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April 14,1860.] The Leader and Saturday ...
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In order to estimate theeffects of this ...
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'• GEOKGE ELIOT'S NEW HOMAl^TCE. rpHE re...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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April 14,1860.] The Leader And Saturday ...
April 14 , 1860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 355
In Order To Estimate Theeffects Of This ...
In order to estimate theeffects of this elaborate and self-consistent plan of the Hebrew polity-upon the faith and works of the modern Christians who enterLn it / let ^ contrast , for the saWf jn t ^ cal foil , the : counter and more Hberal view O ^^ a « a ^ kndmg , « Broad Church" believers of all ages and lands . For we could cite . patristic and medieval theologians , and ^ Protestant l" ^ he rj of all days up to our own , who hold it . It is happily given , in a lay and practical way , by the clear-seeing Goethe : — m _¦ .. < .. P <^ The Jewish nation I regard as a wild unfruitful stetn . ^ hicU was surrounded by other wild , unfruitful trees . On tins , stem the Eternal gardener grafted the noble branch , Jesus Clirrst J *« t by growing therefrom , it might ennoble the mature of the stem itself and that grafts might be taken from it to fertilize all the other frees . The history and doctrines of this nation w certainly exclusive ¦ ¦ and the very little of a universal character which may possibly be found in the anticipations of the grand event to occur m the future , is diffieuLt to find , and hardly worth the seeking . The latter view admits the essential basis of the former , and logically allows the inspired revelation by the Almighty of Himself to the Jews . It escapes the dilemma which the Kurtz class of theologians cannot possibly avoid , of elevatingJud ^ sm m to a jmtion ofmtrinsic worth , while they preach and believe that Christianity which , in all details of inner motive and outward ^ etlucal act , is the diametrical opposite and plain reprover of that Ji « daism which spurned the Christ for whose reception , according to the prolebsoi s theory , long ages and intricate plans prepared them . . The prea ^ cliTng of Old Testament Scripture as verbally authoritativein the same sense as the New , is an error whose ultimate evil influences on legislation , social regulations , and practical liberty , it is impossible to over-estimate . There was one ^ tune m ^ ng hsh . history , when the Old Testament was , reverenced with ail judom , lai-gelv ' in excess of regard for the benign and truly hberal teachnigs of Christ . For a fevv ^ yearsy practical Judaism ruled m England . Tli ^ Puritans , when dominant , ; wielded , forma te and social purposes the terrors of Sinai , not the kindly and liberty-loving P ™ ecp ts preached on the Mount . To hold the one is necessarily to disregard the other . Judaism and Clrristiamty are mutually exclusive , reciprocallv contradictory . It is ; with an ^ most pang that we cUe the errors of heroic and earnest men , to whom we owe so much of what we have and are to-day , in illustration of the ^ consideration ^ we me endeavouring to enforce . But there can be nolh . ng more instuetn . e —it has a special instructiveness , entirely its own . indeed—than to designate the ' errors-of the pure and earnest souled . And *' fcrf * our compunctions when we remember that in our own day a elu } ne strong . weldcd , trained to a unity of action which atones foi the really sliglit hold it has upon th < 3 thinking and therefore ruing menamoWt us , entertains ia its heart | the very . spirit of ^ t e extreme errors of the Puritans . The Puritans were unaffected by the great ' < Law of Liberty , " which , had bui their eyes been able to see it , the Saviour and his noblest servant Paul , preached 111 clearer and more impressive tones , than ever did Milton or Locke The historic mitigation of their excess cannot be urged in pal uition o the socially despotic dogmatists , who marshal at their back a mass of nnthinMhtr sectaries , standing , not on their Bible as gospel , but upon a Talmud of their own making-the Judaic > system made part and parcel of a sublime Christianity , which is its very antithesis , . and which abhors its every restriction . It is no difficult tusk to prove that actual facts most thoroughly disprove the Kurtz and philo-Judaic theory . Zealots who set about justifying all the ways of God to man , and explain the humanly . inexplicable i . iconsbtenciesof a traditionary Divine dispensation ,. have to answer for , the existence of a special aggrQss . ve scepticism which they and they only , provoke . For the doubts of the assa . an . ts are e -enderea by their theoretic systems founded on