Bethlehem; his existence till he appeared as the announcer of the word of God passed so calmly, according to the usual course of nature, that nothing extraordinary is known. His communication with other men, eating and drinking, the occurrences of his life, even the life and death, happened in the usual manner.

If, however, his power of prophecy may be compared to the phenomena of clairvoyance, and his cures follow the exercise of the will as in the magnetist, the intention and object, the signification and direction, must be clearly defined and distinguished. Christ is not the suffering somnambulist on one side; he is not the healing, somnambulism-producing physician on the other; he does not limit his endeavours to the curing of a man for a moment of time from his bodily ailments; but he wishes

to purify him from sin, and influencing others through him s

WORKS

ARE

POT

NATURE

to bring grace and salvation to all. Christ is at the same
time physician and remedy for soul and body. He did not
come to foretell the fortunes of this or that person; he is the
great prophet who was to come into the world and to
the Jews: to preach the word to them, and announce the
promise of eternal life. He did not teach how such
such diseases might be cured, but he sent his disciples and
apostles to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and all
heathens throughout the world. He was a perfect teacher
and prophet, who incorporated a supernatural power with
his preachings, and whose words so penetrated the hearts of
his hearers that "they were astonished," and said,
man spake like this man. He accompanied his teachings
by miracles, which he performed through his own power,
and sealed them by a holy immaculate life. According to
the wisdom of his mind he was guided entirely by time
and circumstances, and therein followed the laws of nature's

course.

"never

He did not seek renown among men by signs and wonders, which he also commanded to be kept secret (Matthew, viii. 4, 9, 30); he sought to spread the glory of God among men, and to unite them with the Eternal Father. His prophetic mission he transferred to able teachers, who though weak in flesh, were strong in spirit, and provided them with power and grace to perform his works; they

were by supernatural means to bring men to repentance and to a sound knowledge and power; to remain and increase in the community-the church. To make his office of preacher successful, he built in his wisdom upon such firm foundation that the gates of hell could not overcome it, and that it will endure as long as the world stands.

If Christ lived and worked in nature, and in a natural manner, the active power in him was not the less super natural, a higher divine influence, for he changed water into wine, the winds and the sea obeyed him, and he healed the lame and sick instantaneously: the fig-tree withered by the road side, the blind were made to see, and the dead were raised; evil spirits obeyed him, the leprous became clean; and all these were not effects produced by any known human powers. And even if these historical facts are to be regarded as exaggerations of enthusiasm, although that would be impossible to a comprehensive criticism; if we sought for analogies in these miracles, and only admitted a higher degree of influence, such as is here and there met with in magnetism, or if we substituted a mere parable or a subjective deception of the first narrators to those which will not agree with the explanation; yet are all these endeavours so forced, so one-sided, so flat, with all the acuteness employed so unprofitable, that these facts have always remained single in nature, unapproached in the glory of truth, and so unshaken during the lapse of ages, that their reception has been universally spread over the world.

But if we admit no miracle in the person or life of Christ, and irrespectively of the believed in, doubted and criticised, facts; irrespectively of the fact that he attracted all to him by the irresistible might of his loving grace and truth; that he did not defend his kingdom against his adversaries with earthly power, yet must the miraculousness of Christ be of a far different nature. The true miracle lies in the divine manifestation of God in the flesh through Christ himself, which occurred at a fixed time and place. The true miracle lies in the rent of the veil of the temple, which, after the death of Jesus, was destroyed, as he had foretold; the whole Jewish community was dispersed, so that they could not be gathered together again, or rebuild the temple? The true

miracle consists in the regeneration and reformation of human life and customs. The hidden secrets formerly hidden were revealed by the light of the mission which Christ fulfilled; appearing in the darkness to illuminate all men; for in him was light and life, which darkness did not understand. The true miracle is the ever-active spirit of Christ in the priestly mission to destroy the dominion of the devil and superstition, and to spread light and blessing over the whole human race, and to work all the miracles as Christ promised his disciples.

Lastly, it is a miracle that Christianity gives a new direction and strength to the human mind, makes it fearless and enduring in all trials and sufferings, and perfects each individual organization; and as it spreads leading the heathen to a true worship of God, and founding peace and brotherhood among all men.

