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Current discussions in
theology
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Current Discussions
IN Theology.
THE PROFESSORS
— OF —
CHICAGO THKOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
VOLU^IE YII.
BOSTON AND CHICAGO:
Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society
1890
C"PYRIGH% 18C'0,
By CONGRE<tATTONAI. SrNT>AY-S(HOOL AN'> PWBLISHING SOCIETY.
PREFACE.
The aim of these discussions is to answer the ques-
tion, which every earnest student of theologj', both theo-
retical and practical, ma}' well be supposed to ask at the
end of each year, viz : What has been done in the different
fields of sacred learning during the past twelve months,
and what are the latest results of such studies"?
In preparing this Report of Progress, critical reference
has been made to the most recent literature, as a help, and
Ave trust a stimulus, to others who should prosecute their
studies further along the lines indicated, while enough of
the results of the latest investigation is given to make the
work immediately profitable to the student.
In summing up the labors of theologians and critics,
the natural drift of the literature leads the Reviewer, in
most departments, to dwell upon works that deviate some-
what from the familiar path, and in such writings to notice
principally what seems to be new and claims to be better
than what we already know ; for any adequate account of
generally accepted views, as reproduced in books year by
year, is precluded by the limits of the work and by the
supposition that they are already familiar to the reader.
Such considerations, and not any particular sympathy with
theological novelties, explain the complexion of these dis-
cussions, which may appear to some as giving undue
prominence to radical teachings and criticisms. Such con-
PREFACE.
sideratious account, also, for the many references to works
of foreign origin, especially German, which appear in these
pages. If in some departments Anglo-Saxon writers are
in the minority, the reason is that they produce a much
smaller number of books, and naturally less that is new,
than do foreign authors. A further reason for referring^
frequently to the results of foreign scholarship was the de-
sire, cherished from the beginning of this work,that it might
help many a student or pastor to keep abreast of the theo-
logical thought of the age, who could not readily read the
languages in which many of the works are written, or who
might not be able to procure the books for himself.
We desire to express our grateful appreciation of the
co-operation of many publishers, both American and Euro-
pean, who have sent us their works for notice in this
Annual Review.
The present volume of current discussions includes,
in general, the literature of 1889, though, in some cases
it notices books that appeared towards the close of 1888,
and, in a few instances, it extends into 1890.
The hope has been cherished for some time that the
scope of this work might be widened, and that such sub-
jects as Comparative Religion, the Relation of Rehgion
and Science, Christian Art, Inter- Denominational History,
and Christian Ethics might receive separate and more ex-
tended treatment. The realization of this hope depends
chiefly upon the favor of the widening circle of students of
theological science in America.
The Faculty.
Chicago Theological Seminary.
Chicago, March 31, 1890.
CONTENTS.
PART FIRST— EXECtETICAL THEOLOGY.
I. OLD TESTAMENT.
Peesent State of Old Testament Studies.
PAGE.
Introductory 4
CHAPTER I.
Old Testament Introduction 5-23
The Pentateuch. 5-19
Westplial, on Sources of Peutateucli . . . . 5-30
Harper and Green 10-12
Terry, Introduction to the Pentateuch .... 12
Eiehm, Introduction to the Old Testament . . . 13-17
Baudissin, on Old Testament Priests .... 17-18
Strack, Introduction to the Old Testament. . . . 18-19
Job 20-21
Gilbert, The Poetry of Job 20-21
The Song of So7igs 21-22
Griffis, The Lily among Thorns 21-22
Joel ■ 22-23
Kuenen, on Old Testament Canon 22-23
CHAPTER n.
Old Testament Exegesis 24-32
Genesis 24-25
Dods, on Creation 24-25
Samtiel 25-26
Blaikie, Commentary on I and II Samuel . . . 25-26
Isaiah 26-27
Smith, Commentary 26-27
Ezekiel and The Minor Prophets 27-28
Orelli, on Joel, Jonah, Zecbariah . . • . . 27-28
vi CONTEXTS.
Job 28-29
Volck, Commentary on Job 28-29
Ecclesiastes (Volck) 29
Solomon 8 Song and Lamentations ..... 29-30
Oettli, Commentary 29-30
Chronicles (Oettli) 30-31
Ezra and Nehemiah (Oetth) 31
Ruth (Oettli) 31
Esther (Oettli) 32
CHAPTER III.
Old Testament Theology 33-53
Eiehm 37-45
Schiiltz 45-49
Monographs 49-53
Baethgen, on History of Semites. .... 49-50
Koenig, History of Israel 50-51
Dalraan, on Adonai 52
Zschokke, on Cliokma Literature 53
EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY— Continued.
II. NEW TESTAMENT.
Present State of New Testament Studies.
CHAPTER I.
Philological and Textual 57-65
Grimms Lexicon 57-58
Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek 59-61
Resch, Agrapha of Gospels 61-64
Gregory, Prolegomena to New Testament ... 65
CHAPTER II.
New Testament Introduction 66-100
Zahn, History of New Testament Canon . . . 68-77
Pfleiderer, Urchristentum 77-82
The Gospels (Holtzmann, Handmann) .... 82-83
The Acts (Wendt) 84-85
The Epistles (Steck, Klopper, Hesse, Plummer, Farrar,
Rendall, Westcott, Weiss) 85-94
The Apocalypse (Spitta) . 94-100
COXTEXTS. vii
CHArXEK II r.
New Testament Exegesis ici-llO
The Gospels (MacEvilly, Holtzmaun, Steinmeyer, Ballan-
tiue) 101-107
The Acts (Wendt) 107-108
The Epistles (Dods, Sadler, Riggs, Fiiidlay, Exell, Weiss,
Reudall. Westcott, Kiioko, Plimimer,) .... 108-117
The Revelation (Graham. Eremita, West) . . . 117-110
CHAPTER IV.
New Testament Histoky. ....... 120-12-4
Houghton, on John the Baptist 120
Delff, on Jesus the Rabbi 120-121
Vailing, Jesus Christ, the Divine Man . . . 122-123
Sommer, The Apostles" Decree 123-124
) CHAPTER V.
New Testament Theology 125-131
Bruce, The Kingdom of God 125-127
Everling, Pauline Angelology 129-130
Gunkel, Pauline Doctrine of the Holy Spirit . . 130-131
viii COXTEXTS.
PART SECOND— HISTOEICAL THEOLOGY.
Present State of Studies in Church History.
Introduction, Origin of Christianity
Sell, History of Christianity
Eenau, Origins of Christianity . . . ,
CHAPTER I.
The Early Church.
I.
II.
III.
IV
Y.
VI.
VII.
Spread of Christianity
Eamsay, on Christianity in Phrygia.
Tixeront and Martin, on the Church of Edessa
La Ville, Jews in the West ....
Church and World .....
Arnold, Persecution by Nero
Moeller, Heathen Culture and Christianity
Reville, Religion in Rome under the Severi
Lanciani, Ancient Rome in Recent Discoveries
History of Doctrine ....
Schneider, The Apostolic Century
Allen. Early Christian Thought
Purves, Justin Martyr
Schepss, Priscillianism
Raich and Grassman, St. Augustine
Eirainer, Ephrem Syrus
Organization of the Early Church
Withrow, Form of the Christian Temple
Koppel, Coxe. Livius, the Apostles .
Loening, Church Constitution .
Sanday, Gore, Early Episcopacy
Allies, Schwarzlose, The Papacy
History of Worship ....
Usener, Festivals. ....
Early Christian Art ....
Wilpert, Principles of Early Art
Schultze, Reply to Wilpert
Morillot, Use of Bells
History of Theological Literature
Zockler, Handbook of Theological Literature
Harnack, Wolfflin, Miodonski, De Aleatoribus
135-140
135-136
139-140
141-189
141-140
141-144
144-14
145-146
146-154
146-148
148-149
149-152
152-154
154-166
154-155
155-157
157-160
161-162
163-165
165-166
166-177
166-167
167-170
170-173
173-175
175-177
177-180
177-18
180-183
180-181
181-182
182-183
183-189
183-184
184-185
CONTENTS.
Bert, Homilies of Aphraates . . . . . 185-186
Harnack, Acts of Martyrs ...... 186-187
McClffert, Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew 187-188
CHAPTEE II.
The Church of the Middle Ages. .
I, History of the Papacy. ....
Freeman, Patriarchate of Pippin
Diehl, Dahmen, Exarchate and Gregory II.
Friedrich, Seebcrg, on Donation of Constantine
Kohncke, Wibert of Kavenna
Ehrle, Council of Vienna ....
Scheuffgen, Papal Schism ....
II. The Eastern Church
Gelzer, Church of Alexandria
III. Theological Thought
Sell, Augustiniauism
Lindsay, Learning in Scotland .
IV. Church Life
Penitential System
Strumhofel. Morals of Clergy
Dollinger, The Oriental Question
Looshorn, Otto of Bamberg
V. Monasticism ......
Heer, Bossert, Irish Missionaries
L" Huillier, Life of Hugh of Cluny .
Chevallier, Life of Bernard of Clair vaux .
VI. Sects of the Middle Ages ....
Dollinger, on Cathari, etc
Creighton, Comba, Haupt, The Waldenses
Fredericq, The Inquisition.
Villari, Savonarola
VII. Mohammedanism and Christianity
Gorres, Haroun al Rashid and Christianity
CHAPTER III.
The Modern Church
I. The German Reformation ....
Schaff, The German Reformation
Sell, The Reformation ....
Beard, Martin Luther and the Reformation
190-22(1
190-199
190-191
191-192
192-193
194-195
196-198
198-199
199-202
199-202
202-204
202-203
203-204
204-208
204-205
206
206-207
207-208
208-212
209-210
210-211
211-212
212-219
212-214
214-218
218
218-219
219-220
219-220
221-266
221-223
221
221-222
222-223
COXTEXTS.
II.
III.
IV
V.
VI.
isteriox
VII.
VIII.
IX.
The Reformation in England
Hiitton, Sir Thomas More .
Alexander, English Martyrs.
Gasquet, Hendricks, Henry VIII and Mona
Protestant Beneficence, ....
Noble, Protestant Charities
The Huguenots
Courtisegny, Number of Huguenots .
French Protestant Schools
Perreuaud, French Protestant Growth
The Christianity of Russia .
The Roman Catholic Church
Wolf, German Protestants .
Ward, Counter Reformation
Leinz, Marriage Laws of Trent . . . . .
Lea, Indulgences in Spain ......
Beliesheim (Blair), Catholic Church in Scotland
Dollinger and Reusch, Moral Disputes in R. C. C'h .
Pfleiderer, Roman Catholic Orders . . . •
Brecht, Criminals in Catholic Population
The Modern German Church . . . . .
Lie litenberger, Modern German Theology
Pfleiderer, Graue, Frank, Hermann, Zahn, Theology
of Ritschl
Delitzsch, Old and New Theology
Beyschlag, Kiibel, The German Church
Lipsius, Liberal Theology .
Tlie Churches of Great Britain.
Shaw, English Presbyterianism .
Ward, The Oxford Movement
Sinclair, Theology in Scotland
The American Churches
Schatf, Religious Freedom in America
Fiske, Beginnings of New England .
Foster, Eschatology of New England Divines .
Zahn, History of American Cli'es. in 19th Century
Griffin, Allen, Tiffany, Unitarianism.
223-225
223
223-224
225
226-227
226-227
227-228
228
228-229
229-230
230-233
233-242
234
234
234-23.>
235-236
236-238
238-240
240-241
241-242
242-254
242-244
244-250
250-252
252-253
253-254
254-256
254-255
255
255-25G
256-266
256-257
257-258
258-260
260-263
263-266
CONTENTS.
XI
PART THIRD— SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
Present State of Studies in Natural and Revealed THEOLO(iY.
Present State of Theological Discussion.
A. Public Discussions.
1. The Congregationalisia
2. The Presbyterians
B. Theological Literature
1. Treatises on Theoloqy as a System
Kedney, Christian Doctrine
Nitzscli, Evangel. Dogmatik
Gretillat, Systematic Tlieology
Bruce, Kingclom of God
2. Theological Criticism .
StaliJin, on Kant, Lotze and Ritschl
Dreyer, Undogmat. Christenthnm
Unitarianism, by different authors
3. Apologetics
Mead, Supernatural Revelation .
Clark, Witnesses to Christ .
C. Ethics ...
Salter, Ethical Religion
209-282
270-276
276-282
282-320
282-299'
283-288
288-290
290-296
296-299
299-309
300-30J:
304-306
306-309
309-321
309-318
318-321
321-325
321-325.
PART FOURTH— PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
I. Present State of Studies in Homiletics.
CHAPTER I.
Theoretical Homiletics— Preaching. 330-344:
Colloquies on Preaching, Twells 330-335
History of Preaching, Ker 336-342
Sermon Stuff, McConnell 342-344
CHAPTER II.
Practical Homiletics— Sermons. 345-374
Questions of the Ages, Smith 345
On Behalf of Belief, Holland 346-347
CONTENTS.
The House and its Builders, Cox . . . .
The Pastoral Epistles, Plummer . . . .
The Immaueut God aud other Sermons, Jackson
The Law of Liberty aud other Discourses, Whiton
Through Death to Life, Thomas
The Threshold of Manhood, Dawson
The Gospel According to St. Paul, Dykes
Paul's Ideal Church and People, Rowland
Sermons, Farrar ....
Sermons, First Series, Liddon
Sermons, Second Series, Liddon
Sermons, Magee ....
Sermons and Addresses, Manning
Signs of Promise, Abbott
348-350
350-351
352-354
354-357
357-359
359 360
361-362
362-364
364-365
366
367
367-369
369-371
371-374
PRACTICAL THEOLOGY— Concluded.
11. Present State of Studies in Pastoeal THEOiiOGY.
The Call to the Ministry 377-378
Forming a Minister's Library 378-379
Eeforms in Funerals 379-380
A Congregational Ritual 381-382
Religious Teaching in Schools 382-386
Protestantism and Education 386-387
The American Sunday School 388-389
Out-of-town Missions for City Churches .... 389-390
Social Drawing Rooms , 390-39^
Women Among the Early Churches 392-395
Deaconesses in America , 395-396
Reaching the Masses 396-398
Taxation of Church Property 398-402
EXEGKTICAL THEOLOGY.
OLD TESTAMENT.
^ PRESENT STATE
or
OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES,
EEV. SAMUEL IVES CURTISS,
Pkofes.sor of Old Testament Literature and Interpretation
IN
Chicago Theological Seminary.
PHEFATORY NOTE.
The discussion of the Uterature in the Ohl Testament
Department this year is necessarily hmited and incom-
plete. While the writer was engaged in the preparation of
his part of contributions to Current Discussions in The-
ology his only daughter was removed by death March 7th.
This must be his apology for a briefer and less* satisfactory
treatment of the subject than might otherwise have been
expected. He hopes that under these circumstances he
may receive the indulgence, as well as the sympathy, of
those who may examine the following pages.
After the above had been written the sad intelligence
was received of the death of Prof. Franz Delitzsch, D. D.,
of Leipzig. He was born Feb. 23d, 1S13, and died March
4th, 1890. Through his departure the department of Old
Testament literature loses one of its brightest ornaments,
and all who were ever favored with his confidence a faith-
ful friend.
CHAPTER I.
OLD TESTAMENT INTRODUCTION.
The Pentateuch. — The interest of Old Testament
scholars still continues to center mainly in the criticism
of the Pentateuch. While other parts of the Old Testa-
ment are not neglected, this question, of the origin of the
Pentateuch, from its complicated character and the effect
which it has upon our view of the history of Israel and
of Old Testament theology, gives it a prominent place
among Old Testament theologians. There is substantial
unanimity among all continental critics with regard to the
number of documents which make up the Pentateuch.
Differences of opinion, however, exist with regard to the
different recensions of each document and their relative
dependence upon each other, as determined by the time
when they originated.
The most important contributions, from a conservative
standpoint, have been furnished by some of our American
theologians, of whom Professor Green, who might be con-
sidered a worthy successor of Hengstenberg, stands in the
fore -front.
An interesting work has been produced by Alexandre
Westphal, Licentiate of Theology,^ entitled " The Sources of
^It may not be known to some of our readers that this title, on
the continent, partakes somewhat of the nature of a degree, and
6 OLD TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
the Pentateuch, a critical and historical study. ''^ So far as
I am aware, only the lirst volume has appeared, which
treats of the literary problem.
His standpoint appears in the preface, where he says :
"Science and faith are two sisters, like Martha and Mary.
The one receives the Master and provides for His needs ;
the other adores in silence, and meditates at His feet.
Without Martha, Jesus could not have received the hospi-
tality of Mary; without Mary, Martha could not have
heard the conversation of the Savior. Doubtless, the good
part is for Mary, but if Martha is troubled it is to retain
the Heavenly guest.
'' When Luther appeared, applj^ing to consciences
wearied with the yoke of men the Holy Book which was
chained down, he held by the hand the two daughters of
revelation. Science and Faith ; strong in the independence
which accepted the harmony of their two-fold authority,
he said : ' The Scripture is only a servant of Christ. As
for me, I give myself not to the servant but to the Master,
Avho is also the Master of the Word. He has secured me
felicity through His death and His resurrection. Him I
possess and Him I guard.' "^
He also quotes Luther with approval as saying : "Even
if it should be true that the sacred writers have mingled
in the construction of the sacred Word hay and wood with
pure gold and precious metal, the foundation does not
that when conferred after a public disputation it confers the right
of lecturing in the University where it is given, on the subject of
theology.
^Les Sources du Pentateuque, Paris, 1888.
Ubid. p. iv.
OLD TESTAMENT ] XTBODUl'TJOX. 7
remain less immutable, and the tire of criticism consumes
its imperfect elements."^
It will be seen that his standpoint with reference to
the criticism of the Pentateuch is entirely free, and he
claims for Christian scholars the utmost liberty of investi-
gation as conducive to the best interests of the Church.
The tirst volume is divided into three parts. The first
treats of tradition ; the second, of the precursors of criti-
cism; the third, of criticism itself. The latter is divided
into four chapters : The Documentary hypothesis ; The
Fragmentary hypothesis ; The Supplementary hypothesis.
In the fourth chapter, he returns to the Documentary hy-
pothesis.
In his discussion of the tradition he says, the first five
books of the Bible have been placed in the canon of the
Old Testament without the name of an author." These
first books recount the birth, the life and death of the leg-
islator of the Hebrews in somewhat the same way that the
first books of the new covenant recount the birth, the life
and the death of the Savior of mankind.
The parallel which may be drawn is, that as the Gospels
are about Christ and report His words, so the Pentateuch
is about Moses and gives an account of his words ; although
the Pentateuch does not claim Moses as its author any
more than the Gospels claim Jesus Christ as their author.
There is this difference, however, that certain writings in
the Pentateuch are clearly assigned to Moses, while none
in the New Testament are assigned to Christ.
Uhid. p. vi.
Hhid. p. 1.
8 OLD TFSTAJIFXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
Indeed, the position of Westplial and other Old Testa-
ment critics with regard to the traditions embodied in the
Pentateuch is similar to that maintained b}^ New Testa-
ment scholars with respect to the traditions concerning
('hrist contained in the fom- Gospels. They consider that
the four documents the}^ claim to find in the Pentateuch
are, as has been shown in a previous volume,^ blended to-
gether in much the same wa}^ as our Gospels were in the
Diatessaron of Tatian.
And there is the same difference of opinion among the
critics of the Pentateuch with regard to the age and hence,
with regard to the historical value of these different docu-
ments which compose the Pentateuch, that there is be-
tween New Testament scholars with reference to the his-
toricity of the four Gospels. In certain ways the book of
Deuteronomy, in its relation to the documents found in the
Pentateuch, may be compared with the book of John, in
respect to the differences which it presents when compared
with the other three Gospels.
Westphal asserts, in harmony with other Old Testa-
ment critics, that the Pentateuch, as has been intimated,
nowhere clearly claims Moses as its author. The author-
ship of Genesis is nowhere assigned to Moses. In the
middle books of the Pentateuch it is simply affirmed that
Moses wrote certain brief portions. The clearest claim which
seems to be made for the Mosaic authorship of any one
book is for that of Deuteronomy. But on examination
Westphal and others argue that this cannot be applied to
the whole book in an absolute sense, but, in any case, only
^Current Discussions in Theology, Chicao-o, 1887, vol. iv, p. 28.
OLD TESTA^FEXT fXTRODrcTION. 9
to the legal part of it ; and with this modification, that we
are not to understand that Moses wrote all of it in its
present form.
Westphal alludes to the fact that in Second Kings,
xvii, 13, which was written during the time of the Exile, ^
th^ authorship of the Jaw is not assigned to Moses, but to
God's servants, the prophets.-^ He argues from this, as
well as from Zechariah, vii, 12,'^ Ezra, ix, 10-12, that
the belief in Moses as the author of the Pentateuch did
not exist five centuries before Christ. He affirms that the
traditional idea of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch
was not established till a thousand years after the death of
Moses. ^ In the time of Philo, Josephus and Christ, the
belief in the Mosaic authorship was so firmly established
among the Jews that any one who might dare to question
it was in danp-er of losing eternal blessedness.
^Les Sources da Pentateuque, p. 6.
According to all the law wliicli I commanded j- our fathers, and
■which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets."
=*"Yea they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they
should hear the law and the words which the Lord had sent b^^ his
spirit by the hand of the former prophet."
*"L' idee tradition elle de I'origine mosaique du Pentateuque ne
fit done son apparition que mille ans, au bas mot, apres la mort de
Moise. Encore est ce d'une maniere tres vague et bien incertaine,
car rien ne nous permet d'identifier avec nos cinq livres le .sv'p/ier
Wrath Mosheh de Neh., viii., 1. Tout nous portc a croire, au con-
traire, que dans cette designation la partie est prise pour la tout, et
que le recueil des mitsevoth prescrits par les prophetes, dont Moise
fut le plus grand, recoit ici le nom de Sepher Mosheh, par la meme
raison que le recueil des thepMUoth, composes pan les chantres
religieux d' Israel, dont David fut le plus celebre, finit par sappeler
zd TOO Jai^io dans le second livre des Makkabees (ii., 13). Ainsi,
peu ti pen, toute prescription anonyme devint loi de Moise, de
meme que tout chant anonyme devint Psaume de David."
10 OLD TESTA}[EXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
In his admirable history of Pentateuch criticism,
which takes up the main part of the work, while he shows
that heretics and even Church Fathers did not always hold
consistently to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch,
none were found among the Jews who dared to question
until the time of a certain Isaaq, who seems to be the same
as Isaaq ben Suleiman, or Israeli, who is quoted by Ibn
Ezra, one of the most acute of the Jewish commentators,
who expressed his speculations in regard to the author-
ship of the Pentateuch in such an obscure way that they
were not understood by any except the few who were in
intellectual sympathy with him.^
Westphal brings down his sketch'of Pentateuch criti-
cism to the present time. His work is the most syste-
matic, valuable and complete that the writer has yet seen.
In the last part of his book he gives a portion of the Pen-
tateuch according to the three different authors.
Pentateuch criticism has for quite a time been domes-
ticated in America, and various articles which have ap-
peared in different Eeviews have showed that our American
scholars were not wanting in the understanding of these
critical questions,' or in the ability to handle them.
The ablest and most detailed discussion of this ques-
tion which has yet found place in our American publica-
tions is now going on in Hehraica, between Professor
Harper, of Yale University, and Professor Green, of Prince-
ton Theological Seminary. Neither of these debaters seems
to present anything essentially new ; the presentation of
each, however, bears sufficient marks of individuality.
^CL the writer's article in the Bihliotheca Sacra, Oberlin. 1884,
p. 6-8.
()Li> TicsTAMEyr ixmoDrcTiny. ii
Professor Harper fully accepts the moilern critical
analysis of the Pentateuch, although he is far from follow-
ing in the footsteps of Wellhausen. His treatment of the
subject is entirely unrestrained by an}^ theological pre-
possessions, or the fear of adverse criticism ; at the same
time his discussion is carried on in a good spirit.
Professor Green, as is well known, is a stout defender
of the traditional theory of the Mosaic authorship of the
Pentateuch; not because it is traditional, but because
he believes that this theor}' can command the most weighty
arguments in its favor. At the same time, he confesses
that it seems to him that the inferences which are drawn
b}' the critics from the composite character of the Penta-
teuch are subversive of the doctrine of inspiration as
usually held by our theologians. He is, therefore, all the
more earnest in seeking to overcome the positions taken
by the critics.
While he admits that the analysis of Genesis into the
different documents, as indicated by the critics, might be
held without disadvantage, since Moses could be regarded
as having used different documents in the composition of
this book,^ he stoutly refuses to see the evidences of such
documents in the Pentateuch as a whole. He denies that
there is any difference in style between the Elohist and
^Cf. with this view the theory of Astruc, the father of the analy-
sis of the Pentateuch, who says: "Moses had in his liand ancient
memoirs containing the history of his ancestors from. the creation
of the world; in order to lose nothing he separated them into bits,
following the facts which are there related; he inserted these bits
entire, one after another, and the Book of Genesis was formed
through this combination." See the writer's Sketches of Pentateuch
Crificism, in the Bibliofheca Sacra, Oberlin, 18b-i, p. 680.
12 OLD TESTAJIEyr EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
Yahvist, or that there are any parallel accounts. With
great skill he smoothes away the difdculties which criticism
has thrown upon the surface of the Pentateuch. It is a
question, however, whether the course of the arguments as
gathered from various critics who are substantially a unit
in regard to their analysis and in regard to the character-
istics of these different documents is fully met by this mode
of argumentation.^
There is, undoubtedly, a danger in undermining any
views which have been cherished for ages by Christ's dis-
cij)les. The discussion of what seem to be the founda-
tions of our faith opens the door for unbelievers to raise
objections to the genuineness of a Divine revelation. While
we might well wish to shield the w^eak and have the ten-
derest desire for the welfare of Christ's little ones, it must
be remembered that the Master Himself was not greatly
^Prof. Terry's Introduction to the Pentatencli in the first volume of
the Commentary on the Old Testament, NeAV York, 1889, pp. 5-48, is a
useful statement of the points involved from a conservative stand-
point. He says: 1. "Moses may have employed amanuenses to write
down his own words, and to arrange, compile, and transcribe various
documents according to dictation and desire. It might even be ad-
mitted that he himself wrote not a line of the Pentateuch in its
present form, and yet the work is as truly and genuinely his as the
epistle to the Romans is a genuine work of Paul
2. ' It is supposable that the discourses of Moses, as recorded in
Deuteronomy, were edited and furnished with their introductory
and supplementary narratives by Eleazar and Joshua.
3. ' It is also probable, and in accordance with the ancient tradi-
tion, that Ezra, the ready scribe in the Torah of Moses, which
Jehovah, the God of Israel, gave (Exra vii, 6), transcribed the entire
Pentateuch and added in the margin or inserted in the work itself
most of those words and passages which are generally believed to
have been added long after in the age of Moses."
-,' OLD TKSTAJIEXT IXTRODUCTIOX. 13
concerned to furnish an unbelieving generation witli a sign
from Heaven. If a man disbelieves, he disbelieves at his
own peril. It is clear that the criticism of the Sacred
Scriptures, while it is reverent, should be entirely untram-
meled, and it should be held as a fundamental principle,
that Christianity has nothing to fear from the honest criti-
cism of any of the books of the Pentateuch, or of the Old
Testament.
Some of our theories in regard to the inspiration of the
Scriptures may go to the wall, but the grand fact of Christ-
ianity, of its founder, Christ, and of the old covenant which
led up to Him can never be blotted out. They stand, im-
movable as the eternal hills. ^ But our theory of the origin
of certain books may change or not according to the
clearness of the evidence.
The position occupied by Professor Eiehm, in his Intro-
duction to the Old Testament,^ is one of absolute freedom.
He says that when he began his studies the Sacred Script-
ures were, in his eyes, written indeed by men, but com-
posed only by the Spirit of God. He did not admit that
there were errors or contradictions in the Bible, or that
any of its narratives were not strictly historical. He
affirms that this position can only be held by theologians
who have not thoroughly investigated the Old Testament.
He saj^s, "My standpoint is this: my entire Old Tes-
tament theology rests upon a persuasion of the actual
existence of a revelation of God in the Old Testament
through which there was a preparation made, and a founda-
»Cf. the writer's article in Our Day, Boston, 1889, vol. IV., pp. 184-
190.
^Einleihing in das Alte Testament, Halle, 1889.
14 OLD TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
tion laid for the revelation of God in the Son and in the
Kingdom of Christ. And the longer and more thoroughly
I am occupied with the Old Testament, the more firmly is
this persuasion established, and the more clearly does this
revelation stand forth as a fact before my eyes, 'ill its his-
torical workings and in its high significance. On the con-
trary, I discriminate, nevertheless, definitely that revela-
tion of God as a historical fact from the Holy Scriptures
as its documentar}^ attestation. Further, I am persuaded
that the unique religious dignity and authority of the Sa-
cred Scriptures is chiefly established in the relation in
which they stand to that revelation, but, that these Script-
ures, considered from the standpoint of literary history,
although they Vv^ere composed by men who were filled by
the Spirit of God, still arose in an entirely human and
historical way."^
It will be seen from this that Professor Eiehm, like
Professor Delitzsch, distinguishes between the revelation
made by God to His chosen people, and the history or
record of that revelation.^ In the Old Testament we have,
according to these ciitics, the record of the revelation, to-
gether with the history of its reception and effects. It
will also be seen that there is an important difference be-
tween this theory, which does not exclude a most consci-
entious and painstaking effort on the part of God's ancient
servants faithfully to record the laws, the teachings and
the events as they understood them under the guidance of
God's Spirit, and the theory which maintains that the Old
Ubid. p. 2.
-Prof. Delitzscli once gave liis views to the writer for publica-
tion, but they are not now at hand.
OLD T/:sTA.VE\T TNTHODUCTroX. 15
Testament Scriptures are themselves the revehition of God
to His people, given with unerring accuracy.
Professor Eiehm refers, in the statement of his stand-
point, to two articles in the Studicn und Kritiken; one by
himself in regard to the God-man character of the Sacred
Scriptures,^ the other by Professor Eothe in his article on
the Sacred Scriptures. -
In this Introduction, which comprises his course of
lectures as delivered to the theological students of the
University of Halle, he expresses the earnsest desire that he
may not shake the faith of any one of them, and that they
should not adopt his views because of his authority, but
rather examine them at their leisure after they have left
the university.
His work is of special value because, that in this
intricate subject of Pentateuch criticism, he gives not only
results but also processes. He says that his ultimate
object is nothing else than to show the foundation for a
belief in revelation which can stand before criticism.
In his discussion of the Pentateuch, as has been already
intimated, he finds no testimony in Genesis concerning
its author. The testimony of the first four books is not
that they were written by Moses, but on) y that small por-
tions were written by him. He finds in such expressions
as "And Jehovah spake to Moses," not so much an indi-
cation of writing as of the existence of oral tradition.
*'We are therefore led through the testimony of the first
four books to the supposition that Moses wa'ote only a
^Ueber den gottmenschlichen Character der heiligen Schrift, iu
Theologische Studien und Kritiken, Gotlia, 1859, pp. 304-320.
-Ibid. 18G0, Zur Dogmadk. Heilige Sclirift, pp. 7-108.
16 OLD TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
little with his own hand, and that he transmitted by far
the greater part of the legislation to posterity through oral
tradition, partly of the entire people, partly of the priests,
and that this oral tradition was first in later times fixed by
writing."^
His Slimming up in regard to Deuteronomy, which
seems to contain a definite statement that Moses wrote the
entire book (Deut. xxxi, 9), is as follows: "1. The
testimony of Deuteronomy does not relate to the rest of
the Pentateuch.^ 2. The testimony of Deuteronomy
cannot be taken to mean that the entire book was written
by Moses. 3. This testimony, which applies to iv, 44,-
xxviii, 69, does not indicate that it is an authentic copy
of the Mosaic law, but refers only to the work of the Deu-
teronomiker in which he does not attempt to discriminate
between the books of Moses and his own writing. 4. The
only part unmistakably assigned to Moses is Deuteronomy
xxxh."
After thus considering the testimony of tlie Pentateuch
regarding its author, the various theories regarding the
origin of the Pentateuch, he discusses the different codes.
The oldest of these is the Book of the Covenant, Exodus xx-
xxiii, incluchng the Decalogue (Exodus xx, 2-14), which,
as he says, is recognized as Mosaic, notwithstanding
the criticisms presented by Wellhausen, who assigns it
^Einleitung in das Alte Testament, Halle, 1889, p. 104.
-Prof. Delitzsch has shown, through the citation of Jewish
writers, Zeitschrift fiir die. gesammte lutherische Theologie und
Kirche, Leipzig, 1860, pp. 220-223, that the law alluded to in Deut.
xxxi, 9-11, which is to be read once in seven years, is Deuter-
onomy, and does not include the rest of the Pentateucli.
OLD TESTAMENT INTRODrcTToX. 17
to the time of Manasseh. Next in antiquity is "the hiwof
holiness," Leviticus xviii-xxvi. Contrary to those ^vho
are adherents of the school of Wellhausen, he maintains
that the middle books of the Pentateuch, including Exodus
xii, xxv-xxxi, and xxxv-xl, the book of Leviticus, with
the exception of "the law of holiness," and most of the
legal sections in Numbers i-x, xv-xix, xxv-xxxvi, are
older than the book of Deuteronomy; and that they do
not in any case belong to the post-exilic period.
Prof. Kiehm's Introduction to the Old Testament is still
incomplete. Of the parts which have already appeared,
365 pages are devoted to a discussion of the Pentateuch.
In this connection the history of the Old Testament
priesthood/ by Count Baudissin, may be mentioned as an
important contribution to the study of Pentateuch criticism.
Indeed, the object of this investigation is evidently with
reference to the -relative age of the documents in the Pen-
tateuch, according to the analysis of the critics.
The results of Baudissin's investigations lead him to
conclusions with reference to the age of these documents
very different from those reached by the school of Well-
liausen. He maintains, in opposition to those who hold
that the middle books of the Pentateuch were Avritten after
the exile, that the final editor of the Hexateuch was the
Deuteronomist.'-^ He believes that not only JE but also
P were in existence before Deuteronomy ; but not that JE
had been combined with P at that time. He thinks that
he sees an acquaintance on the part of D with the Sinaitic
law, as found in P.
^Die Geschichte des alttestamentUchen Priesterthums, Leipzig.
-Ibid. p. 233.
18 OLD TESTA JIE^T KXEGETlCAL THEOLOGY.
He says that the Deuteronomist appears to have
belonged to the second half of the Exile. When he speaks
of the Deuteronomist he does not mean the original author
of Deuteronomy, whom he assigns to an age at latest as
early as that of Josiah, but an author writing in the spirit
of the one who composed Deuteronomy, and who may
perhaps himself, or one who was in closest sympathy with
him, have been the author of the historical books of Judges,
Samuel and Kings in their modified form.^
The book is an interesting discussion of the special
theme which it treats in regard to the priests, and does
not suffer from the criticisms made by a Jewish author
who has written upon the same subject.^
The third edition of Strack's Introduction to the Old
Testament^ , which is a part of Zoeckler's Manual of The-
ological Sciences, was published in 18SS. This work, as is
well known, is published in the interest of the conservative
school of theology. Prof. Strack, however, in his brief
discussion of Pentateuch criticism, substantially adopts
the views of the modern critical school with reference to the
number of the documents which make up the Pentateuch.
He says: "In spite of the great popularity which the views
of Graf and Wellhausen enjoy at the present time, we are,
nevertheless, persuaded that an essential change in the
previous treatment of the history of Israel, and especially
of the activity of Moses, will not exist permanently."
" On the other hand, one result will certainly remain
Uhid. p. 235,
"Vogelstein, Der Kampf zicische.n Priestern iind Leviten seit den
Tagen Ezechiels, Stettin, 1889.
^Einleitung in das Alte Testament. Xoerdlingen, 1888.
()L I) TES T. 1 ME NT VXTROI) UCTION. 19
fixed — that the Pentateuch was not composed by Moses
himself, but was compiled by later editors out of several
sources. Against this result no believing Christian has
any occasion to contend, or to struggle any more than
against any result of true science. It is undeniable, and
at present as good as universally recognized, that in the
Sacred Scriptures, aside from the Divine factor, human
factors have also ver}' essentially been at work. Indeed,
the plurality of sources can be turned to the advantage of
the credibility of the Pentateuch." ^
Strack gives an important, although brief summing up,
with regard to the number, age and succession of the
documents as set forth by the following ten Old Testament
scholars : Noeldeke, Schrader, Dillman, Delitzsch, H.
Schultz, Wellhausen, Stade, Graf, Kayser, Eeuss.
He says: "Keil, who died on the 5th of May, 1888,
was almost the only German Old Testament scholar of any
note who still held fast to the Mosaic authorship of the
entire Pentateuch. If we leave this view aside, since this
firm maintenance of it rested less upon his own critical
investigations than upon his almost exclusive interest in
that which was theological, archaeological and philological,
the most important differences (which exist among the crit-
ics named) appertain to the Priests' Code." '^
Inasmuch as Strack admits the right of criticism, it is
not surprising that he should concede that the last twen-
ty-seven chapters of Isaiah were written in the time of the
Babjdonian exile. -^
Uhid. pp. 31-32.
'Ihid. p. 29.
Hbkl. p. 43.
2 OLD TESTAMEyr EXEGETK'AL THEOLOGY.
Job. — Professor Gilbert 1ms produced a valuable con-
tribution to Old Testament Introduction in his treatise on
"The Poetry of Job."^ It is the result of careful study
under favorable circumstances, and represents the consum-
mation of his efforts to secure the degree of Doctor of Philos-
ophy at the University of Leipzig. The " translation aims to
give the particular rhythmical movement of the original."
The book is divided into two parts, the first of which con-
sists of the translation ; the second treats of the interpre-
tation of the poem, including a brief analysis of the book,
a discussion of nature in the poem, of the animal king-
dom, human life, and the poet's conception of God.
The following lines give a specimen, not only of the
poetical translation, but also of the rendering of one of
the most important passages in the book :
" Pity me, pity me, ye my friends I
For the hand of Eloah hath touched me.
0 whj'' pursue me like God,
And be not filled with my flesh?
O now that my words were writ down,
O were they inscribed in the book!
With an iron pen and with lead
Forever engraved in the rock!
But I know my Eedeemer doth live,
And later shall rise o'er the dust.
Then after my skin, thus beat off,
And free from my'flesh I'll see God;
Whom I for myself shall see,
And my eyes behold, and no stranger."
So hopeful a beginning in Old Testament work makes
^The Poetry of Job, by George H. Gilbert, Ph. D., Professor of
New Testament Literature and Interpretation in the Chicago Theo-
logical Seminary, Chicago, McClurg & Co., 1889.
OLD TESTA JIEXT IXTHnnrCTinX. 31
US regret that the author was not permitted to continue his
special studies in this department. We desire, however,
to congratulate New Testament scholars on the accession
of a man of such scholarly habits and instincts to their
ranks.
The Song of Songs. — Rev. William Elliot Griffis, D. D.,
of the Shawmut Congregational Church, Boston, has given
a noble example of what may be done by a busy pastor
in the line of useful scholarship and authorship. His
book entitled "The Lily Among Thorns^^' a study of the
BibUcal drama entitled the "Song of Songs," -^ is an honor
to him as well as to our American clergymen. While
the work presents nothing particularly new, to those who
are familar with the criticism of this beautiful love song,
it is the most attractive, and perhaps the most complete
presentation of modern theories in English dress. He
rejects the allegorical interpretation of the poem, and sees
in it rather the effort to present a picture of pure love as a
lesson to men and women of all times. The work consists
of three parts: 1, history and criticism; 2, the text in
the Eevised Version ; 3, studies and comments.
The three main characters, according to the theory pro-
sented by Dr. Griffis, are Solomon, the beautiful Shula-
mite, and her faithful country lover, to whom she remains
true amid all the seductions of the court of the most pow-
erful Israelitish king.
It seems to us that the book is far more useful when
we lay aside the allegorical interpretation, and adopt that
which does not seek to read anything between the lines.
'Boston, 1890.
^2 OLD TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
The allegorical interpretation has evidentl}^ arisen from a
desire to find in Scripture, and in this particular Scripture,
what it was thought should be its special teaching. It is
true that the idea oi' the relationship between Jehovah and
His covenant people as husband and wife, and between
Christ and the Church as bridegroom and bride, is often
found in the Bible. But we have no authority, except that
of Jewish and Christian interpreters, for the allegorical
interpretation which makes such a sensualist as Solomon
stand for Christ, and the Shulamite represent the
Church.
Joel. — The Introduction to the Old Testament^ by Pro-
fessor Kuenen, of w4iich the first volume on the Hexateuch
has appeared, has already been noticed in a previous vol-
ume. The second volume which treats of the prophetic
books of the Old Testament, including the major and
minor prophets, has recently been issued. Kuenen's gen-
eral critical views, which are well known from the English
translation of his works, need not detain us. But it is
interesting to see that he has entirely changed his theory
with reference to the origin of the Book of Joel. As is
well known, some of the critics maintain that this is one
of the oldest books among the Prophets ; others that it is
one of the youngest. Professor Kuenen, in the old edition
of his Introduction, held that Joel prophesied during the
first half of the reign of Joash, between b78 and 858 B. C
The book contains so much that is favorable to the
early origin of the ritual of the middle books of the Pen-
^Historisch-Critisch Onderzoek naar het Ontstaan en ch Verza-
meliny van tie Boeken des Ouden Verbonds, Leiden, 1889. The first
edition was published in Leiden, 1863.
OLD TESTAMENT INTRODUCTION. 23
tateucli, that critics of the modern school are incHned to
assign to it a much later date.
Knenen now holds that Joel was written after, rather
than hefore, the year 400 B. C, for the following reasons :
Judali no longer has Israel for a neighbor, but is itself
Israel. No king of the royal court is named in the
prophecy. The people are ruled by their elders ; next them
stand the priests of the Temple at Jerusalem, the only
sanctuary which Joel knows. He evidently assigns a high
value to the worship in this Temple, especially to the daily
sacrifice. ^
There is some danger of the critics reasoning in a
circle in reference to the age of this book. If it can be
proved that there was no king at the time when it was
written, and that all the circumstances conform to the time
of the second Temple, then we must admit a post-exilic
origin ; but it must be remembered that a large number of
scholars firmly hold the older date of the book, although
the tendency at the present time is probably indicated in
the view quoted from Kuenen.
Uhid. pp. 341, 354.
CHAPTEE II.
OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS.
In our discussion of this subject we shall have reference
almost exclusively to the Introduction, in the commenta-
ries mentioned, to the various Old Testament books. An
interesting series of commentaries, already known to our
American scholars, is in the process of publication, called
" The Expositor's Bible." The method is not that of treat-
ing individual passages, but rather of a free discussion of
entire chapters.
While some of the volumes in the series are based
upon the results of scientific criticism, others seem to fall
below the standard in this respect.
Genesis. — Professor Dods, in his chapter entitled
"The Creation," comprising Genesis I and II, indicates that
he is an adherent of a freer method of interpretation than
that followed by many. He says we are not to look to the
Bible as a source of scientific information. *' No one for
a moment dreams of referring a serious student of these
subjects to the Bible as a source of information. It is not
the object of the writers of Scripture to impart physical
instruction, or to enlarge the bounds of scientific knowl-
edge. But if any one wishes to know what connection the
world has v/ith God, if he seeks to trace back all that now
is to the very fountain-head of life, if he desires to dis-
OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS. 25
cover some unifying principle, some illuminating purpose
in the history of this earth, then we confidently refer him
to these and the subsequent chapters of Scripture as his
safest and indeed his only guide to the information he
seeks. '^^
We consider this position taken by Dr. Dods as really
a correct one. As we shall indicate elsewhere, we do not
think that the Bible was intended to teach science; and we
quite agree with Dr. Dods when he says : "All attempts to
force its statements into such accord [with science] are fu-
tile and mischievous. They are futile, because they do not
convince independent inquirers, but only those who are
unduly anxious to be convinced, and they are mischievous
because thej^ unduly prolong the strife between Scripture
and science, putting the question on a false issue." ^
Dr. Dods rightly apprehends the design of the writer
when he says in connection with Genesis iv, "it is not his
purpose to write a history of the world. It is not his pur-
pose to write even a history of mankind. His object is to
write a history of redemption."^ He finds that the key-
note has been struck in the promise that the seed of the
woman should prevail over the seed of the serpent.
In this unbiased way Dr. Dods proceeds throughout
the book, which is likely to be us3ful and helpful to all who
wish to make a practical use of Genesis.
Samuel. — The commentary on First and Second Sam-
uel by Rev. W. G. Blaikie, of the New College, Edinburgh,
^The Book of Genesis, New York [without date], p. 1.
=/^«V.p. 4.
'Ibid. p. 28.
26 OLD TESTAMENT EXEOETICAL THEOLOGY.
is less satisfactory, and does not seem to be especially
based on critical study.
This may arise from the fact that Professor Blaikie's
department is not that of Old Testament literature and in-
terpretation, but of practical theology. ^ Perhaps there is
no book in the Old Testament which furnishes greater
room for a careful study of the text than that of Samuel.
Besides, those questions which occasion difficulty to Bible
students seem to have been entirely passed by, and only a
practical discussion of the question has been given.
Isaiah. — The commentary on Isaiah, ^ by Piev. G. A.
Smith, belongs to the same class of critical exegesis which
we have marked in the commentary on Genesis. The treat-
ment of the prophecy is highly creditable to the author
and useful to the student. Mr. Smith has taken special
pains to discuss the prophecy with reference to its histori-
cal setting. The plan that he has adopted for grouping
Isaiah's prophecies is as follows : he considers that those
which fall within Isaiah's time were determined chiefly by
four Assyrian invasions of Palestine : "The first, in 73-1-732
B. C, by Tiglath-Pileser II, while Ahaz was on the throne ;
the second by Shalmanassar and Sargon, in 725-720, dur-
ing which Samaria fell, in 721; the third by Sargon, 712-
710; the fourth by Sennacherib, in 701, which last three
occurred while Hezekiah was king of Judah. " ^
He says further, taking all these dates into considera-
tion: "I have placed in Book I all the prophecies of Isaiah
'See Scliaff, Encyclopedia of Living Divines, New York, 1887,
p. 19.
•The Book of Isaiah, New York [without datej.
Ibid. p. xi.
OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS. 27
from Ins call in 740 to the death of Ahaz, in 727. . . Book
II deals with the prophecies from the accession of Heze-
kiah in 727 to the death of Sargon in 705. . . Book III is
tilled with the prophecies from 705 to 702. . . Book IV con-
tains the prophecies which refer to Sennacherib's actual
invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem in 701."
As a specimen of his method we find that in chapter
vii, with all modern critics, he gives up the translation of
"almah'' as virgin, and renders it ''the young woman of mar-
riageable age,^' but at the same time he full}^ accepts the
Messianic character of the passage.
EzEKiEL AND THE MiNOR Prophets. — The Commentary
by Orelli on these prophets,^ which is a volume in the se-
ries by Strack and Zoeckler, is an example of a work wiiich is
both practical and critical. The plan of the work is : lirst,
to give a literal translation of the text ; second, notes which
are grammatical and critical ; third, to indicate the con-
tents in a way which will be clear to a layman who is un-
acquainted with Hebrew. Hence the commentary is use-
ful from a critical and practical standpoint. We cannot
delay with his exposition of the prophecy of Ezekiel, but
pass on to his discussion of some of the minor prophets.
Joel. — In contradistinction to many of the modern
critics, he considers that the book of Joel was written before
the Exile and belongs to one of the oldest prophecies. He
places it in the age of King Joash, on literary and his-
torical grounds.
Jonah. — Orelli is among the few German critics Avho
regard the book of Jonah as based upon actual history.
'i)(t.s Buck Esechiel _und die Zwolf Kleineii Propheten, Nord-
lingen, 1888.
28 OLD TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
With Keil lie seems inclined to believe that the events
narrated in it occurred substantially as described, and that
they had their justification in the use which was made of
them by Christ as typifying his own death and resurrection ;
although he is not inclined to affirm that if Jesus' resurrec-
tion was a bodily fact, the stay of Jonah in the belly of the
fish must be a fact of history.
Zechariah. — With reference to Zechariah, he takes a
decided position against a unity of authorship. While the
first part, chapters i-viii, was written after the Exile, he
considers that chapters ix-xi are to be regarded as a
prophecy by a younger contemporary of Hosea. Chapters
xii-xiv, on the other hand, are from an entirely differ-
ent age, which he maintains was subsequent to the
death of Josiali at Megiddo ; hence in the period of
Jeremiah.
The series of commentaries, of which the volume just
mentioned is one, belongs, as is well known, to the con-
servative school of theology in Germany.
Job. — Professors Yolck of Dorpat and Oettli of Berne
are joint authors of the Poetical Hagiographa^ belonging to
the same series as that just noticed. The commentary on
Job is by Professor Yolck.
He does not hold that the book of Job is actual history,
or that the events occurred as narrated there, but that they
are presented in a dramatic form. The hero of the book
is not an Israelite, but one of those pious servants of the
true God who lived outside of Israel. He does not consider
it necessary to argue against the early authorship of the
^Dle Pjetischen Hagiog-aphen, Nordlingen, 1889.
OLD TKSTAMKXT i:XK(n:slS. 29
book, before the time of Moses, for he says thcat at the
present day it does not require any refutation. On the
other hand, he does i:ot admit that it was written after the
Exile. He thinks that it was probably composed about
the year 700 B. C. This seems to him to be supported by
the fact that in the time of Hezekiah, 727-698 B. C, the
composition of proyerbs (xxv, 1) receiyed a new impulse.
The discourses of Elihu, which with other critics he main-
tains were the product of another hand, were composed
during the sixth century B. C.
He argues decidedly against the deriyation of the
doctrine concerning Satan from Parseeism.
EccLESiASTES. — The commentary on the book of
Ecclesiastes is by the same author. He says the supposi-
tion that this book originated with Solomon can now be
considered as fully disproyed ; and that the artificial name
Koheleth, which is assigned to the son of Dayid and King
of Jerusalem, shows that the representation that a son of
Dayid is speaking here is to be recognized as a fiction.
From the lexical peculiarities of the book, in which
there are many Aramaic elements, he concludes that it was
not wTitten until the Persian period, and that the place of
its composition was in Jerusalem.
Solomon's Song And Jjamentations. — The commentary
on Solomon's Song, not to speak of that on Lamentations,
is by Oettli, professor of theology at Berne. He takes the
ordinary critical yiew in regard to the dramatic form of the
book. Like most modern scholars, he rejects the allegorical
interpretation of it. With them, he considers that Shula-
mith remained true to her shepherd loyer in the midst of all
the seductions of Solomon's court. He says that the dis-
80 OLD TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
courses of Shulamith, and of her friend are pure, while those
of Solomon and the court ladies are not so in an equal degree.
With reference to the vie^v of those who consider Solomon
the beloved one he remarks: "No one in the entire Israel-
itish history is less adapted than Solomon to represent the
mystery of wedded love." This is undoubtedly true.
With reference to the time of composition, he maintahis
that it was written in the first half of the tenth century
B. C, in the generation following the time of Solomon, and
that the object of the composition is to set forth a pure
human love.
Chronicles. — Professors Oettli and Meinhold have
issued a commentary in the series, on the Historical Hagio-
grapha.^
It is well known that the tendency of scholarship is to
throw doubt upon the credibility of the book of Chronicles.
It is regarded, at best, as written so strongly with a par-
ticular end in view as to cause an actual, if not a delib-
erate misrepresentation of the facts of history.
While Oettli admits that the author has represented
history according to the standpoint of his time, he never-
theless claims that the author of the books of Chronicles
has made use of many good sources. Indeed, there is no
work in the Old Testament which refers to so many docu-
ments as the book of Chronicles. Oettli shows that there
is evidence that the chronicler has not drawn merely
upon his imagination for those points in which he diverges
from the books of Kings and Samuel. He concedes, how-
ever, that his writings are inferior as a source of Old Tes-
1 Die Ctschichtlichcn Hagiographen, Nordlingen, 1889.
OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS. 31
tament history, to those of the parallel historical books,
because the text has been less carefully preserved, and be-
cause of the strong subjectivity with which the author
treats the history.
Ezra and Nehemiah. — The books of Ezra and Nehe-
miah were reckoned by the Jews as one book, and were
known by the name of Ezra. The commentary on these
is by Professor Oettli. He considers that they were based
on good, historical memorials. He finds in them a history
of the post-exilic congregation from the first year of Cyrus
(Ezra i, 1), to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes (^Neh.
xiii, 6), hence from 536 to 433 B. C, although many im-
portant connecting links are omitted. From this period
we have the history of the following years : Exra i-vi, de-
scribing the years 536-516; Ezra vii-x, the years 458-457,
while the entire intermediate period from 516 to 458 is
passed over; Neh. i-vii treats of the years 445 and 444,
while the j^ears 457-445 are entirely neglected. Chapters
viii-x of Nehemiah fall in the years immediately follow-
ing until 433.
Following in the footsteps of other critics, he considers
it impossible that either Ezra or Nehemiah should be the
author of the book called by his name ; for in Neh. xii,
10-11 the hst of high priests is given from Jeshua to
Jaddua ; hence the book could not have received its final
form until the time of Alexander the Great.
EuTH. — The commentary on Ruth, which is also by the
same author, is considered, contrary to many critics, as
furnishing true history, and as affording clear evidence of
being written while Israel had a grand history behind it as
well as a grand future before it. Perhaps in the same age
when the books of Samuel were composed.
32 OLJ) TESTA3IEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
Esther. — The commentary on the book of Esther is
also by Oetth. He considers that the object of the book
was to give a historical explanation of the traditional fes-
tival of Purim. As is well known, the name of God does
not once occur in this book. The reason of this may have
come from the extreme reverence which in later times led
the Jews to avoid the profanation of the divine name, es-
pecially perhaps in connection with the joyful celebration
of the Purim festival. He argues in favor of the histori-
cal character of the book, and considers it necessary to
assume this in order to explain the origin of the Purim
festival.
CHAPTEE III.
OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
During the past year, three works have been pub-
lished covering the entire subject of Old Testament Theol-
ogy. Two of them were issued after the death of their
authors, who were professors in the University of Halle.
The third is the fourth edition of Schultz's Old Testament
Theology.^ Together, they form the most important con-
tribution w^hich has been made in any one year to the study
of the subject, and are all worthy of translation into Eng-
lish, especially the treatise by Schultz.
As the works of Eiehm^ and Schlottmann^ were not
revised by their authors with reference to publication, they
do not possess that finish in detail which might have been
expected if their authors had been permitted to carry them
through the press.
Professors Riehm and Schlottmann occupied a position
which in Germany would be called conservative. This
remark is particularly true of the latter, although neither
of them would fall into this category from the prevailing
standpoint of our American theologians.
1 Altte8tamentliche Theologie, GottlDgen, 1889.
2 AlttestamentUche Theologie, Halle, 1889.
^ Kompendium der Biblischen Theologie des Alien und Neuen Testa-
ments, Leipzig, 1889.
34 OLD TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY,
Professor Schultz takes a position nearer that of the
school of Wellhausen, though differing from him in essen-
tial points. His work is of exceeding importance, be-
cause it makes such an application of critical theories as
to show that a constructive criticism can rise upon the
ruins of that which is commonly regarded as destructive.
No unbiased student can read the work of Schultz
without admiring his profound knowledge of the Old Tes-
tament, with which he seems to be saturated, and the
reverent spirit which pervades the book, and without feel-
ing that whatever criticism may prove we have a settled
ground for our belief in the inspired character of the Old
Testament Scriptures.
The treatise by Professor Schlottmann, which is called
a Compendium of Biblical Theology of the Old and New
Testaments, is especially to be commended for its logical
method and clear presentation of the subject.
We shall confine ourselves to that part only which re-
lates to the Old Testament.
After a definition of the idea of Biblical theology in the
ordinary acceptation of the term as the scientific repre-
sentation of Biblical teaching in its historical development,^
he treats of the origin of Biblical theology, which he dates
back about one hundred years, and of which an ad-
mirable historical sketch is furnished bv Professor Piiehm.-
^ Cf. Current Discussions in Theology, Chicago, 1887. Vol. IV, p.
48.
- The first who treated this subject, but from a rationalistic stand-
point, was Gabler, 1787. The principles which hS laid down were
carried out by G. L, Bauer, 1796. A further advance in the dis-
cussion of the subject, although of a superficial character, wasmade
by G. P. C. Kaiser, 1813. De Wette marks a still further stage in
OLD TESTA MEyr TIIEOLOGY. 35
In the strict acceptation of the term, however, BibHcal
theology must be regarded as a product of the scientific
system of exegesis developed during the last fifty years.
While Schultz maintains that the Apocryphal writings
of the Old Testament can be used only in an explanatory
way,^ Schlottmann considers them an important connect-
ing link between the Old and New Testaments.-
Biblical theology is the completion of the historical and
critical study of the trained exegete. Its relation to the
scientific treatment of Biblical history is the same as the
history of doctrine to that of universal Church history.
Schlottmann considers it as the norm and corrective
for systematic theology. His division of the subject is
as follows: 1. The Primitive Tradition ; 2. The Law; 8.
Prophecy; -I. The Theocratic Consciousness of the Con-
gregation; 5. Post-canonical Judaism.
His views regarding the primitive tradition are, that the
primitive history of mankind (Genesis i-xi) and the
patriarchal history (Genesis xii-1) do not rest on a reve-
lation made to Moses, but that they rather contain rem-
iniscences of an original revelation and of the real facts of
Divine guidance, not only in the most ancient periods of
the human race, but also in the time of the patriarchs.
While these reminiscences, from a necessity of the degree
of human development in the time when they originated.
tliis department, 3813. Vatke, 1835, and Bruno Bauer, 1839, prepared
works from the standpoint of the Hegelian philosophy. Not to
mention several other names, we come to the real founders of Bib-
lical theology, Oehler, Schultz and Ewald.
^Alttestamentliche Theoloqie, Gottingen, 1889, p. 11.
•Kompendium der Biblischen Theologie, Leipzig, 1889, p. 2.
36 OLD TESTAMENT EXEUETli'AL THEOLOGY.
have been partially expressed in a poetic symbolism, they
are not mere myths, in accordance with the claim of
Sclmltz, as we shall see later on J
In like manner the true significance of the patriarchal
religion is only recognized when it is understood and rep-
resented as a general historical pre-supj)osition of Mosa-
ism.^
He tindstwo stages in the primitive Mosaic tradition : 1.
the primitive religion; 2. the patriarchal religion. The
history of creation is a primitive tradition of mankind
which was preserved in greatest purity by the faithful.
The deviations which we find in other national forms of
the tradition are due to the disturbing influences of
heathenism. We are to discriminate two factors in this
tradition: that of the Divine revelation, and that of human
meditation on the works of God. Whatever may be true
of the account of creation on its natural side, it is not a
miraculous anticipation of the results of modern scientific
research. Such a theory involves an artificial treatment
of the text without any satisfactory results. It belongs
rather to the human factor as affected by the time when it
was produced. It is not designed to give any laws to
science in its special department. It only affords a ptand-
ard for the way in which, at all times, the human knowledge
of the gradual development and of the fixed order in
nature is to be harmonized with the Divine factor set
forth in the Biblical history of creation.^'
nud. p. 6.
2/6 id. p. 8.
Uhid. p. 9.
OLD TKSTAMEXT Til i:<)JJ)(l Y. 37
He does not consider the serpent an instrument of evil
spirits, as there is not the least allusion to this fact, but
rather, the evil spirit himself is symbolically represented
through this cunning reptile.^
In his view of the patriarchal religion, while he admits
that the reminiscences of the patriarchal period are par-
tially expressed only in a symbolical and poetical form, the
historical characteristics of it are to be recognized, not
only internally but also externally.'-^
The revelations made to the patriarchs are distinguished
from those of an earlier period in two particulars : 1, in
the announcement of a special people who are to be dis-
tinguished from the heathen through a true worship of God,
and 2, through a universal salvation which is to be expected
in the fulness of time. The first element is especially em-
phasized by the Elohist, the second by the Jehovist.
The Old Testament theology by Professor Eiehm is a
much more elaborate work than that by his colleague,
Professor Schlottmann. It covers 440 pager, is limited
to the Old Testament, and is illustrated by learned notes.
His work is a much more valuable contribution to the
subject than the posthumous volume of Professor Kayser.'^
His treatise is divided into three parts : Mosaism, Prophet-
ism and Judaism. Mosaism includes not only the direct
teaching of Moses, but his fundamental thoughts as adapted
to the needs of the people in religious and political institu-
tions by the priests, and as developed by them from the
Ubid. p. 11.
-Ibid. p. 13.
'C'lrrent Discussions in TJieology, Chicago, Vol. iv, pp. 51-5'
SS OLD TEST AM EXT EXEUETICAL THEOLOGY.
time of Moses until that of Samuel. Prophetism extends
from the time of Samuel until the extinction of prophecy
and the restoration of the theocracy through Ezra and
Nehemiah. Judaism extends from the time just indicated
to the New Testament period, although the latter houndary
is rather implied than stated by the author.^
In the first part of the historical introduction, Kiehm
considers the difference between the Old Testament religion
and the other religions of antiquity, in its conceptions of
God, in its ethical character, and in its being the religion
of hope.
The Old Testament religion, in its essential differences
from all the other religions of antiquity, is neither a product
of a universal human capacity for religious ideas, nor a
mere product of the natural development of one of the Sem-
itic races possessing an especial gift for monotheism,- as
Eenan has claimed. Hence, the religion of Israel is, in its
origin, a religion of revelation. The other religions are
products of the natural development of il'^Q religious spirit
of mankind.^
He then discusses the characteristics which the Old
Testament religion has in common with the other religions
of antiquity: 1, as a religion of the people; 2, as con-
nected with a definite holy place, that is with the national
sanctuary ; 3, in a special priesthood ; 1, in popular forms.
'Alttestamentliche Theologle, Halle, 1889, p. 11.
"Cf. Renan, Nouvelles considerations sur le caractere general des
j>euples Semitiques, et en particulier sur leur tendence au monothe-
isme, in the Journal Asiatique, 1859. Eielnn saj's his position is his-
torically without foundation.
Alttestamentlickt Theologie, Halle, 1889, pp. 20-27.
OLD TESTAMENT TUEOLOGY. 39
customs and ceremonies. T.hat which the Old Testament
rehgion has in common with the other reHgions of an-
tiquity was willed by God, was designed for the training of
the people, and had its Divine justification in the age of
the Old Testament economy.^
He next surveys the essential connection of the Old
Testament with Christianity, as w^ell as the differences be-
tween the two. The connection consists in the selt-
revelation of God in both dispensations, and in the
moral and religious knowledge which Christianity every-
where pre-supposes and upon which it is founded. Old
Testament piety, in all its essential elements, is the same
as that of the New. In the foundation and establish-
ment of the Old Testament Divine State, all the chief ele-
ments in the counsel of redemption and in the idea of the
Kingdom of God come to a realization ; hence, in the en-
tire old covenant the new is typically prefigured, and Chris-
tianity in the Old Testament religion. The establishment
of a true fellowship with God, and of a perfect Kingdom of
God, which is attained in Christianity, is also the end of
the Old Testament religion. Christianity is, therefore, the
fulfillment of Old Testament promise and hope. The Old
Testament law stands in a theological and pedagogical re-
lation to this end, and the entire progress of development
of the Old Testament religion in prophetism moves tow^ards
its goal as found in Christianity. ^
Eiehm traces the following differences between the Old
Testament religion and Christianity^ which all have their
common ground in the fact that first through the sending
Hhid, pp. 27-30.
Hhid. pp. 32-3G.
40 OLD testa:)iext exeoetical theology.
of the Son as the Mediator of revelation and salvation, and
through his redemptive work, the complete spiritual and
moral fellowship with God, which consists in the indwell-
ing of God in the individual hearts of all, is established,
and the Kingdom of God is founded as a Kingdom of
Heaven. As an outgrowth of this idea, he discriminates
the following elements : That which is essentially new in
Christian religious knowledge is the knowledge of the real
union of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ for
the purpose of carrying out the complete plan of God con-
cerning mankind.
With reference to the life and fellowship with God,
Clyistianity is distinguished from the Old Testament re-
ligion in the following particulars: 1, there is a firm foun-
dation in it for a constant and perfect certainty of the
forgiveness of sins, which can be secured by all ; 2, of a
personal fellowship of each individual with God through
the constant indwelling of God's Spirit in the heart ; 3, in
the consciousness that one thus attains as belonging to
God, there is the full assurance of being His child. In
connection with this, Christianity has no special priesthood
who have the calling as mediators of salvation, and no
continual atoning sacrifice.
Since through Christ the perfect moral and spiritual
fellowship with each individual is established, the King-
dom of God is no more, as in the Old Testament, an ex-
ternal, national, Divine State, but a spiritual kingdom
which, as such, is raised above all national peculiarities.
Hence, the New Testament universalism first breaks
through th£ national particularism of the Old Testament.
In th^ Old Testament the religion of the Kingdom o
OLD TESTA MI'J XT TlIEOLOdV. 41
(rod appears as belonging to this earth, and to this hfe.
Heaven and earth, the other worhl and this, come in con-
tact cnl y in the sacred places of God's presence upon earth ;
otherwise they are completely separated from each other.
Only this world is the place of human life, human fellow-
s]]ip and the completion of salvation. Hence, the rela-
tion ^ f Old Testament promises and threatenings to the
present hfe, and only scattered presentiments of a future
communion with God after death. Christ, on the other
hand, as the one who came from Heaven and as again
raised to Heaven, founded in connection with complete
communion with the eternal God the Kingdom of God,
as a Kingdom of Heaven upon the earth; that is, as a
kingdom in which this present world and the future world
are most intimately connected, and are so related that the
development of human life and the relationship of the in-
dividual to God attains its decided conclusion and comple-
tion in the future life, in the samxe manner as the develop-
ment of Christian fellowship. Therefore, the threatenings
as well as the promises relate in Christianity to the future
life, and hence, the Christian has the clear and certain
hope of eternal life, which the believer in the old covenant
did not enjoy. ^
In the second part of the historical introduction Eiehm
treats of the religious pecularities of the Semites.
The religion of the Semitic race must have been sim-
ple and relatively pure, especially without a developed
mythology, and without real images ; but it possessed sa-
cred stones and trees and teraphim, which served as rep-
Uhiih pp. 3G-i2.
42 OLD TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
resentatives of the Deity from whom they sought informa-
tion. We may form certain conchisions from the common
pecuharities of the rehgions of the Semitic peoples which
show that they formed an especially favorable ground for
the founding of the Old Testament religion.
The following are the religious peculiarities of the Se-
mitic stock: 1. The uncommon energy with which the reli-
gious spirit and bent make themselves felt as ruling the
entire current of the people's life, and which easily put
all other interests in the background; 2. In connection
with this unique character of the religious spirit is the pre-
dilection of the Semitic peoples for special deities for their
peoples and families. Each tribe had its own peculiar
God, as a representative of its nationality in the world of
gods, to whom all other gods were easily subordinated. In
this expressed predilection for a god of the people lay a
connecting link for monotheism ; 3. Moreover, out of this
religious energy among the Semitic peoples grew an espe-
cially strong tendency to know the will and counsel of the
Deity, and hence, an unusual development of the lower
and higher forms of prophecy. This religious character-
istic, therefore, was significant for the founding of a reli-
gion through the self -revelation of the living God; 4. A
most important characteristic of the Semitic religion is,
that the idea of God was not so intimately and immedi-
ately connected as in the Indo-Germanic religions with the
concrete, sensuous and visible individual essences and ele-
ments of nature, but especially Avith the universal and ab-
stract representations of the great powers and forces which
are active in nature. Hence, the names of God are mostly
conceptions of attributes which indicate power and lord-
OLD TESTA^fEXT THEOLoaY. 43
ship. This peculiarity of the religion of the Semites was
not a preservative against polytheism, but there always
remained a consciousness of the exaltation of Deity above
the human world, and of His Almighty power over all cre-
ated existences : 1. Every representation of the Deity was
therefore principally found in the heights of Heaven, es-
pecially in the stais; 2. They remained, instead of images,
symbols of the Deity for a long time. In the oldest and
most simple form of the Semitic religion this consciousness
of the exaltation of the Deity above the human world must
have become much stronger and purer, thus rendering this
domain of religion especially favorable for the develop-
ment of monotheism.^
With reference to the religion of the patriarchs, Kiehm
says that they worshiped a true God. In this respect Abra-
ham differed from the rest of his tribe, who were sunken
in idolatry ; in case he used the plural form Elohim, he
did not understand it in a polytheistic sense.-
So far as the patriarchal consciousness of God is con-
cerned, the first and most prominent elements in their ideal
of Him was His omnipotence, as appears from such old
Semitic designations as El and perhaps, also, Elohnii. El
represented God as the strong one, Elohim as the object of
fear and adoration. After Abraham had recognized the
contrast between his worship of God and that of the poly-
theistic Canaanites through God's self-revelation, he called
Him the Most High, and the Creator of the heavens and
earth, and worshiped Him as El Shaddai, that is, as the God
who exercises all power over the weak gods of the Canaanites.
^Alttestamentliche Theologie, Halle, 188'J, pp. 43-40.. |
■Ibid. p. 47.
44 OLD TESTA3IEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
The patriarchs, according to the ancient tradition, wor-
shiped God under tliese names, and accordingly^ until the
time of Moses, El and Shaddai are used as component
parts of proper names, but not Yahwe.
In connection with the Almighty Power of God in the
j^atriarchal conception of Him, we have the moral ele-
ments. The special relation which the patriarchs had to
their tribal God led to a particular feeling of dependence on
Him. Hence, the God of the patriarchs entered into a
close relationship with His worshipers, and used His Di-
vine power for their good. In connection with this was
the consciousness that they were under obligations to do
that which was pleasing to Him. The external sign of this
obligation was introduced by Abraham as circumcision.
The revelation and presence of God, and hence com-
munion W'ith Him, was joined in the belief of the patri-
archs wdth a definite sacred place, and especially with the
land of Canaan. The places which appear in the tradi-
tion are especially Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, and Beer-
sheba. But also Mount Sinai, as among many tribes of
Arabs, was considered by the Israelites, even in the pre-
Mosaie period, as a sacred mountain of God. The wor-
ship of the patriarchs was simple, and w^as exercised in
the open air. Old Semitic customs prevailed to this ex-
tent that in part great old trees, stones which were raised
up and were anointed with oil, served indeed, not as S3'm-
bols of God himself, but probably as sacred monuments
and signs of Divine presence.
In Egypt, the patriarchal religion was partially cor-
rupted through the worship of the old Semitic symbol of a
OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY. 45
steer, and was partially supplanted by that of other
gods.^
Eiehm speaks of Moses as called by God and ap-
pointed through great miracles as the leader of the people.
All his laws and ordinances are given as the mediator of
revelation in the name and by the command of Jehovah.^
Schultz differs essentially from the preceding authors
in his treatment of Old Testament theology.^ Instead of
dividing his subject under the three heads of Mosaism,
Prophetism, Judaism, as is done by Eiehm, he considers,
first : The historical development of religion and morals
among the Israelites, until the foundation of the Hasmon-
ean state ; and then, The religious views of Israel as the
result of the religious history of the people.
In an introduction extending over seventy-seven pages,
he discusses the idea and method of Biblical theology, lit-
erary forms in the writings of the Old Testament, the re-
ligion of the Old Testament in connection with the history
of religions, the relation betw^een the Old and New Testa-
ment, the periods and sources of the Old Testament religion,
closing with a survey of the literature of Old Testament
theology.
Perhaps the most important and interesting part of
this introductory matter for English readers is the view
which he presents in regard to "sage" and myth (Sage und
Mythus.) He maintains that the history of Israel begins
like all other histories wdth ''sage,"'* and the religious
Ubid. pp. 47-52.
^Ibid. p. oG.
'■^Altteslamentliche Theologie, Gottingen, 1889.
*Tlie "writer retains this term because it is really untranslatable.
40 OLD TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
views of the people are represented, in their etarhest stage,
by myths. He claims that both "sage " and myth are
best adapted as the media of Divine revelation. The
"sage" is best adapted, because it introduces us at once
to the popular heart, and gives us a representation of the in-
most life of the people unconditioned by the stern necessi-
ties of a historical account. He defines " sage " as the spon-
taneous effort of the people to embody their historical
characters, before the literary period has commenced, by
means of a free use of tradition. In this effort there is
no consciousness of an attempt to give a false representa-
tion of the early annals of the people; but certain persons
who present the life of the people in an ideal way, are set
forth as their ancestors. In such " sagen " there is per-
fect freedom from the conditions of time and space, of
heaven and earth. h\ this way he accounts lor the great
age of the antediluvians, and of many tilings which in the
early accounts seem to be contradictory, or are accounted
as miraculous. The myth, in contradistinction to the
"sage," is the direct medium of religious truth; that is,
the truth is pre-;ented in a symbolical, or allegorical way.
