Witnesses That Speak in All Languages for God

“Nevertheless He left not Himself without witness.” — Acts xiv. 17. “The God that made the world and all things therein.” — Acts xvii. 24.

During the last hundred years, which is approximately the term of modern Missionary effort, a vast change has taken place in the views held by the Christian Church on the condition of the heathen after death. The old formulary, “The heathen are perishing; shall we let them perish?” does not mean to-day quite what it used to mean. The conception of the countless populations of the globe pouring in a steady cataract into the bottomless pit no longer grips and holds the mind or imagination, and as the destiny of the heathen world in the great future becomes less defined and oppressive, one of the strongest incentives for Missionary endeavour is sensibly weakened, and good people are inclined to say, “Let us leave well alone. Things are not so bad as was feared. God is good, and all will come right at last.” I venture to think that this attitude on the part of multitudes of Christian people is at the root of the present stagnation in Missionary enterprise, and the reason, in part, of the depletion of the Missionary exchequer.

Nothing, therefore, is more necessary in the present day than to re-construct a basis and argument for Christian Missions. We believe in God’s love for the world, a love which includes every unit of the human family; we believe that ours is a redeemed race, that the Cross has put away the sin of man, that in Christ God has reconciled the world to Himself; we believe that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted by Him; — what need then that we should preach the Gospel to every creature? Granted that the marching orders of our Lord are clear and distinct, is it possible to enforce them on the ground of reason and experience?

An answer to these questions is furnished in the remarkable addresses of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, whether standing amid the remoter wilds of Lycaonia or the focussed glory of the pagan civilisation of his time. In these he necessarily touched upon the three main religious influences of the world: Natural Religion; the Mission of Judaism; and the Message of the Gospel. These three threads were woven throughout the matchless fabric of his appeals. Let us consider specially that made before the Areopagus (Acts xvii. 19).

The religion of ancient Greece lay altogether outside the influence of Hebrew literature and ideals. There was not even a synagogue in Athens; and that city, therefore — the crown and flower of Greece — gave unrivalled opportunity for the study of any solution, which the human mind can formulate, to the mystery of God, of life, and of the world.

Driven thither by the violence of his enemies, and awaiting the arrival of his friends, the Apostle gave himself to the quiet study of the religious aspects around him. On every side stood the loftiest achievements of human genius. As he issued morning by morning from his humble lodging, he beheld the long colonnades of shops, sublime conceptions in temple and statue, “the severe beauty of the Parthenon, the massive proportions of the Theseum, the exquisite elegance of the Temple of Wingless Victory, the rude grace and sinewy strength of the youthful processions, portrayed on frieze and entablature, and sharply defined in the sunny air.” But as he passed his special interest was attracted by the objects of their worship, the inscriptions on their altars, and the discussions of Jew and Proselyte, of Stoic and Epicurean, concerning the sacred mysteries of religion. Paul was not indifferent to the attractions of art and beauty, but his soul was filled with an over-mastering religious enthusiasm, and was set on contrasting the results of natural religion with his message of Jesus and the Resurrection.

Athens was a city of statues, and his early training as a Jew prejudiced him against all representations of the human form. During his residence as a student in Jerusalem he had never once beheld in sculpture or painting the face or figure of man, and had been taught to consider such attempts as direct violations of the second word of the decalogue. But even these aroused less indignation than the images of the gods and goddesses, and the altars erected to their worship, which confronted him on every side.

So numerous were the representations of the deities of the Pantheon that it was said to be more easy to meet a god than a man in the streets of Athens. Whichever way the visitor turned, an altar confronted him, at which devotees were making their offerings. Small wonder then that the spirit of the Apostle was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols.

