584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The questions which we ull understand to be theological are such 

 as these : Is there a reward for virtue ? Is there a compensation for 

 undeserved misery? Is there a sure retribution for crime? Is there 

 hope that the vicious man may become virtuous ? Are there means 

 by which the pressure upon the conscience produced by wrong-doing 

 may be removed? Are there means by which the mind disposed to 

 virtue may defend itself from temptation ? In one word, is life worth 

 having, and the universe a habitable place for one in whom the sense 

 of duty has been awakened ? These questions are answered in difter- 

 ent ways by different men. But they are answered in some way by 

 all men, even by those who consider themselves to have no theology 

 at all. Christianity is the system which answers them in the most 

 encoul-aging way. It says that virtue in the long-run will be happy 

 partly in this life, but much more in a life beyond the grave. It says 

 that misery is jjartly the punishment of crime, partly the probation of 

 virtue ; but in the inexhaustible future which belongs to each individual 

 man there are equivalents and over-payments for all that part of it 

 whicli is undeserved. It says that virtue, when tried, may count upon 

 help, secret refreshings that come in answer to prayer friends provi- 

 dentially sent, perhaps guardian angels. It says that souls entangled 

 in wrong-doing may raise themselves out of it by a mystic union with 

 Christ, and burdened consciences be lightened by sharing in the infi- 

 nite merit of his self-sacrifice. If you ask on what so happy and in- 

 spiring a belief rests, the evidence produced is in part supernatural. 



This is not only a theology but a faith, the most glorious of all 

 faiths. But those who do not heartily share it, or who consciously 

 reject it, yet give some answer to these questions. They have a the- 

 ology as much as Christians ; they must even have a faith of some 

 sort, otherwise they would renounce human life. It may be stated, 

 perhaps, much as follows : 



" We have not much reason to believe in any future state. We 

 are content to look at human life as it lies visibly before us. Survey- 

 ing it so, we find that it is indeed very different from what we could 

 wish it to be. It is full of failures and miseries. Multitudes die with- 

 out knowing any thing that can be called happiness, while almost all 

 know too well what is meant by misery. The pains that men endure 

 are frightfully intense, their enjoyments for the most part moderate. 

 They are seldom aware of happiness while it is present, so very deli- 

 cate a thing is it. When it is past they recognize it, or perhaps fancy 

 it. If we could measure all the happiness there is in the world, we 

 should perhaps be rather pained than gladdened by discovering the 

 amount of it ; if we could measure all the misery we should be ap- 

 palled beyond description. When from happiness we pass to the 

 moral ideal, again we find the world disappointing. It is not a sacred 

 place any more than it is a happy place. Vice and crime very fre- 

 quently prosper in it. Some of the worst of men are objects of enthu- 



