232 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1870- 



varying needs of the people. 1 And so Luther writes in his 

 Preface to Isaiah, that if we will understand prophecy 

 we must study the contemporary history, and learn 

 how things stood in the land ; how men s minds were 

 bent, what designs of war or peace they had in hand, 

 and, above all, their attitude to God, the prophet, and 

 religion. 2 



IV. It is mainly to the comprehensive genius of Calvin 

 that we owe the further development of these principles 

 in the conception of the exegetico-historical problem in 

 its totality. What Calvin set before him as the goal of 

 Biblical studies, was the gathering up into one whole of 

 all God s dealings with men from the fall to the Re 

 surrection of Christ, the history of true religion, the 

 adoption and education, from age to age, of the Church, 

 in a continuous scheme of gradual advance. It is true 

 that in that age the means for justly carrying out so 

 great a conception were still lacking. The very idea of 

 an historical evolution was but imperfectly understood. 

 There were many tendencies, both in the age and in 

 Calvin s own character, that prevented him from doing 

 so much justice to the difference as to the unity of suc 

 cessive dispensations. But not only did the example 

 point out a course on which, after long neglect, the newer 

 theology, armed with richer apparatus, must enter with 

 fresh ardour ; the very idea of such a scheme gave to 

 Calvin an elevation of view, a freedom of judgment, 

 a superiority to prejudices that the mere student of 

 details could hardly break through, which have justly 

 elevated him to the rank of the greatest of uninspired 

 expositors, and have left to his followers an ever precious 

 example of believing courage in dealing with the Scrip 

 tures. 



V. It is impossible to pass from this topic without in 



1 Cf . Calvin, Praefatio in Esaiam. 



2 Yet side by side with this goes another line of thought. &quot; Der 

 Prophezeien Art und Natur ist, dass sie ehe erfiillet denn verstanden 

 sind,&quot; says Luther, at one time. The two views are not irreconcilable. 



