The axioms of religion; a new interpretation of the Baptist faith

Preface

The motives which led to the preparation of this volume are set forth in the first chapter. For a number of years the author has felt that a fresh statement of the Baptist position was possible which would enable the world to understand us better. A series of addresses, including one before the American Baptist Publication Society in St. Louis, Mo., in 1905, another the same year at The Baptist World Congress in London, England, two addresses in Richmond, Va., in 1906, before Richmond College and The Baptist General Association, and another at the Baptist Convention of North America, at Jamestown, in 1907, set forth in one form or another the principles which are elaborated in the following pages. Upon the occasion of each of the above addresses the writer was urged by many to expand the views expressed into a book. This he has here attempted to do, and submits the result to the judgment of his brethren.

The aim has been constructive and irenic in the highest sense. Of course the author has frankly taken issue with those of other faiths in the exposition of his own views where occasion required. But the chief object in view has been to expound New

8 PREFACE

Testament Christianity in some of the more fundamental and important aspects. God has given to the Baptists of the world a great and sublime task in the promulgation of principles on the preservation of which the spiritual and political hopes of the world depend. In America the Baptists have had a marvelous growth in influence, in numbers, in wealth, and all other forms of power. We are, in spite of our vast territory, our great numbers, and our emphasis upon individualism, a remarkably homogeneous people. The author hopes that in the pages which follow will be found some contribution toward the higher thinking, the deepening spirituality, and the increasing unity and practical efficiency of our people.

It should be remarked that the sixteenth chapter is almost an exact reproduction of the address at Jamestown in May, 1907, on the " Contribution of Baptists to American Civilization." Chapters three and four are, in part, the address delivered for the Baptist Historical Society of Virginia in November, 1906, at Richmond College. There are some slight differences of style as between these chapters and the remainder of the book which are to be accounted for by the fact that they were first given as addresses.

E. Y. M.

Louisville, Ky.

Contents

Chapter Pagb

I./ The New Test of Denominationalism . . n

II. Denominationalism in Terms of the King-

Chapter I

Each recurring season brings a new test to the trees of a forest. This oak perished because the foes which attacked it were too great for its powers of resistance. That pine was laid low because a fierce wind struck it at a new angle and thus discovered the one weak spot in its hold upon the earth. Under pressure of wind and snow that ancient elm was split in two. The next season some neighbors of these go down for kindred reasons, while others remain standing throughout many generations.

The centuries are to institutions what adverse conditions are to the forest trees. Changing circumstances bring fresh tests of endurance. The weak or decrepit succumb, the strong survive. Some are so modified by environment that they lose their original characteristics entirely. Others are purged of dross and purified and unfold more fully their distinctive

ii life and power. Still others coalesce with kindred institutions and together under a new combination life and progress are achieved.

Since the Reformation denominationalism has been the characteristic expression of Christianity on its ecclesiastical side. The right of private judgment and freedom from ecclesiastical superiors, that priceless boon of modern believers, has led to great variety in the interpretation of the New Testament. The touchstone hitherto has been conformity to the teachings of the Scriptures. This battle has been waged long and it may be truly said that at length it is virtually at an end. At least this is true in the realm of scholarship and among thinkers generally, although on the popular side it progresses still. So far as explicit New Testament teaching is concerned there are no important points left unsettled among scholars as to the organization and polity of the church. Men do not hesitate, however, to reject New Testament teaching on these points in the interest of a theory of development or for other reasons when it suits their purposes, and they seek to justify the procedure in many ways.

New Test of Denominationalism.

Practical conditions among us are to-day imposing a new test upon denominationalism. This test when fully applied will not, in the opinion of the writer, involve a rejection of New Testament teachings. It will rather supplement those teachings and corroborate them in a new way. The progress of events and the conditions of Christian work are the best interpreters of Scripture. Christianity is like a knife of many blades and other devices to be used in turn as need arises. There is this difference however. In Christianity many of the blades are concealed from view until new emergencies bring to light their presence and use. Every interpretation of Scripture assumes, or should assume, the divinely adapted fitness of Scripture to

j human need. History reacts upon and explains exegesis in many ways, just as the growth of a tree reveals what was lying potent in the seed, and as the progress of a building sheds light on the pre-

1 liminary plans of the architect. Thus we are slowly

1 obtaining an exposition of our exegesis. We are unfolding it into its implications and enlarging it into its logical and necessary outcome.

The nature of the practical test which we refer to may be understood by a brief glance at some of

; the problems and perils which confront all Christian bodies to-day. These are for the most part

j problems of adjustment of one kind or other.