"As history is developed from ' sage,' doctrine is devel-
oped from myth."^
In illustration of the proposition that " sage " is better
adapted than history as the medium of the Holy Ghost,
Schultz says, that in Jacob-Israel the Israelite is more
fully portrayed than in any form which we find in the books
of Kings or Chronicles. He considers Abraham, whom he
regards as one of these characters which have arisen from
^AlttestamenfUche Thtologie, Gottingen, 188U, pp. 16-22.
OLD TESTAJJEyT TIlEOLOdV. 47
OKI Testament "sage," as more instructive, for the Old
Testament revelation, than all the kings from Saul to
Zedekiah.
He says the narrative of creation, the primitive state,
and the fall are myths ; that is, they are designed as the
media of religious instruction.
The following is his view of the Old Testament: ''Gen-
esis is the book of sacred ' sage ' introduced by myths.
Its first three chapters contain myths of revelation of the
most important kind; the following eight, mythical ele-
ments which are cast more in the form of ' sage.' From
Abraham to Moses we have pure, popular 'sage,' com-
mingled with many mythical elements wdiich have become
almost imperceptible. From Moses to David w^e have his-
tory, still mixed with very many sagenhaft elements,
which have also, in part, been blended with mythical
elements which cannot be distinguished as such. From
the time of David forward, we have history with no more
sagenhaft elements than are found everywhere in ancient
historical waiting."
Such views are more commonly held by German evan-
gelical Old Testament theologians than is usually supposed.
Piiehm evidently recognizes such elements in the Old Tes-
tament, although he nowhere enters into a detailed discus-
sion of the subject; and, from certain remarks which the
elder Delitzsch dropped to the writer, it was evident that
he had a place in his view of the Old Testament, at least
to a limited extent, for mythical elements. But Schultz
is the only man of evangelical spirit who has discussed
the presence of mythical elements with reference to their
bearing upon the question of inspiration and Divine revela-
48 OLD TESTAMENT EXEOETK'AL THEOLOGY,
tion. Whatever criticism may be made upon this theory
it must be conceded that he has thought the matter'
through, and has conducted the investigation in a sympa-
thetic and reverent spirit. There is no room in this theory
for the gross assumption of dehberate fiction, fraud, or fab-
rication. He simply claims that God has made use of
human instruments in making His revelation, ^Yithout sus-
pending the laws of the human mind, or transporting writers
into a state of Divine perfection in the preparation of his-
tory. The ultimate end of God in this revelation was not
science, or histor}^, but the redemption of mankind. In
carrying out this end, He has not given perfect science or
perfect history, but the revelation has been made in the
best manner attainable, through the people to whom it was
given, and with a complete adaptation to the end in view.
The chief thing, then, is the redemption and the life which
it involves ; everything else is subsidiary. While there are,
doubtless, difficulties connected with this view, it possesses
these advantages :
1. Criticism of the Scriptures can be conducted with
as little fear as that of any other book, because criticism can
never touch the purpose for which they were given; 2. There
-can be an entirely unbiased exegesis, conducted on purely
grammatical and historical principles, the question ever
beaig, not what we would like to have a passage mean, but
what it does mean ; 3. There can be no gulf between science
and religion. Let science make her investigations perfectly
uiitrammeled by theological necessities, without desiring to
prove a given thesis; and let the scientist keep his hands
off from the Scriptures, and confess that he knows noth-
i\\^ about theolof^v : 4. The fact of a revelation will be
OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY, A^
kept distinct from the literary problems which confront us
in the Old Testament; 5. Such theories as those main-
tained by Schultz in regard to the literary elements in the
Old Testaments will be rejected or modified, not because
they shock us or seem unworthy of a Divine revelation,,
but because they are demonstrated as untrue. There cer-
tainly should be a position found where, after criticism has
done its worst, we can say with ' alll confidence of the
Scriptures : "They are the Word of God."
Monographs. — There are two schools which hold dia-
metrically opposite views with reference to the origin and
history of the Old Testament religion. As has already
been remarked, Eenan maintains that we find monotheism
among Hebrews, because the Semitic people had a genius
for monotheism. On the other hand, Kuenen and others
teach that monotheism was the last stage in a historical
development beginning with fetichism, polytheism, and
passing on up through monolotry into monotheism. He
holds that the latter was the product of the prophetic
teaching of the eighth century B. C. Baethgen, in his
contributions to the religious history of the Semites,^ seeks
to show that both these views are untenable. His book
consists of two parts. In the first he treats of the world
of gods of the heathen Semites ; and in. the second, of
Israel's relation to polytheism. Under the first division,
he shows conclusively that not one of the Semitic peoples
was monotheistic in its early form of religion, and that
therefore, the position assumed by Eenan is groundless.
Koenig, in his Contributions to a positive building up
^Btilrdge zur Semitifichen Relig iousgeschichte, Berlin, 1888.
50 OLD TEST AM EXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
of the religious history of Israel/ argues against the
existence of monotheism among other peoj^les Avho are of
non-Semitic origin. He says that Max Mueller, in his lec-
tures on the origin and growth of religion, has expressed
the opinion that the Indian religion as we find it in various
strata of the Vedas, had advanced to henotheism, in which
one god stood out so strongly in the entire pantheon before
the spiritual eye of the poet, as to have concealed the other
gods ; and further, that this religion had advanced to mon-
otheism, since in the songs of the Yedas, the idea of one
God as the creator and ruler of the universe found ex-
pression. Koenig does not find this position established.
He sees no evidence in the Indian religion of a personal
God, but merely of an abstraction in a pantheistic system,
which does not exclude other gods.
The view is also held that among the Indo-Gerraanic
peoples we find evidences of monotheism ; and also among
the Hamites, as represented in the land of the pyramids.
He alludes to the fact that Amenhotep lY., the tenth ruler
of the eighteenth dynasty, declared that there was one only
god, namely, Aten, the sun disk. But Koenig maintains
that we have here no genuine monotheism, but only mater-
ialism, which was really the deification of the sun. It must
be remembered, too, that this form of worship passed away
with the death of Amenhotep. Koenig concludes, as the re-
sult of his investigation, that there was no monotheism
outside of the Old Testament. In the second part of his
^vork, Baethgen seeks to show that monotheism among the
Israelites is not an outgrowth of polytheism. Among the
^Beitmgt zum positiven Aiifbau tier Heligioiisgeschichte Israels.
Leipzig, 1889.
OLD TFSTAJIL'XT TIIEOLOOV. 51
arguments adclneed hy those who maintain this position,
controverted by Baethgen, are, that we have the foHowing
evidences of polytheism as the original religion of ancient
Israel : 1 . In the use of the name Elohim as a designation
for God. Bandissin maintains that this word can scarcely
he otherwise understood than as going back to a polythe-
istic origin, but Baethgen shows that it is employed for
Dagon and other individual deities, and insists that the
form is to be explained on the same principle as other
plurals in Hebrev/. He also discusses the use of Baal in
the formation of proper names. It has been argued by
Kuenen and others that, as Gideon is called Jerubbal. and
Saul had a son Eshbaal, and Jonathan a son Mer];ibbaal,
and David a son by the name Beeljada, that this is evi-
dence that at this time the Israelites worshiped the god
Baal. Baethgen, however, argues that the term Baal in
these names was equivalent to El, and was not used with
reference to a Canaanitish god. In support of this posi-
tion, he quotes the name Baalja, which he says cannot
signify anything else than Jehovah is Lord. In the time
of the Prophet Hosea, the Israelites called Jehovah Baali,
"My Lord." While Koenig admits that as the name Baal
was associated in the minds of later writers with the
heathen god, and therefore names compounded with it
were transformed by using another component part in
place of Baal, he argues that the original reference could
not be to the god Baal. He alludes to the fact tliat, per-
haps with one possible exception, there are no other names
of Semitic gods which are used as component parts of
Israelitish names. But among the Phoenicians, we find
the names of many gods so employed.
52 OTA) TESTA. VhWT EXEGETK'AL THEOLOGY.
He also s1io\ys that there is httle substantial evidence
for the position held by some critics, that in the names of
the antediluvians and the early patriarchs we have the
names of heathen deities.
He reaches the following result in his discussion : that
monotheism was not developed from polytheism by the
prophets, but that it was maintained by the patriarchs and
by Moses in the early history of the people ; and that where
we find polytheism, it is along side of monotheism, accord-
ing to the representation wdiich we find in the Old Testa-
ment.
Dalman has issued an interesting discussion of the Di-
vine name Adonai,^ in which he treats of the following
subjects: I.Baal, Adon, Adonai ; 2. Adonai, and Adoni ;
3. The sufiix of Adonai ; 4. Survey of the use of Adonai ;
5. The fact of the introduction of Adonai for Yahwe ; 0.
Jewish testimonies concerning the use of the name of God ;
7. History and significance of the transition from Yahwe
to Adonai ; S. The name of the Lord and of Christ, and
an appendix on the Massora to Adonai.
He reaches the interesting result that since the begin-
ning of the third century before Christ, the name Adonai
has taken the place of Jehovah ; wdiile this was partially
the result of an almost superstitious anxiety, it was of great
importance as preparing the way for Christ. The name
Jehovah was a proper name with special reference to the
God of Israel. But the name Adonai was a general name,
and adapted to be the designation of Him who was re-
vealed as the Lord of all the earth.
^Studien sur Bibllschen Theologie. Der Gottesname Adonai und
seine Geschichte, Berlin, 1889.
OLD TESTAMEXT TIIEOUXiV. 53
Zschokke, a Eoman Catholic professor at the Univer-
sity of Vienna, has written a work on the theology of the
Old Testament Chokma literature,! including extensive
references to Apocryphal books. While the work may be
considered of interest, it is not conducted on scientific prin-
ciples, and, therefore, need not further detain us.
Wer ilogmatischc-ethischp Lehrgehalt der altlestame7itlichen Weis-
heitsbi'chern, Wieu, 1880.
EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY
NEW TESTAMENT.
PRESENT STATE
OF
NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES.
BY
REV. GEORGE H. GILBERT,
Professok or New Testament Lfteeatuee and Intekpeetation
IN
Chicago Theological Seminaky.
CHAPTER I.
PHILOLOGICAL AND TEXTUAL.
The new edition of Grimm's New Testament Lexicon^
registers some advance upon the second. As might be ex-
pected, it gives the readings of Westcott and Hort, not al-
ways, however, their use of the smooth and re ugh breath-
ing. The definitions of some words are amended, of
others they are supplemented. One New Testament word,
formerly overlooked, is treated in the new^ edition. The
Lexicon is not appreciably enlarged. The additions, even
the most important of them, are brief. A new proof-text
is given to show that (hmOv^ had the meaning of "denuo,
iterum." In defining d-onzn/jiq reference is made to the
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (xi, 3-6), from which we
learn that the name "Apostle " was given to the ithierant
heralds of the Gospel in the second century. Under ^'lafTthca
zoj-> (>upa'^w,> it is observed, in parenthesis, that, accord-
ing to Tischendorf, this expression is found in John i, 5,
which seems to be a mistaken reference. In speaking of
the new name of James and John, the conjecture of
Kautzsch is given, who thinks that it signifies "sons of
ebullition" (filios excandescentiie). Under i,3oa:7, ii^-
^ Lexicon Grc£co-Latinum in Libros Xovi Testamenii. Editio tertia
emendataetaucta. LJpsiae,[In libraria Arnoldiana, MDCCCLXXX-
YIII.
58 K£W TESTAMEXr EXEOETICAL THEOLOGY.
stead of finding the Hebrew of Christ's time spoken of as
Chaldee or Syro-Chaldee, we find the correct designation,
''Western Aramaic." iinother interpretation of i-'.,>o(Tu>z
is introduced into the Lexicon, namely that of Warth and
Loclde, who, in view of passages in Plato and Aristotle,
understand the expression in the Lord's Prayer to mean
*food necessary in order to pass comfortably the dawning
day.' Grimm rejects this on internal grounds. The re-
marks on daddaJoz are modified. He is not affirmed to be
the same as Jude, but this is regarded as most probable.
The old statement that he was a brother of James the Less
is dropped. Under Tho^ a note is added against those
who make this a surname of Silas or Silvanus. The word
waa'^xi. is no longer derived from the Hebrew words mean-
ing, 'Save, I pray;' but rather from the form which signi-
fies, 'Save us.' A considerable number of these new ref-
erences are to be found in Prof. Thayer's Lexicon. This
American edition of Grimm, with its numerous and valua-
ble notes and references, and with its superior typograph-
ical equipment, surpasses even the latest edition of the
author's Latin work.
To the grammatical literature of Hellenistic Greek no
work of great importance has been added during the past
year. The posthumous volume of W. H. Simcox,^ while
presenting nothing new, either in the mode of treatment or
in the results, has the practical merit of furnishing the
matter of the large works in a brief form. Its treatment
of tenses is incomplete, as it omits the peculiarities of the
second form of Conditional Sentences. It falls into a
^The Language of the New Testament. Thomas Wliittaker, New
York, 1889.
PIIlLOLOajrAL AND TEXTUAL. 59
common error in laying great emphasis upon the iingram-_
matical features of the language of the Apocalypse. The
peculiarities of grammar in this book seem to have been,
for a long time, unduly magnified, while that which is
normal has been neglected.
It is said, in another quarter,^ that there is no adequate
grammar of Hellenistic Greek, no good lexicon, and no
philological commentary. This, in view of the labors of
such scholars as Winer and Buttmann, Cremer and Grimm,
Robinson and Thayer, Ellicott and Lightfoot, not to men-
tion others, seems to be a sweeping statement. The best
may not yet have been produced, doubtless it has not
been ; yet it can scarcely be denied that good work has
been done in all these departments. The author of "Essays
1)1 Biblical Greek," in making the foregoing statement, is
urging the importance of critical study of the Septuagint
for the interpretation of the New Testament. It is the
lack of such study that renders the existing lexicons,
grammars and commentaries on the New Testament so
defective from a philological point of view. The author
shows that a critical study of the Septuagint would furnish
a needed check on the common tendency of scholars to
draw too subtle distinctions between synonyms. It would
do this chiefly in virtue of the fact that it is a Greek trans-
lation of a Hebrew book which we have. Its value as a
Greek book is great, but far greater its value as a Greek
translation of an extant Hebrew work. By its glosses on
the original, its change of the Hebrew metaphors, and the
various renderings it gives of the same Hebrew word, it
^Essays in Biblical Greek, by Edwin Hatch, M.A., D.D. Heury
Fronde, London, 1889.
60 yJSW TESTAMENT EXEOETICAL THEOLOGY.
jfurnishes valuable data for the determination of the mean-
ing that attached to New Testament words in the second
century before Christ. Its value is heightened by compar-
ison with Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Fifth
and Sixth translators. Two canons for the use of the Sep-
tuagint are proposed: (1) A word which is used uniformly,
or with few and intelligible exceptions, as the translation
of the same Hebrew word, must be held to have in Biblical
Greek the same meaning as that Hebrew word. (2) Words
which are used interchangeably as translations of the same
Hebrew word, or group of cognate words, must be held to
have in Biblical Greek an allied or virtually identical mean-
ing. In the application of these principles to the study
of particular New Testament words, the author arrives at
some interesting conclusions. Following the uniform use
of the Septuagint in all the canonical books he gives to
apsT-q the sense of "glory" or "praise," never allowing
its classical meaning of "virtue," unless perhaps in II
Peter i, 5, whose translation he does not discuss. Surely
the Septuagint meaning, as given above, is inapplicable
here. It is held that d'.d^^oAo^ is never, as a proper name,
used in its etymological sense, a slanderer, but always as
the equivalent of the Hebrew Satan, an enemy. From
their use in the Septuagint it is inferred that -apa-iulr, and
T.arto'.iiia were convertible terms, or at least that they were
so closely allied that one could be substituted for the other;
and that they both referred (a) to common sayings or pro-
verbs, and (b) to sayings which had a meaning below the
surface, and which required explanation. Hence it will be
seen that the author does not seek to find a comparison in
every parable and detail of a parable, A parable, he
PiriLOLOdKWL AXD 77;A'7YML. G1
holds, is simply a stoiy with a hidden meaning. Interest-
ing for the study of three passages in Matthew (vi, 10, vii,
11, XX, 15) is the meaning of -i>wri{>u; which the author finds
in Sirach, viz. niggardly or grudging. In the third Es-
sa}^ some psychological terms are discussed, as they are
used in the Septuagint and Philo. The results of the
discussion are unfavorable to the fine drawn discrimina-
tion between za/>oj>/, -•,e'>fj.a and C^u/rj. They are capable
of being interchanged as translations of the same Hebrew
words. They cannot be limited to special groups of mental
phenomena, with the exceptions that (a) xafxh.a is most
commonly used of will and intention ; and (b) (j>uyr; of
appetite and desire. Study of Philo's use of these terms
leads the author to conclude that it is futile to endeavor to
interpret Paul's psychology by that of Alexandria.
Of special interest is the Essay on Origen's Kevision of
the Septuagint text of Job. The author holds it probable,
from a study of the Greek text, that the book of Job orig-
inally existed in a shorter form than at present ; and that
in the interval between the time of the original translation
and that of Theodotion large additions were made to the
text by a poet whose imaginative power was at least not
inferior to that of the original waiter. This statement is
suggestive as compared with what has been said, especially
by some German writers, of the evident inferiority of the
Elihu section.
Another line of work that is important in its bear-
ing upon the text of the New Testament is the study of the
Agrapha.^ The Agrapha are defined to be those words
^Agrapha, aussercanonische EcangtUenfrafjmenle in moglichshr
Vollstdndigkeit susa>nmengestelJ und quellenkritisch unfersncht, von
P. prim. Alfred Resell, Leipzig, 1889.
62 XEW TESTAJ/hWT IJXEdETICAL THEOLOGY.
of the Lord and related sayings, preserved in the early
Christian literature, which are contained neither in the
Canonical Gospels nor in -the known Apocryphal Gos-
pels. The criteria for testing the genuineness of the
Agrapha are: (I) the trustworthiness of the authors citing
the words ; (2) the concurrence of several authors in the
citation ; (3) the stahilit}^ of the citation in the same
author; (4) absence of any ''tendency" in regard to the
content ; (5) definiteness of the formula of citation ; (6)
linguistic character, particularly, relationship with the
synoptic Gospels, presence of Hebraisms, and variant
readings that presuppose a Hebrew original ; and (7) the
content in three particulars — relation to the canonical words
of the Lord, agreement with the New Testament doctrines,
the possibility^ of a satisfactory exegesis and a significant
thought-content. Applying these tests, the author finds
63 Agrapha, in 290 citations by 85 writers (or writings),
besides a number which are discussed in appendices. A
critical study of the patristic citations from the Gospels
leads to the conclusion that those prior to Clement of
Alexandria and Irenaeus reveal a text which is essentially^
different from the Canonical. Few of these early citations
can be definitely ascribed to either of the Synoptists. There
are many variants not found in any one of them. The
author's theory is that these citations were made from a
pre-Canonical form of the Gospel, namely from the Hebrew
writing which served as the chief source for all of the Can-
onical Gospels. He accepts the results of Holtzmann and
Weiss, that Mark's Gospel was the earliest, that there vras
a Hebrew writing which contained chiefly the sayings of
Jesus, and that our Matthew and Luke were derived mainly
PiniA)lA)GirAL AND TEXTIWI.. 63
from these two sources. Tins pre-Canonical Hebrew writ-
ing was that so frequently mentioned in the early Church
as the Gospel of Matthew. The author thinks this was in
Biblical Hebrew, not in Aramaic.
In the exegetical treatment of the Agrapha, the princi-
pal means for determining the sense are the consideration
of Old Testament parallels, echoes in the Canonical
Gospels, parallels in the doctrinal books of the New Tes-
tament and in the patristic literature, the context in which
the respective Agrapha stand, j^atristic epexegesis and
comparison with the apocryphal literature. The argument
for genuineness based upon the parallelism between an
Agraphon and the Scriptures seems sometimes to be un-
duly pressed. For instance, the saving, "He who is near
me is near the fire, and he who is far from me is far from
the Kingdom," is thought to be confirmed as genuine by
Luke xii-19, " I came to cast fire upon the earth;" Luke
iii-16, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
Avith fire;" Mark ix-49, "For every one shall be salted
with fire;" Mark xii-34, "Thou art not far from the
Kingdom of God." But excepting the last quotation the
parallelism consists simply in the common use of the word
fire. This, however, is less significant than the difference
of meaning attached to the word. Christ nowhere likens
himself to fire ; and the use of the word in quite a differ-
ent sense establishes nothing. Take another Agraphon,
"Blessed is ]ie through whom the good cometh." This is
thought to be surprisingly confirmed by Eom. iii-S, "Let
us do evil that good may come." One saying not found in
any other catalogue of the Agrapha is this : "Cleave ui^to
the saints, for those who cleave unto them shall be sancti-
64 NEW TESTAMENT KXFJrETICAL THEOLOGY.
fied." This is regarded as uncjuestionably genuine, cliietiy
in view of a certain similarity between it and the thought
of I Cor. vii, 14 and liev, xxii, 11. These passages, however,
seem to bear only a remote resemblance to the Agraphon
in question. Many of the sixty-three Agrapha might be
more easily accounted for, it would seem, as unimportant
variations of canonical sayings than as original. Sacli
are for instance, the following: ''If ye did not keep the
little, who will give you the great?" "He who giveth is
blest above him who receiveth."
iVmong the most important of these traditional sayings,
both as to the thought and the external evidence, are these :
"Sufficient unto the laborer is his good," the correlate of
Luke X, T; "Become approved money changers;" "Jesus,
seeing a man at work on the Sabbath day, said to him. If
thou knowest what thou doe^t, blessed art thou,but if thou
knowest not, thou art cursed and a transgressor of the
law;" and, "The Lord, having been asked by on6 when
His Kingdom should come, said, when the two shall be
one, and that without as that within, and the male with
the female, neither male nor female." One important
feature of the work of Eesch is the full text of the Agrapha,
including at least the formula of citation, and sometimes
something more of the context. x\ll the patristic passages
are cited in which a particular Agraphon is found. In
this respect, as well as in many others, the volume of
Eesch is the most complete that exists, and is of perma-
nent value.
^Word Studies in the New Testa nent, by Marvin E. Vincent, D.
D. Vol. ii. The Writings of Jolm^ Scribner, New York, 1889.
PllILOLOaiCAL AM) TEXTUAL. 65
ings of John. 'Hie general features of this unique work
were mentioned in vol. v of CuiToif Dlscicssions.
The literature of New Testament textual criticism has
been enriched bj' the publication of the second volume of
the Prolegomena^ to Tischendorf's Greek testament. This
opens with a supplement to the first volume, viz. a list of
twenty-one uncial fragments, three of which were discovered
by the author, Dr. C. 1\. Gregory. This is followed by a des-
cription based upon wdde and careful personal observation,
of twenty-three hundred and fifty-two Minuscules (Scrive-
ner's Introduction notices only thirteen hundred) and
twelve hundred and one Lectionaries. The book embodies
the labor of nearh' a decade. In its description of MSS. it
is a model of exactness and completeness. In the author-
ity which comes from personal examination of MSS. it sur-
passes all former works.
^Prolegomena scripsit Caspariis "Reuatus Gregory additis cuiis
Ezrae Abbot. Pars Altera. Lipsiae. T. C. Hinricli. 1890.
CHAPTEE II.
NEW TESTAMENT INTRODUCTION.
No original contributions have been made during the
past year in the English language, so far as we know, to
the department of New Testament Introduction. A brief
summation of the results of criticism in this branch of
Biblical investigation is given in the "Theological Educa-
tor."^ Yet this work is not wholly objective ; the author's
own views are frequently given, incidentally, or in direct,
though brief, statement. It is to be regretted that the
author so often passes a point without expressing his own
opinion. For instance, he expresses no decided opinion
as to the author of the Apocalypse, or the date of its com-
position Some of the views advanced as the author's own
are noticeable :
For instance he says (p. 2) that the Gospel was desig
nated according to the special messenger or mode of its
delivery, and thus we find Paul speaking of "my Gospel"
(Eom. ii 16). Again, that our Gospel (Matthew) is not a
translation but an original may be accepted as one of the
ascertained conclusions of criticism. Compare with this
statement the language of Zahn, Geschichte des neutesta-
mentlichen Canons, Seite 896. In speaking of the early
.1/1 Introduction to the New Testament. By Marcus Dods. D. D.
AVLittaker, New York, 1888.
XEW TIJSTAMENT IXTliODrcTIoy. f,;
Eoman Church, the author takes the ground tliat the ac-
count given in the Acts (xxviii 17) of Paul's reception l)y
the Jews in Rome is such as to make it difficult to suppose
that there existed before his arrival any large number of
Christians in that city, or any organized Church. Now
Paul's reception by the Jews is indeed evidence that the
Jewish population of Rome had not been deeply alfected
by the Gospel ; but it can scarcely be regarded as evidence
that there were not many Christians and an organized
Church among the 'Gentiles of the capital. Indeed, the
Epistle itself imphes that the Church at Rome was a
strong and aggressive spiritual community (Rom. i 8).
Paul's praise of the condition of the Roman Christians in-
volves a good degree of prosperity, and prosperity in Paul's
thouglit would surely involve growth of the church in num-
bers and in graces (ii 8, xv 14).
The more recent view regarding the so-called Epistle to
the Ephesians is modified as follows (p. 123). Paul writes
a letter which will equally benefit Ephesians, Laodiceans
and Colossians, and bids Tychicus carry it to the three
churches, while he instructs the Colossians to receive it
from Laodicea. But where is the evidence that the Epis-
tle was designed for these three churches in particular?
And what grounds make it probable that it was intended
for Ephesus at all? In some respects the statements in
this work seem inadequate. For instance, in speaking of
the external evidence for the Johannean authorship of the
Fourth Gospel, no reference is made to Papias, Ignatius,
Barnabas, Clement and Hernias. Again, in speaking of
the Apocalypse, the author does not allude to the explicit
and credible evidences of the earlv Church bearing on the
68 X£\V TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
date of composition ; and while he gives a half-page to
Harnack's feeble arguments against the Johannean author-
ship of the Apocalypse, he refers in a single brief general
sentence to the well-nigh decisive testimony of the early
Church. This is not the right proportion of things. It is
in the interest of science to treat all evidence both pro and
con in a manner befitting its inherent impoitance.
The literature of the New Testament Canon has been
enriched during the past year by the monumental work of
Zahn.^ This writer begins his investigations with a study
of the New Testament at the close of the second century. Har-
nack- admits that this time is not badly chosen. The inves-
tigation can profitably proceed backward and forward from
this point. But Harnack would prefer the date 230 or
240 as a starting point, if he wished to begin investiga-
tions at the time w4ien the New Testament Canon was com-
plete. Zahn does not treat separately of the attitude of
different churches toward the New Testament, with the
single exception of the Syrian churches, but subjects all to
a common treatment. His critic urges that in this way
the characteristic element in the attitude of the different
churches is erased and the significance of the opposition of
individual churches, as that at Alexandria, is disturbed.
The charge of obscurity and self-contradictoriness is made
upon the author's statement of his aim. The second part
of this is made without good ground. Zahn distinguishes
^Geschichte des neutestamentUchen Canons, ErsterBand: Das Xeue
Testament vor Origenes. Erste Halfte, Erlangen, 1888; Zweite
Halfte, Erlangen und Leipzig, 1889.
^Das Neue Testament um das Jahr 200. Theodor Zahn's Gescli-
ichte &c,, erster Band, erste Halfte, geprilft: Freiburg, 1889.
NEW TESTA ME NT IXTUODrcTION. 69
between the history of dogma and the history of Church
hfe. He admits that the attribute of hohness, of Divine au-
thority, is inseparably connected with the conception of the
Bible ; and holds that one can speak with full historic
right of a New^ Testament only there where that attribute
is applied to the writings of the New Testament. He holds
that where w^e find the conceptions of holiness, supernat-
ural Divine origin and dignity, applied to WTitings of the
Apostolic age, we have a sure proof that a New Testament
existed which was more or less equally esteemed with the
Old Testament. But at the same time he holds that it
w^ould be a sad mistake to confound the history of these
attributes with the history of the thing wdiose attributes
they are. The thing in question, a collection of writings
which we call the New Testament, writings scattered in all
parts of the Church ; an actual discrimination of these
from other writings, and a mighty influence of the same
upon the Church life — this must be older than the fixed
coinage of the honorary titles and dogmatic conceptions
wdiieh were first derived from these facts. He does not
propose to write a history of these dogmatic conceptions,
but rather of the development which they pre-suppose. In
the Introduction of his work Zahn presents an argument to
prove that the Montanists, while recognizing an Old Testa-
ment and a New Testament, produced a third, a "newest"
Testament, which was higher in authority than either of
the others. It is said that after the death of Maximilla
(179 A. D.), who had declared that another prophetess
would not arise, it was felt to be high time that the oracles,
which had apparently been begun in the lifetime of the
prophets, should be put in writing. Various collections
70 XEW TESTAMEXT EXEOETICAL THEOLOGY.
arose. An Asiatic pastor of unknown name cites such a
collection in the year 192 or 193, which a certain Asterius
Urbanus had caused to be made. Now, according to this
pastor, the Montanists referred to what the Spirit said in
Asterius Urbanus just as Christians spoke of what the
Lord said in the Gospel according to Matthew. Since this
is the only evidence advanced for a Montanist Testament
at this time there seems some ground for Harnack's state-
ment that Zahn has been able to create a "newest" Testa-
ment out of nothing, and out of nothing to call forth wit-
nesses for the existence of the New Testament.
Zahn thinks that the Montanist movement intensified
in the Church the consciousness that the revelation made
by Christ and His disciples was closed, and that the docu-
ments of the revelation possessed a peculiar dignity. Har-
nack's position is that the Montanist movement produced
this consciousness, instead of intensifying a consciousness
that already existed.
According to Zahn, the New Testament was equally es-
teemed with the Old throughout the entire Catholic Church
about the year 200. This truth is so generally admitted
that he does not seek to prove it, but rathei: to illustrate
the mode of thinking of that time by a study of the names
applied to the Bible and its principal parts. Of this study
Harnack affirms (p. 34) that it suppresses some material
and mistakes other. He denies, for instance, that the
words rpo.(pTi^ Ypa(po.i were, in 180 A. D., so firmly attached
to the New Testament as to the Old, and affirms that in
Alexandria at least the words were used of writings out-
side of the Bible. A certain weakness in regard to the
fundamental position seems to be shown now and then.
^''E^V TIJSTAMEXT INTRODUi'TTOX. 71
For instance, the author affirms, on the one hand, that the
writings attributed to the x\postles and their contempora-
ries were regarded throughout the entire Catholic Church
as a corpus of holy writings. The entire New Testament
literature appears as a defined holy territory whose limits
could not be enlarged without sin (pp. 111-118). On the
other hand, it is said to be plain that the content of the
New Testament was different in different churches (p. 111:).
The collection of New Testament VNritings had by no means
the completeness of limitation that pertained to the Old
Testament collection. The New Testament of that time
was not a definitely limited whole with immovable bound-
aries. Z aim's investigation of the four- fold Gospel, as it
stood at the close of the second century, leads him to a
full endorsement of Irenaeus, who said of the four Gospels
that they were the pillars which from immemorial times
had borne the roof of the Catholic Church. They were
unique in the churches of Irentieus' homeland as well as in
those over which he presided. So also were they in Rome,
Carthage, Alexandria, and Antioch. Harnack admits
that this position is in the main right. He himself holds
that the collection of four Gospels was firmly settled by
the year 200 ; but he would modify the rhetorical language
of Irenaeus more than Zahn does. The position of the four
Gospels was firmer in Carthage and Lyon, says Harnack,
than in Alexandria. In the latter place the Gospel of the
Egyptians had but just been removed from Church use in
the year 200. It is also held that the formula in use in the
Western Church, "the Lord says in the Gospel," points to
an authority above the Gospels, i. e., the word of, Christ.
This word of Christ was chiefly, though not solely, to be
72 XUW TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
found in the four Gospels. But this view of Harnack is
open to objection.
The view of Zahn regarding the fifth book of our New
Testament is that no one questioned its firm position in
the Canon, and that no one exaggerated its content in a
noticeable manner. Harnack modifies this statement by
showing that the Acts were not considered, in Egypt, as
the sole source of the Apostolic history, though they were
so regarded in the West ; and that the content of the book
was sometimes exaggerated. Clement of Alexandria used
the Johannean Acts of Leucius and the tradition of Mat-
thew by the side of the Acts of the Apostles, and also the
Preaching of Peter. As to the statement that the content
was not considerably exaggerated, Harnack refers to the
language of the Muratorian Canon, which describes the
book as "acta omnium apostolorum," and to the singular
language of Irenaeus.
That the xVpocalypse had an established place in the
Canon at the close of the second century is conceded by
Harnack, but he disagrees with Zahn regarding the- Epis-
tles of John. The latter holds that all three were in the
New Testament of the entire Church, while the former de-
nies that the third Epistle stood in any collection known to
us. Touching the opposition to the writings of John, Zahn
and Harnack are decidedly at variance with each other.
According to Zahn, the chief motive of the Alogi in opposing
the writings attributed to John was hostility to Montanism,
while Harnack holds that it was their hostility to Gnosticism.
Zahn minimizes the value of the testimony of Epiphan-
ius, while Harnack makes this testimony his starting-point.
Consequently Zahn regards the name Alogi as an inappro-
yjJW TKSTAMEXT IXTRODUCTloX. 73
priate invention of Epiphanius, while Harnack maintains
tliat it points to their fundamental character. His strong-
est historical snpport for this is the fact that the x\logi at-
tributed the Fourth Gospel to Cerinthus, who was a
Gnostic. As these writers differ widely in the criticism of
the Alogi, so also in the inferences which they draw con-
cermng the Canon of that time. Zahn says that the Alogi
hear witness that the Johannean writings were in the New
Testament, in that they declared these writings unworthy
of the Church. They did not deny the historical right of
these books to a place in the New Testament, but they ob-
jected on the ground of internal evidence. Harnack, on
the other hand, afiirms that when the Alogi appeared (date
uncertain), there was not a fixed Christology in the Asiatic
Church, nor a complete New Testament. There was
opposition to the Gospel of John on the ground that it
aided Gnosticism, and also did not accord with the old
Gospels. Hence there was no sure tradition which as-
cribed these writings to the Apostle John, But at this
point he does not seem to break the argument of Zahn.
It needs no proof that the Alogi had not a complete New
Testament, and that they did not accept the tradition
which ascribed the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse to
John. But this does not prove that the Church of Asia
Minor may not, in its dominant elements, have accepted
the Gospel and Apocalypse. The views of the Alogi, whom
Hippolytus counts as heretics, views which soon disap-
peared entirely, are not to be attributed to the Asiatic
Church in general. Concerning the Epistles of Paul and
the Epistle to the Hebrews, Zahn concludes, first, that the
recognition of Paul as the Apostle throughout the Catholic
74 KFW TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
Church must have heen a result of the use of his Epistles
in the Church. But this statement does not seem to con-
tain the whole truth. The fact that Paul was the founder
of most of the great churches, or, if not founder, the most
important agent in founding, may quite as well be as-
sumed to have given rise to the peculiar dignity of apostle-
ship which attached to him, as the fact that his epistles
were read in churches. Second, a collection of thirteen
Pauline Epistles was everywhere in use in the Church.
No distinction was made between the letters to churches
and the Pastoral Epistles. In reply to this, Harnack calls
attention to the fact that Hieronymus, Chrysostom and
Theodore of Mopsuestia had to defend the canonicity of
Philemon, and Theodore that of the Pastoral Epistles as
well ; and also to the fact that the Muratorian Canon re-
fers to the private letters of Paul as though they had been
sanctified in Christian use. This suggests that they had
not always enjoyed the same consideration as the other
Epistles. Two other conclusions are, that there were some
in the Church who accepted the Epistles to the Laodiceans
and that to the Alexandrians, and that the belief in the
Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews was not
exactly co-extensive with the belief that it was canonic.
With regard to II Peter and James, Zahn holds that
they were in the Canon at the close of the second century,
Harnack that they appear first from the time of Origen.
The author objects vigorously and with good ground
to the view that the Canon was a conscious product of the
latter part of the second century. He also shows the in-
sufliciency of the theory that the writings of our New
Testament were gathered together simply on the basis that
XEW TESr.UII'JXT rXTBODrcTIOX. 75
they were believed to be of Apostolic origin. From 2n(i
A. D. tlie author moves backward, and in the second book
of his elaborate work he investigates the condition of the
New Testament at the middle of the second centur}^
chiefly as it is suggested in the writings of Justin ^Fartyr,
Marcion, and the schools of Valentine and Basilides.
He holds that we find essentially the same mass of apos-
tolic writings in Church use and authoritative position at
the middle of the second century, which, at the close of that
century, began to be called the New Testament. The
Church had at that time a Gospel which was composed of
our four Gospels and included no other writing. It had also a
collection of Pauline Epistles, which embraced the Pas-
toral Letters. The Acts of Luke were not less at home
in the churches. The Apocalypse of John was regarded
as a document of divine revelation and a work of the
Apostle John. Of the other writings which, between 170-
220 A. D. were recognized as holy, partly everywhere and
partW in some churches, the scanty sources of the middle
of the century give little information. That is to say, the
author finds evidence that the Catholic Church, at the mid-
dle of the second century, used as authoritative nineteen of
the twenty-seven books which constitute our present New
Testament. There is no evidence that the so-called Cath-
olic Epistles and the Hebrews were so regarded. Eighteen
of these nineteen writings constituted two collections, in
the time of Marcion, one of the four Gospels, and the
other of thirteen Pauline Epistles. The year 120 A. D. is
given as the approximate date before which these collec-
tions were made. In studying the origin of these collec-
tions, it is argued that the Apostles could not have had the
76 XEW TESTAJ\IEXT EXEGETJCAL THEOLOGY.
great autliority wliicli they did have, say in the year 100
A. D., had there not been writings in which the congrega-
tions believed that they heard the voice of the Apostles.
Here and there the Apostolic authority may have been due
m part to the testimony of a pupil of the Apostles, as in
the case of Papias, but this sort of influence must have
been relatively' small. The conclusion that there was in the
time of Clement and Ignatius a collection of thirteen
Pauline Epistles, is reached in the followmg way : • In
Clement, Polj'carp and Ignatius we find references, direct
or indirect, to Piomans, I Corinthians, Philippians, I and
II Thessalonians, Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles.
No competent person, it is argued, will doubt that a col-
lection w4iicli contained the most questionable portions of
that group of writings that Marcion found extant, and even
those that Marcion rejected, was co-terminous ^vith that
which Marcion found extant, and which the Church in later
times preserved. That is, the collection contained thirteen
letters.
As to the time in which the collection arose, the author
thinks of the year SO or 85 A. D. For it w^as before 1)6
A. D., the date of Clement's letter to the Corinthians, and
after the composition of the Acts. Had the collection ex-
isted when Luke composed the Acts, he w^ould have used
its rich material. It is thought probable that this collec-
tion was made in Corinth. It could not have originated
in Ephesus or Asia Minor in general, because of its er-
roneous assumption that the so-called Epistle to the Ephe-
sians w^as actually sent to the church at Ephesus. It is
natural to suppose that it was made in Corinth in view of
the fact that the Epistle to the Corinthians stood at its
XEW TESTAJIEXT jyTnoDVCTloy. 77
head, and in view of the central position of the Corinthian
Church. It is thought that the principle according to
T^'hich the collection was made, was the edification of the
churches. For the formation of the Gospel collection the
author lays emphasis on the absence of competing docu-
ments, and on the influence of John. In regard to books
Avhich did not belong to either of these collections, special
attention is given to show that the Apocal3'pse was received
in the Asiatic churches in the time of Papias, Polycarp
and other pupils of John, as a work by the author of the
fourth Gospel.
At the other pole from Zalm, stands Pfleiderer.^ His
voluminous work on Primitive Christianity, its Writ-
ings and Teachings, while, according to the author, it
differs from Baur in maintaining that the opposition
between Gentile and Jewish Christianity was not the
active principle in the development of the post-apostolic
literature, is constructed on the principles of criticism used
by Baur, and leads to results concerning the origin of the
New Testament literature akin to those of the founder of
the Tubingen school. The fundamental position of the
author is that the Gentile Christian Church was planted,
through the preaching of Paul, in a soil which the pre-
Christian Hellenism had long since prepared for it. Hence
the two factors out of whose union the peculiarity of Gen-
tile Christianity from its beginning is naturally explained,
are this Hellenism and the preaching of Paul. Paul's the-
ology had two roots, a Jewish-Pharisaic and a Hellenic.
In the post-apostolic period, the Hellenic side was de-
^Das Urchrislenthiim, seine Schn'ften und Lehren. Berlin, \l
Cf. Current Discussions, Vol. vi, 1889, p. 154.
78 XFW TESTAMENT EXEOETll'AL THEOLOGY.
veloped to the repression of the Jewish. As characteriz-
ing the methods of the author, a part of his Introduction
will be most instructive, in which he treats of the resur-
rection. Out of the hints of the oldest Gospel (it is as-
sumed that Mark's is the oldest and the foundation of all
the other Canonical Gospels, not excepting John) we gain
as probable two results : (1 ) that the disciples lost their
faith when Jesus was put to death, and fled to Galilee, their
home ; (2) that the}^ Peter first of all, saw in Galilee Him
Avhom they had believed dead, and in consequence of this
vision they had gathered the scattered band. If the repre-
sentation of Luke, according to w^hich the disciples re-
mained together and saw Jesus in Jerusalem on the even-
ing of the resurrection-day, is historically correct, then it is
incomprehensible how the oldest Gospel should speak in the
express words of Jesus about a scattering of the disciples, ,
and about seeing them first in Galilee. The representation
of Luke, the author holds, is due to the feeling of later times,
that the Apostles, the heroes of the faith, could not have
been so weak as reported, and moreover, men felt the need of
confirming the reality of the resurrection of Jesus, of which
they were convinced, by striking signs done at the place of
His death and burial. The appearance of Christ to the
women, narrated by Matthew, is onl}^ a repetition of the
vision of angels according to Mark. That is, the story of
Christ's appearance at the grave is but a developed form of
the legend, which, in its earlier stadium, knew only of a
future appearance in Galilee.
The entire group of narratives concernnig the appear-
ances in Jerusalem, are without historical foundation. The
facts that account for the faith of the | disciples in the res-
NUW TKSTAJIEXT IXTBODrrTJOX. 70
iirrection are to be sought in Galilee. If Jesus was seen by
His disciples only in Galilee, far from the place where His
body was interred, then it cannot be that the same body
which was buried near Jerusalem was seen alive in Galilee.
In other words, there is no question of a vision of a corpo-
really risen one. What, then, was seen? Paul gives us a
hint. He puts the appearances to the other believers in
the same class as that to him. His was spiritual, there-
fore theirs was also. The stories in the Gospel are to be
explained as the product of a coarse tendency of legend, of
apologetic reflection and allegoric fiction. In accounting
for the vision which the disciples had in Galilee, it is need-
ful to bear in mind that the belief in resurrection from the
dead was common. In the case of the disciples it is not
difficult to understand how the common belief should have
been for once actualized. The disciples were surprised by
the catastrophe of Christ's death, and for the time they
were \yithout self possession. They fled to Galilee. But
there, in the places where a little while since they had
walked with Jesus, and received the deepest impressions
from Him, they soon recovered themselves. They felt how
barren their life must be, if it was really over with the
cause of Jesus, who had sacrificed himself so joyously and
confidently. They recalled now the words which Jesus had
spoken to them before going to Jerucalem, of the necessity
of suffering and the certainty of victory. Could these
promises be an empt}' delusion? But how could they be
true if the Messiah remained in death ? Must He, how-
ever, remain in death? Would not the frequently con-
firmed truth hold in His case, that God rescues His own?
When the courage of the disciples began to revive through
80 X£W TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
such recollections, when their hearts burned in the conflict
between doubt and hope, when longing love sank itself in
the picture of its Lord, as He had opened the Scriptures
unto them ; then were all the conditions satisfied under
which a visionary experience like Paul's becomes wholly
explicable. Peter was the first to have the vision, for
which his peculiar temperament predisposed him.
Some of the more important results of the author's
studies in reference to the different books of the New Tes-
tament may be briefly indicated. The genuine Pauline
Epistles are six, — Galatians, I Thessalonians, I and II
Corinthians, Pvomans and Philippians. II Thessalonians,
in view of its repetition from the first letter and its esclia-
tology, must be regarded as the work of an imitator. It is
possible that a genuine letter of Paul formed the basis of
our Epistle to the Colossians, which however, belongs to
the post-apostolic age. The Epistle to the Ephesians was
written by a Paulinist of the second century, somewhat
later than the Hebrews. The Pastoral Epistles, which served
the purpose of developing Episcopacy, presuppose the
Gnosticism of the middle of the second century. Even
the Epistle to Philemon is not allowed a place among
the genuine Pauline Epistles. Of the ungenuine Pauline
Epistles those to the Colossians and Ephesians are monu-
ments of Christian Hellenism, while the Pastoral Epistles
are a product of the antignostic Catholicism of about the
same period. The Apocalypse was not the work of the
Apostle John, but of several persons, its last redaction
having taken place in the second century. The bulk of
the book is a Jewish Apocalypse.
The second Gospel is regarded as essentially the same
AA'ir TJJSTAJJLWT iXTRoniCTlOX. 81
as the original. The favorite hypothesis of an " Ur-Marcus"
is rejected in view of the unity of the Gospel as we have
it. The Book of Acts is thought to have been written in
the second decade of the second century, and not by an
immediate disciple of Paul. Luke may have been the
author of the " We "-passages, and this circumstance may-
account for the fact that the Church tradition ascribes the
entire work to Luke. The Gospel according to Matthew, is
thought to be based chiefly upon Mark, secondarily on
Luke. It is not Jewish-Christian nor Pauline, but repre-
sents the general consciousness of the Catholic Church in
the second century. It is said to show dependence upon
the first chapter of the Apocalypse, and since the Apoca-
lypse is assigned to the reign of Hadrian, Matthew cannot
be earlier. The author puts it in the fourth decade of the
second century. In regard to the Epistle to the Hebrews, it
is held to be beyond question that it depends largely upon
Philo. Its allegorizing treatment of the Old Testament ;
its view of Christ as the great and sinless High-priest, who
is at once the agent in the creation of the world, and the
sustainer of the universe : its conception of ritual sacri-
fices as means of the remembrance of sins, not of their for-
giveness ; its error regarding the daily sacrifice of the High-
priest ; its quotation according to Philo (xiii, 5) ; its con-
ception of Abraham's faith as shown in his journeying to
a strange land ; and its view of this world as the sensuous
copy of a higher original world of ideas — these features
all point to a dependence upon Philo. I Peter, John, the
Epistles of John, Jude and Jam^s originated near the
middle of the second century ; and II Peter, the latest of
the New Testament writings, is assigned to the latter part
of the second century.
82 yJ:J]V TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL TIIEOLOOY.
In essential agreement with Pfieiderer's view of
the Synoptic Gospels is that- of Holtzmann.^ He
speaks of the Marcus-hypothesis as a Avell-established
scientific result. The earliest continuous narrative of the
evangelical history was that of Mark. Prior to that w^as
the loosely constructed and fragmentary document, the
Auy'a of Papias, which was a collection of the Lord's
sayings. The Gospels according to Matthew and Luke,
w^ere based upon the primitive documents. The Synoptic
Gospels w^ere all composed subsequent to the destruction of
Jerusalem. As to the historical character of the Synop-
tic Gospels, the author does not regard it more highly than
do the other advocates of the Tubingen views. He thinks
they give a recognizable picture of Jesus of Nazareth, yet
it is by no means purely historical. Sometimes a reli-
gious motive, sometimes a dogmatic motive, and some-
times even an sesthetic motive, helped to determine the
content and form of the narrative. The facts of Christ's life
are ideally treated, and hence we have in the Synoptists
the oldest Christian dogmatics as w^ell as the oldest histor-
ical tradition.
The very ancient writing known among the Fathers as
the Gospel according to the Hebrews, will doubtless give
rise to new^ speculations until perhaps some discovery of
old MSS. throws clearer light upon it. That it w^as an
important Gospel narrative appears from the writings of
the early Church. Significant traces of it or allusions to
it are found in the writings of the second, third and fourth
centuries. But by whom it w\as used, how it was regarded
^ Hand- Comment ar ziim Neuen Testament. Erster Band.
.VA'ir Th\sTAJIL\\T lyTROJjrcTJOX, 8:{
with reference to canonicity, what its character was, what
its rehition to the /My.a of Papias and to our canonic
Matthew, are questions diftieult to he answered. Careful
study has recently been given to the entire subject,^ some
of the results of which are interesting. The Gospel ac-
cording to the Hebrews is distinguished from the ecangel-
ium secundum XII apostolos. The former was the Gospel
of the Nazarites and common Ebionites, the latter that of
the Gnostic Ebionites. The Gospel according to the He-
brews was all the New Testament possessed by the Jewish-
Christian sect who used it. It was not canonic, as was the
Old Testament. There was no occasion for regarding it
as canonic. It did not contain a new doctrine, but only a
historic confirmation of what the Old Testament had
taught concerning the Messiah. The Old Testament was
the sufficient norm. The designation " Gospel according
to the Hebrews" is regarded as coined by the Greek Fath-
ers. The document was in iVramaic, the language used by
the Nazarites, and it is thought improbable that they should
have designated themselves as "Hebrews."
The Hebrew Gospel is not regarded as the direct foun-
dation of the canonic Matthew, but as a possible source,
one among others, for both Matthew and Luke. This
Gospel according to the Hebrews is thought to have given
rise to the tradition of a Hebrew^ Matthew. It is held to
be decidedly problematical whether such a writing ever
existed.
The editor of the last edition of Meyer's Commentary
on the Acts departs widely from the original author in
^Da.s- HehrOer-Evanrjelium. Von Paidolf Handmann, Leipzig, 1888.
84 XFW TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
some matters of Introduction. While Mej^er regards the
" We-passages" as the product of the author of the whole
book, indicating how far he was an eye-witness of the
events contained in the Acts, his latest editor holds that
the author of our Canonical Acts is unknown.^ It was not
Luke, for he was the author of the " We-passages;" and
had he been the author both of these passages and of the
rest of the book, he would not have lefi such abrupt
changes in the person of the narrator; namely, changes
from the third person to the first. If he had wished to
indicate his personal relation to the Apostle, we should
expect him to have mentioned his first significant meeting
with Paul and the circumstances which led him to become
his companion. Further, Wendt holds with Weizsaecker
that the " We-passages" are a part of a larger writing
used by the author of the Acts as a source. This is
thought to be supported by two circumstances : First, we
find in connection with the "We-passages" certain narra-
tives which manifestly contain untrustworthy elements.
So, for instance, the wholly intelligible story of the im-
prisonment and liberation of Paul and Silas in Philippi
(xvi: 19f.) in connection with the entirely incomprehensible
episode regarding the miraculous nightly events in the
prison (verses 25-3i). Second, we find also in immediate
connection with a "We-passage" (xxvi, 12-18) an account
of Paul's conversion, whose characteristic deviation from
the two former reports can be explained only in this way,
that the author of the Acts followed here a fixed written
^Kritisch exegetisches Handbiich nher die Apostalgeschichte. Sie-
beiite Auflage. Bearbeitet von Dr. Hans Hinricli ^Vendt, Gottingen,
1888.
.\EW TESTA M EXT IXTEODUCTIOX. 85
document, which in his two earlier accounts he took as his
essential basis, but which in those cases he altered accord-
ing to a different tradition. The third report is the orig-
inal one, as appears from the fact that it is in accord with
Paul's most firm consciousness that he was called of the
Lord to be an iVpostle. Since Wendt holds that one mind
produced the Acts and the third Gospel (p. 1), and
that Luke did not produce the Acts, he appears to reject
Luke's authorship of the third Gospel. As to the date of
the composition of the Acts, while Meyer fixes upon the
year 80 A. D. as approximate, Wendt would leave the en-
tire last quarter of the century open.
It is nearly a century since Edward Evanson pub-
lished a book in which he asserted that the entire New
Testament originated in the post-apostolic age. His
book has long been forgotten. The most radical of
the negative critics have accepted the four chief Pau-
line Epistles as genuine. The evidence in their favor
has been admitted on all hands to be overwhelming.
This, however, can no longer be said without qualifi-
cation. We have an elaborate monograph^ which puts
the four great Pauline Epistles in the period from 120
to 140 A. D., and which relegates the entire New Testa-
ment literature to the second century. The author differs
from many of the negative critics in some points. For
instance, he does not consider his views at all dangerous
to Christianity and the Church, and he advances them
with a degree of modesty that is seldom found in works of
this sort. The reason for seeking a period for the compo-
^Der Galaterbrief nach seiner Echlheit unterstickt, nebst KritiseJien
Bemerkungen zuden paulinischen Hauptbriefen, Von Paidolf Steck,
Berlin, 1888.
86 XEW TESTAMENT EXECiETICAL THEOLOGY.
sition of the four major Epistles different from the one gen-
erally accepted is, that, according to the present view of
composition the exegesis of these Epistles is involved in
insoluble difficulties. Such are a lack of agreement con-
cerning the locality and nationality of the- Galatians (p.
26), baptism for the dead (p. 266), the doctrine of mar-
riage contained in I Cor. vii (p. 268), the Christ-party in
Corinth, and a number of similar points. These difficul-
ties are accounted for, it is held, if these writings originated
in the Pauline school of the second century. Eegarding
the Epistle to the Galatians, which is the special object of
investigation, it is held that it is dependent upon the Eom-
ans (p. 74f). In the latter Epistle we have the original
system of doctrine, an organic whole ; while in Galatians
the same thoughts and words are often brought together,
but in an outward manner. It is a structure for which the
hewn stones are taken from another building, and are ar-
L'anged on a different plan. It belongs to this plan, that
the Law is less highly esteemed in Galatians than in Eom-
ans. It is represented as given by angels. This deroga-
tory treatment of the law is a step toward the position of
Marcion. Again, the conception of Judaism found in the
Galatians is said to be different from that of Eomans.
For in the former writing, Judaism and heathenism are
represented as standing on the same plane (Gai. iv, 10-11),
while in the latter the prerogatives of the Jews are men-
tioned (Eom. ix, 1-5). Again, Paul's reference to his con-
version in the Epistle to the Galatians is thought to be
suspicious (pp. 81-84), and the accounts of Paul's visit to
Jerusalem and the story of the conflict with Peter in
Antioch are regarded as artificial history. It is also urged
KBW TEST AM EXT lyTJlODrcTlOX. 87
against the genuineness of the Epistle to the Galatians
that Paul's claim to apostolic authority is too strongly em-
phasized to comport with the modesty which a real author
usually shows.
In the same line is the criticism on Gal. i, G. Compari-
son shows that Romans and Corinthians (i. 8 ; I. C. i, 4)
have the word adyapKrrro at the beginning of the letter,
after the address, while Galatians has Oaufid^w. Of course,
says the author, the word vy/ainard) was shut out by the
nature of the case. The Apostle could not thank God for
the faith of churches which he was obliged so severely to
blame. Anything but an expression of wonder would have
been out of place. But is it probable, he continues, that
the Apostle chose this form Oa.oiJ.d'^o), if this letter w^as
the first he ever wrote ? Does not this word in place of
the well-known thyap'.dTG) make the impression that the
letter was conaposed by some oae who knew the Pauline
form, and kept it here, but quite appropriately instead of
the laudatory initial word, placed the word of blame "?
This reasoning is scarcely strong enough to support a
hypothesis of any value. The author concludes that the
Epistle to the Galatians must be regarded as a literary
product of the Pauline school. It Avas intended to give
the strongest expression to the opposition between tne lib-
eral Gentile Christianity and the aggressive Jewish Chris-
tianity. With the full force of a superior mind he scourged
the tendencies of hi's time, which would make Christianity
Jewish again. It was composed after 120 A. D. An ob-
jection to this view is anticipated by the author, and is
dealt with, viz., the objection that it affirms the impossible.
Such a fresh, living letter, it is said, bears too plainly the
88 XFW TESTA2IENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
impress of the Pauline spirit to allow tlie supposition that
a mere imitator could have composed it. It is a unit, and
by no means makes the impression of a patchwork out of
other letters. The author replies that it is not necessar}'
to see in the later writer a simple imitator. He may
have been a Paulinist of independent, decided, spiritual
individuality, who understood Jiow to Aveave together the
watchwords of the Paulinism of the older letters in a new,
ingenious way. The author recurs to this point again, as
though not satisfied with his own argument. He says
(p. 352) of the four major Epistles, it will be objected that
they manifestly belong to the creative beginning of Chris-
tianity, and the circle of the Apostles. They contain the
most forcible and original religious thought found in the
New Testament. But it does not follow, he says, that be-
cause these letters are incomparable they must therefore
have been composed by Apostles. What proof have we
that the Apostles were such original thinkers? Are
writers like the author of the Epistle to the Eomans
impossible In the second century? The case of the
fourth Gospel should restrain us from answering in the
negative. The critical school agree that this Gospel be-
longs to the second century. If there was a mind in that
period which could produce the fourth Gospel, there might
also have been one which could produce the Epistle to the
Piomans.
Having put these Epistles in the period between 120
and 140 A. D., the author feels it to be necessary to show
that there is no reference to them in any writing prior to
this time. This is done by the hypothesis that Clement
wrote forty years later than is generally supposed, and by
NFW TESTAMENT IXTIWDCrTfOX. 89
denying many of the traces of the Epistles that are com-
monly believed to exist.
Of importance for the defense of the genuineness of
II Thessalonians is the fact, brought out and emphasized
recently^ that the Macedonian churches, unlike the others
which Paul established, were founded and developed under
the stress of persecution. This fact explains the presence
in these churches of a peculiarly intense longing for the
Parous ia. The second Epistle, it is said, shows us the
same congregation as the first, but the eschatological ten-
dency in it is strengthened by an outbreak of iDersecution.
The peculiar doctrine of the second chapter is explicable
with the aid of Daniel's prophecies and the historical ap-
pearance of Caligula. That which restraineth is the Ko-
man law, the restrainer is Claudius. The Thessalonian
Apocalypse differs too widely from that of John to belong
to the same period.
The question of the genuineness of the Pastoral Epis-
tles is still earnestly discussed. The position of Hesse^ is
that all the letters contain genuine Pauline elements.
Second Timothy is even thought to be based upon two ver-
itable letters of Paul, one a letter of encouragement to Tim-
othy, the other a letter summoning the same disciple to Rome.
Our Pastoral Epistles arose in the first half of the second
century. Their aim was to check growing heresies, and to
regulate the offices of the Church. Since they were thought
to be in the spirit of Paul, they were ascribed to him. His
own words were modified and enlarged to meet present
^Dzr Zweite Brief an die Tkessalonicher erhhitert unci kritisch un-
tersucht. Yon Albert Klopper, Konigsberg, 1889.
'Die Entstehung der neatest amentliclien Hirtenbriefc. Halle, 1889.
90 NUW TESTA2IEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
needs. The author holds that the Epistles themselves
suggest and confirm the hypothesis of a release and a sec-
ond imprisonment. The heretics had in view in the Pas-
toral Epistles are thought to be the Valentinians and
Marcionites. The endless genealogies and denial of the
resurrection are said to point to the Valentinians, while the
forbidding to marry and antinomianism point to Marcion.
Hence the Epistles in their present form are assigned to
the middle of the second century. It is held by another
writer^ that two results of the controversy regarding the
genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles may be accepted as
practically settled, viz., (1) that it is impossible to accept
two, or one, or any portion of one, of these Epistles, and
reject the rest; and (2) that they stand or fall with the hy-
pothesis of the second imprisonment. The first of these
statements must be modified, since some of the ablest re-
cent writers accept portions of the Pastoral Epistles as
genuine, while they reject them as a whole. The strong
argument for their genuineness, which is found in the last
named author, is legitimately drawn from the contents of
the letters.
The same diversity of views regarding the Epistle to the
Hebrews is found in the writings of the past year. On the
one hand^ Apollos is held to be the only known person
who fills all the conditions regarding the author ; on the
other, ^ it is shown quite conclusively that the authorship of
^The Pastoral Epistles. By Rev. Alfred Phimmer, D. D., New
York, Armstrong & Son, 1889.
^The Epistle to the Hebrews, with Notes and Introduction. By
F, W. Farrar, D. D. Cambridge, 1888.
^r/ie Epistle to the Hebrews. By Frederic RendciU, A. M. Lon
don, 1888.
XEW TESTA JIi: XT lyTRODrcTlOX. 91
Apollos is out of the question. The former of these writers
thinks that the Epistle was probably directed to believers
either in Alexandria or Ephesus ; the latter argues forcibly
that it was sent to some church in Syria. As to the author,
Mr. Eendall says that the silence of primitive tradition is
inconsistent with the idea that the name of Apollos was
ever associated with the Epistle. He thinks the author
was plainly a Hellenistic Jew, who had received a Greek
education as well as training in the Old Testament. He
sometimes borrows the language of Philo, but is not in
harmony with Philo's spirit.
Against the view that Paul wrote the Epistle, the
author presents with especial emphasis the argument, that
the theology, of the Epistle is of the Petrine stamp rather
than of the Pauline. The conception of the Mosaic Law
which is found in Hebrews differs widely from that of Paul.
The Apostle to the Gentiles regarded the Law as an inci-
dental and temporary addition, something almost of the
nature of an interruption of God's origmal covenant. In
the Hebrews the Old and New Dispensations form an un-
broken continuity. The Jewish and Christian Church are
spoken of as one and the same household of God. The
Gospel is presented not as antagonistic to the Law, bat as
the natural climax of the Mosaic revelation. The conception
of faith and righteousness in the Epistle to the Hebrews tal-
lies with that which is contained in James. The Epistle
to the Hebrews objects to the retention of the Levitical
system by the Israelites themselves ; but Paul did not ad-
vocate this liberty for the Jews, though he did for the Gen-
tiles. Mr. Piendall places the composition of the Epistle
in the time of the last conflict between the Jews and Pome,
92 XFW TESTA3IENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
and more particularly in the very year of the downfall of
Jerusalem. This rests entirely upon internal evidence.
The attitude of the author of the Epistle toward the Mosaic
worship and sacrifices is accounted for by the course of
political events. The refusal of the Jewish Christians to
join in the revolt against Rome — a refusal which they
were obliged to make in loyalty to the precepts of Christ —
brought necessarily their abandonment of the national rit-
ual. The Epistle justifies this abandonment by showing
the superiority of the Christian revelation to that of the
Old Testament.
Westcott^ arrives at conclusions which dift'er from both
those of Farrar and Rendall. He decides that the readers
of the Epistle were the Hebrew Christians of Jerusalem or
of the immediate neighborhood. This is an inference
from the relation in which the readers manifestly stood
to the Levitical ritual. He does not regard this conclu-
sion as beyond doubt. He puts the composition of the
Epistle about the year 67 A. D. As to the author of
the Epistle Westcott's conclusion is similar to that of
Eendall. He says that it cannot be the work of St. Paul,
and still less the \vork of Clement. It may have been
written by St. Luke. It may have been written by Barna-
bas, if the "Epistle of Barnabas" is apocryphal. The
scanty evidence which is accessible to us supports no more
definite judgment.
The view that James wrote before Paul, and hence
that his Epistle is the oldest portion of our New Testa-
ment, is represented again in the latest edition of Mey-
'See title under Exeeresis.
XUW TESTA JIEST jyTU(Hn'('Tl()N. !).;
er's Commentary on that book.^ The composition is \)wi
in the decade between 40 and 50 A. D. James, the
brother of the Lord, is hekl to have been the nutlior, and
Jewish Christians of the Diaspora, probably in Southern
Syria, are regarded as the readers.
Weiss, in his edition of the Meyer-Hiither Commentary
on the Epistles of John,'-^ holds with his predecessor that
the Apostle John was the author of the Epistles ; that the
first Epistle is indeed a letter, and not a homiletical essay ;
and that the false teachers who are warned against, are
Corinthians. It is said that John had Pauline Christians in
view who, in the consciousness of a righteousness bestowed
by grace, forgot that the aim of Christ is to produce in us
the practice of righteousness. The Epistle is by no means
a polemic against Paul, but against a wrong practical
conclusion drawn from a misunderstood Paulinism.
No problem in New Testament Introduction is receiv-
ing so much attention at present as that of the origin of
the xlpocalypse. A considerable number of works have
appeared in quick succession, which agree in holding that
the Apocalypse is the product of several authors, living in
different times, and being adherents of different religions.
Among these are the ^vritmg^ of Volter, Vischer-Harnack,
Sabatiei-, Schoen, Pfleiderer, Weizsaecker and Spitta. Op-
posed to this hypothesis, and called out by these attacks
upon the unity of the Apocalypse, are numerous articles
^Kritisck exegetisches Handbuch dher den Brief dcs Jacobus. Fiinf-
te Auflage. Neu bearbeitefc von Dr. Willibald Beysclilag. Gottingen
1888.
"Ki'itiich exegetisches Handbuch i'ber die Briefe des Apostels Jo-
hannes. Fiinfte Auflage. Neu bearbeitet von Dr. B. Weiss. Gott-
ingen, 1888.
94 ^'FW TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
which have appeared in the German and English lan-
guages.
The work of Spitta/ the latest of the opponents of
the traditional view, is an elaborate and learned presenta-
tion of a hypothesis differing in many points from the
views of other writers who reject the unity of the Apoca-
lypse. His hypothesis, in its leading features, may be
stated as follows :
The Canonical Apocalypse is the work of four authors.
The oldest portion (P)was composed about 63 B. C. The
next oldest (J^) arose under Caligula about the year 40 or
41 A, D. The third document (U) was composed in 60
A. D. These three were made one, and were increased by
a good many additions, by a writer (R) wdio lived under
Domitian or Trajan. The oldest document is contained
in the following passages of the Apocalypse: Chap, x, Ib-
2a, 8-11 ; xi, 1-13 : xiv, 14— xv, 4; xv, 6— xvi, 21 ; xvii, 1—
xix, 8; xxi, 9 — xxii, 3a, 15. The Caligula Apocalypse is
found in these passages : Chap, vii, 1-8 ; viii, 2-5 ; viii, 6 —
ix, 21 ; X, la, 2b-T ; xi, 15 ; xii-xiv, 13 ; xvi, 13-16, l7b-20 ;
xix, 11-21 ; XX, 1-xxi, 8. The third document consisted of
these passages : Chap, i, 4-6, 9-19; ii-v; vi, viii, 1; vii,
9-17; xix, 9b, 10a; xxii, 8-21. To the final redactor belong
about 126 additions, varying in length from a single word
to several verses. The redactor made relatively more
changes in the second Jewish Apocalypse than in either of
the other documents. The first Jewish Apocalypse, com-
jDosed at the time of the downfall of the Hasmonean dy-
nasty, when Jerusalem was finally given over to heathen
^Die Offenharung des Johannes untersuc.ht, Halle, 1889.
XUW TESTAMEXT IXTBODUCTION. 95
rule by Pompey, is eliaracterized by the same political sobri-
ety and religious contidence which are found in the Psalms
of Solomon. Its conception of the Messiah 'is midway be-
tween the collective idea of Daniel and the personal con-
ception of Enoch. In its picture of the future the Messiah
has no place. Its attitude toward the Temple is not that
of extreme loyalty. It looks forward to a time when
there shall be no temple. Its characteristic symbol of
the Eoman power is a luxurious world-city. x\lthough it
approaches nearer to Christianity than the second Jewish
Apocalypse, still its. type of Judaism is not liberal. Jeru-
salem is the center of the nation ; outside of it is the place
of dogs.
The second Jewish Apocalypse is intensely Jewish and
fanatical. Israel alone stands in the book of life ; Israel
alone is rescued in the great catastrophe of the end ; all
the heathen perish. The earthly Jerusalem is the scene
of the Millennial Kingdom. According to the Apocalypse,
the Messiah is born in heaven, where Satan tries in vain
to destroy him. Satan cast down to the earth gives all his
power to the representative of the Eoman Empire, viz,,
Caligula. This emperor is supported in his blasphemous
opposition by Simon Magus. All people except Israel are
seduced to worship Caligula, and are gathered together at
Megiddo to destroy the faithful. At this crisis the Messiah
rides forth from heaven, and without Israel's help destroys
the foe. Satan is bound, and Caligula is cast into the lake
of fire. Then begins tlie Millennium. These events, pre-
dicted by the Jewish seer, did not come to pass. Caligula
died before the anticipated battle of Megiddo and the com-
ing of the Messiah.
96 XUW TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
In the meantime the followers of Jesus among the Jews
were increasing. They, of course, affirmed that the Gen-
tiles should partake of the redemption of Chrisi . This po-
sition, since the Jews were growing more and more hostile
toward the Gentiles, made the Jews persecutors of the
Christians. In this state of things the third document (U)
originated. In this the Messiah stands in the foreground
as prophet, sacrificial lamb and king. His redeemed are
not of Israel merely, but out of all peoples and tongues.
The antithesis in U is between Christians and Jews.
The historical situation is totally changed when at last
our Apocalypse is composed. The Christians are perse-
cuted, but not by Jews. These are scarcely mentioned.
Their city lies in ruins. The foe of the Christian is the
Eoman power.
What the second Jewish- document said of Caligula,
the redactor refers to Nero. The beast coming out of
the sea is, according to J^ interpreted of Nero's return
from Hades. Nero, together with ten foreign kings, will
burn Eome, as he had already attempted to do in his life.
Then he himself will be overcome by Jesus, and the millen-
nial reign will begin.
The author of the third, i. e. the Christian, Apocalypse,
is thought to have been John Mark. No name is sug-
gested for the final redactor. It is held as certain that he
wrote under the sixth emperor, who was either Domitian
or Trajan. He was strongly influenced by the Johannean
Avritings. Kegarding the testimony of the eaily Church
very little is said, and that testimony, strangely enough, is
made to support the above hypothesis. The testimony of
Irenaeus, it is said, is not to be ignored. It is to be taken
XE \V TESTA ME XT IXTRO DVC TlOX. 97
for what it claims to be — the views of those who bad
known John. If John hved in Asia Minor after the death
of Paul, and died at tlie beginning of the second century,
it is easil}' intelligible how a great Apocalypse, which ap-
peared about that time in Asia Minor, and which became
known under the name of John, should have been imme-
diately attributed to the Apostle John. Such an error be-
comes nearly unavoidable, if we accept that the Apoca-
lypse did not become public until the death of John. Fur-
ther, the redactor, who stood under Johannean influence,
surely believed that in his publication he was acting in the
spirit of John, and therefore had a good right to let the
public believe that his Apocalypse was really a work of the
Apostle John.
Such brietly, is the theory. The grounds w^hicli are
thought to justify this analysis of the Apocalypse can not
be given in full, nor would we leave them wholly unno-
ticed. The weight of the argument can be fairly estimated
by studying the author's treatment of tw^o or three chap-
ters. He begins wath the unproved assumption that the
impression made by the Apocalypse is not one of unity but
the reverse. He admits a superficial unity, but thinks
this is to be accounted for as the work of the redactor.
The question seems not to have been asked, whether it is
more probable that a uniform style in a literary document
argues unity of authorship or that such a style was me-
chanically produced out of several different styles by the
hand of a redactor. We follow the author's line of argu-
ment for a little in detail. Verses 1-3 of the first chapter
are held to be an addition of the redactor because they
represent the revelation as made by an angel, while from
98 XUW TESTA3IEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
verse 9 forward to chapter xvii, nothing is said of media-
tion by angels. In verse 9 Jesus speaks directly with
John. Here an apparent difference in the method of com-
munication w^ith John is at once assumed as real. Be-
cause the entire revelation is said to be mediated by an
angel it is inferred that John, even in an ecstatic state,
cannot be represented as seeing and hearing any other
than this same angel. Further evidence that verses 1-3
are a later addition is found in verse 2, which shows a
misunderstanding of i, 9. This passage was understood to
mean that John went to Patmos in order to receive the
word of God and the testimou}^ of Jesus, and this false
interpretation of a passage in the earlier document led the
editor to trace the Apocalypse, as he does, through the
angel and Jesus, up to God. Here it is assumed that the
clauses " word of God" and " testimony of Jesus" have
a radically different meaning in verse 2 from that which
they have in verse 9. Further, it is assumed that in i, 9
and later these expressions refer simply to the word of
Scripture and to the testimony which Jesus bore in His
earthly life. Again, because the verb in verse 2 —
iiiai>xb{rq(7v^ — lias no object expressed, while in verse 4
the seven churches are specified, it is inferred that the re-
dactor regarded the Apocal3^pse as addressed, not to seven
churches, but to the Church universal. Now it might per-
haps be said that a redactor with this idea of the Apoca-
lypse could have expressed himself in this way ; but the ex-
pression does not help to prove the existence of such a redac-
tor. The variation in language is altogether natural. Verses
7 and 8 are assigned to the redactor. First, they are felt to
disturl) the connection. The Introduction is at an end in
^^UW TIJSTAMEXT INTdWDUCTlOX. 99
verse 6, and we expect at once the beginning of the con-
tent of the letter. This method of reasoning is common
throughout the book. The feehng or taste of the critic is
2)ut forward as an adequate ground for the most varied
changes in the text. Verse 8, beginning with the words
'*I am the Alpha and the Omega," is assumed to refer to
Jesus, and then it is argued that it cannot be by the author
of i, 46, in which passage the attributes of Christ are char-
acteristically different from those of God. Again, these
verses cannot be by the author of i, 4-0, 9 — iii, 22, because
while these sections refer to Christ only in His present
relation to His Church, verses 7-8 refer to His coming as
judge. The answer to this is obvious.
