Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

out our interference. Why? Because, I have not, like God, the hearts of men in my hand, as the potter has the clay, to fashion them at my pleasure. I can go no farther with the word than to the ear; I cannot enter the heart. Since then man cannot pour faith into the heart, no one should be violently forced and compelled to believe. God only can do this, and make his word efficacious in the souls of men. The application of such force produces only false shows, outward bustle, apish mockery, and human additions; and thence, specious saints, deceivers, and hypocrites. In all this there is no heart, no faith, no love. Where these three things are wanting in a work, be it ever so correct and good, it will amount to nothing."

Luther thus speaks of his own example. "Had I entered upon my work with violence, I should have begun a game that would have deluged all Germany with blood. And what would this have been but fools' play, and the ruin and destruction both of body and soul. I SAT DOWN IN SILENCE AND LET THE WORD OPERATE."138 Of the same import is the noble letter written by Luther to the Elector Frederick in the year 1524, for the purpose of dissuading his sovereign from attempting to suppress false teachers by violence.139 "Your Majesty should not interfere with the office of the word. Suffer them to preach with all boldness what they are able, and against whom they please. For there must be heresies, (1 Cor. 11: 19,) and the word of God must stand in the field and contend. If their spirit be right, it will have nothing to fear from us, and will abide. If ours be right, it will have nothing to fear from them nor from any one else. Sire, let mind conflict with mind, and the struggle be confined to them."

138 Luther's Werke, von Walch, Th. XX. p. 24. 139 Luther's Briefe, von De Wette, Bd. II. p. 547.

ART. II. CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE PERFECTABILITY OF OUR MORAL BEING.

Translated from the French. With additional Remarks. By John Wheeler, Pastor of the Congregational Church in Windsor, Vermont.

The following is a translation of a review in the "Archives du Christianisme," for July 1830, of a work with the following title: Essai sur le Christianisme envisagé dans ses ropports avec la perfectibilité de l'Etre Moral, par F. Diodati; i. e. "An Essay on Christianity considered in relation to the Perfectibility of our Moral Being." M. Diodati is a member of the Company of Pastors and Professors at Geneva; and is the author of one or two other works, related more or less to the general subject treated of in this; and which are well spoken of by the Editors of the "Archives." The translator has taken the liberty to add a few thoughts at the conclusion.-TRANS.

In the Pensées de Pascal, this remarkable expression is found: "It is necessary to have thoughts in reserve, while we speak in other respects like the people. This expression, apart from its connexion, is susceptible of an erroneous interpretation; but viewed as it stands in the work of Pascal, and interpreted by the nobleness of his personal character, it contains a true and profound thought. It is certain that the same ideas are not conceived in the same identical manner by men of genius and learning, and by the people at large. Though equally accessible to all classes in one aspect, in another, they are seen only by profound thinkers, by those accustomed to investigation. The popular view is certainly best adapted to the mass of the people, but profound

"Il faut avoir des pensées de derrière, parlant d'ailleurs comme le peuple." The somewhat ambiguous meaning of this apothegm is remarked upon in the text. It is there correctly explained; and seems to correspond in its general sense, as intended by Pascal, very much to our English proverb a little modified: "Talk with every body, but think with the wise.-ED.

[blocks in formation]

minds, from whom the popular view is not hidden, and who are supported by it as well as the multitude, find, in the contemplation of points of view less generally perceived, an additional conviction, which yields an intellectual delight, a spiritual repast, which is perhaps necessary to them; and which may be appropriately styled strong meat. This food, being adapted only to their particular constitution, is not distributed to the multitude. It is confined to the cultivated. With the people generally, they unite in the common forms of expression, which for them are equally true and respectable. In a word, in the language of Pascal, "there must be thoughts in reserve, though we speak in other respects like the multitude."

This twofold view of the same truths, this species of parallelism among superior and inferior minds, exists also for all the ideas which carry the mind into the spiritual world; taking it only for granted that it is still within the domain of religion. Thus there is established a difference, though not a division, among those of the same faith, the recipients of the same truths. With this different manner of understanding the truth, or rather these different degrees of intelligence respecting it, they are both equally orthodox; and with equal propriety avow themselves as such. The pious of the two classes recognize each other, principally, because the more popular view of the truth, the most simple expression of belief, is equally acknowledged by all; and also because the emotions experienced, as the result of this belief, and the fruits of these emotions, are exactly alike in both cases. Like a noble concert, where variety of sounds produces no discordance, this harmonious unity gives birth to the blissful thought, that religion, approached from any quarter, and examined in any manner, is always constant to itself, always equally true, always evident.

