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Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmte d des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich«. il est filmi A partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite. et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 A 57 A YOUNG MAN'S PERILS AND BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. CONTAININO A YOUNG MANS SAFEGUARD IN THE PERILS OF THE AGE. BY REV, wkUAM GUEST, P.G.S, AND A YOUNG MAN'S DIFFICULTIES WITH HIS BIBLE. DY REV, D. )V. FAUA-CE, D.D. TORONTO WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY yONGE AND TEMPERANCE STREETS. 76 177935 PREFACE. -♦♦- 'T^HE author, on assuming the pastoral charge J- of a church in a thrifty and intelligent inland city of New England, found in the community a large number of young men not exactly sceptical, but a good deal unsettled in their views of religion. They were graduates of Grammar and High schools j intelligent young men, who, though employed as clerks or apprentices, found time to read the papers, the magazines, and occasionally a book. They had caught the drift of one section of po- .>lar thought. They asked for some book which should meet briefly and yet fairly the difficulties which they felt. There were plenty of scholarly volumes, suited to men who had received a liberal education and who were masters of their own time. But a small, popular, and at the same time accurate volume, suited to this demand, the author could not find. It occurred to him to invite these young men to state to him Preface. frankly their perplcxiUes, and then to give a course of lectures on the general subject of these "Dilli- ciilties." The lectures were given to crowded houses on Sunday evenings, one in each month, for two successive seasons. It has been thought that good might bo done by publishing selections from these lectures. A fc^ of them have been taken, and the style somewhat changed from the spoken to the written form. The aim has been to give the results of careful study without the processes, to be as ac- curate in the statement of facts as if the work were to be used as a text-book, and yet to keep in mind the class of young men for whom it is designed. Every chapter, without an exception, has grown out of an actual conversation held with some young friend, or else out of some letter or message received from him. When delivered as lectures the author received repeated thanks from individuals to whom they were helpful. It is his prayer that God may make this litUe volume a blessing to those who read it A YOUNG MAN'S SAFEGUARD IN TUB PERILS OF THE AGE. DY TUB RBV. WILLIAM GUEST, F.G.S. Sixth Edition, compktins Rishteenth Thotisami, I i: CONTENTS. rARi THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE : HOW TO ESCAPE THEM ••• ••• ••• afl* II. THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE : HOW TO PREPARE FOR THEM 41 III. THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGE: HOW TO SOLVE THEM 73 IV. THE CHRISTIAN YOUNG MAN's PLACE IN THE AGE : HOW TO FILL IT 119 rARi ro 4» 73 119 C^c gjoral gangers jof tl^e %^i : j^oto My unknown friend, do not, I pray you, regard the following pages as an officious attempt to preach to you, and to check that innocent mirth and merri- ment which is good for every man. You know that the young merchant will gladly take hints from the experienced man of business ; the young lawyer and medical student will thank an older and suc- cessful practitioner for friendly counsels ; and the young art-student will carefully listen to the pre- cepts of his master. I have no right to address you except this : I have watched life thoughtfully. I have observed how some young men rose to honour, and others sunk to infamy; and I sometimes receive thanks from men, who in different parts of the kingdom occupy distinguished positions, and 2 THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGEi who are good enough to tell me that my words have helped them. I aim at nothing more than to point out to you who are now stepping on the paths of life, some of the moral dangers you will encounter, and to mdicate methods whereby you may rise to success and dignity. May I ask you then to read my words, not lightly, but with seriousness, and to regard them as the friendly help of a guide-post which directs a traveller on an unknown road to the goal he desires to reach. And be very sure of this,-the counsels meet you as you are about to take your place in the world of men, not to arrest, but to create your joy. This is an age which is sad at heart. Men there are who proclaim that the faculty of joy in Englishmen is dead. Now it is probably true that modern civil- isation has well-nigh exhausted its efiforts to multiply the sensational in the way of pleasure, and a black shadow of satiety and disbelief has fallen on this generation. When a late statesman's words are quoted-that life would be endurable but for its amusements, there is more than a satire intended. Amusements of late have grown reckless and full of moral dangers. A despair of being really happy would appear to have fallen on many, so they drive men on desperate courses, and the very faces of Englishmen in this generation have lost their old brightness. But be you sure of this : the sunshine HOW TO ESCAPE THEM, of joy may bathe your life with gladness. Yours may be a happiness which becomes more serene and satisfying as your days multiply. Yours may be a youth of delightful aspiration, a manhood of satisfying honours, and an age of grateful retrospect. To this end these pages are written. Surely this is an end worthy of the labour, and worthy of the few hours of earnest thought on your part to which you are invited. Even hopeful men are anxious about England at this time. There is a frost of scepticism touching the young mind of England. There is a dread of enthusiasm which bodes ill. Young men stand in our great cities amid juggling expedients, glittering pretences, specious deceits, unscrupulous graspings after wealth or position ; the tides of temptation flow fast around them ; a high civilisation has made wickedness very facile and seductive ; veteran experts in vice are found everywhere, and the very streets are allowed to be fevered walks of lustful solicitation. A man, therefore, who is in- different to the moral dangers of young men is no friend to his country. On the threshold of the theme I speak to you, not of something belonging to others, but of that which emphatically belongs to yourself. You are mys- teriously endowed with an existence in which the grandest and the most terrific possibilities are "^T" t i 4 TJIE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE: wrapped up. Life has been given to you. What significance is in the word ! Life, with its unknown treasures and vast capabilities ; life, with all its limitless resources and opportunities ; life, with all its rich enjoyments and its countless avenues for happiness ; life, which, beginning with the sweetness of infancy and passing through the open-hearted- ness of school days, can ripen into a beauty and strength and force of goodness, which, through the long ages of immortality, will find accessions of ever-augmenting felicity, power, and blissfulness. When, therefore, I discourse to you of the moral dangers which assail you, a too earnest solicitude is scarcely possible. No mortal can measure the gran- deur to which you may rise, or the depth of degra- dation to which you may fall. And it is much to be observed, that millions of men have been ruined, not so much through wrong intention as from want of thought. They have drifted into an evil course through a passive un- thinkingness. It is not that they have resolved to do bad things, but they have not resolved to do good ones. Instead of being masters of themselves, sad to say, they have not even belonged to them- selves. On their forehead might have been once written, " We are open to become the possession of whatsoever shall make capture of us." Instead of controlling, they have been oorne along by outward AGE: 1. What unknown th all its , with all enues for sweetness i-hearted- iauty and rough the jssions of issfulness. the moral licitude is the gran" of degra- nillions of ugh wrong rhey have assive un- esolved to ved to do hemselves, I to them- been once issession of Instead of by outward HOW TO ESCAPE THEM. things, like a little boat on a dangerous stream, not carefully rowed and guided, but empty, and inviting any unskilled or wicked hand to become its master. Let me indicate to you some of the dangers which will assail you through examples and associations. You go forth into life, wise in heart and loyal towards truth and goodness. But you also go forth with besetting tendencies, and to meet Satan's temptations. Those temptations will come to you through the influence which others will seek to exert over you. There are young men possessing all the capa- cities for a dignified and manly conduct. Theirs, through the hard industry of others, are all the qualifications of education and competence ; they are surrounded with circles offering every facility to happiness and pure enjoyment. And what do these young men do with all this wealth of posses- sion ? I will sketch a few of the courses into which they permit themselves to be seduced. Perhaps the poorest in character are those whose solicitudes extend no farther than the fast fashion of their garments, t'lo colour of their gloves, the fit of their boots, the diamond ring on their finger, and the flexibility of their cane. But I need not linger over such. Nor do I say that a young man may not have a gold chain, and trousers made in the height of fashion, if he likes. But for the sake 6 THE MORAL DANGERS Of 4 HE AGE: of all that is manly, let us not come to think that this is to make a worthy use of life — to be a show thing to be looked at in the streets. Another young man has higher aims : he is literary in his tastes ; has studied rules of etiquette, and selects associations that are irreproachable. He permits his vanity, however, to grow into a chronic craving for admiration. He affects insensi- biHty to attract attention; falls into the modern fashion of a supercilious apathy ; looks unim- passioned under the most eventful circumstances, and twirls the points of his moustache wfith elegant nonchalance. Repudiating all domestic and com- mon interests, he becomes valueless to humanity. In him thr most beautiful emotions of human nature becom-j frigid. His life is a negation which can never become a heroism. Ineffective in youth, unloved in manhood, he becomes testy and splenetic in old age, and dies at length, unmissed and unmourned. Or a youth may have no ideal. To be what others are, to say what others say, to do as others do, — are allowed to quench in him all aspiration. There are Red Indians on the American continent whom philanthropy mourns over in vain. Their paint, their squalor, their monotonous savagery, limit their desires. All efforts are thrown away on thenu The presence of a ripe civilisation never HOll' TO ESCAPE THEM. inspires them. They die out and give place to nobler races. And there are young men in this hemisphere who are thus helplessly unaspiring. They allow themselves to be shaped by others, not because thev distrust themselves, but because they are content to be weakly inane. They are sur- rounded by grand examples, they hear thrilling appeals, but they make no effort to get out of their unmanly acquiescence in the trivial, or the mer- cenary, or the commonplace. Humanly speaking, there is no hope for th'^m ; no impression can be made on them. Dead leaves are borne along by the eddying current, and are not to be stopped by any voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Perhaps society does not suffer so much from this class of useless young men as from another, who are at one with them in ignoring truth and nobleness, but who add to this an impertinent con- tempt for all that can dignify and immortalise life. This is a vciy numerous and growing class in our day, and it is as the upas shade in modem society. It is sad to witness a little boy who is sceptical about goodness and purity, but for a young man this is ineffably disgusting. Ther^! are men you meet with who have schooled their hearts to dis- believe in greatness of character until all their conceptions are soiled and debased. They bear ; i themselves in a braggart, assuming, blustering manner, which is as far removed from the b a" -g of an English gentleman, as that of Capt.Tn Bobad.l from an English soldier. They have brought themselvesto this enlightened bel ef • tha a sham There are great statesmen of all politic! part.es m the iand ; there are great philanthrop ;3 millions ; there are great poets, who inspire the tt:^]::T-^ ^- -'^olars. wh" "terature the heritage of this age • there nr^ great pa mters whose artistic nature t^^^l modern life with pathos and beautv • w ! pure faces of Englishwomen, and a stony stare on men of unpretending greatness. "^ ' This book may induce those who read It nof ♦« associate with these modern vapour^rs kL not likely to benefit //..,;,. Ther^d „! f." comes with the intention of Tl "^ ^^^^ better Th« .°'' °^ "^^^^mg men wiser and Detter. They are ignorant to a proverb of Fn„j- I literature. Most earnestly wouM I clutio! f "^ man against this class of men whose en 7 ^""^ contemptuous scepticism a?r::n^^^^^^^ /rOlV TO ESCAPE THEM. ness, has blighted their own manhood, and awakens an offensive emotion wherever they move. The despair and ruin of Roman society, just before the advent of Christ, sprang from the impure sceptical braggardism of such a class more than from any other source. They inherited their fathei-'s wealth and despised their father's virtues ; and when Rome wanted men, it found only roysterers, wrapped in the silk of pride and of voluptuousness. There is another growing class, over whom sohcitude lingers more tenderly. They are amiable, clever, and obliging. They can sing well, recite with ability, and charm with facetite. They are desired in circles of pleasure, and young men and ladies speak of them as good fellows. Their aptness and mimicry when presenting the newest production of the satirical school, make the merriment of the evening party. But they excite our sympathy, rather than our admiration. They possess a dual nature which longs to be appre- ciated by master spirits, yet they cannot resist the temptation to become the caterers for inferior persons. They make base men laugh who ought to weep, and amuse fools who despise them for their pains. Surely their own kind-heartedness and endowments call them to a more elevated mission. They have made the by-play of life its substance. Always on the look-out for the satirical, to THE M ORAL DANGERS OF THE ACE-. they lose interest in more wholesome reading Their perpetual attempts at humour lower their own tone. Observe, this is not said as a disparagement of humour. A man of real humour is as pleasant a companion as the man who attempts nothing else IS a bore. Who cares to be always dining on highly flavoured dishes ? Who would be ambitious to be the buffoon of society ? Such a man finds his mistake in the end. He is set aside by his friends m the grave exigencies of life, and he finds that the power of influence he might have won has been frittered away. It is recorded, that a fellow-student once said to Paley : " You are a great fool to waste your years thus. You have talent that might raise you to the highest distinction. I have none, and it matters not how my life is passed." Paley took the hint so roughly given, and now few names stand higher in literature than his. Would that my descriptions might cease here ; but the tale of failure has not nin out. There are young men with the pathway of honour open before them, but who turn from it, and in pompous dash care for none of the things that would make for their peace. Like dogs kept hungry that the scent after the game may be keener and more impelling they slip the leash of what they term their' mother's apron- string," and burst upon life with ^OPy TO ESCAPE THEM. II a dare-devil spirit that defies control. The shades of evening find them prowling under the mask of darkness after every pernicious gratification. Their imaginations have been polluted by the vile literature secretly circulated. From the dice or billiard-table they go to the lighted hall, where prostitutes, decked in gay and voluptuous attire, mingle in the waltz and ply their seductive arts, and thence they hasten to the house where I will not follow, and of which the Scriptures say that it is " the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death." The prevalence of vice in great cities makes it imperative to prolong the portraiture of this last class of men. The curiosity and inexperience of youth demand an unhesitating and adequate state- ment of the perils that now assail a young man who enters on the sea of city life. The false glare of modern vice is so dazzling to an unsuspicious youth as to compel plain speech. A pure-minded father will shrink from unfolding to his son the nature of the fearful temptations which, with a subtle and tremendous current, will sweep around such a youth. Dear friend, will you pause and ponder the path of evil? A young man in a London warehouse was soli- cited to spend a night in a dancing-saloon. He refused. " What a fool you are to be so dull," said 'U^ltE MORAL DA WERS OF THE AGS, the ,.mp,cr "^e^^^^^TZ^i^Z^r^x:^,, he fool,.. ,a,d .he young man. I„ «„ years' i' • e .cmp,er was in a dishonoured grav^nd ™ other was rising to amuence. • ™ young men who sneer at religion as weilc noss and call godliness hypocrisy, t. is "uTho are the hypocntes. You have risen many a mom! ■ns after a nigh, of sin. and have fel. disgusted Thh what you huve witnessed, and you have fno^n h w oTr Ltrt' °"r '""'""^ ""P '-'P^"'' '" your nature. You have seen the shamelessness and ho lownes, of wickedness, and have been ,00 at virtue at the very time you were bearing agonies n your flesh which were horribleand indescritrb e In ten years, the tempter I have spolccn of was n h.» grave ; and if the brief life and dreadful Z If thousands of young men in England could be"old It would be the most awful tragedy ever ^ ,e„ Men would be horrifled a, they readTa™ the ghasay memory would haunt .1,1 for ye^i Ih men do no. know it. There arehundreds of youna' men constanUy leaving ,he warehouses of'"""' tul.ons to d,e m country homes, or sohtary and , *-f f ^,«» ■" "■« "PP^chambers of lo^iug' .