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■....vt.ij.-rfiitas.*!^. 
 

 ^ 
 
j: LIGHT IN THE CLOUD: 
 
 »> 
 
 ;; 
 
 BEING 
 
 ^timuB for ^enottndns SnfiMit^. 
 
 TWO SERMONS, 
 
 Pbeaciied in Augustine Church, Clapham Road, London, 
 ON Sunday, September 10th, 1876. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE SEXTON, M.A, M.D., LL.D., Ph.D., 
 
 mnorary Member qf VAccnSimM deiQ^iHtiRltSi^^^- 
 
 , , ... .."Come what, come may. 
 
 I know this world is richer than I thought. 
 By somethlnfr left to it from paradise; 
 I know this world is brighter than I thought. 
 Having a window into heaven ; henoefort*- 
 Uie has for me a purpose and a drift." 
 
 —Sir ift rf, Taylor. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 I 
 
 TORONTO, CANADA: 
 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS, 78 & 80 KING STREET EAST 
 
 MONTRBAL : C. W. COATES. Halifax. N.S. : S. F. HUESTIS. 
 
 LONDON, ENGLAND: 
 WADE & 00., 10 OLD BAILEY, E.G. 
 
 li 
 
UnTo 
 
 N 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 '^-^^LE(^ 
 
 It is hardly necessary to write a preface to the two 
 SiTn.ons which follow. They were preached at the time 
 and place named on the title page, and the reader will have 
 no difficulty in discovering the object had in view in their 
 preparation and delivery. For some twenty years, or there- 
 abouts, as is tolerably well known, I occupied a somewhat 
 conspicuous position in the ranks of the soH^alled advanced 
 thmkers. About fourteen years ago, I wa* led by a course 
 of providential circumstances to reconsider the whole ques- 
 tion of Christian Evidences, which I had for so lon^ a time 
 been accustomed to look upon a« closed so far as I was 
 concerned, and the result was the discovery of the utter 
 fallacy of my sceptical views. Gradually I retumed-as 
 far aa the broad principles of Christian Truth were con- 
 cemed-to the faith of my early life, and finally to the 
 position with which I commenced my public career, that of 
 a minister of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 As I wa* continually coming into contact with my former 
 sceptical co-workers, I wa^ repeatedly requested to state the 
 reasons which had led to my change of views. To do this 
 effectually would require several goodly «V^ ,,«i„«, 
 
IV 
 
 PREFAOB. 
 
 ZZ'^ »d We .et with a ,.^ »,«, both in Engl^l 
 -dW. Butaw,.tw„»tii.feltforafewbriefU 
 
 ttTh . . "'' ^"^"^ ™*' »"* «« «>»W •« placed in 
 wav Xir™^ -^'- «■--- - CH^Lian, o" 
 
 n»f 77' . "* **" ™''J*'*» •"«™««J are not 
 
 P«te„ded W be dealt with in an exhaustive „am.er- Z 
 ^ough<» a. adapted to the fo™ in .Ueh ther'wl 
 
 we^l!: f ! '™ ""'"""■ "' "■« P"'"i»h''<' Sern,on, 
 
 Zt ^dt^ *''^;""^ ™'"""' -'"'^«' '«■>« out of 
 print, and I had no idea, until recentlv ^f w • 
 
 -e'-. Sin.Ihaveb^eninnrotr'!:!: 
 -.W of applioationshave been „ade Z copies IhC 
 the appea^nce of this edition, which I t™.t „ay be p " 
 
 Toronto. Canada, August ist. 1886. 
 
 GEORGE SEXTON. 
 
TO THE 
 
 REV. DAVID THOMA; D.D., 
 
 A Theological Author-Aa«d m secundus-^f unsurpassed 
 clearness, a preacher of transcendent ability, and, above aU, 
 a Christian with a large heart, whose influence upon the 
 Churches of hi. age has been greater than that of any of 
 his contemporaries, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING SERMONS 
 
 ARE DBUIOATED 
 
 BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND, 
 
 TH£ AUTHOR, 
 
ff 
 
t* 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. " 
 
 "Without God in the world."— Epiirsians ii. 12. 
 
 On reading carefully the chapter from which this text is 
 selected, there can be no difficulty whatever in arriving at 
 a correct conclusion as to the kind of persons to whom the 
 Apostle referred. Strictly speaking, it is a matter of im- 
 possibility to be " without God in the world," since, as God 
 IS omnipresent, even the Atheist, who disbelieves in His 
 existence, must live continually in His presence, and be 
 every moment subject to His Power. But it is not to 
 Atheists that the Apostle referred in the text, as will be 
 obvious from his language. The people described by him 
 were "aliens- from the commonwealth of Israel, and 
 strangers from the covenants of promise," were, in fact, 
 Gentiles, -and, therefore, not partakers of the glorious 
 privileges of Israel. It is exceedingly improbable that they 
 were disbelievers in the existence of God, since Atheism 
 was never very popular, and no more in that age than in 
 this was likely to be entertained by any very large number 
 of people. These Gentiles may possibly have been 
 believers in the multiplicity of Gods rather than disbelievers 
 m any, or they may have been Pantheists, believing that 
 everything was God. Still the Apostle speaks of them as 
 being without God in the world. The reason is obvious 
 
 enoucrh : thny wpm n,,f «« nu-:-f -_-i ^ •., . t-- 
 -— J ...«5, „i •v-'uiiot, aiiu, as wicnout hi 
 
 Lun no 
 
8 
 
 WITHODT aOD m THE WORDD. 
 
 true conception of Deity can h. f„ j . 
 
 without God. On this'^pTnt^ Z^t*^'' """' '"^^''^ 
 
 the evening discourse and mL.f . ° """^ *» "X » 
 
 p"-t, and p„„^' ::: 7d rir 'tr " -^ '^ ""> 
 
 ««Peot of tlie question and L »„ ■ ^ ^° ™°" K™*'*' 
 things existing in ,„„„7';' "PP"""^"'" *» the state of 
 notice:- ""y- ^n """sidering this I shall 
 
 the wlrir''™' "'"•" "' P»P'« -ho a«, "without God in 
 
 JyJ""'' "'" '■°»« "-■"'»«* «od in the world" i„. 
 
 . ^" '•«»"»« with these questions I .l..n . 
 "> feet, under the circum^t^^ ij l*:n" ^ ^^P^'W- 
 n>e-to speak frequently ofT "* "'«<='«' •' 
 
 which I always .^kofth, Treat"" •"'P""-™- «>«"<. 
 because it i„v„„es the necessCof "/ "' ■*'"°'»'"='" 
 dacing the pronoun / asT ^ "' "° frequently int^. 
 In this case, however U i^ ^^'''. '° '"™"' »' "goti-m. 
 Retail n.yow„ ^^^JLVf^^Tr' ^""^' ™"^ 
 the question under considem'rn Id i^" 7 '^""«»» 
 likely to prove beneficial to „t!' u ""'" ' "'^ »» i« 
 of striking against the Iks wW T'" "ti"" '» "»»««' 
 wreck. ™°*' ™ere X myself suffered ship- 
 
 thJ-wirid.™"""" '■"•" "' P-P'» -"0 a„ .. without God in 
 
 In the present day thpro »».« 
 tkat »ay he includedi'tht c:!^^"" "'^'^ <>' I«"o- 
 
 «rether"':nd''rr„:rheTr ^"r^ '^ «»<"^- 
 •nti-Theists than Atheiste Cr ^"*'' '''«''"'««' « 
 
WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 9 
 
 is forthcoming is insufficient to produce conviction in their 
 minds but that they are by no means prepared to affirm 
 that a God does not exist. A few men there are, however 
 and among them the leading man in the so-called Free! 
 thought movement, who take the irrational course of 
 mamtammg in the most positive and dogmatic manner that 
 there is no God. As a matter of course, such an attitude 
 IS preposterous in the extreme, since no man can be in a 
 position te affirm positively that there is no God, unless he 
 could become endowed with the attributes of infinity, and 
 thus become God himself. For how can he tell what there 
 IS m the remote parts of the universe, upon which human 
 eyes have not gazed, and into which human thought has 
 not penetrated? For aught that he can tell, in re^ons far 
 beyond his range of vision, evidences of the existence of 
 God may abound in such profusion as to overwhelm scepti- 
 cism ten times more obstinate than his own 
 
 Atheism is both irrational and opposed to the highest 
 instinct^ of humanity. It is neither conformable to reason 
 nor to that feeling which lies far deeper down in m^s 
 nature, which the Germans call God-consciousness, and from 
 which springs the belief in Deity. In all nations and in aU 
 ^68 men have believed in God. Sometimes this faith has 
 be«>me terribly distorted by the large admixture of error 
 which 18 found interwoven with it, but underneath all 
 abuses there IS invariably to be discovered the sound sub- 
 stratum of truth, which is impossible to be rooted out of 
 human nature. In all the great civilizations of antiquity, 
 
 m the foreground of universal opinion, and among savages 
 ^ IS questionable whether it is ever altogethef 13 
 
 ^feT; :r ^^^^ ."^^rf ^^^^ p-*-«'^ ^^ that no 
 
 """ '^ "^ '"«na among whom this belief did 
 
10 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 > i 
 
 Ml • 
 
 'II 
 
 ■,'f 
 ( *'■ 
 
 ' 'H 
 
 not prevail. Recently, however, it 1,„ been tl,. f i- ' 
 point to a few tribe, of savair™. wL '^" "■« ^""o" to 
 
 , <'"«'"teof any tnowledglXtatrwr T "" ""''''' 
 truth, no words can be L^At , V "^ l»n«»««es. in 
 
 future state, or any iind o^ r ""^ " ^"P'*"" »"»» . 
 that the tru h of "hi, ^ vtl T"' "^ "™ "P'"'"" ", 
 wore not, the linVZlTr"''.'!''' "■"'' ''™" '' " 
 
 -trwTatb T^ ~w,rvc; 
 
 ^ rn^td^fotr ^"''^ "^^^^^ 
 
 utterly degld!d andTo In Z"^" """' '" ^'""^^ »" »» 
 incapable ofl^cetvtrth •"« '"'"'' "' ''"°«"-"^ «'<>•« 
 
 simplest rudirr:f z ktT ;' t"""""- ^ *"" 
 
 utterly .pu«na„, u, -mZn i^ln"! t:C„„„dT'"' !? 
 no amount of reasonino. ,. hi; i \ ^ condition, and 
 
 by any laree , " ^ f^ *" """"^ " *» '^ ""^epted 
 
 thatisfeltleJ' l'"T\ ^ ''"«""• '»-«-- 
 
 what has been so graphically described by Jean P^f rIi., 
 —rendered into English in thn „„^ . if Richter 
 
 Oarlyle-but even f„ .n , ^ . "' ''"«""«« »* Thomas 
 He Larkli i^ OhrTstTot "r " ""'^ '"»P'«'«'- 
 
 "I went through th7™rll I 'T"!" "* 'P^'"*" 
 
 ocw With the*gaia!::e:;h:iTr^^"':;h"'"""'r 
 
 there is no God Trl«o.« ^ j ^, ^^ heaven; but 
 
 and.oo.edlt i'„:7elttrie*:'"^^^^^ 
 
 s:a^\'hra°"'^'^'r^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 when I Cm ud ZZ ""^ '^'' '"°"«^ <•'""'■ And 
 
 looked up to the immeasurable world for the Divine 
 
WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. H 
 
 £i/e it glared on me with an empty, black, bottomless eye- 
 iocket and eternity lay upon chaos, eating it and ruminating 
 It. Cry on, ye dissonances, cry away the shadows, for He 
 18 not. The pale-grown shadows flitted away, as white 
 vapour, which frost has formed with the warm breath dis- 
 appears, and all was void. And then came, fearful for the 
 heart the dead children who had been awakened in the 
 church-yard into the temple, and cast themselves before the 
 high form on the altar, and said, 'Jesus, have we no Father?' 
 And He answered with streaming tears, ' We are all orphans. 
 I and you; we are without Father.' Then came louder 
 shnekmg dissonances, parting asunder of quivering temple 
 walls gnnding press of worlds, the torch dance of cekstial 
 wild-fires, glimmering souls upon the sea of Death, void 
 of immensity. Dead, dumb Nothingness, Cold, ever- 
 teing Necessity, Frantic Chance!" Aye, my brethren, 
 
 ^ f Tr. ^' «^*« «^ ™ind of the man in whom the 
 belief m God has died out, and who feels himself a helpless 
 orphan, tossed on the everiasting sea of chance with no 
 compass to steer by, no pilot to guide, and no chart of the 
 ocean on which he is drifting, he knows not where. But 
 more of this hereafter. Suffice it to say, that all the highest 
 and loftiest instincts of humanity point to God, and hence 
 the universal belief in His existence. 
 
 Nor is Atheism any more conformable to reason than to 
 conscience. Arguments d priori and d posteriori are both 
 conclusive in favour of the being of a God. The former of 
 these I deem unanswerable, but perhaps too abstruse for 
 the popular mind, and may, therefore, here be passed by 
 he latW falls within the range of every man's' thinking: 
 
 TvnH^t ?. *^' ^^'"' ^"^"'"^ ^ ^'•^^^ i» ''^^y ^ Professor 
 Tyndall's Belfast address, what I may here repeat : " Nature 
 ^ „, „,„„„ uuruugn ah iier works that a Divine Work- 
 
'1;^ 
 
 IS 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WOBLD. 
 
 W 
 
 »ind to f«hion it. every fo™ t '""""P:""'""' «* »»'»»• 
 to direct it into eve^ e^ ^t i^^ Jed'" """^ '"""' ""» 
 
 Sp«k to Him. tl,™ for A h»™ J* i?" ?'• °°' ""» i» <lS » 
 
 «n<.er ^Urif^rrZtllrr T^ Mni^ ^°""' 
 causes and effects is utt«ri„ • • ^"^*® ««"«» <>' 
 
 «-.the«,ou.dl;: ™l~r '*■ "-^ '» «.at 
 an illustrstion, which ni,t.fi,— ^ollaston adopted 
 
 an infinite nu^wtf Ck ^"7-'""" "«•"• «"P^ 
 -kr. The ,ue,tio„ imreS.^,; ^^r^ '"^rtt '""■ "■" 
 this chain held up ) And »^ . °^""~^y what power is 
 other will not Jl fhe ^ "! *'»* ««.'' '»k -PPorts the 
 we .hall want to know ^f. ' °' "" "'■'"'' '^'■» 
 Thi. demand flow. n^L^t-mTr ": 'J'"^ °''"''- 
 the question that it «.k. mlf^ "' ""'"«'"- a»<J 
 
 of a oau«, a. it .hl;^t^ri„'" 'T"^- '^'' '™» "» 
 S.«uol Olark ha. My Zwn Rr.t ,hT JT"""' "■ " »'• 
 thing el,e; «,d .econd, thalit fa 71 ?"' " ""^' "<"»«- 
 
WITIIOITT aOD IN TUB WORLD. ]S 
 
 o.u«, .„d thi. m».t b« capable of producing the v.riou. 
 offecta wh,ch we ob«,rve. Now, we .11 know thi. n.ri« 
 dj«ova«d .n . „lf.exi,te„t Being „r nowhe™. Ev» 
 Herbert Spencer, the Oorypheu, of modem ^ptM phllo 
 -ophy, .dmu, that the doctrine of oa««.tion Ie.5. to a fir.t 
 r? /» W- " Pir.t Principle " he remark. : " We c«not 
 thmk at all about the impro»i„„. which the external world 
 produce, on u. without thinking of them a, cau^ and 
 
 the operation of what U called Force. Spirit it get. rid o7 
 
 *.rce. tlectncty and magnetism, and heat and light are 
 .11 «, many mode, of motion, or fom.. of force. Uk^ 
 
 Of aiKument, that it .. «,; then what follow. J The first 
 
 have included within itwlf all the re.t, which were to be 
 ^^y r'"'"';, «-, i, it did not. they mu.t have 
 
 wou^d have been impossible. Well, the highest form of 
 force upon th« principle, i. intelligence. Intellirnce 
 
 But there can be no intelligence except in connection t^' 
 
 personality. What, then, i. the conclurion to which we 
 
 ^ ^ oon«.ou. InteUigent Being, and thi. Being wo 
 problem which nmsAnfo ;*«^i« ^ " . "" 
 
v 
 
 14 
 
 WITHOUT «0D m thb wobld. 
 
 nalnature. The sole real force win, »,i. • i. 
 by experience i, volition 17* ifnfr •"'"?"■""'«' 
 's^h a Divine Volition onh L^T ^ T '""»'»8J'. ^« 
 WiHia. Thompson admi^^r ',:L""ro'" ^'^^ «" 
 strong proofe of intelligent LIZIT , ."^''"""^'^ 
 round US, and if over peSeLref T?'™' ^"^^ "« "U 
 scientific-turn u, Jayl^TZlT """""''y-'"" «' 
 with irresistible force.'^ Of tC^' ^^T" ''""^ "P»" •'» 
 »»tter able to judge than I al . dl Jo d"' "° ■""» » 
 was that such doubts and nern^' . ''*'" """^ '«'* " 
 
 ■»e. Still there Z^thTZT, "°°''' "^^ '■*™ ^' 
 position, and forthersaler^;-'"*''-,- '"o »- 
 
 2. Those who denv th„ n- • ? " ™''J'"'*- 
 usually oall^l^ :L Icrirth^'T"'^' """ -'" - 
 
 Pantheism h.s flourished v:;wtrr„:r "' u""""'^*"- 
 ent times, and under diffferent 1/ 7°'''' '' ''"«"''- 
 Sometimes it has been fullTf i/ """ "Pl^^anees. 
 
 times dry and barre^a^ 111''!^ w**'"^' "' "«"" 
 at an early period in India weli! ' "'"^' *'"" " 
 
 0«eks and the Romans a'ndTtt '"'™"'"« ""'""S *« 
 -St extensively, and tl' a :» l' :;r ^1' I" d"""""^ 
 P«»ent time. An ancient poet wrot:: folltf .""■ " *"« 
 
 Female £ Jove -the imL- ?''?^"' '""» J°", 
 Jove the bwS Mrth S if^' •'°™ '' ■»«'«• 
 
 jovei, the b^dt»'spi it'5:t:Vh"'^''«<'' •»■«; 
 
 That warms the world wiVj,* k ' *"® ^''®' 
 The sea is Jove! the su^ A T^"**^ ?"^ **««'«. 
 
