ARTICLE VIII.-THE CONTEST AS IT IS TO-DAY.

IN actual warfare maps are as necessary as bullets and battalions. Generals have their military charts, drawn with all possible detail and accuracy, on which are marked the position of the troops opposed to them and the situation of their own forces. The people also have their outline maps of the war by which they obtain a clearer conception of the conflict that is going on. So in the moral warfare which the Christian hosts are waging with the hosts of sin and error, something of this sort might be useful in presenting the contest as it is to-day, so that it could be the more easily grasped and the better apprehended. We propose therefore in the present Article to give a map of the moral battle-field-not a military chart, which our captains might use to guide their movements, but an outline simply of the present religious situation which may serve, perhaps, to give to those of us who are not captains of the Lord's hosts, but only soldiers, some general idea of the forces opposed to us and of what we are doing to subdue or capture them.

In the Iliad of the Bible is represented, as in a mighty drama, the great contest in which we are engaged to-day. As we read it we seem borne to some celestial height from whence we look down through rolling mists on the battle that is passing. Supernal and infernal powers engage in the struggle, and the movements of human action are dimly seen amid the glory and the terror of the supernatural agencies which surround them. The world above participates in the events below. The temple of God is opened in heaven; seals are broken, trumpets are sounded, and vials poured out which rule the changes of the conflict. The world beneath moves up

ward upon the scene of action. From the bottomless pit ascend pestilentials vapors; evil creeping things come forth; the atmosphere is charged with the elements of tempest and death. The powers of darkness emerge and join issue with the armies of heaven. The Old Serpent is on one side, as the

Lamb, the Head and Redeemer of mankind, is on the other. What is the meaning of this wild scene? As with mingled awe and elevation of mind we view these ever active, ever changing forms of good and evil, we apprehend somewhat the nature and scope of the contest. We perceive that the conflict is between the kingdom of light and darkness, and that the whole earth is the battle-field whereon they have engaged. We perceive also that the issue of the struggle is victory to the heavenly hosts and the human race. But we cannot understand the mingled forms of good and ill, or discern any plan in the confusion around us.

So do we look out upon the world to-day. We behold the same battle-field and the same contest-the same to-day as yesterday and to-morrow-and can detect no general plan in the movements of human action, and can perceive but little order in the religious situation. The confusions of the times, the rolling mists of conflict, seem to us as great to-day as ever. There is a tremendous agitation of the world everywhere under the impact of new and mighty forces, material, intellectual, social, and political, thrown into its life. Old forms are disintegrating under the pressure of this cold, critical, glacial age. The fabric of human polity is threatened by the political indifference of cultured circles, as well as by socialists, communists, nihilists-precursors perhaps of that Lawless One who shall be revealed when the upheaval of human government has reached its crisis. In the world of religious thought there is the same disturbance and disintegration. It is impossible to disguise the fact that a large number of thoughtful men in our midst are doubting or denying the special teachings and claims of the gospel, and that the resistance to Christianity presented at this time in Christian countries is more subtle and serious than ever. Meanwhile the speculation, if not the unbelief, of the age is disturbing the Church and distracting the counsels of its leaders. Old faiths must be set in new lights, and the foundations of our holy revelation must be explored, if not undermined. Thus it has come to pass that some of our wisest fear that our theological system is breaking up and the settlement of ages endangered.

We do not ourselves share altogether in these gloomy fore

bodings, and may as well say here as anywhere that the contest as it is to-day is neither with Dornerism nor with the New Theology. The main purpose of these seems to be to commend Christianity to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And this places them, and those who advocate them, somewhere on the Christian side. For it must be ours as Christians to be on the side of reason and conscience, where the saints of all ages ever have been found. Let the brethren of the New Departure alone then. Let them return to what they call a more ethical, Biblical, and catholic conception of Christianity. Let them face, as they say, the new issues, meet the new providential demands, and push their forces within the range of modern denials. But the whole army need not alter its front of battle to follow them, or heed their cry for a change of base. There is too much crying aloud on both sides of the camp during the present crisis, one for a change of base, the other to "hold the fort," or all is imperiled. This serves to show however the increasing uncertainty and confusion of the times, and the increasing danger which they offer to the Christian cause.

