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THE . SOUL, 
 HER SORROWS AND HER ASPIRATIONS: 
 
 AN ESSAY TOWARDS 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SOUL, AS THE 
 TRUE BASIS OF THEOLOGY. 
 
 BY 
 FRANCIS WILLIAM NEWMAN, 
 
 FORMERLY FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND 
 AUTHOR OF 
 “A HISTORY OF THE HEBREW MONARCHY.” 
 
 “© He that believeth hath the witness in himself.’’—1 John y. 18. 
 ** We too believe, and therefore speak.” —2 Cor. iv. 13. 
 
 RARAARAARAL™ 
 
 Second €ditton. 
 
 EONDGN: 
 JOHN CHAPMAN, 142, STRAND. 
 
 MDCCCXLIX. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/soulnersorrowsheOOnewm 
 
 _ 
 
PES, 
 / V LL6 - 
 /&S9 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 J]. SENSE oF THE INFINITE WITHOUT US 
 
 _II. Sense or Sin . 
 
 III. Sense or PEeRsonAL RELATION To Gop. 
 
 IV. Sprrituat PRoGRESS 
 
 V. Hoprs concERNING Future Lire. 
 
 VI. Prospects oF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 A 
 
 3 
 
 PAGE 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I HAVE been at a loss for a title to this Essay, which, 
 while short enough, would fairly warn the reader of 
 its character. I at first entitled it, an Essay on the 
 Positive Foundations of Practical Religion; and after- 
 wards, On the Directness of Knowledge in Things 
 Spiritual: but gradually found that it was necessary 
 to go into such details concerning the Pathology of 
 the spiritual organ, that I might possibly seem to 
 have entrapped the reader into a more experimental 
 discussion than he could have calculated on. My 
 present title, I think, gives fair warning to those 
 who dislike such books; and at the same time suffi- 
 ciently well explains the end in view. 
 
 By the Soul we understand that side of human ~ 
 nature upon which we are in contact with the In- 
 finite, and with God, the Infinite Personality: in 
 the Soul therefore alone is it possible to know God ; 
 and the correctness of our knowledge must depend 
 eminently on the healthy, active and fully developed 
 condition of our organ. While the well-being of / 
 Man is the chief reason for coveting a knowledge of 
 God, and all sound theology must aim ultimately at 
 
Vlli PREFACE. 
 
 a practical end, the direct object of this Essay is 
 nevertheless more scientific than practical. A Na- 
 tural History of the Soul demands some notice of 
 its diseased as well as its healthy state, and of its 
 growth from infancy towards maturity. How this 
 is a basis for Theology will appear of itself. 
 
 The analogy and contrast between Moral and 
 Spiritual knowledge deserves remark. A _ long 
 period passed in the history of mankind, during 
 which Morals were regarded as something essen- 
 tially Dogmatic, and indeed to a considerable extent 
 Arbitrary and varying with political institutions. 
 The Morality of every great national system was 
 long supposed to depend entirely on the eternal 
 authority which promulgated it: only in the later 
 stages of mental culture is it clearly discerned, that 
 Ethics, as a science, is as unchangeable as the 
 ethical nature of man. ‘Thenceforward the idea that 
 there can be any thing arbitrary in morals faded 
 away; and the authoritative sanction which is 
 superadded to moral precepts became valued, not 
 as that which is essential to guarantee their truth to 
 a cultivated moral nature, but as that which (like 
 parental command) enforces action while the moral 
 sense is in its infancy. And this was perhaps the 
 very feeling of the great apostle Paul towards the 
 law of Moses. He venerated its precepts, as a 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 mature man those of his aged schoolmaster; whose 
 rod he no longer dreads, though he sees it to be 
 wholesome that he once dreaded it: but after Faith 
 was come, he was no longer under the Schoolmaster. 
 So also, that in spiritual things each worshipper sees 
 by a light within him, and is directly dependent on 
 God, not on his fellow men, is an axiom pervading 
 the thought of every New-Testament writer. 
 
 In Morals, it is something to gain external right 
 conduct, even if there be as yet no internal love of 
 goodness or insight into its nature; hence the Dog- 
 matic principle derives there a real practical value, 
 which is developed in Law. It is important to keep 
 people from mutual violence, even by an armed 
 police or by arguments addressed to selfishness: and 
 such constraint of the conduct by fear or by other 
 lower motives, is a part of necessary training. It 
 is a highly valuable result, if a man avoid falsehood 
 and impurity, though he may know no better reason 
 than his father's or his priest's command. But 
 there not only is no spiritual object in his worship- 
 ping God solely because a father or a priest com- 
 mands it, but the very statement is intrinsically ab- 
 surd. That is not worship at all, which is rendered 
 in obedience to mere dictation; for worship is a 
 state of the Affections, and these are not under the 
 
 controul of the Will. A man who desires to wor-_ 
 
Xx PREFACE. 
 
 ship, but has little heart for it, can only say to God, 
 “ Draw me, and I will follow after Thee;’ and he 
 must needs have some heart in him, to say as much 
 as this. At the suggestion or order of another we 
 may present our bodies in a church or at a con- 
 fessional, (which, if done without insight, is «@ 
 moral, not a spiritual, obedience,) but it 1s 
 essentially impossible to worship God spiritually 
 unless we are drawn and led by forces internal to 
 the Soul itself. The coming of the Spirit into a 
 system of Law, is that which intrinsically converts it 
 into GOSPEL. It is useful to have spiritual teachers; 
 and if they be wise, it is wise to listen reverently 
 to them: but their lessons have not been successful, 
 until the learner has gained an eye for seeing the 
 truth; and believes no longer because of his 
 teacher's word, but because he has an Anointing 
 Jrom the Holy One, and knoweth all things. And 
 this is the sole object of spiritual, as distinguished 
 from moral, teaching,—to minister the Spirit; to 
 impart spiritual eyesight, and spiritual forces. Those 
 truths, and those only, are properly to be called 
 Spiritual, the nature of which admits of their being 
 directly discerned in the Soul, just as Moral truths 
 in the Moral Sense: and Ae is a spiritual man, not 
 who believes these at second hand, (which is a his- 
 
 torical or dead faith,) but who sees internally, and 
 
PREFACE. Xi 
 
 knows directly. To guide towards the method of 
 ascertaining these, is the object of the present 
 treatise: and whatever may at first seem to be 
 digressive, is nevertheless intended to conduce to a 
 ereater fulness of insight into this cardinal point. 
 The Fvrst Chapter treats of the Infancy of the 
 Soul, under that rudimentary Religion, which we 
 may possess without conscious reflection on self ;— 
 that in which we contemplate the great external 
 realities of Faith, as if we had no personal relations 
 towards them. It ends with the establishment of 
 reverence towards a Personal Deity, when Morals 
 and Religion at length coalesce. The Second 
 Chapter concerns the spiritual phenomena called 
 out by the sense that we ought to be what we are 
 not, in the presence of God. It ought (if it were 
 scientifically complete) to include all the dreadful 
 results of Remorse and capricious or gloomy 
 Asceticism; but I shrank from the odious task as 
 needless, and have depicted only a few strongly 
 marked, but not fanatical experiences, issuing in 
 happy results. The Z’hird Chapter exhibits the 
 soul struggling after a sense of its Personal Relation 
 to God, with the happy and remarkable results of its 
 success, and its means of recovering this sense, 
 when lost.- The Fourth treats of the Ideal of 
 
 spiritual excellence, and of the Aids from without 
 
Xl PREFACE. 
 
 towards attaining it. The Fifth discusses the 
 grounds on which the soul forms Hopes and As- 
 pirations concerning a future life; and the Sixth 
 closes with reflections on the state and prospects of 
 practical Christianity. 
 
 If these pages shall save any persons from that 
 desolating Pantheism which is abroad, and show 
 those who know not on what to rest their faith, to 
 what quarter they must look for solid ground; and 
 still more, if I shall have stimulated independent 
 thought in men of holy feeling and devout practice, 
 and shall have made them meditate solemnly on the 
 insufficiency of our present Theology to evangelize 
 any portion of the professedly unbelieving world ;— 
 I ought to regard this as recompensing me for the 
 very serious moral effort, which it has cost me to 
 publish this book. 
 
 March, 1849. 
 
 In this Second Edition, besides various smaller 
 improvements, there are considerable enlargements, 
 principally on the subjects of Bibliolatry, Mediation, 
 Self-righteousness, Forgiveness of Sins, and the doc- 
 trines of God’s Faithfulness and Election. See pp. 
 56-64, 76-80, 85-96, 99-102, 150-155, 160-162. 
 
 August, 1849. 
 
THE SOUL: 
 
 HER SORROWS AND HER ASPIRATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SENSE OF THE INFINITE WITHOUT US. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 AtL human knowledge, like human power, is 
 bounded; and it is then most accurate, when we 
 can sharply draw the line which shows where igno- 
 rance begins. In actual life, our region of sensible 
 light, where the common understanding guides us, 
 is always encircled with a dimmer belt, beyond 
 which are glimpses of partial light, and then, infi- 
 nite darkness ; but, though we do not pass suddenly 
 from positive knowledge to absolute ignorance, we 
 are, in every direction, distinctly aware of both 
 states. To different minds, moreover, the sphere 
 through which the understanding ranges, varies ex- 
 ceedingly; and many adults, especially in savage 
 nations, remain all their lives like children. 
 
 It is thus a condition of human existence, to be 
 surrounded with but moderately diffused light, that 
 instructs the understanding, and illimitable hazi- 
 ness, that excites the imagination: and this being © 
 
 B 
 
2 THE SOUL: 
 
 our natural and necessary case, the question sug- 
 gests itself, whether the obscurity, as well as the 
 light, is adapted to call forth any sentiments within 
 us, or in any way tend to the perfection of our na- 
 ture. And happily, the reply to this question im- 
 mediately suggests itself, upon referring to the case 
 of children. How lovely in a child is that modesty, 
 which springs from an unaffected consciousness of 
 ignorance ; especially when joined with a belief that 
 others know. When new knowledge puffs up, and 
 amiable diffidence is lost, all feel that a bad ex- 
 change has been made. If so, we attain one fixed 
 point. We perceive that the region of dimness is 
 not wholly without relations towards our moral 
 state. There is a proper effect which it ought to 
 produce upon us, and which deserves to be more 
 closely analyzed. 
 
 The case of the child will still farther aid our 
 examination. Reverence towards parental judg- 
 ments not only is approved as salutary, in order to 
 gain the advantage of a wiser guidance; but in 
 itself, especially in the earlier years of childhood, 
 commends itself to all as a beautiful and excellent 
 state of feeling. A very young child has no 
 measure whatever of a parent’s wisdom: it is to him 
 unbounded. He neither knows, nor expects ever 
 to know, the limits of it; and, therefore, his rever- 
 ence is capable of being absolute. A whole world 
 of sentiment is wrapt up in the relations felt and 
 acted upon by such a child; sentiment, which none 
 are brutish enough to fail to appreciate. Not all 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 3 
 
 the knowledge, nor all the wisdom, nor all the pru- 
 dence and self-control, nor all the manly inde- 
 pendence, which a child of five years old could, 
 under human limitations, attain, would compare in 
 value to the loving reverence, sure trust, and unre- 
 flecting joy which such a child may exercise to- 
 wards a parent, whose wisdom and goodness appear 
 to him illimitable. 
 
 Are then these exercises of heart a source of 
 happiness and of moral perfection in infancy, and 
 are they mo¢ desirable for the adult? Or are they 
 desirable, yet not possible, for those, whose under- 
 standings have opened wide enough to see that all 
 human minds are limited, all human hearts shallow, 
 and that no object worthy of absolute reverence 
 comes within the reach of sense? Certainly it is 
 no artificial dogma, invented by priests or needing — 
 enforcement by princes, that the man who has re- 
 verence for nothing has a hard, dry, and barren 
 soul. In the English tongue, indeed, the very 
 word Soul appears to have been intended to express 
 that side of our nature, by which we are in contact 
 with the Infinite. The Soul is to things spiritual, 
 what the Conscience is to things moral; each is the 
 seat of feeling, and thereby the organ of specific 
 information to us, respecting its own subject. If 
 all human Souls and Consciences felt absolutely 
 alike, we should fitly regard their enunciations as 
 having a certainty on a par with the perceptions of 
 Sense: only, as Sense is developed in an earlier 
 stage of humanity, and is less dependent on higher 
 
 BR 
 
4: THE SOUL: 
 
 cultivation than the Conscience and the Soul, the 
 decisions of Sense are undoubtedly far easier to 
 ascertain—not therefore more certain when ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 In the child and in the savage, as the Conscience 
 is but half developed, so is it manifestly with the 
 Soul. The former is built up out of certain rudi- 
 mentary sympathies and perceptions, co-operating 
 with an experience of human tendencies, under the 
 stimulus of which the moral powers expand, until 
 moral Truth is at length discerned by direct vision. 
 The Natural History of the Soul is far less simple, as 
 must be expected of a higher organ: its diseases 
 also are more hidden and more embarrassing, and 
 in consequence its pathology will assume an. appa- 
 rently disproportionate part of a true theology. 
 For if Theology is “‘ a science of God,” it cannot 
 omit to treat of the bright or sullied state of the 
 mirror, in which alone God’s face is to be seen. 
 How to keep it ever bright, is the problem for every 
 practical Christian; to unfold the practical rules in 
 connexion with an extended knowledge of the en- 
 tire man, so as to reconcile Passion, Prudence, Duty, 
 Free Thought, and Reverence, is perhaps the highest 
 form that the problem can assume to the Theo- 
 logian. 
 
 In order to see the whole from its commence- 
 ment, it is well to begin from the study of the ele- 
 mentary phenomena out of which are evolved the 
 ideas of something boundless beyond us—of Super- 
 natural Power—of Divine Existence—and finally of 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 5 
 
 One Infinite God; and, in passing, the collateral 
 degraded types of each new sentiment or judgment 
 will be remarked upon. 
 
 l. AWE. 
 
 The child of a good and wise parent, before at- 
 taining an age when it can meditate on the parent's 
 finite powers, is certain to learn that there is One 
 higher still, worshipped by him with prayer and 
 praise. This is at first, and for some time, mere 
 hearsay, destitute of any religious power on the 
 heart, until a higher idea of infinity is attained. 
 The gloom of night (deadly night, as Homer terms 
 it), more universally perhaps than any other phe- 
 nomenon, first awakens an uneasy sense of vast- 
 ness. A young child accustomed to survey the 
 narrow limits of a lighted apartment, wakes in the 
 night and is frightened at the dim vacancy. No 
 nurse’s tales about spectres are needed to make the 
 darkness awful. Nor is it from fear of any human 
 or material enemy: it is the negation, the unknown, 
 the unlimited, which excites and alarms; and some- 
 times the more, if mingled with glimpses of light. 
 
 A moral feeling blends with the sense of the 
 awful unknown and infinite, when Death comes be- 
 fore a child’s mind, especially if it fall upon one 
 known and loved; and at a more adult age its 
 effect is proportionably increased. Whither 1s our 
 beloved one gone? Does he exist? Can he hear 
 us? What a world of possibilities are presented to 
 the imagination! Tender hope suggests that the 
 
6 THE SOUL: 
 
 spirit of the deceased still hovers about us, still 
 watches us, still loves to know that we remember 
 him. Yet what sharpness of thought can pierce 
 this veil and prove that any of these things are 
 true? There may be a brighter scene beyond the 
 grave, at least for those who are so kind or brave as 
 our lost one; or it may be that while his shade flits 
 about in air it is nothing to him; it is but a de- 
 lusive ghost, in which he is not at all—Such are 
 probably the alternatives which present themselves 
 to the untutored mind: a misty and infinite region 
 of possible existence is opened to it; and as often as 
 evil conscience goads a man, he becomes less brave 
 in the contemplation of death. 
 
 Among places and circumstances, perhaps the 
 darkness of Groves may be made prominent, as con- 
 ducive to religious awe. ‘The very name of a grove 
 in Latin (decus) is implicated with religion. The 
 grove of the Eumenides was to an Athenian the 
 most awe-striking of places. To the ancient Ger- 
 mans, groves were the proper temples of the gods. 
 Among the Hebrews likewise, as with their Ca- 
 naanite neighbours, the tendency to worship in 
 groves was enough to overpower positive commands 
 to make offerings in Jerusalem only. Nor will any 
 one wonder at this, who knows what it is to walk 
 alone by night under thick trees. A good con- 
 science, and a heart not unused to pious commun- 
 ings, is only enough to repel painful tremors, except 
 in those whom habit has deadened; and even these 
 —though brave and stout men—unless fortified by 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 7 
 
 intelligent devoutness, are liable to sudden panic. 
 We must repeat, it is not bodily enemies that they 
 dread; but a sense of the infinite, the unseen, the 
 unknown—pierces through and perhaps unmans 
 them. 
 
 So much having been obtained as a foundation, 
 Awe, if it cannot be and ought not to be annihilated, 
 ought to take some moral form. But even in this 
 early stage numberless deviations take place, and 
 mark especially the rudest Paganism. We may 
 embrace them under the general name of Fetishism, 
 which here claims attention. 
 
 In its simplest form, Fetishism ascribes divine 
 virtue to some common object; to a stone, a beast, 
 a tree, or a scrap of writing. Any of these may be 
 made a god, an amulet or talisman; or may vary 
 from the one character to the other. The wor- 
 shipper dares not use his common sense, which 
 would reject these absurdities; because his soul is 
 sufficiently awakened to suggest that there is an 
 occult power in nature transcending his reasoning 
 faculties. He has gratuitously, indeed, attached 
 the power to a definite object; but he is not trained 
 to observe within what limits he is to follow his 
 understanding, and where it is salutary to trust his 
 imagination and faith to go beyond it; hence the 
 fear of offending something divine paralyzes his 
 powers. Natural phenomena probably in many 
 cases commence such delusions. The falling of a 
 meteoric stone is a highly exciting event. Such a 
 stone, in an ignorant people, is certain to be revered, 
 
8 THE SOUL: 
 
 perhaps worshipped; and then is likely so to break 
 down the objections of common sense, as to in- 
 crease the predisposition to similar prostrations of 
 soul. To knock off a bit of the fetish as a talisman, 
 might seem too daring; but to adopt for such a 
 purpose a piece of stone similar in appearance to 
 it, would be an easy progress. If one man has a 
 talisman, others wish for it, and a premium is 
 offered for the manufacture of charms. While a 
 nation is in this state of ignorance, some or other 
 event is almost certain to commence such supersti- 
 tion; and any commencement suffices to ensure a 
 continuation. Among the savages of Africa, of 
 Asia, of America, the form of the result varies, but 
 the spirit and the spiritual consequences are the 
 same. The incipient cravings of the soul are ina 
 certain way satisfied, but so as to arrest their farther 
 development. To the unknown and the infinite, no 
 moral element, nor in fact even any personality has 
 been ascribed. Nay, it has been reduced into a 
 finite sensible shape. One fragment of Deity has 
 been as it were embalmed for awe; but it has no 
 life nor life-giving power. 
 
 In the same stage a gross and hard-drawn picture 
 of an after-life is often adopted with firm belief. 
 An unseen world is imagined, probably under 
 ground, where the nations of the departed reside ; 
 and in this Tartarus different souls have a better or 
 worse lot. So far there is little amiss; but next 
 enters the idea, that men on earth can in some way 
 affect the state of the dead. The simplest and most 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 9 
 
 amiable form of the thought is, that offerings of 
 meat and drink, of flowers and wine, at the grave of 
 the deceased, allay his appetites and soothe his 
 feelings. Out of this grows an art of propitiating 
 the dead, perhaps also of consulting them; and a 
 class of men arises who profess skill in this art; 
 they are the primitive priests or necromancers. As 
 their credit takes root and their science unfolds 
 itself, they are at length supposed to have power 
 over the underworld. ‘Their favour is purchased by 
 costly gifts, and the warriors alternately tremble 
 before them or trample them down. 
 
 With the advance of cultivation, when the idea of 
 a world of spirits has become familiar, Fetishism in 
 many cases rises out of its primitive sottishness 
 into a belief in spirits of magic. Arab superstition 
 is in this respect a step higher than African. The 
 geni of the Arabians appear at one moment as 
 acted upon by spells or talismans, at another as the 
 unseen powers, in fact spirits, who animate them. 
 Here the human mind has proceeded to add per- 
 sonality to the occult influences, but has not been 
 able to disentangle the supernatural persons from 
 the sacred object or fetish, and has systematized 
 moreover the belief in a science which gives to man 
 a control over these powers. To the gen in 
 general no preeminency of moral character is as- 
 cribed. Nevertheless, so soon as personality 1s 
 allowed them, it inevitably follows to conceive of 
 some as better and some worse; hence the doctrine 
 of good and evil genii: out of which in due time is 
 
 B 3 
 
10 THE SOUL: 
 
 certain to grow the Persian idea of two great spirits, 
 good and bad, and ultimately that of Monotheism, 
 if general cultivation proceeds. 
 
 But even in the midst of enlightened science and 
 highly literate ages, errors fundamentally identical 
 with those of Fetishism may and do exist, and with 
 the very same results. As the savage adores the 
 darkness without seeking or longing for light, so 
 the cultivated man sometimes by a morbid sense 
 dreads the light, lest it should interfere with the 
 gloom which he thinks necessary to religious awe. 
 Not satisfied to take God's world as it is, he makes 
 as it were an artificial darkness in order that he 
 may be more religious; as if there were danger lest 
 the human mind should exhaust the mysteries of 
 the universe, and leave no room for wonder and re- 
 verence. Of course it 1s not meant that the indi- 
 vidual is conscious of this; yet bystanders may see 
 that there is in him a positive dread of clear no- 
 tions, a suspicion that one who knows what his own 
 words and professions mean cannot be reverential, 
 a tendency to confound enigmas with mysteries, 
 and to inculcate (under new names) a belief in 
 charms and magic. A wafer blessed and water 
 sprinkled by a priest, are often invested over the 
 breadth of Europe with magical virtue; and the 
 words of a creed, reverentially recited by one who 
 does not profess to understand them, are believed to 
 have power in heaven and hell. <A “purgatory” of 
 fire is imagined, where souls have their guilt burnt 
 out of them in long time, unless indeed the mass- 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 1] 
 
 chanting priest give to these unfortunates an earlier 
 release. On his unction and absolution the state of 
 dying men depends; for he keeps the keys of the 
 courts above—we know not why or how, but be- 
 cause God has willed it. The priest may be both 
 ignorant and wicked, yet he holds these celestial 
 powers by virtue of his office, and his office by a 
 magical investment derived from a man perhaps 
 neither better nor wiser than he. The ordained and 
 consecrated are all fetish: it is irreverent to pry 
 closely into their pretensions.—In proportion as 
 such fantasies prevail, religious growth is stunted. 
 To abandon the common understanding becomes a 
 necessary virtue ; after which, moral enormities may 
 be incorporated with the system without revolting 
 the worshipper. If the whole religion were of this 
 kind, it would be as debasing as any possible 
 Fetishism ; and such things now stand their ground 
 only because they are generally combined with 
 purer and holier principles; the influence of which 
 for good imparts undue credit to these besotting 
 superstitions. 
 
 2. WONDER. 
 
 But if such errors are escaped, the pure and rea- 
 sonable result of Awe upon the soul, is a pervading 
 and active sense that we are as motes in the sun- 
 beam, lost in immensity; insects of an hour, en- 
 veloped with mystery, knowing neither whence we 
 came nor whither we go. And this feeling of Awe 
 is soon blended and softened, by the sentiment of 
 
12 THE SOUL: 
 
 the Sublime and the Wonderful mixing with it. Of 
 all natural objects the starry heavens probably 
 impart the most vivid conception of boundlessness, 
 and the fullest feeling of sublimity, while the night 
 itself, in which they are seen, aids their impression 
 on the soul. Some, however, live in mountainous 
 countries, or within view of the sea, and have, even 
 in the day-time, magnificent objects in sight. Here 
 it is natural to expect that the sentiment of the 
 sublime would be more effectually cultivated; but 
 it is not always so. Far more depends on the sus- 
 ceptibility of the soul, than on the scene habitually 
 presented to us; and perhaps a stranger 1s more 
 powerfully affected by the majesty of sea and moun- 
 tain, than those who see them habitually. 
 Nevertheless, it cannot be doubted that the ideas 
 of the Sublime and of the Wonderful, however ex- 
 cited, rise in more or less energy in all human 
 bosoms long before we attain adult age, and are 
 characteristic of the species. A man without these 
 ideas would be as great a monster as a man without 
 love or power of laughter; such a one, if in human 
 form, would deserve to be judged an idiot. And 
 herein lies the fundamental union of Poetry and 
 ~ Religion. Hence is it that the ancient Bard, Vates, 
 or Prophet, united the characters of poet and reli- 
 gious teacher; and in fact to feed upon the higher 
 and sublime poetry is virtually an exercise of the 
 soul—a preparation at least for actual religion. 
 Its similarity to religious meditation is in many 
 respects evident. As the same hymn of praise and 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 13 
 
 love may be daily recited and wearies not; as no 
 new information for the understanding is coveted ; 
 so the same lines of the poet eternally delight— 
 the more perhaps because they are old. We dwell 
 upon each word, and find the imagination more and 
 more stimulated; it is a never-ending feast; for 
 the wise poet does not limit his hearers to his own 
 mind, but leaves room for them to range beyond 
 him if they can. 
 
 There is indeed an elementary religion, a cer- 
 tain religiosity, implied in the perception and en- 
 joyment of the Sublime. The soul, awakened to a” 
 sense of the boundlessness of the universe, of its 
 own essential littleness and inferiority, combines an 
 aspiration after fuller knowledge with a devotional 
 self-prostration in the presence of that power, prin- 
 ciple, or person, out of which we and all that we 
 see has proceeded. Perhaps in this stage no defi- 
 nite judgment is formed, whether the power be, or 
 be not, a conscious designing mind, or whether one 
 or many; in fact, all these hypotheses may be em- 
 braced alternately with the changes of feeling, 
 while (through the absence of self-inspection) the 
 person is unaware of it. There is also an ele- 
 mentary religion in speculations about an after-life, 
 so long as they proceed from the feelings of the 
 soul, and not from metaphysics or inventive fancy. 
 To explore that dim abyss with wondering thought- 
 fulness, though no conclusion be reached, is a pro- 
 fitable exercise of soul, which enlivens the con- 
 science, and rectifies our views of earthly interests. 
 
14 THE SOUL: 
 
 Moral reverence in all this is not yet formed, yet 
 the Wonder is reverential. Curiosity is not for- 
 bidden, but is sobered; inquiry is encouraged, if it 
 be in an earnest and grave spirit; but in conjunc- 
 tion with these, there is the humility of conscious 
 ignorance and littleness, and astonishment at powers 
 to which no limit is seen. Such is the second stage 
 of healthy development. 
 
 But of this likewise we find numerous degraded 
 types, in which the rising religion is marred. Cu- 
 riosity having once obtained leave to pry into things 
 and powers which surpass the understanding, be- 
 comes sportive, and luxuriates in fanciful invention, 
 wholly unmoral, and into company with which no- 
 thing can force the conscience. Of this we have 
 eminent instances in the gods of Greece, and in the 
 fairies of the German and Persian tribes. To in- 
 dulge in mere play with the ideas of things infinite, 
 appears to be more fatal to religion than any other 
 corruption. It can hardly be esteemed an allevia- 
 tion of the evil, that the form moulded by wild 
 fancy soon gets some hereditary sanction, and a 
 fixed aspect, after which it is believed as a veritable 
 likeness; for the more intense the belief of notions 
 which destroy all reverence for the unknown and 
 supernatural, the more fatal the result. So long as 
 aman is giving loose to such fancy, he is depraving 
 his own religious faculties by egregious trifling ; 
 and a nation eminent for the tendency, can have 
 depth neither in its religion nor in its conscience, 
 which are forcibly kept apart. Perhaps it may be 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 15 
 
 thought severe to pass this judgment on the Ionian 
 tribes of Greece; yet even if the result was checked 
 by other causes, there is still too much truth in the 
 remark to be withheld. In the same way, the 
 writing and reading of fairy tales, in prose or verse, 
 if I do not mistake, exerts whatever influence it has 
 in the direction of deadening the religious sense”. 
 Those who people the vague, unseen, and infinite 
 world with beings not much superior to us, and in 
 a moral aspect often inferior; who become as it 
 were familiar with these creations of their fancy ; 
 not only can feel no reverence to them, but just in 
 proportion as they realize the ideas, incapacitate 
 themselves for any reverence at all. Puerile wonder 
 remains as the deepest sentiment possible to them. 
 A man may, no doubt, read the Midsummer Night's 
 Dream, and get no harm from its fairy personages ; 
 for the simple reason that they touch only the out- 
 side of his nature, excite no deep interest, and, how- 
 ever beautiful, are altogether frigid. But if the tale 
 stirred him up deeply—if it seized firmly on his 
 imagination—and, much more, if it were actually 
 believed, it would proportionably exhaust the sources 
 of real devoutness. Under the same head will be 
 included the grotesque devil-stories, and other 
 legends of the Middle Ages. It has often been 
 
 * Of course supernatural imagery may be a vehicle for pure and 
 impressive sentiment; nay, may be of a grave and impressive cha- 
 racter itself, as in Mr. Robert Landor’s recent tale, called “The 
 Fountain of Arethusa.” I speak solely of such inventions as cannot 
 be forced into contact with the conscience. 
 
16 THE SOUL: 
 
 remarked how emphatically degrading must be the 
 religion of an Italian, who whips the image of his 
 saint when he has failed to obtain a request. But 
 this is only a particular instance of the general pro- 
 position, that familiarity 1s antagonistic to devo- 
 tional awe, and that we cannot make the world of 
 spirits a place of amusement to the superficial fancy, 
 without impairing our susceptibility to its sober and 
 profound influences. 
 
 The old religions, which sinned on this side, 
 sometimes had a counterweight in the fantastic 
 melancholy of other fictions. The sympathy of the 
 Greek with Ceres for the disappearance of her 
 daughter, and with Niobe for the slaughter of her 
 beautiful children, was perhaps rather tender than 
 reverential; but the awe inspired by the Eume- 
 nides was true and deep; and, in the opinion of 
 Miiller, the belief connected with the infernal gods 
 was the only purifying part of the Greek religion. 
 No earthly enchanter could deliver the guilty soul 
 by celebrating mass. Yet the dreadful alternative 
 of gross superstition is this, that the graver view 
 tends to cruel and horrible rites, while the fanciful 
 and sportive sucks out the life-blood of devout 
 feeling, 
 
 Between these two extremes—which were the 
 besetting sins of Carthage and Gaul on the one hand, 
 of Greece on the other—the Romans and the Egyp- 
 tians appear to have held a wiser mean. Both 
 the latter nations had the principle of reverence so 
 deep, that they were susceptible of grovelling super- 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. a 
 
 stition even when their cultivation was considerably 
 advanced. Egypt is regarded as the native land of 
 secret doctrines or mysteries; and such things seem 
 to have been highly congenial to the Romans. The 
 credulity of both appears to us astonishing; yet 
 dark and bloody rites were foreign to them, and at 
 the same time they were far removed from puerile 
 familiarity with their deities. Nevertheless, each 
 nation fell at last into another, equally fatal, cor- 
 ruption; ito the worship of a hard hereditary 
 ceremonial, unprompted by feeling, unrenewed by 
 fresh inspiration. Thus the infinite became de- 
 graded into the finite, the divine into the petty or 
 the bestial. The death of a cat, or the drinking of 
 a chicken, were made of prime religious importance; 
 and though no gossiping poets dissolved their 
 piety into lascivious dreams, the Hierophant and 
 the Pontifex congealed it into grotesque shapes, 
 immovable and lifeless as stone. 
 
 3. ADMIRATION. 
 
 The human mind opens in some degree to a per- 
 ception of Beauty, as early as to that of Awe; but 
 Awe, as a sentiment, reaches its beneficial limit in a 
 low stage of cultivation. The sense of Wonder also 
 exists in much intensity, at a time when that of 
 Beauty is little developed. Indeed this last advances 
 but slowly towards perfection, and always perhaps 
 falls short of it. Herein we see, that Beauty, 
 though it exists in limited dimensions only, and 
 
18 | THE SOUL: 
 
 seldom can inspire Awe—for Respect, Admiration, 
 Rapture, rather than Reverence, Awe, Devoutness, 
 express our feelings toward beauty, of whatever 
 kind—still, Beauty has one element of infinity ; 
 what is more, it is received by a single grasp of the 
 soul, by an intuition which cannot be analyzed ; 
 and, as we contemplate its higher specimens, we can 
 feed upon them untiringly, finding no end of ad- 
 miration and delight. 
 
 « In those great scenes of the visible world, the 
 sublimity of which impresses us, we also generally 
 discern much beauty. In the starry heavens in- 
 deed, there is sameness ; yet the eye only, and not 
 the mind, gets weary in gazing on them. The tran- 
 quillity of their beauty never becomes insipid, 
 though there is so little variety. Very different is 
 the sunlit landscape; in which the characters of 
 beauty are too numerous to be counted, no one spot 
 giving a view like the rest, nor one day like another. 
 Yet here also, in that which changes least, as the 
 falling of the cascade or the rolling of the sea, there 
 is no satiety of admiration. How close to devout 
 exercises of soul is this feeding of the heart on 
 beauty, the epithets and metaphors of every lan- 
 guage testify. We need therefore to examine the 
 relation which it bears to religion. 
 
 As Awe is softened into Reverential Wonder, when 
 the understanding is sufficiently enlightened to save 
 us from vain and degrading fears, so the latter sen- 
 timent warms into Admiration, when we discern the 
 Beauty which invests the infinite world. As a 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 19 
 
 glimpse of life beyond the grave, and a glance of 
 the eye into the depths of space, are adapted to 
 calm stormy passions, so a tranquil resting of the 
 soul, on whatever form of beauty, tends to impart 
 cheerfulness, elasticity of spirits, and mute thank- 
 fulness, towards—perhaps we know not whom. The 
 child who gazes on the colours of the sunset, on the 
 light which ripples with the water, or on the deep 
 blue of the sky, is often ready to bound with speech- 
 less and unanalyzed delight. Nor need adults any 
 higher beauty to call forth the same feelings, though 
 the magnificent scenery of some favoured spots is 
 appreciated by them with still keener zest. Thus, 
 in short, to call forth the heart into admiration, and 
 prepare tt for love, is the appropriate function of 
 all natural beauty. 
 
 How far the beauty of the human countenance can 
 here be included, is a question which may move de- 
 bate. The living face of man is undoubtedly an in- 
 finite depth, inasmuch as it depicts character; but 
 this concerns expression only, and is therefore but 
 partially dependent on mere feature and primitive 
 form. It must indeed be admitted, that meek and 
 majestic features, a pure soul shining through the 
 eye, a self-collected spirit seen in the general har- 
 mony of the countenance and in the absence of every- 
 thing spasmodic, exert a strong mora/ action on the 
 spectator; and, in so far as religion consists in a 
 quickening of the conscience under a sense that a 
 superior intelligence is gazing upon us, the sight of 
 a human face—even sculptured or painted—may be 
 
20 THE SOUL: 
 
 called a religious influence. Such is that of a mo- 
 ther to her infant. But this influence is not that of 
 beauty, though it is heightened by beauty. We 
 must disentangle the two things. A countenance of 
 great purity and love must have a certain sweetness 
 of its own, but not dependent on feature: on the 
 other hand, the most beautiful features that ever 
 were, may be insipid and inexpressive, as those of 
 many Venuses and Madonnas. Such beauty does 
 not even draw admiration from the cultivated; and 
 when it does in any, the limit is soon reached; 
 satiety succeeds; the matter has thus no place in 
 our present discussion. But as, in the few in- 
 stances in which it is our privilege to see a living 
 face beam with the highest moral qualities of man, the 
 mere sight is kindling to every good and holy emotion, 
 so pictures or statues, which skilfully represent such 
 countenances, are themselves, (up to a certain limit 
 not easily reached,) a moral and spiritual power. 
 
 It is not from these that idolatrous mischiefs are 
 to be feared; no populace ever became degraded by 
 gazing upon them. The many representations of 
 the countenance of the Man of Sorrows, on which 
 the eyes of the Middle Ages were fed, varying no 
 doubt greatly in merit, were yet on the whole 
 highly conducive to spiritual improvement. On 
 the contrary, the stupid and debasing idolatry was 
 found in connexion with some staring large doll, 
 tricked out in tawdry finery and called a Virgn— 
 such as still infests Continental cathedrals—or with 
 some daub of a picture, neither having nor supposed 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 21 
 
 to have artistic excellence. Such things were made 
 fetish, and the worship of them was attended with 
 nearly the same influences as the worship of a stone 
 fallen from Jupiter. They had not even elevating 
 reminiscences; for no one fact was imagined con- 
 cerning the Virgin which tended to quicken the con- 
 science *., 
 
 But though the painted or sculptured counte- 
 nance is, under certain circumstances, a spiritual 
 power, yet, as being a work of art, it in all cases 
 puts us beneath the artificer, and may even keep us 
 down to his level. This was strikingly illustrated 
 in Greek sculpture. A statue of exquisite beauty, 
 representing some hero, or an Apollo, because of 
 its beauty seemed to the Greeks a fit object of wor- 
 ship. We still have before us many of the finest 
 performances of their sculptors. We know dis- 
 tinctly enough what an Apollo, what a Mercury was; 
 and we can accurately appreciate the influence of 
 such worship. None of the qualities of mind which 
 we peculiarly call spiritual, were expressed at all. 
 Meekness, thankfulness, love, contentment, com- 
 passion, humility, patience, resignation, disinte- 
 restedness, purity, aspiration, devoutness ; little of 
 all these was felt or understood by the sculptor ; 
 and how then could he communicate them? Those 
 
 * The preposterous ascription of perpetual virginity to a married 
 woman tends to promote, not true purity, but fantastic error in elder 
 people, impure curiosity in younger ones. The abuse of the word 
 chastity to mean celibacy is bad enough; but this is so much worse, 
 that I fear to express my feelings about it. 
 
ae THE SOUL: 
 
 who adored his work could not rise to a higher 
 adoration ; such is the danger besetting those who 
 allow themselves to cultivate devout feeling by aid 
 of human art. We must not indeed disdain that 
 occasional stimulus; but much less must we habi- 
 tually have recourse to it, or make ourselves de- 
 pendent on it. 
 
 The same remark, I believe, will apply to church 
 architecture. That the canopy of heaven elevates 
 and sobers the heart, preparing it for devotion, if 
 devout in itself,—few will deny. It needs not 
 much susceptibility farther to confess, that a lofty 
 cathedral, when suitably constructed, has an effect 
 similar in kind to this; and that, other things 
 being equal, it is better adapted for prayer, (though 
 not for preaching,) than a well-lighted room, with 
 low and flat roof. It is then evidently our wisdom 
 to use such an advantage, when it offers itself. But 
 on the other hand, since nearly all depends on the 
 judgment of the architect; since many fail utterly, 
 and produce only clumsy piles of masonry more or 
 less ambitious, or gorgeous palaces more or less 
 tawdry, but in no way appealing to the religious 
 sense; it will only degrade our worship, if we force 
 our hearts into sympathy with their false conceits, 
 and invest their influence with a gwas?-religious 
 sanction. It is deplorable to hear how the form of a 
 mullion or of a capital, the adorning of a pulpit or 
 communion table, to say nothing of other finery 
 or fancies, is elevated into religious importance, with 
 reference to churches which all the ornaments and 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 23 
 
 all the architectural lore in Europe can never invest 
 with religious beauty; which are either as thoroughly 
 industrial, in their primitive conception, as any 
 square meeting-house, or are built on some here- 
 ditary pattern with no moulding idea. Mediocrity 
 —as in poetry, so in church-architecture—must 
 utterly fail to edevate the soul; patch the work as 
 much as we will. Considering how rare access to 
 churches of the noblest kind must always be, tenets 
 of religion which dwell much on such a help to 
 devotion are likely to gravitate into mere fetish 
 superstition. 
 
 An opposite danger is often remarked to accom- 
 pany the use of a// the fine arts as handmaids to 
 religion; namely, that the would-be worshipper is 
 so absorbed in mere beauty, as never to rise into 
 devotion. Music, Painting, Architecture, are by him 
 appreciated as such; and if ert¢icized as such, then 
 farewell to their religious influence. That the dan- 
 ger is real and imminent, the history of Italy and of 
 modern Rome proves. What Romanist will claim 
 for Rome a high place in his religious world? and 
 yet where else have these influences acted on so 
 great a scale for so long a time? On the whole 
 therefore, we must assign an exceedingly subordi- 
 nate place in religion to that beauty which the hand 
 of man produces. Its author is not divine enough ; 
 it is dangerous to make much of his work. Only 
 when it is so glorious as to rise above criticism, 
 can it lift us higher than our common level. 
 
 The worship of beauty in days of chivalry was 
 
24 THE SOUL: 
 
 in some sense more elevating; that is, oftentimes 
 no visible thing was worshipped, but a mere ideal 
 of the mind. When a Spanish knight devoted him- 
 self to promote the honour of the Virgin, or even if 
 a human mistress was his idol, yet as he perhaps 
 had never had more than a transient glimpse of her 
 countenance, his own imagination was the chief 
 source whence her beauties were drawn, and this 
 imagination was stimulated by whatever other fe- 
 male beauty met his eye. If we measure religion 
 by its efficacy upon the conscience, this knightly 
 religion was very feeble indeed; yet, as supplying 
 a principle of action which rose out of an ideal, it 
 was not without analogy to religion, and perhaps 
 was as good as the worship of Apollo. 
 
 Far better is the modern enthusiasm for romantic 
 scenery and all the beauty of nature; for that is a 
 real infinity and constantly mingles itself with the 
 awful and sublime. He who has a keen sensibility 
 for this beauty, is not forthwith to be called a re- 
 ligious man; yet he has a temperament on which 
 true religion may be happily superinduced, with 
 more substance and grandeur of devotion than is to 
 be found, where ondy the moral sentiments are in 
 any active life. 
 
 _ But here we reach a point at which it is suitable 
 to review the connexion of these primitive affections 
 of the soul—Awe, Wonder, and Admiration— with its 
 moral state. As regulating our social conduct, Mo- 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 20 
 
 rality embraces both Self and Not Self; andin every 
 possible developement it recognises both Interest and 
 Duty as leading ends of action. When they do not 
 clash, the virtue which pursues Interest is called 
 Prudence ; when they do clash, then to pursue In- 
 terest is stigmatized as Se/fishness. But the essen- 
 tial difficulty of the moralist is, that he has no com- 
 mand of the impulsive forces of man, such as to 
 help each of us in sacrificing Interest at the shrine 
 of Duty: hence the mere moralist, in a sort of de- 
 spair of generous virtue, is tempted to recommend 
 self-sacrifice on selfish grounds; and the moral sys- 
 tem, which began with the profession of exalting 
 Duty, ends with an idolizing of Self. Thus few men 
 indeed are ever made more moral (in any but a pru- 
 dential sense) by treatises on morality. 
 
 Is there then in human nature no direct anta- 
 gonist to Self? Undoubtedly there is. The first 
 aid against it is gained from Domestic Affection. To 
 gross and barbarian natures, love for Woman, not 
 uninspired by some perception of beauty or grace, 
 is probably the first school of practical virtue: so 
 too do all the domestic relations tend to the same 
 result—the sacrifice of self to another. He who 
 lives without any such ties, a@gitwe, avéotios, is 
 shorn of a great aid towards the mortification of 
 self; and unless he cultivates a peculiarly enlarged 
 benevolence, falls morally below the average of his 
 class and country. 
 
