measure the value of a man who could prolong the conscious
sense of the deadly nature of it, even under the forms of a
decomposing theology. Times are changing. The intellectual current is
bearing us we know not where, and the course of the stream is in a
direction which leads us far from the conclusions in which Bunyan and
the Puritans established themselves; but the truths which are most
essential for us to know cannot be discerned by speculative arguments.
Chemistry cannot tell us why some food is wholesome and other food is
poisonous. That food is best for us which best nourishes the body into
health and strength; and a belief in a Supernatural Power which has
given us a law to live by and to which we are responsible for our
conduct, has alone, of all the influences known to us, succeeded in
ennobling and elevating the character of man. The particular theories
which men have formed about it have often been wild and extravagant.
Imagination, agitated by fear or stimulated by pious enthusiasm, has
peopled heaven with demigods and saints--creations of fancy, human
forms projected upon a mist and magnified into celestial images. How
much is true of all that men have believed in past times and have now
ceased to believe, how much has been a too eager dream, no one now can
tell. It may be that other foundations may be laid hereafter for human
conduct on which an edifice can be raised no less fair and beautiful;
but no signs of it are as yet apparent.

So far as we yet know, morality rests upon a sense of obligation; and
obligation has no meaning except as implying a Divine command, without
which it would cease to be. Until 'duty' can be presented to us in a
shape which will compel our recognition of it with equal or superior
force, the passing away of 'the conviction of sin' can operate only to
obscure our aspirations after a high ideal of life and character. The
scientific theory may be correct, and it is possible that we may be
standing on the verge of the most momentous intellectual revolution
which has been experienced in the history of our race. It may be so,
and also it may not be so. It may be that the most important factors
in the scientific equation are beyond the reach of human intellect.
However it be, the meat which gives strength to the man is poison to
the child; and as yet we are still children, and are likely to remain
children. 'Every relief from outward restraint,' says one who was not
given to supersti