THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ee
formers the law as offering the commandments to sinful man and inducing him to repentance, and the Gospel inspiring faith and affording, as 6. Law and its content, pardon and the works of Gospel. the Spirit, have been sharply distinguished. The Law and the Gospel stand in the relation of two stages of religious development, apparently making every individual experience the counterpart of the religious development as a whole. However, the same word may work on the same individual both as Law and Gospel; the cross of Christ may judge as well as forgive. A correct distinction within the limits of the Christian faith can be drawn only from the individual experience produced by the preaching of the word. Unable to be conscious of the word as a vital power, the natural or unbelieving man receives it as a new outlook on the universe or a new morality, assuming it as addressed to the practical reason for ethical realization. What he infers from the word is the obligation of a faith of assent and obedience to the new law, but he is unable to exercise the faith and love required. Thus the word may be said to confront him with his sin, the word of God proclaimed being assumed as authority. Hence the conjunction of the law with certain natural moral tendencies may subject man to a double bondage. More important is it that the nascent Christian should gain a sense of the presence of the Spirit through the word; and as the power of the Spirit gains greater and greater ascendency, the word ceases to be a merely external authority and becomes a living, inwardly experienced, and truly believed authority. The loving Father is actually realized in the word, and its whole content is found to be but a component of the single will of God. Man receives a new life in the fellowship into which God inducts him. In this double boon of the inner gift and the forgiveness of God man experiences the divine grace, brought to the soul by the word as Gospel. Such experience is the fulfilment of the moral and religious needs of the soul. The word redeems and thereby approves itself as the word of God. It is wholly correct that the regenerate Christian requires also the discipline of the law; for the Christian good experienced in its power becomes a norm for all his conduct. In this sense the word remains moral law, though only as inward authority spiritually recognized. Not according to an outward order but a necessity determining the inner psychological motives, the Christian experiences in the Gospel not only the vivifying motive power of the divine Spirit, but obtains also the norm of his moral activity. The personal efficient divine presence in man is capable of stimulating a large scope of thoughts, resolutions, and volutions, but whether in the learned intellectual processes or the moral law of Christianity, this internal possession will fall short of accomplishment except as it becomes the fixed efficient norm against opposing thoughts and tendencies. See also REVELATION. (R. SEEBERG.)
Brst1oarapny: The literature of this subject is comprised in that in and under the articles on Bisiz, Breuican CricisM, BrsuicaAL Inrropuction, Brisiican THrontocy Insprration, and Ruvexation. The subject is discussed in all the principal systems of systematic divinity (see Dogma, Dogmatics). Reference may be made here to
J. Miller, Dogmatische Abhandlungen, pp. 127-277, Bremen, 1870; R. Griitzmacher, Wort und Geist, Leipsic, 1902; and R. Seeberg, Offenbarung und Inspiration, Gross Lichterfelde, 1908.
WORDSWORTH, CHARLES’ Bishop of St. Andrew’s, Dunkeld, and Dunblane, Episcopal Church in Scotland, second son of Christopher Wordsworth (q.v., no. 1); b. at Lambeth (2 m. s. of Charing Cross, London) Aug. 22, 1806; d. at St. Andrew’s (9 m. .e. of Dundee), Scotland, Dec. 5, 1892. He was a student of Sevenoaks school, and at Harrow, and then of Christ Church College, Oxford (B.A., 1830); took the prize for Latin verse, 1827, and for the Latin essay, 1831; was ordained deacon 1834, priest 1840; was a private tutor for several years, and had under his instruction both Mr. Gladstone and Cardinal Manning; was second master of Winchester College, 1835-46; warden of Trinity College, Glenalmond, Perthshire, 1847- 1854; and in 1853 was consecrated bishop. He had a strong faculty for teaching. As bishop he endeavored to preventsthe capture of the Scottish Episcopal church by a narrow party, to make manifest to Scotsmen the value of Episcopacy and Episcopal ordinances, and to concede somewhat to Presbyterians, whereby they might be conciliated. He was a stanch upholder of the synodal system and of the duty of establishment of religion. The diocese developed considerably during his episcopate. He was a member of the New Testament Company of Bible Revisers, and was a fellow at Winchester, 1866-71. He published a Greek grammar (London, 1839), and his theological works, outside of a number of volumes of, and individual, sermons, embrace, Catechetical Questions (1844); What is National Humiliation without National Repentance (Glasgow, 1855); On Shakespeare’s Knowledge and Use of the Bible (London, 1864); Outlines of the Christian Ministry (1872); Three Conclusive Proofs that the Use of the Eastward Position in the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist is contrary to the . . . Intention of our Reformed Church (1876); Some Remarks on the Essay by Dr. Lightfoot . .. on the Christian Ministry (1879); Annals of my Early Life (1891); Primary Witness to the Truth of the Gospel. A Sertes of Discourses (1892); and Annals of my Life, ed. W. Earl Hodgson (1893).
BrpuiocRaPHy: Besides his own Annals (ut sup., 2 vols.), consult: John Wordsworth, Hpiscopate of Charles Wordsworth, London, 1899; DNB, Ixiii. 1-7. WORDSWORTH, CHRISTOPHER:
three Anglican scholars.
1. Biographer, younger brother of the poet William Wordsworth; b. at Cockermouth (23 m. s.w. of Carlisle) June 9, 1774; d. at Buxted (389 m. s.s.e. of London) Feb. 2, 1846. He was graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1796; fellow, 1798; M.A.,1799; D.D., 1810); became rector of Ashby with Oby and Thinne (1804); domestic chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury (1805); rector of Woodchurch, Kent (1806), of Bocking, Essex (1808), St. Mary’s, Lambeth, and Sundridge, Kent (1816); chaplain of the House of Commons (1817); and rector of Buxted-with-Uckfield, Sussex (1820); he was master of Trinity College from 1820 till 1841, when he retired to Buxted. He is best remem-
Name of