depends throughout on the degree in which it is a true copy of the first, and thus presupposes that the historian has freely surrendered himself to his object, brings it to a living reproduction in his spirit, and is concerned only to be a faithful mirror of what has taken place, or to make its representation answerable exactly to its actual occur rence. History, in the objective sense, of which mainly we have to speak, is not an outward aggregate of names, dates, and deeds, more or less accidental, without fixed plan or sure purpose, but a living organism, whose parts are inwardly joined together in the way of mutual need and complement. All nations form but a single family, having the same origin and destination; and all periods are only the different ages of its life, which is throughout one and the same. History stands moreover under the conduct of Divine providence, proceeds on an eternal, unchangeable plan, and is carried forward accordingly, in the irresistible necessity, to a definite end. This end is the same with that of the creation in general, the glorification of God, the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of the world, through the free worship of his intelligent creatures, whose highest blessedness at the same time flows from this worship. We must look upon history thus, as the product always of two dif ferent factors. The last and highest factor is God himself, in whom we "live and move and have our being," who turns the hearts of men as streams of water," who worketh in the good both to will and to do, and ruleth the wrath of the wicked to his own praise, yea, maketh Satan himself tributary to his absolute will. In this view we may style history a self-evolution of God in the course of time-in distinction from nature, which is a revelation of the Creator in space-a successional representation of his omnipotence and wisdom, and more particularly of his moral attributes, his righteousness, holiness, patience, long-suffering, love, and mercy. A history which leaves this out of sight, and turns God into an idle spectator of the actions and fortunes of men, is deistic, rationalistic, in its last consequence atheistic, and for this very reason at bottom without spirit, without life, without interest, and without consolation. Such a history must be at best a cold statue, without beaming eye or beating heart. God however works not in history as in nature, through the force of blind laws, but by living persons, whom he has made after his own image, endowing them with reason and power of will. This implies that he has assigned them a certain sphere of self-conscious, free action, for which they are held responsible; he will not coërce their service, but form them rather to the fellowship of love with himself. Men become in 1849.] Central Position of Religion in History. 411 this way a relative, secondary factor of history, and receive the reward of their words and deeds, whether they be good or bad. To deny such subjective causality, and make men mere passive channels or blind machines of the divine activity, is to fall into the opposite extreme of pantheism and fatalism, and overthrows also by consequence all human accountability, nay in the end all distinction between good and evil, virtue and vice. These two forms of causation again, the divine and the human, the objective and the subjective, work not one beside and out of the other, which would be a perfectly abstract and mechanical conception, but in and by one another. It may not be possible to run the line of demarcation between them; still the recognition of both is the first condition of all sound sense for history, and it is this which forms it to a lofty, continuously-rolling anthem in praise of God's wisdom and love, an humbling mirror of man's weakness and guilt, and in both respects a rich repository of instruction, encouragement, and edification. As the biography of humanity, the development of its relations to itself, to nature, and to God, it must of course embrace all that deserves to be known, all that is beautiful, great, noble, and glorious, in the course of the world's life. In it are deposited all the experiences of our race, all its thoughts, feelings, views, wishes, endeavors, and doings, all its sorrows and all its joys. Divine revelation itself belongs to history, forms the inmost marrow of its life, the golden thread that runs throughout its leaves. Thus in the nature of the case, there can be no study more comprehensive than history in the broad sense of the word, none more instructive and entertaining. § 2. The central position of Religion in History. Universal history, like the life of humanity itself, unfolds itself of course in different spheres; which however all stand in nearer or more remote connection, and so condition and complete one another mutually. There is a history of government, of trade, of social life, of the different sciences and arts, of morality, and of religion. Among these, the last is plainly the deepest, most central, and full of interest. For religion, or the relation of man to God, the band that exalts his earthly life and knits it to the invisible world of spirits, the eternal abode of the blessed, constitutes the most sacred interest of our human life, the fountain of its loftiest thoughts, its mightiest deeds, its most blessed enjoyments, its sabbath, ornament, glory and crown, in the consciousness of all nations; the region of everlasting truth and rest, where, as it is expressed by a profound German philosopher, all mys teries of the world are solved, all spiritual contradictions reconciled, all painful sentiments hushed; in whose ether all sorrow, all care, is made to disappear, whether in the present feeling of devotion or in hope, while all that is dark in time brightens into the radiance of eternity. Religion, communion with God, is the morning, noon, and evening of history, the paradise from which it starts, the haven of peace into which, after a course of many thousand years on the storm-lashed ocean of time, it will finally be conducted, to rest eternally from its labor and toil, where God shall be all in all. Even the other departments of history themselves find their highest attraction, and their full illustration, only in the rays from a higher world which are flung upon them from religion. All this however holds in the highest degree only of Christianity, the absolutely true and perfect religion. Its founder, Jesus Christ, the God-man and Saviour of the world, is accordingly the animating soul, and central sun, and universal key at the same time, of all history. His entrance into the world forms the boundary between the old and the new; from him, the light and life of the world, light and life flow backwards into the night of Paganism and twilight of Judaism, and forwards through all following centuries by means of his church. Even in ancient history, what is most worthy of notice and full of meaning is the preparation of the way for Christianity, through the divine revelation made to Israel and the dark longings of the heathen world. For later history in full, Christianity is the inmost pulse, the very heart's blood and central stream. This shows itself most clearly in the Middle Ages, when all sciences and arts, all social culture, and the greatest political and national movements, received their impulse from the church, and were guided and ruled by its spirit. But the history also of the last three centuries, rests throughout, in all its branches, upon the great ecclesiastico-religious movement of the sixteenth century, in the process of whose development we are still involved. Any one may easily see from this the comprehensive significance of church history. 