>\.f,..'t='T "'"""• A"^='-'tefs ■•> I , fr.a; sights which they could not compre- HOW TO ESCAPE THEM, »3 hend. Nurses slirink from the foul and loathsome atmosphere. And this is what they have made of lifc-a murdered manhood, not living out half their tlays ; a past all loss, a future all blackness. Oh >vhere are our tears, if they do not fall over numbers who are dying every day in such chambers, and with such demons of remembrance ? Far be it from me to utter a word that would debar you from the recreations and excitements appropriate to your age. Joy and cheerfulness are your strengdi and heritage. Monkish austerity and sanctimoniousness are rarely virtues. But our modern life has multiplied, under the name of pleasure, the facilities of vice. The perils that assail young men in great cities are so many, so seductive, and so ruinous to bod and soul, as to make an observer tremble. There was once a time before cities grew so huge, when places of business were homes, The employer admitted young men to the domestic sanctities of his family. They received aid from him in the formation of acquaint- ances, and had even access to his own circles of recreation. Now, young men in cities can scarcely be said to have a home. Some have not even the privilege of a common roon or a fire in their chamber. They are open, therefore, to every aUurement that promises pleasure. Places of busi- ness, moreover, are large establishments where the W :k 14 T//E MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE: loose moralist can cover vice by self-deceivableness, and where the subtle infidel, the scoffer, and licen- tious mingle together. Religion is ridiculed, and the clergy spoken of with a sneer. Filthy books are circulated— books of infamy which minister to the vilest taster, which taint and befoul the imagination with unclean images, and which a man can no more look at without defilement than he can touch molten pitch and be clean. Wherever a young man turns for worldly amuse- ment he meets danger. Towns swarm with brilliantly lighted saloons, which hold out their meretricious attractions. There is the drama, music, and art. It was ascertained that in two hours one evening six hundred young men entered one music-hall in London. Were these rooms harmless, he would be an enemy to human happiness who objected to them. If they are demoralising and ruinous to the health and character of the inexperienced, he is a friend who points this out. It is little suspected how women with bedizened head- dresses and flaunty robes are folding around them the last shreds of their modesty; how married men hide under white waist- coats polluted hearts ; how, while "grey hairs dance, devils laugh and angels weep ;" how bankrupts wear forced smiles ; how the victims of disease and death hide their ghastliness by flowers, and light their rapid progress to the grave by flaring gas-light. It HOW TO ESCAPE THEM. »S is little known how thousands of young men from the religious homes of Scotland and Wales pass into a speedy oblivion after their feet have once crossed the threshold of these rooms in English cities. Alas, what a tale might be told of fathers' hairs whitened, mothers' hearts crushed, sisters' eyes swollen with tears,— over sons once the pride of their homes I I have read somewhere of an eagle in the Far West. Soaring with steady wing, he saw far below him the grand scenes of American nature, clothed in the first snows of early winter. As he rose higher towards the blue heaven, his keen eye saw, floating on the distant river whose margin was already frost-bound, the carcass of a huge buffalo. He paused in his upward flight, descended to settle and revel on this feast of corruption. He was borne calmly down the stream towards the fall and the rapids which lay below. Gorged with his foul meal, with drooping wing and dormant energies, he slep' on the foetid mass and amid the oozing putrefaction. The blood, stiffened by the frost, bound his feet to the remams of the carcass ; and onwards was h> bowe until the roar of the cataract thundered on his ear. He struggled for liberty ; his powers had been enfeebled with satiety ; his drooping wings were bound to the frozen blood ; his wild cries awoke the echoes j h* made frantic efforts to throw -'^mmmmmmmsmmti^m^- '''rr'^^^^!^!mmmt(mmt ' r mmm^. I6 T/fE MOHAL Ij ANGERS OF THE AGE i off his horrid companion ; looked up to the blue heaven he had abandoned. It was too late : hurried over the rapid, he was sucked into the boiling cataract, and dashed to destruction on the rocks beneath. How doth such an illustration find its analogy in human life ! " His own iniquities," saith the Scrip- ture, " shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins." There is a deep and awful mystery in the downward progress of souls, when he who once was the master of sin becomes its slave. Alas, there are scores of men in eveiy neighbourhood who would give all they have to begin life again. A reformed drunkard who moved in good society, once said to me that he would strike off his right hand if the penalty would sweep out of his soul the memories that haunted it. These men never intended to be bad, but step by step they lowered themselves. The lower ele- ments of their nature first were freely indulged, then became importunate, then exacting, then domineering, then uncontrollable. Dear young man, the pride of a mother, the hope of a father, with an intensity of yearning love I conjure you to pause ere you go into the way of sinners. If your feet have turned aside, retrace, I beseech you, your steps. Your strong " No" now, may, through God's mercy, turn you from the pit of infamy, But soon HOW TO ESCAPE THEM. 17 weaker will be your will, dimmer your sense of moral beauty, more desperate your passions, till at length you will feel bound, and then find yourself borne over the rapids a lost and helpless wreck. There are indeed young men who, in an un- guarded moment, have gone into scenes of tempta- tion, and have turned away with horror, like a bird that, having strayed into the poisonous atmo- sphere of a chemical laboratory, has rushed back quickly to the pure air of heaven. But such cases are the exceptions. There is a witchery about sin. One night in a music and dancing-saloon may so pollute the imagination as to break down the barriers of years. One throw at a gaming-table, or bet on a race, may so excite the craving for this perilous speculation, that it may be followed by the frenzy and suffering of years of gambling. One indulgence of the lusts of the flesh may so damn a man in his own eyes that in a year he may be utterly foul. Dear young man, nothing deadens the conscience so much as sin ; nothing creates a desire for repeti- tion so much as sin ; nothing rises in its demands from every concession made to it so much as sin. Among the most striking things in our language is a sentence of Jeremy Taylor on the progress of sin : " Sin startles a man— that is the first step. Then it becomes pleasing ; then it becomes easy ; then delightful, then frequent ; then habitual, then i ^^S^fi'^^'^'^'^'^mmmmmmmmm^'. If: fi' '( - -I'x t Vmmm mm^^^, i8 THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE: ' confirmed ; then the man is impenitent, then obsti- nate ; then resolves never to repent, and then is damned." My young brother, it is in mercy that our heavenly Father sweeps away all the trifling with sin by those strong but loving words— "Thou Shalt not." Our poor self rises ; passion raises its tempestof desire; experts in vice solicit; the wrong waits to claim us and hold dominion over us, and our good God who sees the end, says, « Go not in the way of evil men ; avoid it, pass not by it ; turn from it, and pass aXvay." I know there is a maxim very common, that "a young fellow must sow his wild oats." They shall not be my words that reply to that saying. They shall be those of a man who knows the world, and an ardent lover of the pure pleasures of the world. " In aU the range of accepted British maxims," says Mr. Thomas Hughes, " there is none, take it all in' all, more thoroughly abominable than this one, as to the sowing of wild oats. Look at it on what side you will, and I will defy you to make anything but a devil's maxim of it. What a man, be he young, old, or middle-aged, sows, that, and nothing else, shall he reap. The one only thing to do with wild oats, is to put them carefully into the hottest part of the fire, and get them burnt to dust, every seed of them. If you sow them, no matter in what ground, up they wiU come, with long tough roots HOW TO ESCAPE THEM. »9 like couch-grass, and luxuriant stalks and leaves as sure as there is a sun in heaven-a crop which it turns one's heart cold to think of. The devil too whose special crop they are, wiU see that 'they thnve, and you, and nobody else, will have to reap them ; and no common reaping will get them out of the soil, which must be dug down deep again and again. Well for you if with all your care you can make the ground sweet again by your dying day. 'Boys will be boys' is not much better, but that has a true side to it. But this encouragement to the sowmg of wild oats is simply devilish, for It means that a young man is to give way to the tempt- ations, and follow the lusts, of his age." No, you may not be able to stop when the evil IS done. Let me beseech you to take five minutes to consider whither the beginning ol a wrong com- panionship leads. The first step may mean an unseen path with an ending of degradation and misery. It does mean this in countless cases. I assure you the bitter end I have witnessed in men after an earlier course of wrong-going makes' me look on a youth who is stepping on an evil way and choosing an evil companionship with feelings of the keenest anguish. Surely he is only a fool who step! upon a course and will not ask himself what is the probable termination of that course. But it is not merely the open temptation that is M THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE, your danger. The impure thought, the harboured imagination, may seem to create a necessity to the indulgence of sin. You have come, it may be, from a pure home. If you allow yourself to hear talk of sin, or allow ) ojr spirit to rest or the supposed sweetness of it, you may lower your standard until you readily yield to the miserable way, and you may bind yourself fast in habits of ruin. Let a young man or woman dally with temptation, and they will find plenty of liers-in-wait. It is not, as a rule, the sreat temptation that ruins ; it is imperceptible beginnings. It is these that must be watched and guarded against. The snowflakes are light and fall noiselessly j but let them continue to fall, and soon the highway may be blocked up. It may seem a small thing to go once into a doubtful place, but there may be there an invisible chain with which, by having gone once, you have become irrecoverably bound. As I am in these addresses to picture life as it is let facts speak. I feel sure that hundreds of young men would have shunned vice if facts had been told them of its issues. They have few to tell them. It is intensely disagreeable to tell them. But I cannot see young men coming into our great cities without forewarning them of the rocks ahead of them. While I was writing these words I had a most painful illustration of the now TO ESCAPE THEM. 21 ruin and sorrow following upon the indulgence of sin. A young man came to London, bearing with him the confidence and affection of a holy and afflicted mother, the prideof a Christian father, and the yearning love of pure and beautiful sisters. Because of his intelligence and probity, he was placed in a situation of trust, and went on well while the thought of home and its sanctities was with him. Tlie tempter tried her arts, and caught him in her wiles. The expenses of the dancing, room and the habits it led to were beyond his limit of wealth. He took from entrusted money. The embezzlement was not at first discovered; he grew confident. Satan wrapped blinding folds around him, Alas, the success was brief ! From a gloomy prison he sent up a message to ask my prayers for him. I do not know him. None will know him through this reference. At twenty-one he has brought a dark shadow over his life-dawn. Deep as is the darkness, it may be God's only means of iswering his mother's prayers. Alas ! for five years of his imprisonment has that mother's heart to be riven ! When I was a minister in Leeds a fine youtb came to that town. He was a native of a far-oflf land. He came to acquire mechanical kno-'-'^e prior to becoming the head of a large bu. .aess house. Wealth and possessions were before him. n 22 THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGS I An attached family circle delighted in him. He was amiable, fascinating, and naturally generous. A group of wild young men determined to allure him to pleasure and sin. He fell into the snare. The billiard-room was visited : it led to the tavern, and then to the brothel. His kind employer re- monstrated with him and pointed out the conse- quences of his courses. It was of no avail. He had consulted the "secret physician," or, rather, "quack." A severe cold brought to a climax his virulent disorder. His magnificent form was tossed upon a bed of anguish. Loved ones hastened over the sea to seek to save him. It could not be. So loathsome was his chamber that nurses could hardly be secured to attend him, and those most loving him rushed overpowered from his bedside. His pearly teeth all dropped out, and at length, decayed and agonised, he died a dreadful, hopeless death. Observe, however : if I speak of the perils of great cities, I might speak also of their grand op- portunities. They are the schools for the highest education of which man is capable. But my ad- vice is, let no man come to a great city without courage. If he is weak, yielding, cowardly, let him not venture upon the encounters of a city life. Let a youth aim to live a godly life, and the sluggish will sneer, the empty-souled will laugh, the wicked HOW TO ESCAPE THEM. «3 will throw out sarcasms. Woe to the man who cannot brave the laugh of fools. Dante says, — " Not on flowery beds, or under shade Of canopy reposing heaven is won." Thank God victory is possible. But we must pay the price of courage for it. M" friend, it is the first step that costs. The courage that faces the cannon's mouth is grand ; but grander is that which braves the tyranny of false custom, and dares to be true and good. Canon Farrar tells a noble story. " There was at Eton, not many years ago, a boy, hale and strong and athletic— a boy, not particularly clever, but always high in his form, captain of the boat, in the cricket eleven : very popular, yet very good. It was a bad custom there, that at certain gatherings songs were sung which were not fit for gentlemen to sing. This boy declared that in his presence such songs should not be sung. It seemed presumptuous for him to say it before his elders; it was to risk popu- larity, to face sneers. But he was brave. When the song was sung he got up there and then and left the room. The brave action stopped the bad custom. That boy was Coley Patteson in 1845 ; that man was Dr. Coleridge Patteson, the martyr bishop of Melanesia, in 1871." Ah, it was not onlj *>' ?I1. 24 t THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE ACM, at Mda„e.ia the mareyr-crown was won, bu. i„ that public room at Eton ! Bu,ourview„nifedema„ serious also. Li?e hasts .«>«*«>>, tnn..nc.. like all things els autumn do not perish, they enrich the earth. The fuel of our fires sends curling upwards its li^ht smoke, which bears its properties for othe st The broken fragment, of the mountains thresh he earth. So, m l.ke manner, not an act you per- form, no. a word you speak, can wholly perish ,t sTolr: 2 -Sf '"'T"'^'"- -"--..en „' a^rathVd^:^g- -'-:;- ^^^ may look us in theT« in the T ""^='i-'»«' «*sin^:.r::rrrmo^:,: ^n:r:=s:::rs-i~i '" *' ~"»^q"enccs. David, the king of Israel ».nned-a,as, how pitilessly , „e repen d, Tnl poured ou, a psalm of contrition that has eve' jroW TO ESCAPE THEM. as since been li.e liturgy of humbled souls, and every verse of which seems vocal with a groan. But he could not undo the sin. In his own days the enemies of truth blasphemed through him, and, smce that time, in every generation, wicked men have encouraged themselves in wickedness because of that great crime, and the atheist hath barbed his arrow in the blood of that murder. Voltaire, when he came to die, longed that his blasphemies' agamst Christ should be expunged from his writings. He wished what was impossible ; his errors led to all the horrors of the French Revolu- tion, and have shattered since then the peace of thousands. A drunkard may obtain forgiveness, but his example may have taught his own son to brutal, ise himself. A young man may turn away from the evil courses he followed, but he may leave the silly youth whom he first tempted, to go floating down to the bottomless pit. There is a thought that often appals me. It is nothing, as it seems, for the seducer to play upon innocence, to instil poison into her sweet affections and her maidenly instincts He has done, as he thinks, a manly thing, when he has crumpled up the beautiful flower of her chastity, and left it to be fouled in the mire Ah hard is the father's shame and the brother's scorn she bears. Cold are the streets that she treads at night, and lonely is the garret where she soon lies f 1«?| m i ill 36 THE MORAL DANGERS OF /im AGE i \\ \ down to die. What cares he ? Perhaps in a beau- tiful home he has forgotten her and her child. His turn comes at length to die. If conscience puts in a reminder, he calls the deed an "indis- cretion " of his youth, which signifies little. O man, it shall signify. As sure as there is a God in heaven, thou shalt meet again in the great here- after that deserted one to whom thou didst open the door of ruin. Her own lips shall tell thee how thou didst help to put out in her all that was pure, and to send her into the streets an outcast. It shall signify. That child of neglect shall claim thee as its father : an unerring finger shall point it to thee. Before God and holy angels, it shall tell thee of its bare infant feet on snowy street-flags, of night-watchings at omnibus steps, and of the ignorance, and wretchedness, and foul examples, through which its struggling life was passed, and which left it no chance of virtue. From thee it shall demand account of those paternal duties which thou didst incur, and didst never care to discharge. Yes, it shall signify. Oh, there is a solemn irony of Scripture when it saith, " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ; and let thine heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : but know thou, that for all these things God "will brin^ thee into judgment. Therefore remove the no IV TO ESCAPE THEM. •7 caust of sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh:* ^ Would that my address to young men could be in a more joyous tone. But life has such a tragic side to multitudes in our epoch, that I am compelled to deal with the causes of this failure and misery. It is imperative that the ground be cleared of the hindrances, before I can offer, in subsequent chap- ters, the stimulus and encouragement. One other social peril of our times I am bound to refer to. Charles Kingsley, whom I may quote because he ' There is a sin of which I have hinted. I can do no more. Alas, its terrible temptations, and its awful consequences are becoming frightful. It is not safe to omit notice in an appeal to a young man who may be entering life in a great city. If you could know the little that has come to my knowledge, your very hairs would stand on end, I could tell you of the finest physical constitutions, which, after twelve months' tampering with this perilous fascination, have become pitiable wrecks of disease. I could tell you on medical authority of men now dragging out a useless ex- istence, with reason dethroned, and drivelling in idiotcy. And the punishment once done to the flesh docs not depart. Life ends in early death, or is a long suffering of humilia- tion ; yea, worse still, the sufiuring is perpetuated in the third and fourth generations. Young men starting in life have none to tell them these things, therefore I have forced myself to the hateful task. The displeasure of God against this sin is awful. What would you think of a man who should pluck a flower from a yawning chasm, when there were ninety-nine chances to one that he would fall into the abyss below, and even if extricated, be scarred and be- grimed to the end of his days ? '^^^g^0mti*limMk»»tm.ei:, 2S THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE: was no precisionist, divided the human race into three parts : 1. Honest men, who mean to do right and do it. 2. Knaves, who mean to do wrong and do it. 3. Fools, who mean to do whichever of the two is the pleasanter. These last, Mr. Kingsley divided into black fools (who would rather do wrong, but dare not unless it is the fashion), and white fools (who would rather do right, but dare not unless it is the fashion). In relation to this last class, for whom every man must have a liking, some wise words were written on the subject of betting. Mr. Kingsley took strong ground. You can reject it or not ; but at least hear what one of the noblest Englishmen of this last generation wrote. Betting and gambling of every kind is in itself wrong and immoral. I do not say that every man who bets is an immoral man. Far from it. But the honest men have not considered what they do. Betting is intended to take money out of your neighbour's pocket without giving him anything in return. But, says one, he is trying to do as much by me. Just so ; and is that a very noble and friendly attitude for two men who have no spite against each other? Betting is founded on selfishness, and men who live by betting cannot help being the most selfish of men. HOW TO ESCAPE THEM. 29 But some will say, It is not the money I care for, but tin; amusement. Excuse me, why then do