 Nevertheless the domestic affections rather mué- 
 tiply Self than annihilate selfishness, and often re- 
 
 C 
 
26 THE SOUL: 
 
 produce it in a less odious but more intense form. 
 They are quite insufficient to the general demands 
 of morality. But another and far more implacable 
 antagonist to Self is found in Enthusiasm; which 
 is generally a passionate love for some idea or ab- 
 stract conception: and whatever form it may take, 
 its impulse is capable of animating the man to any 
 or every sacrifice of Self. But not to speak of se- 
 parate enthusiasms, one universal enthusiasm be- 
 longs to man as man; namely that which is called 
 out by a sense of the Infinite, wherein we feel Self 
 to be swallowed up. All the generous side of hu- 
 man nature is nurtured and expanded by the con- 
 templation of the Infinite. Hence is it, that a sense 
 of the Sublime and Beautiful, though it be not yet 
 Religion, supplies to Morals an important part of 
 that, which it is reserved for Religion to give in full 
 power and divine harmony. Hence the glorious 
 effect of high poetry, and of all that excites pure and 
 beautiful imagination, on the youthful mind. There- 
 fore is it, that to weep with Andromache, to shudder 
 for Hector, to tremble at Achilles, to admire Al- 
 cestis, to rejoice with Admetus, constitute a better 
 moral training than Paley’s Philosophy or Aristotle’s 
 Ethics can give. Whatever throws the heart out of 
 Self and swallows it upinto some noble or beautiful 
 Idea, affords to the moralist precisely that which he 
 wants, but cannot get within his own science. He 
 may, as it were, build an elegant Engine, but he has 
 to look elsewhere for Heat and Moving Power. 
 Enthusiasm is the Life to morality; and to excite 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. Q27 
 
 apure and reasonable Enthusiasm is, as will be seen, 
 the great moral end of Religion. 
 
 4. SENSE OF ORDER. 
 
 But to return from this digression.— Quite differ- 
 ing in kind, though now and then coinciding with 
 the sense of Beauty, is that of Order. The same 
 stars, which strike the eye of the savage as so beau- 
 tiful, impress the diligent observer still more power- 
 fully as the type of all Order, Unchangeableness, 
 and thereby of Eternity. With the cultivation of 
 the intellect and of scientific astronomy, immense 
 additional weight accrues to this view. The recur- 
 rence of the seasons, as of day and night, presents 
 itself to the mind as the most fixed and indubitable 
 certainty in the universe. It suggests, ere long, that 
 other departments of the world follow laws of equal 
 fixedness, even if less known to us. The winds and 
 the waves, long before their subjection to law is 
 proved, are assumed to act really under similar limit- 
 ations. Thus the supremacy of Order over the uni- 
 verse is recognised. 
 
 Accordingly, xocuos (Order) was the name for the 
 Universe introduced among the Greeks after the 
 birth of philosophy, and exceedingly modified the 
 wild conceptions suggested by the then current 
 mythology. If the powers or principles by which 
 Nature is as it were animated, have personal con- 
 sciousness and design, yet at least they have no- 
 thing approaching to caprice and fickleness. Be 
 
 C2 
 
28 THE SOUL: 
 
 that which we call Deity, mind, be it feeling or be 
 it life, at any rate unchangeableness is its most 
 striking attribute. The recognition of this fact is 
 the turning point and passage from barbarian, or 
 puerile, to cultivated or manly religion. After this 
 step has been made, the religion cannot possibly 
 remain what it was. It may lose in simplicity and 
 depth, or it may even gain as to both: it may re- 
 cede or it may advance; but to stand still is im- 
 possible. 
 
 The first great change which the perception of 
 Universal Order brings about is the abolition of 
 Polytheism. Where many gods are a national be- 
 lief, all of these are thenceforth regarded as sepa- 
 rated by an immense chasm from One who is 
 Supreme ;—that is, if the notion of their distinct 
 personality is retained at all. He is farther dis- 
 cerned to stand in the same relation towards all 
 nations of men and all worlds, His principles of 
 action to be the same in every age; and now also, 
 perhaps for the first time, a distinct conception of 
 His Hternity comes in. Whatever of moral cha- 
 racter be in other respects ascribed to Him, con- 
 stancy must be ascribed ; henceforth therefore con- 
 templations and imaginations concerning the Infinite 
 put on the coherent form of Thought and Specula- 
 tion. A man’s religion ceases to be a result of 
 unreflective emotion: it has become self-conscious. 
 Thus also it has fallen, more or less, under the 
 control of his understanding, and he is a moral 
 agent in regard to it, which he was not during his 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 29 
 
 time of barbarism: and with his more adult condi- 
 tion, he has assumed new powers and encounters 
 new dangers. A new element has been admitted, 
 which will either dilute and as it were dissolve all 
 the rest, or by blending with them happily will give 
 to the religion definiteness of form, consistency, and 
 notions which can abide the criticism of acute 
 incredulity. As before, we stop to consider the 
 degraded types incident to this stage of develope- 
 ment. 
 
 Whatever is habitual to us, is ill adapted to rouse 
 attention or excite Wonder. No one wonders that 
 a rock remains at rest; and though, as long as we 
 know no other cause of motion than muscular force, 
 the movement of the sun and stars does seem won- 
 derful, yet their regularity certainly abates largely 
 from the feeling. After it has appeared that a mag- 
 net will cause steel-filings to move towards it; much 
 more, after we are convinced that stones fall to the 
 ground, and planets move round the sun, for the 
 same reason as steel-filings are drawn to the mag- 
 net, the mind is forced to confess that Motion has 
 nothing in it more wonderful than Rest. Everything 
 appears either to remain as it is or to change, by a 
 Law. But the conscious voluntary action of mind in 
 us is not by Law; nay, just in so far as Law ope- 
 rates, we lose free agency ;—as, where we have 
 fallen under the dominion of Habit. This suggests 
 the theory, that Mind is not in the universe at large, 
 since it is not wanted to account for Motion. If 
 in this stage of thought a man have adopted a 
 
30 THE SOUL: 
 
 moral hypothesis which denies that in the human 
 mind any originating Will exists, and which resolves 
 Will into other forces of which we are not conscious; 
 then @ fortior? such a man naturally becomes an 
 Atheist; for, discerning no first principle of move- 
 ment even within himself, he of course needs none 
 out of himself. If in his own actions he see no 
 marks of (what others call) Will, why should he see 
 them in the actions of Nature ? 
 
 When Atheism depends on the Moral* error of 
 believing that man’s Will is never self-moving, it 1s 
 to the Moralist that we must appeal for correction. 
 It is enough here to say, that the question of Theism 
 is not one of speculative acuteness: Atheists in fact 
 are generally acute men, and on their own ground 
 it would be wrong to dogmatize against them. But 
 Atheism grounded on false morality is peculiarly 
 shocking; as it seems to imply that not the spiritual 
 only, but also the moral faculties are deficient. To 
 the case of such a man no argument is available, 
 whatever his logical powers. 
 
 But if the atheistic tendency arise solely from the 
 impression (produced by the uniformity of Law) 
 that there is no Will active in the universe, this ob- 
 
 * T do not know how to avoid calling this a moral error; but I 
 must carefully guard against seeming to overlook that it may be still 
 a merely speculative error, which ought not to separate our hearts 
 from any man. If we see another to love goodness and shudder at 
 evil, he is to be loved, although he may hold a theory, which we 
 think logically tends to annihilate exertion for the good and against 
 the evil. On the other hand, many a bad-hearted man is theoretically 
 orthodox on these points. 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. $1 
 
 jection appears to be suitably met by the argument 
 for Design, to which I next proceed. 
 
 5. SENSE OF DESIGN. 
 
 In barbarian religion the idea of a personality in 
 the Powers of Nature slips in and out; establishes 
 itself generally in the popular creed of more ad- 
 vanced nations with considerable constancy, but does 
 not know how to justify itself on reasonable grounds; 
 and very often, at the first touch of philosophy 
 crumbles into ashes, leaving only Atheism or Pan- 
 theism. The question now arises—Is this ascription 
 of Personality to the universal Power so gratuitous 
 as those philosophers thought? Does the universe 
 exhibit to us much Order indeed, but no marks of 
 Mind? 
 
 Here, if anywhere, we must guard against the 
 fallacy, which pretends that a clue to truth is worth- 
 less, if it have not the form of cogent Argument. 
 We discern Design in the world: F%tnesses are the 
 clue by which we track it out; yet-they undoubtedly 
 do not always, and much less in every detail, indi- 
 cate Design. Fruit is palatable and wholesome 
 to man: a suitability might strike me, between an 
 orange or pine-apple and my appetite ; but it would 
 not be sound forthwith to infer that this particular 
 fruit had been designed for me as a particular per- 
 son—either by man or by God. Farther examina- 
 tion often shows antagonist fitnesses: two mouths 
 want the same loaf, and it cannot have been in- 
 
32 THE SOUL: 
 
 tended for both. The antagonisms are often of a 
 less obvious kind, yet serve equally well to correct 
 the first rash conclusion. So again, fantastical 
 minds may carry up the detail of human arts into 
 the divine purposes; as the well-known engineer, 
 who before a Parliamentary Committee expressed 
 his opinion, that “large rivers were intended to feed 
 navigable canals.” It must be admitted, that the 
 argument from Fitness to Design may be ill ap- 
 plied: but the question arises—can it never be 
 trusted ? 
 
 A lung bears a certain relation to the air, a gill 
 to the water, the eye to light, the mind to truth, 
 human hearts to one another: is it gratuitous and 
 puerile to say, that these relations imply design ? 
 There is no undue specification here, no antagonist 
 argument, no intrusion of human artifice: we take 
 the things fresh from nature. In saying that lungs 
 were intended to breathe, and eyes to see, we im-— 
 ply an argument from Fitness to Design, which 
 carries conviction to the overwhelming majority of 
 cultivated as well as uncultivated minds. Yet, in 
 calling it an argument, we may seem to appeal to 
 the logical faculty; and this would be an error. 
 No syllogism is pretended, that proves a lung to 
 have been made to breathe; but we see it by what 
 some call Common Sense, and some Intuition. If 
 such a fact stood alone in the universe, and no 
 other existences spoke of Design, it would probably. 
 remain a mere enigma to us; but when the whole 
 human world is pervaded by similar instances, not 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. a8 
 
 to see a Universal Mind in nature appears almost a 
 brutal insensibility; and if any one intelligently 
 professes Atheism, the more acute he is, the more 
 distinctly we perceive that he is deficient in the 
 Religious Faculty. Just as, if he had no sense of 
 Beauty in anything, we should not imagine that we 
 could impart it by argument, so neither here. Pos- 
 sibly some day, by a new developement of his cha- 
 racter or by the contagion of sympathy, he may 
 acquire Religious Insight; but for the present, we 
 lament that he has it not, and hereby is cut off from 
 the profoundest influences of humanity. 
 
 But to return to the marks of Design. 
 
 No stress whatever needs here to be laid upon 
 minute anatomy, as for instance, of the eye: it 
 signifies not, whether we do or do not understand 
 its optical structure as a matter of science. If it 
 had vo optical structure at all, if it differed in no 
 respect (that we could discover) from a piece of 
 marble, except that it sees, this would not destroy 
 our conviction* that it 7s meant to see. Of the 
 physical structure of mind, no one pretends to know 
 anything; but this does not inspire doubt whether 
 the mind was meant to discern truth. 
 
 Why should any philosopher resist this judg- 
 ment? ‘One thing might justify him; namely, if 
 there were strong @ priori reasons for disbelieving 
 that Mind exists anywhere except inman. But the 
 case is just the reverse. That puny beings who are 
 
 * See in Charles Hennell’s Christian Theism, p. 34, &c., a lumi- 
 nous statement of the argument from mechanism. 
 
 Crs 
 
34 THE SOUL: 
 
 but of yesterday, and presently disappear, should 
 alone possess that which of all things is highest 
 and most wonderful, is @ priori exceedingly un- 
 plausible. As Socrates and Cicero have pointedly 
 asked: ‘‘ Whence have we picked it up?” Its 
 source is not in ourselves: there must surely be a 
 source beyond us. Thus the tables are turned: we 
 must primd facie expect to find Mind in the Uni- 
 verse, acting on some stupendous scale, and of 
 course imperfectly understood by us. Consequently, 
 such Fitnesses as meet our view on all sides bring 
 a reasonable conviction that Design lies beneath 
 them. To confess this, is to confess the doctrine 
 of an intelligent Creator, although we pretend not 
 to understand anything concerning the mode, stages, 
 or time of Creation. Adding now the conclusions 
 drawn from the Order of the universe, we have 
 testimony, adapted to the cultivated judgment, that 
 there is a Boundless, Eternal, Unchangeable, De- 
 signing Mind, not without whom this system of 
 things coheres: and this Mind we call Gop. 
 
 It is however right here to enter a protest against 
 being thought to have any accurate and perfect 
 knowledge of that Infinite Mind. Our knowledge 
 is essentially crude and only approximate; and 
 to affect the rigid form of human science is mere 
 delusion. We attribute to God those properties 
 of mind with which we are acquainted,—Will, De- 
 sign, Forethought, and others; but it is unreason- 
 able to imagine that we can at all more deeply 
 sound His mind, than a dog that of his master. 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 35 
 
 Hence Religious Knowledge, from the nature of the 
 case, ts essentially popular; and if the scientific 
 mind has any advantage over the unscientific in 
 prosecuting it, the advantage is not in the direct 
 perceptive powers of the soul and in any greater 
 fulness of knowledge, but, negatively, in avoiding 
 vulgar prejudices derived from false lights. Intel- 
 lectual cultivation, as such, is here purely critical 
 and only destructive of error: yet as such, of very 
 high importance. If this essential imperfection in | 
 our knowledge of God be admitted, an important 
 corollary follows: namely, that no long deductions, 
 following logical (that is to say, verbal) processes, 
 can be trusted in Theology. Such deductions im- 
 ply full accuracy in the verbal premisses. Inference 
 may guide our thoughts to new beliefs; but we 
 need to discern the results directly, and not merely 
 to depend on our syllogisms, if we are to have the 
 full confidence of practical truth. What mathema- 
 tician will trust to a refined and lengthy process of 
 argument, depending on empirical formulas? In 
 Hydraulics and Pneumatics, where the first prin: 
 ciples are only approximately known, it is requisite 
 to keep close to experiment, and verify every specu- 
 lative inference by practical trial. A system of 
 Theology, constructed like a treatise on Mechanics, 
 by fine-drawn reasonings from a few primitive 
 axioms or experimental laws, is likely to be nothing 
 but a Sham Science. 
 
 Injustice, I think, is done to the train of hedge 
 which suggests Design, when it is represented as a 
 search after Causes, until we come to a First 
 
36 THE SOUL: 
 
 Cause, and there stop. As an argument, this, I 
 confess, in itself brings me no satisfaction. It is 
 not pretended that we understand the First Cause 
 any more than the original phenomena: when we 
 know not the character of His agency, how have 
 we accounted for anything ? or how have we even 
 simplified the problem? A God uncaused and ex- 
 isting from eternity, is to the full as incomprehen- 
 sible as a world uncaused and existing from eter- 
 “nity. We must not reject the latter theory, merely 
 as incomprehensible; for so is every other possible 
 theory. To believe in a divine Architect, because 
 I cannot otherwise understand by what train of 
 causation an Eye could have been made, is one 
 thing: (does the Theist any the more understand ?) 
 but to believe in a Designer, because I see the Eye 
 to be suited to Light, is another thing. The latter 
 argument indeed does not in itself carry us up to a 
 First Cause; its whole scope is to point out intel- 
 lect external to man and higher than his, which 
 suffices to justify the popular ascription of mind 
 and personality to the power which is in Nature. 
 To carry out extravagantly, and as it were cari- 
 cature, the doctrine of Design, is a rare perversity. 
 There are however those, who think not only to 
 honour God, but to be peculiarly logical and scien- 
 tific, by teaching that He has designed everything 
 that happens; regardless whether any Fitnesses 
 exist to indicate Design. Every pebble washed up 
 by the sea, every bone imbedded in the mud, was 
 definitely intended by Him to lie where it lies.— 
 Now if those who so believe mean merely to say, 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 37 
 
 that the so-called powers of nature are actings of 
 the divine will, the reply is, that this is a juggle of 
 words ; for they manifestly do not reveal His moral 
 will. To become an agent of cruelty in tormenting 
 a martyr, would be a crime: yet if nothing but the 
 immediate will of God, exerted as directly as by the 
 torturer, makes the scourge to cut and the flesh to feel, 
 then God also is an accomplice in the crime. This 
 conclusion is of course inadmissible. It is evaded by 
 remarking,—what is a certain fact,—that He acts 
 by general laws: which means, that He sees it to be 
 more important to adhere to processes which admit 
 of mechanical, chemical and (in short) physical de- 
 finition, than to guide His proceedings by the moral 
 right and wrong of special cases. No other solu- 
 tion has ever been suggested; and this is adequate 
 and convincing.—But what does this imply ? Why, 
 that God's moral thoughts can no more be detected 
 in the detailed actions of material objects, than the 
 affections of a watchmaker by inspecting a watch: 
 —that when the flesh of a martyr is agonized by 
 the flames, God gives the fire power to burn him, 
 not because He wishes it on that particular occasion 
 to burn, but because it is better to adhere to a 
 fixed system, so that the element which burns at 
 one time should burn also at another. Thus the 
 qualities of matter are on the whole, no doubt, 
 agreeable to the divine will, and may be speciously 
 called the actings of that will; but the phrase is 
 very delusive; since the sole use of it is to propa- 
 gate a notion which is directly contrary to obvious 
 
38 THE SOUL: 
 
 fact. For in material nature Law alone rules, and 
 moral considerations are, as far as we know, 
 uniformly overborne by mechanical ones. Since 
 then the details of mechanical agencies evidently 
 denote no moral Will, it is a fallacy to call them 
 Will at all. If an unmoral Will were a// that we 
 attributed to God, He would be a mere mechanist, 
 coming into no contact with our hearts and souls; 
 and we might as well be Atheists, as far as moral 
 and spiritual things are concerned.—On the other 
 hand, if this doctrine of Design be carried unshrink- 
 ingly into the actings of the human soul, (which is 
 the worst form of Pantheism,) it becomes a detest- 
 able moral error, in comparison to which simple 
 Atheism is a light mistake. Every sin of every 
 wicked man is converted into a direct act of deity ; 
 an idea than which nothing can be more blas- 
 phemous. 
 
 Yet the persons who teach this doctrine, if ac- 
 cepted not as logicians, but as men labouring with 
 sentiment, which they know not how otherwise to 
 express, may be found even to kindle in us a high 
 devotion. Who can read the Pantheism of the 
 Orphic Hymns or of Virgil, and not be moved by 
 them? It is when the Pantheism which would 
 swallow up all mind and action in the divine, is pro- 
 posed as an accurate and logical system, that we 
 are justified in intense repugnance to it, as furnish- 
 ing excuses for Sin. 
 
 I feel some timidity in adverting to another form 
 of Pantheism, lest I should misrepresent what is so 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 39 
 
 difficult in my own mind to grasp. I believe that 
 some are called Pantheists, merely because they are 
 hyperphilosophic Theists*. They have a morbid 
 fear of attributing human qualities to God, lest 
 they should degrade him: thus they shun to ascribe 
 to him, not only “ body, parts, and passions,” but 
 affections, judgments, designs, mind; and so his 
 personality vanishes. Yet in fact, they do ascribe 
 to him guast-affections, guast-mind, and guast-per- 
 sonality; so that their practical creed vacillates 
 from Atheism to Theism by the infinite vagueness 
 of the guasi: and like many religionists, they 
 have in fact two mutually refuting creeds, which 
 may be used as the case requires. Such men may 
 themselves be fundamentally religious, though their 
 doctrine seduce others into irreligion.—Concerning 
 the Divine Nature, we know that our metaphorical 
 language must be inaccurate; but it is the best we 
 have got: to refuse to speak of God as loving and 
 planning, as grieving and sympathizing, without 
 the protest of a guas?, will not tend to clearer in- 
 tellectual views, (for what can be darker?) but will 
 muddy the springs of affection. Metaphorical lan- 
 guage in this whole subject is that which the soul 
 dictates, and therefore must surely express our 
 nearest approximation to truth, if the soul be the 
 
 * T now find that there are persons who call themselves Pantheists, 
 merely because they are Theists who have no belief concerning a finite 
 era of Creation, but nevertheless firmly hold the intelligent Personality 
 of the ever-acting and all-pervading Spirit. (Second Edition.) 
 
40 THE SOUL: 
 
 eye by which alone we see God. Jealousy to resist 
 metaphor, does not testify to depth of insight. 
 
 As to that Pantheism which deliberately and 
 coldly merges all human Will and action in the 
 Divine,—which on moral grounds is so shocking, 
 —it is at the same time so obviously self-destruc- 
 tive even as a logical system, that it has always 
 been wonderful to me how it can claim intellectual 
 respect. For nothing but a consciousness of active 
 originating Will in ourselves suggests or can justify 
 the idea of a mighty Will pervading Nature; and 
 to merge the former in the latter, is to sacrifice the 
 Premiss to the glory of the Conclusion. 
 
 6. SENSE OF GOODNESS. 
 
 As soon as the intellectual belief of One Personal 
 God has been clearly attained, the mind most 
 rapidly superadds the idea of his Goodness, at least 
 from the negative side. He is too great to be 
 moved by petty passions; he cannot have pleasure 
 in our misery: the only doubt is, whether he thinks 
 of us individually at all; for allowing his abi- 
 lity, some remain unconvinced of his willingness. 
 
 The great struggle of mere intellectual philo- 
 sophers has always been on this side. In the ab- 
 stract they admit God’s goodness, nay, his moral 
 perfection; but doubt whether it is a part of his 
 perfection to pay any attention to us; and certainly, 
 as far as external things are concerned, their rea- 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. ai 
 
 sonings appear unanswerable: no miracles are 
 wrought for our convenience or welfare. What 
 answer there is in regard to spiritual things, will 
 afterwards be treated. Meanwhile, the @ priori 
 conviction of God’s goodness is unquestioned ; and 
 is indeed so satisfactory, as scarcely to need with 
 a cultivated mind such confirmations as the vulgar 
 dwell upon :—our daily supplies of things needful 
 and comfortable; the kind provision made for man- 
 kind at large; the adaptation of the night for rest, 
 the day for action; the gift of inferior animals 
 suited to become our servants, aid, or friends. Per- 
 haps these arguments are in a certain stage of cul- 
 ture necessary, while the mind is unprepared either 
 to see that they are fallacious or to understand a 
 higher view ; afterwards, far more conviction is at- 
 tained from considering that all the possible per- 
 Sectness of man’s spirit must be a mere faint sha- 
 dow of the divine perfection. To conceive of God 
 at all, as an intelligent existence, and not regard 
 Him as morally more perfect than man, is obviously 
 absurd. Nor only so; but to volunteer limiting any 
 of His attributes is equally absurd. Until the con- 
 trary be proved, we unhesitatingly attribute to Him 
 boundlessness in every kind of which we can con- 
 ceive. But on account of the last limitation, the 
 Perfections of God are justly called a projected 
 image of our own highest conceptions. 
 Philosophers however of old times dreaded to 
 impute affections to God, not knowing how to dis- 
 tinguish them from emotions; both indeed being 
 
42 . THEVSOUIA: 
 
 merged by the Greeks under the single term 726, 
 Perhaps they rightly maintain that the two words 
 denote difference of degree only, and thus may force 
 us to admit that affections are attributed by us to 
 the divinity, only metaphorically. Still as the me- 
 taphor is our nearest approach to truth, and (as 
 before said) we gain nothing by inserting a quasi, 
 itis best to abide by the popular phraseology. Else, 
 to what do we come? First, denying emotion to 
 Him, we must deny affection, because that is no- 
 thing but a gentle emotion: next we must deny 
 desire. But if he wishes for nothing, He aims at 
 nothing, He designs nothing: thus we come into 
 collision with what appears to the mind as fact— 
 that there ave marks of Design in the universe. 
 Inverting then the argument, Design leads legi- 
 timately back to Desire, and in some sense to Affec- 
 tion: and we call him Benign, for desiring the wel- 
 fare of his creatures. To endeavour to resolve 
 God into intellect without affection, is atheism 
 under a new name; for mere intellect is not an 
 active principle. If therefore the argument from 
 Design leads to any God at all, it leads to a Good 
 God, not too great to take interest in his creatures’ 
 welfare and perfection. 
 
 A difficulty is nevertheless encountered from the 
 fact of human suffering ;—suffering of the good and 
 of the innocent,—of innocent brutes as well as 
 men. This wide-spread reality has a thousand 
 times distressed the purest hearts; and it would be 
 yain to try to blink at it. But one reason why it 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 43 
 
 has weighed so heavily on many, is,—that they had 
 unduly rested the proof of the divine goodness on 
 an opposite fact, viz. on what are called Providential 
 Mercies. When such mercies fail, when on the 
 contrary scourges and torment befal the righteous, 
 an anxious embarrassment of mind follows. Espe- 
 cially if the received religion have taught that 
 external prosperity is a mark of the divine favour, 
 misfortunes falling on good men will bring a ten- 
 fold sting. But that side of the difficulty falls 
 away, when we find the proofs of the divine good- 
 ness, not in events and circumstances, but in primi- 
 tive and essential arrangements, and in the human 
 mind itself, as an imperfect type of the divine. 
 
 Tt is true, that even in the primitive structure of 
 things, we discover much which at first shocks us. 
 Physical pain in many aspects appears not as an 
 accident and an abuse, but as if definitely designed. 
 Fierce beasts are observed to be armed for inflicting 
 misery, and the instincts of one creature are often 
 directed to destroy the quiet and comfort of another, 
 which may seem not. to have earned hostility. On 
 this subject whole volumes might be written, as 
 ample arguments have been. Here it may be suffi- 
 cient to remark, that the difficulty turns on the 
 Epicurean assumption, that Physical Ease and 
 Comfort is the most valuable thing in the universe : 
 but that is not true, even with brutes. There isa 
 certain perfection in the nature of each, consisting 
 in the full developement of all their powers, to 
 which the existing Order manifestly tends ; and any 
 
44 THE SOUL: 
 
 one who shall speculatively reconstruct the organized 
 world and logically follow out his own scheme, will 
 probably end in discerning, that the present arrange- 
 ments of God are better than man could have de- 
 vised. As for susceptibility to Pain, it is obviously 
 essential to every part of corporeal life, and to dis- 
 cuss the question of degree is absurd. On the 
 other hand, Human capacity for Sorrow is equally 
 necessary to our whole moral nature, and Sorrow 
 itself is a most essential process for the perfecting 
 of the soul. Not to have discerned the relation of 
 Sorrow to Virtue is perhaps the most striking de- 
 fect pervading all the Greek moral philosophy. 
 More permanent disturbance of mind is caused 
 to good men who have no extensive view of human 
 nature, nor habit of mental analysis, from the pre- 
 vailing wickedness of mankind. It avails not here 
 to say that human goodness is only a relative idea, 
 and that however much better men were, we should 
 still think them bad, since our standard would have 
 risen. In a mere moral view indeed such a reply 
 suffices; for all tribes of men have some morality. 
 Those who are ferocious towards foreigners, are 
 often tender-hearted towards their own people; and 
 the difference of savage from civilized virtue is one 
 of degree. But religiously the case is otherwise ; 
 for there is a chasm between loving God and not 
 loving him, serving him and not serving him. We 
 can easily suppose such an improvement in human 
 nature, that though all would of course be still 
 imperfect, yet none should be irreligious: and men 
 
 4 
 
rd 
 
 SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 45 
 
 will ask, Why does a good God leave so large a 
 part of mankind in irreligion? To many, this is 
 an exceedingly severe trial of faith, because irre- 
 ligion has been invested with eternal consequences, 
 which binds the understanding in a net absolutely 
 inextricable. But let the Gordian knot be cut; let 
 it be discerned that the infinite cannot be the meed 
 of the finite ;—then, while we lament the actual state 
 of the world, we shall not find it hard to understand 
 that it has necessarily resulted from the independence 
 of the human Will; which mwst be left free, and 
 capable of resisting the Divine Will; otherwise, we 
 should not be men, but brutes or machines. As- 
 suming then that evil is finite, transitory, and only 
 an essential condition towards the attainment of 
 higher and permanent good, we find nothing in 
 human wickedness, however intense, and whatever 
 misery it causes, to inspire rational doubt of the 
 divine Goodness. 
 
 That there is abroad among us an unsound view 
 of supreme Goodness, (or benevolence, as it is 
 called,) cannot, I think, be denied. It is akin to 
 that spurious humanity, which so shudders at put- 
 ting a criminal to death, as to prefer keeping him 
 alive even where there is no human hope of his 
 being recovered to virtue, but every probability of 
 his incurrmg more and more desperate hardness. 
 The benevolent man is supposed to shrink from in- 
 flicting bodily pain on any one, whether for his own 
 good, or as a necessary process for defending 
 others: and where this morbid notion prevails, we 
 
46 THE SOUL: 
 
 must expect people to be much shocked at the 
 broad facts of the Natural History of animals, to 
 say nothing of Man himself. But against such 
 errors those will never be able successfully to con- 
 tend, who run into the opposite and hideous extreme, 
 of representing God as an everlasting torturer; and 
 would tell us that this only shows His strength of 
 mind. Pain and Suffering undoubtedly are among 
 God’s most efficacious means for perfecting all 
 his creatures, and, not least, man; but they must 
 needs be with Him means, not ends, if we are to 
 attribute to Him in any sense that which we are 
 able to recognise as Goodness; and consequently, 
 they must be in His plans either partial and subor- 
 dinate, or finite and transitory. All Theology which 
 contradicts this, darkens and distorts the face of God 
 to us. 
 
 7. SENSE OF WISDOM. 
 
 As long as we conceive the Deity to possess a 
 crude omnipotence, capable of effecting everything 
 instantaneously by his mere will or fiat, there is no 
 room for attributing Wisdom to him in regard to 
 processes and means. To absolute omnipotence 
 there are no difficulties, no antagonist powers; and 
 it is uncertain whether the idea of Wisdom could 
 then be suggested, at least as different from Good- 
 ness. We see Goodness in the choice of the ends, 
 Wisdom principally and perhaps solely in the direc- 
 tion of the means. The early philosophers of the 
 East appear to have discerned, that it is impossible 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 47 
 
 to hold a belief of the divine goodness, together 
 with this absolute omnipotence: human sin and 
 misery are an insuperable difficulty. They how- 
 ever looked for the antagonist, which limits the 
 divine omnipotence, in matter; attributing to it 
 inherent perversity, of which he made the best, 
 though the best was bad. At this we may smile: 
 yet it perhaps was only expressing in their own 
 dialect a thought fundamentally the same as our 
 own, at least as far as religion is concerned. We 
 now distinctly understand that the human Will is 
 the antagonist; and how formidable a one, daily 
 experience shows. ‘The course of History however 
 more and more witnesses to us of the divine Wis- 
 dom, which provides for the final triumph of Truth 
 and Right. 
 
 This is an ocean too deep to be sounded. We 
 advance farther into it than our forefathers; our 
 distant posterity may advance beyond us; but most 
 eminently do we need wisdom ourselves, if we are 
 to judge of Divine wisdom. We do nevertheless 
 see, that the instincts of men, leading them to form 
 family connections, to unite into States, to engage 
 in active industry, to conquer foreigners, to carry 
 on commerce, to indulge in luxury, to enjoy poetry, 
 to study science,— mixed, as they all are, with 
 every sort of imperfection, polluted with sin and 
 crime or sullied with vanity and folly ;—still, in 
 the long run, advance nations towards a higher and 
 higher level. Some nations sink, while others rise ; 
 but the lower and the higher levels are both 
 
48 THE SOUL: 
 
 generally ascending. Such, at least in my appre- 
 hension, is the testimony of History rightly inter- 
 preted. 
 
 Yet our belief in the Wisdom of God, as in his 
 Goodness, is assuredly a matter of a@ priori dis- 
 cernment, by no means depending on learned 
 arguments. We cannot conceive of such a Being, 
 and perceive that there are difficulties to be over- 
 come, against which mere Omnipotence cannot be 
 invoked,—and not attribute to him Wisdom that 
 shall ultimately overcome those difficulties. And 
 on this turns what is called the Divine Government 
 of the world, or, the course of Providence. Inci- 
 pient speculation vainly endeavoured to trace in 
 detail the marks of the divine government in the 
 history of short periods and in special events. The 
 error of this consists in overlooking the nature of 
 the combat; namely, that the human mind, which 
 is to be conquered by the divine, must nevertheless 
 preserve its liberty, and be freely conquered. This 
 so nearly approaches a contradiction, that it may 
 well be a hard and lingering struggle; and in the 
 course of it, the imperfect will of man has its own 
 way against that of God so frequently, that to 
 appeal to separate events in proof of the divine 
 government can only mislead. Abandoning how- 
 ever this, Faith falls back on the @ priori certainty 
 that He whose Designs are visible in the structure 
 and adaptation of the things of this world, knew 
 what he was designing, and would not have done 
 anything, except for ultimate good results. To 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 49 
 
 imagine that the Creator was under constraint to 
 create the world, is in fact to deny the doctrine of a 
 personal designer and to run back into that of a 
 blind Fate: and as we must suppose him to have 
 acted not only freely but with a foresight what it 
 was that he was doing, we cannot believe in a de- 
 signing mind at all without inevitably implicating it 
 with that of Divine Providence. 
 
 An exaggerated and corrupt view of the divine 
 wisdom is found in that spurious optimism, which 
 extends the doctrine that ‘“‘ Whatever is, is best,” 
 to those details in which human folly and wicked- 
 ness are peculiarly manifest. Allowance however 
 must be made for incautiousness of language or 
 love of paradoxical statement. Some will say that 
 a deed of cruelty was “ for the best,” not meaning 
 to include the perpetrator among those benefited. 
 And not only so, but our very sins are often over- 
 ruled to ourselves as well as to others. But to say 
 that we “could not have done better than sin,” is 
 at once self-contradictory and morally corrupting: 
 it was not sin, if we could not have done better. 
 
 8. REVERENCE. 
 
 The affections of Awe, Wonder, Admiration, with 
 which religion began, did not denote any necessary 
 or fixed belief in a personal Deity, nor any activity 
 of mind in him who experienced them. The per- 
 ceptions of Order, Design, Goodness and Wisdom, 
 do bring in a personal Deity, but they belong to the 
 intellect more than to the soul: and all this is rather 
 
 D 
 
50 THE SOUL: 
 
 preparation for religion, than religion itself. But 
 after that preparation, the legitimate result is the 
 formation of a totally new affection, the foundation 
 of which is Reverence towards the mighty inscru- 
 table Being whom we have discerned in the Uni- 
 verse. Thus the Soul once more begins to be 
 affected, but no longer passively: it is taking its 
 first step into self-conscious moral action: thus 
 Reverence is the beginning of true religion. He 
 who reverences God is a religious man, and what- 
 ever his other ignorances or defects, is an accepted 
 worshipper. 
 
 It is hard to judge how far it is possible in an 
 unenlightened intellect for Reverence to be directed 
 towards the Deity without a consciousness that His 
 eye is simultaneously upon us. One may imagine 
 a barbarian mind to adore God, just as we might 
 admire a mighty prince whom we saw pass by, 
 though we knew not that he saw us. But un- 
 doubtedly this is impossible to a moderately cul- 
 tivated mind; and the most decisive moral effects 
 produced by the devotional posture of the soul de- 
 pend on consciousness that it has met the eye of 
 God. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is not to be imagined that Reve- 
 rence rises at once into high intelligent worship, 
 and that Spirituality is forthwith generated. Ages 
 rolled by in the history of our race without such a 
 disentanglement of truth from error as to allow of 
 this, and many years pass with most of us indi- 
 vidually. The first great revolution wrought in 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 51 
 
 religion, begins even in Polytheistic times, as with 
 Aischylus and Herodotus, when a union begins to 
 take place between it and morality; that is, when it 
 is discerned that the great Power or Powers who 
 preside over Nature must needs possess Moral qua- 
 lities stmilar to. our own, though every way more 
 perfect ; after this, every elevation of the standard of 
 human morals leads also to a more elevated concep- 
 tion of God’s moral nature. This it is first which 
 raises what was Paganism into rational Religion, 
 and justifies us in using the word Reverence ; never- 
 theless, for a long time (perhaps) the worshipper has 
 still no vivid idea that morality concerns itself with 
 the heart ; consequently, he does not conceive of God 
 as concerning himself with the human heart, and 
 God abides as it were wholly outside of his nature. 
 A man who commits murder, who gives false judg- 
 ment for bribes, perjures himself, seduces his neigh- 
 bour’s wife, defrauds his ward, or violates the rights 
 of friendship and hospitality—is believed to incur 
 the anger of God: but those whose ordinary moral 
 conduct is correct have no consciousness of guilt, 
 and are able to yield to Him decorous and sincere 
 reverence on every stated occasion. 
 
 Where the Will is strong, and Passions or Tempt- 
 ation moderate; where the person is engaged in 
 outward action, and little disposed to self-inspection ; 
 aman is satisfied with his own attainments, and feels 
 no inward pressure after a higher and higher per- 
 fection. This is often reproved as Self-righteous- 
 
 DR 
 
 BMVERSITY OF WLLENGS 
 
 inn ; 
 LiRPARY 
 
52 THE SOUL: 
 
 ness by spiritual people; unduly, I think; for the 
 mind of the worshipper is not engaged in a reflex 
 act of self-admiration. Moreover, in that stage of 
 low developement of the soul, a certain self-com- 
 placency is perhaps undistinguishable from that which 
 we call a Good Conscience: but this subject is import- 
 ant enough to deserve afterwards a fuller discussion. 
 Many estimable people spend the best part of their 
 lives in this stage, without any growth of soul, per- 
 haps exemplary in social morals, and every way 
 amiable, with the intellectual wish to be truly re- 
 ligious, but with no hungering and thirsting after 
 righteousness. They so far rise above the descrip- 
 tion just given, as to feel that to plan a sin is itself 
 asin; but God is with them an Avenger, not a spi- 
 ritual Rewarder: they reverence Him indeed, but 
 do not at all aspire tolove Him. Natural Affection 
 and other good feelings move them more than either 
 the pure Conscience or the Soul; spiritually they 
 are in a puerile stage; their whole nature is uncor- 
 rupted and undeveloped: and, on the whole, happy 
 is the country (if there be one in the whole world so 
 favoured) which has the great mass of its popula- 
 tion in this state. Religion is to them, according 
 to its received etymology, a bond or band; recog- 
 nised indeed by their conscience, and in so far in- 
 ternal; yet not a living inward force. It rather re- 
 strains externally, that animates them: still, when 
 we see what human nature is and has been, we must 
 count this a great step forward. Of this respectable 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 53 
 
 and worthy class, (if we may be allowed to borrow 
 a harsh metaphor from a poetical book *, which is 
 habitually explained as allegorical,) we may say: 
 “We have a little sister, and she has no breasts.” 
 To drive away from our sympathies by haughty airs 
 of superiority those who are only in an earlier stage 
 of advancement than ourselves, is so harsh and so 
 unwise, as to be a spot of Pharisaism upon us. 
 
 With the improvement of moral doctrine, Reve- 
 rential worship will become more elevated; or con- 
 versely, improved religious doctrine may elevate 
 morality. In the stage of which we treat, neither 
 of the two has living power, and no growth can be 
 counted on: both wait upon external influences, 
 and morality chiefly depends on the political in- 
 stitutions and social circumstances. Yet the link 
 between the Conscience and the Soul is already 
 formed, and the two are now likely to thrive or to 
 pine together. 
 
 The commonest degraded form of Reverence is 
 that of substituting artificial mysteries for the real 
 mystery; which is, God in God’s own direct works: 
 a perversion, which leads the worshipper to vene- 
 rate something different from, and of course lower 
 than, the highest ideal of the Good and Great 
 which his soul is capable of forming: and this 
 “ something” is generally in modern days, God in 
 human works. Such a corruption is evidently an 
 inward and spiritual Idolatry ; and must dwarf the 
 
 * Song of Solomon, viii. 8. 
 
54 THE SOUL: 
 
 soul, giving to it a rigid and unnatural form, in 
 which it may indeed live, but can make no thriving 
 growth. To expand the separate branches of this 
 case, would be to enter into a universal crusade 
 against erroneous religions in detail; and by way 
 of preface to some general remarks, it will be useful 
 to consider what is the essence of Idolatry, in the 
 bad sense which the word ought always to bear. 
 
 Infinity, or the Absence of Bounds, is an idea 
 wholly relative to the mind which contemplates it. 
 That of which I believe that I cannot know the 
 bounds, is practically boundless to me*; and if 
 there were a being revealed to my senses, so godlike 
 in all his attributes, that im no direction could I 
 discover infirmity or expect ever to discover it, he 
 might become the object of devout reverence, as 
 exalted and as pure as that which I am capable of 
 rendering to an invisible and eternal God. 
 
 On this account, a child even of an age at which 
 the recognition of a God is impossible, is by no 
 means necessarily in the state of an Atheist. At 
 least the child of a tender and wise parent exercises 
 towards that parent in some degree the principal 
 actions of the religious soul ;—reverence, love, 
 
 * Infinity or Boundlessness is, I presume, a negative idea, as much 
 as any can be; yet no one need therefore shrink to call God Jnjinite, 
 or fancy that he gains any thing by substituting the word Absolute. 
 Infinity, in the abstract, is only an attribute of those things which to 
 us are infinite, as the Ocean, the Heaven, or God; and as 7 plainly 
 does not exhaust our whole conception of any of these things, I cannot 
 imagine how any one fears that he shall admit God to be a negation if 
 he hold that God is Infinite, and that Infinity is a negation. 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 5D 
 
 trust, hope, belief. Not only is this the genuine 
 preparation for true devotion towards God, but as 
 it is the only possible devotion of which the child is 
 capable, so it is the highest and best state. More- 
 over, we are thus led to a right view of Idolatry. 
 Such a child, at first sight, might seem to be an 
 Idolater; inasmuch as he worships for a god one 
 who is not God: but this is an error. To worship 
 as perfect and infinite one whom we know to be im- 
 perfect and finite, this is Idolatry, and (in any bad 
 sense) this alone. Evidently it is degrading and 
 pernicious to lavish acts of devotion on one whom 
 we perceive not to deserve them; for it is an unna- 
 tural, uncalled-for self-abasement, tending to lower 
 our ideas of goodness or greatness. Thus, to adore 
 even with very qualified reverence a Mercury or a 
 Bacchus, in whom no sort of moral excellence was 
 believed to reside, is fitly stigmatized as Idolatry. 
 But if any simple Roman, forming in his mind a 
 certain not very high moral image of “ Jupiter 
 Best and Greatest,” yet imputed to him no conduct 
 or tempers, in which he himself discerned imperfec- 
 tion; then, we might indeed lament his dimness of 
 sight, we might think him in a puerile condition, 
 but, (remaining in this respect as he is,) it would 
 be better for him to worship than not; just as the 
 child is better for reverencing the human parent, 
 and rendering to him whatever of adoration is within 
 his compass. The old Jew must generally have 
 conceived of Jehovah as a respecter of persons and 
 of nations, and as in many ways partial, capricious, 
 
56 THE SOUL: 
 
 arbitrary and even fierce: in so far, the Jew mis- 
 judged, and his misjudgment was not harmless; 
 yet this, being unknown to him, was no reason to 
 him for not worshippmg. Nor yet to us, as by- 
 standers, can it be a reason for deprecating his 
 worship. For a man can but adore his own highest 
 Ideal; to forbid this is to forbid all religion to him. 
 If therefore Jdolatry is to mean anything wrong 
 and bad, the word must be reserved for the cases in 
 which a man degrades his Ideal by worshipping 
 something that falls short of it. As long as this is 
 not done, two worshippers may indeed differ widely 
 from one another in the depth or truth of their 
 views concerning the Best and Highest, as Jacob 
 differed from Paul; in which case he who has the 
 purer insight will have the holier and nobler reli- 
 gion: yet the religion of each will be the only right 
 thing for each, and the more ignorant of the two is 
 Superstitious perhaps, but not Idolatrous. Indeed 
 every one of us who is religious at all, is supersti- 
 tious, exactly in the proportion in which error is 
 implicated in his religion; and wholly to escape 
 this is not given to man. 
 
