8 MODERN DIFFICULTIES 



its historical forms, and the arguments by which it is 

 supported. In the fourth lecture I intend to discuss 

 the bearings of evolutionary views upon Christian doc- 

 trines at large; and in the last two lectures I expect 

 to consider their bearing upon the doctrine of man's 

 primitive state and fall. 



This is truly an age of faith. But it is also an age 

 of doubt, and faith reveals itself in a multitude of in- 

 stances in the form of battle with doubt. The fierce- 

 ness of the battle, while it shows that peculiar diffi- 

 culties have to be overcome before faith can be made 

 secure, also shows that faith is full of fighting energy, 

 and that the desire to believe is wide-spread. It is 

 possible to detect several causes of the present power 

 of doubt. 



{a) One cause is the vast enlargement of scientific 

 knowledge which has occurred during the past century, 

 and the suddenness with which it has been brought 

 about. This enlargement is perhaps greater than that 

 of all previous centuries put together. Discovery has 

 followed discovery with bewildering rapidity, and it has 

 been impossible for ordinary men to keep pace with 

 the progress of the sciences in their efforts to adjust 

 their conceptions of the universe to the latest knowledge. 

 This larger knowledge is not only vast in range, but re- 

 opens questions which our forefathers regarded as 

 settled, and appears to have important bearings on 

 Christian doctrine. In brief, men's mental perspec- 



