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THE PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF ATHEISM.

Atheism is a denial of the existence of God, but such denial amounts to nothing unless supported by affirmative facts and principles which lead to that conclusion. It, then, must have a basis of its own made up of positive affirmations outside and independent of Christianity. But the prin

ciples of this dark speculation have ever been so very shifting and uncertain that it has been difficult to subject them to the tests of philosophical criticism. But before rejecting all religion, natural and revealed, we have a right to know what will take its place; and if it is to be atheism, we demand that the facts and principles on which it rests be put into logical order for our inspection. Has this ever been done? We have systems of theology, systems of ethics, systems of political economy, but are yet to meet atheism per se reduced to a system of thought. In the absence of affirmative principles atheism is a sweeping but empty negation. But scattered through atheistic literature we meet here and there with affirmative statements which seem to serve as the base to the conclusions reached, and it may be the duty of Christian authors to gather these together and subject them to the sharpest analysis, to the widest generalization, and see how they look in the hot focus of philosophical criticism. Atheism in philosophy, we think, would be like flax in a flame.

H. H. MOORE.

THE EDUCATIONAL AIMS OF UNBELIEF.

Little doubt remains as to precisely what infidelity proposes to accomplish in the educational systems and institutions of the United States. In his Political Science, published ten years ago, Dr. Woolsey wrote: "We have not yet quite reached the extreme that the teacher must never mention God to children's ears, but it must logically come if modern unbelief is to have the career that many look for." The logic of events has confirmed the logic of this unwelcome prediction, and in less than a decade it has been fulfilled. An education purely secular is now the demand of some. By these the Bible is denounced as a sectarian book, unfit to be read in the public schools; and moral principles are ignored in the curricula and lecture-rooms on the specious plea that the State cannot undertake to teach sectarianism.

Schools are for learning, and learning is for life. All concepts of education that sink the human in the scholastic, and make scholarship the end of life, are false and mischievous. Life is the end of scholarship. We educate our children that they may know how to live and make the most of their opportunities. As Christians, we believe that their moral nature should receive its requisite share of attention. Intellectual training alone will not meet the demand. Lecky, in his History of European Morals, says: "It is one of the plainest of facts that neither the individuals nor the ages that have been most distinguished for intellectual achievements have been most distinguished for moral excellence; and

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that a high intellectual and material civilization has often co-existed with much depravity." On the contrary, he says: Many of the most splendid outbursts of moral enthusiasm may be traced to an overwhelming force of conviction rarely found in cultivated minds." We do not fancy the modern trend of things toward the ideal supremacy of intellectual culture as the end and aim of life. It is a step backward, not forward. Its highest good was attained in ancient Athens, a city wholly given to idolatry, and in Rome, as brutal and licentious a metropolis as history exhibits.

Our children are entitled to as thorough a moral training as our fathers received. They require that kind of instruction which recognizes their responsibility and immortality, and fits them not only to think, but to think wisely; not only to reason, but to reason in harmony with the will and ways of God; and the friends of Christian morality must come to the defense of this right if they would save the rising generation from the seductive influences of that subtle unbelief which is rapidly transforming our public school system into the educational ideals of atheism. JAMES H. POTTS.

ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN BOSTON.

Its

Roman Catholicism assumes supremacy in Boston. The spirit of this ecclesiasticism is the spirit which was dominant in the Middle Ages. political ascendency has been characterized by the most disreputable proceedings. A preacher is sent to prison for a year for the crime (?) of preaching the Gospel, and holding religious services decently and in order on Boston Common, while "Buffalo Bill" is given license to exhibit his "Wild West" on Sunday afternoon within city limits, and his Honor (?) the Mayor gives his approval to professional pugilism by attending a meeting which was called together to present a prize (?) belt to the brute Sullivan.

Roman Catholic priests denounce the common schools, and set up their protests in the form of un-American parochial schools. Not satisfied with the compulsory withdrawal of Roman Catholic children from the public schools, they ask to have Roman Catholics elected members of the School Board, Roman Catholic teachers and Roman Catholic instruction in the schools whenever Roman Catholic majorities obtain, thus setting city ordinances to defy the constitution of the Commonwealth.

The Roman Catholics seek to suppress the indisputable facts of history by expurgating from the schools an authentic book, and by removing a teacher from the chair of instruction which he has filled acceptably for twenty years. And lastly, they seck to evade responsibility for the course they pursue by taking positions which are untenable, setting forth reasons which are unreasonable, and making statements which are untrue.

J. W. HAMILTON.

EDITORIAL REVIEWS.

FOREIGN RÉSUMÉ.

THE GENERAL SITUATION.

THE religious world of the old continent is quite generally startled with a new movement on the part of the Catholic Church, evidently induced by commands from Rome. This is nothing less than a revival of the Kulturkampf. The decree that renews throughout Europe this unfortunate contest goes forth from a recent Catholic convention held in Freiburg, at the particular request and with the apostolic blessing of the Pontiff. This new drama has as its sphere of action no less than three fields-the school, the temporal power of the pope, and the question of the religious orders. The leader of the old party of the Center in the German Parliamentthe now famous Windhorst-was evidently the constructor of the programme, and he chose his arenas to renew the struggle with great skill, for "agitation" is his watchword. Beyond this he cannot go, whatever may be his illusions in the matter. Lightning does not strike twice in the same place. His foes now know his tactics, and will use them to defeat their creator. The story that the pope rules the world is a very old one, but it has of late lost its flavor by defeat. The new feature now is, that the direct appeal is not to the spiritual subjects of the pope, but to govern. ments and persons who have never conceded that he has any right to rule the world. The Napoleonic era broke the charm of that fantasy, and it will never again be able to resume its full power.

