practical work of Home and Foreign Missions, so as to exhibit to the world by dint of action what Christian faith and Christian love are able to effect; thus silencing many a scoffer. The commencement of a new apologetic and popular Christian literature, the interest of the people in Missions, an interest increasing in spite of all invectives,-better attendance on the services of the Church, the highly necessary co-operation of the laity in Church organization, which has at last begun, are all most significant intimations that even in German society Christianity and nationality may be brought to a more and more general approximation. We will not, therefore, be deprived of the hope that “ The light will once again appear To all our brethren, pure and clear, To the One Source which springs above!" We may therefore be allowed, in view of these phenomena, to affirm that, our Christianity being such as it is, so deeply rooted in the popular life, and supported by an earnest and believing science, eliciting great respect even from abroad,with an intellectual and moral power whose influence pervades the globe,—it will no longer do to pass by it with a supercilious shrug; the irresistible demand is laid upon every one who is desirous to escape the reproach of indifference, superficiality, or onesided partiality, and especially, therefore, on all" cultivated persons," that they should at least earnestly examine these claims. The history of our people, both in ancient and modern times, proclaims the fact that the prosperity of its future depends on the energetic prosecution of this work of reconciliation between Christianity and culture. From the era of the middle ages, when our great German emperors appeared contemporaneously with the erection of our mighty cathedrals, down to the time of the wars of liberation, indeed down to the present day, it is clearly written on the face of our history that the periods of our national splendour were our periods of faith; that apostasy from faith renders us weak and despised; return to it, strong and invincible! If the former cost us an Austerlitz and a Jena, the latter gained a Leipsic and a Waterloo! Just as in former days, when Israel apostatized from the living God, it fell into political ignominy and bondage; so have we, on account of our scientific and religious vocation. among nations, been compelled more palpably than others both to feel and suffer for it when we have fallen away from the faith of our fathers, and have become a prey to superstition or unbelief. To any one who has eyes to see it, our history will everywhere bring clearly before him the fact that belief in truth is the power and stronghold of our people, the inward moving spring of all its really great actions, the ultimate and surest means of protection against all our dangers both from within and without, and the crown of glory of our noblest heroes both in peace and war. And, although not in like measure, still in a similar way, the history of other nations confirms the fact that "all epochs in which faith prevailed have been the most heart-stirring and fruitful, both as regards contemporaries and posterity; whereas, on the other hand, all epochs in which unbelief obtains its miserable triumphs, even when they boast of some apparent brilliancy, are not less surely doomed to speedy oblivion." (Goethe, Abhandlungen zum westöstlichen Divan.) If, in the recognition of these facts, parties desire to be made one in the genuine inheritance of their forefathers, and on the ground of the faith which includes and does not exclude culture; if, on the one hand, liberals and men of progiess, now so commonly unbelievers, will only recognise with. the ancient statesman, that "to obey God is freedom" (Seneca), and that "a nation that desires to be free must believe, and a nation that will not believe must be in servitude; that only despotism can dispense with faith, but not liberty;" if they would recognise the fact, that no institution, no idea, not even the humanitarianism so much bepraised, is a certain guarantee for the preservation of freedom, and that such guarantee is only to be found in the spirit of the gospel; if they would recognise the fact, that the bond of fellowship, so necessary between the various classes of the people and their different stages of culture, can only be restored by means of religion, and that, consequently, in all liberal and national tendencies, resort must be had to Christianity; and if, on the other hand, their opponents would be willing to comprehend that Christianity is not intended to hinder any free national develop E ment, but only to restrain and purify it, and that freedom does not hinder faith, which indeed springs up most vigorously in the free air of liberty; if both parties would but recognise the fact, that their interests rightly understood do not sever, but really unite them, and in this recognition would hold out to one another a helping hand: then would the breach which now separates us be already healed, and the main cause of our present paralysis be removed; no longer would one be hindering another in the reconstruction of Church or Commonwealth, all would joyously be working together; blessing and salvation would again descend from heaven; our protracted yearnings would be satisfied, our hope fulfilled, and seeking first the kingdom of God, we should find all other things added to us! And so at last would come the time of which one sings: "Take down thy harp from the willow-tree, Thou nation of toil, thou nation of gloom; Out of scorn and of cruel misery Shall eternal golden blessings bloom :- With joy approach Thy shrine; In a public place in ancient Rome, there once opened, in consequence of an earthquake, a deep chasm, which no amount of rubbish could fill up. The soothsayers were consulted, and answered, that "the most precious thing in Rome" must be cast into it. This was interpreted by a young hero as applying to manly energy and weapons; and courageous to the death. and fully accoutred, he sprang into the yawning abyss, which immediately closed over him. I, too, have to lead you on to a deep gulf, which has been gradually formed by all kinds of storms and earthquakes in Church and State, Schools and Science. Nowhere else does it yawn so widely as among ourselves. Much has been already cast into it, but it will not close. Nor do I believe that this will happen, until that wherein we are strongest shall offer itself willingly for the glorious enterprise; until German science and German faith, arrayed in their respective panoplies of intellect and prayerthe former clad in its full equipment of critical acumen and the sense of truth, the latter in all the might derived from a heavenly presence and communion-step down into the depth, and there begin to build. No single man or generation will complete this work. It will be the work of many champions and of many years. But oh might it be granted me in the present lecture, to have cast into the gulf at least one stone! SECOND LECTURE. REASON AND REVELATION. IN N the great conflict between faith and unbelief, it is always the idea conceived of God that forms the inmost core and centre of every question, and in the case of each individual gives norm and shape to the whole of his religion, his theoretical convictions, and his practical rules of conduct. He who firmly holds that belief in the triune Deity, which from apostolic times has been recognised as constituting the basis of our Christian profession, has no longer any rational motive for impugning any essential portion of Christian truth, while one who has renounced such belief might find it difficult to maintain his adherence to a single dogma. Our entire position towards Christianity depends from first to last on this, whether we accept the scriptural and Christian idea of God or no. Hence arises the necessity for our considering first among modern doubts respecting the articles of Christian faith, those which concern the fundamental Christian idea of God. And here starts up the preliminary question-Whence is our knowledge of God derived? Do we obtain it by the mere exertion of our natural faculties of reason from the contemplation of the world around us and its history, and of our own inward being and conscience? Are the foot-tracks of Deity thus laid down, and discoverable by us, adequate to enable us to form a just conception of what God is, and of the problem of our moral and religious being? Or do we need for this purpose a supernatural revelation on the part of God Himself, as to His own nature, will, and modes of dealing with us, such as is |