ART. IV. THE GROWTH OF AMERICANISM AMERICANISM-the doctrine that every man has the right not only to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," but to the development of his life according to those principles which appeal to him as true and wise-goes back to the beginning of the Christian era, and to Jesus Christ, who first declared the real value of the individual. There are, it is true, no hard and fast lines of separation between the times before and the times after Christ, as there is no precise moment when the thoughts of men suddenly changed. Christ did not teach doctrines that were absolutely new. He came not to destroy, but to fulfill-to fulfill not only the early Messianic dreams of his nation, but also the startling guesses at truth on the part of the philosophers, and the heart longings of the tired world. Yet, when all is said that may be in behalf of the times before Christ, it is strictly within the truth to state that Christianity is no mere electicism, as its Founder was no mere product of heredity and environment. Jesus Christ, like his essential message, is a gift of God. Matthew Arnold somewhere says that the doctrine of selfrenunciation is "the secret of Jesus." But Mr. Arnold would be among the first to assent to the statement that in Christ's thought renunciation is only a means to an end. "Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it," is the familiar saying of Christ. In his well-known metaphor of the corn of wheat, which in dying brings forth a great harvest, the Lord shows that renunciation is only the pathway to individual salvation-a losing of the lower to gain a higher. That this salvation of the individual soul is the essential thing in Christ's programme is shown by the question which everyone sooner or later has to face, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Aside from his teaching, the life and work of our Lord were all directed to this end-the convincing of the world of the inestimable value of the soul and the revealing of the method of its salvation. First of all was the incarnation it self, which proclaimed the truth that God was not ashamed to be found in the likeness of man. "God was in Christ "— first a babe born of a humble woman, then a youth, then a man-at no time dwelling among the rich or those of royal blood, but in a humble home in an insignificant village, going forth to proclaim his message without the help of influential friends, and having no place he could call his own to lay his head. And that message was first of all to the lost sheep of the house of Israel-those uncared-for multitudes whom the influential had cast out as unworthy of notice, pariahs who had not even the poor place of slaves. But these and others Jesus thought of as prodigals for whom the Father had great love-wandering sheep, whom he, the good Shepherd, would find even if he had to leave the rest of the flock; pearls for whose discovery all other things of value must be sacrificed; lost coins whose finding would warrant the summoning of all possible help. To all such Christ came with his message of hope, that God in his love for the world "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." But, lest anyone should think this was too general, he hastened to declare that God proposed to save men not in the mass, but one at a time. God cares for everyone; the lowest and meanest is of infinite worth. "Ye are of more value than many sparrows." To those whose lot must ever be hard Christ unfolded his doctrine of the future life when every man would be regarded not for what he had, but for what he was in his heart. In harmony with his teaching Christ selected to do his work men not the most conspicuous, but those most worthy, irrespective of their lowly origin; so that in the strains of the Magnificat it could truthfully be said that he had brought down the mighty from their seat and exalted them of low degree. These men went out commissioned to tell every hearer in every part of the world that God had made of one blood all nations, that he is no respecter of persons, that salvation is for every man irrespective of his place in the world. All who responded were baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and at regular intervals joined in a sacramental meal, where all were brethren because they acknowledged one Father and recognized the spiritual presence of him with whom every man is exalted to the highest place in the kingdom of God. Never had a doctrine so little apparent hope for success. Everything seemed to be against it. Israel itself had not got free from the habit of personification which is shown through all its history, the habit of representing the whole nation or a part of it as though it were an individual, while the individual himself had well-nigh perished. In such a classic passage as the tenth verse of the twenty-seventh psalm Cheyne sees "a clear indication that the speaker is the afflicted nation, comparing itself to a sobbing child deserted by its parents." And we know that the most evangelical of the prophets regarded the "servant of Jehovah" as, first, the nation, and, secondly, a spiritual remnant. Besides, the representative Jews of the time were not only hopeless of the salvation of the Gentiles, but also of that of their own poor, thousands of whom were practically turned forth to die. Greek thought, while it did occasionally soar to lofty heights, and was often