SECTION III

organism in the province of personal human life

Humanity has its unity first in its natural type, in the primitive natural man, from whom all derive their life and blood. This unity is the unity of species, but also the unity of destination to a spiritual life, and of the perversion of this destination by the fall. This unity has been converted into a sad uniformity-it is the tragic monotony of the race that in Adam all die. This is the unity which is now esteemed by many the peculiar glory of the human race. But the higher unity of mankind has been manifested in the God-man, who, in the infinitely rich and divine nature in which He appeared as the head of humanity, announced, and by the agency of His Spirit brought to light, its infinite variety, and the unity existing amidst this variety. In Christ all are made alive; and in this life they form that organic community which He so fills and animates with His divine fulness, that they represent the universal Christ. The God-man develops His life in the organism of the divine-human Church, in whose ideality even nature is elevated till at length God becomes all in all.

The individuality of each man, which is to be delivered and to come to its maturity and glory through the God-man, is the power, dwelling in its personality, of taking into itself and exhibiting all life. All times, all space, all saints, are present in the heart of the humblest Christian. His memory reaches back to the fall and the creation; his hope extends beyond the close of this world; his inner life has its roots in the centre of time, in the sacred period of Christ’s death and resurrection. The East, whence the Gospel issued, as well as the West, to which it proceeded, is his home. Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles visit him as the familiar friends of his inner life; infinity nestles in his bosom; God Himself comes with His Son, and sups with him; he is an heir of all things. Individuality in its Christian splendour is a diamond whose facets are infinite, that it may receive all the light of infinity.

But the personality of the Christian is an individual one. It is in each a personality infinitely unique, new, and utterly differing from every other. This isolation would repel the whole world, if it were not at the same time personality, life in common. It would be a gloomy divinity, if there could be such a one, if it were not rather, an infinitely limited expression of the eternal God. By means of personality the isolated individual is one with all sanctified individuals; but this personality, being individual, is again diverse from them.¹ The individual is to represent, in infinite limitation, the infinitely unlimited; in the special ray of a single character, the eternal Sun. He is an Ego, therefore an immortal being; a spiritual note in which all creation resounds, therefore also a personality. But because the man restored to his destination by the God-man is both personal and individual, he is a member of the body to which he belongs, of the head from which his life proceeds. He has his special talent, and with it his special relation to all the other members, his special task, his separate stand-point. He has, too, his special one-sidedness, his relative deficiency of talent, in which respect he needs completion by the fulness of the body, and especially by contrasted and kindred members. And even this very deficiency is but a gift of infinite capacity to receive the fulness of blessing stored up in kindred spirits, the means of union with them, of taking up a definite position in the wondrous frame of the body.

When in human life those great individual groups, the nations, oppose and strive against each other, when a constant and painful friction takes place between private individuals, human nature, in this unhappy confusion and self-destruction, seems put to shame by the harmonious association of a flock of antelopes, and by the close ranks of a train of cranes. But even this terrible perversion of its destiny makes it evident that its unity cannot be the uniformity of generic life, the monotony of a collection of exemplars. This continual friction is but the morbid working of the infinite delicacy of its organism, and the loud harshness of the discord testifies to the glory of the lost harmony.

This harmony, this bright and heavenly variety in spiritual unity, is apparent in Christ’s kingdom. Peter and John, Thomas and Paul, how different, yet how similar! how clearly do they manifest in their diversity the oneness of the life in Christ and the heavenly richness of this oneness! In the free New Testament Church this is the solution: ‘There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God’ (1Co 12:4-6). It is then a proof of true Christianity to exhibit eternal unity in variety, and variety in unity; or, in other words, to show individualities in the light of personality, and personalities in the varying hue of individualities.

