The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-08-21
SUPERNATURAL ENRICHMENT OF
HISTORY.

lilo lOhI,
The title of this article is chosen
advisedly. 1t clearly differentiates
the new from the old supernaturalsm.
The old would have been writ N lin
reference" instead of enrichment. It
holds that God interferes with the
course of history and by special acts
changes that course, and prevents it,,
partially at least, from ending in utter
disaster. With this doctrine modern
supernaturalism has no sympathy. 1t
does not ca ch that human history ever
goes so far wrong as to require spec
ial interference on the part of God to
set it right 1t does not base any
supernatural act of God on the fail
ure of history to move towards the
desired goal. On the other hand it
holds that the course of history never
escapes from the hand of God; that
by constant and general providence,
God keeps the great ship of human
ity ever moving toward the goal of
something better and still better. 1t
has no use, therefore, for any super
natural interference with the course
of human history or any effort to re-
verse the natural order of human de-
velopment.
But while it has no faith in any
supernatural interferenceit does hold
to supernatural enrichment of his
tory. 1t holds that from time to
time God enriches human history with
new light and power; that he sends
new creative influences to operate in
the world and hasten forward the adj
vancement of mankind When God
comes into history in special man
ner it is not to change anything that
has already been done, but to carry
the work on further and up higher.
Now Christianity is the great SUI
pernatural enrichment of history. 1t
stands out as distinctively a new
created and creative force among men
as the coming of life does in the his
tory of this planet. The vital force
was distinct from anything that
had gone before and it created new
world, a world of living forms. So
Christianity was distinct from all
that was before and it created new
world in mans history. There was
nothing in the world to produce it
and history received such an impulse
from it that it has been radically diff
ferent since it came. AS Lecky says:
"Christian character differs from
heather, not only in degree, but in
kind" A new character came into
the world and wherever that charac-
ter has gone, history has become new.
Not that the old elements have all
been eliminated, but new and trans
forming life has taken possession of
it. Jesus Christ is the new and
transforming life of human history,
as the vital force is thenew and trans
forming life of the history of our
earth. But Christianity is not the
only supernatural enrichment of his
tory We are persuaded that history
was specially touched by the spirit of
God before Christ cams. In the educa-
ton of the race God gave special les
sons from time to time to lead men
toward the great light. The mono.
theism and universalism of Abraham
Moses and the prophets came not
from below but from above. The
knowledge of the one God and his
great purpose OF grace was not an
evolution or discovery, but revela-
ton. Those ideas were so foreign to
the age in which they appeared that
they could not have been pro-
duced thereby. Nothing strikes us
as more like theory "gone to seed"
than an effort to show that these
great doctrines were the product of
the Abrahamic age. What is not in
an age cannot be got out of it. These
ideas were not in that age; out of it