LITEEATURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1130, 28 June 1867, Page 4

LITEEATURE.

MESSIANIC IDYLS,

We purpose asking our reader to give attention to the crop of boots which have recently issuca from the press, backed by reputations ol the widest notoriety, if not the highest excellence, all of them having for their theme the most exalted subject the liuman mind could contemplate, namely, the life, the works, tho miracles ot Jesus Christ, Saviour, Prophet, and King. The appearance of these books at this particular time, comes opportunely to a survey of literary and historical criticism, but tho subject is one of such a profound and comprehensive nature, as to preclude aught but the most general notice of its general features. How far the discoveries of inductive science have led the mind to examine, and as the result of examination, to doubt the authenticity of merely human records it would be needless to inquire, because the claims of acknowledged scientific data claimed an authority which very few are disposed to dispute, and even the number who are competent to review her decisions arc exceedingly few. Whether it bo contended that the conclusions ol scientific inquiry must be regarded as the test to be applied to other evidence, or that in the testimony of history and tradition, there is a Law which remains in its turn to be discovered by scientific rules especially applicable to itscli, the great precepts, principles and miracles ot that Divine though human personage whom tho great mass of mankind in ail parts of the world acknowledge to be the depositary of their hopes in a future immortality, though harmonizing for the most part with the principles of human action, are not of necessity rightly interpreted by them. Now to sacred literature claiming the authority of revelation and inspiration a rule ot a special kind applies, but unequal to the desire of the enquirer and the great inquiry itself, however adaptable it may be made by special qualifications to elicit particular truths by ingenious combinations. An a priori refusal to admit a supernatural order of things though it may scatter or conjoin the results of human inquiry cau neither destroy nor change the results themselves, and hence the insufficiency of the postulate or the hypothesis, must ever remain as the inquirer to the subject, in the proportion of the finite and the partially informed to the infinite, and the ullness of knowledge. Subjected to this simplo test, .ill that can be eliminated must be uncertain, and all that ingenuity commends must be incomplete. M. Presensee who is in a vastly higher sense to M. lienan amongst French writers, what the author of Ecce Jfnmo assumes to bo among English sceptical writers, puts this view with great force and succinctness, when he says, the historical sciences are based on the supposition that no supernatural agent comes forth to trouble the progress of humanity; that there is no free existence superior to man to whom an appreciable share may be assigned in the moral conduct, any morn than in the material conduct of the uni- : sc." By the supposition, it follows effect is mauu by the infinite gradation of intelligence. The limit of this gradation is on the one side, the absolute as a pure abstraction, or, the most finite condition of dependence on the other. The ideal which is inseparable from humanity itself, being its own conception may yet be beyond either of these opposite poles. "When Strauss wrote his " Life of Christ" the purpose he set before him was, to destroy the conclusions at which the fathers of modern religion had arrived by a contemplation of the works of the founder of Christianity through the sacred narratives or cotemporary tradition, or nearly cotemporary although post cotemporary history. His strongest attack upon received notions was made not by means of any discrepancies in the sacred records but by deductions drawn frcm the results of physical science. This mode of attack could therefore only be successful with those who were insufficiently informed of the extent of the authority of the first narrators or ignored them altogether. This is so evident as not to admitof question, and itfollows that Strauss could only, from such a stand point furnish a very imperfect view of the persons and things about which he was writing, for both are interdependent, and their force can only therefore be estimated when taken together. As illustrating our meaning by a reference to those books before us, it is most singular that while the author of " Ecce Homo," who is regarded by some English writers as eminently orthodox, shuts out the Gospel of St. John from giving any light to his picture of Jesus Christ. M. Pressensec who champions Christianity against the assaults of French writers, declares that the prologue of St. Johu's Gospel is the only true and necessary introduction to the life of the great founder of modern religion. This French writer, who it should here be said, is scarcely inferior to M. Kenan in critical acumen or refinement of sensibility boldly enters the lists contending that the picture of Our Lord as given in the synoptical gospels, is not complete. It is the gospel of John that indi« catos the higher life of Jesus, and without this testimony the historic record is incomplete and

