the world through the ideals which reveal its principles, who conceives of absolute truth and goodness, and who has such a sense of the divine that he cannot frame his epic of human events without laying the machinery of thought and action in the invisi ble world, must, when he turns to himself, view this soul within him which thus conceives-is thus inspired by ideals, and projects such philosophies, sciences, and arts-as something wonderful and holy, something to be reverenced and cherished, and led out, if possible, to its full measures. The soul by which we know and feel so much, who can tell how much it may know and feel? We are at the beginning, but where is the end of its develop ment? Can we conceive of a nobler experiment than that of trying its utmost capacity-of trying how wise and good it is possible to become? and this to be forecasted not for the fleeting term of this present life, but for immortality. And in forecasting this for immortality, we are at once reminded that the seeds of the future are sown in the present; and that the growth of the soul forever will be in the direction that we give it now. But to whom can this growth of the soul be an object of such interest as to the man of letters and of art, who from this soul is announc ing truth, and projecting forms of majesty and beauty. Has he not in what he is doing, a foretaste of immortal life? He, of all others, ought to find his highest personal good in the cultivation of these high spiritual faculties; he, of all others, might be expected to live for himself in the way of making himself a man such as God has fitted him to become a man after the divine ideal of humanity. And as the great and good Milton has said, "The end of all learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfection:" so we may add, the man of letters and art might be expected to be the most pure-minded and faithful Christian. He who lives amid the ideals of truth, beauty, and perfection, must perceive the moral to be the highest form of these, and the divine Son of God their highest embodiment: and it would seem most natural and fitting that such an one should sit at the feet of this great Teacher of truth and duty, learning his doctrines, receiving his salvation, copying his example and following him devoutly in the only sure heavenward way. Therefore would we say to thee, O thou servant of divine philosophy, thou man of beautiful arts, and of chaste and glorious letters! whatever thou mayest fail of in earthly rewards, thou canst attain to this great end-thou canst save thyself thou canst perfect thy being, thou canst be a child of light now, and feel thy wings growing that thou mayest be an angel of light in heaven, when thy work is done on earth!

And the other motive, which relates to mankind at large, is akin to this one, and inseparable from it. "I am long since persuaded," says Milton, "that to say or do aught worth memory and imitation, no purpose or respect should sooner move us than simply the love of God, and of mankind." The same sentiment Shakspeare has nobly expressed in his famous lines:

"Be just and fear not;

Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's."

That very process by which the soul is perfected involves these ends. It is by serving truth and justice that the soul attains to a divine nature; and serving truth and justice, it serves God and mankind. He who undertakes to live only for himself, violates the highest law of his being, and the social constitution of the universe. As he cannot diffuse happiness, so he cannot be happy himself. The sun shining from age to age loses none of his brightness he is the sun because he always shines: and the great God whom he symbolizes is ever giving and blessing: and God is God because he ever gives and blesses. And man, the noblest creature of God in this lower world, is truly man only as he is godlike. All the great and good of our race have acted upon this principle. The hero dying for his country; the martyr dying for his religion; the philosopher dying for the truth; the poet and the artist wearing out life in the accomplishment of great tasks for enlightening and elevating mankind; and the philanthropist, measuring some form of human suffering and devoting his energies to its alleviation or removal-have all acted upon this principle. And that Divine Form which appeared among men eighteen centuries ago, and who presented in his humanity the realized idea of all human perfection, inculcated in his teaching, and illustrated by his life and death, the sublime sentiment, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Now we conceive, that as this is the highest motive for all great and worthy deeds; so there are none to whom it more fitly belongs than to those who make it their vocation to speak to men in the noblest forms of human speech, or by the symbols of the beautiful arts. To feel intensely the charms and the inspiration of the objects of art and literature is both noble and indispensable: to seek the highest elevation of one's own spiritual being is an angelic aspiration: but to let this inspiration and aspiration flow out in streams of blessings upon the world, is to become a co-worker with God.

Here then, O men of literature and art! is the sublime spirit of your calling-to be inspired by the beautiful and true-to aspire after the perfection of your being-and to seek to make the world wiser, better, and happier-to live a true, manly life, while ye live; and when ye die, to leave behind you angel foot-prints on the sands of time.

ARTICLE VI.

CHRISTIANITY SET FORTH ACCORDING TO ITS PECULIAR

ESSENCE.

From the German of Schleiermacher, by REV. WILLIAM HALL.

WE proceed to give several doctrinal statements of this distinguished author, with their respective explanations and comments, in which will be found a more decided development of the characteristic features of the gospel system, considered both objectively and subjectively as understood and taught by Schleiermacher. They come under the head of,

"Christianity set forth according to its peculiar essence." "Propositions belonging to the apologetic.

Prop. 1. "Christianity is a monotheistic form of faith connected with the teleological direction of piety, and is distinguished from others of the same sort thus wise; that everything in it is referred to the redemption effected by Jesus of Nazareth.

