APOLOGETICAL LECTURES

ON THE

FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS OF CHRISTIANITY.

LECTURE I.

THE ANTAGONISTIC VIEWS OF THE UNIVERSE IN THEIR HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.

HE task which I propose to myself in the lectures I am about to deliver before you, my respected hearers, is to state to you those general truths on which Christianity is founded, and to justify them in the presence of modern thought. The Christian view of the universe is in these days opposed by a non-Christian view; and a separation in the whole current of opinion in the modern world, leading to a rupture which could not but have a fatal influence upon the future, is increasingly imminent. Under such circumstances it is the duty of every advocate of Christian truth to do his utmost to maintain the connection of intellectual life.

Christian intellect has in our days undoubtedly attained a degree of enlightenment and power rarely before witnessed. We need only observe the earnest

A

ness with which theological studies are prosecuted, or compare the sermons of the present day with those of the past, or the great activity manifested in the various provinces of Christian usefulness, and the self-sacrificing labours of home and foreign missions, with that of former times, to be convinced that the Christian intellect is indeed a power. But the nonChristian intellect is also such a power as it never was before. We have indeed already seen times in which Christianity met with the most positive denial. Voltaire ruled the educated minds of his age, and was able to indulge the hope that in a few decades Christianity would be extinct. Such a hope could in the present day be entertained by no reasonable man; and yet the non-Christian intellect is a mightier power now than then. And this for two reasons. The force of church customs then still formed a barrier against the gainsayers, and brought Christianity itself intact through the times of scepticism. But this barrier of the form of sound words is ever more and more yielding to the torrent of modern times. Again, former attacks were desultory, modern ones are systematic. The spirit of French infidelity is more stormy and tumultuous, but not so dangerous as the German. When a Renan writes a Life of Jesus, it is clever, piquant, popular; but it is a romance, an interesting novel. Works of fiction are the favourite literary productions of the day; and what could be imagined more interesting than a novel, whose hero is Jesus Christ, an amiable revolutionist, a model enthusiast and fanatic sur

rounded by women who love His person more than His work, by disciples who force Him to play the part of a worker of miracles, etc.? But what is the result?-A few years and the book will be forgotten, while the heavy artillery directed thirty years ago against the faith of the Church by David Strauss, and since then by his intellectual successors, has caused far greater confusion among the ranks of the faithful that these French skirmishers can effect. Since the French attacks in the days of Voltaire, the refutation of Christianity has passed through a school, the philosophical school of the German mind, it has been formed into a systematic view of the world, and earnest attempts have been made to set this up in the place of Christianity. And this view, stripped of its philosophic garb, and uniting itself with the other tendencies of the age, has passed into the general opinions, not only of the educated, but in a coarser and clumsier form into those of the labouring classes also.

It is the duty of every one to be rightly informed concerning these antagonistic views, that he may take up a conscious position with respect to them. Nothing is more unworthy than to prejudge a cause of which we are ignorant, and yet there is nothing

In every other

more common in religious matters. case it is admitted that, in order to arrive at a judgment in any suit at law, we must know the acts upon which such judgment must be based. Christianity is put upon its trial, and judgment is passed; but how

many among those who are so eager to pronounce it, are acquainted with the Bible, and the doctrinal writings of the Church, which are its chief acts? Surely, of all questions which can agitate an age, the religious question must be that which most deeply and most nearly concerns us. In such a question it is not just to decide upon mere authority, and to allow the position we are to occupy to be pointed out to us by others. Nor can it be right to remain indifferent. In no question is indifference so inadmissible, or so unworthy the dignity of man, as in the question of the great religious antagonisms. Nor is it anywhere more impossible to keep clear of both sides, and to choose the middle course. For these antagonisms are exclusive. In other cases it may often be expedient to seek truth in a middle course; in this we must choose one side or the other. The language of one is, There is a God; of the other, There is no God. Can it then be said, truth lies between the two? There are no greater contrasts than the Christian and non-Christian views of the universe. Goethe says in his Westöstlicthen Divan, and the saying has since been often repeated, 'The most special, the unparalleled, the deepest subject in the history of the world and of mankind, and that to which all others are subordinate, is the conflict between faith and unbelief.' (1) Two utterly opposite principles determine these views, and every individual is compelled to take up a positive position with respect to one of them. The principle, however, which he adopts will fashion his whole being

and colour his whole life. 'Everything depends upon what principle a man embraces, for both his theory and practice will be formed in accordance therewith.' (2) Let us then endeavour to bring before our minds the great antagonism in its historical development, that we may clearly understand what the question really is, which is stirring up the vast moral contest now going on around us, and in which every one of us is playing his part !

When Christianity came into the world, it came into it as a new view of the universe. Its first object, indeed, was the preaching of the cross, the word of reconciliation, the gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, the doctrine of repentance and faith as the way of salvation and eternal life to man. Christianity is primarily the doctrine of salvation.

But this doctrine

of salvation includes, and is founded on, a certain view of the universe, and this view was an entirely

new one.

Its way, indeed, had been prepared, and points of contact furnished by previous knowledge, by philosophy, and still more by man's conscience and his instinctive sense of truth; but in its essence it was absolutely new. Even in its very first and fundamental principles, the unity of God and the unity of the human species, could not but produce an entire revolution in the world of mind. For these were entirely new notions. How differently, indeed, must the world be regarded, when looked upon as the work of a Creator, as the free and loving act of a Father, who orders and main