how can I believe in any clergyman who opens his mouth?" Even if there be a family likeness between us and what St. Francis of Assisi used to call "my brother the ass," we clergymen will be believed, if we deserve the reputation of saying only what we hold to be true, and of not professing to believe what in our secret minds seems false. My object was to show that sceptics who ridicule this or that narrative in the Old Testament do not prove the Christian religion false, that their assaults are aimed at interpretations and theories which have not been held by some of the best Christians, and are not required by the Church of England. The work now introduced may be unsystematic, illogical, or even contradictory in parts; but is not this to be expected in every theological treatise? In what used to be called the "Queen of Sciences" we only throw finite, very finite thoughts at the infinite, and often two statements may be equally true though they seem to us to contradict each other, and we know not how to reconcile them. The short and simple method is to shut our eyes to one of the statements. Then there is no contradiction, but then our eye is not single and our whole body is not full of light. We warn professional theologians not to waste their time and eyesight reading the following pages. There is nothing in them they do not know, and they will think that they could have said it all much better themselves. One cannot write anything new even if it be false, on such a well-worn theme as doubt and faith; but I shall be thankful if old thoughts are put in a way that will lead even one young man to consider the things that make for peace in this his day—in the sunny day of his youth. When a certain session of the Church of Scotland. began with great expectations, an old minister, in his opening prayer, asked the Almighty so to guide "this great gathering that it may do no harm.” Considering the history of Mansel's Bampton Lectures and the depressing, disheartening nature of much of our apologetic literature, concerning which R. H. Hutton says ("Theological Essays," p. 168), "If I wished to doubt the possibility of Revelation, I should take a course of reading in defence of it"-considering this, the writer of the present humble contribution earnestly prays that if it is not privileged to do good God would at least prevent it from doing harm. When a clergyman speaks or writes in defence of the faith, at least fifty per cent. of credit is deducted for professional advice. After all, it is thought, he is only fighting for his bread-and-butter. To disarm this prejudice may I say that my bread and a scraping of butter is safe, and that I fear and hope for nothing. Nor can it be said that I do not understand doubt. Alas! it would be truer to say that I have only sometimes believed than that I have never doubted. This being so, there will not be found in my book the patronising cocksureness of conscious orthodoxy, but rather the spirit of a comrade who says, "We are in an awkward place; let us see how we can get out of it." The unbelief of our day and that of Bishop Butler's-A reaction- The very Genius of free-thinking-Faith and reason-The heart has its reasons-Doubt, one of our trials-Meaning of Sceptic"-Scavengers to the household of faith-" Atheists -Wanted! a vigorous, watchful enemy-Doubt a two-edged sword-The homopathic treatment of scepticism-A reductio · ad absurdum of doubt-Dean Swift on doubt-What a strong dose of doubt teaches-The art of doubting well-Easiness of negative sceptical conversation-Advice to parents and teachers-Caricatures of Christianity-Fear of being thought credulous-"Oh, infidel, great is thy faith!"-Sinful doubts -Is number finite or infinite ?--Diderot and Butler on |