and the slogan of dogmatic controversy echoes
from shore to shore.

As we look around the ecclesiastical horizon, we find agitation and
controversy on all sides. In one denomination, it is the question of
the salvation of the _heathen_; in another, that of the virgin birth
of Christ and the apostolic succession; in a third, it is the invasion
of doubt as to the eternal torment of the wicked; in a fourth, the
evidential value of the miracles; in a fifth, the grand questions
included under the higher criticism of the Scriptures and the relative
authority of reason and the Bible. In Congregational, Episcopalian,
Baptist, Universalist, and Presbyterian folds, it is the same,
everywhere some heresy to be disciplined, some doubt to be
suppressed, some doctrinal battle hotly waged.

To the greater part of the Church, this epidemic of scepticism is a
subject of grave alarm. Unbelief seems to them, as to Mr. Moody, the
worst of sins; and they consider the only proper thing to do with it,
is to follow the advice of the Bishop of London, some years ago, and
fling doubt away as you would a loaded shell. They apparently look
upon Christianity as a huge powder magazine, which is likely to
explode if a spark of candid inquiry comes near it.

Others, on the contrary, fold their arms indifferently and regard this
new spirit of investigation as only an evanescent breeze, which can
produce no serious result upon the citadel of faith. A third party
hail it with exultation as the first trumpet blast of the theological
Goetterdaemerung, the downfall of all divine powers and the destruction
of the Christian superstition, to give place to the naked facts of
scientific materialism.

What estimate, then, shall we put on this tendency?

In the first place we must recognize that it is a serious condition;
that it is no momentary eddy, but a permanent turn in the current of
the human mind. Humanity is looking religion square in the face,
without any band over its eyes, in a way it never has before; and when
humanity once gets its eyes open to such questions,--it is in vain to
try to close them, before the questions have been thoroughly examined.
Certainly, Protestantism cannot call a halt upon this march. For it
was Protestantism itself, proclaiming at the beginning of her struggle
with Rome the right of private judgment, which started the modern mind
upon this high quest; and Protestantism is therefore bound in logic
and honor to see it thr