Modern Substitutes for Christianity Part 12

'The estate of man upon this earth of ours may in course of time be vastly improved. So much seems to be promised by the recent achievements of Science, whose advance is in geometrical progression, each discovery giving birth to several more. Increase of health and extension of life by sanitary, dietetic, and gymnastic improvement; increase of wealth by invention and of leisure by the subst.i.tution of machinery for labour: more equal distribution of wealth with its comforts and refinements; diffusion of knowledge; political improvement; elevation of the domestic affections and social sentiments; unification of mankind and elimination of war through ascendency of reason over pa.s.sion--all these things may be carried to an indefinite extent, and may produce what in comparison with the present estate of man would be a terrestrial paradise. Selection and the merciless struggle for existence may be in some measure superseded by selection of a more scientific and merciful kind. Death may be deprived at all events of its pangs. On the other hand, the horizon does not appear to be clear of cloud.... Let our fancy suppose the most chimerical of Utopias realised in a commonwealth of man. Mortal life prolonged to any conceivable extent is but a span. Still over every festal board in the community of terrestrial bliss will be cast the shadow of approaching death; and the sweeter life becomes the more bitter death will be. {256} The more bitter it will be at least to the ordinary man, and the number of philosophers like John Stuart Mill is small.'--GOLDWIN SMITH: _Guesses at the Riddle of Existence_ ('Is There Another Life?').

'In return for all of which they have deprived us, some prophets of modern science are disposed to show us in the future a City of G.o.d _minus_ G.o.d, a Paradise _minus_ the Tree of Life, a Millennium with education to perfect the intellect, and sanitary improvements to emanc.i.p.ate the body from a long catalogue of evils. Sorrow no doubt will not be abolished; immortality will not be bestowed. But we shall have comfortable and perfectly drained houses to be wretched in. The news of our misfortunes, the tidings that turn the hair white, and break the strong man's heart will be conveyed to us from the ends of the earth by the agency of a telegraphic system without a flaw. The closing eye may cease to look to the land beyond the River; but in our last moments we shall be able to make a choice between patent furnaces for the cremation of our remains, and coffins of the most charming description for their preservation when desiccated.'--Archbishop ALEXANDER: _Witness of the Psalms to Christ and Christianity_, p. 48.

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AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

Abbott, E. A., _Through Nature to Christ_.

Armstrong, E. A., _Back to Jesus; Man's Knowledge of G.o.d; Agnosticism and Theism in the Nineteenth Century_.

Arthur, W., _G.o.d without Religion; Religion without G.o.d_.

Aveling, F. (edited by), _Westminster Lectures_.

Balfour, A. J., _Religion of Humanity; Foundations of Belief_.

Ballard, F., _Clarion Fallacies; Miracles of Unbelief_.

_Barker, Joseph, Life of_.

Barry, W., _Heralds of Revolt_.

Bartlett, R. E., _The Letter and the Spirit_.

Besant, Annie, _Esoteric Christianity_.

Blatchford, R., _G.o.d and My Neighbour_.

Blau, Paul, '_Wenn ihr Mich Kennetet_.'

Bousset, W., _Jesus; What is Religion?; The Faith of a Modern Protestant_.

Brace, G. Loring, _Gesta Christi_.

Bremond, H., 'Christus Vivit' (Epilogue of _L'Inquietude Religieuse_).

Broglie, L'Abbe Paul de, _Problemes et Conclusions; La Morale sans Dieu_.

Brooks, Phillips, Bishop, _The Influence of Jesus_.

Butler, Bishop, _The a.n.a.logy of Religion_.

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Caird, E., _The Evolution of Religion; The Social Philosophy and Religion of Comte_.

Caird, J., _Fundamental Ideas of Christianity_.

Cairns, D. S., _Christianity in the Modern World_.

Carey, Vivian, _Parsons and Pagans_.

Caro, E., _L'Idee de Dieu et ses Nouveaux Critiques; etudes Morales; Problemes de Morale Sociale_.

Chesterton, G. K., _Heretics; Orthodoxy_.

Church, K. W., _Gifts of Civilization; Pascal and other Sermons_.

Clarke, J. Freeman, _Steps to Belief_.

Cobbe, Frances Power, _A Faithless World; Broken Lights; Autobiography_.

Coit, Stanton, _National Idealism and a State Church_.

Comte, Auguste, _Catechism of Positive Religion_ (translated by Richard Congreve).

_Contentio Veritatis_.

Conway, Moncure D., _The Earthward Pilgrimage_.

Craufurd, A. H., _Christian Instincts and Modern Doubt_.

Crooker, J. H., _The Supremacy of Jesus_.

D'Alviella, G., _Revolution Religieuse Contemporaine_.

Davies, O. Maurice, _Heterodox London_.

Davies, Llewelyn, _Morality according to the Lord's Supper_.

_Do we Believe_? (Correspondence from _Daily Telegraph_.)

Drawbridge, C. L., _Is Religion Undermined_?

Drummond, J., _Via, Veritas, Vita_.

Du Bose, W. P., _The Gospel and the Gospels_.

Eaton, J. R. T., _The Permanence of Christianity_.