BY JOSEPH PARKER (1867)

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Chapter 3: The Written Word (Continued)

We have said that though this is the dispensation of the Spirit, it is yet distinctively the Christian dispensation. The circumstance may throw a side-light upon one dark saying in the Christian writings, which relates to the unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost. Christ taught that a word spoken against the Son of man would be forgiven, but that a word spoken against the Holy Ghost would not be forgiven; by which he probably meant that in his visible form there was so much that contravened the expectations of the people, that they might, under the mistaken guidance of their carnal feelings, speak against one who had claimed kingly position under a servant’s form: but that in the course of events he would appeal not to the eye, but to the consciousness of men; and that when he came by this higher ministry, refusal of his appeal would place man in an unpardonable state. The vital principle would seem to be, that when man denies his own consciousness, or shuts himself up from such influences as would purify and quicken his consciousness, he cuts himself off from God, and becomes a “son of perdition.” Speaking against the Holy Ghost is speaking against the higher and final revelation of the Son of man; in this view Christ’s position in the Godhead is unimpaired; but if the sin against him were less than a sin against the Holy Ghost, he could no longer retain divine equality. According to the Christian writings, we know nothing of the Holy Ghost except in connection with Jesus Christ; to speak, therefore, against the Holy Ghost is to speak against Jesus Christ himself, not as he appeared when he took upon him the form of a servant, but as he was originally, in the form of God. As we have already said, truth is larger than fact, so the spiritual is larger than the material, the Holy Spirit greater than any personal manifestation possibly could be. The incarnate Christ was local, the Holy Spirit is universal; the fleshly Christ was a Jew, the Spirit-revealed Christ is the brother of every man; the embodied Truth walked within certain geographical limits, but the spiritual Truth is unlimited in range, and inexhaustible in power. The Apostle says that “henceforth we know not Christ after the flesh;” now he is represented by the Holy Ghost, still head over all, though unseen by men.

With this as a start-point, why may not the men of today know Christ more thoroughly than did the original disciples and apostles? They know everything else better; why make an exception of the great Life which is giving such revelations of itself as cover all the enlarging breadths of civilization, and fill plenteously, even to overflow, the expanding capacities of manhood? The foremost mean in the original apostolate declared of himself that he had “not yet attained,” and exhorted others to “grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is no claim of finality in the apostolic epistles. Everywhere the path of progress is not merely pointed out, but the most exciting inducements to persevere are employed in the apostolic appeals. The riches of Christ are declared to be “unsearchable,” and the peace of God is said to “pass understanding.” All the terms descriptive of Christ, and of the courses of study which may be entered upon concerning him, suggest the impossibility of exhaustion, and by implication suggest the greatness and richness of human nature. [To remain stationary] in Christian study is a sin against the subject, and an injustice to the student. Not that fundamental and spiritual truths can be changed. Newton did not deny that two and two are four when he promulgated the doctrine of gravitation; nor did Coulomb deny the diurnal rotation of the earth when he improved the mariner’s compass. We go back to the Book for the primary facts and out-shadowings of truth; throwing aside all that was local and temporary, we discover the abiding root of which came the leaves and for fruit which are for the healing and sustenance of the nations.

This term “root” assigns to the Christian writings their true position and value. There is all the difference between the Christianity of the apostolic day, and the developed Christian idea of the present time, that there is between an acorn and an oak. The essential nature is unchanged, but the least of seeds has become the greatest of trees. The Father is glorified when the children “bear much fruit,” and much fruit simply means much Christ. When Christ said that he had “finished his work,” he spoke as an agriculturist might do when he had sown his entire field with seed, not as the reaper would do when he garnered his sheaves. The seed was small, the harvest is universal; the words were few and often broken, but they have roused the heart, and shaped the course of the world. The tree is gigantic in stature, but it draws all its vitality out of the one root which Christ planted.

It is certain that different men sustain different relations to the first principles of arithmetic, geometry, or any science. The skilled arithmetician does not require continually to refer to tabulated data; he could carry on his calculations successfully, if all written data were destroyed. They are now in him; they are part of his intellectual nature, so that he employs them with the ease which comes of perfect familiarity. All men, however, are not advanced arithmeticians; they must have something to work at, something on which the eye can rest; for they feel safe in their processes only so far as an appeal is made to the eye. Numbers, however are dogmatic; they make no accommodations; they ignore all varieties of temperament, faculty, and circumstances, and by so much they differ from the spiritual truths which are the subject of the Christian writings. Still the analogical point is vivid enough for our purpose; some students are yet at the very beginning, wondering at the birth, or startled by the works of Christ.; others have got beyond the narrow factual boundary, and are reveling in all spiritual luxuriance. It would be as impertinent in the arithmetician who has not yet mastered the first four rules of his art, to rail against the learned algebraist, as for the [novices] in Christian literature to reproach men who have the word of Christ dwelling in them richly, having forgotten or left behind the elementary facts of the Gospel.