 P.rkv.^,„^lH-:J'ji7^|ir.. 
 ^schylus, too, writes :— 
 
 "Jupiter is the air, 
 Jupiter is the earth, 
 
 Jupiter is the heaven, 
 AH IS Jupiter. » 
 
WITHOUT «0D IN TlIK WOBID. ,5 
 
 This sort of stuff sounds very well in n^. . 
 
 of matter of fact, and tisi^JTj /'"" '""S"'*'' 
 
 <n«.t with a simi ar ki^ rf L . ■"""" "' '»"''"• ^e 
 
 Spino», in the ~ett:^l ^^dtair"''' °' 
 more fascinating but Ip« i • .7' appears m a 
 
 Hegel, and ScKfi Hh Till T V"" ™«"S» «' 
 P«nthei,n., too wkLVT"' ™"'^ " » ^ind of 
 
 discover the true obiect „7l J '~''' '''"* ''™» *" 
 
 P-pingout«,«.si„„:,rnthf ,. °f?*. '" "?" '""' "' ■"">' 
 C«'lyle,and more di til|7 ''"'""""8^°™''»"« 
 
 Bailey's "Festns.-' CZlT"'"^" '" '"""' '^■"» » 
 deep root in the ESishrnd'^b"" ''t'^ '^ '"''« ^"^ 
 found to be uncongenif to ^f ^""^ *''" ""' "'" ^ 
 «»ne extent, fashiSL J^ development. Still, it is, to 
 
 that are taken up mo" ,0,^7' T"^ """'' ^'**"™. 
 from any other oaur """"^ °' ""> '"«« 'han 
 
 ."r^^thett'ffl.- = ^-odtth:: 
 
 covers in matter the o^I^L f""'"'™'^- ^*'"'''«> dis- 
 theism holds that matCiZlf '""^ '"™ "' "^«' P"- 
 e^istenoe, which it ZLI^c"': T'' "^ "■« «»« 8^t 
 the universe matter or sStt o^ ' p r*"'*"" y»" -» 
 either case, it i, Md to b ' '^ ''"'" """»'»*' «• » 
 
 Atheism, gets rid of cr^ul'T"""*!- P'"*^™. !*« 
 
 immortaUty-i.., a diX t inH- Tt"""' "' P^^^'' "' 
 revelation, and in trutrT,. "''""<'™> ™mortality-_of 
 tween right and ^™ ' > •''^°'"** """■'" "''""""e- be 
 fo' one Anient rftj^rr^ '«."-'-. -d cannot 
 
 '^"' '^ » fauonai examination. 
 
I« 
 
 »ITHOUT HOB IH THE WOBLD. 
 
 IH « I have ,«fc„ „^,k^_ intelligence i, nece«.ril, 
 l«-»d upon co„«c,ouBne», .„d o„„«i„„.„e« „^^ 
 
 taken to^.y by . considerable nnraW of J^nf " 
 
 : :r "rr ^ :: ""-<• «■« J^'srrer 
 
 tne age Such was the view enunciated by Professor Tvn 
 
 ounooa .ow much information people «em to Z, ^ 
 « affirmed of it by those who talk ,.«. ouSy'LtoJ t' 
 ZLy^tftTh^""^"^"'-"™- ^^'^ 
 
 ^ n It; w one which is far more prevalent 
 
WITHOl V aOD IN TUB WORLD. 17 
 
 wmnisical Pantheism before referred to R„f „** 
 
 s '""n V'; "'"'"""^ "'»'"« '-">"'« ' i«x ■„; 
 
 WW « 0.1 ed the supernatural arises frou, the vaK„° 
 ng which is usually attached to the term. d7busZu' 
 
 »y« • Tha. „ .ui>ematural,whatever it be, that i, not in th, 
 chain 01 naluml cause and effect, or which Con th' I 
 of oause a.d effect without the^hain," wric^n t :'r 
 ■" "ply means the introduction into he chain of . 
 oause, such as volition Takin.- fhi. • . T ""'' 
 
 i. nnrf.ffi u ' "■ ^""'"S this view of the case, there 
 
 111 ?o \ " °' """"'""^ °' "-« existen e C 
 
 E Von ion rr*"'"'' "^ '' *'"' '^«»'' »f "-e 
 divine volition, which controls the DhennmAno «* * 
 
 5z *;..-. sl:-, fit ?= 
 
 ».ty, and cannot, therefore, be igno,^ and 1 , T^ 
 which inculcates the leaving the o„eS„„,K ^!'""« 
 « a problem which <.n„ot I .ZtZlfi:^"'Z 
 
 i:.rminTrett:r:r:: "^^^ 
 
 we may attempt to ignorrrrdtprh'rrof"'::^ 
 Xall t^r *""\''' " ^"' «— ^ »» ole bit 
 "h' s^^-'Th'^k' ?"'' " '"' """O^ '•'«'« known 
 
 phi.o^phirpCh'^'^ Tk"!.™' '"« ™n*-y-and 
 -»1U from t'h^S;::^^' -FobabJity of any satisfactory 
 
 «nde., it necessary that sn^lT'f, ^^. ■""■■ -«<"• 
 •{ £> ~"'^" "V Known Of iiii^ 
 
18 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WOULD. 
 
 Nature and Attributes, and that something has been learned 
 by tens of thousands of men in the past, and will be learned 
 by tens of thousands more. You may not find Him in the 
 hurricane or the whirlwind, in the earthquake or the storm, 
 but, in our case, as in that of an ancient prophet. He ever 
 comes in the still small voice which speaks to the inner 
 consciousness of man. Scientists may fail to discover God, 
 and philosophers to apprehend His majesty and might, but, 
 to the simple-minded Christian, He makes Himself known 
 by a process far more certain than any physical demonstra- 
 tion in the external world. 
 
 4. There is another class of men to who)n a reference 
 may be made, under a separate heading, as being " without 
 God in the world," although large numbers of them would, 
 no doubt, fall into one or other of the divisions already 
 mentioned. I refer now to those who deny the Divine 
 Providence, and maintain the supremacy of Natural Law. 
 Atheists and Pantheists, no doubt, both take this view, but 
 it is also taken by people who profess to believe in some 
 sort of God. They seem to imagine that whatever may 
 have happened in the past with regard to the creation of 
 the universe, that at present all the phenomena of nature 
 are simply the result of the operation of natural law. Deists 
 there are who fancy that millions of years ago God created 
 the material universe, to which He then imparted certain 
 powers and forces very much on the principle that a man 
 makes a clock, and that now it goes on of its own accord, 
 •vithout any interference on the part of the Maker, save and 
 9xeept that perhaps — although that point is not very clear 
 — it might occasionally want adjusting, mending, or putting 
 right in some way or other. Nothing can be more prepos- 
 terous than this view, since, if there be a God at all, the uni- 
 verse must not only have been created by Him, but must 
 
WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. jg 
 
 every moment be dependent on His power-in tn.fl, m 
 not exist for a single instant without^Xg pheTd 1 ffis 
 
 '' IToJ r "'. '"^^- ^^ ^'^ ^«-« New'ton remar^r 
 A God without dominion, providence ancJ fi„ ,''^^' 
 
 is nothing but fate and nlture^' T' ? '*"'"'' 
 
 those who seem to put 1: The pL^ ofTrth'f^' 
 have particularly to do with M \ ^ *'*"* ^« 
 
 ex^uWee'beaut, and h!; X" U^ST'' T' '""" 
 brought about, and you are Wd b^ at 1^"' !"? 
 animals and plant, first come inti W„randthent°" ' 
 man, with hi, profound mental powerrte"m^tr„nT 
 judgment, his anderstanding, and hisw II Id ^ ^" 
 
 law did it all. w", and the answer ig, 
 
 " Prom Boating elements in chaos hurled 
 
 :X it rnora thr T -^-" " - :: . 
 
 which phenomena occur A„ .?,:, u . '''^ " '"'"'» '» 
 Oence L -9«eneeT callt. atw ,t;;f ^ l^'-- 
 neither explains the force produciL' theie "" 
 
 force, it would reauire «n in*„n- . ''^ '""'^ » 
 
 it is not even tZ7 *" '"**"'f "* »8™t *» guide it ; but 
 
 guides and the trlthi hT '"[''d t "'*^'"«*'"™ -"'<=•■ 
 elsewhere. I„ „„ 1™ it«"«'""l |«»™ «» >« 'ooked for 
 
 pose which is seenTmnn'"/"^ ''"°" '»*•"'?'«'» ""e pur- 
 seen amongst almost all the phenomena of 
 
! if ' - ' """."-y gr 
 
 20 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 nature. In the organs of our own bodies, in the structure 
 of a plant, in the formation of a crystal, and in the revolu- 
 tion of a world, there is distinct indication of a special pur- 
 pose and plan. As the Duke of Argyll has very ably said, 
 " The very idea of function is inseparable from the idea of 
 purpose. The function of an organ is its purpose ; and the 
 relation of its parts, and of the whole, to that purpose is as 
 much and as definitely a sci ntific fact as the relation of 
 any other phenomenon to space, or time, or number." The 
 word law explains nothing, but serves, in the mode in which 
 it is usually employed, to make confusion worse confounded. 
 Law is but the expression of the volition of God, and inex- 
 plicable from any other point of view. A modem poet has 
 most beautifully put the case as follows J 
 
 " To matter or to force 
 The All is not confined ; 
 Beside the law of things 
 Is set the law of mind ; 
 One sneaks in rock and star, 
 And one within the brain ; 
 In unison at times 
 And then apart again ; 
 And both in one have brought us hither 
 That we may know our whence and whither. 
 
 " The sequences of law 
 
 We learn through mind alone ; 
 Tia only through the soul 
 
 That auffht we know is known ; 
 With equal voice she tells 
 
 Of what we touch and see 
 Within the bounds of life, 
 And of a life to be ; 
 Proclaiming One who brought us hither. 
 And holds the keys of whence and whither. 
 
 " Oh, shrine of God that now 
 Must learn itself with awe ! 
 Oh, heart and soul that move 
 
 Beneath a living law ; 
 That which seemed all the rule 
 ^Of Nature, is but part : 
 
WITHOUT GOD IN THB WORLD. 
 
 A larger, deeper law, 
 
 TU^ * ^}^^\ ^^'^ "^"^ a°d heart ; 
 T^^e force that framed and bore U8 hither, 
 
 Itself at once ia whence and whither. 
 
 " We may not hope to read 
 Nor comprehend the whole. 
 Or of the law of things 
 Or of the law of soul : 
 £ en in the eternal stars 
 
 Dim perturbations rise, 
 And all the searchers' search 
 W« «,!,« u f *^°* e*l»a«8t the skies ; 
 
 Holds ?n ffi/K^l'^** \'°"«'^* "« h^^^^^ ' 
 iioids in His hands the whence and whither. 
 
 * ^%^ ^*" Bcience plans 
 
 The wandering fireg, and fixed, 
 Alike are miracle ; 
 
 The common death of all, 
 
 A . ^® renew'd above. 
 
 Are both within the scheme 
 Ti,. «. . *^?* all-circling love ; 
 The seeming chance that cist ns hither 
 Accomplishes His whence and whithe/. 
 
 " ^? though the sun goes up 
 
 Ills beaten, azure way, 
 
 God may fulfil His thought. 
 
 And bless His world to-day ; 
 Beside the law of things 
 
 The law of mind enthrone. 
 And for the hope of all, 
 xtt w Reveal Himself in One ; 
 Himw f the way that leads us thither, 
 The All-m-aU, the Whence and Whither." 
 
 tho^t''"." r '*P^*"»*^«" *h»t «an satisfy the intellect and 
 t^ heart of man but that which supposes a living. acU„g 
 Vitality springing from the fountains of life operating in all 
 we see around us. Not law. but God, is the'^rim:'!::,: 
 tUl *»- I^-l-iBt has it. " Thou visitest L earth and 
 Z^rt til ^_5°" «-«*^L--^-t it with the river of God. 
 —.. « fall u£ wai«r. xhou preparest them com when 
 
 21 
 
22 
 
 WITHOUT OOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 Thou hast so provided for it. Thou makest it soft with 
 showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crown- 
 est the year with Thy goodness, and Thy paths drop fatness." 
 Thus far the classes of persons who are " without God in 
 the world." Of course, there are many others that might 
 be described did time suffice, which it does not, and we may, 
 therefore, pass on to our second division. 
 
 II. What the being « without God in the world " involves. 
 
 In dealing with this subject I shall, perhaps, have to 
 speak more respecting my own experience than I care to 
 do, but, as I before remarked, it is necessary under the cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 1. There is darkness of the intellect, and hence the 
 doubts, perplexities, fears and misgivings arising therefrom. 
 The state of mind of the unbeliever is one of the most 
 lamentable character. It is full of painful uncertainty and 
 doubt, with frequent anxious desire to have the problems 
 solved that ever and anon press, if not on his intellect, at 
 least upon his heart. Probably no human being can escape 
 the terrible questions which will sometimes— in his moments 
 of quietude and repose, in the hour of fearful trial and sor- 
 row, in the day when temptation weighs down the soul, and 
 when black clouds seem to envelope his entire inmost self in 
 their dark folds— rise up and demand to be answered. Is 
 there a God 1 and if so, what relationship do I sustain to 
 Him? Am I a responsible being 1 What will be my fate 
 after death 1 Are any of the great religions true, and if so, 
 which? What, after all, if Christianity should be from 
 God, and a fearful risk to be incurred by its rejection. 
 Now, I speak from experience when I say that no unbelief 
 can altogether smother such questions as these, no scepti- 
 cism shut them out, no ridicule stifle them, and no argu- 
 ments entirely dispel them. You mav drive them away for 
 
.'¥-•-:*' 
 
 m A.wn.v fm> 
 
 WITHOUT aOD IN THE WORLD. 23 
 
 » time but back they will come again unbidden, in moments 
 when they were to be little expected, and still less desired. 
 They will rush mto the soul with such trem^„dou» force 
 that all else will sink into abeyance before their terrible 
 power, and their persistent demand to be answered. Dr 
 Sears, in his most admirable book on Regeneration, very 
 truly remarks on this subject: "Even the hardiest unbelief 
 has those doubts and misgivings which come from the angel- 
 voices that wUl not quite be driven out, offrom the BiWne 
 Word that shineth in the darkness, though the darkness 
 compre endeth it not. Those who though' they had 1 
 vinced themselves that the eternal Past and the eternal 
 Future were regions of blank nothingness, and the ques- 
 lons Whence? and Whither? no other than if you shoLd 
 mto a chasm, have found that some new experience opened 
 uidinown depths within them, and brought new faculties 
 mto exercise, and then, beyond the chasm, the Delectable 
 
 s^2fi!!'"ir-! ';^°" *'"' ''«'"• ^"'«««' « ''-Idom 
 sat«fied with ite creed of denials, so that through its remons 
 
 of desolation the pilgrim often travels to the most unshaken 
 
 g«™nd of. his fa th? How could this be, unless a spirituM 
 
 wo Id were already acting upon his spiritual nature? How 
 
 could the spiritual faculties awake, whether they would or 
 
 no, and give out the Memnon sounds, unless smitten with 
 
 beams from other worlds, and made responsive to unearthly 
 
 me od.es? If the light comes not to bless and to sav H 
 
 will come at awful intervals, like flashes of lightning'at 
 
 midnight, to make the darkness visible. Perhai« the^ is 
 
 not a more significant passage in religious literature than 
 
 the influence of h,s speculations. He sui-veys the habita- 
 
"■ii?irTr;-7i,-a 
 
 a 
 
 WltHOHT GOD IN THE WORtD. 
 
 T.««.t Chambers: 'I am astonished and affrighted at the 
 to^m sohtude in which I am placed by m/phUo^p5 
 7^ V; » "' ^ "^ "" *™^y "••'' dispute, contr^i^ 
 nothmg but doubt and ignorance. Where am I, and what? 
 
 arjf TT ""x ' '''"™ *™'«»"=«' '»'» *» -hat condi. 
 IndTK "? ■^"'" '='»'''»»«1«' -ith these questions, 
 and I begin to fancy myself in the most deplomble condition 
 im^^able envir5ned in the d, .pest darkness.' The deso- 
 tottc_ .nd the emptiness are seen and felt, but they could 
 not have been eiccept in contrast with a Ught too eariy lost, 
 or by some star not yet gone down in the sky." 
 
 tte de«re to hve again are «> strong in most men's mind, 
 that m their toil, and troubles they feel inclined to 0.7 out : 
 
 Great God I I'd rather be 
 
 A MgM snokled in a creed outworn, 
 B« that, standmg on some pleasant lea, 
 
 I might have ghmpaes that would make.me less forlorn, 
 
 the soul, and di«, misfortunes hem us in on every hand- 
 when black clouds gather around us, and no light « visible 
 
 ttir *"'"'<''' P™™ f»l«e. and long-trusted companiomi 
 treacherous-when circumstances seem to be in a company 
 
 Zrl2 7" "'?"'" '" "'"'' ""» '"^^ -*- i" 
 i^g h« i^ °^ °'^ *° ^"^ '" ■■*'?• ^' -*"• B«>™. 
 
 " There la no God, the foolieh saith, 
 
 But none there is no sorrow. 
 And nature oft the cry of faith 
 
 In bitter need will borrow : 
 Hye. which the preacher could not school. 
 
 By wayside graves are raiaed. 
 Am lips said, God be pitiful, 
 
 That ne'er said, God be praised." 
 
WITHOUT GOD IN THH WOBtD. 25 
 
 Yet with all this there comes up before the mind of the 
 sceptic the cold materialistic philosophy of the age, the 
 doubt of God and immortality weighs down his soul, he 
 becomes perplexed with uncertainty and indecision, and a 
 most painful state of mind is the result. Happiness can 
 have no place where such a condition prevails, and peace- 
 true, genuine peace-must remain a thing far apart. No 
 man knows better what this state of mind is than I do 
 having had many years> bitter experience of the doubts and 
 uncertainties which it involves. To be, as the poet says, 
 
 "Haunted for ever by the Eternal Mind," 
 and yet not to feel able to recognize the Divine in Ifature 
 and the spintual in man, is a condition which is easier 
 felt than described. Gleams of light occasionally shootin<r 
 through the dense gloom-serving only to make the dark- 
 ness afterwards more intense-a few drops of rain on the 
 parched and dried-up ground, the sight of food to the 
 mingry, or water placed before the eyes as though to mock 
 the vision of him wLo is dying of thirst, are similes which 
 but famtljr shadow forth the state of mind of the sceptic. 
 
 " SS; i°^ ^^i^ *^*",* ''°'*^* tormenta my breast I 
 AiuW>/'''* *f ^- ^,?°» frighteni from their neat, 
 pK? .a ?*!f, '^^''^^ *^^ WM Hushed before * 
 
 JJlutter and hardly neatle any more." 
 
