140 CHAPTER X. THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. Now W that men have been called and united, it may be time to inquire into the laws by which they are to be personally and relatively governed. Life is continually presenting new aspects; and a widening civilization is perpetually throwing up questions which challenge the consideration of men who profess to go beyond the world" for their doctrine and policy. Side by side with the Christian organization called the church, many a powerful rivalry has been growing up, so that a persistent competition has been brought to bear upon the interests, real or supposed, of the whole community. We have seen that Christ regarded his disciples as "not of the world," yet to-day "the world" is setting up a claim for the suffrages of the disciples. The line of separation is supposed by some observers to have faded much. Is it so in reality? It may be worth while to inquire how Jesus Christ, simply regarded as a bold and far-sighted propagandist, proposed to keep vast masses of men in permanent union in other words, to consider how men can be in the world, yet not of it; can live in it, and yet be above it; can be united with one another, yet separate from sinners. No imperium in imperio is so great a mystery as the church in the world. Christ but surely proposed a hard thing to his disciples when he required them to remain in the world and yet to continue not only to be superior to its contaminations, to make daily encroachments upon its dominion until its authority was completely upset. In one of his prayers Christ said, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil." Here is the difficulty. 66 In attempting the negative work of keeping men from evil, it is customary to set down in systematic order minute regulations and directions respecting things which are to be avoided. Christ did not adopt this plan. Rather by allusion than by detailed statement, he indicated certain forbidden territory, and then betook himself to the affirmative side of his plan. He did not hope to keep men from evil by lecturing about it, by elaborating a penal system, or by any appeal to the lower instincts of human nature. His simple plan was to counteract death by life. Thus, instead of telling a man not to despond, he inspired him with a new hope; instead of telling a man to do no murder, he gave him such notions of the sanctity of human life as took away the very tendency to anger. This was his fundamental plan. "Thou shalt not" was adapted to a ruder age of the world; "Thou shalt" was now to take its place. The ineffectiveness of merely negative instruction is shown every day. Take the case of the gambler: tell him that gambling will bring him to ruin or inflict ruin on others; insist upon it that gambling is a perilous and mischievous practice, and not improbably the gambler will assent to the doctrine: but will he abandon the habit? Go further imprison the gambler; take from him all gambling instruments, and condemn him to live in penniless poverty all the rest of his days: does he cease to be a gambler? Only in the lowest sense; he is still a gambler in spirit; the evil is untouched. What does Christ propose in such a case? He not only casts out the devil, but he puts in the Holy Spirit. He gives the gambler something better to do, and proves his entire success by leaving the man in the world, yet keeping him from the evil. It would be a poor thing to take the man out of the world; if he required to be so taken, that very fact would prove that he was not perfectly healed by Christ. The most conclusive testimony which is afforded of the divine force of truth is that men continue in the world, though inhaling the atmosphere of heaven. Satan is put under their feet. They are still in the region of war, but protected by impenetrable armor. The fact that life must have occupation, shows the inutility of merely negative teaching. Life cannot remain quiescent; it has appropriative and distributive functions, and must operate accordingly. If it be not pursuing good, it must be doing mischief. How does Christ propose to engage those functions? We may simplify the course of inquiry by confining it to the subject of amusements. The mirthful side of human nature must be provided for. The sects have shut up the theatre, the race-course, and the dancingsaloon; they have forbidden game after game; the Ten Commandments they have displaced by a hundred of their own, each commencing with "Thou shalt not." Nothing was easier, and nothing was more useless. A - man loves the drama passionately; he sees only the ideal side of it; the true interpretation of a great poem is to him the most refined of luxuries; he is entranced by the genius of art. The sects say to him, You must give up the drama, and he receives the intimation with great surprise, probably too with some disgust. The intimation may be given to him by a man who hardly knows the meaning of the word drama, who has no soul for poetry, no eye for art- a man who would throw jewels away because the casket had been spotted with mud. Are the feelings of the dramatist not easily conceivable, and do they not under such circumstances call for sympathy? Christ never told his disciples not to go to the theatre, the race-course, or the revel; from end to end of his teaching no such prohibition can be found. What then did Christ do? He said, “Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good;" don't trim the leaves, vitalize the root; don't attach, but develop. He opened, as we have seen, a wide field of philanthropic service, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, preaching liberty to the captive; he filled men with his own spirit, and then left them to go whithersoever it would conduct them. Christ did not teach from the outward to the inward, but from the inward to the outward. It is better to give a man a good principle than a good practice; it is better to be good than merely to behave well; the one is character, the other is convenience. Christ's plan of meeting the wants of all sides of human life was stated in one sentence "I have given them thy word." He had put a spirit and a standard within them. The law was henceforth not an outside letter, but an internal voice. The holy Word gave place to the Holy Spirit. It was as if a new sense had been added to the Christian nature a sense of immediate and accurate moral touch which instantly discovered the quality of every doctrine or act. This is given to every man who is in Christ; who has eaten his flesh and drunk his blood, and so become essentially one with him. As to questions in casuistry which come up again and again in practical life, one of the ablest reasoners in the early church has laid down principles of universal and unerring application. Christ determined the fundamental point, and Paul followed with special illustrations. It may be well to spend a moment with Paul, that we may see what his interpretation of Christ's idea was. There had been a discussion in one of the Christian communities respecting eating, which was not unlikely to create a serious division. The great apostolic casuist, who had in him a volume of humanity second only to the Son of Man, and who could consequently see most sides of a controverted subject, argued the cause with characteristic acumen and cogency. 66 "Let not him that eateth," said he, despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him." He insisted upon strict individuality of judgment and conscience in the case, and became indignant with all censoriousness of criticism: "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand." The spirit of mastery must be put down in the Christian fellowship; there is one Master, and all judgment on the part of |