CHAPTER XIV.

RENAN'S CREED.

O first dislike the holy truths of God's Word and then disbelieve them, is a process of which the

human mind is very capable. The candid though undecided inquirer, however, who sincerely and earnestly desires to know that he may do the will of God, will, in all likelihood, be led to seek Divine help; and doing so, he will find that his mind will be so enlightened, and his judgment so directed, that he will be able to "know the doctrine whether it be of God," and to believe and embrace "the truth as it is in Jesus.' But from the days of Cain, who envied and killed his brother Abel, there have always been those who have envied and hated the good and the truly spiritual, and who have charged them with monopolizing the grace and favour of God to the detriment and condemnation of the rest of Adam's race. But what saith God to such? What said He to Cain, unto whom "and his offering He had not respect?"-"Why art thou wrath, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." Now such, in our judgment, is Renan ; sin lieth at his door, and unto him and his book "offering," therefore, "God hath not respect." He has created for himself a "Son of God," and formed for himself a creedas indeed every man must necessarily have, whether written

down and formally subscribed to or not. His work, therefore, should not have been entitled "The Life of Jesus," but "Renan's Creed, under cover of the Life of Jesus." Denying, as he does, the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and endeavouring, though vainly, in the use of every means in his power, to make Christ the abettor of some of his heretical notions, however flattering and complimentary the terms of praise which he accords to certain parts of the Book, he attempts to deprive the sacred volume of that high position which it has always held, and justly so, in the estimation of Christian men. He is, therefore, an enemy to Christ, an enemy to His saving truth, and an enemy to his fellow-man. No conceivable good can possibly arise from his labours, but evil and only evil, except, indeed, so far as it may be overruled by Him who is able to make even "the wrath of man to praise Him." His work, the great work of his life, therefore, places him in a position, in his relation to God and man, the most unenviable and unfortunate that can well be conceived.

His Creed, composed for the most part of what he ought not to believe, and omitting nearly all that it is of importance for him to believe, if put into words, would read about as follows:-1. "I believe in one God, the Creator and Father of all. 2. I believe in Jesus as the highest type of humanity, but not in His Divinity, nor the sinless perfection of His moral nature. 3. I believe in the Bible as a human production, partly authentic and partly not, but do not believe in a revelation from God, except that by which He has revealed Himself to us in nature; and therefore not in the Trinity, the personality of the Holy Ghost, and the personal existence of Satan. 4. I believe in the holy Catholic and eternal religion as founded by Jesus of

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Nazareth; but not in public and formal, or temple worship. 5. I believe in a universal human brotherhood, a future state, and the immortality of the soul or spiritual part of man; but not in his original perfection, his fall, and redemption by Jesus Christ. 6. I believe in the selfelevation and renovation of man's moral nature through a steadfast adherence to the practice of virtue; but not in the spiritual regeneration of his nature by the Spirit and power of God. 7. I believe the system of nature to be governed by immutable laws, and do not believe in the supernatural, and therefore not in miracles, prophecy, Divine inspiration, the final dissolution of our world, and the resurrection of the body, followed by the general judgment. In short, I believe everything that a philosopher should believe, but nothing, either in relation to this world or to the next, save what commends itself to my own unaided reason and judgment, unenlightened by any supernatural influence or power whatever."

Now before proceeding to a more particular consideration of some of the separate articles of this creed, allow me in general terms to say that, according to Divine teaching, such a creed will ruin, hopelessly and everlastingly ruin, the most virtuous man of the world in Christendom. We say, in Christendom; for the benighted but virtuous heathen who has never heard the sound of the Gospel-virtuous according to the light that he has the Bible excepts. God loves the world, and the Spirit of God measurably "enlightens every man that cometh into the world." There is a God, and doubtless a gracious influencing Providence in heathen lands as well as in those which are professedly Christian. He who noticeth even a sparrow falling is not unmindful of them; and the heathen that conscientiously

lives up to the light implanted within, it would appear from the reasoning of the apostle Paul (Rom. ii. 11-15), is accounted righteous, and accepted of God. The future

state of the heathen, however, we may safely leave with the Judge of all the earth who cannot but do right. "The secret things," Moses says, "belong unto the Lord; but those which are revealed unto us and to our children for ever." To us the Gospel has been revealed, and by it, therefore, according to the Scriptures, we shall be judged.

Renan, however, disputes its having been supernaturally revealed to us by God. Even Jesus, although placed by him "in the first rank of the true sons of God," is but an uninspired man, possessing no supernatural endowment whatever, since nothing of the supernatural is admitted into his creed. But if Jesus were merely man, and without also supernatural or Divine inspiration, how-as Renan says of Him-could He of all other men either before or since His time, have been "more than a reformer," but the absolute creator of the eternal religion of humanity ?" These are Renan's words as given on page 223. Who is He, if but a man, the upstart of a moment, that He should create a religion for eternity? Such a creation clearly involves the Infinite. It is absurd to suppose that the creation of a religion for the eternal worship of the Deity Himself, is left to the uninspired mind of the creature. . If the Deity desires the worship of His intelligent creatures, how is it possible for them to know that He desires it, what the character of such worship, and in what form it is to be observed, if He does not reveal His mind on the subject to them? It is evident that either the Infinite does not require worship at the hands of His creatures; or that, requiring it, He has by some means revealed His mind and will on the subject to

them.

And this could only be done in one or another of three ways either by direct, open, and personal intercourse on His part with the creature himself; or by commissioning an angel to appear and reveal His will to men; or by the direct and supernatural inspiration of one or more of His creatures, thus, in effect, endowing them for the time being with the unerring wisdom of the Infinite, so far as it relates to a knowledge of His will in relation to Divine worship and service. And this inspiration of the creature, too, in order to convince the world of such inspiration, would require to be attended with a supernatural power in the individual professing it, to perform works of a supernatural character, in other words, to work miracles. Now, no other way than this is reasonable, and more than this, it is evident that no other way is possible. To be rational then, we must either reject worship altogether, or observe it as having, in one or all of these three modes, been revealed to us by the Deity. And thus revealed by God it certainly has been.

Being fully assured then, on the ground of ample evidence, as shown in the preceding pages, that the Bible is a revelation from God, and that our Lord's words are therefore veritable expressions of the Divine mind, to prove the utter hopelessness of that man's case who entertains the belief of M. Renan, omitting the writings of the Apostles bearing more directly and at length upon every article of his creed, we need but refer to a few of Christ's own utterances. His sermon on the mount in particular, Renan acknowledges to be an authentic discourse, and he speaks of it in terms of the highest admiration-in such language, for instance, as the following: "Jesus will ever be the creator of the pure spirit of religion; the sermon on the