Fkoiv The likKaKv of 
 
 KckeKT L. Benson 
 
 A gift to the library of the 
 UCLA Center for Medieval and 
 
 Renaissance Studies 
 from his friends and colleagues. 
 
 

 
 ai^. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 H ISTORY
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 SOURCES OF THE APOSTOLIC CANONS 
 
 Trasslated BY LEONARD A. WHRATLEY 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON 
 
 THE ORGANISATION OF THE EARLY CHURCH 
 AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE READER 
 
 By the REr. JOHN OWEN 
 Demy Svo, price 7s. 6d. net
 
 the Center for Medieval and 
 Renaissance Studies, UCLA 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 ADOLF HARNACK 
 
 Translated, with the Author's sanction, by 
 
 THOS, BAILEY SAUNDERS 
 
 With an Introductory Note 
 
 LONDON 
 ADAM & CHARLES BLACK 
 
 1896 
 
 [All Rights Reserved]
 
 YRL 
 
 ocl i^<^ig>o^'^ 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 ixtroductory note . 
 
 Christianity and History . 
 
 I. Personality and Development 
 II. Personality and PRiNcirLE 
 III. Personality and History . 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 29 
 39 
 52
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 The following essay was originally pub- 
 lished in the form of a lecture ; and it was 
 delivered to the members of that branch of 
 the Evangelical Union which is established 
 in Berlin. 
 
 The Unio7i is a remarkable feature of 
 the present state of religious life in modern 
 Germany. It ivas founded in 1887 after 
 the conclusion of the Kulturkampf, with the 
 professed object of protecting the interests 
 of Protestantism against the increasing 
 power of the Roman Cliurch. In that 
 respect it bears some resemblance to certain 
 
 7
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 associatiojis and alliances in England; 
 hut its scope is much wider than theirs, its 
 spirit is more liberal, and its w(yrh and. 
 influence have obtained a larger measure 
 of success. The Union is fortunate, pe?'- 
 haps, in having no call to devote attention 
 to ceremonial anomalies in the Churches 
 to which its members belong ; nor are its 
 energies coyisumed in discussing the relative 
 advantages of looking to the East or to the 
 North at a particidar juncture, or the 
 appropriate shape and colour of ecclesi- 
 astical vestments. 
 
 Its time and strengtli are employed on 
 the endeavour to preserve the CJiristian 
 faith, as revealed in the Gospels, 2^'^''^'^ 
 and undeflled. TJie member's believe that 
 lohere the Curia has wrought its loill, it has 
 disseminated superstition ami exercised an
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 intolerable tyrayiny ; and although they 
 represent a great variety of opinion, they 
 are united in combating the injiuence of 
 Rome, ivhether in the religious or in the 
 political life of the Fatherland. To 
 suppose that most of them are fanatics — 
 and it is a common supposition in these 
 days in regard to any body of militant 
 Protestants — would be to do them a 
 grievous injustice. They rest their belief 
 on a calm review of the facts of history, 
 and their resolution is the outcome, not of 
 any sectarian prejudice, but of an intel- 
 ligent desire to promote tvhatsoever things 
 are ivholesome and true. 
 
 While resistance to the doctrine and the 
 policy of the Roman Church is the chief 
 business of the Union, it has other objects 
 ivhich it seems to pursue imth no less zeal.
 
 lO CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 Among them is the defence of Cliristianity 
 111 the face of the difficulties ivhich it 
 has had to encounter at the hands of 
 philosophy and science. 
 
 Here as in Germany and elsewhere, 
 those ivho adopt or profess this faith are 
 guided by very diverse motives. There 
 are many ivho endeavour to shape their 
 lives in accordance tvith its precepts ; 
 there are others who embrace it out of 
 sheer alarm ; others, again, tvho affect 
 both the creed and the practice of it ; and 
 not afeiv^ like the magistrates in Gibbon's 
 ironical analysis, who regard it as useful 
 for political or social purposes. Finally, 
 there is a large number of men and women 
 ivho are outivardly adherents of the faith, 
 but treat it with indifference or contempt. 
 
 Not alone among the members of the
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 German Evangelical Union^ hut in any 
 large society of Christians anywhere, there 
 are likely to he representatives of every one 
 of these classes ; and the attitude of them 
 all is in some degree affected hy any 
 attach upon the Christianity ivhich they 
 p)rofess in common. They meet the attach 
 in various ways, according to the hent 
 of their temper, the range of their hnow- 
 ledge, or the conceptions which they have 
 formed or inherited. The Union emhraces 
 almost every hnown species of the Pro- 
 testant theory of Christianity, hetween the 
 extremes^, _of unlimited ^ ndul ^ence^ ^J/n^ 
 personal J udgmen t _a/ nd th e narrowest 
 hihliolatryr Within its circle the most 
 unquestioning higot may sit down tvith a 
 rigorous historian or an uncompromising 
 critic ; and as in other controversies, the
 
 I a CIIR/STIANITY AND If /STORY 
 
 lines of defence largely depend for their 
 strength ajid character npon the 2^crso7i- 
 aliti) of the apologist. 
 
 mien in October last the authorities of 
 the branch of the Union in Berlin invited 
 Professor Hamad' to inaugurate a course 
 of lectures, and that eminent scholar 
 chose the relation between Christianity 
 and history for his theme, the adherents 
 of every grade of opinion found themselves 
 in the company of a fellow-member who, 
 by his own special studies and achieve- 
 ments, had earned the title not only of an 
 eocact historian, but also of an acute and 
 far-seeing critic. As it tvas my privilege 
 to be on a visit to Professor HarnacJc at 
 the time, I had an opioortiinity of observ- 
 ing the p)^^ofound attention loith tvhich his 
 remarks were followed by a very large
 
