IS THE RELIGION OF JESUS EFFEMINATE?

DURING the war a young officer excused himself from any loyalty to Christianity by saying, ' You know, padre, religion is all right for women,' with the assumption that, of course, a man could find very little of value in it ; and, even if the same words are not used, amongst a certain type of man the same feeling is present. Is the religion of Jesus effeminate ?

Let us look into the question. Our first answer will be an emphatic ' Yes.' In one sense, thank God, Christianity is certainly effeminate. It is a woman's religion. Some of us are glad that it is. Our mothers were women, and Christ made many

of them what they were, and we owe our souls to them. Many of us feel that Christ made them so lovely that the memory of what they were on earth will always be one'of the most sanctifying influences of our life, and the knowledge of what they are in heaven is one of the greatest factors which make the next world beautiful and attractive. Our wives and sisters and sweethearts are women, and in so many cases it is Christ who has made them such splendid chums to us. Some of our children will be women, and some parents have told me that the most wonderful experience in life has been to watch
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a little girl grow and develop from childhood into girlhood, and from girlhood through the beautiful teen years into womanhood, as beautifully and quietly as a bud becomes a flower. And then, at some critical moment, Christ has put His hand on that opening life and claimed it for Himself, and for the parents the cup of happiness has run over; as, indeed, it well might, for I think there is nothing so, beautiful in this world as an English Christian woman. 'Christianity is all right for wornen,' as my young officer friend said, and if it makes women like Mary of Bethany, Perpetua, St. Teresa, the Maid of Orleans, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Nurse Cavell, Mary Slessor, Amy Wilson Carmichael, and Ida Scudder, then we may be thankful that Christianity is a woman's religion. The women who have meant, and who mean most to this world, owe that fact to Jesus Christ.

What other influence in this world is doing for women what Christianity is doing? In China, Christianity means liberty from degrading, repress­ing conventions and torturing customs. In India, Christianity means that a woman is no longer re­garded merely as a potential mother or as an animal, useful for the gratification of lust‑but through Christ she now gains the sanctity of personality, is thought to be worth educating, and is not so strictly shut in in the harem and the zenana. In Africa, Christ has led women from the position of beasts of burden and from an incredible degrada­tion to the liberty of children of God. In England,
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what other power lifts women from the depths? It is the sisters of Christ who lift the sisters of the pavement. The law punishes them, but only Christ redeems them. In a word, under all skies, and on all shores, and through all ages, the touch of Christ has lifted womanhood, guarded home life, and sanctified childhood, and Christianity is the finest woman's religion in the world.

In the third place, it is an amazing thing that, although Christ was a man, and though most women think that no man can ever understand them, yet no woman has ever felt that Christ could not understand her most womanly feelings. Tenny­son used to speak of the man‑woman in Jesus, and it is one of the glorious facts of our religion that womanhood finds all its ideals realized in Him. A true woman's heart, for instance, turns towards children as a compass needle turns to the north, yet no woman could speak more tenderly about them than Jesus did. And this is true of all the most distinctively womanly qualities in character. Though Jesus was in such a true sense a man (I think Jack London would have numbered Him amongst his big‑chested men), yet there is hardly an act which Jesus ever did that a woman might not have done. Among His friends were as many women as men. He revelled in their understand­ing, in their amazing instinct for the kind of sym­pathy that truly helps, in the tenacious way they cling to spiritual values. We need not fear to rejoice in tfie fact that Christianity is a woman's religion.

But let us take up the challenge implied in the
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words of my officer friend‑that Christianity is not a religion for a man. The attitude is common amongst some young men even to‑day. You get a youngster just out of his teens, who perhaps has just reached the point of eminence when he can smoke a pipe without being sick, and when there is the faintest suspicion of down on his upper lip; a man who has never slept out of his bed in his life, never missed a meal, and from autumn to Easter has never been without a hot‑water bottle in his bed. This is usually the type of man who comes up to you and tells you that Christianity is not a religion for a man. One of our greatest modern preachers has suggested a reply to these lovable little puppies. 'Was Paul a real man? Would you have stayed by him for a week ? Would you have sat in a Roman prison, and the night before your death have written, " Now I am ready to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand " ? Was Augustine a real man, whose tower­ing intellect commanded the mind of Western Europe for centuries after he had gone ? Was Latimer a real man, saying as he burned at the stake for Christ's sake, " Be of good cheer, Brother Ridley, and let us play the man, for we shall this day, by God's grace, light such a candle in England as I trust shall never be put out " ? Was Living­stone a real man, and how long would you have followed his travels through the jungles ? ' You can say anything else you like about Christianity, but he who knows its history, its far‑flung battle­line across the world, the sacrifices it has called for,
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and the kind of men Christ has attracted, would never think of saying that it was a religion for women, but not a religion for men.

