Christ in history

Front matter

CHRIST IN HISTORY.

BY

ROBERT TTJRKBULL, D. D.,

Preface

To vmreflective minds history appears only as an intricate or confused mass of details. Change follows change, revolution presses upon revolution. Now all is a dead level of monotonous usage, then all is unaccountable and startling transition. New forms of religion and politics, of customs and manners, play their brief hour or age. Philosophies appear and vanish away. Empires rise, decline, and fall. Love and hate, piety and atheism, justice and injustice, peace and war contend for the mastery. At one time the world is luminous with hope, at another dark with despair. Individuals, families, and nations, like multitudinous waves, chase each other over the bosom of the deep, and are finally ingulfed in a stormy sea.

Under the steady gaze of philosophic, and especially, of Christian thought, much of this chaotic aspect of society disappears. Order begins to emerge ; principles and laws are recognized; a progress and a purpose are discerned. To attain this, however, requires a lofty stand-point and a

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far-reaching vision. The whole domain of human affairs, like a landscape from the summit of a mountain, must lie in comprehensive unity beneath the gaze. Inspiration, indeed, long ago discerned, and in brief, pregnant utterances, indicated the true condition of humanity ; but ages had to elapse before it could be comprehended, and above all exhibited, in anything like a philosophical or coherent form. Indeed, the idea of universal history, or of history as a unit and a system, is the product of the seventeenth century. Even now there are cultivated minds, and among them a few distinguished historians, who can recognize in it no central or all-comprehending force. It is only occasionally, and as a compliment to religion, that they acknowledge the presence of the Deity in the affairs of man. Some of them would even eliminate all such conceptions from history as mystical and irrelevant. It is a happy circumstance, however, that the more profound and philosophical historians are the most inclined to recognize the divine element. Even those metaphysicians who have sometimes been suspected of pantheistic infidelity, Vico, Fichte, Schelling, and Cousin, have given this idea the most distinct expression. Cousin, especially, has recognized it in the fullest and most eloquent terms. It may now be regarded as the settled conviction of the leading thinkers of the world

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Bossuet, in his Universal History, was the first to elucidate and apply this great thought. Still his work is neither thorough nor philosophical. It possesses the character of a grand historical sketch, intended for popular impression. In several respects its range is narrow and ecclesiastical, being confined too much to the mere theocracy of the Jews, and the hierarchy of the Papal church. The state is absorbed in the church, and the march of history is described only from the Roman Catholic view. The historical details are meagre, and sometimes inaccurate. Still it possesses the great merit of recognizing the presence of God in the affairs of men, and describing the succession of events with a grave eloquence.

Much more profound and philosophical is the sublime idea which runs through the New Science (Scienza Nuova) of John Baptist Vico, that singular Italian thinker, who united the brevity and obscurity of Heraclitus to the depth and force of Plato. He maintains that the divine element underlies humanity in all its phases, and may be recognized even in the superstitions of the heathen cultus. Still he gives undue prominence to the mere natural element, and falls into some singular crudities and absurdities. Had Jonathan Edwards been more familiar with general history, and in his History of Redemption 1*

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applied the leading thought which pervades that work to the general course of human affairs, he would have created an era in historical, as he ' has done in theological research. Herder, with less depth of intellect or force of character, but with a wider and more liberal range of study, starts from the same fundamental position as Bossuet and Vico, and shows how art, science, language, poetry, and religion mingle in the march of humanity towards ideal perfection. His system, however, is too narrow and empirical for a complete explanation of the phenomena of history. F. W. Schlegel follows in the same track, with considerable reach of thought, and a distinct recognition of fundamental principles. He does greater justice than his predecessors to the influence of the remoter Oriental nations; still his work strikes us as superficial and fragmentary. Like Bossuet, he is too much under the influence of Papal views, and fails to give a complete or philosophical exposition of the subject.

Bunsen, in the first volume of his Hippolytus, presents, in aphoristic form, a comprehensive sketch of the philosophy of history, in a manner much more complete and satisfactory than Schlegel.* Marred by rationalistic fancies, and obscure or incomplete ontological statements, * Further expanded in a recent work.

