reat truths of evangelicalism, are very
different things. It is dangerous to deny any "great truth," but how
many does evangelicalism possess? Mr. Watkinson would say "many." We
should say "none." Still less, if that were possible, should we assent
to his statement that "morals in all spheres and manifestations must
suffer deeply by the prevalence of scepticism." Mr. Morison, asserts and
proves that this sceptical age is the most moral the world has seen, and
that as we go back into the Ages of Faith, vice and crime grow denser
and darker.

If the appeal is to history, of which Mr. Watkinson's references do not
betray a profound knowledge, the verdict will be dead against him.

Mr. Justice Stephen thinks morality can look after itself, but he doubts
whether "Christian charity" will survive "Christian theology." This
furnishes Mr. Watkinson with a sufficient theme for an impressive
sermon. But his notion of "Christian charity" and Mr. Justice Stephen's
are very different. The hard-headed judge means the sentimentalism and
"pathetic exaggerations" of the Sermon on the Mount, which he has since
distinctly said would destroy society if they were fully practised.
"Morality," says Mr. Watkinson, "would suffer on the mystical side."
Perhaps so. It might be no longer possible for a Louis the Fifteenth to
ask God's blessing when he went to debauch a young girl in the _Parc
aux Cerfs_, or for a grave philosopher like Mr. Tylor to write in his
_Anthropology_ that "in Europe brigands are notoriously church-goers."
Yet morality might gain as much on the practical side as it lost on the
mystical, and we fancy mankind would profit by the change.

Now for Mr. Watkinson's history, which he prints in small capitals,
probably to show it is the real, unadulterated article. He tell us that
"the experiment of a nation living practically a purely secular life has
been tried more than once" with disastrous results. He is, however, very
careful not to mention these nations, and we defy him to do so. What he
does is this. He rushes off to Pompeii, whose inhabitants he thinks were
Secularists! He also reminds us in a casual way that "they had crucified
Christ a few years before," which again is news. Equally accurate is the
statement that Pompeii was an "infamous" city, "full" of drunkenness,
cruelty, etc. Probably Mr. Watkinson, like most good Christians who go
to Pompeii, visited an establishment, such as we have thousands of
in Christendom,