the
materialistic philosophy of France.

Gibbon and Paine came into notice after Bolingbroke, and the terrible
strife continued. Christianity was pronounced dead, and a prostitute was
chosen to impersonate the "Goddess of Reason" in the national
convention. God being dethroned in France, we should naturally look
there for the "absolute liberty" which unbelievers talk so much about.
But how was it? Were the people without a religious nature? Could they
think more freely? Were they in any sense better off? No, they "followed
the prostitute into the church of 'Notre Dame' in a grand procession and
seated her upon the high altar, where she was worshiped by the
audience." This was the result of the labors of all the authors to which
I have called your attention. It was a wonderful gain? In all the public
cemeteries this inscription was read: "Death is an eternal sleep."
Cabanis, Destutt de Tracy and Volney close up the seventeenth century,
but just about this time the "Critique of Pure Reason," a work which is
the bed-rock of modern metaphysics, makes its appearance. According to
its teachings there are no realities in the world.

The struggle is passed in England. In France all are dull, drowsy. In
Germany all are hungry for the food that satisfies unbelievers. The
"Critique of Pure Reason" was followed by the labors of Fitche. He was
succeeded by Schelling, and he by Hegel. All forms of torture must be
added to this account of the conflict if we would get a glimpse of the
strength of the Christian religion and of the religious element in man's
nature, from the amount of resistance which they have defied. Eusebius
says, "The swords became dull and shattered" under Diocletian. "The
executioners became weary and had to relieve each other." This would not
look as though Christianity would take the throne in four score years,
but it did in spite of all those cruel murders. Through Constantine it
became the state religion of the Roman Empire. Paganism crumbled down
and Christianity triumphed over all the opposition of the old world. The
books of the Old and New Testaments have all been thoroughly tested,
over and over in the fiery furnace of criticism, but Christianity still
lives to bless the hearts of widows and orphans; to bless the
disappointed and disconsolate. To-day there are more Christians in the
world than ever before.

What has unbelief to give to the people of our age more than it offered
centuries ago? Nothing!