Calvinism a life-system - pagina 241

CALVINISM AND THE FUTURE. which time

the

at

237

of our era, and again at the

beginning

of the Reformation, has saved the threatened Hfe

of our race.

The most alarming situation

the

is

however, of the present

feature,

lamentable absence of that receptivity

in our diseased organism, which

effecting

In the

of a cure.

To

to receive the truth,

indispensable to the

Graeco-Roman world such

did exist; the hearts

receptivity

is

opened spontaneously

an even stronger degree this

receptivity existed in the age of the Reformation,

large masses cried for the gospel.

Now

is

it

as

now

the

and blood-poisning even had

suffered from anaemia,

but there was no

Then

when body

set in,

aversion to the only effectual antidote.

precisely this that distinguishes our modern;

decadence from the two preceding ones, that with the! masses the receptivity for the Gospel in on the decrease,! the scientists the positive aversion to

with

whilst

on the Christ,

increase.

shoulders, children

God,

as

if

The is

invitation to

bow

it

met so often with a shrug of the

not with the sarcastic rejoinder:

and old women, not

for us

men

!"

philosophy, 'which gains the day, considers

''Fit for

The modern itself in

ever

increasing measure as having oittgroivn Christianity.

Therefore,

first

of

all,

what has brought us its

to this pass, a question deriving fact

that only a

correct diagnosis can lead to effective treatment.

else

than

the in

cause

(

the question must be answered

paramount importance from the

historically,

is

the knee before

of the

the spiritual

evil is

Now,

found in nothing

degeneration which marked

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