moment. Goethe perceived the importance of the same truth:--


"Wer nicht von drei tausend Jahren sich weiss
Rechenschaft zu geben,
Bleib' im Dunkeln unerfahren, mag von Tag
Zu Tage leben!"


At certain epochs in the history of the world great events have
happened. Often such epochs are followed by epochs of inertia. Men bask
in the sunlight of the glory that was revealed to humanity; they receive
help and strength from what had been. But the greater the interval
between the occurrence [p.77] of that greatness and the contemplation of
it, the more difficult does it become to grasp and to possess something
of the true meaning, value, and significance of such greatness. The
greatness, as the interval grows, becomes something to be known,
something which is believed to fall upon us in an external, miraculous
manner; and finally it often becomes an object of wordy dispute and
strife. Certain periods in the history of the Christian Church give
abundant evidence of the truth of this statement. Eucken points out in
his _Problem of Human Life_ how barren in creative power, for instance,
was the fourth century. Why? An interval of nearly three centuries had
passed away since the Master and his followers had proclaimed truths and
experiences which were the burning convictions of their deepest being.
Gradually, and often unconsciously, men glided down an inclined plane,
until at last the spiritual nucleus of Christianity had largely
disappeared and little more than the husks remained. At the close of
such intervals religion becomes a number of conflicting intellectual
theories, and the worst passions are called to its support. Dogmatism