ern States, and the training at the North will be both more thorough in the elements of knowledge, and will provide special instructions in all the leading arts. The publication of books, there is no reason to doubt, will increase in a greater ratio than the population; the great extensive sales of standard works in late years cannot be accounted for merely by the fashion of possessing and exhibiting a library; there must be a greater proportion of readers of good books, more extensively diffused cultivation of taste, more of that knowledge at least that floats over the surface of things, and gives a reputation of superior attainments, than could be found twenty years ago; while the strides the West is taking in wealth and intelligence render it sure that the intellectual cravings of the newer States are increasing rapidly. Taste for the fine arts too is on the increase. It is true that the number of visitors to the galleries of Europe, the number of purchasers of statuary and painting prove little, since to many persons objects of art are part of the show of life, like a fine house or a fine coach, but we cannot help believing that there is a refinement and a spread of taste both in these arts and in the art of music. For a time, architecture was running into glare and showy imitation; nor have these vices become obselete in the plans for public edifices any more than for private, yet there does seem to be a higher conception of what a building should be, nor are even the committees for erecting churches in rural parishes content with copying those deformities which were once scattered over the land.

From all that has been said on this point of general intelligence and taste, it is evident that they have been slowly growing for years; but the new era, it is probable, with its wealth, its spread of education, its stimulus, will much accelerate the growth.

Here we wish to call attention to one point in particular-to the spread of science and of those sciences which have the most to do with the national prosperity of the country. There is no doubt that these will be fostered for practical reasons, and even the avenues of gain that are open to men of scientific training will invite many into this field. Whether natural science will not overshadow historical and moral, and thus the balance of

discipline, so necessary for soundness of mind, for breadth and justness of views, for a healthy faith, be disturbed, may well be a matter of apprehension. Of this we may have occasion to speak in another place. We only add here that it is of the highest importance for education, for true refinement, for genuine civilization, that the sciences which have to do with material phenomena do not usurp the place which belongs to the more spiritual sciences; that the tangible and visible do not take the place of the immaterial; that the knowledge of things does not claim precedence of the quickening forces of nobler truth.

Indeed, as has been hinted, the new era will have to guard against one of the leading tendencies of the times-that of overvaluing the outward world. Our conquests are over the outward world, our discipline is likely to run more and more into this direction; our money, accumulated by men incapable to a great extent of intellectual enjoyment, seeks outward gratification; materialism in philosophy, in the indulgences of life, and in culture, will reign at the cost of religion, morals, and sound taste, unless the spiritual powers can continue and even increase their control over society.

And here we approach the most momentous of the inquiries connected with the new era, namely, what part religion is called to act; what is to be in the coming years her chief line of effort. We will consider the aspects of the times in their relations to religious faith, and then in relation to religious practice.

The two great enemies of Christian faith in modern times are the materialistic and the pantheistic theories of the world In the hands of these foes, the natural sciences, and history itself, with criticism as its ally, are made to turn their guns against revelation. In our country, hitherto, the naturalists have, to a considerable extent, been sincere believers in Christ, and even devout men, so that as we run over in thought the highest names in this field, we scarcely meet with one who can be called a sceptic or an infidel. So, too, nearly all the learning and the talent is with the theologians who defend both supernaturalism and inspiration; those who have been trained in Germany, those who have studied the controversies there

waged of late years, on the origin of the Gospel, and on the nature of the Old Testament, are, almost without exception, standing on the old ground, to which Germany herself is coming back-although all of them, it is probable, can not exactly subscribe to the received views of inspiration. This is a fact full of encouragement; our scholars have drawn their final discipline from the land of rationalism and pantheism, without being essentially warped from the faith of their fathers. There are now among us accomplished theologians-not indeed in any great numbers, but far outnumbering the partisans of a contrary tendency-ready to defend the faith, familiar with the strongest arguments forged at Tübingen, who have perhaps conquered doubt themselves by honest research and devout prayer, and who can be helpful guides of younger minds.

