ypothesis,--Christianity just as much as the rest."

This, I replied, is no answer to me nor to you, if you have a
particle of candor; still less is it one to the Christian, who
consistently applies the same principle of absolute faith to things
apparently a priori incredible, whether found in the works or in the
word of God. But if you think the argument of any force, apply it to
the next Christian you meet, and see what answer he will make to you;
it will not trouble him. But it is far more ridiculous addressed to me.
I ask for something in the place of that Bible of which the faithful
application of your own principles deprives me; and when I affirm that
the difficulties of the universe are no less than those of the Bible I
have surrendered, you tell me that the perplexities of my new position
are no greater than those of the old! That clearly will not do. I must
go further. If I am to yield to pretensions of any kind, I would
infinitely prefer the yoke of the Bible to that of Messrs. Parker and
Newman; for it is to nothing else than their dogmatism I must yield,
if I admit that the difficulties which compel me to doubt in the one
case are less than those which compel me to doubt in the other.

But it is not even true that the difficulties in question are left
where they were by the adoption of any such theory as that of either
Mr. Parker or Mr. Newman. I contend that they are all indefinitely
increased. The Bible does at least give me a plausible account of
some of the mysteries which baffle me: it tells me that man was created
holy and happy; that he has fallen from his "excellent estate"; and
hence the misery, ignorance, and guilt in which he is involved, and
which have rendered revelation necessary.

But--and it brings me to the last step of my argument--if I accept
the theory of the universe propounded by these writers, not only am
I left without any such approximate solutions, or, if that be thought
too strong a term, without any such alleviations, but all the
difficulties as regards the character, attributes, and administration
of God, are increased a thousand-fold. The Scripture account of the
"fall,"--however inexplicable it may be that God should have permitted
it,--yet does expressly assert that, somehow or other, it is man's
fault, not God's; that man is not in his normal condition, nor in the
condition for which he was created. Dark as are the clouds which
envelop the Divine Ruler, "their skirts are ti