Uh Pee Maya th Xa Ree oy iii ne si : i aa aa ell 4 iit py jt in ae 2b Roll ly y Hil Vee spat athe Ths ls Py ‘ a ih al is) ; Pate i rt) ¥ Wet IPA " Beant bed Aniaue hte ee ny ant Wake ee hh He siete tf : Fanny We AL Se 3) f Need a : “ih ih of Mh HA i hy a ry ta an RAY ( fy) ad M7 | ; i 1 4 Hy ; : AD tl ; ade ore -| ' AY iar eer et Begala hy B hail ie Prasat 4 Pe UAL i; st ae Vi Le gren at LU Re TM Ht Hi ia Ds Ble ait Oa al ¥ (eh re eas Hues Hit ve i ae Ws Sian tis Fd ie ie Os fit A 4 | ie (i inet i as it in rape} ibe af Hr ho i iH ae ] oe We aan bh sie Sea 4 pate | i \ J NaN et Sal Ne a Heb Aah ( i PAU t Hes DA ‘ i Li i : Gd iily pal Hace Me ia ( : , Hh Hi } Fd Mee f Ay ‘ iia ith Os ay ie ea i HWE : a a ee Ae panae ith (3 catia si Naas, D Hit ure = nai ine a : OH hy Hy A ie ‘ 1 i it inetd sai a aie ny un Hf “1 ta : i } aid t rie) he a i cae sin Hak i ai cli 4 i oe ery Min a ; iat abet, iit Sea An EW aa dsh casita LEU WHORE CHI LRA rah 4 he eae i" ih Ht AL ik en if j ie at iy ine ite] a mit i (i inv HU MR MN ab ee fs eda ei - a ss se fi ft Hl Por ey et Hae ane " vy ui i th a ee io it ah EAN Hs, sa iN é ae i: sels a i hi Me ANNO i rath ik iS ; ie f ag ; * i} 8 HO Be ihe ae Ht i. ty ae uate iy ie ok | Le f Pa ee ail {halts aaah tat i a fatal if 1 {1s ha sale Pipatgly epee AN Mate Pais RU ; a uri ny? ii if ) n are eh ee | HIRO Hea Canard arr PAE ea i we HWA Hi) He i ; l asa Vy AREF np iil ue tate a) He j MSA TEM atte a tat $ a ‘By a iat it ie f a By one th oo nae - : Fea ae ; ee Be te oun Hitt ata Haha Penn i He a be a EMH vi Gaigall tome ita | Bil? naa ys : f ster ht A AG ait Aa He i Hi a oe Me ; lsh ait Wain is ld rp i nh rte a os a caNvies we ie i : asus ya! Wey Fass Chey ANA i i Re i a itt { bal at } ittitl Bh Hy ! ed if fit a the See azitah he ae lie fant ' ; Hrs heed bt tay Feit ‘ i ayiHib alten AN oe ae ‘ aps = 2 PRL Wi ian ane a “Ase at “hn Hyori i i she 4 tis fhe: ie he i ! w DM ied SUP. eed 4. ate rake iit 1) it Hee ee BT 1101 .L9213 1872 Luthardt, Chr. Ernst 1823- 1902. Apologetic lectures on the ayving pooh ade y 'p fi i APOLOGETIC LECTURES ON THE SAVING TRUTHS OF CHRISTIANITY. EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY TURNBULL & SPEARS, FOR T. AND T. CLARK: LONDON, . . . . HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO, DUBLIN, . . . . JOHN ROBERTSON AND CO, NEW YORK, . . . . C. SCRIBNER AND CO. APOLOGETIC LECTURES ON THE SAVING TRUTHS OF CHRISTIANITY. DELIVERED IN LEIPSIC IN THE WINTER OF 1866. BY CHR. ERNST LUTHARDT, DOCTOR AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, SECOND EDITION. - ‘Translated from the Third German Edition by SO PAST ANY U.O.R: EDINBURGH: T. & T, CLARK, 88 GEORGE STREET, 1872, “7 ee ee i Bean Cy ie : ait eae ba d ® vs é +, i tae? tu, Me ye be) a ae ee ~ ee y da » # ww ase om his + = ' : yi a ey a CAs oe Pas 7 ; tay ae » vas Jee UR. ; f* wan y 0 "es A a BID LF 4 * ‘ - d t & tem f - 7 Y..' 7 oe } , ay 1 + rue le, = : . ~ “A 5 2 ~ i 4 - ou * ae a) . 1 a " j 9 ’ ’ ; had it 4 iz ul 4 ‘ i it < . ¢ ( os * ee ot bhi . ‘ f > : ‘ y ait, 8g P| ; , { i ¥ : P we) Te i _* Uae P &., ae | 7 am | - s Sy . ‘ie Des 7 | o . A '* t a | He L ‘ ! > 4 oe . tT -_ A ek ls am i t ie ‘ ‘ te tan => of 4 bal ‘ F 5 Fs ‘ a 4 rs R ‘ i. j a P : : of ‘ 4 4 o*,, wu a uJ i ee , oe ; ered .t ~ , 4 E ‘ ' c , ‘ ‘- a + ' ¥ ' ‘ ~~ fs i in / mi a ’ i fed hs We Cie SY a ; x x! 7 $ ’ , * z; a ; us ( - : ae ape Te OL eee Vere ae ey ; AA 2 be ® | y CUA Te i D : rth oe NERAS # ” a " hos ‘ ; os rie x ‘ Wd he’ i! : " ‘ wi 5 y i) ‘} ys De pyar acta ee baa A 6) eet Wits tasee PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. with the two former editions will show that I have endeavoured, to the best of my ability, to meet the frequently expressed wish for a more thorough treatment of the several doctrinal questions. Some of the criticisms which have been made are based indeed upon a misconception of my design. My purpose was not to enter into each Christian doctrine under all its different aspects, and to consider the various doubts and objections of which each has been the subject, but to give prominence to that chief point of view under which each must be regarded, and from which it must be examined—a process involving the dismissal of subordinate ques- tions and objections. While I have in no wise altered this mode of treatment, I have, so far as was vl Preface. consistent with it, entered more thoroughly into many subjects, or considered others which I formerly passed over, both in the text and the notes. In the latter, especially, I have taken a nearer view of certain doctrinal questions, and given more complete refer- ence to the Literature of the subjects in question. It only remains to accompany this work on its reappearance in the world with my best wishes, and to commend it to the blessing of God. C. E. LUTHARDT. Letpzic, August 1870. