230 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



Here Materialism enters into the strangest opposition to 

 Christianity it is possible to conceive. This is what 

 Haeckel says : " Monism enters into its strongest opposi- 

 tion to Christianity on the question of beauty. Primitive 

 Christianity preached the vvorthlessness of earthly life, 

 regarding it merely as a preparation for an eternal life 

 beyond. Hence it immediately followed that all we 

 find in the life of man here below, all that is beautiful in 

 art and science, in public and private life is of no real 

 value. The true Christian must avert his eyes from 

 them ; he must think only of a worthy preparation for the 

 life beyond. Contempt of Nature, aversion from all its 

 inexhaustible charms, rejection of every kind of fine art, 

 are Christian duties."^ 



Could anything be more grotesque ? What do all the 

 art galleries of England and the Christian world mean ? 



Haeckel has an eloquent passage upon the lovely 

 forms of life discovered during the nineteenth century ; 

 but says : " This progress of modern times in knowledge 

 of the true and enjoyment of the beautiful expresses, on 

 the one hand, a valuable element of our Monistic religion 

 [?] but is, on the other, in fatal opposition to Christianity." ^ 



Every reader will perceive what a travesty this is of 

 true Christianity. Whence Haeckel derived this absurd 

 idea, I know not. Christianity not only prepares man 

 for the next world, but ennobles his life on earth. A 

 true Christian enjoys his life in company with his Maker ; 

 for he reads " sermons in stones and good in everything ". 

 Not a flower or an insect, nor the lilies of the field and 

 the fowls of the air, but tell him of his Creator as well as 

 remind him of Christ. 



The very fact that he can enjoy life, as well as all 



> The Riddle of the Universe, p. 347. ^Op. cit., p. 352. 



