In this struggle the priests are not idle. Their bread and butter is not going to be taken from them if they can hinder it, and with the terrible energy of drowning men, who grasp at straws, they are seeking, not so much to uphold their old faith, as to counteract the new, and what Hinduism has failed to do, Infidelity must try to accomplish. Money is freely poured forth, the country is flooded by infidel literature, and an army of noisy, unscrupulous, irreligious orators are to be met with in all the crowded centres.

In the Revolution, social, political and religious, in that great land, anything is possible, and if we but faithfully can follow our Lord and Master, there is no reason why Christ should not there speedily reign.

Hinduism and Caste have lost their hold in the advanced classes, and are speedily becoming a dead power amongst all; the Missionaries have the confidence of the people as no other class has; on every side we find wide open doors into which we are invited to enter; thousands have already entered the Christian fold and a great multitude are pressing onward towards its portals. What though an enemy, determined and strong, oppose, though the seige has been long and discouraging, since God is for us, who can be against us? In His name we must triumph, and in faith shall we not push on, expecting soon to hear the crash of that old citadel of Satan, as to its very foundations it is overthrown, and rejoicing to plant in its stead the blood stained banner of Jesus, that in so many a hard fought field has always won the day.

The warm hearted hospitality of the Montreal homes, and the earnest efforts of the Alliance, presided over by our Lord and Master, led by the fathers and heroes of the Church of Christ, whose experience and victories in the past have taught them the wisdom we all need, will enable us all the better to fight our great common enemy, and unitedly to pray that we may all be one in Christ and with Christ, to His glory. Amen.

The Chairman regretted the absence of Sir Robert Phayre who was to have delivered an address.

The benediction was pronounced and the meeting ended.

A Conversazione followed, in the lecture-hall of the Church, which was attended by the delegates, their hosts, and hostesses, the members of the Montreal Evangelical Alliance, and a number of the leading Christian people of the city. Refreshments were served and a very pleasant hour was spent.

TUESDAY, 23rd OCTOBER, 1888.

MORNING SESSION.

The Conference of the Evangelical Alliance assembled at 10 a.m., in the American Presbyterian Church.

Rev. D. Macrae, D.D., St. John, N.B., occupied the chair.

The Rev. Jno.

The proceedings opened with the singing of hymn (No. 5) Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." Lathern, D.D., of Halifax, led in prayer.

TOPIC: CURRENT UNBELIEF.

CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS.

REV. D. MACRAE, D.D., ST. JOHN, N.B.

THE CHAIRMAN read Nehemiah iv. and Psalms xi., xiii. and xx., after which he said :

May I be permitted to regard this passage as setting forth figuratively the work in which we are engaged; the hole in particular, the rubbish, the manner in which the work was done, and the blessing of the Lord God the result. Doubtless, some of the rubbish may have been due to the corrosion of time, or the destructive efforts of foes. Some of the rubbish may have been due of old, as it is due to-day, to the labors of those who are constructing-the labors of the workmen. As to the confusion, it will surely be admitted that current unbelief is represented by the other enemies that Israel had of old to encounter. We venture to regard the result in the case before us in this chapter as prophetic of the work in which we are engaged. It would be presumptuous in me to detain you with any lengthened remarks in view of the fact that a paper on the subject has been prepared with great thought and care. That subject is "current unbelief," and it is a mournful fact that it is "current." Twenty years ago it was my privilege to listen to a great statesman, afterwards Lord Beaconsfield, delivering his Lord Rector's address to the students of the University of Glasgow, in Scotland. No part of

that address was listened to with more breathless interest than when he spoke of the deadly influence of Atheism rising like a mournful wind throughout Europe, and presaged the time when by possibility large portions of the whole of Europe would be divided into two camps-both hostile to the truth-Romanism and Infidelity. Three or four months ago, we saw Gladstone, the life-long antagonist of the statesman referred to, descending to the arena to discuss the very same question with an American citizen. Unbelief at one time timid and retiring, has in our day become arrogant and dogmatic. It has assumed ten thousand disguises, now masking itself behind the batteries of scientific speculation, now skirmishing in various periodicals, now arraying itself for holiday parade in the garb of our light literature, now it has begun to sound its trumpet in our streets, (at any rate, in the streets of places in the Maritime Provinces, and, no doubt, elsewhere,) at the lips of lecturers, hired to gather recruits to its ghastly ranks; now (taking up sometimes the attitude of a proud humility) it pities the weakness of those who still retain what they term the superstition of faith, and it sheds the tears of agnosticism over the sins and sorrows of that humanity which it deifies as being the measure of all things and degrades it to the level of the brute, and beneath it. Of such characteristics I make no doubt we shall be this morning clearly and fully informed. Let me venture to surmise at this point, that to whatever secondary causes this spread of unbelief may be traced, whether to the character of the scientific speculations of our age, or to the fierce, competitive spirit that has entered into the pursuit of riches, or to the selfish proclivities of our age, or to the faults, theological and practical, of the churches; let me surmise that a certain old sage, who wrote at a time when flabbiness of thought was not confounded with robustness of intellectual character, would characterize all such speculations in the same terse terms which have lived down through the centuries, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." Despite that curious philosophy, in defiance of every sound principle of casualty, which dreams of manufacturing conscious being, and creating the personal by the designing craft of the impersonal, this same sage would still retain the conviction taught by Paul when he wrote Romans i., 20: "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." We only experience the certainty, proven on many a battlefield of a similar character, that every assault made on our faith but results in the

