XIII. ULRICI ON THE SPIRITUAL BODY. THE FIFTY-EIGHTH LECTURE IN THE BOSTON MONDAY LECTURESHIP, DELIVERED IN TREMONT TEMPLE DEC. 25. "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; The marvel of the everlasting will, An open scroll, Before him lay."-TENNYSON. XIII. ULRICI ON THE SPIRITUAL BODY. PRELUDE ON CURRENT EVENTS. We 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. 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 Christianization of Japan is an event to be expected in the near future. The revolution in that crowded island of sensitive, ingenious men, is in the hands of the cultivated upper classes. It does not depend on count of heads or clack of tongues, and is not likely to go backward. You say Russia and England may come into armed collision in the shadow of the Himalayas, and that the bear and the lion may fill the Cashmere vale with blood. May God avert this! But, even if they do so, it will yet remain sure, in any event, that the days of Buddhism are numbered; and that, so far as Paganism governs Central Asia, it is every year squeezed more and more nearly to its exit from life between the state necessities of Russia and England. Coming farther West, it is significant that the Suez Canal, the key to the great gate of the way to India, belongs now chiefly to Great Britain; and that, even with the Egyptian road to the East in her possession, she cannot afford as yet to take off from Constantinople an eye behind which, for eight hundred years, has rested no inconsiderable portion of authority on this planet, and which now rules a fifth part of the population of the globe. Only this morning, from under the sea, we have whispered to us by electric lips great promises by the "sick man" of the Bosphorus. The liberty of Ottomans is to be inviolable. The religious privileges of all communities, and the free exercise of public worship by all creeds, are guaranteed. Liberty of the press is granted. Primary education is compulsory. All citizens are eligible to public offices, irrespective of religion. Confiscation, statute labor, torture, and inquisition are prohibited. Ministerial responsibility is established. A chamber of deputies and a senate are instituted. These two houses, in connection with the ministry, have the initiative in framing laws. General and municipal councils are to be formed by election. The prerogatives of the Sultan are to be only those of the constitutional sovereigns of the West. In 1453 Islam crossed the Bosphorus with a bound; for the leprosies of its social life had not yet had time to unstring its nerves. Its own poisons have made it now little more than unspeakably flaccid flesh, without a soul. Its promises are very empty. But this time, as never before, the demand for reform is emphasized by the great powers of Europe. This new constitution just promulgated in Constantinople contains no guaranties which the rest of Europe will not ultimately be obliged to secure from the populations of European Turkey. But, if Islam must make the changes Europe demands, she must violate the Koran. Let adequate political reforms be perfected in Turkey, and Islamism is sure to unloosen her accursed, leprous grasp from the fair throat of the Bosphorus. One of our most gifted missionaries and statesmen, Dr. Hamlin, has said lately, "Let Turkey stand, that Islam may fall." No doubt this opinion is a wise one from his point of view; and this morning even we, who are so little familiar with the politics of the Bosphorus, can understand, that, if all the reforms the recent conference of the great powers has asked for are carried, the Koran is a dead letter in Turkey. Dr. Hamlin seems to say that certain |