; Problems of Adjustment.

One of the most important of these is the problem of doctrinal adjustment. In all denominations there is a pronounced movement of thought on doctrinal teaching. It has assumed acute forms in most of the evangelical bodies in heresy trials in recent years. The lines of doctrinal cleavage are as radical as at any time in the past, but the issues are new. As usual the extreme parties are doing most of the harm. On one side is the ultra-conservative, the man of the hammer and anvil method, who relies chiefly upon denunciation of opponents, and who cannot tolerate discussion on a fraternal basis ; on the other is the ultra-progressive whose lofty contempt of the " traditionalist " shuts him out from the ranks of sane scholarship and wise leadership. The really safe leaders of thought, however, are between these extremes. They are men who have sympathy on the one hand with those who are perplexed by the difficulties to faith occasioned by modern science and philosophy, and on the other are resolved to be loyal to Christ and his gospel. Out of this situation arise two urgent questions. The first is this: What is the regulative principle of doctrinal growth and progress? The second is: What are the limits of doctrinal divergence within the pale of the denominational life?

As to the first of these two questions few will venture to assert that doctrinal statements are permanently stereotyped in any particular creed or book of theology which has appeared in the course of the Christian centuries; that the plates are, so to speak, in their final form, to be stowed away for safe keeping in the ecclesiastical vault and to be used for new editions when the old are exhausted. Such a claim would be tantamount to a claim that said plates are inspired and that God has withdrawn his Holy Spirit from modern investigators in so far as their labors are designed to enlarge or deepen or modify past interpretations of Scripture, or to discover new side-lights upon Scripture from any department of science. Respecting the second question, as to the limits of doctrinal difference, there is much divergence of view among the denominations themselves, and often within the pale of the particular denomination. It would be a great stride forward if our thinking on these two matters could be clarified.

Another question of adjustment presses, and that is of the denominations to each other. What shall be our attitude on the great question of Christian union ? Are the denominations free to ignore this issue and in so doing can they remain loyal to the Master who prayed that his people might all be one ? It has become clear that artificially devised union among the various bodies can never be permanently effected. Recent examples also warn us against premature attempts at union even among closely related bodies. And yet there remains before us the reproach of a divided Christendom and in many instances an apparent waste of resources in fields where churches are multiplied beyond the needs of the communities. So long, however, as the consciences of Christians revolt at compromise or surrender of what they regard as the will of Christ for them, we cannot hope for a radical cure of these evils. It behooves us, therefore, to recognize that permanent Christian union is to be realized only by training the conscience by means of the truth, and to ask what are the fundamental lines along which this training should proceed.

Christianity and Social Service.

There is also the matter of the adjustment of our Christianity to social service. There are many who feel strongly that at this point has the church of modern times most deeply sinned. They think the church has been too much like a star blazing above men to show the way to the next life. They think it should seek to become a lantern in whose light men may walk in the dark. Accusations are frequent that church and ministry are indifferent to social conditions. Smug, prosperous, and contented church-members, and genial ease-loving pastors, so we are told, live their lives and maintain their worship in oblivion of the tragedy and struggle of the masses, and careless of the cruelty and oppression of wealth. The charge is of course far from being the whole truth. It is in part a case of misunderstanding, due to a difference of view as to the relative values and of method.

To the best elements in the churches the material is not valued so highly as the moral and spiritual. Hence with them inequalities in economic conditions do not press so painfully upon consciousness as among those to whom the material is of primary

THE NEW TEST OF DENOMINATIONALISM I?

importance. Those who are without the moral discipline to endure hard conditions with cheerfulness, or who see all things in the perspective of this life alone are at a serious disadvantage here." The misunderstanding is due in part also to a difference in view as to the method of ameliorating human conditions. The church has said, make the tree good and the fruit will be good. Give men spiritual natures and you will thus regulate society best; whereas the critics have insisted that she I forsake evangelism for the other department of service. When all is said, however, it must be owned that a Christianity which is indifferent or callous to moral conditions of any kind is abnormal 1 and imperfect, and it must also be owned that ! evangelism does not exhaust the programme of the churches of Jesus Christ. We need, therefore, a clearer grasp of the nature and limits of the social duties of the church. We need a view on this point which can be intelligently advocated, propagated, and defended, and at the same time adjusted to other departments of duty and service. Is the church of Christ in relation to social questions a square peg in a round hole? Is it a misfit in social effort or is it unfit ? If not, how can it be made to fit?