broad enough to include in its horizon the barbarian tribes, sometimes referring to these as brothers, was, nevertheless, utterly unable to recognize the worth of the individual man. The Greek doctrine of individuality is scarcely more than atomism. Sidney Lanier, in his deeply interesting discussion of "The Development of Personality," quotes from Eschylus, in "Prometheus Bound," a characteristic passage which represents the average intelligent thought of that day. Might and Force, two ministers of Jove, have brought Prometheus to the utmost bound of the Scythian waste. Hephestus, the divine blacksmith, stands ready with chain, hammer, and bolt to bind the god to the rocks for the crime of bringing fire to man. Might speaks: Hephestus, now Jove's high behest demand Thy care; to these steep cliffy rocks bind down, Fifched from the gods and gave to mortals. Here Hephestus protests, but Might replies: All things may be but this To dictate to the gods. There one that's free, One only Jove. Note in these characteristic speeches the sentiment that, while one may love men, he must not love them too much, and the other sentiment, that only Jove is free. Mr. Lanier contends that, if the average Greek's sense of personality had not been feeble, he could not have accepted this picture at all. He questions whether it is not true "that the difference between the time of Eschylus and the time of (say) George Eliot is the difference in the strength with which the average man feels the scope and sovereignty of his ego."* What the average Roman thought we know very well. He had respect for man, but only for man as representing physical force. "Rome," says Dr. Matheson, "crowned humanity only in one of its aspects, the aspect of physical power." + That is true. Of man, as Christianity discloses him, the Roman had simply no conception. The Roman's disregard for human life is evidence enough, if his own testimony were wanting, to prove this statement. Infanticide, suicide, the gladiatorial shows, the wholesale slaughter of captives to make a Roman holiday, demonstrate not only the terrible disregard of human life, but the utter failure on the part of the civilization of Christ's day to comprehend the worth of the soul.‡ More than half of the population in the Roman Empire was slave, and there was a practical unanimity of opinion with Aristotle that a slave was not a man at all. And woman was hardly better thought of than the slave. She was tolerated only because of her ability to please her husband. The theology of the times as well as the organization of society was distinctly opposed to the doctrine of the value of the soul as taught by Christ. The dominant thought of God was polytheistic, which means that there could be no conviction of the unity of the race or any deepening of self-consciousness. God, or the gods, was not thought of as immanent, * Development of the Novel, p. 89. + Distinctive Messages of the Old Religions, p. 241. "Contempt of man is a ground feature of heathenism," Martensen, Christian Nash, Genesis of the Social Conscience, p. 75, et seq. Ethics. but dwelling far away from man, where he could hardly hope to be reached by the common person. In perfect harmony with these thoughts about God was society organized, with its rulers out of touch with the masses, to be reached only by elaborate systems of etiquette and through go-betweens who must be cajoled and liberally bribed. It was only natural, following the line of least resistance, that Christianity should find its earliest victories among those who were Greeks either by birth or training. Whatever might be said of Greek morals or the influence of certain Greek philosophies there can be no doubt that Greek thought, as a whole, was more in sympathy with Christianity than any other system of philosophy of the apostolic age, Judaism not excepted. The Logos doctrine of Plato, as modified by Philo, and the Stoic doctrine of the immanence of God-the last indeed inclined to pantheism and dualism-were strangely similar to their Christian counterparts. "Judging from the standpoint of religion and morality," says Harnack, "it must be admitted that the ethical temper which Neoplatonism sought to beget and confirm was the highest and purest which the culture of the ancient world produced." * Then there was the Greek conception of government, which was highly favorable to the Christian spirit-a government made up of free citizens," all equal, all alike." It is not strange, then, that the early Church was Greek rather than Roman. Says R. W. Church: It was Greeks and people imbued with Greek ideas who first welcomed Christianity. It was in their language that it first spoke to the world, and its first home was in Greek households and Greek cities. . . Its earliest nurslings were Greeks; Greeks first took in the meaning and measure of its amazing and eventful announcements; Greek sympathies first awoke and vibrated to its appeals; Greek obedience Greek courage, Greek suffering, first illustrated its new lessons.† Allen in his introduction to his fine work on The Continuity of Christian Thought says: "From the alliance of Greek philosophy with Christian thought arose the Greek theology, whose characteristics are a genuine catholicity, spiritual depth and freedom, a marked rationality, and a lofty ethical tone by which it is pervaded throughout." * History of Dogma, vol. i, p. 336. ↑ The Gifts of Civilization. |