 Buta man may lower his Ideal, and become a de- 
 graded Idolater, in other ways besides that of old 
 Polytheism. It matters not whether I worship 
 Mercury, while my conscience tells me that there 
 are things in him that do not deserve honour; or 
 whether I force my heart to submit in devout 
 reverence to an ecclesiastical system, against parts 
 of which my conscience would protest. The same 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 67 
 
 plea of Authority, which says to the superstitious 
 Christian, “It is your duty to suppress the mis- 
 givings of conscience, because we have External and 
 Ostensible claims on your faith,” is equally available 
 on the side of the Pagan Priest, for the worship of 
 Ganesa or of Bacchus. The same boldness of sim- 
 ple and true faith, by which the born votary of 
 Paganism breaks away from the errors of his 
 national creed, to follow the revelations of God in 
 his soul, will also both authorize and require the 
 Romanist to reject the Authority of his Church, and 
 the Protestant that of his Bible, whenever the one 
 or the other inculcates upon him as divine that 
 which falls beneath the highest Ideal of his soul. 
 To do otherwise is Ecclesiolatry or Bibliolatry: this 
 is the modern Heathenism, which, having supplanted 
 the ancient, has for ages imitated the old craft of 
 slandering as Atheists or Infidels (2. e. unfaithful, 
 treacherous) all who aspire to a higher and purer 
 worship. Among ourselves, Bibliolatry makes pre- 
 tensions so haughty, of being alone pure, alone pious, 
 alone spiritual, alone infallible, that I feel it a duty 
 to encounter the pain of exposing the erroneous 
 foundation of men, many of whom, as individuals, 
 I honour, esteem and love as the excellent of the 
 earth. 
 
 That part of English society which has most 
 diligently cultivated religious feeling by the aid of 
 the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, allows wide 
 currency to the speculative notion, that the highest 
 attainable certainty to man (if indeed there be any 
 
 D 3 
 
58 THE SOUL: 
 
 other certainty at all) concerning spiritual matters, is 
 that which the testimony of the Bible affords. This is 
 a natural exaggeration flowing out of their just love 
 for a noble book; but a very little calm thought 
 is sufficient to dispel the error, which is neither 
 small nor harmless. No heaven-sent Bible can 
 guarantee the veracity of God to a man who doubts 
 that veracity. Unless we have independent means 
 of knowing that God knows the truth, and is dis- 
 posed to tell tt to us, his word (if we be ever so 
 certain that it is really his word) might as well not 
 have been spoken. But if we know, independently 
 of the Bible, that God knows the truth, and is dis- 
 posed to tell it to us, obviously we know a great 
 deal more also. We know not only the existence 
 of God, but much concerning his character. For, 
 only by discerning that he has Virtues similar in 
 kind to human Virtues, do we know of his _truth- 
 fulness and his goodness. Without this @ priori 
 belief, a book-revelation is a useless impertinence : 
 hence no book-revelation can (without sapping its 
 own pedestal) authoritatively dictate laws of human 
 Virtue, or alter our @ priort view of the Divine 
 Character. The nature of the case implies, that 
 the human mind is competent to sit in moral 
 and spiritual judgment on a professed revelation ; 
 and to decide (if the case seem to require it) in 
 the following tone: ‘This doctrine attributes to 
 God, that which we should all call harsh, cruel, or 
 unjust in Man: it is therefore intrinsically inad- 
 missible ; for if God may be (what we should call) 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 59 
 
 cruel, he may equally well be (what we should call) 
 a liar; and if so, of what use is his Word to us ?” 
 And in fact, all Christian apostles and missionaries, 
 like the Hebrew prophets, have always refuted 
 Paganism by direct attacks on its immoral and 
 unspiritual doctrines; and have appealed to the 
 consciences of heathens, as competent to decide in 
 the controversy. Christianity itself has thus practi- 
 cally confessed, what is theoretically clear, that 
 an authoritative external revelation of moral and 
 spiritual truth, is essentially impossible to man. 
 What God reveals to us, he reveals «thin, through 
 the medium of our moral and spiritual senses. 
 External teaching may be a training of those senses, 
 but affords no foundation for certitude. Our cer- 
 tainty in divine truth cannot be more certain than 
 the veracity of our inward organs of discernment ; 
 and must undoubtedly be far less, if it is liable to. 
 be overthrown also by historical, geographical, or 
 psychological errors involved in the immense sweep 
 of argument which undertakes to prove that the 
 Bible is infallible. 
 
 The search after the Philosopher's Stone or after 
 Perpetual Motion, was a less pitiful imbecility, than 
 this modern notion that fallible man can, by select- 
 ing his own Bible or his own Church, or by demon- 
 strating the infallibility of the system in which he 
 was educated, get rid of his natural fallibility. It 
 obviously cleaves to him like his own personality, 
 and infects every decision at which he arrives. 
 Those therefore use words of wild boasting, who 
 
60 THE SOUL: 
 
 with superior pity look down on another as “ without 
 chart and without compass on the deep,’ because 
 he does not admit the infallibility of the Bible. 
 Take any practical question of detail, as, ‘‘ How 
 shall I conduct myself in this moral conjuncture of 
 affairs?” or, ‘‘How ought I to think of God and 
 feel towards Him?” and consider two ways of seek- 
 ing for areply. The one is, to study the questions, 
 in their practical limitation, by such direct insight 
 as we have, or can get. The other method, is, first 
 to master the infinitely greater and more arduous 
 question, “Is or is not the Bible fallible?” and 
 after determining in the negative, then to elicit its 
 decisions on the points of doubt. But to prove the 
 infallibility of a book that contains a hundred 
 thousand propositions, is evidently impossible by 
 any testing of its contents,—a process which would 
 need Omniscience in the inquirer. It must then 
 either be simply assumed without any attempt at 
 proof or verification (which is by far the commonest 
 method), or it must be rested on external cre- 
 dentials, which, treating it as a sealed book, attempt 
 nevertheless to establish @ priori that all which it 
 contains must be true. No man is qualified to 
 judge on an arduous and complex argument, who 
 does not see that the latter, even if admissible in 
 principle, is beyond the powers of the many; and 
 vastly more difficult to the few, than any (strictly 
 personal) questions of practical life. But an 
 intermediate method is highly popular; to set forth 
 the excellence of a great deal in the Bible to which 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 61 
 
 our Consciences bear witness; and then deduce 
 that all persons are wicked, who deny the authority 
 and infallibility of the book. This, forsooth, from 
 those who pity, scorn or dread the man, who says 
 that Conscience is, after all, the best guide! This 
 from those, who are actually maintaining, that when 
 Conscience and the Book come into collision, we 
 must believe Conscience to be wrong and the Book 
 right! for that is the whole meaning of its 
 “authority ;” since, until such collision arises, no 
 practical trial of authority can be made. But in 
 this way, every religious system can guarantee its 
 infallibility to us. Romanism or Mohammedanism 
 has many points which our consciences approve ; 
 therefore each of these systems is divine and infallible: 
 therefore we are to believe the system in preference 
 to conscience when the two clash!—No internal 
 and moral argument, appealing to conscience, can 
 ever rightly supersede and dethrone conscience: 
 in fact, a doctrine which aims at this, under the 
 name of an ‘“‘ Authoritative Revelation,” aims to 
 destroy our moral sensibilities. If, because con- 
 science approves something in the Bible, we are to 
 revere the Bible; it must be conceded, that if in 
 any thing conscience dissents, we must withhold 
 reverence and approval. 
 
 Men of different complexions and blood, ages and 
 countries, ranks and culture, exhibit a great agree- 
 ment as to their decisions concerning moral right 
 and wrong, when a question is proposed in such a 
 
62 THE SOUL: 
 
 form that no personal bias or special prejudice 
 affects them. The same is approximately true of 
 purely spiritual doctrines, in proportion as men 
 become spiritually exercised, only that it is far 
 harder to get rid of special prejudice, rising out of 
 their national creed. On the other hand, a vast 
 experience proves, that even the ablest, best and 
 wisest men are liable to the most extravagant delu- 
 sions when they undertake to judge the general and 
 broad question, whether a national religion is 
 guaranteed to them by supernatural testimony. It 
 is therefore a gross blunder to aim at greater 
 certitude, by resting the truth of our special 
 opinions in morals and religion, on our knowledge 
 of the truth of our national religion. Most truly 
 has it been said, that creeds are a geographical 
 product: and Bibliolatry * is the British form of 
 idolatry. One nation has been educated to believe 
 the infallibility of a book, another of a church; 
 each method is no doubt convenient for those who 
 want to drill men’s minds into uniformity; each 
 may also have aided towards some external results, 
 too valuable to be slighted: but to imagine that 
 either mode of arbitrary assumption can conduce to 
 religious certitude, is absurd. 
 
 * It must be remembered, that the result of the preceding analysis 
 is, that Bibliolatry does not consist in reverence to the Bible, however 
 great, as long as Conscience is too dull to rise above the Bible ; but 
 it consists in depressing Conscience to the Biblical standard. This 
 is done to a fatal extent by thousands, in regard to the Old Testament, 
 and by hundreds in regard to the New. 
 
SENSE OF THE INFINITE. 63 
 
 Our knowledge of God is limited as is our know- 
 ledge of the Infinite Heaven, by the susceptibility of 
 (mental and bodily) eye-sight which he has 
 vouchsafed to us. Up to the limit of such perfec- 
 tion as the human soul can attain, our knowledge of 
 God may reach: no higher: and as He is infinite, 
 and we are finite, there will always be in Him an 
 immeasurable depth unsounded. Hence, I repeat, 
 we have no absolute knowledge of Him. But on 
 the other hand, He has revealed Himself to us as to 
 all things which pertain to life and godliness; and 
 whoever despises as mean and insufficient that 
 inward revelation of the heart, will never found any 
 thing so enduring in its place, but will elaborately 
 build mazes of false Theology for the wonder and 
 contempt of future days. Whole tons of such 
 rubbish have been shovelled away by universal 
 consent: yet the idolaters of Church and Bible take 
 no warning. The immediate practical mischief is, 
 that instead of exercising his conscience to discern 
 good and evil, the Bibliolater (in proportion to his 
 consistency and earnestness) exercises only his 
 logical intellect to interpret, like a lawyer, the 
 written document proposed to him. Hence the 
 saying attributed to Luther, (a man who im practice 
 was by no means wedded to so degrading a maxim,) 
 Bonus grammaticus bonus theologus. Why should 
 any one exert the free energies of thought, why 
 should he study to develop from within a knowledge 
 of Right and Wrong, when, if his results clash with 
 those of the book, he will have to trim and prune 
 
64 THE SOUL. 
 
 himself into its shape? It is easier and safer to 
 crush inward sentiment, in order to receive Truth by 
 testimony from without! This is the carnal and 
 dense covert, under which every system of super- 
 stition has found shelter; and which, if it be not 
 torn down, will in every age foster as much un- 
 cleanness and cruelty in the church, as the moral 
 light abroad in the world will allow *. 
 
 * It is instructive to see how in every age men adopt the specious 
 tone of dignified rebuke and threat against religious improvement. 
 Euripides puts the following into the mouth of Greek orthodoxy : 
 “The Divine might is slow to come forth, but sure nevertheless: and 
 it chastises those mortals who foster insensate obstinacy, who from 
 mad Opinion refuse to exalt the institutions of the Gods. Subtly and 
 perseveringly do They hide their foot in ambush, and catch the im- 
 pious man. For never should we indulge convictions and meditations 
 which are wiser than established practices. For cheap is the effort to 
 believe that the Divinity, whatever else He may be, is powerful : and 
 what comes from long time is established eternally and inheres in 
 Nature.” Eur. Bacch. 882—896 :—and to the same effect, 3885—396, 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 The impiety here rebuked consisted in disapproving of Bacchanalian 
 orgies! That such rebukes often came from grave sincerity is beyond 
 adoubt. Elsewhere the same speaker is made to say: “ Oh! blessed 
 is he, whose God is good; Who, initiated in Divine ceremonies, Hal- 
 lows his life by rule, And yields his soul to the sacred Troop, And 
 roams with Bacchus on the mountains, In pure sanctifications.” 
 
 If all this surprise the English reader, let him be assured, that a 
 future age will be equally surprised to look back on our Christian 
 Sects; which (with small exception) labour each with deep earnest- 
 ness to inculcate as divine and immoveable all that is in each 
 established, and agree to denounce as impious any one who in good 
 earnest gives his heart to search after “the good and acceptable and 
 perfect will of God.” 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 THE SENSE OF SIN. 
 
 WHERE the traditionary impure influences of early 
 erude religion have been happily worked off, to such 
 a degree that the new elements are allowed to dis- 
 play their proper tendencies; no sooner does it be- 
 come distinctly conceived that the God of nature 
 is the God of our consciences, and that all wrong 
 doing is frowned on by Him, than the two new 
 terms Holiness and Sin are needed. To murder 
 or to betray, are no longer merely offences against 
 man,—which we call crime: they also offend God, 
 and are sins. In this state were the Hebrews from 
 even an early period; and God, as abhorring sin, 
 was entitled by them a Holy God. Where Poly- 
 theism and its degenerate deities were honoured, 
 such phrases could not enter the common language 
 even of philosophers; yet, in Greece for instance, 
 philosophers of a religious turn undoubtedly held 
 the fundamental notion involved in them. 
 
 We cannot pretend to sound the mystery, whence 
 come the new births in certain souls. To reply, 
 “The Spirit bloweth where He listeth,” confesses 
 the mystery, and declines to explain it. But it is 
 evident that individuals in Greece, in the third cen- 
 tury before the Christian era, were already moving 
 
66 THE SOUL: 
 
 towards an intelligent heart-worship, or had even 
 begun to practise it. The most eminent extant 
 proof of this, is in the beautiful hymn of Cleanthes 
 to Jupiter. Even in old Herodotus we see the cor- 
 dial response of his conscience to the sentiment 
 which he emphatically approves,—that the Gods 
 hate and punish the desire of sin, as itself a sin: 
 and this is the germ of all spirituality. Thus God 
 for the first time is acknowledged as Lord of the 
 conscience, and is conceived of as a God who 
 searches the heart. Thus, if the thought be legi- 
 timately unravelled, Duty, from having been finite, 
 becomes an infinite thing; thus Sin also enlarges 
 its dimensions proportionably, and may soon assume 
 a formidable aspect. Yet religion by no means runs 
 forward in one stream, and we shall have to trace its 
 Separate courses. 
 
 Two very different causes may in this stage in- 
 duce deep inward distress ; tenderness of conscience, 
 and unregulated passion. God is terrible to the one 
 as abhorring, to the latter sometimes only as punish- 
 ing, sin. Both believe Him to be justly angry with 
 them; both inquire how they shall appease Him : 
 out of which grows the totally new phenomenon of 
 internal conflict. 
 
 If there be any side of practical religion over the 
 perversions of which one may groan, it is this; for 
 there is none, as to which an unmanly or cruel 
 superstition stands in so close contact with profound 
 and reasonable sensitiveness of conscience. There 
 is in fact an intense contrast between the moral Self- 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 67 
 
 Despair incident to every holy nature, and the un- 
 moral Self-Degradation of the superstitious. Yet 
 so common has the latter been in the history of the 
 world, so hidden in the sacred recesses of the heart 
 is the former ordinarily kept, that the mass of a 
 nation in which intellectual cultivation is gaining 
 general diffusion, is apt to mistake the former for 
 the latter; and even religious teachers, while heal- 
 ing the deep wounds which superstition has planted 
 in the soul, very often skin them over with callosity. 
 Nowhere is truth and error, right and morbid feel- 
 ing, so miserably entangled: nowhere is it harder 
 to vindicate the sensibilities of reasonable devotion, 
 without seeming to lay a foundation for despicable 
 superstition. But let it be remembered, that, as 
 human characters are not purely separable into two 
 classes, the good and the bad, so neither is human 
 religion; and in those who are manifestly very 
 superstitious, there may be a larger share of true 
 devotion than in the calmer and clearer intellects 
 which despise their follies: for clearness of thought 
 by no means necessarily implies depth of soul, and 
 may be joined with a very partial experience of the 
 most impulsive principles in man. 
 
 The reader must be many times cautioned against 
 supposing that I am about to detail processes of heart 
 through which I imagine that all persons pass or 
 ought to pass. No two men, no two nations, no 
 two ages, are quite alike. A Natural History does 
 not imply the description of any individual, but of a 
 
68 THE SOUL: 
 
 very few leading types which collectively represent 
 the nature in its divergencies: and I regard these 
 pages as only an H'ssay towards the object in ques- 
 tion. Moreover, I am aiming principally at that, 
 which will conduce to an understanding of practical 
 truth and error, of spiritual realities and their coun- 
 terfeits. 
 
 If the sense of sin becomes acute, so that misery 
 follows without any action of Shame and Fear from 
 man’s knowledge of our guilt, then, whatever the 
 character of that guilt, the heart is not yet har- 
 dened and hopelessly depraved. Total and (to 
 human eyes) hopeless depravation is in the case of 
 triumphant selfishness. In the habitual seducer of 
 innocence, the conscious trader in vice, the avaricious 
 poisoner, the hired ruffian,—the moral paralysis may 
 seem complete. But not only so: in the pampered and 
 proud man, who has long regarded his own ease and 
 indulgence as the sole end for which he and those 
 around him live,—the voluptuary upon principle,— 
 (even though he commit no crime and can be taxed 
 with no physical vice or excess,)—the Soul must be 
 so torpid, that ordinarily nothing but external cala- 
 mities can rouse it. For Selfishness is the direct 
 antagonist to the Sense of the Infinite: the former 
 cramps us within our own miserable body, the 
 latter spreads one abroad into the universe. The 
 thoroughly selfish know not what Sin means, nor 
 what God means, nor that they have got a Soul: if 
 once they break the bounds of Habit, so as to fall 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 69 
 
 into crime, mere teaching without training is utterly 
 useless. Like fierce or crafty beasts, they need a 
 cage and club, not a religious instructor. 
 
 The most respectable passion of which such are 
 susceptible, is Shame after detection: but to such 
 lamentable cases allusion is here made, solely in 
 order to remark that Shame must not be confounded 
 with Remorse. Shame is a moral suffering, excited 
 by the eye of man; Remorse * is a convulsion of the 
 Soul, as it consciously stands under the eye of God: 
 thus Remorse alone has anything to do with our 
 present discussion. 
 
 Remorse for sin does certainly prove that the 
 Soul is not dead; just as the agony of a wound 
 proves the body to be alive: in the same sense only 
 is the one and the other to be desired. But Re- 
 morse is not a sanctifying principle: on the con- 
 trary, it is an exceedingly dangerous one; and the 
 Soul may die of it, as truly as the Body of acute 
 pain. It often drives men to despair, to frenzied 
 iniquity, and thus to final hardness of heart; con- 
 sequently, such tenets of (what is called) Religion as 
 artificially aggravate it are a horrible calamity. Its 
 milder action impairs spiritual life more than all 
 other causes put together: in its coarser forms it 
 
 * T use this word according to what seems to me its genuine sense ; 
 that is, not to mean any or all sorrow for sin, but that misery of self- 
 condemnation which follows the idea that the evil which we have 
 done is irreparable: thus Remorse is closely akin to Despair. Some 
 portion of it clings to the offender even after he has attained a sense 
 
 of pardon, if his offence seem to have caused irretrievable mischief to 
 others. 
 
70 THE SOUL: 
 
 generates Asceticism and every kind of soul-bur- 
 dening and body-destroying superstition. I find it 
 too painful to pursue details of the latter kind, and 
 see that it cannot be needed: most readers know 
 enough of these hideous perversions. It will suf- 
 fice to confine ourselves to the purely internal re- 
 sults of the milder sort of Remorse, which is often 
 called a Bad Conscience before God. 
 
 The moral uses of religion are, to enliven man’s 
 conscience, strengthen his will, elevate his aspira- 
 tions, content him with small supplies to his Jower 
 wants, rouse all his generous tendencies, and hereby 
 ennoble him altogether; but it can do none of these 
 things effectually, except when it keeps him steadily 
 looking into the face of the Infinite and Infinitely 
 Pure One. Now this is to most persons exceedingly 
 hard. The merely religious man, in whom spiritu- 
 ality is quite undeveloped, does not see God as a 
 heart-searcher at all: and long after that stage is 
 passed, and men are intellectually quite alive to this 
 point, they yet continue, in their devotions, as it were 
 to turn only their stde, and a blind eye, towards 
 God. They speak at Him, but not to Him; for 
 they instinctively flinch from His holy gaze. This 
 is ordinarily true, even if no particular sin distresses 
 the conscience ; but if they have been busying them- 
 selves to improve their conduct, if they have made 
 solemn resolutions,—and broken them,—it is harder 
 than ever to meet God. Especially, if with active 
 good-will they have tried to mend their inward faults ; 
 —to repress evil desire, to cultivate meekness and 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. Va! 
 
 love ;—the conscience rapidly becomes more sensi- 
 .tive, and taxes them with a thousand sins before 
 unregarded. The evil thus gets worse: the wor- 
 shipper is less and less able to look boldly up into 
 the Pure Allseeing eye: and he perhaps keeps 
 working at his heart to infuse spiritual affections 
 by some direct process, under the guidance of the 
 Will. It cannot be done. He quickens his con- 
 science thus, but he does not strengthen his soul: 
 hence he is perpetually undertaking tasks beyond 
 his strength,—making bricks without straw; a very 
 Egyptian slavery. He believes that he ought to 
 love his God with all his heart and yet feels that 
 he assuredly does not. Nay, he is constantly break- 
 ing his resolutions, being too lazy to resist habit or 
 carried away by temptation. He at length appears 
 like a fly in a spider's web, which is the worse 
 entangled, the more it struggles; so that he may 
 well seem in danger, not indeed of insanity of intel- 
 lect, but of permanently morbid soul. If such a 
 case becomes known to good people around, who 
 have had no experience of such conflicts, they 
 imagine that a change of air and scene is wanted, 
 and diversion of the mind :—-which may sometimes 
 really be true, if intellectual errors concerning 
 God have complicated the case: at least I pre- 
 sume there is no doubt that any prolongation of so 
 wretched a state might disorder the brain physically, 
 especially if it interfered with sleep. Put aside such 
 sad and extreme cases: and let us ask, What is the 
 spiritual cure? 
 
72 THE SOUL: 
 
 Some will reply, that he needs to believe the doc- 
 trine of the Atonement of Christ, and of forgiveness . 
 of sins on the sole condition of his haying Faith in 
 it. If this is solemnly urged upon him by those 
 whom he loves and respects, it is more than possible 
 that he sets about self-examination to find out whe- 
 ther he has got Faith or not. He perhaps always 
 believed the proposition intellectually, and he knows 
 that numbers of irreligious men also believe it: a 
 mere historical Faith will not do: is then Azs Faith 
 of the right kind? Howcanit be? for Faith works 
 by Love, and exhibits itself in Spiritual Action; and 
 he sees himself defective in both. To believe that 
 he has Faith, is to believe that he is a Saint; but he 
 is not a saint,—a sanctified one: the more he looks 
 inwardly on himself, the worse he feels his case to 
 be, and the clearer the proof that he has no true 
 Faith. But what is this Faith? is it assent to a 
 general proposition ? He does indeed assent, but 
 so do the devils. Is it, assent to the special propo- 
 sition, that the individual M. N. is forgiven through 
 Christ ? but the question returns, How is that to be 
 known from any authoritative book-revelation ?— 
 Thus confusion may well become worse confounded. 
 
 No intellectual proposition, however true, can, as 
 such, bring Peace to a wounded soul; though it 
 may incidentally and indirectly guide to that action 
 which alone does bring peace; namely, to an unre- 
 served exposure of the heart to the eye of God. This 
 is the desirable consummation, to which all the pre- 
 vious distress was preparatory; and nearly all of 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. rks) 
 
 that distress might perhaps have been avoided, if the 
 man had been better taught. Yet no one can say v 
 how much severe goading one or another may need, 
 before he dares to rush as it were straight into 
 God’s* presence, consciously unfaithful and un- 
 cleansed. To many aman perhaps, his own act is as 
 one of desperation. He faces that bright and pure 
 Sun, which seems to scorch his eyes, and says: 
 Slay me, O God, if Thou wilt; I deserve it; I am 
 miserable; but leave me not sinful thus. Put me 
 to shame: Iam shameful. Behold! I hide nothing. 
 Thou art light: expose my darkness. I will not 
 palliate. Jam worse than I know. Show me all 
 that Iam. I cannot heal myself. If I must die, I 
 will die in Thy Light. 
 
 Oh, wonderful simplicity of Faith! he zs faithful, 
 and knows it not. He has trusted himself to the 
 Judge of all the Earth; he has abandoned all self- 
 justification: his heart is broken, and is ready to 
 welcome Mercy undeserved: he has believed in 
 God’s good will, and in His eternal purpose to de- 
 stroy sin; he has himself become a real hater of sin: 
 and,—though he knows not why,—he is therefore 
 already in perfect peace. He has followed con- 
 science through cloud and storm into the fiery pre- 
 sence of the Eternal, till fear has dropt off in His 
 nearness. The harmony of Heaven and Earth 
 is begun within the man’s soul, because his will 
 is subdued to God’s will; and thus Self-despair, 
 
 * Or Christ's presence ; which is only a change of name. In future 
 
 this will not need mention. 
 E 
 
74 THE SOUL: 
 
 joined to Faith, has led to peace with God. He is 
 guileless now as a child: quiet therefore and easy, 
 though in fullest consciousness that God is reading 
 his heart to the bottom. Before, he thought of 
 God as a severe judge; now, he feels that he is a 
 compassionate Father.—Guwilelessness is the whole 
 secret of divine peace; and happy are any who 
 attain it without a convulsion of soul preceding. 
 Some hearts fight longer and harder against God's 
 full supremacy; others perhaps yield so easily, that 
 none of this description applies: of that we shall 
 have more to say in the next Chapter. But come 
 how it may, this is the thing. “ Blessed is he to 
 whom the Lord imputeth not sin; im whose spirit 
 there is no guile.” 
 
 The value however of this experience to the soul ~ 
 is great, because it now has learned how to get 
 peace, especially if the phenomena have been 
 brought out so sharply, that the intellect can read 
 the case without practical error. Unhappily, most 
 persons mix up the theories of others and fixed 
 traditional doctrines with their own realities; and 
 hence entanglement and frequent mischief. But, 
 from the establishment of this guilelessness of 
 heart, and peace flowing out of it, a new era of 
 spiritual life necessarily commences. God himself 
 appears practically 7 a new relation, as a Father: 
 for though the intellect may long ago have ap- 
 proved that title, the soul had previously no true 
 filial feeling: thus the case passes over into that 
 reserved for our third Chapter; which it is not con- 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. fie 
 
 venient here to pursue. But when Peace is esta- 
 blished, the first great problem is solved. Only by 
 meeting the gaze of God can the impure soul be 
 purified: this had been too terrible a process: and 
 the soul had shrunk from it. Why? first perhaps 
 and chiefly, because it clung to the desire of pallia- 
 ting its offences: it did not cast itself absolutely and 
 totally on Divine Mercy, but tried to reserve some 
 excuse and some partial justification. Hence it 
 never attained the position of absolute dependence 
 and self-abandonment. It desired to do its duty to 
 God, and have a surplus of independent rights for 
 itself. While struggling for this, it wished to be 
 better, but not infinitely better; wished so to act, 
 as not to incur just reproof from God, but probably 
 did not wish to have him as a constant resident in 
 the heart. His All-seeing eye searching the soul was 
 submitted to as a necessity, not desired as a glorious 
 privilege: hence when self-consciousness reached a 
 certain intensity, peace became impossible to one 
 who had pure and spiritual views of the divine per- 
 fection. But now, things are changed; he says 
 calmly, “Thou, Lord, knowest thy servant;” and 
 wonderful to write or think, the finite impure man 
 has complacency in the pervading presence of the 
 infinite and pure God. Now therefore a new course 
 of sanctification may commence: for it is only by 
 contact with God's spirit that the human spirit can 
 possibly be sanctified. 
 
 A striking phenomenon in the history of religion, 
 is, the struggle between the spiritual and the un- 
 
 E 2 
 
76 THE SOUL: 
 
 spiritual elements of human nature to retain or to 
 evade this close contact of the worshipper with 
 Supreme Purity. Even in early Paganism it is 
 seen how a Jupiter or a Brahma was superseded by 
 secondary deities,—by an Apollo, a Minerva, a 
 Ganesa, a Vishnu, a Surya,—and these in turn by 
 others still inferior, when long-continued reverence 
 had elevated even a secondary name into primary 
 rank. The same pernicious principle is familiar in 
 Christianity under the name of Mediation; from 
 which it is the just boast of the Pre-Babylonian 
 Judaism to have kept itself entirely free. By a 
 Mediator is understood a being higher than man, 
 but lower than God; whose avowed office is to 
 shield the soul, conscious of its guilt, from the pain- 
 ful sense of God's immediate presence; to inter- 
 cept the too fierce splendour of the divine coun- 
 tenance, and enable thesoul to transact its affairs 
 _ with God through the medium of God's deputy. 
 Conjoined with this is the idea, that God himself is 
 too high to sympathize rightly and fully with us; 
 that he does not accurately know our infirmities, 
 because he has not experienced them; and that we 
 shall meet more candid allowance, and obtain 
 mercy on better terms, from some~inferior being. 
 These two feelings,—a guilty dread of meeting 
 God, and an unbelief of his sympathy or fair judg- 
 ment,—must combine before the Mediatorial doc- 
 trine is complete. That neither of the two ought to 
 be cherished, or treated tenderly ; that on the con- 
 trary, the attempt to invent a system of religion 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 77 
 
 which should gratify and establish them, deserves 
 to be gravely censured and warmly deprecated ;— 
 I see not how to doubt. To imagine that God 
 himself does not know our infirmities, might be 
 called monstrous, were it not too puerile. To sup- 
 pose that we shall meet with more allowance from 
 one more susceptible of being tempted like our- 
 selves, either dishonours God, as wanting in pure 
 and right mercy, or unduly comforts, with the hope 
 of mercy, him who ought not to be comforted. On 
 the other hand, to spare the sinner the intense pain 
 of confronting his God, by shutting out the sight of 
 God, is to thwart his only sanctification ; to which 
 that sight is essential. ‘The proper business of the 
 teacher is not to introduce a screen, which shall 
 intercept some of the rays of God’s glory, and 
 hinder man from seeing the true face of God: all 
 the effort must be the other way; to clear and 
 strengthen the eye, so that it may not discolour 
 the divine countenance with human vindictiveness. 
 Many talk in such a tone about “God in Christ,” 
 as though this were a Being essentially different 
 from the true and real God; as though Christ did 
 not show them God as He is, but some assumed 
 appearance: which is a virtual confutation of their 
 theory. 
 
 Now where the place of Mediator is held by 
 priests, saints, or a Virgin, it would appear that 
 uncompensated mischief results: but as applied to 
 Jesus Christ, the doctrine of Mediation is far more 
 perplexed, owing to the manifold and complicated 
 
78 THE SOUL: 
 
 tenets held concerning his person. There are some 
 who teach that he was less than God, and yet that 
 he is the Mediator between God and man. Where 
 such mediation is not a mere name, received by 
 tradition ;—where he is effectively believed to be a 
 more lenient judge than God ;—to me it appears 
 certain, that the belief is purely evil. But during 
 the healthy outburst of early Christianity, when 
 Jesus was first brought forward as a Mediator, a 
 true spiritual instinct seems to have interposed 
 against the mischief. The reverential imagination 
 of the Church at Antioch sublimated its One Me- 
 diator into something spiritually undistinguishable 
 from the morally perfect and omnipresent God ;— 
 into an omniscient infinite heart-searching Being, 
 with eyes of fire, sinless and separate from sinners, 
 an omnipotent Judge, the breath of whose lips shall 
 slay the wicked. For the soul to present itself 
 before such a One, was (spiritually and morally) 
 identical with presenting itself before God the 
 Father. Paul consequently was able truly to say: 
 “We all with face unveiled beholding as in a mir- 
 ror the glory of the Lord (Christ), are transfigured 
 into the same image, from glory to glory, seeing 
 that it is by a Lord who is Spirit.” For his 
 Christ and that of the Gentile Churches was not a 
 man whom he had seen and heard walking in 
 Judea, nor about whom they learned from the 
 pages of a book; but one at whom they gazed “in 
 the mirror” of their own souls, and with whom they 
 sought fellowship in secret meditation. This may 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 79 
 
 have been, with many, a logical Polytheism: pro- 
 bably enough: for the Christian Church has always 
 zealously trampled down logic, first, in grasping at 
 spirituality, and next in ostentatious mortifying of 
 the common understanding. As to the case before 
 us, the Mediation was in fact made nominal, as 
 soon as Jesus was elevated to a moral equality with 
 God: for, except any one held the barbarous notion 
 that the Second person of the Trinity had more 
 sympathy with man than the First, it was equally 
 arduous to the soul to unbosom itself to the Son, as 
 to the Father. In point of fact, I believe that the 
 most fruitful and living religion in Christendom has 
 generally been found among those who most em- 
 phatically deified Christ:—and that,—because no- 
 thing short of this can neutralize the noxious doc- 
 trine of mediation, and convert it into a mere 
 name. 
 
 Yet it must be confessed, that no one can fore- 
 see the opposites, which result in different minds 
 from a verbal formula, which has dared to despise 
 self-consistency *. For instance, while one, believing 
 that ‘Jesus is Jehovah,” (according to the un- 
 abashed Sabellianism of modern Christians,) inno- 
 cently worships Jehovah under the newer name of 
 Jesus; another picks out of the same ample creed a 
 permission to expect from the human sympathy of 
 Christ a forgiveness of sins which he could not 
 have expected from God himself. Contradictions 
 
 * See Note at the end of this Chapter. 
 
80 THE SOUL: 
 
 may be believed in alternate minutes by the same 
 mind; but they can never be blended into a single 
 whole, or be received by the same grasp of the soul. 
 Hence the fate of a formal creed which admits 
 them, is to be torn into shreds, of which each votary 
 carries away his favorite portion, while each in name 
 does homage to all. 
 
 But when thus in the early Gentile Church, the 
 spirituality, which had been endangered by the 
 mediatorial doctrine, was saved at the expense, first, 
 of losing self-consistency, and secondly, of incurring 
 thorny controversies, by which to this hour enmity 
 and jealousy, confusion and every evil sentiment is 
 propagated ;—guilty consciences, defrauded of their 
 mediation, sought out new mediators between 
 themselves and Jesus, now that he was felt to be 
 the very Being, before whom guilt shudders. But 
 the new mediators, (of whom the Virgin Mary has 
 earried off by far the largest honour,) have only 
 received divine worship, and have never been in- 
 vested by the imagination with the purely divine 
 attributes: hence the adoration has been a gra- 
 tuitous and baneful idolatry, the scandal and ruin 
 of Christian Churches. To these mediators peti- 
 tions are addressed, which could not be offered to 
 the All Pure God. They forgive sin on easier or 
 on other terms than He; and the fruit of it all, is, 
 to make the heart of the righteous sad, and to speak 
 peace to the wicked, while continuing in his wicked- 
 ness. . 
 
 We return from this digression, to the case of 
 
THE: SENSE OF SIN. 81 
 
 him, who, whether he call that God whom his 
 inmost soul discerns, by the name of Jesus or 
 Jehovah, yet at any rate comes into direct and 
 positive contact of spirit with his highest Ideal of 
 Purity. Such a one has commenced to live in the 
 Spirit; but oh, how many derangements do old 
 habit and ever-young passion and the world around 
 us offer to the progress of the new life! However, 
 pass we all these. Suppose the worshipper faithful 
 and brave, never swerving from his new course; 
 and that, animated by God’s presence, his Will 
 assumes energy so great, that all Duty is success- 
 fully performed, all temptations scornfully trodden 
 down, so that the kingdom of God within him 
 seems to go forth conquering and to conquer. Are 
 then his conflicts past, and is his peace perpetual ? 
 It ought to be so: it perhaps wld be so, when the 
 experience of one becomes available to another, and 
 ignorance is dispelled. But now, each man seems 
 to learn for himself from the beginning, and dis- 
 covers little by little to his great discomfort what 
 should have been known long ago from such as 
 Paul and Luther and Bunyan. And what is this? 
 Why, it is discovered that the Will has no power 
 over the Affections. While doth were in disorder, 
 while a man’s Will was half for God and half for 
 independence from God, he did not find this out 
 distinctly: he then blamed his entire nature. But 
 now that his Will is really subdued, he begins to 
 discern that his impulses refuse to be guided by it, 
 and regards therefore one half only of his nature 
 E 3 
 
82 THE SOUL: 
 
 as diseased*. He resolves to speak with meek- 
 ness; but he finds himself excited and bitter, if not 
 in word, yet in heart. He resolves to be chaste; 
 and his thoughts become impure. He resolves to 
 worship God in spirit; but his mind wanders into 
 countless imaginations. He resolves to be con- 
 tented; and his heart swells with a foolish am- 
 bition. He resolves to be humble; but he is mor- 
 tified that somebody gave him too little honour. 
 He resolves to be simple; yet he said something to 
 make himself admired. And so all through, “when 
 he would do good, evil is present with him.” Many 
 persons (perhaps most) are liable to be reduced 
 hereby to a state of distress, scarcely less than that 
 from which they had escaped: especially if, from 
 the peace for a short time enjoyed, they fancied 
 they were really going to be as perfect as they sin- 
 cerely entreated to be made. 
 
 Thus men, aiming at a spiritual life, generally 
 become uncontrolled in invective against the unma- 
 nageable side of their nature,—that very side of it 
 -in which alone activity resides,—and denounce it as 
 totally evil and incurable. Paul calls it a body of 
 death, to which he regarded himself as miserably 
 
 * “T delight in the law of God after the inward man [The Will]; 
 but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my 
 mind; and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in 
 my members.” Rom. vii. 22, 23. From this phenomenon, it has 
 been almost inevitable for Christians to conceive of the right Will as a 
 pure and divine spirit, recently infused, and the reluctant or perverse 
 Affections as an old or corrupt nature, for which (nowadays) Adam is 
 made to bear the blame. 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 88 
 
 tied. Indeed it may seem to be impossible that a 
 really vehement and passionate desire after God’s 
 perfect holiness should be excited in the human 
 soul, and its utterance yet retain logical coherence 
 and be duly measured. The same Paul who so 
 severely lashes his nature, and declares: “I myself 
 with the mind [Will] serve the law of God but with 
 my flesh [ Affections] the law of sIN :” yet distinctly 
 shows us that he did not regard himself as respon- 
 sible for this imperfection. For he disowns this 
 part of his nature, as not himself: ‘If then I do 
 that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, 
 but Sin that dwelleth in me.” His comfort, his 
 sufficient comfort, is not, that Christ has atoned 
 for it,—(that indeed might prove too much; for it 
 would apply to sins of the Will, as well as to 
 imperfection of the Affections,)—but, that nothing 
 but bis Will is he himself. If his Will commands 
 his Heart not to covet, and yet the Heart will covet, 
 Paul declares, ““My flesh has sinned, but I have 
 not.” Of course then he had nothing to repent of: 
 he felt grief, vexation, disappointment, but not 
 self-reproach ; not one sting of it; and therefore no 
 cloud passed between his soul and God. 
 
 It is of great importance to discern, that what is 
 popularly called, ‘“‘the total depravity of human 
 nature, is more correctly, the essential eternal 
 imperfection of every created existence: and that 
 that imperfection which is strictly necessary must 
 not be appropriated by us as Sin. In order to be 
 morally PERFECT, we should need at once infinite 
 
84 THE SOUL: 
 
 wisdom and affections of infinite power; and these 
 are the incommunicable prerogatives of God: hence 
 every creature,—angels and archangels, beatified 
 saints, and Adam fresh from his Maker’s hand,— 
 every one is morally imperfect, and, if the vulgar 
 phraseology were justifiable, would deserve to be 
 called sinful. Perfection, like omnipotence, inheres 
 in God alone: in this sense “ HE only is Holy.” 
 It is calamitous that so grave an error as the con- 
 founding of unwilling imperfection with sin should 
 have been built up out of passionate phrases of St. 
 Paul, when the context itself shows that what he 
 calls Sin * was not counted by him as his own deed, 
 nor therefore needed to be repented of. This is one 
 out of many examples of the mischief arising from 
 the current Bibliolatry and its developements. For 
 in consequence, upright souls which find that they 
 are still imperfect, fall into a bad conscience, as 
 those who have incurred guilt; and have, as it 
 were, to begin their inward life anew by confession 
 and repentance: and when this has happened ten, 
 twenty, fifty times, religion becomes a round of 
 weary groaning. Nor is it easy to suppress the 
 
 * Poetry must have Saxon vocables, and devotion, like common 
 love, spurns logical exactness. When a hymn-writer chooses to say : 
 “Yet I mourn my stubborn will; Find my sin a grief and thrall ;’ 
 &c., it is useless to bid him alter “stubborn will” into reluctant 
 affections, and “sin” into imperfection; and yet this, and this only, 
 is what he really means. Nothing is left for us, but to use interpre- 
 tation, whenever is the right time for using the critical faculty :—but 
 this is not during moments of devotion, as to which mere words matter 
 little. 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 85 
 
 persuasion, that with many this becomes a hypo- 
 critical routine, from their ceasing to strive, and 
 becoming blunted in feeling, by too much and too 
 hopeless confession. On the other hand, some get 
 to hate themselves morbidly, and to be frightened 
 away from God’s presence: and may even in some 
 distressing instances seem to have relapsed into a 
 deplorable state of apathetic unspirituality ; differ- 
 ing from the untaught world only in a profound, 
 dangerous and miserable self-despair. Self-despair 
 joined with trust in God, is a beginning of vigorous 
 spiritual life: self-despair without hope from God 
 is too awful to think of. 
 
 But what then is that, of which so many devout 
 persons speak,—daily repentance and daily forgive- 
 ness? Can it be all emptiness and morbid feeling ? 
 I am far indeed from saying so. It has been laid 
 down above, that we must distinguish between our 
 failures through want of power in the spiritual 
 affections, and failures from a double mind and 
 traitorous will; and must lament indeed, but on no 
 account scourge ourselves, on account of the former. 
 But there is also a third class, in a manner inter- 
 mediate to these two, which is not to be overlooked ; 
 namely, when we fall short of our own discerned 
 standard through a weakness of spiritual affection 
 which may possibly be imputed to our own negli- 
 gences or indolence. As our experience grows, our 
 strength ought to grow, and to plead weakness is not 
 always an adequate exculpation. Hence sometimes 
 the deepest confessions come from those who fee] 
 
86 THE SOUL: 
 
 themselves competent for higher duty: a thought 
 which was at the bottom of Paul’s utterance,— 
 “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” It 
 is not therefore always a mark of something ex- 
 travagant, when eminently holy men appear to be 
 carried beyond bounds in their self-displeasure. In 
 fact, Im proportion as our sphere of knowledge 
 enlarges, so does our responsibility; and in the 
 farther advance of spiritual life, it may seem that 
 the affections themselves become virtually to a great 
 extent at our call. Not that we are able at will to 
 bid them exist and act, and that, in any intensity 
 which we choose; yet experience shows us ways 
 (which will be afterwards spoken of more distinctly) 
 of courting pure and holy feeling; and if we appre- 
 hend that we have neglected these, we necessarily 
 blame ourselves. In short, OMISSION is probably 
 the form of guilt, which is most apt to overcloud 
 the heart, when all the better defined sins are 
 subdued ; especially because it is often extremely 
 difficult to ascertain whether we are or are not to 
 blame. 
 
