PRESSENSf'S LIFE OF CHRIST.*

SINCE Neander's Life of Christ was first introduced into England, in the admirable rendering of Professors McClintock and Blumenthal, there has not appeared among us in an English version a more interesting Continental contribution to theological literature than the present work of M. de Pressensd. We do not, in thus speaking, mean to affirm that Pressense is a sebond Neander. We are quite of opinion, however, that no one would have more cordially welcomed the Frenchman's endeavour to vindicate the claims of the Evangelic narratives to the respectful consideration of the modern science and philosophy than the great German ; while we must further believe that, with the large simplicity of his nature, he would have rejoiced to find in the pages of our author the tokens of a literary faculty which he himself did not possess. Indeed, what first strikes one, in opening the volume before us anywhere, is the workmanlike ability with which it is written. M. de Pressense is not only brilliant and epigrammatic, as most of his bookmaking countrymen are ; he not only makes great "points," but his sentences flow on from page to page with a sustained eloquence which never wearies the reader, because it seems to be inspired by his subject, rather than reached by an effort of his own. His style would commend M. de Pressense to an academy presided over even by Mathew Arnold. But apart from and far beyond This merits as a literary artist, this French theologian shows himself to be endowed with high intellectual capacity, not to speak of the reverence and personal devoutness which breathe throughout the volume.

This Life of Christ is a thoroughly modern essay. It belongs to the era, as to the country, of Comte and Renan. M. de Pressense is aware, so to speak, that the old apologetic umbrellas held up to shelter orthodoxy from the deistic rainfalls are not exactly the defence one needs in a day when a keen frost has made the ground beneath one's feet into a surface of polished ice. Accordingly he has supplied himself with what the Germans would call a transcendental Apparat for his difficult task, and we

cannot but think that he has succeeded in making his way suc cessfully over the intervening 'slippery spaces until he is at last entitled to say : here is a solid basis of history. As may be known to our readers, the author had already given to the world, among other works, volumes specially devoted to the elucidation of early Church history, and he was meditating the publication of a

volume like the present on some future day, when the appearance of Renan's Lift of Jesus startled France, and awoke a rare mood

of interest in questions which " twenty years ago would have been pronounced antiquated."

In these circumstances the book before us, if not formally, is, at least, substantially, a reply to Henan, and not less to the new Life of Jesus, by Strauss, which is largely constructed on the same lines, so to speak, with the romantic creation of the more

brilliant Frenchman ; the two writers, to take a single example, having both adopted the remarkable hypothesis that the Christian Church owes its origin and creed to the visions of Mary Magdalene. With the aid of Professor Beyschlag, of Ilalle,—a German theologian, who is but too little known in this country as yet,—Pressensd combats this nebular hypothesis in a very masterly manner ; but we shall reserve our comments on this subject to the close of our article ; and shall, in the meanwhile, endeavour to give our readers some account of the stand-point of our author, and of the form into which he has cast his comprehensive survey of the life of Christ.

M. de Pressensd is a liberal evangelical,—decidedly evangelical, in the popular sense of the word,—in his acceptances.of such car

dinal dogmas as the Fall and the Atonement, but not lees dis tinguishably liberal in the anxiety he manifests to remove from the existing theology some of its Pagan accidents, and in the honesty and breadth which characterize his criticism when be has to discuss questions which the hard-and-fast theory of inspiration is incapable of looking in the face. As we indicated, however, M. de Pressensd postpones his critical biographical chapters until such time as he has patiently, if with a certain passionateness of

interest, discussed those a priori assumptions of the Absolute and the Positive philosophies respectively which, if conceded, would inevitably involve the rejection of all that is preternatural or extraordinary in the Scriptural records as the invention or the

dreams of designing or deluded men. Nay, more ; if it be not an anti-climax to say so, it is not only Biblical history which would cease to have any authoritative value for us if we accepted as conclusive such a statement as the following :—" The most direct testimony is inadmissible when it has reference to a fact which does not bend to the laws of nature,"*—we should be imperilling all honest inquiry, we should find ourselves again bowing down before the very termini or idols of the understanding which formerly fenced round the field of scientific investigation. We should be exposing ourselves to the invasions of lawless credulity, and, finally, we should be surrounding ourselves with an atmo sphere fatal to moral energy, if not directly inducing paralysis of the human will.