 INTR OD UC TOR Y NOTE 13 
 
 audience^ and of comparing or contrasting 
 the reception tvhich an address of this 
 nature, delivered hy a speaker of the like 
 distinction, would have met tvith at home. 
 It must he confessed that in this country, 
 even outside the ranks of those ivho call 
 themselves orthodox, the German historian, 
 or the German critic, is sometimes re- 
 garded as a kmd of literary Gorgon, 
 who, if he fixes his gaze ujyon the field 
 of theological inquiry, drives all the 
 religion out of it and turns it to stone. 
 The orthodox can hardly he brought to 
 admit that, although he may have given 
 long and serious attention to the problems 
 involved in that study, he may yet he quite 
 a 7'espectahle person, and as devout a 
 Christian as any of themselves. It oc- 
 curred to me that I miglit he of some
 
 U CU/^IS'JIANITV AND HISTORY 
 
 service in heJjmig to dispel this curious 
 delusion, and at the same time assist in 
 spreading a view of the relation between 
 Cliristianity and history, as it was con- 
 ceived by one of the most competent judges 
 in Europe, if I translated this lecture, 
 ivhich tvas of a character to claim the 
 interest of all thoughtful i^ersons every- 
 where. 
 
 Its _ object is to show in what s_mse_ 
 religion, and more especia ll y the Ch ristian 
 religion, can be said to be dependent upon 
 h istorical facts : how far it is established, 
 i f certain alleged events are proved to 
 have actually happened : how far it is 
 overthrown, if they are found to be the 
 product of myth or incredible legend. 
 Among those who profess themselves ad- 
 herents of this religion, and also among
 
 INTRO D UCrOR Y NOTE 15 
 
 those who do not or cannot accept it, 
 there is a growing tendency to assume that 
 the result of historical criticism is to 
 shake its foundation; and this belief 
 while it fills some persons ivith satisfaction 
 and others with dismay, leads a still 
 larger number to seek support for their 
 faith in a refusal to listen to any argu- 
 ment at all. 
 
 But the belief that the Christian religion 
 has been undermined by historical criticism 
 is largely due to ignorance, or at least to 
 a radical diversity of opinio7i, in regard 
 to the nature of its foundation. There 
 is a great difference, as Lessing argued, 
 between the Christian religion and CJirist's 
 religion ; between the structure of dogma 
 erected by Greek philosophy on a Jewish 
 soil, and the faith held by Christ himself, — j
 
 I6 CIJJiJSJ/AN/I y A,VI) HISTORY 
 
 the simjyle faith which every man can hold 
 in commo)t with him. Whatever maj/ be 
 obsmrc or (/oubtful in the narrative of the 
 (rospels, the nature cf Christ's faith ami 
 the purijort of his teaching arc clear and 
 ".nmistakable ; and, i)i the main, they can 
 be separated from alien accretions of later 
 fjrowth. It is Christ's own faith, r<itJier 
 than a series of subtle and complicated 
 dogmas, which shoidd form the foundation 
 and the substance of the religion that is 
 called by his name. This, I take it, is 
 the rieir of Christianity that is adopted 
 in the following pages. 
 
 THOS. BAILEY SAUNDKHS. 
 
 Februanj 18U6.
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 H ISTORY 
 
 The name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth 
 
 . . . neither is there salvation in any 
 
 other: for there is no other name under 
 
 heaven given among men, whereby we may 
 
 he saved. 
 
 Such is the creed of the Christian Church. 
 
 With this creed she began ; in the faith of 
 
 it her martyrs have died ; and to-day, as 
 
 eighteen hundred years ago, it is from this 
 
 creed that she derives her strength. The 
 
 whole substance and meaning of religion, — 
 
 life in God, the forgiveness of sins, consola- 
 2
 
 l8 CIIRISTIANirV AND HISTORY 
 
 tion in suffering, — she couples with Christ's 
 person ; and in so doing slie associates 
 everything tliat gives life its meaning 
 and its permanence, nay the Eternal itself, 
 with an liistorical fact ; maintaining the 
 indissoluble unity of both. 
 
 But is such a connexion defensible? Will 
 it bear intelligent examination ? When all 
 history seems to be a ceaseless process of 
 growth and decay, is it possible to pick out 
 a single phenomenon and saddle it with the 
 whole weight of eternity ? especially when 
 it is a phenomenon of the past. 
 
 If Christ's person were still among us, the 
 matter would perhaps be different. But 
 although we are separated from it by many 
 centuries and an intricate and confusing- 
 tradition, we are told, nevertheless, that we 
 must cliniz to it as thouGfh it were endowed
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 19 
 
 with an eternal presence, and acknowledge 
 it as the rock of our life. Is that possible ? 
 Is it right ? This is a question which has 
 occupied thoughtful Christians in all ages, 
 and it involves the most serious inquiry 
 into the essential nature and the just claims 
 of Christianity ; in a word, into the relation 
 between Christianity and history. All that 
 I can attempt in tliese brief pages is to 
 indicate the nature of the question, and 
 to offer some considerations by which its 
 meaning and importance may be estimated. 
 I may begin by mentioning the encourag- 
 ing fact that the great assault made by the 
 eighteenth century on the connexion be- 
 tween religion and history has been 
 repelled. This assault found its pregnant 
 expression in the principle laid down by 
 Lessing : Historical truth, tvhich is acci-
 
 ao CHKJST/ANITY .LVD HISTORY 
 
 dental in its character, can never become 
 the proof of the truths <>/ J^casvu. irJiicJi 
 are iiecessart/. 
 
