"He that ever following her commands, On with toil of heart and knees and hands, Shall find the toppling crags of Duty, scaled, To which our God Himself is moon and sun. Tennyson, Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. The argument strengthens in the region of morality and religion. Irresistible mathematical evidence would confound all characters and dispositions; subvert rather than promote the purpose of the Divine Counsel, which is to produce obedience as the free-will offering of love. Do we then ignore reason in religion? Certainly not. Religion is intensely practical, and not less experimentally realised and verified in the soul of a devout man than is science in the mind of a physicist. Faith implies knowledge of some ground for reliance; and, as knowledge becomes definite, the faith, confessed in our creed, is understood in the explicit and implicit meaning; and is expressed in our symbols as definitely, clearly, precisely, as is any problem in science. The shallowness, sometimes imputed to devout men, belongs rather to the narrower mental sphere of objectors, who set a higher value on a little technical knowledge than on good sense, exercised and approved by greater general knowledge. Revelation is made to reason, not to unreason; and reason is that foundation on which Divine revelation erects a spiritual super structure. There is without doubt in the "single-eyed," and in them alone, a sense of certainty in relation to Scripture, "which is neither the offspring of reason, nor the result of culture; but, like life itself, a direct inspiration of the Almighty." To such men the Bible carries its own evidence; and truth, like wisdom, is seen by its own light. "Sol facit ut solem videas; Deus facit ut videas Deum." This spiritual discernment, the property of millions who never framed a syllogism, is the work of that faculty by which we recognise excellence. Hence, we conclude that the material frame of man is to human intelligence what human intelligence is to piety. "A Story of the Bible," p. 29: Interpreter Series. Reasonableness of Faith. 23 Faith shrinks not from inquiry which has truth for its aim. To take the excuse of the head out of the way of the heart is well, to clear the mind helps to purify and elevate emotion. Certainly we would not have doubt come in at the window because inquiry is denied at the door; but a great hurt and injustice are done when, to use Dr. Johnson's illustration, the Apostles are tried once a week for forgery. It is well for an age to be occupied in proving its creed; but reason, the basis of faith, must not become its substitute. Wilful continuance in doubt, so far from being an evidence of superior wisdom, indicates little love of truth, weakness of will, and insincerity of purpose. Anybody can doubt, and doubt more as concerning truth than error. Even the seeking of proof implies not only a want of belief, but a lack of knowledge as to the things to be proved; and the sooner a man, or an age, reasonably passes from the proving to the evolving, from the arguing to the appropriating, the earlier will the real height of the argument be attained. Many a man allows the best part of life to be crippled by doubt, and the halting so hinders his soul's progress, that old age comes like an untimely winter. He is not a tree from which God gathers fruit, but a barren and leafless trunk in a landscape of desolation. "How many among us, at this very hour, Tennyson, Geraint and Enid. Let past years of doubt suffice for us individually, past ages of unbelief suffice for us nationally. It is time that we reproduce the many glorious examples of Scriptural piety, those ancient spectacles of truth, faith, holiness; time to prove that Christianity, which confessedly gives purest morality to individuals, is able to sanctify whole nations; time to show that in Christianity we have not only the emotion which, with loving power, holds ten thousand hearts, but the wisdom which delights and satisfies profoundest minds. Is this capable of verification? It is capable; and though no serious man considers a popular assembly the proper court for trial of deep truths; yet, as the verdict of public opinion checks the tendency of closet speculation to become visionary, we appeal to the general conscience whether religious faith, in its devout dynamic nature, does not, by ruling the inner and outer man, raise the whole life to a higher stage? We are sure of affirmation. It is, indeed, because religion has ever furnished high sanction to morality, and touched us with the conviction of more life and fuller, that creed and conduct are always associated in our minds. There is not only an excellency, a mystic gleam of inward evidence, proving every part of Christian faith separately considered; but a relation and vigour in the several parts, taken as a whole, which win our love and reverence. We long for the realisation-that supreme epoch in which every man shall love the Lord with all his heart and his neighbour even as himself; when "the beast shall have been worked out," and the ape and the tiger be dead within us. Nor is that all; Scripture, in making men holy, renders them more intellectual; giving stability and elevation of thought, with enlarged appreciation .of the Divine. Observers of character are surprised at the remarkable betterment which is wrought in those who are called "regenerate." So soon as a man sets himself to do the will of God, he seems to be taught of God