and intellectual classes in this country, and sense; but it is of little or no authority in any
in Germany. In times that are gone by, particular instance to which it might be ap-
men of the very same class, and who did plied.
not come over to Christianity, allowed them- Historical criticism, in many cases, and
selves either to assail it as an imposture, or philological criticism also, in many, and of
they covertly scorned it; and in society, as ten the two conjoined, afford grounds enough
often as occasion served, or whenever none of exception, which come in between any
of the "cloth" were of the party, they put given passage of Scripture, and any one in-
forth their rank ribaldries, and their stale terpretation of it which should command
morsels of atheism. No doubt there are our assent, as if it might rule, or overrule,
those still who do the same thing; but they our religious opinions. These special ex-
are the malign, the paradoxical, the ambi- ceptions, founded on the criticism of the
tious, the overweening. One knows them canonical text, considered as a merely hu-
in a moment by their flippancy and cant: man composition, are not of the substance
there is no depth in them, no honest inten- of "modern thought:" they are its defensive
tion, no seriousness; they are scoffers; they weapons only. Modern thought, in its sub-
have been such from their boyhood up- stance, is a congeries of all those refined
wards: they blaspheme Heaven; they theistic speculations, of all those baffled
mock whatever they have no comprehension aspirations, of all those deep and distract-
of; they vilify human nature in the con- ing surmises-those exhalations of the abyss,
crete, and deify it in the abstract: they have
a foul mouth whenever they can eject poison
with an aim; and the mouth of adulation
when praise is destined to come round to
themselves.

neighbourhood of a highly developed intel-
lectuality, and of refined moral feeling and
taste; we must confine the gospel strictly
to the masses whose culture, from childhood,
has been biblical only, if we would free our-
selves entirely of this spectre, this modern
thought, which, in a word, is Christianized
thinking and feeling-short of Christian
thought and feeling.

and those miasmas of earth, to which Christianity itself has given intensity, and toward which it has rendered intellectual and sensitive natures cruelly alive. Or, if now we were to express nearly the same Men of this class are becoming every day meaning in the old theological style, and fewer; and they are descending lower in after the fashion of our puritanical grandthe social scale. But if persons such as sires, we should say, that modern thought is these are set off, then there are everywhere "the striving and the wrestling of the nato be met with, even in the best society-in tural man against the things of God when and around colleges and throughout the the conscience has become enlightened." professions (must we not admit it? and in Though it be so, yet we must exclude truth in the clerical profession) men who Christianity altogether from the regions and are highly cultured, who are correct in their habits, and nice in their tastes, and who might be pointed at as samples of intelligence and good feeling: they are the "elect" of the world of mind. At length Christianity has made these men its own, at least, so far as this-that they regard it, and speak of it, with respect they have ceased to think it possible, or even desirable, if it were possible, to call in question its historic reality. The difficult problem of its supernatural attestations, they relegate. Among these persons there are differences on this Let an intelligent reader, who has himself question; some avowing their belief in the passed through exercises of mind-through res:rrection of Christ, and many of them conflicts, the deepest and the most trying-wavering, from day to day, in their own let such a reader take up any of those reconvictions regarding it. There are those, cent books, we need not name them, in which still coming under the general description, Modern Thought has uttered itself-some who step forward much beyond this nega- covertly, and some boldly. We appeal to tive position, and who even profess a faith him, Will he be able to gather, out of these that is ample enough to warrant their sub- volumes, an intelligible and coherent rescription to the Thirty-nine articles. Never-ligious system, as put together by these theless, as often as the undisputed gram- various labourers on the same field? matical sense of any doctrinal passage of think he will not be able, with his best enScripture is pressed upon them, as if it were deavours, to achieve any such task, nor even authoritative, they draw back; and ask to to make an approach toward it. But our take a position on much lower ground. second question, unless it can be favourably Holy Scripture, with these ambiguous per- answered, carries still more meaning. Let sons, is of authority in a broad or universal the reader-one who is candid and instructed

But we return to Chalmers' Lectures, which suggest a comparison full of significance at the present time.

