THE STUDY OF HUMAN NATURE. 331 



tant when the pulpit will be like the voice crying in the wilderness. 

 And it will not be, " Prepare the way of the Lord," either. This work 

 is going to be done. The providence of God is rolling forward a 

 spirit of investigation that Christain ministers must meet and join. 

 There is no class of people upon earth who can less afford to let 

 truth run ahead of them than Christian ministers. You cannot wrap 

 yourselves in professional mystery, for the glory of the Lord is such 

 that it is preached with power throughout all the length and breadth 

 of the world, by these investigators of His wondrous creation. You 

 cannot go back and become an apostle of the dead past, drivelling 

 after ceremonies, and letting the world do the thinking and studying. 

 There must be a new spirit infused into the ministry. Some men are 

 so afraid that, in breaking away from the old systems and original 

 forms and usages, Christianity will get the go-by ! Christianity is too 

 vital, too really divine in its innermost self, to fear any such results. 

 There is no trouble about Christianity. You take care of yourselves 

 and of men, and learn the truth as God shows it to you all the time, 

 and you need not be afraid of Christianity that will take care of it- 

 self. You might as well be afraid that battles would rend the sky, or 

 that something would stop the rising and setting of the sun. The 

 power of Divine love and mercy is not going to be stopped, and will 

 certainly not be stopped, by the things that are true. 



You cannot afford to shut your eyes to the truths of human nature. 

 Every Christian minister is bound to fairly look at these things. 

 Every scientific man who is studying human nature is bound to open 

 his eyes and ears, and to study all its phenomena. I read that Huxley 

 refused to attend a seance of spiritualists. He said, contemptuously, 

 that it was a waste of time, and gave expression to other sentiments 

 of disdain. I am not an adherent of the spiritual doctrines ; I have 

 never seen my way clear to accept them. But phenomena which are 

 wrapping up millions of men, and vitally affecting their condition, are 

 not to be disdained by scientific men, whose business it is to study 

 phenomenology of all kinds. No scientific man can excuse himself 

 from examining them. He may say that he has no time to do it, and 

 that some other man must investigate them. That would be right. 

 All men cannot do all things. But to speak of any thing of this kind 

 with contempt is not wise. I am not afraid to look at .this thing, or 

 any thing. I am not afraid that we are going to have the New Tes- 

 tament taken away from us. We must be more industrious in inves- 

 tigation, more honest in deduction, and more willing to take the truth 

 in its new fulness ; and we must be imbued with that simplicity in 

 faith and truth which we inculcate in our people. 



With this general statement of the necessity of the study of the 

 human nature and mind in its structure and functions, I will pass on 

 to the next point, which is, the way in which this study is to be prose- 

 cuted. How are we going about it ? 