 2. To be " without God in the worid " is to lack a basis 
 for the moral law. This may seem, perhaps, an extreme 
 statement U make, but it is nevertheless, I think, perfectly 
 true. Ethical codes there have been, no doubt, in abun- 
 dance which did not recognize God, but they seem to me to 
 lack a sound and solid basis. This was a difficulty that 
 1 had to contend with in my own mind during the time 
 vha.z 1 was a sceptic. The utUitarian philosophy generally 
 
26 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 Z!f^ fy;he Secularists I always looked upon with a 
 great deal of abhorrence, to say nothing of the fact that it 
 makes the morality of an act depend upon results which can- 
 not be known until the act itself has been performed, and, 
 therefore, is utterly useless at the moment when it is needed. 
 I could never bring myself to believe that morality was a 
 
 h ulTdem"'/ r'T' '^ '^ ^'^^^^^ ^ circumstances 
 should demand, l^o, I said to myself-and frequently to 
 
 ofcs-there must be such a thing as absolute morality, 
 
 which IS unchangeable through all time, in all conditions 
 
 and under all circumstances. It must'have its basis some- 
 
 where, though I cannot very clearly see where ; and I could 
 
 not make the discovery, nor can any unbeliever in God 
 
 make it to-day. Morality is not a thing of expediency or 
 
 arrangement on the part of Governments or social circles. 
 
 but IS as absolute as physical law. The words ought and 
 
 ou^ht not exist in evefy language, and have been used by 
 
 all races of men. And their value depends upon the exist 
 
 shadowed forth even amongst savages, expressed in what 
 men call conscience, and whose basis is God. I cannot con- 
 ceive that such words can have any meaning if morality be 
 simply a matter of social arrangement. Down deep in 
 human nature there is that something which men call con- 
 science and which, though like every other faculty, it may 
 be misdirected by false education, yet still remains an in 
 ward monitor, prompting, however faintly, to right, and 
 dissuading, however feebly, from wrong. We are sur- 
 rounded on all hands by evil, we live in a world full of evil 
 we move amongst men and women who, if they do not vio- 
 late openly the moral law by stealing or committing murder, 
 are yet never backward to cheat in a fashionable manner 
 that 18 not only common, but likely to escape observation. 
 
WITHOUT OOD IN THE WOULD. 47 
 
 Who gratify their own selfishness at the expense of their 
 neighbours' comforts, and who circulate slanderous a^d 
 
 e"! th'™ "".''T*'"" '" «™''»"'nin« all this as wrong 
 Even the people who practise it admit it to be w«>nf. 
 
 « not right? Clearly from some moral law implanted in 
 human nature, which could only have originatLl with a 
 moral Governor. Speaking the other day with a gentle- 
 man an Atheist, whom I have known for some yeaT he 
 said ^ me : " Nature cannot be under the control of a wise 
 
 frilfT r w"^' ''""""^ "" *" ''""°"'«''<' by most 
 fnghtful evila Why, on every hand we see so much pain 
 
 and suffering that we can hardly help weeping over it, and 
 
 moral wrong appears to prevail throughout^aturl" I 
 
 Tr^vti. "I" "'°"" "™"« P-™"' '-^roughout nature 
 pmy tell me whence you obtain the faculty which leads you 
 ^pronounce that to be wrong by which you ire so thickly 
 beset on every hand ! It could not have sprung from ,Z 
 
 with the^conditions which gave it birth. Now. this con- 
 science of yours is utterly out of harmony with the condi- 
 tions by which it is surrounded, and hence the pain vol 
 
 this flood of immorahty, you stand conspicuously forth as a 
 mo™l agent, with moral perceptions, moral deLs, and a 
 mo«J judgment." I need hardly say my friend iiad no 
 answer to give. The moral law must have God for its basis, 
 and he who is without God is destitute of a definite guide 
 '" *•"« resiHict. Do not misunderstand me here. I do not 
 ^ that Atheists, and unbelievers in general, are immoral, 
 because I know great numbers who are not : but I ...a,; 
 tna. tney are destitute of a perfect moral law, and are com- 
 
 i' 
 
28 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 pelled m their philosophy to find a substitute in such a' 
 wretched, shifting, policy-mongering thing as Utilitarianism. 
 3. The being without God tends to the destruction of 
 hope, and of the belief in the ultimate triumph of good I 
 do not see upon what ground an Atheist predicts that ulti- 
 mately all things are to be set right. He quotes glibly 
 enough the old adage, Jfagna est Veritas, et prJalebU, 
 but upon what ground it is very difficult to say. Why must 
 truth ultimately prevail if there be no God of Truth? Is 
 It not just as likely that error may not go on increasing, and 
 ultimately triumph? "There is a good time coming" is 
 asserted even by Atheists with a confidence that appears to 
 me utterly unwarrantable. How do you know, or, rather, 
 how does the Atheist know, that there is any good time 
 coming? May not the times grow worse and worse? It 
 18 difficult to see upon what ground this good time is believed 
 m, unless there be a moral Governor. I have frequently 
 heard Atheists repeat, with great gusto, the lines- 
 
 "For right shaU yet come uppermost. 
 And justice shall be done." 
 
 And I have often felt inclined to ask 'the question, even 
 when I myself was a sceptic, upon what ground it was be- 
 lieved that this would occur? Might not the world go on 
 getting worse and worse until injustice should universally 
 prevail, and right be trampled out of existence? The 
 Christian, of course, can repeat these lines in firm confix 
 dence that the state of things they depict will come te pass, 
 because he believes in a God of Justice and of Right, iod 
 this belief IS the only real and substantial ground of hope. 
 Hence the Apostle, in the text, associates hope with God in 
 the descnption that he gives of the persons therein referred 
 
 to, as having no hone. anH w4tK/^«* cx^a :_ xu- ^-_i , >, 
 — * -/ .. .^..^.^itv v^vu ui buc World, 
 
 1 
 < 
 
 C 
 J 
 
 I 
 
 a 
 
 t( 
 I 
 

 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 29 
 
 4 To be without God in the world is to deprive the 
 spiritual nature of its necessary aliment. That man has a 
 spiritual nature is certain. In every age the aspirations of 
 mankind have pointed to the supernatural. The hopes, 
 and f^rs and longings of humanity have ever been directed 
 towards the existence of a Supreme Being. In all times, 
 and under every variety of circumstances, men have engaged 
 m devotional exercises. Polytheism, Pantheism, and even 
 Idolatry, testify to the necessity for some kind of worship 
 And, m the absence of all other objects, man has, in his 
 depravity indulged in self-worship. "The man who has 
 nothing else above him," remarks Br. Vaughan, "has self: 
 that ugliest, most obscene of deities-Belial, and Mammon 
 and Beelzebub in one. Self is the deity of millions ; and it^ 
 worship IS as vile, as brutelising as ever were the rites of 
 Chemosh, or Milcomb, or Ashtaroth. In general, even 
 fallen man has something besides himself above him : even 
 where self presides in the worship, it is mther as priest than 
 Idol Worship of some kind or other may be said to be 
 next to yniversal, which, of itself, is strong and conclusive 
 evidence in favour of the truth of religion. In the absence 
 of God, men worship the material universe either as a whole 
 or in Its various parts, or they deify vague abstractions. 
 I>oring the time that I was an unbeliever I wrote the fol- 
 lowing hymn, which still appears in Secular hymn-books 
 and IS sung in Secular halls. It will serve to show you the 
 tendency in the mind of a sceptic to some kind of worship. 
 It runs thus : — ^ 
 
 "They tell us that we worship not, 
 Nor arng sweet songs of praise. 
 
 That live Divme is not our lot 
 In thvise cold modem days; 
 
 That niAf.v'a /«alm «v«- t.,t _^- a 
 
 ,„- k—-j ~ -'"'•") i^m-ciai state 
 We banish from the earth : 
 
 IP 
 
 i { J 
 
I 
 
 30 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 '^^ey know not that we venerate 
 
 Whate'er we see of worth: 
 The sm^inB of the birds on hieh. 
 
 The rippling of the atream, 
 Ihe sparkling stars in yon bright sky, 
 
 The sunlight's merry gleam, ' 
 
 The ocean 8 wide and watery main, 
 
 The lightning's vivid flash, 
 The sweet and gentle showers of rain, 
 
 Ihe awful thunder's crash • 
 ^'I^*''^««an*l flowers that deck the land, 
 m,^ i *°" *°^ ^'■^ssy mead, 
 Ihe firm-set earth on which we stand. 
 xxT '*'<*"hipful indeed. 
 We venerate great Nature's plan. 
 117U-, ^o"*!'? at her shrine, 
 
 w^^''.^?^' ^i"."*^' *"d love in man, 
 VVe hold to be divine. " 
 
 The true sentiment of worship is here, but not the true 
 object; .n fact, there can be no proper object of worship 
 in the absence of God. and, therefore, those who are with 
 out God starve their spiritual nature by attempting to feed 
 ^ on the chair from which the corn has been eftract,^ 
 Auguste Oomte was a sufficiently shrewd observer of 
 human nature to discover that some kind of worship was 
 essential to the success of his system, and, there being no 
 God according to his idea, he instituted, in the Posftive 
 Philosophy, the worship of humanity in the abst.»ct. And 
 this queer thing is worshipped by his disciples to-day Thev 
 have churches or meeting-places, they have priests and 
 rituals, and all the semblances of religion, but no God • so 
 Uiey meet on Sunday to preach and pay their devotion^ to 
 human, y in the abstract. Now, if you ask me what 
 humanity m the abstract is, I candidly confess I don't know 
 Humanity in the concrete I know something of, and it is 
 frequently very bad, certainly not fit to be worshipped ; but 
 as to humanity in the abstract, it is too pure an abstraction 
 for my humanity to comprehend. One thing is quite clear 
 
true 
 •rship 
 with- 
 • feed 
 bCted. 
 r of 
 > was 
 g no 
 itive 
 And 
 rhey 
 
 JEind 
 ; so 
 IS to 
 i^hat 
 low. 
 it is 
 but, 
 bion 
 ear 
 
 
 WITHOUT (JOD IN THE WORLD. 31 
 
 whic! is, that they who are " witliout God in the world " 
 have no proper object of worship, cannot consistently pray 
 or sing praises, and must, therefore, starve the spiritual 
 part of their nature. 
 
 5. To be " without God in the world » is to be without 
 any sort of consolation in that most terrible of all trials 
 when those near and dear to us are snatched away by 
 death. Atheistic philosophy can neither penetrate the 
 mysterious character of dissolution, nor afford the smallest 
 possible consolation when it occurs. The views that I 
 mysel held on the subject of death whilst I was connected 
 with the Secularists may be gathered from an article con- 
 
 wl'"^ '.. nf "' '^' '^'''' «^ ^°b-^ B-ugh, which I 
 wrote in the Players-a literary and dramatic journal edited 
 by myself-on July 7, 18GU. The following extract will 
 show the state of my mind at that time on this impor- 
 tant question: — ^ 
 
 Jl^^ ^7^; of those mysteries that perplex philosophy 
 and puzzle the thinker, that when a man is just emerging 
 from hfes green spring into a career of usefulness-form 
 ing associations that link his soul to those of other kindred 
 spirits crossing his path on the highway of life-and build- 
 ing up a reputation for himself among the generations of 
 men a blow is struck by the grim messenger from the land 
 of shades and he, when a thousand reasons could be given 
 why hQ should remain with us, is hurried away irresistibly 
 into the sad abodes of death. 
 
 JJ^\^^' ""^"Z "' ^" '^" ^^''-'^' explanation is a 
 ndd le which even (Edipus would be incompetent to solve. 
 We laugh, rejoice, and weep; take our ease on soft couches 
 or wear ourselves out with the labour and turmoil of busi- 
 ness ; the end always the same-we fade away into oblivion 
 
 II- 
 
 H 
 
 m 
 
 
 ! 1 
 
^^ WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 " JP'^^y ^e froMc in the rosy bloom 
 Of jocund youth-tha morrow knells us to the tomb. 
 
 "A dark, impenetrable curtain surrounds us— we are 
 ever moving towards its gloomy shades. We pass behind 
 It frequently when our prospects here seem brightest. 
 Friends may mourn us, relatives may lament our loss, com- 
 panions may call to us ; but we neither return nor answer 
 From behind that curtain no voice issueth-not even the 
 gentle whisperings of a sigh-there cometh forth nothing 
 but a deep and profound silence, the verjr stillness of which 
 IS terribly awful. Each man, as he shuffles off this mortal 
 coi , leaves behind him but a mass of senseless earth-his 
 feelings, his reason, his love, his genius-alas ! where are 
 they ? He who yesterday lit up mirth in a whole assembly 
 by his radiant smile, or moved masses by his words of fire 
 has to-day become the sport of every wind-food for the 
 meanest ot creatures. His form has gone— 
 
 •• To mix forever with the elements, 
 To be a brother to the insensible rock 
 
 Turn?J?f?."i!"««if^ ''^^^i ^^^«^ *^« ^^^ swain 
 lurns with his share and treads upon. 
 
 • 
 « Very mysterious all this. We demand of the Universe 
 .an explanation of the problem, and the only reply we obtain 
 18, all things are mutable, man amongst the rest But 
 why ^-Creation returns no answer. Her myriads of stars, 
 and millions of forms of organic and inorganic jbhings. 
 present the problem ; but the key to its solution they with- 
 hold. '' 
 
 Now, can there be anything more cold and cheerless 
 than this dismal view of death ? It is enough to wither the 
 iovmg, tristing heart, and to convert it into stone The 
 whole aspect of the scene is terrible; friends are severed 
 from you by a sudden stroke, taking a portion of your verv 
 
 V 
 
 \ 
 
N 
 
 WITHODT GOD IN THE WORLD. 33 
 
 self away, and you know not what has become of them ex 
 cept that they are gone forever, and you can never' see 
 them more. You may weep until your tears are exhausted 
 and can no longer flow, and your whole soul is stricken 
 down w,th grief, but, alas! there is no hope, all is gloom 
 ajad despair, dark as night. In a recent publication I gave 
 the following description of an Atheist, as he sits by the 
 bedside o a loved one that is passing away from earti :_ 
 The beiever in annihilation must be a pitiable" object 
 sitting at the death-bed of his wife or daughter. He 
 teholds the last flickering of the lamp of life, and sees his 
 loved one fading away before his eyes-all that upon which 
 his afleotions are placed is passing from hence into oblivion 
 to be seen no more-going, in fact, into nothingness' 
 similar Jo that which existed before birth-as ^nec.; 
 
 We all to nothing go, from nothing came. 
 
 ;■ His heart-strings are wrung with grief. He clasps the 
 dying one to his bosom ; but she is not conscious of his 
 embrace. He presses hot kisses upon her cheeks, which 
 are cold as marble now: he looks into her eyes, aU light 
 ha. faded from them, and they see no more ; every trace 
 of expression has gone from her features, and there is 
 nothing left but the clay-cold corpse. His brain is mad- 
 dened with grief; he is alone in the world. There is a 
 vacancy in his heart which can never again be filled. 
 
 stt Anl ! L ""^"^ '" '"* ■"'''"«'"• '''th "^vera 
 star. All beauty has passed from earth. The deep gloom 
 
 IS terrible to contemplate. Where is con«>lation L b. 
 
 lomia 1 Alas ! nowhere. Science says the thing was i'n^ 
 
 i , 
 1 
 
34 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 evitable, philosophy prates about controlling one's feelings' 
 and being a man-pshaw ! 'tis because he is a man that he 
 feels the grief so keenly. And how is he to be consoled ? 
 Why, his loved one, who is gone, will come up again in 
 violets and primroses and beautiful flowers ! Is this con- 
 solation for a broken hearted man 1 I tell you 'tis the 
 veriest mockery that has ever been heard of. Science 
 philosophy, secularism, all are powerless in such cases-* 
 they cannot remove the load of grief that weighs the 
 sufferer down. If he goes into the darkness, the gloom 
 harmoniaes with his feelings, and makes his sorrow the 
 deeper ; if he walks in the sunshine, the brightness appears 
 to mock his sufferings. Birds sing not to cheer him, but to 
 taunt him with their merrymaking, and to draw attention 
 to the contrast between themselves and him; and flowers 
 bloom but to make Ifght of his grief. No hope, no con- 
 solation can there be; for is not all that he cared for on 
 earth gone, and no power can bring it back for ever ?» 
 ^ But, in the presence of the Gospel all becomes clear • 
 Ihere shines a light across the dreary path of the mourner 
 with a radiance that dispels all darkness, and lifts up 
 the soul in holy joy to God. It beams in hope and con- 
 solation from the words of Him who broke the fetters 
 of the tomb, conquered death, and opened up the way 
 to eternal happiness for men. To shew you the change 
 m my own feelings, I give you the words which I wrote 
 m my diary in 1875, when my father was snatched from me 
 by death. They present a striking and cheerful contrast to 
 • what I had penned fifteen years before. I now remark •— 
 " As I gazed on the inanimate clay that had once encased 
 the active spirif of my father, I thought of the superiority 
 of the views of those who believe in a future life over the 
 cold, dismal, cheerless creed of matflrialism ^h;^u >.. .^^ 
 
WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 35 
 
 nizes no meeting again when once death has snapped the 
 thread of earthly life, and I brushed away my teanT lifted 
 up my heart to God, and exclaimed-- 
 
 (( ( 
 
 Death 8 arrows, hke the shuttle, flee. 
 
 And dark howe'er life's night may be, 
 
 Beyond the grave I'll meet with thee.' 
 
 "Then came to my mind the nobler consolation still, 
 gmndes of truths ever put into human words, source o 
 bnghi^st comfort to millions of our race, when nothing 
 else could cheer them: *I am the resurrection and the life; 
 
 - live ' A T u\^'' *'""«' ^^ ^''' ^'-"^^ y«* «M he 
 live. Ay, thought I, this is worth all the philosophy that 
 
 was ever wntten, and all the science to which even the fer- 
 
 tile womb of the future can give birth." 
 
