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240 LETTERS.
the one, which, disengaged from its eternal foundation, be-
lieves in nothing beyond this life and hopes nothing after
death; the other, that which believes, hopes, loves, and
lives in Christ. I have shown this, because I saw and
found it so in the places and amongst the people of whom
I speak; and I have also done it because this opinion is
rooted in my inmost conviction. And I would rather allow
my right hand to be cut off, than cease, directly or indi-
rectly, to point out to man the only true road to happiness,
and to show him the darkness and danger which he will
have to encounter on the contrary road.
We observe the latter in the national agitations of the
present day. These, in themselves, are not for evil. No,
they are for good; they are necessary; they are the rising
of the oppressed million to civil rights, to the participation
in all the privileges and obligations which make man a re-
sponsible being, a citizen, and which belong to him in his
quality of man; this is the entrance of Christianity upon
the political territory. But the barbarity, the bloodshed,
and the confusion, by which the ideas, manifested in such
agitations, assert themselves, are certainly not the acts of
Christianity. The unwise and irritating opposition has
much to answer for in this; but an equally great responsi-
bility rests with the unwise demagogues; they, who, like
Bruno Bauer, Griin, and others, try to establish the princi-
ple that, in order to solve satisfactorily the world’s enigma,
one need only “ Gott ganz wegzustreichen ;” who thereby
exempt man from all higher responsibility, making him the
sport of his own passions, or giving him up to the leaders,
who understand, cleverly enough, how to avail themselves
of them. Miigge has therefore very logically said: “ Das
Volk ist die todte Masse; die grossen Geister sind die,
welche es regieren.” What this would ultimately lead to,
ought to be easily seen by every person, with a good and |
clear head, who would take the trouble thoroughly to sift
the matter. But history has in our days taken upon her-
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