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his view, upon the whole, is the most satisfactory we have seen. It distinctly recognizes the great truth of God in manifested form, and especially in Christ, as lying at the foundation of all religious and historical development. From his ample learning, Bunsen clearly sees that humanity cannot permanently rise, except through the influence of the new and supernatural force imparted by Christianity.

Of late years one or two works, of a fugitive or simply practical character, have appeared in this country and in England, under the title of " The Hand of God in History," or simply " God in History." The object of these is not, by a comprehensive analysis, to prove the presence of God in universal history, but rather, by a citation of facts, to indicate, within certain limits, his providential sway, or what, with special emphasis, they designate " the hand of God in history." This they discover in striking junctures, or turns of affairs, sometimes called " interpositions," rather than in the grand and orderly movements of society, or the central forces which control them.

Works of this sort, interesting and praiseworthy in their practical aim, cannot certainly be described as an adequate exposition of " God in History."

For it is not in junctures alone, or in special

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interventions, but in " all things working together for good," that we discern the purpose and procedure of the Almighty.

We have made these remarks upon the literature of the subject to which the following work in part belongs, in order to assist us in pointing out its object and aim. And here, at the outset, we beg distinctly to say, that it does not pretend to be a philosophy of history, or to be strictly a philosophical or scientific work. Its form, in fact, is rather popular than philosophical, though based upon fundamental principles, and aiming to elucidate and apply essential elements. The title " Christ in History " limits its character to an exposition of the relations of Christ (here taken as the highest expression or manifestation of God) to universal history.

Hence it takes the Incarnation as the central or " turning point" in the history of mankind, and attempts to show how all the forces of society converge around it, how all preceding history prepares for it, how all succeeding history dates from it. In order to develop this fact, the reader is taken back to central facts and principles, in other words to the fountains of history in the nature of God, and the nature of man; and the attempt is made to show that the history of the world, ancient and modern, can be understood only with reference to Christ. This is not

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assumed dogmatically, but evolved by an exposition of historical facts.

Many things which would naturally be discussed in a complete philosophy of history are omitted. Some also are taken for granted, as known or conceded by the reader. Indeed, the attention is necessarily limited to the specific view which it is the design of the author to vindicate.

In the course of the investigation, Christianity is shown to be not only an historical reality, but a divine and supernatural power, by which all other realities and powers are explained and controlled. The theories of the sceptical rationalists, to account for Christianity on natural, local, or superficial grounds, are shown to be untenable. The natural or human factor, of course, is not denied ; another, however, is added, namely, the supernatural or divine. In a word, Christianity, in its interior relations and vital energies, is shown to be nothing less than the presence of God, through Jesus Christ, among men, renovating the hearts of individuals, and preparing the transformation of society.

The author has endeavored to conduct the investigation in the freest and most liberal manner, holding himself aloof as much as possible from unproved preconceptions, and less anxious, therefore, to favor or deny orthodoxy, heterodoxy, or

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what Luther calls cacodoxy, than to establish the simple truth.

On a theme so vast and comprehensive, his work cannot be otherwise than imperfect. No one can be more sensible of its defects than himself. Though the labor of years, it is not offered as any thing approaching a complete or scientific view of the subject, but rather as a slight contribution, or preparation for such a view. Perhaps he might venture to call it an introduction to universal history, or at least an introduction to the history of Christianity.

NOTE TO SECOND EDITION.

In issuing this edition the author desires to say that he has availed himself of the opportunity to give the work a thorough revision. He has not indeed touched its essence ; he has only endeavored to give it a more perfect form.

Perhaps he ought to add that he is grateful for its cordial reception, especially by thoughtful readers and reviewers in this country and in Europe, and for the assurances which some of them have communicated of their personal interest in it as a sort of guide-book in their historical and theological studies. He has received such assurances, in some instances, from quite unexpected quarters. He hopes, therefore, that it may continue to prove useful to sincere inquirers after truth.

Hartford, Conn., Jan. 21, 1860.

