MIRACLES
308
MIRACLES
made known to us in revelation itself; knowledge of man, both as regards his present state and his liiture hopes; more exact knowledge, too, of right and wrong, the ap- peal now lying not to the varying codes of human mo- rality, nor even to the inner conscience, which, as a fac- nlty capable of education and development, is no rigid rule, but one which bends to every state of things, and adapts itself to every stage and degree of Immaii prog- ress and decay. Under a revealed religion tlic appeal ii to an unchanging law of God. Morality has at last a settled basis, and man a fixed standard by which to judge his actions.
Now it seems almost supererogatory to show that natural religion does not suffice for man's wants. We liuow of no one who has definitely asserted that it does, r.ven Kant, though he appears to think that Christian- ity might now be dispensed with, yet distinctly holds tliat natural religion, without the teaching of Christian- ity, would not even now have been enlightened enough, or pure enough, or certain enough, to guide man's life.* jJut the wliole state of the heathen world before Christ came, and now wlierever Christianity is unknown, is ]ir(mf sulHcicut of the utter powerlessness of natural re- ligiini. The (Jreek world, with its marvellous taste in art and ai>i)rcciation of the beautiful, was yet intensely wicked. Tlie state of things at Rome under the empire was so foul that modern pens would blusli to describe it. What natural religion is where civilization does not ex- ist, the condition now of savage tribes i)roves clearly enougli. We will touch therefore only u[)on one point, that of progress. Apart from Christianity, there are at most in the world the very faintest indications of progress; usually none at all. In no form of natural religion, in no heathen religion, was there anything to lead man onward, or to make him better. At best, as under Moliammedanism, or the religion of Confucius, there was stagnation. And when, as in the case of so many of the oklcr civilizations of the world, decay set in, there was no recuperative force. Man sank steadily anil h(>iul(ssly. In the Old Testament alone do we find thr ilinu-ht iif progress. A nation is there formed for a high ami uniijue purpose; and to shape it for its end it is placed in a special and immediate relation to God, and is taught by tnessengers sent directly by him. Un- der this special dispensation, its one business was to grow lit for the work jjrepared for it; its one motto, progress. In the New Testament, jjrogress is the cen- tral tintuglit everywhere jiresent; but no longer now for one nation — it is progress for all mankind. It is a new Idngdom tliat is proclaimed, and all who enter it are rcipiired to put away old things, and become new. It belongs to men wlio have left their previous condition far bLhiud, and who, forgetting what is past, "reach forth unto those things which are before." And special stress is laid everywhere upon the duty of bringing all men into this new kingdom, and of Christians being the purifying salt which is to preserve the whole world.
Tlie means by whicli Cliristianity thus renovates mankind, and becomes the moving force of all modern and real jirogress, is partly tliat it alone jiroposes to us jirinciples so perfect tliat at the utmost our appro.ach to ilieir realization is a very distant one. The complete abnegation of self, the treatment of others with that justice, liberality, and love with whidi we would wish ourselves to be treated, and a holiness as absolute and entire as that of God himself— such principles, while practically aiding us in our upward course, yet set us a standard which, as a matter of fact, is unattainable. How often this is misunderstood I ISIcn contrast our Christianity with what is set before us in the Gospels, and, either in mockery or in grief at the dis])arity, assert that our state is practically a mere heathenism. But while there is aini)le room for lamentation that we
* " We may woll coiucdc that illhe (Jospcl liad not i)ip- vioii>ly taii^'lit tlio uuivcisiil inoial l:i\vs, re;ison would ii.it yuL liMvc atliiiiicd so peiffct an insi-lit into them."— Letter of Kant to Jacobi, iu J;icobi's n'erkc, iii, 0'>3.
Christians are content to remain so verj' much below the standard set us, yet, so far as there is jirogress to- wards it — so far as it can be truly said that this genera- tion is in a higher stage than the last was, and is train- ing the youth to attain in the next to a still nearer ap- proximation to Christian perfectness, so far Christianity is doing its work ; not merely its work on individuals — these constantly, even where the general state of things is bad and low, it raises to a high degree of virtue and holiness— but its work on the mass. If nationally we arc making no progress, then our Christianity is not having its jiroper work, and, in an age which Judges by results, is not proving its right still to exist. But even at the worst no Christian nation is hopeless: heathen nations sank without hope. Christian nations have again and again risen from the lowest degradation.