1929-08-31 — Page 11

SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1929.

OUR WEEKLY SERMON

Importance of Historical Element in Christianity

MODERN CHURCHMAN'S VIEWS

[By Professor F. C. Burkitt, D.D., F.B.A.]

(Continued from August 25.)

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TWENTY-THIRD AN: NUAL MEETING will be held at the Sanitary Board Room, Post Office Building (by kind permis- sion) on FRIDAY, 6th September, at 5.15 p.m.

A. A. RUMJAHN,

Hon. Secretary. Hong Kong, 31st August. 1929.

His career and his physique should be studied by mental experts and other doctors, and humanitarian and religious men should be among the governors of the prison. It should be made clear to him that all were there to unite in an effort to recall A tribunal "More blackmailing goes on than him back to social life. people are conscious of says Mr. should have power to decree him Justice Wright,

well-known so much liberty under such condi- British judge. It is a great pity tions as seemed wise and right if that people who are being black- he could satisfy them that he would mailed do not put the matter into honestly try to make good use of it. the hands of the police."

Right Action' on. Problem inconsistent a view Manichees may

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writing)

I cannot help thinking that the have had about the Jesus "who ap-of a case in which a man who had feasibility of the indeterminate peared in Judaca," they gave Him spent eight years out of nine in sentence requires new consideration. worship and adoration (see speci gaol and on being again conviet- An expert committee of medical, mens in my Religion of the Mani-ed told the judge in bravado that leg and practical humanitarians, ches, p. 32). He was an integral he had no intention to reform, saya men of knowledge and experience, part of their religion. In other that the right remedy for harden whose habitual mental attitude to- words. Jesus represents the hised offenders of this type is final wards social matters was not sum- date both the capture of Samaría by torical element in the religion of and permanent segregation. Such med up in such phrases as “Wait | FRE the Assyrians and the capture of the Manichees, as Ile does in ora man, he argues, is an enemy of and See" or "Safety First" might. E NEW TERM begins on

something Nineveh by the enemies of the thodox Christianity, Assyrians with accuracy. Surpris-given, not excogitated.

Coming further down, it is not too much to say that the Egypt and Syria of the Tel-el-Amarna Letters is very different from the primitive society depicted in the Bible tales of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. With the later parts of Bible history it is of course different. We can now

ing documents from far up the Nile have thrown a curious side-light on

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MONDAY, 9th September: society. It is useless to give him believe, find us a more hopeful An Entrance Examination will be successive sentences and turn him remedy than permanent segregation. held at Stanley, at 9 a.m. on the A Phenomenon of History

After all, the most hardened same day. loose to prey on his fellow-men

Prospectus and in- That is a totally different view

our fellow-citizens, formation from time to time, and, in Sir criminals are

about transport the are of Nehemiah and Sanballat. from one which makes the alleged Arthur's view, the true method and brother men. But for the Grace Stanley may be obtained from the Warden or from M. Li Hoi Tung, What is more important for religion human carser of Jesus an allegory" is that we are learning to see in the or a myth, essentially untrae in its of guarding ourselves is to eliminate of God, as the old divine said, we

might have stood in the arraign- c/o Banker & Co.. Bank of China while perhaps him altogether."

We are faced Building. revolt of the Jews under the leader-natural meaning

The There is nothing new about this ment with them.

The New Hostel pro- ship of Judas Maceabacus and his symbolizing eternal verities,

the problem of right action|viding more accommodation for brothers, two centuries before the ancient Docetic heretics, such as proposal, writes Sir Edward Parry,

Boarders will be open this Term. Crucifixion of Jerus, not a

the author of the Acts of Jehu, be-commenting on the problem. It is to these anfortunates, and we can- lieved that flesh and blood was es- as old as Draco and the fact that not meet it by the plea of avoid-

Hong Kong, 30th August, 1929. episode of secular history, but a first public manifestation in a crudeschially impure, and that only the it is said to have appealed to the ance, "Am I my brother's keeper?" political form of the great fact that soul and intellect was capable of late Home Secretary does not

If mankind has a WANCHAI TRAGEDY the religion of the post-Exilic Jews salvation: Jesus, who had come force its value. had become in some respects a dif- from the Divine essence, was sent right to eliminate a fellow citizen

to redeem and free the soul altogether, the most kindly and COOLIE ON A CHARGE OF ferent thing from that of the

intellect and did not economical method of doing so is

MURDER nations around them, a sign of that and

in reality acquire a body to put him in a lethal chamber. incompatibility which in the end

but only in appearance: the true Ancient lawgivers were all in favouri Yesterday afternoon Mr. E. W. was to destroy the Jewish nation and yet to make one form of their Gnostic understood this and view-of such a penalty for wrong-doers, Hamilton heard further evidence in religion into the dominating factored the Gospel history accordingly. but no civilized State would pass the case in which a coolfe is charged in the whole civilized world. Bat But he did not deny that Jesus apan Elimination Act of that nature with the murder of another coche in con-peared to the crewil, to the rulers, to-day. Sir Arthur's remedy there- Cross-street, Wanchal, on the night how different are all these siderations, all this presentation of to the crucifiers, as human he did fore coes. not seem practicable, and of July 25.

