CHRISTIANITY IN THE LICHT OF ITS HISTORY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1889, 18 October 1913, Page 9

CHRISTIANITY IN THE LICHT OF ITS HISTORY.

ITS GREAT VARIETY, In an article in tho "Hibberi Journal"'. 1 (Wiljiams and Norgato), Professor A. OJ ' M'Giffort, tho well-known American' scholar, writes on "Christianity in tho' Light of its History." lio states that)) Christianity, old as it seems, is still/ ' but young, and he explains what it' has meant to different peoplo in dif*') ferent ages in tho following striking' passage:—

"From tho beginning, one of the ox-, traordinary things about Christianity/ has been its great variety. To the Apostlo Paul, to Ignatius of Antioch,' and to thousands of believers since, a religion of redemption, releasing men; from the trammels of tho world and. sin and death, and giving them tha power of an ondless life. •To Justin' Martyr, to Pelagius, toSocinus, a re-) relation of God's will which wo liavoabundant ability to obey if wo but choose, and obeying which we reap tha fitting reward. To Clement of Alexan-! dria, to Scotus Evigena, to Frederick\ William Hegel, to speculative thinkers of ovory ago, a philosophy of tho uni-' verse, explaining-tho whence tha whither, the beginning and tho end oft all tilings. To tho schoolmen, botli' Catholic and Protestant, tho acceptance of a series of propositions, supposed to' contain final and absolute truth touch* ing God and man and tho universe. To> St. Bernard and Fenelon and William, Law, to tho mystics of all generations, tho transcendence of human limitation# | in oneness with the divine. To St.. Francis of Assisi and Thomas a Kem-' pis, and many a lovely spirit of our owiv and other days, the imitation of Christ!) in his ' life of poverty, humility, and: love. To Cyprian and Augustine and! countless Catholics, tho one holy, apos-1 tolic Church, an ark of salvation, alona providing escapo from eternal punish-i ment. To Hildebrand, and Innocent, as to modern ultramontanists in general,) tho papal hierarchy, ruler of tho nations' of tho earth. To Benedict of Nursia,j to Boniface tho Saxon apostlo, to not a" few missionaries of those latter days,) a great civilising agency,' raising wliola peoples from ignorance and savagery to culture and humaneness.. To the rationalist of tho eighteenth century; 'tho,' religion of nature always one and -unchanging, the worship of- God and the pursuit of virtttd." To'a growing multitude of Christians of our own day, hu-« manitarianism, the service of one's fellows in the spirit, of Jesus Christ."-' "