3. The Church. Christianity, to which as the absolute, universal religion this central and all-embracing position in history belongs, and on which depends the salvation of the whole human race, exists not merely as something subjective in single pious individuals, but also as an objective, organic, visible society, as a church or kingdom of God upon the earth. The church is in part a pedagogic institution to prepare men for 1849.] Idea of the Church. 413 heaven, and as such destined to pass away; in part the everlasting communion of the redeemed, embracing earth and heaven. In the first view, it embraces, as a visible organization, all baptized persons, many consequently who are hypocrites and unbelievers, who are to be fully separated from it only at the end of the world. Hence our Lord compares the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xiii, to a field, in which wheat and tares grow together until the harvest; also to a net, in which good and bad fish are promiscuously taken. To the true essence of the church however, the everlasting communion of saints, belong only the regenerate, who are united by faith with Christ the head, and through him also with one another. The church still further is a human society, but not for this reason by any means the product of men, as being called into existence by their invention and free will, like free-masonry for instance, temperance societies, and all sorts of political and literary associations. On the contrary it is grounded by God himself through Christ, his incarnation, his life, suffering and death, his exaltation and the effusion of the Holy Ghost, for his own glory and the redemption and salvation of men. For this very reason, the gates of hell itself can never prevail against it. It is the ark of Christianity, out of which there is no salvation, the channel in which flows continuously forward the revelation of the triune God and the powers of eternal life. Paul styles it ordinarily the body of Christ, and believers the members of this body. As a body in general, the church is an organic union of many members, which have different callings and gifts, but are pervaded by the same life-blood, governed by the same head, animated by the same soul, coöperating with mutual assistance in the service of one and the same end. All this is set forth in the most masterly and incomparable style, particularly in the 12th and 14th chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians. As the body of Christ, the church is Christ's dwelling place, in which he exercises all his divine and human life-powers, as also the organ by and through which he acts upon the world in the capacity of its Redeemer, as the soul dwells in the body and reveals its activity by its means. The Lord is thus present in the church, and in all its institutions and means of grace, particularly in the word and sacraments, after a mystical, invisible, and incomprehensible manner indeed, but not the less real and efficient and manifest on this account, with the entire fulness of his personality, his theanthropic nature and life. " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I”—my person, not merely my spirit or my word, or my influence— Rom. 12: 5. 1 Cor. 6: 15. 12: 27. Eph. 1: 20. 4: 12. 5: 30. Col. 1: 24. "in the midst of them" (Matt. 18: 20). "Lo! I am with you"-the representatives of the universal body of saints-" always to the end of the world" (Matt. 28: 20). Hence Paul names the church, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 20). We may thus say, without exaggeration, that the church is the continuation of Christ's life and work upon the earth, though never indeed, so far as men are concerned, without a mixture of sin and error. In the church, the Lord is perpetually born anew in the hearts of believers ; through her, he speaks words of truth and consolation to the fallen race of man; in her he heals the sick, raises the dead to new life, distributes the heavenly manna, gives himself for spiritual food and drink to souls longing for salvation; in her, are repeated his sufferings and death; in her also, however, are continually celebrated anew, his resurrection and ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. She takes upon herself, through all her militant state, like her Head in his humiliation, the form of a servant, and is hated, despised, and mocked, by the ungodly world; but out of this form, at the same time, gleams a divine glory, "the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." In her maternal womb must we be born again out of incorruptible seed; from her breast must we be nourished, in order that we may have spiritual life. For she is the Lamb's bride, the habitation of the Holy Ghost, the temple of the living God, "the pillar and ground of the truth." Those old primitive sayings, perverted into a fleshly and false sense by the church of Rome: Qui ecclesiam non habet matrem, Deum non habet patrem; and: Extra ecclesiam nulla salus, are altogether correct when we understand in the case the true church, the spiritual Jerusalem, "which is the mother of us all" (Gal. 4: 26). For inasmuch as Christ, in his character of Redeemer, is to be found, neither in Heathenism nor Judaism nor Islamism, but in the church only, the fundamental proposition, "Out of Christ no salvation," necessarily includes in itself also the other, "No salvation out of the church." 4. The Development of the Church. The church now is not to be viewed as at once at hand and complete, but as a historical fact, and as a human society, subject to the laws of history, to genesis, growth, and development. Here indeed we must make an important distinction. In her idea, or as objectively viewed in Christ, in whom dwells the whole fulness of the Godhead, and who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, the church is from the start complete and capable of no change. In the same way, |
