2:3; 4: 10,) extending the salvation over all men, (1 Tim. 2: 4; 2: ; 2 Peter 3: 9, 4.)

2:11;

"This historical person, then, through whom a new creation begins in the spiritual world, and who is the mediator between the finite and the infinite-this historical person is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. As the mediation must be of both, so is the person of Jesus the essential union of the human and the divine. Jesus is GODMAN. Any doctrine is unbiblical which views Him one-sidedly as a mere man, although He be the greatest and most gifted, and which considers the declaration of His divine nature as symbolic or hyperbolic. Any doctrine, on the other hand, is likewise unbiblical which sees in Him only the God, who had assumed the human nature only apparently, but remained intact of human affections, (which creates a magico-fantastic idea of His personality.) The truth lies only in the closest blending of both persons-unfathomable, it is true, to our understanding-so that His divine nature was only developed in its connection with and under the conditions of the human, which was again controlled and influenced by the former. It is a remarkable fact, that the very apostle who shows Jesus in His divine glory more impressively than the other Evangelists, urges at the same time the true, tangible, and palpable humanity of Jesus. John (especially at the beginning of his first letter) admonishes us to confess as well the humanity of the God-Son as the divinity of the Son of Man.

"Jesus is man, (1 Tim. 2: 5,) not only according to His physical organism, (Phil. 2: 5,) but also according to His entire physico-spiritual nature; with human emotions and weaknesses, (John 11: 33-34; 12: 27; Matt. 26: 38,) and subject to the laws of human growth, (Luke 2: 4, 42.) He frequently calls Himself, for this reason, the Son of Man; which, indeed means also the Messiah, but by which He pointed, perhaps purposely, to His affinity with human nature, and to His destination to reveal the divinity in the human life and to realize the type of mankind. He is truly the ideal man, (1 Cor. 15: 45,) the first-born among many brethren, (Rom. 8: 29.) But sin does not essentially belong to the human nature, to pure inviolate humanity. He is, therefore, without sin, although a man, (John 8: 46; 1 Peter 2: 22;) and His temptations, to which He was subject like as we are, (Heb. 4: 15,) could not consist in inner wicked thoughts, but only in the contest between the weakness of the flesh and the will of the spirit, (Matt. 26: 41,) from out of which He ever came forth glorified.

"For the divine nature was from the beginning most intimately connected with the human; and there is not a moment in His life where the difference of both resulted in a division. For 'the Father hath not left me alone,' (John 8: 29.) Even when He exclaimed on the cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' the inner connection of both natures was not broken, though the fullness of divinity had been obscured for a moment, like the sun, and had receded into the hidden depths of His being, while He had to undergo the struggle of patience. It does not matter so much whether Christ Himself is called God, (as Rom. 9: 5; 1 Tim. 3:16; 1 John 5: 20, since, in these passages, the reference to God the Father is possible and even probable, and Christ Himself no where calls Himself God.) Christ declares every where His permanent consciousness of His intimate connection with the supernatural world, and of His particular relation to His heavenly Father, exalted as it is above the entire creation. He likes to call Himself Son of God. This diguity, it is true, is also an attribute of kings and magistrates; but He claims it in a higher sense, although it was declared a blasphemy of His, (John 10: 36,)

especially if we add to this His other expressions, of which the following are the most important: I am in the Father and the Father in me, (John 14: 10-11;) the Son of Man came down from heaven and is still in heaven, (that is, permanently and intimately connected with God;) as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, (5: 26;) all things that the Father hath are mine, (16: 15;) he that hath seen me hath seen the Father, (14: 9, 7; 12: 45;) all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father, (5: 23.) He ascribes to Himself an anterior existence, extending back beyond Abraham, nay, beyond creation, that is, eternal, (6: 62; 8: 58; 17: 5, 24;) likewise the highest all-embracing power, (Matt. 11:27; 9: 6; 28: 18.) Agreeable to this He is, in St. Paul's epistles, called the one in which dwells the fullness of divinity; the essence of the divine power; the image of the living God, in godly form; the reflection of divine glory, (Col. 1: 15–17; 2:9; Phil. 2: 6; Heb. 1: 2.) But the most significant name is the one given him by John-the WORD-(John 1: 1,) whereby the entire fullness of divine nature is expressed as far as it has revealed itself.

