All the more must we admire those who attained and held fast
to a personal religion. They were not to blame for being unable to have
any part or lot in the old Church, as she then was; nor would it be
reasonable to expect that they should all of them go through that
mighty spiritual labor which was appointed to the German reformers. The
form and aim of this personal faith, as it showed itself in the better
minds, will bc set forth at the close of our work.
The worldliness, through which the Renaissance seems to offer so
striking a contrast to the Middle Ages, owed its first origin to the
flood of new thoughts, purposes, and views, which transformed the
mediaeval conception of nature and man. The spirit is not in itself
more hostile to religion than that 'culture' which now holds its place,
but which can give us only a feeble notion of the universal ferment
which the discovery of a new world of greatness then called forth. This
worldliness was not frivolous, but earnest, and was ennobled by art and
poetry. It is a lofty necessity of the modern spirit that this
attitude, once gained, can never again be lost, that an irresistible
impulse forces us to the investigation of men and things, and that we
must hold this inquiry to be our proper end and work. How soon and by
what paths this search will lead us back to God, and in what ways the
religious temper of the individual will be affected by it, are
questions which cannot be met by any general answer.
Pages:
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562