Article December 14, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from W. E. Orchard, Willard Brown Thorp

[Rev. W. E. Orchard in Christian Commonwealth.]

The general effect of most Christological discussions has been to rob us of Jesus. It has either so explained the personality of Jesus that he ceases to have any significance whatever for us who have to live this life under the common conditions of humanity; for it holds that the origin of his nature, the composition of his personality, and the consciousness of his mission were unique and never to be shared by any other member of the human race. Or, the personality and ministry of Jesus are rendered so insignificant that there remains nothing to account for a new religion springing up around his name; for even if Christianity has made the mistake of thinking too highly of Jesus, of idealizing and deifying him, it is not the kind of mistake that could be made about any one apart from something in him which made it a somewhat natural mistake. Or, seizing upon the undoubted fact that Jesus created in men a new consciousness of God, what the New Testament calls the outpouring of the Spirit, the endeavor is made to retain this "Christconsciousness" without any concern for the historical human experience through which it was first made current, and without gratitude or even a feeling of kinship for him who won it for us at such suffering and cost; with the inevitable result that this conseiousness tends to become subjective, shadowy, individual, and sterile, and so loses anchorage among the realities of life and the facts of history. Whether we are now to conclude that Christianity is played out and should be superseded by another faith, or whether we believe that Christianity still holds the secret which can save the modern world, we ought to recognize that Christianity has spread by virtue of what distinguishes it from all other religions, namely, in proclaiming a new way to God opened up through personal attachment to Jesus Christ.

[Christian Intelligcncer.]

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