

ECCLESIASTICAL RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 825 



tions, supposing the evolution which has thus far gone on is 

 not reversed ? Each of the two functions above described, 

 may be expected to continue under a changed form. 



Though with the transition from dogmatic theism to 

 agnosticism, all observances implying the thought of pro 

 pitiation may be expected to lapse ; yet it does not follow 

 that there will lapse all observances tending to keep alive 

 a consciousness of the relation in which we stand to the 

 Unknown Cause, and tending to give expression to the senti 

 ment accompanying that consciousness. There will remain 

 a need for qualifying that too prosaic and material form of 

 life which tends to result from absorption in daily work, 

 and there will ever be a s] here for those who are able to 

 impress their hearers with a due sense of the Mystery in 

 which the origin and meaning of the Universe are shrouded. 

 It may be anticipated, too, that musical expression to the 

 sentiment accompanying this sense will not only survive but 

 undergo further development. Already protestant cathedral 

 music, more impersonal than any other, serves not unfitly to 

 express feelings suggested by the thought of a transitory 

 life, alike of the individual and of the race a life which 13 

 but an infinitesimal product of a Power without any bounds 

 we can find or imagine ; and hereafter such music may still 

 better express these feelings. 



At the same time, that insistence on duty which has 

 formed an increasing element in religious ministration, may 

 be expected to assume a marked predominance and a wider 

 range. The conduct of life, parts of which are already the 

 subject-matters of sermons, may hereafter probably be taken 

 as subject-matter throughout its entire range. The ideas of 

 right and wrong, now regarded as applying only to actions 

 of certain kinds, will be regarded as having applications 

 coextensive with actions of every kind. All matters con 

 cerning individual and social welfare will come to be dealt 

 with ; and a chief function of one who stands in the place 

 of a minister, will be not so much that of emphasizing 



