WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY ?
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Snt,—In your issue of April 15th, Mr. John Eglinton asks for the best definition of Christianity. He says we know what a Buddhist believes, but not the belief of a Christian. I gravely doubt whether anyone knows what Buddhism teaches, apart from a few theories as vague as clouds or gas ; but there is no such doubt as to what Christianity is. Yet the articles in The Spectator, written by those under thirty, indicate that a great many young people do not understand Christianity at all. That is their own fault, for the teaching of the Church is definite and clear.
Christianity is not an " it," or an " ism " or a philosophy, like Buddhism or Confucianism, nor is Christianity even a creed. Christianity is Jesus Christ : a Person of the highest and holiest character known to man ; and Christians are persons who believe in Jesus Christ. What can be plainer and simpler than this ? The wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.
The duty of all morally sincere persons to believe in Jesus Christ and be loyal to Him cannot be evaded ; for, if Christ be a good man, commanding the allegiance of some seven hundred million disciples, who believe that He is so good that He is God, is not faith in Christ a moral duty ? One cannot shirk moral responsibility for loyalty to Christ by indulging in speculations about His origin and history. If the fruit be good, the tree is good ; and no sort of speculation can change that fact. Once a fact, always a fact.
Does not the rise and progress of the Church, in spite of all that paganism and atheism could do to destroy it, prove that Christ has made good ? Men and nations stand or fall in their relation to Jesus Christ ; for, if they lack the moral capacity to believe in the most perfect example of goodness ever known, they are condemned by history and experience, and must fail. Is it not abundantly clear to all with moral insight that the present sufferings of the world are due directly to want of faith in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace ? J. INGRAM BRYAN.
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