Neither Calvinism, nor Presbyterianism, nor Thirty-nine Articles, nor High Churchism, nor Low Churchism, nor any existing organization can be the Church of the future.-NORMAN MACLEOD, D.D.

IN asking the attention of thoughtful members of our various religious bodies to the suggestions with which the latter portion of this pamphlet is occupied, a few remarks upon the condition of religious feeling and speculative philosophy at the present time may be made by way of introduction.

The religious world—especially in England, Germany, and America—is in our day sadly out of harmony with modern thought, and the air is heavy with coming changes. Not yet, however, has the tempest actually burst upon us in its fury, although the dark thunder-clouds are visible above the horizon, and the deep and dull mutterings of disagreement may be heard. Doubt, schism, and thoughts of secession rankle and spread in the churches. Should we conclude that the unrest and dissatisfaction which so generally prevail are things of evil omen? Or should we not rather believe that they are the harbingers of a new and grander development of intellectual, moral, and religious thought and life, pointing to a second Reformation that is approaching, when all Truth will be gladly hailed, and every earnest seeker after the Beautiful and the Good will receive a genial look and friendly welcome? After the storm shall have cleared the murky atmosphere, when the gloomy and grosser superstitions have been dispersed, our spirits will be more free, and we shall rejoice in the renewed brightness of a serener sky. The present religious crisis cannot be stifled or stultified, or made to

roll by without leaving permanent traces of advancement. There will come new teachers, who will lead religion forward to greater heights than any yet attained.

1. When Science modestly speaks within her own domain, and when she can be made to repeat her demonstrations and deductions at our option, it avails little that ignorant religious enthusiasts should censure her truth-loving votaries and scream out "Scientific Infidelity!" Proud churches once virulently denounced the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Hard words, however, break no bones. The world moves, and the ocean rolls, and the stars change position in the bosom of infinitude-space boundless, indivisible, and eternal, as if no anathema had ever been pronounced against science. What would be thought to-day of a physician who should affirm that human blood does not circulate? and should we think more favourably of an astronomer who would tell us that the earth does not go round the sun? or, of a benighted and lagging-behind Jew who could repeat the story of a six-day creation? Religious visionaries need no longer pooh-pooh the unanswerable from pulpits and platforms or perform pilgrimages to Knock, to Lourdes, or Pontigny. The golden days of superstition in England are passing away. Old prejudices are breaking up. Science is in the ascendant. Theologians are being swept from many old moorings by the rising tide of knowledge. "Science," it has been well said, “has penetrated everywhere—into the home, the college lecture-room, the board school, and even into the pulpit. Its results are in every one's hands, its methods are consciously or unconsciously followed by every mind. In every kind of study its influence has made itself felt; the moral philosopher, the editor of a classical poet, the historian, the biblical critic, are forced to adopt and to follow the rules of evidence of which the history of science has proved the universal necessity. The idea which may be said to underlie the very conception of science, the idea of law, is now familiar to every one who has the rudiments of education. Science has transformed not only the material aspect of life, but the whole mental attitude of mankind." The sooner all statements conflicting with scientific truths

however sincerely they may be advanced by any number of persons-are withdrawn, the better.

Science tells of Science is benign

It is now, on all hands, very generally conceded that the Cosmogony of Genesis and the sciences of Astronomy and Geology are in some important respects at variance; and to represent statements of that book on these points as divine and infallible is delusive and obstructive. This, until recently, was denied and repudiated by both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Churches. But science is no respecter of persons and false systems. the manifold wondrous works of God. and refreshing to man; kind to all; good and useful as the warmth and sunshine and showers. Many of our religious teachers are in a nervous flutter to-day. They are puzzled and perplexed, live in mystic weakness, and retreat from the active and busy world into shady dreariness. They keep sending off fog-signals telling of their darkness, doubts, and difficulties. We advise them to make confession of their troubles to thoughtful scientific men; and light, more lightbrilliant, soft, and beautiful as the new and true Electric Light will be shed upon some of their numerous anxieties, disputations, and uncertainties. It is plain that if Religion is to hold a place in the world, it must not be contradictory to true philosophy and science. The "scientific imagination" will not in the future consent to be damped-down by anathemas or bold dogmatic utterances. Encroachments are surely and extensively being made upon the outlying region of Probability.

