clearest testimony of some of the most intelligent, conscientious, and upright of our fellow-men. In short religion is secured more firmly, I judge, by the analysis of thefacts of consciousness than by the highest intellectual conceptions.

ALIQUIS. We cannot be too thankful, for this internal testimony to the truth of the Bible, nevertheless, I cannot help adding, that it is too often hypocritically assumed, and is not in every case to be relied upon. Then our age is not tolerant of dogmatic religious teaching, of ecclesiastical traditions, nor of a supernatural element in the experience of daily life; so that on this particular branch of Christian evidence we are required to proceed with the greatest discrimination. I must also add that feeling divorced from morality is worse than worthless,-it is impious.

NEMO. This is true, for supernatural testimony is conclusive only to the person to whom it is given, yet character and actions are to him auxiliary witnesses of its genuineness, as well as real proof to others. But remember that this evidence is offered to all on conditions. that may be obeyed by all. I believe in the province and power of faith, as well as in that of reason. Το define the exact boundaries of the two would be a work of considerable difficulty, but we shall agree in a conclusion like this, that while faith may go beyond reason it can never go against it without incurring the charge of folly and enthusiasm. I would not argue the value of the inner consciousness of the truth of the gospel on the ground merely of its usefulness, nor because divines. have generally insisted upon it, but rather from the fact that it is a reasonable doctrine, the human mind being so constructed that it cannot remain true to itself, and at the same time disbelieve such a doctrine. It can be shewn that it is more rational to believe in the reality and authority of this experience than in the opposite opinion, and that it claims the sanction of a selfevidencing proof. A genuine believer can triumphantly

maintain that there is nothing truer than the gospel, and therefore we are bound to teach and enforce the philosophy of this subjective evidence of Christianity. And although I value this evidence as at once the strongest to convince, and the easiest to understand, yet I would depreciate no other-historical, scientific, miraculous, prophetic, or literary,-since knowledge is as essential to the possession of religion as feeling.

QUIVIS. Here, sir, you are providing us with solid ground to stand upon. "It is absurd," says Kant, "to expect to be enlightened by reason, and at the same time prescribe to her what side of the question she must adopt." We should not enter upon any investigations, including even the truth of Scripture, with our hands. tied, but be ready to admit that we may be in error, and our opponent in possession of the truth. You will concede that our great beliefs are surrounded with many difficulties, but our strength will be to shew that they are reasonable, and that it is impossible to be rational and not believe them. All students of truth in these days must be free from the restrictions which policy and law have imposed upon the teachers of religion. Notwithstanding the strong resistance which the guardians of our faith have shewn, it must be admitted that criticism and natural science have forced the surrender of some points in their creed, and I imagine that many propositions which are now held to be true, will in their turn have to be modified to square with unquestionable facts. Ancestral belief will never again have the influence it has in the past possessed, and candid minds. should be encouraged to attain such measures of truth as the intellectual condition of our age fits us to assimilate. "In the scientific study of religion, which now shews signs of becoming for many a year an engrossing subject of the world's thought, the decision must not rest with a council in which the theologian, the metaphysician, the biologist, the physicist, exclusively take part. The historian and the ethnographer, must

be called upon to shew the hereditary standing of each opinion and practice, and their inquiry must go back as far as antiquity or savagery can shew a vestige, for their seems no human thought so primitive as to have lost its bearing on our own thought, nor so ancient as to have broken its connection with our own life."