not deny that the career of Jesus, Sir Henry Dickens, the Common The holder of a food stall in what preceded the career of Jesus

that "it is of Cross-street said that he saw two Christ from the old way of regard-more or less as set down in the Sergeant, tells

Church's official Gospels, was one no possible use to try to reclaim men fighting, but could not recognise ing the Old Testament, shared by

of history. the professional thief." Catholic and Protestant alike! It of the phenomena

the parties. One was squatting on We have Docetism, in a word, is a theory

a stool at the stall when the other is a new construction.

Counsel of Despair taken away the first that we may about the meaning of the Gospel

This is indeed a counsel of des- struck him twice, but witness could story, not denial of it or even an

not say if the assailant used a allegorization of it.

apt The outward pair, but judicial minds are It is not part of to-day's discus-appearance was to Docetic hereties to be pessimistic about these mat weapon or not. sion to go deeply into the very con- stumbling-block and foolishness, ters. Many social workers can give troversial details of the historical and they soothed their shocked you true instances of men

feelings by a particular theory of women, continually convicted of criticism of the New Testament.

what really took place under the theft and other crimes, who have appearance, but they did not deny turned honest and done the appearance itself. The distinc- later years.

establish the second.

Modern View New

as one who was his or that, as one who did this or that, as one who taught this or that.

No doubt the true and Catholic out the answer is that lie is all three, and

denial and labour.

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Miscellaneous

If I were to define my own views about the Gospel History 1 should

The records of the be found in some things too scepti-

tion may appear to be fine, but it Courts of the day show that there

A Mumbles (Swansea) postman | son"), cal and revolutionary, in others too

is essential. It is, in fact, a dis-are

not was found in a state of stupor in a large number of men, credulous and conservative, by

necessarily born in slums and of the Newton-lane, Mumbles. many among you-I do not doubtinetion of essence.

What is Meaning for Us? neglected education, but it. But there is one view about the

A registered packet, containing And what bearing, you may ask. intelligence and capacity, who make £50 in notes for the Newton post tale of Jesus, the Gospel Epic. the which does directly concern has all this upon our question, what up their minds to lead a career of office, which had been in his subject in hand; about which some- meaning has it for us to-day? crime, with the same determination possession, is missing.

very real and tangible and energy that more normal cit- He is not very coherent as to. thing may be said, here, because it think a

If we call ourselves izens employ in the practice of what happened, but states that he is a view which would destroy the meaning. vital root from which the histori-Christian, no doubt Christ is cen- law, medicine, or politics.

beard a whistle and received a blow tral to our religion, but what are cal element in Christianity derives

It is not a mere matter of en- on the side of the head. we to think of Christ? What does vironment and heredity. It is large- The view which its importance.

He mean to us? There are three has found defenders in modern

The death occurred on August 17 at the Singapore General days that the Gospel tale is alto- ways we may think of Jesus Christ the outcome of an unbalanced mental attitude towards life, coupled gether mythical is really new; it

with a diseased appetite to obtain Hospital of Mrs. Duncan Roberts, cannot be traced in ancient times.

the means of self-indulgence with after a brief illness. She came out There is, to my mind, a real dis-

necessary exercise of sew to Singapore under the auspices of tinction between this modern

the S.P.G. in 1914 after training at The desire to the Home of the Epiphany at Truro. heresy and the views of Mani and Marcion, and even

were Baron Friedrich von Hugel live at another's expense is very those of the

atili with us 1 can imagine the force obvious in the crime of blackmail, For several years she was in charge Acts of John. 1 used just now a

of St. Mary's Home, Tank Road, phrase quoted by Ephraim Syrus and fervour with which he would which, Mr. Justice Wright has just and many of her old girls remember set forth the strength and stability pointed out, is an iniquity more her with great affection. She of a view which was based on a due largely practised than people are married Mr. John Duncan Roberts shop window in Fore-street, Edmon- recognition of all three elements of aware of. Our penal system does in 1920. The funeral service took ten, and all attempte to the truth. But I am concerned to not seem to deal adequately with place at St. Andrew's Cathedral and thero have failed. day rather to point out how much men and women who have the burial took place at see. modern liberal opinion, especially deliberately adopted blackmailing, modern popular liberal opinion, has burglary, and organised theft ns exaggerated the importance of the their methods of livelihood. teaching of Jesus to the over- Transportation for Life the inner force which alone so we wrongdoers utterly beyond the pale shadowing of His achievement and Are we then to place these!