On the Foreign Mission Field.

On the foreign mission fields a new situation has arisen in connection with the increasing growth and

B triumph of our missionary labors. What form of Christianity is best adapted to the civilizations of the East ? Is it wise to attempt to urge our Western forms of ecclesiastical organization upon the Orient? Should there be a fusion of the various Christian elements in India, China, and Japan, into as many national or racial organizations, which shall omit the distinctive features of the West? These are vital questions to-day in all these countries and will engage attention in increasing measure in the near future.

There is another matter of far-reaching significance. How are the various denominations to preserve a loyalty so intense as to make them compact and united in aim, and so inspired by a common spirit as to render them useful ? When the modern denominations were in process of formation controversy was the bellows which kept hot the fires of zeal. Competition in missionary effort has played a similar part in more recent years. No one can question that controversy is a duty when circumstances demand it and truth is in peril. It will never, under earthly conditions, cease to be necessary within certain limits. But it is quite generally agreed in our day that propagandism through interdenominational controversy has in large measure served its day. The spirit of the age frowns upon such controversy, and the man who has no gift for other forms of service finds himself in a constantly narrowing field of usefulness. And yet as we face the situation created by a long-delayed Christian union, and at the same time by a tendency to denominational dissolution we are in danger of resolving our Christianity back into a mass of unrelated and non-cohesive atoms. There is indeed a marked movement toward an anti-institutional, anti-ecclesiastical, and wholly individualistic Christianity. The period of the judges in Israel, of the little city democracies in the period of their anarchy and decline in Greece, and of the breaking up of Europe into feudalism in the Middle Ages, are historic analogues which suggest the possible outcome of such a movement. The man who is unattached to any religious organization, or equally attached to all, may of course exert some local influence for good combined with a very bad example of a false individualism. But he will lose all that splendid opportunity for service which comes of a life reenforced by thousands of others united and organized and aggressive in the pursuit of common ends. If the mass of individual Christians is to become simply a vortex ring of dancing atoms, each moving aimlessly around its own center, Christianity will soon spend itself.

A New Cohesive Principle Needed.

There must be, then, some motive or incentive or cohesive principle strong enough to give unity to each of the religious bodies if these bodies are to continue their careers of usefulness. Denominational self-respect, a sense of a divine calling and mission, must possess any religious body which counts for much in the world. The prophetic mood, which implies that the soul is conquered by some great truth or truths, and seeks passionately and restlessly to propagate those truths, is a prime condition of power.

Now if the vigor and intensity of this prophetic burden can no longer be produced, as in the formative period of denominationalism, by the sense of discovery in the realm of truth and experience and by competition and conflict, we must somehow find another incentive. Some moral equivalent must be found which will serve to impel us forward with something like the pristine energy and persistence. The most intense denominationalists are often animated by this feeling in their assertive insularity and their feeling of repugnance toward suggestions of Christian union. They are afraid of lukewarmness and lack of force. It is certainly true that negative moods do not win in religion. None of the higher forms of spiritual religion have ever made wide progress merely as a leaven. Aggressive advocacy by deeply earnest individuals is the sole condition. The hardest metals can be melted if you get a fire hot enough. All church problems are at bottom problems of spiritual temperature. God's Spirit supplies the flame. Earthly conditions furnish the fuel. Well-directed effort raises the temperature to the desired point.

Pressure Felt by All Religious Bodies.

All the evangelical churches have felt the pressure of the problems and difficulties outlined above. Among Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, there have been heresy trials which have attracted national if not world-wide attention in recent years, and all alike feel the urgency of the missionary, social, and other aspects of the problems. Baptists have also felt these conditions and experienced similar embarrassment at certain points. With the Baptists all the perplexities are dealt with in a more direct and simple way than is the case with the other more complex and highly organized bodies. But among Baptists there are conditions peculiar to themselves which call for attention. For one thing Baptists have increased in numbers and in wealth so rapidly that these two elements alone have created many problems. How shall these vast numbers be made thoroughly homogeneous in spirit and aim? How may they be enlisted in the aggressive enterprises of a militant and conquering missionary gospel? How shall our vast wealth be drawn into the service of the kingdom of God?

