dental, the prevailing infidelity has been pantheistic; and when that philosophy has been empirical, the infidelity has had in it more or less of positivism. Ancient Buddhism is associated with the philosophy of the senses, Brahmanism with that of consciousness. Descartes gave the a-priori method to Europe, and out of that method sprang Spinozism; Bacon and Locke gave the a-posteriori, which was pushed forward into sensationalism. Kant taught a spiritual philosophy, and Hegel was, in some real sense, his successor; the prevailing philosophy of the present time is materialistic, and Comtism is the infidelity which claims its protection. In Germany, where thinking has had more to do with ideas than with facts, pantheism has had a prodigious growth; in France, where the study of what is outward prevails, positivism finds its home and stronghold. Infidelity has existed all along through the history of our race, ever since man first departed from God; and it will continue to exist, in every nation and age, till men are restored to God in Christ. In ages and countries where thought is chiefly concerned with the material and outward, the forms of infidelity will have their ground in positivism; in those times and places where truth is sought chiefly in consciousness, pantheism will be the informing spirit of unbelief. One or the other of these two yokes of bondage men will wear, until delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

present

Scope of the A full and adequate treatment of the topics work. contemplated in these lectures would include, therefore,

I. A CRITICAL HISTORY OF PANTHEISM, WITH A

II. A SIMILAR HISTORY OF POSITIVISM, WITH A LIKE

REFUTATION; AND

III. A STATEMENT OF THE MANNER IN WHICH CHRISTIANITY MEETS THAT HUMAN WANT WHICH THEY ARE FOREVER FLATTERING ONLY TO DELUDE.

This whole vast field is more than I can hope to explore, in the series of lectures which here follows. It will be enough, and more than I dare promise, if even tolerable justice be done to the first main department namely, Pantheism. And inasmuch as there is a wide field of examination to go over, requiring us to eliminate and define the errors which may be classed under this head, thus at length preparing the way for argument against them; considering, I say, that we must wait so long without formally replying, while the authors on trial are allowed to speak for themselves in large part, I deem it proper, in the remainder of this Introduction, Suggestions to make a few suggestions of general import, in advance. as to the most effective methods of meeting and forestalling any forms of religious error.

Speculative tific theories prejudged.

and scien

not to be

1. In the first place, the defenders of the Christian system should not be too ready to condemn, as a form of infidelity, every new speculation, or scientific theory, which may happen to be put forth. This premature judgment may be reversed by a later and more intelligent verdict. The friends of Christianity will then be convicted of hindering the cause they sought to forward; of ignorantly putting forth their hand to steady the sacred ark where it was in no danger. The new theory or speculation may be yet in its infancy, crude,

broached in the tentative rather than the dogmatic form. If alarmists within the church would be at pains to know the author personally, they might find him a devout and reverent thinker, as much concerned for the honor of Christianity as themselves. Perhaps he has carefully considered the very points at which they stumble, and sees a way of justifying them to his Christian faith which has not occurred to his critics. Why should they stultify themselves by raising a false alarm? Very likely he only puts his views into the form of an inquiry at first, and leaves them at the tribunal of reason and common sense. Why need we, in our concern for the Bible, rush upon them frantically, or blow our trumpets for a warning, before those theories have won a sure foothold, even in the scientific or philosophical world? When they have passed over that frontier, coming safely out of every struggle, and surviving every attack on their proper ground, then it will be early enough for us to conclude whether or not our batteries should open upon them. Multitudes of them are overthrown and trodden down, while running the gantlet wholly outside of our domain; and if here and there one escapes, surviving the opposition of rival theories, and overcoming the severest scientific criticism, this fact should be taken as presumptive evidence that it comes to us, not as an enemy, but as a friend; for truth cannot be the foe of truth.

Error not always to be denounced.

Even where we detect grave signs of error,

it may be wiser to seek fellowship than to withdraw it. It was Judaism that said, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred;" Christianity says, "Go

ing that the Reformers could do most for their cause by staying in the Papal church. Perhaps they are mistaken who think that the churches of New England lost ground by withdrawing from Arianism in Dr. Channing's time. But as long as the honor of Christ will permit, we should avoid driving any new error into an open declaration of war. It may be no more than the pet delusion of a few individuals, and, at the worst, will live only while they live, if let alone. By assailing it we provoke it to take positive ground; at once put its advocates out of the reach of our Christian influence; enable it to raise against us the cry of persecution, which will be sure to bring crowds of curious and sympathetic people to its support; and thus a party may be organized, through which its influence will be vastly widened, and prolonged far beyond the term of its natural life. A broad wisdom, gleaned from the fields of history and experience, admonishes us to brand no man as a teacher of infidelity, till absolutely compelled to by our loyalty to Christ. Whoever does not insist on being the enemy of Revealed Religion, should be esteemed its friend.

Great harm was done to the cause of Christ, Mistake respecting Aswhen his church condemned, as of infidel ten- tronomy. dency, some of the earlier astronomical discoveries. We are amazed now, that the fathers of the church should make themselves a tribunal to judge the Copernican theory, and that they should proceed to condemn it, declaring it to be a damnable heresy. Not that Copernicus himself was thus condemned. Being one of the devoutest men of his times, living amidst powerful friends who wisely guarded his reputation, and not publishing his great discovery till

just as he died, he escaped ecclesiastical censure. It was reserved for Galileo, his follower in the next century, to bear the Papal condemnation; by which his name has been lifted up, as an everlasting warning to theologians, not to make their own ignorance a throne of judgment, from which to hurl anathemas at the novelties of science and philosophy.

Treatment of

Yet that warning has not been always heeded. Geology. The blunder of those Romish doctors was repeated as late as the present century, when the theories of geologists began to challenge attention. How many students of the new science were thus repelled, from what they mistook as the narrowness and bigotry of Christianity, until they became open opposers of the church and its teachings, we shall know only in the day of the revelation of all things. It is not these denunciatory champions, who seem to be born with the scent of religious error in their nostrils, that Christianity needs. They do much harm to her sacred cause. Such men as Thomas Chalmers are the rather our examples. When the ministers of Scotland were beginning to raise their hue and cry against geology, he exclaimed, "This is a false alarm. The writings of Moses do not fix the antiquity of the globe. If they fix anything at all, it is only the antiquity of the species." These great words produced a revolution, and prevented a revolution. They were caught up, and shouted throughout the United Kingdom, till geologists saw they had no cause to rebel against the church, and the church saw she had no occasion for denouncing geology. It was this noble stand which made Chalmers the champion, at once, of both