In order to see this clearly, however, we must get away from the unessentials of religion and see where the reality of Christ's religion lies. Listen to the voice of Jesus, not 'far, far away, like bells at evening pealing,' softly calling over quiet fields and hushed cities to the worship of a day of rest. We need that element in worship, God knows, but when that voice called first, it was not much like that it was not far, far away, but uncomfortably near and it was not like a bell at evening, it was like a trumpet at dawn. Indeed, although it called to rest, and peace, and quietness of the soul, it called to heroism, hardship, and sacrifice, and to the most desperate adventure in the spiritual history of the world. It called men, as it turned out, away from quiet tasks to death. This is a man's religion, and the male animal who is less than a man in the fullest sense will not find that his religion is not big enough for him, but will find that he is not big enough for his religion. ' If any man come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.'

What a man He was ! It is inconceivable to think that a real man to‑day can fail to be attracted by Jesus. If courage is the quality which ‑most attracts men, think of the courage of One who is without a long academic training, and yet who has in His heart such a flaming vision of God that when religion‑the holiest thing in the world to
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Him‑is misrepresented by the scribes and Pharisees, He lashes these learned doctors of the law with the biting whip, 'Hypocrites I ' Think of the courage of One fighting the demon of hoary custom and outworn form, scorning what men might think and what men might say, fighting that enemy which beats most of us, convention, believing things it was death to believe, and acting up to His beliefs. Think of Him speaking to men who almost worshipped Moses, and yet daring to say, 'Moses said unto you . . . but I say unto you.' Think of the courage of His claims that the world is well lost if He be gained, and that not only one's business interests and one's career, but the most intimate family ties, must not stand between the soul and God.

And if courage is only to be thought of as a physical virtue, think of the sequel to His first sermon, when villagers hounded Him to a precipice edge and would have cast Him down, and how He turned on them, and, because of the light in His eye and the majesty of His presence, not one of them dared to lay a finger upon Him. And think of that later stage, when gradually His friends fell away and left Him at last utterly alone, despised, rejected, deserted, tortured, crucified, never losing 'His hold on God, never being swayed a hair's breadth from that grim, awful purpose which He set Himself. It is to be noted that Pilate, who, for all his weakness, was nevertheless Roman enough to know a man when he saw one, paid Him a just tribute ‑ ' Behold the Man.' If Pilate spoke
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in Greek, the words must be interpreted 'Behold the Man' ; but the phrase seems colourless, and with some insight the revisers have put a comma after the word 'Behold'; and, if it be true that Pilate dropped into his natural Latin, a language in which there is no article, then surely we may read a greater meaning in the words: 'See, what a Man!'

This is a man's religion as well as a woman's religion. This is the religion which has captured the most heroic souls in history; and to‑day if you want a man to run a leper‑home in the Himalayas, or a hospital in an African jungle, or a mission church among the Eskimos, or to spend his humanity in the slums of London, I think you will have difficulty in finding the kind of man you want, apart from those who are Christian men. You will want a man with first‑class qualifications, strong of body and steady of mind, brave of heart; a man who loves people and yet is never condescending. You may make the period of service brief, you may pay him a high salary, but it will be hard to get him. Yet the Christian Church has always been able to find a man with the body of an athlete, and the mind of a scholar, and the judgement of a statesman, who, for less than many spend in luxury, will do any of the jobs I have mentioned; and, what is more, women can be found who will do them, too. Why? Be­cause Christ has put His hand upon them, and they are proud to do His service on the earth.

I do not know with what ideas about religion the reader's mind may be filled. All of us can criticize the Churches, and ail of us can see many things
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that can be put right in organized religion; but may I remind you of the essential thing in Christianity? Christianity is a tremendous personal loyalty to, and friendship with, Christ, which results in living His life and doing His will in the world. I do not know what methods you may have in your minds to remedy the world's need, but let me throw out this challenge. Do you know any way of living with yourself and with your neighbour and with your God which will bring you a durable satisfaction, inward peace, and outward influence which compares with Christ's way of life ? And secondly, this: do you know any better way out of the hell of unrest, suspicion, distrust, in which the whole world is seething, to be compared with the way which would open to us immediately if every man regarded his neighbour as Jesus regarded His ? We do not need to argue further. Christ is Christianity's greatest credential. I would leave you face to face with Him. He will find His secret way to your heart unless you bar the door. He will tell you what you ought to do for Him and for the world. He will begin where you are, and tell you the first thing to do. And whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. For if we are brave enough to follow where He leads, we shall find that Hi5 is the way to true womanhood; His is the way to manhood: His is the way to life.