The last verse of the first chapter is assigned to the
editor for the following reasons : (1) The verse is susj)icious
because it is anacoluthically connected with the loregoing ;
(2) It anticipates part of the content of the seven letters ;
( o) It gives a false interpretation of symbols, and therefore
cannot belong to the author of chapters i-iii. It is wrong to
suppose that the candlesticks stand for the seven churches
and the stars for the angels of the churches. For, in the
first place, i, 9-lY contains only general designations of
Christ's heavenly power and glory, and therefore it would
be inconsistent to make two of the features of that vision
specific. Here it is assumed that the symbols of i, 9-17
are general. The second reason for regarding verse 20 as
a false interpretation of symbols is that these churches
were for the most part not fitted to serve as an adornment
of the heavenly Christ. It is not needful to pause to
reply to this objection.
Chapters ii-iii, while belonging in the main to the
100 NEW TESTAJIENT EXEOETICAL THEOLOGY.
original Christian Apocalypse from the year 60 A. D., are
no longer in their primitive form. The words, seven times
repeated, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith' to the churches," cannot he an utterance
either of Christ or John. This point is dispatched with a
simple assertion. Another trace of the redactor is in the
words, "What the Spirit saith to the churches." Each
letter, it is said, is to a single church, and hence the word
" churches" is an addition. Here the critic assumes, what
is indeed excluded by i, 4, that each letter was designed to
be sent separately to a particular church. The promise
associated in each letter with the words just mentioned is
also regarded as an addition of the editor, because, first, it
is suspicious that all the churches alike should receive a
promise ; second, these promises are introduced abruptly ;
and finally, there is no connection between the con-
tent of the promise and the characteristic of Christ
Avhich stands at the beginning of the letter, and no
connection between it and the content of the letter
itself.
This is the style of argument by which this new
hypothesis is supported. The course of the book has
been followed in these examples. They have not been
chosen at random, or with partiality. And the argument
of the entire book is neither stronger nor weaker than that
of these first chapters. It may be said, before passing on,
that this hypothesis of Spitta seems to us to ignore the
deeper spiritual unity of the Apocalypse, to ignore its poet-
ical character, to ignore the testimony of the early Church,
and to create vastly more and greater difficulties thaiL
those which it seeks to remove.
CHAPTER in.
NEW TESTAMENT EXEGESIS,
The work in this department during the past year has
not been of so great importance as that on the subject of
New Testament Introduction. There has been no dearth
of works, but less of original investigation than we some-
times have.
It is peculiarly interesting to compare the writings of
a Roman Catholic Archbishop^ and a German Rationalist^.
One represents exegesis under the ban of dogmatism, the
other, exegesis which acknowledges allegiance to science
only. One is thoroughly mediaeval in method and re-
sults, the other as thoroughly modern. The confessed
motive of the Archbishop in publishing is the atheistic and
materialistic character of the age on which we have fallen ;
the other author's motive is the wide-spread need, in Ger-
many, of a scientific exposition of the New Testament,
which is adapted to theological students, clergymen and
intelligent lajanen. The attitudes of these writers toward
the sacred text is most widely different from each other.
For one, the letter of the Gospel is without flaw, -a divinely
'An Exposition of the Gospel of St. John. Bj^ His Grace, The
most Kev. Dr. MacEvilly, Archbishop of Tnam. Dublin, 1889.
-Hand-Commentar zum Neuen Testament. Erster Band, erste bis
dritte Abtheilung. Die Synoptiker. Von H. Holtzmanu, Freibm-g,
1880.
102 NEW TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
perfect document ; for the other, it is a human stor}^, re-
markable it is true, but specifically human, and by no
means free from incorrect statements and other conse-
quences of human frailty and imperfection. For one the
Gospel is fully historical ; for the other, it is largely ideal-
ized, and contains around its historical nucleus, a mass of
devout meditation, interpretation and legend. It follows
that the Eomanist has little liberty for criticising the
meaning of the text, while the Eationalist has no restraint.
As might be expected, the conclusions of these writers
are most dissimilar. The Eomanist's comments on pas-
sages like John i. 48, ii. 25 are to the effect that Jesus con-
stantly possesses the attributes of omniscience, omnipo-
tence and omnipresence. Jesus, in virtue of His Divine
immensity, was present under the fig-tree with Nathanael.
It is said to be plain from ii, 25 that Jesus knew, as God,
the secrets of man's heart, the future as well as the pres-
ent. In the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus did all by His
own sole command and authority. He invoked no other
power to assist Him. Not only during His public ministry
was Jesus consciously possessed of Divine power and wis-
dom, but there is nothing to prevent us from thinking that
He might have privately manifested His Divine power to
His friends in His home in Nazareth.
On the other hand, the German writer sees in Jesus a
man born of Joseph and Mary, who from the hour of His
baptism regarded Himself as the prophesied Messiah ,^ a
man of great power both moral and spiritual, a man of
true and deep religious insight, a reformer of such personal
power that He was able to work wonders in the psycho-
logical sphere. That is, according to the German writer,
XEW TEST AM EXT EXEGESIS. 103
Jesus was a man ; according to the Eomanist, He was a
God.
In one notable point, these writers of the extreme right
and extreme left agree, viz., in holding that the Gospel
teaches the primacy of Peter. The Eomanist holds that
this doctrine is fully and emphatically set forth in John
xxi, 15-17. In reward for Peter's triple confession, Jesus
gives him charge of His entire liock. His commission to
feed and rule the Hock involves supreme authority over all
members of the Church. Peter's commission involves
universal legislative, judicial and executive authority to
rule, govern and uphold the universal Church, including
pastors and people. Here it is assumed that whatever
authority was given to Peter, was given also to the succes-
sors of Peter. The agreement between the Eomanist and
the Eationalist is as follows : Holtzmann holds that Matt,
xvi, 13-28 contains a solemn proclamation of the primacy
of Peter, but he regards this passage as purely fictitious,
written at a late day to justify an existing fact in the
Church. He declares that this primacy of Peter is in di-
rect contradiction to Matt, xvi, 23, where Jesus calls Peter
by the name Satan ; is inconsistent with the teaching of
Jesus regarding greatness in His kingdom (Mk. ix, 35) ;
with Paul's views of the Apostolate, and with his actual
relation to Peter.
As illustrative of the Archbishop's exegetical method
his treatment of the passages relating to Mary the mother
of Jesus may be noticed. He says of John ii 4: ''Woman,
what have I to do with thee ! mine hour is not yet come,"
that these words have taxed the learning and ingenuity of
the ablest commentators ancient and modern. One may
104 NEW TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY,
be pardoned for thinking that it taxed the ingenuity of the
ilrchbishop himself to deduce from the simple statement
of the text the following teaching. He says the most prob-
able meaning of the entire verse is thus given : "My Lady,
the miracle regarding which thou givest me a suggestive
hint, is a work which cannot emanate from my human
nature, received from thee, which alone therefore is com-
mon to you and to me. It is a w^ork peculiar to my divine
nature. There is some difficulty in the way, arising from
the decree of my Father's providence, as to the time, for
my public manifestation to the world is not yet come. But
thy powerful intercession cannot be frustrated ; thou askest
it, let it therefore be' done." The author adds: "What
more calculated to inspire all her children with the great-
est confidence in the wonderful intercessory power of the
Blessed Virgin '? "
From the words of Mar}" in verse 5 it is inferred as
certain that she knew all about the coming miracle. She
knew that her Divine Son would perform the miracle in
compliance with her request.
Perhaps the most remarkable bit of exegesis is that of
Johnxix, 26-27. On the words, "Woman, behold thy son,"
Ave read : "From the lofty summit of His cross Jesus con-
templates the sorrows of this dolorous Queen of Martyrs,
and in the person of St. John, who, then, according to the
teaching of several holy fathers, represented the human
race, or, at least, the sincere followers of our Divine Lord,
He gave us over to her, as her children. Are we not,
then, the children whom Mary brought forth in sorrow
at the foot of the cross, the children recommended to her
by her dying first-born? If she was spared the ma-
XEW TESTAMEXT EXECESlS. 105
ernal throes in Bethlehem, was it not that she might
experience them with ten-fohl intensity, in giving us,
the children of sin, hirtli amid the glooms of Calvary!
Then turning to us in the person of St. John, he ex-
claims, "Behold thy Mother!" Woe to us if we ever fail
to reverence with special honor, or love with the most
intense tilial affection of devoted children, or cher-
ish with unbounded confidence the mother bequeathed
to us, as the last pledge of His love, by her Divine
vine Son, our dying Saviour. . . .If in our conviction re-
garding the powerful advocacy of the Blessed Virgin we
are deceived, then all we can say is, that the saints of
heaven and the faithful on earth, have gone astray for
eighteen hundred years. Happy we, if we err along with
them."
Comparable with this exegesis as regards only the re-
markable character of the results attained, is Holtzmann's
treatment of the passages concerning the resurrection.
He regards Matt, xxviii, 16-20 as the oldest of the extant
reports of the resurrection. He holds that after the dis-
ciples fled (Matt, xxvi, 56), they went to Galilee, and there
where all the memories of the living Christ were in full
strength, and where the Jerusalem picture of his death
could work on them only from afar, Christianity was born
a second time. The only point, it is said, in which the
Synoptists agree perfectly is that the grave was found
empty. No one knows what became of the buried Jesus.
The accounts of the appearances of the risen One are too
full of contradictions to be regarded as historical. Accord-
ing to Luke (xxiv, 18, 34) Jesus appears to the disciples on
the day of the resurrection in Jerusalem ; according to
106 XFW TFSTAJIEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
Matthew and Mark, He directs that they should go to
Gahlee, where further revelations should be made. The
appearances in Jerusalem are so related that thej^ exclude
the Galilean, and the Galilean appearances so that they ex-
clude those in Jerusalem. According to the Gospel of
Luke, the last appearance of Jesus seems to be on the day
of the resurrection ; yet the same writer in Acts i, 3 puts it
forty days later. The Gospel of Mark breaks off at xvi, 8,
manifestly because it does not count the resurrection as
belonging in a strict sense to the history of Jesus. Ac-
cording to Mark xvi, S, the women do not deliver the angel's
message to the disciples ; according to Luke xxiv, 9, they do.
And who are the women who found the grave empty ? Mark
says, Maiy Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and
Salome ; Matthew speaks only of the two Marys ; Luke
says there were three and Joanna. Two angels are seen
according to Luke ; one according to Matthew and Mark.
Further, there is no agreement touching the nature of
the risen one. Now He is represented as corporeal. He
can be touched, and can eat. Again, He appears as a su-
pernatural l)eing. He comes and goes suddenly. He is
taken for a ghost. Holtzmann's conclusion is that the
whole account of the resurrection is unhistorical ; Jesus did
not rise ; and Christianity was born the second time of a
fond memor3^
The eleventh chapter of the Gospel according to John,
upon w4iose story of the raising of Lazarus Strauss made
his bitterest attack, has been treated exhaustively from a
conservative point of view.^
^Dit Geschichie (lev Aufericeclxung des Lazarus. Yon F. L. Steiu-
meyer, Berlin, 1888.
i
XBW TESTAMENT EXEGESIS. 107
The argument against the genuineness ol" the naiTative
on the ground that the event is not referred to in Matthew,
is met, not by saying that his field was Galilee rather than
Judea, but by the fact of different aims on the part of the
evangelists. Matthew's aim was to show that Jesus was
the Messiah of the Jewish people, but for the accomplish-
ment of this aim the event in Bethany was not appropriate
material. It was just this event that led to the culmination
of Jewish hate against Jesus. As such it was received by
John. In accounting for Christ's sorrow on the receipt of
the news of Lazarus' death, the author advances the view
that Jesus saw in the Bethany family a type of the Chris-
tian Church. This was the reason why He was so deeply
touched by the tidings that the circle had been broken.
The distinction between (pdiv^ and dya-dy, long and
generally advocated on the ground of classic usage, is
abandoned. The better evidence of New Testament usage
is appealed to, and the conclusion is that the words are
not discriminated. This conclusion is reached by an
American writer also,^ after an exhaustive study of the
LXX and of the New Testament.
The conservative criticism of Meyer is pretty seriously
transformed by some of his editors. Particularly is this
the case with his work on the Acts. His editor (see title
of work under Introduction) has generally altered the his-
torical and theological passages. In his view, later and
unhistorical tradition has left traces in the Acts. For in-
stance, the statement that the multitude perfectly under-
stood the Apostolic preaching on Pentecost is legendary.
-Prof. Wm. G. Ballautine, D. D., in the Bibliotheca Sacra for July.
1889.
108 ^^I:\V TESTAMEXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
The speaking with tongues in Jerusalem was what we find
later in Corinth. As to the interpretation of Actsxxvi, 2i),
the author goes back to Chrysostom's explanation. It
means this : "With a little, i. e., a little more, thou makest
me a Christian." Agrippa makes a half-way confession
of Christ, not ironical but serious.
Another illustration is furnished of the universality and
depth of the spirit of Paul, of the firm grasp which he had
upon the great principles of Christianity, and of the need
which the world still has of his solution of some of its dif-
ficult problems. Followhig the philological commentaries
of the past two or three years on the First Epistle to the
Corinthians, there comes a popular volume", but such a
one as grows out of scientific study. It is a forcible dis-
cussion of the leading features of the Epistle, and conse-
quently it IS a discussion of questions which are largely
vital in our own times. The writer comes near to those
who regard Paul as the second founder of the Christian
religion. It is to this man, he says, that we owe our
Christianity. It was he who disengaged from the dying
body of Judaism the new-born religion, and held it aloft
in the eye of the world as the true heir to universal em-
pire. It was he who applied to the whole range of human
life and duty the inexhaustible ethical force which lay in
Christ, and thus lifted at one effort the heathen world to a
new level of morality.
Critical works which are produced for the holders of a
particular dogma are not likely to possess much critical
value. It is well-known how the criticism of the lioman
■'The First Epistle to the Corinthians. By Marcus Dods, D. D,
New York, Armstrong & Son, 188D.
XBW TI-:sTAMi:XT L\\K(r-/:siS. 100
Catholic Church is controlled by the Decrees of Trent.
A recognized exponent of the Church of England, highlj^
endorsed by the organs of that body, admits frankly in a
volume on Corinthians^ that he writes exegesis for mem-
bers of the Church of England. This is to renounce in
advance the privilege of scientific investigation. Given
the doctrines of the Established Church, and one can fore-
tell the scientific results to which the exegesis will attain.
To illustrate this from the work in question. On chapter
iv, 1, in I. Cor., where Paul speaks of himself as a minister
and steward, we are told that ministers are priests more
truly than Aaron. . . .that they dispense the mystery of the
Incarnation. . . .and that they stand between Christ and His
people.
So important to Church action is the actual presence
of a bishop, that the spirit of Paul is said to have
been miraculously present with the church in Corinth
when that body took measures against the fornicator. It
is expressly affirmed that the presence of his spirit was not
by an act of sympathy with what they were doing, but by
a supernatural act. The excommunication and absolu-
tion of the fornicator are both acts of the Apostle alone.
Another illustration of the same sort is found in the
author's treatment of the Lord's Supper. The words,
"This is my body," cannot be understood figuratively, be-
cause there is no similar figure in Scripture. In the mat-
ter of the Holy Sacrament the Lord directs our attention
to the lower part of His nature — His body and blood —
rather than to Himself. In all other figures — "I am the
^The First and Second Epistles to the Corinthians, with notes criti
cal and practical. By. Rev. M. F. Sadler. London, 1889.
110 XFW TESTA JI EXT EXEdETK'AL THEOLOdY.
Door, I am the good Shepherd,'.' etc. — the Lord directs
attention to His spiritual nature. But here, in the insti-
tution of the Supper, He directs our thought to His lower
and passive nature, as that through which we are to re-
ceive the benefits of His redemption. The remembrance
is made before God and God alone. It is also called a
Church remembrance.
A singular view of the Greek word tj.onrr]f>'.ir^ is adopted
in connection with the author's view of the Supper. It
does not denote a truth once hidden, but now made known
and comprehensible. It signifies rather something that
is unsearchable, and ten-fold more mysterious by reason
of the light thrown upon it. The author admits the doc-
trine of probation after death. The man delivered over to
Satan (I Cor. v, 5) was to be cutoff by death, but this death
would not be followed by eternal death ; for the punish-
ment of temporal death would be remedial, and either
bring about a repentance, though a very late one, or else
his temporal death would be taken in mitigation of his
punishment in the unseen world. This passage is held
to be parallel to Matt, xii, 32, which distinctly implies, so
the author says, that sins may be forgiven in the future
world.
A novel view of the "spiritual rock'^ (I Cor. x 4) is set
forth in a little volume on Difficult Passages of the New
Testament. "^ It was not really the rock itself which fol-
lowed the Israelites, but the stream from the rock, and
this followed them because they descended from Horeb.
The water came down the same ravine with them.
'Notes on Difficult Passages of the New Testament. By Elias Riggs,
D. D., LL.D. Cong. Pub, Society. Chicago, 1889.
^'IJ^V TESTAMbJXT EXEGJ^JSIS. Ill
Small addition lias bcfii made to the critical study of
the Epistle to the Galatians. An excellent popular volume
has appeared/ treating the thought of the writing in some
of its more salient features. A second volume''^ on this
Epistle is an ingenious mosaic of quotations.
Some acute suggestions are made as to the rendering
of certain clauses in the Epistle.'^ In i, 14, instead of
"Jews' religion-," ''Jewish partizanship" is suggested. The
difHcult sentence in ii, 2 is rendered as follows: "I laid
before them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,
but privateh^ to those who were thinking that possibly I
was running, or had run, in vain." This gives oozo^rt-jv
its natural meaning. Weiss^ transforms Huther's com-
mentary on the Epistles of John, extensively changing both
form and substance. His aim is to combine the glossa-
torial and reproductive methods. The positive explana-
tion of the text is placed in the foreground, and its justifi-
cation is given in continuous analysis of words and
connections which is interwoven with the -interpretation.
Subordinate place is given to the discussion of others' views.
The grammatical and lexical references are few in com-
parison with those of Meyer. There is a decided gain in
clearness of statement. The change of explanation is often
striking. For instance, Huther's comment on 1 John, i. 5,
^The Epistle to the Galatians. By Professor G. G. Findlay. Lon-
don, 1888.
•The Epistle to the Galatians. Biblical Illustrator. By Rev. Jo-
seph S. Exell. London, Nisbet &, Co., 1889.
^^Cf. the Expositor, for July, 1889.
*K)itisch exegetisches Handbuch I'ber die Briefe des Apostels Jo-
hannos. Fiinfte Auflage neubearbeitet. Gottingen, 1888.
112 yi:W TESTAJIFXT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
"God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all," is to the
effect that the word 'darkness' is a symbol of sin; ^yhile
Weiss regards it as signifying the unknown. Again, the
"manifestation" of chapter ii, 28, is regarded by Huther
as the manifestation of God. The verb here employed
does not denote the becoming visible of the invisible, but
the becoming known of the unknown.
Of the same character as his work on the Epistles of
John is the work of Weiss on the Epistle to the Hebrews.^
Lunemann's work is revised in a thorough manner. There
are new views on every page. It is impossible to discover
how much of the original is left except by comparing the
new work with it, line for line. The volume by Eenda.U,
already referred to under Introduction, is more suggestive
than the German commentary. They differ widely on some
important points. For instance, the view of Weiss on
chapter ii, 10, is that the sufferings through which Jesus
passed on earth afforded Him opportunity to become per-
fect, i. e., to maintain His moral perfection in the extrem-
est trial. Eendall, looking at the uniform usage of the
LXX., and also at the Epistle to the Hebrews, takes the
verb rehuHo in the sense of "consecrate." His idea of
the passage is, that the sufferings and death through which
Jesus passed in His incarnation, are regarded as a conse-
cration to His heavenly priesthood.
The view of Weiss, and apparently of the Eevisers, that
iv, 13 contains a figure borrowed from the language of
sacrifice, is rejected by Kendall, who sees in it rather a fig-
ure from the wresthng-school. The word in question.
^Kritlsch exegefisckes Handbuch aber den Hebrderbrief. Gottin-
gen, 1888.
X£\V TESTAMEXT hJXKCi ESlS. 118
rtzpayr,lt(7ij.i'>'>^ denoted primarily one who was mastered
by the grip of his antagonist on the back of his neck. Philo
used it to describe one who was over-mastered by distress,
OY tyrannized over b}' hist. Mr. Kendall's translation of
chapter vi, 0, gives a new meaning to that important pass-
age. It is impossible to keep renewing again unto repent-
ance those who have been enlightened once for alb, etc."
The impossible here asserted consists not in a single re-
pentance, but in the indelinite renewal of the first vivid
life of the Spirit in the case of Christians who are mean^
while continually crucifying to themselves the Son of God
afresh. The passage thus understood, is in harmony with
the previous context, which maintains the need of progress-
ive teaching as the child grows into a man. in Christ, and
protests against the constant reiteration of truths which
have lost their freshness. It is in harmony also with the
subsequent context, which condemns spiritual barrenness
under the figure of sterile soil, which, season after season,
in spite of fertilizing rain and human tillage, produces only
thorns and thistles. The most important work on the Epistle
to the Hebrews, and perhaps the most important commentary
of the past year, is that by Westcott.^ It combines German
attention to detail, and comprehensive understanding of
the scope of the Epistle. It is elaborate and learned ; con-
servative in tone, free from polemical matter, and fair.
The author's views on matters of introduction have been
referred to in another connection. Mention may be made
here of some especially interesting and difficult passages.
The 'taking hold of a seed of Abraham' is understood as a
^The Epistle to the Hebrews: tlie Greek Text Avitli Notes aud Es-
says. London, 1889.
114 NEW TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
taking hold to help (ii, 10). Christ did not take hold of
angels, to help them, but took hold of men. And indeed,
He took hold of a seed of Abraham, that is a true seed,
those who are children of faith. But this conception that
Christ took hold only of those who should believe, does not
seem to be the necessary teaching of the verse.
The difficult word [zpayr^Uazv^) in chap, iv, 13, is un-
derstood in the sense of 'revealed,' but the author does not
say from what image he thinks this meaning derived. He
does not accept the reference to the 'wrestler.'
The words 'without sin,' chap, iv, 15, are held to de-
scribe a limitation of Christ's temptation, not, as in our
version, the issue of His temptation. Accordingly, the
thought is, Christ met all the temptations which we meet,
except those which spring out of our sin. This greatly
limits the range of His temptations.
• The 'heavenly things' of ix, 23, which it was necessary
to cleanse with something better than the Levitical sacri-
fices, are things which embody the conditions of man's fu-
ture life, things which answer to the sanctuary with all its
furniture. Various conceptions of the Epistle are treated
in separate essays, which to the number of more than
forty, are scattered through the volume. These constitute
an important feature of the work. Two works ^ on the
Pastoral Epistles illustrate the independent and the dog-
matic styles of exegesis.
Some points are of especial interest. The difficult
passage in 1 Tim. ii, 12-15 is ingeniously explained by
Knoke. The word auOv^rsiy is said to mean an egotistic
^ Kuoke. See title under lutrocliiction. The Pastoral Epistles.
By Eev. Alfred Plnmmer, D.D. Armstrono- & Son, New York, 1889.
X£\V TESTA Jf EXT EXEdESlS. 115
and reckless withdrawment of the woman from the man.
It does not refer to her having dominion over him. There
could have been no need of such an injunction in one of
Paul's churches. Further, this view of the word is incon-
sistent with the latter part of verse 15. But the idea of
withdrawment from the husband may have been a question
of the day. That chastity which was required by the
Christian faith might seem to be best secured by sexual
abstmence. With some it was a question whether the
married state did not render the attainment of salvation
impossibJe. Paul had to meet just these ideas in his let-
ter to the Corinthians, and similar views had probably
been expressed in Ephesus. x\dopting this meannig of
ado-'.zer,^ the seuse of verse 15 becomes plain. Woman
shall be saved. Her salvation is not imperilled by her
married state, as some suppose. She shall be saved, if,
with child-bearing, she continues in faith and love and
sanctification with sobriety.
This point is made against the ordinary under-
standuig of Paul's requirement, that a bishop should be
the husband of one wife. Paul, in verse 9, requires that
a widow, in order to be enrolled as a church- widow, must
have been the wife of one man. In verse 11:, he advises
the younger widows to marry. If now the clause in ques-
tion, "wife of one man," meant that she could be but once
married, Paul by his advice to young widows would be
cutting off the possibility of their ever behig helped by the
Church, should they a second time lose their husbands.
This is said to be improbable. Keference to polygamy is
thought to be entirely out of the question. Hence the in-
junction is referred to chastity. Cf. Current Discussions^
Vol. YI, p. 126.
116 XEW TESTAMENT EXECiETlCAL THEOLOGY.
The difficulty of the passage, Titus ii, 13, is avoided
by a new rendering. According to Knoke, Christ is not
the great God, but the glory of the great God. It is the
epiphany of this which is anticipated.
The two authors differ widely touching the "laver of
regeneration" (Titus iii, 5). The English w^riter declares
that, according to Paul, regeneration takes place by means
of the baptismal washing. This is said to be the natural
and almost necessary meaning of the Greek construction
(d'A with the genitive). The German writer, on the other
hand, finds no reference to the baptism of individual Christ-
ians. The expression "laverof regeneration" is taken figu-
ratively, and its meaning is said to be determined by that
of the following clause, "the renewing of the Holy Spirit."
This refers to an event which took place in connection with
the appearance of the goodness of God, i. e., to the out-
pouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This is called a
renewing in view of the sporadic and partial outpourings of
the Spirit upon the prophets. The laver of regeneration
denotes essentially the same thing. The language is based
upon the promise to the prophets that when the new cove-
nant should be made with Israel, they should receive new
hearts. This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost.
The right of praying for the departed is argued by the
English writer on the ground of II Tim. i, 15-18. The
balance of probability is said to be decidedly in favor of
the view that Onesiphorus was already dead when Paul
wrote these words. For the house of Onesiphorus is spoken
of in connection with the present, while Onesiphorus him-
self is connected with the past. Then, Paul sends greeting
to the house of Onesiphorus, not to Onesiphorus himself.
NEW TESTAMENT EXEGESIS. 117
And finally the form of Paul's prayer points to the death
of Onesiphorus as already accomplished.
The exegesis of the Apocalypse can scarcely be said to
have been furthered by works of the past year. The
Bishop of Liverpool, in the preface to a pojDular commen-
tary by Mr. Graham,^ says that the x\pocalypse is a book
of hieroglyphics, that we have at present no key to their
meaning, and must be content with modest conjectures.
And yet, strangely enough, this commentary on a book for
whose interpretation we have no key, this commentary
which consists of modest conjectures, is said to have food
for all classes of Christians, and to be adapted to do good
to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Some
people wall differ from the Lord Bishop in regard to the
spiritual value of guess-work in Bible interpretation.
The author seems to have no definite theory of interpre-
tation, and to lack that sobriet}^ of scholarship wdiich is
most emphatically required in the interpretation of the
Apocalypse. For instance, the seven churches are thought
to correspond to seven periods of history, which cover the
past eighteen centuries. Only the author finds it neces-
sary to skip the Eeformation period, perhaps the most im-
portant of all since the Apostolic. This fanciful scheme
of dividing history makes it necessary to call the modern
period the Laodicean. The Church of this century is
neither dead nor alive. Such a conclusion bears hard
upon the theory.
Again, the rider on the white horse, chapter vi, is said
to be the Antichrist, because he seems to conquer by irre-
^A Popular Commentary on the Book of the Revelation. LondoD,
1889.
118 NEW TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
sistible fascination. The author thinks it is due to the god
of this world that the Apocalypse is an enigma to so many
Christians. Some people, however, may still be inclined
to think the result is due to bad commentaries rather than
to Satan.
The work of Eremita^ combines different principles of
exegesis. Sometimes the text is interpreted symbolically,
sometimes realistically. For instance, the first beast sym-
bolizes earthly power in general ; the second beast, false
teaching in general; but the thousand years are taken lit-
erally, and the cubic form of the city, the New Jerusalem,
is also understood realistically.
The American contingent^ to the interpretation of the
Apocalypse has less claim to be considered scientific.
Nothing is clearer, according to the author, than that the
thousand years of John are found in the Old Testament
prophets. The truth is said to blaze everywhere in the Old
Testament and the New, that the second coming of Christ
precedes the Millennium. The author has made it 3o plain
that the seventieth week of Daniel is contemporary with
the times of the Apocalypse iv-xix, that, as he affirms, com-
pound myopic hypertropic stigmatism could hardly fail to
see it. The New Jerusalem is a literal material city, in
which God will manifest Himself forever. This very earth,
made new, shall be for all the creation of God a center
where the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be, and
wherein the Church with Christ shall reign forever, dis-
^ Erkldrung von der Offenbarung Johannes. Cap. x-xxii. Guters-
loli, 1888.
^The Thousand Years in both Testaments. By Kev. Natlianael "West,
D. D. Chicago, 1889.
XFW TESTA^fEXT EXEGESTS. IIJ)
pensing therefrom the economy of all the worlds. During
the thousand years there will be a seven-fold increase of
light, solar and lunar ; there will be a yearly concourse of
people from all nations to Jerusalem to worship ; and the
risen saints will have material bodies adapted to spirit-
ual uses, and free from certain physical functions.
CHAPTEE lY.
NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY.
There has been comparatively httle discussion along
the lines covered b}^ this rubric. The Life and Work of
John the Baptist'^ have been treated in a popular and
not whollj^ satisfactor}' manner. The author draws pretty
strongh^ upon his imagination. For instance, he says that
in the social life of Hebron the parents of John the Bap-
tist held a leading position. Their home was visited by the
learned and refined, who held them, and consequently their
son, in the highest respect, and who insensibly exerted
over the lad a most favorable educating influence. And
so throughout the book, that which is purely h57)othetical
is stated as though it were a well authenticated historical
fact. The author states that John's conception of the
coming Messianic Kingdom was quite different from that
of his countrymen, that his was spiritual while theirs was
material. This view, however, is not substantiated by the
evidence adduced.
The History of the Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth^ brings a
strange mixture of metaphysics and exegesis. The out-
^John the Baptist, His Life and Work. By Boss C. Houghton,
New York, 1889.
"Die Geschichte (les RahM Jesu von Nazareth. Yon H. C. Hugo
Delflf. Leipzig, 1889. .
\j:\v tkstamhxt iiisroin'. vn
line of Jesus' career is as follows : He was born in Naza-
reth of Joseph and ^lary. He was over forty years old
when He began His ministry. At first He attached Himself
to John the Baptist, and taught according to the custtmi-
ary form of the Haggada. Gradually He began to go His
own ways, and claimed a peculiar authorit_y, higher than
John's. At first He met the opposition of the Pharisees
in a friendly spirit, but when this failed to be effectual. He
lost patience, and used hard and bitter words. He at-
tacked the Pharisaic party by openly transgressing the
Sabbath law. The author thinks that Lazarus was not ab-
solutely dead but in a cataleptic condition. In general
the works of Jesus do not concern us. The narrative con-
cerning them may be mythical, but that does not not affect
our confidence in Him. It is even a matter of indifference
to us whether the resurrection of Jesus is a fact or a
dream or a simple rumor. For we are sufficiently cul-
tured to be able to hold, as possible, an existence in spirit
or as spirit, and a continued influence of such spiritual
existence upon us. It is to be remembered that it has
always belonged to the fate of the hero that he should rise
from the dead and be glorified. As to the story of Christ's
resurrection, each one is to believe as much of it as his
genius permits him.
Piegarding contemporary writers on the life of Christ,
the author's opinion is not very favorable. Weiss is a
scholastic of the seventeenth century in the dress of the
nineteenth. Beyschlag is too theological to be historical.
Hausrath, Keim, Holtzmann and Pfleiderer, as they reject
the Fourth Gospel, reach only artificial and untenable
results.
122 ^^^^V TESTAMEyr EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
In splendid contrast with this work of Delff, stands the
stor}^ of Christ as told by an English writer.^ The author
does not present new^ views on the gl'eat facts of the Life
of lives, or new solutions of difficulties that meet the stu-
dent of the Gospels ; but, having largely appropriated the
best results of modern scholarship, and confessing the
faith of the early Church, he writes a biography of Jesus
which is remarkable both for its concentration and its
poetical power. The special aim is to contribute to the
moral and spiritual history of Christ, and this in some
especial relation to missionary work and the contact of
Christianity wdth non-Christian religions. There is some-
times a positiveness of statement that is scarcely war-
ranted by the facts. For instance, the journey of the
Magi is said to have taken altogether about two years, and
the birth of Christ is said to have occurred in December, 5
B. C. Again, it is stated as beyond question that Judas
alone of the twelve Apostles was of Judean origin, and
that all the others were Galileans. Christ's transfigura-
tion surely took place upon one of the elevations of the
snowy height of Hermon ; and at His ascension He was
escorted by a guard of angels. Though aiming to contrib-
ute to the spiritual history of Jesus, the conception is some-
tmies questionably realistic. For instance, in speaking of
the Temptation, the author says that an external coming
of Satan alone satisfies the conditions of the narrative.
The history must be accepted as authentic or relegated to
the region of myth. But here he assumes that the narra-
^Jesus Christ the Divine Mau . His Life and Times. By T. F. Val-
lings, M. A. NeAv York, Kandolph & Co., 1889.
NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. 123
tive is a history of objective events. This is the very point
at issue.
The author accepts Edersheim's view of the transpor-
tation of Jesus from the wilderness to Jerusalem. "As the
Spirit of God had driven Jesus into the wilderness, the
spirit of the devil now carried Him into Jerusalem.'" This
seems to be a grotesque idea, worthy of the apocryphal
gospels.
An important question concerning Jesus' family rela-
tions is disposed of summarily in a sentence regarding the
miracle at Nain. The author says, "The only Son of
His Mother feels for the mother of an only son." But it
is something of an assumption that Jesus was the only Son
of His Mother.
In speaking of the apostolic decree a recent writer^
thinks that the journey of Acts xi, 3; xii, 25, which is
omitted by Paul in Galatians, must either be supposed to
have dropped out of Paul's m-emory, which is not probable,
or that the author of Acts has introduced here a journey
which belongs to a later day. It is held to be unhistorical
to represent Paul as participating in the formulation and
promulgation of the decree. That decree enjoins a partial
subjection to the law on the part of Gentile Christians, a
thing wholly opposed to Paul's conception of Christianity.
He agreed in a measure with the requirements of the de-
cree. For instance, he objected, in certain cases, to the
eating of meat offered to idols, but he did this on entirely
different grounds from those recognized in the decrees of
the Council. The Acts throughout, it is said, represent
^Das AjwsteUkkret. Von Joh. Georg Sommer. Koiiigsberg, 1881).
124 ^^£!^V TESTAMENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
Paul as a faithful keeper of the Law, and betray no trace
of his true relation to it. This indicates that the author
was a Jewish Christian, friendly to Paul but unconsciously
presenting him in a false light. The apostolic decrees are
thought of as having been occasioned by Paul's report upon
the state of things in Antioch, and as having been ascribed
in part to him, in order to give them the greater force.
I
CHAPTEK V.
NEW TESTA:\rENT THEOLOGY.
The chief, if not sole problem, of New Testament the-
ology is, according to a recent writer^ to ascertain what
answer the New Testament gives to the question. What is
the siiuDmim honam.^ It is the study of tllfe leading types
of doctrine concerning the things freely given to us of God
in Jesus Christ. The author admits that this may not be
exhaustive, but thinks it has the merit of definiteness and
interest. Sucii a method as that of Weiss he character-
izes as vague. His own work is not, strictly speaking, a
treatise on New Testament theology, but on certain fea-
tures of the same, which the author regards as fundamen-
tal. He finds four types of doctrine in the New Testament,
described by the titles : The Kingdom of God, The Eight-
eousness of God, Free Access to God, Eternal Life. The
volume in hand is concerned with the first of these types.
But yet it does not give us the entire New Testament
teaching on this topic ; it is confined to the S^moptists.
Now, while it is true that this conception is more promi-
nent in the first three Gospels than elsewhere in the New
Testament, it may be a question whether it is in the inter-
^The Kingdom of God; or Christ's Teaching according to the Sy-
noptical Gospels" By Alexander Balmain Bruce. D. D. Scribner,
New York, 1889.
126 ^'£^V TESTAMEXr EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
est of truth to consider the conception onl}^ as we meet it
in the Synoptical Gospels.
The present volume on the Kingdom of God cannot be
charged with anj- neglect of the negative critics. It will
rather be said that it gives them too much consideration.
The author differs from Weiss regarding Christ's concep-
tion of the Kingdom of God. He thinks that Christ ideal-
ized the Old Testament conception. He emphasizes what
he considers new in Christ's views. According to Weiss,
Christ was more conservative and more in line with
the Old Testament. Prof. Bruce thinks that Christ's con-
ception Avas new as regards grace, universality and spirit-
uality. Some, however, would say that in these particu-
lars Christ taught nothing new, but only emphasized Old
Testament thoughts.
The author holds that Jesus regarded Himself habitu-
ally and from the first as Messiah, but also that His
Messianic consciousness underwent gradual development,
advancing from twilight to perfect day. This advance
Avas promoted by the Baptism, the Temptation, the Mira-
cles, the Transfiguration, and Christ's fellowship with God.
He thinks the form of the Messianic consciousness was de-
termined by Christ's spiritual nature. He gathered up out
of the Old Testament, as by elective affinity, those elements
which were congenial to Him. He chose the conception of
a gentle, missionary, suffering Messiah. The author finds
the source of Messianic consciousness not so much in
Christ's holiness as in His love for men. He thinks it was
a matter of faith with Jesus.
Especially valuable is the discussion of the Parousia
and the Judgment. The author holds that Christ looked
i\^/;ir Ti:sTAMi:yr 'niiinLonv. 127
forward to a Christian era. He did not expect the end in
a short time, as some have hekl. In some of His parahles
He represents the Kingdom as subject to hxws of growth.
Again he speaks of the delay of the Parousia, and exhorts
to watchfuhiess. Those passages which suggest a Gentile
day of grace also imply a lengthened Christian Era.
The author adopts Holtzmann's classification of the
passages referring to Christ's coming again, according to
which three comings are spoken of, viz., a dynamical
coming, which is in the heart of the believer; a historical
coming, such as in the destruction of Jerusalem ; and the
apocalyptic coming at the end of the age.
The judgment of the heathen will be purely ethical. It
will not be according to their treatment of Christ, but accord-
ing to their treatment of the poor and suffering, -the brethren
of Christ. "All who live in the spirit of love the Son of
Man recognizes as Christians unawares, and therefore as
heirs of the Kingdom. All who live a loveless life of
selfishness He relegates to the congenial society of the
devil and his angels.
While recognizing that there was, among the believers
m Israel, a living fellowship with God in prayer, it is held^
that this fellowship differed in not a few important partic-
ulars from that of the New Testament believer. The Old
Testament supplicant has a lively appreciation of the fact
that God's bearing toward him is fatherly, but yet he does
not conceive of God as a father. This is manifested in
various ways. The Old Testament believer shows a fre-
quent desire to legitimate himself before God, and does
^Da» Gebet im Alten Testament im Lichte dcs Neuen hetraehtet
Von Lie. Tlieol. Konigsberg, 188U.
128 XEW TESTAMENT EXEGETlCAL THEOLOGY.
this in long introductions to his prayers. Even when
there is confidence in the grace of God, the supphant
cries unto the Lord that he would hear him. In the New
Testament, the behever knows at the outset that God will
hear him. He does not think it is necessary to beseech
God to open His ear to him. Again, the Old Testament
believer prays earnestly for the granting of a particular
request — prays as though his prayer would be in vain were
this not granted. The New Testament behever, on the
other hand, recognizes that the Father has many ways to
help. Hence there is here more of quiet resignation.
The personal communion of the believer with God,
according to the Old Testament, is a conception dominated
by the grace of God, while in the New Testament it is con-
trolled by the conception of His love. The thought of be-
ing loved by the Father has the emphasis that the Old
Testament gives to God's grace toward the sinner. The
Lord's Prayer contains no petitions that are foreign to the
Old Testament, and yet it is all new because of the new
conception of Him to whom it is offered. x\nd this it is
that explains all the difference between the .Old Testament
spirit of prayer and that of the New. The relation of a
servant to his master has given place to that of a child to
its father.
In a book already mentioned (Eendall on the Hebrews)
Paul's attitude toward the Law is characterized as over
against the attitude of the other Apostles. Paul regarded
the Law as an incidental and temporary addition, almost
of the nature of an interruption of God's original cove-
nant. This attitude was the inevitable outcome of his
education. He regarded it with the purely legal spirit of
the Pharisees.
I\E\V TKSTAMKyr TUFJ)lJ)(iY. 121)
The attitude of James was quite dittereiit from this.
For him the Gospel was not a message of dehverance from
the condemnation of the Law, but a fresh means of grace
for a more perfect obedience to its commands. When
•Tames spoke of righteousness, he did not mean, hke Paul,
the original acceptance before God which makes the start-
ing-point of Christian life, but rather the inward peace
of conscience which is the fruit of holy living. With him
faith consists not so much in the abando ment of all self-
confidence, that we may throw ourselves on the merit of a
crucified Saviour, as in the sustaining principle of a life
given to God. The author of the Hebrews was a man of
the same type as James. For him thj Gospel was the nat-
ural climax of the Mosaic Law, and the key to its com-
prehension. The Law was an earlier Gospel, which failed
only for lack of faith.
The angelology and demonology of Paul has for the
first time received in ependent treatment.^ This is a
chapter of Paul's theology which has been neglected. The
author agrees with Ritschl that Paul did not regard all
angels as either positively good or positively bad. He be-
lieves that there were both these classes, but also a class
which stood in a relative antithesis to God. The angels as
such are capable of going astray (I Cor. x, ii),and capable
also of receiving a reconciliation through Christ (Eph.
i, 10). Paul's angelic world is a world thoroughly disor-
ganized and full of dark forms. It is not a sphere of pure
poetry, where winged forms of light lead a blessed exist-
ence. It is a world of definitely marked classes. There
'D<V Paulinische Angelohxjie und D'fmonolocfie. Von Otto Ever-
ling, Gottingen. 1888.
130 NEW TESTA3IENT EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.
are orders of the good, thrones and dominions heing the
highest, and hkewise orders of the had, with Satan at their
head. Satan's influence upon men is regarded as physi-
cal rather than ethical (I Cor. v, 5 ; II Cor. xii, 7 ; I Cor.
xi,3; Rom. xvi, 20). Satan and his hosts are thought of
as dwelling in the air between tli;:: earth and heaven. The
dwelling place of good angels is yet higher. The practical
religious value of Paul's teaching concerning angels and
demons is not discussed. Th^ author's view, however,
seems to be that the conceptions of Paul have become
obsolete.
We have an interesting discussion of the activity of the
Holy Spirit according to the popular conception of the
apostolic age and according to the teaching of Paul.^ In
the popular conception, the Spirit is not thought of as the
author of all Christian activities ; and further, some activi-
ties not moral or religious are ascribed to the Spirit. The
common religious functions of the simple Christian were
not regarded as gifts of the Spirit ; indeed, it is held that
not all gifts of the Spirit had direct influence upon the
Christian life. Cf. Acts, x, 19; xvi, 6.
The symptom of the Spirit's activity is the presence of
something mysterious and powerful. The confirmation of
the Spirit's presence is according to the law of cause anu
effect, not the law of means and end.
When wisdom is derived from the Spirit, it is of a
special irresistible kind. Faith that is traced to the Spirit
is of a special character. The Old Testament conception
^Die Wirlxuiif/en des htiligen Geistes nach denpopuhiren Anschauun-
fjen der ax>oHtolischen ZeU und nach der Lelire den Apostel Paiilus.
Von Hermann Gunkel, Gottingen, 1888.
I
X£\V TESTAMENT TIIEOLodV. l^l
of the Spirit's activity was wider than that of the New
Testament. There everything mysterious and powerful
in Israel was attributed to the Spirit ; here everything
mysterious and powerful in the Christian Church.
Both in the popular conception and in the teaching of
Paul, the Spirit was thought of as material. The laying
on of hands, breathing upon disciples, events of Pentecost,
and other indications support this view.
Paul is pneumatic. His standard for judging the gifts
of the Spirit is- higher than that of the Corinthian Church.
He esteems the Spirit's gifts according as they tend to the
edification of the Church, not as they excite amazement.
Paul's conception of the activity of the Spirit was broader
and deeper than that of his time. People in general held
the extraordinary to be pneumatic, Paul, the ordinary.
With him the Christian life itself was pneumatic. The
root of this teaching lay in Paul's own experience.
HISTOEICAL THEOLOGY.
PRESENT STATE
OF
STUDIES IN CHURCH HISTORY.
BY
REV. HUGH M. SCOTT,
PiiOFESsoE OF Ecclesiastical Histoey
IN
Chicago Theological Seminaey.
INTRODUCTION.
ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.
It is interesting to notice in recent secular literature
the growing conviction expressed that the heart of human
history, as that of the individual man, must be regarded
from the religious point of view. The Neapolitan philoso-
pher Chiapelli, in turning thinking Italians towards the
golden mean between Papal superstition and blank athe-
ism says,^ *'the great epochs in the history of the world are
marked, not by the overturning of empires or the migra-
tion of nations, such things belong to the external history ;
but the real history, the inner history of man is the history
of religion." That is just the thought with which the
Church historian naturally begins his work. A recent
writer^ sets out by saying that the history of Christianity is
the inner history of the world, for it is moral ideas which
govern the inner development of the human race, and
Christianity has multiplied these moral ideas, transformed
them, and brought them into new connections by a new re-
ligion. The gospel gave to mankind the ideas of a new re-
ligion, whose center is Jesus, the representative of God ;
his sole mission is to preach the gospel ; his aim is to
'Le Idee Millenarie del Christiani. Naples, 1888. A Lecture.
-Sell, Aus der Geschichte des Christenthums. Six Lectures. Darm-
stadt, 1888. Suggestive.
136 IIISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
gather a people of God about the throne of the Divine King.
But are not these fundamental ideas of Christianity con-
tained in New Testament writings, and has not the Higher
Criticism made their statements very doubtful ? Sell re-
plies, By no means. These foundation truths of Christ-
ianity, he says, are beyond the doubts of criticism, for they
are rooted in New Testament writings, which all admit to
be primitive records, such as the Gospels of Mark and
Matthew, and the four great Epistles of Paul. Hence, he
continues, "the fundamental contradiction between the ear-
lier and later traditions of the Christian Church, which
negative criticism maintains, does not exist. "^ To grasp
the underlying thoughts of early Christian life, we must
have a Christian experience of the Gospel which formed the
heart of that Apostolic Church. Those early brotherhoods
with their officers, and sacraments, and associations were
very similar to many Jewish and heathen societies ; what
made them different from all others was the conviction that
they possessed a real, new, living revelation of God, that
they stood upon the ground of an old history of redemption,
and that they alone had a mission for all men. With such
convictions they opposed the religion of Eome, a deifica-
tion of this world and its relations, a belief in the divinity
of theworldas it is; they preached "faith in an ever exist-
ing God, who rules over a world that is passing away."
The new Evangel proclaimed "real entrance into an ever-
lasting empire of liberty, equality and fraternity." Hence,
as Paul points out in an article on Harnack's History of
^Cf. also the interesting work of C. E. Johansson; German by J.
Ctaussen, Die heilige Schruft u. die negative Kritik. Leipzig, Dorff-
ling & Franke. 1889.
ORKilX OF I'liniSTlAXITY. 137
Doctrine,^ original Christianity Avas life mtlier than doc-
trine. It rested for the most part upon the impression of
the person of Christ gained by Christians from the Old
Testament and in view of Jesus as the Messiah there fore-
told. Besides this Old Testament element in the forma-
tion of earh' Christianity, there came an element from
Hellenism, which soon thrust aside most of St. Paul's teach-
ings, except the thought of the universality of the Gospel.
But Baur, we are told, was not right in calling Paul's own
theology Hellenistic; Harnack holds that here we have al-
ways the teaching of a converted Pharisee. Harnack agrees
with Baur that Paulinism is not sufticient to explain the
post-Pauline development of the Church ; another element
must be brought in for that purpose. Baur found this in
national Jewish Christianity, which, in conflict with St.
Paul's Hellenism, gave rise to early Catholic theology.
Harnack rejects this, as we know;*-^ but Paul (1. c.) thinks
the studies of Lipsius on the Apocryphal Acts show that
the influence of Jewish Christianity upon early CathoKcism
must be recognized, especially after A. D. 150, when it
became denationalized, lost Jewish narrowness, and re-
ceived speculative coloring from both East and West. Paul
accepts here Harnack's statement, that the bridge from
Judaism to Heathenism for the early Church was this
Hellenistic Jewish Christianity, scattered through the Pa-
gan world as a mediator between the Old Testament and
Gentile thought, and gives it wider application. He thinks
it is a special merit of Harnack to have pointed out that
the influence of Hellenism in the Church grew just in pro-
'Cf. Jahrbb.f. Protest. Theologie. April, 1880.
-Cf. Current Discusfiions. Vol. V. 1888, p. 153.
138 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
portion to the decline of the original, predominant, enthu-
siastic, charismatic element in early Christianity. In this
chilling atmosphere of Graeco-Eoman thought, during the
second century, the formhig Church hecame crystalHzed.
The simple congregational brotherhood became an ecclesi-
astical system. The prophetic ministry, exercised by any
believer who felt called, became confined to certain clergy.
The free, extempore prayers ran towards liturgical forms.
The brief baptismal confession hardened into a creed. Fra-
ternal addresses turned into theological discourses; and
the Church became a School. It is a merit of Harnack to
have made prominent this process of petrifaction by which
the primitive charismatic Congregational Church was turned
into the theological hierarchial Church of post- Apostolic
times. But it is a weakness in his treatment of the origin
of Christianity, that for him the presence of the miraculous
in any early writing makes its historicity very doubtful.
"Every single miracle is for the historian completely a mat-
ter of doubt, and a summation of what is doubtful can
never lead historically to certainty." Belief in the mira-
cles, he adds, is a matter of moral-religious impression,
which may lead a man to feel that J6sus Christ possessed
supernatural powers; but such belief belongs to the depart-
ment of religious faith, not to that of historic research.
Paul agrees with all this, and quotes approvingly the words,
*'A stronger religious faith in the predominence and con-
trol of the Good in the world can be supposed, which does
not need to infer the supernatural character of Christ from
miracles," and then acjds himself, "It would certainly be a
strange thing if a view of the world, which rests on historic
knowledge, should necessarily have 'irreligiosity' as a con-
ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITW * 139
sequence, or that piety could be present only where there
was historic ignorance." The weak point in all this argu-
mentation is the assumption that no amount of evidence
can prove a miracle and make it a vital part and factor in
sacred history. Schleiermacher held that we cannot escape
from two miracles, the creation of the world and the person
of Christ. The historic Christ was a miraculous Christ,
and this miraculous Christ, his death and resurrection,
form the foundation of the history of the Church ; hence to
rule the supernatural out of the origin of Christianity
leaves it "the baseless fabric of a vision," and gives us a
Church History whose beginning is inexplicable. How ridic-
ulous and psychologically absurd a "history of the Origins
of Christianity" appears, leaving out the miraculous, can
be seen in the brilliant work of Renan.^ He says that the
ecstatic love of Mary Magdalene produced the vision of the
risen Christ, and "the image created by her delicate sensi-
bihty hovers over the world still." "Next to Jesus, it is
Mary, who has done the most for the establishment of
Christianity." Jesus is still dead; it was all a fancy of the
frenzied heart of Mary! The miracle of Pentecost was
simply the result of a meeting like that of the "Quakers,
Jumpers, Shakers, Irvingites," but on this day a violent
thunder storm and lightning completed the miracle. Paul
had a fit on the way to Damascus, and remorse for what
he was about to do against the Christians, with an accom-
panying thunderstorm, blinded him and made him have
^Book II, The Apostles; Book III, St. Paul; B. IV, The Antichrist;
B. Y, The Gospels; Book VI, The Chr. Church; Book VII, Marcus
Aurelius, English Translation. London. Mathieson & Co. 1888-89
2sh. 6cl. each.
140 • HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
the vision of Jesus ! ''The Christ who personally revealed
himself to him is his own ghost; he listens to himself,
thinking that he hears Jesus." Eenan thinks Paul did not
hesitate to declare he had knowledge of Christ by personal
revelation, when he really got his information from those
who were personal followers of Jesus. To such positions
is the historian driven in ignoring all that is supernatural
in the origin of Christianity. Christianity arose from
dreams and visions and pious frauds ! When Eenan, how-
ever, comes to deal with the human side of Church history
he is most instructive and brilliant ; and no advanced stu-
dent of the ^'Origins of Christianity" should fail to read his
stimulating pages.
CHAPTER I.
THE EARLY CHURCH.
I. SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY.
One of the most obscure sections of early Church history
is that which deals with the conversion of Asia Minor,
hence the information that Ramsay has gathered from
"Early Christian monuments in Phrygia"' is most welcome.
We learn from his study of inscriptions that the people of
Phiygia, the home of Montanism and similar movements,
were only learning to speak Greek under the Roman Em-
pire. That language was coming into use here, in country
places, between A. D. 100 and 200, and did not prevail in
the remoter regions of Phrygia till A. D. 200-300. It seems
as if it was the Christian religion that spread the use of
Greek. The Bible being in that language was one reason
for this. About A. D. 200, the rural population was al-
most wholly uneducated, knowing only the Phrygian lan-
guage and unaffected by Graeco-Roman culture, which had
entered the cities. Christianity spread first in these cities,
and reached the country places, during the third century.
It at once produced a desire for education. The people
must learn Greek to read the Bible or to become really cul-
tured. Thus with the gospel a spirit of progress appeared,
which gradually extirpated the native dialects, and started
' The Expositor. Oct. and Dec, 1888; Feb.. April and May, 188U.
142 IIISTOJilCAL THEOLOGY.
a tendency just the opposite of that in the West, where the
Scriptures were translated into Latin and Gothic. Two
groups of incriptions are found, pointing to two sources of
Christian activity in Phr3'gia, one in the North-West, the
other in the South. In the first region, many Christian
inscriptions are found in the country and very few in cities;
the reason, Eamsaj^ thinks, is the presence of Eoman offi-
cials in the towns and the worship of the Emperors there,
both of wliich were not in rural places. Besides this, the
heathen neighbors were stronger and more dangerous in
the cities of Northwestern Phrygia, while the Christians
were relatively stronger in the country places of this region.
The inscriptions of Central and South Plnygia, however,
show just the opposite condition ; here the Christians are
numerous in the cities and few in the country. We find
leading citizens and senators in tiie church, heiice it is in-
ferred that Christianity was the leading religion in several
cities here like Eumeneia. In South Phrygia alone is there
a probability that the story of Eusebius, that a whole Phry-
gian town was Christian in the days of Diocletian, could
be approximately true. A number of these inscriptions,
of the early part of the third century, spell the name Christ-
ian chreistian, as if the name and the new religion were not
yet quite consolidated here. Two inscriptions have the
spelling "Chrestians to a Chrestian," which is interesting
in view of the well known statement of Suetonius, that
Claudius banished the Jews from Eome for rebellion at
the instigation of "Chrestus." Doubtless Christ is meant
in all these ■ cases, but the Greek word Chrestos, meaning
''good," would occur much more readily to educated Greeks
and Eomans than the almost unknown word 'Christos."
THE EAULY (' III' lie II. 143
This spelling "is therefore a pre-Constantine error." The
Christians used the usual tomh-stones as prepared for sale
by the heathen stone-cutters, to avoid observation, filling
in the inscription to suit themselves. The threat, found
often on pagan tombs, the Christians also u^ed, with some-
what dift'erent reference. "Thou shalt not wrong God,"
that is, by violating this tomb. One Christian inscription,
of Hierapolis, is dated as early as A. D. 200, its slight and
peculiar deviation from pagan epitaphs showing the great
caution used by Christians. Eamsay continues, "In general
one is struck with the fact that wherever there is a touch
of natural feeling, of real life, of kindly sentiment, the epi-
taph is almost always Christian." The character of the
Christianity in north Phrygia was different from that of the
south. Bithynia, north of Phrygia, was full of Christians
earl}^ id the second century, and the gospel would natu-
rally pass thence into north Phrygia. And this was what
did happen. An old tradition says Paul and Silas planted
Christianity in Bithynia on their way to Troas. The gos-
pel came into south Phrygia from the valley in which lie
the towns of Laodicea, Colossae and Hierapolis, that is
from the Pauline churches. These two currents of Christ-
ian activit}^ the one from the north, having its source
among the rural population, and that from the south,
springing from those dwelling in cities, seem to have met
in the middle of the second century, and gave rise to some
of the strange movements that were peculiar to this part of
the Church. Montanus was from the northern churches ;
hence, Piamsay thinks, "the beginning of the Montanist
controversy corresponds to the time when the Christianizing
nfluence spreading from the Northwest met that which
144 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
was penetrating from the Southwest ; " the one was primi-
tive and Montanistic, the other was more influenced by cur-
rent thought and CathoHc.^ The orthodox country churches
of Phrygia held to early Millenarian views, kept them-
selves apart from the world, expected the destruction of the
Eoman Empire, and by strict discipline sought to hasten
the coming of the Lord ; but the city churches came in
contact with Roman and Greek society, saw that the Church
was to make its home on earth for a long time, and had to
accept the prospect of converting the Roman Empire with
all its culture to Christianity. This Puritanic movement
of the country churches, when it spread through the Em-
pire as Montanism, was crushed by the strong city churches
led by their bishops. But the ascetic ideal here empha-
sized could not be buried ; it reappeared in the Catholic
Church as Monasticism, and the double standard of
Christian life, monastic and secular, that has wrought
such evil in the Catholic Church through the ages, may be
regarded as an outgrowth of the early conflict between the
city and country churches of Phrygia, of which we now
hear for the first time.
Next to Antioch, early tradition speaks of Edessa as a
great Christian center in Asia Minor. Tixeront, however,
follows Lipsius and others in holding that the gospel did
not reach Edessa before x\. D. 170, when the first mission-
aries had a Syriac translation of the Gospels ready to put
into the hands .of their converts. ^ Martin combats this
^Cf. also Eamsay's Article Antiquities of South Phrygia and
Border Lands, in The American Journal of Archeology, 1887-88.
-Les Origines de VEjlise d'EIesfie. Paris. 1888.
THE EARLY ClIURCJl. Uo
view,^ and maintains that Christianity did not spread sim-
pl}' naturally, as every other belief ; he argues that it was
planted in Syria by Apostolic men, in the first century.
Paul's missionary activity in the West was not exceptional ;
the other apostles were ecpially active in the East and in
more barbarous lands. At Pentecost there were converts
from the Parthians, Medes, Elamites and Mesopotami-
ans ; hence he infers the gospel must have gone thither
very early, and was doubtless followed very soon by iVpos-
tolic missionaries. Edessa was the ''daughter of the Par-
thians." It was on the caravan route from Antioch and
must have early heard of Christianity. Hence, Martin
says, it is highly probable that organized churches appeared
here in the first century according to the "ancient, unani-
mous, universal and constant" tradition. The fact that
the church of Edessa has always claimed Thomas as its
founder, though it has also always known that he was later
the Apostle of India and died there, and the further fact
that his body was brought to Edessa A. D. 232, as found-
er of the church, when the city was largely Christian,
point towards the early preaching of the gospel here and
Thomas as cue of the missionaries.
From Antioch through Edessa Christianity spread into
Mesopotamia and Assyria, passing along the route of
Jewish emigration to the conquest of the East. A recent
French writer finds the Jews taking the same place of
forernnners of Christ in the West also.^ The Pioman Em-
'L?8 Origines de V Ejlise d' tJ Jesse et def Ejlises Syriennes.
Paris. 1889.
"Cirot de la Ville, L' Empire Romain et le Christianisme dans les
Guides. Poictiers: Oiicliu. 1888. Uncritical.
146 IIISTOBICAL THEOLOGY.
pire unwittingly helped the spread of the gospel in Gaul
by the dispersion of the Jews, as well as by the building
of roads and the movement of the legions. He traces the
presence of Jews in Germany, Spain and France before the
time of Christ. They traveled as favorite secret agents of
the Roman government, as coliecters of revenue, as mer-
chants, selling their wares. Together with Greeks and
Syrians, the Jews went through Gaul, but, unlike all
others, the Jews labored zealously to make proselytes to
the worship of Jehovah. They bad synagogues in differ-
ent parts of Gaul, w^hicli doubtless, as in the East,
opened up the way for the reception of Jesus as the
Messiah.
II. CHURCH AND WORLD.
The sharpest point of contact between Church and
World in the first century was the persecution under Nero.
Since the time of Gibbon, not a few critics have regarded
this tragedy as the result of mere Jewish hatred, ana in
support of such a position have taken the statements of
Tacitus either as spurious or as interpolated. But Arnold
shows all this to be groundless and reaches the following
conclusions :^
1. The sources in Tacitus (xv, 44) are genuine. 2. The
Christians were punished because of the circumstances in
which Nero was placed, and not because of their religion.
3. The religious confession did not even offer a pretext to
Nero, but he used the unpopularity of Christians, wdiich
^Dle Neronische Christenvp.rfolgu/'g. Leipzig. F. Kichter. 1888.
M. 4.
THE earTjY ciirncif. ui
nrose because of the charges against them of immorality
and hick of patriotism. These accusations were partly of
Jewish origin. 4. Not Jews, but Christian heretics seem
to have informed the Eoman police in this persecution.
Arnold seems to give little proof of this statement. 5.
The number of Christian nlartyrs appears to be rhetorically
exaggerated by Tacitus; but though the number was not
great this persecution was never forgotten, tirst because it
was connected with the burning of Eome, further because
it was extraordinary and took Neronic forms, and finally
because now for the first time the Roman authorities pro-
ceeded against Christians. All this was remembered by
both Christian and heathen in the light of later persecu-
tions. 6. The persecuted Christians had no connection
with the Jewish population ; they were, in A. T). 64, chiefly
Greeks and Hellenists, and clearly distinct in their modes
of life from the Jews. 7. The persecution did not extend
beyond Rome itself, as Nero's purpose did not require fur-
ther persecution. 8. For these reasons this persecution
did not make the impression of "an epoch-making event"
in Christian circles. 9. The Christian tradition of this
persecution was perverted, since about A.D. 150, through
apologetic motives, to make the good Emperors friendly
and the bad Emperors hostile to sound doctrine ; hence,
Nero came to be regarded as an enemy on principle of re-
vealed truth, and all sense of the historic situation was
lost. 10. The Apocalypse did not arise through the Ne-
ronic persecution. There is no connection between the
sufferings there described and the expectation of Nero's re-
turn: least of all is such expectation to be traced to a
Christian source, but rather to a heathen origin, from which
148 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
it passed to the Jewish SibyUine books, thence into Christian
heretical writings, and finally into Church circles.
The importance of a knowledge of heathen thought and
culture for a true estimate of early Christianity is recog-
nized much more now than was the case even a few years
ago. Instead of a scrappy description of the Eoman Em-
pire when Christ appeared, followed by some remarks on
Greek thought in treating Gnosticism, progressive Church
historians see the necessity of tracing the parallel move-
ments of classic civilizations as part of the real current of
the Church's visible life. Moeller, following this course,
has two chapters on "Heathen Eeligiosit}' and Culture in
their relation to Christianity," first in the time when, the
early Catholic Church w^as consolidating (to A. D. 150),
and then in the period between its consolidation and Con-
stantine.^ Inge^ shows how religion in Eome, losing its pa-
triotic element under the Empire, lived on through the first
century as superstition, till an inevitable reaction arose "in
favor of positive and emotional religion" Eastern mystic
cults led in this reaction, taking root first among the lower
classes, then extending to the rich and powerful. The su-
perstition of the masses and the Agnosticism of the few
were now attracted towards monotheism, whether Jewish
or Christian. In matters of punishing criminals, treat-
ment of slaves, care of the poor, there appears also a
growing humanitarianism, as if anticipating the coming
of the gospel.
^Lehrbuch tier Kirchengeschichte. I Bd. Die ulte Kirclie. Freiburg
i. B., 1889.
'^Society in Rome under the Caesars. New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
1888. $1.25.
THE EARLY (' III' lie IT. 149
But especiall}' does Eeville, who devotes a whole book to
the subject, set forth the active and vital relations })etween
revived Paganism and growing Christianity, in the third cen-
tury.^ He points out how Stoicism died with Marcus Au-
relius and heathen thought w^ent through a great change ;
it became syncretistic ; it became transformed ; and such
transformation must be understood before we can explain
the recognition of Christianity by Constantine. He finds
a peculiar time of transition in the first half of the third
century, in which the syncretism took in Graeco-Koman
and Oriental elements, the last and most important of these
being Mithras w^orship.
The most prominent mark of Koman society in this
period was its cosmopolitanism ; in it all nations were
blended, but the social system had not now sufficient vital-
ity to assimilate these elements, and was flooded by them.
Hence the policy of the government was force and the
strong hand of Septimius Severus ruled. And yet this was
the golden age of Eoman jurisprudence. In this half cen-
tury great doctors of the law, such as Paul, Papinian and
Ulpian, took the. place of senators and transformed Koman
law^s into a code for all men. Pioman traditions w'ere now
weak and the central power was strong ; hence Caracalla
could declare all free men in the Empire Koman citizens,
and laws be made for such wide relations. Kome and the
world were now regarded as the same; so human and
natural rights, not traditional usages, were made the
basis of legislation. The liberties of slaves, freedmen and
'^Die Religion zu Rom unter den Severern. German from the
Frencli. Leipzig: Hin rich s. 1888. M. 6. Cf. Current Discussions,
Vol. lY, 1887, p. 127
150 HISTORICAL TH:^0L0GY.
clubs of all sorts were greatly extended. In this period,
too, religious questions held the uppermost place in men's
thoughts. The self-satisfied skepticism of the last days of
the Eepublic was gone ; so was the cautious skepticism
which had lingered in polite society till the middle of
the second century. "The superficial Voltairism of Lu-
cian had vanished," and "from Cicero to Marcus Aurelius
Eoman society had advanced from unbelief to faith." In
the third century, all men were believers in religion. Eo-
man society had everywhere lost its taste for what had
previously satisfied it, and sought a new source of peace,
in the gods. All forms of idolatry had again become cur-
rent in the Empire and influenced one another ; hence a
a general feeling spread that there was essential unit}^ in
God and in religion, which found expression through differ-
ent deities and cults. Such religious syncretism is the
naturally produced religion of such a cosmopolitan society
as occupied the Empire in the third century, a society
without interest in patriotism or politics, ruled by a despot,
without literary inspiration, without fixed philosophic
ideas, yet educated, over-refined, and longing for an ideal
higher than that wiiich had been given by tradition.
In this syncretism, as already observed, the most im-
portant factor was the Mithras worship, which was intro-
duced last. The East sent three great religioiis into Eoman
society, Judaism, Christianity and the service of Mithras ;
so Eeville classes them. In the first half of the third
century, Judaism was widest spread; Christianity was mak-
ing rapid progress ; but both of these, being irreconcilably
hostile to heathenism, kept out of the current of syncre-
tism, which swallowed up all others. The worship of Mi-
THE EARLY CIIURCII. 151
tliras, however, though superior to other oriental religions,
as Judaism and Christianity were, blended with heathen-
ism, and so took a commanding position in this pagan syn-
cretism. In the time of Aurelian and Diocletian, this
Phrygian Mithras became the God of the Empire. His
worship spread, in the third century, as fast as did Christ-
ianity, and for a moment it seemed as if Mithras would con-
quer Christ. Eenan says, ''If Christianity had been checked
in its growth by any deadly disease the world would
have belonged to Mithras." In this revival of pagan faith
the attractions of bloody worship, the offeiings of bulls,
held a very prominent place. Hitherto this attraction has
been ascribed to the Mithras service, but Lebegue main-
tains that these ''tauroboles" were made to Cybele, and it
was this deity, not Mithras, that led the Pagan Eenais-
sance.^ Cybele worship, not Mithras worship, was the
great rival, he thinks, of growing Christianity, for this cult
taught a lively .pantheism, while that of Mithras tended
towards a spiritualism, which did not rouse popular enthu-
siasm. Keturning to Keville, we learn that in this syncre-
tism heathenism reached a height before unattained. A
longing now appeared for moral improvement, for perfec-
tion, a movement as never before towards the union of re-
ligion and morals in mutual support. With such views,
and seeing the departure of national lines in the Empire,
earnest men gathered into societies. ''There was no Church
as yet, but there were churches," and in all such heathen
clubs syncretistic tolerance prevailed, socially, intellectu-
ally, religiously. Everywhere, too, as we have seen, moral
'Cf. Revue Riatorique, July, Aug. 1888.
1V2 IITSTOIUCAL THEOLOGY.
and religious questions were in the fore-ground. The great
evil of this syncretism was its lack of "simplicity, natural-
ness, I might almost say, youth." It was mystical, fanci-
ful, and could not deal practically with human life. Hence
all its efforts dii'ectly aided Christianity in the end, for it
could found no permanent religion itself. Upon this syn-
cretistic basis Eeville finds three great attempts made at
religious reformation: first the Neo-Pythagorean, at the
court of Septimius Severus, led by the empress, Julia
Domna and her philosophic friend, Philostratus ; next the
Oriental Reformation, in which Heliogabalus set up Baal
as the supreme god of Rome ; then the Eclectic Reforma-
tion, the worship of Holy Men, under Alexander Severus.
The outcome of this whole syncretistic movement Reville
finds to be a San -Monotheism, the worship of the sun as
the one supreme object of life and light. Heathenism had
become transformed ; the very idea of religion had changed.
It was now presented as an ideal of the heroic, the pure,
involving a regeneration, redemption by a new heart, be-
ginning on earth but continuing in immortality, demand-
ing a universal brotherhood of all classes of men, and
preaching growth unto perfection and living communion
with the gods. This sjmcretism could not save heathen-
ism, but it formed a middle step, through which the Em-
pire passed under Christianity.
Recent excavations in Rome show how bitter was
the final struggle between Paganism and the rH?w religion,
in the fourth century.^ The most absurd superstitions
^Cf. Lanciaui. Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries.
Boston: Houghton. Mifflin & Co. 1888. $6.00. Popular and inter-
esting.
THE EARLY CHUECIL 153
were revived, especially those "which bore a certain
analogy with the ceremonies of the Christian worship,"
in order to oppose Christianity. We hear of heathen
leaders, as senators, who were initiated into Eastern
Mysteries to fight the Eastern Christianity. They met
for secret conference in the shrine of Cybele on the Vati-
can hill, and in the grotto of Mithras in the Campus
Martins. It is humiliating to hear these men call
themselves "fathers of Mysteries," "sacred crow of the in-
vincible Mithrae," "great shepherd of Bacchus." They
echo Christian thoughts, in calling their gods "keepers of
the soul and the mind," in describing their baptism in
blood as being "born again forever," and in all rejoicing
in the baptism in the blood of a bull or a goat, which some
renewed after twenty years. Two senators presided in a
Mithras lodge, between A. D. 357 and 377 and adminis-
tered right and left the six degrees of the crow, the griffin,
the lion, the Persian, the Heliodromos, and the Father.
What changes Christianity brought into Rome for its
good appear even in sanitary matters. Lanciani found
one spot where 24,000 bodies had been cast into an open
ditch and left to fester in the sun. Corpses of the poor,
slaves, &c., were thrown into such places with common
garbage. The sick were also neglected. "The hospital,
even in its most rudimentary shape, was not known in
Piome much before the third century of the Christian era,"
Medicine was little understood ; the gods were the physi-
cians; "charity was a virtue altogether unknown in ancient
times ;" and wars, slavery and gladiatorial shows made the
most tender Pioman hearts insensible to human sufferings.