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. exmesy HE Lectures which I last winter delivered on the ‘Saving Truths of Christianity,’ in continuation of my former series of Apolo- getic Lectures, are here presented, with very few additions and alterations. I confess that it was not without hesitation that I undertook this work ; for the more sacred and serious the themes I had to discuss, the greater was my responsibility—a responsibility which I have never lost sight of. I have found, also, but little assistance from the works of others, from the fact that these very questions are just those which have been much less treated by apologetical writers, than those more general religious questions which form the subject of my former series, If, however, I may venture to draw a conclusion from the unusval and sustained interest vill Preface. bestowed upon them, God has not suffered these Lec- tures to be entirely without success. May they do their work in their present form also. I have provided these, as well as the former series, with notes, chiefly of a literary and theological char- acter, and designed especially for such as may desire more accurate information concerning the various matters discussed. This work is sent forth to the world with the prayer, that the blessing which God has so abundantly bestowed on the former series may accompany this also. G. E: LUTHARPTE Lerpsic, July 1, 1867. CONTENTS, LECTURE I. THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY. PAGE The Subject—Christianity the Absolute Religion—Heathenism —The Religion of the Old Testament—Christianity, the Fact Jesus Christ—Former Views of Christianity—Christianity, the Certainty of Salvation—Grounds of this Certainty—Means of this Certainty—Faith and Knowledge, : LECTURE IU. SIN, Universality of Suffering and Death— Universality of Sin—Origin of Sin—Universality of its Consequences—Internal Discord— Selfishness the Essence of Sin—Impotence of the Will with Respect to Sin—Guilt, LECTURE III. GRACE. A Remedy Needed—Vanity of Human Remedies—Need of For- giveness—Grace Needed—Grace Certain—Grace Universal— 17 43 x Contents. PAGE The Operations of Grace, Secret Operations—Education for Grace, é -' 18 LECTURE IV. THE GOD-MAN. The Question of the God-man—The Man, Christ Jesus—His Sin- lessness—Jesus Christ, a Miracle—The Son of Man—The Son of God—Confession and. Denial of His Divinity—Necessity of the God-man—Possibility of the God-man—Reality of the God-man—The Self-renunciation of the Son of God—The Contrasts of His Life, - 106 LECTURE V. THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. The Three Offices of Christ—The Development of Jesus—His Prophetic Office—His Rejection—His Atoning Sacrifice—Need of Atonement—Substitution ; its Possibility and Reality— Vicarious Suffering—The Last Hours of Christ—The Cross, 136 LECTURE VI. THE CONCLUSION OF THE WORK OF REDEMPTION— THE TRINITY. The Resurrection of Christ—Its Reality—The Exaltation of Christ to be the Ruler of the World—The Holy Spirit—The Conclusion of the Work of Redemption—The Trinity—The Possibility of Understanding it—The Trinity of the Divine Revelation—The Trinity of the Divine Nature—Faith in the Trinity, . : « 165 Contents. x1 LECTURE VII. THE CHURCH. PAGK The Church a Fact—Antipathy to the Church—The Intolerance attributed to the Church—The Supposed Superfluousness of the Church—The Nature of the Church—The Contrast of Catholicism and Protestantism—Catholicism— Protestantism —The Internal and External Aspects of the Church—Dif- ference and Unity of the Churches, . : 3 . 195 LECTURE VITI. HOLY SCRIPTURE. Estimation of the Old Testament—Origin and Collection of the New Testament Scriptures—Regard paid to Scripture by the Church— Scripture Principle of Protestantism — Universal Importance of Scripture—Religious Importance of Scripture—Necessity of Holy Scripture—Matter of Holy Scrip- ture—The Understanding and Interpretation of Holy Scripture —Inspiration of Holy Scripture—The Certainty of Inspiration —Faith and Criticism—Duty towards Holy Scripture, . 234 LECTURE IX. THE CHURCH’S MEANS OF GRACE. The Agency of Grace—The two Means of Grace, Word and Sacrament—The Word—Law and Gospel—The Law—The Gospel—Its Essential Matter the Doctrine of Justification by Faith—The Sacraments—The two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper—Baptism—Confirmation—The Lord’s Supper, . ; : : ; ; @ . 