Some men indeed never acknowledge this articulately or distinctly even to themselves, yet always show it plainly enough to others.  Take, e.g., ‘that last infirmity of noble minds.’  I suppose the most exalted and least ‘carnal’ of worldly joys consists in the adequate recognition by the world of high achievement by ourselves.  Yet it is notorious that—­

               “It is by God decreed
     Fame shall not satisfy the highest need.”

It has been my lot to know not a few of the famous men of our generation, and I have always observed that this is profoundly true.  Like all other ‘moral’ satisfactions, this soon palls by custom, and as soon as one end of distinction is reached, another is pined for.  There is no finality to rest in, while disease and death are always standing in the background.  Custom may even blind men to their own misery, so far as not to make them realize what is wanting; yet the want is there.

I take it then as unquestionably true that this whole negative side of the subject proves a vacuum in the soul of man which nothing can fill save faith in God.

Now take the positive side.  Consider the happiness of religious—­and chiefly of the highest religious, i.e.  Christian—­belief.  It is a matter of fact that besides being most intense, it is most enduring, growing, and never staled by custom.  In short, according to the universal testimony of those who have it, it differs from all other happiness not only in degree but in kind.  Those who have it can usually testify to what they used to be without it.  It has no relation to intellectual status.  It is a thing by itself and supreme.

So much for the individual.  But positive evidence does not end here.  Look at the effects of Christian belief as exercised on human society—­1st, by individual Christians on the family, &c.; and, 2nd, by the Christian Church on the world.

All this may lead on to an argument from the adaptation of Christianity to human higher needs.  All men must feel these needs more or less in proportion as their higher natures, moral and spiritual, are developed.  Now Christianity is the only religion which is adapted to meet them, and, according to those who are alone able to testify, does so most abundantly.  All these men, of every sect, nationality, &c., agree in their account of their subjective experience; so as to this there can be no question.  The only question is as to whether they are all deceived.

PEU DE CHOSE.

     ’La vie est vaine: 
       Un peu d’amour,
     Un peu de haine ... 
       Et puis—­bon jour!

     La vie est breve: 
       Un peu d’espoir,
     Un peu de reve ... 
       Et puis—­bon soir!’

The above is a terse and true criticism of this life without hope of a future one.  Is it satisfactory?  But Christian faith, as a matter of fact, changes it entirely.

     ’The night has a thousand eyes,
       And the day but one;
     Yet the light of a whole world dies
       With the setting sun.