Such impartial descriptions of the life of the ancient
154 HISTORICAL THEOLOOY.
heathen world should ever be kept in mind when listening
to other accounts, which, in the name of liberal Christ-
tianity, speak of the Church in her progress assimilating
from Jewish and Gentile sources whatever was good and
true in any religion.^ What good or true doctrine or usage
has Christianity learned from other religions, that was not
already taught in its own Scriptures ?
III. HISTORY OF DOCTRINE.
The history of the Church is the story of a Divine King-
dom on earth, and the hand of God must be traced behind
the movements of men in its course. This fact is too often
overlooked. Schneider^ says that modern authors ''like
Harnack, Stade, Bleek and Wellhausen," write as if they
presupposed ''not the Christianity, but a Christianity."
They tell how the Scriptures must have arisen "if I —
Stade, Wellhausen — had composed them; how the Church
of God, Christianity, must have begun, if I — Harnack
— had been its founder-" Each describes the Divine, or
wishes to do so, not as it appeared historically, but
as the respective author presents it to himself. The prin-
ciple for the right handling of Christian truths and history
is wanting. Mere reason cannot deal with sin and its
passions, in historic treatment, he holds, any more than it
can deal v/ith them in the single human heart ; for the
^Cf. stone. Readings in Church History. Philadelphia. Porter
& Coates. 1889. $1.50. A popular, uncritical work.
^Das Apostolische Jahrhundert als Grundlage der Dogmengeschichte.
Kegensburg. C. J. Manz. 1889. A Koman Catholic work, based on
the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, which the author holds
to be genuine.
THE EARLY CIU'RCII. 155
struggle here is not to be regarded as upon a merely natural
ground. Every historian writes the history which grows
in himself as he studies ; but Christian history has spirit-
ual elements, which do not grow up in the mere reason of
man, and cannot be reproduced by such reason, Jiowever
well informed. Life in God alone qualifies for such work.
The supernatural, as foundation, the divinity of Christ, and
the essential character of the Scriptures, as accepted reali-
ties, are necessary to any true work on Christian history.
This Catholic w^riter lays great stress upon the position
that all the doctrines of the Church have been developed
only in so far as we set forth more clearly what Christ and
the Apostles fully taught once for all. Dogmas may be
multiplied, but there is no increase in Kevelation or The-
ology. *'The cause for the development in dogmas is ever
the weakness of the human mind." Most conservative
scholars will agree with the main positions of Schneider,
for if the legitimate development of doctrine take in
elements from outside the Bible, they must come from
Church tradition, the voices of nature, conclusions of
reason, or the Christian consciousness, all of which have
l)orne testimony to very conflicting views.
Allen, a Unitarian, expresses similar thoughts about
the study of early Christian thought.^ We must not look
at early opinions scientifically alone, he says ; that is
dangerous. Above all we should regard them religiously,
sympathetically, for '<even the polemic temper is not so
far away from those as the non-religiour or agnostic." He
finds the limits of ancient theology in the middle of the first
century when Paul ''set about the task of interpreting the
^The Unitarian Review, 1889.
156 IIISTORlrAL THEOLOGY.
Messianic office of Jesus, and a little past the middle of
the fifth when Pope Leo laid the foundations of the ecclesi-
astical structure that was to be." In this period Allen sees
first two groups of thinkers, the Sabellian, in the third, and
the Arian, in the fourth century, prominent, the first to
deal with the nature and office of Christ, that are likely to
have any definite meaning to modern ears. The two cen-
turies before Sabellius he finds cut across by the attempt
of Justin to give perhaps the first formal statement of the
Logos doctrine as a cardinal point of the Christian theol-
ogy. The Messianic hope died out when the Jews were
crushed under Bar Cochba, A. D. 135, and Christianity
now took its second great step forward to become a new
and independent force in the world of thought. "The doc-
trine of the Logos came in . . . . to fill the void left by the
perishing of the Messianic hope." Paul's doctrine ot the
Spirit w^as the first step ; Justin's doctrine of the Word
was the second. Here, Allen thinks, is the germ of the
theology of the next three centuries. The early Church
believed in the divine life in Jesus, just as we feel we are
sharers of such a life, and "call that prompting voice the
Word of God." The question then was, how to state theo-
logically this rfligious faith. Allen thinks that the "viv-
idly imaginative " theology of those days turned this inner
Word into a person, gave it objective existence, and made
it incarnate in Jesus as the Son of God. He finds the
germ of the Christian trinity in the words of Athanagoras,
"The Mind and Keason of the Father is the Son of God."
This Eeason personified gave Christ. The next easy step
was to think this Divine Logos took the place of the hu-
man soul in Jesus and made him Son of God. .Such a
THE EARLY CHURCH . 157
conception, it is added, is impossible to us, but to the early
Christians it was easy and natural. Their Realism made
all things possible. The movement of thought through
the third, fourth and iifth centuries was from mysticism of
the eternal Logos to rationalism of the more human Christ,
till at Chalcedon a point of rest was found, by authority,
that held good. Allen admits that the outcome of the long
struggle was the great thought "God with Man," which
has led Christianity victoriously until tins day. To get
time for the manufacture of the Logos as a divine attri-
bute into a Son of God subjective, then objective, then
incarnate in Jesus, then a Divine Deliverer, Allen puts
the origin of the Fourth Gospel about the middle of the
second century.
Purves takes more conservative ground on these ques-
tions.^ He finds the literary fact that the New Testament
appears here as the work of masters, and the post-apos-
tolic literature as that of learners, to be a refutation of
those theories of the origin of Christianity and the New
Testament '' which would extend the period of its forma-
tion over at least the first fifty years of the second cen-
tury." He holds, further, that the Logos doctrine of Justin
could not have produced the Fourth Gospel, because the
circle of thought in which Justin moved was full of Al-
exandrian philosophy, of which the Gospel of John con-
tains no element.
Parves follows the school of Pdtschl in opposing the
^Cf. Tilt Influence of Paganism on Post-Apostolic Christiauit)j, in
'The Presbyterian Review, Oct. 1888; also The Testimony of Justin
Martyr to Early Christianity. New York, Randolph & Co., 1889.
,^1.75.
158 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Tubingen theory of the rise of the early Church; but wisely
modifies the view of Harnack, that this Church took both
form and substance in part from Greek thought, by hold-
ing that such philosophic tendencies ''produced division in
the Church, but caused that portion which clung to the
apostolic teaching to realize more perfectly the unity and
significance of the faith," though even here the gospel
was often perverted. He finds Justin's defense represent-
ing "Christianity as the complete manifestation of Eeason,
accredited as such by the fulfilment of prophecies" ; a new
way of defending Christianity, for it is boldly claimed by
''an orthodox Christian writer that his doctrine was the
superior on their own ground of those of the Academy and
the Porch." And yet this plea, we are told, was one-sided,
for Christianity is more than philosophy : it is an associa-
tion of religious societies, belonging to a kingdom of
Heaven. With all Justin's philosophy, however, Purves
holds "it possible to collect from him other phrases and
ideas which imply the evangelical view of the way of sal-
vation"; though he also admits that his " w^hole idea of the
way of salvation was strongly affected by what we may
fairly term his rationalistic tendency." It is well urged
that besides the philosophical element in Justin's theology
there was a genuinely Christian element, the belief of the
Church handed down from a previous age. His very ef-
fort to explain Christian doctrine philosophically testifies
to the previous existence of the non-philosophical beliefs
of which he gives us a sight as the original faith of the
Church. And this pure transmitted doctrine he claims to
teach, in opposition to heresy and error.
This primitive belief of the Church, separated from the
THE EARLY CIirRClI. 109
superimposed philosopb}- in Justin's theology, Purves finds
to have faith in a divine-human Christ as its central arti-
cle. He testifies to the Church's belief in Christ's divinity ;
his own explanation of it is another thing. *' The belief
occasioned the philosophical efiforts to explain the mystery ;
philosophy did not create the belief." The Church be-
lieved then also in the Trinity, though Justin's ''own
thought tended strongly away from the doctrine of the
Trinity." We can trace also beneath his philosophical
statements the Church faith in "a redemption wrought out
by the Son of God through His incarnation, death and res-
urrection." Finally, he "testifies to the faith of the post-
apostolic churches concerning the spiritual privileges and
future prospects of the Christian." Hence Purves justly
rejects the Baur theory, that post-apostolic Christianity
arose from some kind of fusion of previously hostile Pauline
and Jewish Christian parties ; he rejects also the extreme
position of Harnack, saying, " Neither was it caused, so
far as its essential character was concerned, by the union
of Pauline or apostolic teaching w^ith Hellenic culture,"
for the Hellenic elements that came in found a Christian-
ity already established. " On the contrary, the Christian-
ity of Justin presupposed, both positively and negatively,
just that foundation which is described in the New Testa-
ment." In the very fall of post-apostolic doctrine below
the completeness of apostolic teaching can be seen rather
a fresh testimony to the supernatural construction of the
latter. How could the later age create and project into
the apostolic age ideas, and even records, which show a
completeness of thought which the later age itself did not
possess? All admit that the clear-cut Pauline doctrine of
160 IIISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
justification would never have been formulated by the
Church of the second century, which very imperfectly
apprehended it.
We think that Purves is right in following the school of
Eitschl as far as he does, though we are inclined to admit
a greater influence to the Greek element in Justin's theol-
ogy than he does.^ The scattered statements of Justin,
looking towards the evangelical plan of salvation, may re-
flect rather a general vagueness of view in the Church of
that period, for, as English Protestants have long held,
post-apostolic degeneracy seems very early to have thrust
aside the Pauline teachings by a gospel of moralism. We
may even go a step further and doubt if Paul's teachings
were clearly grasped at first by any of the Centile churches.
On the other hand, we cannot say that all the differ-
ence between the simple faith of the churches and the the-
ological creeds of Justin and his successors came from phi-
losophy, or that all that came from Greek theology was
necessarily false. Certainly, there is a Biblical doctrine of
the Logos ; there is a Scriptural Christology; there is a
Scriptural teaching of the Trinity ; there are doctrines of
our faith which bear a definition coined by philosophy,
but the substance of which comes from Eevelation, and is
far beyond the wisdom of the schools of Greece. This
tendency to put theology out of our belief by ascribing it
to philosophy, has been especially traced in the Alexan-
drian teachings, in which a place has been found for every
vagary. Origen, as is known, carried his theory of free-
^Cf. my article, Some Notes on Syncretism in the Christian Theology
of the Second and Third Centuries, in Papers of the American Society
of Church History, Vol. I. New York, Putnam's Sons, 1889.
THE EARLY ('II me II. 161
will so far as to hold, not onl}- that the lost in a future
state might exercise it and turn to God, l)ut that the re-
deemed in Heaven might choose evil and fall. It has been
held also that his teacher Clement believed in the possibil-
ity of repentance and salvation after death ; but Love de-
nies this,' and holds that Clement was not a Universalist.
He taught that punishment might be remedial in its ten-
dency', but not necessarily in its effects. He admitted a
purgatory for Jews and Gentiles dying before Christ came,
in which they would hear the gospel ; but of probation
after death for others he knows nothing. The current er-
rors about Clement's teachings, he says, come from Kede-
penning, who has been bUndly followed by others.
Schepss shows also that the Priscillians were less heret-
ical than has been hitherto taught.^ From the writings of
Priscillian, recently discovered,^ we see that he did not
favor Gnostic, Monarchian, Montanist or Manich^ean er-
rors; neither did he follow the Novatians in repeating
baptism. He held that Jesus Christ was ''God, the Son of
God, crucified for us." He says, "Anathema be to him
who denies that our Lord God was fastened by a nail and
drank the vinegar." He calls the Manich^ans idolators,
fit only for the sword and hell fire. The charges of Mani-
chf^eism were made against him by heretical interpolator!^
of the Bible. His enemies were those who "under the
name of zeal pursued domestic enmities." He says, in his
'^Clement of Alexandria not an After-Death Prohationist or Uni-
versalist, in The Bibliotheca Sacra. Oct. 1888.
-Priscilliani quae super sunt ct'c, in Corpus Scriptorum Eccles. Lati-
norum. Vol. XVIII. Leipzig, Freitag, 1889.
•^Cf. Current Discussions, Vol. V, 1S88, p. 158.
162 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Book to Bishop Damasus, that at a synod held in Saragossa
none of his followers were convicted of any false teaching. He
admits that some of them had separated from the Church
and commanicated by themselves, but it was because of
unworthy clergy in the Church, and not through love of
division or following the Manichaeans in setting up pseudo-
bishops. The stories, too, that the Priscillians had a Fifth
Gospel and used apocryphal Scriptures he denounces as
false. In his essay on Faith and the Apocrypha, how^ever,
he holds that the apostles read books not in our Canon.
He refers to Jude's quotation from the Book of Enoch, and
Tobit's reference to Noah and others as prophets, also to
Luke's speaking of Abel as a prophet, to prove that there
were prophecies not in our Bible, He says that only igno-
rant zeal can deny this. Paul also told the church in Co-
lossae to read the Epistle to the Laodiceans, which is not
in the Canon; why may we not use such writings, he
urges, if they have been remembered or preserved in any
other way ? Schepss thinks this new source proves that
Priscillian, the first Christian put to death for heresy by
Christians [A. D. 385], deviated in no respect from ortho-
dox teachings ; he died rather a martyr to free thought and
a pure Church. Haupt takes the same view. Bnt Moel-
ler (1. c. p. 465) and Loofs^ hold thatPriscillian's strong as-
cetic tendency, his conventicle movement, separating from
the Church as w^orldly, was strongly influenced by dualistic
Gnostic speculations, his Christology was Apollinarian,
while his ethics and exposition of the Bible point also to-
wards Gnostic theories.
Theologische Literaturzeitung. 1890, N. 1,
THE EARLY CHURCH. 163
Everywhere in this early theology we come upon places
of contact between Christianity and philosophy ; it is not
often that anything here reminds us of the supposed con-
flict between the Bible and modern science. Kecent stud-
ies, however, of Augustine's doctrine of creation show that
the Book of Genesis had to answer at the bar of reason be-
fore the Frank had crossed the Rhine or the Saxon set foot
in Britain.^ The scientific views that Augustine met in
pagan Rome were not very unlike modern theories. They
taught that matter and force were the source of all things.
Through these, original material chaos developed into suns
and systems and harmony of life. This science went so
far as to teach a world builder, but the idea of a world
creator was not thought of. Here Augustine found the
Bible teaching a most scientific advance. Matter was a
product of Almighty power ; the forces in it were implant-
ed by God ; and through his constant co-operation these
forces continue to act. He held firmly that God wrought
in the formation of the world gradually, and by means of
the laws implanted in matter. He finds the origin of species
in certain seminal laws, which the Creator put in the ele-
ments of the world. These ''original germs," or ''laws of
seeds," produced seeds, which now reproduce their kind.
To him our terms, like Bildwngstrieb or nisus formativus,
would not have sounded at all strange. He does not shrink
from regarding the creation of man as taking place accord-
ing to these same laws; "before all visible seeds there
were those primal causes " at work. Adam's body gradu-
ally developed. The soul was the animating principle in
^Cf. Raich. St. Augustinus u. d. Mosaische Schopfimgsbericht, in
Frankfurter Zeitgemdsse Broschiiren. Bd. X. H. 5. 1889.
164 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
the formative potency which framed the body. The soul
built the bodily home in which it rules as queen ; and it did
so in virtue of a natural impulse created in it. The ac-
count of creation in Genesis he regards as a dramatic pic-
ture of divine, creative activity, presented in six acts ; the
days mean great periods, or different phases of the one
work. Such an account of creation may be news to some
modern critics, who rarely notice that for fifteen hundred
years the greatest Father of the Church has been on record
against all narrow views of science and religion. Men of
,the ''Dark Ages," too, like Thomas Aquinas and Albertus
Magnus, praise these views. Augustine agrees with
modern teleological evolutionists, such as Wigand ; for
both teach the constancy of species, both hold that
the organic world is the result of development of rudi-
mentary conditions ; they differ, however, in Wigand
thinking that all developed from one original cell, while
Augustine received an original cell for each species.
Where the great Father's doctrine of creation differed
from that of Darwin has been shown in a study by Grass -
mann.^ Augustine allowed individual things a real exist-
ence, while Darwin was an extreme Nominalist, and held
that one species could pass into another. The theologian
thought that all first organizations arose through the be-
getting of God, who worked through the forces that he had
implanted in earth and water ; the scientist considered it
"nonsense to think at present on the origin of life." The
one taught that the souls of animals and men are distinct,
the human soul being the form of the body, but further an
^Die Schopfungslehre des heil. Augustinus u. Darwins. Prize
Essay. Kegensburg, Marz. 1889.
THE EARLY ClllliClI. 165
active being, which can act independently of every organ:
the other held that all souls of animals and men differ
only in degree, not in kind. Augustine regarded Nature
as penetrated and ruled by the thought of God ; Darwin's
view of Nature was mechanical, and explained all by mat-
ter and force ; ''a foreign intelligence" controlling Nature
cannot be accepted.
What iVugustine Avas, especially as an opponent of her-
esy, in the Latin Church, that was Ephraim, his early con-
temporary, in the Syrian Church.^ He finds the work of
theology to be the exploration of what God has revealed
in the Bible. Speculation on what is not revealed he
considers a device of Satan to destroy faith. He regards
man as the bond of created things, uniting in his body and
soul the world of matter and spirit. The soul, he says,
has three great attributes, rationality, immortality, and
invisibility. The privilege of the likeness of God in man
he finds in (1) freedom of will joined to dominion
over created things, (2) in capability to accept all the gifts
of God, and (3) in the activity of the human spirit, which
can bring all within the realm of its thoughts. God for-
bade Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge, in order to
show him that God is creator and Lord, to show man the
distinction between good and evil as resting in the divine
will, and by obedience to lead Adam from the outward to
the heavenly Paradise. Ephraim thinks if our first par-
ents had at once repented they would have avoided much
evil. The number of children born would have been much
less, for none would have died ; the pains of child-birth
^See Eirainer, Der heilUje Ephraim der Syrer. Kempten: Kosel.
1889.
166 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
would have been absent; and chastisement of the young-
would have been unnecessary. Like some brethren now,
the Syrian Father argued that the end of the world must
be near, because of the lack of love on earth and the gen-
eral misery. He thought the Last Judgment would be
held on the spot where Christ was crucified.^
IV. ORGANIZATION OF THE EARLY CHURCH.
Whether any form of church polity is a thing of divine
revelation is still an open question, with the drift among
historic students apparently increasing against the theory
of divine right. Withrow still holds^ to the organization of
the Church as from God, at least so far as concerns the
local congregation. Beyond this the divine order extends
only indirectly. "Association, whether of churches or
rulers, is a Scriptural principle. The association of elders
in the government of a local church, that is, the congrega-
tional presbytery, is a divine institution ; the association
of the rulers of different congregations for managing mat-
ters in common, that is, the district presbytery, is simply
a matter of agreement and consent, but is the outcome of
a principle that has received divine sanction again and
again." What is divinely established is the congrega-
^Harnack's Grundriss der Dogmengeschichte, viii, pp. 183, Freiburg
i. B., Mohr. M. 4. 1888, is a brilliant outline of the theology of the
Greek Church and very suggestive, especially to teachers. A valua-
ble outline, covering the whole history, is Loofs, Leitfaden f. seine
Vorlesiingen ilher Dogmengeschichte. Halle: Niemeyer. 1889. pp. 302.
Farrer's Lives of the Fathers, Edinburgh, 1889, an attractive work,
unduly praises the Greek Fathers and unduly criticizes the liatin.
^The Form of the Christian Temijlt. New York, Scribner & Wel-
ford, 1889.
THE EARLY CUVliril. 167
tional presbyteiy, with its elders, pastors and teachers. It
will thus be seen that this Presbyterian divine teaches
Congregationalism de jure divino, and Presbyterianism as
a valid inference therefrom.
The most prominent men in the Apostolic Church were,
of course, the apostles, and with them questions of organ-
ization in the first Church usually begin. Koppel finds^
that Paul calls himself an apostle on his second mission-
ary journey, hence the name did not arise first in the lit-
erary part of his career. He uses the term as a general
title, well known since the Apostolic Council, and also
before that time Paul was recognized as an apostle by the
eleven, as original, deriving his authority from Christ, not
from the other apostles. He was so recognized at the
Council in Jerusalem. His apostolate rested upon his
call by Christ, and upon his special endowment as mis-
sionary to the Gentiles. His acquaintance with the
Twelve was for him a secondary matter. What made
ever}'' apostle was the call of these men, assured of salva-
tion in Christ, to found churches of Christ. Paul's apos-
tleship was not attacked in Corinth or Galatia because of
any outward mark of it lacking or present ; the nature of
this office rested, according to the view in apostolic
days, not in outer signs, but in the power of God, shown in
miracles, wrought in strong faith and love, in the founding
of Christian Brotherhood. An apostle njeant every preacher
of the gospel, so far as his activity was devoted essentially
to the founding or first building up of churches in an in-
dependent manner. Jewish and Gentile Christians so re-
garded apostles. Seufert's idea of a gradual limiting of
^Studien und Kritiken. H. 2. 1889.
168 IIISTOBK'AL THEOLOGY.
the number to twelve by Judaizing Cliristians, to exclude
Paul, is rejected. Yet Paul (I Cor. xv, 1-11) admits a
certain precedence of the Twelve, a circle of workers who
labored with Jesus. But this circle was not enlarged or
completed by his activity. After those eye witnesses had
been chosen to preach the gospel, and for that purpose
the circle of the apostles of the circumcision enlarged,
there was added to this group another group of apos-
tles to the Gentiles. Apostleship is a calling ; it belonged
to the Twelve, and to be one of the Twelve w-as a
peculiar honor : but at first the name apostle was a
wide designation, which gradually became more precise,
and was limited to the calling of the missionary only.
In Pauline churches, Paul's apostleship came to be re-
garded as the typical one ; in other churches, the idea
became more general, and was not closely limited to
the Twelve. The Petrine circles also regarded the apos-
tolate as resting upon personal, spiritual gifts, and not
upon official character ; though the needs of the churches
led to a recognition of the higher authority of a group
of men under the apostles, and other prominent leaders,
which grew into a necessary and sound limitation of
the number. In Jewish regions, this narrowing of
the number would very likely lead to the limitation to
the Twelve, as suggested in the Apocalypse, in respect
of the continuity of a prophetic picture. Koppel also
finds that the Gospels do not limit the disciples of
Christ to the Twelve, though they have a place of
honor ; the Twelve w^ere the inner circle of the disci-
ples. It was a dogmatizing tendency wdiich later lim-
ited all honor to the Twelve. This tendency appears even
in the Gospels of Matthew and John. This position of Koppel
THE EARLY ('//rhun, 169
seems, in the liglit of the Dldache, very probable. But
so much the less probable seems the claim of Apostolic
Succession still made in the name of history for the tra-
ditional Episcopate. In support of this claim Bishop Coxe
finds^ that Barnabas and Paul form "an enlargement of
the Apostolic College." Then came the "apostles [or an-
gels] of the Churches," men like Titus and Timothy, who
began the Apostolic Episcopate, which had the ordinary,
not the extraordinary gifts of the Twelve. That is the
view of Canon Liddon,^ whom Coxe follows in makmg the
first bishops an outgrowth of such men incorporated into
the Apostolate.
This explanation does not tell us what became of the
bishops already in existence in the days of the apostles,
while it assumes that the office of Timothy and Titus was
permanent and had full apostolic power. Then, what of
the identity of primitive presbyters and bishops, which
Eeimensyder has just proved again^ from the Didache ? We
may be told by Livius'^ that Peter the apostle was bishop
of Eome, and that for twenty-five years ; but a reviewer
weir replies^ that until A. D. 350 " no extant writer speaks of
the duration of St. Peter's Roman Episcopate." Further,
Peter is hardly ever, in the first three centuries, called
"bishop" of anv See, Antioch or Eome. The statements
^Thc History and Teaching of the Early Church, as a basis for the
Re-iirion of Christendom. Five lectures by different writers. Young
& Co., New York, 1889.
^Cf. Current Discussions, Vol. IV. 1887. p. 142.
^The Lutheran Quarterly, Jan. 1889.
*St Peter, Bishop of Rome. London, Burns & Gates. 1889.
'The English Historical Review. Oct. 1889.
170 HISTOBICAL THEOLOGY.
about Rome make Peter and Paul common founders of the
cburcli there. It was not till the See of Rome became
"the chair of Peter" instead of the " foundation of Peter
and Paul", that the idea of an episcopate of St. Peter
became possible. The " primitive evidence with singular
unanimit}^ withholds from St. Peter both the title of bishop
and a place in the Episcopal catalogue. " Apostles and
bishops had different duties ; and an apostle with his field
limited to one city would cease to be such. So the tra-
ditional bishop is not a diminutive apostle, neither can he
be traced to Timothy, while to identify him with the
bishop of the New Testament is dangerous, for most
scholars agree that this bishop was a presbyter. Where,
then, did this monarchical bishop come from? We are
familiar with the view of Hatcli^, that this official was
borrowed from the religious clubs of the heathen. But Loen-
ing sa3"s"'^ that no proof has been brought for this .view, or
for the general theory that the constitution of the early
Church was framed in imitation of the forms of pagan
societies. He thinks that not only in Palestine, but even
in the Gentile churches of the last quarter of the first
century, an elected committee of elders existed. This
"name and establishment of elders were taken from the
constitution of the Jewish congregations, " and formed a
transition stage in the growth towards the monarchical
episcopate, though its influence was not entirely lost. The
later bishop arose as follows : The first bishopric, as
'Cf. Current Discussions, Vol. I, 1883, p. 98; Vol. IV, 1887, p. 143;
Vol. V. 1888, p. 165.
•Die Gemeindeverfassuno des Urchristenlhums. Halle, Niemeyer.
1888.
THE EARLY CHURCH . 171
Hegesippus tells us, arose in Palestine, in connection with
the position that James held in Jerusalem and his relation
to the Lord. It took here the monarchical form without
any reference to the church constitutions of either Jews or
Greeks, synagogues or pagan clubs. The bishop, he says,
was not an outgrowth of the moderator of the committee of
elders, or of the Eoman system of Mysteries— for the
bishop arose in the East — or of Greek cults or municipal-
ities ; the bishop arose in imitation of a man like Simeon,
who followed James in Jerusalem, and because of the need
of greater unity in the congregation than the congrega-
tional presbytery could effect, to guard against the con-
venticle system and other disturbing elements : but the
idea of being Christ's representative, after the model of
Simeon, was the starting point for the monarchical epis-
copate. In this direction Ignatius is the typical follower
of Simeon. In the conflict with Gnostic errors, the idea
of imparting a yapiap-a^ the Holy Spirit, by the laying on
of hands, must receive a very different efficiency from that
given it in Judaism. There was joined to it now the
thought that bishops were successors of the Apostles in
their office, in order to confirm the monarchical position
of the bishops. So, in the second century, the new order
of bishops, presbyters and deacons appeared. Another
new thing also now appeared, the idea of clergy and laity
as distinct classes. At first, as Loening urges, there was
no clerical class, as such, in the Koman world; no pastors,
no moral guides, no authorative teachers of sound doctrine.
Gradually, the clergy became a distinct class, regarded as
successors of the Apostles, preservers of sound doctrine,
and, since the end of the second century, viewed as were
the priests of the Old Testament among the Jews.
172 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY
Harnack defends his view of the separate origin of
presbyters and bishops, and their later union, against
Loening.i He thinks still that "the bishops formed at first
a committee^ Avhich had charge of the worship of the con-
gregation, and in connection with that managed also the
money matters of the church. " Hence the presbyters, in
the first centmy, were not office bearers, and did not coin-
cide with this committee of bishops. These early elders
were men of experience, honored for their long service, and
not officials. These elders, however, soon formed a com-
mittee of their own, a committee chosen from the formless
group of "old men, " in larger congregations, which was
not the same as that of the bishops and deacons. He de-
fends well the position that Apostles, Prophets and
Teachers had the highest place of honor, from which they
advised the churches authoritatively in matters of morals,
doctrines, and methods. As men called of God, they
could direct all forms of Church activity. He says that
only by grasping the significance of the original, spiritual-
despotic element in the early Church, the charismatic
preachers of the Word of God, can we understand how a
despotic power could develop in these early churches,
which were free, democratic societies. At first there ap-
peared in the churches [1] prophets and teachers, [2] " old
men" or patrons, to wdiom "honor" was due, then [3]
elected officers of administration ; that, he thinks, must be
the starting point in the study of early church constitu-
tions. From this point of view it can be seen that the
monarchical bishop was just "the cumulation of the digni-
ties of the president of the committee of elders, and of the
^Theoloyische Literaturzeitung. 3889. No. 17.
THE EARLY CIirRCII. 173
teacher upon the head of the highest officer of worship ;
and his position was further made secure by the theory of
his being successor of the apostles. "^ Harnack admits,
however, that his theory cannot stand if the Acts and the
Pastoral Epistles are writings of the first century, and
w^arns against the use of these as such.
Sanday thinks^ that we must still hold our judgment in
suspense respecting the growth of church organizations
before A. D. 150; but for the period between that date and
the Council of Nicaea, we are nearer reaching a satisfact-
ory conclusion. He opposes a writer in The Church Quar-
terly Review, July, 1888, and agrees rather with Hatch,
in holding (1) that there were in this second period two
or more bishops of one See ; (2) that the earliest Episco-
pacy was Congregational; (3) that the earliest churches
were independent communities ; and (4) that the rudiments
of national churches did not appear before the fourth cen-
tury. These are most encouraging results to be reached
by two scholarly historians of the Episcopal Church, and
show the impartial spirit that is fostered by modern his-
toric methods. Eamsay argues in the same direction from
a study of early Phrygian inscriptions {l, c.). He thinks
that the Phrygian Christians were organized somewhat
like the "funeral clubs" of the heathen. This province was
under the rule of the Senate, not the Emperor, and hence
had more municipal liberty than any imperial province.
Trade guilds, united in the worship of a god, existed here ;
*Cf. also Gore, Ministry of the Christian Church. London, 1889.,
who thinks the traveling apostle or prophet "localized' in the Con-
gregational Presbytery, became the bishop.
"The Expositor. Nov. 1888.
174 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
SO there is no reason wb}' Christian societies might not be
tolerated. A bequest of property by a Christian, A. D. 253,
gives it to the "Society of the First Gate People," on con-
dition that they keep roses upon the grave of the donor's
wife. This -society must have been legal to accept such a
commission ; it was doubtless Christian, and very likely in
the form of a Burial Club, to which the care of the tomb
was legally entrusted. Still earlier, another man left
property to the "Council of Presidence of the Purple-
Dippers," which Piamsay thinks, was the governing body
of the Christian congregation. "Council of Presidence" is
unique, meaning probably the Presidents, as Eusebius
speaks of the bishop as President of the church. In that
case we have here the council of presbyters, which co-oper-
ated with the bishop, called by Ignatius the "council of the
the bishop." Hierapolis, w^herethis inscription was found,
was a great place for dyers, and a heathen society of
"the Corporation of Dyers" is known to have been here.
But the Christian society was known as the "Purple Dip-
pers," or, as the word can be rendered, the Purple-Dipped,
likely intentionally ambiguous, meaning perhaps those
dipped in blood. Eamsay finds the title of bishop but once
in the inscriptions, and then in the fourth century. Pres-
bj'ters occur often, for "the evidence points clearly to the
conclusion, that the term presbyter was much more com-
monly used in Phrygia than bishop, to denote the head of
the church in each district." The names were frequently
equivalent, he adds, in early times, and the title bishop
was not in ordinary use in the early Phrygian church.
"The leader and equal of the Apostles exercised his su-
preme and implicitly accepted authority under the humble
THE EARLY CHURCH. 175
title of presbyter." He was one among a number person-
ally prominent, not officially designated. There is no
evidence, he continues, that Montanus was ever called
bishop. • It is now generally considered that he repre-
sented the old school of Phrygian Christianity, as opposed
to the hierarchical Church, which was making Christianity
a power in the world. But the bishops arose and crushed
the Phrygian church methods ; Montanism was suppressed ;
and after A. D. 160, church organization took shape
according to the civil organization, every city having
its owii bishop, every metropolis having its own arch-
bishop. But the thought of the Phrygian Christians re-
mained primitive, and we long hear of Phrygian "heresies."
The first church Synods met, under the lead of bishops,
to stop the outburst and protest of free, charismatic. Con-
gregational Puritanism, as seen in Montanism. The gov-
ernment of the Church became Episcopal ; the next step
was towards the supremacy of great bishops, culminating
in the Papacy. A recent Roman Catholic writer^ finds very
wonderful currents bearing the boat of St. Peter to Piome.
He "treats of the Papacy deprived of all temporal support
from the fall of the Western Empire, taking up the secular
capital into a ne^v spiritual Piome, and creating a Christen-
dom out of the northern tribes, w^ho had subverted the
Pioman Empire." This creation of the German races from
Pagans and Arians into a body of states whose center of
union and belief was the See of Peter, Allies considers a
wonder of historv, like that which w^e see in the rise of the
billies, The Formation of Christendom. Vol VI. The Holy See and
the \Vaudenng of the Nations. From St. Leo I to St. Gregory I.
New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888.
176 IIISTOEICAL THEOLOGY.
Papacy itself. He sees in the confirmation of the decrees
of the Foiiith General Council by Leo I, just at a time when
Attila had been turned from Eome and Genseric was pre-
paring to sack the city, "a special intention of -Diyine
Providence," whereby the two Koman Emperors, just when
the Western Emperor was about to fall, and the whole
Episcopate in solemn form should attest the Pioman
bishop's universal pastorship. A great period, he says,
was ending, that of the Gr^co-Pioman civilization, from
which after three centuries of persecution, the Church had
obtained recognition ; and a great period was beginning,
when the Wandering of the Nations had prepared for the
Church another task. The majestic figure of Leo ex-
pressed the completion of the first task ; the solemn figure
of Gregory I showed the Papacy thoroughly prepared to
undertake the second. With him "began the Church's
Eome."
As Eome fell more and more under the power of the
Papacy, material affairs and matters of civil and financial
nature took a larger place in the thoughts and energies of
the Church. The ways and means for the material support
of the Papacy form a most interesting subject of inquiry,
recently discussed by Schwarzlose.^ The Eoman Church
was supported from its patrimonial possessions, which
grew rapidly from the end of the fourth century, espe-
cially because of three influences, the conversion to Christi-
anity of the leading families of Eome, the great elevation
of papal power under Leo the Great, and especially through
the military and political want which burst over Ital}^
after the fall of the Western Empire. After this the
^ Zeitschrift f. Kirchengeschicfite. Bd. XL H. I 1889.
TJiK KMiLY en me II. 177
Eoman See possessed large estates in all parts of Italy, in
Gaul, Africa, an«l in far-off Asia, all of which were culti-
vated in a masterly manner. This property, in its politi-
cal relations, was subject to the laws of the Empire, and
the Pope laid no claim to sovereign rule. The income
from the patrimonia was m money and in natural pro-
ducts, which the tenants paid twice a year. The actual
amount received cannot be learned, but it must have been
large. It supported a vast system. Incidentally we hear
that 8,000 nuns were provided for inKome wdien Gregory I
was Pope, and that they received for bedding alone $3,265,
with an additional annual amount of $17,900. Vast sums
w'ere spent upon the poor. In one time of want in Eome
Gregory I spent $18,375 for food. The mission of Augus-
tine to England vv^as paid for out of these funds. Pelagius
II, the predecessor of Gregory I, paid $652,500 to invaders.
These illustrations all show how far the successor of Peter
was from saj'ing " Silver and gold have I none," wdien he
turned from the sinking Eastern Empire towards the Ger-
man races, to whom he was to send the gospel and over
whom he was to rule as Caesar in the place of Ciesar.
V. HISTORY OF WORSHIP.
The most important work of the past year, touching
on worship, treats of the Christmas Festival and the ser-
vices connected w^ith it. We know that until the begin-
ning of the fourth century the Church did not celebrate
either Epiphany or Christmas as festivals ; but about that
time both of these appeared, the one on the sixth of Janu-
ary, the other on the twenty- fifth of December. The ques-
178 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
tion is, however, just when and how these festivals arose ;
and this question Usener sets himself to answer^ in an
elaborate work. He leaves no stone unturned, and as to
the time and place of the origin "of these sacred seasons
his explanation is thorough and conclusive. Christmas,
celebrated on Dec. 25, appeared first in Eome, where we
find Bishop Liberius, in 358, keeping Christmas on Jan. 6,
but the next year, 354, holding the Festival on Dec. 25.
So that point is settled exactly. From Eome this usage
spread to the East, in the reign of Theodosius the Great,
a Western Emperor, who then extended his sway over both
East and West. The December Christmas was first cele-
brated in Constantinople, A. D. 379. Through Constanti-
nople this Festival entered the East. In 380 it was
known in Antioch, though not celebrated by the church
till 388. It was observed in Cappadocia by 382, and in
the beginning of the fifth century it occurs in the province
of Diospontus. Until A. D. 400, both the birth and th3
baptism of Jesus were celebrated in Egypt on the sixth of
January; but under Cyrill the December Christmas was
observed. In Palestine, the Epiphany-Christmas was kept
until about 451, when, Usener thinks. Bishop Juvenal, re-
turning from the Council of Chalcedon, where he had been
created Patriarch, introduced the new usage as a return
for the favor of the Council. The Armenian Church never
accepted the Western Christmas.
W^ith the rise of the Christmas celebration came
also the growth of reverence for the Virgin. The
^ Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, I. Tlieil. Das Weilmachts-
fest. Bonn. 1889. M. 9. See Harnack's review, in Theolog. Litera-
turzeilung, 1889, No. 8.
THE EARLY CITURCIl. 179^
same Liberius who introduced the Christmas festival,
354, into Eome, founded the great Mary Basihca,
S. Maria Magi/iorc, and led the Church into Virgin
worship. Of this church Usener says, "It was built
to prepare a worthy place for the new Festival. The
manger of the gospel, which first on this spot performed a
churclily service, became the cradle of all the poetry with
which faith, art and legend have illumined the Holy
Night." In this connection he shows how the growing
ritual, encouraged especiallj' by Liberius, was fashioned
after heathen ritual, and took its place in the hearts of
the people. Thus the litania minor, used before the
Ascension, took the place of the ancient ambariialia, in
which offerings were brought to the Dea Dia, Ceres, for the
fertility of the fields; and the litania major took the place
of the rohigalia, a festival to keep the fields from mildew.
He shows further that Candlemas, on Feb. 2, took the place
of the heathen amhurhale, in which the Roman Church in-
troduced the procession with lighted torches instead of the
ancient anihurbium, a festival for the purification of the
city, as the arnharualia was for that of the country. This
Christian version of the heathen procession was made long
before anybody thought of celebrating the purification of
the Mother of Christ, and the Presentation in the Temple
as a Church Festival. Older than Christmas, in both East
and West, was Epiphany. In the time of Arnobius and
the Donatist schism, this festival is not found in the West ;
but was introduced shortly after the Council of Nicaea. It
seems to have come into Egypt as early as A. D. 300, and
probably spread thence by means of the Nicene Council.
"It is certain," Harnack says, " that the Church until at
180 HISrOIUCAL THEOLOGY.
least A. D. 250 nowhere knew this Festival." In the time
of Clement of Alexandria, the Gnostics celebrated Epip-
hany in honor of the baptism of Jesus ; but after it was
introduced into the orthodox Church it w^as held in memory
of both his birth and baptism. How this was brought
about is still wrapped in obscurity.
YI. EARLY CHRISTIAN ART.
The controversy between Protestant and Eoman Catlio-
hc Archaeologists, in respect of the true theory of interpret-
ing ancient monuments, is still active. Wilpert, a Catholic
scholar, charges^ Schultze, Hasenclever and Achelis with
incapacity, prejudice and dishonorable use of material.
These Protestant students of art hold that the early Chris-
tians at first simply continued to use and develop pagan art
ideas and models, as ornament and without any particular
thought connected wdth them, until later a time of reflec-
tion came in the Church and the heathen pictures assumed
a conscious Christian character. The Catholic divines deny
this, and hold that from the beginning Christian art was
consciously moulded by the thought of the Church, that that
thought w^as Pioman Catholic, that such Eoman Catholic
thought is painted in the pictures and carved in the monu-
ments of the catacombs, and hence the way to explain this
early art is by a symbolical application of the Decrees of
the Council of Trent. Wilpert says "the earUest Christian
inscriptions had certain marks which distinguished them
from the Pagan." He adds that the w^ord slave was not
^Principienfragen der christlichen Archdologie. St. Louis, Mo.
Herder, 1889*. $1.50.
TIII-J IJARLV cnrRcii. 181
used in Christian epitaphs. But Schultze rephes^ that
this is incorrect ; and the statement of Wilpert that the
Christians put ahirnnus in place of slave he says will be
news to the scientific world. In the 237 inscriptions of the
catacomb of St. Priscilla, the Catholic finds "nothing that
reminds of idolatry and heathenism." The Protestant,
however, refers to the 13,000 Christian inscriptions in Ptome,
and says the larger field proves the opposite. This special
pleading of Catholics in the name of archaeology Schultze
calls part of the Jesuit policy, ''the organizing hand" that
now controls the Komish Church. From a comparison of
recent works by men of that communion, he shows that
early Christian art is now made to teach the Primacy of
Peter, the Roman Church the sole repository of salvation,,
the Virgin the Queen of Heaven and the great intercessor,
the worship of saints and reverence of relics and pictures,
also the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass. Thus the whole
theology of Piome is read into the catacombs ; and every
Catholic student is expected to read a system of Piomish.
theology, ethics and worship out of these same monumen!s.
Further excavations, made during the past year, in the
catacombs of St. Priscilla,^ have discovered a chapel, near
which was uncovered the ^^cubiculum clarmn^' of Marcelli-
nus, bishop of Rome, who died in the persecution under
Diocletian. In the same place was found an inscription
bearing the names AcilioGlabrioni Filio, Manius Acilius
Verus, &c., pointing to the resting place of Christians of
the noble family of the Acilii ; for, besides Flavins Clemens
^Theol. Literatiirhlatt, 1889. No. 30; and Die Alfchrist. Bihlwerke
u. die hist. Forschung. Leipzig. 1889. 40pp.
-Cf. Romische Quartalschrlft. 1889. Hli. 2 and 3.
182 inSTORirAL THEOLOGY.
and his wife Flavia Domitilla, Dio Cassius tells us that
Glabrio, who was consul with Trajan, was put to death on
the same charges as Flavins, under Domitian ; hence this
light from the catacombs seems to confirm the view that
Glabrio was one of the noble mart3TS under Domitian. We
learn, further, from these excavations that not a few of the
•sculptures in the catacombs were colored to make them
look more life-like. This custom was in harmony with
Pagan art, which usually colored sculpture. A statue of
St. Peter has the tunic green, the pallium red, the beard
and hair brown. Three groups of colored sculptures are
distinguished : first, where three colors are generally used?
gold, brown and purple or green, put on chiefly in lines or
bands to help express the work of the chisel ; next, those
completely painted, from the color of the clothes to the
shading on lips and cheeks, eyes and hair ; lastly, where
the marble was treated pictorially, chiefly by gilding.
Coloring was the rule in early Christian sculpture ; perhaps
there was no exception.
Another point of contact between ancient art and Chris-
tianity recently discussed is the use of bells. Schiller and
Poe have shown in song how life in Christian lands now
circles about the ringing of bells. The work before us^
takes up the history of bells among the ancient nations and
points out how much it has been enriched since the triumph
of Christianity. Bells were used in pagan life "to call the
meetings, to baths, to marches, to the circus," and passed
over naturally to summon Christian worshipers to their
j)lace of meeting. Hence we cannot learn what pope or
^Morillot. Etude siir Vemploi des clochettes chez les anciens et de-
2)uifi le triomphe du Christianisme. Dijon. Damongeot. 1888.
THE EAULY CIIURdl. 183
bishop first used them. The writers of the fourth and fifth
century mention the use of bells as a most natural occur-
rence. In Italy and Egypt, bells appear in Christian use
very early : in Gaul, where the trumpet was employed to
call assemblies, that instrument was used until the sixth or
seventh century by Christians ; while, in the East, bells
were not so introduced till the ninth century, when a Doge
of Venice sent the first bells to Constantinople. They
were not known in Jerusalem till it was taken by Godfrey
at the head of the first crusade, 1099. Before that time,
boards were struck to summon the congregation. Monas-
teries did not at first use bells. Pachomius called his
monks together with a trumpet. Jerome says the hermits
in Bethlehem were summoned by the word iVlleluia ; but
from the sixth century on, bells were used in monasteries
also pretty generally.
VII. HISTOP.Y OF THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.
Zockler has just published^ a brief and serviceable
History of Tlielogical Science, with special reference to
Patristics. He classifies this study between the History
of Worship and the History of Christian Archaeology, and
includes in it the circumstances amid which authors wrote,
the intellectual tendencies of the times, and the literary pro-
ducts of theologians of the Church, the men who strove to
give a scientific exposition of the Christian religion. This
early Christian literature at first addressed believers, and
^Handbuch der theol. Wissenschaften. Supplement Volume. A His-
tory of Theol. Literature. Nordlingen. Beck, 1889. pp. 195. Val-
uable c
184 HTSTORICAL THEOLOGY.
hence the writings of the Apostohc Fathers and the Homi-
hsts; it next addressed the heathen world, hence the ap-
pearance of apologetic works. An interesting example of
the first class, an anonymous Treatise on Gambling, has
been discussed in a most interesting way by Harnack.^ He
thinks this work, long bearing the name of Cyprian, was
written by Victor I. of Eome, and is consequently the oldest
Avriting of a Eoman bishop that we have, the first Latin
Christian document from the Eoman Church. In any case, it
is the oldest Latin sermon that we possess ; and it shows the
earliest use of Matt, xvi, 18f.,inEome, though the conscious-
ness of episcopal primacv is rather that of high moral re-
sponsibility for the flock entrusted to the bishop, than of
lordly rule, Wolfflin disputes this position of Harnack^
and puts the treatise later than Cyprian, making it depend-
ent upon him. He thinks it was written by some African
bishop, after A. D. 250„ Miodonski thinks^ the mention of
Christians having '< pieces of land and villas," and the
gambling for large sums point to Eome as the place of
writing. Perhaps Bishop Melchiades (310), by birth an
African, was its author. The study of this little treatise
shows not a few nominal Christians in the third, perlnps
in the second century, who could not resist the fascination
of the gambling room. Think of a Christian bishop saying
to his flock, thus early, '' it even happens that those play-
ers celebrate their orgies by night behind closed doors in
^Der Pseudo-Cyprianische Tractat De Aleatorihus &c. Leipzig.
Hinrichs. 1888.
'^Arcliiv f. lateinische Lexicographie. Bd. V., j). 487. f.
^Anonymiis adversus Aleatores; with German translation and
notes. Leipzig. Deichert, M. 2. A handy book for the student.
THE EARLT CHURCH. 185
the company of vile women!" We learn incidentally that
every gambler before playing must sacrifice to Palamedes,
the inventor of gaming.
The oldest homilies, after those of Origen, which we
possess, are from the Persian Aphraates, who wrote A. D.
337-34-5. Wright published the Syriac text, in 1869; now
we receive a full German translation.^ This work sheds
not a little light upon the Syrian Church at a critical period,
just as it was passing over to become the imperial Church.
The appeal was being made to all classes, to leaven cul-
ture with Christianity, and oppose the wide-spread corrup-
tion of the Empire. AVe see church life here as it went on
far from the theological controversies that vexed the Church
elsewhere, but also as it was approaching that of the West-
ern Church. We observe in the church of East Syria and
Persia growing sympathy with the Christians in the Roman
Empire, which had now become Christian. We hear of
persecution of these Persian Christians because their gov-
ernment regarded such sympathy as treason. We see
Easter and other seasons observed here in a way con-
demned by Church Councils in the West. On the other hand,
the Peshito text appears assimilated to that of the Greek
Bible ; the Catholic Scriptures are substituted for those of
the East Syrian Church, that is, the Four Gospels put in the
place of Tatian's Diatessaron and the Catholic Epis-
tles and Apocalypse added to their New Testament Canon :
also, the exposition of the Scriptures avoids the allegorical
excesses of the Western Church. Such men as Aphraates,
trained in connection with the Jewish colleges in Eastern
^BQvt, in Tcxte unci UntersKchungen. Edited by Gel)liardt & Har-
nack. Bd. Ill, 1888.
186 HISTORICAL TlIEOLOCrY.
Syria, started a school of thought, opposed to the allegori-
cal learning of Origen and his followers, which found a. con-
tinuation in the school of Antioch.
A further contribution to the early literature of the
Church are the Acts of three martyrs, published by Har-
nack.^ It is a work of the time of Marcus Aurelius, and
reflects the Christian thought of those days. It quotes
Luke xiv, 1.5, thus: *' Blessed is he that shall set a din-
ner," etc., reading apiazov not «/>rov, as most critics pre-
fer. Its only formula of quotation is " according to the
divine remembrance of the Lord'' ; and this, Harnack says,
" correspends exactly to the degree of the New Testament
Canon, as it was taking shape about A. D. 165." It de-
scribes Agathonike becoming a martyr because Karpus at
the stake saw a vision and died in great joy; she " stand-
ing by and seeing the glory of the Lord, which Karpus said
he had seen, and knowing the call to be from Heaven,
straightway cried out ' This dinner hast thou prepared for
me, I must share the eating of this glorious dinner.' " We
have here the most vivid picture yet given in early litera-
ature of the joys of Heaven as a Feast, and pointing, with
the voluntary death of the woman, to the influences at
work in xAsia Minor to produce Montanism. In fact, these
Acts say that Papylus was from Thyatira, a city in which,
in the time of Marcus Aurelius, Montanism wholly pre-
vailed. He says of himself, "I speak the truth; in every
province and city there are my children in God," pointing,
very likely, to his work as a travelling Evangelist, or
Prophet. Although he belonged to Thyatira, his work was
'^Texteu. Untersuckunf/tn. Bd. Ill, 4.
Till-: i-^ARLY (iii-ncn. 1.^7
at large. Such men remind us of the apostohc men men-
tioned in the Did ache.
The other cdass of early Christian literature, the Apol-
ogetic, had two kinds of critics in view, the Pagan and the
.Jewish. We have from Justin, the Father of Apologetics,
his writing addressed to Antoninus Pius, and his Dialogue
with Trypho, the Jew. These works had many successors,
of which especially those intended for Jews have received
little attention; hence the monograph of McGiffert, pub-
lishing for the first time one of the treatises addressed to
Hebrews, is of interest.^ The work here given is not
very important. It was written about A. D. 700, probably
in Egypt. The Jew asks why Christians pray to pictures.
The Christian says they pray to Christ beyond the pictures.
The Jew calls it blasphemy to say God has a Son. In
reply the Christian quotes the Old Testament, especially
Ps. ii, 7, to show that Christ is Divine. He then argues
further from the spread of Christianity, as compared with
Judaism, to show that God must be in it. He finally
answers the objection that Jesus Christ was not foretold by
the prophets. He says if the prophets had said openly that
Christ would abolish the Jewish ritua], they would have
been stoned, and their books burned. He asks in reply
why, if Jesus were a false Messiah, the prophets uttered
no word of prediction of such a terrible thing in Israel.
Beyond svich writings as those of Apostolic Fathers and
Apologists, the early Church must soon produce still a
third class of works, polemic treatises against Christian
teachers of false doctrine. Irenaeus and TertuUian
^Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew. Greek Text with Intro-
duction and Notes. The Christian Literature Co. New York, 1889.
188 IIISTOBICAL THEOLOGY.
entered the lists against Gnostics and Monarchians, and
the bitter battle of the theologians began. Among other
writers of this sort Eusebius refers to Cains, a Eoman
scholar of the early part of the third century, as author of
a Dialogue against Proelus, a Montanist of Eome. That
is about all we know of Caius. But recently Gwynn has
found in a Syrian manuscript in London opinions of Caius
quoted, and answered at length by Hippolytus, his Roman
contemporary^. These are called Capita Hippolyti adver-
sus Caium. We learn of them through the Theolor/ische
Litef^aturzeifung,'-^ in which Harnack adds the following in-
formation about Caius. He wrote the work cited by Eu-
sebius, against Proelus, in which he rejected the Apoca-
lypse of John, because he could not harmonize its eschatol-
ogical prophecies with the Scriptures and Paul. From
the words of Caius, ''as it is Avritten " and " Paul says ",
Harnack infers, rather precariously, that in the time of
Caius '-Paul and the Scriptures were still sharply distin-
guished in the Roman Church. " Caius agreed with the
Alogi in rejecting the Apocalypse, but accepted the Gospel
of John. We learn also from this new source that we are
not to interpret Eusebius iii, 28, 2 as saying that Caius
ascribed the Apocalypse to Cerinthus. Hippolytus really
wrote against Caius, and answered also all the errors of the
Alogi. These fragments of Hippolytus so agree with what
Epiphanius says of the Alogi (c. 31) that it is very likely
he used for his attack the material of Hippolytus. That
was not an uncommon thing amongst these early
wa'iters. They not only at times published their own
^Hippolytus and his "Heads against Cains. '"Dublin, 1888. 21 pp.
- 1888, No. 26.
THE EARLY ('IlUliCIl. 189
thoughts under some honored name, but they pubhshed
other men's thoughts and information without acknowl-
edgement, under their own name.
It was only an extension of this principle to take Jewish
or heathen writings, and by giving them a Christian color-
ing make them part and parcel of the Church's posses-
sion. We know what a mass of heathen tradition in this
way crept into the monasteries and received the stamp of
Christian currency. A recent study of Amelineau^ shows
that monkish stories, told now in Egypt, were told in that
land in the fourth century ; nay, he goes further and makes
it probable that they are the working over of heathen ro-
mances of three thousand years ago. These stories of the
ancient Egyptians were read by Coptic monks, as the
llomance of Satni, found in the tomb of a Christian monk,
clearly shows.
^Monuments pour servir a Vhistoire de VEfn/pte Chretienne aux IVe
€t Vc Siecles. Paris. Leronx. 1888. Fr. 18.
CHAPTEE II.
THE CHUKCH OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
I. HISTORY OF THE PAPACY.
Gregory the Great has been called the last of the Fathers
and the first of the Popes, for with him "d. 604: the bishop
of Eome was led to turn from the Emperor towards some
Western ruler, and seek an independent position between
conflicling civil lords. The thoughts of papal supremacy,
which occurred to Gregory, came forth in Papal action in
the next century, when confusion and war led Pope Stephen
III. to offer Pippin of France the title of Patrician of the
Eomans. Freeman says^ ''there is no time in the historj-
of the world of which it is harder to grasp the true under-
standing than the history of Italy in the eighth century."
The reason is largely because we have been taught to re-
gard the end of the Western Empire as fixed A. D. 476;
whereas the undivided Eoman Empire, he holds, continued
from 476 to 800 A. D. He sums up, what will "sound in
many ears as an impossible paradox," thus : "When Pope
Stephen the Third bestowed the title of Patrician of the
Eomans on Pippin king of the Franks, he did it by author-
ity of the reigning Emperor, Constantine Kopronymos, and
in the character of his ambassador." It is also true that
The Patriciate of Pippin, in The English Hist }Review. Oct. 1889.
THE CliriU'II OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 191
Stephen had no idea that Pippin wouhl act as an imperial
officer. The Pope deceived the Emperor. The Imperial
pohey was ohviously to keep the shadow of authority, and
appoint Pippin Patrician, rather than lose all control in the
West. The Empire had long followed such methods. Be-
sides, Pippin was friendly to the Emperor, while Aistulf, the
Lombard ruler, w^as hostile. Diehlurges^ that in the time of
the Exarchate (575-751), the Emperor had more power in
Italy than has been usually represented iiiEome. He also
points out that the bishop of Rome not only increased his
power as the Empire weakened, but hastened its decay by
his increasing power.
What the influences were that carried the Papacy more
and more towards the Germanic Princes can be well traced
in a recent study of Gregory II.- He was educated in a
school in the palace of Pope Sergius [d. 701]. x\s a young
sub-deacon he was given charge of the papal library. He
w^ent [710 with Pope Constantine to visit the Emperor in
Nicaea. In 715, he became pope, the first Itahan pope,
after 'seven foreign pontiffs, since Benedict 11. His first
work, as pope, was to begin to restore the walls of Rome, as
a defence against the Lombards. He also set himself to
repair churches and cloisters. The famous monastery of
Monte Casino, the home of Benedict, had been 110 years
in ruins. In 716, Gregory received Tlieodo II, Duke of
Bavaria, the first Bavarian ruler to make a pilgrimage to
Rome. We see also Corbinian, the anchorite bishop of
Freisingen, in Bavaria, visit him twice. He made Boniface,
^Etudes sur Vadmi/iistratioH byzanthie dans VExarchat de Ravennc.
Thorin: Paris. 1889.
-Dahmen; Das Pontifikat Gngors II, Diisseldorf. 1888.
192 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
the apostle of Germanj^ "bishop for his work of Eomaniz-
ing Germany." The pope was still but one great bishop
among others ; but he was reaching out towards supreme
sway. We hear of the bishops of Aquileia and Grado be-
ing then called Patriarchs, one under the Lombards, the
other under the Empire. But we hear also of the English
king, Ina, abdicating and coming ^726^ to Eome as a pil-
grim. Here he started a school and home for English stu-
dents and pilgrims. Gregory saw the fierce Iconoclastic
Controversy rage in the East, which weakened the Imperial
power, and gave the Papacy new claims to monarchical
rights. Pveligious uniformity was the policy of the Emperor
Leo ; hence he ordered Jews, Montanists and worshippers
of images, all to observe the prescribed worship. The Jews
pretended to obey. The Montanists, on the day set for
their baptism, burnt themselves and their churches together.
The edict against pictures in Italian churches led Gregory
to oppose Leo and preach Eevolution in the West. But
Dahmen holds the charges of disloyalty, stopping Italian
tribute due the Emperor, separating the West from the
Empire, and excommunicating Leo for his edict are ground-
less. Whether intentional, however, or not, the bishops
of Piome must follow the current of events, which was bear-
ing then towards closer relations wath the chief monarch in
the West. K generation after Gregory IE, the spurious
Donatio Consfantini arose, claiming that Constantine actu-
ally left the West and made Constantinople his capital,
that the pope might be free to do as he pleased in Kome.
This forgery has been put by most historians in Eome,
as birth-place, and the years 752-774 as time of
THE CIIVRCII OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 10:^
origin; now Friedricli^ tinds this Donation used in
a letter of Hadrian I, of A. D. 785, to the Emperor
Constantine. He distinguishes two parts in the
gift, an older, written about 653, and giving the pope
the Lateran palace and the city of Kome, and a later, writ-
ten shortly before 754, by Paul I, as deacon, giving him
the whole West. Some critics of Friedrich's book doubt if
two parts can be distinguished in the Donatio? But all
agree that here a position is claimed for the pope, in the
West, like that occupied by the Emperor in the East.
Christ is the "heavenly Emperor" and the bishop of Eome
is his representative. Constantine offers him a golden
crown like his own, but the Pope declines it for his tonsured
head; he accepts, however, the imperial pallium, "af? 'nui-
tationem imperii nostril
In any case, we stand here in a time of transition for the
bishop of Piome. It is very significant that Hadrian I, con-
nected with whose letters Friedrich finds the gift of Con-
stantine, dated his letters from A. D 781 on, not after the
years of the reign of the Greek Emperor, but after the years
of his own pontificate.
It is also very instructive to learn that Leo III changed
this style when Charlemagne became Emperor of the West,
A. D. 800, and dated decrees after the reign of Charles.
The Papacy climbed to power on the framework of the
German Empire. Hence the key to the life of the great
Pope Sylvester II, once Gerbert,. has been found in his.
unshaken fidelity to the Emperor Otto.^ It was a beautiful
^Die Constant ims( he Schenkung . Nordlingen: Beck. 1880. M. 5.
^Cf. Seeberg. Theol. Liter aturhlatt. 189t), Nos. 3, 4, 5.
'Cf. Lettres de Gerbert, by Havet, in Collection tie te.vtes pour
fiiervir d V etude et a Venseignement de Vhistoire. Paris. 1889.
194 mSTORICAL THEOLOGY.
dream of Otto, that he and Sylvester should rule the
Empire from Eome, the one as temporal, the other as
spiritual head. But the question soon arose as to who
should define the limits of authority, and, in case of con-
flict, who should yield. A classical illustration of such
conflict is the famous case of Henry lY and Gregory YII.
A recent treatise'^ brings into prominence the activity of the
rival Imperial Pope, Clement III, as leader of a party,
long before he became Pope. As Wibert, Archbishop of
Piavenna, and for a time made Chancellor of Italy by the
Empress Agnes, he put himself at the head of the Lom-
bard bishops in opposition to the reform measures of Gregory.
When Henry submitted to the Pope at Canossa, Wibert
and the Lombards made the Emperor break his disgrace-
ful promise. They agreed w^ith the Council of Worms,
which declared Gregory deposed. Gregory's Council then
declared them excommunicated for conspiracy. Wibert
and his men then put Gregory under the ban. So the
struggle went on till Wibert was chosen rival Pope,
in 1080, as Clement III. In spite of Gregory, he
held his place as Archbishop of Piavenna, and when
Henry besieged Eome, 1082, Clement was with the army,
entering the city as Imperial Pope, 1084. He fought wath
Victor III for possession of Eome. Then, with Urban II,
the Papacy exchanged the policy of force, advocated by
Gregory VII, for a milder method, in which "everything
proceeded in the name of Christ and association with
Christ and the cross.- Under this policy the first Crusade
started, which threw Clement into the shade. He shared
Kohncke, Wibert von Ravenna. Leipzig. 1888.
Moffat, Papers ofAmer. Soc. of Church Hist. Vol. I, 1889.
THE C II rue II OF THE middle ages. 195
the hardships of Henry in north Italy, for in 1093 Urban
entered Eome. In 1097, Henry could return to Germany,
and Clement go back to Ravenna. Two years later, he
could enter Rome, and hold part of it against Urban. He
died, 1100, and wonders were wrought at his tomb, till
1106, when Paschal II put an end to the miracles in favor
of an Anti-Pope by casting his body into the Tiber. This
whole struggle between rival Popes is a conflict between
the traditional Papal methods, which bound the Bishop of
Rome to the Emperor, and the ideas of the Gregorian party,
that sought to free the Papacy from Imperial control.
The reform Popes must break away from national entangle-
ments in their efforts for religious improvement. The
Exile of the Papacy in France wrought so great evil just
because it brought the Pope into the power of a single king.
A'recent study^ shows that at first Clement VI, who w^as
born in an English Province in France, sided w^ith the king
of England against the king of France. He entered Bor-
deaux escorted by troops in the pay of England. He re-
ceived as presents from the king of England twenty tuns
of wine, twenty oxen, twenty hogs, a cross of gold and other
things. The English governor protected him on his way
to Lyons, where he was to be crowned. After he trans-
ferred the Papal seat to Avignon (1309) he came under
the power of the king of France, to please whom he de-
stroyed the Order of Templars.^ Other grave questions,
concerning the Holy Land and Church Reform, also deman-
ded solution, so Clement called, in 1311, a General Council in
^ Cf. Revue Historique, May-June, 1889. pp. 481".
- See Prntz, Entwickelung v. Untergang des Tempelherrenordens
Berlin. 1888.
196 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Vienna. Only fragments of the Acts of this Council are
known, hence the discovery by Ehiie of 53 pages more
of its Kecords is very welcome.^ The Bishops were ar-
ranged, we learn, according to nations, — French, Spanish
British, German, Danish, Italian. The Irish and Scotch
were classed together. The prelates proposed to take up,
first, matters of complaint, and, then, matters of morals.
Matters of complaint meant especially wrongs suffered from
temporal lords. These were heard at length. The Scotch
bishops complained that on every pretext their property
was given to royal favorites. The Irish said that "before
the invasion of the English, their Church recognized no
superior in temporal things, but exercised both spiritual
and temporal jurisdiction." The English king promised to
res])ect the rights of the Irish Church but "gradually he
usurped places, things, rights and jurisdiction." All
church authorities were compelled to account to civil
judges. The clergy were so maltreated that many fled to
deserts and caves for safety.
The English complained that the Church must hand
over clerical criminals to the ^civil court. If the jury
found them guilty they were put to death, unless the
bishops demanded them, in which case the State seized
the goods of those condemned. If the criminal escaped
with church punishment, the king exacted a fine of i^'lOO.
Especially in France, do w^e see the State resist-
ing the growing power of the Church, in behalf of law
and order. Under Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair,
this conflict reached a crisis, and the Church summed up
^ Archiv f. Lit. a. Kirdiengeschlchte d. Mittelalters. Bd. IV, H. -i
1888.
THE CHURCH OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 197
its complaints against the State. We have that summary
in the fragment of the Acts of the Council given by Ehrle.
The Church bases its claim here on various legal rights,
to which it expressly appeals. On this ground it opposed
the State; but the struggle was not very severe, for just
then the king of France, was centralizing the royal power,
and had to meet much civil opposition also. The Church,
with its estates, appeared in many ways like one of the
duchies of France resisting the autocracy of the monarch.
How far the Papal Court had become as those of kings and
dukes appears from the Will of Clement and the litigation
about it under John XXII. ^ The fortune of Clement had
disappeared, and John called upon the late Pope's nephew
to come and explain. It was found that Clement left
814,000 gold guldens, of which 300,000 were for a crusade,
314,000 were to be given to Clement's servants and rela-
tives, the remaining 200,000 w^ere for the poor, churches,
and monasteries for the good of the Pope's soul. In 1313,
320,000 guldens had been loaned the kings of France and
England; the 160,000 loaned Philip the Fair were never
paid back. Clement died in 1314, and his nephew^ spent
50,000 guldens building a sarcophagus for him. This new
information but confirms the charge of nepotism brought
against Clement. This money which he gave to his re-
latives was church funds. He left for his successor only
70,000 guldens, about $140,000, or less than one tenth of
what was in the treasury. But in this, Ehrle says, Cle-
ment acted just as all rulers did in those days. It cost
the Papal Court about $200,000 a year to live; but the
'Cf. Ehrle, I. c. Bel. V., H. I., 1889.
198 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Pope's income was fully double that amount. Henne he left
a fortune of over $2,000,000. In this connection, Ehrle^
says that the usual statement, that John XXII left an
estate of $50,000,000, is absurd. Account books of the
Papacy show that he could not have had more than Cle-
ment III.
The sojourn of the Popes in France wrought great de-
moralization ; and it was hoped that the return to Eome
would be marked by improvement : but the return to Piome
was followed by the Papal Schism, which shook all moral
foundations, for the unity of the Church, upon which all
faith rested, was built upon the Papacy, and now rival
Popes rent the Church assunder.'- Out of this war of
Pontiffs came disease and death for every lovely and vir-
tuous thing in Christendom. From MS. sources we hear
in deeper refrain than before the lamentations over the
corruption in the distracted Church. Respect for Popes
and cardinals sadly waned at the sight of evils unchecked.
One writer says, " Cardinals are not to be regarded as
bishops, priests and others, for in the Bible there is no
mention of cardinals. They have only by accident the right
to elect a Pope, aright which can be transferred to Em-
perors and bishops." He is '' the true Pope, who most
feels the misery of the Church; that is the test." Henry
of Langenstein, here quoted, holds that the Church Uni-
versal has the right to choose the Pope. It may entrust
Ub. Bd. v., H. 4, 1889.
^Cf. Scheuffgen, Beitrdgt su der Geschichte dea grossen Sc/iisinas.
Freiburg i. B. Herder 1889. M. 2.
See, in general, the valuable compilation of Mas Latrie, Trimr
de Chronologie, d'Histoire et de Geographie, pour I'elude et Vtmploi
des Documents du Moyen Age. Folio. Paris, 1889.
Till-: CHURCH OF the mjddli-: ages. 199
this right in ordinary cases to cardinals ; but now a crisis
had come, " the bishop does not hve m his diocese, he and
his priests are in the theatre, ih: clergy are peddlers and
merchants, the prelates believe in Pagan superstition, con-
sult fortune-tellers, and observe the stars, the priests do
not attend mass on Sundays, nor fast, none of the clergy
study the Bible, they lead immoral lives andvisit taverns" ;
lience now a time had come, he urges, when a General
Council should elect the Pope. Conrad of Gelnhausen
(13S0) also pleads for a Council, saying if the early Popes,
had been as proud as those of the Schism they would be
then in Hell wifh Lucifer, rather than in Heaven. Henry
and Conrad here express thoughts that were fermenting in
the University of Paris, and preparing the way for the first
Pieform Council in Pisa, 1-1:09, which declared a Council
al)ove a Pope, and deposed the warring pontiffs. The long
struggle had begun between the autocratic Pope and a
General Synod, representing the body of believers, a strug-
gle which should end in the Protestant Eevolution, on the
one hand, and the dogma of Papal Infallibility, on the
other.
II. THE EASTERN CHURCH.
The history of the Eastern Church, after the fourth cen-
tury, is a field too much neglected by many students. A
recent article^ on the religious life of Alexandria, just
before the Mohammedan invasion, as set forth in the biog-
raphy of St. John of Alexandria, by Leontius, touches
many interesting phases of this Oriental Church life.
iGelzer, in Historische Zeitschrift, 1889. H. I.
^30 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Looking back to the fourth century, much intellectual ac-
tivity is still found in Alexandria. The philosophers still
discussed theological problems, and the race of Rhetor-
icians and Sophists was not yet extinct. Zachariah of
Mytilene opposed the theory of the eternity of the world,
and the monk Kosmas tried to show that the earth must
be shaped like a four-cornered box ; though he was sorry to
see that his orthodox friends still held to the heathen idea
that it was round. The ancient prophets, soothsayers and
necromancers reappeared among the monks, and the Em-
peror Theodosius, Avho had destroyed heathen temples,
asked through an embassy, before the battle with Maximus,
an Egyptian hermit about the result. The anchorite fore-
told rightly a great victory for him on Italian soil [389.
In the fifth century, Alexandria partly lost its cosmopolitan
character, because in theological matters it took a separate,
national position. In defending the Divinity of Christ, the
theologians here lost his Humanity" ; the Council of Chal-
cedon was rejected; and Leo the Great of Rome called a
coarse heretic. The Emperor Justinian first forced an
orthodox Patriarch upon the Monophysite Church of Egypt
by soldiers ; the result was that two churches arose, which
Gelzer compares to the Protestant and Roman Catholic
churches in Ireland, in the last century : the Established
Church, supported by the State, yet w^eak, while the true
National Church, in the one case, the Catholic, in the other,
the Coptic, was ignored. The imperial Patriarch ruled in
Alexandria over courtiers, nobles, and time-servers ; the
national Patriarch, chosen in the secret places of the desert,
was recognized b}^ the people. Of course the conflict
between the ruling Greek and the ruled Copt added much
THE ClirRCJI OF THE MI])I)LE AGES. 201
ntensity to tlie strife between the orthodox Imperiahst
and the ^lonophysite Egyptian.
The Patriarch John the Pitiful, who was over Alexan-
dria, 609-016, showed himself the typical good man of
those days by indiscriminate alms-giving. His warm heart
also introduced order into public worship. The people,
tired of the Jong liturgy, used to leave the church during
the reading of the gospel. One day the patriarch left, too,
and stood among the people talking outside. They were
much embarrassed at his presence, but he said "Children
where the llock is there also is the shepherd." Thus he
stopped the evil. John's piety was so marked that he was
made Patriarch while still a layman, and also married.
This was a great tribute to his cliaracter, for it was then
the custom in the East to fill sach high places with monks.
John was not under monkish control, yet he protected
monks good and bad, just as he gave to the poor. So he
sought "to realize a purely Biblical Christianity of self-
sacrificing love."
The extreme type of the monkish devotee appears
in St. Simeon of Eme?a, also presented by Gelzer.
He is a fanatic, who would be a fool for Christ's
sake. Like the pillar saints, he appears as a survival of
old Syrian Paganism, a Christian reproduction of Astarte
worship. He shows, too, the common ground out of which
such Christian saints and Mohammedan fakirs have both
sprung. Here, in Syrian monasteries, we see also how
mother wit could sport itself even under Pioman despotism.
We learn incidentally that the common people in Syria,
in the seventh century, could often read. An oil dealer is
spoken of as studying an essay on the discovery of the head
202 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
of John the Baptist. iVmong the higher ehisses Greek cul-
ture remained until swept away by Islam.
III. THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT.
Sell, in speaking^ of the Eoman Church of the Middle
Ages, says, "Augustine is its philosopher and its prophet."
