ScJia LIBRARY ^ University of California. GIF^T OF" Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. Received October, i8g4, zig, 1864. The 8th CRITICAL NOTES. I47 Meditation, pp. 251-329, treats of Christ according to the Gospels. Two other French works, which seem to follow the same train of thought, I know only by name : E. Dandiran : — Essai sur la Divinite du CharacUre Moral de Jesus-Christ. Geneve, 1850. And Edm. de Pressens^ i—Le Redempteiir . Paris, 1854. (Translated into English.) ECCE Homo : — A Survey of the Life and Work of Jesus Christ. London, Macmillan & Co., 1866. This work, said to "be written by Professor Seeley (now of Cambridge), created a sensation almost as great as Renan's Life of Jesus, but in a healthy direction, and leads at least to the threshold of Christ's divinity, although it deals exclusively with his humanity. Among the many criticisms and replies called forth, compare, especially, W. E. Gladstone : — Ecce Homo^ London (Strahan &Co.), 1868. Thomas Hughes -.—The Manliness of Christ. London and Boston, 1880. Note i, page i. The painter-monk Fra Beato Angelico da Fiesole (born in Fiesole, near Florence, in 1387, died in Rome in 1455), one of the purest characters in the whole history of art, who from the seraphic beauty of his angels and glorified saints was called "the blessed" and '*tlie angelic," painted the head of Christ and of the holy Virgin always in a praying frame of mind and on his knees. *'It would be well for criticism," says E. Renan (in his ^^ Studies of Eeligious History and Criticism^'" trans, by O. B. Frothingham, New York, 1864, p. 168), *'to imitate his example, and, only after having adored them, to face the radiance of certain figures before which the ages have bent low\ " Unfortunately, the French philosopher understands this in the sense of pantheistic hero-worship. We regard only one man as w^orthy of divine honour and worship, — the God-man Jesus of Nazareth. Note 2, page 3. See Pr. Horace Bushnell's able work on ''Nature and the Supernatural^'' 1858. The same idea is expressed by Dr. John W. Nevin, in '' The Mystical Presence,"' Philad., 1846, p. 199, in these words : ** Nature and revelation, the world and 148 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. Christianity, as springing from the same Divine Mind, are not two different sj^stems joined together in a merely outward way. They form a single whole, harmonious with itself in all its parts. The sense of the one, then, is necessarily included and comprehended in the sense of the other. The mystery of the new creation must involve, in the end, the mystery of the old ; and the key that serves to unlock the meaning of the first must serve to unlock the inmost secret of the last." Note 3, page 4. John 6 : 69 : "We have believed and know" {ijfjLeLs TreTTitr- re^Ka/xep Kai iyvibKafiev, credidimus et cognovimus). The reverse order we have in John 10 : 38 : " That ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him ; " and in i John 5:13. Note 4, page 4. *' Fides prcecedit intellect icm." Or more fully, in the lan- guage of Anselm of Canterbury, adopted by Schleiermacher as the motto of his Dogmatics : * ^Neque enim qucero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam. Nam qui non crediderity non experietuVf et qui expertus nonfuerit, non intelliget.^^ Note 5, page 4. '* Intellectus prcecedit Jldem." This was Abelard's maxim, which, without the restriction of the opposite maxim, must lead to rationalism and scepticism. Note 6, page 7. Dr. Ullmann, *' Die Sundlosigkeit Jesu^' 6th ed. p. 215 : ^*Sofuhrt schon das vollendet-Menschliche in Jesu, wenn wir es Quit allem Uehrigen, was die Menschheit darhietet, ver- gleichen, zur Anerkennung des Gottlichen in ihm." Dr. DoR- NER, *^ Entwicklungsgeschichte der Lehre von der Person Christi" 2d. ed. vol. ii. p. 121 1 : ^^ Jesu Heiligkeit und Weis- heit, durch die er unter den siindigeny viel-irrenden Menschen einzig dasteht, weiset. . . . auf einen uhernatiXrlichen Ur- sprung seiner Person. Diese muss, um inmitten der Sunder- welt hegreiflich zu sein, aus einer eigenthilmlichen und wundeV" bar schopferischen That Gottes ahgeleitet,ja es muss in Chris us . . . von Gott aus hetrachtet, cine Incarnation gottlicherLiehe, also gottlichen Waens geschen werden, was ihn als den Punkt CRITICAL NOTES. 1 49 ey'scheinen Idsst, wo Gott und die Menschheit einzig und innigst geeinigt sind." Note 7, page 10. This idea is almost as old as the Christian Church, and was already taught by Iren^US, who, through the single link of his teacher Polycarp, stood connected with the age of St. John the apostle. He says {Adv. Hcereses, lib. ii. cap. 22, § 4) : " Omnes enhn venit [Christus] per semetipsum salvare^ omneSy inquam, qui per eum renascuntur in Deum^ infantes et par- vulos et pneros et seniores, Ideo per omnem venit cetatem et infantihus infans f actus, sanctificans infantes ; in parvulis parvulus, sanctificans hanc ipsam hahentes cetatem, simul et exemplum Hits pietatis effectus et justitice et suhjcctionis ; in juvenibus juvenis, exemplum juvenihus fens et sanctificans Domino. Sic et senior in senioribus (?), ut sit perfectus ma- gister in omnibus,'' &c. But Irenseus erred in carrying the idea too far, and assuming Christ to have lived over fifty years, on the ground of the indefinite estimate of the Jews, John 8:57. Note 8, page 11. See Luke i : 41-45 ; the Magnificat, or the Virgin's Song, vers. 46-55 ; the Benedictus, or the Song of Zacharias, vers. 67-79. Note 9, page 12. Bethlehem was indeed the ancestral seat of the house of David (Ruth i : i, 2), and fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11 : 16), but remained an insignificant place, and is not even men- tioned among the towns of Judah in the Hebrew text of Joshua, nor in Neh. 1 1 : 25. Comp. Micah. 5 : i, where the prophet thus contrasts its insignificance with its future destiny as the birthplace of the Saviour (according to the Hebrew text) : "But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, too small to be among the thousands of Judah^^'^•1^V?'?^?3—^.e., the central towns where the heads of thousands or subordinate divisions of tribes resided], out of thee shall come forth unto me One who is to be the ruler in Israel ; whose origin is from the first of time, from the days of eternity." Note 10, page 13. Compare the rich remarks of Dr. Lange in his commentary I50 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. on the second chapter of Matthew, vers. i-ii. (Am. ed. vol. i. p. S5ff.) Note ii, page 13. Luke 2: 40, "And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit ; " precisely the same expression which Luke used, i : 80, of John the Baptist. Compare also for the human growth and development of Christ, Luke 2 : 52 ; Heb. 2: 10-18 and 5 : 8 and 9, where it is said that he learned obedience, and, being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salva- tion. Note 12, page 14. Dr. J. P. Lange, in his *' Leben Jesu nach den Evangelien,^* Heidelberg, 1844 ff. vol. ii. p. 127, says : "The history of Jesus in his twelfth year represents his whole development. It is the characteristic deed of his youth, the revelation of his youthful life, a reflection of his birth, a sign and anticipation of his future heroic career. It represents the childhood of his ideality, therefore also the ideality of childhood in general." Compare also the suggestive remarks of Olshausen on that passage, ^^ Commentar^' (3d Germ. ed. vol. i. p. 145 ff.) ; and of Van Oosterzee, in Lange's " Bibelwerk." Note 13, page 14. Luke 2 : 49 ; ip roh rod Trarpds fiov dei, [del indicates a moral necessity which is identical with true freedom,] elpai jxe. The fathers and most of the modern commentators refer the rots to the house of God, or the Temple. This is grammatically allowable, but restricts the sense, and deprives it of its deeper meaning ; for he could only occasionally be in the Temple of Jerusalem, which besides had already become a house of mer- chandise, (John 2:16) and was soon to be destroyed. Nearly all the English versions, Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevan, and James, translate more correctly, "about my. Father's business.^' But we object to the term business in this con- nection, and prefer the more literal translation "m the things (or affairs) of my Father." The in signifies the life-element in which Christ moved during his whole life, >vhether in the Temple or out of it. Note 14, page 15. By Dr. Horace Busiinell, in his genial work, already CRITICAL NOTES. IS I quoted, on ** Nature and the Supernatural y'' page 280. (" The Character of JesuSj" page 19 ff.) • Note 15, page 17. See the particulars, with ample quotations from the sources, in RuD. Hoffmann's " Leben Jesu nach den Apokri/phen-lm Zusammenhang aus den Quellen erzaehlt und wissenschaftlich untersucht/' Leipzig, 185 1, p. 140-263. Also the Apocry- phal Gospels by Tischendorf. Note 16, page 18. Renan, in his Life, or Romance rather, of Jesus, chap. ii. , gives a graphic description of the natural beauties of Naza- reth, as among the educational influences which account for the greatness of Christ ; but all this cannot do away Avith the seclusion and proverbial insignificance of the place (John i : 48), and loses much of its force when we remember the naiTOW streets and filth of an Oriental town. ** Nazareth," says Renan, "was a little town, situated in a fold of land broadly open at the summit of the group of mountains which closes on the north the Plain of Esdraelon. The population is now from three to four thousand, and it cannot have varied very much. .... The environs are charming, and no place in the world was so well adapted to dreams of absolute happiness. Even in our days, Nazareth is a delightful sojourn, — the only place perhaps, in Palestine, where the soul feels a little relieved of the burden which weighs upon it in the midst of this unequalled desolation. The people are friendly and good- natured ; the gardens are fresh and green. . . . The beauty of the women who gather there at night — this beauty which was already remarked in the sixth century, and in which w^as seen the gift of the Virgin Mary (by Antonius Martyr, Itiner. § 5) — has been surprisingly well preserved. It is the Syrian type in all its languishing grace." Comp. my book Through Bible Lands (New York and London, 1879), pp. 320-329. Note 17, page 19. Matt. 13 : 54-56. Compare also Mark 6:3, " Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?" &c. ; from which _it would appear that Jesus himself engaged in the trade of Joseph. This is confirmed by ancient tradition and the custom of 152 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. Jewish Rabbis. Thus St. Paul was a tent-maker (Acts 18 : 3). The profession ^f a carpenter was by no means degrad- ing, but regarded among the most honourable and useful. Hence the question of the Nazarenes, ''Is not this the car- penter^s son ? " is to be taken as a question of surprise rather than of contempt. They denied the superiority, not the equality, of Jesus with them ; and could not understand from his social position how he could rise above the common level, and perform such wonderful works. Note 18, page 22. Comp. G. G. Gervinus : " Shakspeare,'' Leipzig, 1850, vol. i. pp. 38-41. This masterly critic and expounder of the British poet pronounces him one of the best and most exten- sively informed men of his age : " JEs ist heute kein Wagniss mehr, zu sagen, dass SJiakspeare in jener Zeit an Umfang vielfachen Wissens sehr wenige seines Gleichen gehabt habeJ^ Note 19, page 23. John Young : ** The Christ of History," p. 35, Note 20, page 26. Heinrich StefFens, a follower of Schelling, and a Christian philosopher, bases his ' * System of Anthropology 'I upon the thought expressed in the text. But it may be applied in its fullest and absolute sense only to Christ, as the ideal man, in whom and through whom alone the race can become com- plete. Note 21, page 31. Comp. with the history of the temptation in the wilderness, Matt. 4 and Luke 4, the significant passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews 4:15, "Tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin^' {Treireipaaixivov KaroL ir&vTa Ka^* ofJLOLdrrjTa, x^P^^ apLaprias), and 5:8; "Though he was a son, yet leaimed he obedience by the things which he suffered" {Kaiirep &p vlbs, i/Jia^ev d7, page 58. I Cor. II : I. Comp. i Thess. 1:6: "Ye beccame fol- lowers of us and of the Lord. " Note 38, page 59. Matt. 4 : 19 ; 8 : 22 ; 9 : 9 ; Mark 2 : 14 ; 8 : 34 ; 10 : 21 ; Luke 5 : 27 ; 9 *• 23, 59 ; 18 : 22 ; John i : 43 ; 10 : 27 ; 12 : 26. Note 39, page 59. Matt. 12 : 1-8 ; Mark 2 : 23-28 ; Luke 5:1-9; John 5 : 16-18. Note 40, page 60. John 9:3: ** Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents ; (but he was born blind) that the works of God should be made manifest in him. " Note 41, page 60. See the dialogue with the woman of Samaria, John 4 : 5 ff. ; and the parable of the merciful Samaritan, Luke 10 : Note 42, page 62. Comp. UllmaNN, '' Sundlosigkeit" p. 67; J. P. LANGE, *'' Lehen Jesu" i. 27-34; Ebrard, ^* Dogmatik" vol. ii. 23, 24. Also Hase, in his ^^ Lehen Jesu,'^ -p. 63 (4th ed.), places the ideal beauty of Christ's character in ^*das schone Ehen- maass alter Krdfte," and in **vollendete Gottesliebe dargestellt in reinster Humanitdt^^ (**The beautiful symmetry of all powers," and ** perfect love to God, exhibited in the purest humanity "). Bishop D. WiLSON, in his * * Evidences of Chris- tianity'* voL ii. 1x6 (Boston ed. of 1830), remarks: "The opposite, and to us apparently contradictory, graces were found in Christ in equal proportion." Dr. W. E. Channing, the Unitarian, in his able sermon on the ** Character of Christ" {Works f vol. iv. p. 23), says : "This combination of the spirit of humanity, in its lowliest, tenderest form, with the consciousness of unrivalled and divine glories, is the most wonderful distinction of this Avonderful character." GuizoT, Meditations sur V Essence de la Relig. Chretienne, 1864, p. 274 : " Rien ne me frappe plus dans les ^vangiles que ce double charactere de severity et d'amour^ de puretd austdre et l60 THE PERSON OF CHIUST. de ^ympathie tendre qui apparait et rtgne constamment dans les actes et dans les paroles de Jesus-Christ, en tout ce qui touche aux r appoints de Dieu avec les Jiommes." I add a testimony from Dr. Luthardt'S '' Apologetische Vortrdge iiher die Grundwahrheiten des Christenthums,'" Leipz. 1864, p. 204 : '' The image of Jesus is the image of the highest and purest harmony both of his natural and his moral being. With all other men there is some discrepancy in the inner life. The two poles of intellectual life, knowledge and feel- ing, head and heart, the two powers of the moral life, thought and will,— in whom are they fully agreed? But as to Jesus, Ave all have the lively impression, here reigns perfect harmony of the inner spiritual life. His soul is at absolute peace. ... He is all love, all heart, all feeling; and yet, on the other hand, all intellect, all clearness, all majesty. . . . All is quiet greatness, peaceful simplicity, sublime harmony." Note 43, page d^. ** Politiay'' p. 74 sq. ed. Ast. {''Plat. Opera,^'' vol. iv. p. 360, E. ed. Bip.) Compare the author's ''History of the Apostolic Churchy''' English edition, § 109, page 433. Jean Jacques Bousseau was struck with this remarkable heathen prophecy of the suffering Saviour, who died the death of a malefactor and a slave to redeem us. ** Quand Platon,'' he says in his Rmil, " peint son juste imaginaire convert de tout Vopprohre du crime et digne de tous les prix de la vertu, it peint trait pour trait J tsus-Christ : la ressemhlance est si frappantCy que tous les ptres font se7itie, et qu'il rCest pas possible de s'y tromper, " Note 44, page 69. John 7 : 3-10. The brethren of Jesus appear, at all events, as members and inmates of the holy family either by birth or adoption. Compare the author's exegetical article on the *' BrotJiers of Christy'' in the " Bihliotheca Sacra" for October 1864 ; and notes in his edition of Lange's ** Commentary on Matthew" p. 256. Note 45, page 74. Rousseau, ^m^7, iv. p. in : " Qui, si la vie et la mort de Socrate sont dun sage ; la vie et la mort de Jesus sont d'un dieu ! " See Appendix. CRITICAL NOTES. l6l Note 46, page 79. ^*Ber Reinste unter den Mdchtigen, der Mdchtigste unter den Beineii, der mit seiner durchstochenen Hand Belche aus der Angel, den Strom der Jahrhunderte aus dem Bette hoh und nochfortgehietet den Zeiten" Jean Paul, " Ueher d^n Gott in der Geschichte und im Leben." Sdmmtliche Werke^ vol. xxxiii. 6. Note 47, page 80. ** Fee de Jesus/' 7th ed. Paris, 1864, p. 325: "Quels que puissent etre les phenomdnes inattendues de Vavenir, Jesus ne sera pas surpasse. Son culte se rajeunira sans cesse ; sa legeiide vrovoquera des larmes sans Jin ; ses souff ranees attendriront les meilleurs cceurs ; tous les sidcles proclameront qu'entre les fils des hommes, il n'en est pas ne de plus grand que Jcsus.'^ Renan, however, spoils his concessions, which are quite fre- quent and enthusiastic, by his pantheistic man-worship, and by placing Cakya-Mouni, the founder of Buddhism, on a par with Christ. Compare the last chapter of his " Vie de Jesus" and also the conclusion of his essay on the " Critical Eisto- rians of Jesus," where he says of Christ : "The wonder-worker and the prophet Avill die ; the man and the sage will endure ; or, rather, the eternal beauty will live for ever in this sublime name, as in all those whom humanity has chosen to keep it in mind of its own nature, and to transport it by the view of its own image. Behold there the living God ! This is the ador- able One ! " Note 48, page 80. Dr. Baur : ' * Das Christenthum und die christliche Kirche der ersten drei Jahrhunderte." (See note 85, p. 172.) Note 49, page 83. For a very full exposition of this testimony we refer to the instructive and able work of W. Fr. Gess : '^ Die Lehre von der Berson Christi entwickelt aus dem Sehsthewusstsein Christi und aus dem Zeugnisse der Apostel." Basel. 1856, new ed., much enlarged, 1879. Dr. Bushnell's admirable essay on the , character of Jesus is defective here. He does not establish the proper divinity of Christ, but seems content with the proof that he was more than man, and cannot be classified with men. Having carried the reader over the great difficulty, and 21 1 62 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. beyond the boundary of hiimanitarianism, he leaves him to his own conclusion concerning the merits of the orthodox view of Christ. The same is true of Prof. Seeley's *' Ecce Homo. " Note 50, page 2>t,, Compare the dictionaries, and especially Bruder's * ' Greek Concordance of the New Testament " suh verbo vibs rod av'^pdoirov. Note 51, page 84. So many modern German commentators, and also Dr. Teench, who remarks: "He was ^ Son of man/ as alone realising all which in the idea of man was contained, as the second Adam, the head and representative of the race, — the one true and perfect flower, which ever unfolded itself, of the root and stock of humanity. Claiming this title as his own, he witnessed against opposite poles of error concerning his person, — the Ebionite, to which the exclusive use of the title * Son of David ' might have led ; and the Gnostic, which denied the reality of the human nature that bore it" (" Notes on the Parables,'* ninth London edition, page 84). LiDDON {*' Bampton Lectures on the Divinity of Christ,^' 1868, p. 8) : *'The title *Son of Man' does not merely assert his real in- corporation with our kind ; it exalts Him indefinitely above us all as the representative, the ideal, the pattern Man." Philo, the Jewish divine and philosopher, a contemporary of Christ, calls the Logos the true man, 6 dXrf^Lvbs dv^pcoiros. Note 52, page 84. Matt. 9: 27; 15: 22; 12: 23; 21 : 9; 22: 41 ff., &c. Note 53, page S6. Matt. 16 : 17 ; compare 19 : 28 ; 24 : 30 ; 25 : 31 ; 26 : 64; Luke 21 : 27, 36. Note 54, page Sy. Matt. II : 27 ; 21 : 37 ; 22 : 42 ; 26 : 63 f. ; 27 : 43 ; Mark 12: 6; 13: 32; 14 : 62 ; Luke 10: 22; John 5: 19-26; 9; 35-38; 10: 36; II : 4; 14: 13; 17: I ; 19: 7. Note 55, page 87. Matt. 16 : 16; Mark 3:11; John i : 18, 34, 49; 11 : 27; 20 :. 31, — besides the many passages in the Acts and Epistles, CRITICAL NOTES. 