 And here probably there will be no hazard in 
 affirming, that the most spiritual men have con- 
 curred in regarding the posture of self-justification 
 and palliation as so hurtful, that they prefer to 
 admit their own guilt, whenever there is room to 
 suspect it. Sins of omission may be unobserved 
 and unknown. Waste of time and of other talents, 
 selfishness, indolence, cowardice, negligence, self- 
 pleasing, nay, want of sympathy, of tenderness, of 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 87 
 
 meekness, may be sins of the will in this sense,— 
 that if at the time of temptation our will had been 
 in its normal vigour, it was in our power to avoid 
 them; but because the mind was preoccupied by 
 something else, we did not exert ourselves: and in 
 the retrospect we now cannot tell what we might 
 have done, if a holier will had been active. The 
 same remark will apply to those who are called to 
 peculiarly difficult and painful duty: as a wife, 
 exposed to a drunken husband; a father, whose 
 constant toil cannot save his children and their 
 mother from famine and disease: a son or a servant, 
 perpetually harassed by capricious and overbearing 
 rule. The highest human virtue, when put to 
 such trial, will constantly confess its shortcomings. 
 For all such sins of Omission devout spirits mourn 
 day by day. Frequent confession and complaint is 
 the impulse of their nature ; and is found necessary 
 to keep the conscience tender, and purify the heart 
 to receive the impressions of God’s near and ever- 
 living activity. But this is widely different from 
 having to repent daily of deliberately wilful sin ; 
 a thing which is absolutely irreconcilable with any 
 but a spasmodic acting of spiritual life, and must 
 imply a state of frequent misery proportioned to the 
 spiritual light and sincerity of the individual. It 
 may be conceived of in one who is struggling 
 against some fierce impulsive passion, which every 
 day more or less overcomes him, and causes him 
 the bitter anguish of apparently useless repentances. 
 Let us pity, and if possible, aid such a one, and 
 
88 THE SOUL: 
 
 throw no stone at him: God may at length make 
 him stand firm. But let us not represent his un- 
 happy and convulsive state, as the standard life 
 which alone can be proposed for human attainment ; 
 or confound the diffidence of the successful warrior, 
 who dares not claim the crown, because he thinks 
 that he might have pushed his victory farther, with 
 the self-reproach of the runaway soldier, whose 
 back is covered with dishonourable gashes. The 
 sacred complaint and sorrow which holy men, when 
 they have done their best, still daily pour forth, 
 may be called Repentance *, if so they please; but 
 there is in it far more of the sweet and tender, than 
 of the bitter. It is neither remorse, nor self-re- 
 proach; and is little else than the outbreaking of 
 fervent desire for a higher perfection. 
 
 Nor must we forget the danger just now hinted at, 
 of incurring hypocrisy, by too readily confessing as 
 sin that against which we do not seriously intend to 
 struggle. Every conventional standard of duty, to 
 which the Soul itself makes no response, involves 
 this danger; and those who find they are perpetu- 
 ally confessing the same sins and making no pro- 
 gress, have to enquire whether they are not falling 
 into a deluding routine. Under the name of dread- 
 ing self-righteousness, a very self-complacent inac- 
 tivity may shelter itself: nor is it to be endured that 
 any should argue from prevalent half-heartedness, 
 
 * In the phraseology of the Scripture, Repentance is the beginning 
 of spiritual life, and not a daily process. Neither wsrdévoe nor 
 firaéAtia are attributed to the healthily advancing saint. 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 89 
 
 that no higher sanctification than their own is at- 
 tainable. The evil of not setting our hopes of present 
 holiness high enough, is not unnoticed nor left 
 without protest * in the present day. There is no 
 real humility in exaggerating the extent of our 
 necessary sinfulness, a proceeding which will always 
 both exculpate and paralyze us. Perfection is a 
 Limit, which can never be reached, yet towards 
 which we may approximate indefinitely. But if sin 
 and self-reproach must be daily incurred, then, 
 either no peace with God is possible, or else, a heart 
 which condemns itself can have and ought to have 
 peace and confidence before Him. 
 
 A conscious uprightness is obviously necessary to 
 any spiritual peace, nor does the heart need any 
 other testimony than its own to the fact of its up- 
 rightness. The guileless soul knows it own guile- 
 lessness. If any one press us with the objection, 
 that we may possibly delude ourselves, by fancying 
 that our will is with God, when in fact it is not; 
 for that there 7s such a thing as self-delusion ;—it 
 would be enough to reply, that a universal scep- 
 ticism must not be set up,—in things Spiritual 
 
 * A small volume, called “ Interior Life, designed for those who are 
 seeking assurance of Faith and perfect Love,” by Thomas C. Upham, 
 (8th edition, 1848, New York,) has lately fallen into my hands, and 
 by its general spirit has greatly delighted me. 
 
 It is remarkable to see how, in the current evangelicalism, passages 
 of the New Testament which expressly describe the Christian walk as 
 sinless, (as 1 John ii. 1,) are wrested by partial quotation into the 
 very opposite. Compare verses 4, 5, 6; also iii. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 20, 
 21, 24; and indeed many other places. 
 
90 THE SOUL: 
 
 any more than in the External World,—on the 
 mere ground that the spiritual (or the outward) 
 senses are in some persons weak or diseased. The 
 double-minded does deceive himself; but neither 
 does he take pains to avoid it: nor can it be pre- 
 tended that he has any testimony of his conscience 
 to his own unreserved self-searching. The veracity 
 of our specific senses (spiritual or external) has its 
 establishment from the self-congruity of results, and 
 from the collateral testimonies of other minds and of 
 lower departments of the same mind. This is not 
 the place to enlarge on the general topic of Certi- 
 tude. But we may add, the single-minded Soul is 
 conscious how promptly it aspires after better suc- 
 cess, the moment that failure is discerned. It is not 
 merely vexed at the failure, (which might denote 
 mortified self-admiration,) nor merely asks pardon, 
 (as if more concerned with the guilt of sin, than 
 with its inherent evil,) but while breathing to God, 
 “Oh that my heart were as Thy heart, and that 
 wholly,” it blends hope with sorrow. Thus com- 
 plaint is not self-reproach ; and instead of unpro- 
 fitable dark solitary repentance, it has the light 
 of God’s countenance imparting cheerfulness and 
 strength for a new effort. 
 
 Some have so feared immoral consequences, if a 
 man is allowed to distinguish between “ himself” 
 and his “flesh,” that they have elaborately ex- 
 plained away St. Paul’s language (above quoted), 
 as said, not of himself, but of some other man,—or 
 of himself in his old unconverted state. Yet this 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 91 
 
 appears (in fact) gratuitously to increase whatever 
 difficulty may be in the passage. For it cannot be 
 denied that he distinctly acquits himself: to say 
 then that the sedf so acquitted is the old uncon- 
 verted one, is a preposterous way of saving morality. 
 But unless I mistake, the prevailing desire for 
 some such evasion has turned upon St. Paul’s use of 
 the word flesh in a sense very foreign to our modern 
 notions. To me it appears to have meant all that 
 part of his nature, which he felt to resist and lag 
 behind in his efforts after God’s perfection, and 
 therefore eminently, the affections of his heart and 
 soul. But the modern European ear no sooner 
 hears the word flesh, than it thinks of sensual and 
 other low sins, and of offences against outward 
 morality. Let moralists then be satisfied to lay 
 down, what is most true, that St. Paul’s self-excul- 
 pation can never be applied in regard to duties which 
 Law demands of us. For Law is not made for a 
 righteous man, but for the ungodly and disobedient. 
 It is addressed to the common capacities of nature, 
 and puts forth claims on our Conduct, not on our 
 Affections. There are morbid or very ill-trained 
 persons, whose wills are scarcely responsible for their 
 conduct: unless we mean to class ourselves with 
 these, we cannot claim any exemption. If we are 
 unable to observe even outward duties, our feeble- 
 ness of Will is clearly to be blamed, and not the 
 feebleness of Spiritual Affections: thus we have in- 
 curred guilt. 
 
 To maintain a Good Conscience before God, and 
 
92 THE SOUL: 
 
 not before man only, is the first condition of 
 all spiritual progress. If the divine life in man 
 is to grow steadily and healthily, it is absolutely 
 essential to have an abiding peace; for, as was 
 said, without this the soul will not and cannot meet 
 the eye of its God often enough and regularly 
 enough to feel its ever-purifying influence. But the 
 difficulty here arises,—how are we to distinguish 
 between the testimony of a Good Conscience, and 
 the complacency of Self-righteousness? It cannot 
 be said, that they are discriminated by there being 
 no self-contemplation in the former; for although 
 this need not be prominent, yet it not only may 
 exist, but probably must be more and more active 
 with experience and self-knowledge. Yet, that self- 
 righteousness is a real and not an imaginary evil, is 
 very clear.—It may help us farther to investigate 
 the subject, if we consider wherein that evil consists. 
 Surely it is, that the moment we begin to admire 
 ourselves, we are satisfied with the state of goodness 
 already attained, and cease (for so long) to aspire 
 after anything higher: thus the life-blood of the soul 
 is arrested, and putrefying stagnation is to be feared. 
 If so, self-righteousness is not the black and fatal 
 mark of bad and perverse men only, but obviously 
 besets all men at all times; and it does not consist 
 so much in thinking highly of ourselves, as in not 
 caring to be better: for the humblest saint becomes 
 virtually self-righteous, as soon as he ceases to 
 aspire towards a higher goodness. Such a view of 
 the case not only removes all wonder that this blight 
 
4 
 
 THE SENSE OF SIN. 93 
 
 of the soul should cling so firmly to us as holy men 
 confess, but, if I do not mistake, will show more dis- 
 tinctly its intimate nature. 
 
 First then, we impute Self-righteousness as a sin, 
 chiefly where Self-consciousness has been developed ; 
 for this is the stage in which there ought to be life 
 and growth; and its evil is, that it thwarts these. 
 Hence it is winked at as scarcely an offence, in that 
 embryo state of religion in which growth cannot be 
 expected. Stagnation, or mere cold-blooded life, is 
 the natural condition of those who are under the 
 LAW, which is an infantine stage; as also of those 
 who are children in years: so it seems not worth 
 while to censure a moderate self-righteousness in 
 such. Perhaps indeed the difference between it and 
 a good conscience is in that stage not yet developed: 
 hence if a mere Old-Testament saint rejoices in the 
 testimony of his conscience, it is apt to be in a self- 
 righteous tone. But when a warmer and more 
 active life of the soul has commenced, then a check 
 to its current cannot be endured without mischief, 
 and Self-complacency manifests itself as a grievous 
 evil. ; 
 
 Secondly, it now comes to differ widely from a 
 Good Conscience, inasmuch as the self-complacent 
 
 ‘man measures his present attainments with some 
 
 arbitrary finite standard, (which is pronounced to 
 be adequate ;) and admires or approves himself as 
 a result of the comparison. The standard assumed 
 may be the conventional routine, which in a par- 
 ticular religious society is held to characterize Piety; 
 
94 THE SOUL: 
 
 or may be a sort of average, struck from the ap- 
 parent goodness of men in general, or may be an 
 invention of his own: but in all cases the standard 
 is finite, and is already reached by him. But the 
 sacred happiness of a heart which knows it is known 
 of God, is not derived from approving its own 
 attainments, but from the very actings of its insati- 
 able desires, and from its sympathy with the Source 
 of life and joy. Its outcry is after Perfection. It 
 longs after God’s own holiness: for this it would 
 give Earth and Heaven. It no sooner effects one 
 conquest, than it aspires after another. If God 
 would offer to make it at once and wholly perfect, 
 it would eagerly catch at the offer. For while it 
 does zo¢ renounce the world, in any such sense as 
 not to have a thousand objects of worldly interest 
 and desire ; yet the One desire,—to please God,—so 
 predominates over all, that for personal attainment, 
 the soul counts all things as in comparison valueless. * 
 And (where the Spiritual stage of development has 
 been reached) the consciousness of this infinite 
 longing to be more and more like to the Only 
 Perfect one, seems to be the essence of a Good 
 Conscience. He who breathes forth this steady 
 desire after God’s holiness, he is upright, he is re- 
 conciled, he is humble: and is truly in peace of 
 conscience, even when most full of sacred contrition. 
 He has no finite standard of goodness: for although 
 what he dimly imagines as Perfection is only a 
 limited idea of his own mind, it is both above what 
 he has yet reached, and it rises the moment he 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 95 
 
 seems about to reach it. This state of things may 
 even be called the exact reverse of self-righteousness, 
 —which is stagnation: in fact, the soul is probably 
 so far from self-complacency, as to look with much 
 severity on its own shortcomings; because it mea- 
 sures them with the grace and mercy of God which 
 it has known, and feels how much He may justly 
 expect of it. 
 
 Those who are practically ignorant how spiritual 
 men measure the guilt of their sins, whether of 
 omission or of commission, are apt to attribute 
 hypocrisy to their confessions. I do not doubt, 
 there 7s sometimes that insincerity which is implied 
 in imitation: there is occasional morbid exaggera- 
 tion of feeling: there is, perhaps very often, an 
 exaggeration of phrase, suggested by the mere 
 vehemence of pure desire. But in the last case, a 
 supercilious pity is ill bestowed. One who (deeply 
 and sincerely) sorrows even over abandoned and 
 conquered sin, and over his unwilling infirmities, 
 provided that he still maintains a peaceful conscience 
 and sense of reconciliation, breathes a freer atmo- 
 sphere than his critics. He has learnt to rejoice 
 in a sense of Mercy ;—a joy which no one fully 
 tastes, who does not think of himself as a par- 
 doned criminal. In proportion to the tenderness of 
 his conscience and the depth of his self-condemnation 
 is his estimate of the wonder of that Love which has 
 freely forgiven him. So full of sacred refreshment 
 is this sense of Mercy, that even confession of old 
 sin (if there be no unretrieved wrong to others 
 
96 THE SOUL: 
 
 which barbs his self-reproach) becomes an accept- 
 able pain, because of the invigorating confidence in 
 God'scompassionate long suffering, which it nurtures 
 within. Free Grace is a sound delightful to his 
 heart, and wakes up a song of sweet and lowly 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 Against coarse external and stupid Pharisaism, 
 no protest is here needed: but where a spiritual 
 standard of action is used, yet a fixed and arbitrary 
 one which justifies self-satisfaction, a man is not 
 necessarily proud and puffed up or overbearing 
 towards the more guilty, and it may be very unjust 
 to call him Pharisaic. The danger from his self- 
 complacent repose increases, no doubt, with the 
 activity of his self-consciousness: and in any case, 
 so long as it is by approving his own attainments 
 that he escapes spiritual conflict, his heart remains 
 comparatively as stony ground. No soft dews from 
 heaven can sink in there, no roots of penitence 
 strike deep into the soil, no spiritual affections bud 
 and bloom forth under the beams of the Sun of 
 Mercy. Only after he has felt that nothing but 
 God’s immeasurable longsuffering can suit his case, 
 will rills of spiritual Love bubble forth out of the 
 depths of his bruised heart. But now, if he does 
 not in theory hold Mercy to be limited, yet he feels 
 no need to draw largely on it himself. He is for- 
 given little, and he loves little. Perhaps he reveres 
 God sincerely, and approves of all that is nght, holy 
 and lovely: but his affections:are not drawn out 
 actively after God and His holiness; and so long, 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 97 
 
 the most energetic spirituality does not seem to be 
 possible in him. Nevertheless, if he is earnest, if 
 he loves truth more than self-justifying, an increase 
 of self-consciousness will tend to humility and to 
 spiritual growth, not to self-righteousness, pride, 
 stagnation and hardness of heart. 
 
 In the present discussion, regard has hitherto 
 been had to the progress of a Soul not deliberately 
 sinful, but falling into an evil conscience, with all its 
 discomforts or miseries, while striving with more or 
 less honesty in the right direction. But what of 
 one, which is stung by the distinct knowledge that 
 it has again and again sinned wilfully; nay, in 
 spite of much light and many resolutions? Sup- 
 pose a man to have lived for weeks and months in 
 conscious sin, of course unable to approach God, 
 with soul dark and crushed, knowing that he ought 
 to repent, and yet not able to repent. But one day, 
 he knows not how or why, (in part, it may be, be- 
 cause he has forgotten his worst sins, so that they 
 have ceased to trouble him,) his heart is drawn into 
 a strange boldness, and rises into some sort of 
 prayer or praise,—as perhaps on the occurrence 
 of some happy external event, which gives him 
 serenity and gladness. What is to be said of 
 this? Is he very presumptuous? Should he be 
 told to go and repent first? Is a long course of 
 confession, probation and penance essential? This 
 is interesting enough to deserve some discussion. 
 
 Christian writers will probably with one voice de- 
 clare that a heathen at his first conversion (and by 
 
 F 
 
98 THE SOUL: 
 
 parity of reasoning, one who has all his life hitherto 
 lived without any spiritual religion) will be right 
 and wise in ignoring the past course of iniquity as 
 an ugly dream. They encourage him to “put off 
 the old man” by a single effort, and “put on the 
 new; to spurn with disgust and shame, but without 
 distinct and separate acts of repentance, the whole 
 scene of darkness and folly; to believe that God freely 
 forgives him everything past, and henceforth to fix his 
 eyes and heart on all things that are pure and good 
 and lovely. And the wisdom of this is manifest. 
 For no man is made better by dwelling on the 
 details of his own iniquity: either it will accustom 
 him to evil, or it will horribly discourage him. Dark 
 and weak as is one who just begins to breathe a 
 purer air, and to raise his spirit towards the Father 
 of spirits, even the fond dream that he is now all 
 at once about to pass into blissful purity, would 
 scarcely be more than is wanted to stimulate and 
 confirm his new life. No one is so ignorant and 
 cruel, as to insist that this man’s memory shall rake 
 up one by one all his misdeeds, in order to make 
 adequate confession of them before God. In fact, 
 if possible, he cannot do better, for the present at 
 least, than utterly to forget them all. 
 
 Yet, strange to say, this principle is by very many 
 reasoners quite reversed, when the case is that of 
 one to whom a personal religion is not wholly new. 
 If his resolutions have proved too weak for his 
 passions, or, in spite of intellectual convictions that 
 he ought to be religious, he has become hardened 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 99 
 
 into neglect of God by the occupations of business 
 or calls of pleasure ; such a one, it is often imagined, 
 not only has harmed his own soul, but has in some 
 sense defrauded the most High. A ledger (as it 
 were) is supposed to be kept, in which all his 
 offences are duly entered; and a special process is 
 requisite for obliterating, one by one, the items of 
 his gross debt. Confession of each separately to 
 the Searcher of hearts is thought to be the smallest 
 part of the necessary ordeal: Romish religion even 
 adds, that the details of iniquity must be told out to 
 a fellow-man ; a practice which is not only enslaving 
 but horribly corrupting. All this however proceeds 
 upon an extravagant misconception of the nature of 
 sin, as if it had in itself a permanent existence ex- 
 terior to the soul, and when subdued there, had still 
 to be destroyed somewhere else. 
 
 There has indeed been much needless discussion 
 on the question, How we know of the connexion 
 between Repentance: and Forgiveness? Neither 
 the intellectual nor the practical answer is really ob- 
 scure. Intellectually, we of necessity hold that the 
 highest human perfection is the best type of the di- 
 vine. Hence, where human morality is low and im- 
 mature, where revenge is regarded as a sweet and 
 lawful satisfaction, there men believe that God must 
 (in all cases) either punish sin, or receive compen- 
 sation if he foregoes vengeance. But with the 
 growth of a purer morality in man, this notion of 
 divine revenge is gradually modified. Every good 
 man has learnt to forgive, and when the offender is 
 
 F 2 
 
100 THE SOUL: 
 
 penitent, to forgive freely—without punishment or 
 retribution: whence the conclusion is inevitable, 
 that God also forgives, as soon as sin is repented of. 
 Practically however, it is by no means essential 
 that a man should be conscious of this. train of 
 thought. When he has trusted God sufficiently to 
 disclose his whole heart and cast himself freely on 
 divine grace, he has already believed (perhaps un- 
 awares) the absolute Mercy of God, and he reaps 
 Peace as the fruit of his Faith ; a peace which God 
 has given, and which the theories of man cannot 
 take away. 
 
 Much confusion has been introduced by laying 
 down as an absolute and necessary moral truth 
 the ambiguous assertion that “‘ Guilt aught to be 
 punished:” which is true, if it mean that guilt 
 deserves punishment; false, if it means, that to 
 leave it unpunished is an immorality. The latter 
 doctrine would make Mercy to be a vice. All that 
 Conscience has to depose on the subject seems to 
 be summed up in three propositions : 
 
 1. The guilty person, whether penitent or im- 
 penitent, deserves * punishment. 2. It is right to 
 punish him who is guilty and impenitent. 3. It is 
 right to forgive him who is guilty, but penitent. 
 Thus there is a sharp distinction between that which 
 the offender deserves, and that which the offended 
 
 * This means,— He ought not to consider himself wronged, if 
 punished.” Even so, there is a measure of punishment, to exceed 
 which would wrong him. Excessive punishment may be a worse eyil 
 than the offence :—a large topic, for which I have no room. 
 
THE: SENSE OF SIN. 101 
 
 ought to inflict. There is no inconsistency at all 
 in the former saying to the latter; “I deserve 
 punishment from thee, yet 1t becometh thee rather 
 to show me mercy;” which is in truth necessarily 
 and for ever the sentiment of the repenting sinner 
 towards God (or Christ). But to forgive and to 
 punish are not always inconsistent. Sometimes the 
 punishment must be inflicted for the offender's own 
 good, sometimes it comes in the train of cause 
 and effect which the offender has himself originated. 
 He may then have to say, “I will bear the judg- 
 ments of the Lord, because I have sinned against 
 Him ;” but this is quite compatible with that sense 
 of spiritual forgiveness, which not only expels evil 
 conscience and all boding of future wrath, but gives 
 the heart to rejoice in Mercy. 
 
 Human laws indeed ordinarily show no mercy 
 to penitent guilt ; but that is obviously because no 
 magistrate can be trusted to discriminate real from 
 feigned repentance, and because to spare the offender 
 is thought a very small object in comparison with 
 deterring others from crime. This cannot mislead 
 us as to the divine judgment, when we observe that 
 every pure and loving heart grieves over this severity 
 of human law as a necessary imperfection. The 
 sword which the magistrate bears is at best a coarse 
 and vulgar weapon; necessary indeed against out- 
 ward crime, but, as it scarcely takes cognizance of the 
 degrees of temptation and weakness, or knows what 
 Mercy means, no one can without absurdity appeal 
 to it as the type of the divine administration. No 
 
102 THE SOUL: 
 
 good man would consent to take Public Law as 
 the measure of his own mercifulness. In the case 
 of an offence committed against ourselves, as soon 
 as we are convinced that repentance is sincere, we 
 feel this at once to justify and to demand of us 
 full forgiveness; surely then God pardons man, 
 as freely as man pardons his fellow. Nor is this a 
 new discovery. The Hebrew Psalmists unhesi- 
 tatingly believed in the absolute forgiveness of God ; 
 nay, the Lord’s Prayer, in one petition, when 
 rightly translated, teaches, unless I mistake, that 
 God also may be expected to forgive, “‘ since even 
 we (men) forgive those who trespass against us.” 
 The truth seems to be, that the desire of Vengeance 
 is an ¢mstinct implanted in us, in order to check or 
 destroy dangerous persons or things; and in its 
 blind exercise, we virtually presume that a man’s 
 past conduct is a clue to his future. As long as 
 this presumption holds good, the cry for Vengeance 
 predominates in the bosom; but as soon as genuine 
 repentance has disconnected the offender's probable * 
 future from his past, the new instinct of Mercy rises 
 to supplant that of Vengeance. Thus though 
 
 * Hence the increased difficulty of forgiving an offence repeated 
 after (apparent) repentance; because we lose our confidence in the 
 assumption, that such repentance promises a different future. 
 
 Observe also, that though he who punishes finds his justification in 
 the Past, yet he has no means of fixing the sufficient amount of punish- 
 ment but by looking on to the Future; for (in spite of the remark in 
 Note to p. 100) we have no true common measure of Guilt and 
 Punishment. Hence when Punishment is not wanted either for Pre- 
 vention or for Reformation, it vanishes of itself. 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 108 
 
 Punishment is in its origin retrospective, yet it is so 
 only because the retrospect is presumed to be pre- 
 monitory. Punishment is suggested by the past, 
 but its aim (in so far as it can be approved) is 
 towards the future. 
 
 There is therefore no reason to doubt, that that 
 mode of proceeding which is confessed to be wise 
 on the conversion of a profligate heathen, applies 
 equally to all other cases of wilful sinners, as soon 
 as any turn of mind comes, from whatever cause. 
 They cannot be too quick in getting owt of the 
 evil feelings and znto holier thoughts and aspira- 
 tions. The great difficulty is to do this at all: 
 let not artificial impediments be superadded, by pre- 
 scribing a routine of confession and of bargaining 
 for forgiveness. Does the anxious moralist insist 
 that suffering for our sins is essential to permanent 
 amendment ? does he demand Remorse from us as 
 a pledge of sincerity? Let him say Contrition, but 
 not Remorse. To hate the past self is good, to 
 hate the present self is a deadly thing. Whoever 
 hates himself hates God also. The great, the im- 
 minent danger is, that the soul which begins to 
 turn once more towards God, should exaggerate 
 the difficulties in the way of its restoration: and 
 often, nothing can be happier, than if in a fit of 
 unreasoning enthusiasm it suddenly conceive itself 
 to be the special object of the divine favour*. Let 
 
 * Well meaning men have been unduly frightened respecting this, 
 by a few monstrous instances of Fanaticism, which have appeared 
 even in modern times; of which none is more notorious than that of 
 
104 THE SOUL: 
 
 the man but once come really under a sense of 
 God's unchangeable complacency, and he will then 
 soon mourn bitterly enough for his sins, and profit- 
 ably to himself. “Thou shalt be loathsome in thine 
 own eyes, when I am pacified with thee, for all that 
 thou hast done.” 
 
 Indeed, we may add, that as human guilt is not 
 determined by the character of outward acts, but 
 by the hardness of heart which accompanies them ; 
 so this hardness is by nothing so truly measured, 
 as by the mode in which Mercy affects the soul. 
 When violent or vicious men are melted into appa- 
 rent sorrow for their sins by the thought that there 
 is mercy even for them, we discern that they are 
 not hopelessly hardened, even if the depth of their 
 repentance is still doubtful; in proportion as our 
 opinion of their hardness of heart is lightened, so is 
 our opinion of the intensity of guilt which their 
 actual state implies. But the most dreadful con- 
 sequence of wilful sin,—sin against moral and spi- 
 ritual light,—is this very thing, that it palsies 
 the heart against believing and accepting Mercy. 
 Apathy and callousness are the fatal symptoms, in 
 comparison with which a too great readiness to 
 appropriate divine forgiveness to oneself must be 
 judged a smaller evil. There always indeed have 
 
 the Anabaptists of Munster. In such cases, Conscience has vanished 
 out of Religion; Reverence is disintegrated and dissolved, and a 
 hideous lawless Paganism remains. Such diseases of the Soul are 
 like Pestilences in the physical world; horrible when they occur, but 
 rare or impossible unless foulness has long been allowed to stagnate. 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 105 
 
 been, and there always will be, those who want to 
 be made comfortable in their sins. No severity of 
 doctrine will certainly thwart the self-complacency 
 of such; for their deficiency is in depth of con- 
 science and self-knowledge. But it need not on 
 that account be feared that the doctrine of Free 
 Grace to sinners may make sin appear a light 
 matter to one whose conscience is really affected: 
 he will not indeed measure his sin by the outward 
 acts, and may condemn himself /ess, for those 
 which the world condemns beyond comparison, 
 more. But for wilful sin,—committed against moral 
 light, after tasting mercy,—though it seem small to 
 others, no true penitent (I conceive) ever forgives 
 himself; but always carries a sore spot on his soul, 
 and is secretly humbled in mature or declining age 
 even for sins of youth. Eternally does he cry to 
 God against himself, “J deserve thy wrath ;” and 
 this is a bitterness, which probably no sense of 
 pardon and reconciliation entirely removes. 
 
 The principles which have been here laid down, 
 serve to explain the recovery of men from deplor- 
 able hardness or remorse, under the influence of 
 doctrine commonly esteemed fanatical, but prac- 
 tically proved to be far more powerful to convert 
 and rescue than any wisdom of the mere moralist. 
 The preacher anxiously warns the sinner not to 
 think that he must make himself good and righteous 
 before he comes to Christ: but let him ‘‘ come as 
 he is, ragged, wretched, filthy, with all his sins 
 about him:” let him believe that he is accepted, 
 
 F 3 
 
106 THE SOUL: 
 
 and he shall instantly be made whole; he shall be 
 received with joy, as the prodigal son returning: a 
 ring shall be placed on his hand and shoes on his 
 feet: the angels shall be glad because of him: he 
 shall be justified in the midst of all his ungodliness, 
 and his Faith shall be counted as Righteousness.— 
 Undoubtedly if the hearer imagines that this is 
 some process for enabling him to continue im sin 
 without evil consequences, it is a ghastly delusion ; 
 but if he accepts it as a method of freeing him 
 Jrom the power of inward sin, as well as from all 
 farther spiritual consequences, it is precisely the 
 thing needed for his case. His faith or his credulity 
 or his enthusiasm (whichever men may choose to 
 call it) grasps at the idea, that, in spite of all that 
 has passed, he may yet live a purer and a better life 
 under the smile of God; and the fact of his grasp- 
 ing at it attests the birth of higher desires, which 
 forthwith become cultivated by exercise and (in 
 happy instances) are ultimately triumphant. 
 
 There is no single thing which more strikingly 
 shows the gross blindness of common moralizing 
 divines concerning the Soul, than the incredulity 
 and contempt which is cast upon swdden conversions. 
 Sudden political revolutions are never treated as in- 
 credible or marvellous. It is readily understood that 
 in a State two or three different powers are strug- 
 gling together with independent force; and often 
 with alternate success. At last a party which was 
 depressed rises in sudden might, deposes that which 
 held the chief power, and assumes the helm. Three 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 107 
 
 days in Paris have twice sufficed to effect this mo- 
 mentous change; and to avow belief in it, is not 
 called twaddle and cant. 
 
 But these moralizers clearly do not know that in 
 the narrow compass of one man’s bosom two or 
 three powers are often striving together for mastery. 
 Rather they know of nothing but “Reason and 
 Passion ;” and as Reason acts gently and very 
 steadily, and only Passion by violent impulse, they 
 can understand indeed that a man may fall into dire 
 sin all in a moment, but not how he can rise out of 
 it all in a moment. This is because they know 
 nothing of the forces of the Soul, which are in fact 
 true Passions themselves. Nor only so; but just 
 as in Political, so too in Spiritual conflict, any 
 great abuse of power by one party is apt to damage 
 its cause and irritate the opponents into vehement 
 exertion: hence many a tyrant and many a dynasty 
 has been ejected in consequence of some wanton 
 and atrocious deed. Exactly in the same way is 
 the paradox to be explained, (which is a fact, 
 whether people choose to be scandalized at it 
 or not,) that the commission of some unusually 
 great sin has been known to lead to a change of the 
 whole character for the better; in fact, to a marked 
 spiritual conversion. A well known case is that of 
 Colonel Gardiner, whose life was written by Dr. 
 Doddridge. This officer had: actually planned and 
 arranged a deed of adultery, (which however was 
 defeated in a way not recorded,) and in that very 
 night underwent a violent reverse of character, 
 
108 THE SOUL: 
 
 being ever afterwards not only a pure and blameless, 
 but a deeply spiritual man. It is rarely that cases 
 so startling are freely disclosed: but it needs no 
 great insight into the soul to understand the prin- 
 ciple of such things. A man of impulsive passion 
 and moderately strong will, is perhaps ordinarily 
 correct enough to satisfy his conscience; and if now 
 and then carried a little beyond bounds, he yet 
 manages to keep up a good opinion of himself. 
 But if his passions on some day run out to fearful 
 riot, his self-complacency is mortified, his con- 
 science is deeply stirred, his soul (for the first time 
 perhaps) is called into activity: a general insurrec- 
 tion of the whole man takes place against the tyran- 
 nous usurpers; and, though beforehand the issue of 
 such a struggle cannot be foreseen, no one who has 
 even a feeble knowledge of God’s power in the soul 
 will be incredulous about its ever ending victo- 
 riously. Moralists perhaps think,’ that even if true, 
 such a thing is dangerous to tell, lest any should 
 trust to what he calls his “‘ good luck,” and sin 
 boldly in the hope that he will be saved from sin 
 at last. One however who argues thus with him- 
 self, does not hope (for he does not wish) to be 
 saved from sin, but only from its consequences. 
 No system of doctrine, true or false, will in itself 
 avail to give to such a person a new heart, and 
 make him feel that there is evil in the sin itself, 
 even if the natural consequences be thwarted. ‘The 
 profligate will never want excuses for sin; but they 
 are not the persons to be most considered, even if 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 109 
 
 to hide facts would do them any good. Our business 
 is, if possible, to understand aright both the weak- 
 ness and the power of the soul; and what throws 
 light on it, must not be suppressed for prudery and 
 decorum and fancied expediency. 
 
 But perhaps there is another illusion. It is 
 alledged that every evil deed goes to establish a 
 Habit, and thereby weakens the moral principle: 
 hence that a sin should be the antecedent of a con- 
 version, is thought to be self-contradictory. But 
 though a series of deeds committed zo¢ under strong 
 passion make a habit, it is not true of a single deed 
 of passion. <A child that slaps its nurse with little 
 or no provocation and is not checked, will probably 
 gain a habit of ill using her: but a boy who in 
 sudden passion should strike his mother violently, 
 having never done anything of the sort before, 
 would probably be horror-smitten at his own deed, 
 be melted into tears, and become far more affec- 
 tionate and dutiful than previously: and this, though 
 no spiritual, but only moral, forces are called out. 
 Exactly so, in the ups and downs of an early 
 struggling spiritual life, when powerful passions 
 sway the man both ways, it is certain that a wilful 
 sin, by the agony which it causes to the soul, may 
 act like an arrow shot in a sleeping lion, who springs 
 at once furiously on his enemy, and dashes him to 
 the ground, though sore wounded himself. For it 
 is not more true that the flesh lusteth against the 
 spirit, than that the spirit lusteth against the flesh ; 
 and when awakened to danger and its mettle roused, 
 
110 THE SOUL: 
 
 the spirit is by far the mightier, as that needs must 
 be, which is in contact with God. Hence also man 
 is ennobled, not by weakening his lower nature, but 
 by unfolding and strengthening his higher*. It is 
 absolutely impossible to turn the above, by any 
 legitimate argument, to an immoral purpose. For 
 if a person deliberately said, “I will sin, ¢” order so 
 to move my soul,” he would manifest a state of soul 
 which could not be so moved. Only full life can 
 suffer keenly ; and this man has no life. 
 
 In the later progress of the soul, Habit becomes 
 of value; but if in the early stage the views of 
 mere moralists were true, its prospects would be sad 
 indeed: nor could it possibly contend against the 
 passions. On the contrary, its great forces are all 
 impulsive, and capable of being very intense. St. 
 Paul, who knew something of them, scruples not to 
 call them (¢” the soul) the same mighty power of 
 God, as raised Christ from the grave to the highest 
 heaven. And certainly, when he was inviting men 
 to sacrifice all earthly prospects for a heavenly hope, 
 nothing short of an energetic inward spirit which 
 they felt to be of God, could possibly animate them 
 to accept such proposals. Hence too he calls the 
 Spirit within them “the earnest” of their future in- 
 heritance. 
 
 * This is only one point of the absurdity involved, in Fasting in 
 order to weaken the passions. But in fact I believe it does not 
 weaken them, even temporarily, to any spiritual purpose; for sin is 
 in the mind, not in the body. Irritability, with other pettishness, 
 is confessedly increased by this Babylonish practice. 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 111 
 
 But indeed the remark may be made on all 7n- 
 tuttive impressions,—that they are at first sudden 
 and impulsive. The beauty of a scene, of a statue, 
 of a human face, strikes us as with impetus. Not 
 that we discern it always at first sight: we may have 
 needed some familiarity with it before we see it in 
 the right position and gather up into a single whole 
 that on which the effect depends; but at last we 
 catch it all in a moment, and perhaps wonder why 
 it never so affected us before. In modern England 
 indeed the most powerful love which man feels for 
 woman is founded, not on mere beauty, but on the 
 internal character; and as this is not brought out 
 and discerned in a moment, Englishmen do not in 
 general fall in love very suddenly. But in coun- 
 tries where women are secluded, where in conse- 
 quence beauty is rarely seen and free courtship is 
 impossible ;—all the accounts which we read, of 
 men falling in love with beautiful maidens, repre- 
 sent it as so sudden and violent, as to strike us 
 with incredulity and laughter. We justly regard 
 this as a less advanced, a more puerile stage of 
 human nature; yet it is not a less instructive illus- 
 tration of the mode in which intuition affects the 
 soul. 
 
 The thing to be desired undoubtedly is, such a 
 constant presence of God’s Spirit with our spirit, 
 that there may be no more “ variableness or shadow 
 of turning” in us than in Him; that our hearts 
 may be altars, whence the smoke of incense per- 
 petually rises to heaven; that our Wills may be 
 
112 THE SOUL: 
 
 animated by a power uniformly equal to their task, 
 so that Duty may be nothing but healthy exercise, 
 without labouring or groaning. But if this is not 
 yet attained, if we get into a stagnant lethargic at- 
 mosphere, which threatens to benumb us, we must 
 be thankful for an occasional healthful typhoon, 
 and not cavil that it is not a trade-wind. Indi- 
 vidual character and circumstances of temptation 
 differ so much, and false theories so derange the 
 proper progress of things, that it is delusive to 
 assert any result to be generally true; but it seems 
 impossible to doubt that 77 a healthy state, the 
 internal life of spiritual men tends to become more 
 and more tranquil, until the observer can detect no 
 disturbances. Happy are those, to whom Habit 
 gives that steadiness which the moralist admires, 
 without that languor which the spiritualist dreads. 
 If it appear that Selfishness is the most unma- 
 nageable disease in spirituals, (since it is a virtual 
 death of the Soul, when complete,) and that a pure 
 Enthusiasm is its proper antagonist, a cold nature 
 would seem to be the least hopeful soil for spiritual 
 growth. The passionate temperament (which is 
 however not to be judged of by superficial display) 
 generally gives greater depth and power of life, with 
 more capacity of sorrow and joy, though also, espe- 
 cially if the original moral training has been neg- 
 lected, far greater danger of sudden sin and public 
 scandal. And here I am led to avow, that the Churches 
 of England, and that decorous part of society to 
 which they set the tone, appear to take a less true 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. 118 
 
 and less Christian view of the relative enormity of ° 
 sins, than the common heart of the world takes. 
 The world broadly distinguishes sins of selfishness 
 and malignity as unbearable, and imposes on them 
 many opprobrious epithets,—mean, sneaking, ras- 
 cally, &c.: and these are precisely the sins which 
 of all indicate that a man has no stamp of the 
 Infinite Spirit upon him. But sins of passion,— 
 not so indulged as to injure or betray others,—the 
 world treats very mildly: and these, though of 
 course implying the temporary conquest of the soul 
 by baser impulses, yet by no means denote the total 
 absence of God's Spirit, if the sins have been un- 
 premeditated or the passion violent. Mean and 
 eriping conduct, especially if habitual, is a far 
 worse spiritual sin than a bout of drunkenness; yet 
 a Church will animadvert on the latter and dares 
 not touch the former:—probably because it is 
 forced, like the Law of the land, to act by rules 
 capable of strict definition. Thus we get the asto- 
 nishing result, that while the Church (in its treat- 
 ment of transgressors) typifies the Law, the World 
 comes nearer to the Gospel! As the Publicans 
 and harlots were nearer to the kingdom of God 
 than the Pharisees, so were Byron and Shelley than 
 many a punctual reciter of creeds: and this, the 
 world well knows, but the Churches have no mouth 
 to declare. Out of the above grow moral difficulties 
 concerning all church discipline whatever, which, I 
 confess, now seem to me of a most unmanageable 
 
 kind. 
 
114 THE SOUL: 
 
 It is time to sum up this Chapter. Its subject has 
 been, the struggle of the soul to get and keep 
 peace with God, and to conquer sin. Peace is no 
 mere matter of comfort, but essential for sanctifica- 
 tion: hence it is impossible to overrate its import- 
 ance. If it is obtained and kept, there is indeed 
 grief, pain, mortification, humiliation, in finding that 
 our Affections do not keep pace with our Will; yet a 
 copious dash of this sort of humiliation seems to be 
 beneficial, implying, as it generally does, high aspira- 
 tions rather than very low performances. The man 
 who, after being crushed under a sense of sin, has 
 been healed by God, is sore no longer, yet per- 
 manently tender ;—a tenderness felt through his 
 whole spiritual and moral nature: hence he is mild 
 in his judgments of others, while severe on himself. 
 He has also probably much contentment and 
 balance of soul, not only infused by a cheerful 
 sense of the mild light of God, under which he 
 lives, but also as he feels himself unworthy of all 
 his enjoyments: thus he tastes a new sweetness in 
 the common goods of life. To be honoured by 
 men pains him; to be disesteemed by those who 
 are not spiritual, does not trouble him,—except in 
 regard to that outward innocence, of which common 
 men are excellent judges. And while he has thus 
 learned to be abased, he has in some degree learned 
 also how to abound. If new earthly wealth and 
 grandeur were to flow in upon him, they would no 
 doubt be a temptation; yet his previous discipline 
 would above all things aid him to bear them. To en- 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. Lid 
 
 dure affliction and sorrow, such sorrow especially as 
 wrings the tender affections, he is perhaps not yet 
 armed ;—indeed, who is ?—still, should such trials 
 come, they will probably tend to the perfecting of 
 his spirit, by opening new doors of access to God. 
 Meanwhile, if such mellow fruits of righteousness 
 as have been named, are borne by his having been 
 painfully exercised, he will not think that the time 
 of conflict was thrown away. God does not expose 
 all to the very same trials, and let not ws cramp all 
 men to one form; but He leads us through ways 
 that we know not, dark and various, until by his 
 mercy, having become guileless before Him, we dwell 
 with Him, and are satisfied by the sight of Him. 
 Whoso has gained the harbour, needs not care about 
 the course. To have had to undergo spiritual con- 
 flict through ignorance or through perversity, 1s 
 certainly not in itself matter of congratulation ; yet 
 it may be a process not without positive advantages 
 for us, if we are called on to comfort men in spiritual 
 sorrow “by the comfort wherewith we ourselves 
 were comforted of God.” But, conflict or no con- 
 flict, matters not, if the heart has learnt to hate sin 
 and rejoice in mercy. Then, faithful, resolute, 
 energetic souls do not stay in simple peace and 
 moral tranquillity ; they soar into a higher blessed- 
 ness, and mingle in some upper part of the heaven- 
 streaming current with those who are about to be 
 described in the next Chapter. 
 
116 THE SOUL: 
 
 Note, referred to in Page 79. 
 
 No apology is needed for assuming that the advocates of what 
 is called Orthodoxy decline to reconcile their doctrines with one 
 another, according to the common principles of Logic. They gene- 
 rally say that the truths hinted at (and not fully stated) in their pro- 
 positions, transcend Logic, and must not be submitted to that ordeal. 
 This, it seems to me, would be quite legitimate, if these propositions 
 were not arrived at by logical processes, but by direct discernment. 
 
 In the present argument, Iam not concerned to censure the self- 
 contradictoriness of any creeds, except so far as it hurts spirituality. 
 But it appears insane to deny, that it zs self-contradictory to call Jesus 
 simultaneously omniscient and advancing in wisdom, omnipotent and 
 needing support, infinite and finite: and when people say that they 
 believe he is at once God and Man, they deceive themselves. What 
 they really believe is this; that he was once Man, and is now God. 
 
 The use and abuse of Logic in religious inquiry is a topic large 
 enough to fill a treatise. As long as religious teachers need (or think 
 they need) to establish by lengthy and elaborate processes of argument 
 the Infallibility of the Scriptures or of something which they call 
 “the Church,” it is a ludicrous absurdity in them to affect that their 
 results are invulnerable to logical attack. If one result contradicts 
 another, it is evident that in the course of their long arguments they 
 have made some mistake. It is for them, not for us, to find out 
 where: and if they declaim against Logic, they do but declaim against 
 themselves, 
 
 Widely different is it, when the Conscience or Soul discerns 
 separately each of two truths, which, when stated in words, seem to 
 be logically inconsistent. If they are really so, it will merely show 
 that we have not successfully interpreted into words the impressions 
 made on our spiritual sense, and that some modification of one or 
 other statement is needed. But I confess that this is with me an 
 imaginary case. I know no instances of such apparent collision, 
 except between the Soul (or Conscience) and the Understanding. 
 
 The most startling, because the newest, extravagance in England, 
 is the phenomenon of educated and acute men,—professors of Tri- 
 unitarian and even of Romish orthodoxy,—who refuse to allow their 
 own creed to be subjected to the test of logical self-consistency, and 
 
THE SENSE OF SIN. Le 
 
 yet assail all other creeds with this weapon. J forsooth, if I discern 
 with about equal distinctness two truths which my critic thinks 
 inconsistent, J must choose between them, and repudiate one of the 
 two, or he will brand me as illogical! Let him make (or at least 
 believe) his own creed logical, before he throws this stone at others. 
 
