hich compose the deepest 'slough of infamy'
into which the Gospel has ever been plunged.

But from all these charges and counter-charges, it would seem to be
clear that real {28} Christianity compels respect even where it is
viewed with aversion, that its progress is hindered by nothing so much
as by the unworthiness of its adherents, that it gains assent by
nothing so much as by the manifestation of Christian lives.

Will any one venture to deny that the world would be vastly improved
were every one in it to be a genuine Christian, animated by Christian
motives, doing Christian deeds? The revolution would be immense,
indescribable: it would be the end of all evil: it would be the
establishment of all good. No man's hand would be against another, all
would strive together for the welfare of the whole, there would be no
contention save how to excel in love and in good works. The human
imagination cannot depict anything more glorious, more ennobling, than
the will of God done on earth as it is done in heaven, and this is what
would be if the thoughts of every heart were brought {29} into
captivity to the obedience of Christ. The most splendid dreams of the
most exalted visionaries would be more than fulfilled: everything true
and lovely and of good report would be ratified and confirmed:
everything false and vile would be changed and purified, and nothing to
hurt or destroy or defile would remain. The fulfilment of that ideal
is simply the universal prevalence of Christianity, the universal
triumph of Christ.

The systems and tendencies at which we are about to glance owe their
vitality to the Faith which they attempt to supersede. They are, in so
far as they are good, either tending towards Christianity or borrowing
from it. The insufficiency of mere material well-being, the
irresistible association of Religion with Morality, the worship of the
Universe, the worship of Humanity, all are signs of the ineradicable
instinct of the Unseen and Eternal, of the unquenchable thirst for the
Living God; and belief in the Living {30} God finds its noblest
illustration and confirmation in Him Who said, 'He that hath seen Me
hath seen the Father,' in Him to whom the searching scrutiny of
critical inquirers, as well as the fervid devotion of believers, bears
so marvellous a witness. We hope to show not only that the abolition
of Christianity might 'be attended with sundry inconveniences,' or that
the assumption of there bei