y are concerned, every man is a believer in
Christianity. He believes it exists. He believes it has existed, has had
such and such a history, has produced such and such results. 'Christian'
and 'infidel' alike, to be reasonable, to have any ground for reasonable
discussion, go thus far together.

_They may differ in their explanations of the facts._ That is the only
ground of difference. There is the point of separation. It is perfectly
logical too. _Prima facie_, we have no complaint to make that they do
differ. And here lies the improvement in the modern type of
'unbeliever.' He does not take the line of his older brethren, and
rudely assail Christianity as a mere imposture with Voltaire and Paine.
That sort of work has had its day. He, on the other hand, freely admits
its beneficent achievements. He has grown reasonable. He accepts
Christianity, as the believer does, as a fruitful, beneficent, and
conquering fact. He only holds that its existence and its achievements
may be accounted for in a far more satisfactory way than we 'believers'
have discovered.

Now all this is comprehensible, and it is really, now, the ground of
difference between those who believe in Christianity as divine, and
those who hold it to be merely human. It is a clear and simple issue.
Christianity accounts for itself and its work on a certain plain,
straightforward, and consistent theory. It holds that theory to be
reasonable, complete, ample, for all the facts. A number of people join
issue just here with Christianity. They admit its facts, but they deny
its manner of explaining them. They claim to put forward other methods
of explanation, which shall be more reasonable, more natural, and, at
the same time, just as ample for the facts. We have had a number of
these philosophers, with their theories, and they have had various
fortunes. On the whole, the Christian world has gone on about as usual,
accepting the old explanation, adopting the old theory, a hundred to
one, and has dropped the new theories one after another, after more or
less investigation, into profound oblivion.

Now we are free to admit the old theory has its difficulties. There are
'things in it hard to be understood.' There are mysteries and wonders
which it does not attempt to explain. There are 'hard sayings' which it
leaves hard. And the new theories always claim to have no difficulties.
They blame the old one bitterly because it tolerates them. They
themselves claim to