"This Word-the primitive cause of the whole creation, the source of all life and of all light from the beginning-was made flesh, (1 : 14;) has united itself with a human personality; has revealed itself in it; dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory-the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The life-exclaimed John in the beginning of his first letter-has appeared; the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that we bear witness of and declare unto you. As the word is an expression of our thoughts, so have the thoughts of God become in Him visible, tangible, sensible. Christ stands, therefore, as the principle of all creative, and revealing divine activity in the midst between Divinity and mankind-uniting both in himself-connecting heaven with earth-and therefore called the Mediator, (1 Tim. 2: 5; Heb. 8: 6.) He is the absolute union of the divine and the human-of the supernatural and the natural-in a historically concrete and perceptible manner. But how the Son is related to the Father—with whom, on the one hand, He is one, but from whom, on the other hand, He is different-human reason has often endeavored to define. The Scripture says simply: one God and one Lord, (1 Cor. 8: 6;) one God and one Mediator, (1 Tim. 2: 5;) one God and one God-sent, (John 17:3.) This will further be discussed in the chapter on the Trinity."

We give one more extract, drawing in this case from the Ninth Letter, where the author touches upon eternal happiness, and the high dignity of human nature, as two of the motives of Christianity for a righteous life:

"Another highly efficient motive of Christianity, is the doctrine of eternal happiness or misery. This motive is calculated with great wisdom for man as he is, as thousands would, without this hope of future life, not be capable of the sacrifices and exertions required by Christianity. The prospect of this future alleviates any sacrifice in the life on earth. But on this very doctrine is based the objection against Christianity, that it fosters the hope of reward and an impure love of happiness. It is said (s. Daumer's polem. Bl. 2. H.) that the biblical Christ did not teach a pure, noble morality; did not demand the truly good for the sake of the principle, and the desire of the good for its own sake; that He endeavored to lead to the good by pointing to the reward, even to an earthly and tangible one, and to avert from the

bad by threatening punishment; that he rendered, consequently, self-love and ego. tism the motives of action. That man is a contemptible one who honors father and mother that it may be well with him, and he may live long on the earth, (Eph. 6:2-3.) Christ's moral law can no more be ours, no more the law of refined mankind. The most vulgar egotist-the most wretched miser-could find no more acceptable precept than to forsake houses, lands, etc., in order to receive a hundred-fold,” (Matt. 19: 27.)