His theology went into the cloister and labored to give the
soul peace through sore penances. It went into the schools
of philosophy, where the scholastics tried to prove their
apprehension of it by dialectics. It ascended the Papal
throne, and humbled all men before the sovereignty of
God, then before his vicar, the Pope. This mediaeval sys-
tem of thought embraced in its scheme of knowledge the
present world and the world to come, and held them to-
gether by a sequence of reason, guaranteed by the Church,
which had transmitted it. "The mouth of the Church
speaks; what she speaks is object of faith, and is then
grasped by the reason of the Church," Thus Augustine as
an ecclesiastic was made to destroy Augustine the theolo-
gian. The drift of the Church into the monastic system of
good works was in many respects inevitably a Pelagian
drift; hence lief ormers in the Papal Church, from Gotts-
chalk (d. 868) to Jansen, have preached a return to the
doctrines of Augustine. That was very distasteful to
worldly prelates. In a writing of Hincmar against Gotts-
chalk, just published,^ he says that he "confounded God's
foreknowledge and predestination, and held that the man
predestinated to punishment could not escape, no matter
^Au8 der Geschiclite (les Christenfhums. Darmstait. Waitz. 1!
-Cf. Zfft.f. KircJienf/eschichte. Bd. X. H. 2. 1888.
TEE CJIUllCIJ OF THE .MIDDLE AGES. 203
liow iiiucli good lie tried to do, and no man predestinated
to glory could be lost, no matter what evil he did." He
taught that grace comes without our free will ; salvation
does not depend on good works ; so, Hincmar adds, he
leads to a ruinous security. A priestly church always op-
poses assurance of faith, for it frees the believer from sa-
cerdotal interference. Gottschalk taught also "that the
suffering of Christ was not for the salvation of the whole
world, and by the grace of baptism original sin was not
taken away from the non-elect. All God's promises of
salvation were made to the elect." Hhicmar thinks God
foresaw the Fall of Man ; Init did not create any man to
be lost. He held that man was made to take the place of
the fallen angels.
The theological thought of the Middle Ages had its home
in Raly and France ; the theological thought of Modern
Times, wdiich began with the Reformation, started from the
soil of Geroaany and England. The intellectual intimacy
between these lands became, however, much closer towards
the dawn of the Reformation, and what was fruitful in the
thought of the South was carried by responsive hearts for
further development into the freer North. From new in-
formation^ about the University of Bologna we see that the
communication between Germany and Italy was very ac-
tive in pre-Reformation days.- In 1502, there were 50
German students at the University of Bologna. We are
told also that in the far north lands there was very early
an atmosphere favorable to free thinking. Lindsay finds^
that the Scotch were from ancient times anxious that the
^Cf. Zeitschrift f. Kirchengeschichfe. Bd, X. H. 3. 188D.
^Transaciions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. Vol. I. 1888.
204 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
people should have instruction. Perhaps similar desire
was present in England and Scandinavia. He thinks the
Irish missionaries may have planted schools among the
Celto- Saxon people, and so created a thirst for knowledge
greater than is found in people touched by other,' civiliza-
tion and of different pedigree.
IV. CHURCH LIFE.
As the Papal Church drew all kinds of transgressions
of law into its jurisdiction, it must do a vast business of
forgiveness, tines, penances, and other forms of discourag-
ing wrong-doing. This subject receives interesting illus-
tration from the "oldest list of fees of the apostolic peni-
tentiaries,'' k. D. 1338.^ The fees allowed papal secreta-
ries for writing letters of absolution and dispensation run
from two to seventy pounds, this last being for "a letter
of general absolution " in many cases, and for a dispensa-
tion for the whole Order of Cluny. Among the cases
classified are simony, murder of clergy, citizens killing a
monk [20 pounds], wife murder [3], patricide or mat-
ricide [4], incest, rape, perjury [5], murderer coming
to the Pope for the soul of the victim [3], for one emascu-
lated [5], for a cleric mutilated [Q>], for a converted
heretic [4], for ignorantly sheltering a heretic [5], for
training the children of heretics [4], for those who car-
ried wood to burn heretics [4], in case of suicide [4],
personating a priest [6], for sailing to Alexandria against
the command of the Pope [4], letter of absolution for one
^Archivf. Lit. u. k. Gesc.h. (\ Mittelalters. Bd. IV. H. 3. 1888.
THE ClirRCH OF Till-: MIDDLE AdES. 20.-)
going back to a concubine 4 , for people of a State who
had celebrated mass during an interdict [30 to 40j, for
monastic vow taken after marriage [6", for adultery with
the mother after marrying the daughter 6], for marrying
a second time ,4', for entering an Order because of in-
firmity, or fear of imprisonment [4^,, for those following
Louis of Bavaria or an anti-Pope [8 .
This system of dispensation, in wdiicli the man with
money could pay and the poor man had to do the penance,
left the door open to all kinds of abuses ; hence in a quar-
rel between some English monks and the Archbishop of
Canterbury he was called on to explain why he had ex-
communicated them when he had granted others the right
to atone for part of their faults by getting letters of abso-
lution.^ There was one rule for the clergy and another
for the laymen. The result was that in some respects the
priests became worse than the people. The monasteries
fell into decay, especially in the fourteenth century, some
improvement appearing in the next century. ^
The Papal Court, however, sent forth its pestilential
influence right up to the days of Luther. Such worldly
living must proceed from a worldly Church, and the Church
must become more and more worldly as its head, the Pope,
fought with Emperor and kings for a place as one of the
rulers of the earth. Hence we find the growing temporal
power of the Papacy opposed at every step by earnest
Christians, on the one hand, who saw in it a corruption
of the Church, and by political leaders, on the other, who
'Cf. the Rolls Series. Yearbooks of the Reign of Ecbvard III.
^Yet, for France, see Leroux. Histoire de la Refnrme dans la
Marche et le Limousin. Limoges, 1888. *
206 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY
considered it a menace to civil liberty. Bernard of
Clairvaux pleaded with his pupil Pope Eugene III id. 1153]
to reform the Curia, and Arnold of Brescia drove this
pontiff from Eome, in order to restore the Kepublic.
This was not a sudden outburst of Arnold. He just boldly
said what thousands thought,^ when he appealed to the
Church to give up its ill-gotten gains and become apostolic
again. But the Papacy was too strong for the Pope, and
Eugene could not effect reforms. Even so great a Pope as
Innocent III could not get beyond traditional methods.
He made Philip of France take back his wife, but he did
so from motives of papal policy, rather than because of
high moral reasons. -
This mediaeval Church could arouse Christen-
dom to enter upon the Crusades, which sacrificed mil-
lions of money and lives; and yet the fruits of those terri-
ble campaigns were few; the Crusades were a failure.
Dollinger finds^ the reason to be the lack of moral power
in the multitudes that rushed to Palestine, the mistakes of
their leaders, and, above all, the weakness caused by the
conflicts between the Papacy and the nations. The idea
that Islam was the most dangerous foe of Christendom was
true and historic, but the Christendom that went out to
vanquish Islam failed, because it had no gospel of genuine
^Cf. Stnrmhofel, Gerhoh von Reichensherq iiber d. Sittenzustdnde d.
zeitgtndss. Geistlichkeit. Leipzig. 1889. M. 1. 60; and Brej^er, iu
Hist. Ztft. 1888. pp. 121-178.
'See Davidsohii. P/u7/pp Augru.s^ II und Ingeborg. Stuttgart. Cotta.
1888. M. 4.
■^Die oriental. Frage in ihren Anfiingen. Akad. Vortrage. I. Nord-
lingen. Beck. 1888,
Tin-: cnriic/i of the middle ages. 207
catliolicity, no bond of peace, no righteousness of life, which
couki successfully compete with Mohammechmism.
And yet this was also an age of mission work. Otto of
Bamberg was friend and Chancellor of Henry IV, even after
(Gregory YII liad put the Eiiperor under ban. He de-
tected fraudulent contractors, who were building a church
at the Emperor's expense in Spires in honor of the Virgin.
He was a wise counsellor, a true German Churchman. It
is pleasant, then, to see such a man made a prince-bishop
of Bamberg by Henry, in 1101. When tlie ring and staff
of the dead bishop came to the Emperor, he overheard
some young men wondering why Henry would sell such a
bishopric, instead of giving it to a man like Otto; just
what Henry intended to do. The Emperor said "many
mighty and high-born persons tried to buy the bish-
opric."
But he put all aside and placed the mitre upon the
head of his godly chancellor. It is not true, as often stated,
that Otto had already bee-i offered the sees of Augsburg
and Halberstadt, or that he vowed not to accept Bamberg
unless he were invested mto office by papal authority.^ It
is true, however, that Otto was a model bishop, that he la-
bored in the streets and lanes to carry the gospel and its
comfort to the wretched, that he left home and his high
place, for more than a year, to evangelize the heathen of
Pomerania, and that over his coffin the words were spoken,
*' Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
A former missionary to Pomerania offended the people by
^Cf. Looshorn, Z)^'/- lielige. Bischof Otto. Nacli den Quelleii bear-
beitet. Munich, 1888, tlie 700tli anniversary of his being declared a
Saint.
208 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
appearing as a beggar and presenting Christianity in its
ascetic forms. Otto avoided all such offenses. He ap-
peared in Episcopal pomp. He was a friend of the Duke,
at whose court he had spent seven j^ears, and learned the
language of the Poles. As he won converts in the winter
season, he had them baptized in heated rooms and with
warm water. He baptized the children himself, letting his
companions baptize the adults. He searched the hearts of
those coming into the church, asking the once heathen
mothers if they had ever killed children, for it was custom-
ary to put infant girls to death. On a second missionary
journey through Poland to confirm the churches, his life
was attempted more than once by the heathen, but he was
saved through the constant prayers of the monks in Mi-
clielsberg for him.
V. MONASTICISM.
Eccent investigation has paid much attention to the
monastic activity of the Middle Ages ; and the energy of
Irish monks, the splendid reform efforts that centered
in Cluny, the work of Bernard and his Cistercians,
the literary labors of the Dominicans, and the loving
ing charities and free spirit of the Franciscans have all
shone forth with new lustre.^ These monks were the mis-
sionaries of the Middle Ages. Three kinds of missions may
be distinguished ; those of the early, the medigeval, and the
modern church. At first missionaries went out one by
one, or two or three together, caring for themselves, and
^Cf., ill general, Kurtz, Church History. Vol. II. NeAV York. Funk
& WagiialLs, 1889. $2.00.
THE Clirh'cri OF THE MfDDLE AGbJS. 209
laboring to convert individuals to the gospel. In the Mid-
dle Ages, the monkish missionaries went out in bands,
usually of twelve, under the lead of a man of experience.
They built their cloister among the heathen, and while
some cared for temporal things, the rest labored t© bring
the tribe to accept Christianity. Very often the Christian
Emperor used his influence to bring the heathen prince to
profess the faith of the monkish preachers. Our modern
system is that of the Missionary Society. The monastic
method has not a few advantages, and as used, especially
by the Iro-Scottish missionaries, did valuable service. All
students are familiar with the work of these monks in the
conversion of the German tribes. Among others, Colum-
banus and his disciples, the usual account tells us, first
carried the gospel to the Allemanni in Sw^itzerland. But
Heer now informs us^ that the Irish missionary Fridolin
brought the gospel to the Allemanni, in 406 ; more than
a hundred years before Columbanus went up the Ehine.
This tribe had just been conquered by Clovis, and the mis-
sionary began to preach under the protection of the
conqueror. .
In reference to the conversion of Wurtemberg, the
prevalent view is corrected in the opposite direction.
Bossert says- its evangelization was not the result of
desultory work by Iro-Scottish monks, neither was it a
steady growth ; it came rather from a systematic effort
made by Clovis and his successors, anticipating in this the
I)olicy of Charlemagne with the Saxons.
^ St. Fridolin, der Apostel Allemanniens, Zurich: Schulthess. Fr.
1, 1888.
■Die Anfdnge des Christenthum.'i in Wnrfemherrj. Stuttgart. 1888.
pp. 35.
210 HISTOBICAL THEOLOGY.
These monasteries were mission centers, but they also
became early centers of literary and artistic eti'ort. Here,
too, belief in the continuation of miracles in the Church
found most characteristic illustrations and defenders. A
recent book^ by a Catholic writer gives a very full descrip-
tion of this many-sided cloister life in the eleventh century.
The work before us is based on the Life of the Saint
written by Gilon live years after the death of Abbot Hugh
(1109). Yet such a contemporary account is full of the
miraculous. At the hour of the boy's birth, a priest offer-
ing mass " saw in the chalice the image of a little child,
surrounded by a halo." Every turn in his life as a reformer
was marked by signs and wonders, showing divine approv-
al. It was a very corrupt age, as our author admits, and
an ideal monk was the man to teach it the way to God. It
was not the corruption of ignorance, for many monasteries
and Episcopal schools in France were then seats of learn-
ing. At Angers and Toul, jurisprudence was cultivated,
with other studies. In the abbey of Ardennes, the fine arts
were taught. In Verdun, Simeon, a monk from Sinai,
taught oriental languages. Medicine, music and architect-
ure flourished under William, Abbot of St. Benigne of Di-
jon. In Laon, Anself labored. In Bee, Lanfranc was il-
lustrious. These scholarly monks taught a multitude of
young men ; but the students knew that money, or illegiti-
mate birth from some noble, put unworthy men into high
places in the Church , and all pious people bewailed the
low state of religious life. A reaction was inevitable, and
earnest souls in the monasteries began to raise their voices
iL'Huillier, Vie de St. Hugues, Ahhe de Clmuj, J 024-1109. So-
lesmes, 1888.
77//; ('urinu OF Tui: middle auks. -iw
against the two great evils of the time, the immorahty of
the clergy, owing to enforced celibacy, and the sale of
church livings to unworthy men. Hugh was one of the
leaders in this reform movement, together with men like
Anselm and Gregory VII. They felt that if the Pope was
to work reform, he must have power; hence Gregory, the
monkish Eeformer of the Church, was the man who also
took the highest ground in asserting papal supremacy, and
died renewing anathemas against Henry IV. Cluny, as is
well known, was a center of this reform effort,^ and it is
usually said that Gregory, when monk there, was thor-
oughly prepared for the new departure. But Huillier says
that he was never prior of Cluny, neither was he a monk
by profession of that monastery; he was only an associate
there for a short time.
Passing to the twelfth century, and looking at it through
the Life of its leading man, St. Bernard,- we see the same
religious demoralization in the Church at large ; and the
monasteries, with all that was evil in them, still forming
the reform centers of Christendom. But the element of
change, of conflict, of transition, is now more prominent.
Chevallier says the architecture of the twelfth century was
a type of its life ; it was a blending of Eoman and Gothic,
showing the marks of a civilization incomplete, but rich in
signs of progress. Papal schism, imperial power assailing
the Church, the Investiture Controversy, in which the civil
'Cf. Bruel, Recueil des Charles de Vahhaije de Cluny. In Collec-
tion des documents inedits,Yo\., IV. 1888. It contains 859 Acts of 1027-
1090.
-Chevallier, Histoire de St. Bernard, Abbe de Clair vaux, 2cl Ed.
Lille. 1888. 2 Vols.
212 ^ HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
ruler threatened to force political priests into bishoprics, as
the Pagan Emperors once did, the Eationalism of Eoscelhnus
and Abelard spreading unrest in the schools, and giving
rise to Arnold of Brescia, Henry of Bruj^s, and others of
their tendency, authority in both Church and State more
and more lightly esteemed, the appearance of free cities,
which inaugurated a municipal movement, that transformed
social relations — that is the summary which our author
gives of the transitional age upon which St. Bernard en-
tet-ed, Gregory YII sought to reform the Church by exalt-
ing the Papacy, making the clergy monks, and crippling
the power of lay patrons. Bernard followed, seeking better
things in the way of mystic piety, devotional separation
from the world, and loving imitation of Christ. Then came
Francis of Assisi, whose idea of reform rested upon the
Church unmixed with the world, caring for the wretched,
and going about doing good. Here are fruitful thoughts,
which did not die, but rather revived in Eeformation days,
and helped produce Protestantism.
VI. SECTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
The Sects of the Middle Ages have been treated by
Dollinger,^ with special reference to the Cathari, or the
Gnostic-ManichBeans of this period, and the Waldenses.
The second volume is a store house of source material,
largely from the archives of the Inquisition, shedding much
light on this mediaeval Protestantism. He finds in the
^Beitrdge zur Secktengeschichte den Miltelalte.rs. 2 Vols. Beck:
Munich, 1890. M. 22. Thorough, Vol II giving 711 pp. of Extracts
from Sources.
THE CHURCH OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 213
Paiilicians the proper connecting link between ancient
Gnosticism and that of the Middle Ages. The Bogomiles,
a sect of the eleventh century in Bulgaria, associated with
the Paulicians, Dollinger says, taught doctrines which
blended early Syrian Gnosticism with the views of the
Messalians or Euchites, and formed a peculiar system
chiefly Monarchian, not dualistic, as was the Paulician.
This sect had now spread through the whole European jjart
of the Empire, being especially strong in Bulgaria. After
setting forth the tenets of the Bogomiles, Dollinger says
that it is interesting to learn that some of their doctrines
influenced orthodox Christians ; especially the idea that
Catholic baptism was powerless in itself. Every true
Christian becomes such through instruction, initiation, and
spiritual transformation. This movement in favor of a re-
generate church membership, though joined to wild theo-
ries, was a wholesome and sound reaction against a worldly
Church. Manich?eism came from north Africa and the
East into Spain, Gaul and Italy. It lingered in Italy and
France into the Middle Ages ; but its teachings changed,
and contained only those doctrines which the old Mani-
chaeans held in common with the leading Gnostic systems.
This modification came, through the Paulicians and Bogo-
miles, into western Manicha3ism or Catharism, the way be-
ing prepared, probably, by Priscillian teachings. It was
this new Maniclipeism, stimulated by Priscillianism, and re-
vived by Bogomile influences, that was active in Italy and
France, in the eleventh century. It was represented
in south France, from lOlT on, by the Cathari. This in-
fluence can be traced, Dollinger thinks, in Berengar of
Tours' opposition to Transubstantiation. Peter of Bruys,
214 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
too, and Henry of Toulouse, usually regarded as founders
of new sects, and forerunners of the Waldenses, were fol-
lowers of the same later Gnostic tendency ; they were Al-
bigenses.
The Cathari in the West divided into three schools^
the Drugurish, which was dualistic, the Bulgarian,
which followed the Bogomiles, and was monarchian, and
a middle school, the Slavonic, or Bagnolese, which was-
monarchian, but tidopted two dogmas of the Dualists, the
pre-existence of the soul before the creation of the world
and its fall in a previous state, and that the Virgin Mary
was a docetic angel, and Christ had only a heavenly body.
Most of the Cathari in France were dualistic : but the ma-
jority, in Italy and north France, were monarchian.
By the close of the twelfth century, Dollinger thinks,
there were Cathari in a thousand cities of the West.
Similar sects, Zendics, Karmates, etc. appeared now also
among the Mohammedans ; and he shows that there was
a close connection between the Manichaeans in Christian
and Mohammedan lands.
The Waldenses were a more practical school of Ee-
formers. Creighton traces^ their historic antecedents
through the protests made against the unspirituality of the
Church in the ninth and tenth centuries, by men like Ber-
engar of Tours. Then came the Paterines in Milan, 1045,
protesting against simony and clerical abuses under
Gregory VII. This Pope did not hesitate to enlist these
Puritans in his service, to impose clerical celibac}^ Later,
in lilO, an apostate monk of Zeeland, Tanchelm, went
further and held that the sacraments were valid only when
'Art. Waldenses, in Encycl Brit., 1888.
THE CIICRCII OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 215
administered by holy men. In France, Peter de BruySj
and similar men preached the need of primitive faith and
practice. Amid such influences did Peter Waldo send out
his lay preachers, who spread through France, Germany
and Italy. He differed, Creighton says, from St. Francis
in teaching the doctrine of Christ, while the Franciscans
preached the Person of Christ. " Waldo reformed teach-
ing, while Francis kindled love. " Yet these Waldenses
were not Protestants, for Protestantism presents Christ as
in immediate personal communion with every believer ; but
they followed the mediaeval view, that Christ is present in
the orderly communion of the faithful ; hence their em-
phasis of the proper administration of Word and Sacraments.
Comba says^ that the protest of the Waldenses aimed at
first only at proclaimhig the apostolic ideal, an ideal dis-
owned by the Popes and abandoned by the Church ; but
that meeting with persecutions, it gave way quickly to a
movement of dissent, Avhich, though it did not at once cul-
minate in schism, led finally of necessity to it. He, too,
traces the forerunners of Waldo in the ancient Cathari.
Vigilantius and Claudius of Turin, Arnold of Brescia,
Peter de Bruys and Henry of Lausanne, as Waldo himself,
looked towards the Pieformation. The Waldensian move-
ment was part of a general uprising against the corrupt
Church, that appeared in the Beghards, the Humiliati, and
various forms of voluntary poverty in those days. Troub-
lous times, also, papal schisms, war with the Empire, be-
sides the general raoral laxity, favored such a movement.
'^History of the Waldenses of Italy, from their Origin to the Refor
mat ion. London 1859.
216 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Haupt sums up^ the final results of recent investigation
respecting the Waldenses as follows : They started with
Waldo, in 1173, who, from 1177 on, went out in company
with his friends as a preacher of the Apostolic sort. This
was forbidden, 1179, by the Archbishop of Lyons, by Pope
Alexander III, and, in 1084, the first ban was hung over
the Sectaries, who were now spread far and wide, espe-
cially in upper Italy. A division appeared, about 1200,
between the French and Lombard Waldenses, in relation
to self-government. In 1218, an attempt at union was
made which failed, because the Lombards would not yield
in their doctrine of the Lord's Supper, whose efificacy they
made dependent upon the worthiness of the administrator,
and would not recognize Waldo as a saint. The original
Waldensian Brotherhood consisted exclusively of the travel-
ling preachers, who vowed evangelical poverty, and lived
as missionaries among the "Believers," who formed a loose
body of adherents to the sect. There were no regular
congregations. Later, by 1300, this relation changed, and
both preachers and believers were regarded as Waldenses ;
the preachers were then called "Masters," or "Barbae."
The priesthood of all believers was not taught. Neither
did the "Believers," take part in the government of the
Church. Not till the beginning of the fourteenth century,
did the French and Lombard Waldenses agree to unite.
The chief doctrines of the conservative group, the French,
w^ere, rejection of the authority of the Roman Church, re-
jection of Purgatory and Indulgences, the claim of the
Apostolic messengers to reduce confession and make prom-
inent absolution and consecration, absolute prohibition of
^Hist. Zeitschrift, 1889. H. I.
THE CnVRCH OF THE JIIDDLE AGES. 217
lying, swearing, and killing. In Germany, the Lombard
Waldenses called themselves ''Friends of God, " and were
less sharj^ly opposed to the Church than the Waldenses in
Italy, who regarded her as the Beast of the Apocalypse,
and held that the whole hierarchy had, since the time of
Constantine, lost the priestly power, which w^as now claimed
by the " Poor, '^ the Waldenses. They rejected what the
French Waldenses did, and added "ten commandments"
of general moral import to the Decalogue. They went
further and opposed the mediatorship and worship of
saints and the Virgin, also Church ceremonies. All Wal-
denses had a hierarchy of bishops, elders, and deacons.
The view that the Taborites were the spiritual sons of the
Waldenses has good support. There were Waldenses in
Bohemia, from the thirteenth centui-y on, and they doubt-
less influenced the Taborites. Preger thinks their doc-
trines were the same as those of the Lombard Waldenses ;
but Haupt holds the influence of Wiclif must be more rec-
ognized among the Bohemians. In the Taborite movement,
two elements, Wiclifite and Waldensian, met, the one in-
fluencing more the theologians, the other stirring more the
common people. Muller thinks the whole Waldensian
movement has been over-estimated in its importance for
the Keformation. Neither in defining the moral ideal of
life, nor in its treatment of the Chui-ch means of grace, nor
in its view of salvation was an3'thing changed by the Wal-
denses. But Haupt considers this is going too far. The
Waldenses made a deeper use of the Bibie than Muller
supposes. It became the only Piule of Faith. In time
their views of repentance became more profound, too,
under study of the Scriptures. They, alco, first gave the
218 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
people a vernacular Bible, three hundred years before
Luther. And through opposmg purgator}^ the aid of
saints, Indulgences, and the worldly possessions of the
Church, the Waldenses, like the Bohemian K'^formers,
prepared the way for Luther.
Through the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies Fridericq sliows^ the Liquisition fighting similar re-
form movements in the Netherlands. Waldenses were tor-
tured as witches here, in 1460, twenty-four years before
Innocent VIII issued his bull on the subject. The chief
persecutor of the place said he thought more than one
third of Christendom, including cardinals and bishops,
were Vaudois. In 1025, we hear of Cathari summoned
before the bishops in Utrecht. Early in the twelfth cen-
tury Tanchelm appeared. In 1203, i't was forbidden, in
Liittich to read books about the Bible in the vulgar tongue.
In 1376, Gregory XI forbade any layman ''to use any ver-
nacular books respecting Holy Scripture." Edo of Haar-
lem, 1458, a "heresiarch, '' translated parts of the Bible into
German. And a heretic of Tour nay, 1472, appealed to a
text "i/i sua vidgari biblia.'^
So mediaeval reforms grew towards the Eeformation.
But they nowhere reached Eeformation ground. Vil-
lari claims'- that Savonarola belonged to the new age,
^ Corpus Documentorum Inquisitionis Hcereticac Pravitatis Neer-
landicce, 1025—1520. Ghent. 1889. Fr. 15. A valuable collection of
446 papers.
^ Life and Times of Savonarola. London: Fisher Unwin. 1889.
2 Vols.
Cf. also Poole, Wyvliffe and movements for Reform, in Epoehi^ of
Church History. Longmans & Co: London. 1889; and Wiclifs Ser-
mons, edited from MSS. by Loserth, Vol III. Super Epistolas.
Koehler: Leipzig, 1889. M. 15.
THE CHURCH OF THE MIDDLE ACES. 219
that he was a reformer, an innovator, a man who made a
New Departure in every direction, philosophy, pohtics and
rehgion. He was an outgrowth of the Eenaissance, he
says, but he went back not to pagan classic writers, but to
the Hebrew Scriptures, the ancient Prophets, and the Apoc-
alypse, whose burning imagerygaveflames to his eloquence.
Yet Villari admits that Savonarola lived and died an un-
swerving Catholic, though working for reform. Hence his
statue is out of place on the monument of Luther at
AVorms.
VII. MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
We know that Charlemagne, the great Christian ruler
of the West, and Haroun al Rashid, the great Mohammedan
ruler of the East, made a treaty with one another ; the con-
sequences of that alliance have been treated recently by
Gorres.^ As a rule, the caliphs gave the Christians re-
ligious freedom ; though occasionally they were interfered
with. Thus one ruler extended the command against the
use of wine to Christians, and rejected the testimony of a
Christian against a Mohammedan. The father of Haroun
went so far as to persecute Christians. But his greater
son introduces us to the broad, liberal follower of Islam.
His treaty with Charlemagne showed religious tolerance :
it showed also good statesmanship, for it was based upon
mutual opposition to the caliphs of Cordova, on the one
side, and to the Eastern Empire, on the other. Charle-
magne was active in helping poor Christians in Africa, also
^ Hariui al Raschid ii. das Christenthum, in Ztft. f. wins. Theolocjie.
1889. H. I.
220 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
in the East ; for this reason he sought the friendship of
foreign rulers. He stood in a similar relation to both
Haroun the Caliph and Hadrian the Pope. These two great
monarchs had a strong admiration the one of the other;
and their friendship could endure, for they had no differ-
ences to dispute about. Twice they exchanged embassies.
The Patriarch of Jerusalem sent the keys of the Holy City
and the holy sepulchre to Charlemagne, putting all sym-
bolically under the rule of the Western Emperor. Haroun
approved of this action, and permitted Charles to help
Christians by hospitals and other means through all his
dominions. He even gave full liberty to Christian pil-
grims to visit Palestine. This liberty was extended to in-
clude Christians in his own lands. This was a wise policy,
for many rebellions weakened his power.
Had the friendly relations of these great monarchs
been fostered by their successors East and West, what
wonderful chapters in the history of commerce, culture ana
learning, might have been substituted for the history of
wrong and ruin commonly called the Crusades.
CHAPTER III.
THE MODERN CHURCH.
I. THE GERMAN REFORMATION.
Scliaff's book^ is the most important contribution in
English to the histoiy of the Reformation in Germany that
has appeared during the year. He is in << essential har-
mony " with Ranke and Kostlin. Pre-Reformntion Catho-
licism is related to Protestantism as pre-Christian Israel
to the Church of Christ. Both were of divine origin ; but
both sank into gross error, and finally became hostile to
light and truth. Schaff follows Kalmis in speaking oi the
three principles of Protestantism as justification by faith,
the Bible, and* the priesthood of all believers. Such truths
came naturally to the surface with the revival of the
Augustinian teachings. Sell emphasizes this fact (I. c),
that "in its religious relations the Reformation of Luther
as well as of Zwingli, rests upon strict Augustinism, upon
faith in God's absolute sovereignty over men. Man is not
free before God, and his duty is unconditional surrender
to God. What the Church had weakened away, by put-
ting her own ordinances in place of God, was restored by
the Reformation. Man exists entirely and only for God.'*
On this position is based the moral responsibility of man.
Ufistory of the Christian Church. Vol. VI. The German Reforma-
tion, 1517-1530. New York: Scribner. 1888.
222 IlISTORlrAL THEOLOGY
which is at the same time his moral freedom. "The man
who belongs entirely to God is for that reason free from
every claim but that of God, and the claim of God is none
other than moral duty in the wide extent described by the
Gospel." And this right and this duty are the same for
all. There are no privileged classes, no churchly rules,
which can free from moral obligations. All men are equal
before God ; hence the double morality of monks or clergy
and ordinary Christians was cast aside ; all are priests
unto God. These were the far-reaching principles of the
Keformers, which turned the world upside down. It was
felt that apostolic teachings had returned ; and gratitude for
such a gift of God was the impelling power in the Reforma-
tion movement. Here lay its strength, Sell remarks, for
it united hearts in love and did not divide them by jeal-
ousy. The multitude of pious souls were at once gathered
together by it.
The Reformation was doubtless in an important
sense a necessar}^ outburst, a natural protest against
despotic authority, though we can hardly agree with
Beard,^ that "the authoritative Church and the volun-
tary assembly of free riien will always continue to exist
side by side, each uttering an eternal protest against the
other, yet both necessary lo ;5upply the various religious
wants of mankind." Protestantism and Romanism are
not equally legitimate. The Reformation was more than
a makeweight in the balance of European civilization and
ethical life.
The Reformers held the great Creeds, the Apostolic, the
^Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany until the Close of
the Diet of Worms. London, 1889,
THE modi: UN CUURCIL 223
Niceue, the Atlianasiaii ; and besides these the Church had
none other to show. On the basis of these they fought the
corrupt accretions of Papal superstition, and stripped oft'
the t3Tanny, priestcraft, bigotry and uncleanness of cen-
turies. How much there was to overcome may be con-
jectured from what still remained in the best of them.
Even Melancthon, we are told, never lost his belief in ap-
paritions of Satan, in sorcerers, in the interpretation of
dreams, and in astrology.
II. THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.
In England, as in Germany, the Eenaissance led to-
wards the Eeformation. Erasmus, the great Humanist, was
a friend of Sir Thomas More, who was one of a group, in-
cluding also Wolse}^ who loved the new learning.' Like
Erasmus, however, these men could condemn the abuses of
the Church, yet hold nearly all the Church doctrines. More
condemned the whole position of theEeformers, though he at
first doubted Papal Supremacy till persuaded by Henry VIH,
as early as 1518. And strange to say, for this opinion,
learned against his first convictions, from Henry, and
not, as Protestants say, for refusing to recognize the chil-
dren of Anne Boleyn, More died^ by command of Henry.
Like Erasmus, he feared all excesses. Luther's coarse re-
ply to Henry, the Peasant's War, the Anabaptist move-
ment, Tyndale's New Testament, spreading discontent in
^Cf. Hutton. The Reliffious Writings of Sir Thomas More, in The
English Hist. Review. Oct. 1889.
"So Alexander, Die Englischen Mnrtyrer ivdhrend u. seil der Refor-
mation. Paderborn. 1888.
224 HISTORIC AI. THEOLOGY.
England, all led More to take the lead in the literary de-
fense of the Catholic Church. Hutton thinks the charges,
that More was cruel as Lord Chancellor towards Protestants,
and even guilty of illegal acts against them, are ground-
less.^ He was a lovely character, a winning scholar, but
not the man to cleanse and purge the Church of England.
How much that Church needed purification appears afresh
from manuscript^ records of Episcopal visitations of Eng-
lish monasteries in 1526. Of the Cistersian monastery
of Thame, we learn that the abbot gave some of its lands
to his f fiend, J. Cowper ; he kept young people about him
and gave rise to evil reports ; he gave H. Symonds a good
position because he had married a woman named Cor-
ny she ; he gave property of the cloister to promote the
marriage of his friends ; women visited the monastery caus-
ing scandal; monks strolled about, one of them, Chyanor
visited Mrs. Barbour, a woman of ill-repute, as did other
monks ; they were idle and ignorant. The abbot admitted
most of these things in such bad Latin that the bishop said
he could often only guess at the meaning.
The Augustinian monasteries seem to have beeiji
just as demoralized. In these we hear of an abbot
who had not said mass for three years. He had a
clown follow him, even to church, and make jokes.
Dominus Broughton was threatened with imprison-
ment if he admitted women to his room, "especially
the wife of Edward Bathfield." Other monks received
^For a R. Catliolic account of these things, see Budgett's Life of
Blessed John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. London. 1888.
2Cf. The English Hist. Review. Oct. 1888.
Till-: MODjjny en men. 225
like warnings from the bisliopJ Gasquet, a Benedictine,
tries to sliow^ that the immorahties of Enghsh monasteries
were not so great as here suggested. He thinks their popu-
hirity among the people is an argument against their cor-
ruption. But it might be answered, this popularity was
c-hietly in the north of England; and the free use by friends
of monastery lands would help stifle criticism. He shows,
however, that the statement — "two-thirds of the monks
were leading vicious lives," is groundless. King Henry
himself gave pensions to more than one-third of the monks
named as criminal by his visitors. And yet Gasquet must
admit not a few cases like the Abbey of Langton, where a
woman was caught runmng from the monastery. It is es-
timated that twenty thousand monks and nuns were made
homeless by the king's confiscations. By the suppression
of the lesser religious houses alone property to the value of
£30,000 a year was seized ; wdiile other spoils amounted to
more than .£100,000. It must be admitted that sometimes
abbots of good character and loyal to the king were hung
on a trivial pretext, and their property seized. The Charter
House monks were dragged through the streets on a hurdle
to the gallows, not hanged and dragged as hitherto de-
scribed.-'' The death of these heroic men, among them
eighteen Carthusians, did not prevent royal supremacy in
the Church, but it helped gain for us the spiritual liberty
which we now have.
'Cf. Engl. Hist. Review. April, 1889. p. 304.
^ Henry VIII and the English Monasteries. 2 vols. 1889.
^See the account of Hendricks, a monk. The London Charter House :
its Monks and its Martyrs. London. 1889.
226 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
III. PROTESTANT BENEFICENCE.
The monastic theory of life, by making poverty a virtue,
not only encouraged Christians to help the wretched and
those in want, but very greatly promoted the growth of the
evil which it set itself to alleviate. It failed to encourage
industry, honest self-respect, economy, and those frugal
virtues which now especially flourish in Protestant lands.
The mediaeval method led to poverty ; "through the world-
liness of the clergy and through indiscriminate giving be-
cause of a false theory of the merit of alms, Church benefi-
cence was brought into a false course."^ Begging ceased to
be a shame, and increased beyond all control. The monkish
doctrine of poverty, the benefit of the prayers of mendicant
friars, etc., so perverted thought, that the attempt was not
seriously made to free the poor from indigence. Some
efforts were made in the fourteenth century to limit beg-
ging; but it was the Keformation that first brought in
correct views respecting wealth and poverty, property and
alms, work and calling. The principle was now introduced,
that we help the poor, not to promote our own spiritual
gain, but for Christ's sake. The result w^as a new system
of caring for the poor. Of 172 resolutions of Protestant
Churches, collected from the sixteenth century, 55 have to
do with the care of the poor. Nobbe sums up the benefi-
ciary system of the Pieformers in the following points :
(1). All help given the poor is to be associated with re-
ligious teaching, pointing towards any evil underlying the
poverty.
'See Nobbe, Ztfl. /. Kirchengeschichte. Bel. X, H. 4. 1889.
THE MODERX ('IIURCll. 227
(2). Proper orf];anization, for systematic collection of
means and their distribution.
(3). Aid to all kinds of poor in the parish.
(4). Care of the poor in their homes; help them where
the}^ can help themselves best.
(5). The poor are to be helped bv natural methods, by
giving them work, kc,
(6). Poverty is to be prevented.
(7). No aid is to be given to beggars.
(8). Single congregations should unite for the care of
the poor. In this [general work all should co-operate.
State, Church, Associations, Corporations, private men.
IV. THE HUGUENOTS.
The Huguenot movement was at first religious, then it
became more political. A recent writer finds^ the political
factor come in after the massacre of St. Bartholomew
(1572). The Huguenots now began to look for a perma-
nent basis of resistance to absolutism, to get a philosophi-
cal justification of rebellion. For this purpose they advo-
cated the Germon theory of government in opposition to
the Roman theory, a limited monarchy, not an absolute, a
ruler elected by the people, not a despot. This view puts
supreme authority in the people, not in the crown. The
king is an official ; so is the Pope. They exist for the na-
tion and the Church, not nation and Church for them. The
appeal is, to return to the ancient system of Franco-Gallia,
'^Political Theory of the Huguenots, in The English Hist. Review.
Jan. 1889.
228 UISTOIUCAL THEOLOGY.
and renounce the imported institutions which have cor-
rupted the national polit}^ Government rests upon a triple
contract, between God and king, God and nation, nation
and king; hence the king has no rights which infringe
those of God or the people. A ruler who forsakes God
may forfeit his kingdom ; and the people may resist such
a king, in virtue of their contract with God. In doing so,
they are to act through their representatives, the Parlia-
ment and the nobles.
Courtisigny estimates^ nearly two millions of Protes-
tants in France, in 1685. But in 1760, there were only
593,307 Calvinists in the land, a little less than the num-
ber of Protestants now in France. Between 1685 and 1787,
most of the higher callings — lawyers, physicians, booksell-
ers, &c., — were shut to Huguenots ; the upper classes forsook
Protestanism, and so it waned. Yet it has always remained
true to its idea of a religion founded on the Bible. One
result has been the careful education of the young, that
they might read the Holy Book.'-^ As early as 1551, "the
schoolmaster was regarded as an ecclesiastical functionary."
When these Protestants received religious tolerance
they demanded especially the right to open public schools.
In the seventeenth century, such schools were very numer-
ous. After the Edict of Nantes, the Catholics had laws
passed allowing only reading, waiting and arithmetic in these
schools ; then only one school in each place, and only one
master in a school. Thus Louis XI Y greatly crippled these
^Bulletin de la Societe de Vhistoire du Protestantisme francais. Oct.
15,1888. See also Schott, Das Toleranzedikt Ludicig's XVI, in Hist.
Ztft. 1889, H. 3.
2Cf. Art. Ecoles Protestantes, in Revue Chretienne. Aug. 1889.
TIfK MODKRX CIirRCir. 229
institutions, and they sadly declined, till in the eighteenth
century only here and there a hidden school remained.
After the Ee volution, the Protestant Consistory of Paris
led the way, in 1792, with "a free school for elementary
religious instruction." By 1S2S, there were 392 Protes-
tant primary schools ni France ; and there was great need
of them, for 13,984 of the 88,135 Communes had no
schools. When the Republic was restored, in 1871, there
were 1,600 Protestant schools; but then the whole school
system was changed, and these schools put in a much less
favorable position.
This wonderful expansion of Protestant schools in
France ran parallel with the general growth of the
churches. In the years of restoration, lJ>02-1808, there
were 196 churches, 201 pastors and 106 temples. Now
there are 543 churches, 712 pastors, eight evangelists, 908
temples, 15 chapels, 121 Prayer-rooms, 762 Sunday-schools.
Adding to these the Lutherans, Free Church, Methodists,
Baptists and others, we get a total of 605 Protestant
churches, 945 pastors, 1,329 religious buildings, 1,085
Sunday-schools, 1,741 primary schools, of which, however,
1,582 have been secularized by the Republic, and 220 be-
nevolent enterprises.^ Perrenond says there w^ere 428,036
Protestants in France, in 1802; now, he reckons 652,422, a
gain of 224,366 in 86 years, in a population which is nearly
stationary. Of these churches, Cyr says^ 331 are orthodox,
and 192 rationalistic. The creed test, adopted in 1871,
was, "We believe in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins
-For these statistics see Perrenoud, Elude historique sur les pro-
grefi du ProteHtantismc en France. Paris: Fisehbaclier. 1889. Fr. 5.
-Cf. The Unitarian Revieiv. Jan. 1889.
280 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
and rose for our justitication"; but the liberals denounce
any creed.
V. THE CHRISTIANITY OF RUSSIA.
Probably no part of modern Church History is less fa-
miliar to the ordinary student than that of Kussia. Slavs
themselves speak of their nationality as "a Sphinx and
Amorphes, " yet to be developed, and threatening more
than any other race to change the current of modern
thought. Kussia is not a Christian nation, like others in
Europe, hence it claims special study. A recent work^
illustrates this subject from the testimonies of Kussians
themselves. These writers agree that the Empire of the
Czar is rushing ''with dizzying haste, economically and
morally towards destruction."
The Kussian Church, far from giving life and light
in such circumstances, is "isolated, shut off in a
mouldy, cellar atmosphere, and so overgrown by a
flora of the toadstool sort, that it cannot be recognized,
as it lies buried in the death sleep of a thousand
years." A terrible ritualism has killed it, and so
thrust Christian doctrines into the background, that, as
Prof. Ikonnikow says, in many places Kussian orthodoxy
cannot be distinguised from Finnish " Schamanenthum."
Very few Kussians, of any class, know the teachings of
their Church. '* As a matter of fact, Kussian Christianity
in practice has become a mere ritual Lamaism, fitted out
with Christian terminology." Hence, Prof. Ssolowjow
^Frank, Russische Selbstzengnisse. I Russisches Christenthum.
Dargpstellt nach russischen Angaben. Paderborn. Schohingli. ISS'J.
77/ A' MODERN ClirHCIT. 231
says the Paissian Church, from its bef^iiining, has done
absohitely nothing for the rqoral development of the Kus-
sian people. It has even contributed to the moral de-
pravity of the nation, by serving blindly Russian despotism.
It is essentially nothing more than a division of the State
police. "Under her direct co-operation false doctrines
have spread in Russia, which not only differ in particular
dogmas from general Christian teachings, but are really
un-Christian and anti-Christian heresies of the worst kind."
The followers of these false teachings, in many places,
together with the ritual Dissenters (Raskolniks), the ration-
alistic, Protestanl:,andPjclectic sects, make up the whole pop-
ulation. The question might even be asked, whether Rus-
sian Christianity is Christianity at all. Certainly it is a
pitiful assumption, it is added, for such a Church to claim
to be the sole possessor of pure orthodoxy.
Tschaadajew, d. 1856, ''the first independent thinker of
Ru.-sia," laments that the Russians have no history, no
development behind them, no triilitions, no phychological
and moral rooting in the past, no general principles unit-
ing them; all is individual, sa] erficial, disconnected, hes-
itating and imperfect. '•* If ue are considered,'' he says,
"one might suppose that in our case the general law of
nature had been suspended. We stand alone, having
given the world nothing, added not a single idea to the mass
of human ideas ; but rather, perverted all that has come to
us from the progress of humanity." He regrets that
Photius tore Russia and the Eastern Church away from
the unity of Catholic Christendom, and isolated Russia.
Renaissance, Reformation, all these Russia has missed.
Her Christianity is like that of Abyssinia ; her civilization
233 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
like that of Japan ; she has not grown with the rest of the
nations into European Christianity and civilization. He
continues : "Russia has had no religious wars, no Inquisi-
tion, but she is the poorer for such peace. Those bloody
battles for truth have made a world of which Russia can-
not form an idea, much less reproduce it." These writers
agree that the regeneration of the Russian Church must
precede the regeneration of the Russian nation. Forced
orthodoxy must cease before intelligent belief can be
reached. The present system, as Tolstoi tells us, has
made the upper classes indifferent to all religion ; the
middle classes of officials and clergy are the chief sup-
ports of Nihilism ; and even the peasants are becoming
atheistic. These evils arise because the Russian Church
is w^alled round from all intercourse with the West. The
corrupt religion and dead moiiasticism which Russia re-
ceived from Greece have been a fatal inheritance ; the
remedy must come from vital contact vdth pure Christian-
ity and true culture.
It is very likely that here as elsewhere the Reviva
of Learning will be the forerunner of the Reformation
in Religion. Already some signs indicate more serious
thought in Russian literature. Milyoukov says''-' that
the characteristic motive underlying all Russian Fiction
is "to give a moral reason and principle to our con-
ception of the universe." Hence, " Count Tolstoi is
searching for a moral reason for the existence of the world,
while our philosophical historians are searching for prin-
ciples in the evolution of history, and prove the legitimacy
"^Tho. AihencEum, London, July 6. 1889.
THE MODERN CHlh.CH. 283
of the ideal element in their explanation of the process."
A similar tendency marks Russian philosophy. *'The
perio 1 of positivism and empiricism is clearly passing
away and our philosopliers are renewing the questions of old
Slavophiles after some universal moral truth, in opposition
to the scientific truth found by the 'West.' Metaphysical
ethics with a mystical religious coloring is becoming the
favo]-ite subject of study with our young philosophers."
In these speculations the fundamental idea is ever present,
that the Eussian national ideal is to play a leading part
in 'the evolution of universal history. This national ideal,
the new school says, consists in the search after " a uni-
versal organization of life according to truth. " Such uni-
versal organization, Solovieflf says,^^ is not a political
system, but a Church. Hence, the first step towards the
fulfillment of Russia's universal historic mission must be
the re-establishment of the one Catholic Church, a union
with the Western Church, by an act of national self-denial.
How this is to be brought about we are not told.
VI. THE RO:\IAX CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Until recently Roman Catholics have admitted that
their Church was corrupt in the sixteenth century, and that
Luther was a brave, but extreme advocate of needed re-
forms ; but Janssen now leads a school, which denies the
need for reform, and even declares that Luther was in no
danger at Worms, yet he appeared there and through the
rest of his life as a coward, behig eo afraid of assassina-
'In bis work/f/zf Histonj and^ Future of TJiPOcracy.
234 HISTORIC Al. THEOLOGY.
tion that it became a sort of monomania.^ Few thinkers,
however, will beUeve that these reformers were men who
had not the courage of their convictions. It was not rrom
their subserviency, but from their too tenacious chnging at
all hazards to their particular convictions that division and
weakness came to the cause w^hich they represented. Wolf
finds^ in the jealousies of the Protestants the chief grounds
for the success of the Roman Catholic reaction. This
Counter Reformation set itself to accomplish two things :
to regenerate the Church of Rome, and to recover the
ground lost by the early successes of Protestantism.^ With
the promulgation of the Decrees of the Council of Trent the
first systematic attempt was made to obstruct the growth
of Protestantism along the whole line. The Counter
Reformation here put forth its full force, and that against
a divided Protestantism. This movement of great energy,
Ward says, closed with the collapse of the attempt of
Philip of Spain to master western Christendom, and the
granting of the Edict of Nantes by Henry lY of France.
Rome then worked on in secret, and was prepared when
the Thirty Years' War began. But in this struggle, the
effort to reform Romanism was dropped in the attempt to
regain what Rome had lost by Protestantism. At Trent,
however, refoi-m was in the air, and the Protestants though
as schismatics, were still kept in mind in framing decrees.
It is still a question, whether the decisions of Trent recog-
nize Protestant marriages as lawful or not. Leinz con-
'Cf. Deiifsch-Ermj. Bl'Vler. 1883. H. IX.
-Zur Geschickff: (Ur dputschen Protestanten, 1535-59. Berlin. 1888.
=^So W^ard, The Counter-Reformation, in Epochs of Church History.
New York. Randolph & Co. 1888. $ .80.
THE 310DERX CHURCH. 235
eludes^ that the Council declares such marriages null where
the edict of Trent has been properly proclaimed and no
impossibility is in the way. That is, they are null where
such unlawful unions take j)lace knowingly, and persons
married ignorantly, when told of their error, fall into con-
cubinage unless they obey the Church. A father confessor
can, at any moment, tell the Catholic member of a mixed
marriage of his wrong living, and set before him fclie alter-
native, adultery or full submission to Home ! In this
Counter Reformation, as Sell points out 7. c. , Spain took
a leading place. Here both movements, that for the reform
of the Papacy, and that for its restoration to full power,
were organized. Spanish Catholic reaction ascended the
papal thi'one in Hadrian VI, a Netherlander, and former
tutor of Charles V. The Inquisition and the Index of pro-
hibited books- were both inspired from Spain, which in
I6O0 to 1650, took the place of Italy in zeal. Then France
assumed the lead of Catholic reaction, under Louis XIY.
In Spain, Loyola founded the Jesuit Order, which labored
as no other to crush Protestantism, and sought by missions
in heathen lands to make good the loss of Protestant na-
tions. Ill Spain, too, we see the system of Indulgences,
which drove Luther to fight Eome, shoot up into rank,
wanton luxuriance.-^ There were indulgences for both liv-
ing and dead. The receipt for one of the latter runs :
^Der Ehtvorsthrift des Concils von Trient. Freiburg i. B. Herder.
1888. M. 2.
^For a list of tliese, see Index libronim prohibiioruni. Turin. Mari-
etti. 1869. $1.00,
■*Cf. Lea, Indulgences in Spain, in Papers of the Anier. Soc. of
Church Hist.. New York. 1889.
336 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
"Because you, N., have given the said two reals [ten cents]
for the soul of N., and have received the bull, the said
graces and plenary indulgence are granted to the soul for
which you have given this sum." The pretext for selling
Indulgences was the war against the Intidel. These Cru-
sade bulls have been a regular thing since 1457. When
the Indulgences were sold, in 1519, by Leo X, the Pope
agreed to take 24,000 ducats a year; the rest of the gains
of the Crusade went to the king. It w^ent on so till 1563,
when Pius V tried to carry out the reforms suggested at
Trent, and forbade the sale of Indulgences. He told
Philip II the Crusade might raise up a Luther in Spain.
But the Spanish bishops issued Indulgences of their own,
in 1570, which gave pardon for a hundred years, that being
the limit of a bishop's powers. Pius w^as soon forced to
allow the Crusade to resume. The profits of it amounted
to about J|600,000 a year, nearly as much as the king re-
ceived from the fabulous wealth of the Indies. And this
w^as but a small part of what the people paid. A part of
this revenue now goes to Eome ; but the most of it is used
to support the Church in Spain. About 3,500,000 bulls
of Indulgence are now sold each year in Spain and her
colonies — much less than in former ages.
The continuation of Bellesheim's History of the Catho-
lic Church of Scotland^ leads us to look at the Keformation
in that country as explained by a Eoman Catholic. It is
not so much the fundamental principles of Protestantism
that are selected for animadversion, as the defects and ex-
1 Translated with Notes and Additions by D. O. Hunter Blair,
0. S. B. Vol. III., from the Revolution of 1560 to the death of James
VI, 1625. Blackwood & Sons. Edinburgh. 1889.
THE MODERX ('IlCnclI. 23T
cesses that can be pointed out in the work of reform. We
hear how the Eeformers destro3'ed abbeys, chapels and
monasteries in their mad zeal against idolatry. The
j^eople needed ''sharp punishment" to reform them ; yet
it is admitted that Scotland became more and more Protes-
tant. One of the real causes of the ra])id spread of the
Eeformation comes out in a vigorous treatise of Winzot,^
a Catholic of those days. He denounces bitterly the scan-
dalous life of the bishops and the high Catholic clergy.
The nobility were corrupt and greedy, and they filled the
Church with priests like themselves. Next we hear that
Knox was a coarse demagogue, who was involved in the
plot to murder Eizzio. Mary might well regard him as a
"blood-stained hypocrite." He and George Buchanan
"were men of abominable practices and correspondent
characters." The Eeformation was largely the work of the
unscrupulous nobility. The account of the Scottish nobles
is hardly overdrawn by Bellesheim ; but it might be re-
membered that these men were the product of full-blown
Catholicism. Queen Mary appears in this book as sinned
against, rather than sinning. It is true she was surrounded
by a band of utterly base nobles, and yet it seems certain
that, after all, her long sufferings were the pains of a sin-
ning woman expiating her "criminal passion for a scoun-
drel."- Darnley was murdered as the result of a political
plot of nobles led by Murray, yet Mary's hate of her hus-
band and love of Bothwell gave her a guilty connection
vvitli it. Politics and religion were so interwoven, that
even the Eeformers, trained as they had been in the ways
' Certain Tractates, Reprinted for the Scottish Text Society, 1888.
^lEtudessur Vhistoire dc Marie Stuart, in Rei'ne\Histori<iue, 1888-89'.
^38 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
of Rome, might well do things that neem to us harsh and
cruel. The Catholics of Scotland thought it their duty to
plot to overthrow the Protestant rule; hence the stern
measures against them. When the Duke of .Guise, the
Archbishop of Glasgow, the Pope and Philip II could plan
to assassinate queen Elizabeth, the statement of Belles -
heim must be taken with some latitude, that "it was only
aided by the pressure of penal laws that the Pieformation
was able to gain ground." The Catholic reaction, led by Jes-
uits, and connected with a proposed Spanish expedition,
made Scotch Protestants take repressive measures.
The Jesuits led in this Catholic reaction and their
policy allowed the use of all means that might insure vic-
tory. In this Order, the policy of expediency gave rise to
a theology of ProhahiUsni, which for two centuries has agi-
tated the Roman Catholic Church. Through this contro-
versy the Jesuit Order fell ; but when the Jesuits were re-
stored, this theology was restored, and now controls papal
thought. The gi'owth of this theology is outlined by D611-
inger and Reusch as follows :^ The Spanish Dominican
Bartholomaeus de Medina first taught, in 1577, that it is
lawful to follow a probable opinion rather than a more
probable, the probable opinion being such as "wise men
assert and the best arguments confirm." This doctrine be-
came the prevailing view in Spain, Italy, and Germany,
in the seventeenth century. It was adopted by the Jesuits
and applied to all forms of casuistry. In the second half
^ Geschichte der Moralstreitigkeiten in der rinn. kaih. Kirche seit
dem IGJahrh. Mit Beitrageu zur Gescb. u. Cliarakteristik d. Jesuitor-
dens. Aiif Grund iingedr. Aktenstiicke, Nordlingen: Beck. 1889.
2 vols. M.22. Vol. II, 398 pp. contains original documents.
77//-; }rnDKRX cirmcii. 239
of the seventeenth century, through Pascal and his friends,
this doctrine was thrust into the hackground. Its oppo-
nents were now often dubhed Jansenists. But, in 1665,
Pope Alexander YII condemned 45 lax opinions of casuists,
and opposed Probahilism. Innocent XI, lOTO, condemned
65 more opinions, and the Inquisition considered the mat-
ter. Now sides were taken. Since 1659, the Dominicans
have held the doctrine of ProJuibUiorism, opposing the Pro-
JuibUisDi of the Jesuits. The Dominicans were followed by
Benedictines, Trappists, and Capuchines, who denounced
the depravity and filth ot Jesuit ethics.
The Jesuits next taught that Attrition, i.e., repent-
ance through misery of sin or fear of punishment,
sufficed for receiving the sacraments, instead of Con-
trition, which meant repentance in view of the love
of God, as the highest good. During the abolition
of the Jesuit Order, Liguori continued the teaching
of Probahilism in the Redemptorist Order. Bossuet led
France to throw off such doctrines, in the eighteenth cen-
tury, till, in 1829, the restored Jesuit Order had Liguori de-
clared a saint, and in 1879, a Doctor of the Church, with
Athanasius and Augustinus. He is now a "mediator be-
tween heaven and earth." His views ''are accepted in
nearly all parts of the Church, and almost nil father con-
fessors adopt his theories in the confessional." This is the
theology that makes sinning easy. A seducer under prom-
ise of marriage need not keep his word, if he was of higher
rank and the girl knew it, and if he did not intend to
marry her. And Leo XIII could say, in 1879, "Liguori's
ethics offer the father confessor a perfectly safe guide."
In 1864, Newman could not help saying, "Liguor
240 mSTOim 'A L TJIEOLOG F.
teaches that a double meaning is permissible, if a just
reason exists. I will express myself on this point as openly
as any Protestant can wish. I confess at once that in this
domain of morality, however much I admire the good sides
of the Italian character, I prefer the English rule of life.''
The Catholic defence of Liguori used to be, that he wrote
for Italians ; but now the low standard of morals, the
double dealings of Jesuit Ethics, have been made the rule
of life for the whole Church ! Jesuit and Catholic, terms
long distinguished, are now identical.^ The extermination
of Protestants has now become a principle of action.
Busenbaum, a Jesuit, says openly, "when the end is
lawful the means are also lawful." Any crime may be
committed "for a reasonable cause." Mariolatry, a Jes-
uit doctrine, is greatly promoted. ^ In politics, the Jesuit
views are followed by the Church; they are the Infalli-
bility of the Pope, and the right of the majority of the
people to rule. The people may upset any government,
but they must obey the Pope. The policy of the Papal
Church now is to use popular governments to promote
papal Absolutism.
Another channel of Jesuit activity is the religious
Congregations of the Church.-^ It is remarkable how
the female Orders have increased, since about 1850.
Between 1820-72, male Orders, in Prussia, decreased
from 20 to 18, while female increased from 22 to
^Cf. Eisele, Jesuitismus unci Katlwlisismus. Halle, 1888. M. 4.
-See Kolb, Wegweiser in die Marianische Literaiur. Freiburg i. B.
Herder, 1888. M. 2. Over 400 works on Mary have appeared in the
past 40 years. *
»E. Pfleiderer, in Deutsch-Emng. BUHter. 1889. H. XI.
77//; MODEL'S CIlURCll. 241
67; in 1SS8, these last had 792 places, with over 7, (MIO
members. In Bavaria, wliere the Orders were aboHshed in
1S03, they have grown from seven houses, in 1825, to 620,
in 1873, of which ten were male, and twenty-two female, with
1,094 male to 5,051: female members. In Austria, between
1859-70, monks decreased b}' 515, while nuns increased by
1,708. Elsewhere similar growth is seen. Another feature
of Roman Catholic methods is the increase, in recent times,
of Congregations at the expense of the Orders. That is,
the freer bands of vrorkers are growing. Of the six classes
entering Germany, only two are Orders ; the other four are
Congregations. In these latter the vows are only tempo-
rary, and the members are free to do all sorts of mission
work. In Prussia, between 1830-73, the Orders de-
creased from 30 to 20, while Congregations grew from 12 to
65, and of the 65 Congregations 57 are female. In Bavaria,
about 90 per cent of the sisters taught schools in. IS'Jo.
And they are not very efHcient teachers. In France, of
4,300 sub-teachers, only 413 had a certificate of qualifi-
cation, and 7,000 of 8,000 female superintendents had no
certificate.
The fruits of such teaching are in harmony with it.
Brecht shows^ the criminal statistics of Germany per 100,
000 as follows : number of Protestants, in 1882, guilty of
serious crimes 675 ; in 1885, the average was 675 ; the num-
ber of Roman Catholics, at the same times, was 773 and
830. In those four years, there were 2,123 convictions for
perjury in thirty millions of Protestants, while sixteen mil-
lions of Catholics had 1,509; of crimes against religion the
sixteen milhons committed 559, while the thirty millions
^Papst Leo XIIl and der Protestantismus. Barmen, 18H8.
242 JIISTOlilCAL THEOLOGY.
committed only 462. We learn also^ that German priests,
between the ages of 26-45, 46-65, and 66-85, died in ex-
cess of ministers by '^Q.S, 54, and 17.7 per cent; a striking
commentary on the life of the cehbate priesthood. It is
also worthy of note that while the normal number of Pro-
testant students of theology in Germany is 1,320, more
than twice that number are now in course of training,
while Catholic Germany has not produced the normal
number of students for the priesthood, 860, by 49.
VII. THE :\I0DERN GERMAN CHURCH.
Lichtenberger, in his work on modern German theol-
ogy,^ finds that the "evolution of religious thought in Ger-
many since the middle of the last century, combined with
other causes not less powerful, has wrought a complete
transformation in the ideas, manners, and institutions in
that country." A chief mark of this transformation is "the
gradual substitution of the principle of liberty in the place
of the principle of authority, in religious matters." Chris-
tianity must here fight Naturalism, under all its forms,
and in its development pass through three periods, marked
by the appearance of Lessing, Schleiermacher, and Strauss.
The hrst of these leaders "proved victoriously that Cliris-
tianity rests neither upon the authority of a creed, nor even
upon that of the Bible, but that its own essence suffices to
^Kamp unci Gollmer, Die Mortalitutsverhdltnisse d. geistl. Standes
nach d. Erfahrungen d. Lebensversicherungsbank f. D. in Gotha.
Jena. Fischer. 1888.
^Histoire des Idees religieu^eH en Allemagne depuis le XVIIIe Sif'cle
jusqu' a nos jours. Paris: Fisclibaclier. 1888. English Translation.
New York: Scribner & Welford. 1889. $5.60.
THE MODERN CHURCH. 243
defend it and make it accepted/' Scliloiermacher followed
the same direction, and "founded in theology the method
of Christian Individualism." Strauss was a destructive
critic. In an unsympathetic way Lichtenberger finds
present orthodox Lutheranism marked by [1] a compro-
mising solidarity established between political and ecclesi-
astical interests, to defend throne and altar against all
radicals; [2] by a distaste of Pietism, " which it puts on
the same level with Eationalism, treating both under the
common name of subjectivism or individualism;" and [3]
by holding no distinction of primary aiid secondary doc-
trines. This school goes beyond the Confession, he says,
and corrects the Keformers' doctrine of salvation by faith
alone, by exalting the visible Church and the sacraments.
They build the Church rather upon baptism imparting
faith, than upon faith professed in baptism. The Protest-
ant doctrine of a universal priesthood is pushed aside by
the theory of a clerical priesthood ; and the ordinary church
member is passive in the presence of a mediating clergy
and sacraments. Dorner is connected with the Middle
School, of whose doctrine of the Trinity he says, "We avow
in all humility we cannot understand it." He continues,
" Dorner is, in our opinion, a striking example of the radi-
cal impotence with which the Mediating Theology is smit-
ten, for it pretends to reconcile modern thought with
Church dogma, without abandoning one of the consecrated
formulae." It looks as if this critic is unable to grasp even
all that is true and intelligible in Dorner 's theology.
Of the Liberal School be speaks with affection. Its aim
is "to break resolutely with what is past, to unmask boldly
the errors, illusions and sophisms with which orthodoxy
244 lllSTnlUCAL rUEOLOGY.
hides itself, tinally to combat without mercy the progress of
clericaUsm of every sort, and thus to stop this fatal reac-
tionary movement, which threatens to rob Germany of one
of the chief glories of its history, religious freedom, the
sincerity of Christian convictions." He finds different
groups in this liberal school in Germany ; that of Jena,
*' more scientific and less aggressive," represented by Hase,
Schwarz, and 0. Pfleiderer; that of Berlin, "devoted
above all to the defence of the Union"; that of Baden, "to
which the Protestant Association agitation has joined it-
self," led by men like Hausrath, Schenkel, and Holtzmann ;
and that of Zurich, the most radical of all, associated with
Biedermann, Schv;eizer, and Yolkmar.
Amid all these liberal tendencies, the theology of Eitschl
is the only one that has had the power to form a school,
and, in both historical and dogmatic lines, open up vistas
that have attracted a compact body of enthusiastic in-
quirers.^ Ritschl makes prominent two positions respect-
ing God's revelation of himself: " God is love, for he re-
veals himself through his Son to the Church founded by
Christ, to build it up into a kingdom of God," and, "All
love among men arises, according to the Christian view,
from the revelation of God in Christ." That means, as
Pfleiderer says,-^ that the love of God is limited exclusively
to the historic Christian congregation. He closes his crit-
ique as follows : — " Two questions occur naturally here. If
God has revealed himself as love only in Christ, and if,
according to Piitschl's teaching, God's being is only love,
and all his revelation is only revelation of this, that he is
^Cf. Current Discussions. Vol. VI. 1889, pp. 263-269.
^Jahrbiicher fi'ir Protestantische Theologie, April, 1889.
THE MODERN CHURCH. 245
love, then the conchision necessarily follows, that before
Christ, there was no revelation of God at all. But whence
then, I ask, had pre-Christian mankind, or if the heathen
are to be left out of account, w4ience had Israel its relig-
ion, its knowledge of God? Did they all grow up wild
without God? In that case it follows of necessity also that
the consciousness of God in Jesus, which sprang from the
prophets and the psalms, was only of human origin, and
consequently the revelation of God in Christ, the only one
which Ritschl will allow, is as groundless as all others.
One can see how this positivism in its destructiveness digs
the ground from under its own feet. If, further, all human
love springs from the revelation of God in Christ, and if
all moral communion in action consists in love, or springs
from love, then the conclusion follows of necessity, that
before Christ, there was no moral communion among men.
Whence, then, I ask, had pre-Christian mankind all that
right, and ethics, which we undeniably find among heathen
and Jew^s ? Was all that simply a product of social sagac-
ity and calculating utilitarianism, i. e., of social egoism?
In that case, we would reach an extension of the principle
of Augustine, that heathen virtues are but splendid vices ;
we w^ould surpass Augustine himself. But Ritschl is so far
from Augustine's doctrine of original sin, that he will not
even accept a natural tendency to evil in man, but finds in
the child only a yet undefined impulse towards good. Are
we to say, then, that this highly favored human nature, in
the w^iole period before Christ, never and nowhere attained
to anything w'orthy the name of love or morality ? And the
people Israel, in whom the thought of a kingdom of God
arose, had it, also, no moral communion, never any action
246 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
through love ? All the warnings and consolations of the
prophets for their people, all that did not spring from lov-
ing hearts, all that was not revelation of the holy love of
God, simply because it did not spring from the revelation
of the historic Christ? So Eitschl teaches us. In that
case, the Church had better have followed the Gnostic
Marcion and put the Old Testament out of the Bible, for
he taught about the same as these necessary consequences
of the words of Eitschl. If Eitschl will not accept these
consequences, then at least he should admit that his the-
ology is full of contradictions through and through, and
only makes itself possible by everywhere denying and sup-
pressing the conclusions of its premises." A theology that
cannot stand its own conclusions, Pfleiderer adds, should
be a little more modest in claiming to be the only pos-
sessor of "scientificness."^
Frank thinks^ Eitschl has done good in opposing Pietis-
tic excesses in theology ; in showing that the Atonement
can be understood only by doing away with the one-sided,
or mutual contradiction between the divine and human
will ; in separating from Kant, by making Eeligion not an
appendix to Ethics ; in holding that the standard of the sci-
entific truth of Christianity is not natural religion or rea-
son acting in innate ideas ; in the conviction that a man
must share the faith of the Christian Church in Christ, to
do justice to his Person ; and in teaching that the possibil-
ity of a proof of Christianity depends upon ethical pre-
^Cf. also Graue, Der Moralismus der RitschVscher Theologie, in
Jahrbb. f. Prot. Theologie, June, 1889.
^ liber die kirchliche Bedeutung der Theologie A. Ritschls. Erlan-
gen, 1888. M. I. 20.
THE MODERX (Iirh'ClL 247
conditions. Hermann thinks'' Kitsclil also "first taught us
how to grasp the sum total of Christianity according to the
principles of the Reformation, which can give and is to
give to the practical life of the Evangelical Church its
form ; and he has shown that this Christianity has in this
alone the ground of its certainty, and the earnest of its
truth, that we are by it raised up through God's revelation
in Christ, and that the possession of this Christianity is for
the human spirit fashioned for moral living, life in the
Eternal one." But it is just from this practical side that
Frank criticises the system of Eitschl in its relation to the
fundamental facts of the Christian faith. He even raises
the question whether "the Evangelical Christian can live
should this theology become dominant over his faith."
Eitschl thinks "Protestantism has not yet left the period
of its baby sicknesses," for its practical, fundamental idea
has not become sovereign in all the lines of Christian ac-
tivity, especially not in the limitation and defence of
theology against useless definitions. Luther himself did
not understand the Reformation, as Ritschl does. In his
works "lie a mass of theological expositions, in which the
practical points, or the new Reformation ideal of life, is
left out of view." Neither did Melancthon's theology set
forth the true order of the reforming thoughts of Luther.
The weak school founded by Melancthon was not a true
exponent of the Reformation; for "the reform ideas were
more concealed than revealed in the theological books of
Luther and Melancthon." Frank thinks that were Luther
told that he did not understand himself, and needed
Ritschl to find the real doctrines of the Reformation for
'Review of Frank's Essay, in Theolog. Literaturzeitung, 1888,No. 23.
248 niSrORICAL THEOLOGY.
him, be would enter a protest that would leave no doubt of
his opinion in the matter. Luther certainly knew^ that the
doctrines of sin and grace were the foundation of bis the-
ology, just the doctrines so put in the background by
Ritschl. And this central teaching kept its position as
such in spreading the Reformation. Ritschl makes promi-
nent the idea that through justification and atonement w^e
are brought to a confidence in God which is a power in
all the affairs of life, and which raises us above the world.
Frank says this doctrine is true, in opposition to monkish,
pietistic flight from the world ; but it is not the doctrine of
Luther that the Christian's blessedness consists in victory
over the world, for the joy of the Christian springs first
from unbroken communion with God, the supreme good, and
only as a consequence of this communion, in superiority
to the world. Ritschl makes communion with God rather
a means to reach dominion over the world. Hence he re-
gards sin as not in itself the greatest misery, and its for-
giveness as not the chief thing for man ; it is rather a hin-
drance to man's rule over the w^orld. He thinks God can
forgive sin without a Mediator and his work of expiation.
Forgiveness is a matter of divine will, in which God
chooses to remove the opposition of man, and turn it into
communion, that the progress of his kingdom may not be
hindered. The restoration of the kingdom of God is the
final end, and taking aw^ay sin is one of the things done
incidentally. ''The higher grounds" upon which God for-
gives sins are considerations respecting the progress of his
kingdom. Further satisfaction is unnecessary, for God and
man were not originally in a reciprocal relation of law,
which was by the Fall turned into a relation of general an-
THE MODERN CHURCH. 249
tagonism. tSuch views are extra-Christian, he says, espe-
cially the false idea that death is the result of sin. Paul's
view of this must not be made a theological rule ; it is not
a necessary element of the Christian view of the world,
which regards death as neither a hindrance of blessedness,
nor an object of fear, because of Christ's reconciliation and
resurrection.
The idea of rendering personal sacrifice is unscriptural.
He says we may have an aesthetic, but not a theological
interest in the substitute theory of Christ's sufferings.
Frank well remarks, '' If this be true our Church is in a sad
case. How% then, can we comfort a soul sorrowing because
of sin? We must say, Dear Friend, your judgment of God
is wrong. He has no need of expiation. For higher
reasons, that is, to realize the aim of the world, which is
also an end in itself, he forgives sin. Be at peace, and
do not torment yourself with such mediaeval notions. "
Eitschl says that forgiveness of sins is not a personal
matter. It is a delusion to think "an individual can draw
from the fountain of grace apart from the Church. " He
calls faith "an assurance of the value of the gift of God for
man's blessedness, which faith takes the place, through
grace, of the lack of confidence felt before in connection
w^ith the feeling of guilt." But how does the Church get
man to Christ? Eitschl answers by speaking of the ac-
tivity of the Church and the operation of the Word and
Sacraments, but does not become very specific.
Of the conversion of the individual he can only say :
" Nothing further can be taught than that it takes place
within the congregation of believers through the constant
work of the gospel and the specific continuous work of the
250 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
personal characteristic of Christ in the congregation, by
which in the individual faith in Christ and trust in God the
Father is called forth, which dominates the whole view of
the world and man's self -judgment while the consciousness
of guilt because of sin remains." Not very simple words
for an inquirer. Zahn thinks^ the discussions about
Eitschl's theology show clearly that "the new Rationalism
has no connection with the Bible and the Eeformation. "
He finds Kaftan, Dorner's successor, looking for a new
dogma,^ which he regards as the dream of the future.
