Arnold's Christianity without miraculous credentials
"miracles do not happen," as in the dogma which Matthew Arnold recited with simple faith
The quoted words close the preface to the 1883 popular edition of Matthew Arnold's Literature and Dogma (first published in 1873). Chesterton reproduces them accurately, while turning Arnold's confident conclusion into an example of unexamined faith. Arnold's stated aim, however, is to reassure readers attached to Christianity who can no longer accept supernatural credentials. He proposes that Christianity survive through its natural truth and the imitation of Christ. His rejection is therefore part of a reconstruction of religion, rather than an express declaration of allegiance to a godless materialism. Arnold, 1883 preface, especially its final paragraphs.
This makes the disagreement sharper: Arnold treats the abandonment of miraculous proof as a necessary religious renovation; Chesterton asks whether that restriction deserves the name of intellectual freedom. The quotation establishes Arnold's denial, but does not by itself establish Chesterton's explanation of every denial as materialist dogma.
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