ir. T- a EX UNO VERBO OMNIA ET UNUM LOQUUNTUR OMNIA. FROM ONE WORD PROCEED ALL THINGS: AND ONE IS THAT WHICH IS SPOKEN BY ALL THINGS. DE IMITATIONE CHRISTI. THE WAY THE TRUTH THE LIFE MACMILLAN AND CO., Limiteb LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltl.. TORONTO AS" THE WAY THE TRUTH THE LIFE THE HULSEAN LECTURES FOR 1871 BY FENTON JOHN ANTHONY HORT D.D. SOMETIME HULSEAN PROFESSOR AND LADY MARGARET'S READER IN DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1908 All ri>'hts res'eiTed. First Edition printed 1893. Second Edition 1894. Reprinted 1897, 1908. PREFATORY NOTE. fragmentary Introduction which was begun THEby Dr Hort in 1872, and continued at two later dates, gives in part the history and scope of the volume but the revision in present ; indicated the opening paragraph was not completely carried into effect. The first two Lectures were set up in slip in 1872, and after careful revision were passed for press at the close of 1874. The first five sheets were printed off (pp. i —80), the remainder of Lecture II. remained in slip, and pencillings on the copy suggest that some enlargement of the conclusion was in con- templation. The third Lecture has been printed partly from the original MS. (pp. 95 — 107; 146— 8), and partly (pp. 108— 146) from a MS. of later date\ ^ This Lecture was delivered on Sunday, Dec. lo, 1871, the crisis of the ilhTcss of the Prince of Wales, and the following words were added at the close of it : This life of Christ, as manifested first through death and then in His Resurrection, may well fill our thoughts to-day, when we have present before us the possible ending of a life dear to us in itself, and doubly dear as having bound up in it much that belongs to the inward life of the nation. Let us earnestly believe that here too, whether by life or by death, Christ the Saviour will save. If He saves by life, let us give Him thanks. If He suffers death to come to pass, let us be assured that He is preparing a more glorious resurrection in the future. vi PREFATORY NOTE The fourth Lecture has been printed as it was origin- ally written. The MS. has not received any later additions, but something appears to be wanting on p. i66. The 'Notes and Illustrations' were taken from collections made for the Lectures and for the revision of them, and will serve in some measure to illustrate the wider range which was designed for Lectures III., IV. (p, xxvli)'. 1 The MSS. of Lectures III., IV. were prepared for the press by the Rev. J. O. F. Murray, M.A., Fellow of Emmanuel College, who also selected and arranged the Notes and Illustrations, and provided the sections of the analysis which are enclosed in square brackets, and passed the whole work through the press. in A few words enclosed square brackets ([ ]) have been introduced into the Lectures, but no other changes have been made. In the Notes some have been to the form of changes made complete the sentences ; and one or two phrases indicated as provisional in the MS. liave been enclosed in half-brackets C" ''). Since I examined somewhat closely the materials available for the volume before they were placed in Mr Murray's hands, I may be allowed to express my grateful sense of the care and judgment with which he has fulfilled a difficult and delicate task. The debt which Dr Hort's friends owe to him is not less because his labour has been a glad offering of reverence and affection to a master. The title of the Lectures was not finally determined. 'I wish' Dr Ilort wrote to me in 1871 'we could have had some talk about the title. I can think of nothing better than "the Revelation of the Way". It is not quite adequate, but it avoids some objections which I should make to others more obvious. No title single in form and simjile in language could express the drift of the whole. It seems impossible to go beyond slight indication.' I do not remember that he ever recurred to the subject. The Ordination Sermon referred to in the Introduction has been reserved for a volume of Sermons for which there is ample material. PREFATORY NOTE vii These simple facts and dates tell their own pathetic story. The work, and especially the latter part of the ' work, was done under great pressure. I have not ' touched [Lect.] III.' (Dr Hort wrote to me on Dec. i, 1 871) 'since I saw you... I have worked incessantly, 'despite less favourable health, and have only this ' moment finished No. II. Indeed I have still