 All absolute truth is self-consistent : hence it is unquestionable that 
 we are somewhere in error, if we are entangled in real inconsistency. 
 Human truth however is not Absolute, but only Approximate ; too 
 valuable to throw away, though not perfect: and to detect incon- 
 sistency does not in itself warn us where the error lies, and what sort 
 of correction our propositions need. Much and patient inquiry is 
 often essential to find this out ; and meanwhile we are right in holding 
 (though with diffidence and charity) to a system of propositions, which, 
 we are conscious, involve some inconsistency. To throw away one 
 of them at random, in order to secure agreement in those that remain, 
 would be doltish. Yet this is what those virtually advise, who preach 
 up internal Consistency as the great virtue of a religious system. 
 Consistent Truth is perfection; but Consistent Error would be far 
 worse than Inconsistency. For a believer in Transubstantiation and 
 in the pseudo-Athanasian Creed to enforce upon others, as at any rate 
 essential, a logical coherence in their intellectual faith, shows either 
 dense self-ignorance or gross untruthfulness, 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 
 § 1. A reply to philosophy. 
 
 BEFORE proceeding to the real subject of this Chap- 
 ter, it may be well to notice an objection of philo- 
 sophy. Some will say, that in all spiritual action, 
 the Soul itself is the only agent, and that the idea 
 of God acting upon it, is a mere dream: that it has, 
 no doubt, its own feelings ; but these feelings do not 
 point to anything that goes on in the mind of God, 
 which is essentially unchangeable towards us. 
 
 My general reply is, that I do not write asa 
 metaphysician, or pretend to any but a popular 
 phraseology. Time may disclose Laws in the act- 
 ings of God towards the Soul; nay, none imagine 
 that he acts capriciously, except a remnant of a 
 school which veils caprice under the word sove- 
 reignty. There can be no objection to Science ex- 
 ploring spiritual action with purely scientific ends, 
 provided that it ascertain the popular facts correctly 
 on which it is to refine. But this proviso includes, 
 first, that the men of science shall treat with tender 
 thoughtfulness the facts alleged by the unscientific 
 men who have felt them ; and shall cease to shower on 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GoD. 119 
 
 them vague phrases of contempt, as mysticism, fana- 
 ticism, &c.; secondly, that the would-be scientific 
 classifier of facts shall not strangle the facts in 
 their birth. Now this is what those are trying to 
 do, who lay down, that a man is to pray for spiritual 
 benefit, not, expecting that God will deign to notice 
 him,—but, because it is a mode of influencing his 
 own heart. This would turn us into feeble hypo- 
 crites. What! can a man go, as if before God, 
 and say,—‘‘ O God, I ask Thee to subdue this or 
 that evil desire, knowing that Thou hearest not, 
 but hoping that by this conscious fiction I shall 
 call my own soul into action.” O foolish philo- 
 sopher, this will not do. No spiritual facts at all 
 will be left for the man of science, if we commence 
 thus. 
 
 It is axiomatic, that man can no more understand 
 the mind of God, than a dog that of his master. 
 Our clearest notions must be rude outlines: our 
 vocabulary is all one of transference, and of course 
 enormously vague: yet the philosopher, who, in 
 anxiety for scientific accuracy, refuses to become 
 experimentally acquainted with the facts, is the last 
 man to succeed in heightening our conceptions or per- 
 fecting our phraseology. Meanwhile, as a dog lives 
 on his master’s smile and rejoices, so is it fit that 
 we should live on the smile of God, though knowing 
 only the outer edge of His heart and mind. 
 
 “But,” (will the philosopher say ?) “it is all well 
 and happy for yow to believe that God hears your 
 prayer: perhaps I wish I could believe it too; but 
 
120 THE SOUL: 
 
 unfortunately I cannot: you offer me no proof.” 
 But what sort of proof could satisfy him? If he 
 say—“ None;” this would imply that there is an 
 essential absurdity in the case; but we must then 
 call on him to point out the absurdity; since we do 
 not see it. But if he admit that the thing is not 
 in itself absurd and self-contradictory, then, it seems 
 to me, he cannot ask any other proof, than exactly 
 that which abounds: viz. the unanimous testimony 
 of spiritual persons to the efficacy of prayer. He 
 may reply: “ Yes, that is the heart acting on itself ;” 
 but he might deal exactly in the same way with the 
 evidence of sense. Perhaps there is no outer world, 
 and our internal sensations are the universe! Syllo- 
 gistic proof of an outer world will never be gained, 
 nor yet syllogistic proof that a God exists or listens 
 to prayer. 
 
 We well know that there are persons, who say 
 that substance and matter are illusive terms; and 
 that a substance is nothing but a congeries of forces, 
 coherent and repulsive. It may be so; but we 
 should not attain greater accuracy by expunging 
 the two words from our vocabulary. Nay, the phi- 
 losopher who so corrects us, has, after all, no more 
 definite idea of the reality than the vulgar have. 
 He cannot conceive of one centre of immaterial 
 forces pushing away another centre of immaterial 
 forces. ‘The imagination wants something material 
 for a force to push against. The vulgar mode of 
 conception and speech may be inaccurate; but, as 
 also in spiritual matters, it is the best we can get. 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 121 
 
 Not by subtlety of thought, but by specific sense, 
 do we gain any acquaintance with the realities of 
 things. Now the Soul is the specific sense in which 
 we come into contact with God. Let us not deal 
 more slightingly with its testimony, than with that 
 of the Touch or the Taste. 
 
 The active part of man consists of powerful in- 
 stincts. Some are gentle and continuous, others 
 violent and short; some baser, some nobler; all 
 necessary. A moral control over them all is de- 
 sirable ; and by all means let any vagaries of the 
 Soul (as in all fanatical religion) be severely 
 checked by our moral principle. With this limita- 
 tion, the instincts have an inherent right to exist 
 and to act; and the perfection of man depends on 
 their harmonious energy. As operating alike on 
 all ages, perhaps the instinct which seeks after God 
 and the Infinite is the most powerful in man. Let 
 us follow out this great and glorious tendency. Let 
 us give free play to our nature, without fear of the 
 philosophers: we shall get holiness, peace and joy; 
 and may haply bequeath facts for some future man 
 of science. If we drink the heavenly nectar our- 
 selves, others may analyze our juices when we are 
 dead. 
 
 The objection here considered, comes ill from a 
 moralist who believes the originating power of the 
 human Will: for Ae can no more prove that Will 
 ig not a mere necessary result of circumstances 
 unknown or uncontrollable to us, than I can prove 
 that it is God’s influence and not my own which I 
 
 G 
 
122 THE SOUL: 
 
 feel within. But we refuse to surrender to the 
 Necessarian our instinctive belief in a self-deter- 
 mining Will, because we cannot act wisely and well 
 except by adopting the belief: for if there be no 
 such Will in us, it is still useful for practice to 
 believe that there is; and the man who most knows 
 the Truth, is then most likely to act foolishly! 
 This is so intense a paradox, as to confirm most 
 people in their conviction that the hypothesis is 
 false, or, that there zs a self-moving Will in each of 
 us.—Now every word of this argument equally 
 applies to the belief that God acts upon the soul, 
 when the soul approaches Him. The objector then 
 ought in consistency to become a Necessarian,—to 
 deny the propriety of praising or blaming, to treat 
 self-reproof as ridiculous, and cut away the springs 
 of moral as well as spiritual life. Nay, if he will 
 be logical, he ought farther to be an Atheist; for, 
 as insisted in the First Chapter, if we know nothing of 
 Will in ourselves, it is absurd to pretend that we 
 know anything of it in the Universe. Thus, the 
 objection treated is frivolous, unless it means to 
 destroy both Morals and Religion entirely. 
 
 If it be admitted that in the Infinite One there 
 dwell (what we may approximately call) Designs, 
 Desires, Affections; then surely all his creatures 
 who also have affections, and minds capable of dis- 
 cerning Him, may both love and be loved by Him. 
 That we ought to revere Him, is as trustworthy a 
 moral judgment as any other, as soon as His exist- 
 ence is discerned. ‘That he perceives and approves 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 123 
 
 our revering Him, is a judgment equally inevitable. 
 But the man who at the same moment that he 
 adores, perceives that his adoration is perceived 
 and is acceptable, has already begun an inter- 
 course with God. ‘Two moral beings cannot come 
 into such intercourse, without the commencement of 
 a new moral relation; not, though the inequality 
 between them be infinite. Nor does it avail to 
 dwell on our littleness as any objection: the chasm 
 is still infinite, between the highest creature and the 
 Creator. But in fact, this infinite disparity is just 
 the thing essential to the relation and characteristic 
 of it.—And so much on this subject. 
 
 § 2. Loves of the Soul. 
 
 Human characters have often been distributed 
 into two great classes, which may be called mascu- 
 line and feminine. In the masculine, are stronger 
 and coarser passions, self-confidence somewhat over- 
 bearing, more promptitude to act and more unflag- 
 ging energy, deeper conscience and more prominence 
 of the idea of Duty, high ambition to achieve Right ; 
 warm and rich love, of gushing impetuosity. In 
 the feminine, are pure and gentle instincts ; strength 
 more passive than active; slowness to act, except 
 when affection moves; a heart that guides to Duty 
 and to Right, but thinking of it not as Duty and as 
 Right but as that which is Lovely; finally, a love 
 which is tender, transparent, and steady. Of course 
 there may be intermediate characters. Yet if we 
 
 GR 
 
124 THE SOUL: 
 
 contrast the two more concisely, thus: the former, 
 (partly from ambition and partly from the activity 
 of the Conscience,) is impelled to action before the 
 affections are fully ready for it: the /atter is little 
 moved by a sense of Duty, and is satisfied not to 
 act until impelled by affection :—then the two cha- 
 racters exclude one another. And this is perhaps a 
 view suitable to our present purpose. 
 
 Where Conscience predominates, the struggles 
 described in the preceding Chapter may be appre- 
 hended; especially if to this be added an ardent am- 
 bitious nature. Exactly in such natures other pas- 
 sions also are apt to be strong: hence the man is a 
 bundle of forces not yet in harmony: and the har- 
 monizing of them is probably attempted by direct 
 conflict, before Love comes in to reconcile them. 
 The more feminine character probably avoids 
 struggle, not by any strength of love, but by the 
 unformed state of the conscience and delicacy of the 
 passions: for powerful love to God can in very rare 
 instances be developed so early as to anticipate con- 
 flict. Many persons of masculine soul, neverthe- 
 less, by severe sorrows, especially from the deaths of 
 those whom they love, are in great measure moulded 
 ito the feminine type; and possibly this is the 
 most perfect character. But at present I confine 
 myself to the other. 
 
 There are those, of amiable natures and soft 
 affections, perhaps also very susceptible to natural 
 beauty, who appear to approach religion altogether 
 on its sunny side. They see God,’not as a strict 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 125 
 
 Judge, not as a Glorious Potentate ; but as the ani- 
 mating Spirit of a beautiful harmonious world, 
 Beneficent and Kind, Merciful as well as Pure. 
 The same characters generally have no metaphysical 
 tendencies: they do not look back into themselves. 
 Hence they are not distressed by their own imper- 
 fections: yet it would be absurd to call them self- 
 righteous; for they hardly think of themselves at 
 all, This childlike quality of their nature makes 
 the opening of religion very happy to them: for 
 they no more shrink from God, than a child from 
 an emperor, before whom the parent trembles: in 
 fact, they have no vivid conception of any of the 
 qualities in which the severer Majesty of God con- 
 sists. He is to them the impersonation of Kind- 
 ness and Beauty. They read his character, not in 
 the disordered moral world of man, but in romantic 
 and harmonious nature. Of human sin they know 
 perhaps little in their own hearts and not very much 
 in the world; and human suffering does but melt 
 them to tenderness. Thus, when they approach 
 God, no inward disturbance ensues; and without 
 being as yet spiritual, they have a certain compla- 
 cency and perhaps romantic sense of excitement in 
 their simple worship. 
 
 It is not by a lucky accident that their early 
 course is so tranquil. It arises out of the fact that 
 their crude views of God are really more true than 
 those of the opposite character. He is mot a stern 
 Judge, exacting every tittle of some law from us. 
 There is noting in Him to terrify the simple- 
 
126 THE SOUL: 
 
 minded. He does not act towards us (spiritually) 
 by generalizations which may omit our individual 
 case, but his perfection consists in dealing with 
 each case by itself as if there were no others. In 
 short, only the primitive ruder notion concerning 
 Him is the stern one; that of the riper spirituality 
 testifies to his infinite Love. Now it deserves re- 
 mark, that, quite in accordance with this, women 
 come more easily to pure religion than men. In 
 fact, men are accustomed to deal with affairs of life 
 on a great scale, where (by reason of ovr mental 
 infirmity) fixed general rules are essential: hence 
 come men’s notions of abstract Justice, in which the 
 Judge is forced to sacrifice his personal feelings to 
 some law external to himself; an idea which they 
 erroneously transfer to God. But women act in 
 detail, and judge of each case for itself and by their 
 own feelings. ‘So again; all moral rules are a ge- 
 neralization ; hence Conscience, which bids us ob- 
 serve such rules, implies generalization: but women 
 do not generalize much; they rather seize on par- 
 ticulars. Therefore they are less liable to be tor- 
 mented by a Conscience, which (on some abstract 
 principle) lays more on them than their affections 
 can bear. But chiefly, it is important, that men 
 deal much with their equals, and have to stand out 
 for their rights; hence the sharpness with which 
 the idea of Justice and Right is stamped upon 
 them. But women are chiefly concerned with un- 
 equals; with a husband above them and children 
 beneath them ; and in younger age of: course equally 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 127 
 
 so. Thus affectionate obedience and tender mercy 
 are prominent with them; and they carry these sen- 
 timents into their religious relations. Moreover as 
 young women are not subject to passion in the same 
 coarse forms as young men, their temptations are 
 probably weaker, they wound their own consciences 
 less, and their religious course is far smoother. 
 On the whole, we may well admire the instinct, 
 which made the old Germans regard Woman as 
 penetrating nearer to the mind of God than Man 
 does. 
 
 That none can enter the kingdom of heaven 
 without becoming a little Child,—guileless and 
 simple-minded,—is a sentiment long well known. 
 But behind and after this there is a mystery, re- 
 vealed to but few, which thou, oh Reader, must 
 take to heart. Namely, if thy Soul is to go on 
 into higher spiritual blessedness, it must become @ 
 Woman ; yes, however manly thou be among men. 
 It must learn to love being dependent; and must 
 lean on God not solely from distress or alarm, but 
 because it does not like independence or solitude. 
 It must not have recourse to Him merely as to a 
 friend in need, under the strain of duty, the batter- 
 ing of affliction and the failure of human sympathy; 
 but it must press towards Him when there is no 
 need. It must love to pour out its thoughts to 
 Him, for the pleasure of pouring them out. It 
 must utterly abandon the idea of having either 
 Rights or Liberty as against God, and will then 
 instinctively know that God claims no Rights 
 
128 THE SOUL: 
 
 against it, but in all his direct dealings with it is 
 thinking solely of its individual welfare, as much as 
 if it were the only creature in the universe. Though 
 all the Scribes and Pharisees of Christendom should 
 assert it, believe not, oh Reader, that God keeps 
 any spiritual scores against thee. It was a strong- 
 minded man, deeply versed in human nature, but as 
 painfully dark concerning the Divine, who said: 
 The gods care to avenge, but care not to save*. 
 Those were Pagan and external gods. But our 
 inward and spiritual God cares not to avenge, and 
 cares only to save: and to err concerning this, 
 would make us less holy, as well as less happy. 
 Farther, the soul must learn to follow her own in- 
 stincts more; to deal with every case for itself, and 
 enact no artificial generalizations; to think, not 
 what she may do without sin, but what best har- 
 monizes with her own delicacies ; so that the law of 
 the Spirit within her may set her free from, by 
 raising her above, the law of sin and of death. 
 Lastly, she must change that Jewish precept, 
 “Thou shalt love the Lord” into another: “'Thou 
 mayst love thy Lord.” 
 
 But those gentle souls which are drawn so quietly 
 towards God, by no means go without their share of 
 sorrow, only it seems to take a different form. It 
 is not that an evil conscience goads them, that Duty 
 works them hard, and their Affections fail: but they 
 doubt whether they may suppose that there is any 
 
 * Tacitus, Histor. i. 3. 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 129 
 
 definite relation at all between them and the In- 
 finite God. God is hitherto to the soul as a pleas- 
 ing poetical dream: He has not (as in the case de- 
 scribed in the Second Chapter) been felt in the Con- 
 science, first as one painfully judging the heart, and 
 then as subduing it; and He is in fact still a mere 
 external God to the worshipper. While this is the 
 case, there is Sentiment, but not as yet Spirituality; 
 and though the religion is not formal and stiff, but 
 poetical and free, still the soul can have no active 
 life. But from this very circumstance a sense of 
 vacuity arises. One who begins to realize God's 
 majestic beauty and eternity, and feels in contrast 
 how little and transitory man is, how dependent and 
 feeble,—longs to lean upon him for support. But 
 He is outside of the heart, like a beautiful sunset, 
 and seems to have nothing to do with it; there is 
 no getting into contact with Him, to press against 
 Him.—Yet where rather should the weak rest than 
 on the Strong, the creature of a day than on the 
 Eternal, the imperfect than on the centre of Perfec- 
 tion? And where else should God dwell than zx 
 the human heart? for if God is in the universe, 
 among things inanimate and unmoral, how much 
 more ought He to dwell with our souls? and they 
 too seem to be infinite in their cravings: who but 
 ‘He can satisfy them? ‘Thus a restless instinct 
 agitates the soul, guiding it dimly to feel, that it 
 was made for some definite but unknown relation 
 towards God. ‘The sense of emptiness increases to 
 positive uneasiness, until there is an inward yearn- 
 G3 
 
130 THE SOUL: 
 
 ing, if not shaped in words, yet in substance not 
 alien from that ancient strain,—‘“ As the hart panteth 
 after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after 
 Thee, Oh God: my soul is athirst for God, even 
 for the living God.’—“I wait for the Lord; my 
 soul doth wait; as those that watch for the morn- 
 ing.” But, by the continuance of such exercises, 
 the fervency of desire gradually ripens into love, and 
 love goes on heightening till at last the soul becomes 
 conscious of it: and then the crisis is reached. J 
 believe at least that the transition depends on the 
 following principle:—no soul can possibly know 
 that it loves God, and not at once infer (whether 
 aware or not of the mental process) that God loved 
 it first *: so powerful and clear is the direct per- 
 ception that all our highest and best feelings are 
 shadows of His: if therefore ewe, imperfect and 
 puny, in truth love H7m who is unseen and dimly 
 known, how much more does He, who cannot over- 
 look us, assuredly love ws ;—not indeed because we 
 deserve it, but because it is part of his own na- 
 ture’s perfection. 
 
 In claiming a personal relation with God, nothing 
 exclusive is intended: nay, he who thus learns that 
 he is loved by God, learns simultaneously that all 
 other men and creatures are also loved: (though a 
 hateful dogma may here mar his soul's instinct.) 
 That is an important lesson for the man’s external 
 
 * In Creeds, this practical and blessed truth assumes the vexa- 
 tious form of a logical, or rather illogical, doctrine, called Preventive 
 Grace, 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 18] 
 
 action; indeed, is a foundation of wniversal love 
 in the soul; but its inward movements towards 
 God proceed exactly as if there were no other 
 creature beside itself in the universe. ‘Thus the dis- 
 covery that ¢¢ loves and is loved in turn produces 
 sensible Joy; im some natures very powerful, in 
 all imparting cheerfulness, hope, vivacity. The 
 personal relation sought, is discerned and felt. 
 The Soul understands and knows that God is her 
 God; dwelling with her more closely than any crea- 
 ture can; yea, neither Stars, nor Sea, nor smiling 
 Nature hold God so intimately as the bosom of the 
 Soul. What is He to it? what, but the Soul of the 
 soul? It no longer seems profane to say, “God is 
 my bosom-friend: God is for me, and I am for 
 Him.” So Joy bursts out into Praise, and all things 
 look brilliant; and hardship seems easy, and duty 
 becomes delight, and contempt is not felt, and every 
 morsel of bread is sweet. Then, though we know 
 that the physical Universe has fixed unaltering laws, 
 we cannot help seeing God's hand in events. What- 
 ever happens, we think of as his Mercies, his Kind- 
 nesses; or his Visitations and his Chastisements; 
 everything comes to us from his love:—and this 
 may be very illogical, (and posstbly may be a mere 
 illusion,) yet we should do such violence to the 
 soul's instinct in #o¢ thus thinking, that we follow 
 it unreasoningly, and leave others to reconcile the 
 paradox. Thus the whole world is fresh to us with 
 sweetness before untasted. All things are ours, 
 whether affliction or pleasure, health or pain. Old 
 
132 THE SOUL: 
 
 things are passed away; behold! all things are be- 
 come new: and the soul wonders, and admires, and 
 gives thanks, and exults like the child on a sum- 
 mer’s day;—and understands, that-she zs as a new- 
 born child: she has undergone a New Birth! It is 
 not birth after the flesh, but a birth of the Spirit, birth 
 into a heavenly union, birth into the family of God. ° 
 Why need she scruple to say, that she is “ partaker 
 of the divine nature,’ if God loves her and dwells in 
 her bosom? 
 
 Reader, accept these mystical metaphors as such. 
 Behold in them the soul labouring to express her 
 feelings; but freeze them not into logical terms, or 
 they will become, the letter that killeth. 
 
 But oh philosopher, is all this a vain dream? 
 thou canst explain it all? or thou scornest it all ? 
 Whatever theory thou mayst form concerning it, 
 it is not the less a fact of human nature: one of 
 some age too: for David thirsted after God and 
 exceedingly rejoiced in Him, and so did Paul; and 
 the feelings which they describe are reproduced in 
 the present day. To despise wide-spread enduring 
 facts is not philosophic; and when they conduce to 
 power of goodness and inward happiness, it might 
 be wise to learn the phenomena by personal expe- 
 rience, before theorizing about them. It was not a 
 proud thing of Paul to say, but a simple truth, 
 that the spiritual cannot be judged by the un- 
 spiritual. 
 
 The single thought, ‘‘ God is for my soul, and my 
 soul is for Him,” suffices to fill a universe of feeling, 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 183 
 
 and gives rise to a hundred metaphors. Spiritual 
 persons have exhausted human relationships in the 
 vain attempt to express their full sense of what 
 God (or Christ) is to them. Father, Brother, 
 Friend, King, Master, Shepherd, Guide, are com- 
 mon titles. In other figures, God is their Tower, 
 their Glory, their Rock, their Shield, their Sun, 
 their Star, their Joy, their Portion, their Hope, 
 their Trust, their Life. But what has been said, 
 will show why a still tenderer tie has ordinarily pre- 
 sented itself to the Christian imagination as a very 
 appropriate metaphor, — that of Marriage. The 
 habit of breathing to God our most secret hopes, 
 sorrows, complaints and wishes, in unheard whisper, 
 with the consciousness that He is always inseparable 
 from our being, perhaps pressed this comparison 
 forward. Yet there are other still more marked 
 phenomena, acting in the same direction, which will 
 need to be presently analyzed. 
 
 At the same time it may deserve remark, that in 
 pre-Christian times another metaphor shows itself, 
 which, if now new, would scarcely give less offence 
 to the uninitiated: namely, the Hebrew Psalmist 
 conceived of his soul as God’s only and favourite 
 child; in Hebrew yachida, which the Alexandrian 
 version represents by tov povoyeri cov, “Thy only 
 begotten one,” and our English by “thy darling.” 
 While the English excellently gives the spirit of the 
 original, it drops its startling exclusiveness. Yet 
 the form of expression is not uninstructive, as mani- 
 festing how (owing to the feebleness of the human 
 
1384 THE SOUL: 
 
 imagination ?) the Soul, feeling her relation to God 
 to be just as 7f other creatures did not exist, accom- 
 modates language to that hypothesis; and yet the 
 intellect is not for one moment imposed on by such 
 an iulusion.—The Hebrew prophets, especially of 
 the later school, habitually represent the relation of 
 the Israelitish Church collectively to Jehovah, as 
 that of a wife to a husband; but this does not seem 
 to be applied to individuals *. 
 
 Thus an important beginning is made of that 
 process, by which all the passions of human nature 
 are to be harmonized and glorified. Indeed, where 
 the phenomena are marked, for the time it might 
 seem as if the secondary principles were swallowed 
 up and lost: for even Conscience fails to operate as 
 such; the words Duty and Virtue become distaste- 
 ful, and Merit exceedingly odious. Now this is 
 angelic, so long as all duties are notwithstanding 
 performed ; for to act from love to God and from 
 the new instincts of the Soul is far better than to 
 act from a sense of Duty, which is apt to be a dry 
 and external thing. Yet there is here a danger, in 
 regard to that class of duties which are ordinarily 
 performed by affection, and are no mere external 
 
 * The metaphor was adopted by Paul, who makes the Church the 
 bride of Christ: (so the Apocalypse :) yet he first set the example of 
 concentrating the similitude on parts of the Church: “I am jealous 
 over you with a godly jealousy, that I may present you as a pure 
 virgin to Christ.’ When the visible Church became a huge mass of 
 Paganism, clearer room was left for the individual to claim the 
 metaphor. Indeed in one text (1 Cor. vi. 17) Paul himself had been 
 led on to apply it to individuals in rather too physical an aspect. 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 185 
 
 thing,—chiefly those among blood-relations: for 
 the domestic affections are sometimes absorbed and 
 starved, not ennobled, by the new affection; and 
 this is a great calamity. Young persons especially 
 are put owt of relation to their parents, brothers 
 and sisters by their change: for they find a new 
 prompter to action, which supersedes former con- 
 ventional rules; and they do not conceal that they 
 feel themselves wiser than their elders. Or if they 
 do, still it is hard for them to behave with the same 
 sort of deference as before. In many old ways the 
 new life is cramped and uneasy, and demands en- 
 largement; and, slight breaches of the delicacy of 
 domestic relation are made, which are difficult to 
 repair. While thus Habit and Domestic Affection, 
 the two most strengthening and purifying springs 
 of common virtue, receive some little shock, many 
 smaller duties are apt to suffer, unless the new prin- 
 ciple is wonderfully energetic and the Soul follows 
 its own instincts most faithfully, without derange- 
 ment from men’s false theories which meet it. But 
 this is seldom possible; and in many cases one part 
 of the moral conduct becomes less amiable than 
 before, for reasons which are now to be detailed. 
 Allusion was made, towards the end of the First 
 Chapter, to rudimentary but honest worshippers, who 
 feel sincere reverence towards God, and are kept 
 by that reverence at a certain distance from 
 moral evil, although religion is to them rather a 
 negative than a positive thing. The religion of 
 such having no powerful inward spring, is very 
 much influenced by external circumstances; as, 
 
136 THE SOUL: 
 
 first of all, by the national morality ; and this again, 
 by political institutions. Nor only so, but it is 
 
 affected by the quality of the spiritual (or it may 
 be poetical or fanatical) tendencies, which are in 
 contact with it, but do not pervade it. Perhaps it 
 becomes worst, when it has no such external anta- 
 gonist at all: which was the case in Judea, after 
 Prophecy and Poetry had sunk, while no culture of 
 Fine Art existed, where Enthusiasm was shut up in 
 rustic brotherhoods, and Priests possessed the poli- 
 tical government. Hence the religion became a 
 dead, formal and often hypocritical routine, more 
 offensive than Paganism, for the very reason that 
 Paganism makes no professions of a holy God and 
 a moral worship.—But that which thus appeared as 
 Pharisaism in Judea, became in Greece Stoicism, 
 where Imaginative Culture relieved the deadness of 
 the atmosphere: and the noble Hymn to Jupiter, 
 composed by the Stoic Cleanthes, shows us that 
 there was a true heart in Stoicism. In Rome, side 
 by side with rising Christianity, Stoicism improved 
 still more: and that excellent emperor Marcus An- 
 toninus exhibits it to us in the height of gentleness 
 as well as of self-sacrificing conscientiousness.—In 
 modern England, the political institutions and the 
 diffusion of considerable spiritual light, have in the 
 same way acted from without upon the Stoics of 
 our day; and unless we resolve to blind our own 
 eyes, we shall see around us persons of great worth, | 
 whose character I may sketch as follows. 
 Conscience in them takes the lead of the conduct, 
 and they are capable of the greatest sacrifices at the 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 1387 
 
 call of Duty. They discern intellectually all the 
 moral perfections of God, and sincerely revere Him. 
 The thought of his All-seeing eye braces them 
 against temptation, nor are any more trustworthy 
 persons to be found for all the ordinary outward 
 duties of life. Yet their religion is not a very in- 
 ward nor productive one: it sanctions and confirms, 
 but does not animate and elevate their morality. 
 They rather know with the mind, than feel with the 
 soul, that God searches their hearts: as may be 
 inferred from their not understanding inward con- 
 flicts. They are, probably, generally persons of a 
 strong Will, moderate Passions, or very well trained 
 from childhood. While they are mild towards the 
 unselfishly irreligious, and show towards penitent 
 offenders a feeling which, though not tender, is con- 
 siderate, they are exceedingly keen critics of all 
 professors of spirituality, and cannot make allowance 
 for errors of impulse and neglect in such. ‘They 
 have apparently a good conscience before God, 
 derived perhaps from a benevolent and healthy 
 mind, which acts too vigorously upon that which is 
 without, ever to feed upon itself. To do their duty 
 is their sufficient satisfaction, without reflecting on 
 their own doings: but their standard of duty is 
 principally an external one. They lean upon God 
 in times of trial, but probably do not seek to Him 
 for pleasure at other times. They do not press 
 passionately after Him, but rather suspect all such 
 things as delusion. That there is no vivid and 
 satisfying sense of His presence, is known by the 
 
138 THE SOUL: 
 
 liking which they show for outward distinctions, 
 and many artificial pleasures, as also by their regard 
 for fashion and for the world’s opinion in trifles; 
 yet they have strength of mind to rise above these 
 things, whenever clear duty calls. They act “upon 
 principle,” that is, upon rules capable of being 
 defined in words; and seldom think it wise to follow 
 the instinct of the soul, even so far as to hear this 
 instead of that preacher. In short, the Will is 
 strong in them, the Moral Faculties are sound, 
 Reverence is unfeigned, yet the Soul is weak and 
 inactive; there is no painful want of Peace, for 
 there is no keen sensitiveness as to inward Sin and 
 no fervent aspiration ; but Joy cannot exist, because 
 there is no passionateness in the soul. 
 
 Now between such a character and a soul which 
 has suddenly come into new and vehement life, there 
 is some natural repulsion: and they may often be 
 actually members of the same domestic circle. Each 
 sees the other's defects. The one appears to be 
 stuff, dry, pharisaic, and certainly unregenerate; the 
 other to be self-pleasing, uncontrolled, incapable of 
 conscientious sacrifice, one-sided in moral conduct, 
 self-confident and very presumptuous. The former, 
 having little or no consciousness of spiritual zn- 
 stinct, gathers, with mingled indignation and con- 
 cern, that the latter believes himself guided by the 
 Spirit of God within his heart*. The discovery of 
 
 * A consciousness of this xew instinct has in every age led spiritual 
 
 men (Jews or Christians) to speak of it as God in them, Christ in 
 them, the Spirit in them. It is felt as something superadded to 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 189 
 
 this excites alarm, similar to that which a hen feels, 
 whose ducklings are venturing on an element which 
 would be fatal to her; and gloomy presages occur, 
 on remembering all the sins and inconsistencies 
 which are real or reported concerning professors of 
 spirituality. But self-confidence, as a universal im- 
 putation against them, though plausible, is untrue ; 
 for the young and new-born soul is so conscious of 
 ignorance, as to lean even unduly on the judgments 
 and advice of the more experienced, in whom it 
 discerns congeniality. Yet what do these teachers 
 do, to aid it in avoiding injurious collision and un- 
 just sentiment? They steep it in bigotry and super- 
 ciliousness. They identify the wnregenerate with 
 the ungodly, and teach that these are under the 
 wrath of God and on their way to everlasting misery. 
 So the young soul, which confidingly drinks in 
 their instruction, learns to look on conscientious 
 and devout worshippers as under God’s anger and 
 condemnation! This is to poison spiritual sentiment 
 in its opening life; and words will not adequately 
 express the amount of evil caused by it.—There is 
 indeed an opposite school who see this, but are very 
 unhappy in their remedy: namely, they sanction 
 the dogma, that ‘“‘the unregenerate are ungodly,” 
 
 their old nature, and to contest whether their phraseology is logically 
 accurate, appears to be useless, unless we can first know what is the 
 essence of God and what the essence of Instinct. Perhaps it is not 
 quite superfluous to add, that no man can without absurdity adduce 
 the inward movements of his own Spirit as an argument to another, 
 or as any justification of conduct which needs to be justified. 
 
140 THE SOUL: 
 
 but proceed to ignore the whole momentous reality 
 of the New Birth, by identifying it with a magical 
 process effected by sprinkling water on an infant! 
 and then, forsooth, justify this by quoting certain 
 figures of bold rhetoric from the New Testament. 
 Between such immoral bigotry on the one hand, 
 and such dead mechanism on the other, it may seem 
 difficult to choose: but nothing in God’s real world 
 confines us to the alternative. 
 
 God has two families of children on this earth; 
 the once born and the twice born; both obedient, 
 both reverential, both imperfect, each essential to 
 the other. Let neither despise the other, but let 
 each learn his own weakness, and the other's 
 strength. To those who were religious, but not 
 spiritual, we above applied the words: “‘ We have 
 a little sister, and she has no breasts”: but behold, 
 the little sister is grown up, and she still has no 
 breasts, for she is a Man! And this opens to us 
 the relation of the two classes, in their present de- 
 velopement. We see in them the Man-soul and the 
 Woman-soul, that which thinks and that which 
 feels, the negative and the positive, the formal and 
 the instinctive, the critical and the creative, the 
 principle of conservatism and the principle of pro- 
 gress: in the one the Conscience, in the other the 
 Affection takes the lead; yet one without the other 
 could never be made perfect. How the more formal 
 and rigid has been mellowed by contact with the 
 more poetical and affectionate, has been already 
 noticed; but conversely, it is equally certain that 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 141 
 
 wild fanaticism has resulted and may result again, 
 where the passions of the men of Soul are not con- 
 trolled by the moral influences of the men of Con- 
 science. Itis by their mutual action that God has 
 provided for the growing up of human nature into a 
 capacity or predisposition for true religion. Hence 
 the schism between the two characters is far less in 
 modern Europe than it was in antiquity; and each 
 individual of us must look to combine more and 
 more the excellencies of both. Not that it seems 
 for a moment doubtful, which of the two has the 
 higher order of religion; in fact, they are funda- 
 mentally related as Law and Gospel, and in some 
 respects as Priest and Prophet: but a novice in the 
 latter may be less trustworthy, though of greater 
 promise, than a veteran in the former: and 
 although it is inevitable that one of the new born, 
 while the feelings are all fresh, will discover who 
 are and who are not congenial, he needs not to 
 despise the latter. The two forms of character are 
 as parallel streams, neither of which can stop,— 
 nor their distinctions be wholly obliterated,—until, 
 blending gradually, they become one in the bosom 
 of God; who is neither male nor female, but feminine 
 in soul and masculine in action; so that the old 
 Orphic hymn was not far wrong in saying, 
 
 Zeds aeony yivero, Zeds &uPeoros er Atvo ywudn, 
 Jove was a male, and Jove was an immortal damsel. 
 
 So also should we translate the old heathen maxim, 
 suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, to, tender in 
 
142 THE SOUL: 
 
 heart and firm in action. Moreover, it is to be 
 calculated that if the new life proceed happily, it 
 will as a thing of course at length take up into 
 itself all the steadiness of the opposite character. 
 On the contrary, it is not easy for the developed 
 Legal religionist to superadd the Gospel qualities, 
 except either by domestic afflictions and other suf- 
 ferings which deeply probe the heart, or by conflicts 
 such as were described in the Second Chapter: yet no 
 one can say what might be effected, if a deeper 
 and wiser teaching on these topics abounded among 
 us.—After this digression, we return to the case of 
 the new-born soul. 
 
 If such evils as have been alluded to,—presump- 
 tion and superciliousness, and their unlovely de- 
 spiritualizing results,—be avoided, nevertheless the 
 lapse of no long time brings to light certain defects 
 in this state of inexperience. Perhaps indeed the 
 soul has not as yet at all learned to look on God as 
 the source whence its life is to come, and is simply 
 living on its own affections. So long as its ad- 
 dresses to Him abound with unforced outpouring 
 of love and joy, all seems to go well; but when the 
 affections become exhausted, the sense of His love 
 seems to vanish with them, and discomfort ensues. 
 This circumstance alone must ensure a new set of 
 actions in the soul, directed to give stability to the 
 affections: but it perhaps commonly happens that 
 several causes combine in setting it to the difficult 
 practical problem,—how to keep the affections 
 lively, and how to recover them when lost. Let us 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GoD. 148 
 
 think for a moment how this problem is related to 
 the other,—of winning and keeping Peace. 
 
 It appeared that the Will and the Affections are 
 the two parts of man which have to be perfected 
 according to the will of God. As soon as the Will 
 is conformed to God, Peace comes of itself, unless 
 intellectual error pervert the proper actings of the 
 Soul. Ifthe Will have gone astray, there is only 
 one cure, but that is a sure and speedy one,—an 
 immediate laying bare of the heart to God, by which 
 the evil Will is expelled; then Peace is regained, as 
 soon as the path of duty can be recovered. But 
 farther; the utility (so to say) of Peace, is, to 
 enable us to come into so close contact with God’s 
 Spirit, as to have our Affections acted on by Him. 
 Now if there has been no marked flagging in them, 
 no difficulty may be incurred. But nothing is more 
 common than for persons not to know that worldly 
 occupations, especially mental distraction, must 
 needs unstring the spiritual affections; and then 
 they are apt to be severe on themselves, when they 
 find it out. Most have to learn by their own errors 
 and sufferings, and at last discover with some sur- 
 prise what was meant by the prayer of Faith. He 
 whose faith is well rooted, if he detects himself to 
 be dull, unthankful and cold, instead of losing his 
 energies in self-reproach, can at once cry in self- 
 despair and confidence: “My flesh, O Lord, is 
 weak, but my spirit is willing: my heart is barren 
 and dry, but Thine is an ever-flowing fountain : 
 I am cold and starved, but Thou art an eternal 
 
144 THE SOUL: 
 
 Sun: Thou wilt melt me into new love, and kindle 
 me into holier life than before.” One who in very 
 earnest so calls to God, recovers in one half minute 
 all that had been lost: but the power of so doing is 
 one of the things most to be coveted, and, I ima- 
 gine, hardest to attain; because it presupposes a 
 confidence, settled in the intellect, and yet a prac- 
 tical one, of God’s unchangeable and active love to 
 us. At any rate, it is a “Faith that worketh by 
 Love” ; for no one can exercise it without a true love 
 to God, though that love may be so weak, that the 
 person is unconscious of it. Our sense of his love 
 (we said) was primitively excited by our own affec- 
 tions to Him, and therefore it is apt to vanish when 
 they wear out: thus we might seem to run round in 
 a circle, when we are to get back our Affections by 
 the exercise of Faith, when Faith presupposes his 
 Love, and His Love is only known to us through 
 our own Affections. But this is not quite correct. 
 Faith does not imply any sensible feeling of God's 
 Love, such as would produce present joy; but the 
 remembrances of the past suffice to stimulate it; 
 hence it strengthens with time and experience. 
 
 In many cases there is a new crisis in the re- 
 ligious life brought about by the pressure of tempt- 
 ation. It is not here requisite to insist anew on 
 the mortal antagonism between immoral will and 
 spiritual aspiration, or to suggest the numerous 
 causes which may lead to severe assaults of tempta- 
 tion, when the ‘First Love” of the soul has 
 drooped. The forms of trial must differ exceedingly 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO Gop. 145 
 
 in every two persons. If the old habits were bad, 
 but were swept away by the new flood of life, the 
 soul perhaps thought they were gone for ever; but 
 ‘as soon as the tide ebbs, they seek to return. Not 
 to consider the melancholy, but perhaps common 
 case with such persons, where relapses into wilful 
 sin have deeply wounded the spirit; no sooner have 
 the affections towards God decayed, than a man 
 finds himself as it were on the brink of a precipice, 
 where his head swims and his soul turns sick. Or 
 again, the conscience has become more sensitive, 
 during the period in which the affections were power- 
 fully excited; and inward evils begin to be disco- 
 vered to an amount before unsuspected. The man 
 has become self-reflecting; and may be plunged 
 into a struggle similar to that of the preceding Part, 
 though modified by his remembrances of the past. 
 Or thirdly, totally new dangers may have grown up 
 by lapse of time, change of circumstances, the de- 
 velopement of new passions, nay, and even by the 
 action of the new life itself, in conjunction with 
 erroneous theories. Whatever the series of causes, 
 a horror oppresses him, lest, after tasting the sweet- 
 ness and glories of a higher, he should fall back 
 into a baser, life: and it is probable that some con- 
 flict of this kind, more or less severe, is essential to 
 give tenderness of Conscience to one who at first 
 was drawn only by Sentiment. However pure and 
 sound this sentiment may seem, it is likely to be 
 unequable in its action and too unmixed with re- 
 ligious fear. In a soul of this character, as was 
 H 
 
146 THE SOUL: 
 
 observed, the Majesty of God and all his more over- 
 whelming attributes are kept exceedingly in the 
 background: He is loved only as the impersonation 
 of Beauty and Purity, Kindness and Mercy, and is 
 felt to be as it were the Soul of the soul. Too 
 little sense of the infinite inequality of God and his 
 creature, perhaps here operates: and it 1s wholesome 
 for such a one maw to be made to tremble for fear 
 of forfeiting his favour. The alarm and anxiety 
 however have nothing slavish in them: sin is 
 dreaded, not because of apprehended punishment, 
 but because it will grieve the Spirit of God, and 
 shut out the light of His countenance: and by such 
 conflicts the soul is to learn to shun sensitively any 
 near approach of sin, and never to trifle with it, or 
 think any thing light. In some cases the distress 
 becomes very lively; and half-instructed persons are 
 apt to fancy that they have committed “the un- 
 pardonable sin;” or that they are those into whom 
 Seven devils have come, for the One which was cast 
 out. Out of all these agitations grows a new form 
 of desire, viz. to secure the permanence of that 
 union with God which has already commenced: 
 that is to say, the soul is no longer satisfied with 
 present good, but is solicitous also for the future. 
 This implies a growing up of thoughtfulness and 
 self-distrust, with a sense that it cannot depend 
 upon its own affections, but must look to God as 
 the great source whence life and power are to ori- 
 ginate: now then probably Prayer commences with 
 an intensity before unknown, while the songs. of 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 147 
 
 Praise and Joy are dumb. By such exercises, what 
 was defective in the former view of God gets cor- 
 rected, and a habit is formed of prayer against 
 temptation the moment it approaches: a habit which 
 could hardly exist, while the soul was deficient in 
 self-reflection and self-knowledge. 
 
 How long this crisis may last and in what way 
 the result may be evolved, is:very various, and in 
 part it may be affected by doctrinal theories; nay, 
 the mind may be led off into critical discussions 
 about the “Final Perseverance of the Saints.” But 
 no proposition that needs to be authoritatively gua- 
 ranteed ever supplies a spiritual want; and it does 
 not appear in practice that that doctrine is by any 
 means essential to comfort. That eminent saint, 
 Fletcher of Madeley, was as well without it, as 
 his Whitfieldian opponents with it. Although tra- 
 ditional theories greatly obscure this part of the 
 subject, it appears to me that the following state- 
 ment is fundamentally accurate-—A person who 
 vehemently desires and prays for a particular object, 
 is in the intervals necessarily much engaged in ask- 
 ing himself, whether he is praying for that which 
 God can properly give. When therefore what had 
 at first been cries of distress, perhaps from a faith- 
 less and double mind, become genuine and fixed 
 desires; when crude yearnings for-—he hardly knew 
 what, clear up into distinct petitions which can be 
 afterwards meditated on; the soul wakes at length 
 into a full self-consciousness that 7¢ 7s wanting 
 nothing, except exactly that, which of all things 
 
 H 2 
 
148 THE SOUL: 
 
 it is certain that God must rejoice to grant; viz. 
 that it may never break away from His love. As 
 soon as this is intellectually discerned, if earnest 
 desire is at the same time acting, anxiety and fear 
 fall away of themselves. The man is, in fact, hun- 
 gering and thirsting for righteousness, and he has 
 now found out that he is: it is then not to be won- 
 dered at, (much less to be derided as vain,) if he 
 unhesitatingly believes that God will supply all 
 his need, will keep him from falling, and will pre- 
 serve him faithful to the end. He now may, or he 
 may not, frame out of his experience a general pro- 
 position about the “Final Perseverance of the 
 Saints;” but no such proposition is wanted, while 
 his heart is in harmony with God; none does him 
 good, while he is perverse or double-minded. 
 
