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e Shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall Practical Christianity.

VOL. XVIII.

P

KANSAS CITY, MO., JANUARY, 1903.

CHRISTIANITY.

HORATIO W. DRESSER.

No. 1.

ROBABLY no term has received a greater variety of definitions than the term Christianity. It has meant a thousand different things to as many persons. It has stood

for a thousand incongruous things, creeds, systems, sects, theories of reform and plans of salva tion. It is redefined in every age, and each age deems its interpretation authoritative while all previous definitions are classified as partial and historical. The astrologist tells us that Jesus read the signs of the heavens, and thus was able to foretell great upheavels. Hundreds of Protestant sects quote Jesus' words to prove that he meant just what they believe. The exponent of the Vedanta philosophy assures us that Jesus was simply a Buddhist monk of the Essenes, informed in the mysteries of the Orient. The Jew is positive that Jesus was merely a teacher of traditional doctrines. Probably as time goes on there will be more, rather than fewer, sects which will quote Jesus as authority. The Christian socialist in our day is sure that he has the right clue, and every age may be equally sure.

Amidst this array it would be presumptucus for any one who assays to be fair to all sides to assume that he knows precisely what Christianity is. Every man finds in Christianity what he is and what he has thought, coupled with the thought of his age. It were folly nowadays to quote Scripture to prove one's faith. One might better set that faith forth in its

own terms.

Yet the fact that so many incongruous faiths have found verification in Christianity perhaps shows that

Christianity is universal. All that has been read into the New Testament may be there, except the dogmatism of those who assume that they know all about Jesus, where he was taught, and all that. Exponents of Christianity may err rather by defect than by Christianity may be all it has been claimed to be, and far more. Every one, then, is free to say with heartiest enthusiasm what Christianity is for him.

excess.

Let us begin, then, by assuming that Christianity is a universal system, that it applies to the entire divine order. It may also be defined as a method of individual consciousness, growth, adjustment; and a plan for the regeneration and perfection of the race. Further, it is a universal religion which fulfills all other faiths. Finally, it is practical, applies to every situation in human life. These are the broad general outlines within which I shall gradually supply the details, and undertake to make good the assumptions.

I. The prime essential of Christianity as enunciated by Jesus is the discovery of the divine order, the law which makes all things one in the Kingdom of God. From the human point of view, this means the discovery that of himself man is and can do nothing. It means the utter renunciation of self as such.

At first, this looks like a purely negative statement; it is strikingly in contrast to the affirmative individualism of our day. It means the sacrifice of all plans, desires, hopes, in so far as these imply personal will or preference. It means that one ceases once for all to choose for one's self. No longer is one to try to manage the world, or regulate the energies of social or other reform. One must be ready to go anywhere, be cast into any situation, or meet any hardship. The ties of home are to be sundered if necessary. In general, one is to follow the lead of the Spirit. And one is to make this entire consecration of self without knowing that anything is to come in return; it is an entirely free sacrifice, a choice, not the result of compulsion, not fore-ordained "election." The same

great fruits of the Spirit are open to all who will pay the price. Christianity is for the whole people, not for a few favored mortals.

But that which seemed to be entirely negative proves to be the most positive law. "He that loseth his life shall find it." He who finds that he is nothing of himself learns that he is everything through organic relation to the divine order. The negative statement is that one is not and cannot be independent, that one is indissolubly linked to humanity and to the Father. To try to be aught of one's self is to seek to build one's own world. One is free to try the experiment. But that is not the road to perfection, nor even to what is called success. "I (the Christ) am the way, the truth and the life." There is no other way. This the law of the divine order. A man must put himself into certain relations to reap the results.

Yet that which appears stringent and binding to the one who does not yet love the Father enough to pay the price of the kingdom, is the tenderest condition of love to one who is ready. "All's love, yet all's law." The soul is bound, yet free. The same conditions are opportunities of freedom, or cruel decrees of fate, according as we view them. There can be but one best way; all other roads are inevitably beset by conditions from which there is no escape except by turning to the pathway of the Spirit. There may be myriad courses leading to the one great end, so that the life-round of no two followers of the Spirit

may be alike. But the great fact remains that each soul must find the pathway by coming to judgment as Jesus has said, namely, "Not my will but thine be done."

That will may not be the same for you and for me. You may be called upon to sacrifice where I shall be asked to retain. I may pass through what would be of little value to you. But the will of God is universal; it applies to the entire divine order. There is a work for you and a work for me, and each of us

must find out in his own way, directly from God, what that work is. No one can tell another, yet the law is the same for all. Of myself I can do nothing, but with God and humanity I can do a mighty work. There could not be two omnipotents, two infinites, two ways in which there should be no obstacle. Granted a universe of myriads of souls, each with a mission, each with unlimited power to fulfill that mission; and there must be organization, each purpose must be organically adjusted in relation to all the others. Otherwise there would be chaos. Hence the rigid walls of fate on all sides but one; hence one is free where another is bound.

This looks like fore-ordination. Yet once more "all's love, yet all's law." The pathway of the Spirit would have no significance for us unless it were freely chosen. We may follow our own wills if we choose. The universe is large and has room for both the saint and sinner, with a great variety of types between. But if, note the condition, if we choose the pathway of the Christ we must follow that course, not as we would arrange matters, but as all things work together towards one great end in the social kingdom of the Spirit. There are many souls, many ideals to consider. Therefore there must be adaption in the light of the general good, the social kingdom. That is the law of the divine order, and without that man can do nothing in the Christ world.

The well-nigh discouraging discovery that of one's self one is nothing, is the finding of a tiny center from which are seen to radiate the innumerable pathways of the Spirit out, out into the great world which knows no bounds, "I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth me." I must find the center, then I may proceed to the circumference.

Jesus tells us in many different terms what this center is. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." That is, happy are they who make this great discovery, namely, that of themselves they are poor indeed; for in that attitude they shall find the only true wealth.