'For we throw out acclamations of self-thanking, self-admiring, With, at every mile, run faster, O the wondrous, wondrous age! Little thinking if we work our souls as nobly as our iron,

Or if angels will commend us at the goal of pilgrimage !' 1

After making large deductions from the evidence adduced both by friends and foes of Christianity, after allowing for the natural disposition to exaggerate the importance of a period in which so many traditional opinions have been abandoned, and so many beliefs modified before the advancing tide of more correct knowledge, we are compelled to believe that there is a great, and apparently growing, amount of Scepticism amongst us in relation to the teachings of the Bible, and the more distinctive affirmations of the Christian Creed. Testimony to this effect comes from quarters so unlike, and from men who usually have so little in common, that its effect on any candid mind must be very powerful. True, this evidence has been challenged, and its force somewhat broken by counter-testimony. Dr. Rigg2 declares, that at the present time the 'relations of Christian faith to philosophy and science are better settled, and, at the same time, more satisfactory, than for some years past.' His appeal is to the calm judgment of history, to the positive proofs and 'fruitful energy' of Christian faith, as proved by its works, to the ethical standards of our time, and to the actual state of our moral life. Such an appeal, supported by such evidence, demands and will receive the respectful attention of all Christian thinkers; his estimate is in many respects both true and important, but, as he himself remarks, 'false security would be a mistake.' Mr. Joseph Cook tells us that, in Germany, the day of Rationalism is nearly over in the Universities, and that now students are everywhere flocking to professors who are loyal to the evangelical creed.3 Professor Calderwood thinks we shall by-and-by hear much less of 1 Mrs. Browning.

2 'Discourses and Addresses on Religion and Philosophy,' by Rev. James H. Rigg, D.D.

3 Cook's' Monday Lectures.'

'conflict' between science and religion, and that there has been on both sides needless planting of batteries and pouring forth of shot.'1

All this may be true; certainly it is not all the truth that Christian people in these days need to know and to lay to heart. After the conflict has ceased in the Universities, it must rage elsewhere in the periodical press, even in the workshops, and among those who are far removed from the centres of intellectual life and thought, there may be much unbelief. Moreover, to those whose minds are but little familiar with the history of the past, and whose intellects have not been sharpened by the higher culture of the schools, the cessation of strife may often appear to be but the triumph of the sceptical view of life. It is certain that at the present time the acceptance, even provisionally, by Christian thinkers of the theories and hypotheses of scientific men, only adds to the difficulty of belief, and is an additional stumbling-block to the faith of many. All this may, and much of it certainly does, arise from misconception; nevertheless, there is conflict, and some of the 'reconciliations' offered only add to the confusion.

Nor is this tendency to unbelief confined to any one country, or to any special class of men. It has spread all over Europe; it has manifested itself in America; it is not seen only among professors of the 'higher culture,' or among thinkers who have leisure and who are familiar with the thoughts of many agesit may be found in the sick-room from which all sceptical literature has been excluded, in the workshop, where busy toilers are familiar with the more practical side of life; even in the market-place, where eager men transact business, these doubts and questionings are not seldom heard.

Some years ago a gifted man, no longer amongst us, wrote a series of articles in one of our leading Reviews, under the title of 'Rocks Ahead, or the Warnings of Cassandra.' At that time England was prosperous, and her leading men were unwilling to believe that dark days were at hand. Hence Mr. Greg's 1 Professor Calderwood's 'Science and Religion.'

warnings hardly received the attention to which they were entitled; when trouble came, many confessed that Cassandra had spoken wisely, and, looking back, they saw that the nation had not been 'sailing free,' as some of her pilots believed. Mr. Greg's 'third rock' was the one with which we are now dealing the alleged divorce between the highest intelligence and religion of the country. According to this keen observer, there is such a divorce not only in England, but all over Europe. In Germany, a very large portion of the intelligent classes has changed its ideas about the very nature of Christianity; in Italy, men, and even women, scornfully reject the Gospel; in France, there is a large amount of infidelity and religious indifference among all classes; in Belgium, there is a wide-spread scepticism; and in Holland, where the faith of Calvin once ruled so supremely, yea, even in Geneva, the very seat of the all-powerful Reformer, we have Rationalism in thought, and growing laxity in moral life. In our own country, Mr. Greg holds that the working-classes, or at least the more intelligent of them, are turning their backs on Christianity, and many of the leaders of thought have publicly avowed their hostility to the old faith.1 No friend of the evangelical faith can afford to ignore such solemn warnings; Mr. Greg is no timid believer, shrinking with alarm before the advance of the new order of things. His 'Creed of Christendom' must appear to evangelical Christians meagre and Rationalistic, and if he complains of the loss of faith, how much more must those who demand firmer foundations for their creed! Professor Christlieb, of Bonn, whose work on 'Modern doubt and Christian belief' is so well known, fully confirms the estimate of 'Cassandra,' so far as Germany is concerned. And, strangely enough, Lange, himself a free-thinker, in his 'History of Materialism,' a work much lauded by the free-thinkers of England, seems to be afraid of the progress of that very theory of life whose triumphs he chronicles; Lange heralds the dawn of a new era, but in