you not bet for counters, or pins, or pebbles ? It would be better for many a young man, for some of the finest fellows of all, men of eager temper, high spirit, delicate honour, if they would make up their minds never to bet, even a shilling. For Gambling, like drinking, grows on some men, and upon the very finest natures too. Nay, more. Gambling is almost the only thing in the world of which it is true the baser a man is the better are his chances : the more honourable a man is the the worse are his chances. The honourable man is no match here for the dishonourable. Now as to betting on horses. How many betting young men know anything about a horse except that he has four legs ? But they know what the horse has done. Yes ; but not what the horse might have done. No one can know, who is not in the secrets of the turf, what the horse's engage- ments really are,— whether he has been kept back in view of these engagements ; whether he will not be kept back again ; whether he has not been used to make play for another horse ; and, in one word, whether he is meant to win. Ah, but the young gentleman has sent his money on commission to a prophet of a newspaper. And if you are fool enough to buy his facts, his easiest and I ' T t ( '! w 'jj^^fj^jiiaiiisMi»,w.t'm»t», » i > 30 TffE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE: cheapest plan must be to invent sham facts and sell them to you, while he keeps the real facts for his own use. These things are said well ; but I am not sure whether the restlessness of the man who bets ; the absorption on what was commenced as an amuse- ment ; the time consumed in consulting betting information ; the unworthy company men are seduced into ; the craving temptation to make bets beyond means, and which has started hundreds on courses of knavery and theft ; the growing dislike that comes to steady work, and to slow but sure gains ; the sort of fevered passion that must have gratification and is wound up in intensity in its very eagerness to pursue it ; the alternations of exult- ation and of despair; the sort of mad appetite in which men live ; — whether all this is not the sorest evil of that modern habit of betting and of gam- bling which is so serious a moral danger of the age. Happy is that young man who, in view of all these things, comes to^this wholesome resolution : " What- ever else I may do or not do, gamble and bet I will not." But will you let me ask you to follow me in more serious reflections ? You are the child of eternity ; you have now your time of probation ; you have your one earthly life to live, and upon what you make it will depend that which will follow through HXnXIXSNTI SLit5TH8ai'OHOPT0y ■ AT'*' J ^ ' HOW TO ESCAPE THEM. 3» the great future. Every sinful habit you form here may cling like a leprosy to the soul there ; every depraved passion you nourish here may per- petuate its black defilement there. " The child is father to the man," saith the proverb. A young man of sense knows that he will be as a mastet what he made himself as an apprentice, and as a man what he made himself as a youth. He knows too that character is not built up by one or two, but by the constant series of actions. So the dailj thoughts and acts of your earthly life are forming your character for the vast existence of which you are an heir, and which lies beyond the grave. Archbishop Whately, in some annotations on Lord Bacon's Second Essay, mentioned a very remarkable phenomenon connected with insect life, and recorded that it often occurred to him as a very impressive analogy of a future state. You know that every butterfly (the Greek name for which, it is remarkable, is the same that signi- fies also the soul — Psyche) comes from a caterpillar; in the language of naturalists called a larva, which signifies, literally, a mask. Now, there is a tribe of insects called ichneumon flies, which inhabit and feed on these larvae. These parasitical flies have a Aong sharp sting, which pierces the body of the caterpillar, and whereby they deposit their eggs on the inward parts of their victim. But, strange to it I ,^i^|^£);tlM(lM °^' -^^^ traces of alWif " "' ''""^ ^''^ ^° ^^^^ ^^^ traces of all the wrongs that have been done to the soul m this ! What must it be for all the possible features with which the soul entered on this hfe^truth, purity, love, faith -not only to have lam undeveloped, but to have been quenched ! of 'thf 'f f" T'.' ''" ^^^P^"^^'"^ *^^* doctrine of the future destmation of the wicked which a school of preachers has latterly discussed. I am not gomg to imitate these writers. I cannot see m the dark. I have a hold of the mercy of ^^whxch grows in blessedness perpetually. But wlule knownext to nothing of the ..^J of sin and of Satan, the supreme power of evil, I feel I iTiiy ^ " I'™ """ — ' '^'<'»-:-' ^'*^-' 34 THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE : quite incompetent to speak about what will be the etui c f sin. The words of Jesus Christ respecting the men who will not be redeemed, seem to me to be the most piercing in their pity and the most appalling in their warning which the world ever heard. So far as I can see, it is not so much that the Lord punishes as that evil punishes itself. Hell is a condition rather than a place. Men and devils who will not be ruled by the divine goodness make the hell they profess to hate. Ah, if we would measure the calamity that hangs over a sinning man, let us do so by the Incarnation, the tears, the pleadings, and the cross of Jesus Christ, and we shall admit that we have no measure of the extent of that calamity. Let us behold a man, who had been immediately taught by Jesus Christy labouring in a Gentile city "three years," "day and night," warning " every one," " from house to house," and " with tears," and we shall have some idea of the awfulness of the catastrophe which impends over unsaved men. These facts cannot be explained away. The punishments that sin brings in this worid by its own inflexible law are harrowing and heart-breaking. Have we not a hint in these horrors of what devilism will bring a man to in the great hereafter? It may be that the education of a spirit does not cease with this life. About this no man knoivs anything. But «?»■ TO ESCAPE TltEti. 35 idiots tn f«o ^ y°" ^^^^ a"owed prayer to God T ''/^ '' '^ "^"'^ *° ^^^ ^^ instead of Lt" /'" ''"''"^'^^ *^^°°^^ ^-^ness nstead of hght, what wrong is done you if you are or mte "outer darkness," whatever CZ have '[//^^""fP^^'^t should say, «I will not have what heaven's influences can do for me" i dTflit'; T'T ''-''''''' ^" ^'^ ^^- AhT 7' , ''' "^°"^^^^'^ ''^"^"^ting hall. Ah, that plant .««./ comply. A plant's m lies The subhme lesson of your life is to make a nWU ...^ between good and evil. Christ calls ^e' <«'«. Ihat word "lost" <5PPtnc *« future de,H„, Of a. o/V «",!::;;: c^ed m blood for y„„ salvation. Hebo„s him- Klf to you as odt who is knocking, ,,„d „,. ^stently waittag, at the door of your hf;,. LZ r«,st H,s pleadings ! On this, the starting-point of your manhood, you are in your own power God appeals ,o you and says, "I set before you life and death." The end of life now seems far offi i . ^l^i:.:Jaiem^'X»iu-~i. 36 TI/E MORAL DANCERS OF THE AGE: Believe me, it will come sooner far than you think. Ceaselessly, noiselessly, swiftly will life pass. Your life must be looked back upon. If, after your opportunities, it be proved to have bv.en a life of waste and evil influence, heaviei will Le your remorse and doom. God meets you as you read these words, and offers to be the guide of your human life. The good God did not send you into His creation to be afterwards an accursed thing. This life of yours, with its endowments and capabilities, may become a sublime and influential life — a blessed ascend- ency, a tower of strength to men, regnant in all that is majestic and godlike. Oh, reject with loathing the philosophy that you have no freedom to choose purity and nobleness. Your will is perilously but grandly free. God has given you freedom over yourself to be in obedience to His blessed will. This liberty is the grandeur of your life. To see the good on starting life and to resolve to follow it, is peace and greatness. To refuse to do this, is confusion, misery, dire dis- aster. It is to you possessed of freedom that the divine counsel comes — " How long, ye simple ones, will ye love folly ? Turn you at my reproof : behold^ I will pour out my Spirit upon you, I will make known my words unto youP Nor will life thus passed be too earnest to be happy. Yours HOIV TO ESCAPE THEM. 37 will be the happiness-not of animal enjoyments merely, not purchased with stabbing your self- respect, not followed with the heart-sobs of thos4 who love you,-but of one who is bringing into use the higher and diviner faculties of your nature. Your mtelligence will be fed by knowledge, your soul will be ennobled by purity, your tastes will be in harmony with sweet sounds and beauty, your conscience will be kept in peace, and your heart's emotions will have play in ways that will leave no bitterness, but ofttimes swell into rapture. The only thing that can give meaning and glory to your life, is to resolve most resolutely that you will not be enslaved, wiU not be degraded, wiU not be plunged into the mire and foulness of sin, but wiU live according to a life-plan of real goodness. Remember, no one can do this for you. God's Spirit will go forth to meet you on your consenting to be His, but He will not save you without your consent. You are called at this crisis of your life to a choice sublimely awful, because of its des- times. Others may pray for you, but they can- not work out this question of your destiny. They may persuade you, but they cannot decide for you They can seek to inspire you, but they cannot control you. You may be a poor waif on the winds of temptation, drifted to whatever abyss of destruction they hurry you, or you may be a 1 1 II ■J in i j8 THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE : son of God, victorious over sin, ranking with the earth's great ones, and followed with blessings. And then, and then, when the final issue comes, and you lie down to die, instead of regrets, yours may be the solid satisfaction that your life, from its very morning, has been consecrated to the side of goodness ; and then, instead of a place with the wicked, you will go into a heaven which will be the consummation of the life of righteousness into which you have entered down here. Yes, this will be your safeguard against the moral dangers of the age. Those dangers were never so serious, never so numerous, as they are now. Men make charts and erect lighthouses to direct a vessel on its course and to give note of perils ahead, I have ventured to do this in the foregoing chapter for the young men who have launched their vessel on life's vast ocean. There is danger beyond all power of language to depict ; and that danger means ruin in its widest meaning; but there is also a way of safety. Two steps there are by which you may enter that way. Obtain, first, forgiveness for the sins of the past. God offers you all the merits of Christ's atoning sacrifice. Plead those merits, and by faith appropriate and make them your own. Through that great sacrifice, God will receive you, and rememter your sins no more. In the blessed Book, and in every variety of form, in every now TO ESCAPE THEM, 39 glowing and rich expression, are you assured that pardon shall be granted to a repentant soul. Young man, this is the first step. Believe, and drop at the cross your burden of the sins of the past. Start a free man I This is the second step,— offer your life grate- fully, lovingly, tc the Friend and Saviour of your soul. The noblest, divinest lives ever lived among men had this as their starting-point— a solemn and blessed surrender of themselves to God. Ask for His Spirit to help you in this surrender and to make you faithful. His ear will be swift to hearken. "Rise morning by morning to read, to worship, to pray. Behold the face of God before you behold the face of man, and then go forth to make sorrow smile and burdens fall and sin to hide its head,— to make trade honest, literature pure, and conversation holy." Love to Christ as His saved one will make His yoke easy, will make the cross light, will make life to have a magnificent meaning, will break the force of temptation, and will make sin to you the hateful thing. Fail you may; but with such a purpose of consecration you may draw without doubt on the patient benignity and forgiving love of your Saviour. Sneered at, and even hated you may be; but you may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." Such a daily 40 THE MORAL DANGERS OF THE AGE. course will cause your feet to find "peace and pleasantness " on the path of life, till you reach the mansions where the golden gates shall be thrown open for you, and the angels shall teU you they have been waiting to welcome you. Brother, will you try this life ? I ' I a ^t (B^mimxxim of i^t S^e : feolw fa p«pa« far i^mx. There have been men who. after they have crossed he hne of manhood, have at.ompted by a new life o acquire force and consideration among their fellows. It would astonish you to find how few of such men, comparatively, have been able to do this Iw.T,'; °^ T^" '" *''°"^^ ^^^ 'S'' ^ho have powerfully affected society, have been those who started on their course of influence as young men Remarkable and most significant Is the honour God has put on such consecration. Review the past • the most powerful impulse which has moved the world h.3 been that proceeding from young men! In the olden t.mes of the Hebrews you cannot find nobler examples of prowess, disinterestedness chivalry, purity, and a mawellous power of ru^g 42 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE: men than in Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Josiah, Daniel, and the Maccabees— and they entered on such a path of ascendency as young men. On the human side, the Founder of Christianity was a young man. The forerunner, pronounced the greatest born of women, and who shook a nation to its depths, died when little more than thirty years of age. The first great missionaries of the early Christian centuries, — men who won a path for the conquests of Christianity through chaotic barbar- ism and savage warfare, were young men. Anthony, Benedict, Francis of Assisi, who must not be con- founded with the scheming or wanton monks of later times, and who raised a powerful protest in the East and West for charity, industry, and self- denial, were mere youths when they gave them- selves to the task of regenerating their age. Martin Luther was twenty-seven when he began to study the sacred Scriptures in the original languages, and at thirty-four years of age he broke with Rome by denouncing Tetzel and his indulgences. Savona- rola was twenty-three when he started on his grand, tragic, and triumphant career of testimony against the violence, vice, pride, and blasphemies of Central Italy. Michael Angelo was a young man when in Florence he gave his powerful impulse to the revival of the arts of sculpture and architecture. Raphael and Mozart, who have never been sur- passed in their respective vocations of painter and musician, had hardly reached middle age when they passed away. The great evangelical revival of the last century, the pulses of which are now beatings© grandly in the activities of Christendom, was owing, under God, to a few young students who in Oxford* met to stimulate each other to saintliness and fidelity. George Washington, the illustrious father of the republican empire of America, and who has been pronounced by a high authority the greatest uninspired character on the page of history, gave signs of the courage, virtue, and patriotism that have made him immortal when quite a young man. Wherever you look in history you are met by similar facts. « Hannibal at the sge of twenty-five led to victory the great armies of Carthage. Alex- ander had conquered the world and died at the age of thirty-eight. Charlemagne at the age of thirty had made himself master of the whole Frencn and German Empires. Napoleon led his brilliant Italian campaign at twenty-seven, and at thirty-three was Emperor of France. William Pitt at twenty-five was First Lord of the Treasury, and Edmund Burke made his mark as a statesman when young. Byron at twenty-three was the poet and the idol of England." Ours is an age distinguished in Europe and America by powerful names in statesmanship, science, oratory, commerce, and philanthropy. You r: ' 1. ft! I I ^ i 44 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE: li li Ji will scarcely find one of these names which did not early in life give a prophecy of the greatness now universally recognised. Yes, great is the honour God puts on young men, and therefore I head this chapter by the inquiry, « How a young man can prepare for the opportunities of the age." Rich opportunities there are. Society is favour- ably disposed towards young men. The bar, the senate, the pulpit, the place of power in commerce, are open to young men as they never were before. Without the patronage which other days demanded, character and acquirements will secure the highest civil positions. In business and professional life society will entrust the most important interests to the hands of young men, when it is believed they will be safe there. This is a new and grand feature of our age. There is, however, scarcely one man in ten who makes the most of himself for the purpose for which he was created. What noble youths come out of schools and colleges ! How few afterwards make their lives noble ! With what prospects do many enter upon business and professions, and afterwards sink into the grave with scarcely a trace to indicate that they ever lived ! There have been thousands who could have rivalled the patriotism of Hampden, or the humanity of Howard, or the eloquence of Chatham, and who have left behind them no one memorial of their HOW TO PREPARE FOR 7 HEM. 45 existence. It is not because men have lacked talents or genius that they have failed in life, but because they have come short in the commonplace qualities of industry, perseverance, steadiness. You may rely upon it that it has been these cr-nmonplace qualities tha* '■. ve raised to wealth and eminence many of f^ i^Icd philanthropists, the wealthy merchants, aiiu the professional men of our era. John Stuart Mill, in his essay on Liberty, com- plamed that no period of England's history had been so little marked by individual originality and force as his own. Certainly, whether we look upon the merely moral or the professedly religious circles of our country, we find everywhere the tendency to sink the man in the crowd, the Christian in the Church. This shifting of personal responsibility from the one to the many, this inert and slavish ac quiescence in the customs and maxims of inferior men, is the secret of individual ineffectiveness. Young man, if you would prepare for the posi- tional influence of the future, do not let ethers fashion what your life shall be. Thomas Carlyle says somewhere that he would like to stop the stream of people in the Strand, and ask every man his history. But, « No," says the sage, « I will not stop them. If I did, I should find they were like a flock of sheep following in the track of one another." Alas, men begin to lose their individuality of con- i "^1 i ^ 1 it ■ ':i 'i '1 1 46 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE , vlction the moment they step into the world ! Here is a young man beginning life's business. He feels, as he starts, an impulse to be pure and noble. He is surrounded by clerks in an office. A fortnight passes, and one evening, when he is hurrying home after office hours, he hears a fast young man whisper at the desk, " Poor fellow ! he's off to be pinned to his mother's knee." Now, what would be the right thing for that youth to do ? To say at once, " Yes, and God forbid I should ever forget what I owe to my mother." Let him say this, and the insulter would be shamed, if shame were not dead. He would respect the self-assertion of his fellow-clerk. Does the new comer say this ? No j Ais ears turn red, his face is suffused with a blush j and in a night or two the poor weak one dares some trick of folly to show his