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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



They understand that all stereotyped faiths 

 and fixed creeds are doomed to be left be- 

 hind, while the spirit that animated them 

 must assume new forms under a widened 

 and advancing religious experience. It is 

 certainly a most remarkable result that out 

 of the Scottish Church, in 1880, should come 

 this weighty proclamation to the religious 

 world, that the great law of continuity and 

 evolution, as unfolded and established by 

 modern science, is to become a foundation 

 and bulwark of religious faith in the fu- 

 ture. " He that hath ears to hear, let him 

 hear." 



We should be glad to reprint half these 

 sermons in the " Monthly," but, as this is 

 impossible, we give a few passages illustra- 

 tive of the standpoint of the book. The 

 Very Rev. John Caird, Principal of the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, has the first discourse, 

 on " Corporate Immortality," which is an 

 able plea for interest in " The things of 

 this life " as opposed to the overshadowing 

 claims of another world. He says : 



It needs little reflection to perceive that the 

 whole order of things in which we live is con- 

 stracted not on the principle that we are sent 

 into this world merely to prepare for another, 

 or that the paramount aim and etfort of every 

 man should be to make ready for death and an 

 unknown existence beyond the grave. On the 

 contrary, in our own nature and iu the system 

 of things to which we belong, everything seems 

 to be devised on the principle that our interest 

 in the world and human affairs is not to termi- 

 nate at death. It is not, as false moralists would 

 have us believe, a mere illusion, a proof only of 

 the folly and vanity of man that we do not and 

 can not feel and act as if we were to have no 

 concern with this world the moment we quit it. 

 It is not a mere irrational impulse that moves us, 

 when, in the acquisition of knowledge, In the 

 labors of the statesman and legislator, in the 

 bouses we build, the trees we plant, the books 

 we write, the works of art we create, the schemes 

 of social amelioration m'c devise, the educational 

 institutions we organize and improve, we act 

 otherwise than we should do if our interest in 

 all earthly affairs were in a few brief years to 

 come to an end. It is not due to a universal 

 mistake that we work for a thousand endi*, the 

 accomplishment of which we shall not live to 

 see ; that the passions we feel are more intense, 

 the efforts we put forth immeasurably greater, 

 than if we were soon and for ever to have done 

 withit all. Even the desire of posthumous fame, 

 which has been the theme of a thousand sar- 

 casms and satirical moralizing?, the passion 

 that impels us to do deeds and create works 

 which men will be thinking of and honoring 

 when we are gone, does not rest on a mere trick 



of false association, which your clever psychclo- 

 gist can explain so deftly, but is the silent, in- 

 eradicable testimony of our nature to the share 

 we have in the undying life of humanity. 



Does any one press on me the thought that, 

 say what you will of the future, death to each of 

 us is near, and no ulterior hope can quell the 

 nearer anxiety as to what is to become of us, 

 and how we are to prepare for that fast-ap- 

 proaching, inevitable hour ? Then, I answer 

 finally that, to whatever world death introduce 

 you, the best conceivable preparation for it is to 

 labor for the highest good of the world in which 

 you live. Be the change which death brings 

 what it may, he who has spent his life in trying 

 to make this world better can never be unpre- 

 pared for another. If heaven is for the pure and 

 holy,if that which makes men good isthatwhich 

 best qualifies for heaven, what better discipline 

 in goodness can we conceive for a human spirit, 

 what more calculated to elicit and develop its 

 highest affections and energies, than to live and 

 labor for our brother's welfare? To find our 

 deepest joy, not in the delights of sense, nor in 

 the gratification of personal ambition, nor even 

 in the serene pursuits of culture and science, 

 nay, not even in seeking the safety of our own 

 souls, but in striving for the highest good of 

 those who are dear to our Father in heaven, and 

 the moral and spiritual redemption of that world 

 for which the Sou of God lived and died say, 

 can a nobler school of goodness be discovered 

 than this ? Where shall love and sympathy and 

 beneficence find ampler training, or patience, 

 i courage, dauntless devotion, nobler opportuni- 

 I ties of exercise than in the war with evil ? 



I The Rev. Dr. Ferguson, of Strathblane, 

 has a powerful discourse on " Law and Mir- 

 acle," in which he says : 



Christianity, then, is no rigid system of dog- 

 ma, or of ecclesiastical forms elaborated long 

 ago and incapable of growth or change. It is 

 rather a living organism, drawing nourishment 

 to itself from every side, and affected by the life- 

 pulsations of every age. Look, for instance, 

 what a vast difference between Christianity in 

 the first and in the nineteenth century ! Then 

 it was struggling for existence between Judaism 

 on the one hand and paganism on the other; 

 now it has conquered its position, and extorts 

 recognititm at least from its bitterest opponents. 

 It has revolutionized the whole structure of so- 

 ciety, and formed manners and customs and 

 habits of thought. 



Of the effects produced by this habit of sift- 

 ing and winnowing which goes on in history, 

 we have a good example in the doctiine of mir- 

 acle. In our own day that doctrine does not oc- 

 cupy the prominent position it formerly had. It 

 has fallen into the background, and lost its apol- 

 ogetic value ; but, at the same time, its actual 

 relations to the circle of Christian truth have 

 been made clear. In the course of last century, 

 on the contrai-y, the sharpest attacks which 

 Christianity had to sustain were directed against 



