be seen to exercise an ennobling
influence on mankind. Perhaps what is gained on
these occasions is never entirely lost. The historical
monuments of their effects are at least indestructible;
and, when the spirit which gave them birth reappears,
their dormant energy awakens again.

But it seems from our present experience of what,
in some at least of its modern forms, Christianity has
been capable of becoming, that there is no doctrine in
itself so pure, but what the poorer nature which is in
us can disarm and distort it, and adapt it to its own
littleness. The once living spirit dries up into formulae,
and formula whether of mass-sacrifice or vicarious
righteousness, or "reward and punishment," are
contrived ever so as to escape making over high demands
on men. Some aim at dispensing with obedience
altogether, and those which insist on obedience rest
the obligations of it on the poorest of motives. So
things go on till there is no life left at all; till, from
all higher aspirations we are lowered down to the love
of self after an enlightened manner; and then nothing
remains but to fight the battle over again. The once
beneficial truth has become, as in Job's case, a cruel
and mischievous deception, and the whole question of
life and its obligations must again be opened.

It is now some three centuries since the last of such
reopenings. If we ask ourselves how much during
this time has been actually added to the sum of our
knowledge in these matters, what--in all the thousands
upon thousands of sermons and theologies, and philosophies
with which Europe has been deluged--has been
gained for mankind beyond what we have found in this
very book of Job for instance; how far all this has
advanced us in the "progress of humanity," it were
hard, or rather it is easy to answer. How far we have
fallen below, let Paley and the rest bear witness; but
what moral question can be asked which admits now
of a nobler solution than was offered two, perhaps three
thousand years ago? The world has not been standing
still, experience of man and life has increased, questions
have multiplied on questions, while the answers of the
established teachers to them have been growing every
day more and more incredible. What other answers
have there been? Of all the countless books which
have appeared, there has been only one of enduring
importance, in which an attempt is made to carry on
the solution of the great problem. Job is given over