"What shall I answer to this? It may be admitted that the Christian motive of retribution appears frequently among Christians in this impure form; that they strike, as it were, a bargain between the present life and the future, in order to gain, by the sacrifices brought in this life, a so much higher reward in the other. But this abuse and misapprehension is not to be imputed to the Christian doctrine itself. The latter deprives, on the contrary, egotistic hope of reward of this ground, by the very fundamental doctrine of justification through faith and not through works; and by the fact that it does not recognize any merit of human virtue, (Luke 17: 10,) and teaches to expect every thing from the mere mercy of God, (Matt. 20: 1-16.) It denies all moral value to actions resulting from selfish regards, (Cf. 1 Cor. 13, Matt. 5: 46, and the energetic language against the Phariseean egotism, Matt. 6,) and makes even hatred of our own life and the nearest relations-that is, the subordination and neglecting of personal interests with regard to the moral requirements of the kingdom of God-a condition of discipleship of Christ, (Luko 14: 26; Matt. 10: 37-39.) The motives of action resulting from a regard for our own welfare, are without any moral value if they are the only or prevalent mo. tives; but not, if they are subordinated to the higher and nobler. And this is the case with Christianity, which represents love-that banishes all egotism—as (the) principle and motive of action and suffering. It demands the desire of the good for its own sake; that is, for God's sake, or because it pleases God, the primitive good. It represents the inner tranquillity-the peace of the soul-as the aim of the moral and religious life; pointing, undoubtedly, to the inner beauty and worth of virtue. It is to this inner worth of the good that Jesus alludes when he says of Mary: She hath chosen the good part, (Luke 10: 42,) which shall not be taken away from her; she hath wrought (Matt. 26: 10) a good work upon me. While He represents to His disciples the child as an example of humility and modesty, He shows them in this metaphor the moral beauty of this virtue. And what, if not the pure love of good, is contained in the symbolic expression of Jesus, 'My meat is to do the will of God,' (John 4: 34,) for which His believers, too, ought to labor, (6: 27.) Nay, eternal life often signifies (especially with John) not only the future happiness, but also the moral-religious life of the spirit, flowing even hero below from faith-the imperishable-that springeth up into everlasting life, (John 3:18; 4: 14; 5: 24.) To moral action (obedience to the will of God) is ascribed an absolute, eternal, and imperishable value, while all the rest becomes a prey to corruption, (1 John 2: 17.) Such and similar passages prove amply that the good is also recommended for its own sake-for the sake of its absolute worth.

"A reward is, in the popular language of the Scripture, often promised to struggling and suffering virtue. But this reward is by no means to be confounded with merit. It is merely the happy state resulting as a consequence of the unity of our will with God; it is the harmony existing between the inner essential happiness and its outward appearance. This does not take place in this world to its full extent. There exists, rather, a disproportion between both, that will only be righted

above, in the state of perfect liberty of the children of God, (Rom. 8.) But when the outward glory corresponds to the inner, Christian virtue will have obtained its perfect development, and therewith its reward, (Col. 3: 3-4) Condemnation is, likewise, the outward representation and appearance corresponding to unrighteousness. Both are, indeed, represented, in the popular language of the holy Scripture, in symbolic images that have borrowed their color from earthly relations. But there is no want of hints-especially in the Gospel of St. John and the apostolic letters-with whose aid more spiritual and more ideal views are developed from outward forms.

"In as far as eternal happiness is only promised under the condition of the unity of our will with God, the aspiration to the former can, in reality, not be separated from the aspiration to harmony with God through moral perfection; this is evident, for example, in the confession of the apostle Paul, (Phil. 3: 12-14.) But because the weak human nature gains, amid the struggles and sufferings of this life, a counterbalance and continual strength only by the hope of future happiness; or because the hardened sinner is often roused up to a moral life only through the fear of damnation, Christianity satisfies the human wants by the very circumstance that among its motives it also puts in motion the instinctive desire for happiness and the fear of evil.

"Even the regard for good or bad consequences (reward or punishment) of our actions in our life here below, is not unconditionally to be looked upon as an im pure and immoral motive, unless it be the only and highest. Various as the degrees of moral power and development are, and in consideration of the manifold human relations of life, an inferior motive may often be efficient where the higher is not yet appreciated. And Christianity proves by this very fact, most strikingly, its practical character and general applicability, since it arouses the human heart by such a great variety of motives.

"Equally unfounded is the objection made even in the earliest times by the Pagans, that Christianity, by a constant direction to the heavenly, renders its professors unfit and unpractical for earthly life. There are, in fact, in the Christian Church, numerous examples of such as were in a hostile manner opposed to the real life, or wasted their powers in (an) inert longing for the eternal. But this occurred either in times of opposition to rising Christianity to the pagan life, or in consequence of psychological aberrations, connected as these frequently are with a strongly excited religious feeling. Genuine Christianity, however, unites the temporal and eternal life in beautiful harmony. It emphatically recommends the respect for our earthly avocation, (1 Cor. 7: 17, 20, 24,) and exhorts to an active, conscientious use of our faculties in every situation, (2 Thess. 3: 10-12; 1 Thess. 4: 11; 1 Tim. 5: 3-16; Rom. 12: 4-10, 13; 1 Peter 4: 10,) without, however, as is done nowadays, deifying industrial activity, and declaring it the only salvation of the world. How touching is, for example, the manner in which Paul moderates his fervid longing for the world above, by the consideration of circumstances requiring his protracted presence on earth, (2 Cor. 5: 8; Phil. 1: 21.) The eye turned toward heaven-the hand laboring upon the earth-this is the symbol of Christian life.

