d the
patience of the Church. It is not peculiar to Calvinism. It is a
problem which has ever risen up before inquiring minds and baffled the
wisdom of the greatest who have grappled with it.

And so, too, most of the specific doubts about and objections to
Christian doctrine have descended to us from remote generations. Modern
philosophy turns out to be only a careful repetition of speculations
which were indulged in by the earliest thinkers. Most of the really
important objections to the Bible were raised by the shrewd and
cultured antagonists whom ancient paganism put forward as its
champions. There can scarcely be a new theory devised, for the human
mind has long since gone over the whole ground with plowshare and rake.
Nothing is more instructive and entertaining to the student of
Christianity than to recognize in ancient times the faces with which he
is familiar in our day, although they may be dressed in different
clothes and speak another tongue. He will hail them as well-known
families, and will return with the conviction that, so far as the
religious doubts and questionings of the human mind are concerned,
there was some truth in the declaration of Solomon, that there is
nothing new under the sun.

I do not mean to say that progress is not being made in religious
thought as well as elsewhere. I think there is. God's truth is being
better understood. God's Word is being read more intelligently. Light
is falling from many a source and on many a fact. Neither do I mean to
say that these old problems should not be considered, if for no other
reason than that men may be reminded that some of them are insoluble by
us, and that what we do know concerning them may be fairly and wisely
stated. But I think it clear that they should not be allowed to burden
us nor to keep us back from the performance of practical duty. For,
mark you how progress has been made even while these dark questionings
remained unsolved. Jesus and the apostles did not attempt to answer
these philosophical questionings which had been and would be raised by
inquiring minds. They gave us certain positive, practical truths, and
told us to test them by actual trial, and obtain the good which they
would be sure to bring. Christianity in later years did not triumph by
confuting the objections raised against it on the part of culture. It
answered many of them indeed, but its triumph came from the practical
religion which it introduced, and from the eff