1 63 ■where the term vlbs tov GeoO is as frequent as the term vibs toO dp^pibirov in the Gospels. Note 56, page 87. Matt. 3:17; Luke 3 : 22 ; Matt. 17 : 5 ; Luke 9 : 35, Note 57, page 88. Matt. II : 27. This passage is a striking parallel to the sub» limest sayings in the fourth Gospel, and proves the essential identity of the Synoptist and Johannean picture of Christ. Note 58, page S8. John 3 : 36 ; 5 : 24 ; 6 : 40, 47, 50-58 ; ii : 25. Note 59, page 88. John 4 : 26 ; 5 : 36, 39 ; Matt. 14 : 33 ; 16 : 16 f . ; 26 : 63 f. ; &c. Note 60, page 89. Matt. 26 : 63-65. Schleiermacher pronounces this affirma- tive Yea of Christ, in view of the surrounding circumstances, the greatest word ever spoken by any man, the most glorious apotheosis, and the most certain assurance by which any divinity could proclaim itself {^'das grosste Wort, was je ein Sterhlicher gesagt haty die herrlichste Apotheose ; heine Gott- hcit kann gewisser sein als die, welche so sich selhst verkun- digeV^). See his youthful work, '^Discourses on Religion" {Eeden uber die Religion), 4th edition, Berlin, 183 1, p. 292. Note 61, page 89. Matt. 16 : 19 ; 27 : 11 ; Luke 22 : 30 ; John 18 : 36. Com- pare Dan. 7 : 13 ; Luke i : 33. Note 62, page 89. John 5 : 22, 25-27 ; Matt. 25 : 31 ff., &c. Note 62>y page 89. Matt. 18: II; Luke 9: 56; 19: 10; John 3 : 17; 5: 34; 10 : 9 ; 12 : 47. Compare Luke i : 47 ; 2 ; 11 ; John 4 : 42, &c. Note 64, page 91. *^ Mundus ncnf actus est in temjpore, sed cum tempore^ 164 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. Note 65, page 91. John 8 : 58 : 'Afirjv, dfxrjv [the solemn announcement of an important truth] Xiyw v/xTv, irplv 'A^paajx yevecr^aL eyu) elfxi, Mark also the difference of the verb (which is lost in our English version), besides the difference of the tense. For yivea^ai, to become, to begin to be, to pass from no7i- existence into existence, implies origin in time or previous non-existence, and is applicable only to created beings; while eXvai is equally applicable to God and to eternal existence. Compare the ^ v of the A670S, John i ; i, with the eyivero of the man John, ver. 6. H. A. W. Meyer, one of the fairest and most accurate grammatical commentators, correctly remarks on John 8 : 58 : **/>« Abraham nicht prdexistirt hatte, sondern {durch seine Gebu7^t) ZUR ExiSTENZ KAM, SO steht yevia'^ac, wogegen mit clfxl das Sein an SICH gemeint ist, welches bei Jesu {sofern er naxh seinem gottUchen Wesen vorzeitlich war) ohne vorgdngiges Gewordensein war. Das Praesens bezeichnet das ans der Ver- gangenheit her, d. i. hier : aus der Vorzeitlichkeit her ( Joh. I : I ; 17 : 5), Fortdauernde. Vrgl. Ixx., Jer. 1:5; Ps. 90 : 2 ; Winer, Gramm. p. 309." Meyer then goes on to refute the Socinian and rationalistic misinterpretations of the passage. John 17 : 5. Compare the testimony of the apostles on the re-existenoe, — John i : 1-14; Col. i : 16 ; Heb. i : 2, 3. Note 66, page 91 Com] pre-existenoe, Note 67, page 92. Matt. 9:6; Luke 5 : 20-24 J 7 • 47» 4S» Note 6^, page 93. John 10 : 30. The passage teaches, certainly, more than the ethical unity of Avill : it asserts, according to the context, the unity of powder which is based on the unity of essence, or the homousia. The ^v excludes Arianism ; the plural ^tr/xer, Sabellianism and Patripassianism. Note 69, page 93. Dr. Hengstenberg, in his * ' Commentary/ on the Gospel of St. John," 1863, vol. iii. p. 361, justly remarks : '' Men- schen, die sich selbst zu Gott machen, sind immer entweder Verruckte oder Bosewichter, Wer anders, als wcr selbst ein CRITICAL NOTES. 1 65 Frevler ist, wird es wagen Jesum, in die eine oder die andere dieser Classen zu seizeyi ?" The anonymous author of " Ecce Deus" (Boston ed., p. 23) remarks : ''Christ must be more than a good man, or worse than the worst man. If he be not God, he is the Devil." Note 70, page 93. ** Of all the readers of the gospel," saj'S BUSHNELL, p. 290, "it probably never even occurs to one in a hundred thousand to blame his conceit, or the egregious vanity of his preten- sions." Note 71, page 94. The explanation which some Socinian and Unitarian divines give of these words of Thomas, by resolving them into a mere exclamation of surprise at the fact of the resurrection, ** O my God ! " is simply absurd, and only worthy of notice as revealing the inextricable difficulty which it presents to the Unitarian Christology. Note 72, page loi. Similar views are more fully carried out by Dr. Bushnell (*' Nature and the Supernatural "), and Professor Christlieb {** Modern Doubts^" d-c.) Note 73, page 103. Is was first suggested by the heathen assailants of Chris- tianity, Celsus and JULIAN THE APOSTATE, then insinuated by French Deists of the school of Voltaire, but never raised to the dignity of scientific argument. The only attempt to carry it out, and that a mere fragmentary one, was made by the anonymous " Wolfejibiittel Fragmentist,'' since known as Hermann Samuel Reimarus, professor of Oriental Literature in the College at Hamburg, who died in 1786. His ^^ Fragments^' were never intended for publication, but only for a few friends. Lessing found them in the library at Wolfenbiittel, and commenced to publish them, without the author's knowledge, in 1774 ; not, as he said, because he agreed with them, but because he wished to arouse the spirit of investigation. This mode of procedure, Semler, the father of German neology, wittily compared to the act of setting a city on fire for the purpose of tiying the engines. In our own time, Bruno Bauer, a theological weathercock, vagabond, and final apostate (not to be confounded with the far superior 1 66 THE PERSON OP CHRIST. Dr. F. Ch. Baur), has endeavoured to revive, "but without effect, this exploded theory, and has misrepresented the Gospels as deliberate fabrications. But even Strauss ignores him (in his new ^^ Life of Jesus ") as unfit for his company. Note 74, page 108. ^'Discourse on the Character of Christ,'^ — Channing's Works i vol. iv. 17, 18. Note 75, page 109. The so-called rationalismus communis, or vulgaris, or tlie rationalism of common sense, as distinct from the transcen- dental rationalism of uncommon sense or speculative reason. The sense of both systems, however, ends in nonsense. Dr. Marheineke defined a Rationalist, or, as Paulus (not of Tarsus, but of Heidelberg) called him, a Denkglduhige, as a man, der zu denken glauht und zu glauhen denkt ; es ist aber mit beidem gleich mdl ; i.e., a man who believes that he thinks, and thinks that he believes ; but both amounts to nothing. The Hegelian School has successfully ridiculed common or vulgar rationalism, and made every scholar of philosophical pretensions ashamed of it. But the infidel wing of that school has at last relapsed into the same or still greater absurdities. Note 76, page 109. Compare DiODORUS SicuLUS, BlUi, Fragm,, i. 7 ; Cicero, De natura deor.^ i. 42 ; Sextus Empir., Adv. math., ix. 17. Note 77, page 109. Dr. Paulus was born at Leonberg, in the kingdom of Wiirttemberg, 1761 ; then successively professor in different universities; at last in Heidelberg, where he died in 185 1, after having long outlived himself. His rationalistic exegesis is laid down in his *' Commentary on the Gospels" published since 1800; and in his ^^ Life of Jesus, ^' 1828. Note 78, page 1 10. The rationalistic interpretation of irepLTrarCop M rris ^oXdar- a-rjs (according to the reading of the received text), or ^7r2 ttJi/ ^d\aw hast,^^ he says, '^selbst in solchen Atigenblicken, ivojede Lehenshoffnung erloschen war, niemals der Versiichung uachgegehen, durch Anlehnen an^s Jenseits dich zu tdusehenV This philosophy of death was well characterised, at the appearance of his first ^^LehenJesu,*' m the lines of Gustav Schwab, the Swabian poet: " Ich bin der Weg, die Wahrheit und das Lehen, Sprach Der, den Gott zum Fiihrer uns gegeben ; Doch wie spricht der, mit dem ihr uns bedroht? Ich bin der Weg, die Wahrheit und der Tod." 22 I/O THE PERSON OF CHUIST. The mythical theory of Strauss has been refuted, first positively, by Neander, Lange, Tholuck, Ebrard, and other Biblical scliolars, who met his ^^ Life of Jesus ^' with suc- cessful vindications of the gospel history ; negatively also by Baur, Schwegler, Keim, and other advanced critics of the Tiibingen School, who derive the Gospels and Epistles, not from the unconscious myth-producing faculty of the early Christians, but from conscious and antagonistic religious tendencies of the fermenting Pauline and post- apostolic age which resulted at last in the formation of Catholic Chris- tianity. But Strauss himself has furnished the most eflfective refu- tation of his ^^ Life of Jesus'^ in his own last work, *' The Old and the New Faith^"" which contains his dying creed of des- pair. Here he cast off all half-way measures, and even the last concessions he had formerly made to Christ and the Christian faith. Beginning as a Hegelian, he ended as a Darwinian ; from the empyrean of idealism, he sank down to the slough of materialism, and exclianged his gospel of poetry for the gospel of dirt. This is the logical termination of infi- delity. Compare an able and searching criticism of " The New Faith of Strauss ^^ by my late colleague and friend, Dr. Henry B. Smith, in '^ Faith and Philosophy,'' New York, 1878, page 443. Note 81, page 115. TiiEODOEE Parker, born in Massachusetts, 18 10 ; died in Florence, i860. *^ Discourse of Matters pertaining to Beli' gion,'' 1849. Compare his review of Strauss in the " Christian Examiner,'' for April 1840. Mr. Weiss makes out a distinc- tion between the theories of Strauss and Parker, but on a par- tial misapprehension of the former. The difference lies more in the practical turn of the American orator and the specula- tive turn of the German student. Parker was an enthusiast for liberty and social progress ; Strauss was selfishly conser- vative in politics, and cared little for the people. See '' LJfe and Correspondence of Theodore Parker," hy John Weiss, New York, 1864, 2 vols. ; and an able review of this work by Professor NoAH PoRTER in the ^' New-Englander" for 1864, page 359 ff". Note 82, page 115. The woid myth is derived from the Greek verb iivoj, to sliut CRITICAL NOTES. 171 the eyes or the lips, whence mystery and mysticism, and means speech, tale, fable, fiction ; fxrj^o^oyia is the narrative of fabulous stories of the gods, mythology. The miracles of Christ have a symbolical, but no mythical, character ; they imply a religious idea, and yet they are facts; they are both true and real. The Gospels move altogether on the terra firma of historical reality. Compare George, '^ My thus mid Sage,'' 1837, and especially Ullm ANN, '' Historisch oder Mythisch ? '' 1838. Note 83, page 121. In his new '* Lehen Jesu," page 79, Strauss says, with refer- ence to the Gospel of St. John : ^^ Hier hat sogar die Einmis- chung philosophischer Construction und bewusster Dlchtung alle Wahrscheinlichkeit.^' Note 84, page 123. Dr. Baur, in the second and revised edition of his last im- portant work, on " Christianity and the Christian Church in the First Three Centuries,'' which appeared shortly before his death (a. i860), makes the remarkable concession that the conversion of St. Paul remained at all times an enigma to him, which cannot be satisfactorily solved by any psychological or dialectical analysis. ** Keine weder psychologische noch dia- lektische Analyse kann das innere Geheimniss des Actes erfor- schen, in welchem Gott seinen Sohn in ihm enthullte " (page 45). In this connection he allows himself to speak of the miracle of the resurrection, * * which alone could disperse the doubts of the older apostles, which seemed to doom faith itself to the eternal night of death " {'* das Wunder der Auferstehung, das allein die Zweifel der dlteren Apostel zerstreuen konnte, welche den Glauben selhst in die ewige Nacht des Todes verstosscn zu miissen schienerC' (p. 39). He also speaks of the miracleoi Paul's conversion, which appears the greater, since he, " in the sudden change from the most violent enemy to the most determined herald of (Christianity, broke through the barriers of Jewish particularism, and dissolved it in the universal idea of Chris- tianity " (page 45). We honour the honesty of this greatest of modern sceptics, and cherish the hope that he was saved at last from "the eternal night" of despair which is the legiti- mate end of scepticism. One of his last words, I am told, was the sigh, "Lord, grant unto me a peaceful end." 172 THE PERSON OF CHKIST. Note 85, page 127. The same objection against the theory of fiction was already raised by the infidel RousSEAU, in his ^' Emile^'' L. iv. p. in : ^^ Jamais des auteurs juifs n'eussent trouv6 ni ce ton, ni cette morale ; et Vevangile a des caracteres de v6rit6 si grands, si frappants,si parfaitement ini7nitahles, que Vinventeuren serait plus Honnant que le Mros.'^ Theodore Parker, in arguing against the total denial of the existence of Jesus, which no sane man ever ventured upon, supplies an argument against the partial denial: "Measure Jesus by the shadow he has cast into the world ; no, by the light he has shed upon it. Shall we be told such a man never lived ? the whole story is a lie ? Suppose that Plato and Newton never lived. But who did their works, and thought their thought ? It takes a New- ton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus ? None but a Jesus." Even Renan himself, unmindful of his theory, says, *^ Life of Jesus,''"' chap, xxviii. p. 367 : ** Far from having been created by his disciples, Jesus appears in all things superior to his disciples. They, St. Paul and St. John excepted, were men without talent or genius. . . . Upon the whole, the character of Jesus, far from having been em- bellished by his biographers, has been belittled by them." What a pity that the world had to wait eighteen hundred years for a restoration of the true picture of Jesus from the imperfect and distorted fragments of his ignorant disciples ! Note 86, page 129. Goethe, in his " Conversations with Echermann" (vol. iii. 371), fully acknowledges the genuineness, credibility, and in- comparable majesty of the Gospels. (See Appendix.) GuizoT, in his ^* Meditations,''^ premiere s^rie, p. 252, makes the follow- ing truthful remarks on them : *'The mighty power of these books and their accounts have been tested and proved. The/ have overcome paganism ; they have conquered Greece, Rome, and barbarous Europe ; they are on the way of conquering the world. And the sincerity of the authors is no less certain than the power of the books. We may contest the learning and critical sagacity of the first historians of Jesus Christ ; but it is impossible to contest their good faith ; it shines from their words : they believed what they said ; they sealed their assertions with their blood." CRITICAL NOTES. 1 73 Note 87, page 129. This argument has been used, with reference to Hume, by Archbishop WhaTELY, in his ^^ Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Bonaparte,^^ Oxford, 1821 ; and against Strauss (which means Ostrich) by Dr. WUEM (under the name of Cas2iar, i.e., Cassowary, a cousin to the ostrich), in his " Life of Luther " 1836, but dated Mexico, 1936, a hundred years after Strauss's *^ Life of Jesus," when criticism shall have reached its climax in the New World. This clever parody strictly follows the method of Strauss, and applies it to the documents relating to the life of Luther, which are often contradictoiy ; for instance, as to his birthplace, Mohra, or Eisleben, or Man sf eld (compare Bethlehem and Naza- reth), and the date and manner of his conversion at Erfurt, whether it was brought about by a duel, or by a thunderstorm and lightning, &c. Professor Norton, in his ^^ Internal Evi- dences of the Gospels,'^ has likewise employed this weapon against Strauss, and by his own process conclusively proven that Julius Csesar was never assassinated. Note 88, page 130. Joseph Ernest Renan was born Feb. 27, 1823, at Treguier in Brittany, of humble parents, and educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood in the Theological Seminary of St. Sulpice, at Paris. But, before taking orders, he was compelled to leave this institution on account of some religious difficulties which his superiors were unable or unwilling to solve. He then devoted himself to the comparative study of the Semitic languages, for which he endeavoured to do what Professor Bopp of Berlin had so successfully accomplished for the Indo-Germanic or Aryan family of languages. In 1847, lie gained the Volney Prize for an essay, since expanded into a histoiy of the Semitic languages, and acquired the reputation of one of the first living Orientalists of Euiope. In 1856, he was elected (in place of Augustin Thierry) a member of the Institute of France. In i860, he was intrusted by Napoleon III. with a mission for archaeological explorations on the sup- posed sites of the Phoenician cities, and published the results of his investigations in an ample collection of epigraphic monuments from the time of the Assyrian domination to that of the Seleucides. On his return, he was appointed to the 174 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. professorship of Hebrew in the College of France, but lost his position in consequence of his inaugural address, in which he boldly attacked, in the name of free science, the traditional orthodoxy of the clerical party, and the dogma of the divinity of Christ. Kenan's " FVe de Jisus"*^ was prepared, as to its outline, during his journey in the East, at the side of his since departed sister, in fresh view of the holy places, and published at Paris in 1863, as the first part of a work (now finished in four volumes) on the * ' Origins of Christianity ^ It marks an epoch in the religious literature of France, and found an unparalleled circulation on the continent of Europe, and also in England and America. I have before me the seventh edition, Paris, 1864. An English translation, by Ch. E. Wilbour, appeared in New York, 1864. The book of Renan has all the charm of a religious romance, and may have benefited many novel-readers, who never knew that Jesus was such an interesting character, by inducing them to study the New Testament. So good has no doubt come out of evil also in this case. But, as a critical or scientific work, his book has no value. In the introduc- tion, he refers, among six works, mainly to the "X^/b of Jesus " by Strauss, as translated by Littr^, for information in critical details. He contents himself with stating his views with oracular self-assurance, and a show of indiscriminate re- ferences to the New Testament and the Talmud, several of which prove the very reverse of the assertions in the text. Of the many refutations of Strauss he says not a word. He published also a smaller edition of his ''Life of Jesus" pre- senting him, as he says, in ** pure white marble" (in sugar- candy rather), without spot or wrinkle, for the edification of the French people. Among the many replies to Renan, I mention those of E. DE Pep:ssense, Van Oosterzee, Bey- scHLAG, and Henry B. Smith. Note 89, page 131. See Kenan's essay on the " Critical Historians of Jesus,** in his "Studies of Religious History and Criticism,^'* trans- lated by O. B. Frothingham, New York, 1864, page 189. Note 90, page 131. In the essay just quoted, p. 197, Renan says : "The legend CKITICAL NOTES. 1/5 of the Buddha Cakya-Mouni is the one which, in its mode of formation, most resembles that of Christ ; as Buddhism is the religion which, in the law of development, most resembles Christianity. '* Note 91, page 131. " ViedeJisus" (chap. xv. p. 172) : ^^ LaUgende itait ainsile fruit d'une grande conspiration toute spontan6e et s'dahorait autour de lui de son vivmit. Aucun grand evenement de Vhistoire ne s'est pass6 sans donner lieu d un cycle de fables, et Jisus n'eut pu, quand il reilt voulu, couper court d ces creations populaires. " Note 92, page 132. ** Studies of Religious History and Criticism^^^ &c., page 192. Note 93, page 133. All competent judges seem to agree in a A^ery low estimate of the scientific and critical value of Kenan's hook. Dr. H. B. Smith of New York, in his excellent review of Kenan's ^^ Life of Jesus ^^ (in the ^^ American Presbyterian and Theological Review " for January 1864, page 145), justly remarks: "In point of learning, intellect, and consistency, the Teutonic work of Strauss is immeasurably superior to the light and airy French romance." The Bev. Samuel J. Andrews, in the preface to a new edition of his '■^ Life of our Lord upon Earth,'' New York, 1864, part vi., denies to Kenan's book all critical value, and adds : **I do not recall any particular in which it adds anything to our knowledge of th§ gospel history, even in its external features : much less does it render us any aid in the understanding of its higher meaning." Note 94, page 134. *' Jesus was a thaumaturgist only at a late period, and against his will." " He was a miracle- worker and an exorcist only in spite of himself. Miracles are ordinarily the work of the public even more than of him to whom they are attri- buted. . . . The miracles of Jesus were a violence done him by his time, a concession which the necessity of the hour wrung from him. So the exorcist and the miracle-worker have fallen ; but the religious reformer shall live for ever " 1/6 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. (Renan, chap, xvi.) '* Desperate, pushed to extremities, he no longer retained possession of himself. His mission imposed itself upon him, and he obeyed the torrent. As always happens in great and divine careers, he suffered the miracles which public opinion demanded of him, rather than performed them. Thoroughly persuaded that Jesus was a worker of miracles, Lazarus and his two sisters may have aided in the performance of one [the apparent resurrection of Lazarus], as so many pious men, convinced of the truth of their religion, have sought to triumph over human obstinacy by means of the weakness of which they were well aware. The state of their conscience was that of the Stigmatists, the Convulsion- ists, the Observed Nuns, led on by the influence of the world in which they live, and by their own belief in the pretended acts. As to Jesus, he had no more power than St. Bernard or St. Francis d'Assisi to moderate the avidity of the multi- tude and of his own disciples for the marvellous. Death, moreover, was in a few days to restore to him his divine liberty, and to snatch him from the fatal necessities of a character which became each day more exacting, more difficult to sustain" (chap, xxii.) So Jesus lent himself an instrument to a pious fraud. Of course, it would not be in keeping with French politeness or ordinary prudence to say, in plump terms, that Christ was an impostor ; but the insinuation is clear enough for any reflecting reader. Note 95, page 135. At the close of chap. xxvi. (page 308 of the French original): *' Son corps avait-il 6te enlev4, ou hien Venthon- siasme, toujours credide, fit-il iclore aprts coup Vensemhle de r6citspar lesquels on chercha d itahlir lafoi d la resurrection ? Cest ce que, faute de documents contradictoires~\yfh\Qh the American translation, page 357, has softened into, *for want of peremptory evidence '] — nous ignorerons d jamais. Disons cependant que la forte imagination de Marie de Magdala • joua dans cette circonstance un role capital. Pouvoir divin de V amour ! moments sacrts ou la passion d'une hallucinee donne au monde un Dieu ressusciti ! " Note 96, page 136. The reader will hardly believe it, until he reads the pas- CRITICAL NOTES. 