independence, and to prove that home influences do not bind him. I have known many a young man who has seen the right path as plain as noonday. No mental mistake has hindered him. His judgment has been convinced ; his feelings have been moved ; he has felt sure that it would be better for him, for this life and for the next, to take a decided position on the side of God and righteousness. And what has hin- dered him? What has led to waste and self- remorse? Has he been persuaded by the wise? Has he been reasoned out of his convictions by the hi ,____f^ ^^ PREPARE SOR THEM. 47 influential? No; he has been moved bT^TjeTr of a dandy or the sneer of the coquette ; he has quenched his conviction before the mocking taunt of some empty-brained street lounger; he has lowered his own high tone of aspiration, lest he should seem singular in the little circle of frivolous society surrounding him. Do you say, " Can a man set himself against society ? » If society quenches the true in you, if it binds you, if it robs you of moral manhood, if it makes you its slave, there can remam no question to you as to what ii^ your duty. Scorn to degrade yourself by yielding up your indi- viduality to suit the whim of the useless and the vulgar. You are stepping into life, where you will find thousands who became vicious because they never formed the resolve to live nobly. There is many a wretched sot who is imbruted, because he never determined that he would not be a diamkard. There IS many a valueless one who has become a cypher because he never resolved to give to his life a mean' ing. There i. many a blasphemer who is profane, because he never resolved that the foul oath should not soil his lips. There is many a defiled, vile, and diseased one, because he never resolved that he ^vould not be the companion of a harlot. This is the sorrowfulest of all things,-men ruined, sink- ing mto sm, vulgarity, uselessness, vileness, not \<- I 48 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE: \ because they intended to be bad, but because they had not the courage to resolve to be good. It is yet more deeply to be lamented that the young men who are thus ruined are mostly the open, the generous, and the frank. A cold nature that no one cares for, that is not wanted in the drinking room, or smoking room, or billiard room, passes into manhood without hurt ; ' 'it good- natured and gleeful young men have a weak side whereby they become a prey to the dissipated. They are companionable and sympathetic, therefore miscreants suck them by temptation. There is a prevailing impression that it is women with their quick sensibilities, who are the most suS' ceptible to the influences of fashion and opinion It admits of question whether this prevailing weak ness, in our days, is confined to the fairer sex Take a few examples. Here, in a select neighbour hood, is a young man who affects style. A place in the omnibus would fit his limited means. But no the omnibus is all very well for men whose posi- tion is made, and for young fellows who have no standing in society ; but for him, who takes his idea of the proper thing from others, a horse and groom must form a part of his appointments. So he burdens himself, or speculateis, or runs into debt, that horse or " trap " may be at command. He loses sight of the fact that it is an expenditure ->-■ • /lOIV TO PREPARE FOR THEM. 49 according wuh means whereby men have risen to be honoured and esteemed, and that it is an mdependent weighing of the >.orth of opinions that goes before success. Or take other cases. Yon beardless youth must smoke the to him, offensive cigar or meerschaum because « Tom Grandeur " struts down High Street lookmg arge behind his curling smoke. NaT' even httle boys not in their teens must revol their stomachs by tobacco because men do so I have nothing to do with the habit of smoking here: that ,s not my point.' But in the name of al manhness do not turn smoker, or anything else because men little worthy of being followed lead he way. Nor is the imitation in this only. "My Lord Meek," who cares no more for a hunlor race han the most refined and timid lady, enlarges his stables, buys a fine stud, makes up his book L the St. Legerj or. with a sore heart, joins the « throw off, canng not a whit for the brush, but very much hat he may not be outdone in his equipage or es- tabhshment All through society, this abnegation md:v:duahty weaves its web. It is crushing a manhness out of us as a nation. Nor is the effect circumscribed to the frivolous and weak. Men thmk m cliques. It is intolerable to some to be out of fashion with the opinion of their set ' See Appendix II. 50 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE: Never was the contradiction so contemptible as that into which they are betrayed. It would be ludicrous, were it not too serious an indication of the want of principle. Ah, this fashion of opinion, how sadly it sways. Many a young man has powers which would bless the Church and the world, but for his maudlin regard for what others may think of him. He is it may be, a young man whose father's religiousness gave him universal sway in his own town or neigh- bourhood. No workman but honoured him ; no cottager but felt the sweetness of his sympathy. The son of this great and good man is thrown into a religious coterie, composed of people who are slow, sedate, and lack vigour. They are taught to think that religion consists in wordy prayers, sancti- monious looks, effusive utterances, instead of courageous efforts to bless men, a consistent filling up of duty, care for an employers' interest, and faithful discaarge of daily tasks. Oh, do not forget that a true spirituality demands action ; a true sympathy efforts to serve ; and true religion will crave a manifestation of itself in the very sphere which God has appointed. Nor is this your only danger. You will find many who will call you pietistic, puritanic, or even hypo- critical, if they see you endeavouring to promote God's glory with enthusiasm and singleness. You will find men everywhere who have approval fot m)lV TO PREPARE FOU TIIEM. SI everything but conscientiousness. 'l^^^^i~^ of rehgion will you meet who appear to have lost all standard of Christian righteousness. They have cast aside as unsuitable to their profession, the world's code of honour, and have not adopted the higher, spintual one. They are neither controUed stantrrT'' ''" °' "^'* ^°'"^' ^^ ^^ that standard of honour often found among men of the Young men, in the name of all that is true and noble, set yourself against this style of religious profession. The worst weakness in the world is to fear to do a nght thing because others will criticise It. There were many Christian men in Wittemberg who said to Martin Luther. '' You don't mean tha! you are gomgto hangup these theses on the church door « "Yes," said Luther; « they are true ; they assail damning error; my Fatherland is bowing down to Antichrist." "Pause," said the men who would stand well with everybody. Ms not this ^eal without knowledge? Think how you will scandalise the University; how you will drive off men who would follow you in a more discreet course." "Avaunt!" said the Reformer. "The people are perishing in ignorance. The crowds of the common people who come into the city to market wiU read these words. Yours is not discre- Si THE OPPORTUNITIES OP THE AGE: llli I I tion, but cowardice." He did the deed ; and as the result of that act, Europe received tlie Protestant Reformation, and the night of the middle ages was ended. On one occasion, Nehemiah was urged by his friends to desert the post of duty, to conceal himself in the courts of the Temple. With heroic decision, he replied, " Should such a man as I flee ? And who is there that, being as I am, would go into the Temple to save his life? I will not go in." Brave, perfumed words f During the mighty struggle for West Indian emancipation, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was about to divide the House of Commons. His friends appealed to him not to do this. They came one by one, sat down by his side, urged, and implored him not to divide ; said it would be the gravest indiscretion to divide the house ; that he had done his duty by his motion ; that he had better accept the vague promise which had been given him by ministers of the crown that emancipation should be considered. In the whole House there was only one looking on from the ladies' gallery who was praying that he might keep true to the cause of the slave, and that one was his brave daughter. He was true to the cause of humanity ; he did divide the House ; the waverers were swayed j men who feared the public opinion of their constituencies, albeit they would have been better pleased to have IIOIV TO PREPARE FOR THEM. 53 compromised, went into the same lobby with the emancipator. And that division, Lord Althorp declared, decided the question of emancipation,^ the question was next introduced as a Cabinet measure. There went from Manchester to the British Parhament, more than thirty years ago, a com- paratively young man. I saw that young man, unknown to fame, stand up to speak in a conference of mmisters of reHgion who had assembled to secure cheap bread for the people, and in which, I beheve, I was the solitary theological student. That conference was satirised ; not a single ec clesiastical dignitary was present; the leading journal attempted to cover it with ridicule That young senator had courage to defend the conference before a crowded House of Commons a few nights after his admission to Parliament. His reference was hailed with contemptuous laughter; the greatest statesman of the day rebuked him. Observe,-that young man lived to receive an apology from that statesman ; to hear him introduce the measure which had been so unpopular, and to receive himself the designation which his name will bear through aU coming times-" the apostle of free-trade." Doubtless you must avoid an undue confidence m your own judgment as well as an undue distrust. 54 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE: \k !l This is not easy. To refuse to concede one hair's breadth to what you hold to be wrong, and to be at the same time careful against fallacious and hastily formed opinions, is the trial and discipline of life. The chief danger, however, in these days, is that of unworthy compromise for the sake of standing well with people. The peril is to be turned away from what is true by flattery or fear, and to abandon convictions because of smiles or frowns. "Oh, bless'd is he to whom is given The instinct that can tell. That God is on the field when He Is most invisible. " And bless'd is he who can divine Where real right doth lie, And dares to talce the side that seems Wrong to man's blinded eye. " Oh, learn to scorn the praise of men I 01), loam to live with God I For Jesus won the world through sliame, And beckons tliee His road. " God's glory is a wondrous thing. Most strange in all its ways ; And of all things on earth, least like What men agree to praise. " Forjight is right, since God is God ; Alid right the day must win. To doubt would be disloyalty. To falter would be sin." IIOIV TO PREPARE FOR 'f'rEHr. 5S To make full j 1 assertion, there ijre, of you personal character, let me ask you to jc;.. in mi. d these counsels. The great things of this wcrld h^je been accom- plished by individuals. Vast social reformations have originated in individual souls. Truths, that now sway the world, were first proclaimed by mdividual lips. Great thoughts, that now are the axioms of humanity, proceeded from the centre of mdividual hearts. No warlike host delivered the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, but one man-Moses, No senate of statesmen raised Israel to a pitch of greatness that proclaimed to the world the glory and safety of a theocratic nation, but one man-David. No school of divines gave to England the Bible in the mother tongue, but one man-Wycliffe. No learned society discovered America, but one man— Columbus. No association of science revealed the clue to interpret the laws of the heavenly bodies, but one man— Galileo. No parliament saved English liberties, but one man— Pym. No assembly of theologians wrote the book, which next to the Bible has had the most potent influence on the English language and on English hearts, but one man— John Bunyan. No con- federate nations rescued Scotland from herdistracted councils, from her political and ecclesiastica, enemies, but one man-Knox. And the same thing I Hi;:! 56 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE ACE: might be said of almost every great step since in the progress of the race. Doubtless these men found their coadjutors ; but all through the ages God has put immense honour upon individuals. Christ most instructively teaches that it is not to corporate associations of men He gives the talents which will prepare for the grand approbation of faithfulness on the last day, but " to every man, according to his several ability." There must be an understanding of the age and preparation for its duties. The Scripture emphasises this— that aman should " serve his own generation ;' and happily in coming days a man will be called great, not merely when judged by the highest in- telligence, but when he is one who is meeting the necessity of his own age. Men say this age is great. This does not define it, because in this v/orld, where powers of evil have always been work- ing desperately for the possession of the race, there has never been an age that was little. It is rather to the last degree a grave, solemn, and critical age. 1 1 is an age of antagonisms. Forces are working on the one hand which may bring deliverance, and forces are wo»i.ing on the other which make men's hearts fail them with fear. Young men, you are the hope of r ciety. What shall be written on the page of coming history must be determined by you. Feeble I feel is my pen, inadequate do I find myself for the task I am pursuing; but with all the mtensity of deepest conviction I would remind you that the destinies of Europe and America for the last quarter of this century depend, under God, upon those who are the young men of this era. You have all the past to help you ; you begin life entering on the labours of ages. Discoveries, inventions, travels, endowments, political struggles^ religious reformations, have given you a grand start. "There is not a philosopher who has not thought for you ; not a martyr for truth, nor a defender of human rights, who has not bled for you." But while lives of students, travellers, in- ventors, and patriots have given you a magnificent vantage-ground, they summon you to be faithful to the inheritance you have received. They call on you to perfect their labours for the deliverance of our poor tempted race. The pathway has been opened for je?«y the conquering assault against the strong fortress of wrong has to be carried hy you. The events of the future are yours. Truth waits for you to raise its banner on high and swear by the standard under which you stand. Commerce waits for you to restore confidence between man and man. Philanthropy waits for you to complete its schemes of benevolence. Temperance waits for you to add Christian motives to her appeals against 58 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE: degrading appetites. Education, that is struggling so self-denyingly against ignorance and vice, waits for you to support her new crusade. On this last point let me dwell for a brief space. It has not been until the last seven years that statesmen and leaders of opinion have resolved that from this time adequate measures shall be taken to make England an educated nation. If a young man would assert power of character in the future, he must keep abreast with the advance of education. It will be the educated men who for good or evil will come to the front. Wealth must always carry weight ; but culture and intelligence will beat wealth and family connections in the days that are at hand. Consider what questions are coming up for discussion and settlement, and how they demand mind and investigation. Questions are profoundly agitating the nation which scarcely fall within the range of politics, and about which men speak with bated breath because no competent leaders are found. I mean such questions as these : The relations of labour and of capital ; the inevitable wars, no longer of policies, but of races and of peoples ; the continental doctrines of communistic radicalism ; the assumptions of hierarchsto control education; theprofound and fundamental differences between the sacerdotal and Protestant parties in ecclesiastical communions ; the perilous license of l^ mJVTO PREPARE FOR THEM. 59 free thought in churches and pulpits ; the bearings of Christian faith and sceptical culture; '.;e coming con- flict between Dissent and Established Conformity ;~ these, and others equally grave, are the questions coming up for solution. It is those who are young mennowwhowillbethearbitersonthesemomentous and national questions. A ^oung man who will not look at them will be a nonentity fifteen years hence. A young man who wishes to secure respect and mfluence in the community of men must study and investigate them. The literature growing around these questions is the very noblest the world has known. The opportunity for a young man to assist in moulding the thoughts and actions of men on these coming controversies was never so grand; a young man's mission was never so inspinng and magnificent. You are not without admiration for the iUustri- ous men who served their country during the last generation. If you read their biographies there IS one invariable mark-they prepared themselves for pubhc life by diligent self-culture. They formed ^eir opinions upon carefully derived information. They were not satisfied with the advantages which schools, colleges, and universities had yielded They read hard. They stimulated their intellect by the debating room. I shall not enlarge on this. Advice on matters of education is in dan-cr of : ) J , 00 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE, becoming a weariness. Only let us not forget it. Let us not dream that the three-volumed novel of our period will prepare for the influential places in society. Let us not be under the delusion that the smoke or billiard room will furnish a conversation to form our opinions. Let us not forget that it is mind which governs men, and that it is the cultiva- tion of the judgment, of the higher faculties of the nature, that gives that tone of character and that ascendency of influence which great men exert So far as I have observed, there are two connected dangers into which young men fall. The one is to underrate their powers, the other to trust too much to hard reading. The safety is to combine with careful study a habit of independent thoughtfulness. Reputation must be sedulously secured. I do not mean by this the popularity craved by a low ambition. I mean the reputation that wins con- fidence. The community now watches a young man as it never did before. There are those who are indignant that they fail to secure positions; they have not laid to their account that an unseen, unspoken opinion has been watching their life. They thought they were escaping observation. It was a serious mistake. There is no youth too obscure or too hidden to escape notice. A man rcsches the place of trust and honour by one way, ■ now TO PREPARE FOR THEM. 6i and that way is high character. No hereditary claim can avail now-a-days. No gold can purchase honours which abide. Society is hard and just. L will not be permanently imposed upon, and will not withhold in the long run unlimited confidence in the man who from his youth has honestly striven to build up a fair reputation among his fellows. But let me now point out to you the crowning virtue of character. Among men there are five classes. The lowest class are the slaves of fleshly appetites. These are the sensual, the debauched, the lascivious, the drunken. The second c\^s% obey the world, and judge after the worldly standard. These are the lovers of pleasure, lovers of style, lovers of money, lovers oi power. The third class are the intellectual. Wisely they culture intellect, but neglect the heart. They acquire information, but not benevolent emotions They investigate nature, but do not adore before the glories of nature's God. Higher still, there is the fourth class-the moral. They are the soul of honour ; they love liberty • they teach political principles ; they profess to comprehend the duties that man owes to his neigh- boi»r. 1 1 52 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE • The summit, howevr, of greatness, is when, with attention .o Infcllect s!id moral laws, there is the developm^r of the capacity of religion. It is here humanity cuiiiiinai s -■ the c'evelopmcnt of the spirit in man 'Hies? of the highest class are lighted up from N^i'.iiu by the Spirit of God. By the inbreatlilrg of the Almighty, they have under- standing of things unseen ; they do not despise intellect, but intellect in them is warmed and vivi- fied by a divine brightness ; they honour morality, and seek a right standard for measuring its duties ; they fall into the movements of the Perfect Mind and the Perfect Love ; they learn to renounce self, to control the fleshly; they acquire a disposition that can forgive ; they are prompted to do good, and are enlarged with beneficence; they have apti- tude for spiritual enjoyments, and receive constantly new accessions of joy and power, whereby they become fitted for those blissful regions where love, purity, nobleness, peace, and benignity have place for ever. Young man, just beginning your existence, behold your true destiny. Oh, for God's sake, and your own sake, do not fall short of it! This elevation to which I call you is not in op- position to other attainments, it embraces them. Piety wiU not give the intellectual talent which nature has withheld. : ^, if true, it will vastly im- HOW TO PREPARE FOR TffEAf. 