Calvinism - pagina 241

CALVINISM AND THE FUTURE. which

beginning of our era, and again at the

the

at

237

time of the Reformation, has saved the threatened Hfe of our race.

The most alarming situation in

the

is

feature,

however, of the present

lamentable absence of that receptivity

our diseased organism, which

did exist; the hearts

receptivity

To

to receive the truth.

indispensable to the

Graeco-Roman world such

In the

of a cure.

effecting

is

opened spontaneously

an even stronger degree this

when now the body

receptivity existed in the age of the Reformation,

large masses cried for the gospel. suffered from anaemia,

Then

as

and blood-poisning even had

set in,

but there was no aversion to the only effectual antidote.

Now

is

it

modern

precisely this that distinguishes our

decadence from the two preceding ones, that with the

masses the receptivity for the Gospel with

on the

increase. as

shoulders, children

on the decrease,

the scientists the positive aversion to

whilst

Christ,

in

God, if

The is

invitation to

bow

it

is

the knee before

met so often with a shrug of the

not with the sarcastic rejoinder:

and old women, not

for us

men

!"

'•''Fit

for

The modern

philosophy, which gains the day, considers

itself in

ever

increasing measure as having oittgroivn Christianity.

Therefore,

first

of

all,

what has brought us its

the question must be answered

to this pass, a question deriving

paramount importance from the

fact

that only a

correct diagnosis can lead to effective treatment.

the

historically, else

than

in

cause

of the

the spiritual

evil is

found

in

Now, nothing

degeneration which marked

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