263 LECTURE X. THE LAST THINGS. The Goal of Perfection—Belief in the Immortality of the Soul—Evidence of the Immortality of the Soul—State of X1l Contents. PAGE the Soul after Death—The Resurrection of the Body— The Future of the Church—The Conversion of the Nations— The Apostacy—Enmity against the Church—The Victory of the Church—The Future of the world—The Last Judgment— Eternal Perdition—Eternal Salvation—Retrospect, . . 291 NOTES. Notes To Lecture L., A ce a : “ 319 Nores to Lecture IL., : “ : 5 : 330 Nores to Lecture III., ; : : . : 351 Nores to Lecture IV., - ; , ; ; 356 Nores to Lecture V., Tigre ‘ : : : 370 Nores to Lecture VI., : ‘ ° ; 382 Nores to Lecture VIL., : : : : ; 389 Notes to Lecture VIIL, : ; : ; . 404 Nores to Lecture IX., : 4 ; : 3 414 Nores to Lecture X., : : z : ; 418 APOLOGETIC LECTURES ON THE SAVING TRUTHS OF CHRISTIANITY. LECTURE I. THE NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY. rea EN I addressed you from this place, a few sy] years since, it was upon The Fundamental Truths of Christianity. Starting from those questions of the human heart and intellect which press upon every serious and thinking man, from the contradictions of the moral world, from the enigmas of our whole existence, I showed you how all these demand the living and personal God, and His revelation in Christ Jesus. It is only by the religious view of the. world, by Christianity, that these contradictions are reconciled, these questions answered. For it is only by beginning with God that we can understand either the world or ourselves. Hence everything that surrounds us, and we ourselves, are facts which bear testimony to the necessity and the B , 18 Lecture I. The Nature of Christianity. truth of religious faith. Such is, in few words, a sum- mary of the former course. The road which we then traversed together led us but to the door of the inner sanctuary. I now invite you to follow me into this sanctuary itself, and to contemplate its holy mysteries. It is not my inten- tion again to speak of the primary foundations of religion, but of Christian truth itself. I shall this time assume a belief in the fundamental propositions of religious faith, and address you as those who are convinced that the God of whom we cannot help thinking, is also the living and personal God, whom we are designed and called to acknowledge, to honour, and to love; that He has revealed Himself to us, has shown us our highest destination in religion, and that Jesus Christ is His complete and supreme manifesta- tion. It is, then, on The Saving Truths of Chris- tianity that I propose to expatiate; and to explain and justify these will be my present object. The road on which we shall travel together is _ narrower than the former—perhaps, too, it is more lonely. Very many who were willing to accompany us on that, may possibly hesitate to follow us now. And yet what I am now about to lay before you is but the necessary consequence of the great general truths which then occupied us. Those truths come everywhere in contact with human thought and experience. The doctrines which I have now to bring before you move in a much narrower field of observation. Indeed, it is not so Christianity the Absolute Religion. 19 much the connection with human knowledge in gene- ral, as the limited nature of this knowledge, which becomes evident from the central station of Christian faith. : I am well aware of the difficulty of my present task, but I undertake it with the hope that God will not deny me His assistance and _ blessing. How far I shall succeed in satisfying the require- ments of such a subject, I know not; but whatever may be the weakness of my words, I beg you to believe—and this is the only thing I ask you to take on my word—that the cause itself is far stronger than its advocate. Christianity was the goal of the former, it is the starting-point of the present course. I shall therefore begin by speaking of The Nature of Christianity; and this will form the subject of our first lecture. (*) And what, then, is Christianity? It is a world of thoughts, which have been working and fermenting in the minds of men up to the present hour ; it is an all- affecting change of our entire mode of thought and observation ; it is a transformation of our entire social system ; it is a renewal of our inner life; in short, it is a world of effects, which are matters of daily expe- rience. Wherever we may be, and wherever we may go, we encounter this new world of Christianity, even when we do not recognise it, even when we miscon- ceive or deny it. But, above all, Christianity is reli- gion. The