1 77 sage in *' Vie de J^sus/' chap, xxiii., which we reluctantly copy: '*Did he [Christ in Gethsemane] recall the clear fountains of Galilee where he might have refreshed himself ; the vineyard and fig-tree under which he might have been seated ; les jetmes Jilles qui auraient peiit-Hre consenti d V ai- mer ? Maudit-il son dpre destinee^ qui lui avait interdit les joies conc6d6es d tous les autres ? Megretta-t-il sa trop haute nature J et, victime de sa grandeur, pleura-t-il de n'etrepas i^este un simple artisan de Nazareth ? " Renan most arbitrarily places the scene in Gethsemane several days before the night of the passion, contrary to the unanimous testimony of the Synoptical Gospels as well as the inherent probability of the case. But the opinions of this frivolous critic on such subjects are worth nothing at all. The maidens of Galilee and Judsea figure prominently in his Life of Jesus, and make it the more palatable to novel-readers. In chap. v. (page 52 of the original, page 102 of the English translation) occurs the following passage: **An his power to love was transferred to what he considered his celestial vocation. The extremely delicate feeling {le sentiment extrimement delicat) which we notice in him towards women never departed from the exclusive devotion which he had to his idea. He treated as sisters, like Francis d'Assisi and Francis de Sales, those women who were enamoured with the same work as he : he had his St. Claires, his Frangoises de Chantal. Only it is probable that they loved him more than the work. He >vas undoubtedly more loved than loving. As often happens in very lofty natures, tenderness of heart was in him transformed into an infinite sweetness, a vague poetry, a universal charm. His relations, intimate and free, but of an entirely moral order, with women of equivocal conduct {avec des femmes d'une conduite Equivoque), are explained also by the passion which attached him to the glory of his Father, and inspired in him a kind of jealousy of all beautiful creatures {une sorte de jalousie pour toutes les belles creatures) who might contribute to it." In proof of this reckless and frivolous talk, Renan quotes Luke 7 : 37 ; John 4 : 7 ; 8 : 3. Guizot, no doubt with reference to Renan, devotes a special chapter of his ^^ Meditations^^ to Jesus-Christ et les femmes (page 309 fF.), and justly maintains that nowhere is there less of man, and more of God, than in Christ's relations with the 2Z 178 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. women who apjiroach him, and in the ahsolute purity which characterises his sayings on adultery and on the sanctity of the marriage relation. Compare Matt. 5 : 27, 28 ; 19 : 4-9, &c. It is characteristic of Renan that, in his '''Life of St. Paul^'* likewise, he invents an erotic episode, and makes the Apostle of the Gentiles marry Lydia of Philippi. Note 97, page 137. The. late Dr. Henry B. Smith (in the article alluded to, pages 157 and 169, and reprinted in his essays, ^^ Faith and Philosophy," New York, 1878) thus severely but justly con- demns the book of Renan : " In passing judgment on such a representation, there is no need of circumlocution or eupho- nisms. It is utterly disgraceful and disingenuous. It assails the very honesty and credibility of Jesus. It makes success the standard. It is the essence of Jesuitism. The apology is as superficial as it is ignominious. The worst ethics of the French stage cannot surpass it. Nobody but a Frenchman could, after this, still idolise his hero as the perfection of humanity. And, in the midst of such profligate representa- tions, to interject phrases about ' our profound seriousness,' 'rigid conscience,' and 'absolute sincerity,' in contrast with the delusions and falsity attributed to Jesus, is to carry to its height a base invention, from which every right-minded man will instinctively recoil, and which every true believer in Christ will stamp as blasphemy. Better for Jesus, — as a mere man, — a thousandfold better, to have died unknown, than to have lent himself to impostures which he must have known to be false, to a conspiracy founded on a lie or a hallucination. But this is not all, nor the worst. The part of the Messiah made it necessary that Jesus should also give himself forth as an 'exorcist and a thaumaturge.' Charla- tanry must complete the work begun in hallucination. . . . The Jesus depicted by Renan is a figment of naturalism, a conception that can neither be imaged forth nor realised. It has the outward forms and framework of human life, but within there is not even an immortal personal consciousness. We have, in the last analysis, only the shadow of death," CRITICAL NOTES. 1 79 Note 98, page 138. The djdng exclamation of Julian the Apostate — " Galiltean, thou hast conquered ! " — rests on too late authorities to claim credibility, especially in view of the silence of the impartial Ammianus Marcellinus, who furnishes a full account of the last hours of the emperor ; hut it contains the philosophy of his reign, and the Italian proverb may be applied to it : Se non e vero^ e h»n trovato. Note 99, page 140. See his large *^ Lehen Jesu^* Schlussabhandlung, voL ii. page (i(>z (4th ed., 1840). Note 100, page 141. ** In an individual," says Strauss, ^^Leben JesUy*^ vol. ii. page 710, *' in one God-man, the properties and functions which the church doctrine ascribes to Christ contradict themselves ; in the idea of the race, they agree. Humanity is the union of the two natures, — the incarnate God, the Infinite external- ising itself in the finite, and the finite spirit remembering its infinitude. It is the child of the visible mother and the in- visible father, Nature and Spirit ; it is the worker of miracles, in so far as in the course of human history the spirit more and more completely subjugates nature both within and around man, until it lies before him as an inert matter of his activity ; it is the sinlesH existence, for the course of its development is a blameless one : pollution cleaves to the individual only, and does not touch the race or its history. It is humanity that dies, rises, and ascends to heaven : for from the negation of its natural life there ever proceeds a higher spiritual life ; from the suppression of its limitation as a personal, rational, and terrestrial spirit, arises its union with the infinite Spirit of the heavens. By faith in this Christ, especially in his death and resurrection, man is justified before God ; that is, by the kindling within him of the idea of humanity, especially by the negation of its natural and sensual aspects, the individual man partakes of the divinely human life of the species." The popular ^' Life of Jesus, ^^ by the same author, concludes in a similar manner, page 627 ; and the same idea is repeated in his ''The Christ ofFaith^ and tlm Jesus of History j^' 1865, which I So THE PERSON OF CHRIST. is an appendix to his shorter ^^ Life of Jesus'' But the idea of the union of the human and divine is no more contradictory in an individual than in the race. What is true in idea or principle must also actualise itself, or be capable of actualisa- tion, in a concrete living fact. History teaches, moreover, that every age, every great movement, and every nation, have their representative heads, yAio comprehend and act out the life of the respective whole. This analogy points us to a general representative head of the entire race, — Adam in the natural, and Christ in the spiritual order. The divine huma- nity of Strauss is like a stream without a fountain, or like a body without a head, a metaphysical abstraction and idle delusion. The historical Jesus of Nazareth is the ideal Christ. In his last book, on *' The Old and New Faith,^' Strauss re- nounces all deceptive accommodations and restraints, and leaves no middle ground between hopeless atheism and posi- tive historical Christianity. APPENDIX. IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES TO THB CHARACTER OP CHRIST. ( 183 ) INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. We present, by way of Appendix to our argument, a number of striking and remarkable concessions and testimonies to the perfection of Christ's char- acter as a man, from eminent writers who were either professed unbelievers and sceptics, or, at least, free from dogmatic bias, and can therefore not be suspected of partiality. This makes their testimony all the more valuable for apologetic purposes. It is the homage of their genius and intellect to him whose power and authority they must acknowledge theoretically, though they may practically refuse to accept him as their Lord and Saviour. Tlie concession of an enemy, or an outsider, sometimes carries more weight in an argument than the assertion of a friend. Honey may be extracted even from a dead lion. " Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness " (Judges 14: 14). The testimonies we are going to produce are 1 84 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. important and interesting in various ways. They prove that there is in the inmost heart of man an instinctive and growing reverence and admiration for the spotless purity of Christ. Infidels may deny his miracles, but they cannot deny his power, or assail his character, without doing violence to the better feelings and aspirations of their own nature, and forfeiting all claim to the moral respect of their fellow-men. It seems to be felt that he is, without controversy, the very best being that ever walked on this earth, and that an attack on his character is an attack on the honour and dignity of humanity itself. And this feeling and conviction becomes stronger and deeper as history advances. The impression of Christ upon the world, far from losing ground, is gaining new strength with every stage of civilisa- tion, and controls even the best thinking of his enemies. These testimonies, on the other hand, expose also the glaring inconsistency of unbelief, in ad- mitting the absolute purity and truthfulness of Christ, and yet refusing his own testimony con- cerning himself; in praising his perfection as a man, and yet denying his Divinity which he claims himself, and which alone can satisfactorily explain his human perfection in a universally imperfect world. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. V ^J^^h^. This inconsistency was clearly brought f3t, wiffi^ special reference to Eenan, by the distinguished French statesman and historian, M. Guizot, who con- secrated the closing years of his retreat from public life to the defence of revealed religion, in his "Meditations on the Essence of the Christian Eeligion," where he says : ^ " Those who do not believe in Jesus, nor admit the supernatural character of his person, of his life, and of his work, are free of this difficulty [of giving adequate expression in human language to the intimate and continual intermixture of the divine and human in Christ]. Having beforehand suppressed the divinity and the miracles, they see in the history of Jesus Christ nothing more than . an ordinary history, which they narrate and ex- plain like any other biography of 'man. But they fall into a far different difficulty, and wreck them- selves on a far different rock. The supernatural being and power of Jesus Christ may be disputed ; but the perfection, the sublimity of his actions and of his precepts, of his life and of his moral law, are incontestable : and, in effect, not only are they not contested, but they are admired and 1 *' Meditations sur V Essence de la Religion Chretienne " (Paris and Leipzig, 1864, pp. 324-327). The English translation, New York, 1865 (comp. p. 335), omits the Scripture quotations of Guizot from the Latin Vulgate (which are intended for Roman-Catholic readers). 24 1 86 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. celebrated entliusiastically and complacently. It would seem as if it were desired to restore to Jesus Christ as a mere man the superiority of which they deprive him in refusing to see in him the Godhead. But then, what incoherence, what contradictions, what falsehood, what moral im- possibility, in his history, such as they make it ! What a series of suppositions, irreconcilable with the facts which they admit ! This man they make so perfect and sublime becomes by turns a dreamer or a charlatan ; at once dupe and deceiver, — dupe of his own mystical enthusiasm in believing in his own miracles, wilful deceiver in tampering with evidence in order to accredit himself. The history of Jesus Christ is thus but a tissue of fables and falsehood ; and, nevertheless, the hero of this history remains perfect, sublime, incomparable, — the greatest genius, the noblest heart, that the world ever saw; the type of virtue and moral beauty ; the supreme and rightful chief of mankind. And his disciples in their turn, justly admirable, have braved everything, suffered everything, in order to abide faithful to him, and to accomplish his work ; and, in effect, the work has been accom- plished, — the Pagan world has become Christian, and the whole world has nothing better to do than to follow the example. " What a contradictory and insolvable problem INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 1 8/ tliey present to us instead of the one they labour so hard to suppress ! "History reposes upon two foundations, — the positive evidence or documents concerning the facts and persons, and presumptive evidence or moral probabilities resulting from the connection of facts and the action of persons. These two foundations are entirely wanting in the history of Jesus Christ, such as it is related, or rather con- structed, in these days. It is, on the one hand, in evident and shocking contradiction with the testi- mony of the men who saw Jesus Christ, or of the men who lived near those who had seen him : on the other hand, it equally conflicts with the natural laws presiding over the actions of men and the course of events. This does not deserve the name of historical criticism: it is a philoso- phical system and a romantic narrative substi- tuted for the substantial proof of the moral evidence ; it is a Jesus false, and impossible, made by the hand of man, pretending to dethrone the real living Jesus Christ, the Son of God.-^ . " The choice lies between the system and the mystery; between the romance of man -and the design of God.'' ^ ^^C'est un Jesus-Christ faux et impossible^ fait de main d'homme^ qui pretend a detrdner le Jesus-Christ riel et vivant, fits de Dieu." This applies especially to the legendary Jesus of Renan, even more than to the mythical Jesus of Strauss. ( 188 ) IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES TO THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST. PONTIUS PILATE AND HIS WIFE. Matt.^27 ; 19, 24. " When lie [Pilate] was set down on the judgment- seat, his wife seat unto him, saying : Have thou nothing to do with THAT JUST MAN; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. " When Pilate saw that he could prevail [avail] nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying : I am innocent of the blood of this JUST PERSON ; see ye to it." Note. — It is a remarkable fact, that a heathen woman had the courage to plead the cause of our Saviour when his own disciples forsook him, and when the Jewish people and authorities thirsted for his innocent blood. It is equally remarkable, that she and her weak husband, clothed with the authority of the Roman law and justice, should charac- terise the condemned Jesus as that just man {diKaios cKeTvos). The student of the unconscious prophecies of heathenism will THE CENTURION AT THE CROSS. 1 89 naturally connect this expression with the famous passage in I^lato's BepuhliCy where the great sage of Greece describes the ideal of a just man (5i/catos), as one who, '* without doing any wrong, may assume the appearance of the grossest injustice {firjdh yap ddiKQv do^av ix^rcj rrjs fJi€yiLko(TOias. Extracts from it are contained in Eusebius' '* Prceparatio Evangelica, and Demonstratio Evari' gelica;" in Augustine's "Pe Civitate Dei;" and in Theodoret's "Twelve Apologetic Discourses." Lardner denies the genuineness of this work, on insufficient grounds; but Fabricius, Mosheim, Neander, and others, treat it as a production of Porphyry. 2 Ep. ad Marcellam (ed. by Card. Angelo Mai, Milan, 1816), cap. xxiv. : T^aaapa bh OLKOT}^ ^P'.OV. 2 TOi)s KvWovs Kul TOiL>s TVipXci/s Idcaa^aiy nal daijj.opQvTas 3 Lardner's Works^ ed. by Dr. Kippis, London, 1838, vol. vii. p. 628. 206 IMPAETIAL TESTIMONIES. enough, it seems, to persuade some had men, called in the Gospels * publicans and sinners;' the 'worst men,' as you SEij. But there were also some serious and pious men, thoughtful and inquisitive, as Nathanael, Nicodemus, and others, who were persuaded and fully satisfied, though for a while they had been adverse and prejudiced. And there were worse men than those whom you call * the worst,' even Scribes and Pharisees, proud, covetous, ambitious men, whom no rational evidence, however clear and strong, could persuade to receive religious principles contrary to their present worldly interests." The same writer, after a careful examination of all the arguments of Julian against the religion of the Bible and the character of Christ and his apostles, thus ably and truthfully sums up their value as an undesigned and involuntary in- direct testimony for the truth and credibility of the gospel history : ^ — "Julian has Y>orne a valuable testimony to the history and to the books of the New Testament, as all must acknowledge who have read the extracts just made from his works. He allows that Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus, at the time of the taxing made in Judsea by Cyrenius; that the Christian religion had its rise, and began to be propagated, in the times of the emperors Tiberius and Claudius. He bears witness to the genuineness and authenticity of the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Acts of the Apostles ; and he so quotes them as to intimate that they were the only historical books received by Christians as of authority, and the only authentic memoirs of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, and the doctrines preached by them. He allows their early date, and even argues for it. He also quotes, or plainly refers to, the Acts of the Apostles, to St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, the Corinthians, and the Galatians. He does not deny the miracles of Jesus Christ, but allows him to have ' healed the blind, and the lame, and demoniacs ; ' and ' to have rebuked the winds, and walked upon the waves of the sea.' He endeavours, indeed, to diminish these works, but in vain. The consequence is un- ^ Lardner's WorkSy vii. pp. 638, 639. JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 20/ denia"ble,— such works are good proofs of a divine mission. He endeavours also to lessen the number of the early believers in Jesus ; and yet he acknowledgeth that there were ' multi- tudes of such men in Greece and Italy ' before St. John wrote his Gospel. He likewise affects to diminish the quality of the early believers; and yet acknowledgeth, that, beside * men-servants and maid-servants,' Cornelius, a Roman centu- rion at Caesarea, and Sergius Paulus, Proconsul of Cyprus, were converted to the faith of Jesus before the end of the reign of Claudius. And he often speaks with great indigna- tion of Peter and Paul, those two great Apostles of Jesus, and successful preachers of his gospel. So that, upon the whole, he has undesignedly borne witness to the truth of many things recorded in the books of the New Testament. He aimed to overthrow the Christian religion, but has confirmed it : his arguments against it are perfectly harmless, and in- sufficient to unsettle the weakest Christian. He justly excepts to some things introduced into the Christian profes- sion by the late professors of it, in his own time or sooner, but has not made one objection of moment against the Chris- tian religion as contained in the genuine and authentic books of the New Testament." SPINOZA. The great Jewish philosopher, bora at Amsterdam 1632 ; died 1677. Epistola 23. Christ was the temple of God, because in him God has most fully revealed himself. ** Atqui hoc summum est quod Christus de se ipso dixit, $e scil. templum Dei esse, nimirum, quia Deus sese maxime in Christo manifestavit, quod Johannes, ut efficacius exprimef\3tf dixit: verbum factum esse caimem." 