desirable to restore the ancient constitution of the Church. But we make
such a supposition only for the sake of meeting the views of those who,
feeling that the ecclesiastical establishments of the present day are
unchristian, would fain substitute for them the simple institutions of
the primitive Church. Believing as we do, that all such institutions
must be classed among the non-essentials of Christianity, we would have
them modified according to the circumstances of the age and country in
which they are to be used. It is not possible that some of the original
Christian ordinances can be advantageously employed in every country and
through every age. The first Christians belonged, for the most part, to
the middling and lower classes of society, and consequently had few
possessions. These possessions, with whatever was voluntarily offered by
the few rich men among them, were gathered into a common stock, in order
that all might be so far freed from secular cares as to be able to
devote their minds and hearts to the furtherance of the cause of the
Gospel. It is obvious that the same reasons for establishing a community
of goods do not exist in a Christian country, where the faith has no
longer to maintain a struggle with the powers which opposed its first
promulgation. Nor could such a community of goods answer the same
purposes in a wealthy commercial state and among the cantons of
Switzerland, among the nobles and boors of Russia, and the back-woodsmen
of America; in states where civilization is most advanced, and in
regions where the rights of property are almost unrecognized.
The same may be said of the external modes of worship. Granting that the
complex ceremonies of Roman Catholic worship, so nearly resembling the
rites of Paganism, might, by possibility, admit of a connexion with pure
Christian faith, it cannot be supposed that the cross, wax lights, and
incense can ever form a ritual appropriate to the customs of Arabs or
Indians, or that they will help the devotion of the fiftieth generation
from the present. Primitive modes of worship have, by a singular
ordering of circumstances, been preserved among the Vaudois, and are
still consonant with their secular state: but men who dwell amidst
ravines and mountain forests think and feel differently, and therefore
worship differently from those who inhabit the cities of the plain;
while the faith of all is essentially the same. It is, therefore,
unreasonable of the Catholic Church to require of all her members, dwell
where they may, in the north or in the south, in the metropolis or the
wilderness, the vow, 'I also receive and admit the ceremonies of the
Catholic Church, received and approved in the solemn administration of
all the seven sacraments.'
Far more reasonable is the Gospel in its requisitions, the sole
condition of whose promises is, that men shall 'worship the Father in
spirit and in truth.' We have said that the essence of Christian faith
is the same through all varieties of manifestation. It has ever been so,
and it shall ever be so, for these varieties of manifestation are
ordained for the very purpose of preserving the essence. They are
ordained, lest men, too much regarding things seen and temporal, should
confound with them things unseen and eternal; should not only
incorporate religion in material forms, but identify it with them. They
are ordained that men may learn what Christianity really is, what the
Lord God requires of them concerning it, what He promises them in it,
what He purposes to effect by it; and furthermore, that men may mutually
recognize the new bond of brotherhood which the Gospel discloses, by
which all are made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus. This
recognition must take place as soon as the nature and design of
Christianity are understood, be it here or hereafter, in this world or
in the next; and surely the sooner the better.
That mode of belief which encourages the closest investigation into the
principles of Christianity; which discovers the most clearly all
spiritual relations; which affords the most distinct apprehension of the
permanence and universality of the Gospel; which discerns how its
promises are ratified, its threatenings confirmed, its truths
corroborated by all other spiritual influences, by all the results of
human experience, and all the developments of Providence,--must be the
best adapted to the needs and capabilities of an ever-expanding and
immortal spirit. That mode of belief which adapts itself to all times
and circumstances, and which is independent of all influences but those
which are unfailing, must be the truest and best: and such a faith
actually exists in those views of Christianity under which it appears
as simple and diffusive as natural religion.
The Greenlander, who sees how rapidly all natural influences combine to
enhance the bloom of his transient summer, recognizes the same
attributes of Providence as the philosopher who marks the expansion of
mind under the vicissitudes of events: both are natural religionists.
