lecular motions explain nothing." "The utmost the materialist can affim is the association of the two classes of phenomena, of whose real bond of union he is in absolute ignorance. The problem of the connection of soul and body is as insoluble in its modern form as it was in the pre-scientific ages."

The last remedy which we would propose is a bold, critical attack on infidelity. This involves the negative,—one phase of which has just been considered-and the positive; for it may be affirmed without fear of successful contradiction that infidelity cannot stand in the presence of a critical examination. It were well if all Christians would remember that the ablest, the most exact science not only favors, but demands the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Says Dr. Beale, "Instead of trying to determine exactly how much may be conceded and modified without altogether abandoning Christian belief, we ought to dissect and analyze the ridiculous propositions.

I may without hesitation express my conviction that the main arguments adduced by materialists against religion will scarcely bear thoughtful examination. Many of the more recent observations are very audacious, but that is all. Of the so-called facts upon which some of the arguments are said to rest, many are not facts at all, and the less said about them the better."* The disease checked, the poison removed, the positive work of building up the system should commence. Here the broad principles of Theism should be skillfully employed. The fundamental arguments-to which allusion was made at the beginning of this Article-should be elaborately used and cogently pushed home to the heart and conscience. The spontaneous affirmations of the moral nature unequivocally declare not only God's existence, but man's lost condition, and hence his imperative need of a Saviour. The intense yearnings of the human heart demand a personal, heavenly Father, as is strikingly seen in the extremely sad confession of the late brilliant, but atheistic Professor Clifford. "It cannot be doubted that theistic belief is a comfort and solace to those who hold it, and the loss of it is a very painful loss. It cannot be doubted, at least by many of us in this generation, who either receive now, or received it in our childhood, and have parted from it since *Princeton Review, July, 1878, p. 113.

with such searching trouble as only cradle faiths can cause. We have seen the spring sun shine out of an empty heaven to light up a soulless earth. We have felt with utter loneliness that the Great Companion is dead." Of like import are the words of Dr. Sadleir-one of the leaders of practical atheism in England-who made the chief address at the funeral of George Eliot. Among other things, he said, "My fellow-mourners, not with earthly affections only, but also with heavenly hopes, let us now fulfill this duty which is laid upon us. . . As the noblest lives are the truest, so are the loftiest faiths. It would be strange that she should have created immortal things, and yet be no more than mortal herself. It would be strange if names and influences were immortal and not the souls which gave them immortality. No. The love and grief at parting are prophecies, and clinging memories are an abiding pledge of a better life to come. So then, we may take home the words of Christ, "Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.' Great and dear friend, we bid thee farewell; but only for a little while, till Death shall come again and unite forever those whom he has separated for a time."*

The human intellect no less demands the existence of a Personal First Cause. Darwin has remarked, "The question whether there exists a Creator and Ruler of the universe, has been answered in the affirmative by the highest intellects that have ever lived." Herbert Spencer declares the doctrine of the Unknown, but before finishing his argument, he virtually admits, as Ex-President Hill, of Harvard University, has admirably shown-that the Unknown has at least four attributes, viz: being, causal energy, omnipresence, and eternity."+ In like manner, modern infidelity can no more account for the orderly arrangement of the universe by the mere theory of evolution than it can produce the living from the non-living. As Professor Bowne has convincingly shown, no creation, or a Personal First Cause is the ultimate issue before modern infidelity. In speaking of atheism Professor Tyndall days, "I * See The Independent, Jan. 20, 1881.

+ Bib. Sacra, 1874, p. 211.

The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer, ch. v.

have noticed that it is not in hours of clearness and vigor that this doctrine commends itself to my mind, and that in presence of stronger and healthier thoughts it ever disappears as offering no solution of the mystery in which we dwell and of which we form a part."

"But how should matter execute a law,

Dull as it is, or satisfy a charge

So vast in its demands, unless impelled
To ceaseless action, by some ceaseless power,
And under pressure of some conscious cause?"