! wanting in unity. "Witlx it the unity is established as the very essence of the whole narrativo of the New Testament. It;follows from this, that any life of Our Lord which excludes the essential complement of his naiure and mission, must be a pieturo of a " man" drawn from sources mainly human. It may ho a portrait eminently beautiful to contemplate, but this is saying nothing more for it than can be said for the pietoriaf illustrations of Christ's life and works drawn by the pencils of the most eminent painters. The beauty which one master of the art of portraiture may place upon the canvass degenerates when treated by another, although excellence of another kind may be abundantly apparent, and if it were possible to suppose that all the separate beauties found in the several masters could be incorporated, the result would be a monstrosity and not a portrait. The same holds with tlio portraits drawn in words by tho pens of modern sceptics. The picture drawn by M. llonan is singularly delicate and conceived in a refinement of surrounding subtlety which is unspeakably fascinating and dangerous to tlioso who look by the aid of the senses alone upon ingredients of which the cnsanbtc is made up. liegarded by any higher light these elements of beauty are dissolved and like a mirage are dissipated. Strauss draws his picture with a bolder hand, but the Christ of his conception, aided by the destructive accessories, drawn from historical research, is as different as possible from that which the French critic has constructed by a process of arbitrary negation. The two have nothing absolutely in common, and this fact it is, as woidd bo apparent to any persons contemplating tho two together, which shows iucon-

testibiy that there is absolutely no warrant in either case for the genuineness of the likeness. But Strauss makes some admissions, which utterly destroy the effect lie aims at, aud preclude the possibility of believing that any such being ever existed, except, indeed, in the constructive imagination of the limner. It is the life of a wandering toacher that tho .Evangelists with one consent uttvibuto to Jesus. Capernaum, tho home of his favourite disciples, was indeed his frequont resort: but for tho most part he traversed the country attendod by a company of trusted disciplos and of womon who provided for the wants of the society out of their own resources. (P. 213.) That Jesua as a teacher made an overpowering, and upon sympathising souls an inelTaecable impression, is not only told us by tho Evangelists, but is ratified by tho historical results. Ho was no liabbi. Ho taught not as tho Scribes. With logical artifices ho had nothing to do; but only with tho word that smites conviction by its own instrinsie truth. Hence in his Gospels that rich collection of sentences or maxims, of terse and pregnant sayings which, _ apart from their religious worth, are for their clear spiritual insight and for their straight unerring aim so beyond all price. " ltondor unto Qesar tho things that be Ccesar's" etc., —these are imperishable sayings; bccauso in them truths, that experience is ever ratifying afresh, are clothed in a form which is at tho same time precisely expressive and also universally intelligible. (P. 253.) Tho consciousness of a Prophetic mission arose in him before that of his Messiahship. Or rather wo may well conceivo that Jesus, while himself clear upon tho point, ehoso in speaking to others an expression [3on of Man] which was not yet in voguo as a title for tho Messiah. Thus ho avoided imposing upon his disciplos and tho people a niero authoritative belief in his Mossiahsliip, but allowed it to grow up spontaneously from within. . . . The more so, as ho found reason to fear that by giving himself out at once for tho Messiah he should wako up all those political hopes, which bore a sense diametrically opposite to that in which nlono ho would consent to bo Messiah. (P. 227.) Meanwhile however much Jesus might decline an}' corporeal miiaeles, do them he must—according to the ideas of that time—whethor ho would or no. So soon as ever ha was held to be n Prophet, at once ho was credited with miraculous powers : and no sooner was ho credited with them, than they were sure to appear in reality. It wore strange if, among tho crowds that ' approached to touch his garments wherever he came, none