We

e in hand the writings of any | the affections, and which, in a sovereign mannoted expounders of Modern ner, assumes to govern the life and temper. try his skill in the endeavour These four volumes a Christian man will exactly what it is which this open in those seasons when he needs all the means, or what it is which he aids which the Gospel can afford him; but accept from him as a scheme as for the books which embody Modern belief-a belief which we may Thought, even the best of them, he will, at nay defend against assailants; such a time, turn away from them with the which a man might have re- reproachful utterance, "Miserable comforters stay and consolation, in the are ye all!" s and trial. We do not think And why is it so? Clearly from the ld be done in any single in- very nature of the case. If we withdraw e one characteristic, which is ourselves from that circle within which the cteristic of the writers whom apostolic writings are granted to exercise a in view is-mistiness, incoher- determinative authority, we must either be contradiction. Each of them content to remain to the end of life destitute e building up a belief on one of any settled religious opinions; and what e is seen to be pulling down discomfort, nay, misery, is this! or we must It must be so; for principles frame a system for ourselves. But if we do radictory, the one of the other, this, it can never be more than a negation, thin him. It must be so, by as related to the belief which would have inexorable necessity, for those resulted from a submissive exposition of the nfusion, which have jarred the text of Scripture. And not only must our in these writers, racking the religion have this negative character, but, moral sense. In accordance between it and the next negation lower ement of the case, vacillation down on the scale, there is no fixed boundence should be the conditions ary, nor can there be any. What should Thought; and we ask any prevent our receding and taking a still familiar with this class of lit- lower standing? And then, when we have e not so in fact. reached it, why may we not repeat this descending movement, again and yet again? There can be no other reason for making a stand at any stage, than that which springs from an instinctive dread of sliding away toward the brink of a precipice.

et this same reader, whether relish all points of Chalmers' him institute a comparison on whether or not he may think in single instances, the most best possible, yet he will find, THE ASTRONOMICAL DISCOURSES, which at tory Lectures, a conspicuous the moment of their delivery, did so much ple-a firm coherence of the in securing for Chalmers the lofty position d to that principle: he will which he thenceforward occupied as a pulpit pposite of that waywardness orator, will probably maintain their place s, and that petulant contra- in our religious literature, and they may the characteristics of Modern even take the lead among those of his writoughout these Lectures there ings that will be permanently popular. The erious intention;-there is a line of argument pursued in these discourses -an honest explicitness, lead- is substantially philosophical and warrantand inviting us onward still able, and it may always be appealed to as path, toward the same con- presenting a sufficient reply to those vague his teacher we are never assumptions that have been urged as if they ly the apostolic dictum, "a involved a hypothetic contradiction of Christman is unstable in all his anity. Moreover, at the precise time when ghout these Expositions all these Discourses were delivered, they were are tending toward one cen- in a peculiar degree seasonable; and although e indisputable authority of considerations of the same order as those so in matters of religious be- eloquently urged by Chalmers had been adn, a religious man-letting vanced and urged by preachers and writers not seem to be of the sub- (among these by Andrew Fuller with very uthor's meaning-will find good effect) yet, when brought forward by y religious man will be look- him with so much force and freshness, they t desire, and must meet with produced all the effect of novelty; and the rest and peace:-he is here relgious argument-the Christian argument, the constituents of a faith was felt to have won a signal triumph in his e conscience, which elevates hands. The logical value of the Discourses

