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Nature of the Christian Revelation.

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it was in perfect harmony with the laws of nature of which we have a certain knowledge, it would pass unnoticed. In either case, it would be without use. By this theory it will be seen that M. Coquerel takes nothing from the importance of the miracles. He not only believes in their truth, but even denies that a redemption could have been effected without their aid. They form an important, an essential, part of revelation. They are the evidence of the right of the ancient prophets to announce the coming of the Saviour; they are, moreover, the guaranty of the truth of his mission.

Thus, by a natural and simple train of thought, we are led to the notion of a redemption, which we find realized in history with abundant proof. But were we left to our own reason, we should still be convinced of the truth of Christ's mission. Who, if it were not a fact, could have imagined a life so perfect as that of Jesus, under circumstances similar to those of every human life? Who could have imagined the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, under the humble garb of Jesus of Nazareth? The mind could undoubtedly have pictured to itself the ideal of human perfection; it could have clothed a being with all the attributes which it would desire for itself; but it could never have imagined the solemn, yet simple, scenes of the life of Christ,his birth in a manger at Bethlehem, his pure and holy life, those scenes of his mortal career in which he showed himself so similar to us in all things excepting sin, his tears for the death of Lazarus, his joy at the success of the preaching of his disciples, his humble bearing towards his mother, his slow and painful death on the cross, his touching farewell to his mother and to the beloved disciple, and, finally, his glorious resurrection! No. Left to itself, the mind would have overdrawn the picture. An ideal Christ would have been either too distinct from, or too similar to, those amongst whom he was to live and die.

Now that we have arrived at the notion of a redemption, and find this notion has been realized in the world by the mission of Jesus Christ, let us examine, with our author, into the manner in which we ought to understand revelation. The first thought which presents itself here is, that the Christian religion, as revealed in the New Testament, has been commonly considered as mere instruction, as a theoretical collection of doctrines. To this view M. Coquerel objects. According to him, Christianity is something far better, far

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more practical. It is a new and salutary impulse given to mankind. It addresses itself alike to all the faculties, to all the tendencies, of our nature. Had it been but a cold and lifeless system, like the philosophical systems of antiquity, it would have addressed itself to but one of these tendencies; it would have addressed itself to the intellectual power alone. In other words, Christianity is not theology. He, who reads the Scriptures with a view merely to examine certain theological points, understands them not. He takes a part of religion for the whole. He considers it merely as a science, forgetting that the Saviour himself has said," If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." In the Scriptures, instruction is never considered as an object, but solely as a means of attaining to a more spiritual life, and to a better knowledge of God. The method employed in the revelation is either to make truth visible by means of indisputable facts, or to present it as certain, or to state it as an axiom, or to leave it in so dim and vague a light that our reason cannot entirely understand it.

There are but few truths taught in the Scriptures by the first of these methods. The greatest of these is, unquestionably, the resurrection of Christ. In an age when the external appearances of death had hidden from the general eye the truth of the immortality of the soul, it was necessary to show by a fact that man rises from the dead the same as when he descends into the grave, that is to say, that his identity is preserved, that he knows his friends, and that they know him.

All those truths, which are so intimately connected with the Infinite as not to be susceptible of demonstration, are considered as certain in the Scriptures. These truths are the attributes of God, our creation, our liberty, and Divine Providence. Here is another proof that revelation was not intended as a didactic work. The Scriptures are full of these truths; they form the very basis of our religion; and yet, throughout the Bible, there is no demonstration of them.

The truths which are considered as axioms are those which relate directly to our condition in this world. Not a word is to be found in the Scriptures on the organization of the family or of society, on personal freedom, political order, or many other questions which form the object of so much of our speculation. If the Gospels were the work of man, and not of God, they would be replete with theories on all these

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Future Destinies of our Religion.

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subjects. How different is the work of God! To all the errors which existed in the world with regard to these important questions at the time of the ministry of Christ, the Gospel opposes no argument, no vituperations. It does not attack despotism as the most flagrant violation of all human. rights, or polygamy as the subversion of all morality. The only arms it uses against them are the fundamental principles, the spirit, of Christianity. "Our religion," says M. Coquerel, “is the first and only religion which has shown this astonishing confidence in the authority of truth, to take the world as it found it, without directly attacking any of its forces, to throw truth, as by chance, into the midst of it, like the invisible seed which is sown by the wind, and to predict that this seed will certainly take root and grow into that large tree under the shade of which mankind may take refuge against every error and every evil."

