NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12238, 6 April 1903, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE KAISER AND REVELATION. Our. cable messages have informed us of the profound sensation caused in Germany by the Kaiser's letter to Admiral Hollmann, in which His Majesty sets forth his views with regard to the doctrine or theory of revelation. The full text of His Majesty's letter is published in the London papers to hand by the mail, and the following extract will be read with interest: —"I distinguish (writes the Emperor) between two different kinds of revelation one continuous and to some extent historical, and one purely religious, a preparation for the later appearance of the Messiah. With regard to the first kind of revelation, I have to say that there is to my mind not the slightest doubt that God constantly and continually reveals Himself in the human race, which is His own, and which He has created. He has 'breathed His breath' into manthat is to say. He has given man a part of Himself, a soul. He follows with fatherly love and interest the development of the human race; in order to lead it and to advance it further, He 'reveals' Himself now in this, now in that great sage, whether it be priest or King, whether it be among heathens, Jews, or Christians. Hammurabi was one of these, and so were Moses, Abraham. Homer, Charlemagne, Luther, Shakespere, Goethe, Kant, the Emperor William the Great. These He has sought out and of His grace judged them worthy to perform in accordance with His will glorious and- imperishable achievements for their peoples, both in the spiritual and in the physical sphere. How mam- a time did mv grandfather expressly and emphatically maintain that he was only an instrument in the hand of the Lord! The works of great spirits have been bestowed by God upon the peoples in order that they may model their development upon them and may continue to feel their way through the confused labyrinth and the unexplored pathways of their "earthly lot. God has certainly revealed Himself to divers persons in' divers ways corresponding to the position of a nation and die standard of civilisation it has attained, and He still does so in our day. For just as we are most overwhelmed by the grandeur and might of the glorious character of the creation when we contemplate it, and, as we contemplate, marvel at the greatness of God which it reveals, as surely may we recognise with gratitude and admiration in everything really great and glorious which an individual or a nation does the glory of the revelation of God. He thus acts directly upon us and among us. The second kind of revelation, the more strictly religious, is that which leads up to the appearance of our Lord. From Abraham onwards it is introduced slowly but with prescient vision, infinite wisdom, and infinite knowledge, or else mankind would have been lost. And now begins that most marvellous operation, the revelation of God. The seed of Abraham and the nation developed therefrom regarded with iron consistency the belief in one God as their holiest possession. They were obliged to cherish and foster it. They were disintegrated during the captivity in. Egypt; Moses welded together the separate fragments for the second time, and they always persisted in their endeavour to preserve their ' monotheism.' It is the direct intervention, of God which makes it possible for this people to emerge once more. And so the process continues through the centuries until the Messiah, foretold and announced by prophets and pslamists, at last appears. This was the greatest revelation of God in the' world. For He appeared iii the Son himself; Christ is God; God in human form. He delivered us ; He inspires us; He attracts us to follow Him; we feel His fire burn in us, His compassion strengthen us, His ; displeasure destroy us; though, at the same time, we feeel that His intercession rescues us. Assured of victory, relying on His word alone, we endure labour, scorn, wretchedness, distress, and death; for we have in Him the revealed word of God, and God never lies."