ATHEISM AND THE CHURCH. 627 



then, should Logic give itself such mighty airs of superiority and forget 

 its equally humble origin ? How does it affect the truthfulness in rela- 

 tion to man, and the trustworthiness, for all practical purposes, of our 

 image-forming faculties, that it is what it is only after long evolution, 

 and that the race had a foetal period as well as the individual? 



The upshot, then, of the whole discussion is surely this : The Abso- 

 lute is confessedly inconceivable by man. All our mental faculties are 

 in the same category : they are all finite, relative, imperfect. But then 

 they are suited to our present development and environment. Faith 

 in them is therefore required, and a bold masculine use of them all. 

 For in nature, as in grace, " God hath not given us the spirit of fear, 

 but of power and of love and of a sound mind." ' If, then, there are 

 questions into which mere analytic reasoning can not enter, if Logic is 

 powerless, for instance, before a musical score, and is struck dumb be- 

 fore the self-devotion of Thermopylae, or the unapproachable self-sacri- 

 fice of Calvary, by what right are we forbidden to employ these other 

 faculties which help us, and whose constructive help brings joy and 

 health and peace to our minds ? The many-colored poetical aspect of 

 things is, assuredly, no less " pure " and far more interesting than the 

 washed-out and colorless zero reached by interminable analysis. The 

 colored sunlight is no less " pure," and it reveals a great deal more of 

 truth, than " the pale moon's watery beams." And so we venture to 

 predict that a constructive Christianity which, TToXvuepog Koi Tro?iVTp6- 

 TTCjg,^ reveals the cosmic force and unity to the millions of men, will ever 

 hold its own against a merely destructive Buddhism, whether ancient 

 or modern ; and, long after pure Logic has said its last word and — with 

 a faint cry, " Something perhaps is " — has evaporated into Nirwana, 

 will continue its thrice-blessed efforts to rear a palace of human thought, 

 will handle with reserve and dignity the best results of all the sciences, 

 and will integrate (with courage and not despair) the infinite contribu- 

 tions of all phenomena into a theology of practical utility to the further 

 evolution of the human race. 



For evolution there has certainly been. And in spite of all that 

 has been said to the contrary,^ the moral atmosphere which has from 

 age to age rendered mental progress possible has been, for the most 

 part, engendered by religion, and, above all, by the confidence, peace, 

 and brotherhood preached by the Christian Church. No doubt i-eligion 

 was cradled amid gross superstitions ; and only by great and perilous 

 transitions has it advanced from the lower to the higher. It was a 

 great step from the fetich and the teraphim to the animal and plant 



» 2 Timothy i. 7. 



' At sundry times and in divers manners. 



3 Draper, "The Conflict between Religion and Science," New York, 1873. This 

 otherwise admirable work is disfigured throughout by a prejudice against religion, as a 

 factor in human progress, which is almost childish. The learned author surely forgets 

 his own words, " No one can spend a large part of his life in teaching science, without 

 partaking of that love of impartiality and truth which philosophy incites " (p. ix.). 



