did not really die but suffered a fainting
fit. Bahrdt conjectured that he retreated after his supposed death to
some place known only to his disciples. According to Henke, Christ was a
remarkable teacher, distinguished and instructed by God. Inspiration was
what Cicero ascribes to the poets; the doctrine of the Trinity came from
Platonism; the name "Son of God" is metaphorical, and describes not the
nature but the qualities of Christ; and personality is ascribed to the
Holy Ghost through a prosopopoeia not uncommon in the New Testament.
The chief service of Christ was his doctrine. As a Divine Messenger it
was his business to bring forward new and pure religion adapted to the
wants of all mankind, and to give an example of it. His death was
necessary to prove his confidence in his own doctrines, and to present
an illustration of perfected virtue. Wegscheider took the position that
Christ was one of those characters raised up by God at various periods
of history to repress vice and encourage virtue. All notions of his
glorification, however, are groundless, and the atonement is a mere
speculation of the orthodox.

One of the most popular and direct of all the writers on the opinions of
the Rationalists was Roehr, the author of the _Briefe ueber den
Rationalismus_. He dwells at length upon nearly all the opinions we have
mentioned, but his portrait of Christ demands more than a passing
notice. He assumes a position, not very lofty, it is true, but yet much
more favorable than some of the authorities to which we have referred.
Christ had a great mission, and he felt that a heavy burden was upon
him. Still he was only a great genius, the blossom of his age and
generation, and unsurpassed in wisdom by any one before or after him.
His origin, culture, deeds and experience, are yet veiled, and the
accounts we have of him are so distorted by rhapsody that we cannot
reach a clear conception of him. He had a rare acquaintance with
mankind, and studied the Old Testament carefully. He possessed a large
measure of tact, imagination, judgment, wisdom, and power. His wisdom
was the product of unbiased reason, a sound heart, and freedom from
scholastic prejudices. He knew how to seize upon the best means for the
attainment of his human purposes. He embraced in his plan a universal
religion, and to this he made all things minister. All his doctrines
were borrowed from the Old Testament; and the most admirable can be
found as far back