THE ORIGINALITY OF CHRISTIANITY

Evening Star, Issue 20310, 19 October 1929, Page 23

THE ORIGINALITY OF CHRISTIANITY

A sermon preached in St. Andrew’s, Raveiisbonriie, by .tho *en. Archdeacon Whitehead. .

A perennial Subject of popular controversy is the originality or Jmstianity. , The possibility or argument on such a matter is duo to the view that the teaching of Christ and the New Testament writers can be .viewed as a congeries or series of .maxims which can be paralleled by similar ayuips in previous religious teachers. • ■ ' The religion that our Lord brought into the-world was neither a system of morals nor a collection ; of religions platitudes. The Christian faith yas it once a renewal of older religion, a new force, and the crown and goal, of all the good that went before.

What Jesus Christ taught may bo summed up under four heads

(a) The Kingdom of God is here and is coming. A “ good time ” awaits those who are destined and fitted to enjoy it. . . (b) Those who have the Christian Icharacter arc those who will inherit the “ good time.” Christian character rests on eternal principles of righteousness taught by Jesus, and these are self-abregation and love towards Gem with goodwill towards.men. (o) Our Lord claimed to bo the Agent of the kingdom of heaven. Ho claimed to stand In a unique relation to God. “ Men must deny themselves for Him, and cast tho devotion of their whole heart and life on Him.”' (d) Christ also taught that His death had, a mysterious power. By it He would save men from the power and danger of sin. ‘ THE CHRISTIAN DOGMAS. , Out of these four teachings have grown all the dogmas of the church. However dogmatically intolerant of dogma modern m’en may be, no religion can. influence _ men without some authoritative teaching. Even simple faith involves dogma—-some fixed belief. “He who would come to God must believe that Ho is.” It is quite true that a man may have many false beliefs and lead, what is in many ways, a good life. But if all his beliefs were true his life Would be better still. Erroneous beliefs have often led men into the most disastrous actions. Everyone will to-day admit this is true in politics, though sloppy sentiment pro vents them from recognising that this is also true in religion. To know the host we can is as much a duty as to do the best we know. That is why the church has always enforced the prin ciple that we must believe tho truth as well as do the right. Of the truths. which the church considers it important to believe, some were by no means unknown before the birth of Christ. That God is our Father was the belief of many souls among those who have been rogardeo as outside the limits of revealed re ligiou. But the Lord Christ has given us better- reasons for believing in the Fatherhood of God than any teacher before, or since, the Christian era. Am! this, because Jesus Christ was mor<than a teacher. Ho was God beconv. man, to show us the humanity of God. The distinctive teaching of Christianity is then this; God was in Christ re conciling tho world unto Himself; that by union with the Saviour we are made children of bliss, of the Kingdom of Heaven; that if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with Him. If pagan philosophers and teachaa have had 'glimpses of these truths, that Fact docs not make the gospel less true. Rationalists and other mistaken wiseacres may tell us that thev will bring a heaven on earth by high ethical ideals and applied science, without thi? aid of religious beliefs. Such baseless hopes avo but the stuff that dreams are made of. No permanent happiness can exist for our race if u pins its faith only to eugenics, econo mics, applied psychology, and the like If any thoughtful man takes stock of the world to-day what sort of a spectacle does he behold? Moral, spiritual, and economic confusion; the earth is still full of darkness and cruei habitations. Even if we could believe that the discords of nations will shortly be healed and the path of progress made clear, we know for certain that, to the end of time, human hearts vdh be pierced by incurable wounds, by swords of anguish which no man’s band can stay. What hope can we offer to the poor, tho sorrowful, the sinful. the doubting, if there is no aid except in human devices? If this indeed were the case we are of all earth’s' creatures tho most miserable. The deepest assurances of human value arc bound up with the fundamental hopes of tho gospel. “Happy are ye that mourn,” says our Divine Lord. “ I have come that ye might have life, and have it more abundantly.”

Sin and sorrow, pain and death, liavi been the lot of men since human time began. We cannot escape the influence of these dread tyrants of om lives, but, we can triumph over them. But the Christian faith cannot impart to those unwilling to receive it. This fact explains a great deal of the talk about the failure of the church. But to whomsoever will it can give the courage that will remain undaunted in the face of tho world’s extromest terrors. And this faith is, on earth, centred in Him Who manifested long ago the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.