The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-31

now he noted thdt the same ioICt WIN
| ing apart from the Church, and often IN
opposition to il. has been limitation to
Christian progress. In the French Rev
clution humanitarianism was associated
with a negative. destructive tendency
| which overthrow 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-
tinued to exist and has found constant
manifestation. 1t has attempted the del
hcation of humanity. though the hui
man race were worthy in itself of being
an object of worship. 1t has exalted man
at the expense of God, conceiving of hui
mauity as alone immortal, as competent
| to steer it's own course without super
natural direction. II 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 revelation
from God to purely subjective process
in the soul of man. worthy of respect,
hut without authority. 1t has created an
abnormal seusitveness in many direc-
lions. II has swayed socialistic move
ments. 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 creation of
priests for their own selfish ends and the
Church an agency for robbing humanity
of its rights, liberty, equality. and fra
ternity.
Principles and convictions like these
found utterance in the philosophy of
Comte Q7Ss-1S5O, who called himself the
founder of the religion of humanity"
and who proposed the scheme of a hu-
manitarian church, limited by no national
boundaries, whose only deity was man,
whose ritual found a 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 a failure from its 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 represent
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-cailed
Christian Science" and other kindred
| tendencies toward 4 crude supernatural
| ism.
Those who entered the controversy in
| behalf of Christianity and against the ad-
herents of the Positive philosophy suf-
fertd at first for the lack of any adequate
philosophical method on which to rest in
the effort to overcome this stupendous
alliance between q humanltarianism
working for the Improvement of social
conditions in combination with natural
science, whose postulates involved the de-
! NAL Of the miracle. and indeed Of all SUI
pernatural agency (agnosticism). 1t
seemed for time as though the phIIoso-.
| ply of Hegel would serve the purpose of
a stronghold to which Christian warriors
| conflict which involved not only the re-
| adjustment Of Christian doctrines to their
new environment. bat also the main
| tenance of the idea of God, of the king
dom of God in this world. and of a future
| life for the immortal soul. In Germany
systems of theology were worked ont on
| the basis Of Hegelian principles, which,
as interpreted by orthodox theologians.
stood for 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 Hegel
| deepened the interest in historical en-
| quiry at a moment when the absorption
| in the natural sciences threatened to gain
| the ascendency. But the IIegelian philos-
| ophy, for reasons which it is not possible
| here to render. failed to accomplish the
| service expected from It. II may be that
the failure was temporary only, and be
cause it was not fully understood. There
arose a school Of thinkers-the HegeIian
| left wing-who, while retaining their in
terest in history, yet fell under the in
fuence Of the presuppositions of the nat
ural sciences. Thus Strauss in his lie
4 h.aT of 4Ha of
Christ as a casual product of the human
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 philos-
ophy, German thought gravitated to the
same result, with this difference. per
haps, that 1t assumed the form of pan
| theism rather than of atheism. In the
| Tubingen school. led by f. 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 product of hui
| man origin rather than the purpose of
| Christ.
| But the effect of Strauss was beneficial
| in that 1t 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 large number of biographical
works, too large to be enumerated here.
| As "A result of these studies the convic
| ton grows that while there is a local as
| pect Of the person Of Christ, so that he
| reflected the peculiar opinions and living
| Interests of his age and aNailed himself