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against Christianity. The various scientific meetings at which people some- 
times air their new theories, antagonistic to Christianity, have this year been 
productive of a rather better spirit towards revealed religion. The papers 
read and the speeches made have been, upon the whole, characterized by a 
spirit of fairness, and I may say that, generally speaking, they have been upon 
the side of revealed religion. In fact, there seems to be a kind of lull in the 
conflict ; but such a calm sometimes precedes a storm ; I must, therefore, 
strongly urge all friends of the Institute and of Christianity not to suppose 
that because the enemy is a little quiet he is therefore vanquished. On 
the contrary, he may be merely going back for a spring, in order to make a 
more fierce onslaught, and therefore we must keep on and still exert our- 
selves. We must keep our weapons bright and always ready, or else we 
shall fail in our duty as defenders of the Truth which God has given to His 
people. I am sorry to say that there is an advance, in the position taken by 
unbelief among the lower orders. , There is a decided increase in the 
amount of that form of infidelity which I may characterize as the “ know- 
nothing ” form. The active opponents of Christianity, those who set up 
their whole philosophy against revealed religion, have been quiet ; but there 
is a growth in the number of those people who say, “All you advance 
may be very true, and I do not deny that Revelation may be true ; in 
fact, that there may be a God, and a Bible, and a Saviour, as you say ; but, 
to tell you the truth, I do not consider it to be clearly proved : and there- 
fore I do not care a bit about it, I intend to go on living for this world, 
and to take my chance of the future.” This is a form of infidelity which 
is only too common, and which I am afraid is rather increasing in the lower 
stratum of society. For this we should be prepared, as well as for the 
philosophical form, and we should muster together all the arguments we can 
in order to combat it. I will now call on Mr. Gorman to read Mr. Cooper’s 
paper, merely premising that it touches on a very important branch of the 
infidel argument against revealed religion. One mode in which infidel 
teaching has lately been given has been that of dissertations on what is 
called Comparative Religion. Now Comparative Religion is a science, just as 
much as comparative philology, and I do not object to the title ; but there 
are various forms of that science. One form, that which we hold with, lays 
down that God gave a revelation to man ; that that was possessed at first 
by the Jewish nation, and that now it has become the inheritance of the 
Christian Church. Another form is that which contends that Christianity 
is only one among many religions, perhaps in some respects purer than 
others, but not entitled to any higher respect than Buddhism, Hinduism, or 
Mahommedanism. It is just that form of comparative religion with which 
Mr. Cooper’s paper deals ; for with his large knowledge of Egyptology and 
Egyptian myths, he points out that those myths contained in themselves the 
germs of the primeval revelation, which is seen in its purity and its force 
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