for the life to come. The things of this life were snares which he ought as far as possible to shun. The love of money was the root of all evil; it was extremely difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The man who accumulated wealth was a fool not to remember that at any moment his soul might be required of him. Mediæval theology, in an uncompromising spirit, asserted the superior credit and reasonableness of a simply ascetic life. It was good that a man should renounce wealth, marriage, comfort, should withdraw himself from the occupations and interests of secular society, and devote himself wholly to the pursuit of salvation. Protestantism recoiled from such a condemnation of the present world, and its trumpet has given an uncertain sound on this question. But its attitude towards industrialism and secular civilization has been generally that of toleration and compromise. Its theology has recommended detachment from the world in the interest of the soul and its salvation. Life is still pictured as a pilgrimage through a trying wilderness to Paradise. But for various reasons of necessity and expediency Christians, it is explained, may accommodate themselves innocently and judiciously to the exigencies of

this world. Making money is a thing of the earth, earthy; but money is a powerful instrument, and true Christians will not forego the opportunities it gives for promoting the cause of religion.

Economic science, by studying the facts which come within its scope and tracing effects to causes, has arrived at decided conclusions on these points. Under its teaching we know now many things of which the best men were formerly ignorant. We see how carelessness is directly and inevitably produced by the chance of obtaining alms easily in time of need; and carelessness is the mother of idleness and sensual indulgence as well as of destitution. Benevolence on the part of the rich may create what the French expressively call la misère; it has no power to remove it. Where there is a hard struggle for the means of living, to marry and multiply. without thought of the future is the way to keep down to the lowest point the condition of the whole labouring class. The accumulation of capital by saving is the only means of providing employment; and he who makes a fortune and invests it does much more for the poor than he who gives away all that he receives to the neediest people about him. The science that

establishes these conclusions points, as a matter of course, to certain rules of conduct. If you wish well to the mass of mankind, you will endeavour to check waste, to increase production, to encourage industry and forethought and self-restraint. You will be extremely cautious not to put temptations in the way of the poor, by which-weak as they are by nature and circumstance—they may be seduced into thriftlessness. You will throw yourself heartily into the industrial efforts by which the fabric of material prosperity is built up.

This economic doctrine is perplexing to those who have received the theological tradition. There is much in it of which they cannot but approve, but still the care of the soul, the trust of the believer in Divine Providence, the grace of charity, appear to be rudely jostled by the duties thus prescribed. But let Christians reflect upon their own proper aims, and inquire into the tendency of the habits which economy condemns to promote those aims. Then let them do justice to the higher and ultimate objects of the economists. They will find that the modern science convicts them of a fatal departure from their own highest principles, and restores to them an ideal which they had almost forgotten.

In their readiness to minister without forethought to the bodily wants of their neighbours, Christians have really neglected the care due to their souls. They have encouraged a dependence on alms and rates, in place of a dependence on the Providence of God. Instead of manifesting a genuine charity or love, they have indolently put stumbling-blocks and occasions of falling in the way of weak brothers. They have played the part of the unworthy parents who spoil their children. The impeachment of political economy against religion is that it has unintentionally, but carelessly and selfishly, done injuries to the moral and spiritual character of the poorer classes. The Christian Church, in the blind following of a theological tradition, has helped to make men idle, sensual, gamblers, liars, regardless of natural affection. If there is truth in this terrible complaint, as there certainly is, Christians ought to accept with gratitude as well as shame the revelations thus forced upon them. For it is the business of the Christian Church to build up a spiritual body of thought ful men, understanding their duties and striving earnestly to discharge them. The Church is, in short, warned by political economy to keep the theological ideal of society more steadily in view,

and not by any obedience to the letter to defeat the spiritual ends of the precepts of Christ.

4. Under the head of Ethics, it will be enough to speak of the influence exerted by the improved conceptions of Justice upon theology.

Justice, or righteousness, is a great theological subject. The account of it given by the original Christian doctrine is somewhat as follows:-God is righteous, or just, in the sense that he is the author and life of the spiritual order of the universe. Man is to be righteous in response to and dependence upon God; and his righteousness will show itself in conforming to the divine order. Perfect submission to God as the ordainer of all the relations of persons and things, and a practical fulfilment of those relations in which a man finds he has a part, are the main features of human righteousness as the New Testament exhibits it. God is represented as showing in the manifestation of his Son the nature and principles of the order which he upholds, which is essentially a spiritual one, and as purposing to subdue the world to harmony through reconciliation and sonship. He is just, in being always faithful to the original order, and in seeking to make it prevail over the confusion with which it is struggling. His