.NO. 9.
SYMI'OSIVM
494
mil tlmt it litis spread and Nourished for
eighteen centuries; and this too, in spitu
of the many corruptions which have on
cumbered it and tliu opposition which lias
sought to root it out of existence. Thislael
increases the dilllculties of the slu-ptic
in trying to demonstrate it logical tin
couiuliu'ss. Hut let us for a moment as
sume the truth of Christianity that we
mny m' what effect skeptical literature
lms had upon it. From the very first,
Christianity lm encountered tlie insidious
attack of skepticism. We say, Iroin the
very first, for, during the first few centu
ries ot the Christian era, this form of op.
position wa.s quite as vigorous as at pres.
cut. Indeed, modern skeptics have res
tated much of what was brought forward
by those of tho puriod roforod to, and
luiveoriginntud hut comparatively few ar
guments. Now skepticism lms been a
purifying agent. If it assails tho car
dinnl principles of Christianity, it com
pp the apologist of Hint hollnf to p.vmn.
inc them with the deepest scrutiny. The
truth of these is thus made more appar
out.
If doubt, again, assails what is really a
blemish in religion, it awakens the same
apologist to a fuller sense of the imper
fections of his creed, and is thus an agent
in causing their disappearance. If inquiry
were hushed, and if society wete' stagnant
who would doubt that the result would he
fatal to a pure form of religion? If any
proof is required, we need only point to
the condition of the church during tlie
Dark Ages. Hut with the emancipation
of mind in the sixteenth century, came a
purer form of religion, and the tendency
to the better has continued to tho present
day. Intolerance and bigotry have grad
ually been eliminated from the practice of
religious bodies. Has not Christianity,
then, been a gainer by free inquiry, and is
not the correlative progress of Christianity
and civilization a strong argument for the
truth of the former J 0. F. M.
