A Phase of the Church Question. [pp. 566-586]

1S70.} I/~e C1~urJt Q~6c8tiofl. 671
Dr. Nevin ~88U?~C8 that his "idea or theory "is d~e Christian Church! As vt~ell iulagine, in a similar ~~ay, that his
"idea or theory" of God is identically God hin~sAf. Not so.
Tlie so-called iJca~ w1~o~ is purely an abstraction, and as such
can have no concrete existence. Dr. Nevin seems to have unbounded confidence in his own expositioll of the creed. lie
says
"The idea of the Church as it meets us among other fundamentals of the Christian faith iu this primitive oecumenical symhol, is not of a whole dependiugupon
its parts (in N\4~ich case it would he a mere thought) hut fl~at of a whole comprehending its parts in itself and possessing them with its presence. In other
words, it is the idea of an organic whole, and not the notion of a simply mechan.
ical whole. A mechanleal whole is made up of single things or particulars, put
together iu a purely outward way. An organic whole, on the contrary, is the
uuion of partioular existeuces and a general existence, through the power of a
common life. In the first case, the general follows the particulars and depends
upou them entirely: hut this is not so at all in fl~e second case. Iu an orgauic
whole the goneral is hefore the particulars, nuderlies them and actually hrings
them to pass.... Let no one say this is absurd. "-See 3fer. ftee., vol. XV., pp.
5i7-S.
The CJ~ristiau Church has just as little to do with fi~is metaphysical notion of a whole as with the idealisu~ of Plato, or
the dialectics of Aristotle. Like P~omanisiu, this schen~e is
more in sympathy with priestly l~eathenis'n tl~au with tIle
GospA of Christ. J\Iau cai~ lay down no p~uciple f~r the Son
of God. Dr. Nevin is sadly mistaken in supposing that his ahstract notioii of a whole can have any thing to do with the
Church of Christ.
II.MERCERSBURG THEOLOGY, IN PRINCIPLE, IGNORES THE Gos
PEL vIEw OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST. An inquiry into the i~erits of a principle, must necessarily involve careful reflection.
Priu~arily, the metaphysical notion held by Dr. Nevin, as the
principle of his scheme, has to do with the human apprehension of tl~at which is divine. To follow him, ill his transcendental wande~ngs, requires patient il~on~ht and c
areful reflection. As a speculative writer, Dr. Nevin has allowed himself
to be thrown into t}ie madstrorn of German pantheistic transcendentalisin. Other Inetaphysical speculatists of equal and
even greater, power have been equally mistaken. "16t 4iff~
I4c~t tAi~ikct/t 4e 8tanJ6t/~ 4~ke 4eed ~8t 1~6fa4t."