All that M. de Pressensd advances in his first book, under the head of •" Preliminary Questions," on what we might call the perils of modern idolatry, is exceedingly admirable ; but it is not mere pulpit declamation in which he indulges. And as a specimen at once of our author's analytic and didactic ability, and of the

competency of the present translator to reproduce the spirit and manner of the original, we select the following passages:— "Under the shelter of a kind of scientific frenzy, naturalism has entrenched itself strongly not only in the domain of the natural sciences, properly so called, but even in that of philosophy. . . . It behoves us to examine carefully into its sources, and .to trace its transformations to our own time. At the commencement of the century it makes its first appearance in the magnificent and poetic pantheism of Schelling: ho affirms in brilliant utterance the identity of natural and spiritual order, clothes with delusive images a determinism as positive as that of Spinoza, and holds up again to the dazzled gaze the image of a false infinite, which does not in reality pass the bounds of the world of phenomena. Hegel gives to it its most perfect form ; for ho claims to have discovered in human reason tho very formula of the Absolute, which is not distinct from the created world, but develops itself through universal life in an evolution regulated by fixed laws, of which logic reveals to us the sequence. Thus, from kingdom to kingdom in nature, from sphere to sphere in human existence, from era to era in history, the absolute reveals itself, ever more perfectly, till it arrives at the full consciousness of itself as the idea of all things in the reason of man. There, on the highest step of metaphysical abstraction, is its icy throne, from which it descends

incessantly to recommence its eternal evolution Thus is the woof of our destinies and of the universe woven under the hand of an inflexible logic more weird and wan than the ancient Fate; thus does the world revolve upon itself, rigidly bound within its own limits ; there is nothing beyond it, it is at once divine and circumscribed ; there is

not left one fissure, small or great, through which free action might pass athwart the dialectic network which shuts it in."

From the consideration of absolute idealism M. de Pressensd passes on to that of Positivism, which, by its rejection of metaphysics as a dangerous relic of theology, its elimination of all free and moral causes from its world theory, and its limitation of accessible truth to the sphere of scientific demonstration, may be called the apotheosis of sensationalism. In thus speaking of the philosophy of M. Comte, our author would not call upon us to ignore or depreciate the ethical elements of the Comtist creed. But recognizing these at their full value, he would say that they are witnesses of the indestructibility in the human soul of those very aspirations and necessities which the positive method forbids its disciples to admit into their system. Because if, as some friendly critics of Comte affirm, the Comtist principles are not inconsistent with a possible theology, positivism, instead of being a finality, becomes. merely provisional ; but if so, the claim of its founder to have inaugurated the culminating and crowning era of speculation must immediately be surrendered.

In a succession of able and eloquent passages,—devoted to the consideration of objections to the supernatural from the naturalistic point of view,—M. de Pressensd maintains these positions:— " The ascending order of nature, the laws of the logical understanding, the ' categorical imperative' of the conscience, and the perpetually insurgent cry of humanity in all ages and climes after a living Will, which is more or less forcibly felt to be at once the source of our own lives and sovereign amidst all the powers of the universe, supply an united phalanx of phenomena, which idealism or materialism may, indeed, ignore, but which neither of them can satisfactorily account for, much less explain away."

