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One is sometimes asked, What is the use of preaching about infidelity in church? So that all may be able to give an intelligent explanation of their grounds for belief, to any who demand it of them. We cannot fail to notice that religion is, in our day, more generally and freely discussed than it has been for some preceding generations; and so long as this is done in an honest, thoughtful, truth seeking, kindly spirit, we may be thankful and hope.

I. What are the CAUSES of unbelief?

1. A wrong bias in the heart. Ever since the Fall, it has been natural for us to dislike religion, and to shirk its obligations if possible. Satan persuades us that his service is the easiest, and pays the best; so we prefer it.

2. The power of things seen over the natural man. The novel and the newspaper interest us more than the Bible: we neglect the latter: and then comes the suggestion, Perhaps the Bible is not God's book after all, etc.

3. Selfishness. Religion thwarts, opposes, reproves; so we naturally hate it.

4. Pride — desiring the praises of men rather than the favour of God, and exalting itself against His revealed will. Does not the pride of intellect say, "I will not believe what I cannot understand. I am much too clever to take things on hearsay: give me facts and proof." And does not the pride of society, money, health, high spirits, exalt itself against the spirit of Christianity, and refuse to believe that God is no respecter of persons.

5. Fear of the world. Young people, especially, find it very hard in society, or in an irreligious home, always to stand up for truth and God. Ridicule possesses a cruel and often fatal power: if those exposed to it do not pray for strength to resist, it will overcome them little by little: the pain which they feel, the shame which is a glory and grace, which troubles them when they hear sacred things lightly spoken of, will gradually cease; their spiritual sight will lose its keenness: the ears of the soul will become dull of hearing; and they will learn at last to mistake the false for the true, and to enjoy that which once they despised and abhorred.

6. The false notion that religion is impracticable.

7. Evil lives of professing Christians. Remember, as to this, the question is not whether men or women calling themselves Christians are honest or hypocritical, but whether Christianity is true. Do you take care not to behave so inconsistently as to cause any brother to offend.

II. The result of unbelief. As the causes of unbelief are contemptible, so the process is miserable, and the result is vile. In most cases, before a man can be an infidel, he must set himself against the witness of history, and his forefathers' faith; he must regard as lies the lessons of his childhood, and must erase from his memory the prayers learnt at his mother's knee; he must teach himself to regard those cravings for happiness, for life, for beauty, and for truth, as fond and hopeless desires; he must learn to feel, when his father or mother, wife or child, dies, "there is an end of everything, we shall meet no more." And when he has surrendered himself wholly into the power of God's enemy, what sort of a creature is the devil's masterpiece, after all?

1. See the result in communities. Look at him, first, with full scope to do his best and worst; give him multitudes of companions, who think as he thinks, and place a great city in his power. Look at infidel Paris, in our days, shooting down an archbishop in her streets. What follows? — fire, and sword, and famine — defeat, and degradation, and death. Would the result be different, do you suppose, in our land, if all were permitted to do what seems right in their own eyes — would life or property be safe?

2. Or look at the individual man. Who would trust an infidel? Who would make him a guardian or trustee? What motive has he to keep him from betraying his trust? Follow him to the end. His heart may grow harder, his assertions of unbelief may be louder; but what of him when his health and strength begin to fail? It was easy, when spirits were high, to say that clever profanity to applauding friends, easy to sneer at Church and Bible, to raise the ringing laughter of his boon companions; but what are his thoughts, now that he must spend long dreary days and nights alone, — alone, for his old mates are not the men to seek the society of the aged, or to watch by the sick; what if he should discover that he has not, after all, become that which he tried to be, and thought that he was, an infidel?

III. The cure for unbelief. The treatment must vary with the case. For some, books of evidence, appeals to history, logical reasoning, close analogies. But here are some golden rules, applicable to all.

1. Go home and do your duty. Never mind how mean the work is: the lower your place here, the higher it may be hereafter.

2. Pray.

3. Study the Scriptures.

4. Seek Christ in the humble, teachable spirit He has promised to bless.

5. Seek Him in His children, His poor, His sick.

(S. R. Hole, M. A.)

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KJV: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

WEB: He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.