unessential details, which may be left to monographs and special treatises. Brevity is a virtue in
the historian, unless it makes him obscure and enigmatic.^6
The historian, moreover, must make his work readable and interesting, without violating
truth. Some parts of history are dull and wearisome; but, upon the whole, the truth of history is
"stranger than fiction." It is God’s own epos. It needs no embellishment. It speaks for itself if told
with earnestness, vivacity, and freshness. Unfortunately, church historians, with very few exceptions,
are behind the great secular historians in point of style, and represent the past as a dead corpse
rather than as a living and working power of abiding interest. Hence church histories are so little
read outside of professional circles.- Both scientific research and artistic representation must be guided by a sound moral and
religious, that is, a truly Christian spirit. The secular historian should be filled with universal human
sympathy, the church historian with universal Christian sympathy. The motto of the former is:
"Homo sum, nihil humani a me alienum puto;" the motto of the latter: "Christianus sum, nihil
Christiani a me alienum puto."
The historian must first lay aside all prejudice and party zeal, and proceed in the pure love
of truth. Not that he must become a tabula rasa. No man is able, or should attempt, to cast off the
educational influences which have made him what he is. But the historian of the church of Christ
must in every thing be as true as possible to the objective fact, "sine ira et studio;" do justice to
every person and event; and stand in the centre of Christianity, whence he may see all points in the
circumference, all individual persons and events, all confessions, denominations, and sects, in their
true relations to each other and to the glorious whole. The famous threefold test of catholic
truth—universality of time (semper), place (ubique), and number (ab omnibus)—in its literal sense,
is indeed untrue and inapplicable. Nevertheless, there is a common Christianity in the Church, as
well as a common humanity in the world, which no Christian can disregard with impunity. Christ
is the divine harmony of all the discordant human creeds and sects. It is the duty and the privilege
of the historian to trace the image of Christ in the various physiognomies of his disciples, and to
act as a mediator between the different sections of his kingdom.
(^6) The German poet, Friedrich Rückert, thus admirably enjoins the duty of condensation:
Wie die Welt läuft immer weiter,
Wird stets die Geschicte breiter
Und uns wird je mehr je länger
Nöthig ein Zusammendränger:
Nicht der aus dem Schutt der Zeiten
Wühle mehr Erbärmlichkeiten,
Sondern der den Plunder sichte
Und zum Bau die Steine schichte
Nicht das Einzle unterdrückend
Noch damit willkühlich schmückend,
Sondern in des Einzlen Hülle
Legend allgemeine Fülle;
Der gelesen Alles habe,
Und besitze Dichtergabe,
Klar zu schildern mir das Wesen,
Der ich nicht ein Wort gelesen.
Sagt mir nichts von Resultaten!
Denn die will ich selber ziehen.
Lasst Begebenheiten, Thaten,
Heiden, rasch vorüberziehen."
A.D. 1-100.