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ments which respectively belong to the idea of what is divine, and what is human. These two extremes being thus brought into direct contrast, it then becomes necessary and possible, still further, to inquire into the mode of their union. This is a necessary inquiry, because in proportion as the differences of the two are distinctly discovered in that same measure will the unity, from which they first started, seem to be endangered, and to need a fuller exposition. It has also then only become possible to answer this inquiry, because there could be no adequate conception of the mode of the union before the differences of the elements which are to be united had been clearly defined.

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The second period, now, proceeds to perform the task, for which the first has prepared the data, and it works with these data. These data are the elements which belong to the idea of what is divine, and the elements which belong to the idea of what is human, both of which distinct elements have been combined in the great position, that in the Person of Christ are two distinct natures. Starting from the distinction of the two natures, this period would investigate the mode of their union in one person. The fact of their union is assumed. But so long, now, as there is such a conception of the divine nature as excludes all union with the human, or the converse, so long will this union be imperfectly recognized in the Person of Christ; that is, the two factors will not have equal rights conceded to them. One epoch will be liable to give the preponderance to one side, and another to another. These two epochs are found historically prescribed. One of the characteristics of the dogmatic views of the period before the reformation is that the divine (the theological) element has the preponderance; equally remarkable is the preponderance of the human element over the divine in the centuries after the reformation. Thus our second period naturally falls into two epochs ; between them stands the Reformation, whose wide historical significancy in relation to our doctrine consists in this, that while it retained the substance of the theological truth of ancient times, it also opened a free course to the attainment of a correct knowledge of what belongs to human nature. Thus the period of the Reformation, continuing the two sides, is a testimony against the one-sidedness both of the earlier and the later epoch. It contains the essen'tial elements of an era which was to introduce a new order of things. It is freed from the exclusive theological tendencies of the scholastics, and it bears testimony against the too great partiality for the human nature of Christ, which has been so prevalent in the later centuries.

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Finally, the third period, which begins with the commencement of the nineteenth century, has for its peculiar and special problem to exhibit the person of Christ, as the perfect union of the divine and the human, with a full recognition of the difference as well as equilibrium of these two elements.

ARTICLE IX.

REMARKS ON CERTAIN ERRONEOUS METHODS AND PRINCIPLES IN BIBLICAL CRITICISM.

By Prof. B. B. Edwards.

A MORE sober and just method of studying the Bible may be among the favorable results which will flow from the the political revolutions which are taking place in various parts of Germany. Some essential and salutary changes in the general habits of thinking and modes of investigation may be expected. We confidently look for this valuable moral product from these political strifes. The grounds for this encouragement are various. In the first place, a profounder and more practical religious feeling may be awakened. This was one result of the wars which followed the first French Revolution. It is said that there are indications in various parts of Germany of more earnest religious emotion. The "present distress," the uncertainties which hang over all earthly things, have led some to look for "a city which hath foundation." A natural consequence of these awakened sensibilities will be a more reverential regard to God's written word, a profounder conviction that it is infallible and eternal truth. In the multifarious and conflicting systems of morals - each containing more or less of important truth—which have rapidly succeeded each other, in the attractive and exciting political theories which are now brought forward, not a few of which, on experiment, will be found insufficient or baseless, there may be a yearning of the heart for the simple truths of the Bible, a desire to place the feet on the rock of ages, a craving for an objective guide that cannot mislead. In other words, a revived sense of practical religion implies that serious state of mind without which the Scriptures will not be used aright, and will, therefore, be misinterpreted.

In the second place the Germans will become a more practical people. They now enjoy a much larger degree of civil liberty than at any former time. The responsibility of governing masses of people, of maintaining order, security and the rights of property, will be devolved, to a great extent, on the people themselves or their direct representatives. Now it may be safely asserted that all who undertake to govern men, or in other words to maintain law and public order, will find the Christian religion indispensable, not a vague, shadowy, merely subjective religion, but a positive faith, which has definite articles, and is susceptible of external proof. A republican government of any considerable duration, is inconsistent with the effects of a rationalist interpretation of the Scriptures. A despotism may be sustained in the absence of Divine revelation, or in methods of interpreting such a revelation which really undermine all its authority. But the supreme power cannot be made dependent on the popular will unless that will is enlightened by some trustworthy, objective truth, and is made willing to bow to its teachings. It is yet to be proved whether a desirable republican liberty can be maintained where the Christian Sabbath is not regarded as a Divine institution binding on all men. If it be placed in the category of things which are expedient, if learned theologians are willing to consider it as a remnant of Jewish prejudice, then so far is it doubtful whether a people can be entrusted with the political sovereignty. If the States of Germany are destined to enjoy popular forms of government, then of necessity there must be introduced into the German character a much larger infusion of practical good sense. And if this result shall take place, the imperative necessity of a scriptural education will be felt, an education based on the belief that the Bible is really, the whole of it, an infallible Divine revelation.

