Such theories grievously offend against the logic of history, and are in direct variance with the facts of human life. We are here in the midst of a whole mass of conjectural facts, each of which is imagined to account for the existence of the other; and the whole of them taken together fail to give an adequate solution of the phenomena before us. They are both untrue to human nature and unable to account for either the facts of Christianity or the existence of the Church. I must content myself with selecting one of them for illustration. We are asked to believe that the Church was divided into a number of parties, the opposition between whom was violent; and that these effected a number of compromises, out of which was ultimately evolved a common Christianity. This result is in direct contradiction to the testimony of the religious history of man. Religious parties do not effect compromises, but go on contending and widening their differences, until their enthusiasm wears out and they die of inanition. To this the history of all sects bears ample testimony, and the greater the enthusiasm and not unfrequently the lesser the grounds of difference, the greater the animosity. Compromises between hostile sects, in the rare cases in which they have taken place, have been brought about by means of external coercion. The religious history of mankind presents no example of furious religious parties, while animated by a living enthusiasm, voluntarily coalescing on the general principle of compromise. Witness the unsuccessful attempts at compromise between the Eastern and Western Churches, even when it was urged by the strongest external pressure. Witness the sects which grew out of the Reformation. Compromises have frequently originated among politicians, but these have in vain tried their healing influences among contending sects. Occasionally they have been brought about by the aid of pressure exerted by the temporal power, as in the Church of England. Nothing more strongly illustrates the difficulty with which compromise between religious parties can be effected than the failure of the attempts to reconcile the Church of England and the Methodists. The compromiser who will effect this union exists only in the hopes of the future. But we need not confine ourselves to the manifestations of sectarian spirit in connection with Christianity. The Mahometan Church is also divided by sectarian differences. Is there any tendency to produce a common Mahometanism, erected on the basis of compromise? Do Buddhism and Brahminism show any disposition to compromise their differences by fusing them into a common Pantheism which shall suit both parties? The idea of producing a Christianity by a succession of happy compromises entered into by violently hostile parties in the early Church, is a dream which, however plausible it may have seemed in the closet, is rudely dissipated the moment we come in contact with the stern realities of life.