XIII - ULRICI ON THE SPIRITUAL BODY

Summary

“Der Leib der Menschen ist eine zerbrechliche, immer erneuete Hülle, die endlich sich nicht mehr erneuen kann.”

—Herder, Philosophy of History.

“The poet in a golden clime was born,

With golden stars above;

Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,

The love of love.

He saw through life and death, through good and ill;

He saw through his own soul;

The marvel of the everlasting will,

An open scroll,

Before him lay.”

—Tennyson.

PRELUDE ON CURRENT EVENTS.

This morning, the bells of Christian churches on the continents, and of Christian vessels on the great deep, are audible to each other around the whole planet. I am not speaking rhetorically, but geographically, when I say that the Christian Church at this moment encircles the world in her arms. We forget too often what a great continent Australia is, and what a pervasive force her English language and laws may become in the lonely southern hemisphere. But Japan has forced herself upon the notice of the world of late, as the undeveloped England of the Pacific. Her great Mikado congratulated our President, only the other day, on the success of our Centennial Exhibition; and there lay behind the cordial words from the far shore just the sentiment which a Japanese high official expressed lately at Hartford, that the Christianisation of Japan is an event to be expected in the near future. […]