Occident, with preludes on current events

Front matter

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Introduction

THE object of the Boston Monday Lectures is to present the results of the freshest German, English, and American scholarship on the more important and difficult topics concerning the relations of Religion and Science.

They were begun in the Meionaon in 1875. The audiences gathered at noon on Mondays were of such size as to need to be transferred to Park Street Church in October, 1876, and thence to Tremont Temple, which was often more than full during the winter of 1876-77 and in that of 1877-78. The very capacious auditorium of Tremont Temple was destroyed by fire in August, 1879; and in November of that year the lectures were transferred to the Old South Meeting-House, the most interesting of the historic edifices of New England.

The audiences have always contained large numbers of ministers, teachers, and other educated men.

The thirty-five lectures given in 1876-77 were reported in the Boston Daily “ Advertiser,” by Mr. J. E. Bacon, stenographer, and most of them were republished in full in New York and London. ‘They are contained in the first, second, and third volumes of Boston Monday Lectures, entitled ‘“ Biology,’ ‘ Transcendentalism,” and “ Orthodoxy.”

The thirty lectures given in 1877-78 were reported by Mr. Bacon for the ‘* Advertiser,” and republished in full in

Vill INTRODUCTION.

New York and London. They are contained in the fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes of Boston Monday Lectures, entitled “ Conscience,” ‘‘ Heredity,” and “ Marriage.”

The twenty lectures given in 1878-79 were reported by Mr. Bacon for the “ Advertiser,” and republished in full in New York and London. They are contained in the seyenth and eighth volumes of Boston Monday Lectures, entitled “ Labor ” and “ Socialism.”

In 1880, 1881, and 1882, Mr. Cook made a tour of the world, as traveler and lecturer.

During his absence there was given in Tremont Temple, in the Boston Monday Lectureship, a course of ten lectures, which are now included in the volume entitled “ Christ and Modern Thought.” The lecturers were : —

President James McCosn, D. D., LL. D., of Princeton College.

Iix-President Marx Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., of Williams College.

President E. G. Roxpinson, D. D., LL. D., of Brown University.

Rey. S. W. Die.

Rey. THomas Guarp, D. D.

Rt. Rev. Tuomas M. Crark, D. D., LL. D.

Prof. Grorcr R. Crooxs, D. D., LL. D., of Drew Theological Seminary.

Rev. G. B. Toomas, D. D.

Rev. Jonn Corron Smita, D. D.

Chancellor Howarp Crossy, D. D., LL. D.

In the volume made up of the lectures of these gentlemen, there was published a preliminary lecture on “The Methods of Meeting Modern Unbelief,” given by Mr. Cook in London. In the English edition there was included Wendell Phillips’ Reply to Chancellor Crosby’s View of the Temperance Question.

INTRODUCTION. 1x

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After returning from his tour of the world, Mr. Cook gave in the Boston Monday Lectureship, in Tremont Temple, the twelve lectures which are included in the ninth and tenth volumes of the Boston Monday Lectures, entitled “‘ Occident ” and “Orient.” They were reported stenographically by Mr. Bacon, and republished in full in New ~ York, Chicago, London, and other cities.

The following is the Report oF THE Boston Monpay LectTurEsHIP FOR 1883: —

1. The published reports of the Boston Monday Lectures are now estimated to reach in America, England, Scotland, India, and Australia more than a million readers weekly.

2. The audiences in Boston for the season of 1883 — the seventh of the Lectureship — have been of unprecedented quantity and quality, often exceeding the seating capacity of Tremont Temple.

3. The Monday Lectures given in past years now make eight volumes in.their American form, and of these several have reached a fifteenth or sixteenth edition. There are in England thirteen different forms of these volumes as republished in London. It is affirmed by their numerous publishers that no volumes on similar themes have ever been circulated more widely than these through England, Scotland, India, and Australia.

4. During Mr. Cook’s recent absence from Boston, he made a tour of the world, the journey extending through two years and seventy-seven days. He lectured oftener, on _ the average, than every other working-day, while on the land. In all the great cities visited there were immense audiences. The principal subjects of the lectures were the chief questions now in discussion between Christianity on the one hand, and philosophy and physical science on the other. It is believed that topics equally difficult and serious were never before carried through a tour of similar extent and success.

xX INTRODUCTION.

