Many of the so-called unbelievers have a great deal to say about the horrors and iniquities of ecclesiastical history, the inconsistencies of Christians, and the immorality of some doctrines that have been held by sincere but illinformed professors of the Christian religion. But all this is utterly wide of the mark. As the learned and now sainted Bishop Lightfoot was never weary of reminding us, Christianity is Christ. "One might have thought it impossible," he exclaimed, "to study with common attention the records of the Apostles and martyrs of the first ages, or of the saints and heroes of the latter Church, without seeing that the consciousness of personal union with Him, the belief in His abiding presence, was the mainspring of their actions and the fountain of all their strength." Precisely the same truth is taught by Dr. Dale in the invaluable and most timely work to which I refer in the thirteenth sermon in this volume. Exactly similar testimony might be quoted from the most remarkable work that ever proceeded from the pen of the late Cardinal Newman, his Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent. He proves to demonstration that the only possible explanation of the triumph of Christianity in the first centuries was the intense personal devotion of living Christians to a living Christ. On this point all real Christians of all schools are unanimous. But what opponent or critic of Christianity has ever so much as examined the personal testimony of all Christians to their personal union with Christ, and in numerous cases to their consciousness of that union? Christianity aims at producing a particular kind of life upon earth, and it declares the only way in which that particular kind of life can be realized. What that kind of life is I have tried to explain in this volume. I do not believe that there is any honest agnostic or unbeliever in the world who would object to the sort of conduct which is exemplified and advocated in these sermons. All the noblest unbelievers have now accepted the ethical teaching of Christ as the highest and best. We are agreed with respect to the practical result at which we ought to aim. Now, can that practical result be achieved on a large scale in any way except in the Christian way? We appeal to the tribunal of history and declare that Christlike men and women can be produced only by Christ; and He Himself can produce them only by entering into living union with such men and women as are willing to receive the Christ-like life from Him. Therefore we Christians all agree with Bishop Lightfoot in the strong statement that "the core of the Gospel does not lie" in "the moral teaching and the moral example of our Lord. Its distinctive character is, that in revealing a Person it reveals also a principle of life—the union with God in Christ, apprehended by faith in the present and assured to us hereafter by the Resurrection." Nevertheless, it is of great importance that. all men should clearly understand what is the nature of that Ethical Christianity which is the direct and inevitable fruit of vital union with Jesus Christ. What that Ethical Christianity is, this volume tries to explain. HUGH PRICE HUGHES. 8, TAVITON STREET, GORDON SQUARE, LONDON, September, 1891. CONTENTS. 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you [margin, 'ob- tained you by asking '], that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren." THE CHRISTIAN ASPECT OF THE CENSUS. "When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel according to those that are numbered of them, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou 129 ... 141 THE DECISIVE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. "Until the day dawn, and the Day-star arise in your hearts."- |