THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY

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CIVIL SOCIETY.

LECTURE I.

THE QUESTION STATED.

"Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, néither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?"— ST. MATTHEW Xxii. 15-17.

N this passage we are told under what circum

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stances and with what design the question which is now to engage our thought was first proposed to the Founder of Christianity. No doubt the inquiry which the Pharisees and Herodians made was not only disingenuous, but was far more limited in its intent than ours must be. Their purpose was to betray Jesus into one of

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two alternative dangers in defining the attitude of what they regarded as a Jewish religious cult, toward a government that was at once foreign and despotic. Yet, whatever their purpose was, the formal reason upon which they proceeded was the obvious need that there should be some authoritative definition of the relation which Jesus intended should subsist between his teaching and the requirements of the existing government or civil society. That such a question should be propounded in some form was, indeed, inevitable. In the midst of the antagonisms, open and concealed, which agitated that restless age, neutrality in such a matter was believed to be impossible. Especially, for reasons which must hereafter engage our attention, the assumption of such neutrality would have been resented as quite intolerable in one who, like Jesus, claimed to be the anointed Prince of the house of David.

We shall have occasion hereafter to consider the answer which Jesus returned to his interlocutors, and we shall then see that such answer was not less complete than it was unexpected and surprising. For the present it may suffice to point out, in passing, that it disclosed a relation

between Christianity and civil society which could hardly fail to be unsatisfactory to all parties in that day. To the secularist Herodian, not less than to the theocratic Pharisee, it indicated a modus vivendi between civil and ecclesiastical authority that appeared to be both unintelligible and intolerable. The antagonism between the two opposing ideas which they represented. is not yet extinct, nor has the world yet learned altogether to accept the marvellous reconciliation of it that is implied in the answer of Jesus. For more than eighteen centuries of Christian history, grave problems of civil allegiance and social order have emerged along the line of the great movement which he instituted; and prophets and statesmen are still trying to find the principle which shall effect a final solution of them. I believe that the search need not be abandoned as unavailing. I believe that the Founder of Christianity himself laid down the principle which the world has so long been seeking, and that a reverent and humble search for it now will not be wholly unrewarded. With unfeigned humility I venture to-night to renew the attempt to discover and formulate that principle; believing that, upon

its acknowledgment, the civil and religious wellbeing of our fellow-countrymen largely depends, and that we must look to the recognition of it for the development of a genuine Christian statesmanship in our land.

It is my purpose, however, to postpone to the second lecture of this series, the consideration of the teaching of Jesus on this subject, and to attempt in this preliminary lecture to define the philosophical basis upon which our inquiry is to rest. If any justification is needed for the more extended demand which this method will make upon our attention, it will be found, I venture to think, in the essential importance of our inquiry, and in the peculiar circumstances of the age, which make it both practical and timely. discussion of such a subject can be of value that does not proceed from a philosophical basis; that is to say, from a basis or first principle that shall be, not merely indicated by authority, but established by reason. It is well seen, that the gravest interests, both of politics and religion, are awaiting at this moment the discovery of some middle ground, where they may be reconciled and harmonized. Such burning questions as those

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relating to religious and secular education, to labor and capital, to the standard of public morality, to the administration of justice and charity, such are the questions that are standing in the outer court of our forum; and, if we are to try them, we must, first of all, establish some common philosophical ground where all the contesting interests may meet on equal terms. I believe that the solution of all these questions will be found in the recognition of the true relation between Christianity and civil society, and in the free action of each upon the other in that relation. But then we must, first of all, make up the pleadings, as the lawyers would say; that is to say, we must allow each side to tell its own story. We must first understand what civil society is, from a purely political stand-point, just as we shall insist on defining Christianity from a purely religious stand-point; and then we shall endeavor to indicate the relation between them.

First, then, we must determine the fundamental question, What is the State?- what is the philosophical basis of civil society? To this question there have been various answers. Considered in its relation to the Church, some of these answers