Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/705

Rh CHRISTIANITY 691 church gathers itself, for it is the presence of God speaking to His people. Both naturalists and those who hold a mechanical theory of Christianity agree in holding that there is an external sort of development in the Bible, and that the church can go beyond the Bible, whereas those who hold the spiritual view of Christianity deny both these positions. Naturalists hold that one part of the Bible is beyond the other, and since the Bible is simply the outcome of man s religious thoughts and feelings in certain ages and places, they believe that men now may give utterance to thoughts and sentiments which in depth of feeling and insight may surpass those contained in the Bible. The Tubingen theologians, for example, believe that the New Testament is a series of deposits of religious truth, in which the truths taught by Jesus are supplemented by the teachings of His disciples, by the lessons of Paul, and by the theories of Christians educated in the philosophy of Greece ; while Dr Newman considers that the church, in virtue of a super natural gift bestowed upon her, can add to the doctrines contained in the Bible according to certain well-defined lines of development. On the other hand those who hold the spiritual view of Christianity believe that the church can never go beyond the Bible, and that progress in Christian theology means greater insight into the manifesta tion of God in the Bible and greater power to interpret the supernatural facts and forces made known therein. The various theories differ also in the closeness of con nection which they think subsists between Christianity and the Bible. The naturalist and those who put the church above the Bible as the formative power in Christianity both make the relation between Christianity and the Bible a purely intellectual one, whereas those who hold by the spiritual view make the Bible a means of grace and not merely the quarry whence to hew theological dogmas. But the naturalist agrees with spiritual Christians in maintain ing the authoritative character of the Bible, while the mechanical Christian sets the Bible aside when it does not agree with church tradition. With the naturalist, how ever, the Bible is authoritative because it is the only set of documents which tell him about Christianity iu its primitive state. It is authoritative because it is the only witness to the historical facts of Christianity, not because it is to be a law to him. To the spiritual Christian, on the other hand, the Bible is authoritative because it is a revelation of those spiritual forces and a record of those spiritual events on which Christianity still depends, and svhich teach him the way of salvation. Definition. ^- sum U P&amp;gt; then, Christianity claims to be no mere social revolution or natural step in the march of human progress. It is a religion whose sources are not to be found within man s nature but outside of it in the saving revelation of God in Christ, and Jesus is thus the author and giver of an eternal life which spreads itself and is maintained, not by mechanical contrivance, but by the living Spirit of God j entering into human history, and building on the basis of reconciliation a kingdom of God which is both human and divine, and which comes and comes again and again in wave after wave of developing completion until the will of God is done on earth as in heaven. Frepara- Christianity began its career in the world at a time on of the singularly propitious both politically, socially, and religiously vorld for or fa Q a( j veil t O f a n3W universal and spiritual religion, ranee of Even apart from the entrance of Christianity the reign L hristi- of Augustus over the whole Roman empire was an epoch- mity. making period. Never before had the various races of mankind been united under one universal empire which promised to be permanent. For the Roman power was different from the governments of Asiatic adventurers and Greek warriors. &quot;Where Rome planted her foot was fated to remain Roman. The ancient Asiatic empires had been for the most part the creation of victorious generals, and had been kept in life only by a tolerably rapid succession of dynasties ; their power seemed to depend on the character of the individual ruler. And the empire of Alexander, while more enduring, was not coherent. But from the beginning of her conquests the spirit of Rome herself seemed always to be greater than the vigour and ability of her generals and rulers, and she alone of empires seemed to be indifferent to the precarious stability of government ensured by regular dynastic succession. &quot; The Romans conquered like savages, but ruled like philosophic statesmen, till, from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, from the shores of Britain and the borders of the German forests to the sands of the African desert, the whole Western world was consolidated into one great commonwealth, united by bonds of law and government, by facilities of communication and commerce, and by the general dissemination of the Greek and Latin languages.&quot; The world had a centre as it never had before, and the golden threads of well-established government connected all the world with Rome. Roads were made connecting Rome with the remotest countries, and a system of posts established which provided for easy communication with the capital. Military colonies carried Roman usages and manners, civilization and privileges, to the remotest corners of the empire. Magnificent cities were built in such outlying dependencies as Britain, Gaul, and Germany. The arts and civilization were gradually extending their dominion and subjugating the most distant and most desolate places. To all this Augustus added a more perfectly devised centralization which made the empire a more compact whole, so that any new influence made its throbs felt from centre to extremities in a wonder fully short time. The world was made ready for the furtherance of the spread of opinions as it had never been before, and for becoming spell-bound by invisible spiritual laws like those which Christian morality weaves around its disciples. The time of Augustus, if it was the beginning of the decline and fall of the Roman empire as a visible earthly dominion, was also the beginning of its permanent establishment on earth in a purely invisible way, when its policy, statesmanship, and legislation were to pass into all the nations of the earth and become part of their lives so long as the world endured. Socially, too, the world was wonderfully ripe for the entrance and spread of a universal religion. Slavery it is true flourished, and there were conquerors and conquered, privileged and unprivileged classes. But the beginning had already been made of that lavish distribution of Roman citizenship which laid the foundation of a common political life throughout the empire. The religious character of the times was also marvellously adapted for furthering the advance of Christianity. The old national creeds were fast disappearing, and were being submerged in the vast cosmopolitan religion of Rome. It was the wise custom of conquering Rome to do nothing to disturb the religions of the peoples subdued by her armies, and commonly the principal deities of the conquered nations were added to the overcrowded pantheon of Rome. This religious tolerance or indifference gradually began to eat the heart out of paganism, and all over the civilized world the pagan creeds sat lightly on their worshippers. The various deities were looked on as interchangeable manifesta tions of a supreme fate-power who reigned alone in the invisible world, while in this visible earth the genius of Rome seemed to be the one object of worship. The old national religions with their well-defined outlines and limits were being gradually effaced, and men were longing for some religion which, while it had the universal character which the times required, should have more individuality and