Year: 1878

am inclined to think there is ground for
saying that the belief in the great funda-
mental doctrines of the gospel has been i'm
paired in some degree. | fear that when we
speak of total depravity and eternal punish
ment, there are Christians even who listen
with disrelish, if not with actual incredulity.
But this is not because such doctrines rest
on any less solid basis of proof than formerly,
or because any satisfactory substitutes have
been offered. Religious men are human,
like other men and the church, so long as
it mngles with the world, will take on some
thing of the complexion of the age in which
it exists. Our own age is notably one of
skepticsm. The current speculations in
science and philosophy are peculiarly fasci-
mating. And that large class of persons in
the church who are uneasy under the pres
sure of religious obligations find a sensible
relief in doubts which give refuge to the
conscience while they do not compel an
utter surrender of Christian hope. Some
people seem actually to imagine that they
can Gull out of Christ's teachings Just so
much as pleases them, and discard the rest.
They do not appreciate the fact that this
compact aud logical system of truth is like a
structure of mortised stones, which must
either stand in its entirety or fall altogether
in a mass. They believe in the gospel and
in the Christ of the gospel, but they are not
so sure about this or that particular doctrine.
They are a little uncertain about the wisdom
of creeds. They think it is not best to push
matters of faith too far. A sort of dreamy
apprehension of the benefits of religion takes
the place of firm intellectual grasp, and a
strong spiritual appreciation of the clearly
defined aud positive enunciations Of Gods
word. False teachers are run after-not so
much those who boldly reject and denounce
the gospel, as those, still more dangerous,
who hold on to Just enough of the truth to
make their errors specially insidious and
hurtful. Our children are permitted to


listen to men whose instructions are at
variance with those which we nominally
uphold in the pulpit. And the inevitable
result is, that without openly breaking with
evangelical religion, the Christian begins
unconsciously TO suffer the films of error TO
be drawn over his eyes, and the fibres of his
spiritual nature to be relaxed. If there is
danger in all this to the present generation,
what are we to expect in the generation to
Gomez How will our young men and women
turn out, who are now allowed by parental
negligence, or induced by parental example,
to tamper with sound doctrine, and to play
with the toys which error puts into the hand
as "A preparation for the weapons it means to
put there by-and-by2 The question is one
of living and tremendous interest For un-
questionably, if We are dislodged from the
TRUTH we are in some respects worse off than


if we had never held it. Our DIRE, d here,
wish again to say is not IA dread that the
gospel will be overturned. Science has as
yet established nothing, absolutely nothing,
to compel us to reject or even question a
single great truth of Scripture. 1t is just
because we believe in the whole substance
of our religion that we tremble for those
who are loosening their grasp upon it, And
while believe that the main bulk of the
teaching in our churches to-day is sound, |
think the time has come for the inquiry
whether we are not yielding too much to
timidity, and failing to give sufficient prom
inence to those great doctrines which pierce
to the depths OF the soul, and make the con
science alive with the sense of an awful re-
sponsibility to God.-Dr. T. Rdison Smith.