Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/543

CHRISTIANITY 531 of God Divinity and humanity are to be in contact with each other in him, it cannot be otherwise than that Christianity shall extend equally to everything in human life. Every day is, in a certain sense, a holy day, and every act is a Christian act. Such will be the king- dom of God, such Christianity in its complete triumph. But while the church and the state are to be equally Christian, the promotion of Christianity is to be the direct aim of the one, while it is to be only the indirect aim of the other. The activity of the church therefore, being more directly religious and exerted only under religious forms, is often very natu- rally supposed to be a complete and adequate representation of Christianity. It is owing to this that many writers have erroneously, we think, considered Christianity and the church as identical. Christianity in a subjective sense is the inward life of the individual, answering to the provisions of the gospel made for him and existing out of him. It is a personal, free act of appropriation made under spiritual in- fluence, by which Christ is received, in his en- tire character and spirit, in his offices, and in his work, as our redeemer, teacher, and exam- ple, and, in short, as our life. This act involves the renunciation and abandonment of what- ever is opposed to the spirit of Christ, and a heartfelt sorrow for all previous participation in it, which is the negative side of Christianity ; and on the other hand, confidence in God as a loving and merciful Father, and trust in Christ as the medium of God's redeeming love to men, which is the positive side. Supreme love to God is the radical principle of Christianity, as the religion of the heart ; and love to men, not only as a sentiment, but as a practical energy expending itself in self-denying and self-sacri- ficing efforts for their good, in the spirit and after the example of Christ, is the necessary and invariable product of that principle. Hence, in the matter of personal religion, he who is with- out love is nothing. This inward spiritual life received from Christ may not be perfectly re- alized and wholly conformed to his at any given moment of our present existence; but it is received in its seminal principles as soon as Christ is received, and the development will go on till it reaches perfection in the world to come. The progress of the individual in this divine life is in proportion to the will and the effort which he gives to it. While on the one hand his Christianity is a gift and a grace, on the other it is a culture and a work. The believer in Christ is not a passive recipient of his grace, but a voluntary, resolute, strenuous agent, a determined, moral hero, who over- comes difficulties and obstacles because he purposed and endeavored to overcome them. Christ helps his disciples when they help them- selves, and lives in them when they strive to live in him. As Christianity is founded on Christ, it will be necessary to delineate those peculiar features of his character which are most essential to it. The one fact on which all other things in the redemption of mankind de- pend is that of "God manifest in the flesh." That God was in Christ, and was represented by him, is a fundamental principle in the Chris- tian system, as explained by Christ himself and by his apostles. The incarnation laid the foundation for human redemption. There was thus a second Adam, a new head of the hu- man race the true man, having a divine line- age, and the Spirit of God without measure, bearing his image and doing all his will, acting in every moment of life with a perfect spontaneousness and freedom, leading a life at once divine and human, avoiding sin and thus passing sentence against it, taking upon him its outward consequences by putting him- self in fellowship with the sufferings of sinful men, and in this state of voluntary humiliation and suffering revealing the infinite condescen- sion and love of God to his erring and unhappy offspring. In all this act of redeeming mercy is to be seen the true type of practical Chris- tianity : a holiness that is separate from sin and condemnatory of it; a humility that is unambitious and unpretending, seeking merit and not rank ; and a love that seeks not its own, but sacrifices all external things for the good of others. The mystery of redemption by Christ we may not be able to explain ; but that a whole embryo Christianity lies con- cealed in the wonderful life and death of the incarnate Son of God is too evident to admit of doubt. It is the taking of human beings up into fellowship with his human nature, as well as his descending to them by entering their nature, and holding communion with their sufferings, that opens the way for God to dwell in men, and for men to dwell in God. The divine and the human were first harmo- nized and reconciled in the person of Christ, and from him as a nucleus spreads out, by means of his Spirit, a broader harmony and reconciliation between God and all his chil- dren. Such love and such a sacrifice on the one part, and such a reception of Christ and of his divine life on the other, render the method of redemption consistent both with the divine government and with the moral constitution of man. The righteousness of Christ, which is accepted of God, is also ac- cepted on the part of man, as the germ of a new life. In this way every end of a wise gov- ernment is secured, and man is restored first to the image and then to the peculiar friend- ship of God. There is one feature of this sys- tem that needs to be more fully set forth. It is that view of Christ which presents him as the ideal of humanity. The want of such an ideal of human perfection was deeply felt by the ancient world. To the question, What precisely should men strive to be ? no satisfac- tory reply could be given. Men were far from being agreed in respect to "the chief good;' 1 and in the various theories maintained there was necessarily much vagueness, as nothing but abstract ideas could be presented, a living