primeval form of scepticism. Celsus expounded his theory of reason in religion, when he controverted the positions of Origen touching the truths of Christianity. D'Alembert, during the French reign of terror, as he resisted the assumptions of the Roman See, strove to subject the principles of true religion to the analysis of scientific savans. Voltaire, in a Philosophical (?) Dictionary, explains suo more, every fact of biblical truth on the principles of natural causes and effects. Gibbon, with rare genius and fascinating style, in his fifteenth chapter of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," philosophically delineates the rise and progress of Christianity upon principles wholly accordant with human reasoning. Hume, in his essays on "Miracles" and the "Human Understanding," assumes that nothing should be believed which is above reason or contrary to it, and with a breath brushes away foundation and superstructure of the Christian faith. Paine, in his "Age of Reason," by ribald jests, by obscene allusions, by pompous parade of superficial learning, made the effort to climb to the giddiest height of rationalistic speculation. Parker has developed his theory of truth, which places Mahomet, Luther, Calvin, and Jesus all on the same platform, peers, mighty men, mighty reformers. He teaches that sin is development; that when we sin we advance, hence, the more we sin the less we will have to sin. Emerson and Frothingham, of the same school, prove how much of human there is in inspiration, and how little of divine there is in revelation. Nott and Gliddon and the author of "Ariel," in their speculations on the unity of the race, suggest the tests by which the whole text of God's holy Word may be completely overthrown or utterly emasculated. Strauss writes a "Life of Jesus," and well may the devout disciple of the great Master say, as Mary Magdalen said at the sepulchre, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." Renan, with an affluence of beautiful imagery; with a critical knowledge of the scenery of the Holy Land; with a thorough study of the manners and customs of ancient times, has written another life of the Great Teacher, in which Jesus appears the most wonderful man in a semi-barbaric age, among a people unused to art, or science, or reason, and swayed by rare powers of personal persuasion and the genial influence of a noble presence.

Thus the preachers of rationalism, in every age, by tongue and pen, by poetry and prose, by oratory and rhetoric, have aimed at the same thing, the overthrow of the Christian temple, the demolition of its altars, and the utter destruction of its sacred oracles. Darwin, in his "Origin of Species," opens, too, the door for free speculation

upon man's immortality. Huxley raises questions, in his "Physical Basis of Life," which starts imagination on the wing, and amazes even the ambitious sceptic with the intricacies of "Protoplasm."

Ambitious men! Vaulting souls! How much do ye resemble the artificers of Babel's ancient tower! How certain is it that a similar result will flow from your scientific quests!

3. The work of rationalism.—It professes great jealousy for the harmony of truth. Truth, to the Rationalist, is science, and science is truth. Even preachers of supernaturalism sometimes entertain us with their arguments to prove that the Christian religion is a scientific revelation. Rationalism is a very Proteus, with chameleon capacity for colors. At one time, with Priestley and Channing, it is wild with the excited attempt to disprove not only all dualisms, but all trinities. It sees neither in the mathematical symbols of nature, nor in the explicit teachings of one grand revelation of God to man, three persons in one Creator and Governor, the triune God. It only sees the only God, without an equal divine Son, without an equal Holy Spirit, the sight of whom is only another name for Deism, alike the offspring of purė Judaism. and pure natural religion. In its overweening jealousy for the sacredness of scientific truth, it sees in the Holy Scripture numerous passages which it fails or is incompetent to harmonize with its own dicta. It refuses to believe that there is no harmony in human opinion, and as stoutly denies the harmony of the Word with the character of the one supreme Creator. Learning the most profound and rare, apostolic piety and sanctified genius, have been exhibited by Horne and Stackhouse, Shuckford and Prideaux, Horsley and Owen, Poole and Calmet, Warburton and Kitto, Calmet and Robinson, Conybeare and Howson, cum multis aliis, to prove clearly the beautiful harmony between God's word and God's character. And yet legion is the name of the numbers of the toilers at the labors of rationalism. Spiritualism has essayed its belief in communications from the land of spirits to denizens on this terrestial sphere. Fathers send messages to their sons, sons to their fathers, mothers to daughters, daughters to mothers, philosophers to unskilled day-laborers, orators and statesmen to teachers and preachers. Tables tip and move, unseen hands rap and write, and it is claimed that invisible spirits mark their presence and their messages upon visible matter. Odylic action and reaction, electrical currents, and biological impressions are all strangely confounded with this apparently mysterious delusion. Stranger comminglings of rational and supernatural can nowhere be found in the whole rich domain of history. Rationalism develops itself among the believers in the universal salvation of our race. It fiercely

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argues the injustice of the eternal punishment of immortal souls for sins committed in a finite state. It forgets all considerations touching infinite moral qualities of actions, infinite values, and an infinite atonement, the only remedial scheme promotive of eternal happiness. It exhibits itself in localizing hell on earth, and making natural conscience the only devil. It shows its hostility to revelation in teaching that a means ever, only an age, and that atwvtos does not mean eternal. Pure ritualism is rationalism under another name. trusting the divine declaration that "we walk by faith, not by sight," it sets up the symbol for adoration, and gives undeserved credit to genuflexions, obeisances, surplice, mitre, chants, and intonings. All these may comport with the supernatural, all may be employed by the evangelical, but they all imply the superior importance of sight and sound to faith. Regeneration through water, and salvation through the word alone, set up the letter for the spirit, and substitute reason for faith.

