Excerpted from the doctoral thesis of Robert A. Reid, University of Edinburgh, 1930: “The Influence, Direct and Indirect, of the Writings of Erskine of Linlathen on Religious Thought in Scotland”
First some notable Erskine quotations from this piece:
“By moral perfection, I mean the perception of what is right, followed by the love of it, and the doing of it.”
“The testimony of conscience is that verdict which every man returns for or against himself upon the question whether his moral character has kept pace with his moral judgment.”
“We measure affection by the sacrifice which it is prepared to make, and the resistance which it overcomes!”
“Our apprehension of abstract truths in morality is so vague that they hardly operate on our characters at all, and the reason seems to be that it (Christianity) is not a science merely, but a practical art, in which every part of knowledge is connected with a corresponding duty; men do not look very diligently for that which they would be sorry to find.”
“The great argument for the truth of Christianity lies in the sanctifying influence of its doctrines; and alas, the great argument against it lies in the unsanctified lives of its professors!”
“Character is the result of habit, which began in a single act.”
An Appreciation of Remarks on the Internal Evidence for the Truth of Revealed Religion
By Thomas Erskine
Waugh & Innes, Edinburgh, 1825
Thomas Erskine at the age of twenty-three, in contact with the society of that time, composed of such learned men as Jeffrey, Cockburn and Pullerton, began to doubt the supernatural and miraculous in the religion of his early years. “Through a patient study of the Christian religion, revealed in the Bible, its place in history, and the satisfaction which it gave to reason and brought to conscience, the peace and happiness it afforded the troubled heart, he reached firm ground.” It was out of this moral and spiritual conflict there was given to the reading public of his day the work under consideration.
The purpose of the book was not to astonish the world with some new discovery. Erskine discounts such an intention. “There is nothing new”, he writes, “in this cursory sketch of Christian doctrines,” and adds, “indeed, I should conceive a proof of novelty on such a subject as tantamount to a proof of error.” The intention of the author was not so much to confute and confound the critic, sceptic, and rationalist as to promote personal religion in the hearts of his readers. He desired, “to present evidence in itself well-fitted for preparing and disposing the unbeliever to examine with candor the more direct proof which arises from historical testimony . . . and it may also perform the no less important office of infusing into a nominal Christian a doubt as to his sincerity in the profession of a faith which has perhaps neither made a distinct impression on his understanding, nor touched his heart, nor affected his character.” The remarks emphasize two principles which Erskine regarded as vital. The first of these is the redemption of the world was worthy of the Creator. Secondly that for man, free forgiveness on the part of God is the only effective dynamic by which character is developed and attained. These two standpoints, shown afterwards to be verified in Christian experience, shed a light and establish the purpose of the Gospel and take Christian doctrines out of the region of the abstract and set them in the love of God through the Eternal Son and apply them to the clamant needs of frail humanity. It is evident all through this first book that the writer is not satisfied with the traditional dogmatic, but yet not to such an extent as to cast himself free altogether of these positions.
The book was eagerly read at home, in America and on the Continent. Edition after edition was called for. At first its full import was not understood but history shows it was the effort of a mind anticipating not only a new age in religious thought but also the effects of new forces begotten of scientific inquiry on other forms of thought, which had exercised the minds of seekers after truth. Erskine was a pioneer in religious development and a stout defender of the faith. He warned men of the advent of searching times against which the orthodox beliefs would be but a frail barrier. Few will deny that Erskine was a blazer of paths or a path in which men found a place from which successfully to defend the faith. And perhaps it was well and fortunate that from a heart saturated with divine truth, not as a theory only but above all a life, there should come the warning of attack, the methods of defense, and the assurance that in the conflict good would come to the Christian cause.
It is very certain that in the Remarks we have the germs of those truths, which Erskine so consistently set forth and valiantly defended in after years. There is The Fatherhood of God, Election, Atonement, Brotherhood, Inspiration, Revelation, and Final Restoration. Erskine’s ideas on these topics are as yet tentative, only hints, but in days to come these became vital issues for which Erskine stood with conspicuous determination. It is impossible to sever the personality of the man from his writings; his message held him captive and absorbed all his energies. Erskine breathed the atmosphere of the Spirit. The most natural thing to him was his religion. The flower was not more in accord with beauty than Erskine with grace and love. Religion was as natural to Erskine as laughter to a child. In the Remarks there is the patience of thought and the wrestling of a mind never satisfied with the terms of forms in which expression to the thought is found. There is also the sweet reasonableness of one not altogether fit by nature or spirit for polemics, and yet Erskine as teacher and critic was able to strike many shrewd blows for the truth which to Erskine’s mind had been badly mangled in the house of her friends and therefore by those who should have known better.
