2. But at this point notice requires to be taken of two other historical facts with which the posi- tion of Christ and His teaching came inevitably into immediate and important relations. First, the Jewish people occupied a unique and pre- eminent place among all the peoples of antiquity as regards the fact of human progress. Among them there had been developed, many centuries prior to ChriNts time, ideas and sentiments, aspira- tions and hopes relative to the progres.sive destiny of mankind, which were entirely phenomenal, and which possessed immense value, partly because in many points they were highly enlightened, partly because of their profound morcd significance, and partly because of the service they rendered in the preparation of the way for the new, progressive era to be ushered into the life of humanity by Christ's advent (e.g. Gn •>2i5-is, Is '2--' 10'-« 42i-ii 62. 65'"-^, Jer 31'-=^-**, Ezk 36--2s, Mic A^-\ Ps 67. 72. 102^^-- 145'"^^). The people of Israel, as the pas- sages referred to sliow, conceived of their own ' golden age ' and that of the Gentile peoj)les as lying not behind but ahead of them in the less or more distant future, and they were the Hrst people in whose mind this idea shaped and rooted itself. In this outlook of theirs on the future all those elements which formed their general idea of the fact of progress came into play. What those ele- ments were need not be stated here. But one other word maj- be added, viz., that if conditions had favoured the free and full development of all tlie ideas of progress and of all the i)rogressive sentiments and strivings to which the worthiest leaders and teachers of the nation had attained in the noontide of the prophetic age, and if this development had continued until the fulness of the times had arrived for Christ's appearance, two things would have hap]>ened : the task of His Mission, on the one hand, would have Ijeen im- mensely lightened ; and, on the other, tiie task of Cliristianity in evohnng the moral progress of mankind would have been less difiicult, and its success greatly acceleratetl.
But. sri-ourlbj, the progressive developments in the earlier stages of the nation's history- had an arrest put upon them in various directions, and that while they were still immature. When Christ appeared. He found that the religion of
426
PROGKESS
PROGRESS
Israel, transformed into Judaism, had departed from the path of progress and committed itself to the position of finality. The religion of the Pro- phets, which in its ideas, sentiments, and strivings had begun to cross the boundaries of exclusive nationality, had been changed, as a system of law, as a method of Divine worship and service, as a way of salvation, and as a political ideal, into a narrow, rigid, national institution ; and this institu- tion, it was claimed, had a right to exist throughout all ages, although it was, in effect, a wall of separa- tion not only between Jews and Gentiles, but also between the latter and God.
It was in these circumstances, then, that Christ appeared to reveal the principles of progress and to become a moral power making for their perfect realization in the life and destiny of man. And towards the two facts thus indicated He had necessarily to relate Himself, His teaching, and, indeed, His entire work and influence. Towards the flrst fact and the progressive elements and ten- dencies. He took up an attitude of appreciation and .sympathy, and made it His aim and en- deavour to promote their development to higher and wider forms of realization. Towards Judaism, on the other hand, so far as its anti-progressive vices were concerned. He took up what He knew would prove to be eventually an attitude of effec- tive reaction. It is evident, however, that the finality which Judaism claimed for itself must have rendered it necessary for Him to put some restrictions on Himself as to His method of com- municating and developing His ideas on the sub- ject of progress. For any outspoken and persistent attack on Judaism on the point in question would have been sure to arouse against Him overwhelm- ing opposition, as is manifest from what happened to Stephen the proto-martyr. This may have been one of His reasons for His persistent non- interference as a teacher either with the nature or the administration of any of the civil or political institutions that He found existing in Palestine, or knew to exist in the Roman Empire genel■allJ^
But He had another, a deeper, a much farther- reaching reason for silently letting civil and po- litical institutions alone. It was not that He was indifferent to them, or that He considered them as not belonging to the nature and objects of His mission as the Saviour of the world. The civil and political state of society as He knew it was a matter of profound and .sorrowful interest to Him (Mt 9^ 20^). He must have been quite aware of the fact that the renewal of the civil and political life of mankind was needed everywhere in the existing civilized as well as uncivilized world. He was fully conscious of the fact that His own perfect self-devotion to the service of God and man endangered His life, and would bring Him to His cross to a large extent because of the vices of the civil and political condition of things under Avhich He conducted His ministry (Mt 20^'^-'^^, Jn 18''^*-19i^). He also anticipated the fact that the continuance of this evil order of things, after He was gone, would involve His servants and His cause in suffering (Mt 24'"^^).