It is always a pleasure to read a sermon or discourse which is the product of a liberal mind, especially when it is evident that the author has boldly set aside the traditions and trammels of a stereotyped theology and struck out upon broad and independent lines. The people are growing more and more weary of the old theological plough and harrow. They long for new implements having a sharper point, broader share, and longer teeth. What matter if some new stones are thrown to the surface and some roots cut that were not formerly known to exist? The people are not alarmed at this. They are actually coming more and more to enjoy the sight of a new bright stone, and a fresh, crisp-looking root. They do not at all object to the smell of a deeper soil than that to which they have been accustomed. It has about it something refreshing and wholesome. And if the new harrow have somewhat longer teeth, it will nevertheless smooth down the rougher earth thrown up by the sharper point and deeper share, and the field will, after all, present a not less attractive surface than formerly.
We have been much interested in looking over a field recently plowed and harrowed by new implements wielded by the strong hands of the Rev. Frank L. Phalen, of the Second Congregational Unitarian Society of Concord, N.H. He has thrown to the surface a number of new, bright-looking stones, and cut several roots that have heretofore lain too far beneath the surface to be reached by the old plough-point. See how boldly he cuts down and how firmly he holds on to the handles in these sentences:—
"No argument is needed to prove that the religion of Jesus has been violently and almost brutally disregarded. No argument is needed to prove that Jesus himself has been misunderstood and misrepresented. The Jews declare it. The Catholics declare it. The Protestants declare it. The sceptics declare it; and nobody whose opinion is worth consideration denies this indisputable fact. It is an historic platitude.
"Any one who takes the slightest interest in the history of the Christian church and the faith once delivered to the saints, may discover without much effort how the church has been corrupted and how the religion of Jesus has been misrepresented. I do not hesitate to say that I think the larger part of theological opinion which passes in the popular mind as Christianity to-day, was never taught by Jesus of Nazareth, and is, therefore, no part of his religion. On the contrary, it is a mass of tradition and theological opinion which hides him and his religion from the minds and hearts of men."
The above sentiments will receive the hearty approval of all Christian Scientists. One of their first experiences in the study of Christian Science is the sharp awakening to the fact that the teachings of Jesus, nay, of the Bible as a whole, have been misunderstood and misrepresented. They see how superficial has been the ploughing, and how shallow the furrow all over the theological field. So sudden and radical is this awakening that it requires time, patience, and the broadest charity, to dull the keen edge of sorrow and regret that Christian teaching (so-called) should have fallen so far short of its true mission; that the real Gospel of Christ should have been so little apprehended and its great depth so sadly overlooked. When Christian Scientists see those of other denominations, and especially members of the clergy, awakening in a similar manner, it at once fills them with a feeling of brotherly sympathy.
Let us look at another plunge of Mr. Phalen's ploughshare:—
"The theology of the church is like a mist which beclouds the reason of men and hangs between them and the man Jesus, like the morning fogs which hide the summit of some sky-piercing mountain.... People say, 'Why disturb a man's belief if it seems to do him good?' Because a false belief, or a belief half false, can never be as productive of good as a true belief. Because the mythical Christ who is seen through the mist of a church theology is not the real Jesus at all, and the love and praise lavished upon this artificial Christ ought to be given to the historic man who lived, and taught, and suffered, and died, to bring men to God."
In the main, Christian Scientists will also sympathize with this statement, although they would substitute the Christ —the Christ Jesus—for the man Jesus, or the merely personal Jesus. The false worship of Jesus as a personality has led to more misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the Gospel of Christ than any other single misconception of theology. It is the eternal Christ—the Christ-Principle— demonstrated and put into vital activity by Jesus that the world must learn to worship before it will have the fundamental knowledge of Christianity. This worship is stripped of all merely personal adoration, but reaches out toward that Christ-Truth which does the works of healing sickness and sin that Jesus did and taught. This becomes the only true worship, and infuses into human consciousness that Spirit of Truth, or the Comforter, that Jesus said should follow his personal ministrations and teachings. This is that worship "in spirit and in truth," which Jesus prophesied. Let the Christian world, then, learn to distinguish between the worship of Jesus' personality—which he strictly forbade—and the higher worship which he expressly enjoined and said would come.