 6. There is another aspect of this question of death which 
 •/r f^^^^^T'**'^*' ^«d in relation to which the being 
 
 without God places one in a fearful position. It is that of 
 the consideration of his own fate in tho hereafter. Now 
 suppose there is no God, then at death we cease to be, and 
 become annihilated, than which I can conceive nothing 
 more dreadful to contemplate. It is not easy to realize 
 anmhilation-m fact, it is next to impossible-because y" 
 can hardly conceive of yourself as non-existent; but as far 
 as It can be realized, it is a very terrible thought, and fear- 
 ful to contemplate Many and ma.y a time' hive I tried 
 to depict to myself the passing from existence into blank 
 nothingness, and have always shrunk back appalled from the 
 v^ew thus conjured up before my imagination. To cease 
 to be ,s perhaps, the most fearful lot that a man can con- 
 
 Zl r.uT""^ *" ^'''''^'' "^* '«'" -"^y^ Sir Thomas 
 Brown, "the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw ^ 
 a man to tell him that he i« af fha .^a .* u.._ . * ,.7 ** 
 dUfiouIt to concern why we should labour, and rtruggle, and 
 
 
36 
 
 WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 J 
 
 toll to store up wisdom, acquire knowledge, cultivate affec- 
 tion, ovprcome temptation, crush out and subdue selfishness 
 and strive to elevato and purify, not our words and actions 
 simply, for that might be beneficial to society, but our in- 
 most thoughts and feelings, lying in the deepest recesses of 
 our nature, if there be no hereafter. In a few short years 
 our material organizations will be relinquished, and dven 
 back to the great mass from which they came, the atoms 
 of which they were composed to enter into new forms and 
 combinations; and our whole mental being, love, wisdom, 
 knowledge, to be blown away as so much empty vapour' 
 and our consciousness to be blotted out. If annihilation 
 be the end of our career, then the earth is a cl arnel house 
 ftnd nature one huge funeral pall. Well might a poet 
 exciairoi : — 
 
 "What is che bigot's torch, the tyrant's chain' 
 J sm;le on death if heavenward hope remain • 
 Jiut if the warring winds of Nature's strife 
 Je all the faithless charter of my life ; 
 If rhance awak'd— inexorable power— 
 This frail and feverish being of an hour • 
 Doomed o'er the world's precarious scene to sweep, 
 bwift as the tempest travels o'er the deep j 
 lo Know delight but by her parting smile, 
 And toil, and wish, and weep a little while,— 
 Ihen melt, ye elements, that formed in vain 
 This troubled pulse and visionary brain ; 
 Fade ye wild flowers, memorials of my doom, 
 And sink, ye stars, that light me to the tomb ! " 
 
 • 
 
 The whole soul shudders with horror at the gloom which 
 thus hangs over the entire face of nature. In all ages men 
 have believed in a future life, because their deepest instincts 
 and strongest aspirations pointed thitherward in a manner 
 which was not to be mistaken. "If," said the late 
 W. J.^ Fox, "Heaven be indeed a dream, it is one of 
 nature's dreams, whose visions are DroDhoniflH » 
 
 « r — 
 
 1 
 ( 
 t 
 
 ii 
 s: 
 d 
 ai 
 c< 
 
iVITHoOT GOD IN THE WORLD. 
 
 d? 
 
 unquestionably ,s, how fearful is the condition of those 
 
 dt°urth7i ""'* '"^ '" "■" '"'""•" ' ^^y »<" he* S 
 
 doubt oAowT'""' " ^'" °' "'"'* '» «"'«» honest 
 does^ These are matters which I prefer to leave at least 
 
 point j^rT: T' ™'' °' p"''^™'-" '- » "• '■»■ 
 
 leJZ. \ . ' ' ** preparation should be can be 
 
 uZ lif !,"V '"* '""" *« '-»■•<' """ -veals to us the 
 future life and Us conditions. You n.ight prefer to ha™ 
 
 Th^^in^a'd':"" "'"''" "" -"-' »'*^' *"« '-' 
 the hereaf.r bein, the dtrourdu^rherriuU 
 
 Ze aid it r\'". ""'/'^ '^^*'""™* ■"« »"* l-ite the 
 
 Ktii:: li^ ■™"-' - "- - 
 
 In conclusion 
 
 may just say that, as far 
 
 as I can see 
 
^8 
 
 WITHOUT OOD^ IN THK WORhb. 
 
 H'. 
 
 there 18 no remedy for this being ''without God in the 
 
 T!u ^ .V"" '^''"' ^^"'^' " ^"^ «^™ ^^«J* »» the fulness 
 of the Godhead bodily," and in Him alone can a true con- 
 ception of God be formed. The people referred to by the 
 apostle as being "without God in the world" were those 
 who were out of Christ, and the description there met with 
 IS as applicable to the people of this day as to those of that 
 time Atheism and Pantheism do not, perhaps, remove one 
 further from God than certain forms of Theism which are 
 to-day extr .ly popular. To reject Christ is to be without 
 God in the world, for there is no way to God but through 
 Him "who is the brightness of God's Glory and the express 
 image of His Person." You may pile up systems upon 
 systems of philosophy, you may invent great schemes for 
 regenerating mankind, you may penetrate into nature's 
 inmost recesses and Wring from her secrets hid from the 
 beginning of the world, you may propound schemes of 
 Society for the perfection of social order, and ethical codes 
 for the reformation of conduct; all these are good in their 
 way, but they will not save the soul, because they are in- 
 capable of regenerating the inner man. Erect what splen- 
 did superstructures you please, that you think will be avail- 
 able for the benefit of society, but take care that their basis 
 is sound or the whole edifice will fall, and your work come 
 to nought. Remember the words of St. Paul, " For other 
 foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, 
 AND THE LIFE. 
 
 "I «m the «.«y, the truth, and the lHe."-Jo,„ ,,y, o. 
 
 Ohbistunitv « a great fact. Whether true or false, it i, 
 the ™ost .mportant religion which exists to-day. irpoin 
 
 but, in the influence it exercises over the world it is a 
 
 tcTuder^trr "-"' ■" «'"--"«''- ^^'Cz: 
 
 It mcludes withm ite ranks the greatest minds that the 
 world has ever seen, holds undivided sway over all civi&ed 
 nations, and is the foundation of the most perfect forms of 
 government in existence. 
 
 iui. wnen, about five years aeo, I beffan fn 
 
 LTrtt""'""^ '"^ °"""'' »' °''™«-^'y. the i'por- 
 W of this question was forcibly impressed upon mv mted 
 
 I asked myseU what sort of explanation I h^trgive of 
 the ongin and prog,^s of this great system of faUh I 
 d:L1?re?tr''r "•""* "-^ -'-™' causes wM^;„n' 
 
 bun^no:^ru^t:e\iftf'''"'*^'»'''--'^'«-^ 
 
 J.a^ . "t-t.urrea to me that this was a point to which T 
 eni.""^: rf".-«-"' oonsideration, a^d upon wl"" 
 th....„„., 1 naa „ot arrived at any very satisfactory "co';;: 
 
40 
 
 JESV8, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 position then was 
 
 elusion. And I venture to sa; 
 
 just that of every Freethinker ' co-day In tmf h 
 
 which cannot be ^72 "f ^'^*»'«"»S « <^' explanation 
 
 infirmity thTthe r^! / , J"""" * '^^ ^"""^ »* «»» 
 
 «ke,y to\!:rtt': e frdrtt •"''h-*''''' r^'^^- 
 tianityhadanaturalo^ta Jd7f " ;r"" "*''•"'• 
 have conduced t'o its sue"! „» a nL. i"™"" *""* 
 -e have a right to be informed That Wnd of"! °''-''"'?'' 
 were that conduced to brin^ it ir„ ? ^™'"*' ''"^^ 
 »o extmordina.^, 3 ;j™« '*»*». »»^«»«e '»'' -»»»«!* 
 
 which ^e shall seekCvain f " i'''"'* ""^ I""'"' »?»» 
 
 brated historian Qibl^rv / ""^ !"fo™««o„. The cele- 
 
 »PM spread t^'^i^'ni;' ^'aC '™ '^T '"' '"» 
 
 *is «>-«orL'roh'™«;n"itrpie:t:'^^^^^^^^^ -^ 
 
 --riy uniike those to be Jt^H SXt^er 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 

 JESU8, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THR LIFE. 41 
 
 recorded in ab«nHa«oo j «««^nere. ij,ere are miracles 
 
 and rt. *''° ""™'''™ ««" proved to be false 
 
 explain awav th- Hf. JTi, » ■ ' '""'" " »" "en™ 
 
 of OhristTrin^ . ^ ^"'« '"'P'o'^^- The character 
 
 for T„ V ^^T' ""'' """ P"^^"°" has to be accounted 
 
 as the Beinff Him-.-* !t «»&c"lfc to account for 
 
 ThPL ^ ' *"" *^^ supposition that it is real 
 
 Ine four memoirs in whiVh f Ko u . . *** 
 
 totally unlike bio4^pMes j^J 7 >!' '"""'■'"y"' »"' 
 »™ply dramatic sSe:i:Xt;'Tlr' '" "^1 
 
 before inl^hisK th "■ T " '"^ ""^^^ '^^■' «-» 
 acts unparaletd t'l.ltl'nd'"*' """'''' *" «'"•'"»<' 
 out one word of coCe; The'"""" "" """"''^ "'"■■ 
 
 »-pIy placed l«fo ~ you tar'^Co'^ '^n""^ " 
 see His miracles vo» »~ "o" «« conversation, you 
 
 supematujpote' th^H! TT'" "' ""' ""™"<»" 
 „»„ /.' '"" He displays, and vou murf # 
 
 .»^. .»n opinion respecting Him. His biig^pW" i.;;: 
 
43 
 
 •IKSIJS, THE WAY, TUB TROTH, AND THB im. 
 
 deatl. Here « brought at once before you the only per- 
 
 Ind Wb* ". ■"". "PP*"'*'' ■" *» "story of the worVd , 
 and be the character real or ideal, we demand to know how 
 t o„g,„ated, and particularly how it haa come to ZZ. 
 
 whioht "f::",""" T ""' ^""' """^ " ""• - »«-- 
 
 When lb. 'rr,""" "* "^ accustomed to imagine. 
 
 struck with a fact which had previously entirely escaped my 
 observat.on,that Christianity has diffus^ itself i thorCgWy 
 throughout socety, has permeated so effectually every t. 
 
 by It, our cmhzation originated in it, we owe to it our 
 freedom, and it has given shape to the entire structure" 
 modern socety ; and the explanation of this it is we waTt 
 to iind Judging by my experience, which has been la™ 
 
 hold that this IS to be discovered nowhere but in the sup- 
 pos.tmn that Christianity is true, and its origin su^ 
 
 do^n '" *!k"™* " Christianity impartially, as we would 
 do at any other system of i^ligion or philosophy, there is 
 one fact which stares us in the face, standing o'ut « it do4 
 most conspicuously, and which cannot fail to impress it«,lf 
 upon our attention. The fact to which I refer i's this, S^ 
 
 th^rinwrb " "° '" "' «°«"'y '"ffo-nt mann;r to 
 that m which any ancient teacher presents himself. There 
 « no possibility of making a comparison between Him Id 
 the great men of the past, whose names are held in a oerimn 
 amount of veneration at the present time, in con^^ 
 of the mighty thoughts which they gave to the world. ll 
 
Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. 43 
 
 ttST^\uT^'^^^' to compare Christ with Socrates, 
 with p ato, with Buddha, and even with Confucius, but the 
 student of the lives of these men will see that such a com 
 panson is altogether out of the question. The claims which 
 Jesus made, and the pretensions He put forth, were of such 
 a character as to isolate Him entirely from the rest of the 
 race I say nothing here of whether the claims were sub- 
 stantiated or not, for at the present moment that is no part 
 of the question under consideration, but certain it is that He 
 assumed a power, and claimed for Himself attributes which 
 we .do not find centred in any other teacher, either in 
 ancient or modern times. And perhaps no better proof of 
 this could be found than the fact that, if you were te put His 
 language into the mouth of any one of these great teachers 
 of antiquity it would appear utterly out of place, and could 
 not fail, in fact, te provoke ridicule. Plato, "the divine 
 Jlate, as he has been sometimes called, would never have 
 dreamed of speaking te his disciples in language such as 
 that which was continually used by Jesus Christ. Socrates, 
 who stands pre-eminently high among ancient moralists 
 however perfect his teachings, never arrogated te himself 
 the moral perfection which we find continually claimed by 
 Jesua Buddha taught a system of morals and religion 
 which embraces to-day a larger number of worshippers than 
 Christianity itself, but his own part in the system, beyond 
 that of being Its originator, is exceedingly small ; and as te 
 Confucius, why, we really know so little of him that it is 
 hardly worth discussing his peculiarities. He probably 
 inculcated a few great moral precepts, coupled with very 
 much of a highly objectionable character, but in no case 
 did he himself lay claim te anything more than ordinary 
 natural knowledge. - ^ 
 
 The wide difference between Christianity and all other 
 
 f!^ 
 
44 
 
 JE8U8, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AKD THE Ltrt. 
 
 -.^ ^i:-." .Trr - '^ - ™- 
 
 from every othpi- n,.„ *i, . P^""""/ He is distinguished 
 
 Even the Old t' "'""' *^ '" *'" '""'^^'' "'""-y- 
 
 »5^t nal~L^r * r"'"'''' '" *'«•»■' f<«"»'ep, h^ 
 
 net i:u2"'th^irSt:: ""■' :r -'• '- '-"-^ "'''^»''- 
 
 employed by Him mt^T ?u " ''™' ""•» *»"■'« 
 
'J 
 
 JESUS, THE WAV, THE TRUTH. ANDTHE LIFE. 45 
 
 thing different, the "hath been sairl " ..* ^ 
 quently, to that very iLl^ZoTtj ' ''''' "^^''^ 
 
 thunder and s.oke o/sinai ;:o:tod hS 7^^, ''^ 
 therefore, Heat once in tl,. „i • . aimselt. And here, 
 the poM-er on H™ ow^ *' f '*'"''' ""^""^ '«™«. averted 
 
 ».*«».., «iven.^"r:Hrde::r rtrr r r - 
 
 like the Old TestamprTf ^^JT "^''*' ^^ do not find Him, 
 
 HeperfornfJr:lTporS'*°'^t'°' *"'''•''• 
 tered in His own Bein^ TT "° *"'*'""y "»»- 
 
 another, even th„„Slat ^el^t ZZTJZTr 
 
 »oept if r^ tfe n>r T'"*' "-"^"-'^Oged ev!„ b^ 
 
 occasion do we find TTim a H- ® ' ^'"'^ ^'^ »« single 
 
 -tperfeotpHne'S td^c^r tur^ '""' °'^'" 
 yet Himself oonfLes to no a ,"'*"""'" "-^ »»"««■, 
 
 indirectly repudiates bei^g a ,inne; A,,?.-"?"' ""'""^• 
 nnUke anything that we find 1 .1 t " "» "''^''^ 
 
 man that the world Ir.^' that" '"''^ ""^ °"'^' 
 
 « not With the .uper^at:: ■ Lir:^ trr •^'^r- 
 
 brought before us, at least wifh ft ■ ^'"« '"'" 
 
 retentions. I„ Hi, 'pTblirl^^trr T'' "'■ T 
 preaches Himself, and declares tZT^' ' ""-""aWy 
 of all «Ugi„„ i3 4ji . " pf"" "■»,' 'i^ snni and substance 
 
 He spea/s of h!:^: ^S;ttuTtf w "'"" "™- 
 Bread of Life " " 'n. t • l! ^ ' °' *''* World," " The 
 
 Heaven"' t !« .!'^^™« «-»<•„-"<"> «»« down from 
 Sheepfoid," anTL »? ^t^ ^-^^ l*"" ™T " °- »' «•» 
 
 oWms to «ise Himself fromT^h bv H *° "^^ «* 
 
 able to ^V. ...„ 1.-. ... "™"' "7 His own power, to he 
 
 g water of the Spirit, and'to be "the 
 
 if' 
 
 111 
 
 -^; 
 
A 
 
 46 
 
 JKaUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 Resurrection and the Life,'*and tke Judge of the World. 
 He asked men to trust in Him as in God, to believe in Him 
 as in God, to honour Him as they honour God. The ceatr 
 mandments that He desires men to keep are His own, and 
 He demands that the love bestowed upon Him shall be 
 greater than that given to father, or mother, or husband, or 
 wife, or the nearest and dearest blood relations. He will 
 accept no devotion short of that of the whole heart and soul. 
 To love Him is to love God. And, on one distinct and 
 memorable occasion, He declared that those who had seen 
 Him had seen the Father. Passages proving the truth of 
 these facts might be quoted without end ; but they are so 
 familiar to every reader of the Scriptures, that it is unneces- 
 sary to extend them. They all go to show, however, that 
 the claims and pretensions here made are perfectly unique ; 
 we meet with them nowhere else, we do not expect to find, 
 them elsewhere, and should be terribly startled if we came 
 across them in connection with any other being. 
 
 What, then, is to be said of all thisi It does not, of 
 course, follow that Christianity is true because Christ laid 
 claim to these marvellous supernatural powers ; but, then, 
 it does follow that His character is entirely unique in the 
 history of the world, and as such it will have to be judged. 
 Now, as far as I can see, there are but three suppositions 
 possible. First, Jesus may have been a rank impostor, 
 laying claim to attributes which He knew He did not possess, 
 and deceiving the people, therefore, by arrogating to Himself 
 an authority to which He had no legitimate claim. Or, 
 secondly. He may have been an enthusiast, believing that 
 He was endowed with supernatural powers, which He did 
 not possess, and acting throughout life, therefore, in the 
 spirit of a wild fanaticism, proclaiming Himself the Jewish 
 i'!^it.^i„ii, axrvt ouniccuiiig iiiuru, irom a sincere enough feel- 
 
JE8US, IHE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 47 
 
 of Iriit'*«; '"? """ *"™ °' ' "'"P ""• '^""'le delusion. 
 
 f trl Tf '"''"'"'^''''' '""'■ » *'"'* ««''' ChristUnity 
 L!^ ;., °?*^ "' course, tin>e here to discuss at 
 
 iengtl, these suppositions; but a few words will, I think 
 
 tin T r. °°'' '^'""y ""^ "»™»»'y »*« tW^ ques- 
 tion, I saw that It was quite impossible to rank Christ with 
 
 test of that age and have stood the test of eighteeneentnries 
 «nce, which It IS difficult to conceive could happ» to an 
 
 rCt^'b ' I" *' ""''' '"^' H- whole cTLuct and 
 nt^ tik "^f ' 8™""™<'» "•»"* wWch there can be 
 no mistake. Impostors always act for their own tern- 
 s' wLl™"^*' " '""" '""" »' o'her, in the direction 
 of wealth, or fame, or power, or the gratification of some 
 lead ng prope„«ty With Jesus, however, there was the 
 most thorough and entire disinteresWness that the world 
 h" ever seen. Selfishness in His religion was ^e 
 
 f^'^Hislif'" T^ '■"' -'^-- waslitLn 
 d. tmctly told to expect nothing but persecution, and 
 
 fv mm' "" "" "" *'"""«'' "'"• «=--- ™".„tarily 
 
 wl? "'every stage of His career, and crowned at last 
 w.th a cruel death, foreseen by Himself from the very be2. 
 
