have from them
all that is extraordinary in his history. Christ meant in Matt. xi. 27,
that he had received his knowledge from God. He did not refer to his own
essence. Literal interpretation of Scripture does not bring us to a
knowledge of Christ. His humanity, being all that is valuable in his
character, contains the mystery that belongs more or less to every
individual. His commission from God does not differ from that of other
men. That which distinguishes him from his species was his knowledge of
humanity and of the future. He had not omniscience, nor infallibility;
nothing but superior knowledge. He had his gross defects; for example,
his belief in the power of evil spirits. Yet Christ was not a real
sinner, and he represented and realized progress without any arrest.
Thus he is the ideal and model of humanity.

That which distinguishes Coquerel's views from Socinianism is his
Christology. Contending for the moral purity of Christ, he holds that he
was the second Adam. But Christ was not the Son of God. He was so
denominated just as we term a hero the Son of Mars. We must look at the
Scriptures in the light of reason; then we shall behold the fabulous
element. Many parts differ in quality, while some are not authentic. The
Second Epistle of Peter, for example, was neither written by that
apostle nor was it a product of his age. But authority does not rest in
the letter, or in the leaves of Scripture. The divine spirit acts in the
soul freely and independently of the letter. It is high time that we
renounce the puerile, disrespectful, and contradictory worship of the
letter. The letter killeth.

The French Critical School numbers among its adherents many young and
talented theologians, some of whom are already distinguished for
profound learning and literary activity. But the history of Skepticism
discloses the fact that religious error has always attracted the young
to its embrace. One half of the triumphs of infidelity are attributable
to the flattering promises which it makes to those who have not lived
long enough to know that infidelity is nothing but a colossal structure
of egotism. The deluding voice says to the young man, "You live in a
progressive age, and why are you not progressive yourself? Your fathers
believed the old Confessions, imagined Christ to be divine, and the
Scriptures inspired. We do not blame them much, for they knew no better.
But, if you follow in their footsteps, the world will never