Thus there is overt rationalism, which wages war openly against all that is supernatural in religion, and makes men Deists, Universalists, Socinians, and Atheists. And there is occult rationalism, which weaves its web of scientific speculation into doctrines of the gospel, and addresses itself to human senses in captivating scenic representations under the roofs of consecrated houses devoted to the worship of the one true and living God. It may, therefore, be solemnly declared that at this hour one grand antagonist of spiritual Christianity is rationalism, overt and occult.

4. The rationalistic mode of reasoning.-Leaving out of sight the belief in a superhuman intelligence held by all nations, sceptics object that travellers have found tribes without any idea whatever of God. Thus rationalists strive to prove that the history of the race does not comport with the general history of man. The favorite form of argument with speculative thinkers is the ontological proof. Anselm expresses it in these words: God is “aliquid quo nihil majus cogitari potest. Id quo majus cogitari nequit, non potest esse in intellectu solo. Existit ergo, procu dubio aliquid quo majus cogitari non valet, in intellectu et in re." The sequence of this form of statement is simply this, that God necessarily exists; hence, necessary existence is an essential element in our idea of God. But God declares "I am that I am." No other thought reaches deeper, no other utterance is more authoritative, explicit, or glorious. Seneca states his true character in these remarkable words, "He is a vast and incomprehensible being, great without limits, and he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him." Rationalism appeals both to cosmological and teleological proofs. These the

advocates of spiritual truth have been able successfully to meet with stronger proofs drawn from the same sources, while the moral proof which supernaturalists can urge against rationalists place all scepticism at defiance. In a word, it may be alleged that the rationalistic mode of reasoning asserts that nothing is to be believed which is not capable of logical proof, drawn from irrefragable premises; that nothing is worthy of credence which does not harmonize with the axioms of physics. Such a mode of reasoning leaves no margin except for facts and their logical sequences.

As a counterpoise to man's scepticism, the allwise Creator has ordained that supernatural proof shall be received as evidence both of his existence and his revelation.

When did the Supernatural first reveal itself?

Creation is a supernatural fact. Revelation is a supernatural fact. Jesus of Nazareth is a supernatural fact. Christianity is a supernatural fact. While a "natural event is any link in a chain of dependent causes and effects, is a part of the established order of creation in the sphere to which it belongs, and indicates and expresses the transcendence of the creative power, the supernatural is the transcendent act of God in the realm of matter or of mind. The supernatural first exhibits itself with the very first manifestation of Deity." The supernatural exhibited itself when He took dust of the earth and moulded it after his own similitude and breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. The idea of the supernatural is one natural incident of human life, and consonant with its own common experience. Man naturally looks upward and forward. The composition of the word, in Greek, expresses an existence, and signifies to turn the eyes upward. There seems to be in man an ever during longing to spring out of himself and rise upward. Yet, seeing the higher, and knowing the better, we choose the worse, and follow the lower.

1. The history of the supernatural. — Have miracles always been performed? Are they the requisite seals of the divine commission? Can inspiration or revelation be made manifest without miraculous agency? If miracles are probable, of course they must be possible, for even Huxley declares that to "deny the possibility of miracles seems to me quite as unjustifiable as speculative atheism."

Theodore Parker places all the religions of the world on the basis of the supernatural, or rather declares that the authors of religions presume to do so. "All the great historic forms of religion," says he, "the Brahminic, the Hebrew, the Classic, Buddhistic, Christian,

and Mohammedan, profess to have come miraculously from God, not normally from man, and in spite of the excellence which they contain and the vast service the humblest of them has done, yet each must ere long prove a hindrance to human welfare. Christianity is one form of religion among many." This is the theology of rationalistic pantheism. The positivist does not therefore deny that miracles have had apparent existence and have been supports to excellent systems, but developing his idea of anti-supernaturalistic tendencies, affirms that we have to do only with the real, and that all causes external to matter or transcendental are simple myths, and that the supernatural is unknown and impossible. Dr. Dodge says, in his able treatise on the "Evidences of Christianity," from which some statements are herein derived, that:

Comte's latest speculations only show how impossible it is to set aside the claims of religion. He would ignore the supernatural, but he must have something to worship, and so he idealizes humanity and bows down to the idol of his fancy. But it is humanity realized, humanity assumed, the God-man who alone can answer the cry of the race. The secularism which prevails in England is only positivism applied to the practical duties of life. If it could only be carried out we should have at best a Chinese civilization, void of great hopes or fears or aspirations, and incapable of great sacrifices, and serve to end in the grossest materialism.

2. The false teachers of the supernatural.-Classical literature of the era of Plato and Virgil abounds with the supernatural. The believers in Jupiter, Juno, Venus, Mars, Bacchus, and Mercury, found another Samson in Hercules, and countless miracles at Roman and Grecian altars. The "blind old man of Scio's rocky isle," immortal Homer, presents in the Iliad the whole council of heroic gods and goddesses working miracles. Virgil, no less, in the Eneid, displays their supernatural principles, attracting national awe and wonder. And the relics of the worship of Thor and Woden furnish the testimonials to their divinity in miracles performed. Mahomet supported an imposture of larger proportions than the world has ever witnessed before or since by extraordinary claims of the supernatural. To cover guilt and to support vice divine inspiration was appealed to; to justify adultery and lust, revelation and a divine commission was pleaded. Mormonism, too, claims the supernatural. The descendants of Joseph Smith, and the satellites of Brigham. Young, aver the supernatural character of the revelations of the Book of Mormon.

3. The true teachers of supernaturalism.-Admitting the Bible