The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-14


| nation of a clerical fellowship in an Ok
ford college Then he exemplified the
strange variations of the age by coming
out as a historian in the colors of Car
lyle
Carlyle himself is not to be left out OF
sight in an account of the progress of re-
ligious thought: for his Scotch Calvinism.
transmitted into hero worship. has taken
strong hold, if not on the distinct con-
victions, on the sentiment and temper Of
the nation. 1.-The has administered whole
some rebuke 20 the se'f-compfacency of
democracy with its ballot box, he has also
set up worship of force and kindIed a
spirit of violence totally subversive of the
Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew Arnold. with his silver shafts
was rather connoisseur in all lines than
serious philosopher or theologian: but
he also with his conversion of God into
the mot ourselves which makes for right
eousness.' and with his comparison Of the
Trinity to a triad of Lord Shaftesburys
did something i'll his light but insinuating
way to forward disintegration
But in ls74-7 appeared Supernatural
Religion a searching and uncompromis
of supernatural Christianity Tie book,
though attacked on secondary points with
perhaps superior learning by Bishop
Lightfoot Bishop Westcott, and others.
cannot be said TO have met with any gem
eral answer Supplemented in some re-
spects by DR.. Martineau's Seat of Au-
!. thority i'm Religion" and other works on
the same side. it sets forth the whole case
against the supernatural.
Miracles belong to an age OF ignorance
and superstition. With the dawn Of knowI-
edge they diminish. In it's meridian light
they disappear. The Jews were eminently
addicted to belief In miracles. There We're
Satanic miracles as we'll as divine: nor
can any distinction be drawn as a mat
ter of evidence between the two. As little
can any distinction be drawn in point Of
evidence between the Gospel miracles and
the ecclesiastical miracles, which never
theless Protestants reject. The miracles
of one sort. the Demoniae, are bound up
with the Jewish belief in possession By
personal devils. from which all efforts to
disentangle them so as to resolve them
into cures of lunacy by moral influence
are vain. The four Gospels and the Acts
which comprise the historic evidences are
all anonymous, all of uncertain author
ship. The first three Gospels are evident
demonstrations upon an older document
which Is lost and about which nothing is
known. In not one of the five cases can
the existence of the book be traced TO
the time of the events or time so near
the events as to preclude the growth OF
fable in highly superstitious and totally
uncritleal age. The presentation of
Christ's character and teaching in the
fourth Gospel. which is Alexandria, is
far from identical with the presentation
in the first three Gospels, which are Jew
ish. There are irreconcilable discrepan-
cies between the Gospels as to matters
of fact. notably in regard TO the genealo-
gy of Christ. the length of his mission.
the Last Supper. the day of the Cruel
6xion, the details of the Resurrection,
and the Ascension. Such miracles as the
miraculous darkness, the earthquake, the
rending of the veil of the Temple, the
opening of the tombs. and the apparition
of the dead in the streets of Jerusalem,
being totally unconfrmed by history or
by any recorded effect, stagger belief
Such testimony as st. Paul bears TO the
Resurrection is second hand, is that OF
convert in the ecstasy of conversion. and
is manifestly uncritical. His own enthu-
siasm is ineligible on merely human
grounds. We may be sure that had God
become fncarnate to save man, absolute
ly conclusive proof of that fact would
have been vouchsafed. But the proof Is
not sufficient to establish anything not
otherwise perfectly credible, far less to
establish the miraculous birth, the res
direction. and the incarnation. Such in
broad outline is the case OF Rationalism
against Supernatural Religion presented
by the work just mentioned and it's allies.
The effects are visible even in High
Church writings. In the writings of lib
erals. of course, they are still more yisi-
bic. Jowett had come to the conclusion
that our sources of knowledge about
Christ had been reduced to a single dOcu-
ment, no longer in existence, which form
ed the basis of the first three Gospels
The desire to minimize the supernatural
and throw il into the background. bring
ing the personal character of Christ and
his ethical teaching into the foreground.
is now manifest in English. as ii mas
long been in German divines. It is con-
spicuous in the very popular and colorably
orthodox works of DR.. Farrar In his
Life of Christ the supernatural has lit
tie place. There is an evident tendency
to disentangle from 1t the
character and moral teaching. RESPONSE
bility for belief in the God-head of Christ
seems TO rest on the Council OF Nicaea.
In the Life of Christ an effort, which
may be called desperate. Is made TO re-
duce 70 q natural occurrence the miracle
of Gadara, where the devils cast out of
the men enter into the herd of swine. 1t
is needless 20 say that with the miraeu-
lous element of these occurrences their
value as evidence for the supernatural dis
appears.
Scotland generally remained fast bound
by her Westminster Confession. There
had been period of liberalism marked by
the appearance of Jupiter Carlyle, Ro-
bertson the historian. Dugald Stewart
and other philosophers and men of mind
But the Church of Scotland being dem
ocratic, Its faith was in the Keeping of
the people, who We're impervious to criti-
cism and naturally opposed 10 innovation.
At last. however, the thaw came, hasten
ed perhaps by the collision between the
State Church of Scotland and the Free
Church. The Westminster Confession. it |
seems, has now been tacitIy laid aside,
and Scotch theology has had its Robert |
son Smith. whose critical views on the |
Did Testament earned him removal from |
lis PROFESSIONAL chair.
Another book which in its day startled |