dom of spirit in institutions. The very faculty of knowledge which accomplishes the results of scientific history implies, further, an eternal self-consciousness, eternally self-realized, and yet eternally realizing itself in temporal conditions. Nothing exists rationally except for self-consciousness, and all things only for an eternal Self-Consciousness. The theory of knowledge, then, is ultimate for man in his study and his estimation of all that is. The knowledge of all temporal conditions can never itself be a part or product of these conditions, as they are only objects of this knowledge. It is to this spiritual principle, then, to which we must refer for parentage, all the institutions, usages, social codes, and aspirations, through which man has become so far rationalized. The real at any time and place is the relatively rational for that time and place, but the end is not yet. The Mosaic economy for the Jews was one phase of this rationality. That of the Roman law was another phase, even for Christians. Even when Nero was its minister, St. Paul could tell Christians, "There is no power but of God," and "he is the minister of God to thee for good." But this is far from identifying the actual at any time with the rational, the good. The concrete principle forbids the glorification of any status quo, and compels historical perspective. It sees only a series of increasingly adequate manifestations and vehicles of the true spirit of man. The highest form to-day is given for us in all distinctively Christian institutions. Other objective forms of rationality are not now the φύσις of man. Other spirit of rationality can never be for man, however much its outward forms may change, as man is educated "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ"—the eternal Reason, the goal and the starting-point of man's true history. This is the bedrock, the bottom, the immanent formative and life-sustaining power in all the current phases of educative authority. Limits of space absolutely preclude any illustrative application of this ultimate bottom of all authority to current forms of social, civil, and religious authorities.
SEABURY DIVINITY SCHOOL,
Faribault, Minn.
