This is the essential difference between the Christian doctrine and that of the Positivists, and all other non-Christian theorists of a universal brotherhood.
Such are the two chief misapprehensions in regard to the Christian doctrine, and from those most of the false arguments on the subject have originated.
One is, that the doctrine of Christ, like the doctrines which preceded it, promulgates rules which men must obey, and that these rules are impracticable. The other, that the whole meaning of Christianity is contained in the doctrine of a coöperative union of mankind, in one family, to attain which, leaving aside the question of love of God, one should obey only the rule of love of one's fellow-men.
Finally, the mistake of scientists, in supposing that the doctrine of the supernatural contains the essence of Christianity, that its life-teaching is not practicable, together with the general misapprehensions that result from such a misconception, further explains why men of our time have so misunderstood Christianity.
[CHAPTER V]
CONTRADICTION OF OUR LIFE AND CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS
Men consider that they may accept Christianity without changing their life—The pagan life-conception no longer corresponds to the present age of humanity, which the Christian life-conception alone can satisfy—The Christian life-conception is still misunderstood by men, but our life itself necessitates its acceptance—The requirements of a new life-conception always seem unintelligible, mystical, and supernatural—Such, for the majority of men, seem the requirements of the Christian life-conception—The acceptance of a Christian life-conception will inevitably be accomplished both through spiritual and material agencies—The fact that men, conscious of a higher life-conception, continue to entertain the lower forms of life, causes contradiction and suffering, which embitter life and require its alteration—Contradictions of our life—The economical contradiction, and the suffering it causes to the working-men and to the rich—The contradiction of State, and the sufferings that arise from obedience to State laws—The international contradiction, and its acknowledgment by contemporary writers: Komarvosky, Ferri, Booth, Passy, Lawson, Wilson, Bartlett, Defourny, Moneta—The military contradiction the extreme.
Many causes have contributed toward the misunderstanding of the teaching of Christ. One of these is that men assumed to understand the doctrine, when, like the faithful of the Church, they accepted the statement that it had been transmitted in a supernatural manner; or, like the scientists, after having investigated certain of its outward manifestations. Another reason may be found in the conviction that it is impracticable, and that it may be replaced by the doctrine of love of humanity. But the principal reason of all such misconceptions is that men look upon the doctrine of Christ as one that may be accepted or rejected without any special change in one's life.
Men, attached by habit to the existing order, shrink from attempting to change it, hence they agree to consider this doctrine as a mass of revelations and laws that may be accepted without making any change in one's life: whereas the doctrine of Christ is not a doctrine of rules for man to obey, but unfolds a new life-conception, meant as a guide for men who are now entering upon a new period, one entirely different from the past.