Hegelian premises, attempted to confirm the fanatical denial of the doctrine of immortality even by declarations of the New Testament; but it is not only a matter of astonishment, but of pity, when, besides this, believing and excellent men, as friends of the Hegelian philosophy, seek to maintain the above standpoint, in reference to the view of the world and the old doctrine of angels. In support of what has now been said, we present a passage found in Tholuck's Literarischer Anzeiger, (Nr. 66 Zahrg. 1836) which has evidently been written in the spirit of the Hegelian philosophy. The author there is reviewing the writings of WOLFGANG MENGEL, "Geist der Geschichte." The considerations with which he exposes this author, in reference to other matters, are excellent, written with clearness and judgment, and in consistency with divine truth. What is written, however, under the title, "Astronomical Problems," must more necessarily be opposed from Scripture ground, because the Bible itself is here made to speak falsely. The passage holds this language: "In this section the respected author treats of the connection of the earth with the sun, with the other planets, and with the whole starry world, although he himself, in his introduction, has called this connection an unsolved and unsolvable riddle. Why did he not remember that the reason of this may be, that no human want requires that this connection should be understood in the way in which he seeks to understand it. The Holy Scriptures, which satisfy the highest wants of men of this kind, give no clue to this and the reason certainly is because they presuppose the direct opposite of what the author conjectures. To the author that conception seems necessary, because he supposes that the rest of the planets are inhabited by human beings; the Holy Scriptures pass over this question entirely, because they go on the presupposition that the earth is the only orb inhabited by rational beings; for of the angels no one will contend that they are considered inhabitants of any particular planet. (Compare Schliermacher I§. 51 I. I A.) True, it is at present critical for a person to express himself on this point against the almost general opinion, and in accordance with the Holy Scrip

tures, but when it is remembered that the whole economy of salvation is built upon this presupposition, it will not be expected that we should suffer ourselves to be bribed or disheartened by the reasonings of our present philosophy, however pompous be its pretensions. (Com. e. g. Schliermacher, a. a. o.) According to the Old Testament, God created the sun, moon, and stars, that they should shine down upon the earth, and divide the time. It does not speak of any other use to which they were appointed. Why' do not men, in this respect, admire the (in other respects so deep) history of creation? Man he makes in his image; not a word is said of other beings in his image. There can be only one image of the archetype, for a second would be either, so to speak, a tautological repetition, or an imperfect and untrue image. Hence also God, in the rest of the Old Testament, sustains a relation only to man, and is represented as directing all his activities upon the human race. In the New Testament men are redeemed out of their alienation from God, by God becoming man, and here it is laid down as a truth that man can become one with God without surrendering his human being; for the unity of God and man in Christ Jesus is, viewed from the human side, an exaltation of man in God. (Com. Schliermacher I§. 20. I.) The union disturbed by sin was restored again in Christ, and thus the faded consciousness of it renewed for the rest of men, who through faith in Christ and the redemption of his spirit, were made capable in the same manner to become one with God; for in union with Christ they have union with God. Hence God finds himself again in the human spirit, which has broken through this separation, or disunion; in no other way can we represent to ourselves the relation of spirits, different from God, to God, than under the idea of fall and redemption; and in the fellowship of the redeemed, which constitutes the Christian Church, we necessarily conceive to ourselves that we find a perfect transcript of the Divine Spirit, since Christ lives in her, who was "the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person," (Heb. 1: 3.) We have, accordingly, no conception of finite spirits, spirits not redeemed by Christ,

and not belonging to the Christian Church as the true transcript of the Divine Spirit, which warrants us entirely to deny their existence, or to set them aside as not concerning our relation to God. A farther array of argument is not needed here. What has been said is only intended to show how little the author had a right to build his theory on a supposition which stands in opposition to the dogma of the incarnation of Christ."

In the first place, the author, in this passage, makes the Scripture "presuppose that the earth is the only planet inhabited by rational beings." The proof he borrows from Schliermacher's dogmatic; it is said, namely, that of the angels it cannot be affirmed that they are considered as inhabitants of any given planet. We do not see how Schliermacher can be warranted on this account, to represent the angels as intermediate beings between these worlds.