 Those in whom these phenomena have been 
 sharply marked, so as to make a new crisis of the 
 life, seem instinctively to compare the process which 
 they thus undergo to a Spiritual Marriage. We 
 have seen the longings of the soul to convert God’s 
 transitory visits into an abiding and indissoluble 
 union. On getting a clear perception that it is 
 asking that which He delights to bestow, it believes 
 that its prayer is answered: so it makes a covenant 
 with God and pledges itself to him, well-assured 
 that He accepts the pledge. ‘‘ Not now, only, Oh 
 my Lord,” it exclaims, “‘ but henceforth and always, 
 Thou art mine and I am thine. I have known 
 somewhat of Thy gloriousness and loveliness: I 
 have loved Thee a little: this heart has been Thy 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 149 
 
 dwelling-place: now do I claim that my Lord shall 
 never go away, but dwell here inseparably, eter- 
 nally.” —It is therefore very far indeed from a gra- 
 tuitous phantasy, to speak of this as a marriage of 
 the soul to God: no other metaphor in fact will 
 express the thing; and it is hard to think that any 
 can have experienced it and not feel the suitability 
 of the phrase, though (for fear of casting pearls be- 
 fore swine) one must ordinarily avoid every allusion 
 to what is not only a sacred but a momentous trans- 
 action. Momentous: for even the intellectual re- 
 membrance of such vows, such claims, such joys, 
 such hopes,—gives to the soul immense power of 
 recovering its affections, when lost as they must 
 be continually lost, if only by the wear and tear of 
 the world. At the same time I am not defending 
 the language of human loves, in the extent to which 
 grave and pure-minded persons have often here ap- 
 plied it. 
 
 Yet the strongly marked analogies between the 
 Soul's love to God, and that borne by a woman to 
 her husband, is in several ways instructive and even 
 suggestive. It gives the solution to various ano- 
 malies. Many utterances of passion are right, 
 healthy and amiable in secret, which, when exhibited 
 before the cold-minded, seem only ridiculous; not 
 but that, if one could condescend to the task, rap- 
 turous love might be defended even to a utilitarian. 
 And this is the reply to those, who sneer at what 
 they think (in religion) to be moping fancies, self- 
 invented sorrows and empty joys. When spiritual 
 
150 THE SOUL: 
 
 life first gushes out fresh and powerful, it may pos- 
 sibly be turbulent and irregular, like the mountain 
 torrent or like the early affection of lovers; but in 
 its later course its tendency (when happily guided) 
 is to become tranquil and even-flowing, fertilizing 
 to those who know not its source. Who would get 
 rid of the noisy brook, if with it he must lose the 
 noble river? Who that knows the ever-fresh de- 
 lights of long-wedded love, thinks them dearly 
 bought by the alarms and sorrows and palpitations 
 and jealousies and undue absorption of the mind in 
 courtship ? 
 
 So deeply impressed in Jewish and Christian 
 religion have been the exercises of soul just de- 
 scribed, that out of them has arisen the perception 
 of a new attribute in God, before unknown ; namely, 
 his Faithfulness. It is difficult, or perhaps impos- 
 sible, to silence the objections of philosophers to 
 the idea, that the Most High has entered into a 
 private stipulation with this or that soul; and it is 
 possible enough, that such a statement does but 
 crudely express the real truth at which it hints, 
 and which the intellect imperfectly embraces. Yet 
 nothing will convince the Soul which has passed 
 through such processes, ‘that it does not discern a 
 spiritual reality, when it dwells on the Faithfulness 
 of God. Hence it has been said: “The Secret of 
 the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will 
 show them his Covenant:” and indeed, the con- 
 ception of a definite Covenant between God and 
 the Soul, as it is ascribed to the very birth of 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 151 
 
 Judaism,—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and 
 again, as renewed with Moses and with David,— 
 so it lasts to the end among those who trace their 
 spiritual lineage through these progenitors. That 
 the fallible human intellect may here attach error 
 to its truth, is freely conceded. Men may pray for 
 external things, as for the possession of a strip of 
 land, or the continuation of an earthly dynasty ; and 
 may imagine that they have gained assent to their 
 prayer™*, so that its accomplishment is guaranteed 
 to them by a divine Covenant. It is even possible, 
 that as Prayer began in petitions for outward things, 
 and only in a later stage ripens into a spiritual form, 
 so also the idea of God’s Promises and Covenant 
 has necessarily in its origin something of error 
 mingled with it. Nevertheless, if the soul’s assur- 
 ance that God attends to spiritual prayer is not 
 a mere delusion,—(to assert which, is to make 
 
 * TI knew intimately an eminently devout and in many ways re- 
 markable man, who, when pronounced by physicians to be in hope- 
 less consumption, was entirely convinced, though in the full possession 
 of his ordinary faculties, that God had promised and covenanted with 
 him that he should not die, at least without being raised up to preach 
 once more to his people. He died without so doing. Here some in- 
 tellectual hallucination had so entwined itself with his devotional 
 exercises, that they could not be separated. There are doubtless thou- 
 sands of such cases still; and where the theory of religion is in that 
 lower stage which admits of a confident expectation that prayer for 
 external things will be granted, (as, the praying that it may or it 
 may not rain,) it is perhaps impossible for the highest and purest 
 saints wholly to avoid painful mistake on such matters. The present 
 generation of the world simply calls such things Fanatical, and 
 avoids the error by ignoring ald Trust in God. 
 
152 THE SOUL: 
 
 Theism and Atheism equivalent, as far as internal 
 and spiritual life are concerned, )—then neither is it 
 delusive to believe that we may call in God's Strength 
 to aid our weakness, and may rest upon His faithful 
 performance of that to which we have pledged Him. 
 
 A distinction must be here made, not only be- 
 tween outward events and inward phenomena, but 
 perhaps also between the moral and the spiritual 
 within us. All spiritual men confess their utter 
 impotency to be as spiritual as they wish; but 
 they do not by any means so entirely confess to 
 moral impotency. Sharply to mark where the 
 moral ends and the spiritual begins, is perhaps 
 impossible, or at least need not be here attempted. 
 It is enough to say, that where we feel that God 
 has given us abiding and inherent strength, we 
 of course have to stir up that strength, but cannot 
 seek to cast ourselves on his faithfulness. Such 
 reliance on Him belongs exclusively to that class 
 of actions in which we know we are weak :—that 
 is, in contending against our besetting moral sin, 
 (if by nature or by old bad habits we have any in 
 particular,)—and, in all purely spiritual affection. 
 Of the latter emphatically God is the source; and 
 here, that the soul is practically correct in relying 
 on God's faithfulness as a reality exterior to itself, 
 appears from the result:—namely; thus, and thus 
 alone, is its inward love, strength, joy, peace, re- 
 newed and developed. 
 
 The feeling of this contrast between our inherent 
 strength and our abiding weakness, has farther led 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GoD. 153 
 
 Spiritual men into the phraseology which contrasts 
 “Nature” and “Grace.” All Nature indeed is 
 from God. Nature is divine, if any thing in this 
 world is: why should any one think to honour 
 God, by undervaluing Nature ?—There is truth and 
 weight in that objection; and many religious peo- 
 ple lay themselves open to just reproof on this 
 head. Nevertheless, they have a meaning, and a 
 correct one, in the contrast above denoted. Thus 
 when it is said, that ‘‘ Nature, without Grace, will 
 not enable us to serve God acceptably ;” they mean, 
 —that the strength which the Soul regards as its 
 own, and natural to it, because always at its com- 
 mand, is found not to suffice for the exigencies of 
 spiritual life. It needs, over and above, a strength 
 out of itself, obtained only by self-despairing Faith 
 in God; and this strength from God is called 
 Grace. 
 
 Herein we farther see, that the Soul's Covenant 
 or Marriage with God is something more than a 
 simple act of Self-Consecration. For it is possible 
 to devote ourselves to God in a self-relying spirit ; 
 and many a man, with the best intentions, has 
 brought himself into deep spiritual unhappiness by 
 resolving and vowing to God that which (expe- 
 rience soon shows) is beyond his ability to per- 
 form. Probably such disappointing and humiliat- 
 ing attempts are with many preliminary to that 
 better Covenant, which is made without self-re- 
 liance, and in which an eternal support is found: 
 which zs indeed a self-consecration, yet one in which 
 
 H 3 
 
154 THE SOUL: 
 
 we undertake to receive, not to bestow; to drink of 
 God's water of life, and only of His own to render 
 to Him. To enter however into such covenant 
 with God is a blessedness not to be attained by 
 means of book-faith; which at best only brings 
 men to believe some general proposition,—perhaps 
 an important one, yet madequate without special 
 application. How inadequate, is clearly seen, when 
 any carry Bibliolatry out to its legitimate conclu- 
 sion, by maintaining that “it is no want of faith 
 in an individual A B to suspect that God means 
 to leave him in his sins for ever; zzasmuch as 
 nowhere in the Bible is it asserted that God 
 intends to save A B. The extravagance of this 
 result, which deprives Faith of all practical value, 
 has always led a majority of spiritual men to 
 modify the theory, generally perhaps by alledging 
 that ‘‘ the Spirit,” as something separable from and 
 higher than the Word, “applies God's general 
 promises to the particular case.’ Indeed most 
 opposite schools of spiritual doctrine have agreed 
 that the saint learns “‘ by the Spirit” to say My God, 
 My Father, and (in short) to take to himself per- 
 sonally all that God has to bestow. This not only 
 cannot be communicated by book-faith, but more- 
 over has nothing to do with any historical faith at 
 all. It was possessed, in a high degree and ear- 
 lier than Christian times, by many of the Hebrew 
 Psalmists; and it obviously depends on the abso- 
 lute trust of the Soul in God as in one with whom 
 it has actual spiritual intercourse. If it has a real 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 15d 
 
 perception and consciousness of such intercourse, 
 its insight and its trust are personal and direct, and 
 do not depend on any historical opinions: if it has 
 no such perception, it cannot possibly get that ap- 
 propriation which is confessedly essential to a living 
 and happy faith. The evidence of this obtrudes 
 itself on the mind in so many forms, that the con- 
 fession of it is perpetually slipping out from spiri- 
 tual persons, even though their intellect has been 
 from childhood pre-occupied by a baseless Biblio- 
 latry and by a carnal* homage to outward miracles. 
 
 In reply to those who despise all inward expe- 
 riences as simple delusion, it would be a sufficient 
 defensive argument to say, that love to God is as 
 respectable a passion as love for the fine Arts: but 
 the surpassing magnitude of the moral consequences 
 justifies us theoretically in assuming a much higher 
 tone; and the only thing that practically is apt to 
 put to shame and stop the mouth of its advocate, is, 
 the deplorable bigotry (of word, if not of feeling,) 
 in which none indulge so much, as those who speak 
 earnestly concerning the love of God. When it ap- 
 pears, that they not only regard themselves as Hea- 
 ven’s sole concern, but count a doctrine to be good 
 
 * So carnal are the prevalent notions, that a man who does not 
 believe that God reveals himself to eye or ear, is at once called an 
 unbeliever in Revelation! As justly were men called Atheists by 
 the Pagans, for holding God to be invisible. Revelation was 
 differently understood by Paul, Ephes, i. 17; Rom. i. 19: so Matt. 
 xi. 25. On the Christian idea of Revelation, see farther in J. D. 
 Morell’s Philosophy of Christianity. 
 
156 THE SOUL: 
 
 news, Which simultaneously proclaims everlasting 
 Glory to them, and everlasting, ever-torturing Sin 
 to the vast majority of the human race,—the common 
 heart of the world boils up with horror at the ap- 
 parent intensity of selfishness in those, in whom Self 
 ought to be swallowed up by divine Love. When 
 upon this comes an anathema against all, who differ 
 from them on intellectual questions, men turn away 
 in despair superadded to disgust. Such bigotry is the 
 real cause why the heathen have cast down the walls 
 of God's vineyard, and the boar out of the wood lays 
 it waste ;—bigotry, mexcusable by the plea of “ sub- 
 mitting the understanding to the Scripture.” For 
 if this be Scripture doctrine, (—I waive the ques- 
 tion of interpretation—,) then itis a wicked thing to 
 submit their understandings to it: the moral sense 
 and conscience ought to revolt against it, as against 
 any other heathenism. It ought to show them that 
 the book is not immaculate, and to drive them to 
 the teachings of God's Spirit. In fact however I 
 believe, this evil side of their doctrine is brought out 
 only now and then, to do mischief in controversy ; 
 but commonly hes buried in dust in a corner of the 
 intellect; it would therefore be unjust to impute to 
 individuals the selfishness inherent in their theoretic 
 creed. 
 
 Let the philosophical moralist farther be assured, 
 that the more enlightened minds among spiritual 
 Christians disbelieve the most outrageous part of 
 this traditional doctrine; though laymen have no 
 voice to say so, and priests are generally too timid. 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 157 
 
 It is not just in him to be thus repelled; and by it 
 he maims his own science. Morals can seldom 
 gain living energy, without the impulsive force de- 
 rived from Spirituals. We do not indeed doubt 
 that, a man’s own self-respect may make him choose 
 to die, rather than live degraded in his own eyes by 
 deviating from his ideal of right conduct: let earnest 
 Stoicism be confessed to be noble and honour- 
 able; though it makes the mind too exclusively 
 reflexive, and endangers pride and self-confidence. 
 But however much Plato and Cicero may talk of 
 the surpassing beauty of Virtue, still Virtue is an 
 abstraction, a set of wise rules, not a person; and 
 cannot call out affection, as an existence exterior to 
 the soul does. On the contrary, God is a Person ; 
 and the love of Him is of all affections by far the 
 most energetic in exciting us to realize our highest 
 ideal of moral excellence, and in clearing the moral 
 sight, so that that ideal may keep rising. Other 
 things being equal, (a condition not to be forgotten, ) 
 a spiritual man will hold a higher and purer morality 
 than a mere moralist. Not only does Duty manifest 
 itself to him as an ever-expanding principle, but, 
 —since a larger and larger part of duty becomes 
 pleasant and easy, when performed under the stimu- 
 lus of Love,—the Will is enabled to concen- 
 trate itself more on that which remains difficult, 
 and greater power of performance is attained. Hence, 
 “what the Law could not do, in that 1t was weak 
 through the flesh,” is “ fulfilled in those, who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” In nothing 
 
158 THE SOUL: 
 
 perhaps is this more intelligibly exhibited, than in 
 the sweet spirit of loving resignation, with which 
 hundreds and thousands of obscure Christians have 
 endured long sickness and excruciating pain; while 
 mere Stoicism with difficulty obtains from the 
 strongest minds more than the suppression of un- 
 manly lamentations, and is forced, alas! to leave 
 suffering unsoftened by a sense of superior Love. 
 But is it to be hoped, that one who has attained 
 the happy belief of his permanent spiritual union 
 with the Father of Spirits, will retain his happiness 
 and his strength unabated ? that his conflicts are 
 passed once for all, and that it is constantly a hea- 
 ven on earth which he will thenceforth live? No 
 one has a night to say of his brother that it may not 
 be thus; but we see very many causes which make 
 it hard to be thus. All probably are summed up 
 in Frailty and in Ignorance; and of these two the 
 latter at least seems to be at present inevitable. 
 For now no concord is discernible in those who 
 ought to advise or direct; and inexperience gene- 
 rally has to learn by its own failures, if exposed to 
 circumstances which require wisdom. Let us sup- 
 pose that there is no F'railty to be blamed: that the 
 heart remains brave to duty and ever faithful to 
 God; still, in the complicated affairs of life, it is 
 often most difficult to ascertain what is our duty. 
 So many principles of action are established in the 
 world as absolutely right which are not wholly 
 right; so often does acquiescence in that which 
 society demands or expects, clash or seem to clash 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 159 
 
 with that which the spiritual instinct suggests ; 
 especially, in dealings with others, so hard is it to 
 know where obedience and deference must end, and 
 resistance begin; where mercy will be weakness, 
 and severity is essential; where we must yield up 
 our rights, and where we must contend for them ;— 
 that even the coolest mind, and the best furnished 
 with information and experience, must often doubt. 
 But, in fact, men frequently have not time for cool 
 and full deliberation. In the press and hurry of 
 life they are forced to act first and think afterwards. 
 Moreover we do not foresee the after-results of inno- 
 cent and well-meant actions, but first get entangled 
 in perplexing positions. Now, since to act without 
 a clear conscience involves us in a sense of sin, 
 what can happen, if we are forced to act, and yet 
 are unable to decide which of several paths is the 
 right? In theory it may be replied, that a man 
 who does what on the whole seems to him best, or 
 least bad, ought not to reproach himself: but in 
 reality when the conscience is dim and doubtful, 
 men are apt not to know whether or not they have 
 been faithful to their light. For these reasons, 
 increasing wisdom is probably always as essential to 
 permanent peace of conscience, as it manifestly is to 
 profitable action. 
 
 But we are far too favourable to human nature, 
 in excluding the hypothesis of Frailty. However 
 powerful may have been the convictions of spiritual 
 truth, however vivid the impressions, yet it 1s hard 
 for new impulses to wage war against old habits or 
 
160 THE SOUL: 
 
 against the insensible tendencies of the common 
 nature; and every special temperament has its own 
 weak side. If no strong blasts of passion carry the 
 soul away, or if no cankering worldliness undermine 
 its powers, yet perhaps a time and place comes, 
 where it cannot follow its convictions of duty with- 
 out a sacrifice which it has not strength to incur. 
 Sophistry is then brought in, to prove that no such 
 sacrifice is really demanded. The heart thus loses its 
 simplicity, and languor and self-justification go hand 
 in hand. Many are the possibilities of this sort ;— 
 God only knows them;—so many, that it may 
 seem to be almost superhuman happiness to avoid 
 them all. 
 
 In the Second Chapter some notice was taken of the 
 daily shortcomings which often cloud the heart of 
 spiritual men: but the subject is not easily ex- 
 hausted ; and there is a peculiarity in the case which 
 was better reserved for this Chapter. One who has 
 not only recognised God's personal relation to him, 
 but, by his own act (so far as human acts can avail), 
 has entered into a permanent bond, and believes the 
 Most High to have accepted his self-consecration ; 
 such a one, when made uneasy in conscience, is not 
 at all in the same position as he was originally. A 
 small sin is in him great, because it is committed 
 against mercy, love and daily vows; yet it is to be 
 compared rather with the naughtiness of a child, 
 than with the defiance of a stranger or of an enemy. 
 He still feels the golden chain which binds him to 
 God, while he mourns that the face of God is hidden 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GoD. I16] 
 
 from him because of his transgression. <A child, 
 who, when called to receive the parent's commands 
 or caress, is attracted by some other object, and re- 
 fuses to come, knows that he has done wrong and 
 has incurred displeasure, yet does not apprehend 
 permanent or fatal consequences from the parent's 
 anger: he is self-displeased and unhappy, until he 
 has thoroughly confessed his fault, and has purged 
 away the self-will and undutifulness which caused it 
 by drinking more deeply into filial love. Just so 
 the child of God is affected, suffering self-reproach 
 and grief (greater or less according to the case) but 
 no fear; and no other anxiety except as to how long 
 it will be ere he shall again see his Father's counte- 
 nance shine bright upon him. It has become an 
 axiom of feeling to him, that he belongs to God; 
 a feeling which is not lost, even by conscious wilful- 
 ness and perversity. 
 
 Herein we discern the root of the evangelical 
 and prophetic (as opposed to the Levitical) idea 
 of a peculiar and chosen people of God, who 
 continue to be his people even when they are dis- 
 obedient. ‘The notion has appeared frightfully im- 
 moral to those who do not know practically how it 
 arises and how it acts; nor can it be denied, that if 
 imbibed by the intellect as a mere verbal formula, 
 the belief of an arbitrary divine Election is as purely 
 mischievous, as it is shocking when coupled with 
 that of the arbitrary damnation of the non-elect. Yet 
 it is certain, that a very large proportion of the most 
 spiritual and faultless Christians have been deeply 
 
162 THE SOUL: 
 
 impressed with the idea of their Election by God, 
 not as a mere dogma, but as a truth for daily life. 
 Their intellectual processes were probably erro- 
 neous ; yet it is instructive to disentangle, if pos- 
 sible, their spiritual perceptions.—So long as they 
 are consciously obedient, they may know themselves 
 to be God’s true people, but the idea of an arbitrary 
 election, irrespective of their own obedience, is not 
 likely to arise or at least to take deep hold. But 
 when in the midst of conscious disobedience the 
 soul cannot help crying out, “Though I have sinned, 
 yet surely I am Thine,” and experiences that this 
 sense of appropriation to God goads and scourges 
 the heart into sorrow, making sin a thousand times 
 more bitter, until the wanderer is brought back to 
 the bosom of Divine Forgiveness ;—then he regards 
 himself as freely and undeservedly chosen by God, 
 “ predestinated unto good works,” ‘to be holy and 
 without blame before Him.” ‘Thus the spiritual 
 facts which underlie the speculation, are, jirst, that 
 the man who has once been consecrated to a divine 
 union, ordinarily retains an assurance that that union 
 is undissolved and indissoluble, even when he falls 
 into an evil conscience, and loses all happiness in 
 his God; and, secondly, that this assurance is like 
 a chain of love, by which God gently draws back 
 to Himself His perverse but self-reproaching child, 
 until shame and sorrow are swallowed up in the out- 
 flowings of faith and gratitude. 
 
 There are however far more grievous cases,— 
 though it is always hard to judge whether a man 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 168 
 
 exaggerates his own vileness,—in which, after 
 “tasting the heavenly gift,” a very awful hardness 
 of heart has been incurred. In the retrospect of 
 such matters, every one so loathes his past self, as 
 to lose calmness of judgment and the power of 
 measuring his language; hence, where no specific 
 facts are alleged, great deductions should be made 
 from all that a man states against himself. Paul 
 calls himself the chief of sinners: he wrote it sin- 
 cerely : but who of us takes him at his word? Itis 
 difficult and dangerous to make any comment on 
 secrets known fully to one soul only, if even to one; 
 yet there is much to give us deep confidence in the 
 intense vitality of spiritual desire, which has once 
 assumed its highest evangelical form. I cannot 
 hesitate to feel, that though hurricanes of passion 
 should have blown off the buds of religion’s early 
 spring, yet if no selfish injustice has sapped the vital 
 susceptibilities of the soul, it is never too late to 
 hope for a restoration both sudden and final. ‘The 
 “backslider” (as many scripturalists call him) is 
 inwardly self-condemned : self-despising and self- 
 hating, he probably continues in his sinful state 
 through despair only. But on some favoured day 
 he all at once remembers ‘‘ the joy of his espousals;” 
 and the thought gushes into his heart, that God 
 once loved him, although foreknowing all his vile- 
 ness. He meets the eye of the Almighty, and 
 knows that it is an eye of Love:—let no pen seek 
 to tell what bitterness in him its glance causes. 
 But it is as an electric stroke rending open his 
 
164 THE SOUL: 
 
 inmost nature, fusing all its dross, burning out the 
 heart of sin, transforming the spirit into a living 
 magnet which obeys the heavenly attraction, until 
 the prodigal son is brought back with honour and 
 blessing, though elder brothers frown with incre- 
 dulity. Still he is like one who is recovered by 
 severe remedies from an acute disease: his frame is 
 sore, his strength shattered, his soul struck with 
 shame, his finger is as it were on his lips, and 
 he dares not speak; but, like the leper conscious 
 of uncleanness, he shrinks into solitude, and there 
 makes complaint to Him who freely forgives. Time 
 however will by God's mercy restore the prostrate 
 soul; and it may be, that in this way lessons have 
 been learnt and defects extirpated, for which no 
 more lenient process would have been successful. 
 To the milder forms of such humiliations all are 
 liable, from the constant gravitating of the heart 
 towards *negligence and sluggishness and its old 
 world ;—(a dear old world, far too much reviled 
 by spiritual men, yet-not able to satisfy the Soul ;) 
 —and grievous as it is that they should be needed, 
 it is certainly instructive to have insight into them. 
 In vain is the moralist sceptical concerning the in- 
 tensity of spiritual forces, when he carefully keeps 
 out of their region:—what knows the mere 
 mechanician of electricity ? In fact, the great trans- 
 formations of the will must be sudden. Between 
 living for Sin and living for God, there is a yawn- 
 ing chasm; which must be passed per saltum, if 
 at all. 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 165 
 
 The Scriptures of both Old and New Testaments 
 are as emphatic in asserting, as moralizers are timid 
 in admitting, the unlimited mercy and long-suffering 
 of God: but surely it is one of the first elements 
 spiritually discerned, that the impediments to ac- 
 ceptance with Him lie solely zz ws, and that there 
 is no time or state conceivable, in which a man shall 
 turn towards Him, and He refuse to hear. We 
 cannot expect too much readiness in Him to save, 
 too much tender compassion, for the plain reason 
 that these qualities in Him are ¢nfinite. We are 
 not. straitened in Him, but we are straitened in our 
 own bowels: our great danger, folly and even sin, 
 lies in unbelief of His inexhaustible long-suffering. 
 As soon as we do believe it, the thought of it 
 kindles all our generous affections, and puts life 
 into us. Nor is it possible for one who believes the 
 right thing, to abuse it to evil ends: for it is not, 
 that God will never leave a perverse and faithless 
 heart to its own ruin and misery, or that if we 
 harden our hearts to-day, He will soften them to- 
 morrow; no: but that if zow we turn to Him with 
 all the heart, nothing that is past (however black it 
 seem to us) is any obstacle with Him. I repeat it, 
 from a deep sense of its importance: as long as we 
 are desiring the right thing of God,— that is, imme- 
 diate spiritual recovery and renewed vigour,—we 
 cannot expect it too enthusiastically. All the dan- 
 ger is the other way: we are double-hearted, we 
 wish not, we expect not, and therefore we receive 
 not. When we have become cold and uninterested 
 
166 THE SOUL: 
 
 in all spiritual things, we often cannot exactly tell 
 why: perhaps it is through sinful negligence; or 
 perhaps it is through the worry and distraction of 
 business, and not wholly without physical causes. 
 If we set about self-analysis to find out how far we 
 are personally guilty, we may get into insoluble 
 questions, and be more and more discouraged, the 
 more we look within: for there is assuredly nothing 
 there to strengthen us. But if we can exercise the 
 energies of Faith, the fact is our sufficient warrant ; 
 for it proves that we are true-hearted: and thus we 
 suddenly become strong out of the midst of. our 
 weakness. After we are in peace and power, self- 
 analysis is most valuable and indeed necessary: it 
 is instructive, humbling and bracing: but while we 
 are cold and weak, it is a poisonous thing, like a 
 draught of quinine while the ague-fit is upon one. 
 While it is needful to know the ways by which 
 the Soul, when fundamentally upright, can always 
 regain her lost love; it would be discouraging in- 
 deed, if we might not look earnestly forward to 
 attain, even on this earth, a state in which the affec- 
 tions should be recovered as fast as lost,—at inter- 
 vals so short, that the heart should never reproach 
 itself for sin, but only sigh over its inherent weak- 
 ness. ‘This seems to be the state, which the Wes- 
 leyans (to the scandal of other Christians) have 
 denominated Perfection or Full Redemption, and 
 after which they breathe in many beautiful and 
 touching hymns. Surely we may expect, and ought 
 to strive, that moral light may be so superadded to 
 
SENSE OF PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD. 167 
 
 fervency of soul, that divine love may at length be- 
 come in us, not as a torch blazing and smoky at 
 intervals, but as a pure serene ever-burning flame, 
 pervading all our nature, animating all our acts, 
 consuming our evil principles, and kindling us to 
 everything good, great and useful. ‘This will lead 
 us to inquire, whether the mind can form any more 
 definite ideal of that to which it is to aspire, and 
 whether there are any outward helps towards it. To 
 these subjects the next chapter will be devoted. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 
 
 It has been seen, how the Soul, weak and wander- 
 ing, like a storm-driven bird, learns to nestle in the 
 bosom of the Infinite One, seeking peace or strength, 
 until at length love towards Him is born within it: 
 how then out of love springs insight,—insight of 
 His prior and greater love to it; whence the open- 
 ing of a purifying, strengthening and happy inter- 
 course of the secret heart with Him. But what is 
 it desiring? In word, it is easy to say,—it wants 
 holiness and goodness like His own, that being per- 
 fectly like Him, it may be indissolubly united to 
 Him: but in fact, it sees no true image of His 
 holiness, and often scarcely knows what it wants. 
 Moreover, when outward and moral evils have been 
 triumphed over, when the best-known spiritual sins 
 have been beaten down, it has strength to spare for 
 action; and the question then arises, How is that 
 strength to be employed? 
 
 It is a great error to imagine that high excellence 
 can ever consist in a mere suppressing of some 
 worse and lower tendency; the better part which 
 we choose, may be itself not very elevated. The 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 169 
 
 soul may be freed from struggle and the conscience 
 be at peace, because its highest convictions have 
 triumphed; and yet its highest may be far from 
 high. Nay, the triumph may be due, as much to 
 the weakness of the inferior passions, as to any 
 energy of the spiritual nature ; so that a comfortable 
 mediocrity is all that will result, unless the moral 
 perceptions keep rising ;—which is indeed the only 
 healthful state. To this, however, it is probable 
 that increasing mental culture is in certain stages 
 essential. The subject is too wide to be here dis- 
 cussed, and can only be glanced at: but it is easy 
 to see how pure intellectual error, depending on 
 causes wholly unmoral, may and does perpetuate 
 moral illusions, which are of the deepest injury to 
 spiritual life, and keep it down to a very unsatis- 
 factory level. In such case, the advance of that 
 knowledge which is purely intellectual and negative, 
 (which on that account religious men are apt to 
 dread,) is absolutely requisite for farther spiritual 
 progress. To destroy superstition does not in itself 
 impart religion; yet the destruction is necessary, if 
 religion is to flourish. 
 
 But again: while the soul desires a higher holi- 
 ness, it inquires, what are the peculiar aids (if any) 
 towards attaining this object; and especially, what 
 is the value of those which are offered by the prac- 
 tices of social religion or by others which are 
 esteemed as “means of grace.” And although it 
 is hard to give unity to these two discussions, it is 
 not convenient to keep them far separate. 
 
170 THE SOUL: 
 
 § 1. On the Ideal of Lxcellence. 
 
 From childhood we hear it repeated, until it seems 
 an axiom, that the human life of Christ is the pat- 
 tern which we are practically to imitate: yet the 
 moment we in good earnest attempt such imitation, 
 we are beset by the most embarrassing difficulties. 
 We find that his vestments will not fit us; his 
 shape cannot be ours. The figure of him sketched 
 out before us is, in part, fully painted up, but evi- 
 dently inapplicable to our case; far more of it is 
 left blank, so that we have to fill it out by our own 
 imaginations. On this whole matter men willingly 
 delude themselves: there is a great fiction which 
 they dread to have unveiled: and it may be impos- 
 sible to allude to broad matters of fact, without 
 giving very grave offence. However intense one’s 
 conviction, common sense or humility forbids (for 
 example) to stir the bad passions of men invested 
 with power by publicly denouncing them as hypo- 
 crites, blind guides, whited sepulchres; to speak at 
 men's hearts, instead of answering their words; to 
 use enigmatical and paradoxical expressions, which 
 offend and confuse the hearers, and then withhold 
 public explanation of them; purposely to encounter 
 the malice of the unjust, and lay down one’s life 
 by self-chosen martyrdom. Grant that these things 
 were all right in Jesus; still we discern and feel 
 that they would be all wrong in ws. And if in none 
 of them we can follow him, it is equally doubtful 
 whether we should wisely imitate him by spending 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 171 
 
 whole nights on the mountains in prayer, or forty 
 days in fasting. In short, the more every detail 
 is pursued, the more absurd it appears to propose 
 his conduct (in deed, in word, or in its inward 
 plan) as a pattern for ourselves. As to the spirit 
 of his conduct, in contrast to the /etter, no book 
 can tell it to us, if our own hearts do not; and even 
 as to outward things, numberless points will day by 
 day present themselves, on which we are left to 
 guess how he acted or would have acted. For in- 
 stance, is it really true that he never laughed ? 
 This question goes deeper than at first appears. 
 Let the image of Puritanical constrained gravity be 
 duly considered, and we shall see how pernicious it 
 is to imitate one to whom laughing may not be 
 ascribed. Nay, but in our whole conception of 
 revered names an illusion floats over our minds. 
 Those who admire Paul in Reaffael’s cartoon, 
 might perhaps despise him in a mean unpicturesque 
 garb, especially if they found him short in stature, 
 stammering, or sore-eyed *, with nothing romantic 
 about him. Exactly as we refuse to imagine him 
 of vulgar appearance, so do we shrink from the 
 idea of his hearty sympathy with a jocose expres- 
 sion or act: yet it would be rash and gratuitous to 
 
 * His enemies said of him, that “his bodily presence was weak, 
 and his speech contemptible.” The “thorn in the flesh” of which he 
 complains, has been plausibly explained both of stammering and of 
 sore eyes. The present Bishop of Winchester supposes him to have 
 been afflicted with extreme short-sightedness, and so accounts for 
 many smaller curious facts. 
 
 tae 
 
172 THE SOUL: 
 
 maintain that Paul could not laugh with the same 
 geniality as Luther. These are not matters which 
 we could expect to find recorded ; yet whatever may 
 be said concerning their dignity, to conceive rightly 
 of them is very important. A sober view of human 
 life shows that to proscribe the jocose side of our 
 nature would be a blunder as grievous in its way as 
 to proscribe love between men and women; though 
 in this last point again we see, that neither Christ 
 nor Paul is an example to men in general. True 
 religion wages no abstract war against any part of 
 man, but gives to each part its due subordination 
 or supremacy, and breathes sweetness and purity 
 through all. ‘There are times and places when we 
 can not, as well as may not, laugh; but it is by no 
 means the highest state always to stifle laughter. 
 That rather belongs to the stiff precisian, who fears 
 to betray something false within him, and habitually 
 wears a mask, lest his heart be too deeply exposed ; 
 while the true-hearted fearlessly yields to his im- 
 pulse, and no more wishes to hide it from the All- 
 seeing eye, than a child would hide his childish 
 sports from the eye of a father. 
 
 There is no question which has more vexed spi- 
 ritual persons, than the propriety of occasionally 
 eratifying others by joining them in some of the 
 eaieties of life, by abstinence from which they often 
 cause great offence: yet no authoritative solution 
 can be gained by appeal to any scriptural pattern. 
 One reasons: “ Jesus went to a wedding; therefore 
 I may go to a ball: especially since at an Oriental 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. FS 
 
 wedding there was often dancing and music.” 4n- 
 other retorts: ‘‘A wedding is a serious and reli- 
 gious transaction, consequently it cannot be here 
 adduced: but we are commanded not to be con- 
 formed to this world; a precept which forbids us 
 from gay parties, from the theatre, the opera, and 
 public concerts, as well as from horse-races and 
 country sports.’—No analysis of the letter will ever 
 decide such controversies. He who is under the 
 Law, is satisfied with remarking that “conformity 
 to this world” means nothing but conformity to 7¢s 
 sins, and that the text does not help to decide 
 whether this particular case involves sin. He who 
 desires to live to God, tries to feel with his soul 
 whether sin (to him) ¢s or zs mot here implicated; 
 so the Spirit within is the real guide, and not the 
 text, any more than the scriptural example. Only 
 a madman could reason: “ Christ and his apostles 
 are not recorded to have attended Plays or Ora- 
 torios; therefore I am _ prohibited.” In short,” 
 whatever practical question may be started, we 
 always alight on the same result, that authoritative 
 examples and precepts (as such) can do us no good 
 in the region of spirituality. Law can forbid defi- 
 nite acts of sin and command definite acts of duty; 
 but when an action is not in itself sinful, nor in 
 itself obligatory, no book-rules can forbid or com- 
 mand it. This is precisely the class of things with 
 which spirituad (as transcending mora/) life is con- 
 cerned; and the conclusion is plain, that a book- 
 revelation on such subjects is impossible. A per- 
 
174 THE SOUL: 
 
 son who converts the history of Christ or Paul into 
 a new authoritative Law, will often be driven to 
 violate his own right feelings and sober judgment. 
 Manifestly all sound-minded persons use these 
 histories only by way of suggestion, and not as 
 prescribing anything authoritatively. Thus the re- 
 corded life of Jesus is to us, in principle only, what 
 the life of Melanchthon or Pascal may be: for it 
 sometimes does, but far oftener does not, call us to 
 imitation; and we have not and cannot have exter- 
 nal guidance, when to follow it and when not; or 
 external information as to the spirit in which each 
 recorded action was performed. Indeed, when we 
 read the exhortations of Paul or Peter “to imitate 
 Christ,” it ought not to be forgotten, that, om the 
 one hand, these were addressed to persons who had 
 no written narratives to call out the ingenuities of 
 expounders ; on the other, the end sought was 
 always to recommend by his (vaguely reported) 
 example such virtues as heathen moralists often 
 denied to be virtues: such, namely, as humility, 
 resignation, long-sufferimg, condescension. So im- 
 portant was it to propose to the converts something 
 in a concrete form that would make the meaning of 
 such words more vivid to the mind, that Paul does 
 not hesitate to refer to Ais own conduct, as a model 
 which they would do well to imitate, though not as 
 one absolutely perfect. 
 
 The case of conscience just now touched on is 
 an instructive illustration of a general principle. 
 The world at large is nearly divided between sur- 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 175 
 
 prise and contempt at the repugnance shown by 
 spiritual persons to certain artificial pleasures; and 
 undoubtedly the disposition of many to enact a new 
 ceremonial law, which proclaims, “Thou shalt not 
 dance: Thou shalt not play cards,” &c., &e., will 
 excuse, if it cannot justify, a great deal of ignorant 
 raillery. Yet it cannot be by accident, that in dif- 
 ferent ages and countries, without any definite 
 scriptural prohibition, spiritual persons coincide so 
 markedly in apathy or dislike for pleasures of this 
 description. I see not how to doubt that an in- 
 stinct of the soul guides them, which is without 
 law, and really higher than all law. A man who 
 drinks within his own heart from a hidden well of 
 joy, cannot run to fill his pitcher from an artificial 
 tank: and if by any means that well is closed, his 
 soul is widowed, and dreads to be comforted: then 
 less than ever can he enjoy even the most ino- 
 cent gratifications. Else, there are many pleasures 
 which, if they come of themselves, he will accept, 
 but which he cannot go to fetch. The simple glee 
 of children, or the unstudied sallies of wit, may 
 have a great zest for him in their measure; and 
 yet he may feel an invincible repugnance to go out 
 of his way for mirth or wit: if they are to be plea- 
 sant, they must be unsought and unpremeditated *. 
 So in regard to the gratification derived from those 
 Public Amusements which profess to address the 
 sense of Beauty, a discomfort might depend on the 
 
 * Ts not all relaxation and amusement most effective, when there 
 has been the least previons forethought spent on it? 
 
176 THE SOUL: 
 
 amount of effort required by them; but this pro- 
 bably is rather secondary. A feeling of Vanity in 
 the circumstantials is that which is painful and 
 wearisome to the religious soul, though the feeling 
 is often smothered through kindness and good 
 breeding and from a belief that it will do harm to 
 show it. What is meant by giving to outward 
 glitter and manufactured mirth the offensive name 
 “Vanity,” 1s more than some can comprehend, who, 
 having no notion of any higher rule than Law, 
 think that they settle the matter by asking, ‘‘ what 
 harm there is in a pretty sight.” Perhaps there is 
 none to them: they are in a puerile state: it may 
 sometimes be right to humour them: at least this 
 appears the best way of showing that no morosity 
 mingles with distaste for such things. But it can- 
 not be doubted, that a person who against the in- 
 stincts of his soul should become (for instance) a 
 constant opera-goer or play-goer, merely to please 
 others,—although it is most true that he is free 
 from Law in such matters,—will incur great spiritual 
 mischief: for he will overbear and beat down the 
 inward law of his heart. 
 
 And this leads farther to a distinct enunciation, 
 that as we can neither wish nor have a better rule, 
 concerning the things which a common moralist 
 calls ‘indifferent,’ than the Law of the Spirit 
 within us, so real spiritual progress will be attended 
 by the clearing and strengthening of this inward 
 instinct; in short, therefore, by the overspreading 
 growth of a pure enthusiasm. This is the greatest 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. LT 
 
 charm of character, even where it is partial and 
 independent of spiritual influences: but the highest 
 idea of human perfection, is, that this should per- 
 vade the whole man, and, in consistency with the 
 truest wisdom, should animate every set of actions, 
 while the instinct guides through all delicate ques- 
 tions of right and wrong. The upright and faith- 
 ful soul knows and feels what things do, and what 
 do not, impair communion of heart with its God; 
 this is its great clue to its wrong and right; so it 
 is alternately scrupulous where a moralist would be 
 bold, and bold where a moralizer might be prudish. 
 Again, by the nourishment of its generous affec- 
 tions it gains a power of impulse, by which it is 
 enabled to carry into effect its right conceptions. 
 All know that in the practical world enthusiasm is 
 the chief moving power; and is very effective, even 
 when joined with narrow and distorted judgment. 
 Our misery has been, that the men of thought have 
 no religious enthusiasm, and the enthusiastically 
 religious shrink from continuous and searching 
 thought ; and this must continue until our Theology 
 is shifted away from its present basis. That the 
 instincts of the soul, if there are any, are of first- 
 rate importance, ought to be confessed even by those 
 who know nothing of them: for if the instinct of 
 brutes be the guidance of God within them, (Deus 
 anima brutorum,) what else is the Soul’s instinct 
 but the Spirit of God? But, be it granted, such 
 analogies are deceptive: still, by what else but this 
 instinct was Divine Existence ever discovered at 
 13 
 
178 THE SOUL: 
 
 all? what, but the Soul, groping after Him, taught 
 all nations of men to be familiar with these high 
 ideas? And if the unenlightened Heathen soul 
 achieved so great a revelation, what ought that 
 soul to do, all whose powers are stimulated by 
 the love of God, and by constant intercourse with 
 him ? 
 
 This is not a doctrine much talked of nowadays ; 
 but time was, when it was believed by prophets and 
 apostles. They did not tell of ¢wo Spirits of God, 
 one extraordinary, and one ordinary; one, which 
 by them dictated propositions, and another which 
 inclined the hearers to “submit their corrupt un- 
 derstanding” to the propositions. Every living 
 member of Christ's body, the Church, was (in their 
 belief) animated by ‘the Selfsame Spirit,” who 
 ‘divided to each severally as He would”; and the 
 Gospel was preached, in order that those who be- 
 lieved it might ad/ receive that life-giving and 
 enlightening power, and be themselves able to listen 
 to the voice of God directing them. Thus of Zion 
 it was to be said, ‘‘ All thy children shall be taught 
 of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy 
 children”: out of each man’s heart were to flow 
 rivers of living water: and their teachers professed 
 not to usurp “‘dominion over their faith, but only 
 to be helpers of their joy”: nor did they give them 
 a new law of the letter, written with ink, but a law 
 written on the fleshly tablets of the heart; bidding 
 them not to quench the Spirit, and, to prove what 
 was the perfect will of God. But now, by idolizing 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 179 
 
 the letter, men do quench the Spirit within them ; 
 and then, are unable to understand that very letter, 
 which they blazon forth in purple and gold. 
 
