Note F.
The following extract from the Views and Experiences of Religion, by Henry Ward Beecher, is an example of the vagueness and uncertainty referred to. It is part of an article entitled How to Become a Christian.
“The moment you realize this goodness of Christ, his helpfulness to you, his lenient, forgiving, sympathizing spirit, then you know what faith in Christ means. If such a Saviour attracts you, and you strive all the more ardently, from love toward him and trust in him, then you are a Christian: not a religious man, but a Christian.
“A man may worship through awe, or through a sense of duty, and I think there are hundreds of men in the churches who are only religious men, and not Christians. A man who feels toward God only awe or fear, who obeys merely from a sense of duty, who is under the dominion of conscience rather than of love, may be religious, but he is not a Christian.”
There is nothing said in this article of any need of any new creation of the nature of the mind; nor is this Augustinian dogma to be found in any of this author's published works.
In this article, written expressly to give clear views of what it is to become a Christian, and how to do it, we find it taught “a man who feels toward God only awe or fear, who obeys merely from a sense of duty, who is under the dominion of conscience rather than of love, may be religious, but he is not a Christian.”
Suppose, then, a person with a strong sense of justice and great natural benevolence, is trained to believe the Calvinistic form of the Augustinian system, so that God appears to him only the awful, incomprehensible author of this dreadful system, and Jesus Christ, this same God, so united to a man (as this transaction is usually represented) that the human soul alone bears all the grief and suffering involved in the expiatory sacrifice demanded. Suppose, also, that, in this view, unable to feel any emotions but fear and awe, he says, “There must be a dreadful mistake somewhere. I can not fathom it; but I can and will do this: I will trust the word of Jesus Christ as to the character of God, and I will obey his teachings conscientiously in all things, as nearly as I am able;” and this determination is carried out in his life.
Is such a man a Christian, or is he not? Guided only by the above extract, it would be very difficult to decide, or to state what is this author's view of regeneration; nor is there any thing in his published writings to remove the vagueness and uncertainty caused by such teachings as are embraced in the above extract, as to what change makes a man a true Christian.
According to the system of common sense (as explained chapter 24, and also on page 258) to form and carry out a ruling purpose to obey the laws of God, as made known by Jesus Christ, is loving God and Christ in the only way in which love can justly be made a subject of command. And when a man forms and carries out such a purpose, he is “under the dominion of conscience,” and is a true Christian.
The point where this writer seems to fail, in this extract, is, in a want of the distinction, pointed out in the chapter above mentioned, between voluntary and involuntary love. A person may be “under the dominion of conscience,” by a purpose to obey all the laws of God, and for want of the true view of God's character, as exhibited in Jesus Christ, may experience only emotions of fear and awe in performing such obedience.
It is the true, efficient purpose to obey Christ which constitutes a man a Christian. It is right views of God's character, as seen in Jesus Christ, that gives new strength to carry out such a purpose.
“When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,” thus giving new motives of love and gratitude, in addition to those of fear and awe. Not until all the false theories that hitherto have vailed the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ are cast away, will the full meaning of the above text be fully understood.