The great truths of Christianity may be also common to both. The
Greenlander loses the wife of his bosom, and wanders on the icy shore to
watch if any skiff traverses the horizon, to bring him tidings from the
world of spirits; he listens to the sullen roar of the waves and the
moaning of the wind, in the intense hope that the voice of a spirit may
mingle with their murmurs. The philosopher who has suffered bereavement
feels a similar want, though his yearnings are differently expressed.
His reason is adjured, and not his senses, to yield evidence of a life
beyond the grave; and the intellect of the one is as intently fixed as
the eye and ear of the other on whatever may bring a solution of his
doubts. Is not the main fact of Christianity that which is preeminently
fitted to afford consolation and hope to both? To each in the proportion
in which he is able to receive it? The Greenlander, who believes that
there has been an actual resurrection in proof that all men shall live
after death, is soothed and cheered by hope. He is brave when tossed by
the storms of the ocean or half-buried in a snow-drift, because death is
no longer the fearful thing it was. He is patient when his winter store
of provisions is exhausted and his children ask him for food, because
his faith teaches him that he who can restore the dead from the grave
can preserve the living, though the means may not be immediately
apparent. This faith is the same with that on which the philosopher
reposes his trust, when he sees things that yet are not as though they
were,--the revelations of the grave, the spiritual and intellectual
communion of a higher state, and the blessed results of the trials and
privations of the present. And a similar congeniality prevails
respecting every other essential doctrine and principle of the Gospel;
and even respecting its minor details. The universal spread of Glad
Tidings is a fit subject for universal rejoicing. The moral beauty of
the Saviour's character is recognizable by all; the spirit of his
teachings is congenial to all; and the very illustrations in which they
are set forth are of a universal nature. Storms everywhere beat on
human dwellings, and in all regions flowers spring, and the lights of
heaven shine and are obscured. The filial and fraternal relations
subsist everywhere; widowed mothers mourn over the bier of a son, and
rejoicings are witnessed at marriage feasts. The parables of the Gospel
are the most appropriate elementary teachings for all minds from pole to
pole; and the principles which Christ proposed command the assent of
every intellect, from that of the child whom he set in the midst of his
followers, to that which, exalted by all holy influences, is surrounded
on its release from the grave by a throng of perfected spirits. It is
for man to beware how he limits what God has thus made universal; how he
monopolizes what God designs to be diffused; how he encumbers by human
inventions that truth which Divine wisdom has made free to all.
By the Gospel, a new relation is established between Him who gives and
him who receives it; and it is for man to beware how he attempts to
modify this relation, or to intrude on the special communion which it
establishes. It is not in the power of man to take away any thing from
the Gospel, though he may narrow the capacity of its recipients; but he
must beware how he adds to it the teachings of his own low and vain
imaginations. He can do nothing to impair Divine truth, for it is made
invulnerable by God: but he may impair and destroy its efficacy for
himself and his brethren, by mistaking its nature and perverting its
influences; by transferring to others the task which he may not
delegate, of admitting its evidences and interpreting its commands. It
is not in the power of man to silence the voice of God speaking on earth
through Christ; but he must beware of listening to any other exponent of
the Divine will, whether or not he refer his claim to St Peter; whether
or not he appeal to human wisdom throned in the papal chair or attested
by the unanimity of Councils; whether or not he entitle himself the
Vicar of Christ on earth.
It is not in the power of man to restrict the influences of the Gospel.
What they have been, they will be; what they have done, they will
continue to effect. They will bless the spirit in its wanderings and in
its retirements, making the universe the record of its history, and its
inmost recesses the dwelling-place of Deity. They will restrain the
excesses, chasten the emotions, and ennoble the sympathies of humanity.
They will bless life, and hallow the grave. They will develope
themselves perpetually as ages roll on, till it shall be their lowest
office to still the sighings and subdue the conflicts of the spirit;
while their highest shall still be, so to direct its pursuit of ultimate
objects, so to invigorate its natural and moral powers, as to evidence
to itself its ever-growing resemblance to its Maker. It is for man to
beware lest he exclude himself from these influences or impair their
operation by mistaking superstition for religion, and by supinely
relinquishing the intellectual and spiritual liberty with which Christ
has made him free.