12 



And they have driven love out of their creeds ; 



That they vpere sent to teach men not to lie. 



Nor tremble when their duty led to death. 



O, for the Christ again ! 



Already Christ is coming. Hear ye not the 



Footfalls of the Lord? 



He comes the spirit of a riper Age 



When all that is not good or true shall die, — 



When all that's bad iu custom, false in creed 



And all that makes the boor and mars the man 



Shall pass away forever. Yes he comes! 



To give the world a passion for the truth, 



To inspire us with a holy human love. 



To make us sure that, ere a man can be 



A saint, he first must be a man. 



It was Mr. Buckle who first drew a startling contrast between our intel- 

 lectual progress and our stationary morals ! He asserted that moral motives 

 had exerted an extremely small influence over the progress of civilization, 

 "For,-' he says, "there is unquestionably nothing to be found in the world 

 which has undergone so little change as those great dogmas of which moral 

 systems are composed. To do good to others ; to sacrifice for their benefit 

 your own wishes ; to love your neighbor as yourself ; to forgive your enemies ; 

 to restrain your passions ; * * * these and a few others are the sole essen- 

 tials of morals; but they have been known for thousands of years; and not 

 one jot or title has been added to them by all the sermons, homilies, and text 

 books which moralists and theologians have been able to produce. * * ♦ 

 All the great moral systems which have exercised much influence have been 

 fundamentally the same ; all the great intellectual systems have been funda- 

 mentally different. In reference to our moral conduct there is not a single 

 principle now known to the most cultivated Europeans which was not likewise 

 known to the ancients. In reference to our intellectual conduct the moderns 

 have not only made the most important additions to every department of 

 knowledge * * * but they have created sciences, the faintest idea of 

 which never entered the mind of the ooldest thinker antiquity ever produced. ' 



Now all this is true, true beyond a cavil, true beyond the peradventure of 

 a doubt. But when Mr. Buckle goes on to say, that "although moral excel- 

 lence is more amiable than intellectual excellence, it is far less permanent and 

 less productive of real good," we dissent. Nothing has a right to be, nothing 

 has a claim to be respected, which has not some principle of good as its essen- 

 tial element, and when an active moral intention shall enter into all our 

 thoughts and words and works, we shall approach more nearly to the "ideal 

 social state." We need no new moral inventions; we need to apply morality 

 to conduct. One thing w^e must always bear in mind. Man's course is pro- 

 gressive. The van-guard of humanity is always passing, slowly but surely 

 passing, from lower to higher, from glory unto glory. But many things which 

 have served us in the past retard our growth under new and higher conditions. 

 In the last century we erected the banner of "Rights," and under that sign we 

 conquered. We hold all men heirs to certain inalienable rights, says the De- 

 claration of Independence, and the formula has stimulated us to glorious 

 achievements. But we should now take another step. The doctrine of Rights 

 has had its day. The doctrine of duties should be advanced to the front ; and 



