English
For deep feeling, whether penitence or love, expresses a truth, but with a colouring of its own. So again, if there is a shortcoming, such as we admit, in the world either from misplacement or sinftilness in nature, the first instance of such a fall on part of a human being may well be recorded as critical, without being thereby made a cause. Nor do I know that the difference would be important if such an instance were symbolical, and were so to express the tendency which we find, for passion and darkness in man to warp goodness. But, 29—2 452 HINDIJ CONCESSIONS. as the losing of a child in the first act of a play does not pre- vent it from being found with good fortune before the end of the last act, so the drama of the world may have always been har- moniously evolving, in spite of internal contradictions. " The Christian doctrine of the Atonement too may vary much according to its aspect. For, if it is presented to us as a doctrine of ritual bondage, and of external compensation or vin- dictiveness, or if it makes an honest and good heart of less worth than mere confidence in the name and merit of another, then we could hardly call it wholesome. But, if the doctrine is rather one of freedom to the soul, by putting the love of a supreme Lord in strong contrast to a dreary round of sacrificial penances, and by shewing His compassionate desire to deliver men from all evil, and especially from the scourge of a law which lie willed should exist as inherently good, though yet He did not will the penal efiect which was through our acts an accompa- niment of it, then I can understand how the soul is reconciled by such a doctrine to whatever is holiest above her, and does good, being delivered from evil. Nor do I see much difficulty in the clash of feeling, or of personality, which such a doctrine as that of the Atonement has been said to involve in the Divine Being. For though to myself all pure soul appears necessarily tranqtdl, yet whoever attributes agency either literally or meta- phorically to a supreme Lord, must ascribe also volition analo- gous to that of man. But we find in ourselves an apparent clash of motives, and painful means to desirable ends. Thus the Will must work by reason, or with consideration, and these may unite in one consciousness. So the Divine Unity, if it correspond at all to our complex being, might have without ofience to reason a triplicity of its own. Even the Sdnkhya admits a triple divinity or manifestation of one principle. The Ved^nta, with still greater conformity to the Christian Trinity, teaches a certain divine outcoming of the eternal Spirit ; and most of all, the Bauddhas, who worship a man as partaker of the highest intelligence, and join many agents in a sort of HINDU CONCESSIONS. 453 spiritual unity, have no room for consistent objection to the Christian doctrine, K Christ has adequately manifested the Divine Being incarnate, any speculative diflSculty in reconciling such a manifestation with ftmdamental unity, belongs equally to many of our Indian systems. So again, whatever difficulty is found in predestination, cannot be charged exclusively on Christians, for it appears analogously in every attempt our own philosophers have made to reconcile freewill with fate, or human agency with divine forethought. The only question really is, whether Christians have introduced any fr-esh confusion in such speculations ; and upon the stranger's shewing, they have not done so. Bather, I should say, from their stress upon conscience, that they magnify human responsibility to the utmost; though their doctrine of grace, or encouragement from the Holy Spirit, and their strong colouring of the perplexities of human nature, may be taken also as expressing the vast forces which surround (and, as we say, absorb,) the personality of man. Perhaps, then, if the entire scheme of Christian doctrine be wisely taught, it may be the absolute truth, as the expression of the human soul in its most devout attitude towards a higher power ; and yet such doctrine may have come about by development and confluence, such as the Bauddhas and I myself should contend for. From such a point of view at least I am willing to consider the whole question ; and I think the objections have been fairly answered. But very much depends upon the aspect and limits with which the doctrines objected to are taught. K the Fall of Man is made to cloud our conscience, it must be evil ; if it expresses intensity of remorse, it may be relatively true. If the Atonement be made an external substitution, or a venal compensation, it is bad ; but if it expresses the fixity of law, and teaches men through sym- pathy to consecrate themselves in self-dedication, it is very good. So, if by election is encouraged either pride, or a feeling of the Divine arbitrariness, it contradicts the conscience ; but if we are thus taught only to ascribe whatever gift or capacity we have to the Divine goodness, it is then a wholesome lesson of humility. 454 DIFFICULTY AS TO THE JEWS. On the same principle, faith may either be a substitute of passion- ate egotism for moral sincerity, or it may be an earnest laying hold of things eternal, and an instrument of growth by trust in One who is able to deliver from evil to the uttermost. Faith, it seems truly said, must take its character from its object ; and it is easy to conceive, that faith in God as He is declared to have revealed Himself in Christ, may be a most animating impulse to all holiness. " Once more, the objection made to a certain narrowness of view in Christianity, as if it dwelt too much on persons and places, or on material and local imagery, instead of rising into a truly spiritual faith, seems to me fairly answered. For our wisest doctors have admitted, that the religious books, which we ourselves receive as sacred, contain many signs of partial and temporary knowledge. Probably spiritual things could never be expressed to any class of human beings, without something of imagery and parable drawn from the senses. Most certainly they cannot be so to the great mass of mankind. Nor is it any detriment to the truly religious knowledge, that it has an earthly accompaniment, whicli we may be trained to discriminate, and often go beyond. It is quite consistent with our own views, that the religion of the New Testament should, either by a firesh revelation, as the strangers think, or by steps of development, as we should imagine, go greatly beyond the more limited know- ledge of the Old, and even discard the imperfect religious rites of early time. So far I feel compelled to assent to some such plea as the elder stranger has put forward. " But yet there seems to me a great difficulty for Christians, involved in the fate of the Jews. It seems to be often said, that the Jews had their sacred city destroyed, and were scattered through many countries, as a punisliment for infidelity. ^Whereas, it is clear, that if they had not clung faithfully to their ancient law, and trusted in their God that He would deliver them, they woiJd have been spared by the Romans. So that in fact they suffered for their fidelity. No one can with any fairness say, CHRISTIAN INJUSTICE TO JEWS. 455 tliat the system which the Jews uphold, is not literally traer to the Old Testament, than that which Christians force upon them. Only the younger stranger has attempted to obviate the difficulty thus arising, by his distinction between the letter and the spirit. Still, ought he not to acknowledge, that the Jewish view is not only most literally correct, but such as conscientious fidelity to the Mosaic law would naturally engender? How then can they be justly punished for cherishing a Divine law, or for a pertinacity of temper which that law was humanly certain to produce in any nation. A local temple, a written Bible, a round of sabbaths, and feasts, and slaughters of animals, and in short a rigid sacerdotalism, may be termed the characteristics of the Mosaic system. Grant that the Gospel of Christ does better in teaching a consecration of the world and of man's life and heart, a perception of holy truths by the conscience, and ofiering of ourselves heartily to the Divine service, with great freedom in drawing nigh to God, as Christ drew nigh, being a son ; yet the Jewish fault seems a failure in rising with the development of their system, rather than a positive fall from it.