symbols was in general a revived Augustinianism, and was opposed to the Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism which had become current in the Romish Church. As a revived Augustinianism it inherited some of the defects of Augustine's anthropology, especially his imperfect apprehension of Personality. It contained, indeed, from the beginning a reformatory element, in its sense of personal guilt and need of reconciliation to God, and in its assurance of divine forgiveness; and these personal elements latent in the moving principle of the Reformation, Justification by Faith only, have been developing through the modern period. But, at every stage of the course, they have encountered in the Church and in the teaching of its theologians foreign and hostile elements, which appear conspicuously in the history of the doctrine of imputed sin and guilt, and give it the character of a process of elimination. The Reformers were realists. All men, by participation, sinned in Adam, and fell with him in his first transgression, and for this cause deserve eternal damnation. The first serious modification of this belief, leaving out of account for a moment the Arminian remonstrance, was through the development of the conception of a covenant relation between God and man. Applied first and exclusively to the covenant of grace, its extension soon followed to the covenant of works, a relation supposed to have been established between Adam and his posterity on the one part and the Divine Being on the other. At first the conception of a federal relation was added to that of a natural or realistic connection; then superseded it. About the time the Puritans came to this country a movement began among the French Calvinists which, within the century, went through, on a narrower line, the leading phases of the New England Theology from Edwards to Finney, not to say Channing. Its leading thought was moral agency. Through both of these special developments, and through the original Arminianism and the more powerful and evangelical Methodism of the Wesleys and their successors, not only has the original conception of imputed guilt disappeared, but even the word "Imputation," once so prominent, has given place to other and better

terms.

If it were necessary to our purpose, these illustrations might easily be multiplied. It could readily be shown how even within the past two hundred years philosophie, juridical, governmental assumptions have been taken up, one after another, into the changing theological formulas, and one after another have been superseded; how futile the endeavor has proved to frame Christian

doctrine through a use of proof-texts dominated by conceptions, philosophic or otherwise, of the divine attributes; how the real growth, the genuine and admirable progress which has been made, has been due to its promoters having become more and more Christian in their conceptions of honor and right, of justice and grace, of creation and its laws, of government and its prerogatives, of persons with their correlative duties and rights, of God and man, of this life and the life beyond; how many, how great and serious, errors might have been avoided if the aim had been more intelligent and resolute to think according to Christianity.

If we had space it would point the same moral to notice the endeavor now making in certain quarters to construct improved statements of Christian doctrine through the postulates and dogmas, and even the terminology, of natural science. The Christian theologian must welcome all discoveries of the laws and methods of Nature. The author of Redemption is the Lawgiver of the Universe. The unity of the Cosmos is a theological principle. But the attempted identification of natural law with supernatural, of the forces with which physical science deals and those which rule in the spiritual sphere, is but a new instance of an old peril. Calvinism cannot be established by Darwinism, admitting Darwinism to be itself estab lished. An outcome of the universe in a survival of the fittest may or may not be a true conception. It can only be a Christian one when interpreted so as to admit and emphasize a condescension of the Giver of Law to the cross and the tomb, a personal forgiveness of sin, a divine Shepherd who seeks and recovers the lost.

It is possible that some who may do us the honor to read this article may infer that in advocating a development of Christian theology and ethics more rigorously determined by the genius of the Christian religion, we are unfriendly to what is called natural theology. We disclaim any such antagonism. The problems of theology are problems of philosophy. The latter has its rights, its independent rights, and it is indispensable. Naturalism, materialism, agnosticism, atheistic and pantheistic systems, must be met on the plane of rational belief and knowledge. If we reason at all upon the things of faith, we must reason according to the laws of logic. Christian consciousness is as real and authoritative as natural consciousness, but religion cannot supersede, annul, nor alter a single constitutional principle of the human mind. If Christianity is true it cannot be discordant with any other truth. If it is what it claims to be, the final and perfect religion for man and the highest truth, all other truth will in the end do it homage.

It promotes investigation in every department of knowledge. That for which we contend is that Christianity is a revelation, the crowning revelation of God to men; that it is a given historical and spiritual magnitude; that it brings into evidence its own truth, its own laws, and is to be understood in its own clear light. Attested by its own evidences, announcing and substantiating its own origin and purpose, master in its own sphere, it demands of right a scientific construction of its doctrines harmonious with its own genius and ruled by its own central and supremely authoritative principle. Natural theology should believe into Christianity, not Christianity into natural theology. Pagan ethics should not shape Christian ethics, though the latter cannot contradict any truth the former may contain. Any philosophy has much to learn which finds itself unable to embrace even a single fact in the spiritual realm ruled by Christ. Human consciousness attains its normal purity and recovers its line of constitutional development just in proportion as it is genuinely Christian. The highest ultimate aim of the philosopher as well as of the theologian will be to think according to Christianity.