Antichristianity, on the contrary, is matured in such systems as would annihilate individuality, whether they seek, by stifling the singularity of the individual, to exhibit his religious and heavenly generality; or, by rooting out his relation to the Eternal, to cherish his individuality, as a merely animal expression of existence. The former deny the true incarnation of God, the manifestation of the Eternal in the individual; the latter, the divine unction of the individual, his glorification in the Eternal. Both would trample on the honour of the subject, to exhibit the honour of the community; thus, however, constituting a community without honour, without divine life, or glory. They would break in individuals, catalogue spirits, mechanize personalities. They misconceive the ideal groundwork of humanity, in conformity with which the Church, in the midst of the greatest abundance of efforts, of contrasts, of diversities, will yet, by means of its infinitely delicate sympathies and antipathies glorified by love, have but one heart and one soul,-one heart raised above time, one soul hovering over all space, one society embracing both the living and the dead in God, to whom they all live through Christ, who unites all as their life-giving head. Individuals may be compared to the linked rings which form a single chain, or which, partially enclosing each other, exhibit a rich tissue of spheres. There are great individuals who partially enclose less individuals, but they are all enclosed in the greatest, and form but one organic unity. As one great general comprises whole hosts, as one great philosopher represents a whole race of minds, so does Christ comprehend human nature. In Him dwells the fulness, the deep insight of a John, the energetic activity of a Peter, the ideal resoluteness of a Paul,-in short, the deep spiritual wealth of the race. Thus, too, in decision, purity, and power, He is the head of the race. He was able with absolute and heavenly certainty, from moment to moment, to discern between truth and error, to conquer the tempter, and with perfect freedom to do the very thing which the Father willed to do through Him. His purity was a bright mirror, reflecting all characters in their several particulars. The murmurs of enemies, the whispers of friends, resounded through His soul. The terrors of earth could pass through His mind. And so clear was His apprehension, that He was as aware of the world’s judgment as of His own. But in power also He surpasses the whole human race. The power of His fidelity and zeal for God, of His victory over the world, is a lasting influence which is ever working, and must work till it has attained its end, till at His name every knee shall bow to the glory of God the Father.

The influence of Christ upon individuals is displayed in their attaching themselves to Him, and conditions the relation in which they stand to Him as His flock. But His influence is a holy one; it respects the freedom of each individual, his destination for God, which is one with the possibility of his condemnation. Hence His Church appears, first of all, in the very-elect and the elect. His influence upon individuals allows of counteraction. He suffers the great contradiction of sinners, and thereby reconciles Himself with them in spite of all their narrowness (this is especially apparent in the relation of the New Testament to New Testament exegesis). But such spirits as follow His leadings, also influence each other. These influences form an infinitely delicate and intricate rhythm: their various relative proportions of fulness, distinctness, brightness, and power give to each a different position with regard to all others. Thus is formed the body of Christ, that eternal organism, animated by the glorious Head, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of God (Eph 1:23).

In this organism not one tittle of the law passes away; that is to say, every power finds its use and object. Each mind attains its own special experience. Each voice is reckoned upon, and none desires to go beyond the part appointed it, to go beyond its pitch. But each must preserve and manifest its own peculiarity. The honour of God cannot dwell in soundless men, in individuals whose individuality is extinct, whom cowardice has induced to merge themselves in the dark flood of an impersonal substance, or in the opposite but equally dark compound of an enslaved party-nature. The honour of God will dwell in those really honourable ones, those heroes, each of whom has once stood alone beside Christ upon the hill of martyrdom, and has, in spite of all the world, and in order to be faithful to all the world, preserved his most sacred possession for his Lord. These are the children of God, the joint heirs with Christ. Every child of God has received something special, some peculiar characteristic, from his Father. Each is endowed with a power which can concur with the powers of others, but only in Christ. Hence every child of man must be a protestant, must be inwardly independent of every other man, and fall into the arms of Christ, to attain to true catholicity. In each separate Christian, Christ is manifested anew in a special aspect of His divine glory. But formerly, in His personal manifestation, He exhibited in unity that fulness which is now disclosed in diversity, in His Church; and thus with Him eternity enters into time.