 m2 M*': '""""' *"■" «" "" »" ^'husiast m^cl 
 
 more reasomible, because any one who reads the history of 
 
 will see that an enthusiast is always the outcome of the age 
 .n which he appears. Had Jesus been an enthusiast, ffis 
 enthusiasm must have been M«flB«aii» t„,..:.v ,t I „ 
 believed Himself the long-promised kes«"al;"whkh"th"t 
 
 m 
 
48 
 
 JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 people were expecting, He would, as a matter of courae, 
 have discovered in Himself the very characteristics which 
 were being looked for in the person who was to come. He 
 would have assumed temporal power, would have proclaimed 
 Himself a King, and would have endeavoured to fulfil, as 
 far as He could, all the Jewish expectations respecting Him. 
 But this is exactly what He does not do. He sets aside 
 the authority of the Mosaic law, and gives in its place a 
 universal moral code, which would be repugnant alike to 
 Roman and to Jew. He breaks down the wall of partition 
 between Jew and Gentile, and proclaims principles of love 
 and benevolence as wide as the universe, and embracing aU 
 humanity. He resides occasionally with the Samaritans, 
 with whom the Jews were at bitter enmity, cures their sick, 
 and selects one of that people as the hero of one of His most 
 beautiful parables, which has made the phrase "the Good 
 Samaritan » synonymous with a kind, benevolent and warm- 
 hearted man in all civilized countries up to the present day. 
 He offends continually the prejudices of His race, and on 
 no single occasion do we find Him pandering to Jewish 
 ideas. In a word. He rises in His sublimity completely 
 out of Judaism, and becomes, not the representative man of 
 a race, but the typical man of the whole human family. 
 His teachings were of the plainest possible character; His 
 religion of a most beneficen<^^ nature, and His knowledge of 
 humanity marvello-asly great. In His ordinary demeanour 
 He is always calm; seldom is His language strong, and 
 never is there mixed up with it any excitement. He de- 
 clares that force and coercion are to play no part in the 
 promulgation of His religion ; but that they who use the 
 sword shall perish by the sword. He resents no personal 
 injury inflicted on Himself, and whenever He condemns 
 others it is always in reference to public crimea or secret 
 
«8U8, THE WAY, THE TBDTH, AHD THU um 49 
 
 H^keTl^ "f °7 ''^ '^"■"^ • ™" «' hypocrisy. 
 He rebukes H.s discples for asking to be allow Jto ejl 
 fire torn heaven to consume tbeir opponents, and condeiT 
 their conduct in forbidding persons to cast o^t dev 1st Z 
 name who had not formally joined them. In a w„^ He 
 
 The calmness of manner which he invariably dispCT, 
 quite moompatible with fanaticism. Read t>-a* mZ,T , 
 P»yer stiU called the Lord's P^yer.lTd ^n^reTh^Z 
 you thmk .t could hav. been composed by a madmw^I 
 .«ppos>t.on b too improbable to be worth discussi^r jZ, 
 knows, too, from the iirst what will be the end of His m^ 
 
 ■ His d^TaT^'j *" """""■ '^'^ Ho continually fo^S 
 His death, and ^.t to us is far more important, foreWh 
 
 1 "r- H« ™"W not. by any stretch of imaginatfoi Z 
 conceived to have been an enthusiast. Ther« S theSoiT 
 
 N^Jll *<"■-»«» .were genuine, and His doctrines true. 
 Nor IS the supposition that He was either an impost*; 
 
 i;i: m r: """ '^ «'"«™"^ -^^^ -» "C; 
 
 weptics. What the exact view is that they entertain about 
 
 ZZ»'a ""'^ consistent. I should at any time 
 
 « du„r.g my sceptical career, have maintain^ Z 
 
 cCrthatVr"' '"'"""■'' ■"<• "■« >-'"^^«- 
 
 world. I should have extolled His cod-likA l,f. L • J 
 t^en.arvello„s perfection of His cha^t^ l^d ^-^^t 
 .^ptures over the greater part of His moral teachtag 2 
 h« I now see to be terribly inconsistent, becaus^'^takW 
 mto consideration His self-assertion. He must hlT!!? 
 """%'"^ tnis, or ,e». Ut us see, however, for a moment 
 
 
 ■m 
 
 ',1] 
 
 li 
 
ly 
 
 \ 
 
 50 
 
 JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 
 or two, what some of the greatest sceptics have thought of 
 
 Xt;!ae::?;Trchr r r "t *- ^'-^ 
 
 and afterwards PautLstJnlh^tL 1" ^ ulVdt 
 bd.ever ,n all revelation, and with, one mights^ple" 
 
 ^ heave 1, wisdom, or^flJt^,^,'-^''^ 
 H.m "the „mon between the human and the Divide ' 
 
 firs; r r '" '"" ^-^ »« -"»-<' aifdi 
 
 down Chnsbamty and reduce the whole thing to a svste ' 
 of mythology, speaks of Christ as tl,« <.i; T . ?T 
 can possibly imagine with ^spe" t .SolMe" «'•'"' 
 ..out who. presence in the Ld per;::^ ^; ,^;i« 
 
 Ch!^t is r rm<^.r-;,t,. "' f"- -». but Jels 
 
 overawed bv tL i^ . PP"" """^ »' '^»"»i"-e was 
 overawed by the life and character of Christ as m»v il 
 
 of quotmg, writes: "And whatever else maybe taCawlv 
 We^eventhose.^^^^^^^ 
 
 to insert any number of marvels, and may haveZerte^!^ 
 the miracles which He is reputed to have wronXt R i 
 
 ir^in^^tf rt ■ " '-' ''^^' --?-■ - 
 
 - P e 01 inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or of 
 
E. 
 
 thought of 
 disbelieve 
 as a man 
 'er to tire 
 Jew first, 
 utter dis- 
 uppose, a 
 his early 
 5t symbol 
 ant calls 
 Divine." 
 't to pull 
 a system 
 bject we 
 e Being 
 8 impos- 
 fc Jesus 
 ire was 
 may be 
 Jophical 
 ^er tire 
 n away 
 unique 
 lis fol- • 
 Brsonal 
 ited in 
 >t how 
 he tra- 
 uffices 
 ted all 
 But 
 3, was 
 or of 
 
 JHSUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 5] 
 
 irnagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels? 
 
 Pru^" wh'o "\*'' '^'"'"^" °' ^*"^*'^' - certainly nlst 
 Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally 
 different sort ; still Jess the early Christian writers, mwh^^ 
 nothmg xs more evident than that the good whik w^t 
 
 U^otu '^\^'^^'' '^^'<^-" I^cky, the historian of 
 Rationalism, and himself a Rationalist, remarks • "ItlL 
 reserved for Christianity to present to the world an id3 
 character which, through all the changes of ethteTn ce" 
 unes, has inspired the hearts of menlith anfmp^^^^^^ 
 love, and has shown itself capable of acting o7lZ^ 
 nations temperaments, and conditions; has not ol Sen 
 the highest pattern of virtue, but the highest incentive to 
 
 of a few hours „£ «„fferi„g, ^y^^ ^^^^ ^« P^^ 
 
 mortality For thousands of years the world will extol th« 
 Banner of our oontradiotions, thou wUt be thTl It . ^ 
 . .h w«> he fought the «er«;t battl.' 1111:^ 
 -.= "v,..g, a uiousand times more loved since thy delth 
 
 M 
 
62 
 
 JKSUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 Mi 
 
 !,| .( 
 
 tb«> during he day, of thy pilgrimage here below. Thou 
 la ^rM° "'* ' f^'^ "•« «on.er-atone of humanity" 
 to LM i 7 """"' '""" "•" "O'" *»»'<' •« to 'hake f 
 
 ^Tono^rr . *^»-"P'«'«««»q<'«orof death, take pos. 
 
 thu, to come from a sceptic, that between Christ and gS 
 
 Tu^retf "°f '°"'" Of ■•■>g»'«h, and that so int^l 
 with the hfe of men would the name of Jesus become, that 
 to toar .t away would be to shake humanity to its found^ 
 
 IvTt if TJ;"' "'* "'^' '='"'''»'«"«y a^""" oo-W 
 «>y t. It IS diftcult to imagine. Theodore Parker the im 
 
 passioned and brilliant Unitarian preacher, whUe rettC" 
 
 StThe"'':'?'™r**'''™'^™'''"™'''»--o"c1 8 
 Ohr^t to the condition of a man with no powers but such 
 
 to ^r.! " "*" *""""" °*'""' ^''"id not he«rto 
 
 ;tere jrbt,rar MX*r»c.u . 
 
 Nowreaths, no garland., ever did entwiS ' 
 
 Sofairatempleofsoi-Mtaaoul. 
 
 " w°7 "'"^ T*!*" "" ''■" triumph seal. 
 And stamp perfection on a mortal face. 
 
 mat did not half thy beauteous brichtneas /en 
 E'en as the emmet does not read the s&es? ' 
 
 nn^f ^y. ^«*k orbs look through immensity • 
 Once on the earth wert thou a ifving shrine ' 
 Wherein conjoining dwelt the Goodf the Lovely, the Divine." 
 
 Now what is to be said of all this ? The position taken by 
 these men is utterly untenable, because, if Jesus was the 
 
 grand and beautiful chftmnf.«r *>». .u„..^__. ., .. !_ 
 
 ._.!„,,„ j,|i^j^ ui;scribe, men ±ie 
 
JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 63 
 
 must have been much more, since there are the claims 
 staring us in the face that He was continually making, and 
 the self-assertion that runs throughout His whole teaching. 
 My object in quoting them, however, is to show you what 
 overwhelming evidence there is, sufficient to bring convic- 
 tion even to sceptics themselves, that Jesus was neither an 
 impostor nor a fanatic. The only other alternative is that 
 He was all that He professed to be. 
 
 I confess that in the consideration of this question I met 
 with considerable difficulties. My views of Christ under- 
 went a gradual change from the time I began to carefully 
 examine the subject, and I had to go up the scale as I had 
 in early life gone down. As far as I can recollect, my first 
 doubts when a young man and a Christian minister were 
 on the subject of the Lord's divinity, and from that point 
 I came to reject the Christian doctrines one by one, until, 
 as you know, I merged into extremest unbelief. Now, I 
 returned very much in the same way. From looking at Christ 
 as a great and illustrious Reformer, I came to see that He must 
 have been a teacher inspired of God. Was He a prophet, I 
 asked myself, of the same order as the prophots of the 
 old dispensation ? Tes, I concluded He was this and more. 
 To Him the prophecies pointed, in Him they received their 
 fulfilment, and in Him types and symbols seemed to find 
 their fitting realization. I studied that fifty-third chapter of 
 Isaiah which I have read to you to-night, until I saw how 
 marvellously accurate was the description which it gave of 
 a Being who was to live on the earth hundreds of years 
 afterwards. It looks to me now like a leaf torn out of the 
 New Testament and transferred to the Old. I was familiar 
 with it of course in my early life, but I think I must have 
 forgotten that there was anv Himli r^har^y^^ ;,, *l_ t..!., 
 fancy I must have completely overiooked it during the 
 
54 
 
 JB8U8, THE WAY. THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 i 
 
 When I came to re««l .t again. Well, concluding that Christ 
 w« realty and truly the sent of God, I had reih«. whaH 
 
 ttel „ . "r "'*''~'°" *°™ »' P»itorianism. My 
 taends naturally supposed I should stop at this r>2! 
 
 Unitarians. I had many excellent friends in the UnitarS, 
 denom.n«t.on, and it is but fair to say that n,y JCh^ 
 and leanuigs were in that direction. I beean J^ Z 
 
 o'n'ifnr' " ' "f'"^ '" '^^"^ "' 'o -^ei^rdi ~ 
 
 on Sundays on «I,«xous subject. Th^e years ago 1 preached 
 the «m.ven»ry sermon, for my old friend of more iZ 
 tw»ty years, the Eev. F. RYoung, of Swindon, thr* v2 
 ternn, but nowno longer connected with that denomination 
 
 whom I^e rrr "" * '"«" --g-g^-ninLondonTo 
 whom I lectured, or preached, every Sabbath day. Thi^ 
 
 gradually developed itself into » Church, which siill!^ 
 
 r^. although terribly shaken by my f u'r^er ch^" "J 
 
 v.ew^w.th regard to the person of Christ. ThU one snyect 
 
 for thmkmg of .t. I began to. see that the claims w""h 
 J«.«. made for Himjelf were utterly incompatible with ffi, 
 bemg on^y a man. I pointed this out to Unitarian friend 
 men leammg and intellect, thinking that perhaps^ey 
 co.Ud clear away my dil8culties,but I became te.^bly L.«e^ 
 at findmg that, a, a rule, < .ey attached no mo,« iJporCe 
 to the wntmgs of the Kew Testament than- 1 hL Ine 
 when I was a Secularist. If I quoted the words of my CZ 
 to-mght, I was told that, in all probability, Je,,^ 2er sIm ' 
 anythmg of the kind. If I referred to tie opl W 4^ 
 of John^s Gospel, and asked what was meant by the'^Z 
 who «>d what was the Logos, in what sense the Log»^ 
 with God, and m what sense it wai God. I w« ^flLT 
 
 1 
 
i 
 
 \ 
 
 iESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 55 
 
 Plato, and from Plato to Philo, and thus plunged back again 
 into the mystic rubbish from which I had escaped when I 
 I^ft behmd me the fogs of Strauss and the inanities of 
 Paulus. Clearly, said I, if the New Testament is worth 
 anything at all it must not be thus treated. Either it is 
 true or it is not true, and having already made up my mind 
 that It IS, I must be guided by it, and accept what it 
 teaches. I read, and thought, and prayed, and at last 
 a light, as though from Heaven, burst into my mind, and 
 with the full character of Christ before my view l^was able 
 to say with Thomas, « My Lord and my God ! » A hymn 
 that I had written very early in life came to my recollection, 
 one verse of which seemed particularly appropriate to the 
 occasion. It was as follows :— 
 
 "Let Glory, Honour, Praice, and Power 
 io Christ the Lord be given ; 
 Adore Him who is bowed before 
 By all the hosts of Heaven." 
 
 My mind was now at rest, yet I had one thing more to do 
 which was to tell my congregation of the conclusion at 
 which I had arrived. I did this in two sermons, which I pre- 
 pared expressly for the purpose, and the result you may 
 easily guess. Large numbers, consisting of Unitarians 
 Spiritualists, and other kinds of Rationalists, shook their 
 heads, wondering what next ; suggested that I had better 
 join Moody and Sankey, and left. I mention these personal 
 details with the view of showing you how I arrived at my 
 present position. The ordeal through which I have had to 
 pass has been a very terrible one. Neglect, persecution, 
 slander, and poverty fell abundantly to my lot. Trials of a 
 temporal character descended upon me thick as hail, and 
 the storm rages still. I realized to the full the Divine 
 
56 
 
 JK8U8, THE WAY, THE TttOTH, AND THE LIF«. 
 
 ^eTZr£:il^: ^-^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^- tabulation, but 
 gooa cneer, 1 have overcome the world » 
 
 ascertain, „ far as wet"' Iw •""'''"T'" ^"^ """'"^ *° 
 "I .0. .,« Wa,. tCrZC^Z S;r '" '"^ '^""'" 
 
 -H?',:; ': "le:^''^': ,^" -<»- »» ™'i-»tand the nece. 
 
 b«f to giL: lo?! ^ ": ''°' ■"" ""»' y" h-e 
 
 tBate.L::^;:,~:itre^"rr-' 
 
 Aa fai. I.. ». / impossible it is to comprehend it 
 
 upon 1 riorio^ ol ha "*'' '*^"«''* ■"»"*• '»'• «»«' 
 Av i. r»™.T. ^ *^ overhead, with which the 
 
 get but a repetition of the scene W„ u ' ^ ^°" 
 throughout the vast e,pans^ „nXen taa^nlt" """" 
 lysed at the contemplaHon o the view 71 " '^T 
 
 that God made all this and unl,l 7 •* ' ^°" "* *°" 
 His power; and that eC Jthot """"^ T™"' ''^ 
 multipM by millions, "but aslt,rt''i:Tb''"r'; "" 
 when compared with fTi^ .1, t^ "" *^® ^'^^^^ce 
 
 he the efre^t ouT.^': ^^^^.Ty """" """' 
 int» silence, and fall down tirrifii k ! ... " ""^ '"^ 
 grandeur of the contetpTat^o^'re IT'T ""' 
 Of aday, What .lation^ean there Ci^ttrttr;-: 
 
JESUS, THE WAY, THE ITRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 67 
 
 infinite 1 •« I have wandered long and far," said one ; " but 
 have not found the rest which you say 'is to be obtained. 
 I have interrogated my own soul, but it answers not. f 
 have gazed upon nature, but its many voices speak no arti. 
 culate language to me ; and more especially when I gaze on 
 the bright page of the midnight heavens, those orbs gleam 
 upon me with so cold a light, and amid a silence so porten- 
 tous, that I am terrified with the spectacle of the infinite 
 solitude." This, I think, must be the experience of every 
 man who looks at nature from that point of view. Now 
 what we want here— and I myself have frequently felt the 
 terrible need of this— is something to bridge over this chasm— 
 the chasm between the infinite and finite, between God 
 and humanity. The space by which God is separated from 
 man has been widened by sin. How is it to be spanned] 
 We cannot approach the essence of Deity, nor climb up the 
 stairs of the Universe to the Eternal. We shrink and 
 shudder at the very contemplation of His awful Majesty. 
 Yet, as there is a relationship established between God and 
 man, and as we are not simply His creatures, but His 
 children, it is essential not only that we should approach 
 Him, but that we should be brought into communion with 
 Him. I should like some pure Theist, as he calls himself, 
 to tell me how he proposes to span this wide and yawning 
 gulf. He would say, probably, that all nature was a mani- 
 festation of God : that the flowers of springtime, the sum- 
 mer's sun, the autumn fruits, and the frosts and snow of 
 winter, were all so many revelations of God, and serve the 
 purpose of mediation between Him and us. It is clearly 
 not so, however; for although nature smiles in oeauty, and 
 bursts forth in loveliness and joy, it is no perfect'representa" 
 tion of God. It is not always cheerful, for it abounds with 
 convulsions and storms; and a hundred diseases are some- 
 
 1/ ♦ 
 
68 
 
 mV8, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AfTD THE UPE, 
 
 wi nis own inner nature Tk- 
 18 cheerful or melancholy as he t! '""''^ 
 
 external things but typif/the state nf .r."*' "^* *"** 
 Besides, nature does not lit T ^^ ^"'"'^ ™^d- 
 
 We -ntsomeotteTeLlTtr^;^^^^^^^^^^^ *^^ -^ 
 
 can flow down to man Tk ^ T the divine peace 
 
 answer the p.rposeT The™: t"'*" " ^"'■"■«''» 
 y not bridge the oha,™ UTeyotTr W °"'^ •"" 
 the view ao«Ms its depths. Th! ! ? -h'tmction to 
 
 tha. God h„ „ade JTC ^LT^JTV^"" 
 there would be an inlinit- 7i, V^ mediator, because 
 the one hand and ^,?k T '«*"'«» him and God on 
 humanitynet"!;:. "^tld' 'j'' "»' "PP-h 
 
 Ro-nan Catholic Chu^h h^^eTLC^n oS ::^:"' ""' 
 we must request to get out o» tK. ° "'tween Ood and man, 
 light from the throrof th, i T*^' ^"^ "^^ "™™'t no 
 <Urk shadow inst3 TW ^*^'^■ •"" "'"'" *''«' <>™ 
 bridge this chast^d m'^H ra.l^ Z ^7J''\ T 
 must touch Deity on the one side and Z\nlt' "! 
 the word, human on the other olw. ^ °°' "' 
 
 mediator to men and onlvo!^' ^ » ■»»" can become a 
 
 Nothing but humX tn i:"thT::' "^ n T""'^- 
 
 the vehicle through which GMl.n ^"^^7 "' '*~"'»8 
 that humanity God mu d^, ''f;. J .■"""' ^*' '" 
 but it is the grandest truth tlathJtlZ '.T'*'^' 
 to the human race OoA . *" "" *™' heen made known 
 
 scientiste would hLe^r^h, ' ™"' '"P"''™ '«'™- " 
 
 -nely on th^^a^rtl^t™ ir^VeZi^rT 
 leaving the government of the worldTo ^f! T *""«''*' 
 came to man once in the humj^a" ^ t^- ^l 
 
JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 69 
 
 humanity which He took must all mediation exist, and 
 through it must flow the Divine Light into the soul of man. 
 Thus we see how Jesus became the way, and the only way 
 by which we can approach God. He is a Being whose 
 nature opened both ways— up to God on the Divine side 
 and down to the lowest man on the human side. And 
 without this mediator it does appear to me that we should 
 be left not only without any approach vj God, but without 
 any true conception of God. T} e inedii. or was the man 
 Chnst Jesus, yet « in Him dwelt <.Ji tho fix ness of the God- 
 head bodily." Hear what He says ..t llluiself : " Believest 
 thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" 
 "All things are delivered unto Me of my Father, and no 
 man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any 
 man the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall 
 reveal Him." In this truth the mind, and heart, and con- 
 science, all find rest ; for there is turned into the soul the 
 light streaming from Divinity itself. He who wanders out 
 of this way rambles through bogs and quagmires, following 
 Will-o'-the- Wisps to his own destruction; while he who 
 keeps steadily along the path is safe from danger, and shall 
 pursue his course unharmed till the goal is reached. Thus 
 you see in what sense the words of the Lord are true • « I 
 am the way, the truth, and' the life, no man cometh unto 
 the Father but by Me." 
 
