CHAPTER X.

A CHRISTIAN LITERATURE-HOW CONCEIVED AND DE

FINED.

THESE several inquiries and arguments—these marchings and counter-marchings of thought which we have taken,―force upon us the more general inquiry: Is there anything which can properly be called a Christian literature? If so, what is it? How can it be defined so as to secure, on the one hand, the essential freedom which literature imperatively requires, and on the other, the deference to Christianity which Christianity uncompromisingly exacts? How far can we be tolerant of every variety of sentiment and opinion and yet be just to our allegiance to the great Master of our faith, and indeed, of modern literature?

These questions are very much vexed in modern thinking, and the answers to them are also vexatious to many who strive to adjust the claims of culture and of Christian feeling. They cannot be answered without considering what is the correct conception of literature, as well as what must be taken as essential to Christianity so far as it should be recognized in literature. In respect to both these points, the views of many are diverse and unsettled. Hence the term Christian literature is used by different men in senses which are exceedingly vague, and often plainly contradictory. We shall best explain our own meaning by asking first, What a Christian literature is not, and second, What it is?

A Christian literature is not necessarily Theological in

its matter or form. Theological treatises, however able and convincing, are not therefore works of literature. They may be convincing and exhaustive in argument, and erudite in history, without that perfection of style, that attractiveness of imagery, or that eloquence of feeling which are the requisites of whatever is dignified as literature. While in one sense we include in literature all the products of human thinking which are made permanent in books or pamphlets-and in this sense everything that is printed belongs to the literature of the day, of the week, or of the century-we usually require certain characteristics of form and illustration for that which we call literature in the eminent sense. Theology is not of course included in Christian literature because it is Christian, if it does not possess these special features; nor, again, should it be excluded from its sphere because its themes are both religious and Christian. Some of the finest contributions to modern literature have been works of theology. The writings of Bossuet, Massillon, Hooker, Taylor, Howe, Robert Hall, Mason, Edward Irving, Channing, Coleridge, Robertson, and many others, hold the highest rank as literary compositions.

Not every devotional or practical treatise is a contribution to Christian literature. By the rule already given, many devotional works fall within, but many more fall without this sphere. The Hebrew Psalms; many Christian hymns, as of Milton, Watts, Wesley, Heber, Keble, Faber and J. H. Newman; to say nothing of the Latin and German Lyrists, all give grace and beauty to Christian literature. With them are ranked a few devotional and practical works, such as the De Imitatione Christi, The Holy Living and Dying, The Pilgrim's Progress, etc. But it is no dishonor to say of numerous products of devotional rhyming and meditation, that they belong to literature in no tolerable sense of the word, and therefore not to

Christian literature at all. They may be useful in their sphere, and therefore deserve to be tolerated and even encouraged, but they are not literature. They may be honestly thought and earnestly written, and withal be very useful for the circle of readers for whom they are designed. Perhaps from their plainness and want of formal attractions they are fitted to be more useful than works of greater ability and genius. The man who requires the highest perfection in form and diction may be content with them for their Christian excellence, but he is not therefore obliged to be pleased with what is uncultured in language, mean in illustration, and commonplace in thought. That which is positively offensive in both form and conception may be a positive injury to the cause which it professes to serve. The claim is sometimes set up that Christianity is to be held responsible for the mass of wretched doggerel and drivelling that has been written by its earnest but uncultured disciples, and that every reverent Christian is obliged to treat it with respect and read it with deference. The claim is preposterous, and to seem to allow it by those whose taste it offends or whose intellect it does not instruct, is to sin against both taste and Christianity. Such stuff may be tolerated when it is useful, but is only to be endured as a useful evil. To recommend or to circulate all sorts of goodish writing because of its Christian aims, or to encourage the reading and printing of it, under the title of a Christian literature, is to commit nothing less than a pious fraud, which is as weak as it is dishonest.

A Christian literature is not usually written in the interest or with the spirit of a Christian sect or denomination. While it is the impulse and the duty of every such division of Christian confessors to set forth and to defend its distinctive tenets, and while the champions of each are often most eloquent and able in such vindications, it is to be observed

that the themes which most readily challenge the intellect to its noblest achievements, and inspire the imagination to its loftiest flights, are the truths which the Christian Church holds in common. Those religious and Christian writers whose works have been received as the permanent glories of literature, if they have written for their own communion, have usually addressed what was Christian in it, and by this means have found a response in the Christian sentiment of all believers.

Again: A work need not be religious, either in matter or form-it need neither avow Christian doctrines nor express Christian feelings-to deserve a place in Christian literature. A history, a novel, a poem, a tale, an essay, a drama may be eminently Christian without uttering the name of Christ or recognizing directly a faith in His person or teachings, and without even expressing those emotions which are distinctively religious. No disavowal or denial of Christian truths can be allowed, no dishonor may be put upon the sentiments of Christian faith, hope, and worship, but the obtrusion of either for the purpose of expressing the creed of the writer, or of confirming that of the reader, may be forbidden by the proprieties of the occasion, and be so manifestly an offense against good taste as to hinder rather than help the good cause. All that may properly be required is, that the work should be such as a Christian writer might be supposed to produce without inconsistency, and such as a devout Christian reader might be conceived as reading, without offense to his opinions and feelings. This leads us to consider positively what a Christian literature is or ought to be. If it need not be theological, devotional, practical, or even religious, in order to be Christian, pray how can it be characterized and judged? We reply: First,

A Christian literature must be controlled and pervaded by those ethical faiths and emotions that are distinctively

Christian. Many of these have become so completely the property of Christendom that it is often forgotten that they are the products of Christianity. They have been accepted more or less intelligently and consistently as constituting the right standard of the true and the good for the human race, and the measure of what is ideally noble in human attainment and desirable for human aspiration. They influence communities which would scarcely call themselves Christian. Not a few individuals who are ambitious to show that they think very slightingly of the claims of Christ's person, or of the influence of the Christian church, are foremost to pay homage to the eternal truth and the unquestioned excellence of those ethical faiths and feelings which we claim are distinctively Christian, and which we assert should characterize any literature which is in any sense Christian. The faith in the moral order of the universe as supreme and beneficent, because directed by a holy and sympathizing Father, the belief in the ultimate triumph of the good and the right, the conviction that love to God and love to man comprehend all goodness-are some of these prominent ethical faiths. Hope in adversity, resignation under affliction, penitence for transgression, forgiveness under wrong, the desire to recover and reform the vicious, charity in judging of the motives of other men -these and many kindred feelings are distinctively Christian feelings. Just in the measure in which these faiths and feelings give spirit and tone to the productions of any writer, just in that proportion is he a Christian writer. Just in the measure in which any one or all of these emotions and convictions, fail to show their presence and power when required, does the writer of any work depart from the Christian and fall back into the Pagan spirit. We do not speak of the obtrusive or pharisaical lip-service of an essayist or poet, but of the homage of the convictions and the heart. We do not require ill-placed or obtrusive