Volume 1

Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars.

Date:
1908-1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    absence of any consciousness of the Divine presence, such as finds expression in the Psalmist’s cry, re- iterated by Christ upon the cross, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ’ (Ps 22^, Mt 27^®). But the condition of one who is abandoned by his friends also involves moral issues, as, e,.g., the degree in which he is himself to blame for his isolation. Martensen treats the subject luminously {Christian Ethics, y<A. i. [Individual] p. 35811'.) in the chapter which assigns to domestic happiness and friendship a high place among ‘ the relative goods of life. ’ But in proportion to the pleasure, of which our friends may be the legitimate sources, is the pain occasioned, when by those friends ‘ we are morally abandoned . . . because we, in their consciousness, in their love, as it were, die, and are buried; or, what is the same thing, because we are changed in their idea, and become other than we were before, although in reality we are still the same. Such an abandonment is, in many eases, not without guilt on our side; and, had we a richer measure of love, we would in no case so easily feel ourselves lonely and forsaken.’ The foregoing considerations cast light upon questions involved in the experience of devout souls whose complaint is ‘Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me’ (Is 49“).'” On the one hand, expression is repeatedly given in the OT to the truth which lies at the foundation of the Hebrew religion: ‘ The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake’ (1 S 12^“, cf. Dt 31®, Ps 9“ 372®, Is 411'? 42i6)_ Broad-based on the history of God’s dealings with Israel was the ‘strength and comfort’ which ‘fell with weight’ upon John Bunyan’s spirit, as he took courage from the noble words of Sir 2i“ ‘ Look at the generations of old and see ; did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded ? or did any abide in his fear, and was forsaken ? ’ (Grace A hounding, § 62 ff.). On the other hand, the OT recognizes that God’s promise is conditional. The message of God’s Spirit through the prophets is, ‘ If ye forsake him, he will forsake you ’ (2 Ch 15^ cf. 242“). But this forsaking is not to be understood as implying that God would cast off His people for ever (Ps 94“, Jer 33^i-); even when He seems to have abandoned ‘ the sheep of his pasture,’ a voice is raised beseeching Him to ‘ have respect unto the covenant ’ (Ps 74i- 2“). The question, ‘ Will the Lord cast off from age to age ? ’ passes into the more hopeful cry, ‘Will he not once again show favour ? ’ (Ps 77'?, cf. Is 54'?). ABANDONMENT The most helpless of mankind are those who have just begun life, and those who, through old age or infirmity, are about to leave it. Unable to rovide for their ow needs, they are entirely ependent upon the love or the compassion of others. Individual cases of neglect of infancy and age are not unknown in any country, but in some cases this neglect passes beyond an individual idiosyncrasy and 'becomes a national custom. When this neglect of children takes the form of removing them from the mother’s habitation and leaving them unprotected to perish by starvation, the elements, or wild beasts, or to be rescued by the chance passer-by, it is called Exposure. The similar treatment of the aged and infirm is called Abandonment. I. Exposure. — Por the exposure of children there are several causes, which require to be treated independently. In different countries different causes often bring about the same result. (1) In most countries the commonest cause of * The words ‘abandon’ and ‘abandonment’ are not found in the EV, but the essential thought is expressed in such passages as are quoted above. The biographies of devout believers bear witness, however, to a sense of abandonment by some who can reproach themselves neither on account of their departing from God, nor on account of their doubt- ing His faithfulness. Martensen (op. cit. p. 391 ff.) describes this condition as one in which ‘the individual is, in a relative sense, left to himself.’ In the religious life he distinguishes two states of holiness : one in which ‘ the blessing of the Divine grace is perceptibly revealed,’ and another in which ‘grace, as it were, retires and remains hidden.’ The latter state is one of ‘inward drought and abandonment,’ and may be the result of bodily indisposition or mental weariness. At such times ‘we should hold to God’s word, whose truth and grace are independent of our changing moods and feelings; and remain confident that even in states of deepest abandonment God the Lord is with us, although with veiled face.’ A sense of abandonment by the Father was the experience of Christ during the darkness that shrouded Calvary ; to this fact witness is borne in the earliest Gospel, for St. Mark records none of the Seven Sayings from the Cross save this : ‘ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Mk 15®^, Mt 27^®). Professor Schmiedel accepts this as one of the five ‘absolutely credible passages’ in the Gospels concerning Christ (EBi, vol. ii. col. 1881). Bengel (Com. in loc.) lays stress on the reterite tense of iyKartXnres, and renders, ‘ why idst thou forsake me ? ’ In his view, ‘ at that very instant the dereliction came to an end. ... In the deepest moment of dereliction He was silent.’ This suggestion need not be pressed ; the cry itself testifies to an actual feeling of abandonment by Him whose spirit never lost its faith in God. The mystery it expresses is unrelieved unless He who uttered it was the sinless Saviour, who in His infinite love was bearing ‘our sins in his body upon the tree’ (1 P 2^). In a lucid exposition of this Word from the Cross, W. L. Walker says : ‘ Our Lord felt Himself in this supreme moment forsaken, even by His Father. . . . We here see Christ suffering that which is the last consequence of sin—the sense of separation from God. ... It is in entire keeping with, and indeed appears as the natural culmination of. His thought of giving His life as “ a ransom for many,” as a sacrifice for sin, or “a guilt-offering’” (The Cross and the Kingdom [1902], p. 138 f.). [See art. ‘ Dereliction ’ in Hastings’ DCG}. J. G. Tasker. AND EXPOSURE. the exposure of infants is shame, the child being the offspring either of an unmarried woman or of a union not recognized as regular by the customs of her country. Less frequently, the shame may be occasioned by some malformation of the infant itself, the parents regarding it as a reproach to them to be associated with a monster. In the legends of most countries great heroes are often represented as having been exposed to conceal the shame of their mothers. The exposure may be the act of the mother herself, as in the case of Evadne exposing lamos (Pindar, Olympian, vi. 44 ff'. ; cf. the exposure of Ion in Euripides’ Ion, 18ff.), or it may be ordered or executed by the parents of the mother. Acrisius, in the fragment of Simonides, sends Danae and Perseus together adrift; in Roman legend, Romulus and Remus, the twin children of Rhea Sylvia, are exposed by the orders of the cruel uncle, Amulius (Livy, i. 4). In cases of this kind children are exposed without regard to sex. (2) Children are exposed from/ear that the means of subsistence will not be sufficient to maintain a larger population. Here exposure is often only