 Jesus is the Truth. This term truth is one which we 
 continually come across in the teachings of Christ, and is 
 used here in a sense in which we do not find it employed 
 elsewhere. In all the old philosophies, and in the ancient 
 religions too. Truth was some kind of vague abstraction 
 which men were to strive after by the exercise of the' 
 powers of their intellect. In Christianity, Truth is much 
 more than t^^ia. it is not an abstraction, but a stern reality 
 
60 
 
 JBSOS, THE WAV, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIPK. 
 
 to Ohr St, Art thou a King?" He replied that He came to 
 bear w.tne« to the Truth, and the Iptio.1 B^^^Z 
 d.atoly propounded the question, " What is Truth !» The 
 I«>rd gave no answer on this occasion, but He did answer 
 ^e san,e question again and again during His earthril 
 b^useas description of Truth was thtt it .s. ffi^^t 
 
 lat.™ op mon nor even an infallible mandate; it is Christ 
 A, a matter of f«,t, the people in that day who listened t 
 thu m«veIlous doctrine failed to unde«tand it, SZ 
 point of fact, men fail to understand it yet. A;d hl« 
 
 ^ay wrth regard to the possibiUty of arriving at truT 
 Humanity IS a reflection of God, for human teing, C 
 firrt made m the image of God, which image has bee^ sX 
 d.sflg„««i rinoe by sin; but in this one o«e thell^tv 
 .teelf was the perfect reflection of God, because it Trthe 
 mcariation of God. Here the Divine became so b7nd^ 
 with the human that the reflection of God was perfect ^ 
 God alone is the perfection of Truth to be fouL ^rt Jes!^ 
 declares Himself to be " the Way, the Truth, t<i ^e ^"' 
 l>uth, then, « not a Philosophy, nor a Theology, buta 
 
 Z,J^l, \ '^°'"°* ""^^^ P'*'^' through it. You 
 have but to glance over the ancient systems of philosonhv 
 and rehpon to see, on the one hand, how far tCTm 
 .hort of proclaiming the truth to mankind • and on fk 
 other, how endless and futile were the atl^ts t^;;:!^ 
 to reach that point whicn is here so plainly decW A^d 
 m this respect Christianity .tself become, the eutainati^j 
 point of all other religics. . •-uiminating 
 
 These anninnf airafomc 
 
 rerf 71 
 
 IVh 
 
 absoi 
 
 uteljr false, as they 
 
JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 61 
 
 ' 
 
 have sometimes been declared to be ; they were all weak 
 and ineffectual attempts to discover the Truth which, in the 
 course of time, was to appear embodied in a human shape. 
 Mr. Gladstone somewhere says : " The history of the race of 
 Adam before the Advent is the history of a long and varied 
 but incessant preparation for the Advent." And th' is 
 literally true ; because, while we find in Christianity a large 
 number of special principles which are not to be found else- 
 where, we find throughout the whole history of mankind 
 perpetual but ineffectual attempts to reach these grand 
 truths. Take for instance the existence of God. Of course 
 it will be said that all religions have recognized a God. 
 This is true ; but, at the same time, the ideas which they 
 have inculcated respecting Deity have been of so vague and 
 unsubstantial a character that it was utterly impossible to 
 grasp what was thus put forth. It is perfectly clear that 
 when these men talked of God they had in their minds no 
 very definite conception of what they meant. Take for 
 instance Pantheism, which has flourished at some time or 
 another among nearly every ancient people. You have it 
 in one form in India, in another in Greece, and still more 
 recently it has presented itself under a new aspect in Ger- 
 many and in England. I described this to you in the ser- 
 mon of this morning, and, therefore, need not go over the 
 ground again. Suffice it to say that the gist of the whole 
 thing amounts to this: that God is Nature, and Nature 
 God, which is, in truth, really to get rid of God altogether. 
 Pantheism no more than Atheism recognizes a Creator. In 
 neither is there a divine person, and any conception of God 
 apart from personality is impossible. In Brahmanism man 
 was lost in God, and in Buddhism God disappeared in man ; 
 and in truth nowhere will vmi finri a nioar t*nne.an*{nr> »« 
 what God is. The reason is obvious. God is Infinite, and 
 
62 
 
 •IE8DS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, A»D THE LIFE. 
 
 Of the Infinite man cannot conceive, because he lacks the 
 
 retr weT "^ ^"p '»^*'""^ *-=" oxte„dst;:nd 
 
 va^ue ahst^ction ahou't^^il^r^^r,; ^ f^ 
 
 Beit,. cwSiei;;:LsrL:rrcr 
 
 oeived of m Ohnst, worshipped in Christ. And them in 
 particular you have the perfection of Truth. The dotrrin^ 
 of immortality was brought to light by the Gospel And 
 
 :Z iT"?'^ '"*" -'ie'manLt in Xri^t.^O 
 course I am not ignorant of the f^t that some dim and 
 
 ceptlons of God; but immortality was not truly known tUl 
 Chnst proclaimed Himself to be "Tho p. ^ "*'' "" 
 the T.if» " w c J i, . ^"® Besurreotion and 
 
 set teh i Tk "^ ^ ''°"*""* "' " '»"»•'' «"«*« vaguely 
 set forth in the Vedas; we see it also thickly veiled 7u 
 
 the Nirvana; the Persians held it; the Greeks tinibf ■? 
 
 as the Egyptians had doneatamuih e.rH r p rL"*"; *; 
 
 t any reader turn to the records of these peope and 
 
 see how much information he can gain respect! tt 
 
 Everywhere it is unsubstanti, ' and unreal -^hrS 
 
 under-worW of the Greek HaO.., J^T^^ Z '^2 
 
 fta ftn reT 7' """"^ ^'^ """« °' - ^".orteiu; 
 Ite full reahzation came to light in Christianity. Every 
 where else it is either too vague to grasp or overlaid with . 
 substratum of sensuous fallacies. Nor was a nirt! , 
 
 iaw reached elsewhere. We hear mlh ^k ^^ry oTl' 
 perfection of the moral Brecent.. t.h.^ ... j.-.._,. f . *"* 
 
 ^. — — ,,. „j^ «i3wiuutea over 
 
I^s 
 
 JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. I 63 
 
 the literature of ancient nations, but no man who hasVO 
 carefully investigated the subject could for a moment c^ 
 pare any of them, or all of them combined, with the grand 
 moral teachings of Christ. The true basis of right and wrong 
 is found in Christianity, and in Christianity alone. Love to 
 man was set forth in Buddhism, and has been again and again 
 proclaimed, but always divorced from its great correlative, of 
 love to God, which alone can give it force. "The very 
 word humanity," says Max MuUer, « was unknown before 
 Ohnstianity ; " and the great principle of love that we find run- 
 nmg like a golden thread throughout the New Testament 
 is to be met with nowhere else. When Christ came, certain 
 words were in use to convey the idea of love, Epo>r among 
 the Greeks and Amor among the Latins; but these had 
 become associated so thoroughly with sensuality, that new 
 terms were adopted which should express Christian love in 
 Its purest form. These words were Ayan, in Greek, and 
 carttas in Latin. This fact is significant to show the true 
 character of the love which is there enunciated. Herein 
 too, then, we had the Truth proclaimed as it had not been 
 taught elsewhere. I might go on to deal with a number 
 of the other distinguishing peculiarities of Christianity, and 
 in all of them we should see that Christ was what He 
 professed to be, the Truth. Truth then is infinite; the 
 more you have of it the more there appears to be beyond 
 your grasp; it fell within the range of l.uman cognition 
 once, and only once. God is Truth, and in Christ was 
 Truth personified. From Him all Truth flows. He re- 
 marked, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word 
 shall not pass away," and Why? because it is divine Truth. 
 He was indeed "The Way, the Truth, and the Life." 
 
 \JnI 
 
 Jesus is the Life. This Dhmsfi ia m..af «;««;« 4. r» 
 
 life ,n the souj of man is, after all, the most important part 
 
 ivinu 
 
 r(l 
 
64 
 
 JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 of the Christian character. To know the Truth is not suf- 
 ficient ; it must be practised, and to be practised it must be 
 thoroughly incorporated into the character. Mere intellec- 
 tual perception of Truth is of no value; men must love the 
 Truth, and they will then perform it. In presenting the 
 moral law before the mind, there are two points in which 
 Christianity rises far above all otlior schemes, and in which, 
 in fact, its chief value as a moral system consists. Fir«t, it 
 places before the mind of the man a more powerful motive 
 than is to be found elsewhere ; and, secondly, it imparts to 
 him a power which no other system professes to give- 
 " The science of ethics," says Prof. A. S. Wilkins, " is mainly 
 concerned with the determination of three questions : What 
 method are we to pursue to asertain what is right 1 What 
 code of laws is given us by the method which we adopt? 
 What motives have we for obedience to this code 1 In other 
 words, by what means and in what direction is the ccn- 
 science— the ethical intellect, as Bunsen calls it— to be 
 guided? How is the will to be influenced?" It will be 
 apparent to the most superficial thinker that this latter is a 
 matter of the greatest possible importance. Supposing you 
 had a correct method for ascertaining what is right, and 
 had deduced by that method a perfect moral code, you 
 have yet to place it before men in such a form that they 
 shall accept it and act upon it. And this is just what all 
 the systems of ethics fail to accomplish. It occurred to me 
 again and again when I was an unbeliever that the long 
 string of precepts, looking like proverbs and aphoricms 
 copied out of " Poor Richard's Almanac," which the Secn.- 
 larists string together, and call moral principles, were utterly 
 useless, however good they might be, because they came 
 altogether without authority, and did not present sufficient 
 
 motive to indnnn mAn f.o nVtov fhf>m T^y.;^»^«.:.,~ _« 
 
 • - -- — J vii^uii -jjttvuoiiiviua saVa vk 
 
not suf- 
 
 must be 
 
 intellec- 
 
 love the 
 
 iting the 
 
 !n which 
 
 n which, 
 
 First, it 
 
 1 motive 
 
 parts to 
 
 to give* 
 
 3 mainly 
 
 : What 
 
 1 What 
 
 I adopt? 
 
 In other 
 
 he ccn- 
 
 — to be 
 
 will be 
 
 tter is a 
 
 ing you 
 
 ht, and 
 
 de, you 
 
 lat they 
 
 'hat all 
 
 d to me 
 
 le long 
 
 horicms 
 
 e Sec".- 
 
 utterly 
 
 y came 
 
 ifficient 
 _£ 
 
 I 
 
 JB8US, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE WPB. 66 
 
 the moral teachings of the heathen: " Their precepts have 
 no weight, because they are human, and need a greater 
 authority, even a Divine one. No one, therefore, i^lieves 
 them, because he that hears them considers him that gives 
 those precepts a man like himself." And this is just the 
 position m which moral precepts stand to people in general. 
 They may be very good in their way, but they lack the 
 power to present a s.ifficient motive for obedience to them. 
 Teach a man what is right, make him understand it, and he 
 IS not much the better for the lesson. He ma/ .till do 
 wrong and the truth that you have told him respecting the 
 moral law may have no influence whatever on his character 
 You may do more than this: you may show him that it 
 wou d be far better for himself personally if he did the 
 right, which, I suppose, is the very strongest possible motive 
 that a mere natural system can place before a selfish man. 
 He may listen to this, and even be convinced that what you 
 say IS true ; still, he will not do the right. His inclination 
 to wrong IS so strong that he will purchase the gratification 
 of evil-doing, even at the expense of much future sufferinir 
 Now, what can you do in such a case? All ..ere natural 
 systems of morals are powerless. What is needed, it must 
 be apparent to every one, is some stronger motive than has 
 yet been presented. The thing that is required is some- 
 thing that shall make the man love the right. Now, noth- 
 ing can do this but Ohristianity, because nothing else can 
 reach the heart. All rules about the regulation of external 
 conduct deal with the superficial on the outside; but .he 
 law of Ohnst penetrates into the inmost recesses of the soul, 
 rectifies tbe mainspring of action, and therefore necessarily 
 changes the conduct which flows from it. Let a man receive 
 the love of God into his soul and feel the life of Christ im- 
 Fxan.e« m nm nature, and he no longer desires to do the 
 o 
 
f r 
 
 ■' -T|.*Si^«^«| 
 
 66 
 
 JESUS, THE WAT, THE TRUTH, AlID THE LIFE. 
 
 wrong, because he is in love with the right— that is to say, 
 his love for the right will be stronger than any inclination 
 to wrong. Truth in this case has been blended with love ; 
 the understanding and the will are both enlisted on the dde 
 of right, and the man's character is changed, and, as a 
 matter of course, a change of conduov; necessfcri^v follows. 
 An able writer observes : « To St. Paul and the first Cum. 
 tians the law became no longer a stern commandment stand, 
 ing outsJ'.^ of them, Ibreatening them from above, but a 
 warm law of love wi h>.u tbm ; not only a higher discern- 
 ment of the good, but. a no^- o.nd marrellous power to do it 
 cheerfully and with joy, ' Una is exactly what is needed. 
 All may not, like t-ht Apcftie Paul, possess the mighty faith 
 to move the world, but fco the simplest Christian is given 
 some share of the Divine iove which prompts to the noblest 
 »f actions. The second point in which Christianity is so 
 sur.erior to all other systems is in the power which it im- 
 partK to the individual to do what is right. Many a man 
 has a very clear conception of what he ought to do, and is 
 even desirous of doing it, but fails to carry out his inclina- 
 tion in consequence of the want of that spiritual power 
 which would enable him to accomplish the desired result. 
 Now, here Christianity steps in, and supplies not simply the 
 motive, but the power. The life of God in the soul of man 
 enables him to accomplish results which would otherwise be 
 deemed impossible. Here is the grand distinguishing differ- 
 ence between Christian morality and Pagan morality. The 
 latter was one long and perpetual wail and lament at man's • 
 inability to be virtuous; the former rejoices in the trium- 
 phant cry, "I can do all things through Christ which 
 strengtheneth me.'" Tennyson remarks : 
 
 " !?" ]^^*' whereof ou) - ves are scant, 
 Oh life, not death, for whiVh wa «ant 
 More life and fuller, that i want.'*' " ' 
 
J^ 
 
 JESUS, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND Til . LIFE. 67 
 
 This is to be obtained nowhere but in that eternal life 
 of God manifested in Christ, and through Him extended 
 to everyone who seeks it. Morality becomes, on this prin- 
 ciple, not a cold and reluctant obedience to certain rules 
 of conduct whidh society has approved and philosophers 
 inculcated, but a passionate struggle to grow into the like- 
 ness of Him from whom all love flows. Nor is the struggle 
 hopeless, but certain to eventuate in success, since Christ 
 is the life, and that life may be obtained by all for the 
 asking. Thus it will be seen that Christ is the fountain 
 of the Christian strength, and the source of the Christian 
 power, as well as the basis of the Christian moral code. 
 Wherever men become partakers of this divine life they rise 
 superior to the circumstances by which they are surrounded, 
 and learn to surmount all difficulties, endure all wrongs,' 
 and overcome all temptation. "Who is he that over' 
 Cometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the 
 Son of God T 
 
 There is one fact, and a most stubborn one, in connection 
 with human nature,which is the terrible reality of sin. There 
 is a tendency in the Rationalism of to-day to gloss over sin 
 and to call it by some milder name. The pure Theist and 
 the advanced Unitarian, which is very much the same 
 thing, talk a great deal about our failings, the faults we 
 commit, and the mistakes we fall into, but they seem to 
 have struck the word sin out of their vocabulary. Not so 
 the Bible, where sin is constantly described and condemned, 
 and not so experience, where sin terribly abounds. We all 
 know, that is to say, if we have looked into our own hearts, 
 how fearfully we have departed from holiness. " If we say 
 we have no sin we deceive ourselves," is a truth which 
 «very man's experience bears out. Should we meet with a 
 i^erson who declared himself without sin we should put 
 
 
68 
 
 JESUS, THE WAY, THE TBUTH, ANH THE LIFE. 
 
 him down as an impudent boaster, rather than an over- 
 virtuous man. And what is worthy of observation in con^ 
 nection with this point is, that the purer and hoKer life a 
 man leads the more does he feel himself to be a sinner in 
 the sight of God. 'Tis not those external actions in our 
 lives, but the inner workings of the soul, that so appal us 
 with their blackness, A poet has beautifully observed :— 
 
 " I* is not what my hands have done 
 
 That weighs my spirit down, 
 That casts a shadow o'er the sun, 
 
 And over earth a frown. 
 It is not any heinous guilt 
 
 Or vice by men abhorred ; 
 For fair the fame that I have built, 
 
 A fair li|e's just reward— 
 And men Would wonder if they knew 
 
 How sad I feel with sins so few. 
 
 " Alas ! they only see in part, 
 
 While thus they judge the whole ; 
 They cannot look upon the heart. 
 
 They cannot read the soul. 
 But I survey myself within, 
 
 And mournfully I feel, 
 How deep the principle of sin 
 
 Its roots may there conceal, 
 ■^njspread its poison through the frame. 
 
 Without a deed that men can blame." 
 
