The times., 1901-03-31

| thought. But. on the other hand, it must
| now be noted that the same force work
| ing apart from the Church, and often in
| opposition to it. has been limitation to
| Christian progress. In the French Rev
| cIution humantariauism was associated
| with a negative, destructive tendency
| which overthUeW the Church, disowned
| God and immortality, and set up in the
| place Of deity a so-called goddess of rea-
| son This negative tendency has con-
| tnued to exist and has found constant
| manifestation. 1t has attempted the del
| hcation of humanity, as though the hu-
man race were worthy IN itself of being
| an object of worship. 1t has exalted man
| at the expense of God, conceiVing of hu-
| mauity alone immortal as competent
| TO steer it's own course without super
natural direction. 1t has weakened the
| sense of nationality. has injured and en-
| dangered family life, has taken away the
| highest sanctions from morality, and has
reduced religion From being a revelation
| from God to purely subjective process
i'm the soul of man. worthy of respect,
but without authority. 1t has created an
abnormal sensitiveness in many direc-
tions. 1t has swaytd sOcialistic move
mtnts, aiming at the rights of man and
seeking to achieve universal happiness,
but with an antagonism sometimes latent,
sometimes expressed, to God and Christ
and the Christian Church The prejudice
remains which had its birth in the French
Revolution, that religion is a creation of
priests for their own selfish ends. and the
Church an agency for robbing humanity
,,f vi,
ternity.
Principles and convictions like these
found utterance in the philosophy of
Comte Q7S9-1S5O, who called himself the
founder of the religion of humanity
and who proposed the scheme of hu-
manitarian church, limited by no national
boundaries. whose only deity was man.
whose ritual found place only for great
men who had been the benefactors of the
race. Theology and metaphysics were
discarded as OUtgrown methods of ex-
planning the phenomena of the universe
and in the place they vacated stood the
so-called Positive philosophy" which
rejected all supernatural influence. The
church of humanity had, indeed, no his
tory, and was failure from it's birth
But the combination, first seen in Comte
of humanitarianism with the methods
and principles of natural science. has
been the most formidable opponent
against which Christianity was ever
called to struggle. 1t has been repre- sent
ed in England by John Stuart Mill and
by Herbert Spencer and many others To
the influential writings of this school of
thinkers is due in great measure the
widespread. deep-seated skepticism since
the middle of the century. To the same
cause, by way of reaction, are owing the
spiritualistic movement. the so-called
Christian Science and other kindred
tendencies toward crude supernatural
ism
Those who entered the controversy in
behalf of Christianity and against the ad-
herents of the Positive philosophy suf-
fered at first for the lack of any adequate
philosophical method on which TO rest in
the effort to overcome this stupendous
alliance between a humanitarianism
working for the Improvement of social
conditions in combination with natural
science, whose postulates involved the de
nial of the miracle. and indeed of all su-
pernatural agency (agnosticism). 1t
seemed for a time as though the phiIoso-
ply of Hegel would serve the purpose of
a stronghold to which Christian warriors
might resort while in the stress of
conflict which involved not only the re-
adjustment of Christian doctrines to their
new environment. but also the main
tenance of the idea of God, of the king
dom of God I'm this world. and of a future
life for the immortal soul In Germany
systems Of theology were worked out on
t1,
as interpreted by orthodox theologians.
stood for a principle of surprising value
If it could be maintained-that the life of
humanity. while dependent in the present
order on physical conditions, was yet
above the life in external nature with
which the natural sciences deal; that the
very definition of humanity implies the
power Of rising TO the knowledge of God
Nature has no knowledge or conscious
ness OF God, or intimation OF Immortality
1t is in bondage to natural law and with
out freedom. The life of humanity must
not be studied from the point Of view of
natural science but is seen in the records
of human history. The influence of IIegel
deepened the interest in historical en-
quiry at moment when the absorption
in the natural sciences threatened to gain
the ascendency. But the IIegehan philos-
ophy, for reasons which it is not possible
here TO render, failed to accomplish the
service expected from it, 1t may be that
the failure was temporary only. and be
cause it was not fully understood. There
arose a school Of thinkers-the Hegelian
left wing-who, while retaining their in
terest in history, yet fell under the in
huence of the presuppositions of the nat
ural sciences. Thus Strauss in his lie
ben Jesu," conceived Of the person of
imagination, while Feuerbach, in his "Es-
sence Of Christianity" reached the con-
clusion that religion begins and ends in
a subjective process in the soul. Thus
instead of overcoming the Positive pbilos-
ophy, German thought gravitated to the
same result, with this difference, per
haps. that it assumed the form Of pan
thesm rather than of atheism. In the
Tubingen school. led by T. c. Baur,
whose contributions to the study Of
Church history are yet OF high value,
there was reserve about the miracle, if
not its tacit denial. and a conception Of
the Christian Church as a product Of hu-
man origin rather than the purpose of |
Christ.
But the effect of Strauss was beneficial !
in that it sent enquirers back TO the study !
Of the person Of Christ and Of his age |
Never before was attention so concen- |
trated upon the life of Jesus, as Illus |
trated in a large number of biographical |