religion; and they denounce as delusion, or impiety, the doctrine of universal brotherhood which Christ and His apostles preached and died for. I hear a great deal about faith, and the infidel being an accursed thing; but then I see the practical Christian, like Joshua, held accursed too. What does it all mean? Let us have something definite. If the doctrines of Political Economy are true, if the law of the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest applies absolutely to human society as well as to plants and fishes, let us then be frank, and candidly admit that Christianity, in its help to the poor and weak and in its patience with the sinner, is a craze; and let us abolish the pretence of a faith which influences neither our political institutions nor our social arrangements; and which ought not to influence them. If Christ was right, modern Christianity is wrong; but if sociology is a scientific truth, then Jesus of Nazareth preached and practised not only in vain, but against unchangeable Law. Like Joshua in early days, my heart burns within me and my mind is unpiloted and unanchored. I cannot, being a Christian, accept the inhumanity of political economy and the obliteration of the individual in averages; yet I cannot reconcile modern science with Christ. Everywhere I see the sifting of competition, and nowhere Christian protection of weakness; everywhere dogma adored, and nowhere Christ realised. And again I ask, Which is truemodern society in its class strife and consequent elimination of its weaker elements, or the brotherhood and communism taught by the Jewish carpenter of Nazareth? Who will answer me ?-who will make the dark thing clear? THE END. CHATTO & WINDUS, 74 & 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. THE FAMOUS FRASER PORTRAITS. MACLISE'S GALLERY OF ILLUSTRIOUS LITERARY CHARACTERS. With Notes by the late WILLIAM MAGINN, LL.D. Edited, with copious Notes, by WILLIAM BATES, B. A. The volume contains 83 SPLENDID AND MOST CHARACTERISTIC PORTRAITS, now first issued in a complete form. In demy 4to, over 400 pages, cloth gilt and gilt edges, 31s. 6d. "Most interesting."-Saturday Review. "Not possible to imagine a more elegant addition to a drawing-room table."-Fun. "One of the most interesting volumes of this year's literature."-Times. "Deserves a place on every drawing-room table, and may not unfitly be removed from the drawing-room to the library."-Spectator. 74 & 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. B |