was immeasurably enhanced, too, b they argument of Chalmers, or in some degree
circumstance that the preacher was known to abate the value of it, at least as conducted
to be himself quite at home among the facts by him; but we think it is not so in fact.
and the principles of the modern astronomy, The distinguished men who have recently
and of modern science generally. He was come forward on this ground, must not be
not (and some such Christian champions we thought to have dislodged Chalmers, much
have seen) a frightened and angry theologue, less to have damaged his reputation as a
denouncing as sheer atheism the surest de- philosophic theologian: what they have done
ductions of physical philosophy. Chalmers is to bring the argument into its bearings
could not be treated superciliously by those with the latest ascertained facts in science;
whose unbelief he assailed; for he knew and more than this, they have assigned to it
quite as much as themselves of the "Modern its genuine significance, as related, not to the
Astronomy:" this was his vantage ground, flippancy of objectors, such as those with
and he took his stand upon it in a manner whom Chalmers believed himself to be con-
equally free from over-weening boastfulness tending, but much rather to a deeper tone
and from timidity. An antagonist could of thought than he had in view and to the
bring forward nothing of importance on the perplexities of men who are serious, sin-
side of science, which the preacher had not cere, and open to conviction, if it might but
already taken possession of, either explicitly be fairly attained. It is a circumstance
or implicitly, as the basis of his own argu- much to be noted, that this argument, just
ment. If this argument failed to carry con- at the point where it was left by Chalmers,
viction, or wholly to remove discomfort, it has been taken up by men who not only are
was not because it had been handled incom- of the highest standing in science, but who,
petently, or had been carried forward under although assailing each other somewhat
shelter of any concealments.
vehemently, are decisively Christian in their
This Christian advocate, with open eye professed belief. Chaliners, as we have
and with well-instructed vision, stands upon said, takes a tone towards opponents which
this petty planet, reverently conscious of the has too much of the eager champion, aiming
immeasurable vastness of the material uni- to crush his antagonist, whom he treats with
verse around him-a vastness which to us scorn. This tone and manner, which is
is infinite; and yet he is not astounded; he always of questionable policy, should now
is not disheartened while he still grasps in be condemned and avoided, not merely as
his hand the book of the Christian revelation. impolitic, but as inappropriate too. Serious
Nay, he feels that this very gift of reason argumentation, and a showing of reasons,
which has enabled him, from off this planet, are always thrown away upon men of a
small as it is, to measure celestial space, and reckless and flippant temper, whose infidelity
to bring the remotest worlds within the is mainly an affectation, or a means of
range of his calculus, and to put these worlds satiating a vicious ambition. It is to minds
in his scales-this Reason, this Intelligence, altogether of another class that arguments
itself affords a ground whereupon we may on the side of Christianity should be adapted,
argue concerning human nature, while we if we expect to do any good. Readers of
assume for it, and for its destinies, all the this class-thoughtful, disquieted, and honest
importance which the Christian doctrine-who take up the Astronomical Discourses,
supposes. Ought we to think, whatever may will do well to remember that the line of
be his stature, that MAN is insignificant, who, argument pursued in them would remain
labouring as he does, under the abatements, quite as substantial as it is, although all
the obstructions, the infirmities, attaching those passages and expressions were re-
to his animal structure, has, nevertheless moved from them which attribute a shallow
spite of them, mastered the mechanism of
the heavens, and has only now at length
come to imagine himself unimportant in the
universe-how and why? because by his
own science and by his own instruments, he
has convinced himself that these our visible
heavens are only a nebula amidst nebulæ,
more vast than it, and numberless!

impertinent arrogance to the preacher's op-
ponents. Let the reader of these Discourses
suppose that the term so often meeting his
eye-" the infidel "-has been erased from
his copy.

