Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

1850.]

Historical and Moral Truths. ༄།

409 their minimum. And so on the map which the human mind draws of the moral world. There seems to be no faculty given to man, by which he may judge of things. or their qualities absolutely. To be able to state intelligently of any act, or quality of character, or person, what it or he is morally, and where to be placed, there must be drawn round the moral globe an equator, passing through, the regions of perfect loveliness, which are enlightened, warmed, and quickened into the greatest possible fertility, by the sun of Christian truth and righteousness; and there must also be moral poles, where those may be conceived to dwell, "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."

No portion of the little book we are examining has pleased us more than the lecture in which the author treats of "the miracles of the New Testament, as they belong to the figurative language of the Scripture."

It should be our object, in reading the sacred record, not merely to inform ourselves what wonderful works the Saviour performed, but to understand the moral sense of the miracles; "and a miracle thus understood becomes a sermon, than which none in the world can be more edifying." Surely Scripture is made more impressive and instructive by thus giving a moral signification to the ae counts of Christ's miraculous works, than it would be if they were looked on merely as narratives of the wonders which were wrought eighteen centuries ago. They are in this way associated with what is constant, uniform, and permanent in human experience. Very frequently the moral of the act is expressly drawn out or suggested by our Saviour when he is performing the miracle. "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," were his words when he was about to restore sight to a blind man, "Labor not for the meat that perisheth," was the caution which he connected with the miraculous feeding of a multitude. And the Apostles borrow from the great miracle of Christ's resurrection a type of that moral power which is exerted by Christian truth to "quicken those who have been dead in trespasses and sins."

To accept for true facts the historical occurrences recorded in Scripture is one species of belief. To receive into the soul the moral truths and principles, of which the recorded incidents are figures and types, is a much higher

species of faith. One of the best uses, as it seems to us, to which the Christian miracles can be put, is to regard them as signs and figures of a supernatural power, wis dom, grace, compassion, without a living persuasion of which there can be no religion. The Christian miracles must, indeed, be accepted and assented to, first of all, as historical verities. But to regard them merely as so many isolated marvels, that occurred centuries ago, can be of but little use. What we most need, what all human beings need, is faith in a supernatural power, wisdom, and love, of which these recorded miracles are symbols, assurances, and attestations; -faith in a power on which we constantly depend, in a light whose effluence sheds upon the mind a "wisdom from above," and in a gracious influence which the soul craves, to help its infirmities, to sustain us in our trials, and to enable us to overcome the world. To question the reality of such a supernatural power which is always active; to extinguish the cheering faith in such a supernatural influence which is cherished by every religious mind; to let drop from our thoughts the assurance of a Holy Spirit ever working with us and in us; this is far worse, considered in its injurious conse quences to the religious character, and in its fatal fitness to rob the soul of its peace, than to question, on historical grounds, the record of this or another miracle, ascribed in the sacred volume to Christ. A person may speak a word against the Son of Man, may criticize the person, the claims, the history, of this Prophet of God. All this is pardonable, and we can suppose all this to take place, without any fatal influence being felt upon the religious" character. There would not necessarily be proof in this of an unbelieving, undevout heart, disinclined to God, and truth and goodness. But to speak against the Holy Spirit, to deny that there is a supernatural energy that holds us up, a supernatural wisdom that imparts to our minds the measure of light and intelligence we possess, a supernatural grace and mercy that pardons and redeems us, that raises us when we are fallen, and restores us when we go astray, and will receive us when we die,this form of unbelief eradicates all religion from the mind. It is, what the Scriptures declare it to be, the unpardonable sin.

[ocr errors]

We cannot better bring to a close our remarks, than by

1850.]

Modern Ecclesiastical History.

411

adopting the language, as we cordially assent to the sentiment, of our author, when he says of "the sacred style," that "it is absolutely necessary to a Christian preacher, whose doctrine, if it be after the form of the Scriptur al imagery, will be more intelligible, more agreeable, and more edifying to all sorts of hearers."

W. P. L.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE great cycles of history do not by any means follow the ordinary measures of time. Men, opinions, empires, do not wait for the clock to strike an hour, a day, or a century, to tell them when to come or go.. Nothing can be more puerile than the idea favored by a certain school of historians, who divide their record by centuries, as if each hundred years began and ended a new order of things. It is very much like the simplicity of the child, who expects as a matter of course to find spring blossoms on the first of March and winter snows on the first of December, because he has seen in the almanac the pictures of the four seasons in their peculiar imagery.