 The principle may, indeed, be right ; 
 everything depends upon the way in which 
 it is construed. But in the way in which 
 it was understood by Lessing's own genera- 
 tion, intiuenced as that generation was by 
 Rousseau, it is wrong. The whole of the 
 superficial philosophy of the eighteenth 
 century is at the bottom of it. According 
 to that philosophy, everything that has 
 happened in the way of history is of trivial 
 moment ; it is an accident ; nay, it even 
 cramps and embarrasses the mind ; and 
 there is no salvation anywhere but in the 
 two forces which that generation described 
 as Nature and Reason. They were regarded 
 as forces that were invariable and constituted
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 once for all ; and no true blessing was to be 
 obtained outside of them. It was believed 
 that every man from the creation down- 
 wards possessed in his reason a fixed 
 capital, which was capable of supplying 
 him with everything that might be needful 
 for a virtuous and happy life. It was 
 believed, further, that man was fitted into 
 the framework of nature, and was in har- 
 mony with it ; and that he had only to 
 unfold his powers in accordance with 
 nature, in order to become a glorious 
 specimen of his kind. 
 
 In this view of the world, history was no 
 longer a necessity ; for a man could receive 
 absolutely nothing from it which he did not 
 already possess. To the consistent adherents 
 of this view, its logical outcome was that 
 history seemed a strange and wrong-headed
 
 2Z CHRISTIAN/TY AND HISTORY 
 
 venture; and the eiy was all iV>r renouncing 
 its tyranny, and for returning to the free- 
 dom of nature. It is true tliat Lessinir 
 liimself made great efforts to do justice to 
 history; l)ut his efforts were uncertain, and 
 they were but little understood. His 
 generation had no concern for anything 
 but the trutlis of reason, alleged to be 
 eternal, and the " natural religion " which 
 it had rediscovered ; and in possession of 
 these blessings, it looked down on " the 
 accidents of history" with contempt, and cut 
 the bond between them and religion. All 
 historical religions, so the eighteenth cen- 
 tury taught, are at the best only the one 
 true, natural reli<?ion in disofuise, — the 
 religion wdiich always was and always will 
 be, — and this religion has no other content 
 but Reason, fixed and unalterable. By the
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 side of it, even Christianity and its founder 
 can make no special or particular claim ; 
 for everything that is particular is acci- 
 dental, superfluous, and intellectually mis- 
 chievous. 
 
 Now to-day this view of the world is 
 not, it is true, extinct ; but it has been 
 refuted. In no respect has the spirit of 
 the nineteenth century so strongly opposed 
 the spirit of the eighteenth, as in this. 
 
 It is a change which we owe to Herder 
 and the leaders of the romantic movement ; 
 we owe it to Hegel and his great scholar 
 Eanke ; we owe it, not least of all, to the 
 powerful reaction of the Christian faith. 
 The illusion of a ready-made reason, exist- 
 ing from the beginning, has been dispelled ; 
 the idol of a "divine nature" has been 
 unmasked ; the vast problem involved in
 
 24 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 the facile notion of a ''natural religion" 
 has been revealed. In the place of shallow 
 talk about divine nature and profane liis- 
 tory, about the "eternal truths of reason" 
 and casual records, we have arrived at 
 the knowledge of history; of the history 
 from which we have received what we 
 possess, and to which we owe what we 
 are. In this process two conceptions, 
 above all, came to the front with increas- 
 ing clearness : development and person- 
 ality. They involve an opposition ; but 
 it is an opposition which determines the 
 work of the historian in dealing with his 
 facts. 
 
 When the meaning of history came to 
 be accurately understood, religion was 
 restored to its place ; for religion is no 
 ready-made structure, but a growth ; and
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HIST OR V 25 
 
 it is a growth that falls within the 
 history of humanity. Its developments 
 are no mere outward semblance : they are 
 a reality. Its prophets and founders have 
 been prophets and founders indeed ; for 
 they have raised humanity to a higher 
 level. Reverence for the spirit that pre- 
 vails in history, and gratitude to all those 
 from whom we have received any benefit, — 
 and without it we should have been the 
 poorer in our inner and outer life, — must, 
 therefore, govern our views of that science. 
 Here we have a critical spirit very dif- 
 ferent from that which pervaded the so- 
 called age of illumination. The assault 
 which the eighteenth century directed 
 against the connexion between history and 
 religion has, in fact, been a failure. But 
 other assaults have been taking shape in
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 our own time. There is a whole array of 
 them. 
 
 The first proposition that iiieets us is 
 this : It is just because the Christian re- 
 ligion is a part of history, and consequently 
 of that development of which all history 
 
 consists, that it is no more than a link 
 I 
 I in that development ; and therefore its 
 
 founder cannot be allowed any peculiar or 
 
 unique position. 
 
 AVe succeed, let us say, in defeating this 
 
 attack. A fresh opponent then starts up 
 
 with the objection that even though the 
 
 founder of the Christian religion may have 
 
 been an incomparable man, he lived many 
 
 centuries ago; and it is therefore impossible 
 
 to go to him with our troubles and sorrows, 
 
 and to lay hold of him as the rock of our 
 
 life : it is not the person whidi we have
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 27 
 
 any longer to consider, but the doctrine^ 
 the jprinciple. 
 
 If, in the end, this opponent be also routed, 
 there is still one more. We are told that 
 we may s^Deak of Jesus Christ as we will, 
 and he may have been all that we say, 
 but that we cannot be certain of it ; for 
 where our idea of him has not been 
 destroyed by historical criticism, it has been 
 rendered doubtful ; and, even though it were 
 more trustworthy than it is, still the facts 
 of history can never be known with a cer- 
 tainty that would entitle us to make them 
 the foundation of our religious Ijelief, 
 
 These are the three barriers that have 
 been opposed to the creed of the Church 
 on the score of history ; and it is on these 
 three questions that the whole of the con- 
 troversy turns. Every form of doubt,
 
 a8 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 whether secret or open, deals in the main 
 with these questions ; and in some shape 
 or other they are doubts which have been 
 entertained and pondered by us all.
 
 PERSONALITY AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Now, as regards the first assault : it is the 
 most comprehensive, but also the weakest, 
 of the three. 
 