Contents

CHAPTER - PAGE

I. THE CENTRAL POWER, . . 13 II. THE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE, OR CHRIST IN AN- CIENT RELIGION, 35

III. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED, .... 61

Appendix

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, . . .499

CHRIST IN HISTORY.

.CHAPTER I.

THE CENTRAL POWER.

The farther science advances, the more clearly is the great fact discovered that all things have their centres of life and motion, and that they belong to a single system. Acting and interacting, moving, now this way, now that, all at last tend one way. The stars revolve around their suns, and suns themselves, with attendant planets, revolve around a central point. Unity and variety, as in a circle, with its starlike radii, the unity ever passing into variety, and the variety into unity, pervade the visible creation. Nothing is insulated, nothing irregular. One mysterious law comprehends and governs the whole. All proceed from, and gravitate to, one centre.

Not only the larger masses, suns, and constellations, gravitate thus, but the inferior parts, the 2 W

14 CIIRIST IN HISTORY.

minutest atoms, fibres, and crystals. All plants and animals are organized around their centres By accretion, assimilation, and growth, they form themselves, according to fixed laws, from interior forces. The rose unfolds itself with petals and leaves, from a vital root. The dew is globed by the force of gravitation. The bubble which floats in the sunbeam, the joy of childhood, obeys the same invisible power. It is sphered like a star, and carries upon its bosom all the splendors of the rainbow. A particle of sand, the sport of every breeze, is formed on the strictest mathematical principles. Scrutinized, it will be found piled up in fair proportions, like a huge crystal, with its lines, sides, and angles. The down upon an insect's wing, scarce visible to the naked eye, grows like a forest of palms. All nature is vital and moving, even when it seems to be still as the grave. Plants and animals have a sort of double life, a life in common with the rest, and a life in themselves, and all therefore tend in one direction. Their movement is ever from, and to, centres of action and development. The human body grows like a germ, is fed and developed from an interior force. It has its own centre, to which it gravitates, while gravitating with all other things, earth, sun, and stars, around a common centre.

Society also, in order to live and prosper, must have an appropriate centre. It gravitates around some vital force, being, or principle, which constitutes its life. Men may seem to be insulated as individuals, but they grow together; and not only so, but they intergrow. They are many, yet they are one, like the myriad globules of water that form the rushing stream. No two are alike, yet all are alike. They move apparently in diverse orbits, and yet they move together in a common orbit. One spiritual, all-pervading force, or aggregate' of forces, impels them in the 'same direction.

Hence they rise or fall together, move in peaceful order within the great sphere of duty, or dash tumultuously into the abyss. Strange varieties of costume, color, form, language, notions, prevail among the nations, yet " their hearts are fashioned alike." Their blood is the same ; their reason and their affection, their hope and their fear, their origin and their end, are the same. Free indeed, and thence capable, within certain limits, of virtue or of vice, of holiness or of sin, of religion or of atheism, they diverge in their choice and destiny as individuals; yet they are formed on the same model, obey the same impulses, may share the same destiny.

Those who have read history with any attention know that society is always organized, if organized with any degree of permanence, around some divine idea or force. No society can be kept together without religion ; and for the simple reason that man, imperfect, — nay, more, fallen, — has his origin and his end in God. The Deity, in other words, the true, the good, the holy, — what we fitly term " the divine," — is our centre and life. We gravitate harmoniously only around this eternal force, at once centripetal and centrifugal, attracting us to a centre, and at the same time propelling us in beautiful order around the orbit of duty.

This characteristic of man, like the cerulean color of the ocean or atmosphere, may not indeed be visible in detached fragments, but is always obvious enough in the whole. Morally, as well as naturally, the finite lies in the infinite. God and man are bound together by mysterious ties.

For the same reason, each individual soul has its proper centre. As a divine product, a child of the infinite Spirit, it belongs to God, and finds its felicity in him. No matter if morally severed, by disturbing causes, from its absolute Source, the principle or fact remains the same. The sun and its star, the centre and its radius, wherever they may be, are made for each other. Drawn oft' into "the abysmal dark" by the destructive influence of sin, the soul wretchedly wanders in the void, seeking rest and finding none. If not restored to its source, it must finally perish. To be pure, peaceful, happy, each of us must find God, and in God attain the true and the holy ; and thus drinking the beams of the eternal Sun, revolve around him in glory and in joy forever.

