i8 7 o] CHRISTIANITY AND SUPERNATURAL 135 



as false, could not fail to be most injurious to the full 

 understanding and even a stumbling-block in the way 

 of a true belief of Christianity. We are not bound to 

 welcome a science that bases itself on antichristian assump 

 tion ; but we must ever welcome the freest criticism 

 that rests on impartial weighing of facts, and an apolo 

 getic which cannot take up once for all a position which 

 no such criticism can approach transcends its just limits 

 and confesses its own weakness. The root of a true 

 apologetic must be in the immediate certainty of Christian 

 faith wherein we feel ourselves supernaturally brought 

 into fellowship with a divine personality ; and the 

 scientific development of our apologetic must take the 

 form of a speculative theology in which the subjective 

 consciousness of redemption is objectively evolved into 

 a harmonious theory of the universe as reconciled to God 

 in Christ. It is the business of Christianity to conquer 

 the whole universe to itself and not least the universe of 

 thought. 



&quot; Attacks on our Christian faith,&quot; says an eminent 

 thinker, &quot; can come only from the region of thought 

 that is not yet thoroughly incorporated in and appro 

 priated by Christianity. The more thoroughly the yet 

 hostile territories are conquered for Christianity and the 

 Christian view of the universe, the more secure is our 

 faith from these attacks.&quot; But such conquests can be 

 gained only by free thought in the spirit of Christianity, 

 not by urging men to build their faith on a completed 

 system of infallible doctrine. How thoroughly this con 

 viction has worked for good in the recent theology of 

 Germany, and how little the interests of living Christianity 

 have to fear from the adoption of these convictions in our 

 own land, may perhaps be best illustrated by a brief but 

 weighty quotation from one of the most truly Christian 

 of modern theologians. &quot; So long,&quot; says Dorner, &quot; as 

 we suppose that faith in inspiration and the divine 

 authority of Holy Scripture is the first step in Christian 



