Year: 1878

} precisely the case with the masses i
5 Europe and in our own country to day
3 They turn with less confidence to tn
clergy and to the Bible and to the Churc
3 than they did before. And between tn
divisions of Romanists and Protestant
and between the Orthodox and the Lii


erals the Church speaks with less assul
) ance of authority and with less com
manding influence to-day than it did on
hundred or three hundred years ago
What do philosophers and scientists ano
the great world care today for the de
bates of the clergy or the decisions o
councils or, many of them, even for tn


Bible itself? Very little, indeed. Ant


we may as we'll confess that even in tn


Church there is great unrest and uncer


tainty of opinion, and not little infdel


ity.


And still again, as if all this were no


enough to come upon the cause of trutl


and right in the world, there has been il


our times an unusual and most painful


declension in public morality and virtue


and this, too, at points most vital to tn,


cause of religion and good government


The corruption of political parties anc


public men, their manifest love of sci


and money and position more than o


justice and country; and the scandals


and suspicious that have come upon the


clergy and men protesting the name O.


Christ, all coming at the time of so much


doubt and uncertainty about religion


and so much restrictiveness under the


restraints of government, have tended


greatly to confirm the doubts, and to in


crease the disposition to break away


from the authority of both religion and


law. If l have been anywhere near cor


rect in judging of the causes at work and


of the tendencies of the age we might


expect to see the fruits of this great SOW


ing of evil seed already appearing. And


in this we shall not be disappointed.


In the field of religion we see the fruit


of these things in the general indifference


and neglect in reference to sacred things.


In most of the countries of the Old


World religion is, indeed, a very poor
and formal thing Look at Russia, look
at France, and Spain, and Italy In
Protestant Germany there is form of
state religion; but the masses are utterly
infdel to almost everything that we re-
gard as piety. In England it is not much


better. In London alone there are, l
suppose, two millions of people that
never enter church. Not one half of
the people of Chicago or of New York,
or of our entire country even attend
any public worship. Doubtless, not all
this is to be set down to a weakening of
old beliefs. Many stay away or 60 else
where from love of sinful pleasure, or
from indifference or neglect, or from a
want of interest in the form of service
and yet very much of it is owing to un-
belief in the Church or in religion.


But another and more striking result
is seen in the tendency not alone to a
passive Indifference, but to an open and
active opposition to religion, positive
avowal of unbelief, and an organized an
tagonism to the Bible and the Church
and the whole system of religious truth
and worship. This spirit of antagonism
finds open expression in the various
forms of Secularism, Socialism, Commun-
ism, and Nihilism in England, France,
Germany, and Russia and in our own
country. The intensity and violence Of
this radicalism vary with time and place
and leader; but through all there runs
the one animus of dissatisfaction with
the present order of things in both state
and Church. These views find their
most popular expression in our country
in Colonel Ingersoll's opposition to the
Bible and religion in general; and in
England through Mr.. Bradlaugh, Mrs.
Besant, and other popular and powerful
lecturers. They find wider dissemina-
ton through tracts and books and papers
of that type that are scattered broadcast,
and find their way into field and shop
and home. In Germany l am told that
the Communists have over the gateway
to their cemetery the words that there is
no future. Thousands attended the
burial of a comrade the other day, and
gave expressions to public rejoicings over
that sentiment In Russia the still more
violent Nihilists look to nothing less
than the utter destruction of the present
order of society, both in Church and
state.


The tendencies of the age, l think,
then, are nothing less than to a conflict
of thought and ideas and principles the
most radical and far-reaching in their
consequences that the world has ever
known. In thought and principle the
conflict is both philosophical and reli
gious. In action the conflict is to be
over the possibility of society to exist
without religious faith. Mr.. Ingersolps
doctrine is simply atheism and material
ism. No God; no soul; no future life.
The same is true of Mr.. Bradlaugh.
And in its last analysis, the same is true
of the whole materialistic philosophy.
The battlefield of thought is to be on
this ground. And, compared with the
mighty sweep of this controversy, our
little debates over the mode of baptism,
or the meaning of aion, or the differences
even between Romanism and Protestant
ism will appear as nothing. Jew and
Christian, orthodox and liberal can we'll
afford to become friends in this great ar
gument, involving as it does in human
thought nothing less than the very eX-
istence of all soul life and Of living God.


This form of belief, as we have seen, is
already taking strong hold on the COM
mon mind in Europe and here at home.
With men like Colonel Ingersoll or Her
bert Spencer these ideas may be safe
enough, perhaps, so far as society is con-
cerned But the question we have to
meet-not in debate. but in action-is
whether society can exist without the
idea of God, or of any fixed principles of
right or wrong, or any belief in future
life having place in the public mind.
If there be no God, there is no final ac
countability. If there be no. eternal
principles of right-nothing but the sense
of utilty-then this sense may vary with
each man, and the only question is one
of the greatest happiness. If we can gain
more by stealing or murder, then steal
and murder. There is no question of
right aside from pleasure or pam. Ii
there is no future, there is nothing be-
yond this world for which to live. Live
for the present only. If there be no
such thing as right and accountability
to God, it is only mere sentiment that
leads US to care for the aged and the
poor There is no reason why we should
not kill them off, as we do old horses.
If ms is only an animal, has no soul,
nothino that relates him to God and the
future, there is 10 argument to be brought
q nninst The NihiliStS of Rnssia Or the