DAVID FREDERICK STRAUSS.

From his Essay, “Vergängliches und Bleibendes im Christenthum,” 1838 (Freihafen, 3tes Heft, p. 47). On Strauss, and his Leben Jesu, compare p. 151 ff. “

“If in Jesus the union of the self-consciousness with the consciousness of God has been real, and expressed not only in words, but actually revealed in all the conditions of his life, he represents within the religious sphere the highest point, beyond whom posterity can not go; yea, whom it can not even equal, inasmuch as every one who hereafter should climb the same bight, could only do it with the help of Jesus, who first attained it. As little as humanity will ever be without religion, as little will it be without Christ; for 341to have religion without Christ would be as absurd as to enjoy poetry without regard to Homer or Shakspeare. And this Christ, as far as he is inseparable from the highest style of religion, is historical, not mythical; is an individual, no mere symbol. To the historical person of Christ belongs all in his life that exhibits his religious perfection, his discourses, his moral action, and- his passion. . . . He remains the highest model of religion within the reach of our thought; and no perfect piety is possible without his presence in the heart.”