undermined, and its authority so shaken that its future survival is rather an object of pious hope than of reasoned judgment. Apologists, indeed, are not wanting, they were perhaps never so numerous; but they cannot stem the torrent which is rushing away from theology in the direction of science, and that negation of theology which science implies. Regarded as a question merely of speculation, the crisis is one of the most interesting which the world has seen, only to be compared to the transition from polytheism to Christianity in the early centuries of our era, and to the great Protestant revolt from Rome. But the speculative interest pales before the momentous practical interest of the crisis. A transfer of allegiance from one set of first principles to another, especially on subjects relating to morals and conduct, cannot be effected without considerable loss of continuity and order by the way. Many will halt between the two régimes, and, owning allegiance to neither, will prefer discarding all unwelcome restraint on their freedom of action. The corruption of manners under the decaying polytheism in the Roman world, the analogous corruption during the Reformation and the Renaissance, offer significant precedents. It would be rash to expect that a transition, unprecedented for its width and difficulty, from theology to positivism, from the service of God

to the service of Man, could be accomplished without jeopardy. Signs are not wanting that the prevalent anarchy in thought is leading to anarchy in morals. Numbers who have put off belief in God have not put on belief in Humanity. A common and lofty standard of duty is being trampled down in the fierce battle of incompatible principles. The present indecision is becoming not only wearisome, but injurious to the best interests of man. Let Theology be restored, by all means, to her old position of queen of the sciences, if it can be done in the light of modern knowledge and common sense. If this cannot be done frankly, on the faith of witnesses who can stand cross-examination in open court, let us honestly take our side, and admit that the Civitas Dei is a dream of the past, and that we should strive to realize that Regnum Hominis which Bacon foresaw and predicted.

CHAPTER II.

THE DECAY OF BELIEF.

OPINIONS and systems of thought as well as institutions which enjoy a considerable lease of life in the world, have many of the characteristics of organisms, or at least of organs belonging to animated beings. The fact that they came into existence and survived during a longer or shorter period, proves that they discharged a function of more or less utility; that they were in harmony with the surrounding conditions, and hence, found both exercise and nourishment for their support. If in time they gradually cease to discharge a useful function, become atrophied and disappear, their case is almost exactly parallel to the rudimentary organs found in so many animals, which, having ceased to be of use, become shrunken and meaningless, and only persist in an abortive form by virtue of the law of heredity. Such organs in the body politic resemble these analogues in the body natural, in that they

often continue to exist long after their presence has ceased to subserve any useful purpose of life. The common trait of rudimentary organs belonging to either category, biological or sociological, is that they survive their use, that they are nourished and live at the expense of the organism in which they exist, and long after they have ceased to make any return for the support they obtain. In the animal world, rudimentary organs may or may not be noxious to the organism in which they inhere in the social organism they unquestionably are so, especially by their occupying the room and preventing the development of active and efficient organs which would succeed and replace them.

That the Christian religion is rapidly approaching, if it has not already reached, this position, is a part of the thesis maintained in these pages. The decay of belief now general over Christendom, may be regarded from two points of view, and traced up to two distinct causes-one rational, the other moral. The current faith has come increasingly into conflict with science in proportion as the latter has extended in depth and area. The isolated points of collision of former days have been so multiplied that the shock now is along the whole conterminous line between science and theology; and it would not be easy to name a department

of inquiry which has not, in some measure, contributed aid to the forces arrayed against the popular belief. More important still is the changed tone of feeling with regard to this subject. Time was, and even a recent time, when the prestige of Christianity was so great, that even its opponents were overawed by it. But now men are ready to openly avow that they find a great deal in the Christian scheme which is morally shocking; and in the estimation of many minds nowadays, probably the moral difficulties outweigh the intellectual.

Nothing is more common than the assertion that any objections now made to Christianity are worn out sophisms, which have been answered and disposed of over and over again by previous apologists. Sometimes we are told that the objections are as old as the time of Celsus, and were refuted by Origen; but, generally, Bishop Butler is the favourite champion who is credited with a preordained victory over all opponents, past, present, and future. Butler was so great a man, and his work, considered as a reply to the shallow deism of his day, was in many respects so successful, that it argues a certain irreverence for his character to load him with false praise and unmerited laurels. But these claims, often made for Butler and others, have their interesting and instructive side. They show how little apt