 It is perfectly true that the strength of 
 our modern conception of history lies in 
 the effort which we everywhere make to 
 trace the developme7it of things, and to 
 show how one thing has grown out of 
 another. That this is the true task of 
 the historian is a proposition which can 
 no longer be disputed. There can be no 
 manner of doubt that it is only by this 
 
 29
 
 JO CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 inelluxl tliat a true uiuli'r.staiidiiiu" of 
 history can be attained ; and even those 
 who condemn tlie modern science of history 
 cannot escape the influence of its method. 
 They do the same work as is done by 
 those whom tliey condemn, but they fail 
 to do it so well ; nay, they do it badly 
 and imperfectly. 
 
 However, a man must be infatuated to 
 maintain that, jjccause all history is a^ 
 history of development, it can an d jnust_ 
 1je_described as a process of _mater ial or 
 mechanical change. Up till now the 
 attempts that have been, and are still 
 being, made in this direction carry their 
 own refutation witli them. At the very 
 most, it is only in the sphere of political 
 economy that we can trace a certain 
 stringent order of phenomena, where the
 
 PERSONALITY AND DE VEL OPMENT 3 1 
 
 struggle for material existence is supreme ; 
 but even there this stringent order is 
 always being disturbed by elements of a 
 non - material character, which exert a 
 powerful influence. 
 
 In the history of intellectual and moral 
 ideas, the rough-and-ready way of explain- 
 ing cause by environment alone breaks 
 down altogether. I admit that even here 
 much may be accounted for in this way, 
 much more than earlier generations sus- 
 pected : the necessity that drives and 
 compels has often been the mother of 
 progress ; and even to-day we can see 
 causes at work, and watch the process of 
 growth. But w ithout the strength and 
 the deed of an individual, of a 'personality, 
 nothing ^eat, jio thing Jhat_will bring us 
 farth er on our way^cun be accomplished.
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 Whence comes the strength of the strong, 
 and the deed of the doer ? Whence conies 
 it that the knowledge that might advance 
 us, the thought tliat might save us, is 
 transmitted from one generation to another 
 as barren and worthless and dead as a 
 stone, until some one seizes it and strikes 
 it into fire ? Whence comes that higher 
 order of marriage, where a thought so 
 unites with a soul that each is merged in 
 the other, and belongs to the other, and 
 masters the will ? Whence comes the 
 courage that conquers the resistance of a 
 dull and unfeeling world % Whence comes 
 the living power that begets a living con- 
 viction ? 
 
 It is a very limited psychology which 
 fails to see that these are the real levers 
 of history. All that its adherents ask is
 
 PERSONALITY AND DEVELOPMENT 33 
 
 whether the man has said anything new ; 
 and if so, whether it cannot be deduced 
 from something that went before ; and 
 they profess themselves content if they 
 ascertain that it was only " relatively " 
 new, and that nothing very wonderful has 
 happened after all. No ! not only in the 
 beginning was the Word, the AVord that 
 was at once Deed and Life ; but the living, 
 resolute, indomitable Word, namely, the 
 'person^ has always been a power in history, 
 along with and above the power of circum- 
 stance. Here, too, it is true, there are 
 intervening links and developments. No 
 torch lights itself; one prophet rouses 
 another ; but this mysterious development 
 we can never fathom — we can only feel it. 
 
 What is true of history in general, and 
 of all tlie lines on which intellectual and
 
 34 CHKIST/A.VITV AND I/ISTOKY 
 
 spiritual life is enacted, is true in the 
 highest sense of religion, which is the 
 profoundest subject of which history treats. 
 Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
 by every word that proceedeth out of 
 the mouth of God. Never have tlie 
 two great central elements of all life and 
 action been more clearly and simply ex- 
 pressed ; and our historians still have a 
 lesson to learn from these words, if they 
 are not to lose their v.-ay. 
 
 Of religion it is true that it, too, has 
 been developed, and that it is in a state 
 of constant development. From its history 
 it may be shown that it has had to 
 yield to the stress of trouble and danger : 
 the trouble that teaches men to pray, the 
 danger that deadens them and makes them 
 grasp at a straw. But the sa me history
 
 PERSONALITY AND DE VELOPMENT 35 
 
 tells us also, tliat no aspiration _and no 
 progress have ever existed without tJie 
 miraculous exertion of aii^ individual will, 
 of a "person. It_was not what t he person 
 said that was new and strange, — he came 
 when the time was fulfilled and spoke 
 what the time required, — but how he said 
 it ; how it became in him the strength 
 and power of a new life ; how he trans- 
 mitted it to his disciples. That was his 
 secret, and that was what was new in 
 him. Mankind looks up with reverence 
 to all the great minds that have been 
 given to it, — the thinkers, the artists, the 
 heroes, — but it is only the prophets and 
 the founders of religion that it worships ; 
 for it feels that here a power has been at 
 work which frees it from the world, and 
 lifts it above the things of every day.
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 But if wc thus put all prophets and 
 founders of religion into one class, it may 
 be said that wc, in our turn, are doing 
 away with the significance of the founder 
 of the Christian religion. That is certainly 
 not the case ; for there is no concrete or 
 specific conception embracing the differ- 
 ences to be found among those whom we 
 rightly call prophets and founders of re- 
 ligion. Every one of them is a power for 
 himself, and must be judged by himself. 
 There have been founders of religion both 
 sacred and profane ; there have been sub- 
 lime prophets and strange prophets. An 
 inexhaustible wealth of gift and power 
 has been difi'used among them ; but the 
 measure of it, their bearing, the goal of 
 their efi'orts, every circumstance of their 
 lives, differs with each of them. If this
 
 PERSONALITY AND DEVELOPMENT 37 
 
 difference were disregarded, nothing would 
 be clear . It^would be a piece of pre- 
 sumptuous folly to attempt to lay do wn, 
 at the outse t^ the me asure of the Spirit — 
 tha t is, of the Spirit of God — which has 
 borne swa y in these individual s. 
 