Christian religion is the source whence flows that stream of blessings, of which even they who — 20 Lecture I, The Nature of Christianity. perhaps oppose or ridicule Christian faith partake. As religion, however, it is connected with all those religions which have preceded it, and that not merely as one of them, but as their truth, their aim, as simply religion. Christianity is the absolute religion—— the only true and internally justified religion. Such is the pretension with which it entered the world, and which it constantly maintains. This may, perhaps, be called exclusiveness and intolerance ; but it is the intolerance of truth. As soon as truth concedes the possibility of her opposite being also true, she denies herself. Ag soon as Christianity ceases to declare herself to be the only true religion, she annihilates her power, and denies her right to exist, for she denies her necessity. The old world concluded with the question, What is Truth? The new era began with the saying of Christ, I am the Truth. And this say- ing is the confession of Christian faith. The forms which the Christian faith assumes may alter; the human notions by which it seeks to express itself may change—but Christian faith must declare itself to be the unchangeable truth. It must affirm that this truth is the answer to the old questions of human nature, and that all the religions which have been its predecessors were merely preliminary and pre- paratory, and have found in it their aim and goal, Heathenism was the seeking religion, Judaism the hoping religion; Christianity is the reality of what Heathenism sought, and Judaism hoped for (’) Let us first consider Heathenism. (°) To seek God Heathenism. — 21 is the origin of all religion—is the truth even of heathenism. For this feeling, this attraction towards God, exists in every man. Man cannot cease from seeking and inquiring after God. No period of history can be mentioned as that in which men began to be religious, At no time, andin no place, have men been found without religion.(*) It is the distinctive mark of humanity. Homer delights to call men speaking or inventive beings. He might have called them reli- gious beings; and this would have been entirely in his spirit.(°) It is true that individuals may deny all reli- gion, just as individuals may deny all human affection. But these are exceptions. It is as essential to man to be religious, as to love. As man cannot live without his fellow-men, neither can he live without God. Individuals may resolve to renounce all human com- panionship ; but we could not but call this an unnatural resolution. And he who should carry it into execu- tion, would do so at the cost of his own nature, which would be stunted by the process. So, also, an indi- vidual might resolve to renounce all communion with God ; but this, too, would be an unnatural resolution, to the detriment of his own soul, which would be impoverished and stunted by the experiment. Nor would any one be capable of fully carrying it into execution. As he who seeks solitude carries with him, nevertheless, thoughts of that world and that human society from which he flees into the desert ; so does he who wants to know nothing of God, nevertheless bear about with him. everywhere thoughts of God, and in- 22 Lecture I. The Nature of Christianity. quiries after Him. We cannot forget God. This inquiry and search after God is the origin of religion, and the truth even of heathenism. In all its various forms, from the most elevated and refined to the most revolting, it is equally the religious sentiment and the religious craving which impels men to seek after God. Religion is not a mere collection of notions or of external observances. Even when we meet with it.in a stunted or distorted form, we still recognise, at least in single features, its proper nature. — Religion belongs to no single aspect of the mind, to no single province of the outer life. It is, on the con- trary, the chief matter of the whole man and of his whole life, its home is in man’s inmost soul, and the realm over which its dominion extends is the entire activity of the life. For religion is, by its very nature, a relation to God, and indeed a. personal relation. We are all made by Him and for Him, and are there- fore all made and destined for religion. Our “soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.” All religions seek Him, and this is the truth of even heathen re- ligions. They do not, indeed, find Him, because they seek amiss. The heathen mind has sought God in the variety of nature, in the stars of heaven and in the powers of earth; but the heart has always aimed at the one God. Religions are polytheistic ; but the re- ligious craving is monotheistic. -A touch of mono- theism runs through the heathen religions, and some- times finds a touching expression by individual voices. The heart seeks and means God, but the _ Judaism. 