But there was no passionate show of resentment in his speech. He did not open his mission to the Athenians by a furious tirade against the absurdity of idolatry as such, nor did he hold up to ridicule and scorn the obscene stories of their gods and goddesses, but with admirable sagacity and good sense he seized on the one hopeful sign in it all, that the people whom he was addressing were very eager and sensitive about religious matters. He was careful to place this sentiment in the forefront of his address. The rendering of the

A.V., “I perceive, men of Athens,

that in all things ye are too superstitious,” is absolutely inadmissible. Even the “somewhat religious” of the R.Y. does not meet the case. “Very devout” or “unusually religious” would be a truer rendering of the Greek; and it is much to be regretted that for so long the impression has been produced that the first note of the missionary’s address should be critical and polemical, rather than considerate and conciliatory.

It seemed to Paul as though the profusion of idols around him, and especially the altar reared to “an unknown God,” were proofs of the strong and instinctive cravings of a religious spirit. So far from the claims of religion being regarded with coldness and apathy, here was a whole nation intent on religious inquiry. They were seeking God if haply they might feel after Him; and the word employed is extremely picturesque, suggesting the fumbling of a blind man to iind the latch of the door. Tennyson hit off the conception with apt grace in his well-known lines: —

I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather dust and chaff, and call To what I feel is Lord of all.

There are five sources of religious knowledge which are within the reach of men who are outside what we know as Revelation.

1. The Witness of Creation. “Not a flower or leaf but bears the mark of God’s unrivalled pencil!” What m ay be known of Him is made plain to men’s inmost consciousness, for God Himself has made it plain to them; for from the very creation of the world His eternal power and divine nature have been made visible by His works (Rom. i. 19, 20).

2. The Witness of Daily Mercy. Addressing a simple agricultural people, the Apostle, in obvious allusion to one of their familiar lyric songs, reminded them that during the past generations God had not left Himself without witness, because of the daily mercies which He had sent, “giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling men’s hearts with food and gladness.” Those who have visited the great plains of India, and seen the myriads of people engaged in their simple agricultural toils, and have interpreted them by the music of the old Yedic hymns, will be able to appreciate the Apostle’s allusion. The exquisite and constant sunshine, the return of the bountiful seasons, and the rich yield of the soil, are all productive of that glad recognition of the Creator which His gifts are calculated to inspire.

3. There is the Witness of Man s Moral Nature. From the beginning, the Eternal Word has lighted every man coming into the world. “As there was a diffused light through the universe before the sun, and as that diffused luminous mist became centred and embodied in the sun,” so there always have been glimmerings of Truth in the minds of men, which have emanated from the Word of God. His Life was the Light of men. The great moral intuitions, common to all men, of every age, and dwelling in every quarter of the globe, show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts accusing and excusing one another.

4. The Fourth Witness has been supplied by the great Prophets and Teachers of the Race. Not from the Hebrew race alone, but from all races, God has called forth great souls who have received His messages for their contemporaries and all after time. WTe utter their names with reverence, and acknowledge the important contributions that have been made to the religious history of the race by Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster, Plato, and other prophetic souls, who have reared themselves like soaring Alps above their fellows, catching and reflecting the light of the Eternal. Of course they have

WITNESSES THAT SPEAK FOR GOD 1(J

apprehended many of the truths and almost the phrases which are familiar to the lovers of the Bible, because all truth is one, and the Spirit of Truth is one, and the Light that is diffused from the Word, Who was and is, and is to come, rfiust ever be one and the same.

5. The Fifth Witness has been furnished by the Educative Effect of Divine Providence. The words of the Apostle in this discourse before the men of Athens are as significant as they are unmistakable. As a father will plan the education of his children with careful thought that each may have the best opportunity of developing and using his special powers, so he describes the Almighty as having prescribed for each nation the times of its rise, ascendancy, and fall, its allotted position on the map of the world, its precise location in time and place among the nations, that its children might have the best opportunity possible for seeking alter God, if haply they might feel after

Him and find Him. The pressure of war, the struggle for supremacy, the stern discipline of defeat, the anguish of oppression — all were permitted and intended, like the experiences of the Book of Judges, to lead the peoples of the world to search and try their ways, and turn again to Him. A history has yet to be written which shall show the loving purpose of God amid the fret of the tides and storms which have swept the seas of human history.

