CHRISTIANITY
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the change which came over Christianity in the first thousand years of its history.
The point at issue in the 16th cent, between Roman Catholics and Protestants, one which still divides Christendom, concerned the real nature of this development. Had the growth of fifteen hundred years in doctrine, worship, and organiza- tion simply made explicit what was implicit in the New Testament ; or were the accretions to the original faith excrescences, exaggerations, or more serious corruptions; and how was a line to be drawn between false and true ? The Reformation was a protest against abuses which had become ingrained in Catholicism. Tlie need of ' reform in head and members' had been felt and acknow- ledged long before, and only when repeated efforts to secure it peaceably had proved futile was it seen that a violent cataclysm like that brought about by Luther was necessary before efiectual improvement could be attained. The Reformers claimed to be returning to original principles— to the New Testament instead of the Church ; to justification by faith instead of salvation by baptism, absolution, and the Mass ; and to direct acknowledgment of the Headship of Christ instead of blind submission to the edicts of His vicar upon earth. Luther, who had intended only to remove .some obvious abuses which disfigured the creed and practice of the Church he loved, found himself cutting at the very roots of ecclesiastical authority and institutional religion. But, consciously or un- consciously, the movement of which he was partly the originator, partly the organ and servant, meant a resolute efiort to return to the faith and spirit of primitive Christianity.
This efiort was not final, of course. It is easy now to condemn Luther's procedure as illogical and indefensible, to say that he should either have gone further or not so far. Doubtless the result of the conflict between Romanism and Protestant- ism in the 16th cent, was not ultimate : the issues raised by Luther went deeper than he intended, but they were not deep and far-reaching enough. To every generation and to every century its own task. But the whole Reformation movement showed that Christianity as a religion possessed remarkable recuperative power ; that the organism could throw off a considerable portion of what seemed its very substance, not only without injury to its life, but with marvellous increase to its vigour ; and that the essence of the religion did not lie where the Roman Catholic Church had sought to place it. Subsequent history has con- firmed this. ' Evangelical revivals,' great mis- sionary enterprises, remarkable extensions of the old religion in new lands and under new con- ditions, unexpected manifestations of new features and resuscitation of pristine energies, have during the last two or three centuries illustrated afresh the same power of recovery and spiritual reinforce- ment, and raised afresh the question as to what constitutes the essence of a religion which is so full of vitality and so capable of developing from within unanticipated and apparently inexhaustible energies. The Christianity of to-day embraces a multitude of systems and organizations, it in- cludes most varied creeds and cults, it influences societies and civilizations that are worlds apart, and the (juestion is perpetually recurring whether there be indeed one spirit and aim pervading the whole, and if so, where it lies and what it is.
This question becomes the more pressing when the future is contemplated. Many are prepared for still more striking developments in the 20th century. The spectacle of two or three great historical Churches on the one hand preserving the kind of stability which is gained by outward conformity to one doctrinal creed and ecclesiastical
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system, and, on the other, an almost endless diver- sity of sects and denominations, with a tendency to fissiparous multiplication— cannot represent lli'e T^Xos, the ideal, the goal of the Christian religion. Christianity cannot be identified with one Church, or flith all the Churches. Whilst many of these are enfeebled by age, the religion itself is young with a perpetually renewed vigour, and not for centuries has it shown more certain signs of freshly budding energy. Each new age brings new problems. As they arise, the power and permanence of a religion are tested by its ability to grapple with and to solve them, and by its success or failure is it judged. The problems of the present and the near future are mainly social, and the complaint is freely made that Christianity has proved itself unable to cope with them. But the principles and capabilities of a religion caimot be gauged by those of its representatives and ex- ponents at a particular epoch. The assailants of Christianity as it is are often the allies of Chris- tianity as it should be and will be. History has too frequently suggested the question which the poet asks of the suffering Christ — ' Say, was not this Thy passion, to foreknow | In death's worst hour the works of Christian men?' What new regenerative influences, swaying the whole of society with wider and freer quickening power, will be developed in the 20tli cent, none can tell. But the present state of Christendom, no less than a survey of two thousand years of history, is anew compelling men to inquire. What, then, is the essence of Christianity ?
iv. Essential character of Christianity. — The interpretation of the facts thus hastily sketched appears to be this. Christianity in the concrete has been far from perfect, that is ob- vious ; its serious and widespread corruptions have often proved a scandal and a stumbling- block. But neither has its history manifested a mere perversion of a great and noble ideal. Again and again in the darkest hour light has shone forth, and at the lowest ebb a new flood-tide of energy has arisen, making it possible to distin- guish the real religion in its purity and power from its actual embodiment in decadent and un- worthy representatives.