1 See Contemporary Review for May, June, and August, 1874.

order to make its ideals morally safe, he stipulates for a strong admixture of the older faith!

Professor Bain, of Aberdeen, himself a leader of philosophical Scepticism, declares that since the suppression of the Pagan Philosophy, Christianity has never been more attacked than now, and he pretty broadly hints that these modern attacks are not calling forth anything like the ancient Christian vindication. Professor Flint is very familiar with anti-theistic theories, familiar also with the best thought of Europe, present and past, is neither an alarmist nor a gloomy pessimist, yet he tells us that 'no man who examines the signs of the times can fail to see much tending to show that Atheism may possibly come to have its day of fatal supremacy. What chiefly threatens us is Atheism in the form of Agnosticism, Positivism, Secularism, Materialism, etc., and it does so directly and seriously. The most influential authorities in Science and Philosophy, and a host of the most popular representatives of literature, are strenuously propagating it. It has, in our large centres of population, missionaries, who, I fear, are better qualified for their work than many of those whom our Churches send forth to advocate to the same classes the cause of Christianity.' 1

We might appeal to other leading thinkers-men who have recently given their estimate of the state of this question. Bishop Ellicott, in an Episcopal charge, in his 'Introduction to the New Testament Commentary,' still more recently in his introduction to the Old Testament Commentary;' Mr. Row in his very able Bampton Lecture; Professor Wace in his Boyle and Bampton Lectures; Dr. Conder in his 'Basis of Faith,' a work now within the reach of all, and one full of helpful suggestion; Canon Farrar in his recent writings; Mr. Edward White in his 'Life of Christ,' and a host of writers, all take the same view. Reference may also be made to Mr. Holt Hutton, who, from his connection with the press, is well acquainted with the 1 Dr. Flint's Anti-Theistic Theories,' p. 37. See also the articles by Mr. Gladstone in Contemporary Review, June, 1876.

2 Editor of Stectator.

'The

streams and tendencies of modern thought; speaking, in the preface to the last edition of his 'Theological and Literary Essays,' of the growth of Scepticism among the leaders of thought, he declares that, so far as there have been changes in the temper of English thought' in recent times, they have been in the direction of shaking men's faith in the deepest assumptions both of the Theistic and Christian Creed.' Lest anyone should reply that, even since Mr. Hutton's essays were published, vast changes have taken place in an opposite direction, we may suggest a perusal of such works as Cheyne's 'Isaiah,' Professor Robertson Smith's 'Lectures on the Old Testament,' and Dr. Wright's 'Donellan Lecture,' etc.; or take the following from Principal Fairbairn's recent work, the City of God.' conflict of Faith in our day is most arduous and fell. It lies surrounded by real or potential enemies. Science cannot publish her discoveries without letting us hear the shock of their collision with the ancient Faith. The political philosopher seeks to show how the State can live and prosper without religion; the ethical thinker, how right can exist and law govern without God. A philosophy that denies the surest and most necessary religious truths, works in harmony with a criticism that resolves into mythologies the holiest religious histories. large section of our literature, including some of the finest creations of living imagination, interpret Nature and man, exhibit life and destiny, from the standpoint of those who have consciously renounced belief in God, and can find on earth nothing Divine but humanity. Our working men listen to theories of life that leave around them only blank material walls, within them no spiritual reality, before them no higher and larger hope.'1

There are other indications pointing in the same direction, and which, so far as they can be trusted, confirm the accuracy of these and such-like testimonies. For many years complaints have been made by religious men of the alarming extent to which public worship is being neglected. Recent statistics in

1 'The City of God: a Series of Discussions on Religion,' by A. M. Fairbairn, D.D.