the Book-, not on te Book in its own teachings . Sir William Hamilton used frequently to quote a pithy saw , uttered by some one , abput the use made by dogmatists of the Bible : — - " This is the Boole where each his dogma seeks , ^ This J 8 the Bpolc where each his dogma tinas . The French churchman in the fable , looking through a telescope at a celcYtial luminary ,, saw distinctly the two spires of a cathedral . lU you ^ lady , looking through the same instrument nt the sajno ulnnot saw in the priest ' s architectural chirk ¦ hues a couple oMover * Eo win - io ono another . And we arc about n » hopeless of dinabusin ~ my Kurtaitaof liis liking for the theory . as we aro-of oonvinwnjj 1 m of its practical evil effect . Lot the attempt , at all events be ado How " Heathenism and J-u 4 nism " could « meet m Ohrwtia-! Uy " wo cannot conceive , except in a bald chronological flense-, valVeless as u ntop in the professor ' * chain . Ah plain rooii , it seot » i 8 to us that Christianity overthrow both , because it was opposed to both equally radically , opposed to a national monopolyof monotheism , opposed to the Catholic and lutitudinarum pJ » Bnnwm oflto . no , which loft to each conquest its own gods , woralnp , « nd rites j on osod to a L ' ovitieul sacerdotal offlw , as to Dohihio oracles and the x os of A ) roclv » ian and Vo-t . il adoration . That CHm-tmmty wo » Kivun to tho world at the ti . no the world was , «» eternal conditions , tost proiSurod to wive it , us BiPh «» p Portoua , tor oxmnplo , has SHlHft ^^ BF & s ^ l ^ ' ^^ ' ^ ^^ P ^ Oreok liter * turo lad the two-fold key to open on inlut to tho mmto of aH Ii It . sonse , ¦ us liolil by divines who do not thoowzo with Gonuan pro Sor « and puny nineteenth-century Puritan * , wo do
I believe that the existing state of the ' heathen world , and the national unity still remaining to the Hebrew , along-with the gr ^ ow . hS esteem of many for a monotheistic faith favoured the growth of Christianity ; and that-they demonstrate the Divme Providence m choosing the time chosen for its advent . But this is mightily different from saying that " heathenism wasto prepare mankind tor salvation , Judaism salvation for mankind / ' . . ., Bating- the theory or skeleton on which the book is hung-, and the entire absence of literary workmanship , and the slenderest evidence that the heart of a man beat behind the pen of the writer , the work is an acquisition to the clergyman ' s library at least . For : on f all i matters of criticism—the route of the Israelites through the desert , the regions of their halting places , the miraculous gifts of manna and quails ; and such details--there is evinced the most patient research , and the ripest acquaintance with every -cross-light of informationthe observations of travellers , as well as the conclusions of commeni tators . When the author escapes from the shackles of his tlieorj , he proves himself in argument and the whole polemics of exegesis , Warv and inductive . He produces a conviction nv the reader s ! 3 ' of his candour and desire to know the truth , he ooks carefu " v to the links of his chain ; and , except , perhaps , in the case of SemSadoBrwhioh he persists in explaining while be ^^ ! fheir unimpaired miraculous chai-acter , he ^^^^ tthS we I his eoneluiions . The same smal ness of view as * J »\™ JJ ^ 5 f i have last alluded , affects the work of Stier on ' ^ The Words of the Sn Saviour . " He dins into his readers the bodily presence of Cnriit S Peter , Paul , and John in their respective traces Jhg because according to him , the miraculousness and difficulty of t ^ e SJ ve thereby enhanced . This upward and spasmodic ? 5 SSSrin i of the omnipotence of the Deity to us produces only 1 « fi £ S Slaving aside , the very tenable ground that every natural : Sienomenon is equally miraculous and awe-inspiring . in this , at all V ? vente we rest ¦ The communion of their Lord with the souls of his 1 Stus ^ , ™ jus \ as miraculous , certain ^ infimtgly more subi lhne and nspiring , than the bodily presence which Pastor Stier a orlhodox -eyJfriiafe ' out to be the essence of the wonder .
'• Geokge Eliot's New Homal^Tce. Rphe Re...
'• GEOKGE ELIOT'S NEW HOMAl ^ TCE . rpHE reputntion already achieved by the authoress of ^ J » ^ J 1 entitles her present work to more than ordinary attention on ¦ ^ 2 & 1 ^\^^ $ te ^ novel . The Mill on tie r Floss Sandlno- " pOrra less exalted pedestal , claims ^ be considered * Tpii % Sv ^ cS ? and semi-educational light , Pei-haps , for this ' S msstmm ' ¦ Scil i ^ StV of the work n ow under consideration is the deep know-S SEBSSSSSSi . SzksX ^^^^ ss ^ ¦ mmsm mmmmm mmsmm wmmmm &
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1860, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14041860/page/15/
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