But decided as the vantage ground of Christianity is, unbelief or scepticism has a secure foothold in the country. Theodore Parker seems to have vacillated between deism and pantheism, and was not the highest authority in exegetical investigations. Yet his influence has been large on the destructive side, aided as it was by the estimable points of his mind and character. More noticeable still are the intangible shapes of doubt which fill the air, so to speak, and betray a fashion of free-thinking on the part of the superficial and the ill-informed. You will see these somewhat vague symptons in several descriptions of men, in the honest young mind that judges the Bible by the rules of a verbal inspiration, and finds itself surrounded by difficulties; in the newspaper editor or his correspondent from abroad, or the contributor to a popular magazine, who, with very little knowledge of the points at issue, sympathizes with unbelief, and covertly expresses his sympathy; in the popular lecturer, who, without intending to publish his rejection of the Scriptures, lays down principles that must lead him and his hearers, if they agree with him, into open infidelity; in the student of natural science, who is unable or indisposed to refute the objections which his studies have brought before his eyes. A great part of this doubt, at present, if not exactly honest doubt, is not inclined to cavil or to sneer. It rather half laments its own uncomfortable position, and sighs perhaps for the unquestioning faith of the Christian. It is moreover

coupled with more or less of admiration for the system of the Gospel and for the character of Christ; and it is so far from being self-indulgent or tending towards voluptuousness, that many who are its victims burn with indignation against public wrong, and are among the most jealous and benevolent defenders of the oppressed. Still it is to a great extent superficial, caught by contact with books that skim over the surface of things, and more a sort of fashion than a morbid spirit of scepticism. That such a turn of free-thought, if it should increase and descend among the more uneducated class, would degenerate in the end into bitter hostility to religion, can scarcely be questioned; and it certainly would then become, if unresisted, a most alarming foe of our faith, as well as throw a dark shade on the future welfare of the land.

We must expect then ere long to have in this land a repetition of the same contest that has been waged in Germany during the last three-quarters of a century, and is now in progress in England-which, in fact, surprised the defenders of the faith there while they were asleep, and before they were familiar with the new weapons of controversy. In Germany, the contest has so far gone through its phases, that we can now look to a triumph of Christian believers on the fields of history and of criticism. In England, the objections of natural science, the difficulties drawn from fixed laws of nature, in short the pantheistic or atheistic tone of thinking appears in the foreground, and the struggle is less between scholars, as is the case in the land of scholars, than on subjects open to popular understanding. With us, probably, the same characteristics of the controversy will present themselves to view, as in the Englishspeaking land across the sea. But come the contest assuredly will, and Christian divines, Christian laymen of intelligence, ought to be prepared for it. If it is to be a serious contest between honest doubters and confirmed believers, no evil except in individual cases will grow out of it. Some men's hearts will "fail for fear, and for looking after those things which shall come upon the earth;" but the result will be to establish the Kingdom of the Son of Man on a firmer basis. But to attain this result, preparation must be necessary. The student of Scripture, history, and criticism, the student of general his

tory and civilization, the student of natural science, must be ready to meet the influences of unbelief which may be imported, and those assaults which may arise on our own soil.

If, however, the unbelief is to circulate through the less educated classes of the people, as we now find it among large numbers of the German emigrants, if it is to be flippant, vulgar, malignant, the cure here lies not so much in defending Christianity, as in getting a closer access to the class affected by the disease, and applying a more effectual remedy than heretofore. The Gospel itself brought home to its despisers, in love and power, must be its own witness.

And here we are brought to the benevolent efforts which the new era imposes on the representatives of the Christian faitha topic which occupies many minds, which appears to all Christians full of importance, and which yet will not stand in the clearest light, until time and experiment disclose the avenues of successful effort. We can add little by what we have to say to what benevolent persons have thought and said already, yet we offer a few suggestions.

First of all, it is evident that the necessities of our own land will impose on us a greater relative burden than we ever before felt ourselves called upon to bear. The problem now is, to endeavor to occupy for Christ a country which is to take an amazing start in wealth, power, and vigor, which is to grow faster than ever within the next generation, to form within this period its character and to work out its destiny. The power of action, the work to be done, are offered to Christian people in such a measure as almost to overwhelm and confuse. To the duties of the war succeed the duties of entering every new field that the end of the war has opened. To do the new without neglecting the old offices of benevolence, to make equal progress with the swift advances of the country, lest Christianity come too late and find its work the harder, to leaven all parts of the land with the leaven of truth, to spread missions, churches, institutions of Christian learning, over a vastly larger space, to purify the greater centres of trade and wealth meanwhile at home-these are problems of most frightful magnitude, and which a people of less hope and vigor would shrink