Amid this disturbance and confusion we apprehend that the forces of evil are advancing upon us in three main divisions, which we shall be old-fashioned enough to call the World, the Flesh, and the Devil.

Christianity is invading the world. The hosts of truth no longer shut up within their ancient strongholds are deploying their forces on the open battle-field and advancing to possess the earth. The progress of the gospel in heathen lands is the most hopeful sign on the religious horizon. But the World is also invading Christianity. It moves on us with all the momentum of its vast mass and with all the strength of its powerful organization. The civil powers-kings, and princes, and municipalities and constitutional majorities-are on its side; Paganism, Papacy, Mormonism, and priestcraft everywhere, lend it their aid; the secular press is its ally, and the wealth of the earth is under its control. It advances upon us with all the energy of its evil principles and bad customs; with all its cares and riches and pleasures and glories; with all its culture and progress and advanced civilization; with all its oppor

tunities for self-indulgence and luxurious living. Never before was its power so great and its temptations so dazzling and manifold as at the present hour. The World!—this is the great power of the kingdom of darkness that is now opposed to the kingdom of Light. It is not materialism in thought so much as materialism in life-without God in the world-that opposes Christianity to-day. This is the main obstacle which pastors are encountering in their labors. This is the main thing we have to fear for the churches and ourselves. Like a noisome malaria, like a pestilential vapor from the pit, it saps the strength of Christian life among us and decimates our forces. The Church is doubtless losing a larger proportion of its strength and numbers under this new and more subtle attack of the World than it did when confronted with the secular persecuting power.

We hardly know what the Christian hosts are doing to resist this mighty array of evil, headed up by Mammon, and feel sometimes that we are helpless before it except as our help comes from our heavenly allies. We are doing something indeed to check the spirit of mammon in our midst by multiplying the number of our beneficences. While the contest brings us within the sphere of this evil influence we had better take large doses of the medicine of liberality, increase our contributions and give until the spirit of gain is mortified within us. As for the rest we can perhaps do no more than antagonize the world instead of patronize it, and cry aloud more earnestly that the world passes away and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever.

The second grand division of the hosts of evil is marching under the banner of the Flesh. Here is found opposing Christianity that sensuous, sensual fleshiness of fallen human nature; that gross animalism of mankind-its lust and passion and its more delicate forms of self-indulgence in luxury and personal adornment, as well as all kinds of outbreaking sin. This is the centre of the great army of the powers of darkness. Upon this rest the other divisions-its two mighty and active wings of worldliness and infidelity. Here is where we encounter the dull, dead weight of indifference or insensibility to eternal things which like the force of inertia overcomes our efforts to 38

VOL. VII.

lift men to the life that is hid with Christ in God. Nor is this division of the powers of darkness passive. The corrup tion and depravity of the flesh not only passively resists but actively opposes the spirit. It moves on us through the encroachments of self-indulgence upon piety, through the development of luxurious habits, through the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the love of personal adornment, but above all through the love of strong drink. We cannot dwell upon the mighty opposition which this terrible centre of Satan's army headed up by Alcohol presents to the progress of Christ's kingdom, nor speak at length of what is being done to resist it. In this quarter of the battle-field we have perhaps the clearest tokens of progress. The Christian forces are seen to be in motion; social and moral reforms are being pressed; the churches are becoming working churches, and new arms of service have been organized, notably the Young Men's Christian Association and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The recent movement to enlist the children of our common schools on the side of good morals by the introduction of text-books in moral science is also noteworthy. If we are to succeed in this great struggle we must be willing to use and develop these new arms of service, make the most of our Christian women and young men, and never overlook the children. We shall draw near the day of decisive victory when we concentrate our best efforts upon the latter and look after them with that continued attention we now give to those of riper years.

We have now glanced at the right wing and centre of the hosts of darkness. Come we then to the left wing of the enemy, which we have called the Devil, partly because we should make large account of the personal influence of that Old Serpent, the Adversary, and partly because we have intended here to speak about infidelity and presume the prince of this world regards this as the weak side of his battle array and therefore takes it under his special leadership. For the World and the Flesh may be left largely to themselves to cope with our infirmities, whereas the legions of error are confronted directly by the Word of God, and therefore need the assistance of satanic cunning and perversion. At least we