Chalmers, in his day, would hardly have allowed himself to imagine that the common belief or hypothesis concerning the Those who now for the first time take up worlds around us would ever again come to the Astronomical Discourses, should carry be seriously called in question, much less themselves back to the day of their appear- that a leading mind in the scientific commuance. Even the agitation of the same gene- nity should adventure a book in disproof of ral subject within the last three years may the persuasion that there are "more worlds seem, to younger readers, to distance the than one," and other families endowed, like

ly, with reason and a moral It is quite lately that the progress of theless, improbable as it science, in the departments of physiology emed, such an argument has and natural history, has opened up views of d the reading public-has the system of animal life which would go to tellectual heavens; and the strengthen the belief assumed in the "Astronments so ably advanced by mical Discourses" as unquestionable. The Trinity, have taken at least ground on which Chalmers takes his stand, the thinking community as is-may we venture to say so-becoming to show that many of those every day consolidated, as if from beneath. à priori conclusions, or those The creation-the world of conscious analogy, which had been al- life-life such as it is now developed on this ined-to sustain a belief in planet-is not a blind process of physical of worlds-regarded as the development; but it is a scheme, within of intelligent races, were in which a plan-an idea-the intention of conjectural, and might be a Mind, has been moving forward through mall logical value; inasmuch its preconcerted stages. Man-the lastupport a belief which in re- fashioned of all orders and species-so we lanet (and the moon) the must believe-Man was from the first conexplicitly contradicts." templated; for we find that his animal struccasonable abatement of our ture, in its peculiarities, has been kept in view certain astronomical conjec- from the very dawn of animal life. Let it ewell's Essay has not, we be true that, through cycles of incalculable ould it do so?-dislodged ages, this earth was lorded over by no ra ds that almost irresistible tional species;-and yet it is also true that the modern astronomy has Man, such as he is, was, from of old, noted ely expansion, but distinct- in the book. Yes, it may be affirmed that that the material uni-" from the beginning," in the book of the d masses around us-the creative purposes, "all his members were e illuminated-has a worthy written, which in continuance were fashionh final cause; that it is ed, when as yet there was none of them;" platform of life-of con- even then they were wrought (in type or So, of life intellectual and symbol) "in the lowest parts of the earth" be told, when at night we ard and around us, that we f this universe beyond the These recently admitted principles, so far own planet; and that all as they may be regarded as authentic deich take a bolder flight ductions from facts, have then this signifions of a distempered brain cance as related to our immediate subject-ven a shadow of logical evi- they give indication of a purpose which, inust persist in refusing to calculable as may be the reach of its chronoloby help of a factitiously se- gy, does not, will not halt, until intellectual asoning, we bring ourselves and moral life has come to combine itself involuntary belief in the every where with the conditions of animal orlds"-worlds inhabited by life. But if a purpose such as this-if an then, and in the very act of eternal intention, forewritten upon the tave also, in some measure, blets of animal life, implies, when we carry e instinctive convictions by it up to its source in the attributes of the s that we advance upward Eternal Being-if it implies a law of the le of order, fitness, benefi- Creative Mind, the same law will not fail ound us, and go on until to take effect, sooner or later, throughout belief in the creative power, the broad platform of the Universe; and if dness of God. We are far so, then Man is not alone on that platform, at this, our theistic belief, and there are "more worlds than one." ident upon the other belief But if the worlds around us are peopled; of worlds; nevertheless or, if some of them are peopled, then how ttempting to dislodge this does this belief, or this reasonable supposirom its accustomed place tion, how does it affect our religious belief? ns, the very framework of or, to put the question more pointedly, nciples must so have been what is its aspect toward our Christian been, as must render our hold lief? In the second of these Astronomical lief thenceforward so much Discourses Chalmers lays down the law-and precarious,

f

that is to say, among the lowest orders of animal life.

