mistake.

No good can come of a return with Schophenhauer to the pessimistic despair of Buddhism, or, with other modern thinkers, to the dualism of Zoroaster, or, under the sturdy leadership of a Huxley, to the grim, defiant mood of Stoicism. Such movements are to be regarded as excusable but temporary reactions, and the Christian attitude is to be viewed as that which must gain more and more the upper hand.

XII

THE PAST AND FUTURE

Though hearts brood o'er the Past, our eyes

With smiling Futures glisten;

For lo! our day bursts up the skies!
Lean out your souls and listen!
The world is rolling Freedom's way,

And ripening with her sorrow;
Take heart! who bear the Cross to-day

Shall wear the Crown to-morrow.

-Gerald Massey.

Despair not thou as I despair'd

Nor be cold gloom thy prison !
Forward the gracious hours have fared,
And see the sun is risen !

He breaks the winter of the past;
A green new earth appears.
Millions, whose life in ice lay fast,

Have thoughts and smiles and tears.

What though there still need effort, strife?
Though much be still unwon?

Yet warm it mounts, the hour of life!

Death's frozen hour is done.

-Matthew Arnold.

XII

THE RELIGIOUS MESSAGE OF THE NINETEENTH CEN

TURY TO THE TWENTIETH

FINAL words are usually impressive, and thoughtful people with reverence pause to receive a parting message from the dying. But when the strength is failing, and the poor lips are quivering, the communication may be somewhat indistinct, and may need for its interpretation the kindly offices of one who has intimately known and has closely watched the expiring saint or sage. Familiar with his life, acquainted with his peculiarities, understanding his beliefs and principles, such a friend is fitted to take up his almost incoherent words and broken sentences, and putting them together, construct for the serious listener the warnings he would convey and the comfort he would impart. A similar service it is my desire to render the old century, now almost gone, inarticulate, and nearly dead. It may not be possible to catch the precise meaning of the feeble whisperings of the present hour, but recalling the movements of the past hundred years, their failures and triumphs, their losses and gains, with the changes they have brought to society and the church, it ought not to be surpassingly difficult to make out their real significance.

Schiller declares that

Often do the spirits
Of great events stride on before the events,
And in to-day already walks to-morrow.