found a euro cf an alleviation of his disease from an excited imagination or from a slrong sensuospiritual impression. And tho cure was then attributed to the wonder-working power of Jesus. (P. -tis.. IS T ow this is a portrait which lias been obtained by process of destructive-criticism, and who ever goes so far as this must inevitably pursue tho subject farther, or be liable to the imputation of deliberate equivocation. It contains within it the evidence of a st ruggle in the writer, to avoid the real force of the evidence in support of the authenticity, and completeness of the New Testament narrative. The author of " Ecee Homo," takes ground directly opposite, but while the latter assumes everything, lie errs by the interpolation of an unauthorised addition, 11. is a falsification of truth, different in kind and degree perhaps, but stTll a falsification, to add to, as it is to take from it. Both methods are ehargeablc with presumption, and arbitrary dealing with materials which truly conscientious writers would endeavour to avoid. If the domain of human reason is t<> lie confined to observation through (lie senses, whether in respect to time, place, or progression of events, a self-examination by the most ordinary mind will lead to the conviction that there is a vast sphere which thought essays to penetrate which is ante-human in respect to time, and super-human in respect to space and progression. No doubt there must be a stand point in cognizable fact and the failures with which metaphysical analysis is sometimes charged are attributed to the temerity ofthinkers in abandoning the only basis upon which reason cau safely rest. Of this abandonment all infidel and sceptical reasoncrs have been guilty. In few words thej r take a leap in the dark. Thus Strauss in his recent edition has l'elt compelled to make admissions which upset the whole ot the conclusions arrived at in his cariier work, and reason having failed they vainly attempt indeed to assail Christianity through the imagination. M. liunau's book is a more forcible illustration of this than that of Strauss. He rev eh in accessories the creatures of his own brain. J Lad those books been addressed to the readers of the present age as works of imagination, the danger arising from the ability displayed in them would I not be so great. I3ut it is the -attempt to give to them the authority of a critical examination that renders them beyond all question most perilous to religion and morals. Kenan's book has been aptly called a Galilean Idyl. The person of Christ is described with a detail which is most minute, and the scenes of his labours are painted in the language, and with the fervour of a romancist. Uf course this profusion of accessories is redundant and spurious. The tendency is entirely pantheistic. Here is an example drawn from his latest • work, (Les Apotres.) Yet such is, in plain words, the theory of SI. Hcnaa. The formation of Christendom, sayg ho, is tho greatest event in tho religiou.i history of £ho world. But only a few pages farther on wo read, Tho glory of tho Kesurrection belongs then to Mary Magdalene. Nest to Jesus, it is sho "who has dono the most for tho founding of Christendom. 'J he shadow c routed by the dolicutc senses of the Magdalen hovers still above the world. Queen and patron of idoatists, sho above all others has known how to make her dronrn a reality and to imposo on all mon the sacrod vision of her impassioned soul. Her prand aflirniation of the woman's heart, "lie is rison !" has been tho basis of tho world's fuith. Get tlico gono then, impotent Keason! Prcsumo not to apply thy cold analysis to this mastor-worlc of idealism and of lovo. If Philosophy gives up tho attempt to console this poor raco of men, betrayed by fate, let madness approach and put her hand to the task. Where ia the sage who has over given such joy to tlio world, as tho possessed woman — Mary of Magdala ? (AjnUrcf, p. 13.) It would almost seem incredible that any man should write this, aud call it by the namo of Historial Criticism, or the result of a ratiocinative process. The style is luscious, nad therefore tempting. The picture is beautiful, but only on the surface. The core is eaten away to give vividness to the exterior. j Nearly all the authorities upon the subject of historical or biblical criticism harp pronounced