which, if we profess ourselves to be obe

tic sceptic dissatisfied; at best only where
he was before. Reasoning which is to
loosen the hold of any other species of rea-
soning upon the mind, or still more upon
the imagination, must be of a homogeneous
quality. A vague, and yet a very powerful

dient disciples of the Modern Philosophy, | courses, expends the treasures of his cumu-
ought to govern our reasonings on this lative eloquence, while it may well give
ground:- -we profess to admire Bacon, and contentment to the easily contented, must
Newton, and La Place; let us then deal leave, as well the melancholic, as phlegma-
with the question above stated in a mode
becoming the disciples of this school. This
law of the Modern Philosophy, which de-
mands submission to evidence wherever it
can be had, and which requires also a cor-
responding abstinence from unsupported
conjectures-a law so signally illustrated in impression-a conjectural argument-very
the whole of Newton's course, takes effect strong in appearance, is not to be dislodged,
upon the subject now in view, in this way; and will not be made to relax its grasp.
-it forbids our invading or intruding upon merely by bringing to bear upon it a train of
any precincts within which our conclusions reasoning which is wholly of another order.
rest upon substantial evidence, by conjec- and which demands the exercise of another
tures, however plausible such conjectures class of the intellectual faculties. Such for
may be, but which are mainly gratuitous. example, is the historic argument in support
Yet such an intrusion does take place where of the Christian system. Reasoning which
a hypothetic difficulty, drawn from the vast is inferential and circuitous, although it be
ness of the universe, and from the compara absolutely conclusive on its own ground,
tive insignificance of this planet, is brought takes its effect upon one mood of mind;
forward as if it might avail to upset those but the conjectural difficulty, or the anti-
definite conlusions which sustain our be- christian hypothesis, has already got its
lief as Christians. This belief claims to hold upon another mood of mind; and
have a peremptory hold upon our assent: even if a highly-disciplined intellect be ca-
-as an argument it is irrefragable; where- pable of alternating between the two, very
as the difficulty insisted upon by "Infidels," few are so nicely equipoised as to be able
can appeal to no proof whatever; at the to bring the two together upon the same
best it is a bare surmise; it is a mere suspi- parallel of thought.
cion: there is, as the ground of it, the gratu- Now, although the hypothesis which
itous assertion that Christianity is a scheme stands in the way of our Christian belief is
which is taking effect upon this planet only; confessedly vague, as well as destitute of
but the fact may be far otherwise; for positive evidence, nevertheless it has contin-
aught we know the redemption effected for ued to present itself as a potent objection
man may be taking effect also upon in the view of amost every thoughtful mind
many other races-even upon the intelli- in modern times. There are, however, facts
gent universe.
It may be so; thus it which are not vague, and are neither ques-
is that we oppose conjecture to conjec- tionable nor ambiguous, in giving attention
ture; meantime, what we have to do to which this adverse conjecture fades away
with is the Historic Evidence which sus- into a more and more phantom-like dim-
tains our faith in the Gospel; and the rules ness, until it ceases to show any definite
of our Modern Philosophy demand that we contour. It is in the third of these Dis-
should yield ourselves to what is positive courses that the preacher opens a way for
to what is demonstrative-while we reject some of these countervailing positive data:
whatever wants this kind of support. -such are those abounding illustrations
To this line of argument the men which this earth affords, and especially
whom Chalmers combatively designates as when the eye is aided by the microscope, of
"our infidels" would find a reply:-they the Divine attributes of intelligence, power,
would say, "We deny that the historic and benignity-contradicting the unphiloso-
evidence which you appeal to is in so strict phic surmise that the vastness of the mate-
a sense peremptory as that it should exclude rial universe-its infinitude, must imply a
all farther question: to make the best of it, negligent regard to what is small or minute,
it must not be placed alongside of those and apparently insignificant; no single indica-
mathematical demonstrations which form tion of any such forgetfulness or indifference
the basis of our Modern Philosophy. The presents itself within the realm of nature:
conjectural difficulty which, in our view, the microscope teaches us a theology that is
possesses an overwhelming weight, may more in harmony with the conclusions of
therefore stand good as a counterpoise to Abstract Philosophy.
your historic proof."

Further on in this third Discourse, an apIn fact the species of reasoning upon peal is also made to the individual experience which Chalmers, throughout these Dis- of the hearer (or reader) in attestation of the