The reasonableness of this expectation might be argued, in the third place, from the influence of political and historical studies, and of the pursuits of civil life. The great historians and statesmen of Germany have felt far more profoundly than many theologians, the importance of a fixed standard of religious faith and the insufficiency and worthlessness of that vaunted "higher criticism," which would disintegrate the Scriptures and rob them of their objective importance. We refer to such illustrious statesmen and writers, both among the living and the dead, as John Von Müller, Heeren, Niebuhr, Luden, Leo, Von Savigny and others. "A protestant Christian is nothing to me," says Niebuhr, "who does not hold the historical of Christ's earthly life, in the proper, literal sense, with all its wonders, and holds it as historically certain as any other event belonging to history, and

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is as calmly and firmly convinced of it; who has not the most steadfast conviction of all points of the Apostles' Creed in their literal sense; who does not consider every doctrine and every command of the New Testament as an undoubted Divine revelation. A Christianity after the manner of the modern philosophers and pantheists is nothing to me; without a personal God, without immortality, without the individuality of man, without an historical faith, it is nothing to me, although it may be a very clever and acute philosophy. I have often said that I will have nothing to do with a metaphysical God, and that I will have no other than the God of the Bible, who is heart to heart."1 In the studies of a statesman, who has been seriously engaged in the administration of public affairs, there is an earnestness, a depth, a comprehensiveness, a wisdom most favorable to the reception of evidence such as that by which the Scriptures are supported, and for which we shall look in vain to the closets of many professed theologians.

The same result may be anticipated, in the fourth place, from the new fields for study and effort which will be opened in Germany, and the consequent diminution in the number of those who shall pursue theological studies. The schools of theology in Germany have been greatly overstocked. Every department, district and corner of the theological field has been searched. All conceivable questions, all possible ramifications, all imaginable aspects of the science, it should seem, have been the subjects of earnest study, many of them of separate essays. Of course novelty is sought rather than truth. Startling theories have been brought forward, rather than consistent results, or well-balanced opinions. Notoriety must be secured at every hazard. A name, perhaps daily bread, must be earned at all events. A subject is studied laboriously rather than comprehensively; effect is sought more than utility; ingenious disquisitions are the result, not well adjusted and wholesome thoughts. Hence Germany may be said to be filled with books rather than with wisdom, with theological treatises rather than with theological knowledge. The mind has been in an unnatural state, put upon the stretch for subtleties or wiredrawn distinctions or novel modes of exhibiting an old error. When a patient, truth-loving disposition is wanting, solidity or value can hardly be expected in the products of thinking or of investigation. To this cause is to be attributed not a little of the neology which disfigures and corrupts the sacred literature of Germany. The Strausses, the Baurs, and the new Tübingen school, may not be actuated so much by hostility to the gospel as by a prurient love of startling nov

1 Lebensnachrichten über B. G. Niebuhr, II. 344.

elties, a morbid desire to show how far the "higher criticism" can carry one. The main cause of the mournful attacks on the gospels is not that malignant hatred which characterized some of the English deists, or that impious levity which ruled in the French school. Some of these neologists are men of excellent temper, of the kindest feelings, and of unexceptionable morality. They have been led to seek to undermine the Christian faith, partly at least from wrong mental habits; and these habits have grown out of the peculiar political circumstances of the country. Thousands have pursued theological studies, have written on the most holy mysteries of the Christian faith, who had little moral fitness for this work, who ought to have been earning an honest livelihood in some civil profession. Multitudes, almost without number, have essayed to comment on the Bible, with as little moral qualifications for the work as a common versifier would possess who should undertake a Paradise Lost. The purity of heart, the honesty of motive, the reverential fear, the desire to accomplish an important practical good are not there. Such commentators necessarily fail. Instead, therefore, of being awed by their learning, or dazzled by the boldness of their propositions, we need only to examine their arguments with patience, and we shall be convinced how unsubstantial they are. In such a combat David may enter the lists with the proudest Philistine.

This leads us to remark, once more, that the dissolution of the union between the church and the State, which is likely to follow these political changes, will exert an auspicious influence on theological learning. If rulers, resembling in character the counsellors who control the Swiss cantons, or some of the grand dukes of Germany, possess the right of naming theological professors, how is it possible that the fountains of Divine truth shall remain uncorrupted? The church, in its most vital interests, is in the power of a radical and godless reformer, or of a more polished, but not less dangerous skeptic. If the appointing power happens for the moment to be evangelical, then the chairs of theological instruction will be filled with men of the spirit of Hävernick and Tholuck. But if the civil government is in the hands of worldly or infidel politicians, as it is more likely to be, then no pen can adequately describe the evils which will flow from a theological fountain poisoned at its source. On no point is the union of church and State fraught with greater calamities. The theological departments of the German universities have often in this way been filled with men who had not the slightest moral fitness for their station.

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