23 mind goes astray by the way, it neither finds God Himself, nor attains to a really personal relation to Him. % | However beautiful the thoughts, or elevated the words, found in heathen poets and philosophers (‘) concerning the Deity, they always exhibit a twofold deficiency : they know neither the Creator nor the holy God. ° Creator and Creature, God and the world, stand on the same level in their ideas. Either the divinity 1s the highest product of the great process by which the world and mankind were brought forth, or the world is an emanation of the Divine essence, proceeding from God, much as thoughts or dreams of the night arise involuntarily from the mind. The former is the system of thought peculiar to the Greek, the latter to the Indian mind. By both is the boundary line between the Creator and the creature obliterated. But the consciousness of the distinction between them is the pre-supposition of their fellowship, and they who do not know the Creator, or deny Him, do by this ignorance or denial destroy the very foundation of religion. | But if they know not the Creator, still less do they know the holy God. It is after the likeness of sinful man that they have imagined their gods, with the weaknesses and passions of mortals. Where the notion of the divine holiness is wanting, there is wanting also the highest standard of moral judgment, and a super- ficial morality takes its place. All heathen worship is 24 Lecture I. The Nature of Christianity. a testimony to this ; for nothing but a superficial morality could think of atoning for sin, or propitiating the Deity, by its own works and sacrifices, There is, it is true, a certain elegance of sentiment in the honour rendered by the Greek woman to her goddess, in an offering of fruits and flowers. Such worship might well be imagined acceptable, if there were no such thing as sin. The heathen religions may be religions of beauty; but they are deficient in moral truth and moral seriousness. I know well that heathen worship has its dark, as well as its bright side. Tull far down the stream of time, even till the time of the Roman emperors, human sacrifices were offered. g) We turn away shuddering from such a worship ; and yet it is founded on a true feeling—the feeling that life is forfeited by sin, and that sin can only be expl- ated by life. This horrible distortion of truth—what _ else is it but the ery of the heart seeking after a pro- pitiated God? Heathenism is the seeking religion ; but it seeks without finding, and without the hope of attaining to God. The religion of the Old Testament is the religion of Hope. The first quality which raises the Old Tes- tament far above heathenism, is faith in God the Creator. An atmosphere of Divine majesty, before which the creature is but dust and ashes, pervades the whole of the Old Testament. The Almighty, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, whose throne is Heaven and the earth His footstool, who speaks and it is done, who commands and it stands fast, is exalted a ee ee Christianity. 25 high above all created beings. And the other parti- cular which raises Israel above the heathen world, is the knowledge of the Divine holiness. Nowhere else are found such poignant confessions of sin ; among no other nations are heard tones so pathetic as in the penitential psalms of Israel ; (°) nowhere else does a like consciousness of the impassable abyss, separating sinful men from the holy God, exist. No human being can bridge it over; grace alone is able to do this. It is true that the Israelite offered sacrifice, and underwent purifications ; but he well knew that these could not purge his conscience, that they were but symbolic images of inward piety—types of the future. To this futwre was the eye of Israel’s hope directed. Upon this future did Israel live. From it was ex- pected the fulfilment of all God’s promises, the satis- . faction of all the soul’s cravings, when God should establish His kingdom on earth, abolish all sin, put an end to all suffering, take into his own hand the govern- ment of His people, and uphold the cause of His saints. This is the hope which runs through all the prophecies of the Old Testament. This goal of the future gave a light by which Israel was able to understand the ways of God in history. Among no other people was the