The incarnation and common life

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE ■<

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

Preface

It can very rarely happen that one who has spent long and busy years as student and teacher should be suddenly called at the close of life to the oversight of a Diocese in which the problems of modern life are presented in the most urgent and impressive form. Such a transition brings with it of necessity many strange experiences. It gives by its very unexpectedness a singular reality to earlier thoughts. The Faith which has been pondered in quiet must without preparation be brought into the market-place and vindicated as a power of action.

In the following pages I have endeavoured to express what I have felt from time to time when I have been called to consider some particular phase of our present life, and to mark, however

imperfectly, the application of the Gospel to our own difficulties and sorrows and duties. The highest conceivable attestation of a divine revelation lies in its power to meet each new want of man as it arises, and to gain fresh force from the growth of human knowledge. The message of the Incarnation satisfies this criterion in unexpected ways, and our distresses enable us to feel its wider applications.

There is indeed a progress in the interpretation and practical apprehension of the Gospel, which, while it is not due to natural forces, is conditioned by them. There is such a progress within the limits of the New Testament. The apostolic teaching- in the Epistle of St James remains within the range of the thoughts of the Synagogue, illuminated by the Coming of the Christ. In the Epistle to the Ephesians the noblest conceptions of Imperial Rome are used to give distinctness to the idea of the unity of the Church.

Scripture and History alike teach us that Christianity is not defined by the letter of the written Word. Every incident, every precept which the written Word contains, is a germ, fruitful in manifold developments which do not indeed add anything to the substance of the written Word, but witness to its life.

Preface. vii

This must be so if we believe that ' the Word 'became flesh and tabernacled among us... full of ' grace and truth.' In this central fact of the life of the world, which discloses the capacity and the destiny of man, and of the creation over which man is set as sovereign and representative, there is no change in the Person of the Word. He through Whom and unto Whom all things were created took humanity to Himself and lived a human life. In the fulness of time the Word became not a man as one man of many men, but ' flesh.' In Him humanity found its unity under the conditions of earth, and, if I may so speak, its personality. Such a fact is not a solitary fact though it is unique in the sense that experience cannot furnish any presumption against it, for it admits of no parallel. It is at once the crown and the foundation of a long spiritual growth. Tlie Word became (not was made) flesh in due season according to the orderly unfolding of the divine purpose. The Creation and the Incarnation both answer to the timeless counsel of GoD, Who appointed Him, heir of all things, through Whom He also made the world (toi)? alaivw;). The manhood which was broken up into innumerable fragments was gathered essentially into Him. In Him, Who is unchangeably the Son of God, each man is enabled to find his true fulfil-

1—2 viii Preface.

ment as part of a whole ; and the human race is enabled to realise the Divine Fatherhood in its Sinless Head, ' the last Adam/ not as a hope or an aspiration but as a fact. At the same time by the assumption of 'blood and flesh' (Heb. ii. 14), the Word has revealed to us that these material forms, which are transitory as far as the experience of sense goes, have a Divine affinity and therefore correspond with a spiritual being. What we see becomes a sacrament of the unseen. These general thoughts underlie all that I have written ; but it has not been my purpose to attempt to define in detail the doctrine of the Incarnation. It is enough for us to ponder the words of St John and give to each phrase its natural and full sense :

In the beginning vv^as the Word, And the Word was with God, And the Word was God,...

And the Word became flesh,

And tabernacled among us,...

Full of grace and truth.

Here for a moment the eternal is disclosed and we see what was when time began : we see that ' flesh ' is capable of union with God and has been assumed by ' God the only Son ' {6eo^ fiovo- 76j^jj? John i. 18), and that His human life is a

Preface. ix

well-spring of Divine help and gives reality to our knowledge. Such a view of the world and of life, and the fact which gives it, are most truly natural. The aspirations, the movements, the achievements of men, are unintelligible except through the recognition of a vital relation between the Creator and the Creation. In Christ as men we can approach GoD. In Christ our human ways of thinking of GoD, limited as they must be and issuing in an antithesis on every side, are justified. In Christ we pray to the Father — His Father and our Father — and receive all that we require for our spiritual sustenance, through that which He has freely given and freely gives by His Spirit. In Christ all things — all things which belong to the consummation of manhood — are possible.