1. "The task of investigating the peculiarity of a system of belief, and if possible bringing it to one formula, cannot be accomplished except by showing a something that is the same even in the most different pious states of mind within the same communion, while it is wanting in the analogous conditions within other communions. Now the less reason there is to expect, that precisely this peculiarity has been expressed with equal strength in all mental excitations so very different among themselves, the more easy to fail in this attempt, and in the end to come to the conclusion, that there is no certain inward distinction, but only the outward, determined by time and space. In the mean time it follows with tolerable certainty, from what has been said before, that we shall be least likely to miss the peculiarity, if we keep chiefly to that which is most closely connected with the principal fact, and this is the mode of proceeding which has given form to our proposition. But Christianity, however, offers special difficulties, first of all, by the circumstance that more than other modes of faith it is variously moulded, and divided into a diversity of churchcommunions, so that we have to propose to ourselves the twofold problem; first to find the peculiar essence of Christianity in general, common to these, but then also, that of the particular church-communion, whose claim is to be proved, or whose doctrinal creed is to be set forth. But still more difficulty lies in this, that even yet in every single church-communion almost every doctrine in different places and times, occurs under the most diversified variations, whereby certainly, although not as great a diversity in the pious states of mind themselves, at least a great

variousness in the manner of apprehending and estimating them, always lies at the bottom. Indeed, the worst of it is, that through these variations the circumference of the Christian sphere is controverted among Christians themselves, since one of this, another of that form of doctrine, affirms, that it has to be sure been generated within Christianity, but is yet, according to its contents, properly unchristian. Does he now, who sets out to solve the problem himself, stand with one of these parties, and lay down beforehand, that only what occurs in the sphere of one view, needs to be taken into calculation, in order to ascertain the distinguishing feature of Christianity: then he pre-supposes questions as already decided, to whose decision he is yet just for the first time about to find the conditions. For only when the peculiar essence of Christianity is ascertained, can it be decided, how far this or that thing is compatible therewith or not. But can he divest himself even of all preference, and does he for this very reason, take everything into account, even that which is most opposed, so far as it only gives itself out for Christian: then on the other hand is he in danger of arriving at a result far smaller in contents and more colorless, consequently, also, less suitable for the objects of the problem. This is the present not to be concealed state of this matter. Since now every man, the more pious he is, is wont so much the more to bring his individual piety with him to this investigation; so the number of those is by far the greater who form for themselves their representation of the peculiar essence of Christianity according to the interest of their party. On the contrary for the interest of the apologetic as well as for that of the doctrinal of faith it seems more advisable, to be content rather with a smaller result for the beginning, and to await its completion from a wider experience, than to begin with a narrow and exclusive formula, which necessarily has one or more antagonistic to it, with which, earlier or later, a struggle is to take place. And in this sense is the formula of the proposition set up.

2. "As now without question, all Christians refer back to Christ, the communion to which they belong: so is it here presupposed, that the expression, redemption, is such an one as they also confess to, and indeed not only thus, that they all to be sure use it, although perhaps each in another sense, but so that there is also something common, which all intend by it, although every one has a different way of more nearly defining it. The expression itself is in this sphere only figurative, and implies universally, a transition from a bad condition, which is conceived of as a state of bondage, into a better, and this is its passive side; but then also, help rendered thereto by another, and this is its active side. It also lies in the manner of using the word, not essentially, that something better must have already preceded something worse, so that the following better, is properly speaking, only a restoration;

but this can remain preliminarily quite undecided. Is now the expression to be applied to the sphere of piety; then, the teleological direction of the same being presupposed, the bad condition can consist only in this, that the vitality of the higher self-consciousness is hindered or taken away, so that its union with the various determinations of the sensual self-consciousness, and therefore that pious moments of life are little, or not at all brought about. Suppose now we designate this condition in its highest degree by the expressions godlessness, or better, godforgetfulness; we are still at liberty to think of this not as an utter impossibility of the animation of the godconsciousness. For in that case, on the one hand a need of something lying outside of nature could not be felt as an evil condition: on the other, a new creation in the proper sense, would be demanded, and this representation is not contained in the notion of redemption. As, then, this possibility is retained even there, where the ill condition of the godconsciousness is depicted in the strongest colors, it only remains therefore to designate it as nonexistent facility of introducing the godconsciousness into the connection of the real life-moments, and of keeping it there. According to this, it certainly seems as if both conditions, viz: that before redemption and that to be caused by redemption, are distinguished only as a more and less, therefore indefinitely; and the problem arises, if the idea of redemption is to be finally grounded, to carry back this indefinite distinction to be a comparitive opposition. But such an opposition is embraced in the fol lowing formulas. Assumed an activity of the sensuous self-consciousness so as to fill up one moment and connect with another, its exponent will be greater than that of the higher self-consciousness, with respect to its union with the former, and assumed an activity of the higher self-consciousness so as to fill a moment through union, with a determination of the sensuous, the exponent of the same will be smaller than that of the activity of the sensuous, as it respects completing the moment for itself alone. Under these conditions a satisfaction of the tendency towards the Godconsciousness, will not be possible, and therefore if such is to take place, a redemption is necessary, since this condition is nothing else than a bondage of the absolute feeling of dependence. But it is not contained in these formulas, that in all moments determined according to the same, the God-consciousness or the absolute feeling of dependence is null, but only that it does not rule the moment in any one relation, and in proportion as this is the case, the above designations of godlessness and godforgetfulness are applicable to it.

3. "The recognition of such a condition is undeniably found in all pious communions; because all expiations and purifications aim at this, viz, to take away the consciousness of this condition or immediately this itself. But as that very thing by which