" Ecce Ilomo " a failure; —a failure in respect to tho objcct meant to be attained, but they regard it, as a merely literary essay, as a work of pure imagination, full of striking passages. The Christianity which it proclaims is not the Christianity proclaimed by tho sacred record or by the precepts of the Great Teachcr. It is destitute of scholarship in comparison with works which have obtained far less notoriety. Wc may give ono or two more of (lie passages—premising that these arc i - alher the flights of an accomplislLed essayist than the emanations of a profound thinker. They arc brilliant meteors falling out of chaos and lighting it up. IN cither do they fit into the narrative which he has woven, but are digressive cxcrcsences which captivate the imagination, and only'instruct when read by their own light and not in connection with the context of this book. They are of the light which warns the traveller through those pages against the dangers of an overreaching imagination.

Wo liavo found Christ undertaking ... to occupy a personal relation of Judgo and Master to every man, such as in tho earlier Theocracy had been occupied by Jehovah himself without representation. (P. 25 ) Within tho whole creation of God nothing more elevated or more attractive has yet been found than ho. (P. 25.) This enthusiasm, then, was shown to men in its most consummate form in Jesus Christ. From him it flows as from a fouutain. How it was kindled in him who knows? Tlio abysmal deeps of personality hido this secret. It ivas the will of God to beget 110 second son lihe him. (P. 32L.) What comfort (.-lirist gave men ... by offering to thorn now views of tho Power by which tho world is governed, by his own triumph over death, and by his revelation of eternity, will be tlio subject of another trcatiso. (P. 323.) Tho achievement of Christ, in founding by his single will and power a structure so durable and so universal, is like no other achievement which history records. ... If in the work of Nature wo can trace the indications of calculation, of a sttugglo with difficulties, of precaution, of "ingenuity, then in Christ's work it may be that tho same indications occur. . . . Who can describo that which unites mon ? Who has cntored into tho formation of speech whicli is tho symbol of their union ? Who can describo exhaustively tho oiigin of Civil Society ? Ho who can do those things can explain tlio origin of tho Christian Church. For othors it must bo enough to say, "The Holy Ghost fell on them that believed." No mail 6aw tho building of tho Now Jerusalem, tho workmen crowded together, tho unfinished walls and unpavod streets; no man heard the clink of trowel and pickaxe ; it descended out of lienven from God. (P. 330.) But in " Ecce Homo " we have extraordinary wealth of assertion on the part of the writer. We should take the very best portions of his work to be the result of long pondering, of a process of mental assimilation in which the original elements of thought are entirely lost, and the rather is result a new creation than a structure raised from recogniscd materials. In the following passage we have a series of apothegms having the air of authority, but certainly not the certificate of investigation about them. They would pass, without challenge, in a sermon; but when the judge and critic comes into the forum wc expect to see them exercise functions, purely judicial and purely critical. Take the sentence for example, " it was the will of God to beget," Ac. flow vast the field of speculation it suggests, but out of which it can never come, comprising the whole metaphysical range of powers, and attributes, and qualities, which have puzzled tho heart and brain of inquiry since the beginning of the world. There is yet an attractiveness and a force in the language, which enables the ordinary reader to peruse it again and again, but the more it is read, the thoughts that seem to rush into the language recede, and all that is left is a dry and disjected frame-work of ideas. Justice is often but a form of pedantry, mercy mere easiness of temper, courage a mero firmness of physical constitution ; hut if those virtues are gonuine, then, they indicate not godoness merely but goodness considerably developed. Wo want a test which shall admit all who have it in them to be good whether their good qualities be trained or no. Jiuoh a test is found in. faith. lie who, when goodness is impressively put before him, exhibits an instinctive loyalty to it, starts forward to take its side, trust i himself to it, such a man lias faith, aud the root of tho matter is in such a man. lie may have liabitß of vice, but tho loyal and faithful instinct in him will place him above many that practice virtue. ITe may bo rudo in thought and character, but lie will unconsciously gravitate to-

