and existence in the world to come-facts and problems these which presuppose not only the phenomena confronting natural science and the postulates of philosophy, but presuppose historic events and irrepressible ideas that transcend the range of philosophy and of natural science. All cycles of existence, earthly and heavenly, material and immaterial, corporeal and psychological, human and divine, challenge intellectual inquiry, invite and sustain intense thought, broad and deep thought, with a force that taxes and ripens all the energies of the mind. The prosecution of theology requires as conditions of the first importance confidence of faith, devotion of love, spirituality of mind, and symmetrical Christian character. And when these fundamental conditions are at hand, the pursuit of its manifold departments in a spirit consistent with these conditions matures strength of intellect and disciplines logical thought. In proportion to his inborn abilities, the man becomes a man of mental vigor, of nice discernment, of critical judgment on valid processes of reasoning, skillful in conducting abstruse investigations, and distinguished for simplicity and directness of scholarly speech.

Will any one deny that problems respecting the self-existent One who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit; respecting the ground of all things; the relations between God and man on the plane of the Adamic race, especially this relation as existing in the divine-human constitution of Jesus Christ; respecting redemption, including the annulment of the law of sin, the remission of penalties, and peace between the transgressor and his righteous Judge; respecting the mystery of human death, the victory over death in the resurrection, and the life of perfected blessedness in fellowship with God in the realm of his own glory-deny that such problems are profound, requiring fixed contemplation, patient study, broad scholarship, discriminating judgment, and a trained imagination? If such questions are real, momentous, and profound, will not persistent inquiry draw out and perfect the intellectual as well as the moral and spiritual powers? Is it not true that the culture of intellectual vigor, stimulated and sustained by intellectual application, will be effective in proportion to the magnitude and solemnity of the problem?

The pursuit of theology, using the term in its widest sense, is

a discipline of the personality of man, of his spiritual aptitudes, of the sympathies of his heart, of his ethical constitution. For this reason theology may become a peculiar discipline of the intuitive powers, of conception, of memory and imagination, of judgment, comparison, and reasoning, of logical organization, and of the expression of thought by words. For the knowledge of truth is conditioned on the love of truth; and the right use of the knowing and the ratiocinative faculties turns on genuine freedom of will. Says the great Master of all philosophy, "The truth shall make you free"-free from bondage to wrong, and by consequence from weakness of will and from errors in thought.

4. Theology is progressive; advancing with sound knowledge of the Scriptures, and with the growth of the spiritual fitness of theological scholars. No past status of the science is final. Present results are only an approach toward the ultimate goal. In this respect theology is nigh of kin to all other sciences, ethical, psychological, and physical. Its disciplinary virtue, however, does not turn on the perfection of its results, no more than the culture afforded by other departments of knowledge depends on the absence of all deficiencies, or even on the absence of positive errors.

Nor is its disciplinary virtue conditioned on any particular system, whether the system assert the principle of Augustine and Calvin, or the principle of Arminius and Episcopius, or the principle dominant in the Christological method. Whilst the variations are not unimportant, the difference of one system from another system, when all alike affirm the fundamental facts of Messianic revelation, is but a relative difference. At bottom different systems are one. All contemplate, inquire into, and study one central theme: God manifest in the person of Jesus Christ. The same profound and far-reaching problems, though methods of solution no less than results may greatly vary, confront all alike; and the spiritual, moral, and intellectual discipline of theological science, whatever be the school, is discipline in spiritual character, moral growth, profundity and precision of thought, and refinement of life. As compared with other sciences these propositions are supported by history, notwithstanding the fact that theological disputes have often been violent, and even embittered by personal animosities.

5. The difference between theological preaching and anthropological preaching is not unworthy of attention. The one emphasizes God and his attributes, Christ and his mediatorial work, the Holy Spirit and his office of sanctification, providence and its wise dispensations, the kingdom of God and the reality of its presence on earth. By the very presentation of these spiritual themes in a way and manner adjusted to the capacities of a congregation, people are effectually raised into communion with things pure, holy, heavenly, addressing them from the supernal realm. Powers from above lay hold of mind and heart, drawing heart and mind from earth toward heaven, from things transitory to thing substantial.

