which Christianity and morality are separated, and how it is forgotten what the office of Christianity really is, how it alone imparts the power to do our duty to our fellow-man.

This is the deistical view of morality. It is the one which was inculcated by Tindal in his treatise, "Christianity as Old as the Creation, or the Gospel a Republication of the Religion of Nature." It was this work which Bishop Butler had especially in view when he wrote the "Analogy." Tindal represented the views of the great deistical writers of the eighteenth century. They looked on a system of morality as the chief part of religion. They regarded man as having the inherent power to perform all moral duty. They did not believe in supernatural religion. This they characterized as priestcraft. They did not believe in redemption by the Son of God. They did not feel the need of divine help, and did not therefore believe in grace, and in all the appointed modes of approaching the Redeemer of the world.

There is the same deistical tendency in our day, but disguised under a more refined manner; so that it appears to be inculcating the religion of Christ. There seems in some ways and in certain quarters to be a tendency to bring into prominence the ethical teaching of our religion, but to pass by its supernatural grace. This was made very manifest a few

years ago in a book which was published anonymously under the title of "Ecce Homo." The design of the book was not at first apparent; but the author afterwards, in a "Supplementary Preface," said that he had "endeavored to describe a moralist speaking with authority, and perpetuating his doctrine by means of a society. It is the union of morals and politics that he finds to be the characteristic of Christianity." There was a philosophic tone maintained in the discussion, and the beautiful spirit of Christian virtue brought out very prominently, which probably gave the book a popularity which by no means belonged to it. But I notice it here, as indicating the influence of a certain view of the moral life which is becoming more common, and which seems to be received as a substitute for the Christian life. The author did not refer to Christianity in order to bring into view its real character as a revealed religion, as a means of redeeming man, and new creating the sinful soul. All this was ignored in his description of the kingdom of Christ. But he dwelt on the moral side of the work of Christ, and seemed to attempt to show why the teaching of Jesus begat and maintained a life of virtue. He looked at the morality of the gospel as Stuart Mill had looked at it, yet certainly in a very different spirit. He saw the beauty of its virtue, and he saw also that its moral teaching had had a won

derful historical effect on the world. Mill' seemed to be moved by a hostile spirit, which prevented him from recognizing the moral effect of the gospel, and he appears anxious to put the moral teaching of the gospel at a discount. He was more hostile to the gospel than Tindal; for the latter saw in the New Testament a moral life, which had been the teaching of nature from the very beginning. But "Ecce Homo" brought out and exhibited the morality and the virtues which Christ and His apostles taught. The feeling on laying down the book was that Christ was the great teacher of virtue, and that for this purpose He had come into the world, and had set up a kingdom.

This is one view which is extensively taken of the gospel to-day. There is a professed belief in Christ, in His revelation, in His Church, in His sacraments and ordinances; but that belief regards Him only as a teacher of morals. Many constant attendants on public worship in church on Sunday confess, and emphatically proclaim it, that they do not believe in Christ as a Mediator, as the Daysman, standing between God and man, as the Intercessor ever sitting at the right hand of God, but only as a moral Teacher. And they regard the Church, its worship and its ordinances, simply as inspiring and upholding such morality and virtue. If they look to the life beyond

I See Mill on Liberty; and the Three Essays on Religion.

the grave, they regard virtue and morality as leading to it, apart from redemption and grace, and as insuring its rewards. Bold confessions are made of the rejection and ignoring of much that is taught in sermons on Sunday. There is only a part of the teaching that is received; and the remainder is regarded as professional, or what may be stigmatized as priest craft. They will tolerate and appreciate just such teaching as that of "Ecce Homo." They will be baptized into this moral kingdom. They will commemorate Christ in the eucharistic rite, for it will keep alive their love for the Founder of the greatest moral school the world has ever seen. But they will purposely keep out of view the mediatorial character of Christ, and they will studiously ignore Him as the living fountain of grace.

It is necessary, therefore, to see that the system of morality by which every human being is bound, is not itself enough. We are to be worshippers of God, as well as upright in our conduct to our fellowmen. We are bound by our creation to honor our Creator, so that, on principles of natural religion only, we are bound to God as well as to man; and we are under obligation to cultivate the affections of the heart towards our Creator, as well as towards

man.

But it is necessary to study intimately the nature of moral obligation, that we may see its relation to

Christian redemption and grace. We cannot without aid live the moral life which nature reveals, and imposes upon us. It is only one side of the religious life, but that one side we cannot cultivate unless we have a supernatural aid. We cannot be moral beings, we cannot do our duty to our fellow-men, unless our minds are illumined by God's Holy Spirit, and unless that Spirit imparts strength to the will, and exalts into its place the conscience, and enables us to keep under the inferior parts of our nature. It is a vain plea that is put forward, that he who does his duty to his fellow-man cannot be a bad man, when it is intended by this to maintain that this duty can be performed when duty to God is ignored. There is the need of the study of morality for this very purpose, that we may see the relation of morality to religion, and its dependence on religion. It is the very information which the world needs, and especially those who imagine that morality is the whole of religion. We must instruct those who profess Christianity, that one of its special purposes is to enable them to live the life which nature reveals to them, and imposes upon them. The Christian preacher has here a great theme, which he can only appreciate by a profound study of the nature of man, of the functions of the human soul, of the springs of action, and of the operations of the will. He ought to be able to illuminate this subject, and to