Thus, in all ages, we find lofty souls, even in darkness and sorrow, " feeling after God." Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Plutarch catch a glimpse of his glory, and proclaim, with exultation, the stupendous thought- Somewhat bewildered, and with only partial views, they yet reach towards the Divine as their centre and their end. Nay, the poor African, in a deeper night, feels the mighty fascination, without knowing what it is. Said Sekesa, a native of Southern Africa, of the Bechuana tribe, to a missionary from whom he had been hearing of God and immortality, " Your views, O white man, are just what I wanted and sought for before I knew you. Twelve years ago, I went, in a cloudy season, to feed my flock along the Tlotse, among the Malutis. Seated upon a rock in sight of my sheep, I asked myself sad questions ; yes, sad, because I could not answer them. The stars, said I, who touched them with his hand ? On what pillars do they rest ? The waters are not weary ; they run without ceasing at night and morning alike; 2 * but where do they stop, or who makes them run thus ? The clouds also go, return, and fall in water to the earth. Whence do they arise? Who sends them ? It surely is not the Barokas (rain makers) who give us the rain, for how could they make it? The wind — what is it? Who brings it or takes it away ? makes it blow, and roar, and frighten us ? Do I know how the corn grows ? Yesterday there was not a blade to be seen in my field. To-day I return and find something. It is very small; I can scarcely see it ; but it. will grow up like a young man. Who can have given the ground wisdom and power to produce it ? Then I buried my head in my hands.

u Again I thought within myself, and I said, We all depart, but this country remains ; it alone remains, for we all go away. But whither do we go ? My heart answered, Perhaps other men live besides us, and we shall go to them. But another thought arose against it, and said, Those men under the earth, whence come they ? Then my heart did not know what more to think. It wondered. Then my heart rose and spoke to me, saying, All men do much evil, and thou, thou also hast done much evil. Woe to thee ! I recalled many wrongs which I had done, and because of this my conscience gnawed me in secret, as I sat alone on the rock. I say

I was afraid. I got up and ran after my sheep, trying to enliven myself, but I trembled much."

Moffat informs us that some of the tribes of Africa are so degraded as, apparently, to have no idea of a supreme power ; but this is the exception, not the rule.* As intelligence and civilization advance, the idea of "the Divine " becomes, in all countries, more distinct and luminous. It rises with science and virtue, appropriates to itself all beautiful forms, and "sits enthroned on the riches of the universe."

It is owing to the depth and permanence of this original instinct or intuition, blind as it occasionally seems, and much perverted by ig-

* Further investigations show decisively that the exception scarcely exists, even among the most superstitious tribes of Africa ; the word Morimo, which means the Supreme Spirit, is found as a relic of some better knowledge now lost. Mr. Livingston says that the recently-discovered tribes in the interior of Africa have an idea of a supreme God. This is corroborated by Mr. Bowen, who says the people in Yarouba believe in one God, though the national worship is directed to inferior deities, both benign and malignant. They speak of him as " over all," and call him " the Owner of heaven." Their language contains those terms which enable the missionary to speak to them intelligently of the Deity, of sin, guilt, moral obligation, &c. Some of their traditions would indicate an Oriental origin. Every where the ark is an object of reverence. Missionaries and others intimately acquainted with the Indians, say that those tribes who have been secluded from intercourse with the whites have a distinct idea of a supreme Spirit. They worship rther spirits, but especially venerate the Great Spirit, and recognize the eternal distinction of right and wrong, with the doctrine of reward and punishment. This is corroborated by Mr. Catlin and Mr. Schoolcraft.

