be accomplished, the eternal harmonies of celestial peace will likely be all the sweeter because of the discords that have preceded them.

A life spent in the pursuit of the lofty aims of an enlightened Christian manhood is never spent in vain; and he who develops his powers in accord with the cardinal principles of such a life will never be compelled to exclaim with the famous Dr. Faust:

"I've studied now Philosophy

And Jurisprudence, Medicine,

And e'en alas! Theology,

From end to end, with labor keen;
And here, poor fool, with all my lore

I stand no wiser than before." *

It is altogether possible that, in the pursuit of knowledge, one may study extensively and learn not a little, and yet grow no wiser. Scholarship in philosophy, law, medicine, or any other department of human science, may not only leave its possessor entirely destitute of the higher sense of human destiny, but he may even fail to comprehend the real essence and aim of the departments he has undertaken to master, so that in a purely secular sense of culture he has not really increased in wisdom. And, of course, when such a scholastic oracle presumes to postulate the value of the study of theology, his deliverances may be taken to be about of as much account as would be those of a medieval juggler on the merits of modern scientific progress. Nature is after all a grand and glorious reality, resting upon the eternal foundations of truth and wisdom, and science rises far above mere figments of the brain in its essence, in its fundamental principles, and in its growth and aims, though the ignorance and folly of men is abundantly displayed in every stage of its progress. Theology, in the technical sense, may be encumbered with a vast deal of formulated rubbish which will be dropped by the way as a useless excrescence; but in its central Christologic power and substance it

Bayard Taylor's English Translation of Goethe's "Faust," Part 1, Scene 1, Page 17.

is not at the mercy of the shifting condition of mere earth-made systems, and hence will abide though the heavens and the earth will perish. He who takes hold of the higher sense and philosophy of the mind, and who receives into the development of his mental and moral energies the impress of Christian manhood, will grow wiser indeed in the pursuit of every kind of knowledge, since godliness of such character is profitable in all things, and has the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

The scepticism of Faust is characteristic of the age in which Goethe lived and produced his great drama. He personified a violent reaction against the frigid orthodox scholasticism of the age. This reaction was largely destructive; it cleared away worn-out theories and antiquated mannerism without mercy, and struck at the foundations of all science. Perhaps it was most violent when it entered the domain of religion and theology. It was emphatically an assertion of self, of individual freedom, over against the intellectual tyranny of the times. As such it was an element of progress and gave rise to broader and more liberal ideas in all departments of thought. Theology and biblical science were especially benefited by its sifting processes. It was a negative historical movement for the development of positive historical truths, and in its results produced a self-culture of mental, moral, and religious forces in eminent accord with the genius of the Christian faith. In this respect it was the legitimate consequence and outgrowth of the great Reformation, as this was also a reaction against the accumulated errors and abuses of the medieval period and the ecclesiastical tyranny of the times. All such historical revolutions find their justification and legitimate design in that grand central epoch, when the Mosaic economy came to its close, when Pharisaic traditional conservatism was broken and scattered to the winds, and when the gospel economy of grace was inaugurated, all that history might carry with it in its course, the elevation of the individual, the renewal of the bonds of a common brotherhood, and the redemption of the race. This is indeed

culture coming from above and from abroad, in the organized forces of Christian society; but it is never complete in this form, until it becomes a personal matter and enlists the energies of every individual soul. That such moral hurricanes as modern scepticism and infidelity should be used as an occasion of a healthy and generous progress in the moral elevation and enlargement of Christian thought, may seem strange; but it falls in so fully with the progressive needs of our nature, that it must be received as a decree of divine Wisdom enforced in our probationary training as a necessary part of our personal self-culture and development. Life cannot move forever in fixed ruts; decay and reproduction belong to the order of things, and they enter also into the course of the Christian life, both in its individual and general forms. Theology and religious creed and culture are not exempt from the universal law of development and change.

