ived,
Christianity had nothing to fear. In like manner, while he did not
attack the cult and ritual of the church, he never laid any stress on
it. "If some dogmas are incomprehensible and some rites
superstitious," he seemed to say, "what does it matter? Let us
emphasize the ethical and spiritual content of Christ's message, for if
we seek his kingdom, all else needful shall be added unto us." His
favorite name for his religion was the "philosophy of Christ,"
[Sidenote: Philosophy of Christ] and it is thus that he persuasively
expounds it in a note, in his Greek Testament, to Matthew xi, 30:

Truly the yoke of Christ would be sweet and his burden
light, if petty human institutions added nothing to what
he himself imposed. He commanded us nothing save
love one for another, and there is nothing so bitter that
charity does not soften and sweeten it. Everything
according to nature is easily borne, and nothing accords
better with the nature of man than the philosophy of
Christ, of which almost the sole end is to give back to
fallen nature its innocence and integrity. . . . How pure,
how simple is the faith that Christ delivered to us! How
close to it is the creed transmitted to us by the apostles,
or apostolic men. The church, divided and tormented by
discussions and by heresy, added to it many things, of
which some can be omitted without prejudice to the
faith. . . . There are many opinions from which impiety
may be begotten, as for example, all those philosophic
doctrines on the reason of the nature and the distinction
of the persons of the Godhead. . . . The sacraments
themselves were instituted for the salvation of men, but
we abuse them for lucre, for vain glory or for the oppression
of the humble. . . . What rules, what superstitions
we have about vestments! How many are judged as to
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their Christianity by such trifles, which are indifferent
in themselves, which change with the fashion and of which
Christ never spoke! . . . How many fasts are instituted!
And we are not merely invited to fast, but obliged to, on
pain of damnation. . . . What shall we say about
vows . . . about the authority of the pope, the abuse of
absolutions, dispensations, remissions of penalty, law-suits,
in which there is much that a truly good man cannot see
without a groan? The priests themselves prefer to
study Aristotle than to ply their ministry. The