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The Gospel lies in the

far as I can see, no real likeness between the intellectual process by which the Divine Wisdom came to be regarded (in some sense) as personal, and the assertion that historically the Word became flesh. The essence of the idea of the Incarnation lies not in the recognition of a distinct divine person, but in the personal and final union of the Godhead and humanity. There had been real theophanies under the old dispensation in which GOD had been pleased to manifest Himself under a limited and transitory form. There had been fabled theophanies in the mythologies of the East and West, in which gods were said to have assumed for a time, and as a veil, the form of men, or even of lower creatures, for purposes of mercy, or judgment, or caprice, or passion. There had been fabled apotheoses in which heroes had laid aside their dress of mortality and gained entrance into the family of heaven. But the assumption of humanity, not for a time, but for ever, by the Word, who is GOD, was a truth undreamt of till it was realised. And yet it answers to the original constitution of man's nature. If he was made capable of union with GOD, to which truth his aspiration towards GOD is a silent and lasting witness, the consequence seems inevitable that this union would be brought about; and this (as far as our thoughts reach)

record of Creation.

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could only be by GOD freely taking, not a man, but humanity, to Himself.

Thus we return to the point from which we started. The first Gospel lies in the record of Creation (Gen. i. 27). It was given before the Fall and not after the Fall. The Divine counsel of the union of GOD with man realised in the Incarnation is the foundation of Revelation. The poverty and sorrow and passion of Christ were due to sin, but we dare not suppose that the consummation of the destiny of humanity was due to such a cause. The thought reaches to the very foundations of our Faith. Perhaps we may add that now at last it falls in with the peculiar conditions of our knowledge and our difficulties. So at last our Theology gains a transformation like that which was achieved in astronomy by the conception of Copernicus; it becomes Theocentric, while before it was anthropocentric: the ruling idea is not the self-assertion of man but the loving will of GOD.

CHAPTER IX.

CHRISTIANITY HISTORICAL.

WE have seen that Christianity claims to be absolute, to extend without limit to all men, to the whole of man, to all being, to all time, or rather to eternity. At the same time since revelation comes through life and stands in a vital connexion with the whole life of humanity it must be progressive or apprehended progressively. Christianity therefore claims also to be historical; and by this claim it is distinguished from all other religions. Its teaching, its life, its essence is a history. It was prepared by a long national development, into which the typical elements of the ancient world entered as contributory forces. It is summed up in the facts of a divine-human life. It has been, and still is being, wrought out in the slow and unreturning growth of a society.

In this sense Christianity is the only historical

Christianity the only historical religion. 255

religion. There is a sense in which Christianity and Mohammedanism, for example, may be classed together as historical religions, so far as the facts connected with the personality and life of their Founders, their origin and progress and development, can be traced in documents which are adequate to assure belief. But it is not in this sense primarily that Christianity is historical. Christianity is historical not simply or characteristically because Christ standing out before the world at a definite time and place proclaimed certain truths and laid down certain rules for the constitution and conduct of a society. It is historical because He offered Himself in His own Person, and He was shewn to be in the events of His Life, the revelation which He came to give. It is historical in itself, in its essence, and, this being so, it is, in a secondary and yet in a unique sense, historical in its antecedents and in its realisation.

Christianity is historical in its antecedents. It is the fulfilment of Judaism, which was in its very idea definitely prospective, and only really intelligible through the end to which it led. The Covenant with Abraham included the promise of which the later religious history of 'the people,' working throughout for and in 'the nations,' was

256 Christianity historical in its antecedents

the gradual accomplishment. The call of Abraham was the beginning of the universal life of Faith. For as Christianity was the goal of the revelations of the Old Testament, so it was also the answer to the questions of the whole præ-Christian world, the satisfaction of the aspirations of the many nations' with whom in the order of Providence the 'people' was brought into con

tact.

Christianity is historical in itself. It is not a code of laws: it is not a structure of institutions: it is not a system of opinions. It is a life in fellowship with a living Lord. The Work and the Person of Christ, this is the Gospel, both as it was proclaimed by the Lord Himself, and as it was proclaimed by His Apostles: the revelation, the gift, the power, of a perfect human life offered to GOD and received by GOD, in and with which every single human life finds its accomplishment. The laws, the institutions, the opinions, of Christendom are the expression of the life which works through them. In Christianity the thoughts by which other religions live are seen as facts.

Christianity is also historical in its realisation. All human experience must be a commentary on

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