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Notes

1. The relations of developed individual life are infinite. How great is the variety exhibited even by a man’s social position! The same individual is at the same time child, husband, father, brother, friend, subject, superior, companion, and fills many other relations too numerous to mention. In each of these several relations his disposition is seen in a different light, or exhibits a different reflection of the surrounding world. Christianity, however, in the perfection of its influence, transforms him into a diamond lighted up by the fulness of God, makes him an heir of God. Are not all men, then, in this respect perfectly equal? They that are perfect are equal in this respect, that they all see God. But as the image of the sun is larger in a lake than in a dewdrop, and as light assumes different hues in different jewels, so does infinite diversity exist among men with respect to their capacities for receiving into themselves the life of God.²

2. There is no absolute absence of talent among men, but only a relative one. That side of the individual on which he appears unendowed, is, when rightly improved, that on which he most ardently unites with the whole community, and devotes himself to it. Thus, even limited talent is not a positive limitation, but rather a passive recipiency which makes the individual such a member of the kingdom of God as stands truly in need of its communion and fellowship.

3. In great national wars, national individualities seem to come into collision, that their several and peculiar natures may be more evident.

4. It is quite natural that any single gift of Christ should assume a different aspect in any one of His witnesses, from that which it does in Himself; for in Him it is modified by the fulness of all gifts. Thus there may seem to be more power in the ministry of John; but if we compare the words of Christ against Pharisaism with those of the Baptist, the surpassing dignity of Christ’s person is perceived even in this particular. All the splendid single virtues in which each of God’s heroes have appeared so great, blend in wondrous harmony in Him; and it is for this very reason that He is the fairest among the children of men, for in His perfect beauty the several and various components disappear in the ideal unity of the whole. On the union of various spiritual gifts in Christ, see Conradi, Christus in der Gegenwart Vergangenheit und Zukunft, p. 97, &c.

5. As there should be a due appreciation of both those forms of life, individuality and personality, as harmonious contrasts mutually needing each other; so should there be an equally just appreciation of those forms of life, Protestantism and Catholicity. The former may be defined as the individuality of the Church in general, the latter as its personality. But both these essential characteristics of the Church are united. Through its personality or Catholicity, the Church must be free from all the exaggerations, adulterations, and spurious admixtures of individuality or Protestantism. But, on the other hand, the riches of its personality must be unfolded in its Protestant individuality-its personality must be delivered from the monkish cowl which would gradually stifle its vitality, and from the dead uniformity thereby produced. Catholicity, without Protestantism, is a mere sect. For it is the nature of a sect to repress individuality, to abolish its peculiar gifts and lasting distinctions, in order to exhibit unity. How free, how vital was the Catholicity of the apostolic Church, in which the Apostle Paul boldly opposed Peter in his error at Antioch, and the Apostle James the degeneracy of Pauline Christians; in which each Church shone distinct from all others in the light of its own peculiar vocation! We are thus taught how firmly true Protestantism will adhere to true unity, and how this unity of the Church not only permits but requires the free development of the individual life of each of her members.

The Church of Christ should consequently be thoroughly conscious of her vocation. For she has to deal on one side with a sectarianism which would destroy all individuality, on the other, with a separatism which threatens to exhibit a separate church and society in each individual. This sectarianism appeared in the ecclesiastical form of Jesuitism, in the secular one of Communism. Both these tendencies resemble each other in the effort to exhibit a perfect society by the annihilation of its varying individual components. They may be considered as the most matured productions of sectarianism; the one demanding this false and fearful sacrifice from men to gain the world for heaven, the other to gain heaven for the world. Separatism over against this sectarianism, exhibits an equal measure of error, and indeed in a similarly twofold aspect; first appearing in ecclesiastical pride, as an enemy of all Church organization; then in secular pride, as an opponent of all political order in society. The erratic courses, however, of both these enormous exaggerations lie very near each other.

1) Hence, in its perfection, the new name which no one knoweth, saving he that receiveth it (Rev. ii 17). This is the development of ‘the anonym’ in the individual.

2) Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 40; Rev. xxi. 19.