ITS METHODS AND TENDENCIES. 461 
the self-centred and fruitless piety of the old deacon 
whom I chanced to know, who excused his avarice by 
proclaiming that “business was one thing and religion 
another, and he never allowed them to interfere”; in 
place of that we have many an Abou Ben Adhem, and all 
the splendid exhibitions of modern philanthropy. 
Though the golden mean displayed in the life and 
words of Christ is far better than either extreme, I cannot 
but think the present religious condition of the world is 
better than any which has preceded it. 
So far as regards the facts of sacred history, it is well 
known that modern antiquarian researches, especially 
those of Leyard, Rawlinson, and Hinks, among the Assy- 
rian inscriptions ; of Champollian and Lepsius, in Egypt, 
have confirmed in a remarkable manner the accuracy of 
the historical books of the Bible. 
In Ethnology—the pre-historic history of the human 
race—the researches of the large number of investigators 
who are devoted to its study have made interesting and 
. important additions to our knowledge ; but it cannot be 
denied that the result of such investigation has been to 
create general distrust of our previously accepted chro- 
nology, and give an antiquity to man such as the scholars 
of a previous generation would have looked upon as not 
only unwarranted but impious. It should be said, how- 
ever, that our preconceived opinions of the antiquity of 
the human race—like those of the age of the earth itself 
— were based upon no solid foundation in nature, history, 
or revelation; and that our system of chronology was a 
matter of convention, about which there has been a wide 
latitude of opinion among the scholars of all ages. 
In regard to the origin of man—whether by special 
Creation or by development—we may confidently assert, 
