The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-02-21
WILLIAM A PREACHER
EMPEROR OF THE GERMANS DE-
FINES HIS FAITH.
PROVES HE is NO SKEPTIC.
RELIEVES THE FEARS OF THE
THEOLOGIANS.

Doubts of the Orthodoxy of the EN-
perOr Had Been Entertained.
ChurchInen, Fearing the Effect,
BesouGht Him to Write the Letter
He Addressed to Admiral Hahn an.
Great Men Regarded by william
as Inspired DivineIy-His Grand
father One of Them.
Berlin, Feb. 2O.-Emperor Williams
faith in God and Christ and in the au-
thority of the Old Testament, as de-
clared in his letter to Admiral Hall
man, councillor of the German Orien-
tai Society," is accepted by the leading
authorities of the state and church as
satisfactory evidence of his orthodoxy,
which for months had been the cause
of deep concern to theologians and
pastors.
The doubts began a year ago when
the Emperor first listened to Prof. De-
litzsch's lecture on the Babylonish
origin of the Bible, and increased lat
or when the Emperor personally assist
ed the Assyriologist in showing stere-
opticon pictures to sixty members of
the court. The pictures were designed
to prove the Babylonish origin of He
brew ideas. The Emperor subscribed
TO funds to send Prof. Delitzsch again
20 Assyria and discussed with him,
when he returned, his most recent dis
coveries, all to the dismay of orthodox
churchmen and some of the influential
church administrators, particularly to
the accomplished Dr. Dryander, who
besought the Emperor to make some
definite statement of creed in order to
restore the confidence of the clergy and
laity.
Ills Letter to Mailman.
The Emperors letter to Admiral Hall
man is the result of DR.. Dryanders en-
deavors. Other portions of the letter
to the admiral, not contained in the
conclusions given to the press yester-
day, are as follows:
During the evening entertainment
with US, Prof. Delitzsch had the oppor-
tunity to fully confer and debate with
Her Majesty, the Empress, and DR..
Dryander, while 1 listened and remain
ed passive. When he came to speak
of the New Testament. it became clear
al once that he developed such quite
divergent views regarding the person
of Our Saviour, that had to express
the diam critically opposite view. He
does not recognize the divinity of
Christ, and as a deduction therefrom
asserts that the Old Testament contains
no revelation about Him as the Mes
siah.
Here the Assyriologist and the his
torical investigator ceases and the the
OlOgian begins with all his light and
shadow sides. In this province 1 can
only urgently advise him to proceed
very cautiously, step by step, and at
any rate ventilate his theses only in the
theological books and in the circle of
his colleagues"
Views on Revelation.
The Emperor then gives his personal
views regarding revelation, saying:
II distinguish between two different
kinds of revelation-one progressive,
and, as it were, historical; the other
purely religious. as preparing the way
for the future Messiah.
Regarding the former, it must be
said, for me it does not admit of a
doubt. not even the slightest, that
God reveals Himself continuously in
the race of men created by Him. He
breathed into man the breath of His
life, and follows with fatherly love
and interest the development of the
human race In order to lead it for
ward and develop it, He reveals Him
self in this or that great sage. wheth-
er priest or king. whether heather,
Jews or Christians. Hammurabi was
one, so was Moses, Abraham, Homer,
Charlemagne Luther, Shakespeare,
Goethe, Kant and Emperor William
the Great These He sought out and
endowed with out and endowed with
His grace to accomplish splendid. im
perishable results for their people. in
their intellectual and physical prov
inces, according to His will. How Oft
en- my grandfather pointed out that
he was only an instrument in the
Lords hands.
How God Is Manifest.
THE second form of revelation, the
more religious, is that which leads to
the manifestation of our Lord. 1t was
introduced with Abraham, slow, but
forward-looking and omniscient, for
humanity was lost without it, Now
begins the most astonishing activity
of Gods revelation. Abraham's race
and the peoples developing from it re-
gard faith in one God as their hottest
possession, and it's followers hold fast
to il with iron-like consistency. Split
up during their Egyptian captivity,
the divided elements were again weld
ed together by Moses, ever trying to
hold fast to their monotheism. 1t was
the direct intervention of God that
caused the regeneration of this peo
pie thus proved through centuries, till
the Messiah the greatest revelation
of God in the world, for he appeared
in the Son himself. Christ is God, God
IN human form.
That is my view of these matters.
II is to me self-evident that the Old
Testament contains many sections
which are of purely human and his
torical nature, and are not Gods re-
Nealed word The legislative act on
Sinai, for example. can be only re-
garded as symbolically inspired by
God. When Moses had to reburnish
well known paragraphs of the law,
perhaps derived from the code of Ham
murabi in order to incorporate and
bind them into the loose, weak fabric
OF his people. here the historian can
perhaps construe from the sense or
wording a connection with the laws of
hammurabi, the friend of Abraham.
mat is, perhaps. logically correct. But
mat will never disguise the fact that
.Iod melted Moses thereto and in so
Tar revealed Himself 70 fha DaOnlP of