the rude tribes of Africa, still in the state of the childhood of
humanity, we have what has been called the _parler enfantin_ of
religion:--it is that rude and unformed speech, as of spiritual babes
and sucklings, which principally makes them to differ from the
anthropoid apes of their tropical forests: "un peuple est compte pour
quelque chose le jour ou il s'eleve a la pensee de Dieu."[27] But the
spirit of the age is unquestionably hostile to all these creeds from the
highest to the lowest. In Europe there is a movement--of its breadth and
strength I shall say more presently--the irreconcilable hostility of
which to "all religion and all religiosity," to use the words of the
late M. Louis Blanc, is written on its front. Thought is the most
contagious thing in the world, and in these days pain unchanged, but
with no firm ground of faith, no "hope both sure and stedfast, and which
entereth into that within the vail," no worthy object of desire whereby
man may erect himself above himself, whence he may derive an
indefectible rule of conduct, a constraining incentive to
self-sacrifice, an adequate motive for patient endurance,--such is the
vision of the coming time, as it presents itself to many of the most
thoughtful and competent observers.

II.

In these circumstances it is natural that so thoughtful and competent an
observer as the author of "Ecce Homo" should take up his parable. And
assuredly few who have read that beautiful book, so full of lofty
musing, and so rich in pregnant suggestion, however superficial and
inconsequent, will have opened the volume which he has recently given to
the world without high expectation. It will be remembered that in his
preface to his former work, he tells us that he was dissatisfied with
the current conceptions of Christ, and unable to rest content without a
definite opinion regarding Him, and so was led to trace His biography
from point to point, with a view of accepting those conclusions about
Him which the facts themselves, weighed critically, appeared to warrant.
And now, after the lapse of well-nigh two decades, the author of "Ecce
Homo" comes forward to consider the religious outlook of the world.
Surely a task for which he is in many respects peculiarly well-fitted.
Wide knowledge of the modern mind, broad sympathies, keen and delicate
perceptions, freedom from party and personal ends, and a power of
graceful and winning statement must, upon all hands, be conceded to h