Prophets were personalities, and Phillips Brooks himself a prophet--had defined personality as a conscious relationship with G.o.d. "All truth,"
he had said, "comes to the world through personality." And down the ages had come an Apostolic Succession of personalities. Paul, Augustine, Francis, Dante, Luther, Milton,--yes, and Abraham Lincoln, and Phillips Brooks, whose Authority was that of the Spirit, whose light had so shone before men that they had glorified the Father which was in heaven; the current of whose Power had so radiated, in ever widening circles, as to make incandescent countless other souls.
And which among them would declare that Abraham Lincoln, like Stephen, had not seen his Master in the sky?
The true prophet, the true apostle, then, was one inspired and directed by the Spirit, the laying on of hands was but a symbol,--the symbol of the sublime truth that one personality caught fire from another. Let the Church hold fast to that symbol, as an acknowledgment, a reminder of a supreme mystery. Tradition had its value when it did not deteriorate into superst.i.tion, into the mechanical, automatic transmission characteristic of the mediaeval Church, for the very suggestion of which Peter had rebuked Simon in Samaria. For it would be remembered that Simon had said: "Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost."
The true successor to the Apostles must be an Apostle himself.
Jesus had seldom spoken literally, and the truths he sought to impress upon the world had of necessity been clothed in figures and symbols,--for spiritual truths might be conveyed in no other way. The supreme proof of his G.o.dship, of his complete knowledge of the meaning of life was to be found in his parables. To the literal, material mind, for example, the parable of the talents was merely an unintelligible case of injustice.... What was meant by the talents? They were opportunities for service. Experience taught us that when we embraced one opportunity, one responsibility, the acceptance of it invariably led to another, and so the servant who had five talents, five opportunities, gained ten. The servant who had two gained two more. But the servant of whom only one little service was asked refused that, and was cast into outer darkness, to witness another performing the task which should have been his. h.e.l.l, here and hereafter, was the spectacle of wasted opportunity, and there is no suffering to compare to it.
The crime, the cardinal sin was with those who refused to serve, who shut their eyes to the ideal their Lord had held up, who strove to compromise with Jesus Christ himself, to twist and torture his message to suit their own notions as to how life should be led; to please G.o.d and Mammon at the same time, to bind Christ"s Church for their comfort and selfish convenience. Of them it was written, that they shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for they neither go in themselves, neither suffer them that are entering to go in. Were these any better than the people who had crucified the Lord for his idealism, and because he had not brought them the material Kingdom for which they longed?
That servant who had feared to act, who had hid his talent in the ground, who had said unto his lord, "I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hadst not sown," was the man without faith, the atheist who sees only cruelty and indifference in the order of things, who has no spiritual sight. But to the other servants it was said, "Thou halt been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
The meaning of life, then, was service, and by life our Lord did not mean mere human existence, which is only a part of life. The Kingdom of heaven is a state, and may begin here. And that which we saw around us was only one expression of that eternal life--a medium to work through, towards G.o.d. All was service, both here and hereafter, and he that had not discovered that the joy of service was the only happiness worth living for could have no conception of the Kingdom. To those who knew, there was no happiness like being able to say, "I have found my place in G.o.d"s plan, I am of use." Such was salvation....
And in the parable of the Prodigal Son may be read the history of what are known as the Protestant nations. What happens logically when the individual is suddenly freed from the restraint of external authority occurred when Martin Luther released the vital spark of Christianity, which he got from Paul, and from Christ himself--the revelation of individual responsibility, that G.o.d the Spirit would dwell, by grace, in the individual soul. Ah, we had paid a terrible yet necessary price for freedom. We had wandered far from the Father, we had been reduced to the very husks of individualism, become as swine. We beheld around us, to-day, selfishness, ruthless compet.i.tion, as great contrasts between misery and luxury as in the days of the Roman Empire. But should we, for that reason, return to the leading-strings of authority? Could we if we would? A little thought ought to convince us that the liberation of the individual could not be revoked, that it had forever destroyed the power of authority to carry conviction. To go back to the Middle Ages would be to deteriorate and degenerate. No, we must go on....