63 prove whatever intellect a man has. It will not supply high reasoning powers if they are not there before ; but it will save reason from that blindness of conceit and prejudice whereby so many are fatally hindered and misled. With piety a man's intellect will be keener, his understanding will be sounder, his judgment will be wiser, and his tastes improved and refined. Richard Cobden is repre- sented as having declared that he never felt con- fidence in a man who was not possessed by religion ; he was not at all sure what action he would take! Myriads of facts confirm the observation of the statesman. Of two poets, otherwise equal, the Christian is the greater. Of two statesmen, the Christian attains the more permanent fame. Of two artists equally gifted, the Christian takes the higher place. Of two merchants equally practical and far-seeing, the Christian reaches the surest success. At first sight you are ready to dispute this. No doubt you may find exceptions, but they do not disprove the rule. May I ask you to look round? In this generation are there any names that have more adorned a place on the woolsack than lawyers of most pronounced Christianity? Are there bankers, merchants, manufacturers of such wide- spread mark as are men of our era who make no secret of their Christian convictions ? Are there '\ 64 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE: politicians of this or of the last generation who have achieved for themselves a name which has gone throughout two hemispheres like those who avowed the supremacy of the things of the kingdom of God ? Were it in good taste to mention names, I might write those of modern architects also, and artists, and physicians who confirm my statement. These men have served the world, but from time to time they have looked reverently upward. Re- ligion has raised them to a temper and plane of thought eminently favourable to success. On the other hand, I might tell out a record of names that would have towered to the loftiest heights, but around which there are sad and awful memories through the absence of a governing and master sentiment of the soul. No prejudice is so contradicted by facts as that which conceives of piety as allied with weakness. Piety is the nurse, the handmaid, the inspirer of aU that can give man greatness. « A man's religion fertilises the whole field of his being. It nakes his business safer, his scholarship wiser, his manhood manlier, his joy healthier, his strength stronger. It is the crown of his enterprise and the charm of his affections, the humility of his learning, and the glory of his life. And because it has sight of things not seen and eternal, it is the splendour, the transfiguration, and the sanctity of things s^en {ind temporal" HOW TO PREPARE FOR THEM. 65 You hear at this time much about religious cant and hypocrisy. But let me tell you the cant which is the most irrational, and the hypocrisy which is the most insane, is that which deems it manly to live without communion with God. Ashamed to be in communion with heaven ! Ashamed to be inspired by your Creator ! What madness v/ould be this— if the sapphire should be ashamed of the light that makes its beauty ; if the quivering beech leaves should be ashamed of the sunbeams that dance on their smooth surface ; if the flowers should be ashamed of the daybreak that reveals their hues ; if fields, hills, and the whole realm of nature should be ashamed of the precious influences which the heavens pour down upon them ! But for you, a child of God, to be ashamed of receiving illumination and impulse, wisdom and elevation, from the Father of your spirit, is the most pitiable misjudgment of which any creature can be capable. Talk of religious cant— there is no cant that is so hateful, because there is no cant that is so unre- flecting and senseless, as that which sneers at man having fellowship with his Maker. It is God, my brother, who gives to every star its brightness, to every cloud its nameless colours, to every lily its snowy whiteness, to every tiny ocean shell its mingled hues. Oh, then, go to Him ! Ask Him to condescend to bless /ou with His Spirit ; He will ,; 1 ' ( i w ^t | .|lj:..!UWI" IW|| 66 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF Tr^ auE I bring all your nature into harmony and peace, and will be uii impulse to all that is "lovely and of good report " Have faith in the significance of your life. There is no exaggeration when a living writer says : " If there were the smallest star in heaven that had no place to fill, the oversight would beget a disturbance which no Levcrrier could compute. One grain of sand, that did not fall into its place, wo .Id disturb, or even fatally disorder, the whole scheme of the heavenly motions. Every particle of air has its appointed place and serves its appointed end." God, dear young man, means something by you. Yours may not be the highest, but there is some high work which you may fulfil. The low grass-tuft is not the branching cedar towering for centuries on Lebanon, n^r is it th^ fragrant orange-blossom, wh is v'acked t leek the bridal wreath; but neuiierthe orange-blossom nor cedar could render the service of that lowly grass- tuft. Ah, and t.j fidJity in the low sphere inevitably conducts in man's case to a higher. Permit a reference of observation. I hav- aio^vn in my life scores of youths Who wer'- aspiring and purewhen in their teens. Iknowtheui wc ipying in our Iar<: e cities positions of weigh id lity of which t'ley never dreamed twenty years ago. Society delights to witness these s«>ectacles. I have known I ffOW TO PREPARE FOR THEM. 67 young men to whom I have spoken in their boy. hood, when the path of life looked difficult and dark, but who possessed integrity of principle and desire to be useful, and now they Ol jpy a place in chambers of commerce, sit on the magistrates' bench, are the pillars of Christian Churches, and princely in their munificence. I have known youths entering the Civil Service with the single purpose of obedience to duty, and now they have received as their award positions of the greatest respectability, ai'd in some cases of high governmental trust. rhey libel the age who tell you that character, prln' pie, and diligence go for nothing. Who knows, my aspirinp reader, the foldings of nature in you that may ' om into this flower of success and honour. Pla ag your life in surrender to God through Christ, you may be guided to an elevation of influence for which multitudes may for ever re- member your name. Your first acts of decision for truth and conscience may ha\ e immortal issues. Only let me ask you to note this : Do not be anxious about the high place. Ambition of a low order carries with it heart-bitterness, and often defeats itself. Nothing is so insatiable as an un- sanctified ambition, and nothing drags a man through such i realm of night. Just leave all your future in God's hands. It is by imperceptible stepa he conducts a man to influence among his fellows. lii ,i 1.-1 68 THE OPFORIUNITIES OF THE AGE. He helps those who use the one talent, and increases power ac .rd.ng to our fidelity in the least things. Fnend and brother, in starting life will you get near the lather of your spirit i> Ask Him to use yot. G.ve yourself n^omJng by morning up to H.m. I know one who for years has uttered with h's waking thoughts the well-known verse of the niornmg hymn : "Direct, control, suggest, this clay. All I design or do or say ; That all my powers, with all their might. Inlhy sole glory may unite," In the blessed moments of more serious converse w.th your Maker, breathe in this fo^ativo pirlod of your existence the prayer : "Lord, what wilt Thou have vte to do? Why have I an existence among these living souls of this creation? Why hast thou given me these grand and awful endow^ ments of thought, reason, intelligence, speech? I Ifillirth" ^'^ """"^' ^"' ^^^ ^" "-^"- fulfilling their appointed service. I see the sun fi Img the whole hemisphere from day to dly wi h h.s hght and heat. I ,ee at night the'stars h'ghli g up the arch of the firmament, each keeping h"! appoin ed place, the silent preacherof obedience to rhywill I see the bird that balances its pinion! on the air, testifying of Thy goodness. I Jm tha the tiny invisible insect is answering its purpose In ffOlV TO PREPARE FOR THEM. 69 cs et >e o h e k preserving the salubrity of the atmosphere and tl,e punty of the water. I find every fragrant violet of the hedge-row and every shock of corn fulfilling a mission of serving. I learn from Thy Word of the higher spirits that dwell in Thy presence, that they have their appointed work ; that angels are mmistering spirits, and do Thy commandments, hearkenmg to the voice of Thy word; and as I thus behold a universe where each has its appointed place, I utter the prayer more earnestly, What is the meaning of my life, Father of spirits ? I share Thy counsels ; reveal Thy thought respecting me." iJeeply am I convinced, my brother, that if with some such prayer you enter upon this period of your life, your existence will prove no meaningless thmg; It will be instinct with influence, and will have an end to which you will come with unutter- able rapture. I surely need not say. When you have found the right path ao ttot turn back. Should the eagle which has soared higher than his compeers break his pinion, he would drop lower than the lowest It is related that in the American War of Independence the army of Washington had crossed a bridge over a deep river. With the river behind and the enemy in front, the great general proposed the question to his officers, "Shall we burn the bridge?" "Burn it!" said the staff- ? 1 ..I, JO THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE AGE: " we may want it for a retreat." « Retreat ! " said Washington; "if that is the only reason for re- taining it, then it must perish. Burn the bridge ! ' was his instant order j and it was laid in ashes, I have known scores cf young men who started well. Their standard was high, their ideal of what Christianity demanded was just and lofty. They resolved that they would scorn the mean, the money- loving, and the selfish in life. They wound their conscience up to that point. But there the finger stopped, just at that figure : it told out still what their ideal had been at starting. And this was all ; the clock did not go. They now have no sound, no tone about them. They still say they scorn the mean, without aimmg to do noble things ; they still tell you that they hate avarice, but they are not benevolent; they have their theories about iielfish Christians, but none bless them for their self renouncing deeds. This is of all things the most pitiable,— that a man should sink lower than his own standard, and go through life false to him- self. " To thine own self be true ; And it must follow, as the night to day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." But to stand still is imnossible. Deterioration ensues ; and the man who started with right aspira- tions becomes tortuous in his course, just because HOW TO PkEPARE FOR THEM. 71 he did not persei^ere. Such a man may often be met with. He has acquired a character for being right- eous, but is unrighteous. He has taken a Christian position, but follows the cunning and artful ways of the worldly. He first dallies with deceit, and then becomes confused in his notions of truth. The plain path invites him, but self-interest guides. Young men, if you would acquire permanent honour; if you would make your mark among men ; if you would enjoy a growing weight of influence;— press onwards. Scorn the untruthful. Treat with contempt the dodges and subterfuges and craftiness that eclipse men's fame and lead on in the end to failure and contempt. Recall sometimes what is said of good Lord Falkland, that he abhorred the semblance of falsity, and of Wellington, that *• he always told the truth." At the beginning of manhood you stand now; a few years and you will stand at the end. The span is brief; the earthly life and the eternal life are one. No interest can another have in your living .1 noble life that is comparable to the interest you have in yourself. Soon the shadows will flee, and men will be judged, not by the earthly standard, but by what they have been and have done. Sometimes when bales of merchandise leave Eng- land for a colonial port, the price put upon them there is very different from that they had here. So, i ! ' I i : H ■ I'f m'i r t' ^pf M 12 THE. OPPORTUNITIES OP THE AGE. v^en you have gone through the gates of death, the angels wiU not ask how you stood with this world, but they wiU estimate you by your fidelity, your sym- pathies, the consecration of your life to that which was true and good. Alone you will go into that eternuy,as alone you came into existence; alone will you tread the path to the throne of God ; alone you will be judged; alone will your opportunities come up m review; alone will you carry through eternity the results of the one earthly life you have 1^!IY^ rr'' "' ''^^" ^'^ ''^^ '"dividual, I shal be judged as an individual; I am resolved therefore, to live as an individual." It is just this purpose to which in God's name I summon you in this address. Let it be so, my brother. Take thy place with the illustrious ones of all times who have ived to bless the world. Pass on to manhood and to immortality with the seal of God upon thy brow. And then when death has done its mission, disen- thralled of flesh, thou shalt rise to the unobstructed sphere where hindrance never comes, and where thou Shalt begm an illimitable work. There, with thy life grated upon the infinite, it wiU be fruitful as no earthly life can be. d, 1- h It e e s 1 III. C^^ ^oto to »oM il^mx. My object in this address is to relieve the doubts on rehgious subjects which meet a young man in these days. With some, to doubt is constitutional. They are not able to give easy credence to any tidings. With others, the very stupendousness of religious subjects causes the mind to pause in hesitancy; the revelations of Christianity are so transcendent, that thought wavers before their very grandeur. There may be doubt, also, from those appalling miseries of human life which it is the mission of Christianity to heal ; or from the terrible sense of loneliness which falls on some spirits; or from the strangely un-Chris*ian lives of Christian men. But doubts just now are the weakness, or the temptatior, or the fashion of the age. This is 74 THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGE: no longer an age of faith. Unbelief within the Church and disbelief without foi-m the prevailing and portentous disease of the times. Doubts are therefore to be treated tenderly. There are thou- sands of doubters among young men at this hour, and they are not to be denounced, but helped. On the other hand, there is a pretence of doubting which is the simple outgi-owth of flippancy or con- ceit. We hear Tennyson quoted, that there "lives more faith in honest doubt than in all the creeds." Let me, however, lemind you, that Mr. Tennyson did not mean restingm doubt ; he meant an "honest doubt," that was bent upon inquiry, and was open to conviction. He therefore thus speaks, in this same passage, of one— " He fought his doubts, and gather'd strength ; He would not make his judgment blind ; He faced the spectres of his mind, And laid them : thus he came at lei^gth "To find a stronger faith his own, And Power was with him in the night, Which makes the darkness and the light, And dwells not in the light alone." ' Obsei-ve, a great character is not built up by doubting. There is weakness, not strength, in doubts. There has been a terrible force in utter disbelief, and ofttimes the hero's daring and magni- 5^entachieve^^^ from strong Chris- ' In Memoriam, p. 143. i I ffOW TO SOLVE THEM. 75 dan faith. But it would be difficult to find energy and effectiveness springing from the bosom of the doubter. When in the cool morning the sun is shining cloudlessly, there is vigour in the step ; but when the night has come, and darkness oppresses, the limbs and heart grow weary. The sad heart, says the proverb, tires in a mile ; and there are ten thousand fine young men in Great Britain in these days who are smitten with a paralysis of moral power by the blight of unbelief which is passing over the age. Observe this also, as an important preliminary thought to this discussion : Christian faith carries with it a moral quahty. It is a profound utterance when Shakespeare says in his King Lear— " Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile." Paradoxical it sounds : even wisdom may seem vile, and goodness also, if we "re vile. I know no more degrading nor more comprehensive mistake than that which regards Christian faith as a mere matter of assent or opinion. Christian faith carries with it candour, ingenuousness, humility, persuade- ableness. But the awful canker of these days is not doubt as to Christian themus merely, but doubt as to all that is high • \^, glorious in human life. Men abound who 3iK!uli?'j a sort of presumption against what is grandly nob/e and unselfishly gene- rous. They are alwr : >.eady to believe in what 't J>f! 76 THE SCE PTlCALj^UBTS OF THE AGE: nnf^r^""''" '""'"• '^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. open for detraction, and they listen to any man who can p.ck holes in character. God only ev^Hf T 'I '■''^°"''''' '°^ "^^ immeasurable evil of these days. He only knows the hypocrisy of profession that has given birth to this all- blighting distrust in men and in goodness. But he habit IS a fearful and an invincible barrier to Christian faith. How can they believe in the glorious goodness of God, who have come to a uni- versal doubt in nobleness among men ? How can hey believe in the grandly unselfish in Christ if they always doubt the reality of this unselfishness m human beings? If Christ in bodily presence were among us now He would not parade the evi- dences for the truth of Christianity before this age. but would look into the face of men who carry in them a cold, prevaricatious unbelief, and would say to them « Except ye be converted, and become There is another consideration to which I invite your careful attention. You say the leaders of science in this age are sceptical : the men who have mvestigated nature the most are, you say. disbehevers in the superna-aral. I shall have something to say shortly on this assertion about the leaders of science. I wish you now to note that ffOlVTOSOLVE 7 HEM. ^ any man will come to disbelieve in the supernatur^ who has allowed himself to become estranged from' communion with that