Anthropological preaching makes man prominent. Man it sets before the mind of man, proclaiming the frailties of his nature, describing the deficiencies of his character, and portraying the unworthiness of his evil habits. Contemplation and thought are introverted. Instead of beholding the glory of the Lord, the eye of the soul looks at the imperfection and darkness within. Self-observation, the analysis of motives, of dispositions, and of aims will scarcely be effective in the way of elevating, purifying, and sanctifying the heart. Self-consciousness and self-reflection will have no more power to ennoble and spiritualize personal character than there is at hand in self.

To represent man to himself is a part of the obligation of the pulpit, though but a subordinate part. The representation of God, of God incarnate in Jesus Christ, gives an upward, a God-ward direction to the mental and moral faculties. A holier, higher, and mightier world is brought to bear directly on the will and the intellect. The effect of proclaiming divine holiness and divine love is in the true sense itself divine, and for this reason also, in the true sense, an uplifting and a spiritualizing of humanity.

Eml. V. Gerhart

THE DANGERS WHICH BESET THEOLOGY.

For the purposes of this paper theology may be defined as the logical expression of the basal elements of religion, natural and revealed. As a system of truth, theology is rooted in both God and man; and though its principles, in the wide sweep they take, may touch the whole circle of the sciences, yet it is complete in itself and independent of every other body of truth. Theology is purest and best when, in its own light, it is permitted to stand forth, isolated and alone, unmodified by any line of speculative thought.

The place theology occupies in the general realm of truth. should be clearly defined. Different planes of being, each a world by itself, one placed above another, appear to have been the order which was observed by the Creator in the structure of the universe. Of those we are able to designate by the revelations they make of themselves through their properties and phenomena, we may mention, first, a world of matter, in which physical forces and mechanical laws alone prevail; second, next above matter, and so correlated to seventeen of its elements as to build organic structures, is placed a vital world, subjected exclusively to vital law; third, rising still higher, we come to mind, which penetrates the vast intellectual realm, and is subject to the laws of thought; fourth, next above the intellectual is the sui generis spiritual kingdom, and overshadowing the whole, yet absolutely distinct from it and no part of it, is the divine Personality, the Creator of the universe. These grand divisions of nature are ontologically separate and distinct in essence; they never pass their own limits and run into each other; though closely related, their natures never blend into one or form a compound; and the laws of each are operative only in its own department.

The proper and exclusive realm of theology is the divine and the human, considered in their moral aspects and relations. Much of the correctness and beauty of theology are secured by the preservation of its true limits and boundaries. So pressed on every hand is the biblical student with matter of different kinds that the work of exclusion must not for a moment be forgotten or neglected. Theology, a self-luminous body, can

be seen the most clearly in its own light. It is our business, therefore, to collect and collate its elements as found in the Scriptures and reduce them to a systematic form.

It is often that harm has been brought upon theology by the tendency of the mind to engulf its divine and spiritual elements in the intellectual, and whenever that calamity occurs we are at once transported into the Siberian wastes of Rationalism. In fact, we leave behind us the rich and wide tablelands of theology proper, and retreat into the barren and sinuous paths of speculative philosophy. A personal God, with his individuality, attributes, and titles, is discarded; he is, in thought and language, undeified, and reduced to an extreme metaphysical factor denominated the "infinite," the "unconditioned," or the "absolute." It matters not which term is used, the meaning is the same, and neither necessarily expresses a divine attribute. Between the terms infinite and divine there may be a wide difference of meaning-the one must refer to the Godhead, the other may not. When philosophers say that time, and space, and number are infinite, they simply mean that they are unlimited; that we cannot put bounds to them; and the term carries the same meaning whether standing for God or for what it may when used as a factor in any system of metaphysics. No one would dare to substitute for this extreme abstraction the word divinity or divine, for this term unmistakably refers to God.

The philosophy which is thus made to take the place of theology is always monistic, and divides the speculative world into two schools of thought. The one regards matter as the only substance in the universe; hence every phenomena known to man, even his own consciousness, is interpreted by physical and mechanical law; the other-the idealistic school-regards the one substance as spirit, and then this as a kind of "infinite," and its "activities" constitute the universe. Spencer is our best representative of the first-named school, Lotze of the second. In both, theology as such disappears, and there is no place left for it. In a universe of matter, physical and mechanical law determines human conduct and excludes the very idea. of moral responsibility. Idealism also, in regarding all phenomena as the "activities" of the "infinite," makes it impossible that a moral world should exist.