Luther"s movement, in religion, had been the logical forerunner of democracy, of universal suffrage in government, the death-knell of that misinterpretation of Christianity as the bulwark of monarchy and hierarchy had been sounded when he said, "Ich kann nicht anders!" The new Republic founded on the western continent had announced to the world the initiation of the transfer of Authority to the individual soul.
G.o.d, the counterpart of the King, the ruler in a high heaven of a flat terrestrial expanse, outside of the world, was now become the Spirit of a million spheres, the indwelling spirit in man. Democracy and the religion of Jesus Christ both consisted in trusting the man--yes, and the woman--whom G.o.d trusts. Christianity was individualism carried beyond philosophy into religion, and the Christian, the ideal citizen of the democracy, was free since he served not because he had to, but because he desired to of his own will, which, paradoxically, is G.o.d"s will. G.o.d was in politics, to the confusion of politicians; G.o.d in government. And in some greater and higher sense than we had yet perceived, the saying "vox populi vox dei" was eternally true. He entered into the hearts of people and moved them, and so the world progressed. It was the function of the Church to make Christians, until--when the Kingdom of G.o.d should come--the blending should be complete. Then Church and State would be identical, since all the members of the one would be the citizens of the other....
"I will arise and go to my father." Rebirth! A sense of responsibility, of consecration. So we had come painfully through our materialistic individualism, through our selfish Protestantism, to a glimpse of the true Protestantism--Democracy.
Our spiritual vision was glowing clearer. We were beginning to perceive that charity did not consist in dispensing largesse after making a fortune at the expense of one"s fellow-men; that there was something still wrong in a government that permits it. It was gradually becoming plain to us, after two thousand years, that human bodies and souls rotting in tenements were more valuable than all the forests on all the hills; that government, Christian government, had something to do with these.
We should embody, in government, those sublime words of the Master, "Suffer little children to come unto me." And the government of the future would care for the little children. We were beginning to do it.
Here, as elsewhere, Christianity and reason went hand in hand, for the child became the man who either preyed on humanity and filled the prisons and robbed his fellows, or else grew into a useful, healthy citizen. It was nothing less than sheer folly as well as inhuman cruelty to let the children sleep in crowded, hot rooms, reeking with diseases, and run wild throughout the long summer, learning vice in the city streets. And we still had slavery--economic slavery--yes, and the more horrible slavery of women and young girls in vice--as much a concern of government as the problem which had confronted it in 1861.... We were learning that there was something infinitely more sacred than property....
And now Alison recalled, only to be thrilled again by an electric sensation she had never before experienced with such intensity, the look of inspiration on the preacher"s face as he closed. The very mists of the future seemed to break before his importuning gaze, and his eyes seemed indeed to behold, against the whitening dawn of the spiritual age he predicted, the slender spires of a new Church sprung from the foundations of the old. A Church, truly catholic, tolerant, whose portals were wide in welcome to all mankind. The creative impulse, he had declared, was invariably religious, the highest art but the expression of the mute yearnings of a people, of a race. Thus had once arisen, all over Europe, those wonderful cathedrals which still cast their spell upon the world, and art to-day would respond--was responding--to the unutterable cravings of mankind, would strive once more to express in stone and gla.s.s and pigment what nations felt.
Generation after generation would labour with unflagging zeal until the art sculptured fragment of the new Cathedral--the new Cathedral of Democracy--pointed upward toward the blue vault of heaven. Such was his vision--G.o.d the Spirit, through man reborn, carrying out his great Design...
CHAPTER XXII. "WHICH SAY TO THE SEERS, SEE NOT"
I
As Alison arose from her knees and made her way out of the pew, it was the expression on Charlotte Plimpton"s face which brought her back once more to a sense of her surroundings; struck her, indeed, like a physical blow. The expression was a scandalized one. Mrs. Plimpton had moved towards her, as if to speak, but Alison hurried past, her exaltation suddenly shattered, replaced by a rising tide of resentment, of angry amazement against a materialism so solid as to remain unshaken by the words which had so uplifted her. Eddies were forming in the aisle as the people streamed slowly out of the church, and s.n.a.t.c.hes of their conversation, in undertones, reached her ears.