 We want a remedy for all this, and it is to be found 
 nowhere but in Christ. Moral philosophy cannot change 
 the heart, codes of ethics cannot purify the soul, rationalis- 
 tic schemes are valueless in the work of regeneration. The 
 grace of God, and it alone, can accomplish what is needed. 
 It is customary now-a-days to ridicule what is called conver- 
 sion as being solely imaginary ; but, depend upon it, it is 
 one of the most important realities of life. By the opera- 
 tion of the Spirit of God on the soul, alone, can sin be cured, 
 
 and the man who ffifila bimaolf « mV^». -.:n _i_^ e-^^ .1 
 
 - "- " DiixiiDx TTiii aiBu iviii lae 
 
JESUS, THE WAT, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 
 
 69 
 
 n over- 
 in con-* 
 ' life a 
 nner in 
 in our 
 ppal us 
 ved:— - 
 
 found 
 hange 
 >nalis- 
 . The 
 seded. 
 •nver- 
 it is 
 >pera- 
 ured, 
 1 ine 
 
 importance of the words of the text, "I am the Way the 
 Truth, and the Life." 
 
 In conclusion, I may remark that the application of 
 Christianity to the wants of the age is, in my conception, 
 most perfect. You cannot have a better illustration of the 
 necessity of this religion than is to be found in the fact that 
 the men who reject it, and profess to have outgrown it, have 
 gone back again to the condition of their predecessors 
 eighteen hundred years ago. When Paul went to Athens 
 he found the people worshipping the " Unknown God," and 
 that is exactly what scientific men are doing again to-day. 
 TheTyndalls and theHuxley8,e< hocgenus omne, are proclaim- 
 ing to-day a God that is unknowable, and from their stand- 
 point they are right, for there is no real knowledge of God 
 out of Christ. In Him, too, may be found a solution of 
 many of the problems which this age presents. To-day 
 ihe question is shouted by sages, and re-echoed by the mob, 
 " What is Truth ? " Here is the answer, " I am the Way, 
 the Truth, and the Life." « What is God ?" is a question 
 that is being asked on every hand. The reply comesi 
 «God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship 
 Him in Spirit and in Truth." « Spirit," sneers the sceptic, 
 "I can't conceive of Spirit; I want something more tangi- 
 ble." Here it is then ; listen to Christ's words : " He that 
 hath seen Me hath seen the Father, for I am in the Father 
 and the Father in Me." "Is man immortal?" the unbeliever 
 asks sneeringly, and the common people inquiringly, and 
 the answer comes, " I am the Resurrection and the Lifa" 
 In the vast turmoil of business, and amongst the thousand 
 cares and anxieties th:?.t press us down on every hand, we 
 feel the need of rest rest of mind. Jesus exclaims, " Come 
 unto Me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." Around us there is dense spiritual darkness, 
 
 « 
 
70 
 
 JMU8, THE WAY, THE TRUTF, />ND THE LIPE. 
 
 GUI' 
 
 abutting out the bright ligl A th^ ,ua, and obscuring 
 gaze on every hand. Her. i, the remedy, « I am the light 
 of the world." We feel ourselves alone when friends have 
 proved treacherous and companions false. Then comes in 
 the glorious promise, " Lo ! I am with you nl^.iy- '■-.... unto 
 the end of the world." And when sin crushes u's down, and 
 nses up in our midst like huge trees of the forejt, seeming to 
 flounsh and tri- riiph, while virtue droops and holiness 
 appears to hang i „, head, then comes the grand proclama- 
 tion made eighteen hundred years ago, and remaining as 
 potent to-day cs when first uttered, "Behold the Lamb of 
 God, which taketh away the sins of the worid." 
 
 Thus have I put befor? you briefly my present position, 
 the mode in which I h'ave been led to it, and i ae argument? 
 behind which I think I may safely entrench myself, bidding 
 defiance to all the scepticism of the age. I can only, in 
 conclusion, repeat before this congregation the resolution long 
 since made, to adhere by the grace of God to the truth as 
 It is in Jesus, and addressing myself to Him, who is ihe 
 ♦'Author and Finisher of our faith," er claim :— • 
 
 " Whil« I draw thj- fleeting broath, 
 When mine eyelji ^ose L death, 
 When I rise to woi ids unknown, 
 And behold Thee on Thy throne, 
 Rock of Ages cleft *<■■>.- e, 
 Let me hide uiyself m Tnee." 
 
 ' 
 
 
 k*^^' 
 
ng ont 
 le light 
 is have 
 »mes in 
 ''.unto 
 rn, and 
 aing to 
 oliness 
 clama* 
 mg as ■ 
 ,mb of 
 
 sition, 
 :ment9 
 idding 
 
 along 
 ith as 
 is tne 
 
 
 
 HOW BEASY. CBOWN 8to, BEACTIFUU.T BOl'lO* IH 
 CLOTH, LETTERED. PRICE, $l.1i. 
 
 The Baseless Fa'uric of Scientific Scepticism. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. GEORGE SEXTON, M.A., LL.D., Ph.D., 
 
 Hmo-ary Pro/mor of Natural Science in the Galileo- Academy, Naples: 
 
 Honorari, a7ul Corresponding Fellow of the Italian Society of Science: 
 
 Ijonorary Member of L'AccademiadeiQuiHti, Rome: 
 
 Member oj .he \ ictv. la Institute; PhUosophical Society of Great Britain: 
 
 die., tbc, (ke. 
 
 ««.A''h«*''' o'j^'scoursei on the 'OppoBltiona of Science, falsely so-called,' of the 
 S.^!n *^*^ ^* *'"'*S'" ^^°*« * ^"^ acquaintance ^v tJi his subjeot. whiohi* 
 Sidtt^," " u1„^^f°' ^*"y *^'° have atteu.pted recently to reconcile relffiw 
 SSotl«f, 'ulZ^ , ♦I^^PT' "f® '^"'■"^•^ ^•**' «!"»*« »n affluence of ^tte 
 
 «♦ HI?^'* discourse . for the most part, lectures delivered on the main features 
 tI,^^n"i"Ji'/rSmT'r-'^,^ 'rthbyitaspedal and avo ed advocates The 1^ 
 !«? iT *''^"*"*<= Matenahsii, is a reply to Professor Tyndall's Belfast Address 
 ^Ifif" >';cisive exposure of the dominant fallacy of the Professor's lecturefiS 
 
 ISS. 1; f J: ^" , ^^% ^'P"-'t«ality of man and his immorta) ity are well demonstrated 
 a^inst the attacks of tije Materialistic philoso.hers. We lust also note, the arra. 
 ment from authority is well ursred by Dr. Se "-Publvc Opinion. 
 
 ♦^jmri#%'i!^-l^'''^?.°' addresses, in which scicntiflo objections to the truth. «ad 
 n^t^^ "h ^*'"«t'^"'ty ^^e scientifically dealt ^. ith. Dr. Sexton meets his opp<" 
 i"nd?rteke5!''-°Roc*"'"" ' '"'"'^^ *^""'®'' ** "^^•'"■'y «"ed for the task heX* 
 
 «nrf"^!!®?f„^!*^'°"Ju®f *'r "parked by vigour and learning. They are keen, forcible, 
 SSliv^.n^ *. '"f ^u^^l ''*^'* i' treatment. It is evident that the author ha. re2 
 w« fi^,',ii * ** ^^ *"^ ?i"?f ^•*«^'-' subjects his earnest and painstn' ing >*tudy. 
 He is fully prepared to hold his ground against any antagonist. "-Li^ (ry WorO. 
 
 K- i!f» 1® "°t needful for us to speak in praise of Dr. Sexton's celebrity as a scholar ; 
 xr.f,,™i o"? *®" i**''""^ *^® public iji the capacity of a Lecturer and Professor of 
 watural Snience of some repute. THe discourses in the voiur before us were 
 «!ii»r rr'K ^fl"?"*. Kt^ *"■ ^^^ country in refutation of Scientific Scepticism so- 
 ^ed The first, of the senes constitutes a repl to ProfcHsor T- ndaU's Belfast 
 Addr.-^, and >8 a masterpiece of a.,ute reason hr ogiceJ acumen .d de-p learn- 
 „/o ^«»f?''''«^,^n the light of the prep-nt ae lectures in tho volun^e before 
 
 UB a, unique , for originality, f.nd cal. lat^ o accomplish untold good amonir 
 JH^^aii^^a'^'o^^^r-'":^' ^" ?'"' "i;i'»i"". -'•'■• ocAion it unapproacnabie as a teoturet 
 on Scientific ScepL* sm, and we sinoerel- hope that his life will be long spared to 
 
PRESS TESTIMONlALS-CoKTiNUKD. 
 
 men who call themselvea mlnlsteWtK GotTJl^'^CAri/^"/*^ •"** %'"°'>»«'om6 
 ';^•^!L!:lL^^i•-t"ttle volume, an. .^La^rL^:,. The .ub- 
 
 Jeot. di«u«ed in iU ^^Tre ^T^ro^lTin^pIt!;:;"" *7'''" circulation. The sub- 
 
 • of thoughwSfmen! The St e^aT -•^n**''^^^ inoreasinrfy the 
 
 ?•' '"..^''pounded by ProW T^nLn^ J.^'ri^l^''^.^' :Spt«"tiflc 
 
 Dr. Sexton, while Admitting, as evS on? m^l ^h^'" '''»?0"f .««""» Addrew. 
 Tyndall as a scientific obseFver and investlirafor '» „?^, ^'*** "^'."^^ *" Professor 
 bevond his sp«cial province he irnotrti^8tworthl"-'J'^* liTJP''' evidence that, 
 mfad are not tobeexplaine;! on purely lEiaHlii*^'^^ /*** 'i^*« «' »'« »««* 
 dence of this can be given ,an ProXsLp TvTMlir"^,*^'^°""'^*> »"'^ '«> better evi- 
 of matter-whatever that may be-thrnS*'''' ^/*Ji"'■'' *« fl"^ *" the potency 
 on ' Science and ilelijrion ■ TbL ?or7i»j! ^/^h T^u"" *" **"^* '»• The seoonre«»y 
 
 on Natural Theolog?^°"J*,|^lrbe "^to tvl reld'^^.d'?;:' "" P^^"'"' * "^^^^^ 
 the discourse .n 'God and InimortAlifv - rnu Xi- ' *'"' *he same may be said of 
 o^ life is a senrching exj^sur" of1he*^aluS5^HJrrt1,^\*^ protoplos^mc ?h'^ry' 
 to shed no new light on the m\ sterv of Hfn nnt . 1 *'^^ hypothesis. It is shown 
 phenomena of vitality. The Iwt discour^^n ' V'^",''PP'°'^'^ accounting for the 
 Bemar.' contains much that de^rves thmi^hl f hn" 'k'T^' ^" 'Man, a SpirituaJ 
 wlatrontothespirit-worldnrnvberSle^^^^^ 'he position maintained to 
 
 current «ontroversiesafford^ valuab "I'd to thL^.H.^*"^- . \' * contribution to 
 ^th them, and to estimate their in^rwrt^nceanHt.n^^^^ ^ become acquainted 
 
 h« If en"deVTpS\Ke mh ce^^^^^^^^^^^ *° K^^PP'^ -'th Scepticism, as It 
 
 merely a great sbholar. and a man oMoi^ !"^**'^ ^"i*'^'" ^^ *his boofi. He s not 
 m«le the subjects on wWch he diseoS in"?hls von,i:^'^i"^- . ".« ^« °"« '^h' h«' 
 JM« also something more than fh^!;,;.* j„ f i t'V^^"'"me the stu< y of a life He 
 Meal experience i^ The ways o'^aS"„d"th:'fhp- ?" *\?? »» amoimt of pJS 
 makes him doubly com^t to deal ^^hth^ti„r^'^i*' '"^'''^ 'l°"bt leads, that 
 d»y. In the volume before us there S si? df,;^^,^«"f ^^^'^'"uSr questions of the 
 ▼arious places. Amon^ thtin ih a .;,^of i discourses which have been given in 
 deUvereS bj Prof^r^CdSl ?t Sast'^^flw veat"l' '''"'^^^P'^ *« the^d?e^ 
 » profound sensation at the time an^ m JtV *• *^*'- ?^** ""^dress created 
 Sexton literally demolishes the effort of thpH^^Hn^'?*^!, P«f '"^ely jubilant. Dr; 
 completely baseless are tiie th^H«B ZJ^Vu *^'«t'nS'"8hed scientist, and shows how 
 •Scenoe and ReKm,' 'S^nd lmmL?„i^**'?T^ Other subject., such m 
 dealt with, and dealt wth a such a mS nWvV^''"'..* ^P'""**"*! Being,' a" 
 tL^°""«^ "^f " ^«"»d 'e^ and study ThTs book thev wW^"' "^ '««"« coul5de,5: 
 they run after every novelty in the shan^ «/ h»- ^ ^m^'^ "'^ '"<»'e cautious how 
 cfamisfarofteneraVnony^ for shaiK^^ ««« that Sceptt- 
 
 to be much more largely coveted ^ThZl^nW « V°' 1"^ ^"^''t^^ *hat ought 
 '""ndatlpn a belicNer fn Jesus Christ can r^t v"^ o"? how wide and strong a 
 
 ssawKJi;trrar'i^^ti£^^^^^ 
 
 fWrltualNature^if Man . C's ori^^n 'ind^iii? «»»ain?'. Protoplasm.? and •?£ 
 intelligence, have always been suffix «?*l W°/.' *"** ^^^ relatfons w th a higher 
 much confusing contXr^ it Trefr^hi,^.* ?/"* 'mportance. and in the mkfit of 
 tangled skeins and unrivela thlm i^l . '"*^ J^x '^^'^ » hook which take- ud the 
 ^Wf^nd de^a^t^X u^a'^^^^^^^^^ ?l W there t TbSh 
 
 The Sceptical philosophy of the dav Hm m.f u. "^*1'.°'J*« Christian argument 
 •^profound Scholanhfc ; and rtidSl's bIi^* a^^^JP ^'- ^^*«°'« wide readhj 
 •«« its di«H«tion In tAjg b^k "iSSS/fiSBA "" 'P^" *» * ^""J' ' ^^ 
 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Eecently Published. Crown 8to, Cloth, Lettered. 
 
 Price, $1.25. 
 
 THEISTIC PROBLEMS: 
 
 BEING ESSAYS ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, AND 
 HIS RELATIONSHIP TO MAN. 
 
 InM^ifV ^n^ »." t "°*' unwearied apologist for Christianity. He has lived in 
 withn.yV.f?K ''n^K^'i'^1" *!." "?"*/• "?* *'**'°"* struggles within and opposition 
 Jl^uo' ^ ^^^ Theistic standpoint and to an Evangelical faith. A magazinVwhloh 
 ^t,^,*" give* us some idea of the vast amount oT labour he goes through in the 
 TniTimiP'''"''"'''"^' '««*"""». and holding disputations with all come™, -nds 
 7i?« inn'Ji' * K°*^ '«l?a °' the quality of his work. We have heard the Doctor 
 imSi? •**'! deeply impressed with his oratorical and .logical power. That 
 iSrWfcvfw'f^^"^''^* P'"^^^' °' "^^^'^^tic Problems.^ It ^uld not be 
 the^P f Stf i^* *n " "k"™^ contains much original matter. From the nature of 
 thf t^ ha« t» !.,'^J""'E^K •"?Po«>«'le- But we give him truer praise when we say 
 that he has handled such hackneyetl subjects as the 'Folly of Atheism' 'Apnjwff 
 
 S^t*l'^t""^" '''^•' "V' ""«•*"*' "^ Wour anVviv^Uy^hich^rvlr 
 Ik^hfi^r^hn^""^^ 7^^- I^". commonplaces of theology are clothed with flesh 
 the ohWfi a"^^.J"/*'® P^ophet'8 vision. The book is admirably adapted to meet 
 lnf«™i^^° ' r*^ *?. s^i'sfy the longings of that large and most imperfectly 
 Y^!^ ^•'^ "/ f'^Pu"? ^ *'*>'•=*' ^•- S^^'ton addresses himself. It is w^tten fi 
 veSSj k^^\?l fj^^' ^"k* ^'V J*"* \"** t**^" **>«'« "« ««"^« 0* those hard contro? 
 «f WmJ^ f '^i't,* "T^- '^''P'^ Y"""^ ^°* *° appreciate. Dr. Sexton can take care 
 Ti,« ^1 « ^® ^°^Y *^'^®! evi'lence of most extensive and well-digested reading 
 S^ttv^wfth' • '^'«'f y«,^ the point. The style is clear and pelfucid? ^tou^ 
 ^J^-wLlailt^!' " **"** ""*^* ^^^ "^^^"^^ d&cussions delight 
 
 hlm"te'i«5^^S,'ffr"°"'^^''P®'"'*"°®*"*^ ^^ P"**"" ^o"''' »"onff sceptics enable 
 imin» W *• ^''."It "^""Vl^y ooncerain.- the ideas whfch ar? really prevalent 
 
 ^^L^mJT^r\°*^l^ '"'.**^i« *"** '°^«' «''"■ ^« ^hich stands aloof from toe 
 WUgiouB Hfe and churches of the nation. The . fforts of the author are worthy <rf 
 «veryencouragement which can be given then.; and they seem likely to l£i" 
 ISJ&.i2if°""SL'°''" "posed to the assaults of unbelief before they have rei^h^ 
 ^th J^™"^**"^^^*? 8^"""?°'"* "^n^'nd changeless faith. . ... Indexing 
 Jyir,*i'®^^*'''"\**'^*^r,°i' *•'« author presents an array of facts in i temperate 
 tSrSuSl^^f".J^u^^' ^?"'^* *° 5«ii8t.*^ There is gieat^^ndensation .KSdl 
 tSnSi^* °f striking things, and we cannot but believe that these will be (3 
 fa^ense service to many persons who have been bewildered and Derolexed hvth; 
 
 rf^rtthiT^,^^"^*^"" "4.^'""^"*' J *"* f '"'™i paragraphs wiii be found deserving of 
 •oawful study The second essay Is on ' Agnostiotam-the Unknown God.' It 
 
PRESS TESTIMONIALS-COKHNUED. 
 
 recommend a valuable litflp hnnl f..ii\r#* « *"**'"???."*"* theme. We cordiallv 
 statements, and havinVa hLlK moJL?^^^^ thinking sound argument, S 
 
 .e^IhJlS^^SKe?^>;-g,^sj^^^ 
 
 and ;j*srwhereZWS he%S 
 
 ordinary merit. Delivered al lecK %^f^hi /i^ Problems is a work of more thai 
 
 ttat oowurity on some'^tl? imponanS?nt« h^ '° '""^ 5"^ ^^^'^ ^'^ated 
 
 *i5^^^".?* «°"*^ *«rth, and wTirbeShfy valued bvintlHtZ;"^- 1 '^^'^^S^P^^ 
 Methodist Free Churches' Magazine. ^ intelligent readers.- tfnfteir 
 
 the;;Sil?o^*?LTS with all 
 
 to be met, and he deals with them in a^kllhZ^HoT^l-^ '^*'** *'«^ 
 
 well command the attention of all wrha^fdouitelfe'S^ """^ 
 
 convicSon"tTeve*ry SS^n^^^hich'hr/^'^ '^^'"'''^' ''^^ ""^^t to carry 
 
 dir^it^ln^'dThTtoSSh^Jd'^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 to ministers, local prelchers leadi^' ^a ^ ^* cordially recommend the book 
 
 Methodist. preachers, leaders, and our readers generally."-PrtmtWw. 
 
 nnd'a''th??otgr|r'irof*hrstt 'TJ?'"? ''^ -'^^"'h,. 
 
 thoughts sparklirTg tLoughout thS' na?P« Th^^.""?"/ ^''jf*"*' '^"«' beautiful 
 well calculated both to "mpart faith irG^' and fn Thr «t f o'ihL"' *^*' ^^^'"^ ^' 
 have it not, and to strengthen and increasrfalth /n th« hi^ ^^T 'T*'° ""happily 
 that precious treasure."-CAMrcK"mte. '^ **'° "^''^''''y P°™««' 
 
 the oTIiiitTt ShS^'ou'r'End;' wSin^^^^ ^*=»«'«'"' Agnostici«n, 
 
 and One Mediator betwien God and^.f^^?"^^ '*^ ^^P^^'" Substitutes, One G«i- 
 the learned soc eties oKles B^^e iTi^kt nn>^^^^ "°h rK^^^r'T'^.^^i^ attestation of 
 us feel that these questions are Sussed^^ th thp .1^5**'" ^*"**^^ ®^*«« *« ^^ke- 
 of an acknowledgea master in science aTwTit««^n ?l^*'i '"^'S^'^* *"<> vigorous grasp 
 
 eloquent, forceful, and St to b^in /h« hn^nTT^',- ^he essays are absorbing. 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Third Edition. In Paper Covers. Price, 35 Cents. 
 
