of the mo

consolations of religion evident.

as yet done to mend their lot or gild their prospect, amid the gigantic risks and ever-enlarging perils among which they earn their bread? Then in the moment of writhing pain and impending dissolution, the result of unprevented accident, or in the long hours of wasting, incurable sickness, the effect of some noxious employment, to what shall they turn their dying eyes for consolation, for support? The need Will the long vista of coming generations born tives and like them to suffer, to struggle, and to die, yet making up the sum of that Humanity,' that "unity of our race," that "course of evolution," that "subjective immortality" which to some among us seems the very God of all their worship-will the consciousness of an unknown, unknowable reality underlying the world of matter or of mind-will the "infinite nature of duty"-will these close their eyes in peace? or will they not rather, feeling themselves but denizens of a world that passes, yet heirs of an immortal, immaterial spirit, turn with all their hearts towards a Faith which alone explains the present and guarantees the future; which alone lends strength now and gives assurance and peace for ever; which teaches, that

1 See Strauss, Der Alte und der Neue Glaube, p. 372 ff.; and Mr. Winwood Reade, Martyrdom of Man, pp. 535-7. I quote but one passage: "We teach that the soul is immortal; we teach that there is a future life; we teach that there is a heaven in the ages far away; but not for us single corpuscles, and for us dots of animated jelly; but for the One of whom we are the elements, and who, though we perish, never dies."

though the dust returns to the earth as it was, yet there is hope in man's latter end? For the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it, yea, and Who hath redeemed it from sin unto Himself. For "if in this life only we have hope, what advantageth it ?" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and He is become the first-fruits of them that sleep."

LECTURE IV.

OBJECTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED.

"C'est mal raisonner contre la religion de rassembler dans un grand ouvrage une longue énumération des maux qu'elle a produits, si l'on ne fait de même celle des biens qu'elle a faits."-MONTESQUIEU, Esprit des Lois, xxiv., ii.