The old dogma is forever gone by ; and the new is not
yet here. "Then," adds Zahn, "we are pretty badly off
at present. "
The difference between the old theology, the Biblical,
the Confessional, and the new, the subjective, the rational-
istic, Delitzsch^ sets forth as follows : The one starts from
man fallen, sinful, God's mercy, Christ the Mediator of a
restored communion with God, grace the name of God's
action for us and to us, the purpose of which is to free
us from the consciousness of guilt and the ban of sin
service. The Christian life cannot begin ; there can be no
Christian self-knowledge except in the recognition of the
deep antithesis of nature and grace ; they are as essen-
tially opposite as world and God.
The other, the new theology, starts by softening
down the sharpness of these antitheses so as to make
the distinction vanish. "It alters the essence of grace
^Theolog. Litemturblatt, 1889, No. 22.
^Glaube unci Dogma. Bielefeld, 1889.
^Der Hefe Grahea zw. alt. Had modern. Thtologie. Leipzig, 1888.
English, in r/ie Kcpo.s<7or, Jan. 1889.
THE MODERN CHURCH. 251
and makes eveiything nature. This is the deep gulf
which parts the old from the new theology, and makes
intercourse impossible." This division between nature
and grace reaches the very center of the Christians'
life in his struggle after holiness. The new theology does
not know what to make of the utterances and experience
of a man like Luther. Are thsy but extravagances ? The
new theology must regard experience going beyond the
realm of actuality as imaginary ; it is by its suppositions
unable to experience and personally to test the worth of
grace in the soul. This theology calls communion
with God, personal fellowship with God in Christ, a mystic
illusion opposed to experience. It puts for this a medi-
ate relationship, effected through the Church. But this
is contradictory to Scripture (John xiv, 23), to the testi-
mony of believers in both Old and New Testaments, and
does not agree with historical Christianity in referring re-
demption directly to the Church, and only indirectly to the
individual. This reverses the true relations. It weakens
every Biblical conception ; it degrades the new birth ; it
makes the sweetest communion with God mystical and
pietistic. The condition of the Christian as a new-born
man is wanting in the new theology, which, in rejecting the
metaphysical, so called, uses a language of moral shallow-
ness when relating the actual facts of experience. Such
a theology is not the historical theology, for in identifying
grace and nature, it denies the reality of miracles; "for
miracle has grace as its ground, property, and province."
The miracle of grace in regeneration involves all the other
miracles of redemption. So the gulf between the old and
new theology coincides at bottom with the difference be-
252 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
tween the two conceptions of the world, the one recognizing
the supernatural, two worlds of law and morals, the other
holding only one world system, that of natural law, with
which God cannot interfere. Hence the new theology re-
jects prayer, as having any effects upon external events.
Nay, more ; the new theology goes on to rob us of our
Easter blessing, and says the "He is risen" is less prob-
able than the sneer of the Jews, " His disciples stole him
away." This central miracle must go with the -i-est.
There is no compromise possible between such theologies ;
we must choose one or the other. Did Christ rise ? We
must answer. Yes or No.^
Beyschlag finds'^ the weakness of the present German
Church to be, first, its disfavor with the great mass of the
people, and next, the disorganizations and divisions in it.
Think of twenty-six different, more or less discordant Prot-
estant churches in Germany ! Then all the theological
parties ! Beyschlag pleads for comprehension. He says
the conservatives hold the Church is a society, not of seek-
ers and questioners, but of believers and confessors. The
liberal party is too busy pulling down to build well. The
middle school, to which he belongs, has, he says, a great
mission for unity and peace, if it can hold the positive
truths of the conservatives in the free spirit of the liberals.
This school, he adds, is growing, and is full of promise.
The old, timid, mediating theology is past. The new the-
ology, which tries to tear faith in God and knowledge of
the universe apart, is only a transitory thing, for there is
^Cf. also Kixbel, CkriMlichenBedenken nber modern. Christ LWesen,
Von einem Sorgervollen. Gixtersloh: Bertelsmann, 1889.
'Deutsch-Evang. Blatter, 1889. Hh. VI, & X.
THE MODERN CIirBl'IL 253
really only one truth for both God and the world. The lib-
eral school, rnnning after natural science, and finding only
a natural history of Christianity, is in danger of turning
a means of criticism into an end, and landing in mere
confusion. The movement of theology, however, since
Schleiermacher, has been towards a new form of Christian
doctrine, which has grown towards a living theology of
faith, and not of unbelief. The field of Biblical Theology
is especially hopeful ; it is " a green field just sown between
Criticism and Dogmatism."
Lipsius emphasizes^ the same positive movement of
liberal theology, in opposition to Eome. He says that the
position of this theology in the great fundamentals of God,
Christ, and the way of salvation is one with that of the con-
servative. The pantheistic transformations of the liberal
theology are dying out ; and the personal God, the heaven-
ly Father, in whose paternal care we can trust, who guar-
antees his children a personal immortality and personal
perfection, is grasped with increasing clearness. In like
manner, he says, is the old Lessing theory of contrasts
between eternal truths of reason and accidental truths of his-
tory, the notion that the idea of redemption could suffice,
leaving its realization in Christ an open question, is disap-
pearing, and the knowledge is pressing to the front that
salvation can be found only in the fact of the truly Divine
Man, who can assure sinners as well of divine expiation as
he can the holy God of the sanctification of them that are
His, only in faith in a personal Saviour, in whom we have
the perfect revelation of eternal love. Beyschlag assures
us that "in the matter of the way of salvation, the liberal
^Deutsch-Evang. Blatter, 1889, H. X., p. 706.
254 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
theology, in its best representatives, stands throughout
upon the fundamental article of justification by faith."
VIII. THE CHURCHES OF GREAT BRITAIN.
The literature of the past year adds little to our knowl-
edge of the British churches since the Reformation. Shaw
distmguishes^ three periods in English Presbyterianism :
first, Ehzabethan Presbyterianism, or Cartwrightism ; sec-
ond, Civil War, or Covenant Presbyterianism ; and third
English Presbyterianism after the Savoy Conference and
Act of Uniformity. This last is well known ; though it is
to be observed that pure Presbyterianism, implying (1) a
disciplinary system in the parish, and (2) a Church system
of graduated meetings, classes, synods, etc., in its entirety
is not to be met with at any particular part of English his-
tory. The first two appearances were sudden and tempo-
rary, and there is no historic continuity of a Presbyterian
party through the latter part of the sixteenth and first half
of the seventeenth century into the Presbyterianism of
post-Restoration times. The paper of Shaw proves this
statement for the Presbyterianism of the time of Elizabeth.
It was one of the many outgrowths of the Puritan princi-
ple, which was the principle of spiritual perception as
against that of external authority. Until Cartwright, the
Puritan stream flowed in protests against Romish ceremo-
nies retained; now a new element came in, that of the
Church system. "The operative impulse in this unex-
pected departure was from Geneva, and the immediate
^Elizabethan Presbyterianism, in The Eng. Hist. Review, Oct.
1888.
THE MODERX CrrrRCTL 255
agent, Thomas Cartwriglit." A pure Presbyterianism of
the Geneva sort was now advocated, to a degree unap-
proaehed even by the Westminster Assembly. The movement
had its center in a body of the clergy. It differed from
the Separatist Congregational movement in allowing the
ministry of the Church of England. In 1590, some min-
isters were summoned before the Ecclesiastical Commis-
sion, and the movement came to an end in five or six
years, for lack of a leader and organization, and because
Puritanism turned to fight gross immorality in the seven-
teenth century.
Ward's account of the Tractarian Movement^ gives a
picture of the struggle at Oxford, that ended in the seces-
sion of Newman and others to Eome. Ward was among
the most subtle and unscrupulous of all the Tractarians.
He sought to stay in the Church of England, and yet be a
Catholic in belief. For this purpose he invented the theory
of subscribing the articles in a "non-natural sense." While
still in the English Church, he was full of Jesuitical casuis
try, and openly defended such mental reservation in his
book, The Ideal of a Christian Church. Members of the
Anglican Church might hold all the doctrines of Eomanism,
even to belief in the supreme authority of the Pope. This
last teaching the High Church party now vigorously reject,
but thereby gain standing ground in the Church of Eng-
land to preach about all else that belongs to Eomanism.
Turning to Scotland, Sinclair tells us^ that " the ice-
bound Calvinism" there "is practically past." This re-
sult has been reached by various influences. The geolog-
^ William George Ward and the Oxford Movement. London, 1889.
^The Unitarian Review, March, 1889.
256 IIISTOIUCAL THEOLOGY
ists helped; "they struck probably the first effective blow
at Bibiolatry " in Scotland, and taught that the Bible is
not a text book in matters of science. Dr. Story is quoted
as a representative of many in teaching that conscience-
is the supreme judge of truth, "and God's revelation in it a
higher revelation than that in the Scriptures." We are
assured that the sentiments of the community at large are
much more liberal than those of tlie Church Courts ; they
are more often the antipodes of those in presbyteries and
synods. One noticeable change in theological thought can
be seen, we are told, in the doctrines of man's fall in
Adam, his restoration in Christ, justification by faith, and
the terms of the covenant, being passed by in sermons, in
favor of a loftier morality based on a rational Christianity.
"The Sunday question has been practically settled;
Church worship has become inspiring and attractive ; the
Bible has been divested of a superstitious and pernicious
reverence ; the miraculous is no longer considered an
essential element in religion ; the doctrine of eternal pun-
ishment has fallen into discredit. The fall, the doctrine of
the Trinity, the Atonement, are regarded as mysteries not
involved in personal religion." In much of this Mr. Sin-
clair seems to speak rather for himself than for the people
of Scotland.
IX. THE AMERICAN CHURCHES.
Full religious liberty is the first great contribution which
America has made to the history of Christian progress. The^
struggle through the ages has been from tolerance to liberty.^
^ Cf. Schafif, The Progress of Relig. Freedom, in Papers of the
Amer. Soc. of Church. Hist. N. Y. 1889.
THE MODERN CllUliCII. 2r^l
Oonstantine tolerated Christianity ; then came the Christian
intolerance of the Middle ages ; the Eeformation gained tol-
erance for Protestants from Eoman Catholic rulers, which
was granted in turn to Non-Conformists ; till finally, in
America, tolerance, which is a concession, yielded to
liberty, which is a right, and all religions reached a land
where they have full lef>al equality. In an im])ortant
respect this religious freedom is an outgrowth of the politi-
cal freedom whi h the Puritan founders of New JBngland
cherished in a theocratic spirit, and taught the Republic.
The Puritans led in the battle for religious liberty, and
without them civil liberty would probably have dropped
from the world. Fiske finds^ the Oriental method of
national growth to have been "conquest without incor-
poration." The Eoman method was by " conquest with
incorporation, but without representation."
The third national method is the English, which "con-
tains the princijDle of representation." War was an essen-
tial part of the first two ; this last can develop by peaceful
means. Of this free method, he says, Puritanism is the
consummate flower ; for by it, when all Europe was darkened
by despotism, there were brought the intensest religious
convictions into the support of national liberty, and Crom-
well triumphed at the "most critical moment in history."
Everywhere else the Eoman idea was dominant ; here alone
the English idea, in the hearts of Puritans, battled for vic-
tory. The exodus of the Puritans to America bore the
English idea to the home of its greatest triumph, and pre-
pared for its universal sway. This idea grew among .the
1 The Beg inning 8 of New England. Houghton, Mi}irtiu,& Co. Boston.
1889. $2.00.
258 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Lollards, through Wiclif s Bible, through Calvin's theology,
"which left the individual man alone in the presence of God,"
and triumphed with Cromwell. The Puritan ideal was the
theocracy, which should be a system of the highest ethical
motives, built upon the Bible, as interpreted by reason.
Every man must be a theologian, and theological discus-
sions, in New England as in Scotland, bred a race of think-
ers of far-reaching-influence. The Puritans regarded
themselves as chosen soldiers of Christ, and as such could
upset tj^rants, and in a most practical way set up a Chris-
tian Eepublic. They were not theorists ; with Bible in
hand they could unite religious fervor with the English love
of self-government, and, as no other men, give rise to our
modern freedom. But there was an element of intolerance
in these Puritans ; they were so sure that they were right
they had little patience with those that differed from them.
Their stern theology, especially, called forth opposi-
tion. Among the forms of reaction, from 1800 on, was
Universalism. Foster begins^ a review of this teach-
ing with Eelly, who held that as in Adam all died,
so all are made alive in Christ. Murray, the father
of American Universalism, adopted this position, say-
ing that all the threatenings of the gospel belong to
the domain of law, which was abolished through Christ.
Huntingdon taught that the divine decree of election
embraced the salvation of all men ; all were chosen in
Christ, the Son of Man, and through union with him all will
be saved. Winchester, the second leader after Murray,
joined Universalism to Arminian theology. He taught a
^ Eschatology of the N. England D ivines, in Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct.
1888; Jan. 1889.
THE MODERN CHURCH. 259
period of punishment, after the Day of Judgment, which
should lead to the restoration of all men. The final stage
of New England Universalism was reached in Hosea Bal-
lon. He made it the culmination of the doctrine of the
Atonement. He considered sin a finite evil, a violation of
a law in the mind, "which law is the imperfect knowledge
men have of moral good." The legislature prescribing
this law is "the capacity to understand." He thinks all men
will be saved because all desire it, all good men wish it ; if
any are lost, all who know it must be miserable ; this world
is a place of education from sin, and the Bible teaches it.
The replies of New England divines to Universalism
began with Smalley, who opposed the "union'' theory of
Eelly, that salvation is a matter of necessity, by saying
that "eternal salvation is on no account a matter of just
debt," and is therefore not necessary. He brought forward
the Grotian view of the Atonement, now called the New
England theory, that God in punishing for sin did not act
as the offended party, but as a ruler ; hence the atonement
of Christ was not payment of a debt, but a penal example
making forgiveness consistent with the authority of govern-
ment, by giving the sinner no right to forgiveness. Thus
Universalism led to the introduction of the New England
theory of the atonement. The syllogism of Relly was :
God is obliged ni justice to save men as far as the merit
of Christ extends, but the merit of Christ is sufficient for
I
the salvation of all men ; therefore, God is obliged in
justice to save all men.
The new theory removed the major premise of this
syllogism. Respecting the heathen world, Bellamy and the
younger Edwards held that pagans have a sufficient pro-
-260 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
bation in this life ; they have sufficient motives to do justly
and love mercy; it is their pride and sin that prevent the
gospel shining among them. Christ has brought all men
into a salvable state. Emmons viewed the heathen in the
light of election; God chose to withold the gospel from
them. New England theology has followed chiefly the
view of Bellamy here. After 1815, when Universalism be-
came identified with Unitarianism, orthodox replies grew
less frequent, for the danger was much less. The extreme
position of this Eationalism answ^ered itself.
Foster finds the following errors in Eschatology al-
ready buried by the New England divines : (1) Misconcep-
tion of the benevolence of God, a jMori reasoning on it.
The}^ held that divine benevolence must get its character
from the facts of the universe and the Bible. (2) The
realistic error, which makes salvation given without a
special act on the part of God or man. (3) Errors as to
the Atonement. (4) Errors as to man's ability to repent.
They held that man might repent without the gospel, or
the historic Christ being presented. He Avas responsible
for the light he had. (5) False theories on the meaning of
ai(0'^. (6) Various wrong interpretations of I Peter iii,
18-20. They all held the preacher here w^as Noah. (7)
False theories of probation. The reply always was that
probation was confined to this life, and rested entirely
upon statements of Scripture. (8) Theories on the nature
of punishment, that it was unjust, disciplinary, &c. The
reply w^as drawn from the nature of virtue. (9) Annihi-
lation.
'Zalin, Abriss einer Geschichte der evangel. Kirche in Amerika im
19 Jahrh. Stuttgart: SteiDkopf. 1889. pp. 127.
THE MODERN CHURCH. 261
Coming to the wider field of American Church life
in the nineteenth century, it is interesting to find the first
outline of the History of the Protestant Church in America,
in this century, written by a German.^ He finds the rapid
national growth here a proof that "the old States on the
banks of the Euphrates and the Nile did not require such
innumerable centuries to produce them." American relig-
ious freedom has developed a Christian worship which ex-
ercises greater influence upon the souls of men than
the worship of any other land. Zahn approves of the Amer-
ican principle, which makes theological seminaries agree
with the churches supporting them, and so avoids ''the folly
which is destroying the German Church, by putting Facul-
ties and churches in conflict ; or the State sides with the
Faculties against the Church."
He praises the liberality of these free churches. He
says, between 1800-1888, they gave for Foreign Mis-
sions §75,000,000, for Home Missions $100,000,000,
and for Pubhcation $150,000,000. This great activity,
intelligent, persistent, Zahn agrees with Hodge, in
tracing to Calvinism, whose Kepublican ideas underlie
American methods. Even Lutherans in America are
under these influences. Dr. Walther, their ablest leader,
"must finally accept predestination," and "the Episcopal
system is everywhere broken by the independence of
the local church." Gerberding, an American Lutheran,
however, takes- another view of these things. He thinks
"the bald and legalistic Puritanism" of New England was
unable to hold its own children, and occasioned the unbe-
^Zahn, Ahriss einer Geschichte der evangel. Kirche in Amerika in
19 Jahrh. Stuttgart: Steiakopf. 1889. pp. 127.
*See The Lutheran Quarterly, July, 1888.
262 HltSTORICAL THEOLOGY.
lief and "vagaries of schismatics that now fill the region."
If the Lutheran Church does her duty, he urges, "she will
yet redeem New England, and infuse the new life of the
pure old faith into its dreary intellectual wa&tes." For
such work the Lutheran churches in America should unite.
Some of the chief obstacles to such union he finds to be
hy^erorthodoxy, mere nominal Lutheranism, "personal
grudges and animosities," the "lifeless formalism of many
who claim to be rigid Lutherans, " a false pride in consist-
ency, a desire to please leading churches, sectionalism, and
lack of loyalty in the Lutheran press.
Returning to Zahn, we find some of the dark spots
in American life, as seen by him, set forth thus: "The
horror of killing the fruit of the body, which is
practiced just in Puritan New England, and causes the
Yankee race there to die out, the daily blood-red calen-
dars, the corruption of boodler officials, the brutal
quarrels of profane youth, the frequent perjuries, the
too free intercourse of the sexes, the lack of class distinc-
tions, and in many things a superficiality, crudeness,
and disproportionateness." Amid such things, he sees
in the American Sunday and the Bible a great source
of blessing. He thinks our Church activities are legal
and businesslike in their methods. "The great Metho-
dist Church is entirely a Church of law," in its call to con-
version, church building — over 700 a year — and claims
to perfect holiness. The cry, "We must do something for
the Lord, because He has done so much for us," is too often,
he says , taken up in a legal spirit. Largely through
America, "English is the predestined language of the
world." But the vast growth in material wealth he
THE MODERX I'lirRCIT. 263
considers a danger, that may smother the American
Church. The worldly spirit so seizes the German Amer-
icans that only ten out of fifty go to church, and only one
goes regularly. In the Episcopal Church here ''the
aristocracy of birth and money gathers" followers.
Coming to the rationalistic churches of America, we
find their weaknesses summed up by Griffin^ as laxity of
fellowship, the passion for entertainment in the pulpit, an
excess of amateur philosophizing, a spirit of compromise,
which takes all meaning out of the minister's message
through fear of man, and a lack of the missionary spirit.
He later raises the question, why Unitarians do not plant
Sunday-schools and churches on the frontier like others.
He finds the chief reason in lack of Unitarian ministers,
and ''partly because no ism is so susceptible of misstate-
ment." He suggests loaning pastors, able men, to start
missions in the West. Controversy must be avoided,
Crooker pleads^ for a training school for Unitarian minis-
ters in the North-West. It ought to be situated " in the
very shadow of some great secular or State University."
He recommends Madison, Wis., because of locality and
library facilities, and because "the hospitality of the State
University to the type of thought which we represent is ex-
ceptionally generous." It is said that the educated Germans
and Scandinavians of the North- West are increasingly in-
clined towards Unitarianism. They find in it not only a
variety of rationalistic tendencies from which to choose,
but, the German especially, meet many currents of free
thought which have come directly from their own lands.
^The Unitarian Review, Sep. 1888.
Ubid. Dec. 1888.
264 HTSTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Allen finds^ this new element in Unitarianism first clearly
recognized in Norton's address, 1839, on *' The Latest Form
of Infidelity."
Three great departments of this foreign thought can
be distinguished : first, the Transcendental influences, com-
ing from Schleiermacher and Hegel. This speculative the-
ology affected men's whole way of looking at religion.
Then a more gradual movement appeared going back to
Lessing. Critical theology came and gave rise to men like
Noyes, Hedge, Th. Parker, James Freeman Clarke, against
the protest of the conservatives, led by Prof. Norton. The
third tendency may be called "the German theology of
Erudition." Before German thought touched Unitarianism,
it was provincial, content to be an influence, beginning to
"ossify" ; the new influence revived it ; and the confidence
of the spirit in itself, we are told,'-^ looked towards the new
teaching. The Transcendental movement had as its most
characteristic feature that it took its rise among men " at
once highly impressionable and broadly cultivated." Cole-
ridge was influencing young minds in New England, trans-
mitting thoughts also of Fichte and Schelling. All this
was an " intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual ferment, not
a strictly reasoned doctrine." Emerson led in the move-
ment, laying stress on inward recognition ; he was op-
posed by Norton, who stood for miracles and external
authority.
Tiffany thinks the root idea of New England Transcen-
dentalism was the competency of the mind itself to recog-
nize spontaneously what is good and divine in life. It was
Uhid. Jan. 1889.
^Tiffany, Ih. Feb. 1889.
rJIE MODERN CUVnCIl. 265
the Absolute Imperative of the Sermon on the Mount.
Allen says that, among other things, this German influ-
ence led Unitarianism to give up " Christianity as a spe-
cial and supernatural revelation." Miracles are now given
up, and the Bible explained accordingly. He says, " With-
in these fifty years, 1839-89, many of us have had thrust
onus. . . .first-hand testimony from believers of facts as dis-
tinctly miraculous as anything in the New Testament .... yet
we know perfectly well that such testimony, however
vouched, would not stand one hour in any civilized court
of justice, and so we quietly lay it by, whatever be our
private opinion of its validity. It is just so with our treat-
ment of the miracles of the New Testament. Thousands
among us receive them with the same faith, comfort and
reverence as of old, but belief in them is not made a line
of Christian fellowship."
These free churches lay little stress upon doctrines,
but put much emphasis on the moral life and beneficence.
And yet a recent Unitarian writer^ declares that he
knows an orthodox church which gives for general
religious work ten times as much as its rich Unitarian
neighbor; and he thinks such cases are not excep-
tional. There seems to be a movement in this school of
liberal theology towards thorough self-criticism, and, conse-
quently, towards more positive beliefs and a more deter-
mined effort to spread its teachings and methods. Har-
vard College is becoming more conservative ; while, strange
to say, Yale is charged with growing liberalism. The
Methodist Keview^ accuses it of being " the headquarters
^The Unitarian Review. Jan. 1889.
^Sept.-Oct. 1889.
266 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
of American Bationalism." We are told "it produces
naore rationalistic literature than any other institution in
the land, and thus determines the issue." Professors
Ladd, Kussell and Harper are named as leaders in this
rationalistic departure. The first two teachers are charged
with " unbelief respecting miracles." Professor Ladd re-
plies,^ " I have never written or taught orally one word in
denial of the Supernatural and miraculous origin and char-
acter of biblical religion." The Reviewer calls this state-
ment "literary sophistry," because "the biblical religion
is not the subject," and continues, "We challenge Prof.
Ladd to say that he accepts the supernatural and miracu-
lous origin and character of the biblical books."
The Centenary (18 89) of the Roman Catholic Episco-
pate in America has called attention anew to the growth and
power of that Church in this country. It has now abou^
8,277,039 followers in America (so Sadler's Directory for
1890), but that is a small number, compared with the
number of Catholics who have come to America. McEl-
rone, a member of that faith, thinks"-^ there are 12,000,000
Catholics in this country, of whom 8,000,000 are of Irish
descent. But, he says, there should be 15,000,000 of such
Cathohcs. No less than 7,000,000 have been lost. He
thinks the chief cause of loss is " lack of organization."
The Christian Advocate. July 4, 1889.
■The Independent. June 6, 1889.
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
PRESENT STATE
OF
Studies m Natural aid Revealed Theology.
BY
REV. GEORGE NYE BOARDMAN,
Peofessor of Systematic Theology^
IN
Chicago Theological Seminaey.
PEESENT STATE OF THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSIOX.
A. PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS,
The unrest of the theological world, noticed in the last
number of Current Discussions, has increased during the
last year. There has been no lack of material sent forth
from the press by those interested in the topics under de-
bate. But thought has found its expression in newspa-
per articles or in magazine essays rather than in treatises
of comprehensive form and of permanent value. A year
ago there were several large works, issued by prominent
publishing houses, inviting attention ; of late we have had
only treatises on subordinate topics. The year has indeed
produced some works of interest, notably the lectures of
Professor Mead on Supernatural Eeligion, but we have no
works before us of the broad compass of Shedd's Theology or
Bohl's Dogmatik, unless it may be the work of Kedney, to
which we shall call attention, but which really belongs to
the year preceding that now under reviews
Before taking up specific publications, it will be well,
if we would at all adequately survey the state of the-
ology in the year 1889, to take into consideration the pub-
lic sentiment on theological questions. What are tha
themes uppermost in the minds of preachers and of church-
men, of zealous Christian workers, and of the wise coun-
sellors in the Christian community ? What seems the aim
•270 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
of the age ? Towards what are the churches drifting ?
These questions cannot he answered very definitely ; but
there are some facts wliich amount to an approximate
reply to them.
1. The CongregafionaUsts.
There are many causes combining to throw this de-
nomination into a ferment. The considerations demand-
ing attention are so many that it is impossible to draw
party lines ; persons may agree on one point who differ on
another. It may also be said that the questions in dispute
are of such a character that there ought not to be, proba-
bly will not "be, any rupture of denominational lines. All
differences ought to be settled within the denomination.
The ultimate question about w^hich interest will finally
centre and opinions will be finally tested, will very likely
be that of polity. The points in dispute here probably
will not be as to the original structure of the denomination,
but as to the extent of its power.
A brief notice of events which have led to the present
state of affairs will set the subject in a clearer light than
a description in abstract terms. Some years ago a few
prominent Congregationalists proclaimed themselves ad-
herents of the doctrine of future probation. They thought
by the aid of this doctrine a satisfactory theodicy might
be constructed, while under the present current theology
of the denomination the justice of God and the state of sin-
ful men could not possibly be reconciled. The theory itself,
however, has received but very little advocacy. Whether
important or unimportant its adherents have made very
PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS. 271
little attempt to enlighten the world by means of it. They
have rather concealed than displayed the form, the grounds,
the probable effects of the doctrine. They have assumed
an altogether negative position and have thrown them-
selves wholly into the attitude of defence. The demand has
been that those who hold the doctrine of future probation
should be still accepted as teachers and pastors in good
and regular standing among Congregationalists. The or-
ganization before which this demand has been most dis-
tinctly made and openly brought to an issue is the Ameri-
can Board of Foreign Missions. The friends of the New
Departure, as it is called, have insisted that their peculiar
views ought not to be a bar to missionary appointment.
In this position they are sustained by many who have no
sympathy with their doctrinal opinions. Rut the Board
has decided that it ought not to take action that would in
any way countenance the doctrine in question.
Persevering and earnest efforts have been made to
secure a reversal of this decision or a disregard of it. The
theory of future probation has been represented as a
dogma not a doctrine, a hypothesis not an open position,
a resort for those having personal doctrinal difficulties,
not the basis of a satisfactory theodicy, as was at first
claimed. On the other hand, attempts have been made to
overbear the Board and its executive officers by public
opinion, by exciting sympathy for missionary candidates
who failed of appointment, and by effecting a change in
the membership of the Board. The Board is a close cor-
poration and fills its own vacancies. Members cannot be
imposed upon it, therefore, from without. But it has no
reason for existence except to serve the churches in carry-
272 SYSTE3IATIC THEOLOGY.
ing forward missionary work by employing as missionaries
the men furnished by the churches.
The question naturally rises whether the churches have
not the right to appoint their own agents. And it is fur-
ther asked, whether it is not their duty to appoint their
own agents and to hold them to a strict account. Before
these questions are answered another rises, whether the
Congregational churches can appoint missionary agencies
and sustain them as a part of, or an appendage to, their
ecclesiastical organizations.
It is at this point that the topic touches systematic
theology. We have in former volumes of Current Discus-
sions noticed the new departure doctrines. The methods
to be adopted in the management of the Board in the ap-
pointment of Missionaries have no connection with this de-
partment of Current Discussions,- but Church polity is one
of the themes that may be treated here, and the relation of
the Congregational polity to Boards of missionary labor is
exciting present interest. Some maintain that the Board
is now in reality, and should be in form, the creature of
the churches. Others have favored the formation of new
Board by the churches. Some would have the Board fill
its own vacancies in accordance with its present charter,
but adopt the method of selectmg its members from nomi-
nees presented by churches or by organizations represent-
ing churches. This topic was ably discussed about fifty
years ago ; but the succeeding half-century has obliterated
the arguments of that day and the present generation will
need to repeat the debate. We shall not here consider
the merits of the case, but merely bring forward some of the
items that enter into the discussion.
rrnrAc discussions. 278
1. The Board as now constituted is not in any sense
an ecclesiastical body. It was not organized to fullill the
wishes of the churches, but to afford certain young men an
opportunity to fulfill their desires to preach the gospel to
the heathen. The General Association of Massachusetts
appointed nine commissioners, of whom five afterwards met
and organized themselves into a Board. About two years
later this Board was made a legal corporation by the leg-
islature of the State of Massachusetts. The Association
did not represent the churches in this act, had not been
charged with that duty, but merely designated men who
might form themselves into an organization to forward
missionary work if they chose. The Board, when formed,
encouraged young men to preach the gospel in foreign parts,
and appealed to the churches to furnish the funds needed
for the undertaking. The churches iiave responded to its
call and cherished it as a useful, perhaps we might say, a
divinely appointed organization, but have never claimed
it as organically dependent on themselves.
2. The Board is not an agent of ecclesiastical bodies of
any kind. It is a self-constituted agency offering itself as
an intermediary by which the missionary forces of this
country may be made effective in unevangelized lands. It
is, in fact, far more than this ; it has become among Con-
gregationalists the primal missionary force, the fountain of
missionary zeal, the source of influences by which the
churches have been roused to the conviction that they
were under obligation to spread the light of the gospel ; but
this accumulation and movement of its energies has not
come through any ecclesiastical connections.
On the other hand, the missionary interest of the churches
274 SYSTE2IATIC THEOLOGY.
is the result* of efforts made by the Board. Where it sends
agents, there it generally secures contributions ; where it does
not send, contributions are too often uncertain. There are
many churches which contribute occasionally to the
Board ; the number of those which never fail is small. It
cannot therefore be an ecclesiastical force that moves the
Board or in any way constitutes it a servant of the
churches.
3. It is perfectly in accord with Congregationalism to em.
ploy agencies which are not ecclesiastical for the perform-
ance of Christian work. Each local church is complete in
itself, and its ecclesiastical force cannot therefore reach to
foreign lands. A local church must work through an
agency not a constituent part of itself, if it is to work in a
distant field. But it has a right to support and pray for
an agency performing a desirable work which it cannot do.
It may encourage a temperance society, or an education
society, or a hospital, without demanding that they adopt
any kind of an ecclesiastical structure. In the same way,
it may, without impairing its own integrity or failing in the
completeness of its form, employ a fit organization to do
Christian work in foreign lands. It may entrust its money
or its men to another organization to be employed by it,
without thereby renouncing its Congregationalism. The
strict ecclesiastical force of a Congregational church is con-
fined to those who have entered into covenant with that or-
ganization ; the ecclesiastical element in associations and
councils is derivative and dependent on custom.
4. The Congregational churches have no power to form
a Board of Missions which shall, from its origin and
structure, have a claim upon all the churches. There is
PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS. 275
no Congregational church embracing all the churches, or
any number of different churches. The churches might
all enter into an agreement to support a certain organi-
zation, but any one could withdraw at its will. The
members of a church could not bind their successors to
support any organization unless they delivered a consid-
eration with the obligation. Christian fellowship does not
bind different churches to the same methods of Christian
labor. Fellowship has no coercive power; that belongs
to the covenant of the local church. The National Council
— the best representative of the churches at large — has no
authority over the churches ; its existence depends on dis-
claiming any such authority. It could not form a board
or committee having more authority than itself. Several
churches — few or many — might establish a missionary or-
ganization and it might displace the American Board in
its work for the churches, but it would not be an ecclesias-
tical body, and would draw to its support only those who
should choose to adopt it.
5. The Board has a character of its own. It has a
name, a charter, possesses property and has the powder of
self-continuance. The churches have, therefore, no power
to destroy it. It is wholly outside the range of ecclesiasti-
cal forces. It might be less employed than it is at present,
might be so forsaken that the continuance of its existence
would be inexpedient, but it would still be a reality ; and
the employment of rival organization for a time would not
put it out of existence nor render improbable a final return
to its support by many of the churches.
There are still other questions of polity before the Con-
gregationalists, but none that excite the interest that is
276 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
connected with their relation to the benevolent societies.
The relation of the churches to associations is an unsettled
topic of discussion. The denomination is spread over such
an extent of territory that the denominational standing of
a minister needs some other attestation than that of a local
church, which might often be an obscure and unknown
church. If an association is to furnish the desired creden-
tials, to what shall it testify ? x\nd how long shall it be
responsible for the testimony? Shall it report supposed
facts or ascertain facts and report them ? If associations
are made indispensable parts of the denominational organi-
zation, are they thereby to acquire an ecclesiastical stand-
ing ? Can a church be Congregational and have no connec-
tion with an association ? If associations are necessary to
the system, does not Congregationalism cease to be the
polity of the New Testament? These are some of the
questions under discussion at the present time.
2. The Presbyterians.
The Presbyterian Church is in a ferment more general
than that of the Congregationalists. It is agitated over
the question of a new creed, or a revision of the old one.
Fifty years ago, it was divided into two bodies over the the-
ological questions now before it, though a change of the
creed was not thought of. About twenty years ago, the old
and new school united on the basis of the old standards.
At that time a suggestion of tolerance of New^ England
theology was frowned upon as an impertinence. Now, the
proposition of some is to substitute certain New England
doctrines for some of those of the standards. The out-
PUB Lie DISCUSSIONS. 277
come of the movement is uncertain ; but when important
presb3'teries debate the subject day after day, and the
leading men of the denommation are divided in opinion,
it is natural to infer that the entire church will be affected
by the discussion. The aim of the agitators will be under-
stood when it is stated that the effort is to bring the creed
of the church into accord with popular preaching, and that
the popular preaching has of late drawn upon the Ar-
minian vocabulary.
It is not two years since Professor Shedd published his
Dogmatic Theology (noticed in last year's Current Discus-
sions). He confessedly set out in his speculations from
the Calvinistic theology of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. He holds that the thinkers of that age were
more profoundly theological than later writers have been,
that the thinking of that age was more akin to religious
truth than the thinking of the present age is. His two
large volumes seemed to connect Presbyterian theology
with the Pieformed doctrines as they were stated before the
rise of Arminianism. But his work was promptly reviewed
by those who believe that the present century has more
wisdom than the sixteenth, and, within a year from the
publication of his work, the Presbyterian General Assembly
sent down to the presbyteries the question whether they
desired a revision of the creed. It w^ill be readily seen,
then, that there are differences of sentiment in the Presby-
terian Church.
The criticisms upon Professor Shedd's work rather con-
firm than refute his position that the early Keformed the-
ology is more theological than the later. Professor Morris,
maintaining the superiority of the modern Calvinism, says :
278 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
"It is the old Calvinism, less closeh^ organized around
certain philosophical propositions, with larger biblical
rather than s )eculative quality, allowing wider varieties of
statement and explanation, less relentless towards opposi-
tion, exhibiting broader and stronger modes of defence at
points where it was found most vulnerable, and possessing
all in all many fresh elements of persuasiveness and
power." Traducianism and decrees are instanced as
points at which broader and stronger modes of defence
have been introduced, and the reviewer presents the se-
ries of substitutes for tradueianism which hav3 been
devised. But he will hardly claim that scientific theology
has been advanced by them when he closes the topic with
this question : " And is it not much more probable that
the Calvinistic teachers of this century and of succeeding
centuries, instead of returning to this venerable yet em-
barrassing theory, will either cling to their later hypothesis,
or perchance invent some other, or possibly rest at last
upon the simple fact, as revealed alike in Scripture and in
experience, confessing themselves unable to penetrate its
unfathomable mysteries ? " On the subject of decrees the
conclusion to which Professor Morris comes shows that the
advance made by modern theologians is in liberality of
sentiment rather than clearer views of truth. He says :
"While we all believe as heartily as he (Dr. Shedd) in the
revealed fact of election, and still hold as firmly as ever
the Calvinistic rather than the Arminian interpretation of
this fact, we are not disposed to push the resulting doc-
trine out to its most rigorous extremes, or to urge it upon
men in any exclusive form or temper." And he gives as
an accordant sentiment of Dr. k. A. Hodge the following :
PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS. 279
''Many of us who are the staunchest Calvmists feel that
the need of the hour is not to emphasize a fore -ordination
which no clear, comprehensive thinker douhts, but to unite
with our Arminian brethren in putting all emphasis and
concentrating all attention on the vital fact of human free-
dom." The reviews of Professor Shedd's work bring to
view other points on which the Presbyterians are unset-
tled and restless, but these may be better noticed in con-
nection with the proposition to revise the creed.
A prominent member of the Methodist Church, in
enumerating the causes for thanksgiving the present year,
included the fact, that the Presbyterians seemed about to
throw oft" the incubus of Calvinism. The discussions con-
cerning the creed have disclosed an unexpected opposition
to some of its teachings. Certain prominent pastors seem
utterly horrified at the doctrine of reprobation. One would
infer that they were surprised to find it among the Calvin-
istic doctrines. The privilege of preaching a free salva-
tion, of teaching that whosoever will may come into the
kingdom of God, is demanded emphatically by some, with
the implication that the Westminster Confession does not
permit it. The entire third chapter of the Confession "Of
God's Eternal Decree," is offensive to many, and the third
and fourth sections- of chapter ten not less so. The asser-
tion that elect infants and other elect persons are saved
though not " outwardly called by the ministry of the word,''
has been violently assailed because of the natural infer-
ence therefrom that the non-elect are not saved. Professor
Briggs says : "If we cannot tolerate in the Confession
these doctrines of the damnation of the heathen and non-
elect infants, now that none of us believe in them, there is
280 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
no other way than to blot out these sections altogether."
He considers the Confession defective on the doctrines of
the Trinity, the being of God, creation, on anthropology,
on the work of the Holy Spirit, and on Christology, con-
cerning which he says : " We are opening our minds to
see that the Redeemer's work upon the cross was the be-
ginning of a larger w^ork in the realm of the dead, and from
his heavenly throne whence the exalted Saviour is drawing
all men unto himself."
With the question of a revision of the Presbyterian Con-
fession may be noticed the recent work WhitJier? by Pro-
fessor Charles A. Briggs, probably called forth by the
agitations on this subject. We shall not attempt any criti-
cism of the author, his Presbyterian brethren having un-
dertaken that, but simply call attention to the topics which
he suggests as deserving and calling for renewed consider-
ation.
He thinks that Presbyterian and Congregational
churches err in the neglect of the religious element.
" They are at present marked by the present low views of
the Church and its sacraments, and loose views and prac-
tices in public worship/' He finds the doctrine of baptis-
mal regeneration and the real presence of Christ at the
Lord's table in the Westminster Standards as truly as in
the Book of Common Prayer. On the real presence he is
emphatic. "If there were any apprehension of the mys-
tery and sanctity of the real presence of Christ in the sac-
rament, the ministry and people would be more careful
in preparing themselves and in inviting others." " I would
rather partake of the Lord's supper with one who believed
in the real presence of Christ, even though he were a Lu-
I
PUBTAC DISCUSSIONS. 281
tlieran , than commune with one who denied the real pres
ence, even though he were a Presbyterian." He calls upon
Presbyterians to renounce the false, extra-confessional
doctrines of the verbal inspiration and inerrancy of the Script-
ures. The latter doctrine he considers peculiarly danger-
ous. Criticism has undermined the authority of the text
both of the Old Testament and the New, has shown that
the Psalter is the work of centuries, the books of wisdom
occupied generations in their composition, and " the Pen-
tateuch is composed of four parallel narratives with four
€odes of legislation." Inspiration of the Scriptures is not
connected with their human authorship. Hence we can-
not possibly establish the absolute correctness as to fact of
every statement of the Scriptures, nor show that the words
are the language of the Holy Ghost. The authority of the
Scriptures must come from the Scriptures themselves. The
evidence for them is divine evidence, the witness of the
Spirit to each individual believer. This is the rock on
which Christian evidences rest. One who apprehends
Christ as made known in the Bible and finds God reveal-
ing himself in the sacred writings can believe in miracles
and prophecy. They are just what he would expect in that
state of things.
Professor Briggs sees in eschatology a theme of excited
discussion in the coming time. He considers the preva-
lent opinion on this point crude and erroneous. The idea
of a private judgment at death is wholly unfounded; the
doctrine of the intermediate state is mostly undeveloped.
Between death and the judgment the process of sanctifi-
cation goes forward among the redeemed. The Bible
should be carefully studied to discover the changes which
282 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY^.
took place when Christ entered Hades and preached to the
dead. Whether probation is granted in the next life
depends on whether it is granted in this life. He thinks
there is no probation in either, that those regenerated are
regenerated in this world and that we must trust to the
electing decree of God for the salvation of any. He thinks
this a better foundation for a work of grace than the
modern notion of probation. But he holds that the mass
of mankind are embraced in the electing love of God.
If Professor Briggs apprehends rightly the signs of the
times, w^e have already entered upon theological discussions
that will largely revolutionize the Presbyterian Church.
He will hardly be willing to rest till he sees American
Presbyterian restored to the Westminister foundations,
and the Westminister Symbols themselves purged of their
unscriptural doctrines.
B. THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.
I. Treatises o)i Theology as a System.
The last year has not been prolific in comprehensive
works on theology. The spirit of the time has turned at-
tention to particular topics and given rise to hasty pro-
ductions. AVorks that are as long in process of ad-
justment as the Children of Israel were in the wilderness, —
works like those of Hodge, Smith and Shedd — appear
only at long intervals. We have before us a survey of the
broad field of theology, a hand-book of theology presenting
a survey of a large portion of that field, and one volume
which is a part of an extended treatise, to which we call at-
tention.
THEOLOGICAL LITER ATU HE. 283
Christian Doctrine Ilarnionized^ is a most persistent ef-
fort to give a rational form to the doctrines of Christianity
Through two large octavo volumes of about 400 pages each,
the author carries forward, step* by step, his speculations
in theology, with hardly a reference to the Scriptures ex-
cept as he quotes here and there a sentence to show that
they coincide with the views which he adopts. He says :
"Dogmatics, in unifying its own content, must relate it so
to all other truth, and so unify the whole, that no philo-
sophic objection is possible. This self-coherence is the
highest form of proof. The present author proposes so to
treat dogmatic results as to show their harmony with all
other known truth. "^ The idea that the test of truth is
harmony, or a harmonizing force, pervades the book. "All
truth is one. Every element of it illustrates and con-
ditions every other. It is thus a rational system, and its
inner harmony only can show it to be the absolute truth.
This is the axiom of philosophy, which smiles at any
attempt to gainsay it, and will go on in its unravelling and
weaving career as long as the world endures."^
The starting point of philosophy he makes the ego —
the mind as we are conscious of it, or in it, as a concrete
entity. The thinking power is in relation to spirit and
matter, it can not rid itself of the idea of either and accepts
both. It also accepts the limitations under which it acts
and the forces by which it is determined in its action.
The mind desires and pursues, and so love and life are one.
' Christian Doctrine Harmonized and its Rationality Vindicated,
By John Steinl'ortKedney, D. D. Professor of Divinity in Seabury
Divinity School. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1889. 2 Vols.
-I p. 2. ^'I p. IGO.
284 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
The mind must elaborate for itself a system of thought
which shall hold in harmony the facts of human expe-
rience and the necessary ideas of the mind. In theological
speculation three postulates are to be admitted. God, the
first Principle, endowed with personality, the source of
power; Man with the sense of responsibility, and with
moral freedom ; and sin.
The speculations of the author concerning the Trinity
and other topics of theolog}* are interesting and indicate
much ingenuity of mind and persistence of thought, but
these points we will pass, giving attention to his views of
sin and the method of recovery from it.
The essence of sin he considers to be isolation from
God, self-sufficiency, the attempt to make one's self an in-
dependent whole, a refusal to help in the realization of a
perfect, harmonious universe. "It can not properly be
called rebellion, unless there be a disputed dominion,
which the rebellious spirit hopes to gain or to share. It
may, indeed must, become a rebellion to keep itself from
stagnation and barrenness of resources. It will, therefore,
to enliven its own experience, seek fellowship and use
power, and exert authority. But as long as it makes this
activity and fellowship a need to itself, the rebellious one
can still retreat, for this need implies the principle of good
from which it thus far has not entirely freed itself. If
convinced at length of its own impotence, it may either
yield to the predisposition which it has repressed, or repel
the same and retire upon its own spiritual independence,
and have no need beyond itself. And then and thus does
its evil become absolutely pure. It reigns thenceforward
undisputed in its own realm, but this realm is only within
THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 285
itself. Its choice of evil is thus deliberate and wilful, and
it enters upon a career of perpetual shrinking of itself to-
wards a point unattainable, viz., cessation of being. "^ We
have quoted thus at length because the passage contains
much of the author theologic philosophy. The process of
shrinking towards a point not attainable when one gives
himself over to pure evil is spoken of more at large in the
second volume, where the condition of the incorrigibly
wicked comes under discussion; and the expression "3^ield
to the predispositions which it has repressed" points to his
view of one meiliod of recovery from sin. Man's moral
position being assumed by his own act, * 'while he has
the desire and may have the w^ill to make the right moral
choice, his recovery from the force of adverse tendencies is
still thinkable, and therefore possible. Instances of such
recovery, so far as w^e can accurately judge from observa-
tion, have been frequent and numerous ; instances of mak-
ing choice of moral good from out the deepest abyss and
heaviest ruin of moral evil.'"^
The great question concerning evil is, is there a means
of recovery from it, a means of expelling it from the uni-
verse, at least of repelling it from the range of human life.
Humanity constitutes an organism, which is to be thought of
as a member of a larger organism including God himself. But
before the subordinate organism can fill its place and at-
tain its full development, there is a contradiction to be re-
moved. "Moral evil must be extirpated from it, in which
case only can physical evil disappear, and the material
universe be made correspondent."^ The author finds in
'I. p. 13<). -I p. 32. ^*I p. 112
286 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
human experience an intimation of recovery from evil. Ob-
dience to law produces happiness, violation of law brings
suffering. . "Thus the Divine love is seen to be so perfect
as not to be indulgent, but seveie to whatever is alien to
itself. And besides, a close observation of human experi-
ence shows that to the morally obedient the suffering that
comes from heredity and environment becomes remedial,
purifying, and a means for spiritual strength. Such facts
as these indicate that human obedience and moral recovery
are in the Divine mind a.nd heart, and render probable that
the task of rectifying humanity has been undertaken."* * *
Influences from the unseen and unknown must have come
to it [human freedom], illuminating motives and supplying
and strengthening the motive-spring. In this is the philo-
sophic, or even the scientific vindication of a doctrine of
grace. ^
How is this recovery of wbich na ure gives a kind of
promise to be reahzed ? Man can keep the law, while sub-
ject to temptation, -can obey and thus acquire a liigh, noble
moral character, but can he go beyond this? Can he come
into closer relations to the First Principle so that there
shall be a coalescence between the Divine and the human?
If the perfect idea of humanity is to be attained man must
sustaai £i filial not a %aZ relation toward God. His nature
must be assimilated to the Divine nature. The exhaustless
depths of the latter must be opened to him. This is virtual
apotheosis. Can this be secured in the mere course of
nature, by development of the human? Even the pro-
gress in human elevation through obedience to law has
been secured 1)V external and changing intiuences, and "if
Tp.|118, 119.
THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 287
new depths of the Divine being are to be opened, if God
and man are to be still fm-ther assimilated, it must be by
a new condescension on God's part, bringing himself with-
in the compass of man's actual and, thus far, limited fac-
ulties."^ If this assimilation of man's nature to God's is
to become a fact, and men are to become sons of God, the
Eternal Son must become human and exhibit the pattern
of eternal Sonship. "In accomplishing this incarnation,
the Holy Spirit, as the life-principle of the universe, must
be efficient." If the incarnation is to become effective in
transforming humanity God must be one with the human
race in its essential idea. "The Eternal Son must come
through the whole sphere of human development. He
must be born, be a child, grow physically, mentally, mo-
rally, religiously, and, since the contradiction has entered
the world, must cae and be raised again. "^ If Christ is thus
incarnate and dies on the cross, a moral influence is brought
to bear upon man which cannot be exceeded. "And I, if
I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." In the incar-
nation is necessary, so the author holds, a kenosis. Only
as we rightly appreciate this shall we properly appreciate
redemptive work. Creation is a self-limitation of God, the
creation of man with freedom of action and power to intro-
duce a contradiction into the system of things, is a still
more marked self-limitation. "The purpose of the creation
is the production that can feel and respond to Divine love."
Love is therefore the motive of God's self-limitation. When
the self -limitation 'puts on the form necessary for the re-
demption, for setting aside sin, the contradictions in the
^:, p. 152. -I. y, 163.
288 SVSTFJIATIC THEOLOGY.
universe, it becomes sacrifice. This we see in the suffer-
ing and dying Christ.
Christ's growth in mental and moral power affected his
physical nature and was redemptive. He was regenerated
progressively through life. This explains his transfigura-
tion. From him sanctified there goes forth a force which
permeates humanity and transforms it. "The new and re-
generated humanity may be regarded as summed up in its
solitary and unique specimen, Jesus Christ, from whose
side issues the Church, the bride, the extension of himself,
and the propagation from himself."^ This is but a meager
sketch of a carefully wrought scheme of theological specu-
lation. The course of thought is recondite and will be fol-
lowed to its close by very few readers. It is, however, sug-
gestive and indicates profound reflection upon topics of
highest human interest. The ordinary Christian will think
that it savors more of human wisdom than of simple faith,
and it must be confessed that it cannot claim a very full
reproduction in Current Discussions, for, however interested
some minds may be in the abstruse meditations of the au-
thor, the work can never become one familiarly known to
the public.
Nitzsch, Evangelische Dogmatik.'^ This work is one of a
series of theological manuals pubUshed by Mohr. The aim
of the work is to give the reader a knowledge of the present
state of dogmatic theology. We have here the first volume,
with the promise that the second shall follow as soon as
ij. p. 329.
^Lehrbuch der Evangelischen Dogmatik von Dr. Friedricli Aug.
Berth. Nitzsch. Ord. Professor der Theologie in Kiel. Erste Halfte
J^reiburg i. B. 1889 J. C. B. Mohr.
THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 289
possible. The author's purpose is to treat his subject in a
way to give prominence to topics of special interest, not in
accordance with scientific proportions.
The speculative tendency of theological thinkers in Ger-
many is obvious from the fact that one-half of the present
volume is given to a consideration of the origin and essence
of religion, mainly to a presentation of different views of
the subject. The greater part of the second half of the
book is devoted to the doctrine of revelation — a statement
of the elements of the doctrine, a history of the criticisrhs
to which the doctrine has been subjected, and a reply to the
criticisms. Theological students in this country would
hardly select a manual of which one-half was taken up
with religions in general and Christian apologetics. The
work contains nothing of special interest for American
readers except that it presents a clear view of the position
of the more evangelical theologians of Germany. The au-
thor holds that the Scriptures are the norm of evangelical
doctrine and that no criticism can deprive them of this dig-
nity. He accepts the fact of miracles but seems anxious
to hold that they, in some way, belong to the original plan
of creation and are in accord with natural law^ He speaks
in terms of commendation of Kothe's view of revelation,
which makes it consist of manifestation and inspiration, —
God's manifestation of himself and an inspiration of man
that enables him to discern the revelation. He maintains
that the Christian^religion is not revealed metaphysics or
revealed ethics, yet that it implies metaphysical conditions
and a moral state of the will. He makes conscience the
complex of one's involuntary moral consciousness which
reacts against conduct at war with one's ruling moral ideal.
'290 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
He defines Cliristianity thus: '' Christianity is that ethi-
cal monotheistic and nniversal rehgion in which participa-
tion in the kingdom of God, developed by Jesus of Naza-
reth, including divine sonship and love together with eter-
nal divine life, is made the highest good and a saving good."
His remarks upon natural religion are worthy of notice.
" Christianity is, notwithstanding its universality, a special
and definite religion. There is no so-called natural relig-
ion. What is named such is no religion at all, but a com-
bination of popular philosophical phrases, and it is very
questionable whether this is wholly free from myth. One
seeks to reject what is peculiar to each religion and set ap
the remainder as the content of natural religion. But there
never existed such a natural religion. There is no actual
religion which belongs to all men as such."^ The need of
a religion is universal, but one should not confound this
with its satisfaction, the vessel with its definite content.
A. Gretillat, Theohgie SysUinatique.^ This volume is
the second published of the extensive work of Professor
Gretillat, but is to be the third in the complete work ; the
second and fourth volumes are to be published as they are
prepared. Professor E. A. Lipsius speaks of the produc.
tion as in accord with modern orthodoxy, but it can hardly
be the orthodoxy of this country. The sentiments, how-
ever, which are at variance with our current theology are
not new and now occupy a pretty well defined position
among us, while the work as a whole is acute, instructive
ip. 104.
^Expose de theolojie systematique. Tome Troisieme. Dog-
matique. I Tlieologie Speciele, Cosmologie. Neuchatel. Attinger
Freres, 1888.
THEOLOGICAL LITERATI' RE. 291
and serious. Though the author rejects decisively the idea
that there is no relation hetween theology and metaphys-
ics, he relies upon the Scriptures to a remarkable degree to
support the positions which he adopts. The volume before
us consists of two parts: a treatise on theology proper, — -
the doctrine concerning God, and Cosmology.
The point which will attract most interest with us in
the first part is his view of the Trinity. He holds to the
doctrine of three persons in the Godhead, and to the con-
substantiality of the persons, but teaches the subordina-
tion of the Son and the Spirit. He considers that the
unanimous and universal consent of the Cliurch to a
hierarchy in the designation of the Father, Son, and
Spirit as first, second, third, implies also a subordination,
if only nominal, of the second and third to the first. ^ But
he holds to a subordination more than nominal. He finds
a subordination of essence in the consubstantiality in
John v:26, "As the Father hath life in himself: so hath
he given to the Son to have life in himself." Here is as-
<3ribed, the author believes, aseity to the Son, which is yet
given by the Father. This is a contradiction which mathe-
matics rejects, but which perfect love has eternally solved.
The Son eternally receives from the Father spontaneous
existence.*'^ He infers also a subordination of the Son in
operation, in the expression, ''the Word was with God,"
i. e. unto God. This is interpreted as meaning, the sec-
ond person acts with reference to the first. ^ The words in
Phil. v:6-7, "Who being in the form of God thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of
no reputation," he interprets thus: "He did not regard it
>p. 200. =-'p. 2Ul. p^ 205.
2§^ SYSTFJIATIC THEOLOGY.
as a good to be taken by force, to raise himself still higher,
to an equality with God, by refusing to obej^ the decree
which designated him as the mediator in the salvation of
men, but he humbled himself, etc."^ He considers that the
Spirit is subordinate to the Father in essence, as the Son
is, and subordinate to both the Father and the Son in
operation.^
Under Cosmology the author treats of creation and provi-
dence. The creative act is first considered, the account given
in Genesis being accepted as historic. The product of the
creative act — matter, angels, men — is then taken up, and
to this is attached a subsidiary section on sin. Sm is con-
sidered under the two heads, demonology, and the fall of
man. Providence is treated as including the preservation
and the control of the w^orld. The control of the world is
such that miracles and the permission of sin have their
place as possible and actual. The discussion of these
topics is fresh, and often keenly intellectual while not ver}^
thoroughly argumentative. The author states his views
boldly, sometimes without much attempt at explanation.
We shall not attempt to give his course of thought
but simply refer to a few points which illustrate the char-
acter of his speculations. One of the offices of matter he
sets forth thus : It is the neutral medium in which actions
and reactions, put forth and received in turn by finite spirits,,
gather themselves up and objectify themselves for a time
sufficient to permit the object of the action to deliberate on the
reception he shall give to the external movement, and to per-
mit the subject to refrain from passing at once and wholly
T. 204. -P. 20o.
TIIEOLOGKWL LITER ATUR E. 293
into the effects of his action.^ He adopts the scheme of
trichotoiin^ — body, sonl and spirit, and attributes a reality
and importance to the material substance as well as to the
spiritual. This estimate of matter he supposes to be sup-
ported by the doctrine of the resurrection and the restoration
of nature. He denies that the Scriptures ever set the two
principles, matter and spirit, in opposition to each other
as hostile and not reducible, the one to the other. In the
Scripture view the susceptibility and unity in the two sub-
stances prevails over their incompatibilities. "The docr
trines of the incarnation and of the resurrection of Christ
himself, and of his redeemed, attest, in opposition to the
two principles of dualism and of idealism, that the Scripture
is at once spiritualistic and realistic.""^
The author infers from the narrative of the fall of man
that there is an author of evil superior to nature and to
man, but absolutely dependent upon God and amenable
to his tribunal. The fall of the devil he does not find
affirmed in the Bible, but clearly implied. It is proved
from John viii : 44, "He abode not in the truth. "^ The
existence of beings superior to humanity, devoted to evil,
he thinks fairly inferrible from Gen. ii:15, where Adam is
enjoined to keep the garden. The decisive proof, however,
that the diabolic state is due to a voluntary determination
is the divine judgment concerning it. The di'abolic state
is one of unmitigated wickedness. While men commit
sin for the sake of an incidental good, in the diabolic state
evil is the foundation and essence of its being, as a lie is
the appropriate expression of its tbought. A demon has
'P. 432. *Pp. 428-429. ^P. 523.
294 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
no participation in the good, but his simple existence is an
opposition to the truth and a revolt against God.^ His
absolute subjection to evil is followed by successive de-
gradations. In the Old Testament times Satan found a
place amid the faithful angels and entered into their de-
liberations, as Judas was among the disciples, but Christ
saw him, when he was on earth, fall like lightning from
heaven. Since that time he is the prince of this world.
Hereafter, at the appointed time, he will be cast into the
abyss and confined apart from all that is good. There his
existence will be life in death, and death in life, a life
re-born without cessation that it may be consumed with-
out cessation.
The author holds that man succeeded Satan in the inheri-
tance of this world, so that Satan's lie in the temptation of
Jesus, when he said the kingdoms of the world were given
to him, was in his neglecting to say, that he had forfeited his
right to them. Satan resolved from the first to recover his
possession, and thought the surest way to effect this result
was to draw man into an alliance with himself, and make
him a partaker of his own fall. He succeeded partially in
this endeavor. Some of the race are to be banished to the
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, Matt.
XXV : 41.^ The fall of man is accepted, in this volume,
as occurring precisely in accord with the narrative in Gen-
esis. The story has the air of a historic reality and is
accepted as such in the New Testament. Temptation
came upon man from three sources, the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eye, and the pride of life. The fall was a
ip. 530. -P. 537.
THEOLOGICAL LITEIiATl'RE. 295
conscious and voluntary transgression of God's command.
There was no necessity in the case, the transgression was
preceded by deUberation and followed upon the presen-
tation of definite motives. The consequences of the fall of
man were a sentence of utter and irrevocable ruin upon the
tempter; chastisements for the victims of the temptation,
not as satisfaction to justice, but dictated by mercy and
convertible into blessings.^ The sentence upon man was
death, involving spiritual death and the death of the body,
but not eternal death, as the old Protestant theology has
affirmed. The threatened punishment was simply phys-
ical death, but the immediate col sequence was spiritual
death. Eternal death was only a menace, the second
death incurred by a prolongation of the moral death
in this world. Physical death, however, may be made
the chief of blessings, for it is the condition, fctr man,
refused to the first rebels of the universe, of the promised
redemption and of immortality acquired anew. The
refusal of death after the fall would be a greater crime
than the disregard of the menace of death before the
fall- Physical death is the cui-se entailed upon the race
as a whole, and has no connection as a result with
particular personal transgression. When one dies before
conscious voluntary sin his death answers all the demands
of justice, he needs no further vindication before the law.
What is to be the outcome of actual and conscious sin
the author does not know. This, he says, is the absolute^
insoluble part of the problem of sin in humanity. Still he
knows that all the guilty have need of salvation and can be
T. 561. -Pp. 561. 569. 572.
296 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
saved only by grace. On the other hand, he holds that
subjection to the wrath of God because of transgression is
not irreparable and eternal, for there is only one sin irre-
missible in this world and the next, that is, voluntary
rejecting of the grace of God in Christ.
The mistake of the old orthodoxy was, so our author
thinks, in disregarding the differences in the various im-
putations of sin. It made eternal damnation the penalty
alike for the hardened transgressor, for the occasional sin-
ner, and for one dying in infancy. The fact that the gospel
has survived such a doctrine, of which the Scriptures
and Paul are innocent, is evidence of the indestructi])le
vitality of the gospel.
The author's views of Soteriology and Eschatology
are to be presented in a volume now in the course of
preparation.
The Kingdom of God, Bruce. ^ Former works of Pro-
fessor Bruce have been noticed in Current Discussions.
The present volume does not require special attention.
Indeed, it is one of the books that cannot be easily com-
pressed; its value is in the remarks scattered through
its pages, rather than in its structure or main idea.
What are the religious ideas that Christ has imparted to
the world '? This volume attempts to reproduce and classify
them as the first three Gospels bring them before us. The
topic has relations to the entire range of theology, but
we shall simply cull a few of the more prominent thoughts.
The kingdom of God which Jesus preached, our author
^The Kingdom of God, or Christ's teachings according to the
Synoptical Gospels. By Alexander Balmain Bruce D. D. Scribner <fe
Welford: New York, 1889.
THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 297
holds, was an ideal kingdom, spiritual in its nature, yet a
kingdom for this world, open to all, the citizens of which
were to be holy as well as prosperous and happy. Jesus
used the expression kingdom of Heaven frequently to
elevate the minds of his hearers above the range of or-
dinary Jewish thought, but did not intend to intimate
that its realization was not to be in this world. The
people did not sympathize with his exalted views ; when
he rejects a leadership in political independence, ''The
multitude melts away; and the eyes of Jesus are opened.
It is all over with the dream of a theocratic kingdom of
Israel, with himself for its king. What awaits him, he
now sees, is not a throne, but a cross.''^^
Professor Bruce's view of the Church as the realization
of the kingdom of God, and his view of the wisdom of
Christ in adopting it as the means of establishing the king-
dom, will excite some surprise. Preferring to Peter's confes-
sion and Christ's promise to build his Church, Professor
Bruce says: "Jesus then gave utterance to three great
truths ; first, that the Church to be founded was to be
Christian, or, to put it otherwise, that the person of the
founder was of fundamental importance ; second, that as
such it should be practically identical with the kingdom
of God he had hitherto preached ; third, that in this Church
the righteousness of the kingdom should find its home."^
Farther on the author expresses the hope that the Church
may never become "utterly savourless," but adds, '-Should
this hope be disappointed, then the visible Church, as we
know it, must and will pass away, leaving the Spirit of
^l. p. 61. -P. 262.
298 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
Christ free room to make a new experiment, under happier
auspices, at self-realization. To be enthusiastic about the
Church in its present condition is impossible ; to hope for
its future is not impossible ; but if it were, there is no cause
for despair. Christ will ever remain the same yesterday,
to-day, and forever; the kingdom of God will remain a
kingdom that cannot be moved. "^ He also says: "I am
even disposed to think that a great and steadily increasing
portion of the moral worth of society lies outside the Church,
separated from it not by godlessness, but rather by ex-
ceptionally intense moral earnestness. Many in fact, have
left the Church in order to be Christians. "-
The author holds, that Christ revealed God specially -as
a Father, and that he saw in men qualities which respond in
some degree to paternal good- will. While he was not Pe-
lagian he Avas not scholastic. He did not look upon man
as dead. "He saw in the sinful some spark of vitality, some
latent affinity for good, an imprisoned spirit longing to be
free, a true self victimized by satanic agency, that would
fain escape from thrall. On this better element he
ever kept his eye ; his constant effort was to get into con-
tact with it, and he refused to despair of success. "-"^
Jesus' idea of the Messiah was derived from the Old
Testament, so our author supposes, especially from Isaiah.
He would see in the one holding that office especially the
Servant of Jehovah ; he was to conquer by the power of love
and truth ; he must meet the deepest want of man, not
simply the desire of the Jews; he must be a man of
faith, patience, hope, sympathy. Jesus from the first be-
ip. 272. 2P. U4. T. 134.
TIIEOL OG TCA L LITER A TL li E. 299
lieved himself to bo the Messiah. He must have felt him-
self called to that office l)y the Father. He in effect pro-
claimed himself the Messiah by the representations which
he made of himself. He assumed to be the Eevealer of
the Father, the Judge of the world, the Saviour of the
world, to be entitled to perfect allegiance on the part of his
followers.
The author attributes so much to man's power and
and disposition, separating the divine activit}^ to such an
extent from man's salvation, making election, for example,
a call to eminent usefulness, not to salvation, that one is
not prepared to see so much attributed to the death of
Christ ; but on this point strict orthodoxy will hardly demur
to his statements. He sees in Christ's death the ransom of
the sinner, the source of a new life, the ground of the high-
est blessings, an offering for sin, the ground of the remis-
sion of sin and the means of reconciliation with God.
We have space here to indicate merely the drift of the
book; it is the result of long study and repays perusal
page by page.
2. Theological Criticism.
This topic might include review articles and pamphlets
and book notices without end, but we simply call attention
to three works, characteristic of the time, instructive be-
cause of their content, and critical rather than construct-
ive in their aim. The works are not similar except in this,
that tn.y are estimates of theology rather than presenta-
tions of theology.
300 Si'STFJJATlC THFOLOfi).
Kant, Lotze, and lUtschl. Stahliii.^ This work was
written with the main purpose of subjecting the theology
of Eitschl to a thorough criticism. We shall notice simply
this portion of the book. This theology still excites inter-
est and wins followers. It is the only scheme of divinity
produced of late years which bears the name of its author.
Parts of it have been discussed but the whole system had
not, so far as we know, been weighed in a balance, till the
work before us appeared. The opponents of Eitschl have
commonly objected to his system because it does not rec-
ognize the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity ; it
has no place for original sin, for total depravity, for con-
demnation of those in sin, for expiation and substitution;
but we have in Stahlin an estimate of the positive contents
of the system. He takes up its two fundamental princi-
ples and shows that in itself it is self-contradictory and
absurd. He points out the inevitable result of restricting
knowledge to phenomena, and of separating religious
knowledge from a knowledge of the world. It is this theory
of knowledge which distinguishes the scheme of Eitschl
from that of the Church. Even in tliis his critic considers
him niconsistent with himself, and to be really a follower
of Kant while he supposes himself to be a follower of
Lotze. He adopts as a fundamental principle the view
that "we know things in their phenomena." This distin-
guis ies things from phenomena, and if they are not in the
phenomena where and what are they? Eitschl says the
thing in itself is a merely formal conception. But he
^Kant, Lotze, and Ritschl. A Critical Examination by Leonhard
Stiihlin. Translated by D. W. Simon, Ph. D., Edinburgh. T. & T.
Clark. 1889.
TlIEOLOaU 'A L L I TKNA T( 'RE. 301
teaches that phenomena are a mere illusion unless a thing
in itself appears in them. If, then, the thing in itself is a
formal conception simply, the world of phenomena becomes
tlie shadow of a shadow. '' The reality of phenomena can
no longer be maintained when once the thing itself as dis-
tinguished from phenomenon is declared to be a purely
formal concept."^ If the mind itself combines phenomena
and they have no unity without the mind, then the thing
exists only for us and has no objective being. " Eitschl's
theory of cognition thus ipso facto disappears. Phenomenon
Jicis no existence: the things given in perception as unities
of phenomena have no c.vistence. Things in themselves, too,
are empty shadows; they are simply memorj'-images used
perversely — memory-images, moreover, of actualities which
themselves have no existence, save that of phenomena of
consciousness."'^ The critic shows that Eitschl, carrying
out his speculations on the basis of his theory of knowledge,
falls into inextricable confusion. The heading of one of
his sections is : " Limitation of knowledge to phenomena
involves the elimination from theology of all claim to know
the objects of the Christian faith as they are in them-
selves."^ When this theory of knowledge is applied to
God, it destroys, so the critic shows, the very idea of God,
it denies that God is love, — "God is love," is a favorite
text with Eitschl, — it destroys the personality of God, it
makes God simply God for us, a creation of our own
minds, it denies that God is the Absolute, which is to deny
him deity.
Eitschl's theory of cognition is similarly destructive of
our knowledge of Christ. It does not permit us to recog-
'P. 176. 2p_ i^i^ .p^ 186.
I
302 SVSTFJIATJC THEOLOGY.
nize "the pre-existence of Christ m the sense of his eter-
nal deity." When he ascribes eternal existence to Christ,
it is only. as an object of will, the object of God's eternal
love to be manifested in time. " Prior to his human birth,
Christ was as far from having real existence as was the
church before it was founded."^ The theology under re-
view has no expiatory sacrifice, no satisfactory doctrine of
substitution. The sufferings of Christ simply testified to
his own faithfulness in the work to which he was appointed ;
they were an accidental accompaniment of his discharge
of his office. Christ's relation to God was therefore simply
harmony of will, — a moral unity. The kingdom of God on
earth is established by bringing men into this same har-
mony and unity. "By initiating his adherents into the
like relation to God and the world, he established the com-
munity of the kingdom of God, and thus his church ex-
presses the two-fold significance attaching to him as the
perfect revelation of God, and as the archetype of spiritual
domination over the world, by conferring on him the predi-
cate deity. "^ In accordance with such a scheme atone-
ment and justification are merely subjective operations of
the individual soul. Revelation itself, also, is merely a
disclosure of the mind to itself.
Stahlin finds Ritschl's view of the separation of re-
ligious knowledge from the knowledge of the world as
much at war with a system of theology as his theory of
our cognition of things in themselves. Man is hemmed in
by nature, to a great extent governed by it, yet as spirit
rises . above nature and domineers over it to live in the
'P. 2(17. -^P. 218.
THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 803
spirit, war against the world is man's aim and proper des-
tiny. To achieve this result he gives himself over to re-
ligion— faith in God — as his support and helper. But he
cannot find this religion as a new element outside himself.
Man is by nature religious or he can have no religion ; re-
ligion cannot be apprehended as something apart from na-
ture ; man is not at once a part of nature and independent
of it. When man strives to attain a position independent
of the world he seeks not a good but a position directed
by self, that is, he strives to satisfy his own eudsemonistic
desires — an impulse at the basis of neither morality nor
religion. "The explanation of religion, therefore, which
was to establish it on a firm basis lands us at last in the
denial of religion."^ The same result is reached from
another position assumed by Eitschl. He says: "All
forms of religious knowledge are direct value-judgments."
This must mean the thing known is of so much value or
import to us. Let the judgment be : deity is to be as-
cribed to Christ*. The true interpretation of that language
is : such is the value which the Church sets on Christ. The
attribute is not held as inhering in him, is no objective
characteristic, but is simply the view we adopt concerning
him. "The separation of religious from theoretical knowl-
edge lands us accordingly in the same conclusion as that
in which the limitation of knowledge to the phenomenal
landed us, namely, relir/ious mhllism. Kitschl's theory of
cognition involves in the last resort the resolution of the
objects of knowledge into unreal seeming. This same the-
ory, with the two methodological principles deduced from
'P. 250.
304 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
lis namel}', the limitation of knowledge to phenomena, and
the separation of religious from theoretical knowledge, ap-
plied to theology, leads logically to the dissolution of theol-
ogy and religion alike into illusion and phantasmagoria."^
Undogmatisches Christenthum- is a work which has ex-
cited some interest in Germany. Its object is to combat
the error that Christianity consists in doctrine, to show
that it is a matter of sentiment and may be maintained
against all scientific objections. Its ruling idea is indi-
cated by the following: *' Where only a sigh of prayer
rises from the bottom of the heart, or where one has a
single time, purely for God's sake, made an offering,
though. no one else is aware of it, there the holy fire of re-
ligion is kindled, which all the systems of the theologians
can only investigate and describe, but cannot sustain, can-
not even kindle — that holy fire which eradicates sin and pu-
rifies the mortal being of man for immortality.''^ The
author holds that law^ prevails throughout nature in such
a way that an intelligent man cannot believe in a mira-
cle ; that the orthodox idea of inspiration must be re-
nounced, and teaches that any revelation we may have is
a revelation of God, not a revelation of truth; that men
need God, not knowledge concerning him. He says:
"Does any one ask w4iat we desire; it is this: entire free-
dom of investigation, unconditioned right of criticism in
opposition even to the doctrines of the Church, the unre-
strained privilege of acting according to one's own im-
ip. 276.
