Produced by Al Haines _THE EXPOSITOR'S LIBRARY_ MODERN SUBSTITUTES FOR CHRISTIANITY BY THE VERY REV. PEARSON McADAM MUIR D.D. MINISTER OF GLASGOW CATHEDRAL CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE KING _Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat_ HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON -- NEW YORK -- TORONTO First Published . . . December 1909 Second Edition . . . October 1912 IN MEMORIAM S. A. M. JUNE 3, 1847. OCTOBER 5, 1871 FEBRUARY 12, 1907 {vii} CONTENTS I PAGE POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY . . . . . 1 II MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . 31 III THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE . . . . . . . . . 63 IV THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY . . . . . . . . . . . 91 {viii} V THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 VI THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST . . . . . . 171 APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 {2} I POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY 'Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?'--S. LUKE vi. 46. 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.'--ROMANS ii. 24. 'What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?'--ROMANS iii. 3. 'By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.'--2 S. PETER ii. 1. 'So is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.'--1 S. PETER ii. 15. {3} I POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY That there is at present a widespread alienation from the Christian Faith can hardly be denied. Sometimes by violent invective, sometimes by quiet assumption, the conclusion is conveyed that Christianity is obsolete. Whatever benefits it may have conferred in rude, unenlightened ages, it is now outgrown, it is not in keeping with the science and discovery of modern times. 'The good Lord Jesus has had His day,'[1] is murmured in pitying condescension towards those who still suffer themselves to be deceived by the antiquated superstition. The statements in which our forefathers embodied the relations {4} between God and man are no longer, except by a very few, considered adequate; and there is everywhere a demand that those statements should be recast. Is not all this an irresistible proof that the beliefs of the Church have been abandoned, that the old notions of the Divine care, the spiritual world, the everlasting life, cannot be maintained, must be relegated to the realm of imagination? The blessings with which Christianity is commonly credited spring from other sources: the evils with which society is infected are its result, direct or indirect. I