208 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. THOMAS CHUBB. An English Deist (i 679-1 748). From the ** True Gospel of Jesus Christy" sect. viii. pp. 55, 56. " In Christ we have an example of a quiet and peaceable spirit; of a becoming modesty and sobriety ; just, honest, upright, sincere ; and, above all, of a most gracious and benevolent temper and behaviour. One who did no wrong, no injury to any man ; in whose mouth was no guile ; who went about doing good, not only by his ministry, but also in curing all manner of diseases among the people. His life was a beautiful picture of human nature in its native purity and simplicity, and showed at once what excellent creatures men would be when under the influence and power of that gospel which he preached unto them." DENIS DIDEEOT. This French philosopher (born in Langres, 1 7 1 3, died in Paris, 1784) founded and edited, with other free - thinkers, the famous '' Encyclopedie'' (since ^75 0> which, with the professed aim of presenting a summary of all the branches of human learning and art, became the chief repository of the revolu- DENIS DIDEROT. 209 tionary and infidel ideas of the eighteenth century, and was several times suspended by the government, but completed at last. He was all his life con- sidered a confirmed atheist ; but during his later years, to the astonishment of his friends, he made the Bible a part of the education of his only dau,ghter, who subsequently wrote his '^ Memoir es^' and frequently received visits from a clergyman. The late venerable Antistes Hess of Zurich, the author of a " Life of Jesus " and other good works, relates from the mouth of a personal witness the following interesting anecdote, which we will give (from Stier's '' Beden Jesu^' Part vi. p. 496) in French and English: — '' Dans une de ces soirees die Baron d'Holbach oti se reunissaient les jplus cdUhres incredules dii sUcle, on venait de se donner plein^e carrUre ;pour relever le plus plaisamment die monde les pr4tendues ah- surdiUs, les hetises, les inepties de tout genre dont fourmillent nos livres sacr^s. Le philosophe Diderot, qui n'avait pas pris lui-mSme une mince part a la conversation, finit par Varriter tout a coup en disant : " ' A merveilleSj messieurs, d merveilles,je ne connais personne en France ni ailleurs, qui saclie 6crire et parler avec plus d'art et de talent. Cependant malgr4 tout le mal que nous avons dit, et sans doute avec heaucoup de raison, de ce didble de livre, fose 27 2IO IM^^AIOTAL TESTIMONIES. vous d^ficr tous tant que vous ites, de faire un rScit qui soit mcssi sionple, mais en mime temps aussi siiblime, aussi touchant que le r^cit de la passion et de la mort de J4sus-Christ, qui produise le mime cffet, qui fasse une sensation aussi forte, aussi giniralement ressentie, et dont Vinfluence soit encore la mime aprhs tant de siedes! " Cette apostrophe impr4vue 4tonna tous les audi- teurs, etfut suivie mime d'un assez long silence." "In one of those evening parties of Baron d'Holbach, where the most celebrated infidels of the century used to assemble, the conversation turned freely, and in the most amusing manner, on the supposed absurdities, stupidities, and all kind of inconsistencies, of the Sacred Scriptures. The philosopher Diderot, who had taken no small part in the conversation, brought it suddenly to a close by the following remark : — " ' For a wonder, gentlemen, for a wonder, I know nobody, either in France or anywhere else, who could write and speak with more art and talent. Notwithstanding all the bad which we have said, and no doubt with good reason, of this devil of a book (de ce diahle de livre), I defy you all — as many as are here — to prepare a tale so simple, and at the same time so sublime and so toucliing, as the tale of the passion and death of Jesus Christ; JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. 21 I which produces the same effect, which makes a sensation as strong and as generally felt, and whose influence will be the same, after so many centuries/ " This unexpected speech astonished all the hear- ers, and was followed by a pretty long silence." JEAN JACQUES EOUSSEAU. From his *^ Emile ou de U Education,^^ iivre iv. {Profession de Foi du Vicaire Savoyard.) (Euvres compUtes, Paris, 1839, tome iii. pp. 365-367. This famous French philosopher and rhetorician was born in Geneva, the city of Calvin, in 1 7 1 2 ; and died, after a restless, changeful, and unhappy life, near Chantilly, in 1778. He did as much as any writer, Voltaire not excepted, to prepare the way for the French Eevolution, and the consequent overthrow of the whole social order in France. His life is marked by a series of blunders, caprices, glaring inconsistencies, and violent changes from Calvinism to Eomanism, from Eomanism to infi- delity, from infidelity to transient belief, from poverty and misery, persecution and exile, to glory and happiness, and back again to misery, from philanthropy to misanthropy, from sense to the very borders of insanity, — all illuminated by flashes 212 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. of genius. He was one of the most eloquent and fascinating, but also one of the most paradoxical and dangerous, of writers. He viewed everything from his lively imagination, and wrote every line under the impulse of feeling and passion. His judgment was on the side of virtue and religion; but in his conduct he betrayed every principle he enjoined. He drew the most charming pictures of female loveliness, and yet he lived long in illegal in- tercourse, and at last married his servant, — a vulgar and ill-tempered woman. He rebuked the ladies of France for intrusting their children to nurses, and yet he placed his own in a foundling-hospital. His remarkable testimony to Christ and the Gospels is the best thing he ever wrote, and will last the longest. It was written about a.d. 1760, and appeared in his work on .education, which was condemned for its dangerous speculations on religion and morals by the Parliament of France, and caused his banishment from the kingdom. We quote it first in the oricjinal French : — " Je vous avoue aussi que la majesty des jEcritures m'donne, la sainteU de Vllvangile jparle d mon cceur} Voyez les livres des philoso^hes avec toute leur pompe ; qvJils sont petits prds de cehd-lcb ! Se ^ Var. Je vous avoue aussi que la saintcU de VEvangile est un argument qui parte d. mon coeur, et auquel faurais mime regret de trouver quelque bonne riponse. Voyez les livres. . . . JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. 21 3 peut-il gvJun livre d la fois si sublime et si simple soil Vouvrage des homines? Se peut-il que celui dont il fait I'histoire ne soit qu'un homme lui-meme ? Est-ce Id le ton d'un entJiousiaste ou d'un amhitieux sectaire ? Quelle douceur, quelle pureU, dans ses mceurs ! quelle grace touchante dans ses instruc- tions! quelle Mvation dans ses maximes! quelle jprofonde sagesse dans ses discours ! quelle pre- sence d' esprit, quelle finesse et quelle Just esse dans ses r6po uses ! quel empire sur ses passions ! Oijb est Vhomme, oil est le sage qui sait agir, souffrir et mourir sans foiUesse et sans ostentation ? Quancl Platan peint son juste imaginaire'^ couvert de tout > Vopprohre du crime, et digne de tous les prix de la vertu; il peint trait pour trait Jdsus-Christ : la ressemhlance est si frappante, que tous les Fhres Vont sentie, et quil nest pas possible de s'y tromper?- Quels pr6jug6s, quel aveuglement ^ ne faut-il point avoir pour oser comparer le fils de Sophronisque aio fils de Marie? Quelle distance de Vun d V autre I Socrate, rnourant sans douleur, sans ignomie, soutint 1 De. Kep. lib. i. 2 Cette ressemhlance est le resultat general des deux premiers livres ou dialogues du traits de Platon, intitule " Dela Bepublique." Le passage le plus remarquable h ce sujet est celui qu'il met dans la bouche de son adversaire (tome ii. p. 361, E. edition de H. Etienne, ou tome vi. pp. 215 et 216, edition de Deux-Ponts). Quant aux Peres de I'Eglise dont il est question ici, voyez entre autres Saint Justin [Apologia prima, No. 5), et Saint Clement d'Alexandrie {Stromata, lib. iv.) 3 Var. . . . Quel aveuglement ou quelle mourvaise foi ne. . , . 214 IMPARTIAL TESTIMOXIES. aisdment jitsqiiau bout son personage; et si ceite facile mort n'eiXt honor^ sa vie, on douterait si Socrate, avec tout son esprit, fut autre chose qiCun sophiste. II inventa, dit-on, la morale; d'autrcs avant lui Vavoient mise en pratique : il ne fit que dire ce qu'ils avoient fait, il ne fit que rnettre en legons leurs exemples. Aristide avait M juste avant que Socrate eilt dit ce que c6tait que justice. L4onidas 4tait mort pour son pays avant que Socrate eiXt fait un devoir d' aimer la patrie ; Sparte Stait sohre avant que Socrate eilt lou4 la solriM ; avant quit eiXt d^fini la vertu, la Grece ahondait en hommes vertueux. Mais oil J4sus avait-il pris chez les siens cette morale 4lev4e et pure dont lui seul a donn6 les legons et Vexemp)le ? ^ Die sein du plus furieux fanatisme la 'plus haute sagesse se fit entendre, et la simplicity des plus Mroiques vertu^ honora le plus vil de tous les peuples. La mort de Socrate, philosophant tranquil- lement avec ses amis, est la plus douce qu'on puisse ddsirer ; celle de J(^sus expirant dans les tourments, injuria, raille, maudit de tout un peuple, est la plus horrible quon puisse craindre. Socrate prenant la coupe empoisonn4e b4nit celui qui la lui prdsent4 et qui pleure ; J4sus, au milieu d\cn supplice affreux, prie pour ses bourreaux acharn4s. " Oui, si la vie et la mort de Socrate sont d'un 1 Voyez, dans le discours sur la montagne, le parallele qu'il fait ]ui-meme de la morale de Moise a la sieiine, Matt. cap. v. vers 21 et scq. JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. 21$ sage, la vie et la mort de Jesus sont d'un Dieu. Dirons-nous que Vhistoire de VSvangile est invenUe a plaisir ? Mon ami, ce nest pas ainsi quon in- vente ; et les faits de Socrate dont personne ne doute, sont moins attestes que ceux de Jesus-Christ. An fond, cest reculer la dijfficidt4 sans la ddruire ; il seroit plus inconcevable que plusieurs hommes d'accord^ eussent fabrique ce livre, qu'il ne Test qu'un seul en ait fourni le sujet. Jamais des auteurs juifs n eussent trouv4 ni ce ton, ni cette mo- rale ; et Vl^vangile a des caract^res de vdrit4 si grands, sifrappants, si parfaitement inimitaUes, que I'inventeur en seroit plus etonnant que le heros.^ '' Avee tout cela, ce mSme J^vangile est plein de choses incroyaUes, de choses qui r^pugnent a la raison, et qu'il est impossible a tout liomme sens4 de concevoir ni d'admettre. Que f aire aio milieu de toutes ces contradictions ^ Mre toujours modcste et circon- spect, mon enfant ; respecter en silence ce quon ne saurait ni rejetcr, ni comprendre, et shumilier de- vant le grand l^tre^ qui seul sait la v&itSJ' 1 Yar. . . . que quatre hommes d'accord. ... A la suite de ces mots est line note ainsi concue; Je veux hien n'en pas compter* davantage, parceque leurs quatre livres sont les seules vies de JesuS' Christ qui nous sont restees du grand nombre qui avoient ete ecrites. 2 Dans une lettre k M. de . . ., dat^e de 1769, Rousseau revient encore sur ce parallele etabli par lui entre Jdsus et Socrate ; et ne supposant aucun caractere divin ni mission surnaturelle au sage litSbreu, qu'il oppose de nouveau au sage grec, il presente sur les vues et la conduite du premier des considerations toutes nouvelles. Voyez la Corrcspoudance, 2 1 6 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. " I will confess to you, that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction, how mean, how contemp- tible are they, compared with the Scriptures ! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple and so sublime, should be merely the work of man ? Is it possible that the sacred personage whose history it contains should be himself a mere man ? Do we find that he assumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious sectary ? What sweetness, what purity in his manner ! What an affecting grace- fulness in his instructions ! What sublimity in his maxims ! What profound wisdom in his dis- courses ! What presence of mind, what subtlety, what fitness, in his replies ! How great the command over his passions ! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live and so die, without weakness, and without ostentation ? When Plato describes his imaginary righteous man, loaded with all the punishments of guilt, yet meriting the highest rewards of virtue, he describes exactly the character of Jesus Christ* the resemblance is so striking, that all the Church Fathers perceived it. What prepossession, what blindness must it be to compare the son of Sophroniscus to the son of ]\Iary ! What an JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. 21/ infinite disproportion there is between them! Socrates, dying without pain or ignominy, easily supported his character to the last; and, if this easy death had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was anything more than a mere sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory of ethics. Others, however, had before put them into practice : he had only to say, therefore, what they had done, and to reduce their examples to pre- cepts. Aristides had been just before Socrates defined justice. Leonidas had given up his life* for his country before Socrates declared patriotism to be a duty. The Spartans were a sober people before Socrates recommended sobriety. Before he had even defined virtue, Greece aboimded in virtuous men. But where could Jesus learn, among his contemporaries, that pure and sublime morality of which he only has given us both pre- cept and example ? The greatest wisdom was made known among the most bigoted fanaticism ; and the simplicity of the most heroic virtues did honour to the vilest people on earth. The death of Socrates, peacefully philosophising among friends, appears the most agreeable that one could wish: that of Jesus, expiring in agonies, abused, insulted, and accused by a whole nation, is the most horrible that one could fear. Socrates, indeed, in 28 ^l8 IMPATITIAL TESTIMONIES. receiving the cup of poison, blessed the weeping executioner who administered it; but Jesus, amidst excruciating tortures, prayed for his merci- less tormentors. " YeSj if the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a Godr " Shall we suppose the evangelical history a mere fiction ? Indeed, my friend, it bears no marks of fiction. On the contrary, the history of Socrates, which no one presumes to doubt, is not so well attested as that of Jesus Christ. Such a supposi- tion, in fact, only shifts the difficulty without ob- viating it : it is more inconceivable that a number of persons should agree to write such a history, than that one should furnish the subject of it. The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to the morality contained in the gospel. The marks of its truth are so striking and inimitable, that the inventor woidd he a more astonishing character than the hero. "With all this, the same gospel is full of in- credible things which are repugnant to reason, and which it is impossible for a sensible man to con- ceive and to admit. What shall we do in the midst of all these contradictions ? We should be always modest and circumspect, my child; respect in silence what we can neither reject nor NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 219 understand ; and humble ourselves before that great Beinoj who alone knows the truth/' NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. Napoleon the First grew up in the infidel atmo- sphere of the eighteenth century, and was all his life so much absorbed with schemes of military conquest and political dominion that he had no time, even if he had the inclination, to reflect seriously on the subject of religion. Ambition was the idol monster to which he sacrificed millions of human beings, and even his devoted wife, whom he ardently loved and admired. But he had too profound an intellect ever to be an atheist. He was constitutionally inclined to fatalism ; and like his nephew, Napoleon III., he believed in his star. He knew that religion was an essential element in human nature, and the strongest pillar of public morals and social order. In his Egyptian cam- paign, it is said, he carried with him a New Testament along with the Koran, under the char- acteristic title, " Politics." It was from this political point of view that he restored the Eoman Catholic Church in France (which the folly of 220 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. the Eevolution had swept away), and secured to the Protestants the liberty of public worship, but kept both subject to the secular power and his despotic will. During his exile at St. Helena, Napoleon had the best opportunity of reflecting on his unrivalled career of brilliant victory and crushing defeat, and the vanity of all earthly things. He frequently read the Bible. Count de las Cases relates^ the following fact, which proves at least his respect for the morality of the gospel : " The Emperor ended the conversation by desiring my son to bring him the New Testament ; and, taking it from the beginning, he read as far as the conclusion of the discourse of Jesus on the mount. He expressed himself struck with the highest admi- ration of the jpurity, the suhlimity, the beauty of the morality which it contained ; and we all ex- perienced the same feeling.'' Napoleon said to O'Meara, Oct. 9, 1866: ''Credo tutto che crede la chiesa (I believe all that the Church believes). The Pope wanted me to confess, which I always evaded by saying, 'Holy father (santo padre)^ I am too much occupied at present : when I get older ' I took a pleasure in conversing with the Pope, who was a good old man, ma testardo (but ^ In his *' Memoirs of the Life, Exile, and Conversations of the Emperor Napoleon," Eng. trans., ed. N.Y., 1857, vdft. ii. p. 256. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 221 obstinate). I am of the opinion that every per- son ought to continue in the religion in which he was brought up, in that of his fathers."^ In 1 8 17, March 19, he was reading a French I^ew Testament, when O'Meara remarked that some believed him an unbeKever; Xapoleon laughed, and replied : " ^Nevertheless it is not true ; I am far from being an atheist {Cejpendant, ce ri est pas vrai. Je suis loin d'etre athee.) Man has need of something wonderful. It is better for him to seek it in religion than in Mile, le !N'ormand " (a celebrated fortune-teller at Paris). " Moreover, religion is a gre'at consolation and resource to those who possess it, and no man can pronounce what he will do in his last moments." In his last will and testament, which was drawn up six years before his death, at Longwood, Island of St. Helena, he declares : " I die in the apostolic Eoman religion, in the bosom of which I was born more than fifty years ago." But this is a con- ventional phrase in Eoman Catholic countries. In 1 8 19 he sent for two Italian priests, — the aged Abbe Buonavita, who had been chaplain to his mother at Elba and to the Princess Pauline at Eome ; and the young Abbe Vignali, who was also a physician. He professed his assent and submission to the faith and discipline of the Catholic Christian religion, attended mass every ^ ** O'Meara," i. 121, Am. edition. 