NEMO. I agree with nearly all you have just stated, and especially with the quotation you have given us from Tylor's "Primitive Culture," a book I have read with interest. With great ingenuity he endeavours to shew that civilization, philosophy, and religion, have sprung out of savagedom, and that all that is now beautiful and pure in human life, had its germ in primitive thought and usage. But this is only a theory, a theory indeed which may be forcibly used in defence of the great truths on which our inner life is fed. Though fully aware that some of his doctrines might seem to favour the interests of infidelity, and bear against Christian truth, he remarks: "I have felt neither able nor willing to enter into this great argument fully and satisfactorily, while experience has shewn that to dispose of such questions by an occasional dictatorial phrase, is one of the most serious of errors." I would commend this last remark to your careful consideration, while I am sure Tylor's remarkable book will bring nothing but strength to the true principles of religion. "I make no secret that true Christianity seems to me to become more and more exalted, the more we know, and the more we appreciate the treasures of truth hidden in the despised religions of the world."* Then I am anxious to assure you that the broadest and profoundest investigations of theological truth are welcomed by biblical students. Its defenders shrink not from any new trial of strength, for from the first it has sought no privileges, and claimed no immunities, but boldly confronted and confounded the most powerful antagonists, and is now prepared to challenge the keenest researches of history, science,

Max Muller.

and criticism. This truth is Divine truth, and its dimensions equal to the facts of all time and space.. Yet, in some of your observations just now, I thought I detected an undertone of suspicion, that Christianity could hardly maintain its imperial claims. It will be well for us to remember that all are not mistakes which are alleged to be so, and we must distinguish between facts and their inferences, for surely we are not bound to yield up our beliefs to anything but solid reasons, and sufficiently attested realities. My doctrine is, and I have seen no reason up to the present time to modify it, that the facts of science and nature, when positively ascertained, will be found in harmony with Scripture when exactly interpreted. What one philosopher or divine declares to be a truth patent to all, another pronounces a palpable fiction. "The eye of human intellect," says Bacon, "is not dry, but receives a suffusion from the will and the affections; so that it may almost be said to engender any science it pleases. For what a man wishes to be true, that he prefers believing." This sagacious observation bears upon all mental pursuits, and shews the necessity of honesty and care. Many in this age are bewildered and injured by hasty conclusions and "dictatorial phrases." The attitude of science and criticism towards the Christian faith is noisy and defiant, and will lead many astray, but let us be charitable and hopeful, and far from thinking of surrendering our cherished beliefs, assure ourselves that ere long the billows that now furiously dash against the Christian rock will have spent their force, and calm and beauty play at its base. Already in the higher circles of inquiry there are indications of a healthy reaction; and science, discarding speculation, is coming forward with facts only and their interpretation. Let this be adhered to, and the assumed strife between theological truths, and the conclusions of physical and psychological researches will cease. Some of our greatest thinkers are vindicating Redi's doctrine that there can be no life, but from life; that the whole universe is not merely dependent on, but

actually is the will of one Supreme Intelligence, who has guided the development of man in a definite direction, and arranged his body and mind for a preconceived purpose. "For my own part I believe the researches of science and history, and of a sound and just criticism, so far from tending to shake the foundations of belief have afforded an infinity of evidence to support it, as well as to sustain the authenticity and to enhance our estimate of the value of its sacred records. If conflict take place between the professors of science and the professors of religion, the fault lies not in the thing they profess, but in those who profess it; it lies in their want of truth to their profession; it lies in their promulgating as science that which is not science; and as religion that which is not religion. It is the rash, the precipatate, the narrow, the half-informed dealing with the subject-this rushing from narrow premises to broad conclusions-to say nothing of the painful causes which mix themselves with human action-that creates these false assumptions, that rends assunder those whom God has joined together, and aims at bringing about this fearful crisis, that a man must be in the desperate alternative either to break with the whole investigation of nature-with all the rich materials not of enjoyment only, but of improvement, with which God has filled our life so fulleither he must do that, or if he is not to make that great renunciation, he is to make one greater still-the renunciation of his belief and hope in the world which is unseen, and in that future which is the end and the goal of his earthly existence. I believe that a more vast and terrible imposture never threatened the happiness of mankind, and the way to encounter this imposture is by the serious and practical maintenance of the truth by which it is to be detected and exploded, and by which proof will be afforded of the great virtues of religion, and the close union between all the faculties of man and the purposes of the life he now leads, and of the life to come."*

*W. E. Gladstone, at King's College, London, May, 1872.