notion and consciousness of the Divine Government of the world so strong and vivid, and the soul of this consciousness was the hope of the future, the future of God’s kingdom. This future was to com- mence with the new Covenant which God would make with His people, that perfect covenant which, unlike 26 Lecture I. The Nature of Christianity. the old one, was not to consist in external precepts, but to have its home in the inmost heart, and to be based upon atonement and forgiveness. This was the great prediction of Jeremiah (xxi, 31-34). Israel was the nation of hope, and its religion the religion of hope. The hope of Israel became a fact in Jesus Christ. This is the essence of Christianity. Its essence consists not in an idea, not in mere thoughts, but in a fact. About thirty or forty years since, it was thought that the key to the knowledge of the essence of . Christianity was found, when it was said to be the highest idea of the reason. | The era of illuminism and rationalism, which re- duced the whole essence of Christianity to a scanty history of ‘the wise and virtuous Jesus of N azareth, and to some general elementary truths concerning God, virtue, and immortality, had preceded this, When the deeper spirit of speculative philosophy revived in the great philosophers of the present century, it declared this to be the most unsatisfactory notion of Christianity that was possible. It affirmed that the deepest thoughts which occupy every think- ing mind had been here deposited in the popular form of figurative language, that the thought of thoughts which forms the mystery of Christianity is the unity of God and man, that God is the truth of man, and man the reality of God. To the external contempla- tion of the understanding, the two are indeed distinct : but to the inner contemplation of the reason they are Christianity, the Fact Jesus Christ. 26 one. Man is not merely the finite being he seems to the external senses; he is rather a manifestation of the Infinite. When man thinks of God, he is think- ing of his own higher truth, and thus combining him- self into unity with God. This is the highest thought of reason, and this is the meaning of the Christian doctrine ‘of the God-man. Such were the notions then taught by the philosophic schools of Schelling | and Hegel. (’) Well, it is now acknowledged that all this is a total misconception of the proper meaning of Christian doctrine(?"), and these notions of the age of philosophy “are generally abandoned. We have learned that philo- sophy is not religion, and that it cannot take the place of religion. But what does modern so-called Pro- testantism, designating itself as the necessary progress of the religious mind,—what does that self-named liberal or free movement: in theology, which has taken upon itself to reconcile Christianity with the know- ledge of the age,—what does it put in the place of the philosophical idea? A religious one, the idea of religious and moral . perfection. This, it is now asserted, is the essence of Christianity. It is said to be the Jewish stand-point to adhere to historical facts, which have no signification for our reason. It 1s declared to have been the Shemitic mind that en- riched the world with the miraculous history hitherto known as Christianity. The advances in culture made by the modern mind are said to have done away with miracles, and made belief in them impossible. This 28 = Lecture I. The Nature of Christianity. cannot therefore be the essence of Christianity. For Christianity, like all other spheres of mental life, is a product of general mental development, and its truth consists in an idea, the idea of religious and moral perfection. (7%) We grant that Christianity has ideas: it is more rich in ideas than the whole body of ancient philo- sophy; and the thoughts of a Christian are deeper than those of a Plato or an Aristotle. Yet it is not In these, but in a fact ()—the fact of the atonement —that the essence of Christianity consists. It is true that this fact is the manifestation of an idea, of God’s own eternal idea, of salvation. This idea, how- ever, assumed historical reality, for the purpose of saving man. Even this divine idea could not of itself have saved us. It is our salvation only because it became a fact. For sin is a fact, the most potent fact on earth. Now, if a fact is to be done away with, it must be, not by mere ideas, but by facts. But Christi- anity is the doing away with sin, the Divine answer to human sin. Therefore it is a fact, the fact of atonement. For this alone, this actual atonement, and not an idea, can give us the peace of conscience we are seeking, Our whole mental life rests upon facts. All here is governed by the mighty facts of history; and why should not religion be so too? All religions appeal to facts, except, indeed, so-called natural religion, which has no existence but in beoks (3): The fact constituting the essence of Christianity is «a ee ee ee — Former Views of Christianity. 