THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Can utterly abolish or destroy!
Hence in a season of calm weather
Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the Children sport upon the shore.
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore." ■
The teaching of the greatest poets of the last fifty years gives forth lessons even more religious, and also more impressively Christian. 7. Brown- The poems of Browning embody a reing. ligion more Christian than is found in either Wordsworth or Pope. That God is a Divine Father, almighty and loving, and that Jesus Christ, his Son, is our Lord, are doctrines which embody both the statement and the atmosphere of Robert Browning. The Pontiff says in " The Pope " in an address made to God:
" O Thou, — as represented here to me In such conception as my soul allows, — Under Thy measureless, my atom width!
Our known unknown, our God revealed to man.
Existent somewhere, somehow, as a whole;
Here, as a whole proportioned to our sense, —
There (which is nowhere, speech must babble thus!),
In the absolute immensity, the whole
Appreciable solely by Thyself, —
Here, by the little mind of man, reduced
To littleness that suits his faculty,
In the degree appreciable too." 2
In other passages Browning speaks of " a need, a trust, a yearning after God." The air is called " the clear, pure breath of God that loveth us." (Crowell's ed., vii. 203.)
The divinity of Christ is also a doctrine taught by Browning. In " Christmas Eve " Christ stands forth as —
" He who trod, Very man and very God, This earth in weakness, shame, and pain;" 3
In the coordinate poem of " Easter " Christ is likewise spoken of as " Thou Love of God." In other passages, too, is found a similar teaching.
" Believe in Me, Who lived and died, yet essentially Am Lord of Life." a
" The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think? So, the All-Great, were the All-Loving, too." 3
" And thou must love Me, who have died for thee." 4
" Call Christ, then, the illimitable God." 5
" He, the Truth, is, too, the Word." •
" The Great Word which makes all things new." '
" The Star which chose to stoop and stay for us."
" That one Face, far from vanish, rather grows, Or decomposes but to recompose. Become my universe that feels and knows." 8
1 Wordsworth "Ode to Immortality."
2 The Ring and the Book, Crowell's ed. " The Pope," x. 1303-18.
3 Christmas Eve, ib., iv. 286-327. The whole poem is full of the divinity of Christ.
» An Epistle of Karshish, ib., v. 10-22, 305-307, 311. 6 A Death in the Desert, ib., v. 686.
6 The Ring and the Book; " The Pope," x. 375-376, ib., vii. 175.
7 Dramatic Lyrics; " By the Fireside," xxvii., ib., iv. 131.
8 Dramatis Persona;; " Epilogue, Third Speaker," xii., ib., v. 280.
These quotations might be continued, but they
are sufficient to prove the distinctive Christian
message of one of the greatest of poets. Tennyson
is not so definite in his teaching of
8. Tenny- Christianity as Browning.1 But Tennyson, son's greatest poems contain many passages which embody most direct Christian lessons, expressing as well, with an impressiveness which no other poet has ever attained, the lesson of the soul's immortality. Tennyson is above all, the apostle of the immortal life. The argument for the life immortal, if an argument it can be called, arises from the infinity and the eternity of love, and also from the fact that even on the evolutionary hypothesis man is made by God. The essence of the creation is personal. God is immanent, not only in man, but in the universe. The union of all men in God creates brotherhood, and this union, also, evolves into righteousness and love. God is immortal love; God is also immortal life, and immortal life and immortal love belong to those who are in God. The evolutionary hypothesis was declared, and had come to be generally accepted in Tennyson's life-time. The last poems indicate his acceptance of evolution. His belief was that evolution would carry man, through God, unto perfection. He declares " Hallelujah to the Maker. It is finished. Man is made." Near his death he wrote, in " God and the Universe," " The face of death is toward the Sun of Life — his truer name is ' Onward.' " 2
In these illustrations of tha relation of religion and literature, no reference has been made to either Shakespeare or Milton. The reason is that in the older and greater poet, almost no mention is made of religion. That Shakespeare was, to a certain degree, impressed by the fundamental truths which constitute religion, there can be no doubt, but also it is clear that his great inspiration he drew from human, and not from divine, relationships. At the opposite extreme stands John Milton, who was far more a theologian than a religious poet. If Shakespeare represents the inspiration arising from human relationships, John Milton represents inspiration drawn from those dogmatic formulas which represent the skeleton, but not the life, of the Christian system.
It is apparently singular that the larger share of the illustrations used to present the relations existing between religion and literature are drawn from poetry. Tha singularity is, however, only superficial. For poetry is the highest and richest form and expression of literature; it represents the highest notes of the scale of thought, feeling, and imagination. Religion is the highest type of being, for it represents the relation of man to God and of God to man. Each, therefore, rises the highest in its own scale of being; each, therefore, becomes more clearly and closely akin to the other than are the other higher forces of humanity. They are related to each other far more intimately and constantly than can any type of prose literature be related to religion, either Christian or natural.
Charles F Thwing.
1 E. Berdoe, Browning and the Christian Faith, pp. 42, 43, 45 (London, 1896). ,, ,
3 S. A. Brooke, Tennyson: his Art and Relation to Modem Life, p. 30 (New York, 1894).