There were 135 public appearances in the United Kingdom, 42 in India and Ceylon, 5 in China, 12 in Japan, and 50 in Australia.

5. Among the distinguished gentlemen who have given written permission for the use of their names on the Honorary Committee of the Boston Monday Lectureship, are : —

Rev. JAMES McCosn, D. D., President of Princeton College ; Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rey. RoswELut D. Hitrcucocrn, D. D., New York city; Rey. Wirtitiam M. Taytor, D. D., New York city; Prof. Epwarps A. Park, D. D., Andover, Mass. ; Prof. J. P. Gut- LIVER, Andover, Mass.; Bishop F. D. Huntineron, Syracuse, N. Y.; Rev. T. M. Post, D. D., St. Louis ; Prof. S. I. Curtiss, Chicago Theological Seminary ; President Grorce F. Macoon, Iowa College; Bishop Benzamin N. Pappock ; Hon. A. H. Rice, Ex-Governor of Massachusetts; Hon Wiii~1am Cuiar in, Ex-Governor of Massachusetts; Rev. Wirtiam M. Baxerr, D. D., Boston; Prof. BorpEen P. Bowne, Boston University; SAMUEL JOHNson, Boston; WrENDELL Puituies, Boston; Rev. N. G. Criark, D. D., Boston; Rev. Or1s Gipson, San Francisco ; Gen. Joun Eaton, Department of the Interior, Washing-. ton, D. C.

6. Devoutly grateful to Providence for the opportunities of usefulness open before the Boston Monday Lectureship, the Committee in charge of it recommends : —

(1.) The formation of a Boston Monday Lectureship Association on the following plan : —

Membership of the association shall be open to those who subscribe $1 annually to its support. Each dollar subscribed shall entitle the subscriber to one seat in the annual course of lectures, and to one vote in the annual election of officers. Every five dollars subscribed by a single individual shall give the right of selecting reserved seats in the order of the subscriptions.

INTRODUCTION. xl

The general public is to be admitted to any empty spaces left in the seats; and, if necessary, contributions may be taken.

(2.) The continuance of the lectures under the same general plan as in the past.

(3.) The raising of at least $2,500 for each season to cover expenses.

Signed (for the Committee).

A. J. Gorpon, President.

M. R. Demine, Secretary and Treasurer. G. A. Foxcorort, Business Manager.

In the following volume, which gives only a subordinate place to merely personal experiences in travel, some of the salient points are: —

1. A plan of Study during a Tour of the World.

2. An estimate of the Present Forces of Agnosticism and Materialism and of Christian Theism in England.

3. A study of the New Criticism of the Old Testament, with a notice of the views of Professor Delitzsch on that topic.

4, An examination of the Position of the German State Church and of the German Universities, especially with reference to the downfall of the Mythical Theory and the Decline of Rationalism.

5. A review of recent German discussions for and against the claims of Spiritualism.

6. A lecture in London on the Relations of the Temperance Reform to Civil Liberty, notices of the contrasts between American and Foreign Temperance Creeds.

7. A study of Christian Missions in their world-wide Relations to Current Events.

8. A defence of the principles of Civil Service Reform.

9. A reply to the defenders of the theory of Probation after Death.

xii INTRODUCTION.

10. A study of Advanced Thought in Italy and Greece, with a lecture on a Night on the Acropolis; or, Art and History at Athens.

As the matter in the Preludes refers to current reform, the expressions of the audiences, whether favorable or unfavorable, are retained as recorded by the stenographer ; but these have been omitted in the Lectures, as the latter have been considerably revised and enlarged since delivery.

Contents

LECTURE I.

ADVANCED THOUGHT IN ENGLAND.

No Pare Bais; in our Day

Appendix

I. The Decline of Rationalism in the German Universities . II. Theodore Christlieb and German Church Life III. The New House and its Battlement ; or, The Relations of the Temperance Reform to Civil Liberty. the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London .

