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of asking. If he disbelieves in miracles, it is because they are 
“discredited.” If he rejects prophecy, it is because its pos- 
sibility is “generally disbelieved.” The “ current theology of 
the day ” must be surrendered because it is “ doomed.” The 
doctrine of a personal God must share its fate, because the 
awful infiniteness of the subject has enabled some clever 
dialecticians to suggest difficulties which are easier suggested 
than answered. “ Dogma,” as Christian doctrine is called, is 
unpopular just now ; so the cultured man of the world cries 
“ Away with it,” and is entirely indifferent to the fact, if, 
indeed, he is aware of it, that the “ dogma ” he decries, which, 
at least, has some claim on our attention, must of necessity be 
replaced by dogma which can establish no such claim. And 
so the grave and solemn assertions of Christians about God, 
assertions supported by the most remarkable concurrence 
of testimonies of all kinds, internal, external, philosophical 
and historical, moral and spiritual, are lightly cast aside, 
and their place taken by the confident ipse dixit of the 
essayist, or the so-called philosopher of the present day. 
Nothing is more characteristic of the assailants of Christianity 
than the boldness and recklessness of their assertions on 
almost every point. The worn-out theories of schools of 
theology and criticism which are almost extinct in their 
birth-place ; the “ rusty tools ” which have done their work 
in their day, and are now laid aside ; these are “refurbished” 
and paraded as the weapons which are to give Christianity 
the coup de grace. And the man of “ culture,” quickened 
into a languid enthusiasm by what he fondly deems to bo 
something new, forgetting that what is new is not always 
true, and above all unwilling to expose himself to the exertion 
of a thorough and earnest examination of the question whether 
it be true or not, dismisses the matter with a courteous smile, 
politely waves aside the crowd of anxious apologists who come 
“ between the wind and his nobility,” and informs the world 
that the matter is settled ; that Christianity has nothing to say 
for itself, and that the reign of enlightened intellect has begun. 
33. A very remarkable instance of what I have just said is to 
be found in the volumes to which I have this evening directed 
the attention of the Institute. I do not wish my words to be 
applied in their full force to Mr. Arnold,* but he has supplied 
* Mr. Arnold himself deprecates the tendency to identify the leaders of 
thought with their followers. “ It is notorious,” he says ( Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, March, 1877), “ that great movements are always led by aliens to the 
sort of people who make the mass of the movement.” 
