t of view we should
call a _special_ divine operation, is not excluded but rather implied
in the physical process by which man has been planted on the earth,
and it is still more evidently implied in the corresponding process
of his spiritual enlightenment. The deeper and more comprehensive
view that we have been led to take as to the dealings of Providence
has not by any means been followed by a depreciation of Christianity.
Rather it appears on a loftier height than ever. The spiritual
movements of recent times have opened men's eyes more and more to
its supreme spiritual excellence. It is no longer possible to
resolve it into a mere 'code of morals.' The Christian ethics grow
organically out of the relations which Christianity assumes between
God and man, and in their fulness are inseparable from those relations.
The author of 'Supernatural Religion' speaks as if they were separable,
as if a man could assume all the Christian graces merely by wishing
to assume them. But he forgets the root of the whole Christian system,
'Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall in
no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.'

The old idea of the _Aufklaerung_ that Christianity was nothing
more than a code of morals, has now long ago been given up, and
the self-complacency which characterised that movement has
for the most part, though not entirely, passed away. The
nineteenth century is not in very many quarters regarded as the
goal of things. And it will hardly now be maintained that
Christianity is adequately represented by any of the many sects
and parties embraced under the name. When we turn from even the
best of these, in its best and highest embodiment, to the picture
that is put before us in the Gospels, how small does it seem! We
feel that they all fall short of their ideal, and that there is a
greater promise and potentiality of perfection in the root than
has ever yet appeared in branch or flower.

No doubt theology follows philosophy. The special conception of
the relation of man to God naturally takes its colour from the
wider conception as to the nature of all knowledge and the
relation of God to the universe. It has been so in every age, and
it must needs be so now. Some readjustment, perhaps a considerable
readjustment, of theological and scientific beliefs may be
necessary. But there is, I think, a strong presumption that the
changes involved in theology will be less radical than often seems
t