301 
35. Yet we need not despair of Christianity because once 
again the alarm is raised, as it was in Butler’s day, that it is 
losing its hold upon the English mind. We need not accept the 
conditions of peace Mr. Arnold holds out to us. For in truth, 
the prevalence of scepticism that alarms us is only a result of 
the fact, that men are more real than they were. Men are no 
longer content to profess their belief in a religion because it 
has long tradition in its favour ; they will only accept it 
because they believe it to be true. And, therefore, we have 
no longer the nominal support of those whose mouths pro- 
claimed the truths of Christianity, but whose lives belied 
them. As I have just intimated, they have gone over to 
our adversaries. And so we obtain the wish of Ajax.* We 
shall perish, if perish we must, in the light. We know who 
our friends are, and who our adversaries. There are but few 
remaining on our side who are not heart and soul the disciples 
of Christ ; few who are not ready not merely to argue for Him, 
but to devote their lives to His service. A minoritv the true 
•/ 
believers in Christ may be still, as they always have been, 
but they have the strength of conviction and cohesion against 
a multitude of half-hearted and divided adversaries. The dif- 
ferences which separate Christians are as nothing to those 
which distract their foes. Therefore, we may boldly continue 
to preach the “ traditional " Christianity which is “ built upon 
the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ 
Himself being the chief corner-stone/'’ W e may venture on 
the supposition that Christ's chosen messengers knew, at least, 
as much about Him and His doctrines as any acute critic of 
our own day. We may dare, on their authority, to maintain 
still, without hesitation and without apolog) 7 , the reality of the 
miracles on which the world is “ losing its hold." We may 
appeal to the prophecies in which men have ceased to believe, 
just so far as they have refused fairly to enter into the evidence 
for them. We may proclaim the Resurrection of Christ, because 
without it Christianity, the visible saviour of a decaying world, 
is reduced to a shadow — a name, nay, even an imposture, and 
nothing less. We may retain our firm faith in a Personal 
God, because it is the one central truth by which religion 
must stand or fall. We may continue to uphold the credit 
* Homer, Iliad, b. xvii., 045-7. 
'Ltv irartp, d\Xa (tv pvaai vt r’ ))epos vlag ’Axaiwi' 
TIo ii/arov S' a’idptjv, Sot; S' 6<p6a\/io7(Tiv ISe<jQcu 
’Ey Se <j>ati /cal 6\((T(tov, h m vv rot svaSev ourwf. 
X 
VOL. XII. 
