surrender to Jesus Christ; that blessed acceptance by Him of the
self-surrendered; that witnessing Spirit as to sonship which brings the
consciousness of pardon, renewal, and justification known as "a
religious experience."

[Sidenote: Evidence of the Call.]

Those who possess this know something. Whereas they were "once blind,
now they see." They know they have "passed from darkness to light"
through the changed love which now controls. However the persuasion
reached them, it is a persuasion; not merely a hope. It is a conclusion
borne in upon them by satisfactory evidence, and is a lasting certainty
while the faith which brought it abides in its original measure.

Thus to-day we have a pulpit substantially in doctrine and force what
our pulpit always has been. Even in some cases where doubt has entered,
it would appear that this Christian experience has steadied the wavering
head by the full and regular impulses of the believing heart.

[Sidenote: New Problems in Theology.]

[Sidenote: The Modern Skeptical Temper.]

It is, however, to be admitted that the years to which we have come
bring with them problems which our fathers did not have to solve. Doubts
of which they knew nothing throng our atmosphere and crowd upon our
consciousness. The attacks on Christianity are no longer the ribald
jeers of the unlovely and the vile. They come in the name of honest
investigation, historical veracity, and scientific accuracy; and are
projected by characters apparently truth-loving, reverent, and candid.