IV. Reply to Professor Smyth, of Andover

V. A Night on the Acropolis ; or, Art and History at Athens b

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179 . 183 184 « 189

219 « 269

277 . 303 349

I. Advanced Thought In England And Scotland, With A Prelude On

NEW DEPARTURES IN AND FROM ORTHODOXY.

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIRST LECTURE IN THE BOSTON MONDAY LECTURESHIP, DELIVERED IN TREMONT TEMPLE, JANUARY &, 1883.

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“The decisive fact is this: The God-Man, who came for the purpose of seeking and saving the lost, has taught more imperatively than any other one that men who are lost when they die are lost forever.” — Proressor ParK, Discourse at North Andover, 1880, p. 30.

“Those of the early fathers who held the doctrine of an intermediate place made no practical distinction between the condition of the soul previous to the resurrection and its condition after it. The wicked were miserable and the good were happy —and that eternally.” — PROFESSOR SHEDD, History of Christian Doctrine, vol. ii. p. 410.

“ Once a mighty, warlike power, rushing from the Atlantic sea, spread itself with hostile fury over all Europe and Asia. That sea, indeed, was then navigable, and had an island fronting that mouth which you in your tongue call the Pillars of Hercules ; and this island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and there was a passage hence for travellers of that day to the rest of the islands, as well as from those islands to the whole opposite Continent. ... In this Atlantic island was formed a powerful league of kings, who subdued the entire island, together with many others, and parts also of the Continent, besides which they subjected also to their rule the inland parts of Libya as far as Egypt, and Europe, also, as far as Tyrrhenia... . Subsequently, however, through violent earthquakes and deluges, which brought desolation in a single day and night, . . . the Atlantic island was plunged beneath the sea and entirely disappeared ; whence even now, that sea is neither navigable nor to be traced out.” — The Timeus, Plato, vol. ii. pp. 328, 8329. Bohn’s edition.

“‘T spoke as I saw, I report, as a man may of God’s work. All’s Love, yet all’s Law. Now I lay down the judgeship He lent me. Each faculty tasked, To perceive Him, has gained an abyss where a dewdrop was asked.”

RoBeERtT BROWNING.

OCCIDENT.

PRELUDE I.

NEW DEPARTURES IN AND FROM ORTHODOXY.

GIVE me no guess for a dying pillow. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and my right arm drop from its socket rather than that either should be employed in putting under the head of any man, woman, or child, as a support in death, a mere conjecture, however plausible, which may nevertheless prove to be false. ‘The hypothesis of probation after death is such a treacherous conjecture. It belongs to the Siren school of philosophy and theology. So to teach it as to cause men to depend upon it is to do a mischief possibly more horrible than to spread pestilence, firebrands, and death. In God’s name and presence, let us purify ourselves from complicity with such venturesomeness as may end in the ruin of souls. For one, I have made up my mind that I will not go hence trusting my own chances of eternal peace to the opportunity of repentance after death. What I will not do for myself I will not, directly or indirectly, recommend others to do.

God’s opinions ought to be ours. What are the opinions of Him who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever as to new departures in regard to truths fundamental in religion? ‘There are a few self-evident religious truths, as unchangeable as the very nature of things. They are certainties, not probabilities, not guesses. Self-evident axiomatic truth has no variableness nor shadow of turning. It reveals God’s opinions. It is He.

It is a self-evident axiomatic truth that every man must be delivered from the love of sin and the guilt of it in order to obtain harmonization with his environment by the infinite holiness of the moral law. Call hither Keshub Chunder Sen from the bank of the Ganges, Fukuzawa from Japan, Herbert Spencer from the Thames, the soul of Gambetta from the Seine, —I care not what agnostic or what cultured pagan theist,—and we shall all be agreed that deliverance from the love of sin and the guilt of it is essential to our peace with the moral law. On the two most fundamental points of what I love to call axiomatic theology, or the religion of self-evident truth, all serious men who believe in a moral law may be brought to an acceptance of a cosmopolitan faith. I confess I have some ambition to advance such a faith, and to hold as the basis of my own ereed convictions acceptable to all thinking men throughout the world and in every age. On the basis of the cosmopolitan truths of axiomatic theology I have been standing on every intellectual and moral battle-field I have seen on the long war-path around the planet. The double deliverance from the ok as § "> ee, *

NEW DEPARTURES. 5 love of sin and the guilt of it is the desire of all nations. ‘The serious heart of humanity has never found intelligent peace in any human creed, but finds it swiftly in Christianity, when the gospel is presented in clear, devout, scholarly, aggressive, undiluted form.