norance and lust, that the race, as such, especially in its more active centres, has always occupied itself with the problem of God, or the gods, those supreme and eternal powers supposed to preside over the universe, and has always organized itself, as we have said, around some fundamental belief in reference to duty and destiny. Thus Plato over and over again affirms that a belief in God, or the gods, is a natural and universal instinct.* " Examine," says Plutarch, in his tract against Coletes, the Epicurean, " the face of the earth, and you may find (ities unfortified, unlettered, without a regular magistrate or distinct habitations, without. possessions, property, or the use of money, and unskilled in all the magnificent and polished arts of life ; but a city without the knowledge of God or religion, without the use of vows, oaths, oracles, and sacrifices to procure good, or of deprecatory rites to avert evil, no man can or ever will find." So also in his Consolatio ad Apollonium, he declares, " it was so ancient an opinion that good men should be recompensed

* See especially De Legibus, (lib. x.,) Contra Atkeos. Plato, indeed, sees clearly enough that the instinct referred to is often feeble, as well as subject to great perversion. In himself, it was not entirely free from superstition; yet who, with the slightest knowledge of nis works, will deny the strength and grandeur with which it developed itself in his sublime speculations on the true, the beaii' tifulf and the good, as eternal entities in the bosom of God ?

at death, that he could not reach either the author or the origin of it." In his Tusculan Questions, Cicero bears the same testimony. " As our innate ideas," he says, " discover to us that there are gods, [or a God; for Cicero often uses the term gods, when he means simply God,] whose attributes we deduce from reason, so, from the consent of all nations and people, we conclude that the soul is immortal." In another place, he affirms that this, as well as the sense of justice, must be " a law of nature." * Errors and superstitions of course mingled with ancient myths and traditions ; but they were based upon an original intuition, if not an original revelation. In corroboration of this view we find Aristotle averring that "it was an ancient saying, received by all from their ancestors, that all things exist by and through the power of God, . . . who, being one, (si;,) was known by many names, according to his modes of manifestation" — a testimony as striking as it is profound.!

* Tus. Disp. i. 30. " Omnis autem in re consensio omnium gentium lex natures putanda est." Compare De Natura Deortim, i. 43, as also lib. ii. 12. Cicero, being an Academic, often presents his opinions in the form of doubts ; but his real sentiments were unquestionably favorable to the doctrine of God and the immortality of the soul. How striking, for example, is the following : " Esse praestantem aliquam aeternamque naturam, et earn suspinendam admirandamque hominum generi, pulchritudo mundi ordoque rerum ccelestium cogit connteri." — De Divin. lib. ii.

f See De Mundo, c. 6, 7. A similar passage is referred to by Ne-

It need not surprise us, then, that the great thinkers of the race, those who have gone beneath appearances to grasp the reality of things, have always tended to a common centre of speculative thought. The idea of the Infinite has always swept them within its mystic circle. God, the soul, and immortality ; the eternal past, the eternal future, and the all-embracing Life in which they become one, are the majestic themes which have occupied their lives. The old Chaldean, Hindoo, and Egyptian sages, the Pythagoreans, the Sophists, the Socratists, Plato and Aristotle, the Academics, the Stoics, the Neo- Platonists, in fact every class of Grecian thinkers, as also the Roman philosophers, though much inferior to the Grecian in vigor and comprehensiveness of mind, took a more or less distinguished part in the discussion of these subjects. Among the questions which the ancients considered as lying at the foundation of all science and philosophical reasoning were the following : u 1. Whether there is a creative power in the universe ; 2. Whether this power is invested with the attributes of wisdom, goodness, and truth ; 3. Whether the mind of man forms a ander, as quoted by Plutarch, (De Defectu Oraculontm,) from the Antigone of Sophocles ; but we have been unable to verify it in the Antigone as now extant. Compare Plutarch, Adver. Stoicos, c. 22 Cicero, De Legibus, lib. ii. 107.

part, or is made analogous to the divine mind, or principle ; 4. Whether this intellectual part of man is of an absolutely spiritual nature, and is endowed with immortality ; 5. Whether there is any thing absolutely true or absolutely good in the nature of things ; 6. Whether the true and the good relative to man be the same in the essence as the true and the good relative to the divine nature ; 7. Whether man is an object of care or interest in the divine economy, and whether he has any means of ascertaining the fact ; 8. Whether we have any definite meaning in the mind when we make use of such words as justice, power, existence, intelligence, benevolence, virtue, vice.'i

Their methods of reasoning, somewhat variable, may be deemed fallacious ; but the fact remains that, even in their logical and philosophical investigations, these were the great questions from which they started, and to which they constantly returned.

