises discords which areunresolved to our senses, is not to be perceived on earth,but is with Christ in heaven.

(IBsscnttal ^Initu tioes not require ^iternal ^nitgIT follows necessarily that external, visible unity is notrequired for the essential unity of the Church.

The congregations of Jewish and Gentile Christianswere no less One in Christ, though the outward fellow-ship between them was imperfect or wanting : theircommon life lay deeper than the controversies whichtended to keep them apart. Their isolation was a proofof imperfection, but not of death.

What errors are deadly it does not fall to our part toattempt to determine. It is enough to observe thatdifferences of opinion which were once thought bymany to be fatal to unity were really consistent with it.The promise of Christ does not reach to the unity of theoutward fold at any time. " Other sheep," He said, " Ihave, which are not of this fold : them also I mustbring, and they shall hear my voice ; and they shall


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THE GOSPEL OE THE RESURRECTION 57There is always a great danger that that which has

been found of critical use at one time will be pronouncednecessary for all time.Mistaken gratitude changes the outward means ofdeliverance into an idol. The organisation throughwhich the spirit once worked is reckoned holy, evenwhen the spirit has left it.

The work of the mediceval Church (for example) re-quired modes of operation which could not be retainednow without a faithless neglect of the lesson which Godhas taught us in the last four centuries.

The spirit of the Resurrection tries and transfigureseach transitory embodiment of Truth.

(^Tfjrist risen tlje ^Plctirje of i\z ^destitution of all (JTIjincjsW HEREVER we look the first question which arisesis ever : To what purpose is this waste ? On all sideswe see a prodigal wealth of powers which to us appearto pass away without effect, of germs of life which neverfulfil what we think to be their proper destiny, of beautywhich gladdens no human eye. In the moral world thesame mystery occurs.

All nature teaches the same lesson. We know in part.It is enough. If Christ be risen, in that fact lies thepledge of "the restitution of all things" towards whichmen are encouraged to work.

Aspects of ^ositibism i\\ relation to (JTJristianitjjIN O religion can fail to be a fruitful subject of study :even the rudest reveals something of the natural feelingsand wants of man which are awakened by the experienceof life.


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58 THE RECORDS OF REVELATIONAnd exactly as we believe Christianity to be the

Truth, we shall confidently expect to find in it all thatis true in the manifold expressions of human thought.

Thus it has happened not unfrequently that independ-ent speculations or instinctive aspirations have broughtout elements in the Gospel which had been before over-looked or set aside. They were there, and even activelyat work, but they were not consciously apprehended.And so it seems to be now. The religion ofPositivism is offered as the final result of a profoundanalysis of society and man, and its unquestionableattractiveness to pure and vigorous minds indicates thatit does meet with some peculiar force-present phases ofthought. A

B.F. Westcott - Thoughts on Revelation and Life

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