d not think it worth while to do any thing; the welfare of
your children and grandchildren would appear far too paltry for
so ambitious a benevolence as yours! Most people--Christians,
sceptics, or otherwise--are contented to aim at the welfare of
his generation and the next, and think as little of their
great-great-grandchildren as of their great-great-grandfathers.
That little vista terminates the projects of their philanthropy,
just as their own death is to them the end of the world. Meantime,
it appears, you would be tempted to neglect the practical little
you could do, because you could not do more than for a century or
so! Pray, which is really the more benevolent? Moreover, as not
one man in a million can or does think of benefiting any but his
immediate generation, you ought, upon your principles, still to
sit down inactive; for they for whom alone you can work will soon
pass away too. But the whole argument is too refined. No mortal--
except you or Mr. Newman--would be wrought upon by it."

"Well, but," said Fellowes, "as to the mistake of the Apostles,
there can be no doubt of that; it really appears to me grossly
disingenuous"--looking towards me--"to deny it. What do you say,
Mr. B.?" repeating his assertion that the Apostles clearly thought
that the end of the world was close at hand,--in fact, that it
would happen in their generation.

I told him I was afraid I must run the risk of appearing in his
eyes "grossly disingenuous"; not that I deemed it necessary to
maintain that the Apostles had any idea of the period of time which
was to intervene between the first promulgation of the Gospel and
the consummation of all things; for when I found our Lord himself
acknowledging, "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, not even
the angels, nor even the Son, but the Father only," I could not
wonder that the Apostles were left to mere conjectures on a subject
which was then veiled even from his humanity. I said I even thought
it probable that their vivid feeling anticipated the day,--that the
interval between, so to speak, was "foreshortened" to them; but that
I could not see how the question of their inspiration, or the
truth of Christianity, was at all involved in their ignorance on
that point; unless, indeed, it could be proved that they had
positively stated that the predicted event would take place in their
own time. This, I acknowledged, I could not find,--but much to the
contrary; that the charge, indeed