222 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. Sunday, and received the sacrament of extreme unction before his death. These facts do not justify the inference that Napoleon became a true Christian. His public and private life exhibit no trace of piety. His sub- mission to the rites of the Eoman Church on his death-bed is hardly sufficient to be construed into an act of genuine repentance, and may have been dictated in part by policy, or a prudent regard for liis own reputation, the interests of his dynasty, and the public sentiment in France. He died amidst dreams and visions of war and victory. " France ! Josephine ! head of the* army ! " were his last wo]«ds, — a suitable summing-up of his life. But I have no doubt that his intellect bowed be- fore the majesty of Christ. Eeasoning from the overpowering authority and dignity of Christ as a teacher, from the amazing result of his peaceful mission, and the imperishable nature of his king- dom as contrasted with the vanity of all human conquests and secular empires, he justly inferred that Christ was more than man, that he was truly divine, and that his Divinity is the key which unlocks the mysteries of Christianity. In this respect he went further than any of the witnesses in this collection, who stop with the concession of the unparalleled human greatness of Christ. The locrical conclusion of the marvellous NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 223 intellect of N"apoleon, and his profound know- ledge of men, may be fairly set over against tlie illogical denial of Christ's Divinity by inferior minds. It is with these restrictions that we insert here the famous testimony of the greatest military genius, which has been extensively circulated by Eeligious Tract Societies in Europe and America, and is embodied, among other books, in John S. C. Abbott's " Life of JSTapoleon " (vol. ii. chap, xxxii. p. 6 1 2 ff), as also in Abbott's " Confidential Correspondence of the Emperor I^apoleon with the Empress Josephine " (New York, 1855, pp. 353- 363), without, however, being traced to a reliable source. General Bertrand, an avowed unbeliever, and General Montholon, who, after his return to Europe, became a believer, or at least seriously inclined, would be the proper vouchers, since they heard, and must have reported, these utterances at St. Helena; but I cannot find them in their writ- ings, so far as they came to my knowledge. The Memoirs of Las Cases, Antomniarchi, and O'Meara, and other authentic sources on the life of Napoleon at St. Helena, contain some religious conversations of the Emperor more or less favourable to Christi- anity and the Bible, but no such strong and ex- plicit testimony to the Divinity of our Saviour. Professor Sardinoux, in his translation of this work 2 24 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. ("Za Personne dc Jdsus Christ,'' &c., Toulouse, 1868, pp. 2 1 9 sqq), gives these conversations in full, with- out doubting the authenticity. I was informed by French correspondents of high standing that they were reported verbally by General Montholon, and written out by one of his Protestant friends (General Maurice or Admiral Yerhuel), and that they are gene- rally considered authentic. They seem to have been published first in 1842 and 1843, in periodicals and tracts, and also in a book entitled " Eobert- Antoine de Beauterne : Sentiments de NapoUon sur le Christianisme. Conversations religieuses recueillies d Sainte-Hdlene, par le Gin. comte de Montholon^ Paris, 1843, third ed. (see the title in Oettinger's '' BiUiograpliie Biographique''), From Guerard's " Literature Frangaise Contemporaine^' xix. Siede, torn, i., Paris, 1842, I infer that this is the same author who wrote a book entitled : " Une Lamenta- tion chretienne, ou Mort d'un enfant impie" Paris, 1836, which contains a chapter on the "religious death of Napoleon." How far this book is based upon personal com- munications of Montholon or other authentic sources, I am unable to say, having sought in vain for a copy in the public libraries of ^e\Y York. Professor G. de Felice of Montauban, in a letter to the " New- York Observer " of April 1 6, 1842, asserts that the testimony, as published in NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 225 the French tract below, is undoubtedly genuine, but gives no proof ; and states also that Eev. Dr. Bogue sent to JSTapoleon at St. Helena a copy of his essay on the " Divinity and Authority of the 'New Testament," which, according to the testimony of eye-witnesses, he read with interest and satis- faction. In view of all I could gather, I am inclined to believe that these religious conversations of Na- poleon have been enlarged or modified in the recollection of reporters, but are authentic in substance ; because they have the grandiloquent and egotistic manner of Kapoleon, and are marked by that massive grandeur and granite-like simpli- city of thought and style which characterise the best of his utterances. They are, moreover, quite consistent with the undeniable fact, that he ex- pressed himself, both in his testament and on his death-bed, a believer in the Catholic Christian religion, which always taught the Divinity of Christ as a fundamental article of faith. We give the testimony as we find it, first in a French tract, marked ISTo. 200, but without date ; and then in an enlarged form from Tract No. 477 of the American Tract Society (New York), and from Abbott's works on Napoleon, alluded to above. It will be seen that the French and English differ considerably, but they breathe the same spirit. 29 226 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. NAPOLtON* " II est vrai que le Christ projpose d notre foi une s&ie de myst^res, II commande avec autorM d'y croire, sans donner dJautrcs raisons que cette parole epouvantalle : Je suis Dieu. *' Sans doute ilfaut la foi pour cet article-la, qui est celui duquel derive tous les autres articles. Mais le caractere de la diviiiit(5 du Christ une fois admis, la doctrine chretienne se presente avec la precision et la clarte de I'algebre : il faut j admirer I'enchaine- ment et Tunite d'une science. " Appuy^e sur la Bihle, cette doctrine explique le mieux les traditions du monde ; elle les dclaircit, et les autres dogmes s'y rapportent 4troitement comme les anneaux scelUs d'une mSme chaine. L' existence du Christ d'un tout d V autre est un tissu tout mysteri- eux, fen conviens, mais ce mystdre r^pond cb des diffi- eultds qui sont dans toiites les existences ; rejctez-le, le monde est une 4nigme: accept ez-le, vous avez une admirable solution de Vhistoire de Vhomme. " Le christianisme a un avantage sur tous les philo- sophes et sur toutes les religions : les chrMens ne se font pas illusion sur la nature des choses. On ne * Les documents que je public, contiennent la pensde intime de Napole'on sur le Christianisme, et spdcialement sur la divinite de rilommo-Dieu. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 22/ ^eiit leur rep^ocher ni la subtiliUni le charlatanisme des idMogueSj qui out cru r^soudre la grande 4nigme des questions thMogiqueSj avec des vaines dissertations sur ces grands ohjets. Insens^s, dont la folie ressemUe a celle d'un petit enfant qui veut toucher le del amc sa main J ou qui demande la lune pour son jouet ou sa curiosity. Le christianisme dit avec simplicity: ^' Nid homme n'a vu Dicu, si ce n'est Dieu, Dieu a r4v4U ce qu'il 4tait : sa r6v6lation est un mystdre que la raison ni F esprit ne peuvent concevoir. Mais puisque Dieu aparUy ilfaut y croire" Cela est d'un grand ton sens, " VEvangile possdde une vertu secrdteje ne sais quoi d'efficace, une chaleur qui agit sur Ventendement et qui clmrme le coeur ; on 4prouve a le mMiter, ce qu'on 4prouve d contempler le del, L'Evangile rCest pas un livre, c'est un Stre vivant, avec une action, une puissance, qui envahit tout ce qui ^oppose a son extension, Le void sur cette table, ce livre par excellence [et id V Empereur le touclia avec respect] ; je ne me lasse pas de le lire, et tous les jours avec le mSme plaisir, " Le Christ ne varie pecs, il n'hesite jamais dans son enseignement, et la moindre affirmation de lui est marquee d'un cachet de simplicity et de profondeur qui captive V ignor ant et le savant, pour peu qu'ils y prStent leur attention, " Kulle part on ne trouve cette s4rie de helles id^s, de 228 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. hclles maximes morales, qui dSfilent comme les hataiU Ions de la milice c4leste, et qui produisent dans noire dme le mime sentiment que Von ^prouve a considirer V4tendue infinie du ciel resplendissant, par une telle nuit d'6t6y de tout V6clat des astres. " Non-seidement notre esprit est pr4occup4, mads il est doming par cette lecture, et jamais lame ne court risque de s'4garer avec ce livre, " Une fois maitre de notre esprit, VEvangile fidMe nous aime. Dieu mSme est notre ami, notre pdre et vraiment notre Dieu, Une mere n'a pasplus de soin de Venfant qvJelle allaite. IJame s6duite par la heatit^ de VEvangile, ne sappartient plus. Dieu s^en empare tout-a-fait ; il en dirige les pensdes et toutes tesfacult4s, elle est a ltd, " Quelle preuve de la divinity du Christ ! avec un empire aussi dbsolu, il n'a gu\tn seul hut, Vam4liora- tion spirituelle des individus, la puret4 de la con- science, V union d, ce qui est vrai, la saint et^ de Vdme, " Enfin, et c'est mon dernier argument, il ny a pas de Dieu dans le ciel, si un Jiomme a pu concevoir et ex^cuter, avec un plein succds, le dessein gigantesque de d&oher pour lui le culte suprSme, en tcsurpant le nom de Dieu, J4sus est le seul qui Vait os6, il est le seul qui ait dit clairement, affirm4 impertwhatlement lui-mSme de lui-mSme: Je suis Dieu. Ce qui est hien different de cette affirmation : Je suis un dieu, ou de cette autre : II y £i des dieux. L'histoire ne NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 229 mentionne aiicun autre individu qui se soit qualifi4 lui-mime de ce litre de Dieu dans le sens ahsolu. La fable rietdblit nulle 'part, que Jupiter et les autres dieux se soient eux-memes divinises. Cent 4t4 de leur part le comhle de Vorgueil, et tme monstruosit^, une extravagance absurde, (Jest la post4rit4, ce sont les Mritiers des jpremiers despotes qui les ont d4ifi4s. Tous les hommes 6tant d'une mime race, Alexandre a pu se dire lefils de Jupiter, Mais toute la GrSce a souri de cette supercherie ; et de mime VapotMose des empereurs remains rCa jamais M une chose s4rieuse pour les Bomains. Mahomet et Confucius se sont donnis simplement pour des agents de la divinity. La diesse Egerie de Numa, rCa jamais dt6 que la person- nification d'une inspiration puis4e dans la solitude des hois, Les dieux Brccma, de VInde, sont une inno- vation psychologique, " Comment done unjuif dont V existence historique est plus av4r6 que toutes celles des temps oil il a v4cu, lui seul, fils d'un charpentier, se donne-t-il tout d'ahord pour Dieu mime, pour Vitre par excellence, pour le Cr6ateur de tous les itres, LI sarroge toutes les sortes d' adorations, LI hdtit son culte de ses mains, non avec des pierres, mais avec des hommes. On s'ex- tasie sur les conquetes d' Alexandre ! Eh lien ! void un conquirant qui confisque a son profit, qui unity qui incorpore d lui-meme, non pas une nation, mais 230 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. Vespke humaine. Quel miracle ! Vdnie humaine, avec toiites ses facult^s, devient une annexe avec V exis- tence du Christ. " Ut comment ? 'par un prodige qui surpasse tout prodif/e, II veut V amour des hommes, cest-a-dire, ce quil est le plus dijfflcile au monde d'oUenir : ce quun sage demande vainement db quelqiies amis, un phre d ses enfants, une 4pouse a son ^poux, un fr^re a son frhre, en un mot, le coeur : cest la ce quil veut pour lui, il Vexige absolument, et il y r^ussit tout de suite, tPen conclus sa divinity, Alexandre, C^sar, Annihal, Louis XIV., avec tout leur g4nie, y out 4cliou4. lis ont conquis le monde et il n^ont pu parvenir d avoir un ami. Je suis peut-itre le seul, de nos jours, qui aime Annihal, C6sar, Alexandre. Le grand Louis XIV., qui a jet4 tant d'4clat sur la France et dans le monde, n'avait pas un ami dans tout son royaume, meme dans sa famille. II est vrai, nous aimons nos enfants : pourquoi ? Nous ohSissons d un instinct de la nature, d une volont6 de Dieu, d une n4cessit4 que les hStes elles-mSmes reconnaissent et remplissent ; mais combien d' enfants qui restent insensihles d nos caresses, d tant de soins que nous leur prodiguons, combien d' enfants ingrats? Vos enfants, g^ndral Bertrand, vous aiment-ils ? vous les aimez, et vous n'Stes pas sllr ditre pay6 de retour. Ni vos hienfaits, ni la nature^ ne rdnssiront jamais d leur inspirer un amour tel que celui des chr^tiens pour Dieu ! Si vous veniez d NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 23 1 mourir, vos enfants se souviendraient de vous en d4pensant voire fortuney sans doute, mais vos ^petits enfants sauraient A peine si vous avez exisU, Et vous ites le gMral Bertrand ! Et nous sommes dans une He, et vous n'avez d' autre distraction que la vue de votre famille. " Le Christ jparhy et d^sormais les generations lui ay- 'partiennent jpar des liens jplus etroits, plus intimes que ceux du sang ; par une union plus saer^e, plus im- p6rieuse que quelque union que ce soit, II allume la Jiamme d'un amour qui fait mourir V amour de soi, qui pr4vaut sur tout autre amour, " A ce miracle de sa volonte, comment ne pas recon- naitre le Verhe crMeur du monde, " Les fondateurs de religion n'ontpcts mime eu Vid^e de cet amour mystique, qui est V essence du christian- isme, sous le heau nom de charity, " G'est quHl n'avaient garde de se lancer contre un 4cueiL Cest que dans une operation semhlaUe, se faire aimer, Vhomme porte en lui-mime le sentiment profond de son impuissance, ^* Aussi le plus grand miracle du Christ, sans con- tredit, cest le rdgne de la charite, " Zui seuly il est parvenu d Clever le coeur des hom- mes jusqud V invisible, jusqu'au sacrifice du temps : lui seul, en errant cette immolation, a crU un lien eiitre le del et la terre, " Tous ceux qui croient sincerement en lui ressentent 232 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. cet amour admirable, siir natural, sujp^rimr ; pMnO' mdne ineocplicahle, impossihle a la raison, et aux forces de Vhomme ; feu sacr6 donn4 d la terre par ce nouveau Prom6tMe, dont le temps, ce grand destructeur, ne joeut ni user la force ni limiter la dur4e, Moi, NajpoUon, c'est ce que f admire davantage, parce que fy ai pens4 souvent. Et dest ce qui me prouve ahsolument la di- vi7iit4 du Christ ! " J'ai passionn4 des midtitudes qui mouraient pour moi. A Dieu ne plaise que je forme aucune compar- aison entre Venthousiasme des soldats et la charity chretienne, qui sont aussi diffdrents que leur cause. " Ifais enfln, il fallait ma presence, V4lectricit4 de mon regard, mon accent, une parole de moi ; alors, fallumais le feu sacr6 dans les cceurs. Certes je pos- sMe le secret de cette puissance magique qui enUve V esprit, mais je ne saurais le communiquer a per- Sonne ; aucun de mes g6n6raux ne Va regu ou devin4 de moi; je n'ai pas d'avantage le secret d'4terniser mon nom et mon amour dans les cxurs, et d'y opdrer des prodiges sans les secours de la matidre. " Maintenant que je suis a Sainte-H6Une — mainte- nant que je suis seul et cloud sur ce roc, qui hataille et conquiert des empires pour moi ? Oil sont les courti- sans de mon infortune ? Pense-t-on a moi ? Qui se remuepour moi en Europe ? Qui m'est demeur6fidde, OIL sont mes amis ? Oui, deux ou trois, que voire fidd- lit4 immortalise, vous pdrtagez, vous consolez mon e?dl'^ NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 233 Id la voix de V Emjpereur jprit un accent particulier d'ironique mdancolie et de profonde tristesse. *' Oui, notre existence a hrilU de tout Vdclat du diadSme et de la souverainet4 ; et la voire, Bertrand, r^flechissait cet Mat comme le dome des Invalides, dorS 'par nam, rdjidchit les rayons du soleil. Mais les revers sont venus, Vor peu a pen s'est effacL La pluie du riialheur et des outrages, dont on m'dbreuve chaquejour, en emporte les dernidres jparcelles. Nous ne sommes plus que du plomh, g6n4ral Bertrand, et hiendt Je serai de la terre, " Telle est la destin6e des grands hommes ! Telle de C6sar et d' Alexandre, et Von nous ouhlie ! et le nom d'un conqu&ant, comme celui d'un empereur^ nest plus qiLun tMme de colUge ! Nos exploits torn- he7it sous la f&ule d'un pMant qui nous insulte ou nous loue. " Que de jugements divers on se permet sur le grand Louis XIV, ! A peine mort, le grand roi lui-meme fut laiss4 setd, dans Visolcment de sa chamhre cb coucher de Versailles — n4glig6 par ses courtisans et petct-Stre Vohjet de la ris4e. Ce VbUait plus leur maitre ! C'6tait un cadavre, un cercueil, une fosse, et lliorreur d'une imminent e decomposition. " Encore un moment : — voildj mon sort et ce qui va Triarriver a moi-mSme — assassin^ par F oligarchic anglaise, je meurs avant le temps, et mon cadavre 30 234 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. aussi va itre rendu d la terre jpour y devenir la fdture des vers. " Voild la destin^e trds prochaine du grand Napo- l4on — Quel ahime entre ma misdre jprofonde, et le rdgne 4ternel du Christ pr^cM, encens6, aim4, ador^, vivant dans tout Vunivers — Est-ce Id mourir ? n'est- ce pas plutot vivre ? voild la mort dii Christ ? voild celle de Dieu.'^ L'empereur se tut, et comme le g4n4ral Bertrand gardait 4galement le silence: " Vous ne comprenez pas" reprit Vempereur, '^ que Jdsus-Christ est Dieu; eh Hen ! fai eu tort de vous /aire g4n4ral !" NAPOLEON. One day, Napoleon was speaking of the Divinity of Christ ; when General Bertrand said : — " I cannot conceive, sire, how a great man like you can believe that the Supreme Being ever exhibited himself to men under a human form, with a body, a face, mouth, and eyes. Let Jesus be whatever you please, — the highest intelligence, the purest heart, the most profound legislator, and, in all respects, the most singular being who has ever existed: I grant it. Still, he was simply a man, who taught his disciples, and deluded credu- NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 235 lous people, as did Orpheus, Confucius, Brahma. Jesus caused himself to be adored, because his predecessors, Isis and Osiris, Jupiter and Juno, had proudly made themselves objects of worship. The ascendancy of Jesus over his time was like the ascendancy of the gods and the heroes of fable. If Jesus has impassioned and attached to his chariot the multitude, if he has revolutionised the world, I see in that only the power of genius, and the action of a commanding spirit, which van- quishes the world, as so many conquerors have done — Alexander, Csesar, you, sire, and Moham- med — with a sword." Napoleon replied : — " I know men ; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the dis- tance of infinity. "We can say to the authors of every other religion, * You are neither gods, nor the agents of the Deity. You are but missionaries of falsehood, moulded from the same clay with the rest of mortals. You are made with all the passions and vices inseparable from them. Your temples and your priests proclaim your origin.' Such will be 236 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. the judgment, the cry of conscience, of whoever examines the gods and the temples of paganism. " Paganism was never accepted as truth by the wise men of Greece ; neither by Socrates, Pytha- goras, Plato, Anaxagoras, or Pericles. On the other side, the loftiest intellects, since the advent of Christianity, have had faith, a living faith, a practical faith, in the mysteries and the doctrines of the gospel ; not only Bossuet and Fenelon who were preachers, but Descartes and ISTewton, Leibnitz and Pascal, Corneille and Eacine, Charle- magne and Louis XIV. " Paganism is the work of man. One can here read but our imbecility. What do these gods, so boastful, know more than other mortals ; these legislators, Greek or Eoman ; this ISTuma ; this Lycurgus ; these priests of India or of Memphis ; this Confucius ; this Mohammed ? — absolutely nothing. They have made a perfect chaos of mortals. There is not one among them all who has said any thing new in reference to our future destiny, to the soul, to the essence of God, to the • creation. Enter the sanctuaries of paganism : you there find perfect chaos, a thousand contradictions, war between the gods, the immobility of sculp- ture, the division and the rending of unity, the parcelling out of the divine attributes mutilated or denied in their essence, the sophisms of ignorance NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 237 and presumption, polluted fetes, impurity and abomination adored, all sorts of corruption fester- ing in the thick shades, with the rotten wood, the idol, and the priest. Does this honour God, or does it dishonour him ? Are these religions and these gods to be compared with Christianity ? "As for me, I say, No. I summon the entire Olympus to my tribunal. I judge the gods, but am far from prostrating myself before their vain images. The gods, the legislators of India and of China, of Eome and of Athens, have nothing which can overawe me. E'ot that I am unjust to them. No : I appreciate them, because 1 know their value. Undeniably, princes, whose existence is fixed in the memory as an image of order and