It is well known-nay, it is commonplace talk at our tables -that Heresy abounds at many important centres of learning, that both clerical status and clerical influence are on the wane in England, and that, except in men of inferior ability, there is a growing disinclination at our Universities and Colleges to take holy orders. We have recently been told by an able writer, that, "The greatest pains taken to raise new crops of preachers in ecclesiastical forcing houses have but imperfect results." Many historical subjects have

lost very much of their wonted interest and charm. The Book of Nature is more and more seen and felt by the people to be the Book of books-the larger volume-and many anxious faces are pleasantly turned toward science as unto the land of future hope and greater promise :—

"The Book most read is Nature's,

There simple facts appear;
And tho' she change her features,
Her dictates still are clear."

The reluctance to which we have referred will probably rather increase than diminish, unless the popular theology is speedily recast, and our religious opinions are re-formed and modified into agreement with accepted science and philosophy.

In contrast to this, it is cheerfully admitted that the concessions which are being made by many religious bodies point hopefully to a better understanding and a closer union among our more careful and matured thinkers. The orthodoxy of the last generation is not the orthodoxy of to-day. Indeed, so rapid are the fluctuations of thought on questions of Christian Doctrine, that it is hard to determine who keep, and who keep not, the true ecclesiastical Faith, "whole and undefiled." Once it was considered dangerous to interfere with men's belief in the doctrine of Eternal Torment; now it is the less appalling conception of Future Punishment, finite in duration, that finds respectable defenders. Once clerical thinkers were chary of ventilating doubts on the Atonement; now there are many theories of Atonement, advocated too, not without, but within the pale of orthodoxy, all characterized by important deviations from the old scheme of Vicarious Satisfaction, and Substitutionary Redemption. Once the professional teacher of Religion, who should have whispered a doubt concerning the Plenary Inspiration of Scripture, would have been deemed not only bold, but audacious, and would, in all probability, have lost something far more substantial than caste with his sect or party. Now

theologians calmly discuss the nature and extent of Inspiration, and detect "human elements" in the Bible, while a Bishop finds flaws in the genealogies of the Pentateuch, and disputes the asserted number of the ancient Hebrews at the Exodus. And if we turn to the Church of Rome, there, too, we notice signs of involuntary homage to freedom-for even the most Ultramontane Catholics appear desirous to convince us that the rights of Conscience and Individuality in religion are fully recognized within their communion; that they court free discussion, demand a fair field and no favour, and strive to feel that they are abreast of the time in which we live.

Other agencies, likewise, than those which are directly intellectual, are tending silently, yet powerfully, to soften theological asperity, and to make men, in their spirit and daily bearing, less hard, less severely angular, less thornyin a word, less repellent towards one another, than they consistently might be, according to their professed creeds. There are irresistible social influences at work in society, the effect of which is to make the most conflicting elementsfrom the profound and devoted Roman Catholic on the one hand, to the cultivated and devout Theist on the other-not unfrequently to meet and blend in harmony, “like kindred drops that mingle into one." In England neither dissenting Christian nor Jew has much reason to complain of civil disabilities. This absence of grievance, this social equality, and especially the informal and incessant intercourse, public and private, occurring every day between man and man, promote that mutual understanding of each other's position and principles, which is so fatal to that sectarian bitterness which is fostered by rivalry, distrust, and isolation. Such are some of the gratifying features of a freer intercourse amongst our diverging religious organizations.

2. It may be safely affirmed, that Theology, Religion, and Science, are now perceived and acknowledged, more clearly and fully than they ever were before, to be the normal products of the human mind-systems which are in unison, parts of one grand harmony-each having its true and appropriate