^Undogmatisches Chri!itenthuni. Voii Otto Dreyer, Dr. theol. Su-
perintendeDtin Gotlia. Braimscliweig. 1888.
^P. 10.
THEOLOGICAL LITEPxATrUE. 305
pulses, not the impulses of another, and by the side oi^
this, inseparably bound with it, full satisfaction of the need
of genuinely religious authority."^ After describing the
religious man he says : " In such religious men religion
abides, not in doctrines and knowledge, not in habits and
practices, but in the innermost heart of the personality it-
self."- The author finds the contradiction between freedom
and authority solved in personality, and here we find the
possibility of religion ; but it must be a personality which
is sustained by communion with God — inspired.
'' In the hght of truth only the personality rooted in
God and which flows immediately from it exists as relig-
ious.''^ •' The ultimate religious impulse can only be sat-
isfied when knowledge comes to this point (Durchbruch)
that God reveals himself to man in the man fully made
one with God."^ This impulse in Christ was fully satisfied
and he became our trusted leader, our perfect guide.
"The need of authority in the pious soul is fully satisfied
through faith in Christ. "^ We have a trustworthy knowl-
edge of Christ given in the Bible, though much concern-
ing him must be rejected as mythical. The author's
conviction of the worthlessness of the current orthodoxy
and of the value of an undogmatic Christianity may be in-
ferred from the following: "Honor to the young men who
draw back from service in the sanctuary because they can-
not discharge it with truthfulness ! But greater honor to
those who, because they are conscious of being in the
presence of God, of standing in the eternal centre of Christ-
ian faith, do not avoid heavy work in the promotion of
T. 42. "-v. 69. 3p_ 70. 4p. 77. 5p gg.
806 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
its temporal, external forms, and who, possessed of the
love of Christ, and tilled with the spirit of the Reformers,
are determined to accept all the consequences of bearing
witness with unconditioned fidelity ! On them rests the
hope of our future."^
Ufiitarlanisni; its Origin and Historijr This work con-
sists of sixteen lectures by fourteen different authors. It
is a very entertaining and instructive presentation of the
present state of Unitarianism, for this is the summing up
of the treatment of its origin and history. The protest of
early Unitarianism against orthodoxy and the subsequent
revolution within the denomination itself is a develop-
ment in New England history worthy of careful study.
The original movement maintained, in contrast with
the orthodoxy of the time, so its advocates affirm, the sub-
stantial integrity and sanity of human nature. Man is
looked upon as imperfect, sinful, but not a ruin. The
philosophy of the system ' 'assumes that not matter but
spirit is the basis and background of the universe ; that
spirit is not the product of matter, l)ut that matter is the
manifestation of spirit. "-'' The outcome of the develop-
ment of spirit is love. This appears dimly in animal life,
but in human life rises to devotion and self-sacrifice. The
suffering of the world is not an accide it, it is an evil but
serves a higher good. This is manifested in the lower
forms of existence, appears conspicuously in the self-sacri-
^P. 52.
^Unitarianism; its Origin and History. A course of sixteen lectures
delivered in Channing Hall, Boston. Boston American Unitarian
Association. 1890.
»P. 343.
TIIKOLOOICAL TATEiiATVRK. :^()7
fice with which man serves his fellow-men, and reaches its
culmination in the life of Jesus.
This was considered a rational philosopb}^ and the
basis of a rational religion. For a time it satisfied and
delighted its votaries. "So delightful was the sense of the
privilege of exercising reason on what had hitherto been
forbidden fruit, such a fresh and unwonted sensation did it
comnninicate, that no wonder it drew so many able men
to embrace the profession of the ministry. The moral
argument against Calvinism — what a glory in heroically
calling (and it was heroism then) right, right, and cruelty,
cruelty and tyranny, tyranny, in their own intrinsic na-
ture ! The contradictions and absurdities of the received
doctrine of the Trinity — what a fine intellectual invigoration
in subjecting these to the canons of a rational logic !"^
But the animation produced in enthusiastic young
minds by a religion of these dimensions could not last long.
And nothing was more stale and flat than the pure Unitarian-
ism of New^ England finally became. "We are good and let us
be good" is a feeble gospel for fallen humanity. Channing
himself expressed his disappointment over the result of the
movement to w4iich he had given his energies and his elo-
quence. Tiffany says in one of the lectures before us : "I
beg everybody's pardon, but one more generation of the
Hke, and Unitarianism would have degenerated into a sim-
ple gospel for the Philistines. "^ It was saved from death
and decay by the infusion of new life at the hands of such
men as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker. The
works of these men were as alien to Unitarianism as to
'P. 205. =^P.207.
308 SYSTEJIATIC TIIEOLoaV.
ortliodoxy. They were stoutly opposed by such men as
Professor Andrews Norton, but the denomination was in no
condition to carry on a contest with the rising Transcenden-
talism., and finally yielded to and accepted its influence.
The first period of Unitarianism closed, it is said, with
Channing who died in 1842. Four years prior to that
date Emerson delivered his Harvard address, which called
out the vigorous protests of his former associates and sig-
nalized his separation from the religious fellowship of the
Christian community.
Transcendentalism is described as the power to recognize
the noble, the divine in life. This it insists upon : you
must see with your ow^n eyes the beauty and the glory.
This principle it made co-terminous with the universe.
To this movement Unitarianism owes its present vitality.
"Trancendentalism melted quite thoroughly the crust
that was beginning to form on the somewhat chilly cur-
rent of liberal theology. Indeed, it is the great felicity of
free religious thought in this country, in its later un-
folding, that it had its birth in a sentiment so poetic, so
generous, so devout, so open to all the humanities as well
as to the widest sympathies of philosophy and the higher
literature."^
It is amusing to notice, that a liberal theology may not
be liberal enough, that everyone who takes a stand finds
that someone beyond him does not believe in standing any-
where. Mr. Salter, speaking of a National Conference of
Unitarians, says : it "had the alternative distinctly before it,
formally to avow those broader principles or to confess
'P. 219.
77/ E( ) L O G I( '. I L L I TEH. 1 77 7i' E. 309
"the Lord Jesus Cbrist ;" and it chose the later. Unitarian-
ism thereby ranged itself among the Christian denomina-
tions— the freest indeed of them all, and allowing many
varieties of belief, but all within the fundamental Christian
limitations — and closed the door which was opening out on
the relicrion of the future."^
S. Apologetics.
Under this head we call attention to two works,
the first a work of special value : Supernatural Eevel-
ation." C. M. Mead. D. D. This work of Professor Mead,
consisting of lectures on the L. P. Stone foundation,
delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary, is written
with the purpose of showing that we have a revelation
from God, and that it is confirmed as coming from Him
by supernatural evidences. It is a treatise on the old
subject of Christian Apologetics, and treats of the old
evidences of Christianity as they have been known and
trusted for cen*^^uries. The author is not ambitious to
present new proofs of a revelation which has been the
support of the Christian Church for fifty generations;
but he does aim to rescue the old evidences from the
doubts which have been thrown about them in modern
times. In this attempt he has shown much learuing and
skill. He has follow^ed through with patience the argumen-
^ Ethical Religion, p. 2G7.
^Supernatural Revelation: An Essay concerning the Basis of th«
Christian Faith. By C. M. Mead, Ph. D., D. D. Lately Professor
in Andover Theological Seminary, New York. Anson D. F. Ran-
dolph A- Co. 1889.
;U0 SYSTFJIATIC THEOLOGY.
tations of rationalizing Clifistians, the subtle sj^eculations
of scientists, the dissertations of psychologists and philos-
ophers, and has carried their reasonings forward into
the realms of morals and religion, and has shown how
inadequate their conclusions often are to explain some
of the clearest facts of human life. While he accepts
the products of modern research in history, in the in-
vestigations of nature, and in literary criticism, he shows
that these work no changes in the substance of our religion
or the validity of the evidence on which it rests. What-
ever modification of former views concerning inspiration
or the authority of the Scriptures he ma}^ embrace, these
rise not from any validity of modern skepticism, but
from a more cautious estimate of revelation and its ev-
idences than that of some earlier defenders of the faith.
The author begins with remarks upon the nature of
knowledge and attempts to show that God may be prop-
erly considered an object of our cognition. He says :
<'Sure knowledge is the product of the combination and
comparison of individual cognitions."^ "With regard, for
example, to the reality of an outward world, everyone
seems to have a direct perception of it. But this im-
pression may be a mistaken one. One may be deluded
by a purely subjective affection of his own nerves. If,
however, he finds that everybody else has a similar im-
pression, he sees that his experience is not to be explained
as a delusion."^ -'All knowledge is thus seen to be a
composite thing. It is made up of two elements : (1)
the direct, immediate perception or impression which
'P. 16. 2p. 17.
THEOLOGICAL LITKUATUUK. 311
the individual has; and (2) the ratification and educa-
tion of that impression by the general community of
individuals. '' If either of these elements is wanting there
is no assured knowledge. If the first is wanting the
second must be also wanting. If the second should seem
to exist as a concurrent testimony of mankind, it still
would be a mere rumor, would have no force without
the first. This holds true in reference to our knowledge of
God. ''Testimony concerning a Divine Being cannot be
taken as an ultimate and adequate proof of the fact that
there is such a Being. The faith in God may be, and
is, a communicated faith; but we cannot reasonably rest
our faith on testimony alone. There must be some more
original and conclusive evidence of the divine existence
than is found in the mere prevalence of the belief. If
theism is founded intact, then somewhere — either now and
always, or at certain special times — there must have been
a direct knowledge, an evidence, concerning the Deity, which
serves as the foundation of the testimony and gives it its
value." Can we find any such basis for the theistic belief ?
Can an individual perception or impression be pointed to as
the basis, and can confirmatory experiences be adduced?
The author admits that the perception of God is not analo-
gous to the perception of the external world, rejects the idea
that a knowledge of self is also a knowledge of God, or im-
plies a knowledge of God, but holds that theism is a belief
springing from the direct operation of the individual mind.
We cannot, indeed, find when or how the first idea of God
entered the human mind, for the possessor of that indi-
vidual mind is gone, and we have the idea communicated
to us before it can be developed within ourselves. Yet we
312 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
know what now defends the idea against assaults, and we
may beheve, what j^rolects the idea would produce it.
If this accounts for the origin of the idea, it excludes
dreams and superstitious imaginings as well as intuition
as the source of our idea of God. What is it, then,
which maintains among men the idea of the divine ex-
istence '? Let theism and atheism enter into conflict and
theism only gives a meaning to the world and to life,
while it impels us to go beyond any import which we can
comprehend to believe in personal power which has a pur-
pose accomplished in the entire process of the moral world.
Of this power we may say that we cannot help believing in
its existence ; and this is about as far as we can go in
knowledge of any kind. This belief, though it falls short of
demonstration, would probably sustain the conviction that
God exists. But we may confirm this belief by additional
testimony, that is, by revelation.
x\s a factor in theistic belief revelation is evidence at
first hand. " It is like the personal appearance of a man
about whom we have heretofore known onl}^ by conjecture
or hearsay. It is evidence in addition to that which is
found in those innate tendencies which incline men to
adopt theistic conceptions."^ It is true that revelation will
be at once rejected by the atheist, unbelief concerning
God would carry with it disbelief in revelation. "But
given a general disposition to believe in a Divine Being,
given a general desire to be assured of the reality and of
the character of a God already believed in, or at least
conjectured — then a revelation will be effective and lasting
'P. 58.
THEOLOGICAL LITER ATT HE. 313
in its tendency to establish men in the sure conviction
that there is indeed a God. The revelation when accepted
as such, furnishes a ground of certainty concerning the
Divine Being which exceeds and in a sense supersedes the
belief which may have existed before."^ AVhen Christ's
disciples came to believe in their Master, then they could
accept his faith in God and make it their own. " Because
he believed in God, because he claimed to have come from
God and to have revealed the gracious purposes of God,
therefore they could not but believe in God."- The result
in such a case does not depend on the genuineness of the
revelation but on the belief in it. Any accepted revelation
would have the same effect. It may of course be objected
that there are many revelations and we cannot from this
source acquire any trustworthy confirmation of our belief
in God ; but it may be replied, either that all revelations
contain truth, being derived from primeval revelation ; or
that there is one which is genuine, perhaps more than
one which we can distinguish from those that are
spurious.
The author is inclined to hold to a primeval revelation.
He says: '-Analogy, we conclude, favors rather than
otherwise, the theory of a primeval revelation."^ He
thinks it not best to be overawed by the assertion, that it is
unphilosophical to entertain such a belief ; and adds, that
if it is easy to disprove such a supposition, the disproof
has not yet been given to the world. He, however, gives
his attention mainly to the evidences of the super-
natural origin of Christianity, confining his thoughts
ip. 59. -P. 60. ^P. 78.
314 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
mainly to the external, evidences, the form in which Chris-
tianity presents itself. He defends the old view of Chris-
tian evidences, what might be called the common-sense
view, accepting the evidences as the mind naturally and
spontaneously ac<?epts them, as the Bible authors supposed
they would be accepted.
About one-third of the book is devoted to the
consideration of miracles. We shall not follow him
through bis elaborate treatise on this topic ; it will
be sufficient to notice a few salient points after re-
marking that he pursues those who reject miracles and
those who tamper with them through all their winding, and
patiently, clearly and convincingly answers their objec-
tions and exposes their faulty logic. In this part of the
book he cites more than a hundred different authors,
bringing under review opinions both new and old.
His definition of a miracle is broader than is some-
times given. "In general miracles are to be defined as events
produced by special, extraordinary, divine agenc}^ as dis-
tinguished from the ordinary agencies of inanimate and
animate nature."^ He rejects the idea that they are viola-
tions of nature, holds them to be independent of
natural law, and therefore not to be described by their
harmony with, or opposition to law. And whether they
are the product of supernatural force, one is to decide by
bis judgment, not by his senses. He rejects all these ex-
planations which refer miracles to occult laws in nature —
the Strasburg clock theory, as he terms it — and accepts
nothing as a miracle except that which is wrought by
'P. 97.
THKOLOGICAL LITKUATriiE. WVa
the immetliate intervention of divine power. He holds
that no oxtraordinarj evidence is vecjuired to convince one
who accepts the benig of God and the probahihty of reve-
hxtion, of the fact of niiiacles, and cites the resurrection of
Christ as a miracle firmly established. He thinks that
those Christians who accept miracles with difficulty yet
claim to have special admiration of the cliaracter of
Christ stultify themselves. •' He who admits the sinless-
ness of Christ, unless he does so blindly, because others have
done it before, can find no justifying reason for his belief j un-
less he assumes, together with the sinlessness, a unique-
ness of nature or of relation wdiich involves all the essen-
tial works of a miracle. When, therefore, one is troubled
by the allegations of particular miracles wrought by Christ,
but is ready to admit Christ himself to be the one sinless
individual of the race, and the one man especially com-
missioned by God to communicate the divine counsels to
man, we can only call this a conspicuous example of
straining oni a gnat and swallowing a camel."^
Professor Mead holds to the view of inspiration ordi-
narily entertained in this countr}^ — an inspiration of the
writers of the Bible specifically different from that of or-
dinary believers. The different books of the Bible, he be-
lieves, were prepared for the place they hold in the Church,
and are not collected as simply the best among much in-
spired material which the world has produced. He holds
also to the inspiration of the entire Bible, says that H. Tim.
iii, 16 affirms the universal inspiration of the Old Testa-
ment. The arguments which he adduces in favor of his
^P. 155.
316 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
position are not different from those found elsewhere, but
the following is worthy of special notice. "The typical
significance which Christ and his disciples found in the
Old Testament indicates that they regarded it as divinely
and peculiarly inspired. Even if one should disagree with
them in their interpretation, the argument is not affected.
The fact that they found a wealth of typical meaning in
what might seem to be of slight significance indicates that
they conceived the Scriptures to be in a peculiar sense in-
spired of God."^
The author holds that the authority of the Scriptures
is mediate, that is, is such as Christ imparts to them.
"They are authoritative as a written edict is which pur-
ports to have come from a sovereign : the written w'ords
have no authority except as they make known the will of
him in whom the authority resides."^ Since the Scriptures
were written by imperfect and fallible men their absolute
inerrancy can only be maintained by showing that they
were so inspired as to be guarded against error, but such
an inspiration has not, as the author thinks, been proved.
Still he considers that there is such a presumption in favor
of the trustworthiness of the Scriptures " that the burden
of proof may ahvays be rightly thrown upon the man who
brings a charge of error even respecting minor and inci-
dental matters."^ He holds, too, that the Bible is an au-
thoritative and ample fountain of religious instruction and
religious life. While men must interpret as best they can,
and may in some instances misinterpret,on the other hand,
Christian truth is a revelation, and a revelation so given
T. 301. -P. 326. ^P. 331,
TIIEOLOGK W L L I TJ-JL'A Tl 'UK. 317
as to be readily understood and as justly to claim accept-
ance as the regulative principle of human conduct. He
does not, as some do, base the authority of the l^ible on
the bare assumption that it is the AYord of God. This ex-
pression he considers comparatively modern yet admits its
propriety, while he also accepts in an important sense the
expression, "the Bible contains the AVord of God," What-
ever terms are used he holds the entire Bible to be inspired.
*' That there is a human element in the Scriptures we now
take for granted. When, however, we speak of them as
characterized by both a human and a divine element, how
do we understand the two to be rehited? Can we sift out
the human and leave the divine unadulterated ? * * * *
Such a mechanical mixture of the divine and the human
is well-nigh inconceivable, and is certainly attested by no
evidence. The union of the divine and the human must
rather be regarded as a blending of the two into one, — an
interpenetration which makes a nice dissection impos-
sible."!
One of the most suggestive and interesting of the chap-
ters of Professor Mead's book is the last, on the conditions
and limits of biblical criticism. We shall not take space
to present his views in full, but the following conclusions
to which he comes are important : " Neither critical research
nor Christian insight will ever effect a reconstruction or
expurgation of the Canon of Sacred Scripture. Both these
forces operated in the original fixing of the Canon. * *
* * The times and the men are now gone that were best
able to determine what books deserved to be reckoned in
»P. 3G7.
318 SYSTEM AriC THEOLOGY.
the Biblical Canon. Criticism, however subtle and learned
will never be able to prove the early Chnrch to have been
mistaken in its judgment respecting the authorship of any
of the biblical books.'" Again he says: "Criticism can
never convince Christendom that pious fraud had an im-
portant part in determining the substance or the form of
the Scriptures."-^ In this connection he show3 that the
Tendenz theory of the Tubingen school, besides benig un-
tenable on its own ground, is at war with the common
sense of the world. He shows also that the Kuenen-Well-
hausen theory' of the origin of the Old Testament, instead
of resting on a " legal-liction," as its authors euphemistically
describe its foundation, involves outright falsehood. In
reference to Christ's endorsement cf the Old Testament he
says : "If Jesus was either ? o ignorant as not to know that
the Scriptures to which he ascribed divine authority were
vitiated by fraud, or so unscrupulous as to endorse them
although he knew the fraud, then he can not be the Truth,
the Way, and the Life."^^
We have given the more space to Professor Mead be-
cause he is familiar with the latest phases of critical and
skeptical thought.
Witnesses to Christ.^ This work seems to us one of the
happiest defences of Christianity. The argument is not
formal, but persuasive. It presents the considerations in
favor of Christianity in such a way as to show that it is
ip. 363. ^F. 370. ^P. 385.
*Tbe Baldwin Lectures. Witnesses to Christ. A contribution to
Christian Apologetics. By Wlllian Clark, M. A., Professor of Philoso-
phy in Trinity College, Toronto. Chicago. A. C. McClurg & Co.
1888.
TJIEOLOGU \ 1 /. L I TKIL 1 77 'UE. :U9
natural, easy, and really for a thinking man, almost
inevitable to believe in it. One asks, on laying down the
book, what philosophy of life can be equal to Christianity ?
What philosophy can approach it? Unbelief, irreligious
culture, materialism and pessimism are shown to be un-
satisfactory, debasing, inhuman. The Christian faith is
shown to be elevating, cheering, promotive of present
happiness as well as of the hope of future blessedness.
The scheme is shown also to be consistent with the deipands
of the intellect, that is, to coincide with the fundamental
principles of thought and to make no undue tax upon the
credulity of those spiritually-minded.
The author's mode of argumentation may be shown by a
reference to one or two of the topics which he brings into
his discussions. In comparing heathen and Christian
civilizations he says : "It is true, indeed, that in Plato's
view the moral life of a well-ordered state was the highest
conceivable morality, and that in the ancient state every
citizen w^as bound to sacrifice himself, if necessary to lay
down his life, for the good of the community, and thus it
micjht seem that individualism and selfishness Avere con-
demned."^ After pointing out the limited range of the privi-
leges of citizenship he concludes : "Thus a system which
seemed likely to destroy selfishness and build up a relig-
ion of humanity, turns out to be merely constitutive of a
privileged and limited aristocracy. "-
One of the most interesting of the lectures before us is
that on The Unity of Christian Doctrine. The author points
out with much ingenuity the oneness of sentiment at the
T. 58.
320 >■ y STEM A TJ( ' TIIEOLOG Y.
foundation of diverse doctrines. Though he may express
some views from which many would dissent, his thought is
none the less vahuible. He notices that there can hardly
be more perfectly contrasted parties than those which
stand opposed to each other on the doctrines of election,
original sin, and eternal punishment. Yet he shows that
they all stand upon the same fundamental principles and
that the different views may be so stated as not to contra-
dict each other. What he says of one of these topics is implied
as true of the others : "But we believe that a careful examina-
tion even of the extreme theories which have been enunci-
ated on the subject of human depravity will satisfy us that
some portion of the difference may be removed by a more
careful definition of the terms employed, and still more by
taking into account the different points of view of the con-
flicting theories."^ On this subject, depravity, however, he
does not think unity of sentiment is to be attained wholly
by compromise. "It is very curious to note how, in recent
years, science has come to the aid of theology against a
shallow view of the nature of man. * * * It is satisfactorily
established by the research of the scientific students of
man's nature, that, instead of coming into the
world pure and clean, as some have asserted, we do
indeed come with tendencies to all kinds of conduct in-
herited from the character and constitution of our fore-
fathers. There are few things more remarkable than the
way in which thinkers of all schools are coming to an
agreement on this subject." '"^
The author's interpretation of the categories of thought
'P. 133. -P. 135.
THEOLOGICAL LJTEUATVRE. :]31
is wortli}^ of notice. The mind combines the facts revealed
in the sense throngh the ideas of cause, substance etc.
These ideas or categories of thought are furnished by the
mind, not received through the senses ; but they furnish the
principles by which that which comes through the sense is
organized and classified. These principles of classification
are laws of nature. Whence came these laws? The mind
furnishes them but does not create them. "They are in-
tluences of mind from the phenomena of nature. They
have a certain kind of existence, for they are actually
operating. Where then do they exist? There can be
.but one answer to that question. They exist in a Mind
which bears a certain resemblance to our own. Tlie mind
of man perceives in nature the working of a mind to which
it is itself akin.'"^ Aside from this method of peiceiving
the divine being we know Him, ascending to our author, as
the basis of all thought. "God is the necessary and uni-
versal postulate of all human life and thought and action.
He is the ground of all our knowledge ; for all thought be-
comes confused when He is banished or ignored."- The
perception of God through the categories would find less
acceptance than the idea that He is the postulate of all our
thinking, but we doubt the practical efficiency of either,
except among those who already believe in His existence
and providential government.
C. ETHICS.
Etlucal Relir/ion.^ This work consists of seventeen
lectures "given for the most part before the Society for
iPp. 161-173. P. 2176.
■^Ethical Religion, by William Macldntire Salter. Boston, Roberts
lU-others, 1889.
322 - SYSTEJIATIC THEOLOGY.
Ethical Culture of Chicago." It represents a movement
which may well attract the notice of thinking men, a
movement aiming to make morality the religion of
humanity. The author of the lectures manifests a pro-
found sympathy with his fellowmen, especially wath the
needy and suffering. He exhibits a most earnest desire to
see and to promote the advancement of the race in virtue
and in happiness. He shows a keen appreciation of
morality in its purest and most delicate forms. His lec-
tures were addressed to a society inaugurating a move-
ment towards the perfection of humanity. Contrasting
ethics with science, he says: "Science is not ultimate.
It tells us simply what is ; it tells us nothing of
w4iat ought to be. What ought to be — that is re-
ported to us by a higher faculty than that of
scientific observation ; it is an assertion, a demand of the
conscience. Here, then, is to my mind the true basis of
our movement. It is the rock of conscience, the eternal
laws that announce themselves in man's moral na-
ture. * * * It may . be that our senses have
never revealed to us a perfectly just man; that we have
never known or heard of an absolutely just govern-
ment. None the less does conscience say^ to every man :
' Thou oughtest to be just.' And if it could find voices
clear and strong enough, it would publish aloud to every
community and every state to-day, ' There is no other law
for you save that of absolute justice, and in the measure
that you fail therein, you have no sanctity and no
defence.' Conscience, in a word, ushers us into an ideal
realm. Genuine Ethics have in this respect more in com-
mon with art than with science. * * * Art is the reali-
ETHICS. 323
zation of the beautiful ; Ethics means the reahzation of
the good. As we look on men and women, we see the
possibilities of the perfect that are in them — we think of
Avhat they are meant to be, rather than what they are. We
are to regard ourselves and society about us as plastic
material, in which the divine ideas of goodness have be-
gun to take form, but have never reached adequate form,
and are so hemmed in and hindered, that if we judged with
the senses alone we might doubt if they existed ; and
.yet to the eye of the soul are still there, and need only to
be setn and believed in to again stir and move, and to
shape human life to finer forms and nobler issues."^
, We have quoted somewhat at length, because the
I)assage may be considered the confession of faith of a
church which hopes to become the universal Church of
humanity. Everyone must regard so high aims with
sympathy, even if they ought to be still higher; and every-
one must wish success to noble endeavors, thougli the
means adopted for their attainment tend to defeat rather
than success.
In order to attain to the full enjoyment of this religion
of humanity there are some things valued in other religions
which are to be renounced. We can have no longer an
over-ruling personal God. "Duty is ordinarily divided
into duties to man and duties to God. But there are no
duties to God in the sense implied, nor have we reason to
suppose that God as so conceived exists. ' God ' is the
infinite element in all duty, its eternal basis, without w4iich
duty and man and the world would alike disappear. "-
'P. 295-6-7. =P. 308.
324 *S' i;S' TEMA TU ' THEOL 0 G Y.
''There is a God in every man, and if. is for us to let him
speak, and to hear him ; and not till we do this is the true
aim of our heing carried out."^ Prayer also must be
given up. "If we must pray, let us pray to men ; for there
all the trouble lies."'^ " A voice from out the unseen itself
seems to say : ' Arise, 0 Man, from thy knees and act ! I
call thee to be not a suppliant, but a creator.'"^ The
Bible is of course a worn-out book. Its commendation of
righteousness is certainly to be approved, and was once
effective, but the book is no longer of value, its style is not
adapted to the age, its narratives can no longer be ac-
cepted as true, no one can now believe its promises of
future earthly prosperity or its doctrine of the kingdom of
Heaven. Religion as it has been known is to be renounced,
though the ethical school would retain the name and make
it mean a longing after the ideal of humanity. It is the
homesickness of the soul, its claim to a place where har-
mony and peace prevail, but religion as it has been known
on earth is to be detested. " I think nothing can be
clearer to the student of the early history of man than
that religion and moralily were altogether distinct in their
origin, and that religion was simply a contrivance to ward
off danger or to win advantage for one's self or for one's
tribe."* Christianity must of course fall in the general
wreck of the old religious ideas. It was really destroyed
by Protestantism and the freedom of thought which it en-
couraged. But Protestantism is itself doomed also, though
it performed much noble work. It has no fundamental
idea of its own to commend it to humanity. And Unita-
ip. 178. "P. 19. T. 127. *P. 91.
ETHICS. 325
rianism, the truest form of Protestantism, has dried up
also, and is a faihire. It has voted itself to be Christian,
and must be laid away with Christianity as a relic of the
past."
Mr. Salter confesses to an admiration for Jesus, in
which he differs from some of his friends. Jesus is to him
*'no paragon, no model of spotless virtue or of infallible
wisdom," but he is to him an inspiration. Jesus believed
in miracles, in Providence, in a kingdom of God, all which
are to be rejected, but still he stirs the heart and wakes
the mind to noble thought and the struggle for better
things. Mr. Salter would have all the race bound together
in one religious body by the creed ^'Duty hinds." This
must be supreme. In other things there must be liberty.
Men may be theists or atheists, ^'deists or Christians, as
they like, but they must bow before this truth. Duty binds
PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
PAKT I.
PRESENT STATE
or
STUDIES IN HOMILETICS.
BY
KEY. FEANKLIN W. FISK,
Peofessok or Sacked Ehetoric
IN
Chicago THEOiiOGiCAL Seminaey.
INTEODUCTOEY NOTE.
The aim of the writer, in this paper, is to give such
an impartial review of the vokimes noticed, as may be
helpful to young ministers. This is the exact object of
the paper which is mostly confined to books in this de-
partment, published during the last year.
CHAPTER I.
THEORETICAL HOMILETICS— PREACHING.
The t'wenty Colloquies in this volume are valuable
both for the instruction contained in them, and for the
insight given into the condition of preaching in the Church
of England. These Colloquies are represented as having
taken place between persons of very diverse social position,
culture, and employment, so as to reflect the general
sentiments of the community. They are written in a
vivacious, though somewhat diffuse style, and they set
forth with great frankness many of the defects of a style of
preaching not confined to the English Church.
In Colloquy the First, between the Rector and the
Vicar, the rector speaks in a despondent way of the in-
attention of his people to his preaching, and of its small
visible results ; to which the vicar replies that, while labor-
ing on in the patience of hope, "We ought to ask ourselves
whether there may not be methods of preaching to which
we have failed to attain ; methods scarcely perhaps better
in themselves,but better suited to the days in which we live."
In the Colloquy between the Lawyer, the Doctor, and
^Colloquies on Preaching. By Henry T wells, M. A., Honorary
Canon of Peterborongli Cathedral, Ptector of Waltliam, Leicester-
sliire, and Rural Dean. London and New York: Longmans, Green
and Company, 1889.
HOMILETICS— THEORETICAL. 331
the Merchant, the lawyer is made to say that, "The m-
efficiency of our preachers has unfortunately made them
a standing target for ridicule ;" the doctor that, "Eecent
church progress has not affected preaching as one might
have thought it would;" and the lawyer agreeing with
him '^confidently affirms that the. London pulpit has
considerably deteriorated during the last quarter of a
century." But the merchant is "not prepared to admit
the standard of clerical proficiency is below that of other
professions," and is "even inclined to think it may be
above it." Yet he thinks that "Young men in training
for holy orders should be more practised in methods of
composition, clearness of articulation, and all the quali-
ties which combine to make preachers."
In The Conclave at the Club, C. is of the opinion,
that "If they (the parsons) caught up the events of the
past week, and gave them a sort of moral or religous turn,
they would scarcely have the listless audiences that con-
front them now." But A. would have "the clergy use
their great opportunities to popularize science," "instead
of floundering in the traditions of the past." D. would
have "the clergy preach morality," while what E. "craves
after is to learn to live and die as a Christian man." He wants
"to hear the true sense of the teaching of prophets and
apostles, aye, and of One greater than they," and his
companions partly admit that he is right.
In the Colloquy at the Clerical Meeting in the Library
of the Eural Dean, F. (who seems to have good homi-
letical sense) is made to say that "It has become the
fashion of late years to ridicule the old custom of di-
viding sermons into distinctive heads. The result has
been in many instances unfortunate. A great deal of
332 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
modern preaching is painfully discursive. There is an
utter absence of method in its arrangement, and as a
consequence, it leaves no sort of impression behind it.'^
As to the proper length of sermons, the Dean thinks
that "The most common length for ordinar}^ occasions
seems to have settled down into twenty minutes, and
perhaps that, on an average, is free from objection."
But what can be done in twenty minutes to treat prop-
erly many themes that should be discussed in the pulpit ?
In some churches, the elaborate services forbid a suitable
treatment of well-nigh any subject.
In the Colloquy betw^een a Eector and his Son on the
evening of his ordination as deacon, many things are said
worthy of notice. In reply to his father's injunction to
preach what the people need, rather than what will please
them, the son says; ''Hereby would be swept aside a great
deal of attractive and fashionable oratory. Many are drawn
to church out of curiosity to see how far clergymen of the
Church of England can go in the way of disparaging
creeds, and proclaiming a sort of universal salvation.'^
It is but just to add that such hearers and such clergymen
are not confined to the Church of England. Then, too, the
father goes on to say, the preacher must not seek accept-
able words by an undue straining after novelty. His ser-
mons should not resemble the leading articles of newspapers,
nor should he seek to make ,his words acceptable by any
artificial or exaggerated method of delivery, but by giving
his hearers what they most need. He should exert to the
utmost such abilities as God has given him, to commend ^
to diversify, and to illustrate the message with which he
has been entrusted. And, then, he should set before him-
IIOMILETICS— THEORETICAL. 333
self good models and examples, above all the Master him-
self. He must not be a servile imitator, but thor-
oughly^ natural in all he says. His preaching must be
accompanied b}^ faith and prayer. Then his sermons, de-
livered with or without a manuscript, will be with power.
In the Colloquy held by the Bicyclists in regard to the
various kinds of preaching they had heard in their tour,
one of them remarks that dissenting ministers, being aware
what stress their people lay upon preaching, after having
been specially trained for their work, take much pains in
the preparation of their discourses, while it is otherwise
with the church Clergy. " Preaching is an element, but
only an element, in their responsible duties. It is seldom
that they are specially trained for it. Their reputation as
useful men is not dependent upon it." Their sermons, he
thinks, are ordinarily too stilted and artificial.
But there are many exceptions. In the Colloquy of the
Squire and his Guest, the host says in commendation of
his rector, that *'He just stands up and talks to you. It
seems as simple and easy as possible, and yet by and by
you find your heart beating, and your eyes filling with
tears." Yet, though an able preacher, his modesty has
stood in the way of his promotion in the Church.
At Lady Gossip's Party, we have a Colloquy well worth
reading, in which views are expressed that are more preva-
lent in certain circles than is generally imagined. This
from the Hon. Mrs. S. is worth quoting. " Have you ever
heard Mr. Filchurch? I make a point of hearing him
whenever he preaches in town, though it is always difficult
to get a seat. He has a most powerful delivery. His
words come out whirling, tumbling, seething, hissing, till
384 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
you are regularly carried away with them, and don't know
in the least where you are. It is impossible to remember
what he said afterwards, but that is of little consequence,
because he has been so eloquent. They say that he always
faints awa}^ in the vestry, and that his temples have to be
covered with brown paper, dipped in brandy." It is to be
feared that quite a number of the Eev. Mr. Filchurch's
ministerial brothers have migrated to the United States.
Colloquy the Seventeenth, entitled The Detectives, is
carried on by two gentlemen and a lady in a railway car-
riage. A. has again caught his rector pilfering, delivering
a sermon of John Henry Newman's, and says that, from
considerable knowledge of facts, he has arrived at the con-
clusion that we can seldom be sure of a preacher's sermon
being his own. " The clergy- preach to us layjnen the ob-
vious d..ties of honesty and straightforwardness; yet they
stand up in the pulpit, and seek to gain credit from v.'hat
has" really come from the brains of other people."
But B. interposes that young clergymen, wdien they
have much preaching to do, are not unfrequently recom-
mended by their Bishops to adopt the practice of writing
one original sermon a week and borrowing the other !
Then, replies A., why not let the information that they are
preaching another man's sermon be publicly given "? A. is
right. How a man wdio professes to preach the gospel of
truth, and to be an ambassador of Him who is Truth itself,
can stand up before a congregation and preach as his own
a pilfered sermon, passes comprehension. If a minister
is reduced to the pitiful necessity of being obliged to use
another man's sermon, let him stand up like a man and
say that the sermon is not his own, and give due acknowl-
H03IILETICS— THEORETICAL. 335
eclgment to its author. This is the only course at once
upright and safe.
In the last Colloqu}^ between the Bishop and the Arch-
deacon, they both agree that, "While the average stand-
ard of preaching has decidedly improved, the habit of
hearing has most emphatically deteriorated." This change
they in part account for by the fact that the sermon, which
half a century ago was regarded as by far the most im-
portant feature in church-going, has been, as the result of
the Anglo-Catholic revival, dislodged from its former po-
sition, and placed below worship and the sacraments. The
marvelous development of the public press, and the char-
acter of popular literature, are regarded as hostile to
preaching. Yet the Bishop believes that the English pul-
pit has a great future before it. He thinks that there may
be methods of proclaiming and enforcing the gospel of
Christ specially called for by the age in which we live ;
that the. younger clergy should search out these methods,
should pray for greater love of souls, should be close stu-
dents of the Bible, and should cultivate such a style and
delivery as will give greatest effect to their discourses.
The Bishop (who doubtless represents the views of the
author) closes with the expression of the wish that he
*' may yet live to see the beginning, though not t*lie devel-
opment, of a material alteration in the efficiency and influ-
ence of ths pulpit. The nation calls for it. The Church
requires it. It cannot be longer delayed without danger
to both."
The volume is entertaining in parts, and, as a whole,
quite suggestive and instructive.
336 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY,
HISTORY OF PREACHING.^
To one who would become in the pulpit " a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed," the study of the history
of preaching is next in importance to the study of the art
of preaching. The Eev. Dr. Ker has therefore done good
service, not only to young men in preparation for the pul-
pit*, but also to the ministry at large in his Lectures on the
History of Preaching, delivered to students in the Theologi-
cal Hall of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Of the twenty-one lectures, included in this large octavo
volume, the first seven have to do with the general history
of the Pulpit before the Pieformation, while the remaining
lectures are confined wholly to the history of the Ger-
man Protestant Pulpit, the lamented author having left
his work unfinished.
In his first lecture Dr. Ker treats of the advantages of
the study of the history of preaching, one of which is that
the advance of preaching gives ground of encouragement
that the pulpit will attain to still greater power. He holds
"that, as a whole, the pulpit has brought home more of
Christian truth to the circumstances and wants of men,
during the last fifty years, than in any half century since
the beginning of Christianity." He thinks that "All great
revivals, all true advances in the Church, have come from
the simple, earnest preaching of the gospel of Christ."
He closes his lecture on the Ancestry of Preaching in
^Lectures on the History of Preaching. By the late Kev, John
Ker, D. D., Professor of Practical Training in the United Presby-
terian Church. Edited by Kev. A. E. Macewen, M.A., Balliol, B.D.,
Glasgow. Introduction by Ptev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., LLD. New
York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1889.
IIOMILE TICS— THEORETICA L. 337
the Old Testament with the thought that, "If there be any
power under God to save the workl, it is a living church
with faithful ministers who shall fearlessl}^ witness for the
living God."
In his lecture on The Earliest Christian Preaching, he
shows that we should not expect to fmd the New Testa-
ment preaching in shape and form like that which prevails
among us, since sermon-material is there given in the ore,
and left to successive generations to put into all the shapes
needed for the wants of men. Yet we may learn much
from Christ's preaching — its great simplicity, variety,
sympathy, faithfulness, and adaptation. All the preaching
of the Apostles centered on Christ, and aimed at the salva-
tion of men.
Then followed the hortatory and inferior preaching of
the Apostolic Fathers, soon to be succeeded by a period of
great pulpit power, with such men of might as Origen,
Basil, and Chrysostom, in the Eastern Church, and Jerome,
Ambrose, and Augustine, in the Western. The sermon,
though often faulty in exegesis and discursive in thought,
was full of vigor, addressed to the conscience, and adapted
to the age.
In his two lectures on Oriental Church Preaching, the
author, after noticing the marked change in the intellectual
and rhetorical character of the preaching of the Eastern
Church, resulting from various causes, treats at length of
the characteristics of the preaching of Origen and Chrysos-
tom, the representatives respectively of the schools of Alex-
andria and Antioch. The main defect of the preaching of
both these schools, was a w^ant of naturalness. Then
came the decline of preaching in the Eastern Church,
338 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
caused by bitter polemic strife, dogmatism, ecclesiasticism,
and failure of the missionary spirit.
In his lecture on Western Church Preaching, Dr. Ker,
after giving several reasons for the slower development of
the power of the pulpit in the West, describes the character-
istics of the great preachers, Cyprian, Ambrose, and Au-
gustine.
Of the great preachers in the Western Church during
the Middle Ages, — from the death of Augustine to the Ee-
formation, — the author names Leo the Great, Gregory the
Great, and Bede, in the earlier half of the period, and, in
the last half, Thomas Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux, John
Tauler, Berthold of Eatisbon, John Wycliife, John Huss,
and Savonarola. The lowest period in preaching was from
800 to 1200 A. D.
In his lecture on the History of German Preaching
from the Eeformation, Dr. Ker puts Luther in the forefront
of the long line of eminent German preachers, and analy-
zes the elements of his power. His great aim was to
preach the great saving truths of the Bible, and to preach
them clearly and simply. '-He had one overmastering
thought, and that thought was Christ."
Then followed a period of decline in preaching, caused
in part by national and political disquiet, doctrinal disputes,
and dogmatism, which decline Philipp Jacob Spener, " the
reformer of the life of the German church," wrought
mightily to arrest.
Although he was partially successful, his work developed
" the Pietistic School, and led to a wide and deep reaction
from which Germany is only now emerging." Of this
school, Francke of Halle was a distinguished representa-
HOMILETICS— THEORETICAL. ^ 839
live. Incessant in his pastoral, university, and orphan
house work, he did much to promote spiritual life in the
people, and spiritual power in the pulpit.
But sad days for the German Church and preaching
followed, in the recoil from fervid pietism to the opposite
extreme of rationalism, which Bengel and Zinzendorf did
much to counteract.
The author devotes a lecture to the Preaching of Illu-
minism, of which the historian Mosheim, Johann J. Spald-
ing, Georg J. Zollikofer, and Franz V. Eeinhard, were
eminent representatives. Their preaching w^as much the
same as the ethical preaching of the "Moderates" of
Scotland, whose best representative was Dr. Hugh Blair.
Yet underneath this prevailing Illuminism, there was,
here and there, the hidden life of faith, which welcomed,
as the dawn of a better day, such preaching as that of
Schleiermacher, which, wath all its defects, '* taught men
that there is something more in religion and the Bible and
Christ than the easily understood commonplaces which Illu-
minism declared to be the wdiole."
Then came the " Mediating School," trying to recon-
cile religion and science, faith and reason, whose represen-
tative preachers were Karl Immanuel Nitzsch and Frieder-
ich Augustus Tholuck. Nitzsch's views of preaching,
given in his Practical Theology, and quoted by Dr. Ker, are
worth remembering. " In every sermon, the preacher
should consider: (1) The aim; an aim wdiich can be
briefly stated, and which must be kept in view through-
out ; (2) the collection of material bearing on this, which
is to be found principally in the Bible and in the heart ;
(3) the arrangement or division of the material, which
340 PRACTICAL TIIEOLOGV.
should be simple and yet comprehensive ; (4) the carrying
out of the plan under each division, and in this the main
aim should always be keep in view; (5) the language; and
(6) the action."
The language of preaching, he thinks, should be largely
that of the Bible, and the sermon should be delivered
without use of manuscript.
Tholuck, famous as a linguist and exegete, was prob-
ably the best preacher of his time in Germany. His ser-
mons, evangelical, full of feeling, and teeming with illus-
trations, took captive the hearts of his hearers. The author
well cites Tholuck's ideal of a sermon. '' A true sermon has
the heaven for its father and the earth for its mother.
Why is it that so much of our preaching goes coldly over
the head and heart? Because earthly affairs are treated
only in the light of this world. They have the earth for
their mother, but not the heaven for their father. And
why do other sermons go over the head and heart alto-
gether? Because, though heavenly things are dealt with,
they are not carried into the streets, the homes, the w^ork-
shops of the earth. They have the heaven for their father,
but not the earth for their mother.''
In the great variety of religious life and preaching in
Germany, Dr. Ker regards Ludwig Hofacker and Glaus
Harms as continuing the " Unbroken Testimony " of the
doctrine of Luther and Spener to our time.
The preaching of Hofacker, though he died at the age
of thirty, produced a marvelous effect. Although destitute
of the arts of oratory, it was impassioned, earnest, sympa-
thetic and direct.
Harms was a powerful preacher. He set forth the
HOMILETICS— THEORETICAL. 341
central themes of the Bible with deep conviction of their
truth, and in a simple and direct manner. He held that
the lirst requisite of a preacher is a right spirit — a deep,
holy earnestness ; that the Bible should furnish the chief
material for preaching ; that the language of the sermon
should be that used by the people — simple and natural —
and that the delivery should be without notes, natural
and easy.
Kudolf Stier and Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher
the author terms pre-eminently "Biblical Preachers."
Stier maintains ''that the Bible is the living fountain of all
Christian teaching, and that wide, deep acquaintance
with it is the first qualification for preaching." The pulpit
should keep close to the thought and to the language
of the Bible.
The preaching of Krummacher, — the Guthrie of Ger-
many,— was largely illustrative, and in manner highly
dramatic. His "sermons are like a gallery of paintings.
Every truth is thrown into a figure." His method is
thus described by the author. "The introduction is gener-
ally short and vivid, leading right up to the text; the
divisions are briefly expressed and memorable, while the
close is also brief and telling, the application being given
throughout the discourse." He would have the preacher
use three books — the Bible, his own heart, and the people.
In the lecture on Piecent and Present German Preach-
ing, Dr. Ker, after noticing the influence of Kant and
Hegel on German thought and preaching, describes such
representative preachers of the different religious bodies
and. schools as, Franz Theremin, Karl Schwarz, Ludwig
Harms, Rudolph Kogel, Julius MuUer, Karl von Gerok,
342 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
Johann T. Beck, Lutharclt, Steinmeyer, and Uhlliorn.
Present German preaching is delineated as striving after
more simplicity and clearness, without becoming less in-
structive ; varjang in form between the textual and the
topical methods, according to the mental structure of the
preacher ; and becoming more Scriptural and evangelical.
In the closing lecture on Lessons for Our Preaching,
the author, after giving a resume of his lectures, gathers
from them several lessons for his pupils, which he sums
up in his closing paragraph. "Let us, then, preach salva-
tion by faith, and regeneration through the Holy- Spirit ;
let us seek to search the depths of the soul with the Gos-
pel of Christ; let us bring all God's truth to bear on
the life of men in plain, practical speech ; and we shall
be workmen that need not be ashamed."
These lectures of Dr. Ker on the History of Preaching are
able, discriminative, instructive, and worthy of careful
reading by young ministers.
This volume contains fifty-five plans of sermons, and
two discourses delivered on important occasions. These
plans, given quite fully, have been taken from sermons
preached by Dr. McConnell, and now offered to others for
use. In the preface we are told, "The author can claim
for these outlines of sermons but a single valuable quality,
— they have stood the experimentum crucis. They have
been used, and have been found to be sufficiently coherent
^Sermon Stuff. By S. D. McConnell, D.D., Rector of St. Stephen's
Clmrcli, Philadelphia. New York: Thomas Whittaker, J 889.
HOMILETICS— THEORETICA L. 343
to be intelligible. All proprietary right in them is hereby
renounced. If anyone can find in them either material or
arrangement to serve his purpose, they are his."
Now, though this is very generous of the author, yet we
cannot but think that the long-suffering congregations
whose preachers resort for aid to these skeletons of sermons,
have some rights which their pastors are bound to re-
spect. These churches have called these ministers to be-
come their pastors, and have taken upon themselves their
support, that they may give themselves wholly to the
study of the Divine Word, and to the preaching of it out of
their own heart's experience, and they have a right not only
to all that is best in their pastors, but also tiiat they
should at least be so far honest as not to palm off upon
them other men's plans of sermons as their own. If
such ministers have not mind enough to make a decent
outline of a sermon, or are so pressed for time that they
cannot make one, then let them stand up before their
congregations like men, and state frankly that they have
taken the outline of their sermon from another. If they
take any other course, they will in due time almost cer-
tainly come to grief, and besides dwarfing themselves intel-
lectually and spiritually, will lose, if not the respect of
their congregations, the respect of themselves.
These outlines of sermons have considerable variety in
form. Few of them can be said to have strict unity of
thought. They rarely develop a proposition, but oftener
consist of remarks on the general subject of the discourse.
From these plans we gather that their author does
not regard probation as limited to the present life (pp.
9, 10, 80,) ; and that he thinks "the theological device of
844 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
the Fall unscriptural and unsatisfactory. The transac-
tion called by that name was clearly an advance upon
what preceded." (P. 136.)
The two discourses (Baccalaureate Sermon and Con-
vention Sermon) with which the volume closes, are able
and practical.
CHAPTER II.
PRACTICAL HOMILETICS— SERMONS.
QUESTIONS OF THE AGES.^
In this little volume of a hundred and thirty pages, the
Rev. Moses Smith has, in nine discourses, attempted to
answer the following questions : What is The Almighty ?
What is Man? What is The Trinity? Which is The Great
Commandment? What is Faith? Is there Common Sense
in Religion? Is there a Larger Ho: e? Is Life Worth Liv-
ing? What Mean These Stones ?
These questions the author discusses with ability and
candor. He brings to the discussion a keen intellect, judi-
cial impartiality, good sense, a happy way of setting forth
the truth, and a vigorous style. He condenses much
thought into few words. He makes the great doc-
trines of w^hich he treats appear reasonable. Perhaps, in
his efforts in this direction, he may at times go too far. It
is a little perilous to attempt to illustrate the mystery of
the Trinity in the Godhead by a reference to man in his
various relations.
One of the best sermons in the volume is that on,
" Who is my Neighbor? or. Life Worth Living?" It is
very suggestive in thought, and vivid in style.
The book Avill well repay reading.
'Questions of the Ages. By Rev. Moses Smith. Cliicago: New York
Fleming H. Re veil.
346 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
ON BEHALF OF BELIEF.^
Of the twelve sermons contained in this vohime by
Canon Holland, the first four, — Concerning the Eesnrrec-
tion, — the author modestly says, " may possibly suggest
to some the coherence of the entire (Apostles') Creed which
knits its ideal and its historical elements together into a
unity so close and compact that it is impossible to effect a
severance — impossible to separate, by any analysis, kernel
from husk, where each element is kernel and husk by
turns."
These four discourses are upon, Criticism and the Res-
urrection; The Critical Dilemma; The Gospel Witness;
and The Elemental Enigmas. We know not where else
can be found within so small a compass as popular, in-
structive, and convincing a treatment of the great facts and
truths of the resurrection of Christ as is contained in these
four discourses. That on The Gospel Witness, — ''Whereof
we are all loitnesses,'" — is especially excellent.
In the four sermons which follow, — Concerning the
Church," — on Corporate Faith, The Pattern in the Mount,
Our Citizenship, The Building of the Spirit, the author
sets forth " that necessary and vital correspondence be-
tween faith and the Church which is universally assumed
in apostolical writings." In the first sermon he shows that
faith and a church are correlative and not antithetical
terms, and that they imply and involve one another. He
affirms " that all genuine faith in Jesus Christ holds within
^ On Behalf of Belief . Sermons preached in St. Paul's Cathedral,
Concerning the Eesnrrection — Concerning the Church— Concerning
Human Nature. B^^ the Rev. H. S. Holland, M. A., Canon and Pre-
centor of St. Paul's. New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1889.
Jin MILE TICS— PEA CTICAL. 347
it the secret, the germ of the Church; its inner construc-
tion anticipates a Church ; its t^^pe, its form, its charac-
ter, prepare it fpr insertion into a society, a body, a sys-
tem, an order. Deprived of this, it must miss something
of its perfect development ; it cannot be attaining to all
its proper fruit. Something is lost ; something lies dormant
and unused. There are gifts in it which are not exercised,
and possibilities whichjemain unfulfilled." This thought
is, we think, finely put, but it is questionable whether
*' The type, the form, the mechanism, the framework of the
body of Christ," into which he hopes all Christians will be
finally gathered, will correspond to his conception.
The subject of the second sermon, — The Pattern in the
Mount, — is found, the author thinks, "in three or four
metaphors, invariably occurring throughout the Apostolic
writings, which most certainly convey the mind of the Lord
about His Church, as His Apostles understood it." "They
are the figures of the household, the family, the body, the
temple," each of which topics he develops in this and the
following sermon in a very interesting and instructive
manner.
In the last four discourses, — Concerning Human Na-
ture,— the author, in discussing the themes. Made under
the Law, The Divine Sanction to Natural Law, The Word
was made Flesh, The Nature of the Flesh, "endeavors to
justify and interpret that loyalty to natural facts which,
far from being traversed, is rather sanctioned and con-
firmed by belief in a Kisen Master, and in His Eedemp-
tive Church." His endeavor seems to us successful. The
last sermon, on The Nature of the Flesh, appears to us
very able and worthy of careful reading. Indeed, the vol-
ume, as a whole, is very suggestive and instructive.
348 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
THE HOUSE AND ITS BUILDER.^
The Keverend Samuel Cox, D. D., has given m this vol-
lime the last ten sermons that he preached near the close
of a pastorate extending over a quarter of a century.
They are mostly expository, and have those excellent char-
acteristics of thought and expression for which Dr. Cox, as
an expositor, is justly celehrated.
The first seven of these discourses — on The House and
its Builder ; The Origin of Evil ; A Working Hypothesis ;
The Groans of Nature ; The Groans of Humanity ; The
Groans of the Spirit ; Inferences and Uses ; Mercy and
Justice, — are, the author says, "addressed to those who
have been infected by the doubts which are in the very air
of the time, doubts which every thoughtful mind is, sooner
or later, compelled to face." These seven sermons, with
the exception of the first, are a series of able exposi-
tions of the difficult passage, Komans viii, 18-27.
In the sermon on The Origin of Evil, the author favors
the hypothesis "that moral evil is, at least, an inevitable
risk, perhaps an inevitable accident, in the' creation of such
a world as this;" that if man is made with freedom of will,
he may abuse that freedom and sin. That he did so.
Scripture affirms. And the Apostle. Paul "asserts that the
moral fall of man had physical consequences or concomi-
tants ; that by, or for, his sin, the whole creation was re-
duced, against its will, into that bondage to imperfection
and corruption in which we find it; that in this bondage it
^The House and its Builder, with other Discourses: A Book for the
Doubtful. By Samuel Cox, D. D. New York: Thomas Wliittaker,
1889.
HOMILETICS— PRACTICAL. 349
labours and groans, longing for deliverance, struggling up
toward a freedom and a perfection which it never quite
attains ; but that it solaces itself under the miseries of its
bondage by cherishing an indomitable hope of rising into
the freedom and perfection for which it 3'earns, when the
redemption of man from his bondage shall be complete."
In his instructive discourse on The Groans of Nature,
Eomans viii. 19-22, Dr. Cox, after showing that Nature
is, according to the Apostle, in bondage to vanity and cor-
ruption, and that Science affirms the same, inquires how
it comes to pass that in a world made b}^ the perfect God
all things bear some mark of imperfection ; that in a world
made, and ruled by the living God, all things die. The
answer, he thinks, is suggested by the Apostle : '^Vof hy its
own ivill, hut liy reason of him ivho subjected it.^' The crea-
tures were not made for this bondage, or they would not
strive and groan under it. The living perfect God did not
intend this bondage when He made them ; or, at least,
this is not the end for which they are and were created.
They have been forced into it, but not by Him ; and they
submit to it with an utterable reluctance, an intolerable
shame." The author, it will be noticed, makes man, and
not God, the one who thus subjects nature and brings it
into bondage. In this view,^he is at variance with such au-
thorities as Meyer and Alford.
In the sermon on Mercy and Justice, James ii. 13,
"Mercy glorieth against judgment," the author, in accor-
dance with his theory of "The Larger Hope," takes the
position that the purpose of God in inflicting punishment
is, and always will be, to induce penitence and a better
mind. "If God is forever the same, if He is to be true to
350 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
Himself, if He is not to sink below the level of his own
commandments, He who Himself found out the remedy for
all the sin and all the sorrow of the world, must make that
remedy effectual, and restore all his erring and infected
children to an eternal health and an eternal home." But
how will this be brought about if some men will persist in
sin forever?
THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.^
Under this title the Eev. Dr. Alfred Plummerhas given to
the press an octavo volume of four hundred and thirty pages,
containing thirty-seven expository chapters or discourses,
(for such he twice terms them), on the Epistles to Timoth}^
and Titus.
In these expository discourses, the author takes up in
their order the more important portions of these Epistles,
and expounds them in a learned and thorough manner.
He aims rather at a full discussion of the topics treated,
than at their practical application. Yet his expositions
take more the form of discourse than commentary.
They are at once instructive and interesting, and show
their author to be a ripe scholar and able theologian.
In his twenty-fourth discourses on Titus, iii, 4-7, the
author stoutly maintains that the phrase "through the
washing of regeneration "means "the Christian rite of
baptism, in which, and by means of which the regeneration
takes place." He adds : "We are fully justified by his
(the Apostle's) language here in asserting that it is hy
1 The Pastoral Epistles. B3- the Rev. Alfred Pliimmer, M.A., D.D.,
Master of University College, Dnrliam; formerl^^ Fellow and Senior
Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford. New York: A. C. Armstrong and
Son, 1889.
HOMILETICS—PRACTICA L, 851
means of the baptismal washing that the regeneration
takes place ; for he asserts that God ' saved us tliroiufh the
washing of regeneration.' The laver or bath of regenera-
tion is the instrument or means by which God saved us."
In his expositor}' discourse on II Tim. i, 15-18, Dr.
Plummer, in expounding the parenthetical sentence, ''(the
Lord grant unto him (Onesiphorus) to find merely of the
Lord in that day)," concludes " that, according to the more
probable and reasonable view, the passage before us con-
tains a prayer offered up by the Apostle on behalf of one
who is dead," and that *' we seem to have obtained his
sanction, and therefore the sanction of Scripture, for using
similar prayers oursehves." But he cautions us that we
must use similar prayers, and adds : ''On what grounds
can we accept the obligation of praying for the spiritual
advancement of those who are with us in the flesh, and
yet refuse to help by our prayers the spiritual advance-
ment of those who have joined that ' great cloud of wit-
nesses ' in the unseen world, by which we are perpetually
encompassed (Heb. xii, 1)? The very fact that they wit-
ness our prayers for them may be to them an increase of
strength and joy." We cannot but think that the author
is here treading upon uncertain and dangerous ground.
Throughout these expository lectures, the author
shows great candor and catholicity of spirit, united with
varied scholarship.
352 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
THE IMMANENT GOD AND OTHER SERMONS.^
This little volume comprises eight discourses on The
Immanent God ; The Unsearcable God ; The Manifest God ;
Law, Providence and Prayer; Satan or the Genius of
Trial ; Self-Abnegation ; The Way where the Light Dwelleth ;
and the Heart's Plea for Immortality Accepted.
They are rather essays than sermons. The author
discusses subjects in a very interesting manner. His
style is delightful. His spirit is admirable. But we can-
not quite agree with him in some of his views.
In his sermon on The Immanent God, he represents his
own childish conception of God as essentially that formed
by many modern theologians and Christians. "Calvin's
arguments and Edwards' sermons and Moody's exhorta-
tions imply it. The theology that has ruled Christendom
for fifteen centuries is builded on the conception of an 'ab-
sentee God,' a God outside of, detached from, far away
from his world. Formed in another age, and thence handed
on, cherished by scholars and thinkers as brave as have
ever lived, there it is, the haunting, the prevailing thought."
Now, of all men, President Edwards is the last against
whom such a charge can justly be made. His writings
abound in sentiments just the opposite. For example, in
writmg of his own experience soon after his conversion, he
says: "The appearance of everything was altered ; there
seemed to be, as it were, a calm, sweet cast or appearance
of divine glory, in almost everything. God's excellency,
his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in
^The Immanent God and other Sermons. By Abraham W. Jackson.
Boston and New York. Houghton, Mifflin and Comi^any. 1889.
HOMILETICS—PRA OTIC A L. :}5:^
everything: in the sun, and moon, and stars; in the clouds
and bhie sky ; in the grass, flowers, and trees ; in the water,
and all nature; which used greatly to fix my niind. I
often used to sit and view the moon for continuance ; and
in the day spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky,
to behold the sweet glory of God in these things ; in the
meantime, singing forth, with a low voice, my contempla-
tions of the Creator and Redeemer. " Also in his History
of the Work of Redemption, President Edw^ards thus re-
views, near the close, the course of the events that he has
been tracing: ''We began at the head of the stream of
divine Providence, and have follow^ed and traced it through
its various windings and turnings, till we are come to the
end of it, and we see where it issues. As it began in God,
so it ends in God. God is the infinite ocean into which it
empties itself."
In his sermon on Law, Providence, and Prayer, the
author takes the position that only prayer "for the things
of soul " will be answered, that it is fooUsh to imagine
that "things of body" — that any so-called laws of nature,
will be suspended, or in any way modified by pra^^er. But
may not the Author of natural laws have so constituted
them at the first, that they shall work out, throughout all
time, the answers to such petitions as He, foreseeing that
they would be offered, should think it best to grant ?
In his discourse on Satan, or The Genius of Trial, the
author avows his belief that Satan as a person has no ex-
istence. He is simply trial personified. "He seems to
be a Persian conception, and was adopted into Jewish
thought, perhaps in the time of the captivity. The early
Christian writers, conspicuously John in the Apocalypse,
354 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY,
without stopping to discriminate his real character, foisted
the attrihutes of devil upon him, and sent him down the
ages the personalized principle of moral evil. These
attributed are now stripped off, and we are com-
pelled in honesty to give Satan a better name, if not a
more sympathetic fellowship. If we cannot love him more,
we at least should speali him fairer." '' In the tempta-
tion of Jesus there was really no Devil, only the Satan
of trial applying his tests to Jesus. Conscious of great
powers, he has retired to the desert to meditate on the use
to which he will devote them." And the author goes on
to add, "Now that there was ever such a being as Satan,
I suppose few to-day believe. And the reason why we have
ceased to believe in him is, that we have left behind the
habit of personalizing principles which we find always with
man in the early stages of his development." How the
author can reconcile these views with the express teachings
of the New Testament on this subject, and especially of
Him who is "the truth," is beyond our comprehension.
The last sermon in the volume. The Heart's Plea for
Immortality, we regard as the ablest.
We cannot but think it a defect in these sermons, that
they have so small a spiritual element in them.
THE LAW OF LIBERTY.^
The twelve discourses of this volume which Dr. Whiton
has given to the public, are upon The Law of Liberty ;
Solomon ; Helping God ; Spiritual Barbarism ; The Mys-
^The Law of Liberty and Other Discourses. By James Morris
Whiton, Ph. D. New York, Thomas Whittaker, 1889.
HOMILETK \S— PRACTICAL. 356.
tery of Evil ; The Assurance of Immortality ; The Trans-
figuration ; Is Deception ever a Duty ? The Trinity ; Ba-
laam ; The Advent of the Christ ; The World's • Balance-
Wheel.
These subjects are discussed with great freshness of
thought and illustration, and in an attractive manner.
The author's varied and exact scholarship appears through-
out these sermons. They are very suggestive and instruct-
ive. The style is excellent, and the plans of the discourses
are, in general, good. But if, in some of the sermons, the
subjects and the main heads had beBn given greater con-
ciseness and prominence, we cannot but think that it
would have given the hearers more easy possession of the
thought.
The last discourse on The World's Balance-Wheel, from
the text "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," is, in
matter and form, one of the ablest in the volume.
Some of the positions of the author seem to us hardly
tenable. His view of the inspiration of the Scriptures is
such as to be consistent with error as to causes and ideas.
For example, "The historian (of the Books of the Kings)
records not only the rise and fall of the Hebrew monarchy,
but also what appeared to him to be the cause of its decline.
This he found in a decay of orthodoxy by the intrusion of
heathen modes of worship. He traces the evil back to Sol-
omon, and attributes the great rebellion, which divided the
kingdom in his son's time, to the anger of God at the
allowance which Solomon had granted to the idolatrous
worship of his foreign wives. A closer study of the his-
tory gives us a different view of the matter, and a
different idea of what Solomon's apostasy was." In
356 PRACTICAL TUEOLOGY.
the discourse on The Tranfiguration, in advocating
an immediate resurrection after death, he says: "The
Jewish behef was of a remoter resurrection, at some
worki's end, as Martha thought. Traces of this old way
of thinking colour some of Paul's sayings." So also the
author believes that, " with this fact of an accomplished
resurrection goes the corresponding fact of an accom-
plished judgment."
In his sermon on The Trinity, the author regards the
three designations, "■ The Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost," as in no respect representing " three Persons" in
the Deity, but simply the result of "a progressive revelation
of God, of which the names given to Him at successive
periods mark the successive advances, till the revelation is
completed by Christ in his announcement of the Triune
Name of ^tlie Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.'''
So in a foot note on page 185, we read : " In the Scriptural
term 'only begotten,' as applied to Jesus, we cannot take
*only' to mean exclusively, without contradicting the Scrip-
tural truth which Paul discovered in a Greek poet, ' We
also are His offspring.' Not exclusiveness, but pre-emi-
nence is meant here by 'only.' " And yet the author says :
"Let none of us imagine that anything essential has been
left out of our account, because the usual phraseology
about 'Three Persons' has been discarded." "The thing
is here, all that Jesus taught us, ' the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost,' the Three personal agencies of God, not three
individual agents — the Three personal activities of God,
not three individual actors."
In the able discourse on Balaam : The Moral Cross-Eye,
Dr. Whiton takes what appears to be stated as simple
nOMILETICS— PRACTICAL. 357
facts, in a highly figurative sense. The voice of God to
him is simpl}^ the voice of conscience, and he says : "We
must regard Balaam's conduct as evincing nothing more
in the action of his beast than a brute nature m terror is
capable of. So the dumb creatures often speak to us by
looks and cries, inarticulately, but eloquently and intel-
ligibly.
But though we dissent from such views as have been
named, we regard these discourses as, in the main, very
suggestive and helpful.
In this volume of ten expository discourses on the
fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the
Eev. Dr. Eeuen Thomas sets forth his views of the Apostle's
teaching in that remarkable portion of Scripture. "My
great aim," says the author, "was to present and enforce
what to me was manifestl}^ Paul's teaching in the great
Resurrection chapter. * * * All I have aimed at is
to 'give the sense' of St. Paul in a way suited to the
necessities and competencies of a listening Christian
assembly."
This we think he has well done. Taking up in suc-
cession the parts of the chapter which he is to expound, he
sets forth with clearness and force the Apostle's thought,
often felicitously blendhig with the exposition practical
suggestions. Thus in his second discourse, which he terms
^Though Death to Life : Diacourees on St. Paul's Great Resurrec-
tion Chapter. By Reuen Thomas, D. D., Boston: Silver, Burdett
and Co.
358 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
''Personal," in which the Apostle gives an account of his
own life and experience, the author says, ''I think that
there is a needful suggestion here for ourselves in these
modern days. Often and often, with great want of wis-
dom (so it seems to some of us), have men been set to
public preaching to others immediately after, in some re-
vival meetings, their emotions have been stirred and
confession of Christ as their Lord been publicly made.
And the more of badness there has been in the previous life,
the more notorious the men have been, the more needful it
has seemed by their advisers that their case should be made
public. In the light of the retirement into Arabia of
the great Apostle of the Gentiles, I am compelled to make
confession of my belief that such sudden precipitancy
of an untried man upon the public is all wrong. If any
such men have gifts which can be utilized, let
them, ere using those gifts, go into some Arabia for three
years and get to know themselves. Unless a man's con-
viction is able to go into retirement for three years and
grow, it is not of much account."
In some of his expositions as, for example, in the dis-
course on Baptism for the Dead, the author is at vari-
ance with such high authorities as Meyer and Alford, yet
he always presents his view with frankness and modesty.
These discourses, though generally informal, follow
closely the course of the Apostle's thought, and are
good examples of expository preaching. The last discourse
on Certain Eeward, is a fine example of textual ser-
mon.
The style of Dr. Thomas is simple, clear, forcible, and
well adapted to the pulpit. Very infrequently are found
HOMILETICS—PRA CTICAL. 359
such expressions as ''Firstly," and "His body was not
grossly material like our bodies are now," that mar his style.
The volume will abundantly repay reading.
THE THRESHOLD OF MANHOOD.^
This is one of the best of the many volumes of sermons
addressed to young men, that we have read. The au-
thor, himself a young man, is in heartiest sympathy with
young men, and his ministry of five years in London
brought him into "special contact" wath them, and thus
made him able to speak to them with a somewhat full
"knowledge of the temptations, struggles, and needs of
city youth."
The fourteen sermons contained in the volume are
on Decision ; A Young Man's Dfficulties ; Impulse
and Opportunity; The Testnnony of Fact; What it is
that Endures ; Purity ; The Sin of Esau ; Sins of Silence ;
The Character of Judas ; Job on Pessimism ; Nathan
and David ; The Impotence of Eevolt against the Truth ;
The Fatherhood of God; The Use of Mystery. These
subjects the author treats in a fresh and interesting way.
He deals faithfully and plainly with young men, and does
not shrink from applying the truth to their needs. Yet
he shows that he is] in fullest sympathy with them in
the temptations and struggles through which they are
passing.
^The Threshold of Manhood. A Young Stan's Words to Young
Men. By W, J. Dawson, antlior of "A Vision of Souls: with other
Ballads and Poems," "Quest and Vision: Essays in Life and
Literature," etc. New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1889.
360 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
His style is attractive. He abounds in pertinent illus-
trations. He has the imagination of a poet, and uses it
often with fine effect.
The plans of these discourses are largely textual, and
some of them are very good. In some cases, the plans are
not sufficiently distinct and terse.
In the sermon on The Sin of Esau, the author takes
the phrase, *'he found no place of repentance," to mean
" no way to change his (Esau's) mind." *'His desire
changed, but his environment was fixed ; he changed his
mind in one sense of the phrase, but he could not change
his condition." In this view, though he is in accord with
such modern authorities as Delitzsch and Alford, he is at
variance with Meyer, who maintains that the passage
means, **Esaudid not succeed in causing his father Isaac
to change his mind, so that the latter should recall the bless-
ing erroneously bestowed upon the younger brother Jacob,
and confer it upon himself the elder son ; in this he succeed-
ed not, though he sought it with tears." He insists that
this interpretation "is most naturally suggested by the con-
text itself, yields a clear, correct thought, and best accords
with the narrative in Genesis."
The sermons in this volume, which we have read with
greatest interest, are those on Decision; A Young
Man's Difficulties ; The Testimony of Fact ; What it is that
Endures ; The Character of Judas ; Nathan and David ; and
The Impotence of Kevolt against the Truth. Indeed, there
is not one of these discourses the reading of which again
and again would not be a great benefit to a young man.
We hope that the book will find its way into the hands of
many a youth.
HOMILETICS— PRACTICAL. 361
In this volume of twenty-live chapters or sermons — for
such they seem to be, — the Eev. Dr. J. Oswald Dykes has
given fine examples of expository discourse. The author
goes through the first eight chapters of the Epistle to the
Romans, taking up consecutive portions of it, and aiming
"to make clear in popular language the precise connection
of the x\postle's thought.** This he has admirably done.
Having evidently studied in the most careful and thorough
manner the Apostle's great argument, and brought himself
into closest sympathy with the spirit and aim of the wri-
ter, he sets forth the Apostle's wonderful sweep of thought
and cogency of argument with great clearness and power.
In this respect these discourses are worthy to stand
beside Dr. Chalmers' Lectures on the Epistle to the Romans,
while they are superior to them in general form and style.
No one, we are sure, can read these expository discourses
on the most profound and difficult epistle of the Apostle
Paul, without being both instructed and charmed by the
clear setting forth of the thought, and the attractiveness of
the style.
As an example of the author's style, take the following
on Christians being "Joint-heirs with Christ." "The won-
der is that a hope so magnificent does not dazzle earthly
eyes. For plain people, full of faults, who in this strutting
world of little men count for nothing, to be gravely assured
that their destiny is to be associated within a year or two
1 The Gospel According to St. Paul. Studies in the first eight
chapters of his Epistle to the Romans. By the Rev. J. Oswald
Dykes, M.A., D.D. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1888.
