ΤΟ

RICHARD GIBBS, ESQ.

OF

CEDAR LODGE, STOCKWELL PARK, SURREY.

MY DEAR FRIEND

IT has never occurred to me to pen a sentence with more unfeigned satisfaction than that in which I now offer to you the following pages. I know that you will regard them with pleasure, and that whatever defects and deficiencies there may be found in them, their subject and intention will recommend them to your notice. Interested so deeply as you are, and ever have been, in the welfare of the rising generation, a Work written for, and addressed to young men, is appropriately inscribed to you.

Personal feelings, too, have their share in this Dedication. Through years of anxiety and persecution I have received from you, and your beloved and excellent wife, almost more than parental kindness; and, under God, to

you I owe it that I have yet health, strength, and energy to labor in the vineyard of the Lord.

I trust that this Work may be found in some humble measure useful in elucidating the volume of Divine Truth, that volume so dear to you, and to all who know its value.

I remain, ever,

Your sincerely affectionate Friend,

HENRY CHRISTMAS.

SION COLLEGE,

Feb. 18, 1850.

INTRODUCTION.

THE connection between human science and divine truth, though in itself neither more important nor more interesting than that which may be shown to exist between any two classes of truths, is yet more easily available for the purposes of religion, because the topics with which it is conversant are more generally understood. For one person who would read Paley's "HORE PAULINE," there are hundreds who would read his "Natural Theology;" and many may be induced to see the beauties of religious truth, if they be indirectly drawn thereto, who would lay aside with neglect the most eloquent of professedly spiritual works.

The substance of the volume here submitted to the reader was delivered in the form of lectures, some time ago, to the Members of the South London Branch of the Church of England Young Men's Society for Promoting Missions at Home and Abroad; and it is hoped that in this enlarged and amended form it will not be less acceptable to them. Though a third edition, and a fourth publication, it is a new book, with a new, and, it is hoped, a more appropriate title. It was first published in a series of Lectures in the Pulpit; then in a small volume; and has been since entirely rewritten and greatly enlarged.

It is one of a class of works now more than ever needed. The rising mind of England has, by God's blessing, taken a right direction, but it requires constant and faithful aid, unremitting and affectionate encouragement; and the ministers of the church would be ill performing their duty to the mighty intellect growing up around them, were they to confine their addresses to mere doctrinal or even practical theology, however sound, and however important their

views may be. The truth may be made unattractive; and there is a natural disinclination in the mind to the didactic, whether in mat

ter or manner.

To meet this difficulty, some well-intentioned persons have written religious novels; and this class of fiction has increased in amount year by year, from the publication of Hannah More's "Coelebs" to the present day. Whether the plan be in itself expedient, to inculcate spiritual truth by means of fictitious narrative, has been, and not without good reasons, called in question; but it must at least be admitted that there are two great and valid objections to the mass of religious novels already before the public. One is, that there is scarcely one possessing even a moderate amount of literary merit; and this, were there no other, would in itself be fatal; for never was there a more widely extended knowledge of what good writing should be than in the present day, and never were readers in general so exacting. The vehicle in which truth is conveyed is secondary in importance only to the truth itself; and the increasing refinement of our age renders necessary an increased attention to the modes which we may select for communicating our information to others.

The graces of style, both in writing and speaking, should be more than ever cultivated, since we know that the reception of even the loftiest philosophy may depend not a little on the manner in which it is offered. The adversaries of religion and morality are well aware of this, and in the broad sheets of blasphemy, impurity, and sedition with which, Sabbath after Sabbath, they poison the minds of the half-educated among us, they take care to consult the tastes as well as to flatter the passions of those to whom they address themselves. If it be needful that they should do this, whose chosen office it is to degrade all that is lofty, and sully all that is pure in humanity, surely it is not less essential to those whose object it is to raise and refine the mind.

But in addition to the want of literary merit, there is another and yet stronger ground of objection to the generality of religious fictions-they are party works; the greater part of those which now appear being essentially Tractarian, if not Popish, in their nature and tendency. Amidst much apparent meekness and humility, they breathe the very spirit of pride and intolerance. These remarks are

here offered to the reader, not so much by way of discussing the question of religious fictions, as because those who write them have usually done so in order to obtain a hearing, which they doubted of obtaining in any other way. They argued that many would read a novel, and few a religious treatise; and they endeavored to combine the popularity of the one with the usefulness of the other. That the attempt, even when honestly made, has been rarely successful, must be admitted; and, perhaps, the cause of failure may be as much in the principle as in the execution.

On the other hand, the sublime events of history, the marvels of nature, and the wisdom of Providence lay before us wonders more exciting than any the novelist ever imagined, and truths more august than the mind of the mightiest poet ever conceived. These will, and must ever, attract attention. The glorious discoveries of astronomy, and the magnificent, but sometimes perplexing, theories of geologists, will be fraught with interest to minds which regard the disputes of theologians with unmerited contempt. These subjects present a vast platform, on which the man of science and the man of Scripture may meet as on common ground-compare their theories and their discoveries, and learn that truth is ever one and indivisible; the one may have his religion systematized, and the other his philosophy Christianized; and each, instead of separate halves of the truth, may rejoice in the possession of the whole.

But, in addition to the great advantage which such a subject possesses, in attracting those to the contemplation of religious truth who would hardly contemplate it at all if presented to them under a purely theological aspect, it is absolutely necessary to the right understanding of the Scriptures themselves. He who said that "the Bible and the Bible alone was the religion of Protestants," did not mean that the sacred volume required no explanation, but merely that it alone contained our religion, and that nothing could be insisted on as religiously true which was not found therein. That admirable, but much abused book—a book far more misrepresented than misunderstood— the "Bampton Lectures" of the present learned and excellent Bishop of Hereford, may be taken as an able commentary on this text; and

1 Chillingworth.