 But it is only of One that we know that 
 he united the deepest humility and a purity 
 of will with the claim that he was more 
 than all the prophets who were before him : 
 the Son of God. Of him alone we know 
 that those who ate and drank with him, 
 glorified him not only as their Teacher, 
 Prophet, and King, but also as the Prince 
 of Life, as the Eedeemer and Judge of the 
 world, as the living power of their exist- 
 ence — it is not I that live, hut Christ in 
 me; — and that presently a band of the 
 Jew and Gentile, the wise and the foolish,
 
 38 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 acknowledged that they had received, from 
 the abundance of this one man, grace for 
 grace. This fact, which lies open tothc 
 li^ht of day, is unic|iic in history; and it 
 requires that^e actual personality^ behind 
 it should be honoured as unique.
 
 II 
 
 PERSONALITY AND PRINCIPLE 
 
 This disposes of the first objection : that 
 no special or unique position can be 
 attributed to the person of Jesus Christ, 
 because of the presumption that all history 
 takes the form of development. 
 
 But now we have to deal with a serious 
 onslaught. Even though the founder of 
 the Christian religion may have been an 
 incomparable man, he lived, we are told, 
 many centuries ago ; and therefore it is 
 impossible to take him up into our religious 
 life, and adopt him as its foundation : it
 
 40 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 is no longer the person that we have to 
 consider, but the doctrine, or, as it is 
 sometimes called, the principle. Nay, the 
 objection is still more severely stated thus : 
 Religion is wholly a matter of relation to 
 God — God and the soul, the soul and God ; — 
 everything that intrudes upon this mutual 
 relation destroys its exclusive character, 
 and checks its fervour and its freedom. 
 
 I might try to meet this attack by re- 
 ferring to the ecclesiastical doctrine of 
 redemption and reconciliation through 
 Jesus Christ ; but I am afraid that if I 
 did so I should hardly make myself clear ; 
 for in the form in which the Church has 
 stated that doctrine, it belongs to the 
 things which in these days are least under- 
 stood, and therefore most open to doubt. 
 Such is the fact ; how far it is warranted
 
 PERSONALITY AND PRINCIPLE 41 
 
 is a matter of opinion. I shall therefore 
 attempt to proceed by a different path. 
 
 Well then ! it is quite true : religion is 
 a relation of the soul to God, and nothing 
 more. That a man should find God and 
 possess Him as his God, — should live in the 
 fear of Him, trust Him, and lead a holy 
 and blessed life in the strength of this 
 feeling, — that is the substance and the aim 
 of religion. We can carry our conception 
 of religion no further, nor can we allow- 
 any alien element to subsist alongside of 
 it. Let us order our ways and commit our 
 troubles to the love and care of Him who 
 rules — 
 
 " Befiehl Du Deine Wege und was Dein Herze krilnkt, 
 Der allertreusten Pflege dess, der den Himmel lenkt." ' 
 
 ^ Paul Gerhardt, the well-known German hymn-writer 
 of the seventeenth century.— Tr.
 
 42 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 The stronger and pui\'r uiir feeling of 
 devotion, the more surely is it compre- 
 hended in this utterance. It is a truth 
 whicli has l)een attested by Christ's dis- 
 ciples in all ages ; it was attested by Christ 
 liimself in teaching us the Lord's Prayer ; 
 and therefore we cannot condemn the theo- 
 logians who tell us that it is the sum 
 and substance of religion. 
 
 But wliat holds good of all moral ideas,f 
 holds good in the highest sense of religion 
 it is one thing to be sensible of their' 
 truth, it is another to be possessed of their 
 power. We may recognise and acknow- 
 ledge the claims of the Christian religion, 
 and the peace and beauty of the religious 
 life, and yet be quite incapable of raising 
 ourselves to its level. It may hover before 
 our eyes and shine with the radiance
 
 PERSONALITY AND PRINCIPLE 43 
 
 of a star ; and yet not burn like a fire ini 
 our hearts. We may have the keenest) 
 sense of the bonds that we would escape^ 
 and yet be totally unable to set ourselves 1 
 free. Not only may we be so — we are so. \ 
 There is no one who has had this feeling, / 
 or who has it again and again, and is 
 delivered from it, but knows that he has 
 been delivered because God has spoken to 
 him. The man w ho^f ails to hear the voice 
 qIL God for himself is without religion. 
 Speak, Lord, for Tliy servant lieareth, is 
 the only form in which a religious life is 
 possible. 
 
 As the conduct of human life is mani- 
 fold and various, so, too, is the voice of 
 God. But we know that there are few 
 among us who hear and understand the 
 voice of God, in the secret sphere of their
 
 44 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 inner personiil life, without human help and 
 intervention. The truth i^ rather, that 
 
 one Christian educates another ; heart 
 
 ki ndles heart ; gnd the strength to w ill 
 what we approve com es from the mysteri- 
 ous Power by wh idi— one-^fe awakens 
 another. At_ the end of the series of 
 messengers and _agents_of_God ^stands_Jesus 
 Christy They p oint back to him, ^ nd^ 
 is from him that has sprung the r iver of 
 life which they bear in themselves as their 
 o\yn. Vario us^ indeed is t he measure of 
 their c onscious relation to him — who could 
 deny it ! — but they all li ve on him and 
 through him. 
 
 Her e we have ^ fact wj iich gives an in- 
 comparable significance to this personality , 
 as a force still working in history^ But 
 the objection with which we have to deal
 
 PERSONALITY AND PRINCIPLE 45 
 
 is not yet exhausted. Jesus Christ, it is 
 said, remains, after all, a power of the 
 past ; although it is a power which con- 
 tinues in effect. But when the Christian 
 faith sends us back to him, that is not 
 the view which it takes. We must en- 
 deavour to get a closer grasp of what this 
 faith means, in order to understand how 
 far its view is right, supposing that the 
 faith is right at all. 
 
