April 19, 1863
There is a great difference between the knowledge given in consciousness and that attained by the logical understanding. For example, all men know from consciousness what beauty is; but if the question be asked, What is beauty? and the answer be sought from the logical understanding, there is the greatest perplexity and diversity. Dissertation after dissertation, and volume after volume have been written in answer to that question. So we all know what Christianity is; but when the question is asked, What is Christianity? the answers become uncertain and divergent. It might seem useless to ask the question if we know without asking, and cease to know when asked. But the difficulty is men will ask, and will give wrong answers; answers not merely incorrect, but fatally injurious. Of all the theological questions of our day, especially in Germany and among English and American theologians addicted to German modes of thinking, none has been more debated, and none is more vitally important than the question, What is Christianity? If we are to think or speak intelligently of the aggressive character of Christianity, we must know what Christianity is. It has been defined,
1. As a form of knowledge, i.e., the system of divine truth revealed in the Scriptures.
2. As that modus Deum cognoscendi et colendi introduced by Christ.
3. As simply and exclusively a life. By this some mean a form or state of the religious consciousness, while others intend by that expression the theanthropic life of Christ as communicated to his people, humanity restored in him, as it was corrupted in Adam. The objection to these answers is that they are too limited. (The last, as explained by mysticism, is false). Christianity is a form of knowledge; it is a religion; it is a life. It is not exclusively the one or the other, but it is all. The best way to determine what Christianity is, is to ask what makes a man a Christian in the true and proper sense of the term. A Christian is one who knows and receives as true what Christ has revealed in his word, whose inward state (religious consciousness) is determined by that knowledge, and whose life is devoted to the obedience and service of Christ. Christianity is therefore a system of doctrine, it is an inward life, and it is a rule of action. When, therefore, we speak of the aggressive character of Christianity, we may mean the antagonism of truth to error, the expansive power of the principles of spiritual life, or, the opposition position of good to evil, of holiness to sin, in the outward life; or we may include all these, as they are all included in the religion of Christ. Or, as the Scriptures call it, the kingdom of God; we may mean by the aggressive character of Christianity, its inherent force, by which it tends to gain more and more the complete control of the individual man and of human society, by controlling all the forms of human thought, the inward character of men and their outward conduct.
I. Christianity is thus aggressive. It does tend and strive to subdue.
1. This is variously taught in the Scriptures. It is compared to a stone cut out of a mountain, which gradually fills the whole earth; to a tree whose branches extend over all lands; to leaven hid in a measure of meal; to a great temple in the process of erection; to the sun in its course through the heavens, and from tropic to tropic.
2. It is deducible from its nature. Truth is necessarily antagonistic to error, and holiness to sin. The one must strive to overcome the other both in the individual and in the world Besides, being a religion suited to the necessities of all men, and absolutely essential to their well–being here and hereafter, it cannot be embraced by the individual man without the consciousness on his part of the obligation to uphold and extend it. A Christian, from the nature of the case, is fired with zeal for the glory of Christ, and with love for his fellowmen. His Christianity makes him an advocate of the truth and a proselyter.
3. It is further proved and illustrated by the history of the Church. The original promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head has expanded into the full system of Christian doctrine. The one hundred and twenty disciples in Jerusalem in the age of the apostles occupied Syria, Egypt, Greece, Italy; and since then Christianity has gained the civilized world. It has banished polytheism and idolatry, it has elevated woman, exalted man, and molded human society.
4. It is proved in the experience of every Christian. His inward life is a progress. He passes from infancy to maturity; from a “νηπιο” (infant) to a “τελειο” (grown), and from a “τελειο” to the full measure of the stature of Christ. The truth becomes better known and more firmly believed. Indwelling sin becomes weaker, and grace stronger; and the outward life is made more and more consistent with the gospel. When this is not true, there is no true life.
II. To what is the aggressive power of Christianity due?
1. It is not due to anything in itself as A system of truth. If revealed to the lost in the other world, it would be powerless. If revealed to fallen man, sent in books or by living teachers to the heathen, it would, if left to itself, be universally rejected. The opposition of Satan and of the evil heart would be too much for it.
2. It is not due to the subjective effect on the hearts of those who are led to embrace it. If nothing were done ab extra but to induce the reception of the gospel, the inward effect and the outward efficiency would fade away.
3. But it is supernatural in its character. It is due to the purpose of God and the cooperation of the Spirit. When a woman puts leaven into a measure of meal, she is sure that the whole will be leavened, because the effect is due to the operation of invariable physical laws. But when the gospel is introduced into a community or a nation, whether it will take root and extend or not, depends on an ab extra sore. reign working of divine power. Hence a sense of dependence is to be acknowledged and cultivated. It is because Christianity is the life of God (i.e., of a present Christ), that it must prevail.
4. Although the gospel is thus dependent upon supernatural agency for its preservation and extension, yet human cooperation is ordained as the means. Faith and love are the powers which we are to wield, depending on the Spirit of God.
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