d, as the
thought insinuated itself, of the remote possibility of the perception of
the machine-like sweep of universal law removing our belief of the
guardian care of Him to whom alone we can fly for refuge when heart or
flesh faileth, as to a Father as infinite in tenderness as in
condescension, the friend of the friendless:--whoever has known the
bitterness of the thought of a universe unguided by a God of justice, and
without an eternity wherein the cry of an afflicted creation shall no
longer remain unavenged, has known the first taste of the cup of sorrow
which is mournfully drunk by spirits such as we are describing. And who
that has known it would grudge the labour of a life, if by example, by
exhortation, by prayer, he might be the means of rescuing one such soul?

Yet no task is so hard; argument well nigh fails, because the doubts refer
to those very ultimate facts which are usually required as data for
argument. If intellectual means are sought for remedy, it is philosophy to
which we must look to supply it;--the philosophy which recalls man to the
natural realism of the heart, to the simple unsophisticated trust in the
reality of the spiritual intuitions, not as derived from sense only, nor
merely as necessary forms of thought, but as the vision of a personal God
by the human soul.

If however there is any field which requires the presence of moral means,
it is this: and we who believe in a God who careth so much for man that He
spared not His own Son for our sakes, may well look upwards for help in
such instances; in hope that the infinite Father, whose love overlooks not
one single solitary case of sorrowing doubt, will condescend to reveal
himself to all such hearts which are groping after Him, if haply they may
find Him. The soul of such doubters is like the clouded sky: the warming
beams of the Sun of righteousness can alone absorb the mist, and restore
the unclouded brightness of a believing heart.

The instances however are rare, where we meet with a chaos of faith, half
pantheism, half atheism, such as that which we have just described. The
great majority of doubters are persons who not only retain a tenacious
grasp over monotheism, but even possess a love for Christianity. Their
love is however for a modified form of it, different from that which the
apostles taught. They cordially believe that God cares for man, and that
He has spoken to man through His Son. They accept the superhuman, perhaps
t