But from the theistic point of view, or, as we in England are accustomed to call it, the deistic, as well as from the naturalistic, exception is taken for the alleged interferences, in the shape of miracles, with the united sequences of external phenomena. And to these our author replies that the wisdom of the Creator, as revealed in the existing terrestrial laws, is nowise impeached by any of the New Testament narratives. The feeding of the five thousand, for instance, was no infraction of the ordinary laws of vegetable growth, and the stilling of the storm on on the Sea of Galilee could no more logically be designated a violation of law than the arrest of a falling body by the human hand is an infringement of the law of gravitation. We quite agree with M. do Pressensd while he thus writes, and not less has he our sympathy on his side when he further asserts that the end of the miraculous in Christianity—Christ Himself being the crowning miracle of all—was not to disturb order, but to remove the disorder which moral evil had introduced into the world of humanity. It occurs to us, however, to add a few words of commentary ere we leave this portion of our subject. And first it has long been our conviction that in using the term " supernatural," when writing or speaking of miracles, we have been guilty of the assumption that we really know what are the limits of the natural itself. But surely that assumption is quite preposterous. Every day we gain further acquaintance with the correlation of forces, but to say that a given set of phenomena imply the operation of forces wholly outside of the magazine of existing potences is utterly unpbilosophic. In the second place, we have to remark that, taking the Evangelists as our guide, the miracles of Christ should be regarded by us as signs of transcendent moral goodness. It is the glory of their Master's love, which shone into the hearts of the disciples from the wine at the Marriage Feast ; and the impression which the draught of fishes produced upon Peter was not, so to speak, physical at all. The miracle was felt to be the effluence of a holiness which burned in the fisherman like a consuming fire, and made him exclaim, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord."

Of course, we ourselves are fully persuaded that the mighty works which crowd the Evangelical narratives were proofs and illustrations in one of Christ's lordship over Nature, were signs that the kingdom of heaven—an order, that is, of beneficent law— is indeed among us ; but at the same time we hold not less tena ciously that the salient characteristic of them all was their spiri tual loveliness. The restoration of nervous power, to take a single instance, to the volition of the paralytic was the outward and visible sign of the might which is lodged in charity. 'rho material phenomenon was the necessary outcome of the moral force of forgiveness. In other words, the story tells us that there is no limit to the power of self-sacrificing love. But then it is not the eye only which sees, it is the man himself. And accordingly, with his usual profound intuition, St. John

records that the miracle of the loaves was no sign at all to the multitude. To them Christ was only a thaumaturge—might we say a mere magicianP—possessed of unprecedented sleight-of-hand. They could not "see" the miracle ; and, in like manner, to the Pharisaism which had suffered a parasitic ceremonialism to drain away all true inward life, no sign was given. For just as in nature, in art, or in the schools of philosophy, your vision is evermore the measure of your proper self, the measure of your indolence and self-conceit, or of your rigorous and lowly culture, so in the innermost sphere of our life, humility, and pain, and travail, and purity of heart are the indispensable conditions of insight. The New Testament is accordingly still a sealed book to us if its testimony be not this—that the meek in spirit recognized the gentleness of the divine will, drawing nigh to the inmost sanctuary of their lives in the humanity of the Son of God.

As a further preliminary to his narrative of the Lift of Christ, M. de Pressense furnishes us with a brief, but wonderfully lucid and comprehensive sketch of the religions of the world before the birth of Christ. In this brilliant survey he has made the results of previous inquiries entirely his own. At the same time, we cannot remember as we write any authority who at all rivals our author in his representation of the Asian, Greek, and Roman modes of thought in the pre-Christian era ; and as special attention has recently been called to the Talmud, we would recommend our readers to make themselves acquainted with Pressense's extracts from that curious compound of ethical aspiration and elaborate frivolity.

Advancing to the literature of the New Testament, as distinguishable from its contents, Presamuse discusses in succession all the questions pertaining to the genuineness and authenticity of the Four Gospels. He has something to say about each of the Evangelists which reveals remarkable industry, candour, and true critical acumen. But we have been specially impressed by his dissertation on the Gospel of St. John. He knows by heart all that has been urged against its genuineness by the Tubingen School, and the result of his patient inquiry has been the settled belief that in St. John's Gospel we have the testimony of an eyewitness to the facts recorded. He honestly admits that the statements of the three Synopties regarding the Passover night and the events connected with the resurrection of our Lord are traditionary and confused, while the record of St. John is clear and coherent, and bears the unmistakable signatures of authenticity.

To come to the close of this interesting volume, in which, be it said, the life of Christ is more dramatically unfolded than in any other work with which we are acquainted, M. de Presseuse gives us two singularly thoughtful discussions on the significance of Christ's death and of His resurrection.