must believe-made this achieve of

All possible reform ?

the ment possible.

teachers and workers in social and Of course Jesus was a Teacher religious circles will boldly make Every man who inaugurates any answer in the negative. Let us re- movement must to a certain extent member that it is only quite re- explain himself, must train his as-cently in our history since youths sociates, must point to the goal and of either sex of 16 and 17 were

from Mani, "Jesus who appeared in Judaea." This phrase is not so vague and commonplace as perhaps It sounds to us. Mani's religion,

the religion of the Manichees, is so far away from Christian orthodoxy that many scholars have not reckon- ed it as a variety of the Christian religion at all: in my opinion, how- ever, he is properly to be regarded As a Christian, though certainly a most heretical one. Mani not only rejected the Virgin Birth, he reject- ed any sort of human birth for Jesus altogether. His Jesus was wholly Divine, a manifestation of the pure Light-substance. Never theless he acknowledged that Jesus had "appeared in Judaea." He had had a career among men, and that, career had been so effective that it had made an epoch in the fate of

the human race.

A Deduction Combated

In a vary important review of Waldschmidt and Lentz Die Stel Leng Jesu im Manichaismus (Theologische Literaturzeitung,

theft. Now we have a

en un vistas. Jesus was called executed or transported for life for Rabbi by his immediate followers, common and in later times the Jewish Baratal system, which, in good Rabbi was pre-eminently a teacher, hands has achieved wonderful re though I am not convinced that insults, and many a thoughtless young the first half of the first century hooligan who started life amid evil the world had so exclusively surroundings has taken his degree paedagogic connotation as it receiv ed after A.D. 70. 3. think it had more the connotation of "Chief,

at a Borstal College and become a profitable and worthy citizen.

May 26, 1928), Prof. E. Peterson of use St. Luke's word. No no

doubt again that the conversa

tion

It is true these methods are of use do the hardened criminal to whom crime has become the habit of a lifetime. But remember is neither the "Second Emanation" mense impression on those who

heard Him. "Lord, to whom shall that our forefathers were convinced

Boan gives reasons for holding that Jesus in the Manichaean system

adds:

of Jésus made

..an

im-

nor the "Messenger" of that system, we go? Thou hast words of eternal that the problem of youthful crime neither Ormuzd nor Srosh, and helife," and "Never man spake as this was only to be solved by elimina man" these words of the Fourth tion on the gallows. The human- This leads to the important Gospel may not be accurate tran- startas and sociologist, not the the Primal Man nor the Eschato-criptions of sentences spoken to statesman and the judge, were con- and about Jesus, yet who can doubt vinced that patience and sympathy

deduction that Jesus is neither

logical Man in the Manichaean that they express a true impress of would find a way out for young system. It is evident that there the effect produced on many who criminals, and they have largely By the Importance of Jesus In Manichaeism is more limited than the impress of a personality than

heard Him? But they record rather succeeded. T would be gathered from the work of a doctrine. of Waldschmidt and Lentz.”

I venture to draw a different deduc- tion. The Manichaean system, the theory of the Universe which Mani constructed out of various earlier cosmogonies, is a strange and bizarre fantasy, which nevertheless has some internal consistency, as la to be expected in the imagina tion of a single gifted individual, There is nothing historical in it it is on the one hand mythologica cosmogony, on the other an expres- sion of Manie conviction that this world is a Smudge, an tory combination of patible realities which Light and Dark. In this bis Jesus is di Stranger, vited Guest.. But, eliminated.What cance, however siran

Actions of Jesus

But a salvage scheme for habituali criminals is more difficult. Many are doubtless asylum cases, or border-line patients who want some The actions of Jesus, His deliber kind of protection from themselves. ate course of life, do not seem to But for the rest I am inclined to spread and establish a doctrine. think that the way of reform lles Nor is there anything in the Gospel in what is called the indeterminate record that at all corresponda in sentence. When a man has shown general scope and intent to the by his acts and crimes that he in Rule of St Benedlet The Sermon tends to set up his will against that on the Mount is obviously a come of the community, and has declared pilation, and in any case is quite.

imself an enemy, of society, unaystematic. Even the Lord's Prayer. If St. Luke may be trusted

should send him to prison, not was given in response to a request,

but until he could satisfy ernors of the prison tha from one of the disciples on what might be called a chance hccasion

to be "Follow Me" is a call to action, not to the acceptance of a phl or-eren of a particular- reneral conduct

[To Be Continued]

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