 The Christian faith is not, as is so 
 often maintained, a gentle exaltation of 
 our earthly life, or a comfort and relief in 
 its troubles and trials. No ! it is decision 
 for God and ao^a j^st the world. It is an ^ -^ . '^ ^ 
 eternal life that is involved : the recog- ^ ^y*-^^ 
 nition that in and above Nature and her 
 changes there is a realm of sanctity and 
 love, a city not built witli hands, whose
 
 46 CHRISTIAN/TV AND HISTORY 
 
 citizens we arc to be ; and with this 
 messajre there conies to us the demand 
 that wc shouhl cleanse our hearts and deny 
 ourselves. 
 
 "We are here confronted with an alter- 
 native which determines our inner life. 
 It is, indeed, a contest ; but is victory- 
 possible ? is there then, in truth, a higher 
 Reality, compared with which the world is 
 as nothing ? or do our feelings and pre- 
 sentiments delude us ? May it not be that 
 we are altogether confined within the 
 sphere of mechanical nature, the sphere 
 of our earthly existence, and that we are 
 wao;inof a miserable war with our own 
 shadows, with phantoms and sj)ectres ? 
 That is the question of questions, the 
 doubt of doubts. 
 
 Well ! as long as the Christian faith has
 
 PERSONALITY AND PRINCIPLE 47 
 
 existed, these doubts and questions liave 
 been resolved by looking to Jesus Christ : 
 resolved, not in the form of philosophical 
 demonstration, but by looking with a con- 
 fident trust to the image of his life. 
 When God and everything that is sacred 
 threatens to disappear in darkness, or our 
 doom is pronounced ; when the mighty 
 forces of inexorable nature seem to over- 
 whelm us, and the bounds of good and 
 evil to dissolve ; when, weak and weary, 
 we despair of finding God at all in this 
 dismal world — it is then that the personality 
 of Christ may save us. Here we have a 
 life that was lived wholly in the fear of 
 God — resolute, unselfish, pure ; here there 
 glows and flashes a grandeur, a love, which 
 draws us to itself Although it was all a 
 continual struggle with the world ; though
 
 4S CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 bit by bit one earthly possession after 
 another fell away, and at last the life 
 itself came to an ignominious end ; yct_np 
 soul can avoid t he thought tha t whoso dies 
 thus, dies well_: he dies not, but lives. 
 For it was in this life and death that there 
 first dawned upon mankind the assurance 
 of an eternal life, and a divine love which 
 overcomes all evil, nay, sin itself : and in 
 the presence of a glory which is beyond 
 the reach of death, we have come to per- 
 ceive the vanity of the world and of all 
 earthly possessions. 
 
 Eighteen hundred years separate us from 
 this history ; but if we seriously ask our- 
 selves w^hat it is that has given us the 
 courage to believe that in the history of 
 the world God prevails, not only by moral 
 and intellectual forces, but by His presence
 
 PERSONALITY AND PRINCIPLE 49 
 
 ill the midst of it ; if we ask what it is 
 that leads us to believe in an eternal life — 
 our answer is, that we make bold to believe 
 it in reliance upon Christ. Jesus lives, and 
 with him I live also. He is the firstborn 
 among many brothers ; he is our surety for 
 the reality of a future world. 
 
 So it is, then, that God speaks to us 
 through him. It was testified of Christ 
 that he was the Way, the Truth, and the 
 Life ; as such he is still revealed to our 
 inmost feeling, and therein consists his 
 presence to us. As surely as everything 
 depends on the soul finding God and be- 
 coming one with Him, so surely is he the 
 true Saviour, Guide, and Lord who leads 
 the soul to God. When the Christian 
 Church proclaims of him that he lives, 
 
 it is a truth which is still attested to-day ; 
 4
 
 so CUh'/sr/AN/TV AND I/ISTOKY 
 
 and the Church is also right in reminding 
 us of Ills sull'crinijs and his dcatli. But 
 \vc will not speak of these things now ; nor 
 will wc speak of them at all after the fashion 
 in which they are so often treated. That 
 the sufferings of the just form the saving 
 point in history, is a truth which we feel 
 in the measure in which our senses are 
 alive to the gravity of the moral issue, and 
 open to the influence of personal sacrifice, i 
 But " we draw a veil over the sufferings of 
 Christ, for the very reason that we hold 
 them in such re verence. In our jud g- 
 ment it is ^n ujQ warran table an d audacious 
 th ing to treat these deep mysteries, in 
 which the divine depths of suffering lie 
 hidden, as an object of barter — to keep an 
 account in them, or t o toy _ and trifle with 
 them ; nor to rest until the most worthy
 
 PERSONALITY AND PRINCIPLE 51 
 
 Qf_a ll actions is made to look common 
 and insipid." ^ 
 
 We ought not to forget that faith in 
 Christ is never more than a mere cry of 
 Lord, Lord, if it does not pass into the 
 strength of allegiance in the good cause. 
 Not those did he himself call his brothers 
 and his sisters, who desired to see him, 
 or to raise aloft his name in the world ; 
 but those who do the will of his Father 
 in heaven. It is by this utterance that 
 we have always to judge the Christian's 
 faith. 
 
 1 Goethe.— Tr.
 
 II 
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTORY 
 
 That in spite of the eighteen hundred years 
 which separate us from him, Jesus Christ 
 can have, nay has, a ph^ce in the religious 
 life of the Christian ; that his personality, 
 and not his doctrine alone, is still to-day 
 set for the rising again of many — I have 
 tried to show. But a third and final attack 
 confronts us. You may, we are told, talk 
 of Jesus Christ as you will, and he may 
 have been all that you say, but you cannot 
 be certain of it ; for where our idea of 
 him has not been destroyed by historical
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTORY 53 
 
 criticism, it lias been rendered doubtful ; 
 and even though it were more trustworthy 
 than it is, still the facts of history can 
 never be known with a certainty that 
 would entitle us to make them the founda- 
 tion of our religious belief. 
 
 This objection is the most serious of the 
 three ; and if it were in all respects justi- 
 fiable, it would go ill with us. 
 