29 Jesus Christ. His person may be designated as the essence of Christianity; for Christ is related to Christi- anity in a different manner from that in which Mo- — hammed is related to Mohammedanism. He has not merely an historical, but a religious significance with respect to the religion called after Him; He is not merely its founder, but its subject; He is one with it, —in fact, He is himself Christianity; and He has united it for all time to His person. It is impossible to forget Himself in His cause. In other cases it may often happen, and this is, indeed, the ordinary course of events,—that, m progress of time, a cause gets separated from the person to whom it owes its origin. Gratitude will, indeed, cherish the memory of those who have been the benefactors of mankind; but the time may come when their benefits will be enjoyed and themselves forgotten. For who can be certain of being never forgotten? Jesus Christ will never be forgotten. (“) He has made Himself the centre of His religion; and Christendom has in all ages so regarded Him, as the whole history of the Church testifies. All the controversies waged during the course of the Christian centuries, really turn upon the person of Christ. All worship is a glorification of Christ. All church hymns praise Him. Christian art triumphs when she lays at His feet the choicest treasures she possesses, the best she can perform. And if the conflict of our age turns upon the religious significa- tion of Jesus Christ, what is this but another testi- mony that He is the central point of the Christian 30 Lecture I. The Nature of Christianity. religion, that He kas indissolubly united it to His person ? : Christianity being then, not merely an idea but a fact, and that fact Jesus Christ, we proceed to inquire, wherein the essence of Christianity consists. Various ages and Churches have given various answers to this question. The ancient Greek Church considered it to consist in the revelation of the highest truth, the manifesta- tion of absolute reason. The teachers of the Greek Church were nourished on the great poets and philoso- phers of Greece. Hence their desire to associate these great spirits of antiquity with Jesus Christ, the King of spirits. They saw scintillations of truth dispersed on all sides; they saw in Christ the Sun of trutb, in His teaching the highest philosophy, the absolute reason. Such were the notions of the Greek dogma- tists. They express a truth, but not the whole truth. The Western Church inherited that practical turn, that talent for government, which had been manifested by ancient Rome. It affirmed that Christianity had brought into the world the Divine kingdom of grace and life, that this kingdom is in the Church, that Chris- tianity is the Charch, He, then, who would partake of the grace of the kingdom, must submit to the ordi- mances of the Church. Hence, Christian piety is obedience to the Church. We cannot but admire the energy with which Rome secured for Christianity a safe refuge within the Church, during the tempests Se ee : : ' Grounds of the Certainty of Faith. 31 - of national disturbances in the West. Yet we cannot find in her the full truth and essence of Christianity. The Reformation proceeded from the anxiety of the conscience for salvation—from the heart’s craving for assurance. In it was repeated the old question : What must I do to be saved? and the old answer: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! It should never be forgotten that such was the origin of the Reforma- tion and of Protestantism, which finds the essence of Christianity to be the salvation of the sinner by Christ Jesus, of which we are assured by faith. It is on this foundation that Protestantism considers the mental supremacy of Christianity over the whole life to rest. For it does not seek to limit the extent of its in- fluences to the inner life of the individual, but extends them to the entire circuit of human life in general. Not, however, by measures of external authority, but by the power of the Spirit, is Christianity to seek to conquer the world, until the opposing spirit of the world shall, at the close of history, yield to the full supremacy of the Christian spirit, in the times of _ the future kingdom of God.