The editors of this Review will welcome to its pages the contributions of men of various schools of thought who are seeking with them to develop a truly Christian theology. We believe that the Ignatian maxim already quoted points the way to a profounder, clearer, more practical apprehension of revealed truth than has yet been gained, to a larger charity, to a higher unity. We are the farthest possible from any conceit of leadership; we simply have convictions which have cost us something, and which we hope may be of help to others. We desire help from others. We seek to promote large-minded, large-hearted discussions of Christian truth, recognizing our own limitations, and the many-sidedness and growing proportions of the truth as it is in Jesus. We desire especially to do what we may to confirm the faith of believers in the essential truths of the gospel, to unite them in intelligent and effective Christian work, and for this end to aid in the development of a Christian theology which by its genuineness and purity, its reality and comprehensiveness, shall stimulate and sustain the highest endeavor for the advancement of Christ's kingdom. To our thought, there is a preparation and demand for better statements of Christian doctrine in the religious life of our time. This is a missionary age. Never before has that enthusiasm for humanity, which is from the very heart of Christianity, so taken possession of the Church. There is need of a more distinct theological recognition

of the providential and spiritual leadership of the world by its Redeemer and Lord; of a theology which discerns his greatness, and which sets over against the terrible magnitudes of human misery and sin and guilt the magnitudes of his person, his cross, his lordship, his final coming as the Judge of mankind. If this Review is helpful to the growth and diffusion of such beliefs, its theological purpose will be fulfilled. The present article will be followed by others, from different pens, in harmony with its spirit and design, and treating of particular Christian doctrines. Egbert C. Smyth.

CHRISTIANITY AND ÆSTHETICISM.

RIGHTEOUSNESS and service are the two ruling principles of the Christian law, the foci of the curve by which it describes conduct. The two ideas of righteousness and service may be nearly identical to perfect moral vision: to an angel, doing right and doing good may be always the same thing; but it is more convenient for most of us to separate them in our thinking. Righteousness is obedience to an ideal law that reports itself in consciousness long before we are able to give any clear statement of its contents. Men's judgments differ widely as to what is right; but they do not differ, except as they have been sophisticated by a bad philosophy, in the belief that there is a right to be done and a wrong to be shunned, nor in the conviction that they ought to cleave to the one and resist the other. The Christian ethics recognizes this untaught belief and this sense of obligation as fundamental, and builds on them. It endeavors to enlighten our judgments, that we may have clearer knowledge of what right is; but it assumes that we know that we ought to do right, and it holds us firmly to that obligation.

Not merely conformity to an ideal rule of conduct, but unselfish ministry to the needs of our fellow-men is enjoined by the Christian law. He whom we call Master and Lord went about doing good, and He calls his disciples to follow him in the same path.

These two principles of integrity and benevolence have been steadily held up to men for eighteen centuries as the cardinal principles of conduct, and the central elements of character. To all men, asking how they may live aright, the New Testament makes answer, "Live uprightly; live unselfishly." And it must

not be forgotten that Christianity makes these ethical elements supreme. It inculcates faith, but faith is always the servant of righteousness and love. We believe, not for the sake of believ ing, but because, by believing, we may obtain power to fulfill the law of righteousness, which is also the law of love. Whatever other elements may be included in the divine sacrifice for men, it is acknowledged by all that the deepest meaning of it is not perceived until we behold the divine love going forth after men to rescue them from the ruin into which their sins have plunged them, and to lead them in paths of righteousness. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, but only when He has made them righteous in thought and word and deed. He saves his people from their sins. The religion of the New Testament finds its crown and its completion in right conduct; we fast, we pray, we sing our solemn hymns, we believe and trust and worship, that we may gain strength for holy living and faithful service.

It is true that the supremacy of the ethical has not always been well understood by the professors of Christianity; its ritual and dogmatic elements have sometimes been unduly exalted, but the fact is there in the documents, and it has not been possible for the most perverse interpretation wholly to conceal it. At the end of nineteen Christian centuries we find this truth generally recognized among Christians, that the end of religion is right character; that no philosophy of Christianity will stand that does not make character the supreme thing.

Not only so; until very lately it was accepted outside the Church as a truth almost as a truism - that the Christian estimate is right; that right character is the main thing. Even those who handle the Christian records rather freely, finding in them no supernatural element, have joined to extol the service they have rendered to morality in lifting it into the place of eminence. "Conduct is three fourths of life," says our latest distinguished guest, Professor Matthew Arnold; and the Bible, he insists, is, above all other books, the book of conduct; there is much of superstition in the Bible, but it says, and says over again, and keeps saying, until it makes us believe it, that righteousness is the principal thing; and it tells us, too, the one truth that is higher than heaven and deeper than hell the truth which experience enables us to verify - that behind all the forces of the universe is an eternal power that makes for righteousness.

Our literature has been saturated with this ethical element;