erpretation
of the Divine law, he does it on his own responsibility. With this view
tolerance and love, as well as progressive science, are possible; all
others lead to stiffness and intolerance, and such was the result then
on all sides. Or is it perchance an evangelical spirit, which breathes
in Calvin's article: "That the heretic should be punished with death,"
and in the funeral pile of Servetus? Were the rack-chambers of Queen
Elizabeth[8] much more Christian than the dragonades of Louis XIV., and
did Ireland live more happily under the yoke of a High Church forced
upon her, than Spain under the Inquisition? Were the persecutions begun
at the Synod of Dort, justified by the anathemas, with which the
Council of Trent disgraced itself?

All have erred. Instead of kindling new passions, the call of our age
goes forth, to unite rather in a common acknowledgment of sin. This is
the confession in which all can again find themselves; but the Gospel
is the light that shows the way to reconciliation. What is there yet to
hinder it? Two enemies, and in two verses a spirited poet (Goethe) has
thus portrayed them:

Thou must reign through victory,
Or a servant kneel and lose,
Suffering or triumph choose,
Th' anvil or the hammer be.

This is the one; the principle of the absolutist, in a spiritual or
worldly mantle; and the other, the principle of the demagogue in the
Jacobin's cap, as well as in the Jesuit's garb, forms the counter-part:

'Tis foolish to wait for improvement in fools;
Ye children of prudence, make them your tools.

Of such wisdom the Gospel knows nothing; it demands fraternal
assistance and love, and does not permit rank without humility,
requiring from those, who stand in the highest places, subordination
under God. Perhaps (for who can fathom the ways of Providence?) the
adherents of the above-named principles will yet again reach out the
hand of friendship to each other. Then will begin the last, severest
battle; but the Gospel must triumph, for the Church of Christ, under
her _one_, _Divine_ Head, perpetually revealing himself in history and
the power of love, is founded upon a rock; then also will all _human_
order be custom refined by science and ennobled by art and nature, a
unity in substance, with endless diversity in form--the adversary of
all revolutions.

FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER SEVENTH:

Footnote 1: Which, according to the Gospel