The introductory chapter of itself lends colour to the statement that “as an interpreter of the psychological conditions which correspond with the doctrines of grace, Erskine is unrivalled.” The reader of the Remarks cannot fail to perceive how adequately, and with what ease, the writer deals with the powers and contents of the mind. In Psychology, he is far advanced of any other teacher or writer of his time. The very simplicity of his similes and illustrations reveal the subtilty of Erskine’s logic and knowledge. On page 2, we read, “Thus if we hear that a friend, in whose integrity we have perfect confidence has committed a dishonest action, we place our former knowledge of our friend in opposition to the testimony of our informer, and we anxiously look for an explanation. Before our minds are easy on the subject, we must either discover some circumstance in the action which may bring it under the general principle which we have formed in regard to his character, or else we must form to ourselves some new general principle which will explain it. We reason in the same way of the intelligence of actions as we do of their morality. We reason in this case from cause to effect, and we conclude that a strong intelligence, when combined with a desire after a particular object, will form and execute some plan adapted to the accomplishment of that particular object. Surely, then, in a system which purports to be a revelation from heaven and to contain a history of God’s dealings with men and to develop truths with regard to the moral government of the universe, the knowledge and belief of which will lead to happiness here and hereafter, we may expect to find (if its pretensions are well founded) an evidence of its truth which shall be independent of all external testimony.” The same ability to deal with the facts of the soul appear on page 20. “I mean to show there is an intelligible and necessary connection between the doctrinal facts of revelation and the character of God (as deduced from Natural Religion) in the same way as there is an intelligible and necessary connection between the character of man and his most characteristic actions, and farther, that the belief of these doctrinal facts has an intelligible and necessary tendency to produce the Christian character in the same way that the belief of danger has an intelligible and necessary tendency to produce fear.” Again, on page 23, the same intuitive power is seen and the faculty to correlate subject and object is apparent ….. “the first reasonable test of the truth of a religion is that it should coincide with the moral constitution of the human mind ….. the second test then, of the truth of a religion is that it should coincide with the physical constitution of the human mind, and the third test is that it should coincide with the circumstances in which man is found in the world.” Butler’s method in The Analogy follows a different line from that of the Remarks. In the former, the difficulties in the Christian religion are similar to those in natural religion and of providence, whereas Erskine seeks to establish the relation existing between the facts of natural religion and the doctrines of Christianity. The method was new and original but not much in favor with those who staked the credibility of the Christian religion on the miraculous in the Bible. Even [Thomas] Chalmers doubted somewhat the advisability of Erskine’s method. And orthodoxy, as represented by the Haldanes, was both suspicious and critical. For the orthodox, the inferences and findings of the Remarks were not positive enough; the theory of the atonement, it was averred, was one-sided more subjective than objective. It was from these divergences of view there began the long conflict in which Erskine joined, and, by voice and pen, did much to turn the hearts and minds of men to a more winsome outlook than that of the orthodox dogmatic of his day.
The purpose of Christianity according to the Remarks is to establish true relations between God and man, and to do this in such a way that the character of man will reflect the character of God. Man is so constituted that it is possible for him to reflect the character of God, that is, to express in his life the laws and principles which regulate the divine life. That reflection can never be perfect, for the finite always comes short of the infinite. The first principle of the Remarks was a call to men, if not to get back to Christ, at least back to the fundamentals of their own nature through which man is capable of realizing the glory of God as revealed in Scripture. But what does man know of the character of God? —without such a knowledge it will be impossible for mankind to advance in moral and spiritual grace. It was necessary, therefore, that Christianity should set forth the divine character in such a way that man, according to his capacity and power, was able to receive and understand. Natural religion, made up of inferences from the world of Nature, was not sufficient. The teachings of providence, and conscience, parts of natural religion, also fell short. The heart of man did not find satisfaction in natural religion, not because it must be observed of any defect in the knowledge supplied, but simply because the human heart cannot live by abstract truth alone. The theories of philosophy, too, are unsatisfying, and so Christianity comes to us in the revealed word and finally in the “Word, who became flesh,” since it is only in Jesus Christ that mankind sees perfectly the character of God and perceives the graces, which man, by faith and through the operation of the Holy Spirit, may have in his character and experience. The fact of Christ is not just the details of that wonderful life and ministry, but along with these a power and dynamic which, given an opportunity, will renew and transform by the aid of the Holy Spirit, the whole nature of man. Christianity, therefore, is superior to natural religion, even the revelation of God in the natural conscience which, had it power equal to its authority, would rule the world of mankind. Now this power lacking in conscience is inherent in Christ, the Representative and Head of the race. In the words of Erskine, “Christianity presents a history of wondrous love in order to excite gratitude; of high and holy worth to attract veneration and esteem. It presents a view of danger to produce alarm, of refuge to confer peace and joy, and of eternal glory to animate hope.”