The proof of these lofty assertions must be given in deed. No one can confess more sorrowfully than he who holds most surely that 'the Word became flesh ' that we have not as believers lived our Creed. But at least we have kept our ideal ; and during the last three eventful years I seem to have seen that God is leading us to bring it with a transforming energy into our personal and social and national life.

For us the words of St Paul have the promise of fresh victories :

X Preface.

All things are yours; and ye are Christ's; AND Christ is God's.

For us the words of the Lord in their breadth and their exclusiveness open the vision of a living unity to which we can bring every work and thought and effort, knowing that our labour is not vain :

I AM THE Way and the Truth and the Life .-

No one COMETH TO THE FaTHER BUT

through Me.

B. F. D.

Appleton-le-Moob, Aug. 26, 1893.

Contents

PAGE

Fellowship in Intercession.

Durham Cathedral, Ascension Day, 1890 . 3

II

Hitherto I have considered only our personal relations one to another under the necessary conditions of life. "We are at our birth severally members of a family. We are to the end citizens of a state. No seclusion can free us from the responsibility of influence. Our life is from first to last social. As Christians we are ' one man in Christ Jesus,' and in this fellowship we gain the unity which is prepared for all.

Eecognising this larger life I have endeavoured to shew that our Faith constrains us to strive after the realisation of our brotherhood with our fellows and to secure our own highest good by using our special endowments for the general welfare : to seek for others as for ourselves the opportunity of most effective service : to endeavour to understand truly the circumstances and feelings of those who depend on us and on whom we depend: to recognise that we are ' our brothers' keepers.'

But if we regard society at large we see that groups of men are differenced no less than individuals ; and the fundamental harmonies of the home lead us to expect that these differences will be permanent. As it is, the nation consists not only of citizens and families, but also of classes. These are shaped and bound together by a common history, by common traditions, interests, duties; and they represent permanent types of service. Philosophers who have framed ideal commonwealths have recognised that the coexistence of distinct classes is necessary for the general well-being. Early rulers stereotyped them and fenced them round with impassable barriers, though it is a lesson of hope that in the oldest and most permanent Empire in the world free passage from class to class has always been allowed. Going back then to the image of the body, we can truly say that as the nation is one body, so, on this larger scale, the different classes are members of it. That which holds good of the whole Church, holds good of the Christian nation: all the body fitly framed and knit togeilier, through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.

Here then again as Christians we are bound to seek for the greatest human efficiency of each class as of each man : to seek that each class shall fulfil its office under conditions which are favourable not only to life but to good life. In the Christian state every group of workers ought to be able to take a recognised and honourable place in the whole body. So the social aspect of work will bring to all work equal dignity.

It has been said that states grow rich only by labour, even as character is rightly shaped by it. The statement is true in the material sense if we take account of the past no less than of the present ; of intellectual, moral and spiritual labour no less than of manual labour. But the individual workman becomes less and less able to claim any result as his own according as society becomes more and more complex. All work depends on fellowship and serves to support it. If we look to the essential relations of things, the material reward of work is the provision that it may be done : the end of work is the general welfare. The true wealth of states is men and not merchandise. The true function of government is to watch over the growth of good citizens. Material wealth exists for the development of man not man for the acquisition of property. This principle has in fact hitherto ruled our social legislation, which has been influenced more by moral than by economic considerations. Our legislation has been, in other words, essentially if unconsciously Christian ; and now our aim as believers in the Divine life of the nation must be to secure, as far as possible, that our national inheritance shall be made fruitful as it is distributed in many parts throughout the people, and that each worker shall be able to thank God for the joy of his own task and the share which he has in the common life. To this end we shall not seek to equalise material riches but to hallow large means by the sense of large responsibility: not to palliate the w, c. 6 effects of poverty but to remove the causes of it : not to dispense with strenuous and even painful effort but to provide that labour in every form may be made the discipline of noble character.

If we look around we must confess that we have hardly faced the problem which is thus set before us. We have just emerged from an industrial revolution. Old ties have been removed. The new ties have not yet been shaped. The spirit of individualism is still invoked to justify boundless self-assertion; and even self-interest is insufficient to restrain ruinous competition. Such anarchy can only last for a brief space. Already we welcome on every side generous if impatient efforts to establish among us a social order more conformable to the facts of Divine sonship and human brotherhood. Nor need we be disheartened if discontent increases at the time when there is a growing desire to remove the evils by which it is aroused. Education cannot but stir new wants by awakening new capacities ; and if these take a material form at first, it is because we have not shewn that the highest and most satisfying pleasures are independent of great possessions.

What then shall we do as ministers of Christ — this is the question which we have to ask — to hasten the advent of the better order ? How shall we in the exercise of our office prepare the ready acceptance of new duties answering to the new conditions of capital and labour, of owners employers and artisans ?

The first and the most obvious answer is that we shall use our unique power for promoting mutual understanding between different classes. We touch, as I have said, each extreme in the social scale. We have the opportunity of knowing directly with what disastrous issues, words, motives, feelings, are misinterpreted on this side and that. Our greatest industrial danger lies in the want of mutual confidence between employers and employed. Confidence is of slow gi'owth. It comes most surely through equal intercourse. This in some forms we can further. We are above the suspicion of partisanship. We can encourage the fullest expression of opinion from the advocates of rival causes. We can sometimes invite an interchange of conflicting views.

But it is through fellowship in the highest work that we learn best how much those have in common who seem to be most widely separated by circumstances. And after thirty-five years I look with growing trust for the formation of little bands of Christian workers in every Diocese or even in every Rural Deanery united for common service — 'brethren and sisters of the common

6—2 hope ' — taken from every class, who by fellowship in aim and labour and devotion shall bring together many hearts.

Such associations, growing out of our own circumstances and needs and aspirations, not artificial imitations of brotherhoods framed to meet the conditions of earlier times, would, I believe, interpret the Faith with a new power and reveal believers to themselves. They belong no less to a highly developed than to a primitive form of Christian society. They belong especially to periods of great change and bring satisfaction to the spirit of sacrifice and the spirit of devotion which these tend to awaken. If the leader arise among us, followers will not be wanting.

Everything seems to be ready for the new beginning. Meanwhile we shall use — or endeavour to use — every opportunity which is offered to us in ordinary life for learning the feelings and aims of employers and employed, and for bringing both classes together on the ground of the common Faith.

Free and habitual intercourse between them, both personally and through their accredited representatives, will prepare the way for a satisfactory and lasting settlement of the relative claims of capital and labour on the profits of industry. It is needless to speculate on the form which it is likely to take. But already a great change has taken place in the provision of capital for industrial enterprises, which, since it brings special dangers and opportunities, requires to be noticed. The largest businesses are more and more falling into the hands of Joint Stock Companies. It is said that these already engross one third of the commerce of England. In this sense very many of us are capitalists, not as lenders of money merely, but as partners in some industrial undertaking, sharing its fortunes and responsibilities, though we are not directly engaged in it.

The position is one which calls for serious consideration. A divided responsibility is in all cases difficult to discharge, but in this case the responsibility is so widely spread that it is practically forgotten. Shares in great companies are regarded simply as investments (like loans) without any duties of proprietorship. The whole business, with its complicated human relationships, tends to become a profit-making machine. The discussions at the Annual Meetings turn mainly upon the dividend. Expenditure which is not directly remunerative is viewed with suspicion or disfavour.

Here then it rests with us to apprehend ourselves and to enforce, as far as we are able, a juster view of the obligations of shareholders.

We can feel the temptation, and we can feel the opportunity. The share in a business, small as it may be, carries with it not only responsibility for the capital as property but also responsibility for the administration of it. The holder is both a trustee in regard to the sum which the shares represent, and an agent in regard to the end for which it is employed. It is his duty to satisfy himself that his money will be put to a good use, and so made to contribute to ends which are materially and morally desirable. He is bound, that is, to consider both the object of the enterprise to which he contributes and the manner in which it is conducted: to consider, in other words, the character and the conditions of the work, and even the more remote results which it may produce. The amount of the dividend, irrespective of the way in which it is earned, cannot justify his choice of the investment. He is required, as one who knows that he has received all for the common good, not only to offer duly of that which he receives but also to be assured in his own mind that what he has is rightly employed.