From these deeper researches of thinking minds, comes what is called, in our day, the philosophy of religion; which is nothing more than religion viewed from the position of philosophy. In two words, it is the iden* sought and discovered by the fact. The idea, in its simplicity and naked integrity, as being, in itself, wholly independent of the fact, is perceived and proclaimed. But as all existence or fact, produced by a will, is the spontaneous developement of a principle, and the manifestation of an

The word idea is here used in the sense of ideal notion or conception, independent of any real or substantial existence.-ED.

idea; this idea is sought, not as temporal and local, under the circumstances of place and time, in which it is realized, but as that which is independent of time and space. Thus, as there are the metaphysics of geometry and of all other sciences, so there are the metaphysics of religion.

It could be shown, from ancient and illustrious examples, that this direction of the mind, in relation to religion, is not peculiar to our day; although it is now manifest in a more remarkable manner. Christianity, though it makes no concessions to our passions or our errors, adapts itself so far to the intellectual wants of each age, as in a measure to satisfy them. It challenges, with noble ingenuousness, all kinds of examination; and it being the notable tendency of our age to search for the ideas, which lie under facts, and thus, so to speak, to comprehend the metaphysics of all things; this holy religion, though a fact, yields freely to the investigation of the learned, the ideas which are hidden under its manifestations. Happy will such persons. be, if they find in this path of abstract meditation, some with whom they can join in adoring that God, who is not a spiritual abstraction, but a personal and ever living Being. It was with good reason that the apostle, in his zeal, cried out, "Some preach Christ of contention; but whether of pretence or sincerity, Christ is preached, and therein do I rejoice."* Some come to Christ by the path of philosophy; but whether by one path or another, if they come to Christ, God is glorified.

It is however very important to notice an error, of which this method of viewing the subject is susceptible. Modern rationalism domineers over Christianity, for the purpose of changing and amending it. Instead of subordinating the ideas to the facts, according to christian philosophy, it subordinates the facts to the ideas. It creates, by anticipation, a rational religion; and then seeks to encase itself within the beautiful facts of the christian revelation. These it regards only as the arbitrary symbols of those abstract ideas with which it is preoccupied. The history of the gospel, in the hands of such persons, becomes a kind of fable, upon the historical foundation of which, it is not important to insist. Thus the most vital doctrines are destroyed, the essential character of Christianity is founded in metaphysical reveries, the gospel of God is changed into the gospel of man; and we may see how man is regenerated!

* Phil. 1: 16, 18.

This abuse, as may be seen, leads to a procedure altogether diverse from the wise and prudent course, which we describe; and which indeed merits to be called an opposite course, a mere disguise, rather than an abuse. We would say, however, that the method we have hinted at, if too exclusively followed, may detract somewhat from simple faith. We will endeavour to make ourselves understood. Metaphysics place us at once without the relations of time, and take no account of circumstances of which time and place are the conditions. The science does not examine causes and effects, but principles and results. It does not seek for facts, but ideas; and when rashly brought into the field of contingent and particular events, it retraces its steps, as though upon the wrong scent. If, however, it is occupied with facts, it is in their collective, generic character, that they are examined; while a thousand details, which it might be difficult to trace to their principles, are voluntarily neglected. When philosophy has come to the point of admitting the intervention of God in human affairs, and looks at religion with philosophic delight; when searching into the depths of human nature, it perceives the necessity of a peculiar education for it, which involves in itself certain advances on the part of God; it is, from the height of these ideas, a glorious descent to fall into the order of visible occurrences, such as the calling of Abraham, his departure from Mesopotamia, the institution of circumcision, of the passover, the passage of the Red Sea, the manna, the tabernacle, the altar-service, the institution of the priesthood, and Judea as the theatre for manifesting the designs of an infinite Intelligence, and a spiritual Providence. From these general views, from this immense perspective, where one delights to extend his vision, it may perhaps be unpleasant for the mind to descend to details in one's own condition, local and assimilated to those with which the history of man is filled. He will come down to them like the naturalist, who occupied with the contemplation of the one great unity, and of the regular connexion of the phenomena of the world, finds difficulty in making himself familiarly acquainted with events, which by their extraordinary character are excluded from the field of science. It is on this account, that, without objecting to those researches to which allusion has been made, and in which we take great pleasure, we think there is required much sober discretion, lest the coast be lost sight of, viz. the facts which are necessarily connected with the historical conception of religion; and to which we are con

« ÖncekiDevam »