240 AGNOSTICISM YII 



" agnostic " and " agnosticism " ; and it will be ob- 

 served that it does not quite agree with the confi- 

 dent assertion of the reverend Principal of King's 

 College, that " the adoption of the term agnostic is 

 only an attempt to shift the issue, and that it in- 

 volves a mere evasion " in relation to the Church 

 and Christianity. 1 



The last objection (I rejoice as much as my 

 readers must do, that it is the last) which I have 

 to take to Dr. Wace's deliverance before the Church 

 Congress arises, I am sorry to say, on a question of 

 morality. 



" It is, and it ought to be/' authoritatively de- 

 clares this official representative of Christian 

 ethics, " an unpleasant thing for a man to have 

 to say plainly that he does not believe in Jesus 

 Christ" (l.c.p. 254). 



Whether it is so depends, I imagine, a good deal 

 on whether the man was brought up in a Christian 

 household or not. I do not see why it should be 

 " unpleasant " for a Mahommedan or Buddhist to 

 say so. But that " it ought to be " unpleasant for 

 any man to say anything which he sincerely, and 

 after due deliberation, believes, is, to rny mind, a 

 proposition of the most profoundly immoral 

 character. I verily believe that the great good 

 which has been effected in the world by Christian- 

 ity has been largely counteracted by the pestilent 

 1 Report of the Church Congress, Manchester, 1888, p. 252. 



