opinions as we know
them, they would have been liable to deposition. Yet the difficulties
that these men might feel were far less than those that now beset the
profession of our prevailing creeds. The advances of knowledge on all
the subjects that come into contact with the various articles, as
received by the orthodox Churches, may not, indeed, compel the
relinquishment of those articles, but will force the holders to change
front, to re-shape them in different forms. To such necessary
modification, the creeds are a fatal obstacle. On a few points, such as
the Creation in six days, these have been found elastic. The doctrine
that death came by the fall has been explained away as spiritual death.
This process cannot go much further, without too much paltering with
obvious meanings. The recently-proclaimed doctrine of the Antiquity of
Man comes into apparent conflict with man's creation and fall, as set
forth in Genesis, on which are suspended the most vital doctrines of our
creed. A reconciliation may be possible, but not without a very
extensive modification of the scheme of the Atonement. It is not
necessary to press Darwin's doctrine of Evolution; the deficiency of
positive proof for that hypothesis may always be pleaded, as against the
havoc it would make with the more distinctive points of Christian
doctrine. But the existence of man on the earth, at the very lowest
statement, must be carried back twenty thousand years; this is not
hypothesis, but fact. The record of the creation and the fall of man
will probably have to be subjected to a process of allegorising, but
with inevitable loss. Now, whoever refuses a matter of fact counts on
being severely handled; it is a different thing to refuse an allegory.

The modern doctrine named the "struggle for existence" is the old
difficulty, known as "the origin of evil," presented in a new shape. It
is rendered more formidable, as a stumbling-block to the benevolence of
the Author of nature, by making what was considered exceptional the
rule. It gathers up into one comprehensive statement the scattered
occasions of misery, and reveals a system whereby the few thrive at the
expense of the many. The apologist for Divine goodness has thus an
aggravation of his load, and needs to be freed from all unnecessary
trammels in the shaping of his creed.

[OPPOSING DOGMAS TO THE RECONCILED.]

It has not escaped attention, that the honours paid to the illustrious
Darwin, are an admi