hearty would be the sympathy of theologians with the revela- tions of science and the developments of history, if they habit- ually connected them with the operation of the same Divine Word, who is the centre of all their religious aspirations, it is needless to say.” *
The doctrine of Christ as the true and only medium of union between God and man is fatal to the voluntary humility which substitutes the worship of angels for that of Christ. Christ is presented as the legitimate object of adoration, the refusal of which is a rupture of the connection between the members of the body and their Head (ii. 18, 19). All things must be done in His name. The intercourse of the Church, the relations of the household, are to take their impulse and character directly from the indwelling word of Christ (iii. 16-25). The Essene view of marriage is thus assailed (ii1. 18, 19). Asceticism, legalism, ritualism are condemned as fixing the mind upon mere external things. Their precepts are the merest rudiments of an earthly and sensual economy—“ shadows of things to come.” The imposition of these precepts is a moral tyranny : “mere legal obligations are a part of a dead compact, a torn and cancelled bond, which is now nailed to Christ’s cross.” They do not lift the life into the higher moral and spiritual plane; they do not protect it against the temptations of the flesh; they furnish no efficient remedy for sin (ii. 8, 16, 20, 23). Reconciliation with God through the blood of the cross will set the thoughts on heavenly things, will strangle unholy passions and indulgences, and will create a new man in the image of Christ (i. 20; ii. 11, 14; iii. 1-10). By this, asceti- cism and licentiousness are alike branded (iii. 5).
The genuineness and authenticity of the epistle were uni- versally acknowledged by the early Church, and not seriously questioned until the attack of Mayerhoff in 1838, followed by Baur and Schwegler. Holtzmann (1872) held that it was partly spurious, though containing a genuine epistle, which he fancied
* Introduction to the ‘‘Commentary on Colossians,” See also Aubrey Moore’s essay, “‘ The Christian Doctrine of God,” in ‘ Lux Mundi,” p. 94 sqq.