As the result of these sources of religious knowledge and inspiration, men have made profound discoveries. One of the noblest monuments to the results of natural religion is that furnished by the Book of Job:

The Spirit of God hath made me,

And the breath of the Almighty giveth me life. He stretcheth out the north over empty space, And hangeth the earth upon nothing.

He buildeth up the waters in His thick clouds, And stirreth up the sea with His power.

By His Spirit the heavens are garnished,

His hand hath pierced the swift serpent.

Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways,

And how small a whisper do we hear of Him, But the thunder of His power who can understand?

Behold! I am vile, what shall I answer Thee P I lay my hand upon my mouth.

To this magnificent tribute to the discoveries of natural religion we may add one or two extracts from other sources, of the results of man’s search for the unknown God. This from the Vedas: “One sovereign Ruler pervades this world of worlds. Nurture thyself with that single thought. This one single Spirit, which nothing can disturb, is swifter than the thought of man. It moves the universe at its pleasure; it is distant from us, and yet very near to all things; it pervades this entire universe, and yet is infinitely beyond it. The man who has learnt to recognise all beings in this Supreme Spirit, and this Supreme Being in all things, can henceforth look upon no creature with contempt.” “0 God, who knowest all beings, purify us from every sin, and we shall be enabled to consecrate to Thee our holiest adorations.

These noble confessions belong to the dawn of history, in the blue azure of that past when our forefathers still dwelt under the shadow of the Himalayas. At a later period, though still very ancient, these words are put in the lips of Krishna: “I am the cause of the production and dissolution of the whole universe. There exists no other thing superior to me. On me is all the universe suspended, as pearls on a string. I am the savour in waters, and the luminous principle in moon and sun. I am dear to the spiritually wise beyond possessions, and he is dear to me.”

Or descend still further on the stream of Time. Seneca writes thus to his friend Lucilius, “God is near you, is with you, is within you. A sacred Spirit dwells within us, the Observer and Guardian of all our evil and our good. There is no good man without God. Even from a corner it is possible to spring up into heaven. Rise therefore, and form thyself into a fashion worthy of God; thou canst not do this, however, with gold and silver: an image like to God cannot be formed out of such materials as those.”

Let these quotations suffice — they are enough to show that it has always been possible for the human mind to arrive at very sublime and true conceptions of the nature of God: and they are a striking comment on those great words of Malachi, “From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, God’s name is great among the nations, and in every place incense has been offered unto His name, and a pure offering; for His name is great among the Gentiles.”

There can be no doubt that by these means myriads of souls, who lived and died with no other teaching than that of natural reason, have entered into the

Kingdom, coming from east and west, from north and south, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — the representatives of the children of Revelation — in the Kingdom of Heaven: and they have been admitted on precisely the same terms as those on which we hope to be accepted.

It is sometimes said thoughtlessly that the heathen will be saved if they live up to the light they have. But who has ever lived up to the light he had? Do we live up to the light we have? If our salvation depended on our living up to the light we had, who of us would pass muster? No, we are saved because we exercise faith in God. Like Abraham, the father of them that believe, we believe in God, and our faith is reckoned to us for righteousness; i.e it is the germ of the religious and holy character, which shall ultimately emerge and be conformed to the image of the Son. Underneath all is the reconciliation wrought by God in the person of the dying Redeemer, which removed every obstacle to the full outpouring of divine grace to us and to every member of the human family. But we are saved, not because we have accurate views of that redemption, but because we are joined by a living faith to Him who made the redemption; faith being the channel through which God may pour Himself to our infilling.

Similarly God deals with the heathen. They also are saved by faith, on the basis of the finished Redemption of the Lord Jesus. In other words, if they exercise faith towards such knowledge of God as is possible to them, i.e.y if they possess a faith which, if they had had the chance of knowing Christ, would have leapt to Him, and touched the hem of His garment, God, who searches the heart, and knows what would have happened in Tyre and Sidon and the cities of the Plain, if they had heard of the mighty works of Christ, deals with them on the basis of the faith they have, anticipating the hour when that faith, which is an attitude towards God, and the embryo capacity for receiving God, shall no longer be an unfurled bud, but shall open to its full radiance and glory in the tropical atmosphere of heaven.

