Now that skepticism, in so many varied forms, is assailing our Christian religion, it is eminently proper for all mankind to inquire,—is there anything more certain and sure in which to trust? The wish to trust something or some power outside of and apart from itself, is inherent in the human heart. To throw aside all trust is to blot out any hope in the future, and limit existence to mere mortality. Few will be satisfied by so doing. Almost every individual's future, self-sketched, has in it something beyond mortality's boundary, and is contingent upon some kind of religious belief. That belief which promises most certain fulfilment is the one most earnestly desired.
And while the enemies of Christ seek to do away with all faith in him as the personal Saviour of humanity, and sneer at that grand plan of salvation which has the Crucified Son of God as its central figure, do they offer any faith better and more desirable, any scheme which shall hold a surer guarantee of redemption? Claiming Jesus the Nazarene to have been but the carpenter's son, though a man of exceeding cleverness, do they present for our consideration any other mediator between the All-Father and ourselves? Is there, in the whole range of skeptical philosophy, any theory, promise or hope to which, turning away from God and the Redeemer we believe he sent into the world, the soul can cling with more satisfaction and peace?
These questions cannot be easily answered in the affirmative. Skepticism, trying to tear down the truest and most vital part of Christian faith, has never offered to build up a truer and worthier one,—has never developed any rock upon which mankind may rest with the assurance that it will prove more solid and enduring. Skepticism, atheism, deism, pantheism, infidelism, and all other isms preaching aught beside Christ and him crucified, have as yet failed to do what the simple Christian faith has done,—hold out a hope of eternal life and sustain the believer through manifold afflictions until the hope loses itself in fruition.—Restitution.