The Wisdom of Alfred Edersheim. David Mishkin

in it, are only the spontaneous consequences of the great change wrought within. It is indeed true, that the Gospel brings before us not only those great truths which are to make us wise unto salvation, but also the great principles of right, of virtue, and of holiness.67

      The fundamental ideas of the Christian life may, we conceive, be summed up in the two words, spiritual liberty.68

      It is a remarkable fact, that in measure as less of spiritual attachment to Christianity is displayed, the intolerance which all other forms of religion are treated, becomes more bitter.69

      To put it more precisely: we hold that Christianity in its origin appealed to an existing state of expectancy, which was the outcome of a previous development; and further, that those ideas and hopes of which it professed to be the fulfillment had not first sprung up in the immediately preceding period – that is, in the centuries between the return from the Babylonish exile and the Birth of Christ – but stretched back through the whole course of Old Testament teaching.70

      But liable as, in our present state, we are to continual error, and to none more readily than to falling into extremes, we are prone either to disassociate the element of faith from the Christian life, or the Christian life from the impelling power of a living faith. Either of these extremes leads to doctrinal error, and to practical mistakes. A genuine Christianity has to present the Christian life as based upon, derived from, and pervaded by faith – the leaven of the gospel leavening the whole lump, and Christian faith as a matter of not only intellect, but of the heart and life also.71

      Christianity is a constant negation. Its teaching is a negation of what naturally comes to the mind; its practice a negation of what naturally presents itself to the imagination and the heart. Practical Christianity is a constant saying: ‘No! no! no!’ to all around – the world, the flesh, the devil – and, not unfrequently, to the so-called Church too.72

      Christianity is always new: it has something new to say to every generation, though the new be always the old truth. And therein lies its appeal to our times.73

      The Church

      On earth, and in the present dispensation, let us not look for the one and undivided Church of Christ. Thoughts of it are like the chimes of distant bells, borne upon the breeze to the ear of the weary pilgrim. Man speaks of Churches; Christ has one Church; and when He cometh, he will not only manifest His own and His Father’s glory, but also the beauty and unity of His Church.74

      I may love my own church very much, but I love Christ and His church – the Church – still better.75

      Generally speaking, the eternal history of every church passes through three phases. In the first or constituent period, principles are laid down and landmarks set; in the second or formative period, these principles are developed into rules, being extended or modified, as the case may be; in the third or discriminative period, all internal questions are settled, and the outward relations of the church, and with them her aims and positions, finally fixed.76

      Circumcision