Some years ago a remarkable book was written which was called The

Some years ago a remarkable book was written which was called The Eclipse of Faith, and in it the author imagined that the world awoke one morning to discover that the Bible had entirely disappeared. From every library the Bible had gone. From every house the Bible had gone. And not only so; but from every book the quotations from the Bible had gone.

And as English literature at its height is made very largely of quotations from the Bible, there were blanks in all the greatest books. English literature was as good as ruined because the Bible had gone. And in that book Henry Rogers followed with great ingenuity and skill the consternation and the disastrous results which followed from the sudden loss of the great religious book of the world. I am asking you to imagine an eclipse of faith more than that.

According to M. Guyot’s notion, I am asking you to imagine not only that the Bible has gone, not only that Christianity has gone, but that religion has gone; and you have surrendered everything which now passes under the general idea of religion in human life.

I am asking you, therefore, to suppose that men have now agreed that the word “God” can be neglected; have agreed that Christianity, like every other positive religion, has got away into the past. They are agreed that now we need not have churches or chapels; they can be turned into music-halls and public houses. We do not want ministers or preachers, they can be music-hall artists or publicans. The security for the public against ever hearing the name of God is that no one would be tolerated in decent society who mentioned it.

You may be sure that no one in public speech will ever remind you that you have a soul; that no one will ever plead with you to come to God; that no one will mention Christ; that no one will speak of the Cross. You may assume that our little children will no longer be marked with the sign upon their forehead at the font: That when we are grown up and are married we shall be married at the registry office without any mention of God or of Heaven; and that when we die we shall be shovelled into the earth or burned in the crematorium without any impertinent references to immortality.

You shall imagine, if you will, and consistently imagine, that we have got into that non-religion of the future which M. Guyot imagines; and that we have at last become a people without religion, a people without God, a people without worship, and a people therefore without hope.