divine light whereby all thmgs become luminous and harmonised. Let a man cease to commune ^vith God, and the path of scientific atheism lies straight before him. While science was humble it glorified the Creator ; when It became ambitious it became a falsehood, because It had no aim but to glorify itself. When science limited itself to the discovery of the phenomena and order of nature, it blessed humanity j but when It left out of view the spiritual realm, and rushed eagerly to the denial of creative acts, it became a blind guide to the age. Such illustrious men of science as Newton, Linnasus, Kepler, and Charles Bell, studied the works of nature to adore the Creator; there are later scientists who inten- tionally ignore the Creator from the beginning of their investigations; and how can nature help them to find God } They leave the living spirit and take material stuff as the origin of all organisa- tions, and what can the outcome be but selfdom and atheism? As an able scientific writer has said, " This lust of the scientist to know everything on his own terms supplants true science, and mock- mgly gives oracles out of its abandoned shrine So have we seen an aggressive young cuckoo overfilling a small bird's nest, and the true brood lying about !: f- :!P » 78 Tim SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OP THE AGE: dead on the ground. If such a man goes on in this career, he will in time care for nothing about science, and every thmg about himself . He will soon be more dexterous in getting rid of God out of his own mmd than in studying creation. And the end of him will be, ' Ego, et natura vieaJ " These are terrible words of one competent to speak, and they have a terrible significance in relation to our days You say that all scientific men are disbelievers in Christianity. This is a huge mistake. In the two great universities of Oxford and Cambridge there IS not a single professor of science who teaches it antagonistically to Christian faith. In Scotland Ireland, and America there are illustrious scientific writers, and not a few of them adore Christ and recognise the supernatural as the origin of all things. No doubt there are distinguished scientists who indulge in the contemptuous and supercilious towards Christianity, and it is unhappily the fashion of the hour to regard them as leaders. But it is such men as Dalton, Davy, Herschell, Fara- day, Lyell, who laid the foundation of modem science, and they worked in a Christian spirit; they were neither arrogant nor supercilious towards Christian beliefs ; and they would have said it was only a little they had read in "nature's infinite book of secrecy." It is with the same reverence for Christianity that men of consummate learning now m to now TO SOLVE THEM. 79 realise that their physical investigations are con- ducting them to a grand reconcilement between science and revelation, and they find themselves approaching what Professor Balfour Stewart, in the meeting of the British Association in 1875, nobly termed "A great generalisation, a mighty law, we cannot tell what, and we cannot tell when." ' " We are all in the dark together as to the origin of species," were some recent words of the Times newspaper. The sentence occurs in a powerful leader on the yearly address of the President of the British Association, and they were preceded by this remarkable sentence : " While modem science can boast of certainty, truth, and sound good sense, there are mixed up inextricably with all this, uncer- tainty, falsehood, and specious nonsense." This is the common-sense view of Englishmen of that theory of evolution which has been supposed to be so fatal to ordinary beliefs. That theory is, that in the infinite ages of the past cosmic gas developed sea-slime, sea-slime, life in the protozoa, and so the d evelopmen t, by a natural process, produced at ' The woivis of Professor Huxley, in the Nineteenth Cen- tury Review for Sept. 1877, deserve quoting here. He spoke of not having reached the faith of Clirislians as to a future life, when he added that he would make the best of the brief span of existence which is within his reach without reviUng Christian believers whose " faith is more robust, and whose hopes are richer and fuller," than his own. tSfr*-' I 9^_THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGE: length the intellect of Plato, of Jesus Christ, and of Shakespeare. Such an astounding and de- grading theory, which sets aside creative acts, ought to be supported by overwhelming evidence. But , ,s about this very thing that the Times says "we are all in the dark together." As a n.atter of fact, there is not a single incontro- vernbleprooftosupport the tremendous conclusions of th.s theory. There is not a vestige of evidence of an mtem^xliate link between apes and men. Let me qu« >■> v,t you a sentence from an able mvesfgator, L, ,he introductory lecture in the autumn oi i^;6 co the Natural Philosophy Class, n Edmburgh University, Sir Wyville Thomson affirmed. The passage from one species to another, as the evolution theory demands, is entirely outside our experience. There is not a shadow of evidence of one species having passed into another during the period of human record and tradition. The geological record gives no traces of transitional lorms from one species to another." Mr. St George Mivart, equally a scientific investigator," calls the theory "a puerility of science," and uses these strong words : « The doctrine of the evolution- ists IS not supported directly by any one single fact in the whole domain of nature ; it is wildly improbable, and it appears to me strange, mon- strous, unnatural, aivl portentous, that the doctrine IIOIV TO SOLVE Til EM. sliould occupy the attention of the scientii.c world." These quotations are clothed in weighty language. 1 hey painfully suggest that this doctrine of evolution would not h ve become the fashion of the hour had there not been a motive. Doubtless eminent men are superior to their own hypotheses; " but," says Dr. Wood, who is himself a great naturalist, and late tutor of Queen's College, Oxford, «I cannot conceal from myself that there are many otiiers who eagerly enrol thensclvcs as disciples in these new schools, not because they are impatient of the cos- mogony of the Bible, but because they would gladly get nd of the te rhing there which is unpalatable." I must bear witness that I have observed amoncr these « disciples " a dogmatism and a contemptuous treatment of opposite theories that are utterly unlike the modesty of true science, and stand in very pamful contrast to the spirit of the illustrious men whose labours they inherit. It has been well asked, « How can selection ac- count for the whale?" The whalebone in this creature's mouth is a sieve, which, when it swallows water, retams the minute marine creatures on which It feeds. Of what use would be the rudiment of a sieve ! How tl en did the whale get selected ? A similar argument has been drawn from the tubal larynx of the k.ingaroo. The fact is, as investiga- tion proceeds, it more and more proves design, and not the blind resultant of natural selection. It !s indeed admiitcd by evolutionism that there 7 p. m -.i( "i IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /, V ^^%^ f^.% is 1.0 I.I 1.25 Its 130 IK I Itt I u lUUte 1^ la* ■ 4.0 1.4 125 1.6 150mm v: >v^ ' <> ^4> ^ V ^s^ «J2 THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGK : is no incontrovertible proof of one species having passed into another, but it is contended we have not all the page of nature's operations before us. But why are men to believe that natural processes originated species in ages when investigation is im- possible if there be no adequate evidence of these transitional forms in the ages that are open to human inquiries? A supposed derivation of the horse was lighted on recently ; but the supposed genesis has scarcely added to the reputation of the propounder. It is admitted that man differs from the ape in his intellectual nature. Whence came the difference but from the will of the Creator? How rs it that there is not a shadow of evidence of the uniting link ? Until thi? be found, we must prefer tc classify man, not with the ape, but with the Son of God, and we must remind ourselves of the language of the Times, that with truth and good sense, in these investigations, there have been inextricably mixed up "falsehood and specious nonsense."' ' There are one or i,wo additional facts demanding notice. The Silurian are, as our readers are aware, among tlie lower paljEozoic beds : i.e. among the earliest where traces of life occur. But in those beds a species of shark b found in fossil. This has been justly termed by Professor Williamson, F. R.S., " a seriously awkward fact," and " a serious hindrance to thr evolutionary theory." This shark bears a singular witness, It is found in beds containing the first forms of life, but it scale offish-organisation is among the highest Here is n(>» M Lut the objection to the evolution theory becomes much more serious. So long as it remained a doc- trine of scientific inquirers and was not brought into the life of men, it was left to finish its evi- dence. But recently the doctrine has taken a form which demands a firm attitude on the part of young men. The logical conclusion of evolutioni;--m, as now proclaimed, imperils the very existence ol civilised society. It is nothing less than this,— that men who have come from sea-slime, through monkeys, are merely sentient automatons— mere machines who must obey irresistible impulses ; that man is bound and held fast in an iron mill of necessity ; that burglars and forgers have merely, like clocks, been followmg a force they could not withstand ; that the " robber, the ravisher, and the murderer," must be treated as men would cage wild beasts, not because gradual development, but nature has taken a prodigious step forward. A very "awkward fact" indeed is this. More- over, it is not unfairly asked, If there has been one series of dewlopments constantly going on, so that according to Mr. Darwin a species has no real existence, how is it that the protophyte of the dawn of creation is the protophyte still ? How is it that there exists in the first forms of life the same formation we see to-day * 1 he chalk beds abound with forami- niferous shells called Globigerina. But the recent Atlantic dredgings bring up these same unchanged Globigerina, still found after measureless ages, unchanged, undeveloped, in the mud of the deep sea bottom I (Lyell's Elements of Geology, p. 318) i > 8« THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGE: there is any hope of reforming them or of checking their crimes in the young who might imitate them, but that society may protect itself. Such is the logical outcome of evolution as propounded by Pro- fessor Tyndall in the presidential address of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, Oct. ist, 1877, and since published by him in the Fortnightly Review. I once met with an excellent German pastor at Schwalbach, who was converted by reading the Life of Jesus, by Strauss. He had been on an incline of Rationalism, and Straus", showed him the abyss to which he was descending. It is probable that this " logical conclusion " of evolution will have the same beneficial effect. Men will open their eyes when they find that truth, honesty, and rightnes-- are to be relegated to the category of worn-o»i beliefs in virtue. They will affirm that the " ravisher and the murderer" are to be restrained, not horause they were troublesome beasts who must obey their impulses, but because they were not wild beasts, and would not deny the bestial in *hemselves. I con- gratulate pure-minded young men that the antidote of scientific atheism comes with its last unfolding. They will guard against these doctrines spite of the " specious" language in which they are clothed, and they will set against these cravings for a passing popularity the brave, strong words of the grand sage— Thomas Carlyle : «A good sort of man is HOW TO SOLVE THEM. 85 this Darwin, and well meaning, but with very little intellect. It is a sad and terrible thing tc see well-nigh a whole generation of men and women, professing to be cultivated, looking round in a purblind fashion, and finding no God in this universe. And this is what we have got to: all things from frog-spawn ; the gospel of dirt the order of the day. The older I grow— and I now stand upon the brink of eternity— the more cumes back to me the sentence which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning be- comes : * What is the chief end of man ?— To glorify God and enjoy Him for ever.' No gospel of dirt, teaching that men have descended from frogs through monkeys, can ever set aside that." We may therefore thus sum up the objections of common-sense against this doctrine of the Evolu- tionists. According to their own admissions, spon- taneous generation has never been known to occur, and Professor Tyndall canaldly admits, after the most careful and elaborate experiments a scientist ever attempted, that, so far as we see, life cannot be originated from matter. They also admit that no new species has ever been formed by selec- tive breeding, and that at present the sterility of hybrids must be accepted as a fact. Professor Dana affirms that no remains of fossil man bear any approach to the ape type, and that "the < ij 86 THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGE: molecular law \::s the profoundest expression of the divine will." Further, the term "evolution "has now been given up by Mr. Herbert Spencer as a wrong name, and "involution" is now to be the word. Further still, between the Involutionists and the Mathematicians there is a difference, wide as the poles asunder, as to the time required for the creation of the universe on the natural history of creation theory. The Evolutionists require infinite time for the working out of their theory, but the scientific mathematicians of our period affirm that the teaching of astronomy is in the teeth of any such notion ; that, instead of even 500,000,000 millions of years, mathematics as applied to the stellar forces can only give fifteen million of years. Lastly, we may quote the words of Professor Clifford, written one thinks by him with a touch of humour — " It is probable thai the doctrine of evolution fills a somewhat larger space In our attention than belongs to its ultimate influence. In the next century men will not think much about it. They will be paying attention to some new thing!" Therefore, with such unutterable confusions, admitted oversights, irreconcilable contradictions, we leave the whole doctrine of development, and fall back upon the magnificent sentence with which the Bible opens,— " In THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH." NOW TO SOLVE THEM. 87 But a source of doubt, to which a marked reference Is necessary, is that which springs from the sup- posed difficuhies found in the Bible. Some persons have expected that the Bible, being called a reve- lation from God, would be like a book written in heaven, and altogether different from human works. But, in infinite wisdom and mercy, this has not been God's mode of revelation. The earlier books of the Old Testament are the most ancient writings in the world. They were written long before Greece was heard of, and in a most illiterate age. I am not astonished to find the marks of a rude antiquity on these writings : I am astonished that in that dim morning of history these writings should so im- measurably surpass the miserable legends of other ancient peoples, and should possess a charm, pic- turesqueness, and facility of translation which have interested men in all nations, and for thousands of years. It is an infinite condescension that God has been pleased toi-eveal His dealings with the human race through writings that are the genuine product of these ruder ages, and that He has revealed the method of His providence through the history, the infirmities, the virtues, the sins, and struggles of men. This history is both Human and Divine. It is Human, for the men who wrote it carried into it the peculiarities of their age and their culture. It is Divine, for it truly and faithfully tells the 88 THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGE: dealings of God with the first races of men. and afterwards through Christ. In the one Book you have unfoldings of God's mercy, compassion, and righteousness, and in the other the unfoldings of His love. In the Old Testament you have records of men who lived in an earlier period of humanity • but the writing or the compilation of these records has been controlled, not always in letter, but in substance, so as to teach the awfulness of sin, the safety of righteousness, and the faithfulness of Jehovah. Dreadful is it to be told of the incest of Lot ; but it is merciful that we have a justification of the warnings against the licentious nations of Moab and Ammon, whose origin is thus narrated Through all the records of men in the Old Testa- ment, you are taught, as in the life of such a rude shepherd as Jacob, that every wrong act has a seed of evil in it, whose bitter fruits the doer has to eat, and that God's providence is pei-petually controlling^ the good and the evil for the education of men and of nations. So with the prophets. They taught their own times, but their message was for all times The separation of these two elements is the fruit and the reward of human study. J-ook at the Book of Psalms, the liturgy of prayers and praises for all ages ; the sacred ballads for humanity. There is much that is human in these Psalms; but if God had sent down to us songs HOW TO SOLVE Til EM composed by the angels, they would have been valueless by the side of those in this incomparable book. While I am in this world of fierce tempta- tion, of suffering, and of moral weakness, what I want is not so much angelic musings and raptures, as the prayers of a man, sinful, tempted, struggling, suffering, fallen, as I am ; and yet a man ever reaching with such sobs of penitence and intense heart cries after God. I mourn David's sin and sufferings, but I feel grateful that the Scriptures have preserved to me his Psalms, which interpret the fiercest beatings of my heart, the lowliest con- fessions of my moral besetments, and the deepest aspirations of my nature. Look, again, at the Epistles of the New Testa- ment : you have here the records of churches which fell, some into one error, others into another. But these errors are such as are common to humanity. Admirable, therefore, is the wisdom whereby in- spired doctrines and consolations are conveyed not in any abstract method, but in their relation to the very tendencies of our nature. Your objection therefore, to the Bible, that it is so human, is from an utterly mistaken impression of the mode in which revelation could be best made to men, and from forgetfulness of its deep, profound, and mar- vellous adaptation to human life. You ask, What is to be said about the first chapter 90 THE SCEPTIC AL DOUBTS OF TUB AGE: of Genesis ? I assure you I have read that chap- ter again and again for thirty years, and its interest grows with every perusal The primeval record of the formation of the world has about its language a simple, matchless grandeur that makes this first page of the boundless literature of after tunes the most precious document we have. This cosmogony of the Hebrews, compared with those of the Hindoos and Persians, is like comparing gold wuh copper of base alloy. Our English version conveys an impression of six natural days of crea- tion, but the original gives a much more pictorial and wider latitude. That the day is not one of twenty.four hours is evident from the statement that God rested on the seventh day. The rest-day was clearly a period ;vhich has lasted for at least six thousand years.' And the record gives a picturesque view of the order of creation that astonishes for its approach to scientific accuracy. * It ni.iy be supposed that it is because of the demands of modern science the theory of indeterminate periods, instead or natural days, is applied to the record of Moses. But tliis IS not the case. Pliilo said, " It is a piece of clownish sim! phcity to think that the world was made in six days." Oritren argues against those who hold the six-day theory, and inter- pret the record literally. Father Ryder says that Augustine regards the Mosaic record as • ' a leaf taken from an LgeE; record, m which time, properly speaking, has no place." See a httlebook on Natural Theology. " Proteusand Amadeus." C, Kegan Paul and Co. 1878. HOW TO SOLVE THEM. 9« The venerable record affirms the late date of man upon the earth ; so does modem geology. Sir C. Lyell says : " No discovery has shaken our belief in the extremely modem date of the human era." It teaches that the world was once covered by water ; so does geology. " It is concluded as a fundamental maxim in geology," says Professor Philips, " that the whole area now occupied by dry land was once covered by sea." It teaches that God made the dry land to appear ; and geology affirms that the rocks, or dry land, have been up- heaved from the waters. Science in its most recent developments has been thus anticipated by the grand pictorial view of creation with which the Bible opens. When we come to the second chapter of Genesis v/e meet with that which the highest philosophy has taught,— that there ir measureless distance between man and all the ower animals, and it is most impressively shown that it is to the workman- ship of God Himself we must ascribe the formation of man ; then how touchingly beautiful is the parable of the formation of woman, and the lesson of the tenderness of her union with man ; then how remarkable that in all parts of the world nations have retained a tradition of the Deluge ; and recent times have brought to light a fragment of Chaldaean tradition which is so like and so unlike the Scripture I history of the Flood n, i7t TT ^ me assure you thai \Z.a, *^' ""•• evidences Vor,r:::4''jr"""°""*''''' aud of e,e„es are \JZ """"' "' P'a«> -icipauoa. s„:: V Lr ;f ^V''""" •" ;» -ost unexpected place, r ""*"<; » ™i« Wng found on s.ones^tr 'k, ^;;;°''°™''°"s are "™.s of ,he truel,fuln«s of .t '"' ''"'™- « read in ourchUdhoS I. s 7?"