282

Present importance

Christianity then while it is one cannot be uniform. The embodiment of the Truth in thought and practice from time to time must answer more or less completely to each age and race. Or, to put the truth in another form, each age and race has an office for the interpretation, the unfolding, of the Faith.

The Gospel is, in the fullest sense of the words, of life, in life, unto life (comp. Rom. xi. 36). As we learn more of man and more of nature we learn more of Christ in whom we still see the Father.

It is for this reason that the study of Church History, under its broadest aspect, is of especial value now. While we acknowledge that we are called upon to labour in an age of great and rapid changes, we do not shrink from the responsibility of still claiming for the Gospel sovereignty over all progress. And history justifies the claim. Thus then when once we can feel that faith in the risen Christ, as King and Redeemer, has not only conquered all opposing forces in each past crisis, but preserved in each case and incorporated into itself all that which gave real vitality to the opposition which it encountered, our own courage will be quickened. And if there are at present great and noble

of the study of Church History.

283

thoughts, certain and far-reaching facts, which have not been brought into harmony, or rather which have not been recognized as being in harmony with the Gospel of the Resurrection, we can welcome them and if need be wait. Perhaps we have not yet gained the point of sight from which they will be seen in due relation to the whole revelation hitherto made

known to us. But even so, they have already called something to our minds which had been often overlooked. The King and the Redeemer is Creator also; and we are already beginning to apprehend how a larger unity than we have yet grasped may hereafter include the race and the world, and reconcile the general relations of both to GOD with the personal responsibility of each separate man.

CHAPTER X.

THE VERIFICATION OF THE CHRISTIAN SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE.

WE have seen that the Gospel is the message of a Life, that it was made known to us through life and that it has been apprehended throughout the ages and is still apprehended in life. It is a light to walk by and not simply to contemplate. How then, we ask, is it verified? How are we ourselves assured of its Truth? The verification of the Gospel answers to the communication and the interpretation of the Gospel. The verification of the Gospel is in and through life, the life of men and the life of each man. It is verified outwardly by the testimony of history: it is verified inwardly by the testimony of experience. Both forms of testimony are required for complete assurance. Without the inward experience we might hold as true that which would be to us as a beautiful picture: without the outward history

Conditions of verification.

285

we might yield to the fancies of undisciplined enthusiasm. When the voice of society and the voice of the soul agree, we have the highest conceivable assurance of the truth of their message.

Before we indicate some features in this twofold testimony, it will be well to notice yet again the grounds on which it is maintained that a revelation of some kind is antecedently probable on the assumptions which have been made. For the continuous and effective discipline of human thought and action man has need of progressive knowledge. Knowledge furnishes the materials which faith uses. But here a difference arises as to the subjects of which knowledge may be gained. Within obvious limits man may obtain by direct observation knowledge of himself and of the world. But if he is to know GOD, GOD must reveal Himself. And such a revelation is made possible by the constitution of man. The fact that he is conscious of the being of GOD implies the capacity of knowing Him with human knowledge. There is, as we have already noticed, a potential Gospel in the language of the earliest record of Creation, which declares that man was made in the image of GOD.' It is not indeed too much to say that the assurance of a revelation

of GOD to man is included in the ideas of GOD and man. If the power to know GOD exists in man, such an endowment contains the promise that it will not be left idle. And on the other side it is by intercourse with GOD that man advances towards the Divine likeness.

These truths may be presented in another light. Man is not a self-centred, self-directed, independent unit. He is born a son, and that in a twofold relation to the seen and the unseen. He would cease to be human if he were not disciplined by the influences of society; and for the complete unfolding of his powers as man he requires the fellowship of GOD. He is a microcosm in regard to the visible world: he is a reflection of GOD in relation to invisible being. microcosm must be studied through the observation of the parts of the great whole of which it is an epitome: the reflection must be kept fresh and vivid by the presence of Him whom it represents.

The

Such considerations would have remained in full force if man had continued to grow according to the normal law of his being. But it is evident that this development has been interrupted. The illuminating, sustaining power of divine fellowship