The American Unitarian Association in 1835 reprinted from the English
edition, among their Tracts, a Sermon on "The Existing State of Theology
as an Intellectual Pursuit and of Religion, as a Moral Influence." Its
rare merits elicited great praise. Its author was the Rev. James
Martineau, then a settled minister in Liverpool. Since that time, his
occasional publications from year to year have been winning a wider
audience, and awakening a deeper admiration. The history of his mind has
been a broadening track of light. And now the Association feel that they
cannot do a greater favor to the reading public, or better aid that
cause of Liberal Christianity whose servants they are, than by printing
a collection of the later writings of this gifted man, whom they first
introduced to American Unitarians a quarter of a century ago.
The list of works prefixed to the article here entitled "Distinctive
Types of Christianity," as it appeared in the Westminster Review, and
the opening sentence referring to them, have been accidentally omitted.
Two or three of the papers belong to the author's earlier years, but are
inserted here equally on account of their eminent ability, their
special timeliness, and their striking adaptation to the general purpose
of the work; namely, to throw light on the true nature of Christianity.
They will also be new to most of those whom they now reach. The last
paper in the volume is one of the first its writer published, in his
comparative youth. We shall be disappointed if the benignant wisdom and
moral fidelity of its catholic lessons do not secure a sympathetic
response in many a quarter once closed against such appeals.
In selecting from Mr. Martineau's numerous invaluable articles, not
already published in book-form, the contents of the present work, the
rule has not been so much to choose the ablest productions, as to take
those best fitted to meet the wants of the time, by diffusing among
ministers, students of divinity, and the cultivated laity a knowledge
of the most advanced theological and religious thought yet attained.
We regret that the necessary limits of the volume exclude several of
the author's most instructive and inspiring essays; particularly the
magnificent one in the National Review upon "Newman, Coleridge, and
Carlyle"; also the one upon "Lessing as a Theologian."
We have called this volume "Studies of Christianity," simply as a
convenient indication of the general character of its contents. In
justice to the author, it should be borne in mind that the separate
papers were prepared to meet various occasions, without a suspicion that
they would ever be brought together to form a book. Of course they do
not express his complete views of the mighty subject which they
fragmentarily treat. The relative order and rank of his convictions, the
interpretation of Christianity from its inner side, appear much better
in his "Endeavors after the Christian Life,"--by far the richest and
noblest series of sermons in the English language. Still, a kind of
unity pervades the different pieces composing this collection. One
Christ-like strain of sentiment breathes through them all. The same
consecrating fealty to truth presides over them all. The same grand
outline of principles and unvarying standard of judgment are constantly
evident. The same marvellous acumen, breadth of learning, and exquisite
culture, everywhere appear. Each article is more or less directly an
illustration of Christianity, as something moral, spiritual, vital,
dynamic, to be practically assimilated by the soul, in distinction from
the common exposition of it, as something sacerdotal, dogmatic, formal,
forensic, once enacted and now to be mimetically observed. The energetic
patience of labor, the detersive intellect, the unalloyed devoutness of
spirit, the telescopic range both of faculty and equipment, revealed
even in these wayside products, awaken in us an unappeasable desire for
a more purposed and systematic work from the same mind, now in its
fullest maturity. In the mean time we will express our grateful
appreciation of the contributions already furnished, by giving them
further circulation, assured that no truly pious and intelligent person,
free from bigotry and shackles, can peruse them without receiving equal
measures of delight and profit.
Mr. Martineau is so thoroughly acquainted with the processes and
results of spiritual experience, with the sciences of nature, and with
the whole realm of metaphysical philosophy, and his own wealthy
faculties are so tenacious in their activity and freshness, that every
subject he touches receives novelty, light, and ornament. He is
emphatically a teacher for the teachers,--a greater guide and master
for the common guides and masters. Traversing the whole domain of
human contemplation with the defining lines of analysis, clothing the
severe materials of science with the colors of æsthetic art, he sheds
on every theme the illumination of intellectual genius, and transfuses
every thought with the distinctive sentiments of piety. Thus is
afforded that rarest of all spectacles,--and the one now most needed
by the cultivated religious world,--of a man who is greatly endowed at
once as philosopher, poet, and Christian, and who with simultaneous
earnestness in each capacity is devoted, by the whole labors of his
life, to the instruction of mankind.
For these reasons, we feel it a duty to attract as much attention as
possible to Mr. Martineau's past and expected publications. The
peerless intelligence, the bracing fidelity, the essential nobleness
and catholicity, the tender beauty and reverence, of his utterances,
his consummate mastery of the great topics he handles, seem to us
fitted in a solitary degree to meet the highest wants of the age,--to
do divine service in the conflict of scepticism, sensuality, and decay
against all that is truest and purest in the religious faith and moral
life of Christendom. Therefore, to persons who, unacquainted with the
author's previous works, may read the papers here collected, we would
recommend as the best books for educated and earnest Christian
thinkers, Mr. Martineau's "Rationale of Religious Inquiry," the volume
of his "Miscellanies" edited by the Rev. T. S. King, and the two
series of "Endeavors after the Christian Life" recently republished in
one volume by Messrs. Munroe and Company.
We shall make up the rest of this introductory paper by quoting from
some of Mr. Martineau's articles, not generally accessible, a few
specimens of those thoughts which, if freely received in these times
of theological doubt and turmoil, would lead many a religious thinker
towards the truth and peace he covets.