eccable, yet tempted. The
pure and real humanity of Christ is the basis of the system, and the
system may be summed up in these words: The Son of Man is the Son of
God. Man is justified by faith, not as the old orthodoxy taught, that
is, because he believes that satisfaction was given to God in his place
and on his behalf, but because he has confidence in the eternal love of
God, and in his own destination for good, as evidenced by Christ in his
life and in his death.

"The eternity of future sufferings gives place to an idea more in
conformity with sound philosophy, and the revelation of infinite love,
according to which, pain resulting from sin, can have for its object
only the amelioration of the sinner, and special stress is laid on the
spiritual truth that heaven and hell are much less different places than
different states of the soul. The inspiration of the Scriptures, that
dogma the truth of which consisted in the scriptural value of the
Biblical books, as giving a sure basis for faith, as supplying aliment
to piety, and elevating the heart, more and more loses its miraculous
character to approach analogous phenomena drawn from religions in
general, or from other fields where the mind of man reveals itself as
inspired. The change of views, however, does not take from the Bible its
character as a truly divine book; still does it remain in religion the
Book of Books."[104]

It is unsafe to adduce the testimony of any member of this school as an
absolute standard of the theological position of all the rest. There is
a wide diversity of opinion among them, as any one will perceive who has
attempted the comparison. But after examining the individual opinions of
some of these men, it will not be difficult to form a correct judgment
of their intellectual position as a whole.

One of the most laborious of the number is Edmond Scherer, formerly
Professor of Theology in the University of Geneva. His first point of
departure from orthodoxy was on the inspiration and authority of the
Bible. He became absorbed in German Rationalistic criticism, and adopted
its leading principles. His skeptical views caused such offense that he
was led to resign his position, when he soon commenced the publication
of his views in the new _Revue de Theologie_ at Strasburg. He has
subsequently kept aloof from all participation in the State Church and
confined himself mostly to writing essays. Some of them have recently
been collected into a