From Augustine's time down for some centuries the explanation of Julius Africanus was currently accepted, and it seems unnecessary to pursue the inquiry further. But Julius himself, as we have seen, did not consider his solution of the difficulty as quite satisfactory, and speaks of it as his own explanation, expressly disclaiming any testimony in its behalf. We cannot but think Augustine's objection to it, mentioned above, to be well put. Quite a variety in the details of the explanation has appeared among the intermediate writers. They all seem to have been absorbed with the difficulty "how Joseph could have had two fathers"-a difficulty which pressed so heavily that Origen was driven to the fancy of a spiritual genealogy, and Gregory was led into an inextricable confusion of explanation. Thus absorbed, they failed, with the exception of Gregory, to ask whether Luke's genealogy might not be really that of the Virgin Mary, and thus Joseph have become legally the son of her Father, and the representative of his family, by marrying his only child. This is the simplest possible solution of the difficulty. Luke, in his "diligent inquiries," would probably have obtained from her her own family pedigree; and in case she were an only child, as is most likely, this, after her betrothal to Joseph, would have formally terminated with his name as the representative of her family. Had this occurred to them, they would also have been relieved of that other difficulty of which they so often treat, "how Christ was shown by the genealogy of Joseph to be of the seed of David." And they would thus, too, have reconciled the almost universal persuasion that Joseph was only the adopted or legal son of Eli with the fact that Luke otherwise, gives evidently, the natural, in contradistinction to Matthew's legal, table of descent.

The Fathers generally do not seem to have troubled themselves about the occurrence of the two names, Salathiel and Zorobabel, in both genealogies; but rightly considered the lines as distinct from David down, until, by whatever means, they unite again in Joseph.

ARTICLE II.

THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION.

BY SAMUEL HARRIS, D.D., LL.D., Dwight profESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT IN YALE COllege.

WE are now to consider the progress of Christ's kingdom in its relation to civilization. While it modifies civilization and makes it Christian, it is itself modified by civilization.

I. Civilization is not a Product of Christianity, but has an Independent Existence.

What is civilization? Man is endowed with a radical impulse to put forth every power in action. This appears in the child as the play-impulse; in the map, it is trained to work. Play is action for the pleasure of the action itself; work is action, not for the pleasure of action, but for an ulterior end. The child lives in the present, with scarcely a reference to the future, following its impulses with little reference to consequences, and acting for the present pleasure of the action. His action is play. In maturity the man acts with reference to the future, foregoing present pleasure for future interests, and concentrating his energies in work, not for the present pleasure of the work, but for the value of the end to be attained. A great part of education consists in training the pupil to concentrate his energies on the attainment of ulterior ends; it is subjecting impulse to reason, transforming play into work. The difference between the savage and the civilized is analogous to that between the child and the well-trained man. The savage acts from impulse, for the pleasure of the action, or, otherwise, only to satisfy some imperative instinct or craving; he lives in the present; his action is the impulsive, unpersevering,

changeful action of a child. Civilization begins in forecast. It is distinguished from barbarism by the habit of acting with reference to ulterior interests as distinguished from present impulse; by the subjection of impulse to reason; by concentration in planned and forecasting work, instead of dissipation in play, or impulsive exertion under the urgency of a present want. This is the source of the strengthening and development of man's power, the enlargement of his acquisitions, and of his control over the resources and powers of nature, the multiplication of his wants, and therein the development of the man himself, making him manysided and capable of more varied activities, and of more varied and more refined enjoyment. The twaddle of the new education, that because a child acts joyfully from the play-impulse, therefore education must give to all study the zest of play, would emasculate education, taking out of it that which constitutes its essence as education, and out of civilization that which is its essential distinction from the savage state. Civilization is a thing of degrees; it begins whenever forecast begins to get the supremacy over imperative impulse, and play gives place to persistent work for ulterior ends.

Christianity is not necessary to create civilization. If preached to a barbarous people, it finds the capacity of civilization, and develops it; but other agencies, without Christianity, might have developed it. Usually some form of civilization has existed before Christianity is brought to a people. Christianity at the outset found itself confronted with the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Roman civilization. It is remarkable that the apostles instituted no missions to barbarians. The first and prominent fields of their missions were the cities, whence Christianity spread more slowly into the country. The word "pagan," or "villager," gradually came to denote an idolater. So, usually, Christianity comes to nations already civilized. It finds society already constituted, with opinions, usages, government, civilization, religion.

II. Christianity imparts to Civilization and makes effective in it the Spiritual Forces necessary to its Purity, Completeness, and Perpetuity.

Comte and Buckle teach that human progress arises wholly from material conditions and intellectual development. This is not true, even if human progress is used as meaning only the progress of civilization, which is but a part of human progress. For prudence itself, or acting with reference to ends, which is the essential characteristic of civilization, belongs to the sphere of moral action. There is, however, some truth in the position, so far as mere civilization is concerned, if civilization is regarded as consisting merely in the development of power and of intellectual keenness and strength; for this development is possible under the direction of selfishness, as really as under the direction of love.

But civilization does not of itself constitute man's highest welfare. Developed under the impulse and guidance of selfishness, it contains the leaven of its own fermentation and corruption. As the development of power, it establishes the dominion of force, and civilization carries with it wars of conquest, tyranny, caste, and slavery. If, as it was in Greece, it is more distinctively the development of intellect, culminating in literary and aesthetic culture, still it carries in it the same principle of the right of the strongest, and presently decays into luxury and effeminacy; as the refinement of Greece degenerated into Corinthian debauchery. Or, if the civilization turns to industrial enterprise, wealth accumulates with the few, and the many are in hopeless poverty. Or, if such a civilization, partially Christianized, begins to open a career for all, the greed of gain takes possession of the community; worldliness creeps like a glacier over society; meanness, venality, and rapacity characterize the people; and "wealth accumulates, and men decay."

To secure man's highest well-being in a healthy and permanent civilization, something more is needed than the increase of power and intelligence. There must be also

"Man

moral and spiritual quickening and development. shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Otherwise civilization is materialistic in its tendencies, and brings to man only what is possible to him as the highest of the brutes, nothing of what is possible to him as the child of God.

In every

Natural religion never supplies this defect. condition of society will be found religions, all of them capsules containing some seeds of truth. But natural religion has not been able to supply the defect in civilization, and its force has usually been weakened by civilization. The ethnic religions have usually their greatest purity and power in the earlier periods of the national life. The earlier Romans were religious, and their religiousness was an important influence in the growth of the republic. The religiousness decayed as the national greatness advanced.

Christianity introduces into existing civilization, and in it makes effective and permanent, the moral and spiritual influences which lift man from the earthly, the sensual, and the devilish, and quicken him to act in reference to the moral and spiritual realities and possibilities of his being.

Human nature realizes its perfection only through Christianity. Though Christianity is supernatural, it is not foreign to humanity, and does not aim to superadd to humanity any accretion foreign or contrary to it. It is just that divine action which is necessary to bring man out from an abnormal condition, and to effect the complete development and perfection of humanity. Man in his normal condition, if he had never fallen, would realize his perfection only by faith in God and in communion with him. Dependence and faith are inseparable from man's condition as a created being, and their necessity is not a result merely of his abnormal condition as a sinner. The union with God by the indwelling Spirit belongs to man's normal condition. Man was made to be a worker with God, and to act under divine influences. Redemption restores him, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, to this normal union with God, so that