other main distinction cooperates with them,
since the question arises, what share the reason, and what the feelings,
can and should have in such convictions." See, also, what immediately
follows.

2. The origin of a series of the most important Christian customs and
ideas is involved in an obscurity which in all probability will never be
cleared up. Though one part of those ideas may be pointed out in the
epistles of Paul, yet the question must frequently remain unanswered,
whether he found them in existence or formed them independently, and
accordingly the other question, whether they are exclusively indebted to
the activity of Paul for their spread and naturalisation in Christendom.
What was the original conception of baptism? Did Paul develop
independently his own conception? What significance had it in the
following period? When and where did baptism in the name of the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit arise, and how did it make its way in Christendom?
In what way were views about the saving value of Christ's death
developed alongside of Paul's system? When and how did belief in the
birth of Jesus from a Virgin gain acceptance in Christendom? Who first
distinguished Christendom, as [Greek: ekklesia tou theou], from Judaism,
and how did the concept [Greek: ekklesia] become current? How old is the
triad: Apostles, Prophets and Teachers? When were Baptism and the Lord's
Supper grouped together? How old are our first three Gospels? To all
these questions and many more of equal importance there is no sure
answer. But the greatest problem is presented by Christology, not indeed
in its particular features doctrinally expressed, these almost
everywhere may be explained historically, but in its deepest roots as it
was preached by Paul as the principle of a new life (2 Cor. V. 17), and
as it was to many besides him the expression of a personal union with
the exalted Christ (Rev. II. 3). But this problem exists only for the
historian who considers things only from the outside, or seeks for
objective proofs. Behind and in the Gospel stands the Person of Jesus
Christ who mastered men's hearts, and constrained them to yield
themselves to him as his own, and in whom they found their God. Theology
attempted to describe in very uncertain and feeble outline what the mind
and heart had grasped. Yet it testifies of a new life which, like all
higher life, was kindled by a Person, and could only be maintained by
connection with that Person. "