The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-03-10
THE GREATEST TRIAL ON RECORD.

The age IN which we live Is emphatieally one Of
discovery In all the departments of Physics, es
pecially, the text books which were standards
few wears ago are cast aside as rudimentary COM
pared with those which represent present attain
ments in science and these, in their turn, will be
speedily superseded BY others marking the ever
accelerating advance of knowledge.
Many who are now reading this article in con
trasting the text books they studied in their youth,
in Chemistry, Geology, and Astronomy, with those
now in use in the schools see how elementary their
teachings we're even when true, and what mac
curate and imperfect opponents of these ever pro-
gresSive sciences. And still greater number OF
readers can recall to mind the wonderful inven
tons which have revolutionized their modes of
travel. of conducting business, of building and
furnishing the houses in which they live, and which
have added to their convenience and comfort
hundred fold Telegraphy, photography, the ap
plcations of steam, the astonishing changes in
naval architecture. in gunnery in the construction
of Notifications, the great Improvements in the
art which preserves all other arts, especially in the
discovery of the process of eeetIotyping, the mar
velous revelation of the spectrum, the applications
of Chemistry to the arts, the new appliances for
the alienation or the prevention of pain,-these
are some of the things which have made the world
ike different planet within the memory Of many
of the present generation.
And what is more noteworthy still, is the fact
that these inventions and discoveries pave the
way for the introduction of others, far more sur
prising lie premier pas qui cOGte. One discovery
makes q fulcrum on which to rest a new lever
which prizes up mountains of ignorance which
covered richer discoveries hitherto hidden. Inven
tons thus 90 on in sort of ever widening ratio,
aud he would be stupidity incredulous who should
deny that the next half century will, in all
probability give birth to discoveries more aston
ishing aud more influential on the economy of hu-
man life than those of the last fifty years.
Men now finding themselves in an apparently
new world because all the visible surroundings are
so changed, fancy that the race has taken a new
departure, and that its moral development has
kept pace with physical discovery. It's fsvorite
theme especially with modern magazine Mteratlrs
that the old systems of morals and religion, once
useful because adapted to inferior civilization,
have little or no application to the present ad
vaneed development of the race. Hence the war
upon what they call the dogma Hence the sub
Stitution of humanitarianism for ereeds. Hence
the preference for aesthetic religion for the religion
of the bible Hence the assumption now made
even in some of the most popular pulpits of this
country that jatlAioR is superior to the commands
of revelation; that it was in the infancy of the
world when men needed the moral Lalo as a rule
of life; that in the puberty of the race they were
capable of being governed BY principles, but that
now in these days of perfected maturity there is u
higher development--an advance beyond mere
rules or principles-introdueing the reign Of noble
ii,t1ation-the prophetic fash by which men can
now discern right and wrong by their harmony or
diseOrd with their own moral feelings
Hence we find writers ike Mr.. Matthew Ar
mold, arguing that the religion of the Bible has
had its use aud its day. and that now the two
great moral forces which are to control the world
are what he is pleased to call sweetness and
light"
But the great trial Of human nature ordained
and directed by God is going on, just asst has been
in all past generations 1t is a trial which has
tested our nature with the utmost thoroughness
for it has been made on scale Of almost boundess
magnitude. For six thousand years this testing
process has been at work, and one Of the results
has been the demonstration of the truth of all the
humi6ating statements Of the word Of God con-
eerning our fallen race. During all the ages before