"I should never have believed it!"
"Mr. Hodder, of all men..."
"The bishop!"
Outside the swinging doors, in the vestibule, the voices were raised a little, and she found her path blocked.
"It"s incredible!" she heard Gordon Atterbury saying to little Everett Constable, who was listening gloomily.
"Sheer Unitarianism, socialism, heresy."
His attention was forcibly arrested by Alison, in whose cheeks bright spots of colour burned. He stepped aside, involuntarily, apologetically, as though he had instinctively read in her att.i.tude an unaccountable disdain. Everett Constable bowed uncertainly, for Alison scarcely noticed them.
"Ahem!" said Gordon, nervously, abandoning his former companion and joining her, "I was just saying, it"s incredible--"
She turned on him.
"It is incredible," she cried, "that persons who call themselves Christians cannot recognize their religion when they hear it preached."
He gave back before her, visibly, in an astonishment which would have been ludicrous but for her anger. He had never understood her--such had been for him her greatest fascination;--and now she was less comprehensible than ever. The time had been when he would cheerfully have given over his hope of salvation to have been able to stir her.
He had never seen her stirred, and the sight of her even now in this condition was uncomfortably agitating. Of all things, an heretical sermon would appear to have accomplished this miracle!
"Christianity!" he stammered.
"Yes, Christianity." Her voice tingled. "I don"t pretend to know much about it, but Mr. Hodder has at least made it plain that it is something more than dead dogmas, ceremonies, and superst.i.tions."
He would have said something, but her one thought was to escape, to be alone. These friends of her childhood were at that moment so distasteful as to have become hateful. Some one laid a hand upon her arm.
"Can"t we take you home, Alison? I don"t see your motor."
It was Mrs. Constable.
"No, thanks--I"m going to walk," Alison answered, yet something in Mrs.
Constable"s face, in Mrs. Constable"s voice, made her pause. Something new, something oddly sympathetic. Their eyes met, and Alison saw that the other woman"s were tired, almost haggard--yet understanding.
"Mr. Hodder was right--a thousand times right, my dear," she said.
Alison could only stare at her, and the crimson in the bright spots of her cheeks spread over her face. Why had Mrs. Constable supposed that she would care to hear the sermon praised? But a second glance put her in possession of the extraordinary fact that Mrs. Constable herself was profoundly moved.
"I knew he would change," she went on, "I have seen for some time that he was too big a man not to change. But I had no conception that he would have such power, and such courage, as he has shown this morning.
It is not only that he dared to tell us what we were--smaller men might have done that, and it is comparatively easy to denounce. But he has the vision to construct, he is a seer himself--he has really made me see what Christianity is. And as long as I live I shall never forget those closing sentences."
"And now?" asked Alison. "And now what will happen?"
Mrs. Constable changed colour. Her tact, on which she prided herself, had deserted her in a moment of unlooked-for emotion.
"Oh, I know that my father and the others will try to put him out--but can they?" Alison asked.
It was Mrs. Constable"s turn to stare. The head she suddenly and impulsively put forth trembled on Alison"s wrist.
"I don"t know, Alison--I"m afraid they can. It is too terrible to think about.... And they can"t--they won"t believe that many changes are coming, that this is but one of many signs... Do come and see me."
Alison left her, marvelling at the pa.s.sage between them, and that, of all persons in the congregation of St. John"s, the lightning should have struck Mrs. Constable...
Turning to the right on Burton Street, she soon found herself walking rapidly westward through deserted streets lined by factories and warehouses, and silent in the Sabbath calm.... She thought of Hodder, she would have liked to go to him in that hour....
In Park Street, luncheon was half over, and Nelson Langmaid was at the table with her father. The lawyer glanced at her curiously as she entered the room, and his usual word of banter, she thought, was rather lame. The two went on, for some time, discussing a railroad suit in Texas. And Alison, as she hurried through her meal, leaving the dishes almost untouched, scarcely heard them. Once, in her reverie, her thoughts reverted to another Sunday when Hodder had sat, an honoured guest, in the chair which Mr. Langmaid now occupied....