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 CHRISTIANITY

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CHRISTIANITY

idea, expressed in the opening verses of Genesis, is frequently repeated in the rest of the Old Testament (see Pss.,"xxxii, 6; cvi, 20; cxlvii, 15; Prov., viii, 22; Wisdom, vii. 24-30, etc.). Philo, therefore, was not compelled to seek in the Platonic Notts, which is merely the directive cause of creation, or the Stoic Logos, as the rational soul of the universe, the founda- tions of his doctrine. His Logos theory is not at all clear or consistent, but. apparently, he conceives the Word to be a quasi-personal, subordinate, intermediate being between God and the world, enabling the Crea- tor to come into contact with matter. He calls this Logos "the eldest" and the "first-born" son of God, and uses phrases that suggest the Fourth Gospel; but there is no resemblance in substance between the bold, clear, categoric statements of the inspired Apostle, and the misty, if poetical, conceptions of the Alexan- drian philosopher. We may conjecture that St. John chose his language so as to impress the cultivated Greek mind with the true doctrine of the Divine Logos, thus connecting his teaching with the older revelation, and, at the same time, putting a check upon the Gnostic errors to which Philoism was already giving birth.

Abandoning the Apostolic Age, Harnack, in his "History of Dogma", ascribes the hellenization of Christianity to the apologists of the second century (1st German edit., p. 253). This contention can best be refuted by showing that the essential doctrines of Christianity are contained already in the New Testa- ment Scriptures, while giving, at the same time, their due force to the traditions of corporate Christianity. If the Nicene Creed cannot be proved article by article from the sacred records, interpreted by the tradition that preceded them and determined their canon, then the rationalist assertion will have some support. But the point of comparison with the Creed must be not only the Sermon on the Mount, as Hatch desires, nor the' merely verbal teaching of Christ, but the whole New Testament record. Christ taught by His life no less than by His words, and it was His actions and sufferings as well as His oral lessons that His Apostles preached. For the fuller exposition of this, see Rev- elation. Here it suffices to note that Christian the- ology became, in the hands of the apologists the syn- thesis of all speculative truth. It met and conquered the various imperfect systems that possessed men's minds at its birth or arose after that event. The early heresies — Sabellianism, Arianism. and the rest — were but attempts to make Christianity one of a number of philosophies; the attempts failed, but the scattered truths that those philosophies contained were shown, as time went on, to exist and find their fulfilment in Christianity as well. "The Church", says Newman, "has been ever 'sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing and asking them questions ' ; claiming to herself what they said rightly, correcting their errors, supply- ing their defects, completing their beginnings, expani 1- ing their surmises, and thus gradually by means of them enlarging the range and refining the sense of her teaching" (Development of Doctrine, viii). In the same section Newman thus summarizes the battle and tin' triumph: "Such was the conflict of Chris- tianity with tlir old established Paganism, which was almost dead before Christianity appeared; with the Oriental Mysteries, Hitting wildly to and I'm like spec- tres; with tin' Gnostics, who made Knowledge all in

all, despised I he many, and called ( 'at holies mere chil- dren in the Truth: with the Neo-Platopists, men of literature, pedants, visionaries, or courtiers; with the Manichees, who professed to seek truth by Reason, not by faith; with the fluctuating teachers of the school oi Anti.ieh. the time-serving Eusebians, and the reck- less vex atile Brians; with the fanatic Montanists and

harsh Nov.il u n. who lnank from the Catholic doc- trine, without power to propagate their own. These i] consistence, yet they contained ele-

ments of truth amid their error, and had Christianity been as they, it might have resolved into them ; but it had that hold of the truth which gave its teaching a gravity, a directness, a consistency, a sternness, and a force to which its rivals, for the most part, were strangers" (ibid., viii).

II. The Essentials op Christianity. — We have so far seen, in its origin and growth, the essential inde- pendence of Christianity of all other religious systems, except that of Judaism, with which, however, its rela- tion was merely that of substance to shadow. It is now time to point out its distinctive doctrines. In early Christianity there was much that was transitory and exceptional. It was not presented full-grown to the world, but left to develop in accordance with the forces and tendencies that were implanted in it from the first by its Founder. And we, having His assur- ance that His Spirit would abide with it for all time, to inspire and regulate its human elements, can see in its subsequent history the working out of His design. Hence, it does not trouble us to find in primitive Christianity qualities which did not survive after they had served their purpose. Natural causes and the course of events, always under the Divine guid- ance, resulted in Christianity taking on the form which would best secure its permanence and effi- ciency. In Apostolic times, supreme authority as to faith and morals was vested in twelve representatives of Christ, each of whom was commissioned to pro- claim and infallibly interpret His Gospel. The hier- archy was in an inchoate condition. Special charis- mata, like the gifts of prophecy and tongues, were be- stowed on individuals outside the official teaching body. The Church was in process of organization, and the various Christian communities, united, doubt- less, in a strong bond of charity, and in the sense that they had one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, were to a large extent independent of one another in the matter of government.

Such was the fashion in which Christ allowed His Church to be established. It has greatly changed in outward appearances during the ages. Has there been any corresponding change in substance? Are the es- sentials of Christianity the same now as they were then? We affirm that they are, and we prove our as- sertion by examining the main points of the teaching, both of Christ and His Apostles. We must look upon the matter as a whole. We cannot judge of Chris- tianity properly before the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Gospels describe a process which was not con- summated till after Pentecost. The Apostles them- selves were not fully Christians till they knew through faith all that Christ was — their God and their Re- deemer as well as their Master. And as Christianity furnishes a regulative principle for both mind and will, teaching us what to believe and what to do, faith no less than works must characterize the perfect Christian.

(1) Taking, then, first of all. Christ's own dogmatic ami mural teaching, we may divide it into (a) what He did not reveal but only reaffirmed, (b) what He drew from obscurity, and (c) what He added to the sum total of belief and practice.

(a) The Jews, at the time of Christ, however worldly-minded, were at any rate free from their ancestral tendency to idolatry. They were strict monotheists, believing in the unity, power, and holi- ness of the Supreme Deity. Christ reaffirmed, puri- fied, and continued the Jewish theology, both moral and dogmatic. He asserted the spiritual nature of the Godhead (John, i, IS: iv. 24), and insisted on the importance of worshipping Mini in spirit, i. e. with more than merely external rites. And He exacted the same right dispositions of heart in the whole of God's service, showing how both guilt and merit de- pend on the will and Intention (Matt., v, 28; XV, L8). He recalled the original unity and indissolubility of