Again Mr. Phalen cuts deep:—
"The fog of theology beclouds our spiritual vision. What we want is the daylight of history. We have groped long enough in the dim twilight of the traditional theology. It is time now to see how things look in the broad high noon of God's gracious light." Mr. Phalen then invites his hearers to a view of "that divine man of Galilee, whom the common people heard so gladly." "I want to approach," said he, "as near as possible to the historic Jesus who lived and taught in Galilee, and to forget and put out of mind the mythical Christ of supernaturalism, who has usurped the place in religion that rightly belongs to the man of Galilee. I appeal from theology to history and science. I advocate the cause of that despised and forgotten man whose place in the world's affection has been unlawfully taken by an imaginary theological being. I know there are many people who question the value of such attempts, and who say the Christ of theology has so long absorbed the thought of the Christian church that it is too late, and too unkind, to disturb the faith of men. They think there is beauty and sentiment in the old traditional beliefs, and that new views are not likely to increase or strengthen the religious life. I respect these feelings when I see them in honest minds. But let me ask a question. Does the antiquity of an error change it into a truth? Does a wrong become a right if you give it plenty of time—say eighteen hundred years?"
Pertinent questions indeed. If it be vitally necessary to know the Christ-Truth to be saved from sickness, sorrow, sin, and death, then truly is it a mistake to perpetuate wrong conceptions of Jesus and his teachings, however soothing or pleasing they may seem to mortal sense. The great mistake of the latter-day theology is that, in its radical swing away from the horrible doctrines of infant damnation and eternal punishment, it has gone to the other extreme, and now lulls its devotees into a false security by throwing around Christianity and the personal Jesus a halo of human sentiment and human love. So much is this the case that Christianity in its common application has become little else than a social sentiment. This fine sentiment has quite lost sight of those severe rebukes administered to the same mortal quality which undertook to surround the personal Jesus in his sojourn and labors. Witness a few of these rebukes.
To the young man who asked of him, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?" Jesus replied, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God."
When Jesus meekly requested John the Baptist to baptize him and the Baptist demurred, Jesus simply said, "Suffer it to be so now." A plain implication that the personal ministration was not to be continued.
The sternest rebuke he gave to the tempter was this: "Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."
His frequent command was, not "worship me," but "follow me." That is, "Do what I am doing; live as I am living,—this is the only sense in which you can worship me." To the lone Samaritan woman he said: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." When the Jews sought to kill him he said to them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." Again he said, "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true."
So all through his sayings we find that he points away from his personality, or its worship, to the one Good, God. See, too, how he frowns upon the human sentiment some sought to thrust upon him: "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
Which, then, is the true test of Christianity? that false human sentiment against which Jesus constantly proclaimed, or that worship which finds its expression in "following him" and emulating his example. If it be error to disobey his express commandments, surely the sooner that error is abandoned the better, however long-continued may have been its indulgence.
We, therefore, most earnestly endorse Mr. Phalen's well-fortified position that it is right to abandon false worship— however disagreeable such abandonment may be to human sense—in order that the true may obtain.
In view of what we have said it will be readily seen that we are prepared to unite with Mr. Phalen in this query:—
"Often and often, as I listen to the hymns and prayers which describe the Galilean as God and Deity... I wonder what that Hebrew teacher would say if he could speak to us out of the unseen? He, who believed and worshipped one and one only God."
While we cannot accept in full all the deductions which Mr. Phalen has made in his able discourse, we are glad to see a clergyman sincere and bold enough to stand up for his honest convictions regardless of public opinion or carping criticism. This spirit of fearlessness is one of the great hopes of the age.
With Mr. Phalen's concluding thought we are in most hearty accord:—
"What a revolution would be wrought in our modern world if the good people who worship in our Christian churches from Sunday to Sunday would remember the man of Galilee; would strive to embody his spirit in the laws of the land, in the details of their business, in their politics, in their home life, in their treatment of one another, in their hopes, in their sorrows, in the training of their children, in the problems of crime, good citizenship, and religious manhood!"
We feel sure that our friend will pardon us for suggesting that he should have added to this grand list at least one more subject, namely,—"in their sickness."
The above extracts are taken from a sermon delivered by Mr. Phalen in his church on January 9, 1898, and published in pamphlet form. His subject was: "The man of Galilee." Text: "The common people heard him gladly."
