PHILIP SCHAFF

The style of the Bible in general is singularly adapted to men of every class and grade of culture, affording the child the simple nourishment for its religious wants, and the profoundest thinker inexhaustible matter of study.

The apostolic writings are of three kinds: historical, didactic, and prophetic.

To the first class belong the Gospels and Acts; to the second, the Epistles; to the third, the Revelation.

It is more than a book, it is an institution which rules the Christian world.

The living Church of the redeemed is his book. He founded a religion of the living spirit, not of a written code, like the Mosaic law. Yet his words and deeds are recorded by as honest and reliable witnesses as ever put pen to paper.

Jesus Christ is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all. In the Gospels he walks in human form upon the earth, and accomplishes the work of redemption.

The New Testament evinces its universal design in its very, style, which alone distinguishes it from all the literary productions of earlier and later times.

Christ himself wrote nothing, but furnished endless material for books and songs of gratitude and praise.

The New Testament presents, in its way, the same union of the divine and human as the person of Christ. In this sense also 'the word became flesh, and dwells among us.'

The hostility of several Popes and Councils to the circulation of vernacular translations of the Bible implies the existence of such translations, and could not prevent their publication, as the numerous German editions prove. Dutch, French, and Italian versions also appeared among the earliest prints.

Those who make pictures of the Savior, who is God as well as man in one inseparable person, either limit the incomprehensible Godhead to the bounds of created flesh, or confound his two natures like Eutyches, or separate them, like Nestorius, or deny his Godhead, like Arius; and those who worship such a picture are guilty of the same heresy and blasphemy.

The resurrection of Christ is therefore emphatically a test question upon which depends the truth or falsehood of the Christian religion. It is either the greatest miracle or the greatest delusion which history records.

The United States furnishes the first example in history of a government deliberately depriving itself of all legislative control of religion.

The Son of God, prompted by the same infinite love, laid aside his divine glory and mode of existence, emptied himself exchanged the form of God for the form of a servant, humbled himself and became obedient, even unto the death of the cross.

If Christians are ever to be united, they must be united in Christ, their living head and the source of their spiritual life.

Calvinism emphasizes divine sovereignty and free grace; Arminianism emphasizes human responsibility. The one restricts the saving grace to the elect; the other extends it to all men on the condition of faith. Both are right in what they assert; both are wrong in what they deny. If one important truth is pressed to the exclusion of another truth of equal importance, it becomes an error, and loses its hold upon the conscience. The Bible gives us a theology which is more human than Calvinism and more divine than Arminianism, and more Christian than either of them.

Who touches money touches dirt; and the less religion has to do with it, the better.

One man with truth on his side is stronger than a majority in error, and will conquer in the end.

Religion and liberty are inseparable. Religion is voluntary, and cannot, and ought not to be forced. This is a fundamental article of the American creed, without distinction of sect or party. Liberty, both civil and religious, is an American instinct. Such liberty is impossible on the basis of a union of church and state, where the one of necessity restricts or controls the other. It requires a friendly separation, where each power is entirely independent in its own sphere.

Religion and liberty are inseparable. Religion is voluntary, and cannot and ought not to be forced.

In our country we ask no toleration for religion and its free exercise, but we claim it as an inalienable right.

To give up faith in Christ is to give up faith in humanity; to believe in Christ is to believe in the redeption and final glorification of men; and this faith is the best inspiration to a holy and useful life for the good of our race of the glory of God.

Without His Resurrection the death of Christ would be of no avail, and His grave would be the grave of all our hopes. A gospel of a dead Savior would be a miserable failure and delusion. The Resurrection is the victory of righteousness and life over sin an death.

The person of Christ is to me the greatest and surest of all facts.

The history of the Church is the rise and progress of the kingdom of heaven upon earth, for the glory of God and the salvation of the world.