° '"""' 'oisnore ihese ereat^^B "'"°' P^J"*" a«. candid .hey Tu,. I r""'' "■" " """ '"•P-sedby.J„"t. j:t""f'' 'I"* "■"' firmalions of the nami """'' """ ancient boc't tells of a faTnf ^™""- ^'"» legends tell of a "golden tl " T"' ?'' '^'^k serpent" as the leL,? / ' '■^"^^ "' ""w "as been in all ElsTem na, "'"".' """ "" «'Pe"' - .he en,Ne„ of theTv.w"- T '" """o™"™ '""gevLy of patrlaltln/d "h?Lv '* """^ »a.lo„s speak of the same ftC tT\ "' "" after .he flood .here wer^Tl, I '°''*e» ">at -.and such rdrptsr^''-''-^" Max Miiller find a .riole 5 *'""'' '^'"iMn.and ".un-an races are SeSA;r:r "'*"■= speaks of a " ronf..e- '"■'^y^^> or ^ uranian. It confusion of tongues" at Shinar, and ItOWro SOLVE TlrEHt. M the momimcnlal languagTlbiiiT^T^iiin^ Babyloma i, u„i,|„c fo, ,„ „„.^,.^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ •" '^r?'™" ""iS'Mcd from " Ur," and modern hTI? ,'° "": ■"""""'o'' '-"'-W" h" revealed for he firs. ,,me m our day, a ci.y of this „ame. I, dcscnbe th«e Llarauie conquests. It .eiu of ,l,e state of the Egyptian kingdom in the times of Abraham and Joseph, and the most minut. rcfc . ZZr, "", '° "^ '" """"'">■ *'"■ -'•at is now period r,r ""■■"' °' "■= '^eyp. of that period. But these eonfirmations not only rcl.i.e to Genes.3, they might bo adduced of every Iver 1,;. 'orical book of the Old Testament 7.hkle -cords had not been true, confutation would eas, now that stores of antique torning are broughl to bear upon , hem, and when they open such an im mnsescopefor criticism. Itisthesheerignoranceof mfidel, wh,d, tgnorcs these remarkable verifications. To a ca„d,d and instructed mind they are abso. ely overwhelming. ,f ay„ung man would purs.^ h.s me of mvesfgatio,. lot him do so by means of H,s onca, „i„„„i„„, „, ,„^ ^,^ ^ HisS;,'":^"-' '^^'"*" '"°^-« «' Ancien't Then consider the research that is being given to .he New Testament Scriptures. Uarni'g'lh 94 THE SCEPTICA L DOUBTS OF THE AGE-. as the world has never seen equalled ; philological knowledge vast and accurate ; devotion of time on the part of a host of able inquirers in Europe and America-are all pursuing investigations into the qucstionsof the authentici.y,credibility, andgenuine- ness of the Gospels and the Epistles. The style, the testimony of adversaries, the nature of the language, the evidence of ancient manuscripts,- are all brought into court to test the truths of these writmgs. A blaze of light is being shed on them in our times, under whose myriad rays falsehood or imposture must long ago have been detected. Nor can it be said that they are biassed scholars who are pursuing these inqiiries. They are being pursued by critics whose honesty of purpose is beyond all question ; men who, instead of being shaken in mind or troubled by the fulness of light poured over these New Testament writings, have a conviction forced upon them of their genuineness which approaches in our times an absolute and unfaltering certainty. There was, it may be, a period when Christian believers were illiterate. It is just the opposite now. The acutest lawyers of this age are firm believers. Statesmen of consummate genius bow reverently before the claims of Christianity. Men of the largest scholarship, and the foremost advocates of education, are men who are not now TO SOLVE THEM. 95 ashamed of avowing their admiring love for the New Testament Scriptures. It would be easy to mention names occupying the highest judicial, legislative, and literary positions in proof of this. On the question of the antiquity man I will add a few words. The question has come to a stand-still. There has always been a haze of un- certainty around it, and this remains what it was seven years ago. There have been cave excava- tions pursued eagerly and expensively, but their results during the last few years are nil. I have explored the two great caverns at Ingleborough, Yorkshire, and Kent's Hole, near Torquay. In the former case the measurements of the stalagmites seemed to show that the blocks were increasing before the eyes of this age at a far more rapid rate than had been assumed for their growth in the latter. In relation to the so-called flint imple- ments, the confident assertions of their human workmanship are being seriously questioned. No less an authority than Dr. Carpenter says, " No logical proof can be adduced that the peculiar shapes of these flints were given to them by human hands." No doubt very learned and candid men are in favour of their human origin. But we have yet no certain evidence that the forces and powers of nature have not been adequate to their formation, and there m are difficulties on either side Th^v n«^ IT cave, andnver bedsa,o„/„,: 11":^:" 01 Human bones, which are quite as capable of P^servauon as those of .hei ^.n,n,Z '^ fl.nt^ are found in the drift beds. b„, no. a bone of mans f^ne, not a fragment of his potterv „„.° .ace of his dwelling. To amrm that Z' fflms "anship, without a shred or relic of the presence of man must be held to be doubtful reason^g " or cam. be said in „p,y,hat the few savages ^ho «r of r "'"" ""= '""' '*''' •" '-« .h" mTkersof Srir^"'^'' "*"' «« ""man makere of them they were not a few. These flinis a«tobec„untedbymi,ii„nsa„dsh„ve«edb,Tpad: ML Professor Hmdeyonce read a paper Lo'e ae Geological Society which was sent to himt a embanking, making roads, and draining land in scattered over an area of twenty mifes i„ i,„J and .en m breadth. I. was argued .ha. Uiis must have been a place for the manufacture of flints by .he^ivages A rather extensive manufactory, a' h. \T' '^'J""" °' """"factory a. Keyham f„ .he wh* of the British navy cover, just one squa^ ■».fe, whereas Mr. Whitley contended that ?hesc i ffOfV TO SOLVE THEM. 97 flteflakescoveredan area of ..oUr.i,^';^, mles ! There must have been a considerable colonv .I'Tone" *Tr -^'— -aXe ttesechredT, ^ '°'«'™" """^""^ """"^ tnese chipped flmts came from human hands and wa^ ^ d n k'" ^'""^ "«" " "'"'"«»i" •' France. A workman found it in the gravel I «s a great godsend. The puzzle of the ab ence ^ he organic remains of the flint-maker, "a" solved. Learned men at once pronounced onl h.ghant„„i„. The Anthropological SocieTy o tondon stated that it was "a marked example of the Papuan type." Mr. Prestwich. a high aurriron qnartemary geology, Mr. Evans? the ^te°" hvmg expert in flmts; Dr. Falconer »n f Physiologist, went ove; ^^^S.TCZ "cus fragm^t. Dr. Falconer was satisfied.' A ^d d" H^i: n '°.*' '"«™»^«f AbbeviuC and Dr. Herquet, an eminent medical writer, came belonged to another race than ours." There was . stam on the jaw which could no, be effaceT eherewere filmy, calcareous incrustations. The 'wo' aoubtful The question was debated. Letters ap. 98 THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGE: peared in the Times and Athenaum. French wz;a;« met Enghsh deputies for discussion for three days. Alas! this "Papuan" jaw of the anthropologists turned out to be exactly like the mortal remains of some Saxon Christians in Picardy,and it was found that a workman had imposed on the learned world and had fraudulently inserted the "precious frag- ment » into the bed of gravel. And now, are we to attach infallible authority to scientific opinion ? Will it not be the wiser course to regard this antiquity of man question as not proven ? Moreover, do youtliink Christianity rests on a chronology, and a chronology derived from writings of an antiquity which never pretended to a method of writing figures which approached the numerical accuracy of five thousand years later? There may possibly be evidences in Gen. iv. 14, and vi. i, 2, of a pre-Adamite race. But why should I perplex myself with what has not been revealed? Why may I not be perfecUy trustful, awaiting further light? Lord Bacon says: «Ihad rather believe aU the fables of the Talmud and Koran, than believe that this universal frame of nature is without a mind." I am aware that the mystery of the Divine mstence is a profound difficulty to ^"-ry thoughtful ffOPV TO SOLVE THEM. 99 person. But would not the conclusion that there is no God be a more appalling mystery? As to the disproof of the Divine Being, that is impossible. • Dr. George MacDonald's word on this subject is not too strongly put: "As well ask a fly, which has not yet crawled about the world, if it can prove that " it is round." And who is man, to stand up in this great universe and to affirm that he has proved there is no God? When you have lived longer in the world, if you have watched and noted the history of families and individuals, I promise that you will then say there is a power governing the universe in the interests of righteousness, frustrating the machinations of the wicked, and making the shelter of falsehoods roofless in the end for those who have sought refuge there. Mr. Froude is among the greatest of living historians, and he finely says that you may go "to the past history of the world, and prove diverse theories from its ample pages according to your disposiiion. But one lesson, and one lesson only, history repeats with emphatic distinctness and without the least ambiguity. There is no possibility of diverse theories here, and that lesson is, that the world is built on moral foundations, that in the long run it is well with the good, and in the long run it is ill with the wicked ; and that one lesson is the old doctrine taught long ago by the Hebrew prophets, that the fear of the roo THE SCEPTICAL DOU BTS OF THE AGE: Lord is wisdom and to depart xrom evil is under- standing." If this be so, and that it is so is in- controvertible, there is no possibility of escaping the conclusion that there is a governing Mind. But let me ask you not to exaggerate the diffi- culty of the existence of God. Look at the light of the sun. It sends its rays through every cottage, every stream, and over every living thing, and yet it never contracts a stain, and takes no soil. It awakens the germs of life in organic nature, and they emerge in an endless variety of forms ; it clothes the forest with a robe of verdure, paints the fields with countless flowers, and calls forth the song of thousands of birds. It unchains from their icy bands the mountain snows, and sends myriad riUs to make iriisic through the valleys. It makes the gladness of childhood, and cheers the gloom of age. At the same time it can photograph ever>' mental emotion and every change of moral feeling. No subtlety can deceive it ; it pierces beyond the false look ; it images the character with startling justice. It is no labour to the sun to do this. Endow this sun with mind; conceive that Its rays not only pervade and photograph every object, but do so consciously. Have you not here an emblem of Him who takes this image of light ? Do you not further see myriad proofs of design in the atmosphere, the soils, the foliage, and your own nOlV TO SOLVE 7HEM. i toi frame ? Out of ten thousand proofs equally remark- able, let me mention one or two. Think of the egg of a bird, so made that wherever it is placed the chick shall float uppermost, so as to be near the warm bosom of its mother. Think of the adaptar tion of the camel to its life in the desert ; its feet, not like the hoofs of a horse, but cushioned with elastic pads, that do not sink into the sand, but spread over it; its stomach set round with water sacs, from the supplies of which it can journey for days without coming to fresh water ; its eyes over- hung with eyebrows, and nostrils that can be firmly closed, whereby it is not incommoded with cither the hot sand-clouds or the glare of the desert. Think of a gulf-stream, sixty miles broad and three thousand feet deep, which comes from the tropics every winter, which secures an equable temperature for the fishes, and prevents the seas at Stockholm and Norway from becoming a block of ice. While this IS sc, there is a polar current, which rises in Green- land and hastens to cool the tropics. Think of the constant demand for Ume in the ocean to form the bones of the countless millions of fishes born every hour, and recall the fact how there is not a river that is not pouring into the sea perpetually miUions of tons of lime for this purpose, and every brook and tributary of the great rivers is supplying it. Do not all these things point to a directing intelligence ? IM THE SCEPTICA L DOUBTS OF THE AGE: Are we to conclude that this marvellous and mighty mechanism of nature is the chance develop, ment of a nebulous cloud ? Is there not in nature everywhere a beautiful unity of design ? Is there not a wondrous adjustment of complicated powers and elements fcr one common end ? Is there not a most precise interworking of correlative forces in one harmonious co-operation ? Are there not traces everywhere of an all comprehensive law that is con- trollmg movements the most mighty, and governing the organic formation of creatures the most minute*^ so that they all proceed upon a fundamental plan? Is it not a wilful blindness or proud conceit that sees no design in all this ? You say it is difficult to realise a Power unseen? You nevertheless admit Hot force of the unseen. There is a gravitating force perpetually proceeding from the sun and moon. The sea-tides twice every twenly-four hours are the palpable proofs ot that unseen action of the two luminaries. Here is an unseen agency affecting every day of your life aU the waters spread over five-seventh parts of the globe. Gigantic is that force, and it contributes to the well-being of everyone of the twelve hundred millions of the human race. Why, with this fact in your view, should a mighty sfream of influence pro- ceeding from the Deity be such a difficulty? I admit to you that if we did not know God in HOiy TO SOLVE THEM, 103 Christ, these evidences of His existence would not counterbalance the doubts awakened by the terrible sights and sounds of a tearful and wretched world. But, when you come candidly to the Scriptures, you find the proof of a great and mysterious Power of evil that has been struggling for the possession of the human race, and you learn that Jesus came forth from God to interpret for us His Divine pity and His helpfulness. Because, as I hold, the origin of the supreme power of evil, and of the demons over whom he rules, is entirely concealed from us, shall we deny their existence? Are not the terrific and measureless temptations of men the palpable proofs of such a malign power ? Christi- anity has no meaning if you deny human miseries. The great promise of the Bible is that of a Deliverer. We needed this most. I assure you there are myriads who have found God in Christ. The revelation of love in His incarnation, His atoning death and His resurrection, becomes to them, as years go by, an unfaltering certainty. The depths of wisdom which that love discloses, the power of it to comfort and elevate man, the rest which it gives to inteUect and to conscience, are felt to transcend aU probability of human invention. A transient or cold impression ot what the Gospel reveals mav admit of doubt. But when conscience is listened to H i- ^^ the door --ihlfr' 7" '" *■''<* "«""> opens of CMS. * ""'""'^ '"'""»'«" the testimony convSr„r.hrr.r..:*;"r""' could ever havp ,«, . V V V *"® '^^^ ^''^t »»" or the c"s37irre*f„f:' °' "" '=°^^'- His Son Jesus Christ Th . " *'"'' '^'" ^" eternal life » ^^'' '' '^^ *™e God and attain to the ^t 7n° " "" '™"' ^°" "ri" ">o« to 4 Jr J' '°*'""'"' « tiat which is ^u...d„hi.ah,ehis.„^„.i^^»J«^^-« * *" """"TV [iBMBbEoiSimijcs IMSTITUTE IIOIV TO SOLVE THEM. «05 hundred years ago, in a strip of fair ^^^^d^^^i in As.a-a land which for t»vo thousand years had been the theatre of events which marlced it out as the scene for some grand evolvement of historic import-there appeared a Teacher from Galilee, just rising into the maturity of manhood. He unites m Himself the most unusual varieties of character. He has vast inteUect and the tenderest sensibility ; the calmest judgment and the keenest feeling. He IS lowly, but always magnanimous; He is meek and yet majestic ; He is most compassionate to' human frailty, but abhors human vice ; He is despised, but never fretted; insulted, but never ruffled; never is He charged with sin, yet by a strange and precious sympathy He draws to Him- self the sinful and outcast. He is essentially human ; ,s found at the marriage feast and the evening meal. He speaks parables which childhood can understand,and over which genius wonderingly ZZ\ ? '' ' ^'"' '^"^' """^^ ^ J^-' '^ "domi- nated by the passion of humanity." His teaching IS so profound, wise, and novel, that it for ever shades all the teaching of the wise men of antiquity. He did works whichnone other man had everdone. He invued all heavy-laden ones to come to Him for rest, and declared that He would give this rest. During a very brief ministry, five hundred men and women so believed in Him, that afterwards I I I to6 THE SCEPTICAL DOUB TS OF THE AGE: many of them laid down their lives for His sake. Very soon after His death upon the cross, when He startled His enemies by the loud cry, « It is fin.shed,»a - vast multitude'' in Rome itself en- rolled themselves as His disciples. This fact comes to us on the testimony of the he.ithcn historian, Tacitus; and Gibbon admits it must be received as unquestionably genuine. This Jesus Christ we affirm to be the Son of man and the Son of God. He is th. Revealer of God. He pierced to the core of human misery, while He wielded the resources of Omnipotence ; He wound about H.S heart human sympathies, but now sits at the right hand of God exalted. My brother I solemnly teU you that to refuse to believe in Chr'ist after the evidence afforded wiU violate your candour, w. trample on the rectitude of your reasoning, and wiu bring on you consequences which you will hereafter deplore. I cannot utter words that deserve comparison with those of Christ Himself: "lam come a light into the world, that u hosoever believeth m me should not abide in darkness." "He that rejecteth me hath one that judgeth him : the word hat I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the !'"">* day." 