3 i4 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



practical in its bearing on those who are without the 

 Church, has, for those who are within the Church, either 

 no value at all, or a value purely speculative. The most 

 finished apologetic which can be conceived would, in 

 fact, be a complete theoretic delineation of the relations 

 of the different parts of the Christian system, and a 

 complete critical philosophy of the history of our religion. 

 But as apologetic is entirely directed to persons who 

 have no sympathy with the practical tasks that lie before 

 the Church, the theoretic disciplines in question would, 

 in the hands of the apologist, be necessarily framed in 

 quite an abstract manner. And, therefore, when all the 

 unbelievers were convinced, a new and higher theological 

 task would arise ; it would be necessary to recast the 

 abstract theory of Christianity, and construct a practical 

 theology for the guidance of the Church in the positive 

 task of attaining the ideal set before her by her Lord. 

 But of course a perfect apologetic can never be constructed 

 by an imperfect Church. It is the actual imperfection 

 of the existent state of the Church, much more than the 

 theoretic imperfection of our present theology, which is 

 the source of unbelief ; and it is not possible to give a 

 perfect theory of an imperfect organism. Thus not only 

 the highest, but the most immediately practical task of 

 theology, is to guide the internal growth and activity of 

 the Church. Those who allow themselves to be carried 

 away from this aim by the apparent urgency of danger 

 from without, and who, therefore, according to the 

 fashion of the present day, direct their whole energies, 

 as theologians, to apologetical tasks, misapprehend the 

 real needs of the Church and the real sources of the 

 weakness and the strength of Christianity, which is 

 always invincible from without, except when weakened 

 by corruption and divisions within. 



It appears, then, when the thing is looked at more 

 closely, that the extreme and one-sided development of 

 apologetic in the recent theological literature of our 



