THE EXPOSITOR'S LIBRARY

MODERN SUBSTITUTES
FOR CHRISTIANITY

BY THE VERY REV.

PEARSON McADAM MUIR D.D.

MINISTER OF GLASGOW CATHEDRAL
CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE KING

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat

HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON — NEW YORK — TORONTO

First Published . . . December 1909
Second Edition  . . . October 1912

IN MEMORIAM
S. A. M.
JUNE 3, 1847. OCTOBER 5, 1871
FEBRUARY 12, 1907

CONTENTS

I

POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY

'Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?'—S. LUKE vi. 46.

'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.'—ROMANS ii. 24.

'What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?'—ROMANS iii. 3.

'By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.'—2 S. PETER ii. 1.

'So is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.'—1 S. PETER ii. 15.

I

POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY

That there is at present a widespread alienation from the Christian Faith can hardly be denied. Sometimes by violent invective, sometimes by quiet assumption, the conclusion is conveyed that Christianity is obsolete. Whatever benefits it may have conferred in rude, unenlightened ages, it is now outgrown, it is not in keeping with the science and discovery of modern times. 'The good Lord Jesus has had His day,'[1] is murmured in pitying condescension towards those who still suffer themselves to be deceived by the antiquated superstition. The statements in which our forefathers embodied the relations between God and man are no longer, except by a very few, considered adequate; and there is everywhere a demand that those statements should be recast. Is not all this an irresistible proof that the beliefs of the Church have been abandoned, that the old notions of the Divine care, the spiritual world, the everlasting life, cannot be maintained, must be relegated to the realm of imagination? The blessings with which Christianity is commonly credited spring from other sources: the evils with which society is infected are its result, direct or indirect.

I

Such accusations, it may occur to us, cannot be made seriously: they bear their refutation in the very making; they cannot be propounded with any expectation of being accepted. This may seem self-evident to us: it is not self-evident to multitudes of eager, earnest men. The accusations are persistently made by vigorous writers and impassioned speakers, and are received as incontrovertible propositions. However astonishing, however painful, it may be for us to hear, it is well that we should know, what, in largely circulated books and periodicals, and in mass meetings of the people, is said about the Faith which we profess, and about us who profess it.

Listen to some of the terms in which Christianity is impeached.

'I undertake,' says Mr. Winwood Reade, 'I undertake to show that the destruction of Christianity is essential to the interests of civilisation; and also that man will never attain his full powers as a moral being, until he has ceased to believe in a personal God, and in the immortality of the soul. Christianity must be destroyed.'[2]

'The hostile evidence,' says Mr. Philip Vivian, 'appears to be overwhelming. Christianity cannot be true. Provided that we see things as they really are, and not as we wish them to be, we cannot but come to this conclusion. We cannot get away from facts. Modern knowledge forces us to admit that the