364 " WE ARE NO LONGER CHRISTIANS." 



scientific propositions of the most extraordinary character 

 were literally true. Teacher has vied with teacher in the 

 extravagance of his statements until, at last, we are assured 

 that history is not to be believed, that historical inquiry is a 

 waste of time, that the past ought not to be respected, that 

 prayer is a useless formality, that religious worship is 

 fanatical, that Christianity is a delusion, that there is no 

 God, no heaven, no future state. 



But it is simply puerile to consider that such notions as 

 these are to be justified by facts of science. Strauss has 

 been misled as regards the facts he makes use of, and the 

 interpretation of the facts upon which he believes his con- 

 clusions securely rest. There is abundant evidence of bias 

 in his own book, and I believe that any jury of intelligent 

 persons would convict him, in several instances, of adhering 

 with unreasonable tenacity to views which, according to the 

 terms laid down by himself, he was bound to examine with 

 philosophic indifference ; and of adducing arguments against 

 tenets to which he happened to be hostile, that were clearly 

 not of the importance assumed, that were likely to mislead, 

 and could only have been adduced for the purpose of in- 

 fluencing persons who were perfectly ignorant of science and 

 almost destitute of sense. 



"If we would speak as honest upright men, we must 

 acknowledge we are no longer Christians" is the mournful 

 confession a man of letters feels bound to make in old age, 

 after having spent a long life in fighting on and on for that 

 which, he says, appeared to him as truth. But not everyone 

 who believes in modern physical science, has seen the neces- 

 sity of giving up his belief in God and surely some of 

 these may be as honest and upright as those who have 