 " Where our idea of him has not been 
 destroyed by historical criticism, it has been 
 rendered doubtful." At the first blush it 
 looks as if this were indeed the case. I pass 
 over such results of criticism as flourish to- 
 day, and to-morrow are cast into the oven ; 
 I speak only of those which are brought 
 before us again and again with increasing 
 force. If we direct our attention first of all 
 to the external historical facts, we find that 
 
 y
 
 54 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 the tradition as to the incidents attending 
 the birth and the early life of Jesus Christ 
 has been shattered ; and so too has been the 
 credibility of many of the stories which were 
 told of him. We find, too, that criticism 
 cannot lay the ancient doubts raised by 
 the reports of what took place on the first 
 Easter morning. As regards the picture of 
 his life, as regards his discourses and the 
 doctrine he taught, the historical way of 
 looking at them seems to transform them 
 altogether. 
 
 The man who reads h is Bible in a homely 
 way is wont t o treat all the characteristic 
 features which he encounters in that book 
 as^ above and beyond time. He sees and 
 feels such things only as he takes to form 
 the true kernel of the narrative : things 
 which concern himself] and it was by
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTORY 55 
 
 these that the Christian doctrine was 
 formerly established by the Church. But 
 the historical way of looking at them may 
 not, and will not, overlook the concrete 
 features in and by which the life and the 
 doctrine were actually fashioned in theii' 
 day. It seeks for points of connexion with 
 the Old Testament and its developments, 
 with the religious life of the Synagogue, 
 with contemporary hopes for the future, 
 with the whole intellectual and spiritual 
 condition of the world of Greece and Rome ; 
 and it finds that the evidence of such con- 
 nexion is unmistakable. The consequence 
 is, that the sayings and discourses of the 
 Lord, and the image of his life itself, not 
 only take their colour — and it is a very 
 definite colour — from the history of the 
 time, but they are also seen to possess
 
 56 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 certain definite limitations. They belong 
 to their time and tlieir environment; and 
 they could not exist in any other. But 
 they lose no particle of their power and 
 validity, unless it can be shown that the 
 main lineaments of the personality^f Christ, 
 and the sense and true point of his sayings, 
 have been altered. I cannot discover that 
 historical criticism has effected any such 
 change. 
 
 The same is true of the testimony which 
 he gave of himself. I admit that if his- 
 torical research had proved that lie was an 
 apocalyptic enthusiast or a visionary, whose 
 image and utterances were advanced to the 
 level of pure aim and lofty thought only 
 by the refining influence of later times, it 
 would be another matter. But who has 
 proved that, and who could prove it ? For
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTORY 57 
 
 bes ides the four written Gospels we possess 
 a fifth, u nwritten ; and in many respects 
 its voice is clearer and more effective than 
 those of the other four — Ijnean the united 
 testim ony of the first Christian community. 
 It enables us to gather what was the pre- 
 vailing impression made by this personality, 
 and in what sense his disciples understood 
 his words and the testimony which he 
 gave of himself It is true that his 
 clothes — the outward form of his doctrine 
 — were part of the heritage ; but the great 
 and simple truths which he came to preach, 
 the personal sacrifice which he made, and 
 his victory in death, were what formed the 
 new life of his community ; and when the 
 apostle Paul with divine power described 
 this life as a life in the Spirit,^ and again 
 
 ^ Rom. viii.
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTOR V 
 
 as a life in love,^ he was only giving back 
 the light which liad dawned upon liim in 
 and through Jesus Christ his Lord. This 
 is a simple matter of fact, which no his; 
 torical criticism can in any way alter. All 
 that it can do is to place it in a clearer 
 light, and so increase our reverence for 
 the divinity which was revealed in radiance 
 in a S on of Abraham, amid the wreck and 
 refuse o f a narrow world. Let the plain 
 Bible-reader continue to read his Gospels 
 as he has hitherto read them ; for in the 
 end the critic cannot read them otherwise. 
 What the one regards as their true gist and 
 meaning, the other must acknowledge to 
 be such. 
 
 But the facts, the facts ! I do n ot know 
 how there can be a greater fact than the. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor, xiii.
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTORY 59 
 
 one which I have jus t__b£en describing. 
 By the side of it, what can any historical 
 detail signify ? 
 
 We are told, however, that an historical 
 detail has a very obvious significance ; 
 that it is only the external fact, nay, the 
 miraculous fact, which can afford us the 
 final and only certainty that there exists 
 a reality corresponding to our belief; that 
 the objects of our belief are not mere 
 phantoms of thought, but that God Him- 
 self governs the course of history, and is 
 leading it to its goal. 
 
 I am well aware of the gravity of this 
 assertion, and I am far from disputing 
 the right of everyone to make it if he 
 chooses. If God would but rend the 
 heavens and come down, that we might 
 behold Him ! — it is a cry that is often
 
 6o CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 beard. But I know, too, that it is not 
 born out of tbe deptb and strengtb of 
 tbe fciitb wbicb tbe apostle Paul describes, 
 and that it readily falls under the utter- 
 ance of the Lord : Except ye see signs 
 and wonders, ye will not believe. Great 
 is the power of external authority in 
 matters of religion ; great is the power 
 of signs and wonders ; but only where 
 their substance lies can faith and devotion 
 find their ultimate assurance. Their sub- 
 stance is God the Lord ; it is reliance on 
 Jesus Christ, whose word and spirit are 
 even to-day a witness to the heart of the 
 power of God. 
 
 Woe to us if it were otherwise ; if our 
 feith^ rested jon__a number of _detailSj_to 
 be demonstrated and establ ished by the 
 hist orian . It would be mere sophistry
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTORY 6i 
 
 for any historian to claim that he had 
 achieved such a task ; for it is assuredly 
 true that no detail of the past can attain 
 such a degree of evidential certainty that 
 it could form the foundation for bricks 
 and mortar, let alone a whole eternity. 
 Testimonies, documents, assertions — when 
 all is said, to what do they amount ? 
 