"Christianity avails itself, finally, of the high dignity of the human nature, as a vigorous motive to moral action. By representing man as the image of Divinity, as child of God, it admonishes him to act according to this higher nature, and to harmonize with divine life by casting off the bonds of error and deceitful lust, (Eph. 4: 22.) It tends to arouse and awaken within him an elevated, vigorous self-con

sciousness, that he might, out of respect for his own nature and destiny, avoid so much more decidedly all that which violates and profanes it. Christianity has been called a religion simply of humility and resignation, a religion rather for women than for men. It has been asserted that it was, as a religion of suffering resignation, no more fit for our age; which latter requires more strengthening agencies, and whose vocation is endeavor and action, not suffering. Christianity leads, indeed, man to the deepest humility in consequence of his becoming conscious of his moral weakness and entire dependence upon God. But this humility is not such that (as St. Macarius says) we should, if we have five ounces of evil, add twenty more. But Christianity leads to that humility which also rejoices in the good we possess, but in the good as wrought in us by God. The pagan doctrine of the selfsufficiency of the human nature, seems to ascribe to human individuality a higher dignity than the Christian doctrine of divine grace. But this is only apparently so. If not, how could it have happened that the pagans, through their elevation of human nature, have, nevertheless, not succeeded in forming an idea of freedom and personality, which has only been developed by the Christian religion denying to man all merit before God? Christianity teaches resignation, but such resignation as is at the same time consistent with energetic action. Or is our ideal only the weak, suffering Christ? is it not also Christ primarily and incessantly acting and working? Christianity creates, therefore, not only the sense of suffering, but also the freest, most cheerful fortitude, the highest energy, in the contest with all ungodliness; the most active enthusiasm for all the good and the true, (Phil. 4: 13; 2 Tim. 1: 7.)

"Thus Christianity is infinitely preferable, since it is no mere law-tablet and dry doctrine of duties, but a quickening power, seizing upon man in his inmost vitality, and calculated to display the fullness of the higher, spiritual nature of man; to create a disposition of mind uninterruptedly directed towards the good and that which pleases God; and, finally, to render law unnecessary, because no law is given to the just. Christianity is not only a doctrine, but also life and education. It nourishes and strengthens the moral life in particular by the communion with the Church, the sacraments, and the word of God. And even its commandments are nothing strange to the human heart; they are essentially written in the hearts of all men. What man's nobler nature demands by its spiritual motives and sentiments, the Gospel requires by its doctrines and examples. It wants only to touch the strings of the human heart, and to call into life faculties that are slumbering germs in all. It is only the commentary of the human heart. For, although it looks upon human nature as corrupt and diseased, and offers itself as a remedy therefor, still the efficiency of the remedy (pre)supposes a certain life and exhibition of strength. And it is to this nobler remainder of the original god-like life that it attaches itself, in order to awaken it to new fullness of strength and energy.

"Thus is Christianity, with its doctrines, facts, faculties, and institutions; from which a fresh life of vigor and health streams forth into the infected life of the soul, and by which the dissonant being of a man is led back to a consonant accord and to a primitive harmony. Understanding and will, feeling and vigor of action, are equally moved and animated. Earnestness and cheerfulness, humility and selfconsciousness, earthly and heavenly, meet together in a new, divine union. The soul reaches happiness, freedom, peace. And because the mind is in all things the dominant and deciding power, physical welfare, as far as allowed by the finite, must thereby be promoted and increased."