The idea of Christianity as a development of religious consciousness in humanity, from a certain spiritual dependence and community of man with an Eternal Creator, has been found to exist in all nations from the earliest ages in a more or less perfect form; not only the idea of the being of God and of his government, but also of the fall and of a future restoration. This idea first became the pure consciousness of truth through the living word of Christ. Christianity is therefore not new in its roots or trunk; it is, in fact, deeply rooted in the history of Israel, and the germs are traceable to the origin of mankind, so that even the Messiah who should crush the serpent's head was promised to the mother of the human race.

As Christianity, therefore, stands in an organic connection with the earlier religious stages of human development, and as a higher form of existence embraces the former, it is occupied with a continuous purificatory process of religious consciousness, and the kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed, "which, indeed, is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." Not that Christianity proceeded in an imperfect state from its founder; its contents were at the outset pure; but the signification takes a different shape in its manifestation, and spreads according to various consti

tuted forms of religious consciousness, and according to its various modes of acceptation. The process of purification consists, therefore, in the religious illumination of the undertakings of nations and ages, in the separation of truth rom fallacy; and in this manner Christianity is subject to the laws of development which govern mind and nature. The real signification remains, but the forms are changeable, and the explanation of them is a task for learning. Religion is, however, not a finished, but a living system; it is not merely letter and outward words, but an acting and lifegiving spirit. True knowledge must therefore be a religious philosophy or theosophy, which speculatively endeavours to spiritualise the faith. True philosophy will therefore be Christian, smoothing down all inequalities of revelation and reason, of faith and science. It will therefore hold firmly by the most valuable portion-to preserve it; explain the varying modes of perception as periods of self-conscious development according to the age; and pluck up, destroy, and reform the weeds of distortion which spring up in this development.

A truly Christian philosophy will therefore reconcile religion as the most profound, ineradicable, and inexpressible sentiment, with the idea, faith with knowledge; it will especially recognize the universal conceptions of Christian faith as a necessary want of the mind, as the repose of the soul, and endeavour to make them agree with history and nature; for such philosophies are regarded by all parties as the truest, and are always more generally accepted: such, for instance, as those of Augustin, Tauler, Jacob Böhme, Arndt, &c. philosophy which overturns a faith which has many followers is certainly only a transient meteor: on account of its onesidedness it is always condemned before the inner universal popular feeling has adopted it, or before a more comprehensive positive contemplation has dispersed its edifice like a glittering mist.

A

The influence of Christianity upon magic could not be small; material changes would undoubtedly be brought about through its influence: we shall at a later time make more minute investigations, for the purpose of understanding the modifications of magic and the belief in sorcery. I shall here only remark, in a few words, that, at the epoch of Christ's

appearance, faith in demons, and particularly in evil spirits, was not only general among the heathen, but also among the Jews to an incredible extent; and unbounded powers, as great even as those of the Divinity, were ascribed to them, which not only were supposed to influence the mind but also nature and physical life. Superstition imagined all possible ways of gaining the favour of these demons, and of transferring their noxious influence upon others by permitted or unpermitted means, or to use these supernatural powers for any purposes. In short, magic had now become a black art, and its true signification and worth in the noble and original sense was lost. Then came Christ to destroy the works and the dominion of the devil upon earth, to illuminate and enlighten the obscurity of the mind; to supersede falsehood by truth, and fear by faith; and to confirm confidence and love towards God and our neighbour, instead of insecurity, despair, and hatred. This in itself made Christ a true saviour in necessity; for, of all others, the chosen people were plagued by evil spirits, so that the possessed persons became a perfect national trouble, falling upon the traveller in the highway, and the shepherds in the fields, and in this manner endangering the public safety. No difference was any longer known between natural and supernatural, and the inclination in man for evil tended towards principles of darkness within and without, and became in itself an evil spirit and sorcerer. If we regard this misery, this universal mental confusion, which not only entirely demoralised but even endangered the existence of society, it is impossible to say how full of blessings the advent of Christ was. Christ cast out devils, made men peaceable, and on all sides deprived hell of its power; he tore the coverings from its false arts, and taught men to withstand all the temptations of the flesh, as of the devil, by return to penitence with prayer and fasting, with renunciation of the lust of the senses, and by works of love. To the false magic of perverted sinners, who produced supernatural devil's-works in a natural manner by material means, Christ opposed the pure elevated magic of the true knowledge of God, by the aid and assistance of which, man, strengthened in faith, is made capable of influencing nature, of loosening the bonds of Satan, and thereby of freeing him