122 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



of the Exalted one, in virtue whereof we actually become 

 what this issue of the history promises. Whoever then 

 holds the historical for the essence of Christian teaching 

 is convinced thereby that the Christianity which has its 

 origin in such a history is no mere doctrine.&quot; 



&quot; Whoever,&quot; adds Hofmann, &quot; recognises the fact of 

 regeneration as the beginning of a new life of joyous 

 peace with God and free love to God affirms hereby that 

 Christianity is an essentially new relation between God 

 and man, and so a matter of fact which only bears witness 

 to itself in the word of Christian doctrine not a human 

 doctrine of divine things which has merely some kind 

 of influence in determining and shaping an already 

 present relation between God and man.&quot; So soon as 

 we come to view personal Christianity not as belief in a 

 bygone history but as participation in a present history, 

 when we see that Christians are not mere passive recipients 

 of the benefits of a transaction in which they take no 

 part, but that the conscious moral agency of man is one 

 factor throughout all the history of redemption, the 

 whole course of our apologetic is changed. We can no 

 longer sever the work of redemption from the com 

 munication of the knowledge of that work to men, and 

 demand of apologetic as a preliminary to all theological 

 inquiry a complete theory of this latter point. For the 

 work of redemption, like all other facts of history, made 

 itself known to men by being actually worked out among 

 them. And so God s activity in revelation is not some 

 thing added to, but one form of His activity as Redeemer. 

 It would be absurd to say that we cannot be assured 

 that Christ s redeeming work ever took place till we 

 have proved that the Bible is an infallible record of that 

 work ; for it is only through the Christian miracles, i.e. 

 through the phenomena of Christ s supernatural work, 

 that the way is cleared for the doctrine of inspiration. 



The traditional dogmatic draws only a formal dis 

 tinction between revelation and Bible, and often inter- 



