to close the door of the future, but holds that the desert of another existence belongs only to those who engage in the service of man in this life. Prof. F. W. Newman says: "The conditions of a future life being unknown, there is no imaginable means of benefiting ourselves and others in it, except by aiming after present goodness."* Men have a right to look beyond this world, but not to overlook it. Men, if they can, may connect themselves with eternity, but they cannot disconnect themselves from humanity without sacrificing duty. The purport of Secularism is not far from the tenor of the famous sermon by the Rev. James Caird, of which the Queen said: "He explained in the most simple manner what real religion is--not a thing to drive us from the world, not a perpetual moping over 'good' books; but being and doing good."** * Prof. P. W. Newman, who is always clear beyond all scholars, and candid beyond all theologians, has published a Palinode retracting former conclusions he had published, and admitting the uncertainty of the evidence in favor of after- existence. ** The Queen on the Rev. J. Caird's sermon, Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands. This end we reach not by a theological, but by a Secular, path. CHAPTER XXII. SELF-EXTENDING PRINCIPLES "Prodigious actions may as well be done By weaver's issue as by prince's son." --Dryden. SO FAR as Secularism is reasonable, it must be self-extending among all who think. Adherents of that class are slowly acquired. Accessions begin in criticism, though that, as we have seen, is apt to stop there. In all movements the most critical persons are the least suggestive of improvements. Constructiveness only excites enthusiasm in fertile minds. After the Cowper Street Discussion with the Rev. Brewin Grant in 1853, see Chapter X, page 50, societies, halls, and newspapers adopted the Secular name. In 1863 appeared the _Christian Reasoner_, edited by the Rev. Dr. Rylance, a really reasoning clergyman, whom I afterwards had the pleasure to know in New York. His publication was intended to be a substitute for the _Reasoner_, which I had then edited for seventeen years. But when the _Reasoner_ commenced, in 1846, Christian believing was far more thought of than Christian reasoning. One line in Dr. Rylance's _Christian Reasoner_ was remarkable, which charged us with "forgetfulness of the necessary incompleteness of Re-velation." So far from forgetting it, it was one of the grounds on which Secularism was founded. However, it is to the credit of Dr. Rylance that he should have preceded, by thirty years, the Bishop of Worcester in discerning the shortcomings of Revelation, as cited in Chapter XIX, page 101.