 
 THE FALLACIES OF SECULARISM. 
 
 "This is an ingenious attempt to turn the tables on the Sceptical school ot 
 English thinkers, by showing that their own theories are self-contradictory, and 
 their own principle of criticism self-destructive. The writer ishow.i, from the 
 admitted writings of the Sceptical schoul, uhat there is far stronger evidence of 
 self-contradiction than any that can be alleged in the Qoapel. We especially com. 
 mend the two able chapters which demonstrate that Secularism is destitute of an 
 ethical code, and deficient as a moral guide." — Public Opinion. 
 
 "A vigorous and well-written attacli by one who is thoroughly master of thd 
 subject, and brings to bear upon it ability of no ordinary character. "--AoeJfc. 
 
 " No man la more competent to discuss the questions of Secularism than Dr. 
 Sexton. For years he was not only its disciple, but its earnest apostle. He has 
 sounded its depths, and found them rotten and corrupt ; and in the light of the 
 Gospel, which has re-entered him, he exposes and denounces it, and does this with 
 his characteristic force, both of logic and rhetoric. We are glad to find that this 
 book has already had a large circulation, and most heartily wish the author great 
 success in his endeavours to advance the faith which he once opposed."— ^ffomi^w^ 
 
 "We rejoice in the return of so distinguished a scholar to the doctrines of Christ. 
 The mental peculiarities of Barker and Cooper are singularly distinct from the 
 highly-cultured author of the work before us. His command of Scriptural know* 
 ledge, his philosophical character, his intimacy with all the doubts and redoubts ot 
 Atheism and Secularism, render him a formidable antagonist wherever the divmity 
 of Christ, or the peerless glory of His teaching and example is assailed. Young men 
 by thousands should read and master these conclusive and interesting pages by one 
 whose experience has brought both sides of the question into light."— Christian 
 Age. 
 
 "Tliere are few men more competent to deal with this great question than Dr. 
 Sexton. No one who knows his 'Reasons for Renouncing Infidelity' will doubt 
 either his knowledge of the subject or ability to handle it. And his conclusions are 
 further valuable in this respect, that they are not only the product of his thought, 
 but the product of his life. We are glad to be assured, on Dr. Sexton's authority, 
 that Secif larism is not nearly such a widely-spread system as is popularly imi^^ned ; 
 nor does it seem to be making progress in any one of the directions in which it 
 specially professes to work, or to have made any for many years patl. Still, it is 
 sufHciently formidable in many of the English manufacturing towns to make this 
 ecepose of its fallacies both valuable and timely ; and it might be of great benefit to 
 have such pungent and able writings as Dr. Sexton's circulated in the localities 
 where they are known to be required."— CArwtMMi. 
 
 " We commend thpse discourses to our readers ; and we aro persuaded that their 
 circulation broadcast in our laiye towns and thickly-populated districts, where 
 Secularistic lectures find their audi'^nces, would contribute not a little to check their 
 mischievous doings. The third discourne contains a brief, but a very effective dis< 
 cuSsicn of the Utilitarian form of moral philosophy. The insufficienoy of utility m 
 » guide of life and standard of morals, even wbon modified by Mr, J. S. Mill's happt. 
 ness of the greatest number principle, is clearly established. We shall be glad to 
 find Dr. Sexton again devoting himself to the consideration of such subjects and 
 questions as are debated in this book, for the treatment of which he possenes 
 PMuliar apti*ude and resources." — Primitive Methodist. 
 
 *• This little volume is composed of able discourses on Secularism, by a gentleman 
 who, from bis wide experience and scholarship, is unnsuallv well qualified to deal 
 with the ever-changing forms of unbelief. T author shows most conclusively 
 
 DM God for its author, eternity for its field of action, and the salvation of mankind 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 
 
 Secularism back a^aln to Christian't^* Th« w^ ^'k*^" steps to l.e taken from 
 meralyea« tocome, the class con this slbiec? Th«' h;:^„"f '"' f"** ^'" ^ '»' 
 really desirous of knc winir what 4i.i.,Wiu?.?7 1"°.'*?*^'' ** unique. Anv one 
 
 t)ther.»-7?aw<«„fi<«M]5;;/e^'^S^^«<="'»"'"" »«» must get this work, for there is no 
 
 goin^^nd'.!,^^^^^^ 
 
 on the subject fese who '^^X?" tfow th^'lA"'":"!^/"'"*''- ^''^'« '» the claffi 
 sive things ever said against Secularism must .^TfM*'''"''?'"*' e^^ctive, and impres- 
 of reasoning, lit up with fl^he^of huZuTa^rf^m.rfi T'"!"^' ^' '" " master-pioce 
 orerwhelming ridicule, and natural ^^trh«m.^*^® vivacious with biting sarcasm, 
 Oldham Chronicle "at"™' wit. fhe Doctor is a controversial Colossus," J 
 
 Cloth, Lettered. Price, $1. in Paper Coyers, 60 Cts. 
 
 BIBLICAL DIFFICETfflS DISPELLED: 
 
 TEXTS, ETC. 
 
 have fouiid the work verv helnfTil HnT.o I T ? . " ''"^ '*™'* '»«'»'■« "* Sceptics 
 ful to the doctor f^Ws luminous ^n tlLi'n"*''^'"^ cannot but feel deeply grate- 
 reliKJous toachers and young men wi^lZdtl?i"lrk'* '""'''l^'^^^ *"«^'"^ Public 
 The work can but add to*the SpTe did reputaU.m^of n^^ 
 greates defender, of the faith of L ^e/'-Ct Sj^ee'^,^;-^" «" «»« «' '»>• 
 
 tnterJstlnr-OW^ar crSr' "*'"'• " '^ «*'*'«'"'y' "-'»«»«. -^ intensely 
 
 Price, 86 Cents. 
 
 THE FOLLY OF ATHEISM- 
 
 Competent hnowlSe "f tKbiect fTJm irresistible form, 
 
 logical reasonioKs, and I nCse SStneM ^ .. fri7i~ '''"»'** objections, sound 
 Saptist Magazine. ""*"»• earnestness of spirit are manifest on every page."— 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 
 I t.,^^ Doctor carefully, and yet in the clearest language, proceeds link by link 
 In his powerful chain of argument. This lecture explains why it is that the Doctor 
 18 such a popular lecturer ; how it is that learned and illiterate men alike go milea 
 In wretched weather to hear hira. He is eloquent, clear, convincing. There is no 
 mistaking his meaning, no failing to seethe point of his argument, nc escapinir the 
 tMc,intiUonol\ia]&nti\i&f(e."~Rawt.erwtall Free Press. r » uo 
 
 eSF Only a few copies of this book remain in a separate form, but it is priiit«d 
 entire in " Thelstic Problems." "^ 
 
 Price, 35 Cents. 
 
 \''ERBATIM REPORT OF A DEBATE ON THE 
 
 DMNE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OP OHRISTIAIflTY, 
 
 Held at Batley, in June, 1877, between Rev. Dr. Sexton 
 and Mr. Charles Watts. 
 
 V .1."^'?" authenticity and faithfulness of the report before us is vouched for bv 
 both disputants, and the subject of dispute was the all-important question 'Is 
 Christianity of Divine Origin, and adapted to the Wants of Humanity? ' Dr 'sex 
 ton seems to have quite the best of the stubborn battle of words here recorded 
 though to oui miiid he scarcely conducted the arguments in favour of Christianity 
 on the highest possible grounds; but at any rate he succeeded to admiration in 
 rebutting if not silencing, the common clap-trap arguments against the divine 
 origin of the religion of the Croaa.'—l'ublio Opinion. 
 
 I' We fear discussions of this sort, carried on amid the inevitable tumult of 
 excited and partizan assemblies, are not likely to be productive of much real irood 
 This debat* however, held in Batley in June last, by able champions on both sidefi' 
 appears to have been characterised by a large amount of candour and fairness itnd 
 ts well worthy of a careful perusal, if only to show the poverty and one-sldedneus of 
 the sceptical argument."— CArwtian. 
 
 "Dr. Sexton is known widely as a great bcholar and profound, thinkor One can 
 well imagine, therefore, when he came into discussion with Bradlaugh's chief dls- 
 ciple, Mr. Watts, he won an easy victory. In the debate Mr. Wattfi put forth the 
 shallowest— but no doubt his best— reasons against the divine nature < f Ohristlauitv 
 Dr. Sexton's replies were animated by the noblest spirit. His grand views curioualv 
 contrast with the flippant criticisms of his AntBigoniat."—E,\glishman. 
 
 Price, 35 Cents. 
 
 VERBATIM REPORT OF A DEBATE ON THE QUESTION: 
 
 IS SEOULARISM THE TRUE GOSPEL FOR MANKIND ? 
 
 Held at Batlby, in June, 1R',7, between the Rev. Dr. Sexton 
 
 AND Mr , W. FOOTB. 
 
 "Dr. Sexton may bo fairly congr/t,- ated on his complete victory."~PuNi(5 
 Ojnnxmi 
 
 " Mr. Fooie does his best to stem the Doctor's torrent of facts, argument* 
 charges, exposes, but it is evident from the very outset that Mr. Foote is utterly 
 overmatched. The Doctor pushes all before him. Yet he is courteous, genial, 
 humorous, bnt it is very clear he has it all his own way. He strikfls crushing blow 
 alter blow, and those are most feehly narrjedi ".nti! one feels for sir. Funis In hfa 
 unequal contest. The debate is well worth having, if it were only for the Doctor'a 
 merciiesa asBauit on 8ecalgirum."~Raietcmiall Free Prets. 
 
■i>Mta^(a<liM 
 
 WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Cloth, Lettered. Price, 90 Cents. 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF THE AGE: 
 
 Being the two above-named Debates bound in one Volume. 
 i« A';^"^ P??u°" wishing to know what Secularists can say ajrainst Christianitv anA 
 
 Ih fhA fAhn^i f fu* ™f " With distinguished natural abilities, well trained not onlv 
 t.r,jg the mailer ap».tl» ot So.pticlra, •<or\^b,ASJld>mBS,,a,«TS; 
 
 Second Edition. rice, 17 Cents, 
 
 GOD AND IMMOETALITY: 
 
 A Discourse delivered in the City Hall Saloon, Glasgow, on 
 
 Sunday evening, February 23rd, 1873. 
 
 I "J?^ republication of this discourse is opportune. Men of science am n„f„.««« 
 Ingr both the existence of God and the immortality of mair Wo are X^for th; 
 mere sake of hypothesis, to flin^ away our old faiths, and to t^ke un wffh Tn«^ 
 exploded errors as the only solution that can be found of the n.ys^'iy if be^n^ 
 Dr. Sexton meets these modern opponents of tlie Faith upon their ow^^ro.inijL„*rf 
 by their own methods. Ho enter^ the realm of nhvsics ami show. ^^T,^^ 1 ** 
 think, conclusively -that its teachings. fu™v and fawV?i^^h«r,Zf!^ "^i"^® 
 
 that immortality rises tc the highest moral cerUintv. There is appfmded to th! 
 discourse a sharp cHHqu4 of an article by Professor Clifford on the^UiHeenUni 
 iuF'^l ^'''''** appeared in the Fortnightly Review for June 1876 Wo comrnln^ 
 t*^lw.*II'*^.,*"''°P''"^'""l. "' »'«"«"««* to the careiu study of all ^ho m^H^Z'* 
 turbed by the prevalent Scepticism of BcimKe,"-PrimiticeMlthodZt ' 
 
 .«„r7**'' <l'»co"r86 is a powerful polemic against the scientific Atheism of the nr«- 
 Bent day, and effectually disposes of the leaFned sophistry now Ui vol™ nLinst to^ 
 existence of God and the immortality of tnm."~pkmitiL MetholMMagS 
 
 • Tkl. ,1! 
 
 entire in " The Baaekss fS'I^^S^LS ^^AiS!^'" '"""' '"* '* "^ P"""*^ 
 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Price, 20 Cents. 
 
 THE rOOTMNE OF fflfflOMAUTT IS TAUeflT IN THE 
 
 OLD TESTAJIENT. 
 
 as recorded in the Old Testiment^i-nnrL*^^:^ ^^ averred that the Mosaic Creed 
 writes upon tnis subiect w?th fnVn^ „^^^^^^^ '''^ ''^^^°'. " '""t"™ Life. The dS 
 
 «ub;;?t%'l^t%^"sYn tSlSd^^^^^^^^ ^l^^ examination of thl, 
 
 doctrineofaFutureState It is toHreat^l^^^^^^^^ "1""''^ '^^ P'-*'"^^ «' "h" 
 lias made, and his readfira u/n j„ i *^ • ^^'e"* *« original research which hn 
 Aberdeen Journaf. *"' '*"'' "'""^ interesting facta elucidated m ii "_ 
 
 Third Thousand. Price, 17 Cents. 
 
 SCIENCE A:ND EELIGION: 
 
 A .' iscourse delivered in Cavendiah Rooms, Mortimer Street, 
 London, on Sundry evening, May 2nd, 1885. 
 
 to nSe SaUtTs'SSr^J,? t vC" 'L^-,^'"^^' '«<=*"™«. ""d we are glad 
 lncre«aed by tens andTund^ds c " Ji ^.S' '""Tv ''f,''"-«»"'^*«n ""f^ht yrX 
 throw overboard much of the rcbb r^^n whiohVh«v *"'''"*"T" ''°"''' ^o well to 
 
 wadtheBimpleeloauenceof DnSeiion whlkn^^^^^ r""** **'*''" '«'""'«• »°d 
 M ft theolojfiau."- hmnan. ""*'*"*• **" "'^ no '*»» eminent as a scieotiat than 
 
 «-iJ^9?ly ".'^w copies ot this discou.^a remain in „ , .^ -._.. 
 
 "=■=■"'■' ""^'"^ '» sJio "UMele^s Fabric of aoientYflo Sceptfcism/' " ' ^°' *" " 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 ; Price, 20 Cents. " 
 
 on ChristmaB r«^ .'^""^cn, Clapham Road. 
 
 <« A .♦• . — ^'"-wnan ^^c. nuaiinea to deal with Vhl '" '"" 
 
 Price, 17 Centr~~ ~ ~ 
 
 "This discourse ought to bf , T ^' ^'* *'^' ^^^S. 
 
El. 
 
 MOVEBEJr 
 
 1 Sunday 
 
 He shows, first 
 f»lfglouR «xcite> 
 entsbj which 
 
 of the present 
 °^»nkey; and 
 '• The Doctor 
 mpressed with 
 Of'nR a grm*, 
 octor seems as 
 ne department 
 
 WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Price, 17 Cents. 
 
 THE PEESENT AGE : 
 
 A Discourse delivered in the Cavendish Rooms, London, on Sunday 
 evening, June 27th, 1875. 
 
 ^^i^A!?:^fSl^^^:'^^^^i^^ou. language, the mani- 
 Primitive Methodint M'gazine. ' sKeicned with a bold yet skilful hand."- 
 
 miST; 
 
 Road, 
 
 ember 2eth. 
 ten to a dls- 
 lenoe of the 
 ;ne increase, 
 lelivered In 
 e kingdom, 
 5. Neman, 
 Ism in this 
 the subject 
 
 by all who 
 and will. •» 
 
 WITH 
 
 on. 
 
 ove stjg. 
 nbersof 
 
 Price, 10 Cents. 
 
 VOICES OP THE DEAD -THE 
 LATE DEAN STANLEY: 
 
 A Sermon preached in Augustine Church, Ciapham, on Sunday 
 evening, July 24th, 1881. 
 
 tom;"f"DLVs"SeV?hdrTr:l^rofhS ^^^^--^ *» '^^ «" the 
 
 been very buauttful. But so far as we have seen n^^frVh"; ^'"^ "' ^l^^"" »^»vo 
 mora fitting: than the sermon Dr. Sexton nrLhed in »hl'5?^*' ^^' been altogether 
 Sunday evening after the Dean's death Tha .rs!^ *''® ^"?^st'ne Church on the 
 ing r..«m« of tKe Dean's histor?. aS a abfe ana vrof'hu'^PH^'"''! * •"?* •"*««•««*- 
 just that clear, vigorous and ph losoph c stateZnt of /h« L" '*'"'^'^/.r^ »'"«' *'tb 
 and peaceful death" which we «i3.m T.!. . . l*® 'essons of the "noble life 
 
 me„{the sermon to those who desire a JeeDerTs?^h t"",^'' ^"?'°"- ^^« °°™- 
 two of the best preachers of the modern pulpit "-SLS '*""' """^ ^""'"^ «' 
 
 the'^'ra^Terai^d :irii?XVtrnl"^ "as paid to 
 
 cordially commend to the noZ\fLt^\:TftJZX.^^^^'c'^^^^^^^ 
 
 Dean^o^V^r/aS ^!'^ ^'r^^"* ^KsL?.! it T'^v^-^ ^^^^^ 
 
 ^« »i.., 1! •. • '^ueaisoouriie altni/Mt.linr ii /i.in „» *u- .. .