of power, as the ideal of force and beauty, such princes were no ordinary men. " I see in Lycurgus, ISTuma, and Mohammed, only legislators, who have the first rank in the state ; have sought the best solution of the social problem: but I see nothing there which reveals Divinity. They themselves have never raised their pretensions so high. As for me, I recognise the gods, and these great men, as beings like my- self. They have performed a lofty part in their times, as I have done. Nothing announces them divine. On the contrary, there are numerous resemblances between them and myself, — foibles 238 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. and errors which ally them to me and to hu- manity. " It is not so with Christ. Everything in him astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and his will confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of com- parison. He is truly a being by himself. His ideas and his sentiments, the truth which he announces, his manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organisation or by the nature of things. "His birth, and the history of his life; the profundity of his doctrine, which grapples the mightiest difficulties, and which is of those diffi- culties the most admirable solution; his gospel, his apparition, his empire, his march across the ages and the realms, — everything is for me a prodigy, a mystery insoluble, which plunges me into reveries which I cannot escape; a mystery which is there before my eyes ; a mystery which I can neither deny nor explain. Here I see no- thing human. " The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me; everything remains grand, — of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man. There is there a profound originality which has created a NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 239 series of words and of maxims before unknown. Jesus borrowed nothing from our science. One can absolutely find nowhere, but in him alone, the imitation or the example of his life. He is not a philosopher, since he advances by miracles ; and, from the commencement, his disciples wor- shipped him. He persuaded them far mere by an appeal to the heart than by any display of method and of logic. Neither did he impose upon them any preliminary studies, or any knowledge of letters. All his religion consists in believing. "In fact, the sciences and philosophy avail nothing for salvation; and Jesus came into the world to reveal the mysteries of heaven and the laws of the spirit. Also he has nothing to do but with the soul ; and to that alone he brings his gospel. The soul is sufficient for him, as he is sufficient for the soul. Before him, the soul was nothing. Matter and time were the masters of the world. At his voice, everything returns to order. Science and philosophy become secondary. The soul has reconquered its sovereignty. All the scholastic scaffolding falls as an edifice ruined, before one single word, — faith. " What a master, and what a word, which can effect such a revolution! With what authority does he teach men to pray ! He imposes his belief ; and no one, thus far, has been able to contradict 240 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. him : first, because the gospel contains the purest morality ; and also because the doctrine which it contains of obscurity is only the proclamation and the truth of that which exists where no eye can see, and no reason can penetrate. Who is the in- sensate who will say ' N*o ' to the intrepid voyager who recounts the marvels of the icy peaks which he alone has had the boldness to visit ? Christ is that bold voyager. One can, doubtless, remain in- credulous ; but no one can venture to say, * It is not so.' " Moreover, consult the philosophers upon those mysterious questions which relate to the essence of man and the essence of religion. What is their response ? Where is the man of good sense who has never learned anything from the system of metaphysics, ancient or moderUj which is not truly a vain and pompous ideology, without any connec- tion with our domestic life, with our passions ? Unquestionably, with skill in thinking, one can seize the key of the philosophy of Socrates and Plato. But, to do this, it is necessary to be a metaphysician ; and moreover, with years of study, one must possess special aptitude. But good sense alone, the heart, an honest spirit, are sufficient to comprehend Christianity. The Christian religion is neither ideology nor metaphysics, but a practical rule which directs the actions of man, corrects him, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 24 1 counsels him, and assists him in all his conduct. The Bible contains a complete series of facts and of historical men, to explain time and eternity, such as no other religion has to offer. If it is not the true religion, one is very excusable in being deceived ; for everything in it is grand, and worthy of God. I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can ap- proach the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary. The more I consider the gospel, the more I am assured that there is nothing there which is not beyond the march of events, and above the human mind. Even the impious themselves have never dared to deny the sublimity of the gospel, which inspires them with a sort of compulsory veneration. What hap- piness that book procures for those who believe it ! What marvels those admire there who reflect upon it! "All the words there are embedded, and joined one upon another, like the stones of an edifice. The spirit which binds these words together is a divine cement, which now reveals the sense, and- again veils it from the mind. Each phrase has a sense complete, which traces the perfection of unity and the profundity of the whole. Book unique ! where 31 242 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. the mind finds a moral beauty before unknown ; and an idea of the Supreme, superior even to that which creation suggests. Who but God could produce that type, that idea of perfection, equally exclusive and original ? " Christ, having but a few weak disciples, was condemned to death. He died the object of the wrath of the Jewish priests, and of the contempt of the nation, and abandoned and denied by his own disciples. - "'They are about to take me, and to crucify me,' said he. *I shall be abandoned of all the world. My chief disciples will deny me at the commencement of my punishment. I shall be left to the wicked. But then, divine justice being satisfied, original sin being expiated by my suffer- ings, the bond of man to God will be renewed, and my death will be the life of my disciples. Then they will be more strong without me than with me; for they shall see me rise again. I shall ascend to the skies, and I shall send to them from heaven a Spirit who will instruct them. The Spirit of the Cross will enable them to understand my gospel. In fine, they will believe it; they will preach it ; and they will convert the world.' "And this strange promise, so aptly called by Paul * the foolishness of the cross,' this prediction of one miserably crucified, is literally accomplished ; NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 243 and the mode of the accomplishment is perhaps more prodigious than the promise. " It is not a day, nor a battle, which has decided it. Is it the lifetime of a man? No: it is a war, a long combat, of three hundred years, com- menced by the apostles, and continued by their successors and by succeeding generations of Chris- tians. In this conflict, all the kings and all the forces of the earth were arrayed on one side. Upon the other, I see no army but a mysterious energy, individuals scattered here and there, in all parts of the globe, having no other rallying sign than a common faith in the mysteries of the Cross. " What a mysterious symbol, the instrument of the punishment of the Man- God ! His disciples were armed with it. * The Christ,' they said, ' God, has died for the salvation of men.' What a strife, what a tempest, these simple words have raised around the humble standard of the punishment of the Man- God ! On the one side we see rage and all the furies of hatred and violence ; on the other there are gentleness, jnoral courage, infinite resig- nation. For three hu^ndred years, spirit struggled against the brutality of sense, conscience against despotism, the soul against the body, virtue against all the vices. The blood of Christians flowed in torrents. They died kissing the hand which slew them. The soul alone protested, while the body 244 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. surrendered itself to all tortures. Everywhere Christians fell, and everywhere they triumphed. "You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests, and of the enthusiasm which they en- kindled in the hearts of their soldiers ; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful, and entirely devoted to his memory ? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power ! A single battle lost crushes us, and adversity scatters our friends. " Can you conceive of Caesar as the eternal em- peror of the Eoman senate, and, from the depth of his mausoleum, governing the empire, watching over the destinies of Eome ? Such is the history of the invasion and conquest of the world by Christianity ; such is the power of the God of the Christians; and such is the perpetual miracle of the progress of the faith, and of the government of his Church. Nations pass away, thrones crumble ; but the Church remains. What is, then, the power which has protected this Church, thus assailed by the furious billows of rage and the hostility of ages ? Whose is the arm which, for eighteen hundred years, has protected the Church from so many storms which have threatened to engulf it ? "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the NAPOLEON BONAPAHTE. 24S creations of our genius ? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love ; and, at this hour, millions of men would die for him. " In every other existence but that of Christ, how many imperfections ! Where is the character which has not yielded, vanquished by obstacles ? Where is the individual who has never been gov- erned by circumstances or places ; who has never succumbed to the influences of the times ; who has never compounded with any customs or passions ? From the first day to the last he is the same, always the same; majestic and. simple; infinitely firm, and infinitely gentle. "Truth should embrace the universe. Such is Christianity, — the only religion which destroys sectional prejudices ; the only one which proclaims the unity and the absolute brotherhood of the whole human family ; the only one which is purely spiri- tual ; in fine, the only one which assigns to all, without distinction, for a true country, the bosom of the Creator, God. Christ proved that he was the Son of the Eternal by his disregard of time. All his doctrines signify one only and the same thing, — eternity. " It is true that Christ proposes to our faith a series of mysteries. He commands with authority, that we should believe them, — giving no other reason than those tremendous words, ' I am God.' 246 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. He declares it. What an abyss he creates, by that declaration, between himself and all the fabricators of religion ! What audacity, what sacrilege, what blasphemy, if it were not true ! I say more : The universal triumph of an affirmation of that kind, if the triumph were not really that of God him- self, would be a plausible excuse, and the proof of atheism. "Moreover, in propounding mysteries, Christ is harmonious with Nature, which is profoundly mysterious. From whence do I come ? whither do I go ? who am I ? Human life is a mystery in . its origin, its organisation, and its end. In man and out of man, in J^ature, everything is mysterious. And can one wish that religion should not be mysterious ? The creation and the destiny of the world are an unfathomable abyss, as also are the creation and destiny of each indi- vidual. Christianity at least does not evade these great questions ; it meets them boldly : and our doctrines are a solution of them for every one who believes. " The gospel possesses a secret virtue, a mys- terious efficacy, a warmth which penetrates and soothes the heart. One finds, in meditating upon it, that which one experiences in contemplating the heavens. The gospel is not a book: it is a living being, with an action, a power, which NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 247 invades everything that opposes its extension. Be- hold ! it is upon this table : this book, surpassing all others " [here the emperor deferentially placed his hand upon it], " I never omit to read it, and every day with the same pleasure. " Nowhere is to be found such a series of beauti- ful ideas; admirable moral maxims, which pass before us like the battalions of a celestial army, and which produce in our soul the same emotions which one experiences in contemplating the infi- nite expanse of the skies, resplendent in a sum- mer's night with all the brilliance of the stars. Not only is our mind absorbed; it is controlled: and the soul can never go astray with this book for its guide. Once master of our spirit, the faithful gospel loves us. God even is our friend, our father, and truly our God. The mother has no greater care for the infant whom she nurses. " What a proof of the Divinity of Christ ! With an empire so absolute, he has but one single end, — the spiritual melioration of individuals, the purity of the conscience, the imion to that which is true, the holiness of the soul. " Christ speaks, and at once generations become his by stricter, closer ties than those of blood, — by the most sacred, the most indissoluble, of unions. He lights up the flames of a love which prevails 248 ij\:partial testimonies. over every other love. The founders of other religions never conceived of this mystical love, which is the essence of Christianity, and is beauti- fully called charity. In every attempt to effect this thing, viz., to make himself beloved, man deeply feels his own impotence. So that Christ's greatest miracle undoubtedly is the reign of charity. " I have so inspired multitudes, that they would die for me. God forbid that I should form any comparison between the enthusiasm of the soldier and Christian charity, which are as unlike as their cause. "But, after all, my presence was necessary: the lightning of my eye, my voice, a word from me, then the sacred fire was kindled in their hearts. I do, indeed, possess the secret of this magical power which lifts the soul ; but I could never im- part it to any one. None of my generals ever learned it from me. 'Not have I the means of perpetuating my name and love for me in the hearts of men, and to effect these things without physical means. " !N"ow that I am at St. Helena, now that I am alone, chained upon this rock, who fights and wins empires for me ? who are the courtiers of my mis- fortunes ? who thinks of me ? who makes effort for me in Europe ? Where are my friends ? Yes : NAPOLEON BONArAKTE. 249 two or three, whom your fidelity immortalises, you share, you console, my exile." Here the emperor s voice trembled with emotion, and for a moment he was silent. He then con- tinued : — " Yes : our life once shone with all the bril- liance of the diadem and the throne ; and yours, Bertrand, reflected that splendour, as th^ dome of the Invalides, gilt by us, reflects the rays of the sun. But disaster came : the gold gradually be- came dim. The rain of misfortune and outrage, with which I am daily deluged, has effaced all the bricrhtness. We are mere lead now, General Ber- trand ; and soon I shall be in my grave. " Such is the fate of great men ! So it was with Caesar and Alexander. And I, too, am for- gotten; and the name of a conqueror and an emperor is a college theme ! Our exploits are tasks given to pupils by their tutors, who sit in judgment upon us, awarding censure or praise. And mark what is soon to become of me : assassi- nated by the English oligarchy, I die before my time ; and my dead body, too, must return to the earth, to become food for worms. Behold the des- tiny, near at hand, of him whom the world called the Great N^apoleon ! What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal reign of Christ, which is proclaimed, loved, adored, and which is extend- 32 2SO IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. ing over all the earth ! Is this to die ? is it not rather to live ? The death of Christ — it is the death of God ! " For a moment the emperor was silent. As General Bertrand made no reply, he solemnly added, '' If you do not perceive that Jesus Christ is God, very well: then I did wrong to make you a general." F. PECAUT. This modern French author, in a work entitled "Ze Christ et la Conscience,'' Paris, 1859 (which I know only from reviews and extracts), assails the doctrine of the sinlessness of Christ, and tries to show that his answers to his mother (Luke 2 : 49, and John 2 : 4), the expulsion of the profane traffickers from the Temple, the cursing of the un- fruitful fig-tree, the destruction of the herd of swine at Gadara, his bitter invective against the Pharisees, and his apparent refusal of the epithet good, indi- cate certain moral defects or imperfections in his character. N"otwithstanding this studied attempt to disprove the sinless perfection of Christ, he feels constrained to make the following remarkable con- cession (pp. 245^247), as quoted in the Dutch work of Dr. van Gosterzee of Utrecht, on the " Person of Christ : "— F. PECAUT. 251 "To what height does the character of Jesus Christ rise above the most sublime and yet ever imperfect types of antiquity! What man ever knew to offer a more manly resistance to evil ? Who endured vexation and contradiction better than he ? Where is such a development of moral power united with less severity ? Was there ever one seen who made himself heard with such royal authority ? And yet no one ever was so gentle, so humble and kind, as he. What cordial sym- pathy at the sight of misery, and the spiritual need of his brethren ! and yet, even when his counte- nance is moistened by tears, it continues to shine in indestructible peace. In his spirit, he lives in the house of his heavenly Father. He never loses sight of the invisible world; and at the same time reveals a moral and practical sense possessed by no son of the dust. Which is more wonderful — the nobility of his princely greatness spread over his person, or the inimitable simplicity which surroitnds his whole appearance ? Pascal had seen this heavenly form when describing it in a manner worthy of the object: Jesus Christ has been humble and patient ; holy, holy, holy before God ; terrible to devils; without any sin. In what great brilliancy and wonderful magnificence he appears to the eye of the spirit which is open to wisdom I To shine forth in all his princely splen- 252 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. dour of his holiness, it was not necessary that he should appear as a king ; and yet he came with all the splendour of his standing. He was the master of all, because he is really their brother. His moral life is wholly penetrated by God. He represents virtue to me under the form of love and obedience. In our part, we do more than esteem him: we offer him love." GOTHE. Gothe, the most universal and most highly cultivated of poets, was probably, like Napoleon, theoretically convinced of the divinity of Christ, but too much a man of the world to give himself any serious practical concern about it. In his youth he was, Ihrough his friendship with Jung Stilling, Lavater, Fraiilein von Klettenberg (whose " Confessions of a Beautiful Soul " he incorporated in his " Wilhelm Meister "), not far from the king- dom of Christ, but never surrendered himself to its spiritual power. " Prophet to the right and prerphet to the left, he stood between them, a child of the world. {Projphete rechtSy Prophete links, das Weltkind in der Mitte) " After his journey to Italy he broke off these Christian associations, and declined, with gOthe. 