It has never
Nay, it is a

Equally conclusive is the historic argument. The experiences of the race are immensely valuable because they show not only the utter folly of infidelity, but also the inherent strength of Christianity. Infidelity has never been constructive, but always destructive. No matter in what direction the eye is turned, whether to architecture, painting, sculpture, music, poetry, or the vast benevolent and missionary activities, the power which has developed the true, the beautiful, and the good, which has cultivated the barren places of the earth and made them blossom as the rose, is "the old, old story of Jesus and his love."* Of necessity this must be, for of itself, infidelity has no life, and consequently it can give none. been and can never be a strong motive power. mere braggart. Going about to establish its own righteousness it has not submitted itself to the righteousness of God, and consequently everything it touches is poisoned and finally dies. Infidelity would measure the Infinite as it does the stars and planets, the glory of his handiwork. It would sound the depths of the soul, as it tests the undulations of the billows which play on the Atlantic coast. It would ruthlessly tear man from his Maker and laugh to scorn the wreck thus made. But let us take courage and work on. He who was condemned that Barabbus might go free, shall yet be crowned by the ages as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, for

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep,

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail."

* See Lecky's remarkable statement as to the power of Christianity in Europe. Rationalism in Europe, vol. i., p. 311.

ARTICLE VII.—THE BIBLE AS A BOOK OF EDUCATION.

Ir does not need a very wide induction of facts, or a very careful reading of the signs of the times, to discover that the Bible does not now hold that place in the estimation of many minds, especially of younger persons, which it formerly held. While its divine authority and inspiration as a book of religion is generally conceded, yet this is held often in a partial or qualified sense, as inspired in portions, or as touching certain religious truths and doctrines, but not in respect to other truth. It no longer commands the reverence or the faith which it once inspired as The Book, the Word of God, the sun of the moral and intellectual world, "the fountain light of all our day, the master light of all our seeing." It is no longer the text-book of the family and the school, as well as the church, from which all truest and best knowledge is derived.

The causes of this are many and various, and are connected with that general decadence of faith and reverence which seems to be a characteristic of our time. I will mention only one or two more specific causes as preparing the way for a true answer to our main question-How to exalt the Bible in the estimation of the young ?*

This low estimate of the Bible implied in the question is in great part the effect of ignorance-a natural consequence of the immaturity of their minds and tastes, and an inability to appreciate the true excellence of the Bible. A child or uncultured person cannot be expected to have the same estimate of Milton or Shakespeare, or the same appreciation of nature and the sciences drawn from it, as one of mature knowledge and cultivated taste.

Another reason lies in the notion that the Bible is purely a religious book, and therefore uninteresting to the young mind; in the prejudice arising from the natural or unregenerate heart, which associates religion and religious teaching with gloom, austerity, and all unpleasantness.

*This Paper was originally prepared for a Conference of Young Men's Christian Associations, as a discussion of the above question.

I will not stay to inquire how far this prejudice may be due to unwise religious teaching, and the substitution of human systems and dry theological dogmas for the fresh and living presentations of truth as found in the Scriptures; or whether the two revelations of Nature and the Bible have not been too widely sundered in our attempts to exalt the Bible above Nature. I will here simply drop the inquiry as matter for reflection-Why is it that the Word of God in Nature should be so attractive to the young mind that it never tires of its varied and endless beauty and harmony, and the more intellectual the communion the greater the delight, while the Word of God in the Bible, which we believe to have come from the same infinite Mind, and is so vitally linked with Nature in its language of symbol and poetry, should be regarded with indifference and sometimes with aversion?

One other cause which I will mention, is the too prevalent impression fostered by the infidelity of the day, that the Bible, and especially the Old Testament, is a book of the past, superannuated, and outgrown by the advancement of modern thought. It is needless to say that this notion is one of sheer ignorance and not of superior enlightenment; an evidence of that vanity of mind in which modern skepticism walks, "having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart." The question then is-How to meet and forestall this ignorant prejudice which the young are so apt to imbibe, and exalt the Bible to its true place in their regard and estimation?

A general answer would be, to show what the Bible really is; by letting its own light displace the darkness of ignorance and prejudice respecting it; by showing that it is a book not of religion merely but of widest and truest culture, adapted to every faculty and want of the human mind, as well as the heart and conscience; suited to every age and class and condition of humanity; that it is not behind the age but before it, and before all ages, because anticipating and comprehending the wants of all; containing not indeed the results but the first principles and germs of all science and philosophy, the oldest literature, the beginnings of all history, disclosing the origin and final cause and consummation of all things; that as Nature