Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

.

those men upon all Christendom? A poet may be great with a pagan muse to inspire him, but with a Christian muse he is more than great, he is useful. Think of Milton writing such a poem as Schiller's Gods of Greece! And this is what he might have done were it not for the Christian spirit that animated his age. It is the religious impulses that can convert poetry into not only an agent of civilization, but of evangelization. And we believe that, in every period, poetry is the thermometer that indicates the religious temperature of the nation. Depend upon it, when a land grows skeptical poetry-becomes as veritable a tell-tale as Midas's wife. But when piety becomes all-pervading, poetry will be first to reach the mountain-top and thrill the winding valleys and lofty hills with her harpnotes of joy.

STRAUSS AND HIS LIFE OF CHRIST.

Hundeshagen, in his History of German Protestantism, attributes the strong reaction of Rationalism in the present century to the Treaty of Vienna, which crushed the life out of the German heart. The fruit and quintessence of this reaction was Strauss's Life of Christ. It was the most unmitigated piece of Rationalism that the world ever saw, because it dealt with the no less sacred character than the Founder of Christianity. Strauss was the exponent of the Left Hegelian School. What the Church and believing world had hitherto claimed to be the true history of Christ, he pronounced to be no history at all-nothing but a mere myth. The word myth was not a new one; neither was it a product of the Hegelian philosophy. It had previously been employed by ultra Rationalists; and even Origen, in his allegorical effusions, made free use of it. Strauss would draw a line, broad and clear, between the historical and symbolical. De Wette had done this long before when he decided many of the historical events of the old Testament to be purely mythical. Even Schleiermacher did not hesitate to say that the Gospel narratives of the early life of Christ and of his ascension were mere poetical descriptions of truth. But what he and others like him only said in a modified and measured way, Strauss blurted out without qualification or moderation. He not only held that the exterior life of Christ was perverted by mythical' descriptions, but that the

very essence of his life was penetrated by a pious but poetical imagination. Strauss reversed the common belief that Christ organized the Church, and contended that the Church had constituted him, that it had spelled him out of the Old Testament prophecies, and from the hopes and expectations of the age. A rich cluster of wonderful narratives collected about his life, so that something really historical and actual was quite difficult to discover. But it never came to pass that what Strauss thus tried to establish historically, was built up into a doctrinal system. This was a step for which the darkest type of Rationalism was utterly incapable. God had said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."

Rationalism was passing though its death-struggles in the bold attempts of Strauss and his sympathizers. Henceforth the stream of Church history flows clearer, and through an increasingly beautiful territory. After all the theological and religious convulsions through which Germany has passed since the death of the reformers it is consoling to know that evangelical faith is once more in the ascendency. No historian has dared to deny this. We cannot forbear to introduce Dr. Hagenbach's glance at cotemporary spiritual life in Germany. We think it will remove some existing prejudices and errors:

The study of the Bible has not only acquired an impartiality in the last few years, but also vitality and interest. How differently is an epistle of Paul or John explained in our high schools now to what it was a quarter of a century ago! Now the study of the Scriptures is pursued with Christian zeal and moderation; and it is no longer thought all-important to quibble about words, but to penetrate into the spirit that lies beneath them. . . . When Neander said that the task of the Church historian was "to represent the history of the Church as a living proof of the divine strength of Christianity, as a school of Christian experience, and as a voice of edification, doctrine, and warning for all, sounding down through all ages," people called his language the effusion of a Pietist. But Neander's view has already won the upper hand. . . Special historical subjects are pursued with great enthusiasm. The lives of distinguished and worthy men of exalted piety are vividly portrayed. Instead of the dry recital of facts, we find history and biography sketched in living colors. An ardent interest is taken in the monuments of Christian art and customs, and we are beginning to see something more than bald stone in the Churches that have come down to us from past times. Attention is directed toward hymnology, and the old system of music which was in FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XVI.-14

vogue eighty or ninety years ago is no longer tolerable. If any one will compare one of our present hymn books with one of that period, he will see that the wind is now blowing from quite a different quarter. And what an improvement in the preaching of our day! The stiff, logical, measured style of sermonizing, which was rife in Reinhard's day, has had to give way to something more earnest and less formal. Harms says, "We must preach in tongues," and the pulpit is fast losing its frigidity. . . . Those large churches which stood empty at the time of the French Revolution and the empire are now filled with auditors, some of whom are from the most cultivated classes. People are beginning to take more interest in all ecclesiastical matters than formerly. The form of worship and Church government, about which no one used to care a fig, are now subjects of profound attention. When Rationalism was strong, people only visited the church to compliment the minister, and he used to recommend them to visit the Church; but now they come from a love of worship, and a sense of their great spiritual necessities.

Formerly we saw but little practical outgrowth of religion; but recently we find a great zeal, activity, and self-sacrifice to extend the kingdom of God. Yes, this has never been so great since the Reformation as it is to-day. In the past it was left to Pietism, Methodism, and Moravianism to preach the Gospel to the heathen, to extend scriptural and Christian knowledge among the masses at home, and to organize beneficiary institutions. . . . There is a Christian spirit of usefulness at work, which is humane as well as divine; and it is breaking up that old one-sidedness and developing itself into true practical life. No one can deny that Pietism is still a vital power itself and makes itself felt, and will not give place to any system like liberalism or communism. The positive power of Protestantism is all the time gaining the mastery over its negative forces, and this is pervading all society. Let us hope that this practical spirit will increase, and continue to show its beauty in an humble way.