These principles Erskine set forth very strikingly in a style altogether different from other theological works of that time. The style is often involved and complicated, but, if anyone was fastidious, that writer was Erskine. In the principles of the Remarks, Erskine is evidently determined to throw himself loose from the thraldom of the past, which seemed to decree that development in religious thought was not only impossible but even undesirable. In this first book Erskine does much to rescue theological discussion from incompetency and to restore theology to her old position as “Queen of the sciences.”
The author was a diligent student of John Foster who was animated with the same purpose. The Remarks appeal to all sorts and conditions of readers. The mystic will find in the book that there is mysticism in Calvinism. The modern psychologist will discover an author who anticipates the discoveries of modern times and ridicules some of the grotesque findings of later research. Even the romantic will find in Erskine’s work the spirit of the “knight-errant.” The thoughtful reader will discover, as in a flashlight, some new vista in a striking aphorism. The style is the man. Cheap unction is not to be found in the works of Erskine. Perhaps it is in those flashes of thought we see the genius of Erskine at its best. Thus, he says, “by moral perfection, I mean the perception of what is right, followed by the love of it, and the doing of it.” At another time, laying aside the ordinary religious phraseology, he speaks of “the need that men have for some system of spiritual renovation.” Very illuminating is the statement that “the testimony of conscience is that verdict which every man returns for or against himself upon the question whether his moral character has kept pace with his moral judgment.” A world of experience lies behind the words, “there are so many shelters to which men betake themselves when pursued by the justice or injustice of their fellow creatures.” To Erskine “the doctrines or acts ought to tally with the precepts.” How natural are the words, “we measure affection by the sacrifice which it is prepared to make, and the resistance which it overcomes!” Light is cast on the words, “the pure in heart shall see God,” by the assertion of Erskine, “our apprehension of abstract truths in morality is so vague that they hardly operate on our characters at all.”
Why? — “and the reason seems to be that it (Christianity) is not a science merely, but a practical art, in which every part of knowledge is connected with a correspondingduty; men donot; look very diligently for that which they would be sorry to find.” Erskine was not oblivious to the state of religious life within the church of his day, and the dire effect this condition of affairs meant for the spread of the Evangel. The sorrow of a good man’s heart is surely in the words, “the great argument for the truth of Christianity lies in the sanctifying influence of its doctrines; and alas, the great argument against it lies in the unsanctified lives of its professors!” How eagerly Erskine desired emphasis should be laid on the declaration of a Gospel with power! Where this is neglected he deplores the fact in the words, “he (the preacher) lays aside that weapon of ethereal temper, which God has chosen out of the armory of heaven and which He blessed and sanctified for the destruction of moral evil, and goes forth to encounter the powers of darkness without a single well-grounded hope of success.”
Erskine was not one who was always yearning for some new thing or doctrine. He was no setter forth of strange gods. The past comes to him with instruction and warning. Truth was built on former discoveries. Character is the result of habit, which began in a single act. “We judge”, he says, “of the probability or improbability of a new idea by comparing it with those things which we are already acquainted with and observing how it fits in with them.” No wonder Newman, though condemning the Remarks, thought it probable that the writer was better than his creed!
The message of this first book of Erskine is for every age. Religion, both natural and revealed, “fits into all the folds of a man’s being.” These revelations of the Divine Being do not find their realization in the wranglings of sects or in the disputes of the schools, but in lives transformed and renewed by power from the very heart of the Eternal Himself. This transformation is a slow process for man’s development in righteousness is an education, slow and oft times painful, for man is not matter but a living and energizing soul. Men, in the days of Erskine, as now, were unwilling to learn. The Evangel has often been travestied and discipline has been misguided. In Scotland, when Erskine began to write, Religion was buried beneath dogmatic formulae, which men would not see were therefore destroying the spirit behind all formulae. The religion perfected in the cross was seen through the mists of tradition and prejudice, ignorance and superstition.
There was a rich heritage offered to men in the revelation of nature, conscience, and providence, but supremely in Jesus Christ, whose teaching illumined all other revelations and added to these also a dynamic. It was, however, in Erskine’s day as in the time of Christ, “men loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.”
The Remarks do not leave the reader in doubt concerning the place occupied by Christ in the scheme of revealed truth. The details of the death of Christ witness to the importance of the suffering sacrifice made by our Lord. The Remarks emphasize its moral and subjective aspect rather than from the legal and objective side, though the latter was not neglected. The Son of God drank to the bitter dregs the cup of the world’s failure. He endured the contradiction of sinners because He stood as the Representative of mankind. For guilt there was the offer of freedom from sin and victory over evil. It must be observed, therefore, that in all this discussion Erskine was advancing to new ground; he was breaking with the past and finding in the atonement a height, and depth, a length and breadth which alienated from his side the orthodox writers and teachers of his day. But whilst widening the popular conception of the atonement and calling for the verification of the Christian faith in experience and character, Erskine still held to penal substitution, and, therefore, saw the reality and power of law above and over God or behind Him. Perhaps his sympathy with hearts slower than his own, led Erskine only to adumbrate in the Remarks what he afterwards fully expounded in his second book, “An Essay on Faith”. The power of the Gospel as seen by Erskine differs from the viewpoint of Paul to whom the Gospel was something new, unheard of before, whereas for Erskine, the Evangel was something natural and in all stages of promise and fulfilment alike, was fitted to meet the end and demand in view. Did the different outlook on the power of the Cross add to or take from the efficiency of either the greatest of the Apostles or of Erskine the saint and mystic?
The physical law of gravitation furnishes Erskine with a striking analogy of the principle which governs moral and spiritual phenomena.
Suppose one of the planets diverged from its orbit, then there would be confusion and ultimate disaster, but if the planet had a soul and could ask, How can I get back to my true orbit?, would not the true answer be an assurance of safety if only again there was direct and constant concentration on the central force which keeps order in the heavens? So, in moral and spiritual things. Man has turned away from truth. God has placed man in a certain course. Man, however, has placed himself above God and the divine law. Sin has entered. Aberration from the course has taken place. Chaos threatens. Man builds his house in obedience to the law of gravitation in order to avoid disaster from wind and spate, but he allows his character—the spiritual temple—to be destroyed by lawlessness in thought and action. Righteousness is man’s true orbit which can only be kept through man’s continuous dependence on the power of the Sun of Righteousness.
It can be affirmed with all certainty this first work of Erskine is a useful apologetic for the faithful in every generation. For Erskine, Christianity is the supreme religion. It satisfies not only reason, but what to Erskine was more important, it also satisfies conscience. It is in this exaltation of conscience over logic, of inward experience over theory, that gives to the Evangel, as understood by Erskine, a power which Calvinism with all its dynamic, for dynamic it really had, did not and could not possess.
In Calvinism, God existed, but man in the extreme view of Calvinists scarcely existed, if, indeed, he existed at all.
In the Remarks, we have the effort of one who endeavors to point out how man’s heritage and privilege may be restored. To all lovers of truth Erskine, the pioneer and “knight-errant,” brought the spirit of inquiry, the call of freedom, and an original and fresh vision. Not the least of the contributions of The Remarks is Erskine’s handling of Bible truths. The Bible is not to him what the Pope is to a Roman Catholic. The revealed word forms a study for the exercise of faith, common sense, and judgment. Hence, in familiar words Erskine is able to see new meanings and blessings. The restoration of conscience to its rightful place is a great gain. And of conscience Erskine is very sure. It is for him the thread from which hang pearls and precious stones. The evidence which conscience brings is as real as nature in sea and land to us when these phenomena are seen in the light of common day. He does not reason himself into this belief. What the nerves are to the body, that also is conscience to the soul. Conscience is as real to Erskine as his own existence. It is no taper light; it is no dim religious light. It is no faint voice from afar. Conscience is the voice of God, or, as Erskine afterwards asserts, God Himself abiding in the human heart.
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