to do 'the cutting out... The result now is go pp. and I ' fancy I must cut out 60.' It happened that Dr Hort had accepted the office of Examiner for the Natural Sciences Tripos in the year of his Lectureship, and the examination came at the same time as the delivery of the Lectures. In a postscript to the letter which I have just quoted he 'Natural Sciences all week Class list says, Tripos next ; 'on the day after the last Hulsean.' Meanwhile also the anxious question of a removal from St Ippolyts to Cambridge, soon afterwards most happily settled, was under consideration, and the work of the Revision of the N.T. was going on. It was no wonder then that ' on Dec. 28th Dr Hort wrote to me : I fear it will be 'some [time] before I get over the pressure of these last ' weeks. It is unlucky, for much home work presses in 'its turn. Yet'—the qualification is most touching— 'there is also a satisfaction in that combination of 'the Natural Sciences Tripos and of Revision with 'the Hulseans.' The work was done under great pressure, and the standard of perfection which Dr Hort set before II. L. b viii PREFATORY NOTE himself made revision and the writing of the Notes, which he considered necessary, more and more difficult. Yet the task was never laid aside. As on many former journeys the sheets and the MSS. were taken to Switzerland on his last journey in 1892. But while the Lectures in their present form do not represent completely the writer's ideal treatment of the subject, they are, 1 think, most thoroughly characteristic. To many they will be a revelation of a new side of a many-sided nature. They are chap- ters in the history of a soul of singular sincerity, subtlety and depth. They bring the reader who ponders their measured words into living fellowship with one who has known what it is to search for the Light and to see it. They become, like the words of a friend, springs of thought. Every page bears the impress of reality, of breadth of sympathy, of absolute loyalty to truth. From first to last the living man speaks to us. He speaks 'as a learner to learners' (p. xxxiv.), claiming no finality for his own opinions, and desiring not so much to convey conclusions as to invite fellow-students to enter on the paths which lead to wisdom, 'to en- ' courage and aid independent energy of heart and ' ' mind (p. xxxv.). He tells us from experience how one inquirer has found the truth, and not merely how he thinks it is likely that others may find it. He turns aside from special kinds of evidence for the Faith to its general correspondence with what we can PREFATORY NOTE ix discern of human nature and creation. He seeks ' to confront the truth with personal life and know- ledge' (p. xxxvi.). He develops the great saying of Tertullian : testiinoiiinin Dens habet totian hoc quod sumiis et in g?io siimns. He insists on a principle which is commonly forgotten, that the evidence for ' the highest truth is to be found in the light which it 'brings, far more than in any light which it receives' 1 1 f (p. ). Dr Hort was better qualified than most students to dwell on this aspect of the Gospel from the variety and thoroughness of his own acquirements. From very early days the keen pursuit of different branches of 'humanity', of physical science, of history, of philosophy had familiarised him with a sense of the interdependence of things and of the unity of know- ledge. A passage from his earliest printed Essay in which he describes Coleridge has been most justly applied by Dr Moulton to himself: 'with him, as with 'every one to whom truth is more than a subject for 'speculation, there is no line of separation between 'the different subjects of his thoughts, still less be- 'tween his thoughts and his life' {Cambridge Essays, 1856, p. 294). With this conviction he shews how 'an 'endless future is opened for knowledge and devotion' when once 'the truth of God in Christ Jesus is firmly 'grasped as truth': how the Christian faith, as founded on is truth, the only sure protection against idolatry : ' how the knowledge of all things is folded up in the b2 X PREFATORY NOTE ' ' of Christ and how Christ is the of knowledge ', way ' God in human history '. He rejoices in the growth of knowledge, and dwells on the gains and perils of our recent advances ' in the knowledge of the lower 'world'. He brings out under many forms and in many applications that the primary message of the Gospel is the message of life.