i8 7 o] CHRISTIANITY AND SUPERNATURAL 115 



history that culminated in the resurrection of Christ, but 

 an a priori refusal to acknowledge such a history as 

 reconcilable with the philosophic idea of God, is what 

 we have to contend against in apologetics. It is a 

 notorious fact that the school that attacks the historic 

 truth of Christianity takes for its presupposition the 

 impossibility of the supernatural does not for a moment 

 profess to be able to carry out its destructive criticism 

 without this presupposition. With such a school 

 Christianity can proclaim no truce. Such theories we 

 can never consent to view as matter for friendly dis 

 cussion. Our Christian loyalty is tampered with when 

 we are invited to embrace a Christianity that leaves no 

 room for personal intercourse between God and man. 

 All this of course will seem to all of us obvious enough. 

 The danger rather is that we may think that our argument 

 has carried us further than it really has done. We must 

 remember that, while postulating the supernatural as the 

 characteristic of Christianity, our definition of the super 

 natural is still in the most abstract form. We have seen 

 no cause to deny the name of Christian to any one who 

 believes that through the mediatorship of Christ man 

 has entered into true personal relation with God who 

 sees in history God dealing personally with man. How 

 this personal dealing is to be more nearly defined, how we 

 are to conceive God s self-manifestation as carried out, 

 is still an open question, and a question, so far as appears, 

 for free and friendly discussion within the pale of a 

 common Christianity, not for apologetic handling. And 

 this, be it observed, is a most weighty point in the present 

 state of theological opinion. I may be allowed in illus 

 tration to quote a few words from the writings of Bunsen, 

 which will show that this much-misrepresented man 

 stands fully on the side we have recognised as Christian. 

 &quot; It is,&quot; says Bunsen, &quot; a thoughtless delusion or a bitter 

 mockery when men are now arising who would make 

 themselves or us believe that &quot; on the mythical theory of 