as to the doctrine. "A vision and faculty Divine," or at least a moral and religious interest, possesses him. He obtains the one great qualification for understanding Scripture, moral sympathy with God, which overcomes prejudices as well as passions, and makes the light of the Word to be the dawn of a happy day (John vii. 17). His nature becomes cleansed and renewed. His mind, now like a photographic plate, readily receives an impression from the light of truth; or "Like an Æolian harp, that wakes No certain air, but overtakes Far thought with music that it makes." The Two Voices. His faith, based on the Word of God, grows into the realisation of Christ's work; and this produces a likeness to Christ's character. A man living in and by this faith brings forth good works: "non ex personis probamus fidem, sed ex fide personas;" as Luther said-"Gute fromme Werke machen The Higher Verification. 25 nimmermehr einen gutten frommen Mann, sondern ein guter frommer Mann macht gute Werke "-good works make not the man, the good man makes the works. He has not only a triumphant elevation of spirit in magnanimity and honour, but a placid feeling of serenity and blissful contentment in gentleness and humility. He enjoys a noble satisfaction in victories obtained by self-command over the propensities of animal nature, and independence of soul in the consciousness of having nothing to hide-nothing to be ashamed of. His religion possesses that reasonable verification which satisfies mind and conscience; a holy, useful life before God and man. A yet higher verification must not be forgotten. There are Bacons, Newtons, Shakespeares, in science and literature; there are Isaiahs, Johns, Pauls, exceeding in enlightenment and privilege of revelation. Rome disciplined human will and Greece the mind to the subjection of law, Asia gave vividness to the spiritual imagination, but the Hebrews had the nobler task of enlightening our conscience. These Hebrews were of extraordinary toughness, and justify their being matched against evil-that deadly power which has so long baffled and hurt the human spirit. The secular philosopher can give reasons for the excellency of Romans, Greeks, Easterns, in their vocations; the Divine philosopher is able to explain the ground of faith in the Jewish mind. It was a vivid, abiding conviction of the existence and presence of God, elevated by the possession of Divine Inspiration in permanent power. "God was to Israel neither an assumption nor a metaphysical idea. He was a Power that can be verified, as much as the fire to burn or bread to nourish. . . . The greatness of Israel in religion, the reason why he is said to have had religion revealed to him, to have been entrusted with the oracles of God, is because he had in such extraordinary force and vividness the perception of this power." "1 Men, nowadays, may be mighty as the former sages; and holy ones, in our own time, equal the ancient saints. Possessing like faith and character, they may attain to the enlightenments, possibly, to the revelations which adorned the old prophets. Men of due mental, emotional, spiritual calibre can 1 "Literature and Dogma: " Matthew Arnold. rise to the high knowledge, awful experience, abiding conviction, possessed by the holy Apostles. If so, then we, to whom God is not only a Power but a Person, not far off, but in human flesh by Jesus, and in human spirit by the Holy Ghost, may attain heights the ascent to which our holiest men have scarcely yet begun; for, indeed, the Holy Ghost is to those who receive Him an intellectual light affording illumination to every rational faculty. The present bubbles and ripples of true knowledge are but the surface-marks of a great spiritual stream. This stream, flowing forth from the throne of God, is as a river of paradise for the healing of nations, the renovation of souls, the beautifying of all lands. There is, consequently, no ground for saying "Intelligence is divorced from Piety." The best minds cleave to religion. All history proves the need of an ethical ideal; and experience shows that, without the aid of supernatural authority, moral and spiritual restraints lack power to enforce obedience. Supernaturalism was affirmed and taught by Jesus, the highest mind in the world. It is the power which gives victory to the Bible, makes the Church mighty, the priests' orders valid, the sacraments efficacious, prayer to prevail. To doubt is not a mark of power, but a holding in contempt the common sense and morality of the best and greatest men the world has ever produced. To say, as some do, "that a religion divested of the supernatural, and based simply on human reason, could be more firmly established," is downright nonsense. Our faith, Divine in origin, is indeed capable of verification on every line of argument; but persuade men generally that it is not of Divine authority, a human invention, and the conviction will weaken, not strengthen public and private morality that power which is alone capable of holding society together during perilous times. The message ought to be accredited, the ambassador requires authority. One from the invisible and intangible must give other and different proof of his office than one from the visible world. Divinity is that proof, and the only one. The assertion-" morality would be purer without Divine sanction, hope of resurrection, and expectation of future life; for freedom from consciousness of responsibility, and awe of future judgment, |