In speaking of the former, he rises to a height of reverent eloquence which is wholly prophetic. And Mr. Maurice himself could not be more passionately anxious than our author is to proclaim that on the Cross there is no opposition between the mind of God and of Christ, no antagonism between the attributes of justice and mercy. He writes, for example, " There is nothing in Christ's sufferings resembling a direct curse from God resting on Himself. Jesus dies not as one of the lost ; all He experiences of hell is the diabolical hatred which nails Him to the tree." Again, he adds, "If this Holy Being, who represents the human race, suffers more than any of His brethren, it is precisely because of His holiness and

love Stephen could die joyful and triumphant ; the feeblest Christian may so die ; but Jesus could not, because infinite love, in conflict with infinite evil, could not escape unutterable anguish." All this,—and there is more to the same effect,—is conceived in the spirit of St. Paul, and admirably expressed ; and we should wholly acquiesce in all his affirmations, were it not that M. de Pressense still appears to believe that the death of the animal body of man is in itself the punishment of sin. Death is universal, is simply natural, is indeed the condition of all physical existence, and St. Paul in the Romans and Corinthians is careful to distinguish between the death which is natural and holy, and that which is spiritual and penal. But, saving this misreading of Nature and of Scripture, this French theologian has done great service to the furtherance of truth by his disquisition on the death of Christ, and his thesis will well bear to be read along with that of Mr. John Campbell on the Atonement.

As we intimated, M. de Pressense does battle in his concluding pages with the latest hypothesis touching the Resurrection of Christ—that of visions. In his argumentation he mainly reproduces the powerful rejoinders of Beyschlag, but to his own countrymen, as to ours, these would be generally unknown, and thus he has done well in translating them. To the visionary

hypothesis he opposes, first of all, the uncontested evidence of St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. In this epistle the apostle indicates very clearly the immense difference in kind and in moral value between a vision and an actual beholding with the bodily eyes. Of his visionary experience he makes very small account indeed ; and probably we should never have heard of it at all, if his sectarian detractors had not compelled him to publish an apologia in which,—to his own great pain, we cannot doubt,—he lifts the veil from the inner secrets of his history . Apparently there was a mystic element in his nature, an ecstatic capacity, which formed as it were a perpetual side door for him into the unseen. But his claims to the apostolate were not based on a foundation so shadowy as this strange facility of self-detachment from all sensible surroundings. They were founded on the fact that he had seen the Lord. And we should read his questions thus :—" Am I not an Apostle? have I not seen the Lord?" 1 Corinthians, ix., 1. That sight, accompanied as it was by the recognition of the sonship of humanity in Christ, revolutionized his whole life. It found him a relentless Jew, it left him a stricken penitent, and it ultimately transformed him into the lowliest, the most daring, the most self-sacrificing of missionaries, on whose heart every man had a claim. We have thus testimony to Christ's . Resurrection, which is older in data considerably than that of the Synoptic Gospels, and which, moreover, only becomes audible, so to speak, because of the medium of belief in the risen Saviour which existed in the young Christian societies.

In the second place, M. de Pressense maintains that the visionary hypothesis outrages the first principles of psychology. He urges that the repetition of the same delusion in many different minds is only conceivable in an atmosphere of heated and fanatical expectation of a certain event, whereas it is indisputable that despondency was deep and general in the ranks of the disciples. And yet we are asked to accept the astounding affirmation as sober history that from that upper chamber the doors of which were closed from fear of the Jews, in which was heard only the voice of sighs and lamentation, there burst forth the unanimous but baseless assurance of the greatest of miracles ! But they did believe, and their faith made them world-conquerors; it was faith, however, in a reality, and whether we contemplate the circumstances which preceded the first Easter Day, or the great events whiclt have followed it, it is not possible, certainly it is not rational, to admit any cause but the great fact of the Resurrection between the blank despair of the evening and the exultant joy of the morning. Only that fact can explain how the sheep that were so scattered and panicstrickeu through the smiting of the Shepherd on Good Friday were bold as lions on the Day of Pentecost.

But our space is exhausted, and with one extract from its pages we shall take leave of this first-class book and its admirable translation : —" The empty tomb of Christ has been the cradle of the Church, and if in this foundation of her faith the Church has been mistaken, she must needs lay herself down by the side of the mortal remains, I say, not of a man, but of a religion."