LECTURE I.

UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. THE WORLD AS A WHOLE.

ST. JOHN iii. 17. God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

THE purpose of this course of Lectures is to restore the idea of the Christian Church as a moral and social power, present, universal, capable of transforming the whole life of mankind, and destined to accomplish this transformation. The Church has often been presented to men as if it had no object but public worship and teaching, with some few accidental adjuncts of beneficent action. It is regarded as a society, but a society of which public prayer and preaching are the supreme, if not exclusive, ratio essendi. If a further object is assigned, it is to prepare men for another world. In contrast to this limited view of its functions, the Church will be here presented as the Social State in which the Spirit of Christ reigns; as embracing the general life and society of men, and identifying itself with these as much as possible; having for its object to imbue all human relations with the spirit of Christ's self-renouncing love, and thus to change the world into a kingdom of God. It

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is proposed to show that this, and no narrower purpose, was contemplated from the beginning; that it is to this that all natural indications point as the destination of a spiritual society; that it is this which, in spite of the fundamental misconception which has been noticed, has been in the main the aim of the Church. The attempts which have been made thus to save the world will be reviewed, and an estimate formed of their success or failure. It will be shown, further, how the Church principle, that is, the principle of Christian love working in organized bodies of men, would operate if society were brought fully under its dominion. And, lastly, the present state of society will be examined, and suggestions made as to the practical means by which our social state may, in all its circles and relations, become fully Christian, and capable of the indwelling of God.

Such a presentation of the Christian Church, if it can be successfully drawn out, will serve, it is hoped, to turn the attention of men away from the controversies engendered by an exclusive interest in worship and dogma to the more fruitful field of a practical influence on the national and universal life. It will tend to show the complete identity of Christianity with goodness in its widest sense. It will exhibit the unity of the various spheres of moral and intellectual life. It will also present a point of hope to all who long and strive for the general good of mankind, and give a direction to their energies; while, in reference to the special and apologetic object of the Bampton Lecture, it will rally men to the Christian standard by a renewal of the

hope which in the early days inspired the army of believers.

Apologetics have often been no more than a vindication of the original guarantees of Christianity, and of the documents in which it was at first enshrined. But, partly because the thing to be defended was vague, partly because the argument seemed after all inconclusive, they rarely kindled enthusiasm. They often failed even to attract the attention of those to whom they were addressed. It was not certain whether by Christianity was meant the Roman Catholic or the Anglican, the Presbyterian or Independent system of worship or church government, the Calvinist or Arminian system of doctrine, the clerical or the liberal view of the Christian life; and whether, therefore, its acceptance might require a man to adopt any of these systems, or to engage in controversies about them. It was not certain whether by the Church were not meant some exclusive body having little to do with the actual life of mankind, perhaps even drifting into hostility to the convictions of men engaged in secular callings, and to the progressive tendencies of modern societies. Moreover, it is not enough that religion should be merely capable of defence. It must inspire and lead, or else it dies. We must show that it is capable of influencing, stimulating and guiding the progress of humanity; and, further, that the world itself demands the Christian religion as alone capable of sustaining its hope and its This is what these Lectures will attempt. energy.

Let us begin by asking two questions,-1st. What is the world, the salvation of which was designed by

Christ and His apostles?

2nd. What is the Church

through which its salvation is to be wrought out?

I. What is the world which Christ came to save, and which is to be changed into His Church? We mean by the world the organized constitution of things in which we live, including the material universe so far as we apprehend it, but chiefly humanity, which (taking the world as known to us) is its crown. The world is the universe as conceived of and wrought upon by men. It partakes, therefore, of man's rise and fall; for, if man be degraded, outer nature becomes evil to him, and through him the source of evil to others; whereas, when man rises to his true position, all outer nature is first viewed as serving the spiritual good of mankind, and then is actually used for this purpose. The world thus conceived is a harmony. But the harmony is broken through when man is driven helplessly by the physical powers by which he is surrounded; when he reckons them above instead of below him, as idolaters do, and he thus becomes impotens sui, resigning his rightful supremacy; or when he drifts on without a perception of the Moral Order; or, again, when he uses nature and his fellowmen wilfully or selfishly, instead of seeking that they and he should serve the highest spiritual purpose. The harmony is restored when the spiritual aim is understood and embraced. Then men are at one through their common pursuit of justice and love, and outer nature is subservient to this pursuit. This harmony is also properly divine; the world thus conceived is a manifestation of God. He who perceives and acts upon this harmony is a believer in God, whether he name the

sacred name or not. He who through moral indifference does not recognize it, at least as 'the purpose of the ages,' and he alone, may properly be called an atheist. But he who with mind and heart embraces this harmony, embraces the thought and purpose of God Himself. We may say more. Since God dwells in the world as thus conceived, since He is the justice and the love which gives it its character, he who thus conceives it takes in the divine nature, or rather is taken into it, and he thus becomes an agent of God's will and of His purpose a member and a minister of Him who fills all in all.

1

When the world is under the dominion of selfishness, then it becomes an evil thing. As such it is constantly spoken of in Scripture, where sometimes the unreal and transitional character of this stage is marked by the expression' This world.' The Prince of this world cometh1;' the rulers of the darkness of this world2;' and the word air rather than kóσμos is used to denote this transitional state 3. It is also thus that we commonly speak of 'the world,' or 'worldly people.' But at this point is apt to arise a fatal confusion of thought. Christians have very commonly believed that the order of things in which we live is permanently, necessarily, incurably corrupt. For many ages, by a fatal dualism, they looked on the material fabric of the world, and their own bodies, as evil; and then Christianity became asceticism. And even now the impression on. many minds is that human society at least will never be delivered from the bonds of corruption. This causes

1 John xiv. 30.

2

Eph. vi. 12.

$ See Note I.