We would not expose ourselves to this mistake in trying to give some general views of Christendom during the last hundred years. Without undertaking to set up any arbitrary chronological boundaries, we think it safe to say that within that period, and through all the vast and apparently tumultuous throng of events, a twofold work, capable of being somewhat accurately defined, has been going on in the world, a work both destructive and constructive; and that the constructive tendency is so closely connected with the destructive, that the period in question has in these respects something of epical unity.

* Die Kirchengeschichte des 18 und 19 Jahrhunderts aus dem Standpunkte des Evangelischen Protestantismus betrachtet in einer Reihe von Vorlesungen von DR. K. R. HAGENBACH. Erster Theil 1848. Zweiter Theiler 1849. Berlin. [The Church History of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, considered from the Stand-point of Evangelical Protestantism, in a Course of Lectures, by Dr. K. R. Hagenbach. Second Edition. In two Parts. 8vo. pp. viii. and 511, viii. and 467. Berlin. 1848, 1849.]

The latter half of the eighteenth century stands in history most conspicuous for what men denied or destroyed; the first half of the nineteenth century is most conspicu ous for the general desire to affirm and construct. Yet both tendencies have been so constantly at work, and the rul ing spirits in each movement are so little dependent upon dates, that we will not deal in any ambitious generaliza tions, but content ourselves with sketching, in a very desultory manner, some of the prominent characters and principles on either side.

t

The work of Dr. Hagenbach is an admirable guide, that we shall freely use. It presents him to us in a new aspect as a writer. We have used for some time his Theological Encyclopædia and his History of Doctrines, and found them invaluable alike for their vast learning and felicitous method. We are more delighted than sur prised at finding in the industrious scholar and discrimi nating theologian so much of the man of taste and the philosopher as the volumes before us indicate. They por tray in a very interesting and instructive manner the external and, especially, the internal history of Christendom, from the commencement of the eighteenth century to the present time. The sketches of lives and characters that diversify the narrative are especially valuable, and cer tainly to an English reader must be a rich addition to the treasures of Christian biography. The author's point of view is taken, very naturally, from his position as a German Protestant of the Evangelical school. Yet his German nationality does not blind him to the affairs of other Christian nations, nor does his doctrinal attitude interfere with his fairly judging the portions of the Church beyond his special communion. The Romanists might perhaps think him, in a few cases, a harsh crític. The Liberal school of Christians in this country will find in his Evangelical orthodoxy very little which they cannot wholly approve.

The spirit of innovation which ruled the latter half of the eighteenth century had its stronghold in two countries previously in almost utter subjection to spiritual des potism. Prussia had of late been as much under the sway of the old Protestant dogmatism, as France under. that of the Romish hierarchy. The power of bigotry in each of these nations was to provoke a mighty reaction,/

[ocr errors]

1850.]

Frederic the Great. : {'

413

and to call up two opponents who were to unite the ablest sceptre with the most brilliant pen of their time in behalf of the new age of boasted toleration and free inquiry.

Had we an artist's pencil and genius, it would not be difficult to present, in two or three historic tableaux of the date of 1750, the circumstances that gave those men their disposition and power. Just a hundred years ago, the, leading prelates of France revived in full force the somewhat dormant decrees of proscription, which had attended the repeal of the Edict of Nantes and the exile of the Huguenots. The Archbishop of Paris was especially conspicuous in the movement. Voltaire was in the French metropolis part of that year, and, with his sharp remembrance of the decrees of the priesthood against himself, he could not be ignorant of the atrocities meditated against heretics in France, nor unmindful of the power thus thrown into the hands of a champion of toleration. We can almost see his smile, partly contemptuous, at oppression, partly vindictive, in memory of his own experience, partly mischievous, in accordance with his somewhat Satanic temper, when informed of what had been decreed in the Archbishop's palace. A sketch of the prelate in his cabinet of priests, or of the wit among his clique of friends,' would represent well the elements of the impending crisis in France.

The same year presents us with a most significant view of the powers at work in Northern Europe. Frederic the Great then had the body of his illustrious ancestor, Frederic William, usually called the great Elector, and actually the founder of Prussian power, deposited in the vault of the new cathedral at Berlin. He ordered that the coffin should be opened, seized the bony hand of the stout old Protestant prince, bathed it with his tears, and said, partly in French, partly in German," Messieurs! der hat viel gethan!" Gentlemen! he has done much!" This deist king, at the coffin of the man who was, perhaps, with Gustavus Adolphus, the most efficient champion of the Protestant cause, gives a good idea of the future of Northern Germany. Denier, as in many important respects he was, disgusted with the narrow dogmatism and petty tyranny which, under the name of religious discipline, had been the torment of his youth, Frederic the Great, however little disposed to acquiesce in his bigoted VOL. XLVIII. 4TH S. VOL. XIII. NO. III.

36

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »