he was indebted to both nature and to grace. The family which bore him was of a noble stock, consisting largely of clerics and savants. His two brothers were men of note. His four sisters were consorts of clergymen, (one of them the efficient helper of Rudolf Stier.) And his sons after him have risen to high posts. His own youth was extraordinarily gifted. In the harmony and beauty of his physique he was highly favored, and in the affectionately-domestic, pious, and cultured atmosphere that surrounded his childhood and youth, more highly still. Under the warming influence of such a churchly and erudite sunshine, what wonder that grace took early and deep root, and that the evangelical spirit soon became so immanent in him as almost entirely to metamorphose his natural nature and to render his Christian life an easy, harmonious, and deepening and widening flow, proof against common outer temptations, and almost free from inner conflict! "God has given me few passions," said he once upon an occasion of general excitement. It was not, however, mere nature, but the chastening discipline of the Spirit that enabled him to stand rock-firm, but at the same time peace-counseling and peace-bringing, amid the wildest surgings of popular commotion. "His rich erudition," says Beyschlag," and his eagle-sweep of mind, awoke, indeed, general astonishment; but that which made his students and friends look up to him with reverence was the ethico-religious consecration that was poured out over this greatness, the consciously-felt unity in him of doctrine and life."

Nitzsch's works are available only for Germans. They are worse even than Rothe's in their Heraclitic untranslatableness. Some of them have, indeed, been printed in English; but as a German scholar once remarked to the writer, their contents have not been molded, but only "over-set," into English. It is only by the process of free reproduction that Nitzsch can and does affect the Anglo-Saxon Church-life. In Germany, however, he will for a long while to come stand high as a vigorous Christian thinker, and even higher still as a model of a beautifully rich Christian life.

Dr. Beyschlag applies to him the petition which Nitzsch himself once wrote in an album: Domine, da nobis ALTERUM Lutherum. May not English Christians also join in the prayer?

ART. IV.-NATURE OF A CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT.

THE relative importance which any Church attaches to the Sacraments determines its own position in reference to the fundamental truths of religion. As the outward and visible rites through which the Church externalizes its inner life, in the reasons for, and modes of, using them, not only do the tenets which separate the Christian worlds into distinct organizations come to light, but "the opinions we form of them are sure to mingle, insensibly perhaps to ourselves, with our views of every part of practical religion." *

And this of necessity; for the sentiments we entertain of the Sacraments depend upon, and are determined by, our Theory of the Church.† "High" views of the Church and of the Sacraments are ever found in close correspondence with each other, and the same is true of "Low" views; for both the one and the other flow necessarily and immediately out of the conceptions we form of the Triune Godhead, whose nature and relations to us it is the office of the Church to unfold, and of whose working in time the history of the Church is the record.

Mr. Watson, in his Theological Institutes,+ maintains the essential peculiarity of the Sacraments to be that they are "federal acts," and says that there are three leading views of their nature, namely, the Popish, the Socinian, and that of the Churches of the Reformation. How far this is a proper definition of their characters will be matter of inquiry; but assuming it, it may be seriously questioned whether the division based on it is correct. For, setting aside the propriety of putting the Socinians as representatives of those who hold to the commemorative character of them, on the ground of their being federal acts, that is, covenant rites in which two parties give and take, man assuming the obligations, and God conveying the blessings, of the Covenant, there does not appear dis

* Keble, "Preface to Hooker's Works," p. xliii.

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Nevin, The Mystical Presence." Preface: "The entire question of the Church centers ultimately in the sacramental question as its heart and core." Vol. ii, pp. 607, 608.

crepancy between this and the Romish view of them sufficient to constitute a generic difference.

It is more correct, however, both in fact and logic, to say that there are, and can be, of the nature of a Sacrament, but two leading theories. For when we pass beyond the mere verbiage of the formula in which the whole Christian world agrees, that Sacraments are outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace, radical and irreconcilable division begins at once upon the attempt to determine whether the signs precede the grace, or grace the signs. Differences there are as to the things comprehended under the terms "signs" and "grace," and these constitute denominational peculiarities; but two great systems of thought, embracing in their wide sweep the entire circle of Christian life and discipline, and standing in broad and complete contrast to each other, result from the holding by one or the other of these alternative views. And observation of the state of the Christian world confirms this; for all distinctions between separate denominations are small compared with those which divide the Church of Christ into two distinct groups, two hostile camps, so to speak—the sacerdotal or hierarchical, and the evangelical; and the bond of alliance between the members of each group respectively is the opinion entertained of the nature of the Sacraments.

The two theories may be drawn out as follows: One is that Sacraments are instruments, and vehicles, which convey or confer peculiar and special grace. The other is that they are signs and tokens, to commemorate something previously existing.