As Christians, we believe that it is only by the new birth and by the Atonement that we can be delivered from the love of sin and the guilt of it. We are profoundly convinced that, when we are delivered from the love of sin, we are not thereby delivered from the guilt of it. We believe that it is the sight of God’s face in Christ that effectually melts the heart and produces regeneration. What we, therefore, wish to do for the world is to lift up before it the cross, because we find that when we see the cross it is no cross to bear the cross. Beholding God as a Redeemer makes us glad to take Him as Lord, and thus Christianity provides for our deliverance from the guilt of sin and the love of it.

It is undeniable that character under irreversible natural law tends to final permanence — good or bad. The longer any soul lives in the love of what God hates and in the hate of what God loves, the longer it is likely todo so. Fixation of character is the end of probation. Whenever and wherever an unchanging bent of character is attained, probation ends. It is self-evident that a final permanence or unchanging bent of character can be reached but once.

The only safe philosophical answer, therefore, to the question: What must I do to be saved? is: Aca Cee tee ele ’

quire now similarity of feeling with God. Obtain now deliverance from both the love of sin and the guilt of sin. Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation ; now, and perhaps not to-morrow, for character, without the loss of freedom, tends rapidly to permanence.

Whatever changes the accredited practical answer to the question: What must I do to be saved? is fundamental in theology and philosophy. The hypothesis of probation after death does change this answer. It changes the scriptural answer. It changes the philosophical answer. It is, therefore, a fundamental change. In the name of all sound philosophy and theology, as well as in that of the wants of the world, I repudiate departures from religious fundamentals. I repudiate departures from doctrines that look like unessentials, if these apparent unessentials touch fundamentals.

My object in this opening address is to set before you as clearly as I can what the standard orthodoxy of New England teaches as to probation after death ; and, next, what the so-called new departure teaches. In a subsequent prelude I shall discuss exegetically the question, ‘“* Does death end probation?” Here and now I am anxious only that you should compare, in broad outlines, the old and the new. I am in favor of the new. One of my central principles is to seize the new, the true, the strategic, and force it into practical application to current affairs. I am ready, I hope, in life and in death, to grasp the new, if it be better than the old; otherwise not. [Applause. |

NEW DEPARTURES. T Professor Dorner, of Berlin, whom I revere for the larger part of the work he has done in German theology, holds doctrines and hypotheses concerning probation after death that many scholars of the highest repute regard as exceedingly nebulous, erratic, unscientific, and anti-scriptural. Allow me to summarize his positions on this topic, and to contrast them with those I have received from New England Orthodoxy. I raise the question, New England Orthodoxy or German state church theology: which? Park or Dorner: which? That is a question of the hour, and it is really one of world-wide interest, because this high theme touches Christian missions. It touches all evangelical religious aggressiveness throughout the earth. On this subject Germany, England, Scotland, India, Japan, Australasia, as well as our own land, may be expected to listen.

Here, then, is the outline of what I, for one, not claiming to represent others, hold as orthodoxy : —

1. God is immanent in the moral nature of every man, and whoever permanently rejects or accepts the innermost voice of conscience rejects or accepts the essential Christ.

By the essential Christ I mean the Logos. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

2. Every free moral agent, therefore, has opportunity to accept or reject the essential Christ.

Orthodoxy is not tritheistic, although it is trinitarian. Scholars on this platform do not believe in three Gods, but in one God. They do not divide his substance, although they do not unify his subsistencies. The essential character of God is the essential character of Christ. Conscience does not inform us of the historic Christ, but it informs us of God’s character, and God’s character is Christ’s character. J would recall here whatever has been said in the past of this lectureship concerning conscience .

as a revelation in man of truths essentially supernatural. :

3. Heathen, therefore, as their consciences reveal to them the essential condition of salvation, so far as it depends on man, have a probation as protracted and multiplex as their choices to obey or disobey conscience.