Modern life generally is tending strongly in the direction of individual self-assertion. This is particularly the case in the genius of our rising American nationality. Here freedom is untrammeled in all its aspects, and resources are so abundant and free, that the movements of the popular mind are not limited by any of the conventionalities which encumber the progress of other and older nations. We are moving with a rush, often, no doubt, with too much haste to be either safe or solid in our progress. Yet such risks are more to our mind than stagnation and decay. Ours is a battle on a broad field; it is self-culture on a comprehensive scale. Politics is but a small portion of our national life and training; it is our business to liberalize the entire economy of the social manhood, and to give impulses in the direction of a universal world revolution in thought, institutions, and manners. Mistakes we commit, and often we are guilty of folly, but these we fondly trust will make us only wiser and more efficient in bringing ourselves up to the highest ideal of a free Christian people. We are not free from the heresies and dangers of other nationalities, and of our fallen race generally; but we hope that, by the

grace of God and His blessed gospel, these dangers may be passed in our history and the nation allowed to stand, in all its industrial, commercial, intellectual, political, moral, and religious aspects, as a tangible and complete product of the Christian life. To falter in the face of a self-culture so liberal and beneficent, and so evidently in harmony with the highest stages of Christian progress, is to prove disloyal to self, to home, to country, and to mankind.

ART. IV.-SUBJECTION TO LAWFUL AUTHORITY.

BY REV. N. H. LOOSE, A.M., BELLEVUE, OHIO.

IN our day there is much said and written in regard to patriotism, and various standards are set up as tests of what constitutes a true patriot. When we look upon patriotism as love for one's country: the passion which aims to serve it; either in defending it from invasion, or protecting its rights and maintaining its laws and institutions in unsullied purity and native vigor, we may well declare it a most noble virtue, one that bestows upon the citizen the highest blessings and privileges of the State. But noble and good as all this is, is there not danger in the ardous zeal often manifested in the vindication of a nation's honor, to lose sight of the true and higher allegiance, that the individual owes to the God of nations, who rules in wondrous power and majesty over kingdoms and empires? Too often is the nation everything, and God nothing, in the unchristian patriotism of many who worship the State as the only shrine of their devotions to which they offer the most ardent sacrifices of their lives: altogether regardless of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Such subjection to authority, is allegiance only to the human in government, and therefore a rejection of the Divine as that holds in all legitimate authority.

In order to be in proper relation to authority, there must be a well grounded and honest recognition of the Divine as the source of all law and order. With this in view, the Divine above the merely human, yet transmitted through human channels, we respectfully solicit attention to the discussion of our themeSubjection to Lawful Authority. In doing so we notice, First, Authority under the form of Law; Second, Authority violated; Third, Obedience to authority.

First, Authority under the form of law. Law in general is a rule of action requiring imperative obedience, with a just penalty attached for disobedience: so that law is not a series of actions, but the cause whence they proceed. Good, moral and religious actions proceed from an indwelling presence of an active controlling power and are visible testimonials to such originating and regulating agency. The loyal citizen of the State, and the faithful Christian in the church, are each evidences of obedience, willingly given to the respective powers to which they belong.

Law is natural: and may be defined as a principle of causation, regulative in its forces as established by the Creator, having existence independent of any revealed precept or statute: for law has being in and of itself, whether revealed or not, being in its inner life, independent of any unfolding of its hidden mysteries and forces. This now shows the Word of God, to be the revealer of law, rather than the law itself, and that moral law being natural, as originated in the Divine Mind, has a place constitutionally in human being, directing and controlling men in their relations to God and each other. To know Divine Authority and its law, to obey freely its high behests, is the chief glory of man. The moral law is summarily given in the decalogue, which by careful and candid examination at once commends itself to the consciousness of every considerate thinker, as just and in every respect calculated to enhance the prosperity and happiness of our race.

Upon the moral law, as promulgated by Divine Authority, is based civil or national law, by which the relation of government and the governed is defined and regulated. Let the laws