The line of action now is the unseemly meddling, not alone with the external but even with the internal affairs of the kingdom of Italy—a species of bold declaration of war against the Italian people and kingdom simply because these deemed Rome to be the capital of Italy, and equality between clergy and laity on the platform of civil duties and criminal proceedings. This assumption is now the more unseemly from the fact that Germany recently resented it, and is now in alliance with Italy politically in the interest of general peace, and any violation of this etiquette on the part of Germany towards Italy would kindle a fire that might lead to a general revolution in Europe.

The presentation of such demands just now appears as a challenge, and no nation would yield to these irreconcilable worthies of the Church which would mold foreign policy according to the good pleasure of the Holy See. The most that Germany could do in this direction it has done, namely, given an embassador to the Vatican to reside in Rome and maintain friendly intercourse of the Catholic Church of Germany with the Pontifical court at Rome. The German Emperor on his late visit to Rome kept up the supposed independence of the Vatican from the Italian government by starting on his visit to the Pope in his own state carriage

from the embassy, and therefore by a silly sort of fiction keeping up the appearance of temporal sovereignty of the Vatican. But in his private interview with the Roman Pontiff it is understood that the Emperor gave the Pope no hope of the interference of Germany for a restoration of the temporal power. The court of the Vatican is greatly chagrined at this disappointment, and now sounds the tocsin all along the line among Catholic nations to come to the rescue. But the slightest movement in this direction on the part of any would be the signal for an outbreak that all intensely fear.

I. RELIGIOUS.

IN FRANCE the order of the day seems to be revision, whether for better or for worse. The Reformed Church appears to be struck with this spirit of unrest as well as the politicians. The demand there has been for some time revision of the liturgy, or rather, we may say, a selection of the fittest from the various forms for some time in use. The General Synod appointed a commission for this purpose, with Pastor Bersier at the head of it. A better choice could not have been made, for he is not only the leading pulpit orator of the Protestant Church in France, but also a well-known liturgist, as he has demonstrated in his own attractive church near the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, where he to a select public has given his own beautiful liturgy, as his is a branch of the Free Church. A Protestant congregation abroad finds it very tame and dispiriting not to have some exercise in which all can take a prominent part.

Last summer there appeared a trial compilation entitled, "Projet de Revision de la liturgie des Eglise Reformées de Francé," with an historical introduction and a critical commentary. This work is quite an advance toward the liturgy of the Lutheran Church of France, though this is not acknowledged as such expressly by Bersier. He was obliged in his work to reckon above all things with the leading views of the Reformed Church, while not entirely disregarding some of the rationalistic views of later periods, and not adopting too much of the old Reformed liturgies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

He appears to seek honestly to give to his brethren in the faith the sound principles of a thoughtful and serious church service in which not so much a sermon as a spiritual worship shall appear, that shall draw the entire congregation to a direct participation in the public worship. He restores the divisions of the church year, and gives to the Sabbaths their old ecclesiastical names. He demands in every service of the Sabbath the usual confession of sins, and adds to it the absolution, though not in the strong form introduced by Calvin. The question of the absolution will be the delicate one for the Synod, and will doubtless be warmly contested. It is to be hoped that the result will be in this line to unite all the Reformed Churches of France.

FRENCH SWITZERLAND seems cursed with an era of levity and dissipation. The days of fasting and prayer that were formerly observed with

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much sincerity are now mainly devoted to pleasure and excesses. state of things has become so dangerous and distasteful to the more thoughtful element of society that the town council of Lausanne on the last fast-day thought it fitting and advisable to issue an appeal to the people to observe it. Thus far it is comforting at least to know that both the republic and the monarchies of Europe think it desirable to instill into the popular mind the worth and significance of religious ways and guidance.

This appeal from a civil body addressed to the people in the interest of morality and religion is so rare and peculiar that we think it well worth transcribing in brief as an example. It runs as follows: "Justice elevates a people; sin is the shame of nations; order and prosperity are impossible without the fear of God. We trust in God, who has hitherto protected this land, and invite you, our fellow-citizens, to give him thanks for his ever-renewed deeds of mercy. Though a few erring spirits venture to demand the separation of religion from society, though they endeavor to exclude God from public and private life, from the hospitals and the schools, from the home and even from the Church, our people see, nevertheless, that without the help of a strong God and a firm faith social progress is but an imperfect work. Our nation is a Christian na tion because it is, and will remain, free. It believes in the kingdom of Christ, and that it is a rule of justice, peace, and truth, and that the Gospel is a power. Fellow-citizens, let us watch over ourselves, let us watch over our youth and make them the objects of our greatest care. The school shall endeavor to impart useful knowledge, but it is for the home hearth to impart those teachings that will make our youth good and great."

This refreshing admonition of a civic council was so different from the traditional phrases of thanksgiving documents that it produced a great impression throughout the land. The scoffers called it the "pastoral letter" of the city fathers, but all moral and Christian people rejoiced at this unexpected call from government circles for the cause of soberness and religion. The result was that a monster excursion to a neighboring town that was planned for the holiday was given up, and the good people of Lausanne spent the day as their fathers were wont to, in thoughtfulness and quiet thanksgiving and prayer.

That this action of the Council was needed may be learned from the influence exerted by it, and from a comparison with other localities on that same day. From Geneva, not far distant, from the city of John Calvin, from the “Protestant Rome," which is frequently quoted as the most intelligently Christian city of Europe, no less than twenty thousand persons went out to a great resort known as the Salvèe, and other pleasure resorts. This movement on the part of Lausanne ought to do good, and we sincerely hope that it will. But when popular customs are fastened on a people it is not very easy to uproot them. The good example of Lausanne should be tried another year in every center of Switzerland, because it is sorely needed.

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