There are, finally, some truths which are left in so vague a light as to be incomprehensible to us in our present mode of existence. To the following questions, some of which have been the cause of so much strife in the Christian world, the Scriptures give no satisfactory reply: What is the divine nature of Christ? How are the soul and body united? Does all communication cease between the living and the dead? What will be the organization of man in another world? What is the nature of angels and demons? These questions remain unanswered, it is true, because in our present condition the solution of such problems is entirely unnecessary for our progress. We do not mean, however, to say that an examination of these curious and interesting problems must necessarily be dangerous. Philosophy and religion may alike speculate on them, provided they do not attempt to give to the results of their investigations an importance which they cannot really possess.

In this rapid sketch of the work under review, we have now arrived at a point where it becomes necessary to inquire into the future destinies of our religion. We must now endeavour to ascertain what are the triumphs reserved for Christianity both in this world and throughout eternity. The first thought that naturally strikes us in connection with this subject is, that Christianity is the final religion of mankind. Jesus Christ is the only Saviour who will ever be given to the world. We have two guaranties of this fact. First, the Christian religion is entirely independent of

every thing which surrounds it. It can exist in all places, in every climate, under all governments, and with every degree of civilization. How different in this respect from all false religions! You may destroy the Sinai or the Calvary, Rome, Wittenberg, or Geneva, and efface them from the memory of man, the Christian religion will still exist. If you destroy Jerusalem and its temple, the Jewish religion has no longer any meaning; Christianity may plant its standard on any shore and in every soil. False religions are dependent even on the differences of climate which exist in different countries. The symbolism of the Egyptians cannot be conceived of elsewhere than on the borders of the Nile, that of the Indians but in the valley of the Ganges or the Indus; the mythology of Greece belongs to the warm and genial climate of that lovely land, that of Odin to the cold and frosty climate of the North. Thus independent of every thing external, Christianity must be the final religion of mankind.

The second guaranty which we have that Christianity is the final religion of mankind is still more conclusive. It addresses itself alike to all our powers, to all our tendencies. To the intellectual power it promises infinite knowledge; from the moral power it demands perfection; from the affections it demands love without end towards God and a simi

lar love for our fellow-men. St. John says, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" To the tendency toward happiness our religion promises eternal felicity; and, finally, Christianity satisfies our religious tendency in showing us that our union with God may become more and more perfect. A religion which thus takes hold of man by all his faculties must be the final religion of mankind. A new religion would find nothing new to teach.

The influence of Christianity has been as yet of two kinds. It has had a direct influence on those who profess it, and an indirect influence on those who do not believe in its doctrines, or who are ignorant even of its existence. All the progress made in the world for the last eighteen centuries may be ascribed to it. But this indirect influence is not sufficient. If Christianity is the final religion of mankind, the time must come when all men will profess its doctrines. This time will come. But before our religion can become the universal religion of the human race, it must

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Changes.

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undergo different changes or modifications, which our author classes under the following heads.

First, Christianity must be freed from all ecclesiastical rules. The moral and religious laws which are given in the Scriptures are general, and never enter into minute details of conduct. The application of the law is left to each individual. The liberty of man is thus respected. In the Gospels, we do not even find any forms of prayer or of public worship prescribed; any rules as to the rites of marriage or the duties of a married life, to death or mourning for the dead. Man, and man alone, has attempted to prescribe a certain number of rules, which cannot with impunity be transgressed. Such a course is in direct opposition to the spirit of Christianity. It is, moreover, absurd and impracticable. In endeavouring to write down rules of conduct which man must follow, who can pretend not to forget a single article? Happy would it be, however, for Christianity, if the sins committed in these dangerous attempts were only sins of omission.* It is a cheering sight to the Christian, to observe that many Catholics of the present day prefer to seek in their own conscience for the approbation or condemnation of their actions, rather than from their confessor. Christianity must, and will ultimately, be entirely freed from this pernicious system.

Christianity must, in the second place, be freed from all clerical hierarchy. It is evident that the distinction of the layman from the priest is not as old as our religion. Thus, for example, the administering of the sacrament was, in the early ages, a family rite. The father of the family was in the habit of breaking the bread and distributing it to his children. Whether the time will come or not when Christianity can entirely dispense with all outward forms of worship, and consequently with a clergy to celebrate that worship, is a question which we cannot solve. The progress which our religion must make in this respect will tend to destroy all clerical hierarchy, to make all the ministers of God equal. This progress has been attained in many Protestant churches. It will finally be universal.

M. Coquerel published a few years ago an admirable letter to the Archbishop of Lyons, on the subject of a work published in his diocese entitled, -"Collationes pratica of the Seminary of St. Flour," a work in which are recorded crimes and abominations which one would rather expect to find in the Epigrams of Martial than in the productions of a priest.