A few philosophers, subtle and penetrating, but cold and sterile, like Epicurus and Comte, have lingered in mere mechanism, never transcending the outward and perishable. Others, like Aristotle and Hegel, have lost themselves in abstractions, even while recognizing absolute and eternal being ; and others, like Pyrrho and Lucretius, driven by doubt, arising from their limited natures, or the disturbing influence of a chaotic era, have plunged into the horrible abyss of atheism. But the majority of profound thinkers, and still more of great actors, in all ages, have recognized, with more or less fulness, the supremacy of spirit, the government of God, and the immortality of the soul.

Nay, sometimes in the deepest labyrinth of error, whole communities have longed after God. Groping in the dark amid the monuments of ancient superstition, or the deeper gloom of a false philosophy, they have stretched themselves towards the divine, like confined flowers instinctively seeking the sun. In Athens, with its thirty thousand gods, we find an altar, if not several altars, to " the unknown God." The symbol worship of ancient Assyria, with its vast and shadowy forms, the mystic faith of Egypt, based upon some vague but sublime idea of the unity of God and of the resurrection of the dead, calm and majestic as its stony images, and especially the gorgeous pantheism of India, at once monstrous and impressive, were shadows of the great reality. Zerdusht and Menu, as well as Pythagoras and Plato, penetrated beyond external forms, and saw quivering beneath them those eternal energies which they referred to being and thought.

This accounts for the supposition of a golden age, that era of religion simple and sincere. Then the Divinity seemed to walk among men, and all nature was glorified with his presence. Miracle was law, and law was miracle ; for all was wonder and worship. Harmony and joy pervaded the earth, bathed in celestial light. Refracted, indeed, through mythic and legendary mists, after all " 'twas light from heaven." Its origin was supernatural and divine. The first Eden, or the reign of God upon earth, alone can account for it.

Of some such age or state all the ancient nations have traditions more or less perfect.* It gleams as a dim remembrance in all their poetry, philosophy, and history. In some cases it may be accounted for by the natural desire of all nations to glorify their origin and ancestry ; but this will not account for it in all, and especially for the peculiar traditional form in which it often

* The Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian mythologies recog nize it with great distinctness, and describe the change which ensued as " a fall from giory." In the Vishnu Purana of the Hindoo tradition, we have the following : " The beings who were created by Brahma were at first endowed with righteousness and perfect faith ; they dwelt wherever they pleased, unchecked by any impediment. Their hearts were free from guile. They were pure, and made free from soil by the observance of sacred institutes. In their holy minds Hari dwelt, and they were filled with perfect wisdom, wherewith they contemplated the glory of Vishnu." See a quotation from Pausanias in Neander's Church Hist. vol. i. p. 12; as also various references in Knapp ? s Theology, p. 198.

appears. It obviously supposes the existence of some higher civilization, lost in the dim shadows of the past, and not only so, but of a purer form of religion, or at least a deeper sense of its divine beauty and power.

The earlier and stronger communities, those even which lapsed into symbol worship, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, India, Greece, Etruria, and Rome itself, in the palmy days of the republic, as Strabo and Polybius distinctly testify, had a strong and all-pervading faith.* The Hebrew commonwealth was made prosperous and permanent only as a theocracy, or divine republic. When it ceased to be religious, it fell into imbecility, and became a reproach among the nations. The great and good men of all times, around whom society has clustered, the kingly spirits of history, martyrs and patriots of by-gone days, all have been distinguished for their piety. The founders of states, the reformers of laws and manners, Moses, Menu, Zoroaster, Solon, Constantine, Mohammed, Charlemagne, Alfred, Washington, derived their greatest force from the religious element. " God and the right " has been the battle cry of civilization throughout the world.