CHRISTIANITY AND THE EDUCATION OF THE WORLD; OR, A Dialogue on the Second of the Essays and Reviews. WELL, H., have you read the Essays and Reviews? H. I have; I am somewhat late in doing so; I thought I might have seen them abroad, but the book was not sent me as I expected. But my sojourn there has enabled me to judge somewhat more distinctly of the character of this effort. As might be supposed, it is not an isolated one in the remarkable working of principles, both good and evil, which we see in the present day. W. You do not mean that rationalism is on the increase in Germany,-I think you were last in that country? H. By no means. It had found the extreme of its limits, both religiously and philosophically, and the reaction has necessarily set in: for truth there is, and good there is, at least in God, in spite of man; and when men have displayed the extremes to which the evil of human nature, and human will, and its revolt against God can go, there is, under Divine light, at least till man, as we read, be given up to believe a lie, a reaction of natural conscience, and the instinct which knows and feels that a God there is, and that He is and must be good. Under this influence man revolts against what shocks a conscience informed by Christianity, and in a general way, desires to have to say to God, because he has learned that He is good, and feels that a bad God, a God with whom we have nothing to do, and a revelation that is only deceit and falsehood, can give no comfort. I have no thought that a man can go right without grace, but there is a natural conscience which sees through dishonesty, and wants truth and grace; sees, at least, that the contrary is not a true representation of God. It wants something more sure in a revelation, than a product of man's mind, a history of the Hebrew monarchy, or an inspiration somewhat, perhaps, superior to Shakspeare, which learned men can criticise. This may do for Essayists and Reviewers, but it won't do for the wants of the soul in daily life. It won't do for the poor. Such views may make pretentious infidels of them, retailing what they have read, and thinking themselves wise, because they have a certain number of objections against what is good and blessed; but they can give no help or food to any. I have always remarked of infidels, or infidel writers, (for it is better to call things by their names,) that they can make you doubt (no wonder) of many things, but they can give you nothing. They never give you one certain truth. The word of God gives you many certain truths. It makes you doubt of nothing. It has no need; for it possesses the truth, and gives what is positive. This is an immense difference; it stamps both morally. When infidel minds speak of a love of truth, they never, that I can see, go further than Pilate: What is truth? It is never a holding fast truth they have got, but a casting doubt on what others believe, and professing to search for it, always to be ready to receive it, I suppose, because they have never got it. W. But when you speak of the wants of the soul, do you believe that in the mass of men these spiritual wants exist? H. I believe there are hidden wants everywhere. I do not say a new nature, a changed will, but cravings of a soul that has capacities beyond the sphere in which it is imprisoned; rarely shewing themselves in the toil and follies of life, but which press into notice on particular occasions through the disordered throng of thoughts which crowd the avenues, and people the busy interior, of a dissipated and care-burdened existence. But it is not of this I speak now. I think that the mass of the poor have more reality of thought than reasoners, see more justly the true character of things. Their occupation with labour gives this; they toil to exist. That is now God's ordinance. What they get outside this, must be real. Speculation has no place here. They may know nothing of a revelation, but if they have the thought that there is one, they want one that is a revelation from God,something He has told them, not an improved Shakspeare. If they have Diana and Jupiter, they take Diana and Jupiter as realities. If they are under the law of Moses, they will not spiritualise everything with Philo, or his modern imitators. They will take it as Moses gave it, or not at all. If they are idolators, they will be idolators bona fide, not readers of Lucian. If they are sceptical,-if this pervades the population, not merely religion, but the state, is near its end. I mean by that, society. When man speculates on the sanctions of social life,-when the divine, ever-living power of faith is gone, what holds man subject to something superior to himself;-when what links man to man is gone, self is dominant, conscious that it is self. A few minds may speculate on how much may be true, and seek refined notions out of the condemned mass of materials; the mass of men will be indifferent to all. Despotism or anarchy ensues. How long did the Roman empire survive Lucian, who was but a sign of the times? or the French monarchy the Encyclopedists? On the fall of Rome, Christianity came in as a bond; now I see not what will, save the faithfulness of God and the Lord himself from heaven. This does not prove that anything is true, I admit; but |