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THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON A HUNDRED

YEARS OF HISTORY

CHARLES SUMNER begins one of his scholarly lectures with these words:

History is sometimes called a gallery, where are exhibited scenes, events, and characters of the past. It may also be called the world's great charnel-house, where are gathered coffins, dead men's bones, and all the uncleanness of years that have fled. Thus is it both an example and a warning to mankind.1

And Christian history is no exception to this enlightened estimate. Many things that have taken place since the ascension of our Lord, sanctioned by his followers, though condemned by his teachings and Spirit, have been characterized by deceit and corruption, and have retarded the march of human progress. Religion is never benefited by apologies and courtly exonerations from blame, when her name has been dragged in the mire by her degenerate children. If she has been put in the wrong, and if her fair fame has been blackened, let the wrong be distinctly pointed out and denounced; for only in this way can she be relieved of suspected complicity with the guilt of her misguided adherents. If, occasionally, she has been converted into a whited sepulchre to satisfy the unnatural cravings of her ghoulish devotees, it is due to mankind that this perversion be held up to scorn and shame. In this manner her

1 "White Slavery in Barbary States."

future may be guarded from similar calamitous relapses, and her past lamentable shortcomings be made to serve as beacon-lights of faithful warning.

But while in the annals of Christianity there is much to deplore, there is far more to inspire and delight. She has, indeed, supplied the world with a picture gallery, where heroic figures and battle paintings tell a story of unequaled devotion and beneficence. And the more thoroughly it is inspected and studied, the more profound becomes the impression that Christianity is central to the development of the race, and has had much to do in determining its aims and aspirations. Hegel has taught that history is the progressive self-realization of a universal spirit in harmony with a general law; while Schopenhauer, at the other extreme, has maintained that there is no advance whatever, but only a kaleidoscopic succession of crimes and rascalities. Neither philosopher may be entitled to our unqualified assent, but assuredly the pessimist advocates what is utterly repugnant to reason. Lately an interesting volume has appeared which covers this field of inquiry, and its author, Mr. Beattie Crozier, approaching the subject unbiased by religious predilections, perceives in history an orderly plan and development, and is impressed by the spectacle of so many generations of human souls all moving unconsciously toward a predestined end"; and he is therefore led to believe in "a stupendous and over-arching supernaturalism everywhere enfolding and pervading the world and its affairs, and giving scope and exercise to all that is properly religious in thought and feeling." Of this "The History of Intellectual Development."

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supernaturalism Christianity is the symbol and the token, through whose offices and ministries it principally, though not exclusively, trains the race, and leads the generations onward to their destined goal. Mr. Mallock somewhere says: "In the infinite hush of space there is but one sound-the tides of human history, like the moaning of the homeless sea." But humanity is not homeless, like the sea. The faith proclaimed by Christ has revealed the bourne and haven, and is itself drawing the "tides" toward the peaceful harbor where the "moaning" shall be hushed forever.

We have already admitted that Christianity has been always more or less affected by its earthly surroundings, by the philosophies and the type of culture prevalent among, and the social and political institutions accepted by, a people. The world has acted on religion from without, modifying its temper, influencing its theology, and supplying it with a medium of expression varying with the peculiar characteristics of the nations submitting to its authority. Thus, writes Schlegel:

His inborn melancholy and profoundness of feeling led the Egyptian as a hermit into the wildest deserts. The Greeks brought to religious subjects the dialectical acuteness so peculiar to them, and early enough also the contentiousness connected therewith. The Romans, of a more practical turn of mind, organized the ritual requisite for the Christian mysteries with becoming dignity, and instituted a most beautiful ceremonial, and, as every society requires well-defined laws, they drew up with sagacity the rules of life necessary for the larger and smaller ecclesiastical and Christian societies. The Germans, lastly, fought like true knights for the Christian Faith, when once they had embraced it, against its fanatical enemies. Moreover, instead of severing Christianity

from life, as if care for eternity were a thing apart, they, with a full, heartfelt sentiment of the priceless treasure they had acquired, gave a Christian organization to their whole domestic and public life, referring it to and basing it on the church.1

In Great Britain, in Russia, and in the United States, religion reflects the peculiar genius and pursuits of the people, that is, it has been more or less Russianized, and Anglicanized, and Americanized. The national type, the national tastes, and the national way of doing things, are seen in forms of service, in methods of preaching, and in that indescribable air or manner which we associate with different races as the distinctive sign of their individuality. In this sense, every country has a national church; and more than that, every civilization its own peculiar spiritual counterpart.

As we

But the process is not a one-sided process. might have supposed, if "the earth helps the woman," to use scriptural imagery, the woman helps the earth. There is action and reaction; there is mutual interchange; there is the world influencing the church, and then there is the church overcoming and subduing the world. And it is by this reciprocal action, with the spiritual gradually attaining the ascendency, that the final harmony between the temporal and the eternal will be effected, and the ideal of a social life informed. and inspired by the divine be fully realized. Therefore, in history we have Christianity disclosed as a mighty force acting on society at almost every point, tempering its policies, refining its tastes, checking its passions, quickening its intelligence, purifying its ambitions. Hence, a brilliant writer has said:

1 "Lectures on Modern History," p. 82.

Christianity was the electric spark which first roused the warlike nations of the North, rendered them susceptible of a higher civilization, stamped the peculiar character, and founded the political institutions of modern nations, which have sprung out of such heterogeneous elements. And we may add, Christianity was the connecting power which linked together the great community of European nations, not only in the moral and political relations of life, but in science and modes of thinking. The church was like the all-embracing vault of heaven, beneath whose kindly shelter those warlike nations began to settle in peace, and gradually to frame their laws and institutions. Even the office of instruction, the heritage of ancient knowledge, the promotion of science, and of all that tended to advance the progress of the human mind, devolved to the care of the church, and were exclusively confined to the Christian schools.1

Even if every statement contained in this tribute cannot be fully sustained, still the principle involved must be accepted as true. The history of nineteen centuries reveals the imprint of Christianity; and where the type of Christianity has been pure, simple, and in harmony with the spirit of Jesus, its influence has been wholly advantageous; but where its type has been more or less. arrogant, worldly, and despotic, to that extent its yoke has proven a questionable good, if not an unquestionable evil. In common with the majority of students I regard its total effect on the course of history as beneficial. But of its power there can be no debate. Whether conferring, in accord with its essential genius, unalloyed blessings, or contributing, through its perversion, woes and wrongs to the already afflicted race, still its imperial might has been continually manifested. Whatever else it may at times have been, it has never been impotent.

1 Schlegel's "Philosophy of History," p. 342.