In the one theory, they are means efficacious to a designed and specific end, that end being a spiritual condition, which must of necessity be subsequent to, and consequent upon, the use of them. In the other, they are simply declaratory of an existing fact which is testified to by them, and which, consequently, precedes them.*

The former of these theories is advocated, with variations

* Avia media was sought by Calvin and some of the Anglican reformers between these opposing theories, and has been attempted by many since. When its mystical and obscure terms are clearly defined it will be found to resolve itself into one or the other of the above. On the question of the Sacraments, Calvin was a High Churchman. See Dorner, "History Protestant Theology," vol. i, p. 405. FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXV.—38

upon subordinate points, by the Church of Rome, the Lutheran Church, and the Church of England, and constitutes the Sacramentarian or High-Church System. The latter is, with like modifications, the creed of Evangelical Christendom. The Greek Church coincides with the former, but need not now be more particularly noticed.

We purpose stating the Sacramentarian theory in the language of its advocates, and then examining and confuting the fundamental principle on which it rests, before presenting and establishing our own.

I. The CHURCH OF ROME holds, as is well known, the most extreme views upon this question. Without equivocation, she distinctly declares the Sacraments to be the exclusive channels of divine grace, the only means by which spiritual life is begun, sustained, and completed, only to be administered by a lawful priest, and only to be approached through an awful and imposing ritual. Thus, the Council of Florence, held in 1442, decreed as follows: "The Sacraments of the new law contain grace, and confer it on those who worthily receive them."

The Council of Trent (1547) decreed in its Canons :

Canon 4. Whoever shall affirm that the Sacraments of the new law are not necessary to salvation, or that men may obtain the grace of justification by faith only, without these Sacraments: let him be accursed.

Canon 6. Whoever shall affirm that the Sacraments of the new law do not contain the grace which they signify, or that they do not confer that grace on those who place no obstacle in its way: let him be accursed.

Canon 7. Whoever shall affirm that grace is not always given by these Sacraments, and upon all persons, as far as God is concerned, if they be rightly received: let him be accursed.

Canon 8. Whoever shall affirm that grace is not conferred by the Sacraments of the new law, by their own power, (ex opere operato :) let him be accursed.

The catechism of the Council of Trent defines a Sacrament as follows: "A Sacrament is a thing subject to the senses, and possessing, by divine institution, at once the power of signifying sanctity and justice, and of imparting both to the receiver." +

* Elliott on Romanism, vol. i, pp. 172, 173, 175.

+ See Moehler, "Symbolism," vol. i, p. 286. Second edition, London. "Man, as a being belonging to the world of sense, stands in need of a sensible type to obtain and preserve the consciousness of what passes in his supersensual part."

The sentiments of the LUTHERAN CHURCH are expressed by Knapp, "Christian Theology," p. 481:

By the word Sacraments is understood, in the Lutheran Church, those religious rites and ceremonies which God himself has instituted in the Holy Scriptures, by which certain spiritual blessings are represented and actually communicated. Their essential characteristics are: (a) external religious acts, (b) positively instituted (c) by God himself, (d) not only exhibit or represent to the senses spiritual blessings; but actually communicate them.*

And in like manner Bishop Martensen : †

The sacred tokens of the new covenant contain also an actual communication of the being and life of the risen Christ. . . . In the Sacraments the deepest mystery rests in the truth that in them Christ communicates himself not only spiritually but in his glorified corporeity. . . . The new covenant must once for all be established in man, and must from time to time be renewed, [that is, by the Sacraments.] We cannot maintain the full reality and distinctiveness of the Sacraments, unless, with Luther, we recognize therein not only a spiritual mystery, but a mystery of nature likewise.

The CHURCH OF ENGLAND (and what is true of her is also of the Protestant Episcopal Church of this land) holds together in her communion two distinct parties, one of which symbolizes as to the nature of the Sacraments with the Reformed Churches, while the others, which shows stronger affiliations with Rome and maintains the High Sacramentarian theory, is more properly representative of the Church. For though dif fering greatly from Rome as to the importance to be attached to the material elements of the Sacraments, (opus operatum,) she no less strenuously asserts their efficaciousness.

The Romanists pretend that to Sacraments we ascribe no efficacy, but make them bare signs of instruction or admonition; which is utterly false. For Sacraments with us are signs effectual; they are instruments of God, whereby to bestow grace;

* Cf. Dorner, "History Protestant Theology," vol. i, p. 306 et seq.; Shedd, "History Christian Doctrines,” ii, 451; McClintock and Strong, Art. “Augsburgh Confession," ii, 5, 10; Browne, "Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles," p. 602. "Christian Dogmatics," pp. 418, 419, 421.

As to the Reformed Church in distinction from the Lutheran, and especially the teaching of Calvin, see Nevin, "Mystical Presence," p. 61, 62: "Two points in the theory of the Reformed Church require to be held in view: one is that the grace goes inseparably along with the sign, the other is that the invisible grace of the Sacraments is the substantial life of the Saviour, particularly in his human nature."