 If we would be holy and enlightened as Paul, we 
 must do as Paul did; not by slavishly copying the 
 outside of his conduct, but by nourishing our in- 
 ward spirit as he nourished his. He refused to learn 
 his religion of men, but listened to the voice of 
 God: and so have all the great and good men done, 
 whose religious action can be thankfully remem- 
 bered. Undoubtedly they have all been liable to 
 the grievous inconsistency of being unwilling to 
 leave other souls as free as they claim that their own v 
 shall be. They feel to the very bottom of their 
 nature, that they cannot serve two masters; and 
 that if they are to be subject to God in earnest, 
 they must be free from the yoke of men: and yet, 
 alas! no sooner do they find themselves at the 
 head of admiring and obedient multitudes, than 
 they proceed to impose their own yoke on others, 
 and, if possible, on their successors for ever. In 
 early times, the intense evils of this had not been 
 historically unfolded, and the apparent practical 
 advantages of it overbore the abstract remonstrances 
 of conscience ; but in the present ripeness of expe- 
 rience all cultivated minds have before them the full 
 means of freeing themselves from such illusions. 
 The immense progress of pure intellect must 
 show every thoughtful man the impossibility (not 
 to say the wickedness) of sacrificing the Intellect to 
 the Soul; and wherever there is true Faith, there 
 
180 THE SOUL: 
 
 is an unhesitating conviction that there cannot pos- 
 sibly be any real collision between these two parts 
 of human nature. It is now no common guilt, 
 when a man uses his spiritual influence to frown 
 down any honest intellectual research: but more of 
 this afterwards. 
 
 The pure and pervading enthusiasm to which the 
 soul should tend, is a very different thing from 
 eccentricity, and would not show itself in superficial 
 excitement, much less in wayward and fickle con- 
 duct. It is a deep inward fire, slowly fusing the 
 opake mass of nature, and bidding it to crystallize 
 into new shapes and refract God's light into a thou- 
 sand hues, so that the whole man is about to be 
 transparent, only that the eye of the observer is 
 dazzled. Under this influence, each soul will as- 
 sume ?¢s own character ; no one aping another, all 
 being unlike, yet the likeness of God being on all: 
 for God has myriads of forms, but one essence. In 
 the commencement of this action the instincts of 
 the Soul are hardly self-conscious ; and long after, 
 no intellectual ideal of that at which they aim, is 
 as yet presented to the mind: but unless this is a 
 mere dream of theory, it would seem that in all 
 higher types of spiritual life each must at length 
 shape to himself his own Ideal, and know what 
 is his service. So Paul conceived of one as an 
 Eye, one as a Hand; no two members alike, but 
 each fitted for his own work. ‘The work, described 
 positively, may be called God’s work ; but if we ask 
 what work deserves to be so named, the easiest reply 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 181 
 
 is the negative one, that it is vot that of the world 
 or of the flesh ;—which means, not that of selfish- 
 ness and self-indulgence or self-glorifying. He works 
 the work of God (even if he knows not God,) who 
 works unselfishly for a good end: thus also Faith 
 in God is justly said to “ overcome the world,” or, 
 to mortify all the sedfish principles which are col- 
 lectively so denoted. Now nothing is more un- 
 worldly than enthusiasm in every form: in Art, in 
 Science, in Politics, in Trade, it is (even when iso- 
 lated from religion) an inveterate antagonist of 
 selfishness: nor is there any character for whom the 
 worldly (or selfish) man feels so much contemptuous 
 pity, as for an enthusiast, until some undeniably 
 great result forces him to confess that enthusiasm is 
 a powerful reality. The enthusiasm however, of 
 which we speak, is not, like these, a partial and one- 
 sided impulse, but implies a warm love of every 
 thing Good and True, with as warm indignation 
 against their opposites ;—both feelings rising out of 
 the sympathy of the soul with the centre of all 
 Goodness, and its forgetfulness of self in the midst 
 of the great interests all round at stake. 
 
 While in all “ indifferent” matters (that is, those 
 which Law cannot command or forbid) the inward 
 instinct is the rightful guide, its powers are stimu- 
 lated by discerning the instincts of others; and 
 this is God’s provision for the progress of moral 
 sentiment. Even brute animals have taught men 
 most valuable lessons, and act as daily monitors to 
 us. Their patience and docility, their gratitude and 
 
 “ 
 
 wi 
 
182 THE SOUL: 
 
 faithfulness, their bravery and self-devotion are de- 
 lightful to see: and the same may be said of a hun- 
 dred virtues, which, like wild flowers, bloom all 
 round us in simple half-instructed natures. Let 
 not the spiritual man despise the world of common 
 men; for if he is wise, that world is his best out- 
 ward moral teacher, at least until there shall be 
 more of nature in the church. From time to time 
 indeed a young enthusiasm arises, and displays on 
 the border of the church some new virtue, as zeal 
 against war and against slavery in the Society of 
 Friends, reverence for intellectual freedom in the 
 Unitarians, and others which cannot be mentioned 
 without moving controversy as to fact. Against all 
 new virtues a false church fights long and hard, 
 alleging that they “‘ are not in the bond” of her 
 Law; though, when they have conquered men’s 
 consciences, she comes in to claim the victory, as 
 won by her energies. Christianity in its origin was 
 nothing but a new enthusiasm, born in men’s souls 
 by the working of God’s Spirit ; so, believers “ chal- 
 lenged one another to love and good works.” ‘This 
 mutual rivalry still continues, with benefit, I suppose; 
 although our increased knowledge of the complicated 
 framework of society shows us how much political 
 and intellectual wisdom is often needed for judging 
 what kindly meant works are really good works. 
 But are there antiquated virtues, as well as new 
 ones? Was it a folly in the first apostles to aban- 
 don their boats and nets, in order to become fishers 
 of men? or was it a virtue which is now wholly out 
 
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ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 188 
 
 -of date ? and is no lesson whatever now to be learned 
 from that apparantly fanatical saying,—If a man 
 forsake not all that he hath, he cannot be my dis- 
 ciple? Consider, Reader, whether the following is 
 not true. Many persons, and peculiarly teachers of 
 religion, are liable to find themselves in a position, 
 where rules from without forbid them to follow 
 freely the Spirit of God within them. A man who 
 discerns this to be his own case, is called by God 
 (more clearly than if it were spoken by thunder 
 from a cloud) to give up all his worldly interests, as 
 Paul did; and until he gains strength for this sacri- 
 fice, he stunts his own spiritual growth, and loses 
 living energy. ‘The same thing applies to all, who 
 find the routine of their worldly business or pro- 
 fession to involve practices, which the Spirit within 
 them condemns: if they are faithful to God, they 
 will at all risks of worldly loss refuse consent to 
 such practices. No greater trials of principle can 
 in these days (when bodily martyrdom is unknown) 
 befall men who have wives and children depending 
 on them, and whose sphere in life seemed to be 
 fixed. To condemn those who shrink from the 
 sacrifice, could not occur to any one who duly 
 knows his own weakness; yet he would not the 
 less sorrowfully feel, that such persons will not 
 be counted worthy of promoting the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is no excellence in mere out- 
 ward self-denial, when it surpasses what morality 
 may claim: nor can anything but self-righteousness 
 
184 THE SOUL: 
 
 or morbid consciences be generated by enjoining 7 
 the abstract such sacrifices. Indeed, this may seem 
 to be only part of a wider doctrine; namely, that 
 the great and universal spiritual duty is to Be, not 
 to Act, nor to Suffer: a truth, the abuse of which 
 may be reproved as Quietism, but which is never- 
 theless of much importance. Moral Actions have 
 a value in themselves, and at any rate require no 
 more in the actor than general sincerity of good 
 intention: but the value of (what is intended for) 
 outward Spéritual Action is often indefinitely small, 
 even when very rightly meant. Transcendental 
 acts of Duty, performed without Insight,—as, to 
 give ones goods to the Poor or to the Church,— 
 are of very doubtful value. Again, consider the 
 attempt to improve the spiritual state of our neigh- 
 bour by profitable and holy words: an attempt, 
 which may result in pure mischief, not only if done 
 unseasonably or indiscreetly, but if it is not a mani- 
 fest overflowing of heart which speaks. The weight 
 of words is not in themselves, but in the speaker ; 
 and the lessons which are not intended as lessons 
 are often the most forcible. If then we give our 
 whole effort to de what God would have us, He will 
 provide the ways by which our life shall redound 
 upon others. The restless desire to attain “ spiri- 
 tual usefulness,” is very often a mere carnal am- 
 bition which imposes upon us. If we are entangled 
 in this, it will too often happen, not only that we 
 address ourselves to a divine work with earthly 
 minds, but, what is worse, frame for ourselves a 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 185 
 
 code of action to which we are spiritually unequal, 
 and then, incur self-reproach as languid and cow- 
 ardly for shrinking from a task which we cannot 
 profitably undertake. Not to harm our neighbours’ 
 souls is indeed a primary duty; but a majority of 
 us will ordinarily best promote the edification of 
 others as well as our own by concentrating effort on 
 our personal improvement. Much latitude is con- 
 ceded by all to professed religious teachers; and a 
 decorous respect is paid to their words; yet it is 
 notorious that the very same sentiment coming 
 instead from a layman is often more effective: for 
 the clergyman is suspected of speaking for his office’ 
 sake only. There is probably more knowledge in 
 the professional man; but love, not knowledge, is 
 that which edifies: and to justify our concerning 
 ourselves with the soul of another, a real and deep 
 love is felt to be requisite. 
 
 And this connects itself with the subject of Inter- 
 cession. Concerning the actings both of Intercession 
 and of Hope, valuable hints may be gleaned from 
 the history of a soul so full grown as that of Paul, 
 presented to us in the outpourings of authentic epis- 
 tles. ‘The topic of Hope is reserved for the next Part. 
 As for Intercession: when the divine Spirit has so 
 conquered the old or common nature, that though 
 there may still be occasional conflict, there 1s no 
 anxiety, but (under all ordinary trials) a calm fore- 
 sight of victory as soon as any collision of desires 
 is felt; the soul, I suppose, overflows self, and com- 
 mences cares or anxieties for others; which are 1m- 
 
186 THE SOUL: 
 
 possible, and their pretence hypocritical, while the 
 self is still consciously but half subdued. Hence 
 there came upon Paul daily the care of all the 
 churches. Hence his fervent and continual prayers 
 for the spiritual advance of his beloved children in 
 the faith, and for the progress of divine truth. Nay, 
 to judge by his letters, prayer for his own soul 
 might seem to have been swallowed up in prayer 
 for others. That this is the highest or limiting 
 state, we appear as it were to divine. Accordingly 
 Paul himself, while seeking reverentially to shadow 
 forth the occupation of Messiah in the heavenly 
 world, could imagine no loftier ideal of excellence, 
 than that he was engaged in Intercession: a view, 
 which at a very early date recommended itself to 
 the whole church. 
 
 A philosophical difficulty may nevertheless be 
 here started. The soul (it may be said) not ab- 
 surdly hopes that God will aid its own desires to be 
 obedient to Him: but He does not give it a carte- 
 blanche, to ask for things which do not concern its 
 own perfection. How can we possibly know, that 
 He will fulfil our prayers for the bodily or even 
 spiritual health of one dear to us; to say nothing of 
 distant matters? The reply does not seem difficult : 
 We do vot know that he will fulfil them. Then 
 why do we pray? Why, neither do we know that 
 he will zo¢ fulfil them; hence, when the soul is 
 deeply moved, it cannot help praying for what it 
 wants. Not to do so, would be an unnatural con- 
 straint: the full heart must vent itself to the Lord 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 187 
 
 of Mercy and Love, who surely cannot disapprove 
 of this. Nay, we know and are certain, that even 
 though His inscrutable wisdom should see that the 
 prayer cannot be granted, He would accept it, and 
 we should be blessed in uttering it. 
 
 It may still be asked, Why do we pray for things, 
 about which we do not feel much concern? ‘This 
 however I may leave others to answer: it certainly 
 appears a mere dreary hypocrisy, like Fasting and 
 Prayer at the word of command: yet something 
 will be said on the point in the next Section under 
 the head of Liturgies. It here suffices to remark, 
 that “‘to pray because we think we ought to pray,” 
 is not really prayer, but at best is meditation or 
 reverential homage. If a man has no heart for 
 prayer, yet knows that he ought to desire certain 
 things, let him muse until the fire kindles, and at 
 last let him speak with his tongue. But when no 
 fire is kindled, it is heathenish credulity to imagine 
 that God will care for a verbally offered petition. 
 
 It may also appear that after the earlier and 
 most necessary steps of spiritual advance, the soul 
 can profitably bear stronger views of the grander 
 attributes of God, and takes more pleasure in con- 
 templating them; whence is derived a tranquil dig- 
 nity to itself. Its joys also have less of excitement, 
 but greater depth, continuity and evenness: nay, 
 their current is uninterrupted, though manifold 
 sorrows may ripple on the surface, by impulses from 
 without. At least this is that which @ prior? may 
 be expected, as agreeing with all analogy. So also 
 
188 THE SOUL: 
 
 it is in this stage that the magnificent researches of 
 modern Science, which strengthen our powers of 
 Imagination concerning the extent of Existence, in 
 time and space, and the pervading uniformity of 
 Law, become peculiarly beneficial ; because there is 
 no longer danger lest the personality of God, and 
 his proper relation to the individual soul, should be 
 lost in the dim Infinity which is spread out before 
 the intellect. Then we can admire and wonder at 
 Him, as the Blessed and Only Potentate, dwelling 
 in light which no man can approach unto; and not 
 at all lose the fixed assurance, that He dwells also 
 in every contrite heart, and opens His ear to every 
 cry of the hungering and thirsting soul. Thus also 
 a reconciliation is finally brought about between 
 Faith and Science, the Soul and the Understanding. 
 God is recognised both zwzthout us, and within us. 
 Man is seen to be essentially free, yet is felt both in 
 right and in fact to be God’s servant and friend. 
 All that he has, is from God, and is to be cultivated 
 for God: powers of mind are not to be left unused, 
 any more than riches. 
 
 There is certainly something wanting to the Ideal 
 of the perfect man, prevalent in religious circles: 
 nor is this to be wondered at. As long as it was 
 supposed that Christ would in a few years return, to 
 close this earthly scene: while the fields were ripe 
 to the harvest, and the labourers were few ;—while 
 a messenger to tell the truth, seemed of all things 
 most urgently needed; no course was judged so ser- 
 viceable, or so noble, as that the rich and cultivated 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 189 
 
 man should abandon his wealth and his worldly 
 calling, forswear his learning and his tastes, and 
 become a preacher of the gospel. The total change 
 of circumstances, and no small amount of expe- 
 rience, now give warning that this can only in ex- 
 ceptive cases be desirable. If such a person has 
 dedicated his soul to its rightful owner, he will find 
 some way of bestowing his energies in great measure 
 for unselfish objects ; either for external and imme- 
 diate Utility, or for the attainment of abstract, or 
 for the diffusion of practical, Truth; for the esta- 
 blishment of Right and Justice, or in works of Love 
 and Mercy, or in the unselfish cultivation of the 
 Beautiful. Yet with many (unless I mistake) it is a 
 sort of enigma, how Art and Politics and Science 
 are to blend with the highest religious character ; 
 and that, because our notions are unduly based upon 
 those Scriptural heroes, whose position was too dif- 
 ferent from ours to make them any adequate pattern. 
 I do not think it an exaggeration to say, that among 
 ourselves the most spiritually minded persons (if we 
 speak of them in the mass) are apt to be more or 
 less scandalized at zeal for Science or Fine Art in 
 one whom they hope to be spiritual. ‘They sigh 
 over a good man, who lavishes his talents on such 
 objects instead of devoting them to (what they call) 
 the glory of God; a phrase which would seem to 
 mean,—direct attempts to teach spiritual truth. 
 They condescendingly patronize an astronomer or 
 scholar, who is reported to have some religious ten- 
 dencies and to be orthodox; and if he be very en- 
 
190 THE SOUL: 
 
 thusiastic in his own pursuits, they still hope, that 
 im spite of this, he has “the root of the matter 
 in him,” and will gain some low seat among the 
 redeemed. Such notions are only another deve- 
 lopement of the same error, which once sent men 
 into desarts or convents, and misnamed long prayers 
 “divine service.’ ‘To sacrifice Imagination or In- 
 tellect, and to sacrifice Domestic Affection, are about 
 on a par. That the human mind was meant to 
 labour for the Useful, to contemplate the Beautiful, 
 to possess itself of the True, and contend for the 
 Right, as well as to worship the Holy, or imitate 
 the Bountiful One, seems to be quite an axiom of 
 thought: and wisely to blend all, as circumstances 
 allow, must be the highest human perfection. A 
 true Faith believes without proof that all these 
 things shall work together for good; and that God, 
 who is at once Productiveness, Beauty, Truth, Right, 
 Mercy, Bounty, and Holiness, is in them all. 
 
 May we not here gain some instruction from that 
 which is told of celebrated Italian painters ?—how they 
 have, from mere love of their art, spent on a picture 
 labour tenfold of what the set price required, and 
 have preferred to live in extreme self-denial, rather 
 than not execute it in their highest style. This 
 seems to typify the unworldly spirit, in which, when 
 we are more perfect, we shall follow our trades or 
 our professions, of whatever kind. There is a pre- 
 valent opinion,—I fear not destitute of foundation, 
 that as a body the more religious part of our nation 
 is more sordid in its business-tone than the world. 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 191 
 
 Possibly this may be interpreted, that there are 
 among the former fewer instances of unselfish de- 
 votion to their worldly calling; which they are ac- 
 customed to regard as not deserving their affections, 
 but only fit to be pursued for its gains. It is prin- 
 cipally in men who have no ostensible religious 
 character that we see the self-devoting pursuit of 
 some honourable profession: and these are now in 
 England only too rare. For alas, there is such 
 eagerness to get rich, that enthusiasm for one’s 
 work, 77 and for itself, is scarcely credited by the 
 majority; and there are many necessary employ- 
 ments, which may seem almost incapable of calling 
 out enthusiasm, and yet, most distressingly over- 
 occupy both time and mind. I do not at all mean 
 to say that every man’s profession ought to be his 
 absorbing passion: only, it may be, and that, on a 
 religious ground*. It is certainly a narrow belief, 
 taken up on too slavish a principle of imitation, that 
 when there is the deepest and soundest spirituality, 
 the actions will proclaim this on their surface. 
 Where the deed is lawful, so that the moralist is 
 satisfied, the question for the spiritualist is not, what 
 it is, but in what spirit itis done. An enthusiastic 
 
 * The germ of this sentiment is seen in Paul, who bids slaves 
 “to do service with good will, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” 
 The precept shows how entirely he felt the meanest occupation to be 
 sanctified by and to a religious heart ; and that if he were exhorting 
 us moderns, he would enlarge it to embrace our several professions. 
 Indeed this is not at all a strained interpretation of his words in 
 Rom. xii. “ Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the 
 Lord” : that is :—serving the Lord by being not slothful, &c. 
 
192 THE SOUL: 
 
 geologist or chemist or astronomer or sculptor, 
 whose whole life seems to be absorbed in what many 
 religious people would erroneously call the World, 
 not only may be eminently unworldly, but may be 
 serving God, and man too, more effectually than 
 he could in any other way: for the evolving of 
 Truth and culture of Imagination tend to elevate 
 and perfect Man, side by side with the influences of 
 direct Devotion. For nearly two centuries, men of 
 Science have been our only school of Prophets. 
 There is no war between the parts of the human 
 mind; and, (other things being equal,) he who best 
 loves God will with most untiring energy and sin- 
 gleness of purpose pursue whatever good work his 
 genius has fitted him for. No one needs so little 
 relaxation as he, in whose heart dwells the Lord of 
 strength and of peace. 
 
 § 2. On the ‘ MEANS OF GRACE.” 
 
 It cannot be doubted that we in this day are the 
 spiritual progeny of Patriarchs and Prophets, de- 
 rived by a genuine Apostolic Succession. As in 
 Science, so in Religion; we have borrowed the light 
 of our predecessors, and it has kindled light in us. 
 We see and believe by means of Prophets and 
 Apostles, and yet not because of them; for though 
 our life has come through them, it would not be 
 life, if it were not now independent of theirs. The 
 Mathematician enjoys the fruit of high intellects 
 such as Archimedes, Newton, Euler, La Place; and 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 193 
 
 had not these men, and hundreds of congenial 
 spirits, laboured before him, he would not now know 
 what he knows: yet by their aid he so sees the 
 whole truth from its simplest elements, that their 
 names and their authority never enter the premisses 
 of the argument which convinces him. Just so is 
 it with the modern worshipper. Although he sees 
 for himself, he gratefully acknowledges the essential 
 aid derived from great predecessors, and feels the 
 golden chain which binds him to the past. Conse- 
 quently, neither can he overlook the last link of 
 that chain,—the instrumentality by which his heart 
 was first brought into sympathy with Psalmists and 
 Apostles. And if so, he cannot despise or under- 
 value those external media of spiritual improve- 
 ment, which, as transmitting feeling from soul to 
 soul, might be briefly denoted as ‘‘means of Fel- 
 lowship.” 
 
 But Fellowship, like everything else that is good 
 in spiritual things, has been turned into formality ; 
 and we are beset with a variety of competing “ordi- 
 nances, which claim to be “means of grace.” The 
 most prominent are Fasting, Sacraments, Attend- 
 ance at Liturgies, Prayer Meetings, and Sermons. 
 With a view to most of these, many will press the 
 close observance of Sunday. 
 
 1. It is truly vexatious, eighteen hundred years 
 after Paul’s career, to have to fight Paul's battles: 
 against those who profess themselves not only his 
 grateful children, but his unreasoning obedient dis- 
 ciples. It is indeed superfluous here to prove, what 
 
 K 
 
194 THE SOUL: 
 
 is on the face of the New Testament, that Sundays 
 are not Sabbaths, that Sabbaths are no part of 
 Gentile Christianity, and that Sundays have in the 
 Scripture nothing to do with abstinence from worldly 
 business. The Puritan School of England and 
 Scotland shuts its eyes to the plainest facts, because 
 it believes it to be useful to hold that Sunday is 
 Sabbath, and Sabbath binding upon us. In vain 
 shall we point to Paul’s contemptuous disavowal of 
 Sabbaths, and his declaration that he who disregards 
 sacred days is justified, so that he only disregard 
 them to the Lord. In vain may it be proved from 
 the Christian history, that, until Constantine, Sun- 
 day was a working day with Christians. In vain 
 will it be shown that all the great Reformers held 
 the ancient and Catholic doctrine, that the observ- 
 ance of Sunday is a mere ordinance of the Church, 
 not a command of God; and that until the English 
 and Scotch Sabbatarians (late in the 16th century) 
 invented the Puritanical doctrine on this subject, it 
 was unknown to the Christian Church. As long as 
 Englishmen care more for supposed Expediency 
 than for Truth, they will, through thick and thin, 
 stickle for a divinely obligatory Sabbath, unless one 
 show them that this falsehood has its evil and dan- 
 gerous side. 
 
 Our ears are dinned with the false cry: ‘‘ The 
 ‘Sabbath, the d00n of the working man.” In many 
 cases, say rather, his dane. He rests from labour: 
 true: but he labours only so much the harder on 
 the other six days. Physically, he would be better 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 195 
 
 for labouring six hours on Sunday, and one hour 
 less on every other day. Spiritually also this would 
 be far better:—first, for the irreligious man. For 
 the irreligious are tempted to make Sunday a day 
 of carousing and sensuality; and the more its sanc- 
 tity 1s preached, the greater is this danger; because 
 it makes their conscience bad, and generally hinders 
 them from getting any but bad companions. More 
 sin of every kind in England and Scotland is com- 
 mitted on Sunday than on any other day of the 
 week; and of this, the (so-called) Sabbatical Insti- 
 tution is in great measure guilty.—Then as for the 
 less religious, yet conscientious man. The Sunday 
 hangs heavy upon him: it is a stupid sleepy day: 
 superstition forbids his even improving his mind 
 during its hours; and with one seventh part of time 
 left free, he still (strange to think!) has no leisure 
 for mental cultivation. Puritanical notions about 
 the Sabbath are thus at present the greatest of all 
 impediments to the effectual education of the indus- 
 trious classes. Thirdly, even for the sincerely reli- 
 gious poor, Sunday is far too long a day for con- 
 tinued spiritual thought. They have not inward 
 energy enough to fill up the time with it, and they 
 covet to be in church as much as possible: very 
 generally three ‘‘ services” do not seem to them too 
 much; but this very fact proves that their souls are 
 passive under it all, and get no more good than 
 they might have from ove. Far better would it be, 
 to have on Sunday six hours of work, say, from 6 
 K 2 
 
196 THE SOUL: 
 
 to 9 in the morning, and from 5 to 8 in the even- 
 ing ; with ove meeting in church to last from 1] to 
 12. The working man might then have a pleasant 
 relaxation on Sunday, with no time heavy on his 
 hands. There would be hours enough for religious 
 meditation and for the greetings of kinsmen, and 
 there might also be an hour’s more rest on every 
 day of the week. Surely this would be both spiri- 
 tually and physically better. 
 
 It is thus pure fiction, that a Puritanical Sabbath 
 is better for a working man than a Christian Sun- 
 day, such nearly as Christianity in its second century 
 was glad to observe. But the modern Sabbath 
 tends a great deal more to the grandeur of a sacer- 
 dotal body; and this was felt by the instinct of 
 those bishops who first moved Constantine to enact 
 it. Onan English Sunday the clergyman and the 
 “minister” are in their glory. They are not con- 
 scious that this impels them so urgently to enforce 
 the day: but when we see the trumpery nature of 
 the arguments, both from the New Testament and 
 from expediency, on which they rest its positive 
 moral obligation, it appears certain that there is 
 some sinister bias; and if so, I see not how to avoid 
 the opinion that—-I do not say the zvdividual, but 
 the strong public, opinion on this subject, is gene- 
 rated out of the merely professional zeal of religious 
 ministers. As military officers want larger armies 
 and great wars, so does a professional clergy cry 
 out for long Sabbaths, more churches, and crowded 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 197 
 
 seats. These things are, with the few, means to a 
 higher end; but with the majority, the end most 
 felt is, the increased dignity of the profession. 
 
 Sundays are now a political institution: no one 
 can propose to abolish them: but let every one try 
 to make the best of them. First, by abandoning 
 the false pretence of their observance being a divine 
 command:—itself an intrinsic incredible absurdity, 
 as well as without a shadow of New Testament 
 proof. SECONDLY, by encouraging mental cultiva- 
 tion of the largest and most liberal kind on that 
 day, and greatly shortening the prayers:—but of 
 this, more will be said. THrrpLy, by facilitating 
 and inviting attendance at church, wherever masses 
 of people are disposed to flock for the recreation of 
 country air; as at Richmond and Greenwich near 
 London, and many other places near to great cities. 
 FourTHLY, by solemnly urging, that religion de- 
 mands the whole heart for God on every day, and 
 that no compromise can be made by looking grave 
 or dressing clean for one day. 
 
 The truly spiritual, who turn many hours of the 
 Sunday to the best purpose, generally value the in- 
 stitution ; for they, not unnaturally, neglect to in- 
 quire whether it does not take away from them on 
 six days the time which it seems to give so liberally 
 on the seventh. A few may possibly use the whole 
 day profitably for purely spiritual action, but I sus- 
 pect that they are very few; and the more acute 
 their sense of the sacredness of the hours, the 
 greater the danger of misery from it. Personally I 
 
198 THE SOUL: 
 
 can testify, that for several years of my life, when a 
 youth and very young man, Sunday was of all days 
 to me the most painful; because, with all my efforts 
 to consecrate it, I could not practically reach up to 
 my abstract idea of its sanctity. It also threw me 
 into collision with my elders, and caused me to re- 
 fuse obedience to them, under the idea that the Law 
 of God constrained me. Justly then do I hate the 
 Sabbatical fiction, as a cause of real sin to the 
 anxious and well intentioned, as well as to the care- 
 less and uncontrolled. 
 
 2. And is it requisite here to speak of Fasting? 
 If any one after trial thinks that he himself finds 
 spiritual benefit from such a practice, no one can 
 blame him for continuing it. Yet it may justly 
 make others watch more sharply, whether it deve- 
 lopes in him Pharisaic and other Sacerdotal vices : 
 and if they see him disposed to uphold hierarchical 
 dominion and asceticism generally, they will have a 
 right to say, that he has gone back from spirituality 
 into a system of carnal ordinances. On the other 
 hand, a more offensive piece of impertinent domi- 
 neering, in spiritual matters, 1s scarcely conceivable, 
 than for a number of “‘divines” to meet and pass a 
 law as to the days and hours at which other people, 
 and indeed generations unborn, shall fast for an 
 imagined spiritual end. Those who call themselves 
 successors of the Apostles and defend such things, 
 should at least point out in the authentic writings of 
 the Apostles some instances in which they thus dic- 
 tated to their converts. 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 199 
 
 But what says Paul? “If ye be dead with 
 Christ from the elements of the world,’ [such out- 
 ward ceremonies as he has just named,—meat and 
 drink, holy days, new moons, and sabbath days, | 
 “why, as though living in the world, do ye subject 
 yourselves to dogmas,—Touch not! Taste not! 
 Handle not !—all which [dogmas?] tend to corrup- 
 tion in the using; after the commandments and 
 doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a 
 show of wisdom in will-worship and humility and 
 neglecting of the body; but are not of any value 
 in comparison* to the satisfying of the flesh.” 
 The sense of some words in the Greek is contested; 
 and I do not pretend certainty that he means in the 
 last clause :—“‘ adequate nourishment to the body 
 ts of some value; while fasting is of no use at all, 
 either to body or soul.” But it is quite certain that 
 the entire passage was intended to throw contempt 
 upon. the ordinance of Fasting, as upon other As- 
 ceticism, and exhort his converts to refuse subjection 
 to those who tried to impose such things. Against 
 the practice, as such, he evidently no more made war 
 than against the ceremonial law, and he speaks of 
 it without reproof, 1 Cor. vii. 5; but there is not 
 evidence that he himself looked on it as of any 
 value. Of meats and drinks in general we may 
 say with him,—Let every one be persuaded in his 
 
 * Obx tv rien ris weds TAncMOVAY Gagxds. Coloss. li. 20-22. 
 
 + The fastings of Paul, 2 Cor. vi. 5, xi. 27, are both times enu- 
 merated by him among involuntary hardships endured for preaching 
 the Gospel. 
 
200 THE SOUL: 
 
 own mind: if he eat, let him eat to the Lord and 
 give thanks: if he eat not, let it be to the Lord 
 that he eats not; and let him give thanks. It may 
 be added, that according to Christ's precepts, who- 
 ever fasts must conceal the fact of his fasting. This 
 entirely condemns Public fasts. 
 
 3. Sacraments and Liturgies may be embraced in 
 one thought; for it is superfluous to argue against 
 the pretended magical force of a Sacrament, until 
 some tangible proof of it is adduced. Mens feel- 
 ings towards Liturgies appear lable to go through 
 several stages. ‘The original rude and unspiritual 
 feeling is that of those who do not attempt to pray 
 with the heart, though they may devoutly repeat the 
 words, but receive them all as a sort of bidding to 
 pray. Such is clearly the case with children, and 
 with great numbers of grown people. Thus the 
 Liturgy is to them, not a prayer, but an aid to me- 
 ditation, and an instruction, by example, how to 
 pray: as such, its use appears to be very great. 
 ‘They more or less intelligently think over parts of 
 it; and now and then really join in some prayer, 
 especially in those for temporal mercies and for for- 
 giveness of sins. Thus a Liturgy, like the old Law, 
 is admirably adapted to those whom Paul calls “the 
 children of the bond-woman,’ who have not yet 
 received the Spirit of adoption; and therefore fitly 
 belongs to any very extensive or hereditary Church. 
 
 But secondly, there are many who rise above this 
 puerile state; who reverentially essay to pray all the 
 prayers, and believe that they succeed in it. These 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 201 
 
 are those whom I have called the once-born children 
 of God; who, having a sound conscience and sin- 
 cere mind, have yet no strong developement of the 
 soul. heir hearts do not prompt prayer actively, 
 and it is rather pleasant to them to have petitions 
 suggested to their intellect from without: and as 
 they have no depth of spiritual sorrow or joy, they 
 can without conscious hypocrisy play rapidly one 
 after another all the modulations of an ample 
 Liturgy. ‘The most varied tones find in them an 
 equal response: ‘‘Have mercy upon us, miserable 
 sinners! Oh come let us sing unto the Lord! 
 Sing we merrily with a loud noise! Lord, have 
 mercy upon us! Christ have mercy upon us! We 
 are tied and bound with the chain of our sins! We 
 thank thee for the hope of glory!” The doleful 
 repetitions of a Litany do not pall upon their spirit, 
 but seem to soothe it. Their hearts are as wax to 
 be moulded by the recitation; and though it is dif- 
 ficult to call this prayer, it cannot be denied that 
 they have been 7” a devotional posture of soul. 
 Whether they listen reverently to the sounds of a 
 voluntary, under the “dim religious light” of a 
 stained window, or respond to the low chant of the 
 cathedral ‘‘service,’—-seems to be nearly the same 
 thing. ‘They pray feebly for five hundred different 
 things, taking no absorbing or strong interest in 
 any. They do not pray because they want a thing, 
 but because it is a duty: and certainly the process 
 reminds them of God, enlivens their conscience, 
 soothes their mind and refreshes it after the worry 
 K 3 
 
202 THE SOUL: 
 
 of life, tranquillizes all rude passions, and altogether, 
 brings much moral benefit. It is a great error to 
 undervalue this; it is an act of Reverence, if 
 neither Prayer nor Praise. They wonder how any 
 can disparage the excellent institutions of “our 
 Church,” and attribute it to an unreasonable pre- 
 sumption, bordering on impiety. And long habits 
 of attachment to the same cling to them very fre- 
 quently, even when they pass into the number of 
 the twice-born, if the transition has been gradual, 
 slow and ill marked. 
 
 Thirdly, those in whom the phenomena of the 
 new birth have been powerfully brought out, are 
 often (and I should suspect, generally) thrown into 
 uncomfortable collision with a Liturgy, at least such 
 a one as that of the English Church. Their spirit 
 rushes in one direction, when the Liturgy would 
 call them in another. They vehemently want one 
 thing, and are hereby made conscious how little 
 they care for the rest of the five hundred things: 
 then they feel ashamed and guilty for the lukewarm- 
 ness of their prayers, and their hearts are made 
 heavy by attendance. They have plenty of narrow 
 but energetic prayer in themselves, and cannot bear 
 this miscellaneous profusion from without: and 
 when their minds deviate into meditations of their 
 own, (far more profitable to them than such languid 
 prayer could be,) they often have an unquiet con- 
 science, and scourge their wanderings as a grievous 
 sin. Besides, many things are probably felt as a 
 positive offence, through some want of harmony 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 203 
 
 between the joyful or hopeful state of the worshipper 
 and the depressed and often depressing tone of the 
 Liturgy; which seems made for persons strong and 
 copious in orthodoxy, but weak in spiritual life. I 
 forbear to illustrate this, lest I needlessly give pain : 
 for the remark is not directed against Liturgies as 
 such: nevertheless, it tends to show how delicate is 
 the problem of constructing a formulary which shall 
 neither impede high devotion nor involve anything 
 too peculiar *. 
 
 A woman of fervent and transparent soul informed 
 me, that she always, on principle, allowed her heart 
 to carry her in prayer wherever it pleased, in spite 
 of the Liturgy; in which way she could always 
 enjoy it more or less, by dropping all that was un- 
 congenial. And this appears to be the transition to 
 the fourth state; in which the person who has long 
 struggled in vain to adjust his soul to the Liturgy, 
 at length discerns that it cannot be; that it is an 
 unwise attempt; that God does not ask it of him : 
 and if still he sees a general benefit in the institu- 
 tion to others, and that there ought to be some such 
 thing, then in conscious uprightness before God he 
 boldly assumes a freedom which he once would have 
 thought profane: leaves off scolding his mind for 
 wandering, translates words into others more suit- - 
 
 * The Lord’s Prayer appears to be a perfect formula, as dictating 
 the topics of fixed Public Prayer. But one party among us has made 
 it a formality, by merely adopting its letter without the spirit, another 
 dislikes the Prayer for its meagreness. For a Liturgy, its imagined 
 meagreness is its excellence. 
 
204 THE SOUL: 
 
 able to him, and cares only fur one thing,—that his 
 heart shall rise to God or brood over holy thoughts, 
 whether in connexion with the public prayer or 
 otherwise. And the same nearly applies to the 
 prayers of Scotch and Dissenting Churches, when- 
 ever they are intellectually constructed. But, it will 
 be perceived, that a person who attends public 
 prayer in this spirit, is really “ going to Church 
 jor examples sake:” he would get more benefit 
 in private. Hence he does this out of the super- 
 abundance of his spiritual strength, as a charity to 
 others: which, however possible now and then, is 
 likely to become an unbearable tax for a continuity. 
 Be it however admitted; there is possibly, beyond 
 all these, a fifth state, in which the Spirit of Inter- 
 cession has developed itself and a serene atmosphere 
 has been reached; the Soul retains all its earnest- 
 ness, and yet is so harmoniously blended with the 
 moral Will, that the man can to a great extent de- 
 termine the direction and force of his own spiritual 
 affections. ‘The Catholicity of his internal experi- 
 ence enables him to accommodate himself to words 
 either of confession and complaint, or of hope and 
 joy, or of entreaty for others; in the spirit of one, 
 who is raised above the painful pressure of any one 
 want, and who can calmly say, “ Father, I know 
 that thou hearest me always.” A character thus 
 perfect, would be able, if only the petitions of a 
 Liturgy are right ones, to pray them all in turn. 
 Such persons, it is to be feared, are very rare: (for 
 where that holy spirit of Intercession lives, the whole 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 205 
 
 man must be wonderfully perfect, nor would this be 
 an unappreciable fact:) and if there are such, they 
 must have gone through lower states in attaining 
 their elevation, and will not represent it to be an 
 easy thing to carry the heart and soul along with a 
 various Liturgy. For these reasons it appears to 
 me, that Forms of Prayer may with much truth be 
 called, useful in the inverse proportion to the deve- 
 lopement of spiritual life. To the ignorant and to 
 young persons they are of extreme importance, as 
 instructing them how to pray; but for these like- 
 wise, they ought not to be tedious. To the reli- 
 gious, who are elevated the first step above these, 
 they afford a time for vague and perhaps dreamy 
 reverence, like the sensuous worship by music; 
 but are profitable, chiefly because little attempt is 
 made to use them as genuine prayer and praise. 
 To the young spiritualist they are a painful burden ; 
 by the advanced spiritualist they may be borne per- 
 haps, by reason of his strength, but they are often or 
 always a trial to that strength and in no respect a 
 help to him. He may nevertheless find blessing: 
 for when all the heartstrings are tuned to the chants 
 of heaven, the soul will often respond sweet melody 
 even to the discords of heathenism. 
 
 If however this is not all true, if there be some 
 other side of the question, which is here overlooked,— 
 still [ am justified in protesting against that tyranny 
 of public opinion, which stigmatizes as irreligious 
 all who are indisposed to “come to Church,” and 
 hinders each from following the indications of his 
 
206 THE SOUL: 
 
 inward monitor. Under Church, I include Chapel; 
 for there is much in common. The Prayer of the 
 Dissenting minister is less various in its topics and 
 much shorter than the public Liturgy: these are 
 advantages: but there is no better security that it 
 shall stand in any relation to the existing state of 
 the hearer. There are ministers perhaps, who, 
 before prayer, try to bring the hearer’s mind to the 
 right tone, and then pray in the suitable key: and 
 this appears to me the only plausible way. The 
 Sermon or Address ought (I think) to precede the 
 prayer, which should on no account seek to be com- 
 prehensive. Where the minister can follow his own 
 judgment, much may be done for the better :—but 
 then also, much may be for the worse; all depends 
 on the individual. Consequently, there is no justi- 
 fication of the new ceremonial law, which orders all 
 to Church or Chapel, whether benefit be experienced 
 or no. Nay, the old phrase “ divine service,” (in 
 Greek, “ Liturgy” or public service,) expresses the 
 prevalent idea. It is imagined that we are to go to 
 Church to do some sérvice to God, not, to get some 
 good from Him: and this superstition stands firm, 
 equally among Dissenters, unawares. 
 
 It would be wrong here to deny that there may 
 be persons, whose hearts are such gushing fountains 
 of spiritual affection, that their private prayer is 
 uniformly a full stream, as is in fact supposed in 
 following a public Liturgy. But (as far as I am 
 able to learn) this is with the majority of devout 
 persons rather an exceptive case. Ordinarily the 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 207 
 
 contrast is great between the private and the osten- 
 sible worship. or, except when the heart is pecu- 
 liarly full, the prayer of earnest solitary devotion 
 may be compared to a bird of short flight : it mounts 
 up with sudden impulse, but before long stagnates 
 or falls again. Moments of meditation seem neces- 
 sarily interposed, before a new effort is possible; so 
 that it consists of many disjoined irregular breath- 
 ings of the heart, not always momentary, yet seldom 
 long, even though it be based upon the words of a 
 book open before the worshipper. Hence, in a con- 
 tinuous system of public prayers, a very frequent 
 wandering of the mind appears (to me, I confess) 
 quite inevitable, a thing to be calculated on, because 
 of the prevailing weakness of the worshippers. 
 Even to keep up with the simplest and best known 
 of formulas,—the Lord’s Prayer,—is to some an 
 unmanageable task, unless the reader were to occupy 
 threefold of the time which is generally allowed, 
 with pauses between the versicles. 
 
 But after all. how much of Fellowship is there in 
 public prayer? It is difficult to say how little. 
 Each worshipper is isolated: there is little or no 
 mutual consciousness. When indeed a whole con- 
 gregation is sensibly animated by one Spirit, then 
 no doubt there is Fellowship: but that, it is to be 
 feared, is so rare, as scarcely to deserve mention 
 here. Nor can [ at all admit the notion, that (as 
 an ordinary thing) dong prayers in private are that 
 which the new nature dictates, in proportion to the 
 energy which it displays. Indeed if we ask for 
 
208 THE SOUL: 
 
 what moral purposes the Soul is imbued with the 
 love of God ;—the reply will be: first and chiefly, 
 for its own sake, that it may attain its own best 
 condition: but secondly, that it may work, in 
 and for the world; *‘ with good heart doing ser- 
 vice, as unto the Lord, and not unto men.” Most 
 erroneous, and as I sincerely believe, most unscrip- 
 tural, is the notion, that much continuous time is 
 then to be occupied by what are called “ religious 
 exercises, —long prayers, long public services, or 
 any of those things which experience proves rather 
 to generate Pharisaism. Paul recommends to his 
 converts to pray always, rejoice without ceasing, 
 and in every thing give thanks, but we find in him 
 no exhortations to church-services, sacraments, 
 fastings, or any formal processes. I cannot but 
 think, that these things, as practically conducted, 
 need to be reckoned with “the cares of this world, 
 the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other 
 things,” which blight the young gospel-blade: and 
 the matrimonial analogy might here give a clue 
 to the real position of things. Young lovers are so 
 absorbed in long earnest talk, so anxious to win or 
 sound one another's hearts, that they are drawn off 
 from other business: but when their new relation is 
 ascertained and their mutual affection is a fixed fact, 
 they become the more energetic in their respective 
 tasks because of their love; which love would lan- 
 guish,if they were idle and tried to live upon it. Thus 
 too the soul, when so conscious of its fixed union 
 with God, as to be strung to anew and unusual pitch 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 209 
 
 of spirituality, (if not drawn aside by artificial doc- 
 trine,) runs with fresh alacrity to ts common duties: 
 and should they be such as thoroughly to engage 
 the intellect, still in every interval it breathes forth 
 desire, complaint, if not rather love and praise and 
 hope: it remembers its Lord and its true home, and 
 gains new strength to do and receive all in His 
 name. Rule, habit, or lingering superstition, chiefly 
 or alone, seem then to send a man to formal and set 
 prayer: for he has a more continuous and involuntary 
 worship. His Sun goes not down, be his day serene 
 or stormy. As he walks the streets, as he enters 
 company, as he changes his occupation, his inward 
 spirit gazes upon his Eternal Friend, and is glad, 
 even if his lips frame no word, nor his intellect any 
 clear proposition. The Spirit itself pleadeth within 
 him, perhaps in inarticulate utterances, until some 
 new and deep want reveals itselfin his soul, and a 
 fresh series of prayer begins. One thing only is 
 essential to his heavenly intercourse,—that he shall 
 be quite unobserved: and this very thing is some- 
 times not easy to secure in his own church and his 
 well-known seat: to make up for which disadvan- 
 tage (as regards Prayer at least) some signal bene- 
 fit ought to be enjoyed there. As to private devo- 
 tions, it certainly is not to be denied that there are 
 cases (known to each man) when he extremely 
 covets to prolong them. By all means let him 
 freely follow his own spiritual instinct: “Is any 
 afflicted ? let him pray: is any merry? let him 
 sing psalms.” But when long Devotions are not 
 
210 THE SOUL: 
 
 cried out for by the soul itself, they are deadening 
 and tend to hypocrisy. In fact, some men’s worst 
 temptations rise out of such times: action and com- 
 pany is the healthiest state for them, except when 
 the soul is carried into prayer as by a vehement 
 flood. For church-rulers to prescribe long Prayer, 
 (as many would now wish,) when they cannot give 
 the Spirit of Prayer, would be tyrannizing in the 
 dark. 
 