These are comforting words, and we trust that the promising dawn will ripen into a bright day. Our author takes an equally cheerful outlook upon the future:

We wish, as far as the Church in our own land is concerned, that the band of faithful ones will be purified of its injurious elements. A mere return to the olden time we do not desire. Modern development, such as has taken place in philosophy, literature, and education, can no more be thrown back than the flowers of spring into their youthful buds, or the sunbeams into the darkness of the past night, or the stream back again to its mountain source. Who dreams of such reactions and restorations? Who would like to forget Lessing, Herder, Kant, Schiller, Goethe, Pestalozzi, Fichte, and Schleiermacher, and all the heroes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and pass away over to the controversial

times preceding them. Let him do it who will. Who but a dreamer could even desire the return of the golden age of Luther? No, the nineteenth century can never become the seventeenth or sixteenth. . . . But it is certain that as the eighteenth was a transition point into the nineteenth, so. do we stand in the middle of the stream, and the waves are flowing on beyond us. . . . It is our part to place implicit trust in the power of truth—to be thoroughly imbued with the love of truth. It was thus that Luther rose, through sorrow and doubt, above the quibbles of sophistry. And it is upon this lofty eminence that our Protestantism must stand. Until she succeeds in doing it her history is not complete. She will have her battles yet to fight. But truth cannot be won by dreamy thought. Prayer, labor, and faith in God will gain the prize. And every one must exercise these qualities himself if he would make truth a possession of his nature. What shall be the future of our Protestantism? I know not fully the answer. But we shall gain ascendency not by outward forms. It is the spirit that must do it; not the spirit of the times, which is an intoxicating term to so many thousands, but the spirit which, in spite of all changes, will lead into all truth-the Comforting Spirit. We cannot tell when the time of true Protestant freedom will arrive. The signs are deceptive. They sometimes indicate one phase and then another. But this we do know: that time will come. It may be far off still, and it may be nearer than we think.

This is earnest language, and we hope it will not prove the dream of a visionary. When the freedom-time does come, Dr. Hagenbach will have done something toward its arrival. We had marked many other passages in his history of which to give a translation, or at least a summary. The work is replete with fascinating pictures, such as his studies on Herder, Schiller, Reinhard's earnest preaching, Swedenborg, and Zinzendorf. Of all the recent publications of the German theological press, we know of none more eloquent in style or choice in material. The promise of its translation has already been made to the American public, and the publication of it may be expected in a few months from the present date. We trust, however, that the time is not far distant when we shall not have to depend on other countries for our standard of ecclesiastical history. Removed as we are from the traditional prejudices and everrecurring skeptical phases of Europe, we are, more than any other people, calculated to trace the eventful life of that heritage of Christ which has braved the flood and frost of so many winters of opposition.

[ocr errors]

ART. III.-OUR LORD'S PRAYER IN THE GARDEN.

[ocr errors]

WHAT was the "cup" which our Lord desired might pass from him? To a reverent discussion of this question we propose to devote the present article. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and one of the epistles of St. Paul, is contained all that relates directly to the subject. For the convenience of the reader we make full quotations from their writings:

MATTHEW.

MARK.

LUKE.

PAUL.

And he took with And he taketh And he was with- Who in the days him Peter and the with him Peter and drawn from them of his flesh, when he two sons of Zebedee, James and John, about a stone's cast, had offered up prayand began to be sor- and began to be sore and kneeled down, ers and supplicarowful and very amazed, and to be and prayed, saying, tions with strong heavy. Then saith very heavy; and Father, if thou be crying and tears unto he unto them, My saith unto them, My willing, remove this him that was able soul is exceeding soul is exceeding sor- cup from me: never- to save him from sorrowful, even unto rowful unto death: theless, not my will, death, and was heard death: tarry ye here, tarry ye here, and but thine be done. in that he feared.and watch with me. watch. And he And there appeared Heb. v, 7. And he went a little went forward a little, an angel unto him further, and fell on and fell on the from heaven, his face, and prayed, ground, and prayed strengthening him. saying, O my Father, that, if it were possi- And being in if it be possible, let ble, the hour might agony he prayed this cup pass from pass from him. And more earnestly: and me: nevertheless not he said, Abba, Fa- his sweat was as it as I will, but as thou ther, all things are were great drops of wilt. He possible unto thee; blood falling down went away again the take away this cup to the ground.―xxii, second time, and from me: neverthe- 41-44.

prayed, saying,O my less, not what I will,

Father, if this cup but what thou wilt.

may not pass away

And again he

from me, except I went away,and praydrink it, thy will ed, and spake the And same words. — xiv,

be done.

he left them, and 33-39.

went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.-xxvi, 37-44.

an

With these texts before us we return to the question with which we began. Three principal answers have been given to it.

I. The first is that of "Grotius and others, who, taking the cup to be a figurative expression for death, understand our Lord as praying that he might, if it were possible, be excused from his undertaking and suffering the penalty of death.”

This theory has the support of many and distinguished names, among whom may be mentioned Dr. Gill, Whitby,

« IndietroContinua »