The influence of a single shareholder may be slight, but even one who supports the Directorate in endeavouring to improve the conditions of labour and give those who serve an interest in the prosperity which they help to create, will direct attention to a principle and call out sympathetic support. A wide proprietorship ought to secure steady and generous consideration for workmen, and provide in due time for those larger forms of cooperation in which many see the best hope for the future.

On the other hand the common indifference of shareholders to the conduct of that which is their own business, if only it is financially successful, and their personal ignorance of the work by which they profit, gives plausibility to the popular charge that the capitalist uses the artisan for his own gain.

These considerations are, I repeat, of great and far-reaching importance; and we need to weigh them both for the guidance of our own action and for the wise counselling of those who seek our advice.

It may be urged that I am pleading to a large extent for a sentiment: that the Directorates of our greatest Companies are alive to their duties and that skilled labour is able to maintain its own cause successfully. Yet sentiment has a dominant effect on life and character ; and it makes a difference whether a result is obtained by conflict or by concert. There are also larger possibilities in the administration of great Companies to which I have pointed as deserving attention;

and there is even among skilled artisans a proportion of partially unemployed whose case is peculiarly sad. But at the same time I readily admit that the most pressing social difficulty now lies in the condition of irregular and unskilled labourers. To them we naturally turn our thoughts chiefly, for they most need help. They have suffered most acutely from the industrial revolution. They have the least capacity for combination, and the least opportunity for combining. They seem to be as yet unable to rise to a higher standard of life by their own efforts. They do not even aspire to it. Education has not stirred in them a generous discontent. They suffer in moral force from labour which is uncertain and unnaturally protracted, and the value of their labour is seriously lessened. As far as I can yet judge they require some extended legislative protection, and, I will venture to add, some legislative coercion. There are classes which are still children, and in their case the Government must not shrink from discipline. It cannot rightly leave uncorrected and unrestrained masses of men whose low type of life spreads corruption. It treats attempted suicide as a crime : it ought to treat ' the slow suicide of idleness ' as a crime no less.

Labour refuges and labour colonies, both at home and abroad, may be of good service. The experiments in Holland and Germany give warnings and encouragements. But we have yet much to learn. We have to determine particularly the right limits of public and private efforts, of coercive discipline and personal influence. And without advocating at present any special solution of the problem, I plead that we should seriously study it. England brought the problem upon us, and England must solve it. For us Durham is our school. And it will be possible, I trust, to form groups of laymen, who will patiently study its lessons : who will inquire and consult and teach : who will ascertain the number and the descent and the distribution of the skilled and unskilled: who will determine the extent and the causes of the rapid shifting of the population in some places : who will investigate in detail the causes of the pauperism which exists in the Diocese : who will trace for us in the history of the last fifty years the great lines of improvement along which we can move further with the confidence of faith.

I fully recognise the difficulties of bringing class to class in harmonious fellowship, and above all of finding a worthy place in the social body for the lowest class ; but here the Gospel sustains us. For the most desolate Christ died. They too are part of the world which GoD loved. That devotion to the common good through which alone men as men can be bound together in widest and closest communion is necessarily included in the Christian Faith. And what we look for, work for, pray for, as believers, is a nation where class shall be bound to class by the fullest participation in the treasures of the one life : where the members of each group of workers shall find in their work the development of their character and the consecration of their powers : where the highest ambition of men shall be to be leaders of their own class, so using their special powers without waste and following the common traditions to nobler issues : where each citizen shall know, and be strengthened by the knowledge, that he labours not for himself only, nor for his family, nor for his country, but for GoD.

Such a nation 'framed and fitly joined together by that which every joint supplieth,' rising out of the past, new at once and yet old, would rightly embody the social spirit of Christ and prepare the Advent of the Kingdom of God.

Is it not worth working for? And will not the splendid vision, as we work, cheer us and lead us forward ?