A MODERX "SYMPOSIUM." 



29 



Christianity — that Christianity which as a living 

 force iu the apostles' days turned the world up- 

 side down, that is, right side up, with its face 

 toward heaven and God — alone can realize for 

 man. 



I recall a noble passage written by Mr. Karri- 

 son some years ago : " A religion of action, a 

 religion of social duty, devotion to an intelligible 

 and sensible Head, a real sense of incorporation 

 with a living and controlling force, the deliberate 

 effort to serve an immortal Humanity — this, and 

 this alone, can absorb the musings and the crav- 

 ings of the spiritual man." 1 It seems to me that 

 it would be difficult for any one to set forth in 

 more weighty and eloquent words the kind of 

 object which Christianity proposes, and the kind 

 of help toward the attainment of the object which 

 the Incarnation affords. And in the matter now 

 under debate, behind the stern denunciation of 

 the selfish striving toward a personal immortality 

 which Mr. Harrison utters with his accustomed 

 force, there seems to lie not only a yearning for, 

 but a definite vision of, an immortality which 

 shall not be selfish, but largely fruitful to pub- 

 lic good. It is true that, as has been forcibly 

 pointed out, the form which it wears is utterly 

 vain and illusory, and wholly incapable, one 

 would think, of accounting for the enthusiastic 

 eagerness with which it appears to be sought. 

 May not the eagerness be really kindled by a 

 larger and more far-reaching vision — the Christian 

 vision, which has become obscured to so many 

 faithful servants of duty by the selfishness and 

 vanity with which much that goes by the name 

 of the Christian life in these days has enveloped 

 it ; but which has not ceased and will not cease, 

 in ways which even consciousness cannot always 

 trace, to cast its spell on human hearts ? 



Mr. Harrison seems to start in his argument 

 with the conviction that there is a certain base- 

 ness in this longing for immortality, and he falls 

 on the belief with a fierceness which the sense of 

 its baseness alone could justify. But surely he 

 must stamp much more with the same brand. 

 Each day's struggle to live is a bit of the base- 

 ness, and there seems to be no answer to Mr. 

 Hutton's remark that the truly unselfish action 

 under such conditions would be suicide. But, at 

 any rate, it is clear from history that the men 

 who formulated the doctrine and perfected the 

 art of suicide in the early days of imperial Rome 

 belonged to the most basely selfish and heartless 

 generation that has ever cumbered this sorrow- 

 ful world. The love of life is, on the whole, a 

 1 Fortnightly Review, vol xii., p. 529. 



noble thing, for the staple of life is duty. The 

 more I see of classes in which, at first sight, self- 

 ishness seems to reign, the more am I struck 

 with the measure in which duty, thought for 

 others, and work for others, enters into their 

 lives. The desire to live on, to those who catch 

 the Christian idea, and would follow him who 

 " came, not to be ministered unto, but to min- 

 ister," is a desire to work on, and by living 

 to bless more richly a larger circle in a wider 

 world. 



I can even cherish some thankfulness for 

 the fling at the eternity of the tabor in which 

 Mr. Harrison indulges, and which draws on him 

 a rebuke from his critics the severity of which 

 one can also well understand. It is a last flin" - 

 at the laus perennis, which once seemed so beau- 

 tiful to monastic hearts, and which, looked at 

 ideally, to those who can enter into Mr. Hutton's 

 lofty view of adoration, means all that he de- 

 scribes. But practically it was a very poor, nar- 

 row, mechanical thing; and base even when it 

 represented, as it did to multitudes, the loftiest 

 form of a soul's activity in such a sad, suffering 

 world as this. I, for one, can understand, though 

 I could not utter, the anathema which follows it 

 as it vanishes from sight. And it bears closely 

 on the matter in hand. It is no dead, mediasval 

 idea. It tinctures strongly the popular religious 

 notions of heaven. The favorite hymns of the 

 evangelical school are set in the same key. 

 There is an easy, self-satisfied, self-indulgent 

 temper in the popular way of thinking and pray- 

 ing, and above all of singing, about heaven, 

 which, sternly as the singers would denounce 

 the cloister, is really caught from the monastic 

 choir. There is a very favorite verse which runs 

 thus: 



" There, on a green and flowery mount, 

 Our weary souls shall sit, 

 And with transporting joys recount 

 The labors of our feet. " ! 



It is a fair sample of the staple of much pious 

 forecasting of the occupations and enjoyments of 

 heaven. I cannot but welcome very heartily any 

 such shock as Mr. Harrison administers to this 

 restful and self-centred vision of immortality. 

 Should he find himself at last endowed with the 

 inheritance which he refuses, and be thrown in 

 the way of these souls mooning on the mount, it 

 is evident that he would feel tempted to give 

 them a vigorous shake, and to set them with 



1 Mr. Martin's picture of " The Plains of Heaven " ex- 

 actly presents it, and it Is a picture greatly admired in 

 the circles of which we speak. 