While this is plainly a philosophical, it is also a scriptural truth. “In every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him.” “The kingdom of heaven is within us.” “They that sin without law shall perish without law.” The heathen, “having not the law, are a law unto themselves, their consciences bearing witness and their thoughts accusing or else excusing one another.”

4. It is through the divine mercy, as exhibited in an Atonement, that the heathen are saved, if at all, without hearing of the historical Christ.

“Those who lived with the Logos,” said Justin Martyr, “ were Christians, as Socrates and Heraclitus, and others like them.”

5. They who fear God and work righteousness, even if they have not heard of the historical Christ, a ae

NEW DEPARTURES. ; 9 have holy faith, and this would develop into historical saving faith on the presentation of evidence. This distinction between holy faith and saving faith is to be found in accredited scholarly systems of theology. Plato or Socrates, if saved, was saved by the Atonement, God’s mercy covering their guilt for Christ’s sake. So infants know nothing of the historical Christ, and yet are saved by the Atonement, God’s arm undergirding them in the darkness.

Do not say that I am supposing that a man is saved by his good works. Do not imagine that I teach that accepting the guidance of God in conscience is, for a man in the condition of any one in this audience, a sufficient proof of his loyalty to God. Do not say that I teach that man saves himself. At this point I am speaking only of those to whom no presentation of the historic Christ has been made, but whose consciences alone, according to both Scripture and science, are a divine guide to the way of peace.

6. Human nature is such, however, that without the influence of the gospel, only a few among millions do attain deliverance from the love of sin, acquire real harmony with the moral law, and accept gladly, permanently, and unqualifiedly the essential Christ of conscience.

7. A knowledge of the character, life, and death of the historic Christ must therefore be carried to the heathen and to the whole world.

8. This formal presentation of the historic Christ immensely increases human responsibility, and also, as the history of the Christian ages shows, the force of the motives which deliver men from the love of sin.

9. It is a searching self-evident truth, which cannot be too often emphasized, that men must be delivered both from the love of sin and from the guilt of it, in order to have peace in presence of infinite holiness.

10. Christianity, and it only of all the religions of the earth, teaches how deliverance from the love of sin may be effected by the new birth, and from the guilt of sin through an Atonement, without the violation of any self-evident truth. :

11. It is the sight of an Atonement which is the chief force in producing the new birth. Beholding God as a historic Saviour makes us glad to take Him as Lord, and therefore the preaching of the gospel to all the world is the supreme work of those who would deliver the world from the love of sin and bon euilt of it.

12. Every man who is a free agent and has a conscience has a fair chance in this life to accept or reject the essential Christ.

13. Every man who, in addition to these opportunities, is taught in this life the gospel of the historical Christ, has more than a fair chance.

14. Infants, idiots, lunatics, are not moral agents; they have not sinned. The least we can say of any souls that pass out of this life without attaining moral responsibility is that they are in the hands of the Judge of all the earth, who will assuredly do right. ‘They have-no record of sin behind them, and the divine mercy enfolds them. As they have not

NEW DEPARTURES. La learned the evils of sin, it is to be hoped that in death, at the sight of God’s face, they will acquire predominant harmony of soul with Him. That a state of education and progress may await such souls in another life is not denied.

Nothing in these propositions is to be understood as impugning the doctrine of original sin or inherited evil propensity. Iam using the word “sin” in its strict signification, as indicating evil personal choice.” | |

15. Probation in its strict sense ends at death.

Orthodox theology teaches that even the lost souls of the universe are free agents. ‘They retain ability, but have lost willingness to repent. If a soul is not a free agent, it cannot be virtuous or vicious. In one sense, therefore, probation continues forever with all souls. But in the strict sense probation means a state in which souls do, and not merely may, change from an undecided to a decided condition of loyalty or disloyalty to God. Orthodoxy teaches that these changes occur only in this life.

