rit of his
christological works, that although he is willing to use criticism to the
utmost, he has so thoroughly and strikingly shown the impossibility of
explaining the appearance of Jesus after his death differently from the
real manifestations of his still living person. It is well that Strauss, in
his "The Old Faith and the New," declares the history of the resurrection
of Jesus a _historical humbug_; for it may open the eyes of many, if the
tendency, of which Strauss is leader, is no longer able to explain
Christianity--the noblest, purest, and most successful religion which has
come into existence in the whole history of mankind--otherwise than by
calling it a humbug. With him who is pleased with this manner of explaining
the most perfect blossom and fruit of {338} the tree of mankind, we
certainly can find no common ground of mutual understanding.

We have been led to all these discussions, by looking for something actual
which should be able to throw its light back upon the earliest primitive
history of mankind--a history which can no longer be historically
investigated. We have found this reality in the resurrection of Jesus; and
the light which it throws upon the primitive history of man, we have
perceived in the conclusion to which it leads us: that man, if he had taken
a sinless development, would also have been exempt from death.

The resurrection of Jesus throws its light upon still another side of the
Biblical doctrine of the primitive condition of man: namely, upon that
which is the religious quintessence of the Biblical doctrine of _Paradise_.
As now the resurrection of the Lord is the beginning and the prophecy of a
new creation on the basis of the old, and as we now hope, with St. Paul,
that this beginning shall manifest its comprehensive cosmic effects, when
the Lord shall manifest them in the resurrection of the "children of God:"
so, in case of a sinless development of man, the beginning of this new and
glorified stage of creation would certainly have been perceptible at the
beginning of the history of mankind and in the relation of man to his
earthly surroundings. But we are of course not permitted to make or to
pursue such a suggestion at present, since a sinful development of mankind,
with its consequences, actually took place.

We have no reason to enter into the discussion of another often and much
debated question, which is connected with the primitive history of man;
namely, {339} _whether