PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY REVIVED 51 



Here we have religion and morality in a nutshell^ 

 for religion is the love of God, and morality the love 

 of man* And if the theology and morality of Christ's 

 religion were exquisitely simple, its ritual was, if possible, 

 simpler still ; for the only sacrament which He instituted 

 was a life of love and honour and purity and unselfish 

 service for others* The word sacrament is generally 

 defined as meaning '' an outward and visible sign of an 

 inward and spiritual grace,'' and surely the only trust- 

 worthy outward and visible sign of an inward and 

 spiritual grace is a life of holiness ; and many scholars 

 tell us that this is the only sacrament which we can say 

 with confidence was ordained by Jesus* 



Thus it was that the new faith filled the old world 

 with wonder and amazement* For it at once proved 

 itself to be a religion full of vitality and power, whilst 

 at the same time it absolutely discarded the whole 

 stock-in-trade of that which had hitherto been regarded 

 as religion* For by far the most characteristic and 

 indispensable features of all the old religions were 

 sacerdotal rites, performed by an official priesthood* 

 But the Christianity of Christ had no sacerdotal ritual, 

 and therefore could have no official priesthood* Christ 

 taught His followers to regard God as an all-loving and 

 propitious Heavenly Father ; and God, being already 

 propitious, needed no propitiatory sacrifice ; and within 

 the pale of such a faith, an official priesthood had no 

 raison d'etre. 



Now, as a matter of fact, during Apostolic times, 

 when the teaching of the Master was still fresh in the 

 memory of His disciples, and when the adherents of the 

 new faith were still, for the most part, simple-minded 

 men of small education, the Christianity of Christendom 

 remained to a large extent identical with the Christianity 

 of Christ* That is to say, it was a brotherhood, without 

 any creed and without any ritual or official priesthood. 