I can never forget the discussions which I was accustomed to hold in India at the close of my addresses. As t I write, one specially comes to mind. At the close of an afternoon service in one of the public halls of Bombay, a number of intelligent and thoughtful men gathered round me, who said that my teaching of the inner life, and especially of the negation of self, was not what they were generally accustomed to hear from the lips of a Christian teacher, though it was exactly in line with much that was taught in their own religious books. They told me that one objection which they had towards the religion of Jesus Christ was that, so far as it had been presented to them, it seemed so exclusively objective in its testimony, and gave so little room for those deeper teachings of the subjective discipline of the spirit which appeared to them so all-important. From that conversation, as from many others that I held in India, I came to the conclusion that it would be wiser if missionaries could find out the point to which God’s training has led inquiring souls around them in order to lead them forward by those further revelations which Christ has given. We should seek out the Corneliuses of the world, men who have gone as far as natural religion can carry them, and whose tears and prayers come up as a memorial before God. They are waiting for our message. They are prepared for it. They will receive it gladly. The Holy Spirit will fall on them whilst wo speak; and they may be trusted to pass on the glad tidings to their kinsfolk and near friends. When travelling through India, I habitually asked of the missionaries, “Do you know of a Cornelius in this district? Invariably I was answered in the affirmative. Everywhere there are devout souls, who have gone as far as their opportunities allowed, and are yearning for a completer revelation, and especially for the announcement that Christ is the Wisdom and the Power of God. Such men are prepared by God to become the recipients and transmitters of the higher revelations of the Gospel. Than these, it would be impossible for our missionaries to have nobler coadjutors and allies. They are like prepared beacon-fires, which only need an illuminating and kindling spark.

It is interesting to recall the eagerness with which the non-Christian natives of India heard from my lips teaching as to those higher or deeper truths, concerning the crucifixion of the self-life in order to the indwelling of the Son of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit; and I have been since deeply convinced that the prime work of our missionary societies is to discover the souls with whom the Divine Spirit has already been at work, ascertaining the stage which they have reached in the divine life, and endeavouring to lead them forward to those loftier conceptions and fuller receptions of God w7hich are only possible where the full-orbed splendour of New Testament light is shining. These, as I have said, become our best allies and helpers in further permeating the masses, which have been content with living on the lowest levels, convicting them of sin, and leading them into the powers of the w7orld to come.

You may remember how Frederic W. H. Myers deals with this scene; and the effect that the Apostle’s words had on the woman Damans. It is a parable which illustrates and confirms all I have said.

She as one wild, whom many stripes enharden,

Leapt many times from torture of a dream, Shrank by the pallid olives of the garden, Groves of a teacher, and Ilissus stream.

Then to their temple Damaris would clamber, Stood where an idol in the lifted sky,

Bright in a light and eminent in amber,

Heard not, nor pitied her, nor made reply.

Thence the strong soul, which never power can pinion,

Sprang with a wail into the empty air; Thence the wide eyes upon a hushed dominion

Looked in a fierce astonishment of prayer.

Looked to Hymettus and the purple heather, Looked to Peirseus and the purple sea,. Blending of waters and of winds together, Winds that were wild and waters that were free.

Therefore with set face and with smiling bitter, Took she the anguish, carried it apart;

Ah, to what friend to speak it P it were fitter

Thrust in the aching hollows of her heart.

Then I preached Christ, and when she heard the story,

Oh, is such triumph possible to men?

Hardly, my King, had I beheld Thy glory, Hardly had known Thine excellence, till then.

Thou in one fold the afraid and the forsaken, Thou with one she’pherding, canst soothe

and save:

Speak but the word I the Evangel shall awaken

Life in the lost, the hero in the slave.