253 cold politeness, well-meant monitions of noble Chris- tian friends such as the Countess of Stolberg. An interesting selection of deep Christian thoughts might be made from his " Faust," and other works ; but his poetic effusions do not always express his personal convictions. We present here only a direct testimony to the truth of the gospel history and the superhuman nature of Christ from the last years of his life. It is found in his " Gesprdcke mit EckermannP iii. 371. " I consider the Gospels to be thoroughly genu- ine ; for in them there is the effective reflection of a sublimity which emanated from the Person of Christ ; and this is as Divine as ever the Divine appeared on earth." " Ich halte die Evangelien fur durchaus dcht ; denn es ist in ihnen der Ahglanz einer Hoheit wirhsam, die von der Person Christi ausging, die ist gottlicher Art, wie nur je aufErden das Gottliche erschienen ist J' 254 IMPAETIAL TESTIMONIES. THOMAS CAELYLE. This powerful Writer is an open worshipper of human heroes like Cromwell, Frederick the Great, Luther, and John Knox, but also a silent worshipper of the Divine hero, whom he was taught to love and adore on the knees of a pious Scotch mother. He calls Jesus of Nazareth " our divinest symbol. Higher has the human thought not yet reached. A symbol of quite perennial, infinite character; whose significance will ever demand to be anew inquired into, and anew made manifest." — Sartor BesarticSy bk. iii. chap. 3. WILLIAM ELLERY CHAINTNING. We are far from placing Dr. Channing, the great leader of American Unitarianism, and one of the brightest ornaments of American literature (born 1780, at Newport, Ehode Island; died 1842, at Bennington, Vermont), in the company of sceptics or unbelievers. Although heterodox on the vital articles of the Holy Trinity and the Atonement, he was, in his way, a worshipper of Jesus, and ex- WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 255 liibited the power of liis holy example in his lovely character and written works. He was deeply pene- trated with the ethical spirit of Christianity, more so than many of his orthodox opponents. We select two passages from his admirable Sermons, which bear strong testimony to the perfection of Christ's character, and which consistently would lead far beyond the Socinian or Unitarian chris- tology which he advocated. The italics are our own. From the Sermon on the ** Character of Christ^* (on Matt. 17 : 5), in Dr. Channing's Works, Boston, 1848, voL iv. pp. 1-29 :— " This Jesus lived with men : with the conscious- ness of unutterable majesty, he joined a lowliness, gentleness, humanity, and sympathy which have no example in human history. I ask you to con- template this wonderful union. In proportion to the superiority of Jesus to all around him, was the intimacy, the brotherly love, with which he bound himself to them. I maintain that this is a character wholly remote from human conception. To imagine it to be the production of imposture or enthusiasm, shows a strange unsoundness of mind. I contem- plate it with a veneration^ second only to the pro- found awe with which I look up to God. It bears no mark of human invention. It was real. 256 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. It belonged to, and it manifested, the beloved Son of God. . . . " Here *1 pause ; and indeed I know not what can be added to heighten the wonder, reverence, and love which are due to Jesus. "When I con- sider him, not only as possessed with the conscious- ness of an unexampled and unbounded majesty, but as recognising a kindred nature in human beings, and living and dying to raise them to a participa- tion of his divine glories; and when I see him, under these views, allying himself to men by the tenderest ties, embracing them with a spirit of humanity, which no insult, injury, or pain could for a moment repel or overpower, — I am filled with wonder as well as reverence and love. I feel that this character is not of human invention ; that it was not assumed through fraud, or struck out by enthusiasm; for it is infinitely above their reach. When I add this character of Jesus to the other evidences of his religion, it gives, to what before seemed so strong, a new and a vast accession of strength: I feel as if I could not be deceived. The Gospels must he true : they ivere drawn from a living original ; they were founded on reality. The character of Jesus is not a fiction : he was what he claimed to he, and what his followers attested. !N'or is this all. Jesus not only was, he is still, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. He exists now : WILLIAM ELLEEY CHANNING. 2$ 7 lie has entered that heaven to which he always looked forward on earth. There he lives and reigns. With a clear, calm faith, I see him in that state of glory; and I confidently expect, at no distant period, to see him face to face. We have, indeed, no absent friend whom we shall so surely meet. Let us, then, my hearers, by imitation of his virtues and obedience to his word, prepare ourselves to join him in those pure mansions, where he is sur- rounding himself with the good and pure of our race, and will communicate to them for ever his own spirit, power, and joy." From Dr. Channing's Discourse on ** The Imitahleness of Christ ^^ {WorI:3f voL iv. p. 140) : — " I believe Jesus Christ to be r/iore than a human being. In truth, all Christians so believe him. Those who suppose him not to have existed before his birth do not regard him as a mere man, though so reproached. They always separate him by broad distinctions from other men. They consider him as enjoying a communion with God, and as having received gifts, endowments, aid, lights, from him, granted to no other ; and as having exhibited a spotless purity, which is the highest distinction of heaven. All admit, and joyfully admit, that Jesus Christ, by his greatness and goodness, throws all other liyuman attainments into ohscurity," 33 258 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. DAVID FEIEDEICH STEAUSS. From his Essay, *' Vergdngliches und Bleihendes im Chris- tenthurriy" 1838 {Freihafen, stes Heft, page 47). See the original in the revised German edition of this work, New York (Amer. Tract Society), 1871, page 308. On Strauss, and his Leben Jesu, compare pp. 113 fF. " If in Jesus the union of the self-consciousness with the consciousness of God has been real, and expressed not only in words, but actually revealed in all the conditions of his life, he represents within the religious sphere the highest point, beyond which posterity cannot go ; yea, whom it cannot even equal, inasmuch as every one who hereafter should climb the same height, could only do it with the help of Jesus, who first attained it. As little as humanity will ever be without reli- gion, as little will it be without Christ; for to have religion without Christ would be as absurd as to enjoy poetry without regard to Homer or Shakespeare. And this Christ, as far as he is inseparable from the highest style of religion, is historical^ not mythical ; is an individual, no mere symbol. To the historical person of Christ be- longs all in his life that exhibits his religious perfection, his discourses, his moral action, and his passion He remains the highest model of religion within the reach of our thought ; and no DAVID FRIEDRICH STRAUSS. 259 'perfect piety is possible without his presence in the heart.'*'' From his new " Life of Jesus, '^ Leipzig, 1864, page 208. Third Edition. " If we ask how Jesus attained that harmony of the soul, we find in the existing records of his life no trace of painful conflicts from which it might have proceeded. ... In all those great natures which were purified by violent conflict, as Paul, Augustin, Luther, there remained wound-prints for all time, something harsh and sad which adhered to them through life. But in Jesus not a trace of this is found. Jesus appears a beauti- ful nature from the very start, which had only to unfold itself from within, to become more and more clearly conscious of itself, and more firm in itself, but had no need of returning and beginning another life.^ ... In this respect, as already intimated, the highly-gifted Apostle of the Gen- tiles was not equal to his Master ; and the two great renovators of Christianity in later times, Augustin and Luther, were more Pauline than Christ-like." 1 ** Jesus erscheint als eine schone Natur von Hause aus, die sich nur aus sich selhst heraus zu entfalterif sich ihrer selhst immer klarer bewusst, immer fester in sich zu werden, nicht aber umzukehren undein anderes Lebenzu beginnen brauchteJ'^ 260 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. THEODOEE PAEKER Bom in Lexington, Mass., 1810 ; died in Florence, i860. From '' A Discourse of Matters pertaining to Beligion,** Third ed. Boston, 1847, p. 275 fF, Theodore Parker represents the left or radical wing of American Unitarianism, as Channing represents the right or conservative wing. He adopted, with some exceptions, the mythical theory of Dr. Strauss. He speaks of "limitations of Jesus;'' says that Jesus "shared the erroneous notions of the times respecting devils, possessions, and demonology in general ; " that he " was mis- taken in his interpretation of the Old Testament ; " that he was an " enthusiast,*' at least to some extent, — all of which, however, he regards as mere trifles, not affecting in the least his moral and religious character. Then he finds fault with Jesus for denouncing his opponents in no measured terms, calling the Pharisees "hypocrites," and " children of the devil." " We cannot tell how far the historians have added to the fierceness of this invective ; but the general fact must probably remain, that he did not use courteous speecli." THEODORE PARKER. 26 1 But that, he thinks, considering the youth of the man, was a very venial error, to make the worst of it. This is what Parker calls "the negative side, or the limitations of Jesus." He then con- siders, page 278, the "positive side, or the excel- lences of Jesus." From this chapter we make the following extracts :— " In estimating the character of Jesus, it must be remembered that he died at an age when man has not reached his fullest vigour. The great works of creative intellect, the maturest products of man, all the deep and settled plans of reform- ing the world, come from a period when experience gives a wider field as the basis of hope. Socrates was but an embryo sage till long after the age of Jesus : poems, and philosophies that live, come at a later date. iN'ow, here we see a young man, but little more than thirty years old, with no advan- tage of position; the son and companion of rude people; born in a town whose inhabitants were wicked to a proverb ; of a nation, above all others distinguished for their superstition, for national pride, exaltation of themselves, and contempt for all others ; in an age of singular corruption, when the substance of religion had faded out from the mind of its anointed ministers, and sin had spread wide among a people turbulent, oppressed, and down-trodden. A man ridiculed for his lack of 202 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. knowledge, in this nation of forms, of hypocritical priests, and corrupt people, falls back on simple morality, simple religion ; unites in himself the sublimest precepts and divinest practices, thus more than realising the dream of prophets and sages; rises free from all prejudice of his age, nation, or sect; gives free range to the Spirit of God in his breast ; sets aside the law, sacred and time-honoured as it was, its forms, its sacrifice, its temple, and its priests; puts away the doctors of the law, subtle, learned, irrefragable, and pours out a doctrine beautiful as the light, sublime as heaven, and true as God. The philosophers, the poets, the prophets, the Eabbis, — he rises above them all. Yet Kazareth was no Athens, where philosophy breathed in the circumambient air : it had neither Porch nor Lyceum ; not even a school of the prophets. There is God in the heart of this youth." (Pages 278, 279.) ""That mightiest heart that ever bea.t, stirred by the Spirit of God, how it wrought in his bosom ! What words of rebuke, of comfort, counsel, admonition, promise, hope, did he pour out ! words that stir the soul as summer dews call up the faint and sickly grass. What pro- found instruction in his proverbs and discourses ! what wisdom in his homely sayings, so rich with Jewish life ! what deep divinity of soul in his THEODORE PARKER. 263 prayers, his action, sympathy, resignation ! " (Page 281.) "Try him as we try other teachers. They deliver their word ; find a few waiting for the consolation, who accept the new tidings, follow the new method, and soon go beyond their teacher, though less mighty minds than he. Such is the case with each founder of a school of philosophy, each sect in religion. Though humble men, we see what Socrates and Luther never saw. But eighteen centuries have passed since the tide of humanity rose so high in Jesus : what man, what sect, what church, has mastered his thought, com- prehended his method, and so fully applied it to life ? Let the world answer in its cry of anguish. Men have parted his raiment among them, cast lots for his seamless coat ; but that spirit which toiled so manfully in a world of sin and death, which died and suffered and overcame the world, — is that found, possessed, understood ? ISTay, is it sought for and recommended by any of our churches?" (Page 287.) 264 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. FEANCES POWER COBBE (d. 1880). From ** Broken Lights : An Inquiry into the present Con* dition and future Prospects of Beligious Faith.^^ Boston, 1S64. Page 150 ff. This is a spirited and interesting book, on the aspect of religious controversy in England at the time of its composition, by an admirer and follower of Theodore Parker. Miss Cobbe is disposed to attribute the supernatural portions of the gospel history, " if not to the invention, yet, at least, to the exaggerating homage, of adoring disciples; proceeding stage after stage to magnify the pro- phet into the Messiah, the Messiah into the Son of God, and the Son of God into the incarnate Logos, — himself a God" (page ISS). She speaks highly of Eenan s " Life of Jesus," as transcending, " for power and skill, for vivid presentation of all the outward conditions of the life of Christ, all older books on the subject, heterodox or ortho- dox." But she justly objects, that after all, in his principal figure, Renan has failed, owing to his semi-pantheistic standpoint, which ignores the per- sonality of God as our moral Lord, with whom our souls must have the actual and real transactions FRANCES POWER COBBE. 26$ of repentance, forgiveness, regeneration. She inti- mates that " the treatment of a subject essentially spiritual, from a merely moral and aesthetic point of view, must inevitably be a failure " (page i 50). In many passages of the " Vie de Jdsus " she re- marks (pp. 150, 151), "the intrusion of aesthetic criticism into the profoundest penetralia of reli- gion, is, in the last degree, painful, and surely must be held to betray a very slight sense of the sanctity of the ideas subjected to such criticism. That the story of the prodigal could be styled ' a ddlicieuse parabohy and Christ's pity for the repen- tant Magdalenes be spoken of as a 'jalousie pour la gloire de son Fere dans ces belles creatures,' seems almost to reveal the inability of the speaker to comprehend the divinest thing in Christ — his treatment of sin." The question, therefore, still recurs : " What think ye of Christ ? whose son is he ? who and what was that great prophet who trod the fields of Palestine nineteen centuries ago, and who has ever since been worshipped as a God by the foremost nations of the world ? " Miss Cobbe then proceeds to give her own views of Christ from what she calls "the standpoint of Theisfti," which, however, differs very widely from the Theism of the Bible, and is only a new phase of Deism and Naturalism, enlivened and improved by modern philanthropy and religious sentimental- 34 266 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. ism. We select the more striking passages as testimonies of a misguided but noble and highly gifted soul, groping in the dark after the unknown Saviour. " The four Gospels have given us so living, if not so correct^ an image, and that image has shone out so long in golden radiance before the dazzled eyes of Christendom, that to admit it may be par- tially erroneous is the utmost stretch of our philo- sophy. We still persist in arguing and debating as if it were absolutely perfect. Small marvel, truly, is it so, when even the confessed creations of the poet's genius — a Hamlet or a Lear — become to us real persons on whom we argue and debate. Who shall say how real is that ideal Christ whom all of us hold in our hearts, whom nearly all of us have worshipped on our knees ? . . . " Of that noblest countenance which once smiled upon the plains of Palestine, we possess not, nor will mankind ever recover, any perfect and infal- lible picture, any sun- drawn photograph which might tell us, with unerring certainty, he was or he was not as our hearts may conceive of him. "One thing, however, we may hold with ap- proximate certainty, and that is, that all the high- est doctrines, the purest moral precepts, the most profound spiritual revelations, recorded in the Gospels, were actually those of Christ himsel£ FKANCES POWER COBBE. 267 The originator of the Christian movement must have been the greatest soul of his time, as of all time. If he did not speak those words of wisdom, who could have recorded them for him ? ' It would have taken a Jesus to forge a Jesus' (Theodore Parker.) . . . " The view which seems to be the sole fitting one for our estimate of the character of Christ, is that which regards him as the great eegenerator of humanity. His coming was, to the life of humanity, what regeneration is to the life of the individual This is not a conclusion doubtfully deduced from questionable biographies, but a broad plain inference from the universal history of our race. We may dispute all details ; but the grand result is beyond criticism. The world has changed, and that change is historically traceable to Christ. The honour, then, which Christ de- mands of us, must be in proportion to our estimate of the value of such regeneration. He is not merely a moral reformer, inculcating pure ethics; not merely a religious reformer, clearing away old theological errors, and teaching higher ideas of God. These things he was ; but he might, for all we can tell, have been them both as fully, and yet have failed to be what he has actually been to our race. He might have taught the world better ethics and better theology, and yet have failed to 26S IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. infuse into it that new life which has ever since coursed through its arteries and penetrated its minutest veins. What Christ has really done is beyond the kingdom of the intellect and its theo- logies ; nay, even beyond the kingdom of the con- science, and its recognition of duty. His work has been in that of the heart. He has transformed the law into the gospel. He has changed the bondage of the alien for the liberty of the sons of God. He has glorified virtue into holiness, religion into piety, and duty into love. ' . . . " When the fulness of time had come, and the creeds of the world's childhood were worn out, and the restless question was on every lip, ' Who will show us any good ? ' when the whole heart of humanity was sick of its sin, and weary of its wickedness, — then God gave to one man, for man- kind at large, that same blessed task he gives to many for a few. Christ, the elder brother of the human family, was the helper and (in the highest philosophic sense) the Saviour of humanity." JOHN STUAET MILL. 269 JOHN STUAET MILL (b. 1806, d. 1873). From his essay on Theism^ completed shortly before his death, and published, 1874, with two other essays under the ■ title, Three Essays on Religion (Am. ed. by Holt, p. 253). In this essay Mill unsettles all the arguments for the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, but winds up with the following testimony to Christ. He said of himself that he never had any religious belief, but he made an idol of his wife, especially after her death. We have here his last utterance. " Above all, the most valuable part of the effect on the character which Christianity has produced by holding up in a Divine Person a standard of excellence and a model for imitation, is available even to the absolute unbeliever, and can never more be lost to humanity. For it is Christ, rather than God, whom Christianity has held up to believers as the pattern of 'perfection for humanity. It is the God incarnate, more than the God of the Jews or of nature, who being idealised has taken so great and salutary a hold on the modern mind. And whatever else may be taken away from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left; a unique figure, not more unlike all his precursors than all his followers, even those who had the direct benefit of his personal teaching. It is of no use to say that Christ as exhibited in the Gospels is 2/6 IMPAllTIAL TESTIMONIES. not historical, and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been superadded by the tradition of his followers. The tradition of fol- lowers suffices to insert any number of marvels, and may have inserted all the miracles which he is reputed to have wrought. But who among his disciples or among their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or imagin- ing the life and character revealed in the Gospels ? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee ; as certainly not St. Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally different sort ; still less the early Christian writers, in whom nothing is more evident than that the good which was in them was all de- rived, as they always professed that it was derived, from the higher source. What co^dd be added and interpolated by a disciple we may see in the mystical parts of the Gospel of St. John, matter imported from Philo and the Alexandrian Platon- ists and put into the mouth of the Saviour in long speeches about himself, such as the other Gospels contain not the slightest vestige of, though pre- tended to have been delivered on occasions of tho deepest interest and when his principal followers were all present ; most prominently at the last supper. The East was full of men who could have stolen any quantity of this poor stuff, as the mul- titudinous Oriental sects of Gnostics afterwards JOHN STUAKT MILL. 2/1 did. ^ But about the life and sayings of Jesus there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of insight, which, if we abandon the idle expectation of finding scientific precision where something very different was aimed at, must place the Prophet of Nazareth, even in the estima- tion of those who have no belief in his inspiration, in the very first rank of the men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre- eminent genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer, and martyr to that mission, who ever existed upon earth, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in pitching on this man as the ideal representative and guide of humanity ; nor, even now, would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, than to endeavour so to live that Christ would approve our life. When to this we add that, to the conception of the rational sceptic, it remains a possibility that Christ actually was what he supposed himself to be — not God, for he never made the smallest pretension to that char- ^ This irreverent fling at St. John shows the utter incapacity of this eminent philosopher to understand the sublimest discourses ever spoken on earth, and his ignorance of the Gnostic writings, which bear no comparison whatever with them. Philosophers of a far higher order than Mill have found unfathomable depths of thought in the Gospel of John. 2/2 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. acter, and would probably have thought such a pretension as blasphemous as it seemed to the men who condemned him [?] — but a man charged with a special, express, and unique commission from God to lead mankind to truth and virtue, — we may well conclude that the influences of religion on the character which will remain after rational criticism has done its utmost against the evidences of religion, are well worth preserving, and that what they lack in direct strength as compared with those of a firmer belief, is more than compensated by the greater truth and rectitude of the morality they sanction. " Impressions such as these, though not in them- selves amounting to what can properly be called a religion, seem to me excellently fitted to aid and fortify that real, though purely human religion, which sometimes calls itself the Eeligion of Humanity, and sometimes that of Duty. To the other inducements for cultivating a religious devo- tion to the welfare of our fellow-creatures as an obligatory limit to every selfish aim, and an end for the direct promotion of which no sacrifice can be too great, it superadds the feeling that in mak- ing this the rule of our life, we may be co-operating with the unseen Being to whom we owe all that is enjoyable in life. One elevated feeling this form of religious idea admits of, which is not open to JOHN STUART MILL. 2/3 those wlio believe in the omnipotence of the good principle in the universe, the feeling of helping God — of requiting the good he has given by a voluntary co-operation which he, not being omni- potent, really needs, and by which a somewhat nearer approach may be made to the fulfilment of his purposes. The conditions of human existence are highly favourable to the growth of such a feel- ing, inasmuch as a battle is constantly going on, in which the humblest human creature is not incapable of taking some part, between the powers of good and those of evil, and in which every, even the smallest, help to the right side has its value in pro- moting the very slow and often almost insensible progress by which good is gradually gaining ground from evil, yet gaining it so visibly at considerable intervals as to promise the very distant but not uncertain final victory of Good To do something during life on even the humblest scale, if nothing more is within reach, towards bringing this con- summation ever so little nearer, is the most ani- mating and invigorating thought which can inspire a human creature ; and that it is destined, with or without supernatural sanctions, to be the religion of the future I cannot entertain a doubt. But it appears to me that supernatural hopes, in the de- gree and kind in which what I have called rational scepticism does not refuse to sanction them, may 35 274 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. still contribute not a little to give to this religion its due ascendancy over the human mind/' ERNEST EENAK From the " Viede J6sus,par E. Renan, memhre de VInstituV* SeptUme Edition. Paris, 1864. English translation by Charles Edwin Wilbour, translator of '^ Les Miserahles.^* New York, 1864. (On Renan and his hook, compare the preceding Essay, p. 130.) "Jesus cannot belong exclusively to those who call themselves his disciples. He is the common honour of all who bear a human heart. His glory consists not in being banished from history: we render him a truer w^orship by showing that all history is inco7npre'hensi'ble without him {Vhistoire entiere est incomjprehensible sans lui)" Page 50. (French ed. p. xlviii, close of the Introduction.) " The capital event in the history of the w^orld is the revolution by which the noblest portions of humanity passed from the ancient religions, com- prised under the vague name of paganism, to a religion founded upon the divine unity, the Trinity, the incarnation of the Son of God. This conver- sion required nearly a thousand years for its accom- plishment. The new religion occupied at least three hundred years in its formation alone. But ERNEST RENAN. 2/5 the origin of tlie revolution with which we have to do is an event which occurred during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Then lived a superior person, who, by his bold initiative, and by the love which he inspired, created the object, and fixed the starting-point, of the future fate of humanity. {Alors vecut une personne supdrieure qid, par son initiative hardie, et par V amour qyCellc sut inspirer, crda Vdhjet et posa le point de ddpart de la foi future de Vhumanite.y Page 51. (French ed. page I, beginning of cliaj), i.) *'This confused medley of [Messianic Jewish] visions and dreams, this alternation of hopes and deceptions, these aspirations incessantly trampled down by a hateful reality, at length found their interpreter in the incomparable man to whom the universal conscience has decreed the title of Son of God, and that with justice; since he caused religion to take a step in advance, incomparably greater than any other in the past, and, probably, than any yet to come. {Lhomme incomparable auquel la conscience universelle a ddcernd le titre de Fils de Dieu, et cela avec Justice, puisqu'il a fait /aire d la religion un pas auquel nul autre ne peut et 'prohdblement ne pourra jamais etre com,pard.y* Page 64. (French ed. page 13, close of chap, i.) ^'Were the men who have most loftily compre- 276 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. liended God, — Cakya-Monni, Plato, St. Paul, St. Francis d^Assisi, and St. Angustin, — at some mo- ments of his changeful life, deists or pantheists ? Such a question has no meaning. The physical and metaphysical proofs of the existence of God to them would have had no interest. They felt the divine within themselves. In the first rank of this grand family of the true sons of God we must place Jesus. Jesus has no visions ; God does not speak to him from without; God is in him; he feels that he is with God, and he draws from his heart what he says of his Father. He lives in the bosom of God by uninterrupted communication: he does not see him, but he understands him with- out need of thunder and burning bush like Moses, of a revealing tempest like Job, of an oracle like the old Greek sages, of a familiar genius like Socrates, or of an angel Gabriel like Mohammed. The imagination and hallucination of a St. Theresa, for example, here go for nothing. The intoxication of the Soufi, proclaiming himself identical with God, is also an entirely different thing. Jesus never for a moment enounces the sacrilegious idea that he is God [?]. He believes that he is in direct communion with God: he believes himself the Soil of God. The highest consciousness of God which ever existed in the breast of humanity was that of Jesus. {La plus haute conscience de Bleu ERNEST RENAN. 2// qui ait exists au sein de Vhumaniti a iti celle de Jdsus,y Page 104. (French ed. page 54, chap, iv.) "It is probable that, from the very first, he looked to God in the relation of a son to a farther. This is his great act of originality : in this he is in no wise of his race. {En cela il n'est nullemeni de sa race.) Neither the Jew nor the Moslem has learned this delightful theology of love. The God of Jesus is not the hateful master who kills us when he pleases, damns us when he pleases, saves us when he pleases. The God of Jesus is our Father. We hear him when we listen to a low whisper within us, which says, ' Father.' The God of Jesus is not the partial despot who has chosen Israel for his people, and protects it in the face of all and against all. He is the God of humanity." Page 106. (Page 56, chap, v.) "It. cannot be denied, that the maxims bor- rowed [?] by Jesus from his predecessors produce, in the gospel, an effect totally different from that in the ancient law, in the FirJce Aboth} or in the Talmud. It is not the ancient law, it is not the Talmud, which has conquered and changed the world. Little original in itself, — if by that is meant that it can be recomposed almost entirely [?] 1 A collection of sentences and maxims of ancient Je^^ish rabhis. 278 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. with more ancient maxims, — the evangelical morality remains none the less the highest creation which has emanated from the human conscience, the most beautiful code of perfect life that any moralist has traced. {La jolus haute creation qui soit sortie de la conscience humaine^ le plus heaio code de la vie 'parfaite qyJaucun moraliste ait tracd^'^ Page no. (Page 61, chap, v.) " The gospel has been the supreme remedy for the sorrows of common life; a perpetual sursum corda ; a mighty distraction from the wretched cares of earth ; a sweet appeal, like that of Jesus to the ear of Martha: 'Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things ; but one thing is needful.' Thanks to Jesus, the most spiritless existence, that most absorbed in sad or humiliating duties, has had its glimpse of heaven ! In our bustling civilisation, the memory of the free life of Galilee has been like the perfume of another world; like a 'dew of Hermon,' which has pre- vented sterility and vulgarity from completely usurping the field of God." Page 175. (Page 127, chap, x.) " Christ, for the first time, gave utterance to the idea upon which shall rest the edifice of the ever- lasting religion. He founded the pure worship — - of no age, of no clime — which shall be that of all lofty souls to the end of time. ... If other ERNEST KENAN. 279 planets have inhabitants endowed with reason and morality, their religion cannot be different from that which Jesus proclaimed at Jacob's Well. Man has not been able to abide by this worship [in spirit and in truth] : we attain the ideal only for a moment. The words of Jesus were a gleam in thick night : it has taken eighteen hundred years for the eyes of humanity (what do I say ! of an infinitely small portion of humanity) to learn to abide by it. But the gleam shall become the full day; and, after passing through all the circles of error, humanity will return to these words, as to the immortal expression of its faith and its hopes. {Thumanite revicndra a ce mot-Id [John iv. 23] comme d Vexjpression immortelle de sa foi et de ses esp^rances.y Page 215. (Page 168, chap, xiv.) " Eepose now in thy glory, noble founder ! Thy work is finished ; thy divinity is established. Fear no more to see the edifice of thy labours fall by any fault. Henceforth, beyond the reach of frailty, thou shalt witness, from the heights" of divine peace, the infinite results of thy acts. At the price of a few hours of sujffering, which did not even reach thy grand soul, thou hast bought the most complete immortality. Tor thousands of years, the world will defend thee ! Banner of our contests, thou shalt be the standard about which 280 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. the hottest battle will be given. A thousand times more alive, a thousand times more beloved since thy death than during thy passage here below, thou shalt become the corner-stone of humanity so entirely, that to tear thy name from this world would be to rend it to its foundations. Between thee and God there will be no longer any distinction. (Entre toi et Dieu on ne distin- guera plus) Complete conqueror of death, take possession of thy kingdom; whither shall follow thee, by the royal road which thou hast traced, ages of worshippers {des siecles d'adorateurs)" Page 351. (Page 303, close of chap, xxv.) " Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His worship will grow young without ceasing ; his legend will call forth tears without end ; his sufferings will melt the noblest hearts ; all ages will proclaim, that, among the sons of men, there is none born greater than Jesus. {Quels que puissent etre les pMnomenes in- attendus de Vavenir, Jdsus ne sera pas smpassd. Son culte se rajeunira sans cesse ; sa Ugende provo- quera des larmes sans Jin; ses souffrances attendri- ront les meilleurs coeurs : tous les siecles proclameront qii entre les jils des homnies, il n'en est pas nd plus grand que Jdsus)'* Page 376. (Page 325, end of the xxviii. and last chap.) THEODOR KEIM. 28 1 THEODOE KEIM. Dr. Theodor Keim (a native of the kingdom of Wurttemberg, Professor of Theology in the Univer- sity of Ziirich, and afterwards in Giessen, died 1 879) wrote three very able essays on the Historical Christ ('' I)er geschichtliche Christus,'* Zurichj 1866), and an elaborate Life of Jesus (" Geschichte Jesu von Nazaral' Zurich, 1867— 1872, 3 vols., also translated into English), which belong to the liberal critical school, but mark a considerable advance be- yond the destructive criticism of Strauss and Eenan, and aim at a reconstruction of a historical Christ on the basis of the Synoptical Gospels (without the aid of John) and in the light of the whole con- temporary history, as brought before us especially in the works of Josephus. Keim strongly asserts the sinlessness of Christ as being implied in his words and work and admitted by friend and foe, although it may not be capable of absolute proof as an experimental fact. He ably refutes the subjective vision-hypothesis of Strauss and Eenan, and admits an actual, though only spiritual, resurrection of Christ, and his objective appearance from heaven. " The fact stands firm," he says, "not indeed, as was always believed, that the tomb of Jesus was empty, but that the Apostles saw their Lord again after his death, or 36 282 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. were thoroughly convinced that they saw him." He does not inform us what became of his body, but admits that we must either confess our igno- rance, or return to the simple faith of the disciples. We select a few passages from Keim's "G^- scMchte Jesu von JVazara" His style is artificial, and hard to translate. His small work in one volume (third edition, 1875) is an abridgment. " Thus the religion of Christ goes mysteriously back to his person. ... In his personal life there must have been from the very beginning and always a sentiment of human elevation, a feeling of divine love, and an aspiration after perfection in God, mighty, pure, without bitter drops of human weakness, impurity, unworthiness — a per- fection such as we find elsewhere reflected only in broken and disturbed fragments. This fundamen- tal fact alone, which with Paul we call the higher, complete, divine-human creation of the great God in the fulness of time, enables us to understand the religion which sprang from it and the Man himself, the pure one, the sinless one, the Son of God." Vol. i. p. 448. Christ, in his gigantic elevation above his own and succeeding ages, "makes the impression of mysterious loneliness, superhuman miracle, divine creation."^ Yol. iii. p. 662. * " Den Eindruck geheimnissvoUer EinsamJceit, uhermenschlicherh Wundcrs, goltlichcr Schopfung.^' NAPOLEON'S TESTIMONY. 283 " The person of Jesus is not only a deed among the many deeds of God, but the peculiar work, the specific revelation of God. . . . Christianity is the crown of the creations of God, and Jesus is the Chosen of God, his Image, his Darling, his World- Guide and World-Shaper in the history of man-' kind. He is the rest, and he is the fly-wheel of the history of the world." ^ Vol. iii. p. 66J, TWO LETTEES CONCEENIITG NAPOLEON'S TESTIMONY. {Compare ;page 219.) While this book was passing through the press, I received from two well-informed gentlemen of France, the Eev. Eugene Bersier and Mons. Lut- teroth, the following replies to inquiries concerning 1 ** Weil in seiner Person gegenuherdem Stiickwerk seiner Zeit und dem Stiickwerk der Jahrtausende der Mensch und die Menschheit aich vollendete, darum ist es gegeft here Einwdnde noch heute moglich und verniinftig zu sagen, die Person Jcsu ist nicht nur eine That unter vielen Thaten GotteSy sie ist das eigenste Werk^ die specifische Offenharung Gottes gewesen; nur kein Werk des AbbruchSy sondern des Ahschlusses und Aufbaus der gottgesetzten Weltordnnng. Hat von ihm selhst Spinoza bekannty dass er del* Tempel Gottes gewesen, in tuelchem Gott sich am meisten offenbarte, so ruft es bei uns noch freu- diger : das Christenthum ist die Krone der Schopfungen Gottes, und Jesus der Erwdhlie Gottes, Abbild, Liebling, Weltfilhrer und Welt' bildner Gottes in der Menschheitsgeschichte, Er ist die Euhe und er ist das Triebrad der Weltgeschichte.'* 2S4 IMPARTIAL TESTIMONIES. the origin and authenticity of the remarkable testimony of the great Kapoleon to the Divinity of Christ : — **PAIlTg, 216 BOULEVABD PeREIRE, le 23 AoUt 1879. " Cher Monsieur, — Le seul homme qui, k ma connaissance, puisse vous renseigner exactement sur la question que vous me presentez, est M. Henry Lutteroth, Chateau de Bourneville par la fert^ Milon (Aisne). M. Lutteroth etait membre du Comitd des Trait^s quand fut publie le traite NajpoUon, " On m'a toujours dit que les paroles cities de Napoleon ont et^ rapportfes verbatim par Montho- lon et transcrites par un de ses amis protestants (le g^n^ral Maurice ou Tamiral Verhuel). Je n'en sais pas davantage. Je crois a leur parfaite au- thenticity. Personne, surtout alors, n'aurait trouv^ cela. II y a Ik la griffe du lion. — Tout h, vous, "EuG. Bersier." "Bourneville, par la Fert^-Milon, (Aisne), le ler Septemhre 1879. " Monsieur, — Je serais heureux de pouvoir vous donner quelques renseignements precis sur la source ou ont ^t^ puises les entretiens de Napoleon avec le general Bertrand relatifs au Christianisme, reproduits dans un traite de la Soci^te des Traites religieux de Paris, portant le ISTo. 200, et non le Ko. 51, h moins que le No. n'ait 6t(S change depuis peu. " Ce traits a ^t^ imprim^ pour la premiere fois, napoleon's testimony. 285 je crois en 1843. II en est fait mention dans le rapport de 1842 k 1843 en ces mots: * ISTapolc^on lisait TEvangile k Sainte-Helfene ; le fait est certain ; Ton a m^me publie sur les reflexions que cette lection lui sugg^rait, dans ses entretiens, des pages qu'on a placees sous la protection du nom de I'un de ses compagnons d'infortnne, qui n'en a pas repouss4 la responsabilite. II nous a paru que ce fait et ces paroles etaient de nature a produire une s^rieuse impression ; que les militaires surtout pourraient etre conduits par ce memorable exemple k vouloir lire le livre qu'etudiait Conde et que meditait JSTapoleon/ "La feuille religieux du canton de Vaud de 1843, publico k Lausanne, avait aussi donn^ des extraits de ces entretiens ; mais je ne saurais dire s'ils sont tires du livre de M. de Beauterne : Sentiments de NajpoUon sur le Christianisme, ou d'ailleurs "Eecevez, Monsieur, Tassurance de mes senti- ments distingu^a, ** Henei Lutteroth.'* ^1^ mv. :m "■V'sm;! 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