less retained, but not in their received and established meaning. For the Scriptural system of salvation, another is substituted. Christ saves us not by what He teaches, or by what He does, but by what He is. He infuses a new principle of life into the Church and into the world. The universal life as communicated to, or re- vealed in Adam, has been struggling on, imperfectly developed in all his descendants. In Christ a new influx of this life is commu- nicated to, or infused into the veins of humanity. From this as a new starting point, humanity enters on another stage of develop- ment, which is to issue in the full actuahzation of the divine life in the form of humanity. As from Adam human nature was devel- oped from within by an inward force in a regular historical pro- cess ; so from Christ, there is the same historical development from within. All is natural. There is nothing supernatural but the initial point ; the first impulse, or the first infusion of the divine life. There is no place in the system for the work of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the very existence of the Holy Spirit as a personal being is by Schleiermacher expressly denied. By the Spirit he means the common life of the Church, that is, the divine life, or God as revealed in the Church. As we derive from Adam a quantitively deficient, and in that sense corrupt, nature, and have nothing more to do with him ; so from Christ we receive a larger measure of life, spirit, or divine nature, and have nothing more to do with Him. His whole redeeming work is in the new leaven he has introduced into humanity, which diffuses itself in the way of natural development. This, as Baur says, comes after all to little more than the impression which his character has made on the world. He draws a parallel between Schleiermacher and Kant, between the " Glaubenslehre " of the former, and " Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft " of the latter ; the clear rationalism of the one and the mystical obscurity of the other. Both admit that there is a good and a bad principle. Both say that man's redemption consists in the triumph of the good principle. Both say that the deliverance from evil or the work of redemp- tion, is a purely natural process. Both refer the success of the struggle to the influence of Christ. The one says that He imparts to men a new life, the other says that He awakens the dormant good that is already in man's nature. Everything admits of a sim- ple and of a mystical explanation.^ In every great epoch some one
1 The writer was once sitting with Tholuck in a public garden, when the latter said, " I turn my ej'es in the opposite direction, and still I am conscious of your presence. How is that?" The reply was, "You know the fact that I am here; and that knowledge pro- duces the state of mind, you call a consciousness of my presence." Tholuck good nataredly
452 PART III. Ch. ni. — the person of CHRIST.
man not only impresses his character and infuses liis spirit into the men of his generation, but also transmits his influence from age to age. The whole body of Lutherans are what they are because Luther was what he was. The spirit of Ignatius Loyola is just as active in the Jesuits of our day as it was in his own person. The Scotch are what they are because of John Knox ; and the Wesley- ans owe not only their doctrines and discipline but their whole ani- mus and character to John Wesley. To this categoiy do the mer- ciless German critics of Schleiermacher reduce his theory of the redemption of man by Jesus Christ. It is a matter of personal influence like that of other great men. This M^ill be regarded by his disciples as a most degrading and unjust view of his doctrine. And it doubtless is unjust. For whatever may be true of his mere speculative system, he unquestionably in his heart regarded Christ as infinitely exalted above other men, and as the proper object of adoration and trust.
This Vermittelungstheologie (the mediating-theology), as it is called in Germany, is confessedly an attempt to combine the con- clusions of modern speculation with Christian doctrine, or rather with Christianity. It is an attempt to mix incongruous elements which refuse to enter into combination. The modern s])eculative philosophy in all its forms insists on the denial of all real dualism ; God and the world are correlata, the one supposes the other; with- out the world there is no God ; creation is the self-evolution or self-manifestation of God ; and is therefore necessary and eternal. God can no more be without the world, than mind without thought. The preservation, progress, and consummation of the world is by a necessary process of development, as in all the foi-ms of life. There is no possibility of special intervention, on the part of God. Mira- cles whether spiritual or physical are an absurdity and an impossi- bility.^ So is any agency of God in time, or otherwise than as a general life-power. This precludes the efficacy of prayer except as to its subjective influence. Schleiermacher shared in this horror of the supernatural, and this rejection of all miracles. In the case of Christ, he was forced to admit " a new creative act." But he apologized for this admission by repx'esenting it as only the comple-
rejoined, " 0 how stupid that is. Don't you believe that there is an influence which streams forth from me to you and from 3-ou to me ? " The only answer was, " Perhaps so." Of all the genial, lovely, and loving men whom the writer in the course of a long life has met, Tholuck stands among the very first. The writer derived more good from him than from all other sources combined during his two years sojourn in Europe.
1 " Eigentliche Mirakel anzunehmen, d. h. Unterbrechungen oder Aufhebungen der Naiurordnung, dazu wird kein philosophischer Denker sich herablassen." J. H. Fichte, by Schwarz, p. 319.