362 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
with the present condition of the Eternal Son of God, is a
prospect the unearthly brilliance of which might well ravish
any of us so as to leave scarce interest enough for present
affairs. One might suppose that such a future, if a man
believed in it, must dwarf into utter nothingness the ambi-
tions and losses of this world, reconcile his patience to any
calamity, and elevate his mind quite above the petty rival-
ries and turmoils that vex the days of common men. Let
a clear soul, sure of its celestial parentage, only fasten its
vision on the inheritance which within so brief a space is to
be its own, and fill itself full with the idea of that ap-
proaching elevation, with its sacre'd delights, its superhu-
man companionships, its passionless repose, its stainless
purity, its ceaseless and saintly occupations : surely such a
soul may be expected at least to draw into itself some-
thing serene and godlike, a little of the peace and more than
a little of the sanctity of heaven!"
It is a good omen for the pulpit that expository preach-
ing seems to be coming into increasing favor with the peo-
ple, and such discourses as those contained in this volume
of Dr. D3^kes, must aid not a little in making expository
preaching popular.
Paul's ideal church and people.^
Into this volume of less than three hundred pages, the
learned author has condensed a brief commentary on the
^PaiiVs Ideal Church and People. A Popular Commentary. With
a Series of Forty Sermonettes on the First Epistle to Timothy. By
Alfred Rowland, LL.B.. B.A. (London University). New York: E. B.
Treat, 1888.
H03nLETICS—PRA CTICA L. 368
First Epistle to Timotliy, followed by '' Forty Sermou-
ettes," consisting of a series of popular expositions of the
Epistle in the order of the text.
The *' Expository Notes" occupy the first thirty pages
of the work, and are scholarly and helpful. The '' Ser-
monettes " so-called, (a word which we think should have
no place in good English), though so short that they could
each be delivered, on an average, in fifteen minutes, yet
are packed with excellent and suggestive thoughts. It
would be difficult to find elsewhere so many practical
thoughts and suggestions in as short sermons.
The author has the happy faculty of setting forth in a
vivid, interesting, and instructive manner, the course of
the thought in the passage expounded.
Several of the plans in these expository discourses are
admirable, and are worthy of close study by young minis-
ters. Take, for example, the text 1 Tim. i. 15, — ''This is
a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief," which he terms The Gospel in a Sentence, and
which he treats textually thus : I. The Mission of the
Son of God is here set forth — He " came into the world."
11. The Purpose of His Mission could not be set forth
more clearly and concisely than in the words. He came
*' to save sinners." IH. The Exemplification of this
Purpose, given by Paul, is drawn from his own experience.
He says, respecting himself, of sinners " I am chief."
Conclusion. — The truth that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners, is "worthy of all acceptation." ''It
is a faithful saying."
In the expository sermon on 1 Tim. v. 17-22, entitled
364 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
Duties Towards the Ministry, the following are the chief
heads: I. Its Faithfulness should be Honored. — "Let
the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double
honour." II. Its Reputation should be Cherished. —
'' Against an elder receive not an accusation, except at the
mouth of two or three witnesses." III. Its Aspirants
SHOULD be Approved. — ''Lay hands suddenly or hastily on
no man."
In the sermon on The Christian Contest, from 1 Tim.
vi. 12, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal
life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a
good profession before many witnesses," the author gives
the following plan: "This exhortation rfeminds us —
I. That the Christian Life is a Contest. II. That the
Christian Life begins with a Call. III. That the Chris-
tian Life demands Confession. IV. That the Christian
Life receives its Crown."
The style is simple, clear, direct, and well adapted to
expository discourse.
We commend to young ministers this volume as a val-
uable aid in acquiring skill in expository preaching.
-SERMONS BY ARCHDEACON FARRAR.^
This volume (Contemporary Pulpit Library) contains
eighteen discourses recently delivered by the eminent
Archdeacon of Westminster on such practical themes as,
Christian Responsibility; How to Deal with Social Dis-
^Sermons. By the Ven. F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., Archdeacon of
Westminster. New York: Thomas Whittaker. London: Swan,
Sonnenschein and Company. 1889.
HOMILETICS—PRA CTICAL. 365
tress ; The Kegeneration of the World ; The Signs of the
Times ; The Church and Her Work ; Doers of the Word ;
London Life ; Hosea's Message ; and Keligion and Keligion-
ism.
These sermons shov/ Archdeacon Farrar to be a very
practical and close preacher. Few Puritan divines ever
pressed home the truth more faithfully upon the heart and
the conscience. Although loyal to the Church of England, he
cares not for mere rites and ceremonies, and avows him-
self in hearty sympathy with all who, in whatever commun-
ion, show the Christian spirit.
In these sermons he dwells much on the practical duties
of life and on social problems, especially those of London
life. In all these great social questions he is intensely in-
terested, and, relying mainly upon the Gospel for their so-
lution, he urges his hearers to carry its blessings down
among the wretched masses of the great metropolis.
These sermons disclose the ripe scholarship and wide
reading of their author. They abound in illustrations.
The style, though somewhat diffuse, is attractive.
The plans of these discourses are not, in general, equal
to the material. The sermons that we have read with
most interest are those on How to Deal with Social Dis-
tress ; The Sinlessness of Christ ; The Might of the Spirit ;
London Life ; and Christianity Triumphant.
It is no small commendation of the sermons in this
volume , to say that they are worthy of their distinguished
author.
866 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
SEKMONS BY CANON LIDDON.^
Canon Liddon, as is well known, has long been re-
garded as one of the ablest preachers of the Church of
England. In varied scholarship, in profound and suggest-
ive thought, and in felicitous diction, he has few if any su-
periors in the English Pulpit. In these two latest volumes
irom his pen, he has permitted a large number of readers
to enjoy the discourses which instructed and delighted the
large audiences that are wont to gather Sunday afternoons
at St. Paul's.
In the first volume of fifteen sermons, the preacher
treats of such themes as, The Disobedient Prophet ; Adora-
tion; The Premature Judgments of Men; The Beginning
and the End; The Place where the Lord Lay; Holding by
the Feet; The Pharisee and the Publican; Stewardship;
Foreign Missions; The Incarnation, and The Dignity of
-Service.
The second volume contains fourteen discourses on
such subjects as, The Obligations of Human Brotherhood ;
Death and its Conquest ; The Knowledge of the Universal
Judge ; God's Justice and the Cross ; The Christian War-
rier ; Human History and its Lessons ; Christ's Demands,
and four sermons on The Magnificat.
In the discourses of both these volumes Canon Liddon
is at his best, and gives us the ripest results of his scholar-
ship and thinking. We are impressed by his wide reading,
^Sermons. By H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.G.L., Canon of St. Paul's.
First Series (Contemporary Pulpit Library). London: Swan,
Sonnenschein and Co., 1888.
Sermons. By the same author. Second Series (Contemporary
Pulpit Library). New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1890,
IIOMTLETICS— PRACTICAL. 367
exact and varied scholarship, profound knowledge and in-
sight of Scripture and skill in setting forth its meaning.
His expositions are often remarkable. His illustrations,
though not numerous, are choice and vivid. His develop-
ment of his subjects is quite full and ver}^ suggestive. He
is alwaj's fresh and instructive, whatever be his theme. As
he advances along the pathway of his discourse, he often
gives to his audience charming vistas of related truths on
either hand. In applying the truth he is at once faithful
and tender.
We cannot but think that not a few of these sermons
are defective in form. Rarely do we find a subject stated
clearly and concisely. Although many of the plans of these
discourses are excellent, few of them have their main heads
so clearly and tersely expressed as to give the reader ,
much less the hearer, ready command of the course of the
thought. This frequent want of a prominent and con-
cisely worded subject and plan, we regard as the chief
defect in these excellent discourses.
Few prelates of the Established Church of England are
as noted for eloquence in the pulpit as is the Bishop of
Peterborough A man of fine presence, able and well dis-
ciplined intellect, varied culture, affluent imagination, for-
cible style and fervid delivery, he is a very attractive and
persuasive preacher. The writer well remembers the deep
^Sermons. By the Right Rev. W. C. Magee, D.D,, Lord Bishop of
Peterboroiigli. (The Contemporary Pulpit Library). New York:
Thomas Whittaker. London: Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., 1888.
368 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
impression made by the eloquent Bishop in a discourse to
a great audience in Westminster Abbey, a score of years
ago. He usually preaches without notes, and in a direct
and familiar style.
The volume before us includes sixteen discourses, of
which five are Sermons on the Creeds; seven on The
Church's Catechism, and the remaining four on Abraham's
Faith; The Kinglom of Christ; National Idolatry, and
Jacob's Wrestling. These last are occasional discourses,
and are longer and more elaborate than the others.
These sermons, as a whole, seem hardly equal to the
fame of their author. Most of them were printed from
reporter's notes, as they were delivered to the large con-
gregations that gather Sunday afternoons during Lent in
the Peterborough Cathedral, and they are too brief to ad-
mit of a thorough discussion of the subjects of which they
treat. But the5' all have the marked characteristics of
Bishop Magee as a preacher.
We cannot agree with some of his views as set forth
in his sermon on baptism. " Every baptized man is a
Christian. He is a member of Christ ; he is a child of
God ; he is an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven."
Now, in a very loose and general sense of the term, a bap-
tized man may be called a Christian by profession ; but in
the exact meaning of the word as commonly understood, a
Christian man is a regenerated man, one whose heart is
right with God, and whose supreme purpose is to do the
will of God, and we cannot but think that the use of the
term in the signification given to it by the author, even
though sustained by "The Church catechism," is mis-
leading and injurious.
HOMILETICS— PRACTICAL. 369
The discourses on Abraham's Faith, and National Idol-
atry, are suggestive and excellent.
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES.^
The thirty-six sermons and three addresses of Dr
Manning, contained in this volume of 542 pages, we have
read with much interest. They were selected by Mrs.
Manning from among the many discourses left by the
lamented author, and though differing considerably in
merit, they may be supposed fairly to represent the preach-
ing of Dr. Manning during the quarter of a century in
which he occupied the honored pulpit of the Old South
Church, Boston. They were published, we are told, at the
earnest request of the many friends and parishioners of
Dr. Mannmg.
Although, as has been said, these sermons are unequal
in ability, yet they are worthy of their distinguished author,
and manifest his earnest Christian spirit as a man, his
faithfulness as a preacher, and his loving care of his flock
as a pastor. They show him to have been a man of good
parts, of fine intellectual and esthetic culture, of affluent
imagination, and of felicitous expression. He must have
been a very manly man, with a keen sense of justice and
right, true to his convictions, and fearless in expressing
them. He believed and therefore spoke.
The material of these sermons is excellent, and is
taken in no small degree from the Scriptures. Indeed,
^Sermons and Addresses. By Rev. Jacob Merrill Manning, D. D.,
Pastor of the Old South Church, Boston, Mass. Boston and New
York. Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1889.
370 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
these discourses are thoroughly Bibical and practical.
They have chiefly to do with the great verities of the Gos-
pel, and apply them with singular faithfulness and tender-
ness to the characters and lives of the hearers. They disclose
the wide reading of their author, and the ample store of
apt illustrations at his command. He was a devoted student
of nature, and gathered thence not a few of his most per-
tinent and beautiful illustrations of the truth.
The plans of these sermons, taken as a whole, seem tons
to be hardly equal to the material. While some of the plans
are admirable, and clearly, briefly and distinctly expressed,
others appear to be deficient in these respects, and do not
give us easy possession of the thought. There is a pleas-
ing variety of construction in these discourses.
Were we to select from this large number of sermons
those that have most impressed us in the reading, we
should name those on the following subjects : Sons of
God through Christ ; The Structure of the Epistle to the
Eomans ; Conscience ; The Beginning and End of Sin ;
The Ideal Life; The Spirit of Christ; The Story of
Naaman, and its Lesson ; Completed Lives ; We all do
Fade as a Leaf; and Christian Missions and the Social
Ideal — a sermon preached before the American Board.
The three addresses with which the volume closes, on
Samuel Adams, John Brown, and a Eulogy upon Henry
Wilson, delivered in the State House, Boston, are able and
discriminating, and show their author to have been a man
of great integrity, strong convictions and undaunted
courage.
We are glad that these Sermons and Addresses of this
noble man have been published, and believe that '* the
TIOMILETICS-PRACTICAL. 371
earnest hope that the truth as presented in them may find
a response in many hearts, and thus prolong his influ-
ence and memory in the world," will be fulfilled.
SIGNS OF PROMISE.^
In this volume Dr. Lyman Abbott has given to the
public eighteen of the sermons that he preached during the
first two years of his ministry in Plymouth Church, in re-
sponse to requests for their publication. They were de-
livered without notes, taken down by a stenographer, and
revised by the author for publication.
In respect to the topics and the unity of these discourses,
the author says : ''The first two sermons are in the na-
ture of personal tributes to my predecessor in Plymouth
Pulpit, the greatest preacher of our age if not of all ages ;
a man to whom I owe the greatest debt one soul can owe
another — the debt of love for spiritual nurture. The
next two contend for the right and duty of pro-
gress in religious thought and life, and indicate cer-
tain laws which govern real progress, and certain charac-
teristics which distinguish it from mere movement. The
next four deal with some aspects of the fundamental
issue of our day, that between Naturalism and Kevela-
tion, between religion that is a human product and religion
that is a divine gift and growth. The next two treat of the
Church of God, the visible incarnation and manifestation
of his gift to mankind. The remaining eight deal with
^Signs of Promise. Sermons preached in Plymontli Pulpit,
Brooklyn, 1887-89. By Lyman Abbott. New York: Fords, Howard
& Hulbert, 1889.
372 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
problems and experiences of the spiritual life in the indi-
vidual soul."
These sermons are largely practical. They are the
farthest possible from doctrinal or theological. Indeed,
the author seems to omit no opportunity to warn his
hearers against the evils of any kind of systematic the
ology. "It has been assumed" he says, "that we can have
a complete and perfect knowledge of the universe. The
very phrase, "systematic theology," is a misleading
phrase. Theology — science of God. Systematic theology
— systematic knowledge of God. The ant-hill undertaking
to measure the garden !" But may not one derive great
benefit from systematizing whatever knowledge of God he
may obtain from the Divine Word, however imperfect
such knowledge may be ? Do we not take a similar course
in Geology, Biology, and all the other sciences without for
a moment imagining that we know all about these subjects ?
Throughout these discourses we see continual evi-
dences of the great influence which "the greatest preacher
of our age," as the author lovingly estimates Mr. Beecher,
has had on his thought and style. His views of the
inspiration of the Scriptures, and the continued inspir-
ation of Christians, of the theory of evolution, and of "the
silence (of the finally impenitent) in an eternal grave from
which there is no resurrection," are, as nearly as we
can gather from these discourses, very similar to those
of his late pastor and leader. But his views, against some
of which, as we read, we find ourselves protesting, are set
forth in a loving and catholic spirit.
Some of the author's exegesis we must think a little
faulty. For example, in his sermon on Salvation by
HOMILKTK \S—PliA ( 'TICAL. 373
Growth, from the text, Ephesians ii, 3, "We were by na-
ture the children of wrath, even as others," we are tohl
that the phrase, "children of wrath," means simply that
"We have come out of wrath; it is the birth, the very cra-
dle, as it were, in which our childhood was rocked." "We
are children of our own appetites, of our own natures."
Thus the phrase does not assert the Divine displeasure.
In this view the author is at variance with such high au-
thorities as Meyers, Ellicott, and Alford.
While in the case of those who finally reject God's
mercy in Christ, the author can "see naught but death,"
yet he repudiates the doctrine of endless sin and conscious
suffering, as shown in the closing sentences of the last ser-
mon of the volume. "When at last mercy has achieved
its end, when they who have resisted its every influence
unto death are silent in an eternal grave, from which there
is no resurrection, then in the song which shall go up from
the ten thousand times ten thousand, from every creature
in the heavens above and on the earth beneath and in the
w^aters under the earth, there will be no discordant note,
no spiritual dissonance, no sullen silence ; there will be no
remote and far-off corner of the universe where, behind
locked doors, the groans of an endless misery and the
wrath of an endless sin shall prove that the devil has w^on
a victory in some small corner of God's dominions ; but
God shall be all and in all, and life shall reign, and death
shall be put forever under feet. When that hour comes,
will your voice be hushed and silent in eternal death ? 0,'
may it rather join in the new song, 'Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain, to receive glory, and honor, and power, and
riches, for ever and ever!'"
374 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
Dr. Abbott has made the plans of most of these sermons
clear and promment. They give easy possession of his
thought. His style is simple, vigorous, and often beauti-
ful. He abounds in pertinent and forcible illustrations.
He does not weary his hearers or readers. He has the
enviable art of saying just what he wants to say in a terse,
clear, forcible, and natural manner, and without the aid of
a manuscript.
We are especially pleased with the sermons on Grapes
of Gall ; The Eeligion of Humanity ; The Dogmatism of
Paul; Christ's Law of Love; and The Peace of God.
PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
PAET II.
PRESENT STATE
OF
STUDIES IN PASTOEAL THEOLOGY
BY
EEV. G. B. WILLCOX,
Professor of Pastoral Theology akd Special Studies
IN
Chicago Theological Seminary.
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY.
Prof. Win. M. Paxton, of Princeton, in The Presbyterian
Review for January 1889, opposes strongly the view that
"men are called to the ministry in the same way in which
they are called to he Farmers, Merchants, Lawyers or
Physicians." He insists on a mystical intimation of the
Divine Will, in some sense, though he does not tell us in
what that differs from the evidence that a Christian phy-
sician may expect, that he is the line of God's direction.
His argument from the Scriptuies is not convincing. His
instances from the appointments of prophets and apostles
are irrelevant to the case of an ordinary pastor. And the
few instances in which disciples of Christ are mentioned as
called to the work of teaching or preaching, are easily par-
alleled by language equally strong, in the call of others to
other vocations. When he comes to the evidences of such
a Divine intimation as he requires, he finds them chiefly
in such physical, intellectual and spiritual gifts as, under
the view he opposes, would be requisite. Under either
view no one would be justifted in entering this office without
earnest prayer for the Divine direction and profound be-
hef that he had found the leading of the hand of God. The
notion of a specially distinct call from on high to the min-
istry, as a specially sacred and exalted work, is full of the
danger of spiritual assumption and pride, with which, in
every age, the clergy have been beset. It would seem to
378 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
have been a constant aim with the Divine Master to reduce
the distinction between sacred and secular things ; and
that, not by leveHng down the former but by levehng up
the latter. He would have had all days consecrated, all
places holy, all callings sacred. It is dangerous to inti-
mate to a layman that his vocation lies less near to God
than that of his pastor. Most laymen have already too
much of that perilous notion.
FORMING A MINISTER S LIBRARY.
On this important matter Prof. J. 0. Murray, of Prince-
ton College, discourses in The Homiletic Review for Jan-
uary, 1890. We incorporate some of his suggestions with
others of our own.
First, then, purchase deliberately. Be not driven to
rashness by any alarm-cry that the book will be sold out
of the market. Neither conclude, simply from a great
name as the author, as to the value of the book. There
are multitudes of poor books from good authors.
Have always, in purchasing, an intelligent plan. Do
not buy accidentally. Even if a book be valuable, it may
be in a department of literature in which, at the expense
of some other department, you are tolerably supplied.
Pieference books (which, indeed, should constitute the
main part of a small library, economically gathered) should
be in substantial bindings. But a given amount of money
may be made, by the selection of other books in cloth bind-
ings, to cover a larger number of volumes.
Many a young minister, by buying sets of books (as the
PASTORAL THEOLOGY. 379
complete works of an author) only two or three of which
are of valne, wastes his money.
To subscribe for books issued serially, in numbers, is
very rarely wise. They will be found, when the whole set
has been taken, and bound, to have been extravagantly
costly. These issues in numbers, with a call for only
twenty-five or fifty cents at a time, are a trick of the
trade.
A pastor may induce his people to found a pastor's
library. They can be made to see that it will be a valua-
ble investment to enrich their own pulpit and enhance their
profit from it.
Prof. Murray has, appended to his article, several
brief, but valuable lists of books, in different branches of
learning, recommended by able scholars.
REFORMS IN FUNERALS.
At a meeting of the Eichmond, Va., Evangelical Alli-
ance, representing the Protestant churches of that city, a
committee reported on possible improvements in the con-
duct of funerals. The report speaks of a growing disinclina-
tion to funeral sermons. They are usually of little profit.
A young, inexperienced minister is apt to hope, in great
confidence, for saving impressions on such occasions.
The solemnity of the scene he takes for a most promising,
providential opening for such impressions. But the fact
is that the attendants are, many of them, drawn by sheer
curiosity to see what disposition the preacher will make of
the departed. And many go as they would to a tragedy.
380 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
in a theater. They expect to be moved to tears. That is
part of the programme. Any deeper impression than this
— any movement beyond the sensibihties — is almost hope-
less. Dr. Lyman Beecher is said to have remarked that,
of all the hundreds of funeral sermons he had preached,
he could hardly remember one to which he could ascribe
any fruit. And with the embarrassments when one stands
by the bier of a man who lived a godless life every exper-
ienced pastor is familiar. It would be better to confine
the funeral service, mainly, to Scripture reading, prayer
and hymn. There are, however, instances in which a
funeral, held on the outskirts of a community, is attended
by so many who are never seen in a church, as to offer an
opportunity that no faithful preacher can forego, for show-
ing the need of truth.
Needless and dangerous exposure, on damp ground,
in chilly weather perhaps, at the grave, also comes into this
report for notice. Thip is an evil often endured by
mourners; when the}' would gladl}' retire, out of the fear that
some one will count them wanting in respect and affection
for the dead. A pastor may render excellent service by
gently reminding them of the danger to health and lead-
ing them away.
Another evil, mentioned in this report, but with no sug-
gestion of any adequate remedy, is the burdensome ex-
pensiveness of funerals. This heavy cost, when perhaps
the only bread-winner of the family has been taken, is one
of the most cruel of all the tributes levied by fashion. The
effectual recourse is to a burial at some other hour, or day,
from that on which the funeral service is held. The obse-
quies may then be made, without embarrassment, to cor-
respond with the resources of the household.
PASTOBAL TIlEOLoaY. 381
A CONGREGATIONAL RITUAL.
The Churchman, of New York, recently discussed, from
the Episcopalian position, the apparent desire in the Con-
gregationalist churches, for some enrichment of the order
of worship. The Churchman assumes that, as the extempore
prayer offered by a pastor is not shaped in its utterance
by the people, it is to them, as they worship through it,
nothing else but a form. So the editor holds it to be su-
perior in no respect to a prayer-book ; and, in that it de-
pends on the ability of the minister, far inferior to the
book. Very poor reasoning, as it appears to us. For it
takes account of only one of the evils of a form, viz : that
it is not language shaped at the moment by the assem-
bly. That, of course, so far as an evil at all, is a neces-
sary evil. But the worst evils of a form are quite different.
They are two-fold. The first is that the form is inflexible.
Whatever event may have recently happened, whether
great calamity, or thrilling piece of good fortune, whether
the congregation has gathered in tears or joy, there is
an unbending cast of sentences w^ith which they must ap-
proach the Mercy Seat. Extempore prayer, on the con-
trary, allows the minister, and the people w^ith him, to give
utterance to the feeling that fills every heart. We had a
single instance, in both kinds, on the Sunday following the
death of President Lincoln. The whole nation was plunged
in depths of grief. But, while the non-ritualistic churches
w^ere worshiping in w^ords befitting the occasion, the
churches which used a ritual were in a sore strait with the
Jubilations of Easter put into their lips.
A second evil of forms of prayer is that they become
382 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
too familiar. They are learned almost by rote. Like
well-worn coins they lose their impression. Even in re-
gard to the Lord's Prayer, for example, everyone using it
must be aware that really to pray in these touching and
beautiful words, requires a positive effort of the mind and
heart. They slip from the tongue so glibly that the dan-
ger is that of reciting them thoughtlessly as one does the
alphabet. It is seriously doubtful whether our Lord ever
intended that those words should be used as they now are
so generally used — whether He did not design the Prayer
only as a schedule of natural and fit subjects to take into
our petitions.
Hardly any change is so much needed for the enrich-
ment of our service as, fuller BitZe exposition. A pastor who
will inquire of even prominent and intelligent men will be as-
tonished to find how ignorant they are of the results of the
latest and best Christian scholarship. Let the Scriptures
be twice read at each service — once for devotional use, re-
sponsively, and once for exposition. Let the pews be well
provided with Bibles. Then while the people follow him,
each one with the book open, let the minister, after careful
study, briefly expound about a dozen verses of Scripture.
In some churches the choir and the congregation alternate,
the former chanting a verse, the latter reading the next, and
so on. There is no difficulty, with a little invention on the
part of a pastor, in devising as much variety as is needful
or profitable in the w^hole service.
RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN SCHOOLS.
Bishop McQuaid, of Rochester, N. Y., has, under this
title in The Forum for December, 1889, a characteristic
PASTORAL THEOLOGY. 383
Eoman Catholic onslaught on our Public School system.
It is quite evident that that Church is coming, more and
more clearly, to see that the diversion of the public funds,
for the support of parochial schools, is a matter ^^vel stan-
tis I'd cadentis ecdesice." Their hue and cry that the pub-
lic school is a Protestant institution and opposed to the
'•Church," is true. Not at all in the sense in which they
use the words. As to its design and administration, it is as
impartial towards all religious sects as it well could be. But
it is so distinctively for the education of the people, whom
the Romish Church leaves, and always has left, in ignor-
ance, it is so thoroughly pervaded by the free, American
spirit, as to bear heavily against the imperious assumptions
of the Roman Church. For the same reason that southern
slaveholders refused education to the negroes, the hierarchy
would refuse it to the children of their own people.
This is not an unfair or uncharitable judgment. The
idea that the Roman Church would, if it had the power, re-
store the Inquisition, is, indeed, we believe open to that
charge. Protestants as well as Romanists did, in the
Middle Ages, what no Protestant would defend to-day. It
is certainly easy for Roman Catholics to insist that the In-
quisition was due, not to their Church, but to the barbarism
of the age. But no such reply w^ill meet the charge that
ignorance for the people is the policy of that Church.
The condition to-day of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico,
South America, where the priesthood has had, for centu-
ries, almost unlimited control, where the management
of whatever little education has been allowed has been in
their hands, is a tremendous fact that, like the ghost of
Banquo, will not "down." It i§ easy for Bishop McQuaid
384 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
to tell us that "fature generations will listen to no silly-
twaddle about Ireland, Italy and Spain, about the Pope,
the Inquisition and danger to our liberties.*' No wonder
that the mention of those countries, with their damning
record, stirs the Bishop's ire. It is a very disagreeable sub-
ject, no doubt. And so much the more, as it shows what
is the policy of his Church, not three centuries ago, but
to-day, wherever that Church still keeps its power.
His reverence insists that the Catholic parochial schools
are as far advanced and as effective as those of the State.
It is doubtless true that they are better than any system ever
attempted in any Roman Catholic country. They are
forced up by competition, by public sentiment, and, in
many cases, by being made responsible to the public in-
spectors. But that they are notoriously inferior and inad-
equate is proved by the simple fact that Roman priests are
constantly, to keep the children of their own parishes in
these schools, threatening the parents with excommuni-
cation. Their great difficulty is to drag their people
into co-0])eration with themselves in their crusade against
our public schools. They could, if they should choose,
perhaps, make the parochial equal to the public instruction.
But the remedy would be worse than the disease. It
would be the precise thing which their Church most deeply
dreads — an effective education of the people.
The bishop pronounces the public-school system
"thoroughly godless in name and in law." To him and
those like-minded, anything that should not teach the dog-
mas of his Church would be godless. But that such a char-
acter belongs, as a matter of fact, to our public schools is
a gross and groundless slayder. The practical moral im-
PASTOBAL THEOLOGY. 385
pression made on children and youth in our schools
depends immeasurably more on the teacher than on any
book or course of study. And our teachers, especially the
female teachers, who are an immense majority of the whole,
are, very largely. Christian persons and exerting over their
pupils a Christian influence. The cry of alarmists that,
because a chapter of the Bible is not daily read, the school
must be adjudged godless, is much like a similar cry about
the mention of the name of God in the national Constitution.
The bishop gives us two or three pages of invective
against what he calls "the unadulterated communism" of
our public schools. He is disgusted that a man's children
should be educated at the expense of his neighbors. He
might as well complain of a man who happens to have a
street-lamp in front of his house as enjoying illumination at
the expense of his neighbors. If the State (for its own in-
terest, observe, not for that of the child), to provide itself
with good citizens, establishes schools, somebody who is
father of a family must enjoy the benefit. And the
idea that he is "pauperized" by it is a figment of the
bishop's imagination that will never impose on the Amer-
ican people.
Another absurd assumption of the bishop is that his co-
religionists "do not ask for a division of the school fund.
Indeed, they fear the State." (Is it an accident, by the way,
that he always writes "State" with a small s?) "They ask
simply for their own money, unjustly taken from them for
the education of the children of infidels and Evangelicals."
We waive the point that they do not ask, and their priests
cannot induce theni to ask, any such thing. But, if they
should, what would that be but asking, with true Jesuit in-
386 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
direction and evasion, for public funds ? Does the Bisliop
mean to say that lawful taxes, lawfully collected, are a
present to the State? That it has no right to them? To as-
sume that, whenever citizens are dissatisfied with the use
made by the government of their tax-money, they may
demand to be relieved of the taxes, would be a new posi-
tion under the sun.
The fact is, and the Catholic hierarchy may as well
understand it, that the record of their Church in coun-
tries where they have, and for centuries have had,
supreme control, puts them before the American people
under the grave suspicion of being enemies of popular
education. Until they reverse that record, their argu-
ments against our Public School system are not likely
to carry much weight in the United States.
PROTESTANTISM AND EDUCATION.
Mr. John Vienot, in the Revue Ckretienne for April,
1889, has an interesting sketch of the morejecent educa-
tional work of the French government, together with some
discussion of the relations of Protestantism to primary
school instruction. The best authority, as he states, cover-
ing the history of French public education, since 1870, is
the ''Dictionnaire de Pedagogie et d'InstructionPrimaire,"
compiled by M. F. Buisson, and published within the last
year. The public school, as the typical and necessary
out-come of the Protestant principle of the right of private
judgment, is here finely outlined. Compulsory education
was vigorously urged by Luther. <'I affirm," he said,
*^that it is the duty of the authorities to compel those un-
PASTORAL THEOLOGY. 887
der their rule to send their children to school." So with
Melancthon and Bugenhagen. The excellent service, in
this direction, of the Moravian bishop, Amos Comenius,
early in the seventeenth century, is here commemorated.
He insisted upon instruction by the mother in every house,
upon a primary school or commune, upon a gymnasium in
every cit}^, and upon an academy in every considerable
province. A man intelligent enough to urge, at the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century, such strides of progress,
deserves the name of the father of modern systems of edu-
cation.
But M. Yienot has serious apprehension from the
complete secularization of the French public instruction.
That word means in France wdiat it cannot mean m the
United States. The immense dimensions of our Sunday
School work, involving, as is stated on another page,
8,000,000 teachers and scholars, or half the whole number
on the globe, is a strong safe-guard for the children. But a
still more ejffective protection is the pervading Christian
sentiment of the American people. Tens of thousands of
our teachers are Christian men and women. Though they
offer no prayers, read no Scripture, in the schools, their
influence is that of prayer and Scripture, day after day.
But neither Sunday Schools nor Christian sentiment is, in
France, strong enough to do such service for that so long
priest-ridden land. The danger is serious. The remedy
is not in attempting to make the schools religious in
any ceremonial observances. That, in France, would mean
only putting them under the Eomish clergy. The remedy
is in evangelizing the French people. Only so can their
public schools be saved from becoming hot-beds of infidel-
ity and godlessness.
388 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY,
THE AMERICAN SUNDAY SCHOOL.
Under this title, Eev. Dr. M. H. Hutton, in The Pres-
hyterian Review for April, 1889, discusses our Sunday
School as a pecuhar, native institution. He denies any
connection between it and either the post-exilic Jewish
Bible schools of the Jews, the catechumenical training of
the patristic Church, or even the work of Kobert Kaikes at
Gloucester, England, early in the last century. The im-
mense success and power of the Sunday School among us
appear in its numbers, which are almost half those of all
the teachers and scholars on the globe. In 1887, there was
a total of about sixteen and a half millions, with eight mil-
lions of them in the United States. M. Buisson, chaij'-
man of a commission from the French government to in-
vestigate our whole system of primary instruction, in 1 876,
reported that "the Sunday School" among us, "is not an
accessory agent; it is an absolute necessity." "All things
unite," he added, "to assign to this institution a great part
in ^American life." Laveleye, before Buisson, had said,
"The Sunday School is one of the strongest foundations
of the republican institutions of the United States."
As points of weakness in the American school. Dr.
Hutton notes : 1 — that it fails to educate systematically.
Portions of the Bible are neglected. The knowledge con-
veyed is fragmentary. But this strikes us as hypercritical.
Large portions of the Book are not fitted — were never in-
tended to be fitted — for use in the instruction of children.
It by no means follows, if a Sunday School graduate might
tbe tricked into looking for "the book of Hezekiah" among
the Minor Prophets, that he has not a very large and rich
acquaintance with his Bible.
PASTORAL THEOLOGY. 889
2. A second weakness, as Dr. Hutton urges, is the
lack of grade in the school. Though this is true, there is
constant improvement going on. Most schools have two,
and many three or four grades of scholars.
3. A fourth defect he makes to be the average youth
of the teachers. He questions the wisdom of assuming that
young men and young ladies either can instruct as well, or
hold as strongly in their influence, the younger children,
as the fathers and mothers in Israel. But the ripe adult
who retains enough of the enthusiasm of youth to interest
the little ones, is too rare a treasure to be relied upon in
one's general plans. Dr. Hutton criticises, also, the de-
votional services in many schools, and the quality of the
books in the libraries.
OUT-OF-TOWN MISSIONS FOR CITY CHURCHES.
In The Andorer Review for August, 1889, Mr. John
Tunis objects to the method of aiding feeble, rural churches
by our large, charitable societies. That, as he claims, is
the work of a corporation. It has no more vital, sympa-
thetic touch on the struggling church than by an annual
check from a treasurer. There is no stimulus in it. The
weak brotherhood comes to feel itself entitled to the peri-
odic payment. Little close supervision is possible, to dis-
cover whether the members of that brotherhood bear their
full share of their expenses. There is, as this writer holds,
a more excellent way. Let some strong city church take
this weaker, rural body under its care. Let the pastor
make the personal acquaintance of its pastor and the flock.
Let there be occasional meetings in the country parish, to
393 PBACTICAL THEOLOGY.
which a good-sized delegation shall go out from the foster-
church. This brotherly interest, accompanied by such
pecuniary aid as may be advisable and possible, Avill do
immeasurably more than any commercial draft from a
distant charitable corporation to infuse new life into the
veins of the body ecclesiastical in the rural community. It
is quite certain that we have delegated too largely to our
societies and agencies the brotherly fellowship that should
be maintained between the local churches. Instead of
coming heart to heart we have touched one another at
arms' length.
SOCIAL DRAWING ROOMS.
In The Forwm for October, 1889, Bishop F. D. Hunt-
ington has a •'' Drawing Koom Homily " on the frivolities
and jealousies and inanities of the fashionable drawing-
room entertainment. It repeats largely, and somewhat
vigorously, the line of diatribe in Mr. George William Cur-
tis' " Potiphar Papers."
The higher is one's Christian position, the more thor-
oughly he will deplore the manner in which too many of
these entertainments are conducted. It seems to be a sort
of unwritten law that to pass, in conversation, beyond the
commonplaces, the weather, politics, dress, or the latest
newspaper gossip, to enter on any matter that cannot be
disposed of in a five minutes' chat, is a social felony. All
together are put into a routine-drill, in which there is
about as much liberty of motion and conversation as a
parade of militia.
The idle waste of wealth is an added evil. One host
PASTORAL THEOLOGY. 391
competes with another in the costhness of a gustatory
triumph, which the fashionable caterer knows how to aug-
ment. To go to and fro from the scene without a carriage
is hardly less than to risk one's social standing. Young
clerks and tradesmen, of slender means, are exposed to
fearful temptation of embezzlement.
The entertainment provided is for the body with its
appetites.
The idea that the soul is of chief rank and importance
— the body a mere appendix to that — is not so much as
recognized. Very likely, if any rational conversation is at-
tempted, it is drowned by the orchestra in such a din of
sound that one might as well address his remarks to a
tornado.
But if we are rational creatures ; if wq believe, what
all so readily assert, that the soul is of immeasurably
greater account than the body, why not recognize that fact
on occasions like these ? Why not let the physical enter-
tainment be kept moderate and plain, while the intellec-
tual shall be of as high an order as possible ?
It is quite certain that, except in a gathering of scien-
tists and other savants, the intellectual pabulum furnished
by mere extempore conversation is not likely to be of a
hig-h order. There ought to be something presented on
which previous thought has been expended. Let that have
the precedence. Then let conversation, having been thus
nourished and stimulated, come in as a somewhat inci-
dental matter. We have already, and, apparently, in in-
creasing numbers, small associations or circles, meeting
perhaps fortnightly, in which a valuable paper is read,
followed by remark and discussion, a modest collation is
392 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
served, and the company retire with the consciousness of
an evening rational!}^ and usefully spent.
John Foster somewhere speaks, in his diary, of his-
commiseration of young lovers who come together point-
blank, to say only "I love you and you love me." Why
can they not, he asks in substance (for we quote from
memory), meet on lines converging towards some one
grand aim or interest, which draws them together because
both are drawn toward that ? It is a question that may
well be put to our fashionable society in its entertain-
ments. When the guests meet for some end beyond
gossip and chat, uhey will gathei' with keener zest and
part with higher self-respect and mutual esteem.
WOMEN AMONG THE EARLY CHURCHES.
Principal Donaldson, of the University of St. Andrews,
contributed a valuable article on this interesting theme
to the Contemporary Review for September, 1889.
The Church of the earlier Christian centuries rather
fell back from, than advanced beyond the respect for
woman shown in Apostolic times. As Christianity was
itself a daring revolution, it might have been expected to
work a beneficent revolution in favor of the emancipation
and elevation of the oppressed sex. In the churches of the
first century women were accorded a quite prominent
part. But presently they began to appear only as mar-
tyrs and deaconesses. Their astonishing heroism as mar-
tyrs, amidst the most appalling tortures, need not be here
recounted. As deaconesses, they co-operated with their
brethren, not onlv in the distribution of alms, and the
PASTOBAL THEOLOGY. 393
care of the poor of their own sex, but in the spread of the
gospel. Paul calls several of them his fellow-laborers —
probably in this latter capacity.
Also we begin to read of widows," who constituted a
peculiar sort of office-bearers, with a special work (I.Tim.
V, 3 — 16). But gradually widowhood fell in the esteem
of the churches and virginity rose. In Tertullian's time,
virgins were elected for the duties of "widow" and called
widows.
To the end of the second century, there were no public
buildings for Christian worship. Disciples met in private
houses. But when, in the increase of numbers and wealth,
churches were built, the care of them devolved on the dea-
cons, assisted by the deaconesses. The latter acted as
ushers, and saw that all were quiet and reverent in be-
havior.
The widows had no spiritual functions. They were
not to teach. The widow's occupation is covered by the
words, "She is to sit at home, sing, pray, read, watch,
fast, and speak to God continually in songs and hymns."
The deaconnesses, too, were prohibited from teaching.
But they had greater liberty of movement than the widows,
who were enjoined to be obedient to them.
In this exclusion of women from every sacred function
the early Church was behind both the heretical sects and
the heathen. The priestesses and the Vestals were high in
position and in honor. And for centuries the Church was
able to do but little to relieve Christian women, who were
slaves, from the degradation to which, by Koman law, they
were doomed. Though slaves could not be legally married,
the Church, despite the law, married them and, to the
394 PB ACTIO AL THEOLOGY.
last degree possible, maintained the sacredness of the rela-
tion.
From the first it was evident that our Lord and his
apostles put honor on marriage. There could be no ques-
tion of that. But as Gnostic, and, later, ManichaBan, no-
tions of the evil inherent in matter fostered asceticism,
marriage fell into lower repute. Children are seldom men-
tioned, at all, in the Christian writings of the second and
third centuries. Naturally all this bore heavily against a
due respect for woman. She came to be regarded as a
siren, laying perilous snares for the godly. Virginity
was exalted to high honor, and celibacy lauded as the hea-
venly state. Tertullian addressed to woman such lan-
guage as this: "You are the devil's gateway; you are the
unsealer of that forbidden tree ; you are the first deserter
of the divine law ; you are she who persuaded him whom
the devil was not valiant enough to attack."
The only protection from so dangerous a character
was to shut her up. Into seclusion therefore 'she was re-
manded. The Christian writers of the time insist that she
shall not appear at banquets, at marriage feasts, at the
theater, the public baths, or on streets. She must remain
at home. If she would have exercise, Clement of Alex-
andria teaches her to 'Sspin and weave and superintend
the cooking." "Women," he says, "are, with their own
hand, to fetch from the store whatever we require: and it
is no disgrace to them to apply themselves to the mill."
In short, she was to fill her function in making herself
as meekly and usefully as possible a household drudge.
xlccording to Principal Donaldson, there is, through
those earlier centuries, a striking absence of appearance of
I\ 1 .s- TOR. t /. TIIEOL ()G I '. .S95
any cheerful, Cliristiau home Ut'e. ''No son succeeds his
father ; no wife comforts the wearied student ; no daughter
soothes the sorrow of the agedhishop." He ascribes to this
homelessness the prevaihng hardness of heart, in which men
disputed with bitterness, even ferocity, minute points of
doctrine which are now counted incomprehensible and mat-
ters of indifference. Beyond question, tne rise of woman
in our happier era, to the respect and influence that belong
to her, has softened and sweetened the social life of our
day.
DEACONESSES IN AMERICA.
A valuable article, by Elizabeth K. Holdeu, in the
Ghristlan at Work, gives information as to these "Sister-
hoods."
The attempt of the honored and reverend Pastor
Fliedner, ot" the Kaiserswerth Deaconess' House, in 1849,
to establish a like work in this country seems to have
met but ill-success. Two of the sisters were appointed
to labor in Pittsburg, Pa., and three or four others joined
them. But beyond those, there were no considerable
accessions.
A splendid property, however, has been given, in Phil-
adelphia, for a "Mother-House of Deaconesses," and Mr.
JohnD. Lankman, a German Christian philanthropist, who
is its patron, seems unwearied in his gifts and endeavors.
In the Episcopal Church are sixteen Sisterhoods. Their
work is the care of the sick and the poor, young ladies
schools, refuges, reformatories, and other like enterprises.
They have in all about 250 Sisters an I novitiates. The
396 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
Sisters take the triple vow of "chastity, povert}* and obed-
ience." The largest of these bodies is the "Community of
St. Mary's," in New York, with 90 members and novitiates.
There are Deaconesses, also, whose vow is for only a term
of years. That of the Sisters is for life.
The Methodist Church, which, though, naturally, not
in sympathy with these stringent and irrevocable vows, is
deeply responsive to suffering and want, has taken meas-
ures looking in the same general direction. The General
Conference, in May, IbSS, authorized the founding of an
Order of Deaconesses, who should have mainly the same
duties with those above mentioned. Two years of contin-
uous service were prescribed by the Conference
as requisite for a member of the Order. Three,
who were consecrated in Chicago, in 1SS9, were
graduates of the "Chicago Training School for City, Home
and Foreign Missions." There are about thirty Deacon-
esses, in the four Homes which have been founded in
Chicago, Minneapolis, Cincinnati and New York.
The Presbyterians, both in the last "General Coun-
cil" and the last General Assembly, have spoken in
warm commendation of the recognition of Deaconesses in
their Communion. It is to be hoped that they and the
other Christian Denominations will take practical measures
toward an agency which is so seriously needed and may do
so beneficent a work.
REACHING THE MASSES.
The work which Mr. D. L. Moody has undertaken
in Chicago, with the training-school he is inaugurating,
PASTORAL THEOLOGY. 397
will raise some signally important questions. His object,
like all the objects he cherishes, is above praise. He hopes
\o reach with the gospel the mechanics and other laboring
classes, who are not now, for various reasons, found in our
<5 hurdles.
As he states to the reporters of the press, he seeks
*^men of business-training," wdio "understand the book of
human nature, what the people need, and how to reach
them." He says, ''The Kebellion never would have been
put down by West Point graduates alone. We had to
have volunteers. Just so it is here. We cannot do our
work with nobody but the gi-aduates of oar seminaries.
We must have volunteers." "A young man with a good,
English education, ought to be ready for his work in one or
two years." "Women are better qualified than men for
this work. A woman can go to a w^oman, right into her
kitchen, and sit down by her wash-tub and give her
help."
Mr. Moody has buildings for his school, in Chicago,
which cost $100,000, with $125,000 more for endow-
ment.
Now every Christian will eagerly hope that this noble
work may succeed. No exception can be taken to any-
thing said by Mr. Moody in support of it. But there are
some possible complications and embarrassments which
must not be thrust from sight. They are not likely to
beset any of these lay evangelists who do their work only at
odd hours, while depending for their livelihood on some
other business. No such embarrassments as those to
which we refer will trouble Christian women, graduating
from this school. But young laymen who adopt evan-
398 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY
gelistic work as a profession, by ^Yllich they live, will
occupy an anomalous position. They will be neither
clergy nor laity. On a ridge between the two, they will
require, if they are to walk steadily, remarkable equil-
ibrium. The danger is, that they will begin to look,
and their wives, when they marry, will still more eagerly
look, toward the dignity and social prominence of a pastor's
position. The}^ will wish to be ordained as ministers.
Church authorities will incline to ordain them. And the
result may be an influx of half-furnished men into a pro-
fession which vitally needs to be kept, as to ability and
learnmg, at its very best. Mr. Moody, himself, of
course, is liable to no such contingency. He is in no
need of any prestige or prominence. His name is known
around the world. And, if it were not, he is a man of
such absolute self-forgetfulness and marvelous balance
of character, as to be fully content with his lot. He is
probably far more useful without ordination, than
he could be with it. But it is by no means certain
that he will be able to infuse his own admirable sense
and judgment into the graduates of his school. If his
grand enterprise escapes the danger here intimated, we
believe it will accomplish a work for Christ in which
all good men will rejoice with thanksgiving.
TAXATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY.
This matter was ably discussed by Mr. Henry C. Ved-
der, in the Macjazhu of Christian Literature, for February,
1890.
He wastes no time on the plea often thrown in by well-
PASTORAL TIIEOLOOV. 399
meaning but short-sighted religionists, tliat it is hard if, in
a Christian country, we cannot have something hehl sacred
from the tax-gatherer's hand. He clearly sees that, if the
exemption of ecclesiastical property from assessment can-
not be defended (without regard to religious sentiment) on
broad grounds of economic policy, it must and ought to be
abandoned.
This discussion has been revived of late by the passage,
in Quebec, of the Jesuits' E'^tates' Bill, by which a gift of
$400,000 was made, direct from the public treasury, as in-
demnity for the confiscation of Jesuit property, by the gov-
ernment of George the Third, in 1.791. The Canadian Bap-
tist Convention, indignant at that bill (which seems to have
been one of obvious equity,) passed a resolution in protest.
Their resolution does not really touch the main question
of exemption. It only complains of favoritism to a siiigle
church. But the controversy has stimulated interest afresh
in the whole matter of exemption.
There are one or two important principles which Mr.
Vedder touches too lightly and briefly. The first is that
no government has ever pretended to tax, equally, ad
valorem, all the property of its citizens. The general wel-
fare, and the bearing of the impost on that, have been the
sole tests in levying on any particular species of wealth
either a heavy assessment, or a light one, or none at all.
Any argument for taxing church-property, based on the
sole ground that other property is taxed, is therefore
futile.
The second principle is that the State not only confers
no proper benefit on the Church by exemption, but remains,
after it, still under heavy ohligation to the Church. "Who
400 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
does not know," says Mr. Vedder/'tliat the presence of a
clmi'cli in a locality increases the value of all the surround-
ing property? So fully is the fact appreciated that specu-
lators in real-estate willingly give lots for the building of a
church, in the full persuasion that they will reimburse
themselves by the sale of the remaining lots at higher
prices." This, however, as every candid man will ac-
knowledge, is but a small part of the benefit conferred by
a church on the public. In toning up popular senti-
ment, in raising the grade of public morality, it is con-
stantly working to reduce the number of criminals and
paupers, to care for the aged, for orphans and blind and
insane, and so, to relieve the cost of government and the
burden on the tax-payer. Churches, therefore, like hos-
pitals and asylums and colleges, are a valuable kind of
growth for the State to cultivate for its own interest. And
exemption from taxation is the method of cultivation.
This exemption the wise legislator will aim to carry just
so far as, no farther than, it will contribute (without the
least regard for the Church, or for religion, as such) to
the public welfare. But it must still be remembered that
the exemption leaves the State, or the public, largely in-
debted to the Church. To say that when public-spirited
citizens have expended, say $100,000, on an edifice which,
with the work done in it, will so greatly relieve taxation,
the government discharges itself of the obligation con-
ferred on it by simply refraining from requiring those
citizens to give an additional sum in taxes annually, is
absurd.
Mr. Vedder seems to feel pressed by the objection that
*'to exempt church- property from taxation is the same
PASTORAL THEOLOGY, 401
thing in principle, as direct state aid to the church." In
his reply to this, he seems not very happy. He says
"government may give indirect aid to institutions and
enterprises to which it can give no direct aid. Thus, it
would not be constitutional to lay taxes on the people for
the sake of paying subsidies to manufacturers, but it is
constitutional so to lay taxes as to afford incidental pro-
tection to American industries." He evades the issue. It
is not one of constitutionalit}^, but of principle. As to even
the constitutionality, unless we take thorough free-trade
ground, he is incorrect. No protectionist, certainly, would
deny the right of the government to grant a subsidy to a
new line of steamships which the public interest might
require, and which private capitalists, without such subsi-
dy, would not venture. We are not aware that anyone
questioned the right of Congress to encourage by heavy
grants of public lands the buildmg of the first Pacific rail-
road. Bounties on the killing of wild animals are abund-
antly common. The fact is that, though indirect aid to
churches may be constitutional and direct not, yet in 2>rinci-
ple there is no difference between them. It is in princi-
ple the same thing whether a church is aided by the grant
of §1,000, or by exemption from taxation to that amount.
We all object, and rightly, to the Church and State policy.
But the meaning of that has always been, the public en-
dowment of some single church, as the Eoman Catholic or.
the Church of England, to the exclusion of others. There
are sufficient objections, on which we need not dwell, to that.
There would be sufficient objections, also, to aiding «// church-
es indiscrimininately, from the public treasury. But the
402 PliACTICAL THEOLOGY.
objection would not be that such aid woukl differ in princi-
ple from the taxation exemption now under discussion.
The real and all-sufficient ground for this exemption is that
the State, without interest in the churches, as such, finds
exemption good policy. It is business. It pays. But a
popular and plausible objection to this vindication has es-
caped Mr. Tedder's notice. "If a new church," it is said,
"raises the value of property around it, so does a new
manufacturing establishment greatly benetit a town. Why
should not that, also, be exempted?" For the simple rea-
son that the State can get, witJiout exemption, the factory
with all its benefits. The owners of it expect profit from
their investment. Self-interest is a sufficient motive. But
churches, besides working far more efficiently than factor-
ies, to reduce crime and pauperism and so relieve the pub-
lic treasury, pay no dividends to those wdio build them.
Self-interest would never erect them. In short, they are an
exotic, with valuable fruit, on our earthly soil, which the
State must be careful not to discourage in its growth.
But the factory is a plant that will grow wild.
The plea that exemption enables the Eoman Catholic
Church to hold an enormous property free, is more sensa-
tional than sound. By an estimate, made, says Mr. Ved-
der, about a dozen years ago, that Church held in the
United States, some §61,000,000 worth of property, while
the Protestant churches held J;^294,000,000 worth. And
the growth of the wealth, as well as members, of the former
is more and more rapidly falling behind the latter.
[2s"DEX.
Abbot, Ezra, 65 .
Abbott, Signs of Promise, 371
Acts of Apostles, 1'2
81, 83,
81, 85
x\ges. Middle, Sects of, Dollinger,
■212
Ages, Question of, Smith, 3-15
Agrapha, of Gospels, Eesch, 61
Alexander, on English Martvrs.
223
Allen, on Unitarianism, 261
Allies, Formation of Christen-
dom, 175
Angelologv of Paul, Everling.
129
Amelinean, Egypt. Christianity.
189
America, R. Catholics in, 266
Apocalvpse, The, 67, 72, 75, 81.
94, 117, 118
Apologetics, Mead, 309
Apostles' Decree, 123
Archiv f. Lit. u. k. g. d. Mittel-
alters, 196, 198, 201
Arnold, Nero's Persecution, 116
Art, Early Christian, 180
Astruc. 11
AthenuHim, The, 232
Augustine's Account of Creation.
Eaich, 163
Baethgen, Semitic Religious His-
tory, 19
Ballantine, 107
Baudissin, on Pentateuch, 17, on
Name of God, 51
Beard, Life of Luther, 222
Beginnings of Nen- England,
Eiske, 257
Belief, on Behalf of, Holland, 316
Bellesheim, Catholic Church in
Scotland, 236
Bells, Use of, Morillot, 182
Bernard. Life of, Cheyallier, 211
Bert, Homilies of Aphraates, 185
Beyschlag, on Ep. of James, 93,
on Germ. Church, 252
Bible, The Expositor's, 21
Bibliotheca Sacra, 10. 107
Blaikie, on Samuel, 25
Board, The American, 271
Bossert, Conyersion of Wiirtem-
berg, 209
Brecht, Criminal Statistics, 271
Briggs, on Confession of Faith,
279, on Eschatology, 281
Britain, Great, Churches of, 254
Bruce, Kiagdom of God, 125, 296
Buisson, on French Education,
386
Canon, of New Test., Zahu, 68
Clark, Witnesses to Christ, 318
Clement, of Alexandria, Love,
161
Clergy, Morals of, in M. Ages,
206'^
Chevallier, Life of Bernard, 211
Chiapelli, 135
Christ, Witnesses to, Clark, 318,
Christendom, Formation of. Al-
lies, 175
404
IXDEX.
Chi'istentliiim, undog., by Dreyer,
304
Christianity, History of, 135,
Origin of, 145.
Sliread of, 141
Chronicles. Books of, Oettli, 30
Church, Christian, History of,
Schafi", 221,
Early, Organization of,
166,
Early, Teaching of, 169
The Eastern, Gelzer,
199
Life, 204
Paul's Ideal, Kowland,
362
of Middle Ages, 190
Eoman, Dods, 67.
The Rom. Cath., 233,
and World, 146
Churches, Early, Women in, 392
Churchman The,- on Kitual, 381
Colloquies on Preaching, T^vells,
331
Comba, on Waldenses, 215
Congragationalists, Discussions
among, 270
Corinthians, Epistles to, Dods,
108, Sadler, 109
Cox, House and its Builder, 348
Coxe, The Early Church, 169
Creighton, on Waldenses, 214
Criticism, Negative and the Bible,
136
Criticism, Theological, 299
Dahmen, on Gregory II., 190
Dalman, on Adonai, 52
Davidsohn. on Innocent III., 206
Dawson, Threshold of Manliood,
359
Deaconesses in America, 395
Death, Thro' to Life, Thomas, 357
Demonology of Paul, 129
Delflf, on Rabl)i Jesus, 120
Delitzsch, on New and Old The-
ology, 250
Delitzsch, oa Pentateuch, 14, 16,
19, 47
Deuteronomy, 16, 18
Dialog- e, bet. Cr. and Jew, 187
Diehl, Exarchate of Eayenna, 190
Discussions, Public, in Theology,
269
Doctrine, Christian, by Kedney,
283
Doctrine, History of, 154
Dods, on Creation, 24, New Test.
Introduction, iSQ>, I Cor. 108
Dogmatik, Evangel., Nitzsch,
288
Dollinger, on Crusades, 206,
on Mediaeval Sects,
212
and Eeusch, on R. C.
Theology, 238
Donaldson, Women in Early
1 hurches, 392
Donation of Constantine, 193
Draw^mg Rooms, Social, 390
Dreyer, Undogmat. Chrisien-
thum, 304
Dykes, Gospel of St. Paul, 361
Early Church Organization,
166
Ecclesiastes, by Yolck, 29
Edersheim, 123
Edessa, Church of, 144, 145
Education, Prot., Yienot, 386
Ehrle, on Council of Vienna, 196
Eirainer, on Ephraim the Syrian,
165
Eisele, on Jesuitism, 240
Empire, Roman and Chris' ianity,
146
Encyclopedia of Living Divines,
Schaft; 26
England, New% Beginnings of,
Fiske, 257
Ephesians, E] istle to, Dods, 67,
Pfleiderer, 80
Ephr im, the Svrian, Eirainer,
165
LXDKX
405
Epistles, Catholic, Zahn, 75,
PHeiderer, 81
Epistles, Pastoral, 74, 75, 80, 80,
90. 114
Epistles, The Pastoral, Plumnier,
350
Eremita, The Apocalypse, 118
Eschatology of New Eng. Di-
vines, 258
Esther, Book of, bv Oettli, 32
Ethics, 321
Evanson, 85
Everling, Pauline Angelologv,
120
Exarchate of Piavenna, Diehl, 191
Exegesis, New Test., 102
Exegesis, Old Test., 24
Exell, Epistle to Galatians, 111
Expositor, The, 111, 141, 173
Ezekiel, by Orelli, 27
Ezra, Book of, by Oettli, 31
Farrak, Epistle to Hebrews, 90,
Sermons, 364
Findlay, Epistle to Galatians,
111
Fiske, Beginnings of N. England,
257
Forum, The, 382, 390
Foster, on Eschatology of New
Eng. Divines, 258
Frank, on Ritschl's Theology,
246
Frank, Y,, on Paissian Christian-
ity, 230
Freedom, Religious, Progress of,
256
Freeman, Patriarchate of Pippin,
190
Friedrich, Gift of Constantine,
193
Fridericq, on Incjuisition, 218
Fridolin, Apostle of Allemanni,
Heer, 209
Funerals, Reforms in, 379
Galatians, Epistle to, 85, 111
Gasquet, on l^noHsh Monks, 225
Gaul, Christianity in, 145
Gelzcr, on East. Churcli, 199
Gemeindeverfassung des Urchris-
tenthums, Loening, 170
Genesis, Dods, 24
Gerbert, Letters of, 193
Gerberding, 261
Gilbert, on Job, 20
God, Kingdom of, Bruce, 125,
296
God, The Immanent, Jackson,
352
Gore, Ministry of Christ. Church,
173
Gospel, The Fourth, 73,
of Hebrews, 82, 83,
of John, 73, 101,
According to St, Paul,
Dykes, 361
Gospels, Synojitic, 82
Graf, on Pentateuch, 18, 19
Graham, on the Aj^ocalypse, 117
Grassmann, St. Augustine, 164
Greek, Biblical Essays in. Hatch,
59
Green, on Pentateuch, 5, 10, 11
Gregory, Prolegomena to JS^ew
Test.*, 65
Gregory II, Dahmen, 191
Gretillat, Syst. Theology, 290
Griffis, Song of Songs, 21
Grundriss der Dogmengeschichte,
Harnack 166
Grimm, Lexicon in N. Test., 57
Gunkel, Paul's Doct. of H. Spirit,
130
Gwynn, Hippolytus, 188
Hagio(4Rapha, Historical, 30
Hagiographa, Poetical, 28
Handbuch der theol. Wissen.,
183
Handmann, on Gosp. of Hebrews,
83
406
INDEX.
Harnack, 68, 70, 71,72, 73, 74.1 Jackson, The Immanent God, 352
93, 137, 166, 178, 184, 18fi iJahrbucher f. Prot. Theol., 137
Haroun al llasliid, Gorres, 219 James, Epistle of, Beyschlag, 93
Harper, on Pentatencli, 10 iJesns Christ, the Divine Man,
Hatch, Essays in Bib. Greek, 09] Yallings, 122
Haupt, on Waldenses, 216 Jesus, Kabbi, Hist, of, Delff, 120
Havet, Letters of Gerbert, 193 |job Book of, Gilbert, 20, Yolck,
Hebraica, 10 I 28, Hatch, 61
Hebrews, Epistle to, 73, 74, 75, 'Joel, Prophecy of, Kuenen, 22,
90, 92, 112, 113
Hebrews, Gospel of, 82, 83
Hendricks, on English Monks,
225
Heer, St. Fridolin, 209
Hermann, on Pitschl, 247
Hesse, on Past. Epp., 89
Hexatench, The, Kuenen, 22
History, Church, Text Book of.
Moeller, 148,
Church, Readings in,
Stone, 154,
New Test., 120,
of Preaching, Ker, 336
Holden, on Sisterhoods, 395
Holland, on Behalf of Belief, 346
Holtzmann, 62, 82, 101, 105
Homiletics, Theoretical. 330
Houghton, John the Baptist, 120
House and its Builder, Cox, 348
Hugh of Cluny, Life of, L'Huil-
lier, 210
Huguenots, The, 227
Huguenots, Polit. Theory of,
227
Huntington, Social Drawing
Rooms, 390
Hutton, on Sir Th. More, 223
Hutton, The Amer. S. School,
388
Indulgences, in Spain, Lea, 235
Inspiration, Curtiss, 13
Introduction, Old. Test. 5,Rielim,
13, Strack, 18
Isaiah, by Smith, 26
Orelli, 27
John, the Baptist, Houghton, 120,
Epistles of, 81, 93, 111,
Gospel of, 73, 101
Johansson, the Bible and Negative
Criticism, 136
Jonah, by Orelli, 27
Kant, Lotze, and Ritschl, by
Stahlin, 300
Kedney, on Christian Doctrine,
283
Keil, on Pentateuch, 19, 28
Ker, History of Preaching, 336
Klopper, on II. Thes3., 89
Kingdom, The, of God, Bruce,
125, 296
Knoke,Past. Epp., 114, 116
Koenig, History of Israel, 49, 51
Kohncke, Wibert of Ravenna, 194
Kommentar, Hand, z. N. Test.,
82, 101
Kuenen on Hexateuch, 22, on
Monotheism, 49
Kurtz, Church History, 208
Lamentations, Book oi, by
Oettli, 29
Lanciani, on Ancient Rome, 152
Lazarus, Resurrection of, Stein-
meyer, 106
Lea, on Indulgences, 235
L'Huillier, Hugh of Cluny, 210
Liberty, tlie Law of, Whiton, 354
Library, Minister's, Murray, 378
Lichtenberger, on German Theo-
logy, 242
INDEX
407
Liddon, Sermons, 3()()
Lipsius, on Liberal Theology, 2rv5
Literature, Christ. Magazine of,
308
Theological, 183, 282
Literaturhlatt, Tlieol., 181, 193
Literatiirzeitung, Theol., 1()2,
172, 178
Livius, St. Peter, Bishop of
Eome, 1()1)
Loening, Early Church Organiza-
tion, 170
Loots, History of Doctrine, 1<)()
Looshorn, Otto of Bamberg, 207
Love, 1()1
Luther, and Keformation, Beard,
222
Mac Evilly, on Gospel of John,
101
Magazine of Christ. Literature.
398
Mftgee, Sermons, 367
Manhood, Threshold of, 359
Manning, Sermons, 369
Mark, Gospel of, Pfleiderer, 80
Martin, Church of Edessa, 144
Martyr, Justin, Purves, 157
Masses, Reaching the. Moody, 396
Matthew, Gospel of, Pfleiderer, 81
McConnell, Sermon Stuff, 342
McGiffert, 187
McQuaid, on Rel. Teacl:ing in
Schools, 382
Mead, Supernatural Revelation,
309
Meinhold, 30
Meyer, Commentary, 82, 84, 85
Millennium, Idea of, Chiapelli,
135
Ministry, Call to, Paxton, 377
of the Christ. Church,
173
Miodonski, Anony. adv. Aleatores,
184
Missions, Out of Town, 389
Moeller, Text Book of C. Hist.,
148
Mohammedanism and Christi-
anity, 219
Moody, Reaching the INIasses, '.VM\
Monasticism, 208
Monuments, Christian, in Phry-
gia, Ramsay, 141
Moral Controversies in R. Cath.
Church, 238
Morillot, on Bells, 182
Morris, on Calvinism, 277
Movement, the Oxford and Ward,
255
Midler, Max, 50
Murray, Minister's Library, 378
Nkhemiah, Book of, by Oet-
tli, 31
Nero, Persecution under, Ar-
nold 146
Nitzsch, Dogmatik, 288
Nobbe, on Prot. Charities, 226
Oettli, on Solomon's Song, 29,
Chronicles, 30, Ezra and Nehe-
miah, 31
Orelli, on Ezekiel, 27
Organization of Early Church,
166
Origin of Christianity, 135.
Otto of Bamberg, Looshorn, 207.
Paganism, Influence on Chris-
tianity, Purves, 157
Papacy, History of, 190
Papers of Amer. Soc. of Church
Hist., 160
Passages, Difficult, in N. Test.,
Riggs, 110
Paul, Angelologv of, Everling,
129,
on Harnack's Hist, of Doc-
trine, 136
Paul's Doctrine of Holy Spirit,
Gunkel, 130,
408
INDEX.
Paul's Ideal Clnirch, 302
Paxton, on Call to Ministry, 377
Pentateuch, The, Westphal, 5
Perrenaud, Prots. in France, 229
Persecution under Nero, Arnold.
146
Peter, Bishoj:) of Rome, Livius.
169
Reformation, Counter, Ward,
234
Reformation in England, 223,
The German, 220
Reforms, in Funerals, 379
Religion, Ethical, Salter, 321
Religion in Rome under Severi,
Reville, 149
Reimensyder, on Didache, 169
Renan, on God of Jews, 38, on
Origins of Christianity, 139
Rendall, Ep. to Hebrews, 90, 113,
Phrygia, Early Monuments in,! 128
Ramsay, 141, South, Anti(iuities Resell, N. T. Agrapha, 61
of, Ramsay, 144 Resurrection, The, Plieiderer, 78
Pippin, Patriarchate of. Free- Resurrection, of Lazarus, Steiu-
77
Pfleiderer, E
ders, 240
on R. Cath. Or-
man, 190
Plummer, Past. Epistles, 90, 350
Poole, on Wiclif, 218
Prayer, in Old Test., 127
Preaching, Collo(iuies on, Twells,
331,
History of, Ker, 336
Presbyterianism, Elizabethan, 254
Presbyterians, Discussions among,
276"
Priesthood, Old Test., Baudissin,
17
Priscillian, Schepss, 1(51
Property, Church, Taxing, 398
Prophets, Minor, Orelli, 27
Protestantism and Education,
Vienot, 386
Purves, Paganism and Christian-
ity, 157
Prutz, Order of Templars, 195
QUAllTALSCHIilFT, Rom., 181
Quarterly, Lutheran, 169
meyer, 106
Reusch and Dollinger, on R. C.
Theology, 238
Revelation, Sai3ernatural, Mead,
309
Review," Andover, 389,
English Hist., 169,
Homiletic, 378,
Presbyterian, 377, 388,
157,
Unitarian, 155
Reville, Relig. in Rome under
Severi, 149
Revue Chrctienne, 386,
Historique, 151, 195
Riehm,01d Test. Introduction, 13,
Old Test. Theologv, 33
Riggs, 110
Ritschl, Theology of, 244
j Ritual, Congregational, 381
1 Rolls Series, 205
I Rome, Ancient in Light of Dis-
! coveries, Lanciani, 152,
Religion in under Severi,
Raich, Augustine's Doct, of Cre- Reville, 149,
ation, 163 Society in under the
Ramsay, Phrvgian Antiquities. Csesars, Inge, 1x8
141 V ' Rothe, 15
Readings in Church History, Rowland, Paul's Ideal Church,
Stone, 154 " ' 362
INDEX.
409
Russia, Cliristianity of, 'J.'JO
Kuth, Jiook of, by Oettli, :?1
Sadlek, Epp. to Corintliians, 101)
Salter, on P^thical Keligion, :J2l
on laiitarianism, .'>08
Samuel, Books of, 25
Savonarola, Life of, Villari, 21<S
Schaff, Encycl. of Liv. Divines, 2(),
Kef. in Gerniany, 2'21, Prog, of
Kel. Freedom. 251)
Schepss, on Priscillian, i()l
Scheuffgen, on Pa}). Schism, 198
Schlottmann, Old Test. Theology,
3:J
Schools, Prot. in France, 228, 229
Schools, Eeliu". Teaching in, 882
Schultz, Old rest. Theology
Scliultze, Chr. Art, 180, 181
Schwarzlose, Papal Wealth, 176
Scott, Syncretism in Early Chr.
Theology, 160
Scotland, Hist, of Oath. Church
in, 2;5(;
Somnier. Apost. Decree, 123
Songs, Song of, Oritlis, 21
Spirit, Holy, Paul's Doctrine of,
Gunkel, 130
Spitta, The Apocalypse, 93, 94
Stiihlin, on Kant, Lotze and l\it-
schl, :{()0
Stecdv, Ep. to (ialatians. 85
Steinmeyer, Resurrection of Laz-
arus, 106
Stone, Readings in (>. Hist. 154
Strack, on Pentateuch, 18
Studies, Word, in N. Test., Yin-
cent, 64
Stuft', Sermon, McConnell, 342
Sunday School, American, Hut
ton, 3g8
33 Sunnliofel, Clerical Morals in M.
Ages, 206
Syncretism, in Christ. Theology,
■ Scott, 160
Teachino, The, of the Apostles,
57
Scriptures, Holy, and Negative Teaching, Religious m Schooh
Criticism, 136
Seeberg, Donat. Constant., 193
Sects in Middle Ages, Dollinger,
212
Sell, Hist, of Christianity, 35,
on Reformation, 202
Sermon Stuff, McConnell, 342
Sermons, Farrar, 364
Liddon, 366
Magee, 367,
Manning, 369
Shedd's Theology, 277
Signs of Promise, Abbott, 371
Simcox, Language of New Test.,
58
Sisterhoods, in America. 395
Smith, on Isaiah, 26
382 ^
Temple Order, Prutz, 195
Theology of New Test., 125
Terry, Introd. to Pentateuch, 12
Testament, New, Canon of, Zahn,
68,
Introduction, Dods, 66,
Language of, Simcox,
58,
Lexicon of, (irimm,
57
Prolegomena to, Gre-
gory, 63,
Word Studies in, Vin-
cent, 64,
Difficult Passages in,
Riggs, 110
Smith, Moses, Questions of theiTestament, Old. Prayer in, 127
Ages, 345
Society in Rome under
C86sars, Inge, 148
! Testaments, Roth, Thousand
thai Years in. West, 118
'Tixeront, Church of Odessa, 144
410
INDEX.
Texte u.Untersuclnmgen, 185, 186
Thaver, N. '1 . Lexicon, 58 I
Theology, Old Test., 33
Theology, Systematic, Gretillat,
290
Thessalonians, Epistles to, Klop-
per, 89
Thomas. Thro' Death to Life, 357
Thought Keligioiis, in Germany,
Lichtenhergcr, 242, j
Theological, in M. Aues, 202 |
Thousand Years in both Tests..!
West, 118
Tiffany, on Unitarianism, 264
Tunis, on Missions, 389
Twells, on Preaching, 331
Unitarianism, in America,
Griffin, 2G3
Unitarianism, its Origin and
History, 306
Urchristenthum, Das., Pfieiderer,
77
Usener, Christmas, 177
Vallinos, Jesus, the Divine Man,
122
Vedder, Taxing Churches, 398
Vienot, on Protestant Education
386
Yillari, on Savonarola, 218
Yille, Cirot de la, Christianity
in Gaul, 145
Vogelstein, on Priests and Levites,
18
Volck, on Job, 28
Waldenses, 214, 215
Ward, Counter Reform action, 234
Ward and Oxford Movement,
255
Weizsacker,Ep. of James, 93
Weiss, on Mark's Gospel, 62, Ep.
of John,93,Ep. to Hebrews, 112
Wellhausen, on Pentateuch, 11, 16
Wilpert, Chr Art, 180, 181
Wendt, on Acts of App., 84
West, the Millennium, 118
Westcott, Ep. to Hebre\vs,92,113
Westphal, on Pentateuch, 5
Whiton, the Law of Liberty, 354
Whither, by Briggs, 280 •
Wibert, of Ravenna, Kohncke,
194
Wiclif, by Poole and Loserth,
218
Witnesses to Christ, Clark, 318
Wolfflin, 184
Wolf, on Reformation. 234
Women, in Early Churches, 392
Word Studies, in N. Test., Vin-
cent, 64
Worship, History of, 177
Wiirtemberg, Conversion of, Bos-
sert, 209
Zahn, Hist, of N. Test. Canon, 66
Zahn A. on Church in America,
260,
on Ritschl and Kaftan, 250
Zechariah, by Orelli, 28
Zeitschrift f. Kirchengeschichte,
176
Zockler, Manual, 18, 183
Zschokke, on Chokma Lit., 53
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