Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 4: Essays Chiefly on the Science of LanguageMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 4: Essays Chiefly on the Science of Language
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Comparative linguistics; Folklore; Literature -- History and criticism; Mythology; Religions
There can never be too much love, though there may be too much
faith--particularly when it leads to the requirement of exactly the same
measure of faith in others. Let those who wish for the true success of
missionary work learn to throw in of the abundance of their faith; let
them learn to demand less from others than from themselves. That is the
best offering, the most valuable contribution which they can make to-day
to the missionary cause.
Let missionaries preach the Gospel again as it was preached when it
began the conquest of the Roman Empire and the Gothic nations; when it
had to struggle with powers and principalities, with time-honored
religions and triumphant philosophies, with pride of civilization and
savagery of life--and yet came out victorious. At that time conversion
was not a question to be settled by the acceptance or rejection of
certain formulas or articles; a simple prayer was often enough: “God be
merciful to me a sinner.”
There is one kind of faith that revels in words, there is another that
can hardly find utterance: the former is like riches that come to us by
inheritance; the latter is like the daily bread, which each of us has to
win in the sweat of his brow. We cannot expect the former from new
converts; we ought not to expect it or to exact it, for fear that it
might lead to hypocrisy or superstition. The mere believing of miracles,
the mere repeating of formulas requires no effort in converts, brought
up to believe in the Purâṇas of the Brahmans or the Buddhist Jâtakas.
They find it much easier to accept a legend than to love God, to repeat
a creed than to forgive their enemies. In this respect they are exactly
like ourselves. Let missionaries remember that the Christian faith at
home is no longer what it was, and that it is impossible to have one
Creed to preach abroad, another to preach at home. Much that was
formerly considered as essential is now neglected; much that was
formerly neglected is now considered as essential. I think of the laity
more than of the clergy; but what would the clergy be without the laity?
There are many of our best men, men of the greatest power and influence
in literature, science, art, politics, aye even in the Church itself,
who are no longer Christian in the old sense of the word. Some imagine
they have ceased to be Christians altogether, because they feel that
they cannot believe as much as others profess to believe. We cannot
afford to lose these men, nor shall we lose them if we learn to be
satisfied with what satisfied Christ and the Apostles, with what
satisfies many a hard-working missionary. If Christianity is to retain
its hold on Europe and America, if it is to conquer in the Holy War of
the future, it must throw off its heavy armor, the helmet of brass and
the coat of mail, and face the world like David, with his staff, his
stones, and his sling. We want less of creeds, but more of trust; less
of ceremony, but more of work; less of solemnity, but more of genial
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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