Then too, out of our doctrine of independence, how shall we realize, in any adequate manner, the complementary principle of interdependence? Baptists must face this problem with renewed interest in order to avoid serious waste and great loss of power. We must work out patiently our problem of democracy and unity. Experiment has been demonstrating lately the startling energy of a wave of the sea. The power of the impact of the wave depends upon two factors apart from the impelling wind. One is the elevation of its center of gravity above the common level of the sea, the other is the rotary motion of the separate drops of water which enter into the formation of the wave. Baptist unity is like that, not of a block of granite, but of a wave of the sea. Individual energy answers to the rotation of the drops. The elevation of the common life of the churches fixes the spiritual center of gravity. The breath of the Spirit of God is the impelling wind. Our energy will prove resistless when all the conditions are fulfilled.

An Anti-institutional Christianity.

There is one extreme, although as yet quite small, group among us who are anti-institutional, or at least anti-ceremonial in their conception of Christianity. They are ready to sacrifice the ordinances and church order to the last possible limit in the interest of expediency. They want the spirit of religion without.a body; or at least they want only an astral body which is unaffected by ordinances or forms. A few others would centralize our Baptist polity and adopt an approach to a Presbyterian or Episcopal church order. These parties are not large and there is little prospect of a triumph of their views in America at least. They are mentioned merely to indicate as completely as may be the currents and eddies of our denominational life.

It is unnecessary to enlarge further this outline of the present general situation of the various religious bodies. Enough has been said to indicate the gravity of the problems which press for solution, and the urgency and vastness of our immediate task as Christians.

Among those who recognize the authority of the New Testament there are two prevalent general views as to church order. One insists that the New Testament gives final form to ecclesiastical organization; the other contends for a principle of development from New Testament beginnings. The congregational bodies represent the first view and the episcopal churches the development principle. Cardinal Newman has given the most consistent expression to the development idea in his well-known discussion of the subject. His principles of development are exactly adapted to relieve the conscience of the man who has left the Church of England for the Roman Catholic fold. They are an elaborate theoretical vindication of Romanism. One of their defects is that they do not conform to the facts of history but to an ideal. Another serious and vital fault is that they fail to show that in the Romish development the New Testament type is preserved. Newman's introspection led him into the subjective snare. By his speculations to relieve his inward distress he opened a trap-door in his own floor through which he fell into the subcellar of an outgrown system.

Two Issues.

The real issues between the two theories, the congregational on the one hand and the episcopal and presbyterial on the other, are two. First, which best preserves the New Testament principles and ideals; second, which is best fitted to accomplish the enlarging task of Christianity in the world. On the side of the Scriptures the test is one of conformity. On the practical side the test is one of adaptation to changing and enlarging tasks. We inherit from the Reformation and the New Testament the first test. The second has been imposed upon us by the progress of events. The two tests are harmonious. Indeed they are mutually regulative of each other. It is a flagrant violation of the New Testament for a religious body to ignore conditions and the state of human need. In meeting these needs in any serious way we will be driven inevitably to the New Testament principles.

The practical test is the one which presses at present. It has a profound bearing upon the whole movement of an ever-advancing civilization, as well as upon the deepest religious yearnings and aspirations of the human spirit. The issue is taking shape in modern thinking in many forms. It may be stated in various ways. Will the widening tasks and increasing burdens of the churches result in the extension of the principle of episcopacy, or will the ever-growing principle of democracy gradually undermine and dissolve episcopacy? Is the genius of Christianity best expressed in systems of corporate authority or in those of corporate freedom? Is the church a body of spiritual equals or shall it consist of a group of inferiors presided over by an authoritative group of superiors? Does it conduce to the progress of Christianity to entrust its great interests to the laity as well as clergy, or should the power of the laity be held within fixed limits by their clerical superiors ?

Fresh Statements Needed.

Now it is the conviction of the present writer that the time has come for the various Christian bodies to give a fresh account of themselves to the world, and in an entirely new way. The questions should be not one of past service merely, but of fitness for present service. The question of conformity to Scripture properly understood always involves the total question of conformity to racial needs and advancing civilization. Is there flexibility and elasticity or is there rigidity and petrjifaction? Is Christianity conceived as a rule or as a principle? Are the tests those of life or those of the square and compass? Do the church polities contain in themselves heterogeneous and alien elements or are they in harmony with the genius and spirit as well as the express teachings of the New

Testament? What contributions have the various polities to make to the subjects discussed in the preceding pages, such as missions, social service, Christian union, evangelism, civic righteousness, and family life, and others ?

