My subject to-night is “Christianity, and Scepticism,” and I have chosen for my text these words of a sceptic, for as such St. Thomas has been regarded. His name has become proverbial in Church history for unbelief. Among the different characters that surround our Lord in the Gospel story, he has been regarded as the type of the doubter, and he is known as the doubting or the unbelieving Thomas. And yet at first sight we hardly see that he should be so called. It is quite true that he did doubt, and yet his doubt does not at first sight seem to be unreasonable, or so very obstinate that he should be called by way of distinction, the doubter, the unbeliever. It was not unreasonable. On the contrary, it was reasonable and natural that he should feel some doubt about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Others had doubts as well as he, and they were called fools and slow of heart to believe, and yet they did not inherit the name of the doubters. Again, his disbelief was not of a very obstinate kind. It seemed to have yielded almost instantaneously; and almost immediately after he was satisfied, he said more than others of the disciples, for he said “My Lord and my God.” He not only acknowledged the resurrection of Jesus, but his divinity, and yet he is called Thomas the doubter, the sceptic, and he is rightly so called. The Christian consciousness did not err when it gave the name, because when he uttered the words which I have just read to you, “Except I see I will not believe,” he uttered that which is the very essence of scepticism. He suspended his belief upon an absolutely impossible condition. He declared that he would not give his assent except on this condition, that it should be made absolutely impossible for him to doubt. What he said to his brother disciples amounts to this:—“You tell me that you have seen the Lord, but I cannot believe you. It does not matter to me how strong your testimony may be, or how truthful I believe you to be, I will not be satisfied till I see it for myself. I will not accept of any testimony but that of my own senses.” He said his assent was only to be had by absolute demonstration, and its being made impossible for him to have any doubt. I say the condition makes all belief absolutely impossible. Belief, in the proper sense of the word, is assent on an amount of trust. If we have absolute demonstration of anything, the result is not belief at all, it is demonstration. What we see with the eyes of our body or mind, we don’t properly believe in. We know it. We have the certainty, not of faith, but of science, and where doubt is impossible, belief or faith is impossible. You may have certainty, but it will be the certainty of knowledge, it will not be the certainty of faith. It is quite clear