wondrous providence of our God in Christ-in bringing forth fresh armor from the great armory that He has provided, in rendering the weapons sharper and more effective, and in redounding to the benefit of His cause on earth. I will not detain you further than to introduce Rev. Principal Burwash, who will shed light on the topic before us.

CURRENT UNBELIEF: WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO MEET IT.

REV. CHANCELLOR BURWASH, Coburg.

What is this current unbelief? The very name used to distinguish it; "current unbelief" points out its specific characteristic. It is the unbelief which is generally diffused, that which is most common among the men of our time.

Is there such an unbelief? Is it a fact that religious difficulties and doubts exist very generally among the thoughtful men of our age? Have these doubts and difficulties in any large number of cases assumed the more serious form of unbelief?. If so, what is the nature of these doubts? and what is their cause? and what influences have developed them into the chronic form of unbelief? The consideration of these questions under our first head will prepare us for the second and more practical part of our subject.

In answering our first question,-"Does the phenomenon of religious doubt and difficulty exist to such an extent as to be characteristic of our age?"—we must not exaggerate or yield to an unnecessary alarm. Thoughtful men of all ages have asked for a reason of their faith and hope. The question, "Why do I believe thus, and so?" is but the just prerogative of our intellectual manhood; and every man who rises to the plane of higher thought must ask the question, and the higher the level to which he rises the more profound and searching will be the questioning, or, if you will, the scepticism. This spirit of doubting inquiry is but the ploughshare which prepares for the harvest of a higher and more perfect knowledge. The old verdure of the pasture-field or prairie undisturbed for ages disappears for a little season, but only to give place to the richer verdure of the new springing seed with its harvest of golden grain. If, therefore, the spirit of questioning is more prominent in our age than in some others, it is not by any means an evil thing. It is the symptom of

intellectual life. Such a spirit has been characteristic of every age of intellectual awakening in the world's history. We can trace its influence in the Buddhism and Confucianism of the far East. It has clearly left its mark upon the books of Job and Ecclesiastes and upon many of the Psalms in the Hebrew religious life. It accompanied the great philosophic development of Greece. It ran parallel with the first centuries of Christianity itself. Nay more, we may say that it touched the very origin of Christianity. Our Lord taught the world to question the old superstitions and traditions of the Scribes, that he might lift the world to a more intelligent faith. The mighty intellectual movement of the scholastic age had its doubt; and Protestantism itself was the outcome of a most revolutionary and fundamental process of questioning. And since the great Protestant Revolution in the world of thought each century has had its form of doubt and questioning, side by side with its own great intellectual movement. In the seventeenth century Herbert and Hobbes stand beside Milton, Locke, and Newton. In the eighteenth, Bolingbroke, Hume, and Priestly stand beside Pope, Halley, Butler, Franklin, and Watt. What wonder, then, that our age should be as pre-eminent in its range of doubt and questioning as it is in its range and magnitude of intellectual movement. And if the characteristic of our age is the intellectual quickening of the masses, we must expect the spirit of questioning to disturb them likewise. And that such is actually the case no one can doubt, who, on the one hand, takes a careful survey of our modern literature, or who, on the other hand, converses with the better educated working-men, or takes a look at the books and periodicals which they read. There is in our age a widespread questioning of traditional beliefs, affecting a majority of the men and not a few women. And this questioning does result in a certain, though not very large percentage of cases, in loss of religious faith. With another and perhaps somewhat larger class it has introduced confusion and weakness into the foundations of religious life. Both these are deplorable results and require our careful consideration. Why are these things so? Why should the awakening of our intellectual life, which is a good thing, ever result in detriment to our religious life? If the foundations of our religious life are in immutable truth, then no increase of light can harm them. The works of truth only seek the light that they may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. It is our boast that the Christian religion courts the fullest investigation. Why should inquiry or doubt ever result in detriment to or loss of religious faith? The