that—in fact the measure of the thing was full, and a French Revolution had to end it."
Were not observers of the times justified in thinking that the judgment-day of the Church was at hand?[1] Was not her sun in heaven darkened? Did not her moon, faith in the sun, fail to give its light? Were not her stars, knowledges of Divine truth,[2] all falling from their place? Could her authority and power for good fall lower? Could greater abuses possess her citadels, sins more needing condemnation? Was not her measure full? Had not Bengel reason to think that God's "mighty judgments" were about to come?
Let us suppose that Bengel has slept these hundred and thirty years, and now we awake him. We take him on the Sabbath-day to all the churches in the land. Everywhere, in church and Sabbath-school, he hears his beloved Gospel read with reverence and charity, and the Commandments taught, with the grace of our Lord Jesus. Of predestination, of the damnation of infants and the heathen, he happily hears not a word. Take him on the week-day through the public schools, to the charitable institutions, to the Bible societies, where he may see the Gospel in a hundred and fifty languages, ready to be sent from pole to pole, from sun to sun. Take him to his own home in Germany, and let him meet the British Bible-Society agent on his mission there. Let him go into the old theological halls and hear the doctors reverently carrying on the exegetical study that he himself introduced; patiently and laboriously discovering in all the Scriptures the things concerning their Lord;[3] discarding with care such teachings of the later Church as he condemned; with all their might reconciling philosophy with Christianity;[4] earnestly seeking to bring to view the Personal Christ as the
- ↑ Kürtz, referring to the remarkable number of mystical pietists in the first half of the 18th century, says: "The utterances which took place in an ecstatic state were exhortations to repentance, to prayer, to imitation of Christ, revelations of the Divine will in regard to the affairs of society, and announcement of the approaching judgment of God over the degenerate world and Church."
- ↑ Swedenborg.
- ↑ Appendix III.
- ↑ Appendix IV.