 There is, I admit, a difference between 
 fact and fact. The actual external details 
 are always a matter of controversy ; and 
 in this sense Lessing was perfectly right 
 when he warned us against coupling- 
 matters of the highest moment with 
 " accidental traths of history," and hang- 
 ing the whole weight of eternity on a 
 spider's thread. But the spiritua l purport 
 of a whol e life, of a p ersonality, is als o an 
 historical fact : it_has its reality in the
 
 62 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 cftcct which it produces : and it is here 
 
 that we find thiL iiiik_that_Jbinds us to 
 Jesus Christy It is a feeling which is 
 one with devotion itself; and this is 
 what the same Lessing meant when he 
 spoke the word of deliverance: "Evenf 
 though we may be unable to remove all 
 the objections that may be made against 
 the Bible, nevertheless, in the heart of all 
 Christians who have attained to an inner 
 sense of its essential truths, Religion 
 remains steadfast and intact." 
 
 But are w^e to say that such external 
 details as have been handed down are of */ 
 no significance whatever ? Who would 
 be so shortsighted, or so frivolous, as to 
 maintain such a proposition? Because 
 we cannot build upon them, they are far 
 from having no significance. First of
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTOR Y (^i 
 
 all, we have to examine whether they are 
 not actually true after all. Much that 
 was formerly rejected has been re-estab- 
 lished on a close investigation, and in the 
 light of comprehensive experience. Who 
 in these days, for example, could make 
 such short work of the miraculous cures 
 in the Gospels as was the custom of 
 1 scholars formerly? 
 
 Then, too, it may be said of all that is 
 told of Jesus Christ, that it is written as 
 a lesson for us. That is a consideration 
 which in our controversies is often unduly 
 overlooked ; but it is in keeping with the 
 objects of the oldest writers, and the 
 practice of the oldest teachers. In matters 
 of religious tradition it is the peculiarity 
 of much that passes for historical, that 
 the spiritual meaning to be found in it
 
 64 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTOR V 
 
 is its most important feature. Where 
 somcthincj is maintained as an liistorical 
 fact, it is more often tlian not a defence 
 of the article of faith bound up with it. 
 It is through the formuLT, Conceived of 
 the Holy Ghost, that the dogma of the 
 Divine Sonship of Jesus Christ is pro- 
 claimed ; in and with the message of the 
 Ascension we are taught that he lives 
 and rules with the Father. 
 
 This leads us to another aspect of ^ic 
 rclio;ious signi ficance of exte rnal details. 
 which is closely related to that which I 
 have been mentioning. They have been 
 to faith what the prop is to the vine, or a 
 sheltering screen to the tender plant. They 
 have given it support and guidance, or 
 they have protected its growth from the 
 influence of wind and weather ; and the
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTORY 65 
 
 service which tliey have rendered in the 
 
 past, they still render to-day to many. 
 
 The dilKculty is that one man's fiiith 
 
 requires a strong stake to prop it, or 
 
 some kind of protective shelter ; Avhilst 
 
 p,n^her finds the prop break in his hands , 
 
 and hi s faith bloom only in the f ree light 
 
 of the sun. 
 
 Finally, much in the New Testament 
 
 that is recorded as history, much that 
 
 aftects us most deeply, is not only told 
 
 us as a lesson, but, in the form in which 
 
 it is given, it possesses a deep symbolical 
 
 significance. 1 know none of the leading 
 
 events of the narrative of which that 
 
 cannot be said. The same spirit which 
 
 unveiled to our eyes the power and the 
 
 glory of a divine life, so far as mankind 
 
 is able to grasp it, has also veiled the 
 5
 
 06 CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 trutli for US with n delicate web of ingeni- 
 ous legeud, a poetry that moves the heart, 
 and has thus brought it home in picture 
 and parable. 
 
 That the stories which are told of Christ 
 possess this manifold significance, will be 
 obvious to everyone who considers the 
 history of Christianity with an open mind 
 and a humble heart. It is an interpret- 
 ation of the facts which is not without its 
 dangers ; for on the one hand it may 
 readily lead a man to foist his own mind 
 upon history, to confuse the plant with 
 the prop, and so to conjure up grave 
 difficulties ; and on the other, it may 
 deaden the force of historical facts as 
 real facts, and the personality of Christ 
 as a real personality. However, the 
 difficulties which have arisen here are
 
 PERSONALITY AND HISTORY 67 
 
 not of our making, and we cannot 
 resolve them in any arbitrary fashion of 
 our own. Rather let us trust to that 
 divine guidance which knows what is 
 good for us ; let _ us proclaim truly , and 
 with a pure mind, the knowledg^e which 
 we have received ; and then let us 
 endeayour_to understan d the profound 
 sayingj^_that natural strength _and ^ the^ 
 c rutch that supports _it come from jthe 
 same source— ^m/fe und Kruchen kom- 
 men aus einer Hand} 
 
 It may, perhaps, have been expected 
 that I should speak of other matters : of 
 the changes which Christianity has ex- 
 perienced in the course of its history, or of 
 the blessings which it has spread abroad 
 in the world. But a knowledge of the 
 
 1 Goethe.— Tr.
 
 6S CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY 
 
 fuiRlaiiKiilal (|Uc'slioii. ii;iniel\', liuw iar 
 religion ami history arc connected, and 
 Iiow they arc united in the evangelical 
 faith, is more important than anything 
 else. This evangelical faith need fear no 
 test that can be applied to it. It can 
 bear a strict and methodical scrutiny of 
 the facts which form its historical found- 
 ation ; nay, for its own sake it must demand 
 such a scrutiny ; for while it has no (-on- 
 cern with Pilate's speculative question — 
 what is truth ? — yet the knowledge of the 
 truth is assifjned as its mission, and there, 
 too, its promise will be fulfilled. 
 
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