AND TUTOR TO FREDERICK THE NOBLE. 



213 



his idea, the force of love, the inherent sense of union, that of 

 the universality of Christian penetration, should, hy indepen- 

 dence, he served and set free to act without faUing into 

 political entanglements. But, with him, the independence of 

 the Church did not mean its separation from the State. It- 

 meant the free diffusion of Christianity throughout the Body 

 Politic without the interposition of the State. 



This conception gradually proved itself to he true to the 

 temper of the Protestants of Xeuchatel to a sufficient degree to 

 bring about, as we shall see later, the constitution of a Free 

 Church in the Scotch sense of the word. But we have plenty 

 of evidence that, previous to this consummation, Godet did not 

 go beyond the present expression, in the Church of England, of 

 a like aspiration to spiritual independence without breaking 

 with the establishment formula under the Eoyal prerogative. 

 But we must not anticipate considerations which Godet 

 did not really develop till after he had left the service of the 

 Eoynl House of Prussia. 



Of an integral or literal inspiration of Scripture, within a 

 reasonable and prudent acceptation of those words, he was 

 quite prepared to allow the i)ossibility or even the intention, 

 provided suHicient reserve were shown in ascribing purposes to 

 the Almighty, but his reverence and good sense could not admit 

 that the state in which the Bible documents are laid before us 

 shows this intention to have been carried out in its entirety. 



" The question of scriptural inspiration," he said, " why, this 

 is theology, not religion. How many thousands of years have 

 the flowers of God's making delighted man by their shapes, 

 colours and scents, and borne good fruit unto their gardeners 

 without taking any heed of botanists ? So it is with Holy 

 Writ. Theologians are the botanists of religion." 



In away they are such as those who would educate by means 

 of a scientific education. " My present experiences," he wrote 

 in 1843, ' all go to impressing upon me the powerlessness of the 

 formal rules of education. One does get educated and the 

 external influence of educative agencies is certain. But tastes, 

 tendencies, that which makes this or that individual uut of the 

 common clay, to that workshop, or sanctuary, we do not gain 

 admittance." 



That year was marked by the sharpening of the unpleasant- 

 ness between him and General Unruh. We have seen how the 

 parents of Godet's pupil gave their decision in favour of the 

 civil governor, a fine example of sw^eet reasonableness in a 

 family so completely addicted to military life. As those 



