SINCERITY STIMULATED BY SELF-FORGETFULNESS AND DIRECTED BY INTELligence IS THE SOURCE OF ALL VIRTUES. The Creed and Pledge which are given on the following page may be found, with explanations, on pages 37 and 38 of "Renascent Christianity." They are repeated here with the hope that they may attract especial attention and also as a suitable connection of the two volumes, "Ancient Sacred Scriptures of the World" and "Renascent Christianity," both of which have been prepared as their amplification and enforcement. In the ancient cathedral of Lubeck, in Germany, there is an old slab with the following inscription: Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us : INSINCERITY STIMULATED BY SELF-LOVE AND DIRECTED BY IGNORANCE IS THE SOURCE OF ALL SINS. CATHOLIC CHURCH CREED AND PLEDGE OF FELLOWSHIP FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CREED I BELIEVE IN THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. I BELIEVE IN THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS THE CHRIST. I BELIEVE IN THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. I BELIEVE IN THE CLEAN HEART. I BELIEVE IN THE SERVICE OF LOVE. I BELIEVE IN THE UNWORLDLY LIFE. PLEDGE I PROMISE TO TRUST GOD AND LOVE HIM SUPREMELY. I PROMISE TO TAKE MY CROSS AND FOLLOW THE CHRIST. I PROMISE TO ACCEPT THE HOLY SPIRIT AS MY GUIDE. I PROMISE TO FORGIVE AND LOVE MY ENEMIES. I PROMISE TO LOVE MY FELLOW MEN AS MYSELF. I PROMISE TO HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUS NESS. Of twelve widely known clergymen and other scholars who are among the leading representatives of Broad Church Christianity in England and in America, to whom "proof-sheet copies" were sent for advance reviews, eleven responded as follows: [The MSS. of the reviews with the names of the reviewers are held by the publishers.] 1.-" The cycle of the Seasons is typical of the cycle of the Centuries. In each is a Seed-time, a Summer, a Harvesting, and a Winter, during which a silent redistribution of values takes place, undiscovered till the Spring proclaims a re-incarnation. 'Renascent Christianity, A Forecast of the Twentieth Century,' is essentially a prophecy and a warning that the Spring-time of the Centuries is at hand. It is, as well, a plea, that in things spiritual, we shall not be caught napping, secure in the pride of place and privilege, when the Sun of Universal Truth shall cast its light into the most hidden places and illume and lay bare their secrets. With a breadth which emulates the Christianity of the late Bishop Brooks; with a scorn for that miserable self-love which, like a miasma, infects all it touches, the author makes Sincerity the touch-stone of religious unity and welcomes into a common fraternity all those who are intelligently sincere. Science, long since, proclaimed the necessary unity of Truth. It is but now, however, that the Higher Criticism of the Bible and the study of Comparative Religion' has revealed to earnest students of Religion and Theology the same unity within their own sphere. The author also emphasizes the dominant disaster of our day, as it has been that of other days of superlative progress and proficiency in things material. He sees, as other seers have seen, the monster Money, lying twined about the root of the modern tree-of-troubles. Everywhere the corrupting influence of huge wealth has extended its perninious tentacles, until neither the Church nor the State remains pure and undefiled. It is indeed time that a halt were called, and this appeal by 'a clergyman' 4 may, at least by its sincerity and outspoken candor, attract attention in those quarters which would be deaf to all ordinary petitions. It is with this hope that all will bid God-speed to this potent new volume." 2.-" This volume called 'Renascent Christianity,' is written with prophetic earnestness. It is a plea for a return to the 'truth as it is in Jesus.' Its plea is based upon the novel ground that his teachings were eclectic and resumed in their simplicity all that was best in the world's sacred scriptures. This idea suggests that Christianity is a pleroma containing all that is best in all the other great religions of the world. The author's spirit is essentially catholic and irenic, and invites the coöperation of all liberal-minded people of whatever creed. He is very stern in his indictment of those 'reversions,' as he calls them, that have changed the character of Christianity from its original purity. Would not corruptions' be a better word than reversions'? More bent on driving home his message than on making a literary impression, he has drawn liberally on many writers for the confirmation of his principle. The patience and the diligence that have gone into the structure of the book cannot be praised too much, and I sincerely trust that they will meet with their reward in a wide and cordial recognition of the spirit and the purpose of his work." 3.