Lastly, amongst the heritages of the past that may once have been symbols serving some useful purpose, is that old Hebrew aphorism, that "the blood is the life." The pious schoolmaster expounding Old Testament types still teaches that the sacrifice of Abel was more acceptable to God than that of Cain, because Cain's was bloodless. But modern physiology will not follow him when he repeats the old error that the blood is the life. Neither historic truth nor real religion is benefited by representing what is not true. Jesus Christ was already dead before the soldier, by piercing His side, caused His blood to flow forth. The world was not saved by an outrage perpetrated on a corpse. Those whoeven in all sincerity, like the preachers of the Salvation Army-represent that the salvation of mankind depended on the shedding of the blood of Jesus, are simply declaring that which is not true. They have elevated an exquisite Oriental simile, true and useful for its own time and place, into a hideous idol, none the less idolatrous because thousands still believe it to be the power of God unto salvation. Yet it must go with the brazen serpent into the limbo of the outcast idols. To teach men to believe a lie will never raise mankind. To elevate that lie into a dogma is to deny the real work of Christ. To reconcile men to the Divine Will, to.. lead them, to God, to inspire their lives with His own gracious spirit, to turn them from darkness to light, that was His work. As He was raised from the dead, so must men rise from the dead into newness of life. As He devoted His life to deliver many, so must they devote their lives for the many. As He was obedient even to death, so must they also effectually demonstrates the value of the Old Testament books, and gives invaluable warning that we should not mistake those books for what they are not. The fact that some atrocious crime is recounted as having been conducted under the command, "Thus saith Jahveh," does not, by being found in the Old Testament, prove that the Almighty commanded anything of the kind. What it does prove is the extremely imperfect civilisation, not to say the extremely imperfect religious sense, of the recorders who have thus left on record that they could imagine the Almighty as the tribal deity commanding bloody extermination against a neighbouring tribe. When in the opening of the twentieth century we find dignitaries of the Anglican Church, no less than certain Nonconformist divines, appealing to these Hebrew atrocities as a justification to a Christian nation in making warfare, because the records present them as having been commanded by Jahveh Himself, we may well say that it is time to cast out and break in pieces these idols of the temple. Infamies are not less infamous because those who wrought and recorded them thought to do God service. But if now to justify fire and sword, red ruin and the breaking up of laws, these ancient infamies are brought forward, every rightminded man will well say that a "Christianity' which cannot rise superior to these very imperfect beliefs about, God, is not really Christianity at all, and is no better than heathenism. "'Tis ethnic and idolatrous From heathenism preserved to us." Better an honest pagan faith than a "Christianity" so unworthy of Christ. Lastly, amongst the heritages of the past that may once have been symbols serving some useful purpose, is that old Hebrew aphorism, that "the blood is the life." The pious schoolmaster expounding Old Testament types still teaches that the sacrifice of Abel was more acceptable to God than that of Cain, because Cain's was bloodless. But modern physiology will not follow him when he repeats the old error that the blood is the life. Neither historic truth nor real religion is benefited by representing what is not true. Jesus Christ was already dead before the soldier, by piercing His side, caused His blood to flow forth. The world was not saved by an outrage perpetrated on a corpse. Those whoeven in all sincerity, like the preachers of the Salvation Army-represent that the salvation of mankind depended on the shedding of the blood of Jesus, are simply declaring that which is not true. They have elevated an exquisite Oriental simile, true and useful for its own time and place, into a hideous idol, none the less idolatrous because thousands still believe it to be the power of God unto salvation. Yet it must go with the brazen serpent into the limbo of the outcast idols. To teach men to believe a lie will never raise mankind. To elevate that lie into a dogma is to deny the real work of Christ. To reconcile men to the Divine Will, to lead them, to God, to inspire their lives with His own gracious spirit, to turn them from darkness to light, that was His work. As He was raised from the dead, so must men rise from the dead into newness of life. As He devoted His life to deliver many, so must they devote their lives for the many. As He was obedient even to death, so must they also be obedient. They must press forward to the goal for the prize of the upward call by bringing every act, every thought even, into captivity to the heavenly will, into conformity with the Divine Order. Only so shall the sons of men be lifted up. CHAPTER XI The Duty of Choice "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve."-JOSHUA xxiv. 15. M OST of us, without being conscious of it, grow up in a set of religious ideas and beliefs simply as the result of our environment from birth. We grow up in a certain spiritual atmosphere, and breathe it in as a part of our national and racial inheritance. The outward religion of men is at least largely determined by that of the nation into which they are born; and they adopt it more or less unconsciously without discussion or deliberation. Very few men, in all probability, set themselves in any calm philosophic mood to consider whether they shall choose for themselves a religion, or having so far decided that they will adopt a religion, proceed to investigate what sort of religion they will choose. To the great mass the choice of a religion does not come about in that way it is made not with scientific deliberation but under stress of emotion. Anguish of soul, restlessness under a conviction of sin, sorrow under bereavement, joy in a sense of spiritual fellowship, pure altruistic pleasure in acts of kindness toward others, pity toward M |