The aim of this book is to make this statement from the point of view of the Baptists. What is the distinctive message of the Baptists to the world ? How far does our simple congregational polity embody the essential things in New Testament Christianity and to what extent is it adapted to the present and future progress of the gospel on earth ? The question here is not primarily concerning baptism or the Lord's Supper or even church polity as these have been discussed in the past. The attempt is rather to state our case in the light of primary and universal principles, and to show the relation of the ordinances and polity to these principles. These principles of course are taken from the New Testament. The authority of the Scriptures lies at the basis of our plea. We do not believe any form of Christianity which breaks with the Scripture as the revealed and authoritative word of God can long serve the interests of God's kingdom on earth in any thoroughgoing way. Every position, therefore, which we assume in the following pages is either directly or indirectly grounded upon the revelation of God in Christ as recorded in the Old and New Testament Scriptures.

Chapter II Denominationalism In Terms Of The Kingdom Of God

A painted rainbow never equals a real one. An artificial diamond lacks the brilliancy of one made in nature's workshop. The human touch always leaves its mark of inferiority when brought into comparison with God's handiwork. This is true in religion as well as in nature. We must constantly return to the divine standard in dealing with religious organizations.

Church Polity and Spiritual Law.

It is proposed in this chapter to examine denominationalism in the light of the New Testament ideal of the kingdom of God; or, what amounts to the same thing, to consider ecclesiastical polity as over against universal spiritual laws. We are to seek first the distinctive ideals and principles of the religion of Christ, and then to ask whether or not church polity bears any relation to them, or whether, on the contrary, polity is solely a question of expediency. Or, recurring to the figure, letting the rainbow answer to the great New Testament ideal of the kingdom of God, do the religious bodies reproduce its seven colors and its curve? Or is there any necessary relation between the form of church organization and the ideal of the kingdom ? Do the churches need the kingdom in determining their polities ? We approach our subject by analyzing the ideal of the kingdom into some of its constituent parts.

The first point to be noted is that the kingdom of Ood brings to us a personal as distinguished from a positive religion. That is, it is not a set of legal enactments put down in a book, like those of Mohammed in the Koran, to be obeyed as external statutes. It is, on the contrary, a personal religion It teaches that a Person-God-took the initiative in salvation, and that a person-man-responds to it Primarily then, Christianity is a relation between persons— God and man. The method of all legal religions is that of the command and the prohibition. They say Thou shall," and " Thou shall not," with the result that human nature revolts, or else tends to obey mechanically rather than through love. " When the commandment came sin revived and I died," says i'aul. Human nature is made much after the disposition of the old woman in the walled city who had never desired to go outside the walls until her friends urged her to remain inside until death that it might be told of her. Thenceforth she was irresistibly impelled to go outside and at length did so. A religion which commands awakens revolt if there are only commands. Christianity as a personal religion begins with faith. Its method of growth is fellowship with God, entering into his plans, grasping his aims.

The Emphasis on Personality and Love.

A second point is that this religion of the kingdom and of personal relationships very naturally puts much emphasis upon the divine personality and love, or the Fatherhood of God. The idea of the kingdom teaches that the realm of salvation is an ordered sphere — that in it laws prevail. The idea of Fatherhood shows that the realm of salvation is more than mere law ; that it is the sphere of the highest, deepest, and tenderest of known relationships — that between father and son. Those in the kingdom call God Father, and those who call God Father are swayed and molded by the laws which are of the essence of the kingdom. These two conceptions, therefore, are not contradictory but supplementary. Each is an exhaustive statement of the contents of Christ's religion in its own way and from its own point of view ; one from the point of view of constituted order, the other from the point of view of personal relationships. 1

The next note which distinguishes the kingdom is the principle of revelation. Revelation is the method and guarantee of intercourse between the persons who enter into the religious relationships, God and man. Revelation implies the kinship between God and man, that God can communicate and man receive messages. Revelation implies human capacity for God. 1

The fourth distinctive thing in this religion of the kingdom is that Christ himself is the medium of revelation and redemption. He brings God near God comes to us in and through Christ; we approach God in and through him. He is the revelation of God to us. The soul cannot thrive on abstract notions about God, just as a bird cannot fly in a vacuum, or a tree root itself in a bank of mist or as a vine cannot climb a moonbeam. Christ made the idea of God concrete. Christ is God's message to man. It is at this point that the authoritativeness and regulative value of the Scriptures come into view. The Scriptures alone enable us to maintain contact with the Christ of history. His image grows dim, his authority over the soul inevitably wanes when detached from the historic records So far are the Scriptures from hindering the free intercourse of the soul with Christ, as some allege that we may assert on the contrary their indispensableness to that free intercourse. These records are the sheet-anchor of Christian experience and of Christian theology.