ON MODERN UNREST AND THE BIBLE. 



349 



Testament, or are weighing the effect of the present teachini: 

 from Theological Colleges to Sunday Schools. The argument of 

 the man in the street is logical and indefeasible. If there was 

 no Abraham there is no Christ. Therefore, the Church is built 

 on no rock at all, and the name Christian has no meanino-. 

 People will not read nor go to church to hear about a Book 

 which is represented as untrustworthy. It is a foolish woman 

 who plucketh her house down with her hands. (Pro v. xiv, 1.) 

 Before long, the masses will discover that they have no use for 

 the clergy and a strong appetite for their endowments. Already 

 the echo of old-time rebellion is in the air. " Go to, let us make 

 a book." If Ezra and Josiali did it, why cannot the more 

 capable men of to-day compile the religions of the world into- 

 a book which shall replace the Bible — a book written to XXth 

 century pitcli, no curses or woes, all pleasant reading ? 



"If the foundations be destroyed, w^hat can the righteous 

 do ? " Cracks are showing in the superstructure. " In the 

 want of people is the destruction of the prince." France i& 

 eliminating the mention of God from her school books, and 

 something else is eliminating the children from her schools. 

 The latest statistics show, for the first time, that the total deaths 

 are in excess of the total births, a point reached after a long 

 series of years of a continually declining birth-rate. Between 

 emigration and service abroad, the conditions here are not so 

 simple, but The Times recently headed a paragraph : " The 

 declining birth-rate," and drew attention to the fact that the 

 births in England and Wales in the first quarter of 1912 were 

 the lowest per 1,000 ever recorded. Does a declining birth-rate 

 connote declension of physical and moral qualities ? There is 

 at least this answer. When God wishes to bless. He says, " I 

 will multiply thy seed." 



Germany and Italy have been building up their power by the 

 closer union of all the parts. The tendency in the United 

 States is in the same direction. We seem to be breaking up 

 our United Kingdom, and to be drifting into coUision with 

 those who are loyal and protestant. 



The Archbishop of Canterbury notes with anxiety the spirit 

 of lawlessness which is abroad. The disregard of agreements, the 

 callousness to the suffering caused, the indifference to patriotic 

 considerations. A recent article in The XlXth Century and 

 After ascribes the labour unrest to the call of the railway ; 

 the growth of the city ; the sense of new and untried powers 

 produced by an education, framed to suit the children of the 

 leisured and professional classes, and not suited to those- 