-"The subject of the book is one which must command the interest of all men who are in earnest about religion. The care, and reverence, and scholarly training with which the author has treated it will deserve respect and, it seems to me, interest among all faithful and conservative scholars." Brave-because it is so 4.-"This is a brave, true, manly piece of work. out-spoken as almost certainly to displease those who care chiefly for conformity and quiet. True-so true in its intents and purposes as to silence all questions of entire intellectual agreement. Manly-in that its breadth of sympathy is as wide as the world and excludes no child of the Heavenly Father. Whether it is really the original Christianity or not this author so earnestly portrays, it is something so fine and sweet that all loving hearts will wish its purpose may be realized. I welcome its clear challenge to intellectual as well as moral seriousness. Give us all this earnestness, this conservatism, this divine and all-inclusive sympathy and we may courageously and cheerfully lift up the cry- The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.'' 5.-"I respond with gratitude and 'God-speed.' So far as I gather from your line of thought and of argument, it seems to me the defense of a thesis to which the corrupters of the Religion of Jesus will find it difficult to make an answer." NEXA 6.-" Renascent Christianity is the title of a book which is a sign of the times. It is one more expression of the movement within Christianity towards a new birth-a reformation, a reconstruction of thought and of life. That there is such a movement at work in our midst, goes without saying. Every worthy expression of this movement is an added impetus to it. Such a work is that which aptly takes its title from this great tendency of our times. The author, himself a Catholic Christian in the true sense of the wordhaving in his experience personally known widely diverse forms of Christianity, and found the common Christianity which is at the heart of them-wisely interprets the movement which he feels within his own spirit and recognizes all about him. He seeks to go back of Christianity to the Christ; back of institutionalism and dogmatic theology, to the life which gave birth alike to institutions and to systems of thought. He finds in the later developments of theology and ecclesiasticism much that is in the nature of a degeneration. Renewed life is, in his judgment, to be found in retracing the steps of thought and life back to the primal fount. To open this is to effect a regeneration of Christianity. There is no question that in this he rightly expresses a wide-spread tendency of the times. Back through doctors and priests, through school-men and fathers and apostles to Jesus himself—this is the cry on every hand. In interpreting this original Christianity, the author shows himself in sympathy with the best tendencies of the movement which he expresses. Intellectually he is a liberal of the liberals. While conservative in holding to the historic form of thought, the form of sound words, he is a liberal in reading those forms in the light of the truest and highest thought—that is the simplest and most essential thought of Christianity. How liberal the book is let two passages suffice to show. 'What then are the original sources of Christianity? All the Holy Teachings of all the Religions of the World.' Jesus the Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary,' in the sense that all who on earth shall attain to perfect holiness, must be conceived in Holiness, and born of a pure mother in particular and of a pure ancestry in general.' While thus intellectually broad, he is ethical and spiritual, as must needs be the case with one who would go back to the Master. The book is instinct throughout with spiritual vitality,—the vitality of the teachings of Jesus. It is constructive and not merely destructive. It makes for a living faith. The form in which the book is cast-that of short sections, intelligently headed—makes it easy for the average reader to follow understandingly its logical development. The book is one which ought to help on the renascence of Christianity." 7.—" Renascent Christianity is the suggestive title of a volume whose advance pages I have examined. The author is evidently a man of wide observation and of many subjective experiences. He writes with fine flashes of insight, from the promptings of serious convictions, and with a passionate desire to recall Christianity to the simplicity of the Christ-the Christ of the ages and of the Saint; the Christ of Nature and of Grace. |