Had not Schliermacher, according to a well known exegesis, evaporated in a spiritualistic way the passage in Eph. 1: 20, 21, or Col. 1: 16, he would have been forced to admit the existence of principalities, powers, mights, and dominions, as inhabitants of the future and higher world. The conception of intermediate beings, floating in pure ether, without being at home in some department of corporeal existence, is rather a modern Jean Paulish dream, than a representation of Holy Writ. How can the healthy and holy sense of Scripture, as to the principle of order and form in which it reveals the whole spirit-world, in which e. g. it speaks of the third heaven, of the many mansions in the Father's house, of the heavens, and on the other hand, of the abodes of the dark spirits,— how can this grand view into the creation have any sympathy with this empty and hollow idea of intermediate etherial habitations. In the book of Job already, God appears to set the angels in a significant connection with the stars, when he says: "The morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy." And where does the Bible place the blessed who have left the world? In the intermediate ether? Of this it knows nothing; but it does know of a heaven, from

which Moses and Elias descended, and to which the Saviour went in his ascension. Hence, we see that the Scriptures presuppose something quite different from the idea that the earth is the only inhabited world. In nothing has the Bible spoken mistakingly, so that the new astronomy can call to her, si tacuisses, et cet.! Its intimations are adequate to the richest and deepest longings that will be found in either present or future science, in reference to the infinite population of the "many mansions" in our Father's house. A transient philosophy may have some interest at stake which will induce it to deny the existence of a flourishing population inhabiting the upper regions, but the Bible has none. The glory of the human spirit which comes thus to an apprehension of itself, and through this to its own deification, may have a shadow cast over its own pride at the thought of armies of spirits dwelling in all the starry spheres, choiring in those holy halls in the city of God above; but in this way the glory of Christ, as the first born among many creatures, who has raised a lost world out of an abyss of ruin through infinite humiliation and faithfulness in suffering, is not advanced; neither does it exalt in our minds the prerogatives of those who are come up through great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. We freely concede that the Holy Scriptures do not point out the heavenly habitations of which they speak as being stars or orbs in an astronomical sense or conception. If they did this, they would have transcended the bounds of the religious development of the truth. According to their representations, however, of the multiplicity of angelic natures, and their description of the order of the heavens, according to which, there is a first, second and third heaven, we are allowed to make deductions which lead us to the belief that many worlds compose the heavenly regions. When we see that in the Revelations of John, the Church is spoken of as a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, we may consider it doubtful whether such a bright part of the universe would be spoken of as a part of this exalted woman's

costume, without intending that the passage should contain some mysterious dogmatical meaning.

If, then, we must refuse to accept the dubious praise bestowed upon the Bible by the assertion that it presupposes the earth to be the only inhabited planet, we must reject with still firmer decision the following idea that the whole system of salvation is built upon this presupposition. The system of salvation is built neither on geological nor on astronomical views of any kind, and least of all, upon such contracted and suspicious presuppositions. It may be that the modern Pagoda, in which the human spirit, as the only and highest world-spirit, is glorified, can find room enough upon the small plain of earth; but the Church needs, for her development, a wider and freer range of space, and another and a firmer basis than is afforded by such mystical presuppositions. The system of salvation, then, as regards its foundation, has nothing to do with different astronomical views of the universe; but as to its development it needs a considerable platform-a heaven for the angels, a higher heaven for the Lord himself, a Hades for the unredeemed spirits, and a deeper hell for the devils and the damned. If even in the history of the creation, as recorded in the Old Testament, nothing is said of a farther object in the creation of the sun and moon, than to shine on the earth and divide the season, it is not in this denied in the least that they may have a farther design, as the author seems also disposed to allow. For he says farther: "Man, God made in his own image; nothing is said of other beings having been made in the image of God. There can be only one image of the archetype, for a second would be, so to speak, a tautological repetition, or an imperfect or untrue image. Hence, also, in the rest of the Old Testament, God stands related to man alone, and is represented as directing all His activities towards the human race." The same mode of reasoning which the author employs against the plurality of spiritual beings, we could employ against the plurality of human beings. If man exists from his origin as an image of God, why, we may ask, do we see the tautological repetition of this image in countless