Revelation, the Divine warrant for piety, is a special message to our intelligence; unites the reasoning power of the philosopher, the imagination of the poet, the inspiration of the seer. They render the power of the Bible greater than that possessed by the whole literature of Greece. This Book, from a nation despised by all in former, and by some in present time, holds the world in awe. It is read and preached in thousands and thousands of churches. It is in the cottage of the lowly man, and abides with the honourable; it weaves the literature of the scholar, and sweetens the common talk of life. It enters the closet of the student, the king's chamber, the counsel-hall. In sickness and sadness, in perils and partings, in life and death, it tempers our grief to finer issues, and gladdens joy with yet brighter hopes. Our best prayers are in "its storied speech," which tells of earthly duties and heavenly rest, as if Plato's wisdom, Newton's science, and Milton's art, had sought to make it beautiful and good. No other book, sacred or profane, can pretend to the suffrages of so many men of great genius, of so many intelligent and educated adherents from so many nations and races, or has formed, like it, a succession of men heroically bent on making it universal." A Book-thus winning Reason's highest triumphs, the crown of poetry and glorification by art, revealing wisdom from the depths, morality from the heights, and transforming the death-angel into a heavenly messenger-approves itself to the best and wisest of our race, unites intellect and piety in sacred bonds. 66 Professor Huxley on the "Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge,” said—“The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority as such. For him scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, for every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the annihilation of the spirit of blind faith. . . . The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification." ... This is not half true. Making holes and filling them up again is waste of labour. Continual undermining of foundations renders the firmest fabrics insecure. Authority is and must be admitted into every science: science progresses authoritatively and experimentally. If we doubt whether The Root of Doubt is Want of Knowledge. 19 there is on the floor of the deep ocean a thing called Bathybius, the doubt arises from knowledge of analogy in Nature; but he who counts "scepticism the highest of duties" should doubt concerning doubt, yet deny reality to knowledge of any sort. The truth is "Theological habits of thought are relatively useful, while scepticism, if permanent, is intellectually and morally pernicious." It is well to dig about trees, not to uproot them; and we know, as to Scripture and science, theology and therapeutics, that the mass must wait outside and receive the result on authority. "To bring into doubt in any way (and it is of little moment in what way, or on what pretext) that which the common sense of mankind has always assumed to be certain, is, if not to shake the evidence of all truth, yet to paralyse the faculty by which evidence of all kind is seized and held." 2 Even in physical knowledge, the researches and discoveries of the most self-reliant investigators are greatly worked on the foundation laid by previous authority-whether that authority be censured, or amended and confirmed; and must be matter of faith to most men, justified by those who have power to verify. Would a learned professor call it intelligence or stupidity, for students to deny everything not known by their own actual verification? Is the professor's authority to be absolutely rejected? Is he never to give dogmatic teaching? Must the botanist try every statement of the astronomer; and the patient demand proof, in the physician's prescription, that the drugs will heal? Are godly men, with their prayerful, scholarly, critical, historical investigations, the only men whose authority we refuse? Nay "So much the rather Thou, Celestial Light, Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers John Milton. Doubt is not a mark of knowledge; at the best, it is the halting step of prudence in pursuit of knowledge; but a contemptible thing when flaunted as an encouragement to godless unbelief. What saith another professor ?" We encounter our sceptical' as if.' It is one of the parasites of science, ever at hand, and ready to plant itself, and sprout, "Cosmic Philosophy:" John Fiske. Physical Theory of Another Life: Isaac Taylor. if it can, on the weak points of our philosophy. But a strong constitution defies the parasite, and in our case, as we question the phenomena, probability grows like growing health, until in the end the malady of doubt is completely extirpated." " 1 The comfort of doubt-that is downright nonsense, there is no comfort in it; uncertainty and suspense are full of discomfort. Duty, far from delighting in it, does her best to get rid of it; and, obtaining confidence by conviction, reposes and rejoices in the truth: "La Philosophie est une tentative incessante de l'esprit humain pour arriver au repos." "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. Is The argument strengthens in 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 crowns reason. intensely practical; and not less intellectually and experimentally realised and verified in the soul's experience of a devout man than is science in the mind of a physicist. Faith always possesses some ground for reliance; is never groundless; and, as knowledge becomes definite, the faith, confessed in our creed, is understood in the explicit and implicit meaning definitely, clearly, precisely expressed. The shallowness, sometimes imputed to devout men, belongs rather to the narrower mental sphere of objectors, who set higher value on technical experience than on good sense, exercised and approved by larger knowledge. Revelation is given to reason, not to unreason; and reason is that foundation on which Divine revelation erects a spiritual superstructure very wonderful-the knowledge of God. In the "single-eyed," and in them alone, is a sense of 1 "Scientific Use of Imagination : Prof. Tyndall. The Reasonableness of Faith. 1 21 certainty as 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 the material frame of man is that physical support to human intelligence which human intelligence reasonably affords to piety. 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 clears the mind, purifies and elevates emotion. 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 cast away the crown. Wilful continuance in doubt is not evidence of superior wisdom; it shows little love of truth, weakness of will, and insincerity of purpose. Anybody can doubt: it 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 proving to evolving, from arguing to appropriating, the earlier will the true height of argument be attained. Do not allow the best part of life to be crippled by doubt, and halting to hinder the soul's progress, lest old age come like an untimely winter. The doubter is not a tree from which God gathers fruit, but a barren 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 to reproduce the many glorious examples of Scriptural piety, those ancient witnesses of truth, faith, holiness; to prove that Christianity, which confessedly gives purest morality to individuals, is 1 "A Story of the Bible," p. 29: Interpreter Series. able to sanctify whole nations; to show that we have the emotion which lovingly holds ten thousand hearts, and the wisdom which delights profoundest minds. Is this capable of verification ? It is, 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 because religion furnished high sanction to morality, and personally touches us with the conviction of more life and fuller, that creed and conduct are always associated in our mind. 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 whole, which win our individual love and reverence. We long for that supreme epoch in which every man shall love the Lord with all his heart and his neighbour as himself; when "the beast shall have been worked out," and the angel dwell within; all sanctified by the Truth of God. Nor is that all; Scripture makes men holy, more intellectual; gives stability and elevation to thought; higher use to life; enlarged appreciation of the Divine. Observers of character are surprised at the remarkable betterment wrought in those who are called "regenerate." A man who sets himself to do the will of God, is taught of God as to the doctrine. "A vision and faculty Divine," a moral and religious interest, possess him. He obtains the one great qualification for understanding Scripture, moral sympathy with God, which makes the light of the Word to be the dawn of a happy day (John vii. 17). His mind, like a photographic plate, 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. Faith, based on the Word of God, produces likeness to Christ. A man, living in and by faith, brings forth good works: 66 non ex personis probamus fidem, sed ex fide personas; as Luther said- "Gute fromme Werke machen |