"If e'er when faith had fall'n asleep, And heard an ever-breaking shore "A warmth within the breast would melt The scepticisms of our time are born chiefly of the ultra-scientific spirit. Fascinated by the discoveries which have so greatly widened for them the region of the natural, men are losing their faith in the supernatural. They begin to regard humanity as lying entirely within the sweep of the same laws that rule in nature. Now, possibly it may be of but little consequence whether we believe that the first man was made by God out of "the dust of the ground or developed by God out of an ape; but, if men go on to infer from this "doctrine of development" that human thought and love and aspiration and conscience are all mere affections of nerve and brain, and that when nerve and brain cease to act the man ceases to be, then this inference may have its serious issues. Certainly the great battle which Christianity has now to fight is the battle with a scientific materialism, and in this conflict the In Memoriam of Tennyson, appealing as it does to cultured minds, and the outcome, as it evidently is, of a personal experience, is fitted to render valuable service to the cause of spiritual faith: "I think we are not wholly brain, C "Not only cunning casts in clay : Let Science prove we are, and then What matters Science unto men?" The poet would remind the savant that the human heart has an "eye" as well as the human intellect, and that, in the formation of our beliefs on the profoundest of all themes, we are bound to take into consideration the yearnings and intuitions of the soul. Another poet of our time, whom perhaps we may justly call "Pantheistic," has said, in the melancholy of his unbelief "Nor does our being weary prove that there is rest.” No, not "prove" it perhaps logically; for, as Tennyson says, the highest truths "never can be proved" after that fashion. But if there be a God of justice and mercy, then surely the elements of human nature must be in correspondence with the facts of the universe. Human hunger does point to a provision of food. Human fatigue does point to a provision of sleep. The Almighty Father has a "rest" for the "weary." may well therefore "trust the truths that never can be proved." We may well believe that our spiritual cravings point to spiritual realities that there is a "Bread of Life" for the hunger of the soul: Strong Son of God, immortal Love, Whom we, that have not seen thy face, "Thine are these orbs of light and shade; We "Thou wilt not leave us in the dust: Thou madest man, he knows not why; The highest, holiest manhood, thou: "Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be: The man who wrote that you may call "Pantheist" if you please; I am content to close my lecture with the music of these words ringing in our ears. CHRISTIANITY AND "THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE." [Originally written in 1878: subsequently revised and slightly altered.] I. THE CHRISTIAN ESTIMATE OF THIS LIFE. It THE Religion of the Future," says Mr. George Henry Lewes, “must no longer present a conception of the world and physical laws, or of man and moral laws, which has any other basis than that of scientific induction. must no longer put forward principles which are unintelligible and incredible, nor make their very unintelligibility a source of glory, and a belief in them a higher virtue than belief in demonstration. In a word, this transformed religion must cease to accept for its tests and sanctions such tests as would be foolishness in science, and such sanctions as would be selfishness in life. Instead of proclaiming the nothingness of this life, the worthlessness of human love, and the imbecility of the human mind, it will proclaim the supreme importance of this life, the supreme value of human love, and the grandeur of the human intellect.” I quote this passage because it is one of the characteristic utterances of modern scepticism. It may be taken as fairly representing the attitude of a school of thought which seems to be at present on the as increase in England, and which, through various channels, is captivating some of the minds of the younger generation. The school to which I refer is distinguished by intellectual ability, and by a fearlessness which occasionally passes into audacity. Its adherents agree in rejecting all "supernatural religion”; and they trace their rejection largely to the teachings of science and to the atmosphere which is generated by the scientific spirit. They also agree in regarding what has been called the "religion of humanity being practically the "religion of the future." If there be a God, He is "The Unknown and The Unknowable." He has never, they say, revealed Himself to men in such a way as that we are warranted in feeling assured that He is our Loving Father. The world beyond death is, they say, probably a mere dream, born of the natural instinct which clings to life. The highest, and indeed the only, religion which is possible on truly rational grounds is, they tell us, the practical religion of spending our life for the benefit of our brethren, and thus losing our individual selfishness in devotion to the general good. And the only immortality on which we can safely reckon is an immortality of the influence which we can exert on others, and which may live long after we ourselves have passed into nothingness, or rather into "nature." Such is the creed which some are now preaching with even passionate enthusiasm, an enthusiasm which may well seem strange to some of us, but which is, perhaps, to be explained partly by their conviction that they are fighting against superstition and proclaiming the most unselfish ideal of conduct, and partly by the inspiring power which is wielded |