wards what is right. Other virtues can scarcely thrive without a lino natural organisation and a happy training. l!ut the most lirglcctcd ancl ungiftcd of men may make a beginning with faith. (P. GO.) ILjv.'Ovct it nny seem, this speculation of a cfinniosiwoalth developed from first. principles hni been realised on a grand scale. It stands in history among oilier states ; it subsists in tlio midst of other stutop, comweloil with litem and yet distinct. Though so refined :md philosophic in its constitution, it. has not. loss vigour thna the states which arc founded on the relations of'family, or language, or the convenience of noil-defence and trade. Not less vigour, and ccrlainly far moro vitality. It has already long outlasted all tho states which were existing at tho timo of its foundation; it numbers far moro citizens than any of tho states which it has seen spring up near it. It subsists without tho help of costly armaments ; resting on no accidental aid of physical support, but on an inherent immortality, it defied tho enmity of'rncient civilisation, tho brutalisy of media-val barbarism, and under the present universal empire of public opinion it is oo secure that ever, those parts of it seem indestructible which deservo to dio. (P. .'!25.) This is lino writing ; a pica for toleration and a Christian (JlmreJi. a brilliant deciaud lor (lie freedom of private judgment and social regeneration.". Butfhe Look ol'M. L'resseusee has been well designated the antidote to the poison of M. Kenan's beautiful llowers and fruits, soil and brilliant climates, Asiatic fountains through which the fragile but beautiful being is supposed to wander surrounded by iSmarilan children, and blessed by the prayers of thoil' delighted parents, in whose presence he speaks words of childlike simplicity, but pregnant of the concentrated wisdom of all ages. Pressensee ' pauses not by the way to gather odors but to enjoy, but rather to rip the meaning out of oral and written evidence, and while the fruit is fixed in his pages the husks are thrown aside. At the same time his view is French, that is to say embued with tho Gallican as distinct from the Anglican spirit. The difference between him and " Jicce Homo" is well illustrated in the following account ot the Temptation, which occupies so prominent a placc in the speculations of the English writer :— In tho temptation in tho wilderness we witness tho appearance of that mysterious being, who is represented in tho first book of the Bible, as conneoted with the history of tho fall. Satan, as wo have shown, is not tlio I'crsiau Ahriman who represents the element of evil, in nature as well as in moral life ; ho is a fallen angel, crcatod in light and purity like all God's creatures, but having failed to abide in them. IJoubtless ho also fell under tho trial of moral freedom, universally imposed on intolligont beings, made in tho likeness of God. "Wo know nothing of tho nature of this trial, oftho maimer of his rebellion, nor of tho sphere in which it took place. It ia impossible to admit or reject with any certainty tho hypothesis so often sustained, that tho gigantic wrccks ou which tho now lifo of our planet lias flourished give evidence of a tragical history beforo tho human era, in which man was preceded on tho earth by beings higher than himself in their origin, who have thorefore fallen lower, and aro boeomo the natural and desperate enemies of tho race which has succeoded them. We are bound to hold the reality of the existence of devils; nothing in reason opposes tho possibility of moral beings different from man, nioro utterly perverted and endowed with a subtlety of nature which allows them wider and more rapid action. There aro times when tho imperceptible barrier which divides us from tho invisible world—so far from our eyes, ao near our hearts —seems to fall altogether. Such are tho great religious crises of humanity ; now there ia 110 crisis comparable to tho opening of tho era of Christ. Wo do not think, then, that we are yielding to any superstition, in recognising: in tho templutioti tho direct intervention of the chief of those ovil spirits', who are the worst enemies ofmau. — . <*..*s) ' . . . ... .

It would be far beyond our purpose to pursue the survey of this class of literature auy further. But the reader may gather from what we have written how vague aro the arguments of scepticism, how unsupported by auy evidence, unless such as has become vitiated by a prolific imagination, or what is worse, by perhaps an overweening vanity. No man who reads the Gospels of tho jSTcw Testament can fail to draw from them a likeness of tho Prince of Peace, which will be more satisfactory, because derived of the spirit of the narration and not tho husk, the shell of which merely isolated passages are the broken remnants. What interest can it be whether Christ was ashamed when he was asked to judge the woman taken in adultery, cxcept indeed to a prurient curiosity. Does not he who gazes to deepen the tinge that bespeaks tho existence of passion make an accusation by the indulgence of his Own sympathy. If we have "thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls," is it not fair to regard the corporeal as the phase of a coincidence, the immaterial being Supreme because known to influence but in what manner it " hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive." Whatever may be the character of God's Kingdom are the limits of tho laws as laid down by " Ecce Homo" to be accepted while the glory of the testimony was sung in words of imperishable meaning upon the forehead of an age and a nation bloody and exhausted by wars. Peace on earth, good will to Man! Are we to listen to the discourse of "Ecce Homo" about Christ's resentment towards the Jews, when we havo his own dying but comprehensive plea to heaven for their forgiveness. Are we to believe : him capable of a resentment who was Almighty. Must we acc<?pt a kingdom constructed for him whom the words of tho poot describe The best of men That oro wore earth about him was a sufferer : A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, The first truo gontloman that over walked, yet was also the voice of prophecy, the heir of Divine power, the Soul of tho universe, who, brought as it were from tho very hand of the Great Judgo the attribute of mercy and scattered it through tho wide earth. And as if that were not enough was willing to give the strongest proof of love for men—speaking to them with the voice of a child—but when suffering came, enduring it with a fortitude unspeakable. It were vain to pursue the crudities inseparable from criticism on such a subject. All the books that have ever been written or can over bo written can never select the facts of Gospel History and use them for a preconceived purpose without falling into error. He fares best and is wisest who accepts the only conclusion which is suggested by the consummation of the great epic, and beholding tho rudo cross tree upon the vast eminence of human thought, recognising in it the memorial of a great event, and the symbol of a measureless mercy.