16. Every responsible human being, by the gift of a free will and conscience, or by this gift and that of the knowledge of the gospel besides, having had a fair chance, or more than a fair chance, the divine love and mercy are not questionable; a perfect theodicy is possible ; the ways of God to men are justified.

In contrast with this outline, I give now a very swift sketch of the new departure, based chiefly on the state church theology of Germany, or, rather, on the eschatology of Dorner.

1. An acceptance or rejection of the historic Christ is necessary in every case to salvation or its opposite.

2. Decisive probation consists in the opportunity of the soul freely and intelligently to accept or reject the historic Christ.

3. Those who die without a knowledge of the gospel have not had a full and fair probation.

4. Infants, idiots, lunaties, and some heathen have evidently no opportunity in this life to accept or reject the historic Christ; for they know nothing of hin.

5. As these classes have no decisive probation here, it is permissible to hope that they have one hereafter.

6. In the intermediate state, between death and the general judgment, probation may continue for souls to whom a presentation of the historic Christ was not made in this life.

7. These views offer a better theodicy — that is, a more complete justification of the ways of God to ‘men —than the accepted and standard teaching of orthodoxy.

Any friends of the new departure who are present will notice that I am very careful not to exaggerate the breadth of the departure. I do not affirm that the apologists for these divisive novelties teach that it is permissible to inculeate as a biblical dogma that certain classes of souls must have a probation hereafter, and that, if they do not, no justification of the ways of God to men is possible. They do say that it is permissible to hope that such probation lies in the intermediate state, and that we must insist on a S| ae oe ii sm

NEW DEPARTURES. to this hope if we are to cherish worthy ideas of the divine character.

Where does Dorner teach what these seven propositions contain? In a score of passages of his “ Systematic Theology,” especially in the section on Eschatology, which I beg you to examine, if you are in doubt as to the source from which several recent American suggestions as to new theological departures have been derived. (See the original German, or the translation in T. & T. Clark’s Theological Library of “‘ Dorner’s System of Christian Doctrine,” vol. iv. pp. 373-454. See, also, an article on “ Dr. _Dorner’s Position with* Regard to Probation after Death,” by the Rev. W. H. Cobb, in the “ Bibliotheca Sacra” for October, 1882, pp. 751-773.) Here is a characteristic passage from Dorner: “ The absoluteness of Christianity demands that no one be judged before Christianity has been made accessible and brought home to him; but this is not the case in this life with millions of human beings. Nay, even within the Church there are periods and circles where the gospel does not really approach men as that which it is. Moreover, those dying in childhood have not been able to decide personally for Christianity. Jesus seeks the lost. The lost are to be sought also in the kingdom of the dead. The opposite view leads to an absolute decree of rejection in reference to all who have died and die as heathen ; whereas Christian grace is universal.” (“System of Christian Doctrine,” vol. iv. p. 409.)

Who that has learned what a scholarly orthodoxy really teaches does not see at a glance that these propositions are inaccurate, confused, misleading, and, to an appalling degree, spiritually hazardous ?

1. The new departure begins with a most atrociously incorrect statement concerning the essential condition of salvation.

2. It gives a false definition of what constitutes a full and fair probation.

3. A first blunder leads to a second, and then a third is made to cover the second, and a fourth to cover the third. An inaccurate statement peculiar to many state church theologies as to the essential condition of salvation leads to a difficulty im vindicating the divine justice. In view of this difficulty, which ought never to have existed, the theory of a continued probation is adopted as a means of escape. Here, as elsewhere, orthodoxy begins right and ends right in its fundamental courses of thought, while heterodoxy begins wrong and ends wrong.

Our fathers had much discussion over the doctrine of decrees; and, indeed, it is a wonder that we do not have more, for whoever looks into the mighty themes of a theodicy must regard election, decrees, foreordination, free will, fate, the matters concerning which the angels debated in Milton’s “ Paradise Lost,” as really supreme topics of philosophy as well as of religious science. Our thoughts are absorbed by secular matters; otherwise we should be awake, as our fathers were, to the great problems involved in election. As to the salvation of elect infants only, scholarship has passed by this doctrine a long while. The new-departure is really a reversion to a medizval form of theological speculation. ‘This teach-