Therefore atheists may become famous, but, destitute of the ray which
renders truly illustrious, humanity refuses them the aureole with which
it encircles the brows of its benefactors. This aureole it reserves for
the sages which lead it to God, for the artists which reveal to it some
of the rays of the immortal light, for all those who remind it of the
titles of its dignity, the pledges of its future, the sacred laws of the
realm of spirits. Humanity desires to live; and to live it must believe;
for it must believe in order to love and to act. Atheism is a crisis in
a disease, a passing swoon over which the vital forces of nature
triumph. Now the vital forces of humanity are neither extinct nor
stupefied in our time. The world of literature is sick, and grievously
sick in some of its departments; but even there again are manifesting
themselves noble and powerful reactions. Then look in other directions.
Contemplate the religious movement of society at large, the wide efforts
making in the domain of active beneficence, the progressive conquests of
civilization, the awakening of conscience on many subjects:--I could
easily instance numerous facts in proof of what I advance, and say to
you:


Know, by these speaking signs, a God to-day
As yesterday the same--the same for aye:
Veiling, revealing, at His sovereign will,
His glory,--and His people guarding still.[96]


Wrestle then against the invasion of deadly doctrines, wrestle and do
not fear. If men rise against God in the name of the modern mind, of the
science of the age, of the progress of civilization, do not suffer
yourselves to be stunned by these clamors. Let the past be to you the