Yet this present greatness of material things dwarfs many of man's higher gifts. Its influence begins early. Even in education it makes men aim chiefly at utilita- rian objects, and at too early results. Parents do not care for anything which does not lead directly and at once to profit and pay. Whatever develops man's thinking powers, and aims simjily at making him bet- ter and nobler in himself, is thrust aside. It would take too much time; defer too long the quick harvest of gains; might make men even indifferent to worldly prosperity, and unwilling to sacrifice everything to ma- terial wealth. Or, at ail events, it lies out of the circle of men's every-day thoughts. Life is an eager race, with boundless prizes for all who press onwards and upwards. In so active a contest, with every energy on the stretch, and every exertion richly rewarded, it is no wonder if the present is enough ; and in its enjoy-
ment men thrust from them indignantly everything that would interfere with and render them less fit for the keen struggle after earthly success.
It is this spirit which makes it so difficult for men to believe in miracles. The purpose of miracles, and their whole use and intention hold so entirely distinct a place from that which is now the main purpose of the mass of men, that they will hear no evidence for them, nor stop calmly to consider whether they may not after all hold a necessary place in the order of things, and be as indispensable for man's perfectness as is this present ac- tivity. What too many do is to put aside the consid- eration of them entirely. They have a sort of notion that miracles contradict the laws of nature, and are therefore impossible. Without perhaps denying the historical accuracy of the Gospels in the main, they yet suppose that they were written by credidous men in a credulous age, and that if cool observers had been pres- ent, they could have explained on natural grounds all that took place. Probably they do not think much about the supernatural at all. They have plenty to oc- cupy them ; have no spare time; find their lives fidl of interest; they rise early to their labor and late take rest; and so are content with a general feeling that, whatever may be the explanation of man being what he is, and of the world being what it is, time will reveal it, and that no obligation lies upon a busy man to in- quire into abstruse questions, with no present profit. When business is over and old age has come, then it will be his duty to make his peace with God. And he will do so in the ordinarj' way, as other men do. Ee- ligion is a thing relegated to the background for the present; in due time he will attend to it as a practical matter, in the same way in which he will attend to the making of his will.
This thorough realism of the 19th centurj', intensified by the vast facilities of combined action and mutual in- tercourse, which make us live constantly in one an- other's company, woidd banish all care and thought of the future from our minds, if it were not that the belief in the existence of a God and of a future life is an un- dying conviction of our nature. It is a necessary part of ourselves to look forward. No present gains or suc- cesses can content us. We turn always to the future, and that with an eagerness which would make life un- endurable if we were forced to believe that life were all. The doctrine of annihilation may be professed, but can never really be believed ; for it violates the deepest in- stincts of our hearts. And thus compelled by the verv constitution of our natures to believe that there is a God, and that we exist after death, religion itself be- comes a very real thing, and supplies a real need. The existence of a God and the immortality of man are not doctrines which need proving. They are intuitions, innate ideas, which may and do gain form and shape from advancing knowledge, but which grew out of the soul itself. Over the savage they have little influence, but civilized and thinking man can never be complete and entire unless these deep instincts of his inner being have their needs fully met and satisfied. In a man who stands perfect and complete, the necessities of the future must be as fully and entirely recognised and sup- plied as the requirements of the present. He must have a religion.
Now religion is either natural or revealed. Not fhat these two are opposed. The revealed religion which we Christians profess contains and gives new authority to all the truths of natural religion, while extending it- self far beyond them. Natural religion is a dim feeling and groping after God as manifested in his works, and a disdnguishing of right from wrong, as far as the indi- cations of a righteous government existing now, and the laws of our own nature, and the marvellous gift of con- science, enable us to do so. In revealed religion Ave have fuller knowledge : knowledge of God's attributes, not merely as far as we can trace them in his works, but still more as they are manifested in his dealings with man, as