Any survey of that portion of human society compromised within the limits of modern civilization, which ignored the practical power of the written Word, would not only be parietal, but unjust—openly and scandalously wicked, indeed. By influencing society at the vital center, it touches the roomiest angles of the social idea. Its effect upon young life, upon all the multitudinous aspects of human sorrow, upon the development and consolidation of generous sentiment, is written in living characters upon daily life. Even where its dogmatic form is denied, its spiritual results are evident; and some who find a thousand difficulties in its letter, are penetrated and ennobled by its principles. If a question of comparison between this book and any other were started, Christ’s own standard of judgement would best meet the case; looking forward to the false prophets who should seek to undo his work, he said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Modern civilization should be the field of research on both sides. Which book has most persistently branded, defied, and threatened every form of tyranny? Which book has spoken with the truest pathos to the wounded and sorrowing heart? Which book has done most for the poor man? These inquiries may be put in no declamatory spirit, but simply with a view to the discovery of facts. The test is fair. it is marked by a high sense of honesty on the part of Jesus Christ. He adopts no method of overriding human judgement, but, on the contrary, elevates the discriminative faculty of man, and in a manner throws the responsibility of the conclusion upon men’s own common sense. This is not the plan of necromancers, soothsayers, and self-elected prophets: Christ appeals to his own works and the works of others, asking the verdict of the world upon their respective claims to truth and veneration. There is no cunning legerdemain, no rebuke of human severity in the examination, no indulgence bespoken on behalf of the worker: the words and works are before you—judge them, said Christ; and “believe me for the very works’ sake.”

The important concession that different men may sustain different relations to the Christian writings may provoke an inquiry, bearing upon some aspects of church life today: What of the consistency of those who, being far advanced, having come into a great liberty of faith, are still teachers in those churches that are yet only in the rudiments, and whose published dogmas give no hope of expansion? The answer to this inquiry cannot be difficult. To the end of the world churches, as promiscuous aggregates, must be in the rudiments only, and the teachers of such churches must accommodate themselves to the elementary faith of their hearers. Often the teachers will come to know what Christ meant when he said, “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” The wisest teachers are the most reticent men. They reserve all the deeper interpretations, knowing, from a wide observation of human nature, that many who have eyes see not, and many who have hearts do not understand. Wise teachers will speak in on a set of terms to the great multitude, and in another to the foremost men, when they can go aside and commune secretly. They will often have to hide their meaning under a parable, and give explanations in an undertone. This is what Christ did. He had special interviews with his disciples, in which he spoke of the deeper things of his kingdom; and when one of his followers gave utterance to a testimony respecting his Messiahship, more full and emphatic than had yet been rendered, he pronounced it an immediate disclosure from heaven. Again and again, too, he enjoined silence upon his disciples as to the higher questions which had passed between them, as if revelation was to be regulated by time, and tomorrow’s work was not to be dragged into today’s service. These graduated revelations are compatible with the mystery of his own manifestation before men, and the method by which he educated the disciples. his representatives are right as they follow their Master’s course. No man is bound to open all his heart to unappreciative spectators. To the esoteric circle he may fully reveal himself, but to the esoteric crowd his demeanor may be reserved. he knows that to some men he must not tell the dream, until he can also tell the interpretation; but that others can help him in the changeful visions and tumultuous upheaving through which the soul passes into the higher ranges and sweeter experiences of truth.

It is to be remarked that Jesus Christ never wrote anything, nor did he instruct his disciples to commit anything to writing. We have broken reports of many of his addresses, and very fragmentary memoranda of his conversations and disputes; but no provision of a literary kind seems to have been made to secure permanence. Anything more fugitive, apparently, than the words and works of Christ is impossible to find: no hired scribes report the utterances, or chronicle the deeds of this wonderful Man; he founds no library, leaves no chronicles to be hidden in secure places, but works out his twelve hours, and then passes into rest. We come to no sign of permanence until we receive the promise of the Holy Ghost; he was to quicken the recollection, as well as to disclose further aspects of the truth. The memory was not to be left unaided; a great light was to be held over all the way in which the disciples had walked, so that thy might see the minutest detail, and tell or write their story with all the clearness and certitude of personal observation.

The written Word is a repertory of facts, a revelation of doctrines, and a standard of appeal upon all questions to which it bears any relation. The only interpreter of this Word is the Holy Ghost, and he operates through the consciousness of the reader: it is not a Word arbitrarily superimposed upon man, but a Word in harmony with all that is divine in human nature, and therefore having power to carry the entire conviction and sympathy of all who read without prejudice. Upon these principles the subsequent inquiry will be conducted.