'ou may ask. Can a man be lost for sincere Jo.;v . , £ a • .n clings to his doubt, if he will not fcXf ;;.tl- ! - J •••'!. tviii nut ii^.i»ure, If he r:fuses to receive testimonj; IIOIV TO SOLVE THEM. to? he will remain lost, not because of his doubt, but because of his obstinacy. This talk of sincere doubting is often very unreasonable talk. A man may sincerely doubt whether it is well to sow corn in the autumn or spring, and he may sow his fields in July; but his sincerity will not save him from bank- ruptcy or the workhouse. A schoolboy may sin- cerely doubt the necessity of learning Euclid, history, ai.d geography ; he may refuse the testimony of wiser heads ; but his sincerity will not save him from going into mercantile or professional life a dunce, and the chances are that he will rue his so- called sincere doubt to the end of his days. You, my brother, will soon pass into a world shrouded in impenetrable darkness. There is but one voice which can tell you of a way whereby your spiiit hereafter may reach a region of light and felicity. Should you close your ear to that voice, and nurse your doubts, and refuse to investigate, then let me tell you that the Scripture speaks of a " shame and everlasting contempt." Miracles are made an occasion for doubt to some. Let us examine this objection candidly. Why are miracles not believed ? « They contradict experi- ence." A few years ago, M. Boutigny, at a meet- ing of the British Association, caused ice to be produced from a red-hot crucible. Surely this contradicted experience. " They are incredible ta I! ■°g THE SCEPTICAL OOVBT S Of THE ACE: TZ ^, '="■"■'=' «■" a-e'^^r^ii^v'^ the beds of sea-shells on the tops o. ,he highest mounta ns. " The tntmi.^ ,e -r "'«n«t «.,v^,/„ , . . ^ ^""^ attributed mracUs to mapc." The very proof they were »^ought ,. elsethey would have denied thefa^Zd ro.„sor.ed,oU,ispre,enca " THey are i^fo^s^t, 'i' 'hey^spendi„fle^iUlav,s of nature." To this modem objection I reply, .here a.. „„ UwsVf ^he averse except d>e direct agency of God. If, ae„° He herpeses ,„ arrest a sabject-law, there ir„o surrr°''''''"'°'"""'''''-«"h: supreme Uw m operation. For example : By th. .nfl=x,ble law of gravitation, a ball dropM from the top of a tower falls to the earth. B„, suppose a suspended ? Not at all. A controUing la„ ;. brought .nto operatio„,,owhich thatlawis obedien Thus you have the agency of God in miracles. Z ..hi T T' ^ ="=""'' •'>' ™'"^ "io find Whet tt °' "" '"'"«' '° -Mply objections r"pte R K ""'^ ""'*""' ""O"' finding replies. Remember that in .he first ages miracles must have been worked, els. Christianfy S gained a footmg m the earth, much less have Aanged the religion of ,be Roman e,upire. Gibto ^d h,s strength to dispute this; but never did a great writer so signally fail ffOW TO SOLVE THEM. [°9 Attention has just been called with admirable discrimination to what is termed the specific ap- propriateness ot the miracles of Scripture. They occur in groups or series. They cluster round certain great crises of history. They bear a specific character adapted to the epoch when they occur. For example: The miracles of Exodus are adapted to the end of prostrating in ignominious rum the gods of Egypt. The miracles of the wilder- ness proclaimed that God was no mere national deity, but entitled to obedience and trust as the one only living God. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha sustained the testimony of these great reformers against national apostacy. The miracles in the book of Daniel were the proof that Israel would emerge unconsumed from a fiery furnace of Baby- lonish captivity, and that God had not forsaken them. The miracles of Jesus dealt with men's private life; they presented Jesus as the Saviour of individuals, and warranted personal faith in Him as man's Deliverer. Miracles in this light are not merely evidences j in their marvellous grandeur and their unearthly beauty, they are profoundly signifi- cant, and are an essential part of the religious education of mankind. » Observe, also, if you want demonstration that will 'Condensed from E. R. Conder, M.A., on " The Basis of il f no THE SCEPTICAL D OUBTS OF THE AGE. overbalance all difficulties, you will never find it In the affairs of this life men acton the i>rei>onder^ ance of evidence. If there should appear twenty reasons for a course of action, and only five agains It, he would be reckoned a fool who became swayed by the five, and refused to inquire further. I„ Trtn^f ?' '^' "^'^ "'^^ ^^'" "^^^^ d«<^'de and act till they have reasons which exclude all doubt. are left behind in the progress of society, and become the poor and despised. Your condition in this world IS a test whether you will be true and docile. If you want light, there is abundance to guide you; ,f you choose darkness, God will not compel your belief. Note further two facts. A prince once asked his Chaplin to furnish him with evidence of the truth of Christiamty, but to do so briefly. He received a bi.freply,--«TheJews,yourmajesty.« YeTht: are the Jews among us. Without a king, without acentre, and yet preserving a mysterious'iden i" Wm you study the problem, whether any key to the history and fortunes of the Jews fits the lock the Lr"'''"^""^'^'^' ''^P^^^-" '^^ that he Scripture gives? And here is the Church Intrigue and falsehood you can find in it. The base designs of its members would long ago have discredited any other association. Lut through more than eighteen centuries the Chu;xh ^^^t ffOlV TO SOLVE THEM, III a witness for purity, self-denial, benevolence, and sainthness. None but a bigot will deny this. Will you ask how came a Church with such a history mto being? Could lies have given it its lofty benevolence, its wide-spreading conquests, and its - imperishable sway ? And observe, the end will come. A nurse recently was summoned to a sick bed in Paris. The invalid was a young Englishman. Before she would enter upon her duties she asked if the sufferer was a Christian. Upon being answered in the affirmative, she said, "I have seen such horrible sights, and heard such waitings, in the dying chambers of ungodly and dissolute men, that I dare not now undertake to nurse another such a one." Trunchan, in his memoirs of Voltaire, says : « I wish that those who have been perverted by his writings had been present at his death. It was a sight too horrid to witness." These are awful facts and foreshadowings after a life of infidel pleasure. While these sheets were passing through the press, I read the memoirs of two men whose lives ran side by side, but in whose end the contrast was deeply instructive. Both were bom in the year 1800 ; both lived unto the third quarter of the century; both were men of genius and culture; both had access to the first literary circles of Europe ; both were writers of celebrity. One wajt I. i m THE SCEPTIC AL DOUBTS OF THE AGBl a sceptic J the other a firm believer in Christianity. The one, John McLeod Campbell, closed his days m a calm evening of serene, unbroken repose. His last words were, « What a rest to know that I am m my Father's hands!" The other, Heinrich Heme, wrote before his death, «I am very wretched; I am almost mad with vexation, sorrow, and impatience." His last letter contains these words: "My brain is full of madness, and my heart of sorrow; never was poet so unhappy in the fulness of fortune which seems to make a mock of htm /" Thus died the sceptical poet of the gay world of this era ! Let me add a test of your sincerity. One of the most accomplished and gifted of authoresses has told us that dark doubts on divine subjects once shrouded her spirit. As she looked up at midnight to the vault of the heavens, and saw the stars moving in serenity and order, the thought came over her troubled spirit-" The Creator of those orbs must take an interest in me. His rational creature. I hold to nothing but a dim hope of His existence. I wiU take my dark mind to Him, and ask Him for light. Prayer shaU be with me the • test of truth: " To that sincere cry the answer came. Her heart, intellect, and conscience found rest in Christ ; the Bible became to her an exhaustless fount of wisdom j in mathematical culture and in musical taste she HOW TO SOLVE THEM. "3 became distinguished, and her life became signally useful and saintly. Two eminent men were lifted out of their doubts by the promise in Luke xi. 13. " If the Bible be true," they reasoned, " the Lord will give His Spirit to them that ask Him. We will put this promise to the proof." The one— John Newton— became the most influential preacher of the Gospel in the British metropolis : the other- William Wilberforce— became one of the best, most useful, and most honoured of statesmen. My brother, let this be the test of your sincerity. Will you earnestly and perseveringly ask God to fulfil His promise in you ? I shall close this address with thirteen articles which may be termed The Creed of the Infidel. I. That Book is to him an imposture and pre- tended revelation, which furnishes the only explana- tion ever offered of human misery, suffering, and death ; which responds to man's universal craving for immortality, and gives transcendent glimpses of a future state ; which presents the sublimest views of the compassion of the Creator ; which paints a picture of man which has had an exact transcript in the history of all nations, and on behalf of which myriads rise up to testify that it has been a cease- less impulse to aspirations, a comfort in their trials, and has taken away the fear of death, a He believes that the earlier narratives of the 9 1. i t Xi^ THE SCEPTICAL DOUBTS OF THE AGE: Bible were fabrications intended to glorify the Jewjsh nation : but somehow these fabrications are totally unhke the legendary traditions of Greece ^1 r,: '"'^"^^ °^ """"^^ their ancestors gods and heroes, they make them slaves, and teU a history of Jacob and his sons which coders the'r progenitors with infamy ; and, strange to say, these fabr cations imposed upon later prophets wh; were he sternest denouncers of falsehood, and are new mposing upon six miUions of Jews, who with a enacity unparalleled, and sacrifices ceaseless, cling to the ritual and history of their ancestors. 3. He believes that by some unaccountable ^pecies of hterary deception, unlettered or fanadca men have pretended to give four narratives of the oris Jo 1 ""'^"'^' "''^' ^^^ ^-'-* -d- cr tics confess are "the very gold of simplicity integrity, and truthfulness," and which present In -age of Jesus Christ, that brings most vivi ^in n Id ! "^. rf "'°" °' '""^^"''^' t'^^t h- f- and that surpasses in beauty and grandeur aU tha poetry ever sung, or human genius ever conceived 4. He believes that ihe writers of the New Testa- aught he purest, wisest, most elev ated, and most ^^sacrificing system of morals the world has ever NOW TO SOLVE THEM. "S 5. He believes that in the most enlightened and sceptical age of the Roman Empire, thousands of men were such arrant fools as to give credence to a history of Christ which was full of lies, and to a record of miracles which had never been worked, and this at a time so near to the events that an im- posture could not have escaped detection for an hour. 6. He believes with M. Renan that the Resur- rcction of Christ rested on the testimony of a sen- timental woman ; orwith the author of " Supernatural Religion," that the deception had its origin in a "notoriously superstitious age;" and yet that men of the noblest inteUect have held for eighteen centuries that no historical incident has ever received such ample and powerful support ; that it completely revolutionised the bearing of the original witnesses who affirmed that they had seen Christ after the Resurrection ; and that that Resurrection has offered the most magnificent consolation to sufferers and .artyrs for truth, has never been disproved by the ingenuity of opponents, and has been felt to raise the whole sum of human life to a loftier, sublimer, and enduring attitude. 7. He believes that «a vast multitude " of Ro- mans, Greeks, and Jews deserted, ' a fanatical superstition, the splendid temples ol their fathers, the schools of philosophy of which they had been proud, and the religion of their ancestors, which 116 THE SCEP TICAL DOUBTS OF THE ACE: had been enriched by the grandest historical as- sociations. 8. He believes that the early propagators of Chnst.an.ty, and the believers in it, acted altogether contrary to ordinary motives of weak or bad men • they embraced a creed which, instead of gaining them aught, exposed them to the most diabolical cruelt.es, and held their testimony in the face of tortures, banishment, and a shameful death. 9. He believes that, although Christianity is a lymg system of priestism or fanaticism, it never- theless, according to irrefutable testimony, abolished the feroc.ous deeds of the amphitheatre, overthrew the hornd ntes of Paganism, introduced an era of benevolence, and marked a new starting-point of progress for the human race. io.Hebelievesthattwelveobscure,pennilessJews. w.th a h.gher wisdom than was claimed by Socrates! Cicero, or Plato, taught the only religion which has been proved to be adapted to every country and every cond.t.on of man on the surface of the wide globe II. He believes that the Christian Sabbath, or the weekly seventh-day rest, is an institution indis- pensable to the present physical condition of men and a..imals ; that without it modern civUisation would bnng to myriads of men and beasts unbroken 0.1, disease, and premature death, but that this seventh-day rest is a purely human institution, ffOlV TO SOLVE THEM. 117 having come, he scarcely knows how, from men who were foisting on the world false and illite- rate traditions under the name of Divine revela- tions. ^ 12. He believes that the writings of the Christian Scriptures, although an ill-constructed collection of falsehoods, have been most firmly held to be true by men of the profoundest intellect, of the most resolved and persevering investigation,— the very scholars, thinkers and master spirits of humanity, such as Newton, Bacon, Milton, Boyle, Locke, Pascal, Davy, Selden, and a host beside. 13. He believes that those great nations of Europe which are immensely in advance of all the nations of antiquity, and of aU the heathen and Mohamme- dan nations of Asia at this time, and which are distinguished for their liberty, wealth, culture, arts, schools, asylums, charity, and beneficence, have become so while under the sway of a miserable system of religious superstition, which a h^ff un- lettered fanatics palmed upon the world eighteen centuries ago, or which was the lying outcome of a superstitious age. Sceptic ! is this thy creed ? Then, O man, great is thy faith ! Trifler ! who callest the Bible "weak folly," take heed! Thy despising of Christianity and thy influence against it may be shown to be thy folly '■ill 118 THE SCEPTICAL DOUBT S OF THE AGE. and culpable weakness, which will have to ^ plored by thee in ages to come. My doubting brother, you may turn the tables when reproached with the beliefs of Christian and point to the absurdities involved in Thk Ck ' DULITY OF INFIDELITY. IV. in tfe* %Qt : ^0fe ia ill it. - » — ^ I PURPOSE in this chapter addressing Christian young men. To them I would say it does not become us to adopt an apologetic tone in relation to Christianity. There are, unhappily, those who have professed the supremacy of the religion of Christ, and whose life and intercourse are carried on in such a way to keep their conviction out of sight. They are like the fashionable lady who communi- cates at the popular conformist or nonconformist church, and who places on her drawing-room table the last Parisian novel of doubtful character, and hides away the book distinctively Christian. No, no : we have not thus to excuse our Christianity. The one and only power that has been bearing upon men with results of perfect satisfaction foi Ij i. : i20 THE CHRISTIAN YOUNG MAN'S PLACE eighteen centuries has been our holy religion. W^ we thmk of its brilliant line of magnificent history when we recal the names of the noble confessors whose wuness against the falsehoods and unspeak- able ev,ls of the world it has inspired ; of the courageous patriots whose unselfish consecration to the welfare of nations it has evoked; of the .Ihistnous men endowed with immortal genius, and adorned wzth the loftiest character, whom it has enrolled as us disciples: when we reflect upon the samtly l.ves it has produced in every social circle^ t^ir"r?K '"'^ ^^^^ ^^° '"^^ everywhere indelible traces of their sanctity, and the women who moved through domestic circles beautified by the holiest virtues : when we remind ourselves of the depths of misery mto which it has penetrated with healing compassion, and of the savage tribes it has rescued from revolting barbarism and introduced to the comity ot civilised nations : when we think hovr it has elevated woman, broken the fetters of slaves taken orphans under its protection, and origin- ated myriad machineries of philanthropy : when we remember how it has taught nations justice, has striven against tyrannous selfishness, has instructed the rich to be liberal, and demanded a reward for the industry of the poor : when we reflect upon the lone, hne of transcendent scholars who have bowed to Its claims, and never were doing this more notably IN THE AGE: HOW TO FILL IT. lai than at the present hour : when we bring into view the millions of Christian workers who now are teaching ignorance, assuaging wretchedness, carry, ing consolations to the sick and dying, and doing this with a heroism and persistency which the blessed angels might emulate,— when we recal all this, we are not disposed to apologise for Chris- tianity, but to glory in it with exulting thankfulness, and, instead of craven fear and distrust, to hold it forth, with the overwhelming proofs of its Divine origin, as the only hope of the world and the only safeguard of society. We must remember that Christianity has been conferring these incalculable and transcendent bless- ings on the human race not by touching the springs of selfishness, but by the force of its own heavenly motives, and by the impulses it has awakened not among any special class, but wherever it has found a true disciple. Neither must we forget that numbers of otherwise excellent persons are altogether unable to estimate the vast benefits Christianity is now conferring on the world. They never enter distinctively Christian circles ; they never visit the scenes of Christian labour ; they are profoundly ignorant of the distant climes, where among barbarous tribes the blessings of civilisation have been diffused ; they never enter an orphanage j they know absolutely nothing 1 ■ ^ 1, i: 1 li If i N \\ ni f i WW \\ ii II ' 'ffti 122 THE CHRISTIAN YOUNG MANS PLACE of neighbourhoods of misery and vice, where wretchedness has been changed by Christian efforts into contentment and purity. They bear in their hearts a doubt or scorn that blinds their eyes and fr, *Jf ''.!""'• "^^"^ '^"•■" *^« advantages of this noble Christian service, and they are like men who drink of the refreshing water and ignore the hidden springs whence it issues. I affirm that the religion of the Son of God was never struggling against wickedness, ignorance, selfishness, vice, and misery, as it is at this present time. It never was sending forth such a host of resolute workers to fight with the demons of sin that waste the race. It never numbered among its followers men and women who were marked by such a self-renouncing benevolence of effort, and such a saintliness of life. Among these works of a living Christianity, must be reckoned the service rendered to this age by young men who are enrolled as members of Chris- tian Associations. Recently in Toronto a Con- vention of representatives of these organizations was held, which showed that 821 Young Men's Christian Associations had sent in reports from the British American Provinces and from the United States, and this was an increase of no less than 266 of the Associations in one year. These Societies embraced a membership of avowedly evangelical i JN THE AGE: HOW TO FILL IT. laj believers numbering no less than one hundred thou- xg to death and darkness m^d^ Tmen n evangehstic services. Nor is the stranger over- looked, a,ey „pe„ i„„„ .„ .^^^^"^ for the yonng European, drawn to their conS o' tTTl " '"''" *""" "^ •*' "«.» ^» the Soathem States the coloured young men Jd buryng the old prejudices of race, seek to p°Ce them by education for the free citizenship ,o S they have been introduced. Perhaps their noU « m.ss.onjustnowis that of organistag an e