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Lyons, were as a body to adopt atheism and its concomitant beliefs,―utter anarchy would be inevitable. In such a case, owing to the very prosperity we have reached, and the consequent extreme concentration of population within a narrow circuit, the problem of government would be a hundredfold more difficult in England than it has. been in France and Germany even in their darkest days. But no man who examines the signs of the times can fail to see much tending to show that atheism may possibly come to have its day of fatal supremacy. Polytheism there is nothing to fear from. Pantheism, except in forms in which it is hardly distinguishable from atheism, there is comparatively little to fear from. It is improbable that this country will be afflicted to any great extent with a fever of idealistic pantheism resembling that which Germany has passed through. What chiefly threatens us is atheism in the forms of agnosticism, positivism, secularism, materialism, &c.; and it does so directly and seriously. The most influential authorities in science and philosophy, and a host of the most popular representatives of literature, are strenuously propagating it. Through the periodical press it exerts a formidable power. It has in our large centres of population missionaries who, I fear, are better qualified for their work than many of those whom our Churches send forth to advocate to the same classes

the cause of Christianity. There is a great deal in current modes of thought and feeling, and in the whole constitution and character of contemporary society, to favour its progress. Atheism is a foe opposition to which, and to what tends to produce it, ought to draw together into earnest co-operation all who believe in God and love their country.1 1 See Appendix IV.

LECTURE II.

ANCIENT MATERIALISM.

I.

IN the present day there is no kind of anti-theism, no kind of atheism, so prevalent and so formidable as materialism. Wherever we find just now an anti-theistic or atheistic system popular, we may be certain that it is either a form of materialism or that it has originated in materialism, and draws from it its life and support. It is necessary for us, therefore, to turn our attention to materialism, the chief and central source of contemporary antitheistic speculations. I shall treat of it at some length, owing to its importance, but I shall treat of it only in so far as it is anti-theistic. It has other aspects and relations, but these I do not require to consider. With much that has sometimes been included in materialism, I have fortunately here no concern.

Materialists have not unfrequently sought to

represent the history of physical science and speculation as inseparable from, if not identical with, the history of materialism. Their right to do so is, of course, denied by all their opponents. Spiritualists of every class maintain that nothing accomplished by physical science has carried us by a single step nearer materialism. All consistent theists believe that the progress of physical science has been a continuous illustration of the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. Materialism cannot be allowed, therefore, quietly and illogically to take for granted that the interests of physical science are specially bound up with its own. At the same time it may be acknowledged, and I desire to acknowledge it cordially, that materialism and materialistic theories have largely contributed to the advancement of physical science, and have indirectly profited even mental science. It would be altogether unjust to regard them as merely hurtful or merely useless. They have suggested and stimulated the most varied researches. It is no accidental circumstance that they have abounded during every age in which physical science has been prosecuted with vigour and success. Wherever physical science is generally enterprising it must also be often audacious. If it were never unreasonably hopeful and ambitious, its achievements would be comparatively few and mean. The material universe can be

under-estimated as well as over-estimated, and the exaggerations even of materialism are needful to secure its being estimated aright. It was Coleridge, I think, who, when asked what could be the use of the stars if not inhabited, replied that it might be to show that dirt was cheap. The theologians, the metaphysicians, the moral philosophers, and large classes of religionists have always been prone to regard matter as merely "dirt," and to forget that it is the wonderful work and glorious manifestation of God; and so long as this error is committed, the opposite error may serve a providential purpose. Ignorance of physical nature, or injustice to it, is fatal even to philosophy and theology. There was very little materialism during the middle ages; but at that time, also, physical science languished and died, and the philosophical theology which prevailed dogmatised, in consequence, so confidently and foolishly on the origin and nature of the universe and its relations to the Creator, that the grandest truths were discredited by being associated with the most ridiculous blunders.

There is a prevalent notion that materialism is at least a very definite theory which, whether true or false, cannot be mistaken for any other. In reality it is a general term which has many and discordant applications, and which comprehends a crowd of heterogeneous theories. There are sys

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