 4. In regard to Special Prayer Meetings, little 
 need be here said. It is obvious that their value 
 must depend upon the harmony of soul with soul. 
 In theory and in the abstract I regard them as 
 blessed companies: but they demand mutual trust, 
 perfect unsuspicion, a common and a pure enthu- 
 siasm. There is in them a revelation of soul, by 
 which holiness may become as it were contagious, 
 but which may make them intensely painful or very 
 injurious. Corruptio optimi est pessimum. ‘The 
 time may be in store, when social worship shall 
 ordinarily be a real outpouring of soul: but an im- 
 mense revolution of opinion, and yet more of heart, 
 must take place first. 
 
 5. But the Sermon! Can any one say a word 
 against this? Is not this at length the ‘“‘ means of 
 grace ?”—Reader, must I ask whether thou hast 
 ever heard a bad sermon? one so dull and drowsy, 
 that it was impossible to maintain attention: one so 
 empty, that no food for heart or mind could be found 
 init: one so logical, that the soul was never addressed 
 at all, but only the critical faculty called out: one so 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. AY) 
 
 illogical, that the hearer’s Understanding violently 
 resents it and will not leave his Soul free to feed on 
 the good food which is intermixed: one so uncha- 
 ritable, as to turn the heart sick: one so full of gross 
 carnal superstition, as to excite indignation, that 
 Paganism and Formalism still live to vex us: one so 
 vulgar, coarse and profanein the manner of address, 
 as to spoil good matter: one which makes Atheism 
 seem preferable to Theism, by painting the Holy and 
 All Merciful as an omnipotent devil who insists on 
 being complimented ? Under all these things, I, 
 oh Reader, have groaned a hundred times: perhaps 
 thou hast not. They are to me no small counter- 
 weight to the benefits of hearing sermons, be- 
 cause unfortunately I cannot make the preacher say 
 or leave out what I choose; and practically that is 
 what we all want (more or Jess) to do. But let this 
 pass, and suppose we have got a perfect preacher, 
 —one of a thousand; and what then ? 
 
 Obviously and clearly, the preaching of such men 
 is, more than all other causes together, a means of 
 spiritual awakening,—of conversion from sin and 
 of stimulating to an independent active life in the 
 spirit. God forbid that I write one word to depre- 
 ciate the exertions of our truest aids and champions. 
 The great pity is, that they are so few, and that the 
 same man is often so unequal to himself. How- 
 ever, not every pious and wise person makes a good 
 preacher, profitable to hearers in every stage; and 
 it is absurd to treat it as a personal slight, if one 
 does not get benefit from somebody’s sermons. No- 
 
PMB! THE SOUL: 
 
 doubt there are those who will retort; “ It is your 
 own fault: go on until you find advantage from it,” 
 —as the quack puffs off his pills. The fact is 
 that sermon-hearing is regarded as an end and not 
 merely as a means; it is to the modern Protestant, 
 what the Sacraments were to the old Church. Was 
 the minister eager for his own honour and not for 
 my welfare, when he was not satisfied by my assur- 
 ance that I found private meditation, with an occa- 
 sional book or a walk in the fields, so profitable, 
 that I had no longings after his discourse? No: 
 but there was at the bottom of his mind the assump- 
 tion, that there is some abstract duty in hearing ser- 
 mons, as if they were an end in themselves. On 
 the contrary it would seem that we ought all to 
 grow up towards a state, in which we care less and 
 less for human teaching; or rather, come to select 
 our own aids in the form of books. In the first 
 stage of spiritual life, we are as infants, fed by the 
 nurse's hand: but gradually, we ought to learn to 
 feed ourselves. And so indeed of common educa- 
 tion. The teacher is essential to children and de- 
 sirable for youths; but to keep the full-grown man 
 under tuition would blight all intellectual fruit; nay, 
 the whole use of higher teaching is, to call forth 
 and stimulate personal energies, in order that the 
 hearer may very shortly need teaching no more. 
 Occasional listening to a preacher will always be 
 more or less coveted; but it is very hurtful to ima- 
 gine that we all always want a “regular ministry” 
 to teach us. Nothing is more desirable for those 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 213 
 
 who are already fully fledged, than that each should 
 be driven out from the nest to seek his own food 
 by soaring through God's wide heaven, instead of 
 huddling together, as now, with closed wings, on 
 the flat earth, gaping for morsels of meat, lulled 
 and cooked by another. When that other, who is 
 the sole teacher, is, over and above, younger than 
 many who are to be taught,—younger too in spiri- 
 tual age,—the absurdity becomes so manifest, that 
 people betake themselves to the plea, that we ought 
 to attend “ for example’s sake.” But this, however 
 well occasionally, degenerates into a very hollow 
 system, when it becomes habitual. 
 
 Are there then vo aids to higher spiritual pro- 
 gress, to be obtained from other men? Un- 
 doubtedly there are. It is not requisite to speak of 
 intercourse by word of mouth with good men; which, 
 by reason of our shyness and dread of hypocrisy 
 or its appearance, is perhaps ordinarily less profit- 
 able even between friends than it admits of being 
 made. But the two inexhaustible sources of spi- 
 ritual supply and stimulus, are Hymns for private 
 recitation and Books: both having this in common, 
 that the Soul is active, and selects from them what 
 it pleases, in which they differ from all the pre- 
 ceding. The peculiarity of Hymns consists in their 
 being adapted to rest in the memory. Hence they 
 are available for those who cannot read ; moreover, 
 even for one who can, they are of first-rate import- 
 ance, because they accompany him everywhere, in 
 darkness or light, at home or abroad. Historians 
 
214 THE SOUL: 
 
 judge the sentiments of a nation from its Ballads: 
 much more is the devotion of a Church cognizable 
 from its favourite Hymns. Well might Paul advise 
 the Ephesians and Colossians to “teach and ad- 
 monish one another in psalms and hymns and spiri- 
 tual songs, singing and making melody in their 
 hearts to the Lord.” ‘The traveller in his idle hours, 
 the loiterer whom an unpunctual friend disappoints, 
 the invalid who wakes in the night, every man in 
 his odd minutes, who does not find holy thought to 
 come unbidden,—yet if the memory be stored with 
 hymns selected by the soul’s own preference, gets in 
 them a soothing or elevating stimulus, as his case 
 may require. Hymns are in fact the truest links 
 that bind ancient and modern souls in one. Many 
 of the Hebrew Psalms, or parts of Prophecies, have 
 inspired pure hearts in every age. In modern times, 
 great numbers of sweet and touching hymns have 
 been composed by unlettered persons, whose tasks 
 were solitary and silent. Our own language is rich 
 in them, but in German (I understand) they abound 
 still more, and are in versification far from despicable. 
 Not that elegance of form is essential to a hymn: 
 the use of the metre is to facilitate memory, and if 
 there be nothing in its composition to give positive 
 offence, this is literary merit sufficient—Hymns 
 seldom become logical and dry; hence they have a 
 prima facie superiority for nourishing the soul, to 
 prose books: and on the whole, there is nothing to 
 compare to them in this department. 
 
 But inasmuch as some cultivation of the moral 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. 215 
 
 intellect is essential for spiritual progress, and some 
 general cultivation of the mind is extremely de- 
 sirable, Prose Works have their own place, as emi- 
 nent spiritual aids. But it is needless to say a word 
 more on a subject which everybody so well appre- 
 ciates. 
 
 What then is the sum of this argument? ‘That 
 our first want is, the expansion of individual 
 life. We need to see and know something for our- 
 selves, and to learn to feed ourselves spiritually. 
 To be dependent, is hardly to live. What would it 
 avail, to believe on the authority of some person, 
 corporation or book, that my nature is weak, or 
 that I myself have sinned? that there is a God, or 
 that he desires my moral perfection ? Such second- 
 hand conyiction is not Faith, and would produce 
 none of the energetic results of Faith: the ancients * 
 would have compared it to a drunken man gabbling 
 the moral verses of Empedocles. We need more 
 of Nature in the soul; that is, a reverting to first 
 principles, a developement of primitive instincts, 
 and some increased confidence that there still lives 
 a God to hear and teach us. Never shall we by 
 mere herding together, or by leaning on authority 
 old or new, make up for intrinsic weakness in each 
 separate soul. Moreover, it is only by insight into 
 the Present, that we can understand the Past. In 
 political history and in all physical science this is 
 acknowledged: one who knows nothing of the 
 
 * Aristot. Nic. Eth. lib. vit. 3, 138. 
 
216 THE SOUL: 
 
 existing forces, in States or in unorganized Nature, 
 cannot rightly discuss past events. So, if a chasm 
 be gratuitously assumed between the spiritual action 
 which we know and experience, and that which 
 animated apostles and prophets,—or, what comes to 
 the same thing, if we know nothing of any spiritual 
 forces at all within ourselves,—we shall for ever be 
 in the dark concerning their minds and souls. But 
 with more Individuality, more Independence of 
 man, there will be more capacity to learn of God. 
 Then we shall not aim (in theory, any more than 
 in practice) to become little Christs or little Pauls; 
 we shall as freely disclaim it, as in literature the 
 becoming little Homers. Such imitation does not 
 tend to excellence, but to stupidity. Men of little 
 faith fix their eyes on the Past, as did the Scribes 
 and Pharisees: Faith gratefully and reverently ac- 
 knowledges and uses the Past, but sets her face 
 towards the Future. ‘Those who build the tombs 
 of the prophets, but allege that all inspiration is 
 now closed, would in former days probably have 
 aided to persecute them: those, on the other hand, 
 who use individual prophets only as aids towards 
 the Eternal Source of prophecy, are the true 
 imitators of those holy men. When we sympathize — 
 with God, and with the mmost yearnings of His 
 devout servants, we can afford to smile, though 
 mournfully, at the invectives of misguided zeal, 
 if it blindly regard us as enemies of God. But let 
 the songs of praise or of sacred complaint, which 
 the pious of past ages have bequeathed to us, nourish 
 
ON SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. PATE: 
 
 our spirits and link us to them: let us hope and 
 seek that the life of God may be in us, as it was in 
 them, a guide into truth and an energy for action ; 
 then shall our daily work be daily joy, and we shall 
 eat angels’ food. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. 
 
 OnE of the earliest speculations forced on the Soul 
 during its infancy, related to a state after Death. 
 The mysterious question, Whence came we? neces- 
 sarily suggests that other, Whither go we? but the 
 attempt to give an intelligent reply does not in the 
 first instance come from the Soul, but from the in- 
 ventive and superficial Fancy. Owing to the con- 
 stant association of Body and Soul during life, the 
 Soul is supposed to go with the Body beneath the 
 earth, and the idea of a Hades or Tartarus is gene- 
 rated. When either the Understanding or the 
 Moral Faculties begin to be more unfolded, a great 
 change soon takes place in the views held on that 
 whole subject. 
 
 The most celebrated attempts to establish by 
 means of argument a doctrine concerning the Soul’s 
 immortality, come down from the school of Plato ; 
 which, with various modifications, have been repro- 
 duced in modern days. ‘There is no agreement 
 among minds capable of appreciating these argu- 
 ments, as to their validity. Metaphysical philo- 
 sophers on the whole maintain them ; a majority of 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. 219 
 
 physiologists, and nearly all unphilosophical but not 
 unintelligent Christians, reject them. To me the 
 discussion loses all interest, from the fact that it is 
 not addressed to the Soul, but to the pure Intellect, 
 and is consequently unintelligible to the vulgar. 
 But this remark needs to be expanded. 
 
 Not Plato’s celebrated discourse merely, but every 
 modern attempt in the same direction (as far as I 
 know) appeals only to facts of which the spiritual 
 and unspiritual have equal cognizance, and uses 
 arguments of (good or bad) logic, in estimating 
 which the Soul is at liberty to be asleep or non- 
 existent. We are told of the contrast of Mind and 
 Matter, and that Mind cannot perish by reason of 
 the dissolution of the body: and much more of the 
 same kind. That such statements and reasonings 
 have ever seemed to me an unmeaning jargon 
 backed by extravagantly bad logic, may arise from 
 my own obtuseness; however that may be, they are 
 (if correct) truths of pure Science and in no respect 
 doctrines of Religion. To judge of their accuracy, 
 requires, not a pure Conscience and a loving Soul, 
 but a clear and calm Head; hence to go wrong about 
 them does not indicate a religiously defective state, 
 but a weak or ill-informed understanding. Now it 
 is self-refuting to treat the doctrine as one of high 
 religious importance, and yet to confess that those 
 in whom the religious faculties are most developed 
 may be far more liable to err concerning it than 
 those who have no religious faculty in action at 
 
 L 2 
 
220 THE SOUL: 
 
 all*. On the contrary, concerning truths which 
 are really spiritual it is an obvious axiom that “he 
 who is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself 
 is judged of no man.” ‘This objection is so deci- 
 sive, and apparently so obvious to the feelings of 
 the soul, that one might have fancied no spiritual 
 man could for an instant have felt religious interest 
 in such arguments. 
 
 Very different was the history of thought among 
 the Hebrew people, although it started with a pri- 
 mitive conception of the Underworld, not sensibly 
 different from the Greek Hades. But when pro- 
 phecy had arisen, and pure moral reverence had sup- 
 planted crude imagination, all hard ideas concern- 
 ing a ghostly or rather material soul seem to have 
 vanished, and the Underworld remained only as 
 poetical imagery. ‘Thus one Royal Psalmist point- 
 edly avows that the dead can neither praise nor 
 hope in God; and other unknown yet powerful 
 writers harp on the same sad notet. Modern 
 divines might seem to be incarnations of selfish- 
 ness, if they were judged of by their fatuous doctrine, 
 that all religion (perhaps all morality) is wrecked, if 
 
 * Christians have added an argument of their own for a Future 
 State, but unfortunately one that cannot bring personal comfort or 
 assurance. A Future State (it seems) is requisite to redress the in- 
 equalities of this life. And can I go to the Supreme Judge, and tell 
 him that I deserve more happiness than he has granted me in this 
 life ? 
 
 + Isaiah xxxviii. 18, 19. - Psalm cxy. 173. Ixxxvin.s 10-12, 
 Eccles. iii. 19. 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. 221 
 
 immortality be lost. According to this, Conscience 
 is presumed to be non-existent, and Prudence to be 
 the sole stimulus to action. The generous feelings 
 of man, the love of Virtue for its own sake, and 
 much more the love of God, are ignored; and it is 
 sagely remarked, that such romantic principles will 
 never take effect on the vulgar, who, if they are to 
 be religious, must have a guid pro quo. And thus 
 men who call themselves spiritual teachers—(all 
 happily are not such)—degrade religion into a pru- 
 dential regard for our interests after death. The 
 mischief done by this selfish view in all its ramifica- 
 tions, would need a treatise to set forth. If the 
 Christian belief of immortality, as a pure intellec- 
 tual dogma, has had any beneficial effect, it is in a 
 very different way. Namely, by ascribing One 
 element of infinity to individual man, it gives him a 
 contact, appreciable to the pure intellect, with Him 
 who is Ad infinite; and thus allures the human 
 soul to seek fellowship and friendship with that 
 Eternal Spirit. But to return to the Hebrews. We 
 do not find all their Psalmists equally desponding 
 concerning the soul’s futurity; and if it were pos- 
 sible to ascertain the dates of the 16th, 17th, and 
 49th Psalms, it might have some historical interest. 
 In these we read, not indeed any abstract dogmas, 
 but personal aspirations in a tone of confidence, 
 based upon the soul's own love to God and know- 
 ledge of Him. 
 
 Ps. xvi. 8. 11: “I have set the Lord always be- 
 fore me: because he is at my right hand, I shall 
 
paps THE SOUL: 
 
 not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my 
 vitals rejoice: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For 
 thou wilt not leave my soul in the underworld, nor 
 suffer thy saint to see corruption. Thou wilt show 
 me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of 
 joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for ever- 
 more.” 
 
 Ps. xvi. 5. ‘“‘ As for me, I shall* behold thy 
 face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I 
 awake, with thy likeness.” 
 
 Ps. xlix. 14,15. ‘“ Like sheep they are laid in 
 the grave; Death shall feed upon them; ...... 
 but God will redeem my soul from the power of the 
 grave; for he will receive me.” 
 
 There may be some other passages of the same 
 tendency, but none that rest on any different basis. 
 The soul, conscious of a certain union with God, is 
 thereby excited to the hope (more or less confident) 
 that that union shall never terminate: and the pecu- 
 larity of such a view is, that the argument (if one 
 may use the phrase) is utterly inappreciable to the 
 mere acute logician: it is foolishness to him, “ be- 
 cause it is spiritually discerned.” This is as it 
 should be. Can a Mathematician understand Phy- 
 siology, or a Physiologist questions of Law? A true 
 love of God in the soul itself, an insight into Him 
 depending on that love, and a hope rising out of 
 that insight, are prerequisite for contemplating this 
 spiritual doctrine, which is a spontaneous impres- 
 
 * I observe that Ewald translates it, Mdége—! Oh might I 
 behold ! 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. O25 
 
 sion on the gazing soul, powerful (perhaps) in pro- 
 portion to its Faith; whereas all the grounds of 
 belief proposed to the mere understanding, have 
 nothing to do with Faith at all. | 
 
 When we turn to the New Testament,— (where 
 the doctrine of the saints’ immortality, as a fact, is 
 unquestionable, )—to ask for the ground and root of 
 the belief, we find Paul, as usual, the fullest source 
 of knowledge, because of the various unfolding of 
 his mind in his numerous authentic epistles. Yet 
 this doctrine has two sides with him,—one con- 
 nected with the Resurrection of Christ, and one 
 more obviously based on the older Hebrew view. 
 Each will need some notice here. 
 
 The 15th chapter of the 1st epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, is the well known passage in which he 
 elaborately developes the idea, elsewhere familiar to 
 him, that Christian hope of immortality essentially 
 depends on the Resurrection and Ascension of 
 Christ. In modern days it has been understood as 
 follows: “‘ The resurrection of Jesus was an ex- 
 ternal miracle designed to prove both the power of 
 God to raise the dead, and his fixed tnztention so 
 to do:” Paul however can hardly have meant 
 this. If he had looked on the resurrection of Christ 
 as Paley or Priestley did, as a miracle to be proved 
 only by testimony, he would have anxiously gathered 
 up and collated that testimony in an authentic form ; 
 he would have given the names of the 500 brethren 
 who witnessed it; in short, his first business must 
 have been to fix, at their earliest source, the fluctu- 
 
224 THE SOUL: 
 
 ating testimonies, before they became diluted and 
 worthless. This he must have done, if his notions 
 of logic had anything in common with the school 
 of Paley. On the contrary, he cared nothing for 
 Christ “after the flesh,’ but sought acquaintance 
 with Him as a living ascended Lord: he tells the 
 Galatians (among the proofs of his independent 
 apostleship) that he carefully kept clear of the 
 eleven at his first conversion, and received his gospel 
 of God alone. For when it pleased God to call 
 him by His grace and reveal His Son in Aim, im- 
 mediately Paul conferred not with flesh and blood, 
 neither went he up to Jerusalem to those which were 
 apostles before him; but went into Arabia; and 
 preached Christ three years before he met any of the 
 Apostles*. It is clear that Paul regarded himself 
 to have adequate grounds for believing the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ, quite independent of human witness, 
 and that he (in a certain sense) prided himself on 
 that independency. It seems evident that to doubt 
 the resurrection of Messiah was to him an intrinsic 
 absurdity: he believed in it from Prophecy, and 
 from its own propriety, or from personal revelations. 
 Messiah was to be Judge of Living and Dead; and 
 how cowld such a one be holden by death? Here 
 then came in the Pauline doctrine of Head and 
 Members: if Christ lives, his people shall live also. 
 —Now this is an appeal, not to the logician, but to 
 the spiritual heart. He does not argue for some- 
 
 * Galat. i. 11-19. 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. pis" 
 
 thing which a jury of physicians and surgeons might 
 be summoned to decide, as Paley might seem to 
 think: but it is really the old Hebrew view under a 
 new phraseology, only the name of Christ standing 
 in the place of God. While an Asaph or a Heman 
 would have said: ‘‘ Jehovah lives for ever, and I am 
 his servant: He is my God and my portion: there- 
 fore I shall live in Him:” and where Jesus says: 
 “God was the God of Abraham; but He is not the 
 God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to 
 Him:” Paul puts it thus: ‘‘ Messiah was to triumph 
 over the grave, and to say, O Death, where is thy 
 sting? Since then Messiah could not be holden of 
 death, but is risen, I, who am a member of his mys- 
 tical body, must rise also.” And this may suffice 
 as introduction to the other side of his view. 
 
 That a purely historical is as unsatisfactory as a 
 metaphysical basis for a spiritual doctrine, is ob- 
 vious; indeed, Paul gives us clearly to understand 
 that the future hopes of the soul were to be dis- 
 cerned by the soul itself, for itself, and did not de- 
 pend upon man’s wisdom, as a question of history 
 does and must. “Eye hath not seen, (says he, 
 1 Cor. ii. 9, &c.,) nor ear heard the things which God 
 hath prepared for them that love Him; but God 
 hath revealed them to us by his Spirit; for 
 the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, even the deep 
 things of God. Now we have received not the 
 spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God ; 
 that we may know those things which are freely 
 given to us of God.” It is evident that under the 
 
 L 3 
 
226 THE SOUL: 
 
 word we he includes more than his single self; at 
 least all whom he had above called adults, as op- 
 posed to babes in Christ: in fact he never claims an 
 inspiration differmg in kind from other faithful 
 Christians. Thus in his judgment, those in whom 
 the Spirit of God becomes vigorous and casts out 
 the spirit of the world, gain an eye to see the unseen 
 joys which God has prepared for those who love 
 Him. 
 
 There is another interesting passage which throws 
 light on the processes of Paul's mind. “The Spi- 
 rit itself (says he, Rom. viii. 16, 17) beareth witness 
 with our spirit that we are children of God.” So 
 far, we have a fact, resting on the direct know- 
 ledge of the soul itself: but he proceeds to argue (it 
 seems) with the logical intellect :—‘“‘ And 7f chil- 
 dren, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs 
 with Christ; if so be that [o7, seeing that ?] we 
 suffer with him, that we may also be glorified 
 together. All seems now clear. He had (as far 
 as he here tells us) no direct perception of any- 
 thing farther than that he was a “ child” of God, 
 and from this he ¢nferred that he was to be “an 
 heir” of God, that is, was to be a member of the 
 future kingdom of Messiah of which all the pro- 
 phets had spoken. 
 
 Paul indeed may have had more of direct in- 
 sight into this deepest of subjects than the passage 
 last quoted denotes: God forbid that I should pre- 
 sumptuously limit the insight enjoyed by his most 
 favoured servants. Yet his light does us little or no 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. Qa 
 
 good, while it is a light outside of us: so long, we 
 are depending on the soundness of Paul's faculties. 
 If he in any way confused the conclusions of his 
 logic (which is often extremely inconsequent and 
 mistaken) with the perceptions of his divinely illu- 
 minated soul, our belief might prove baseless. Faith 
 by proxy is really no Faith at all, and certainly is 
 not what Paul would deliberately have recommended. 
 Our real question then is not, what he believed ; but 
 how far he gives us either aid or materials for exert- 
 ing a Faith of our own. 
 
 When a divine voice is said to have declared, 
 “Because I live, ye shall live also ;”—the mind 
 which is conscious of Union with the Divine, feels 
 weight and plausibility in the argument. But 
 modern Reason considers those arguments alone to 
 be cogent, which are appreciable by the unspiritual 
 consciousness; and has accordingly endeavoured 
 to build up out of the fact of the resurrection of 
 Jesus, a logical demonstration of human immortality. 
 Yetif we take the whole case as Scriptural orthodoxy 
 represents it, the fact in itself proves nothing of 
 the sort. For Jesus was no specimen of common 
 humanity, but a supernatural being, whose mother 
 indeed was a woman, but his physical father the 
 Supreme God. No one could expect such a one to 
 pass out of life like other men, or even to die at all: 
 and if after an incomplete death, which stopt short 
 of corruption, he was reanimated, with the scars 
 of his wounds still seen in his palpable body of 
 common flesh; what is there in this exceptive 
 
228 THE SOUL: 
 
 phenomenon, that can avail even as a presumptive 
 proof that common men, born of human fathers and 
 not demigods in origin—whose death has been 
 complete, whose bodies have been dissolved—will 
 rise again in heavenly forms, unscarred by the past, 
 and incorruptible in the future? What is there in 
 this resurrection of a perfectly sinless man, every 
 way singular in relations, character, and destiny, 
 that can in itself imply that sinful men also, and 
 indeed unrepenting sinners, will rise as he? If 
 death was the penalty of sin, the wonder is, not that 
 a sinless man could not permanently be holden of 
 it, but that he could be holden for thirty-six hours. 
 The immortality of the sinful, certainly cannot be 
 deduced from that of the sinless; and how much 
 less, if he was not merely a demigod, but a Divine 
 Eternal Person in disguise ! 
 
 I have called this a modern argument: I believe 
 it is at least unknown to the New Testament; where 
 it is only the people of Christ that are said to rise 
 because he rose, and live because he lives. As far 
 as this is concerned, (which seems to be the only 
 Scriptural argument on the subject,) John and 
 Paul have added nothing to the means of conviction 
 and assurance attainable by a pious Jew. For no 
 one will say that we more certainly know that 
 Christ lives, than that God lives; or that a union 
 with God is less efficacious for immortality, than a 
 union with Christ. ‘The only possible question is, 
 whether it is easier to ascertain our spiritual union 
 with Christ, than with God. Clearly it is not. 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. 229 
 
 Christ is not accessible to the bodily senses: grant- 
 ing all concerning him which any school of ortho- 
 doxy can wish, an invisible Christ, like God, can 
 only be approached by the soul: and to ascertain 
 our union with Him, or with God, is a problem of 
 exactly the same order. 
 
 I may indeed be told by Christians of one school, 
 that Paul did not believe the miraculous conception 
 of Jesus, nor his pre-existence before the worlds: 
 nor yet do they. I know not whether they will 
 proceed to deny his sinlessness, and thus aim to fill 
 up the breach of analogy between the sinless im- 
 mortal, and the sinful mortal: certainly it would 
 seem to me gratuitous credulity, to admit a thing 
 so unproveable and improbable, as the sinlessness 
 of one who has nothing superhuman in his physical 
 origin. But it seems needless here to pursue the 
 argument: for if any one supposes Jesus to be, 
 however eminent as a man, still a sinful man—and 
 therefore, neither our Lord, our Saviour, nor our 
 Judge—he is forced to believe (at the least) such 
 delusion and misrepresentation to pervade the 
 gospel narratives, as leave him no ostensible right 
 to receive the resurrection of Jesus as a fact, if the 
 fact would ever so well serve his argument. 
 
 Such remarks, I fear, may be felt as exceedingly 
 painful by those who are accustomed to imagine a 
 fixed logical dogma on this subject to be of first- 
 rate importance, and even of necessity: but a little 
 reflection as to the high tone of spiritual elevation 
 maintained by the Hebrew bards, ought to suffice to 
 
230 THE SOUL. 
 
 show that that “ necessity ” is extremely exaggerated. 
 But this is not all. Need we ask what sort of in- 
 fluence the current views exert over the irreligious ? 
 Are they less profane, for the dreadful doctrine of 
 the Eternal Hell? Are not men also driven into a 
 Self-righteous belief, that they in some sense deserve 
 heavenly glory, merely because they cannot feel 
 that they deserve the awful alternative which alone 
 is treated as possible? Again, if it be said that 
 the fixed doctrine comforts us on the loss of pious 
 relatives, is it forgotten what distress it inflicts on 
 those whose near kinsfolk die without clear marks 
 of piety ? This proves nothing as to truth or false- 
 hood, but when people allow themselves to be in- 
 fluenced by the expediency and destrableness of the 
 prevailing creed, it is not fair to take a partial view 
 of the case. 
 
 Some however, will say :—“‘ We discard the idea 
 of Judgment and Punishment: but we still desire 
 to retain the immortality of the righteous, as an ex- 
 ternal dogma, because of the extreme importance of 
 this as consolation and support in the prospect of 
 death and in other times of trial.”—That a firm be- 
 hef of immortality, rising out of insight, must have 
 very energetic force, I regard as an axiom; but as 
 an external dogma I cannot but think that its 
 efficacy is prodigiously overrated. In this connec- 
 tion it is not egotistical to speak of myself. Seven- 
 teen or eighteen years ago *, I was to all appearance 
 
 * Written in Feb. 1849, 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. 231 
 
 dying of fever. I firmly believed (if belief at 
 second hand can be firm) that a blessed immortality, 
 guaranteed by the resurrection and word of Christ, 
 was about to open upon me; yet so feeble was the 
 effect of this belief, that it gave me not one throb 
 of joy: calm resignation to an inevitable but un- 
 welcome event, and thankfulness to that merciful 
 Love which had revealed itself to my spirit, were 
 my highest emotions.—But I will refer to another: 
 a pure and passionate soul; living, breathing and 
 moving in divine things; ever rejoicing in union 
 with God in Christ, in theory anticipating eternal 
 Glory; and yet to my certain knowledge, most 
 thoroughly unwilling to die prematurely. This is 
 only what may be expected from a faith on hearsay, 
 however much the person would be shocked at being 
 thought not truly to believe. . 
 
 It is not obscure, why the well conducted part of 
 society so desires a proof of a future life addressed 
 to the unspiritual part of our nature. ‘he doc- 
 trine is valued, less by each for his own soul, than 
 as an engine of government. Yet Bibliolaters have 
 ostensibly the least right to press for this: since, if 
 it is desirable anywhere, it was eminently wanted in 
 the Mosaic law, to restrain offenders, and to com- 
 fort good men who were in an embryo spirituality: 
 yet it was not there given. Guilt was restrained 
 only by temporal inflictions: and among ourselves 
 also, beyond a doubt, crime is repressed in bold and 
 wicked men, only by fear of the visible and present 
 judge. Whether hell be in theory believed or dis- 
 
232 THE SOUL: 
 
 believed *, it has no practical power, except over the 
 less hardened. But the attempt to turn Religion 
 into a system of State Police, is an impiety, which 
 inevitably defeats its own end. Nor less does it 
 desecrate divine Hope, to apply it as a means of 
 softening the sorrows of the unspiritual. Natural 
 sympathy is far more effective for consolation, than 
 any of these conventional topics, poured forth pro- 
 fessionally on an uncongenial mind. If Hope is to 
 comfort men in their darker, it must live with them 
 in their brighter hours; it must gush up out of an 
 inward fountain. I know it is said, that the poor 
 are made more patient by the notion so current 
 among them, that in another life they will get com- 
 pensation for the hardships which they endure in 
 the present: but this is to buy patience, by pro- 
 pagating delusion. 
 
 But do I then deny a future life, or seek to under- 
 mine a belief of it? Most assuredly not: but I 
 would put the belief (whether it is to be weaker or 
 firmer) on a spiritual basis, and on none other. It 
 
 * That a vague fear of possible retribution from God, we know not 
 how or when, is a wholesome restraint to crime and sin, I do not 
 doubt : but this is quite different from the defined dogma which alone 
 is valued by some. It would be instructive to learn, what sort of 
 persons fear the torments of hell. I have known several instances 
 of morbidly disposed and apparently good persons, who have been 
 made unhappy by alarm ; but all dad people seem to me to think that 
 they are not quite wicked enough for so dreadful a place. I cannot 
 remember, as a boy, (when I read a great deal about it and believed 
 everything that I read,) that I so much as once dreaded it for myself. 
 Quere, do any wicked people ever dread it for themselves ? 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. 233 
 
 seems to me a sort of first principle, that such a 
 belief cannot justly rise out of anything but insight 
 into God’s mind, gained by a full sympathy of our 
 spirit with God's Spirit. What we see at one time, 
 we may remember at another, and such intellectual 
 remembrance is of importance; -yet it is not the 
 same thing, and is exceedingly inferior in energy, 
 being intellectual only, not spiritual. The same 
 applies to the report brought to us of what others 
 have discerned: it serves to animate us to open our 
 eyes and gaze after the same sight, but does not 
 supersede our personalvision. Nevertheless, I never 
 knew any one who professed to have attained (by 
 spiritual insight) certain or confident expectations in 
 this matter; there is indeed a dubious passage in 
 Paul, which perhaps will express prevalent feelings: 
 “We are saved by hope: but hope which is seen, 
 ts not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he 
 yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see 
 not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Rom. 
 vill. 24, 25.—Just before he had said: “‘ Hope 
 maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is 
 shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which 
 is given to us.” Rom.v. 5. He cannot go without 
 the inward witness, and does not really rest on 
 dogma. If we farther ask, what is the actual ex- 
 perience of each faithful soul, it will possibly be 
 found to bear a witness not very different from the 
 following. 
 
 The Soul which is wedded to its Infinite Lord, 
 knows there is no presumption in thinking that He 
 
234 THE SOUL: 
 
 cares for it. Day by day, and hour by hour, it tells 
 out its complaints, its wants, its thoughts, its fears, 
 mixed with the sweet breath of praise or the sigh of 
 dim longings, all understood by Him. Yea, He 
 who searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind 
 of the Spirit, which pleadeth for the saint according 
 to the will of God. In all this the Soul may have, 
 and perhaps must have, some sorrow, yet that very 
 sorrow is sweet and sacred, and she would not part 
 with it: thus joy mounts up over sorrow, and is 
 increased by means of it. In the ordinary, and 
 perhaps the healthiest state, there is no dwelling of 
 the mind on its own prospects. When the actings 
 of love are purest, they rest most in the present *, 
 in which they are too fully absorbed to allow much 
 of either speculation or anxiety concerning the fu- 
 ture; as the child receives day by day its father’s 
 tokens of affection, and feels that sufficient for the 
 day is the good thereof. And in fact, if speculation 
 concerning the future is attempted, it can take but 
 one form ;—the hope of more Grace, more Holiness, 
 better Obedience, purer and deeper Love, whether 
 here or there, presently or in a distant age: no other 
 Heaven is within the power of human imagination. 
 It is not from the side of Self, but from parting with 
 those who are dear to it, that the Soul begins to spe- 
 culate on a future world: and when forced thus to 
 speculate, and ask whether they and it will ever cease 
 to exist,—cease therefore to love, to serve, to praise, 
 
 * T have seen this quoted as a remark of Fenelon’s. 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. 235 
 
 —both mutual love and conscious blessedness must 
 needs excite the wish of immortality. Some may 
 even have anxiety and intense longing: but most, I 
 suppose, have a certain yearning, that (if possible) 
 their union with God may be made perpetual; that 
 is, not merely commensurate with earthly life, but 
 stretching out beyond into a real eternity; and the 
 very possibility of such a thing, (not as imposed on 
 the intellect, but as apprehended by the soul,) stimu- 
 lates every holy effort. Faith also appears to gain an 
 ever increasing confidence in the good will of God to 
 perfect us more and more; and it is very wholesome 
 to nourish this expectation: for even when we are 
 most tempted and weakest, we instantly become 
 strong, if we can believe that he means to make us 
 strong. Herein we discern some probability, (in- 
 creasing with the strength of that Faith,) that the 
 highest state which the soul here reaches, is not and 
 cannot be meant by God as its ultimate and absolutely 
 highest; but that his work begun in it must needs go 
 on towards perfection, unchecked by the limit which 
 we call Death. That God should as it were elabo- 
 rately train a soul for serving and loving Him, and 
 then suddenly abandon his own workmanship, when 
 its lineaments were beginning a little to exhibit the 
 hand of the Divine Artist, appears a harsh and almost 
 cruel thought. Undoubtedly, if we reason from the 
 analogies of organic nature, we shall come to an 
 opposite conclusion; but spiritual action in many 
 respects is quite peculiar, and especially in this, that 
 we cannot conceive of God as tying himself (so to 
 
236 THE SOUL: 
 
 say) by general laws, so as to deal otherwise with 
 this soul than He would have done if it had been 
 the only soul in the universe. In organic life, we 
 often suffer pain or loss, from the mere operation of 
 general laws which take no cognizance of our moral 
 state: that, I say, we cannot imagine to happen as 
 to spiritual relations. Hence no @ priori disproof 
 is felt from the arguments of physiology: it remains 
 as a thing not manifestly refused by God. For this 
 therefore, from time to time, the Spirit within pleads, 
 and knows that it will be accepted in asking, even if 
 the prayer be ignorant.—Still, unless some clear con- 
 viction can be gained, that the thing asked is accord- 
 ing to the will of God, the soul cannot have con- 
 fidence that the petition will be fulfilled; and to 
 ascertain this by direct vision, is (to me hitherto) 
 impossible: for to our blind eyes many things seem 
 easy, which Almighty wisdom knows cannot be 
 granted; and while the intellect hesitates on this 
 point, the soul dares not to dogmatize. Confi- 
 dence thus there is none, and hopeful Aspiration is 
 her highest state. But then, there is herein nothing 
 whatever to distress her: no cloud of grief crosses 
 the area of her vision, as she gazes upward: for 7f 
 her Lord, infinite in love and wisdom, sees that it 
 cannot be, she herself could not wish it. While in 
 such vigour of life as to have any insight into God’s 
 mind, she is also in vigour enough to trample self- 
 ishness under foot. In fact, it would not be selfish 
 merely, but silly, to fret, that odd cannot be even, 
 nor a creature be as its Creator; and nothing short 
 
HOPES CONCERNING FUTURE LIFE. 237 
 
 of difficulty insuperable as this, would lead to the 
 refusal of so holy and simple a desire *. 
 
 The general conclusion to which I personally 
 come, is, that the state of Aspiration to which alone 
 I attain, is perhaps the very best thing for me, until 
 some other conditions of soul are fulfilled, in which 
 as yet I am deficient. If selfishness mixes unduly 
 in my desires, might not a greater certainty (espe- 
 cially one impressed from without) benumb the out- 
 goings of the spirit; just as human love is easily 
 sated and flags, if it be not pure, as well as strong ? 
 The Honourable Robert Boyle somewhere says 
 quaintly: “I hold a piece of meat to my dog, that 
 he may jump at it; and the higher he jumps, the 
 higher I hold it, to make him jump the more: 
 even so does God hold out beyond our reach the 
 soul's true aliment, eternal glory,” &c. If the 
 principle here hinted at be sound, a clear prospect 
 of eternity may conceivably be the last reward re- 
 served by God for faithful souls; imparted then, 
 but only then, when He sees that it could not pro- 
 duce lapses into unconcern, irreverent self-conceit, 
 with all its train of abominations, or foolish and 
 
 * Tf I labour under an error, the reader will be most likely to see 
 through it by my expressing the error more distinctly. I therefore 
 add, that I cannot feel swe, that Eternity (in the future, as in the 
 past) is not as much an incommunicable prerogative of God as 
 Omnipotence or Omniscience. Thus one who presses us with the 
 question: “ Ought we to be contented without knowing our immor- 
 tality ?” seems to me in danger of exerting himself to make us dis- 
 contented with our creaturely position. “ By this sin fell the Angels.” 
 This thought the old Greeks expressed by évara& dei dvnrdv Ogoveiv. 
 
238 THE SOUL. 
 
 wrong neglect of earthly interests. But in the same 
 proportion to our hopes concerning self, are our 
 hopes concerning all spiritually enlightened souls; 
 all that are capable of obeying and rejoicing in 
 God: and we have concerning them precisely the 
 same comfort as concerning ourselves. If we can 
 happily cast our own souls on Him who careth for 
 us, there is surely no greater difficulty in so trusting 
 Him for all who are dearest to us. Meanwhile, 
 nothing but mischief can come from speculating 
 how he will punish others ; which really amounts to 
 sitting in judgment over them ourselves, as though 
 we could read the heart, and could measure sin and 
 temptation. Let us not repine that we get no 
 answer to the questions, Are there few that shall be 
 saved? and, What shall come to yonder man? but 
 suffice it, ourselves to live with God now, if haply 
 we may live with Him to all eternity: or at any 
 rate, let us love Him while we live, and live only to 
 be conformed to His will. For if an eternity of 
 holy obedience is infinite bliss, it can only be be- 
 cause every day of obedience is bliss. We there- 
 fore do not need the promise of such an eternity, as 
 any bribe to be obedient and loving now: but either 
 Heaven is an empty name and foolish delusion, or 
 it is a Heaven on Earth to be God’s true servants. 
 In any case therefore it remains, to rest our souls on 
 a faithful Creator, knowing that whether we live, we 
 live unto Him, or whether we die, we die unto Him. 
 Living therefore or dying, we are His. 
 
CHAPTER VL. 
 
 PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 In the course of the last hundred years, the Christian 
 name has begun to extend itself over many barba- 
 rous tribes: first over the Greenlanders, by Moravian 
 missionaries, since then, as a result of the unpa- 
 ralleled naval power of England, over many islands 
 in the Pacific, and in certain parts of South and 
 West Africa. But over the old regions of India 
 and Arabia it has evidently but little power; and 
 what is most startling of all, its prospects in Europe 
 itself are externally darker than ever. In Spain, 
 Italy, France, and Germany, it is hard to say that 
 much belief of formal Christianity remains among 
 the more educated part of the community, or to 
 guess how deep a gross and fearful unbelief has 
 penetrated among the lowest population of the towns. 
 As for England and Scotland, it is notorious that a 
 horrid heathenism has taken firm root in our town 
 population also, and that millions have cast off all 
 reverence for any of the claims of authoritative reli- 
 gion. Facts so widely spread over the face of Europe 
 cannot be lightly treated. Churches are built, but 
 that class does not come to them which has cast off 
 the Christian yoke: ministers may be sent to seek 
 
240 THE SOUL: 
 
 them out, but it must not be hastily assumed that 
 they will be successful: hitherto, experience is the 
 other way, and the causes of spiritual difficulty de- 
 serve analysis. 
 
 The causes appear to me to be identical with those 
 which encounter Christian missionaries in dealing 
 with acute Hindoos or Mohammedans; namely, the 
 unmanageable character of what are called Christian 
 Evidences. The demands made on men’s faith are 
 indeed far greater than ever the Apostles made; for 
 the Apostles did not take a Bible in their hands, and 
 say to the heathen, ‘‘ Here is an infallible Book: to 
 believe that every word of this is dictated by God, 
 is the beginning of Christianity: receive this, and 
 you shall be saved.” But now, although our 
 teachers do not all assent heartily to this way of 
 preaching the Gospel, yet few have strength of mind 
 or plainness enough to disown it: and this claim of 
 Mechanical Inspiration enables every bold and 
 sharp-witted man to carry on an offensive war 
 against the Christian teacher, who will soon find 
 that he has more than enough to do in repelling the 
 infinite objections to which he lies open. The war 
 is thus carried away from the region of the Con- 
 science and of the Soul into that of verbal and other 
 criticism ; and who can expect spiritual conversion 
 from that? 
 
 But this is only the beginning of difficulty. Doc- 
 trine also has been built up into a system which aims 
 at, but cannot attain, logical exactness. J need not 
 enter into any questions of detail, and I barely hint 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 241 
 
 at the Trinity and Incarnation, the Immaculate 
 Conception of Jesus, his Vicarious Sufferings, the 
 Pelagian controversy, and other matters which divide 
 Arminians and Calvinists. No one, I think, can 
 read the New Testament with fresh eyes, and not be 
 struck by the fact, that the Apostles never encoun- 
 tered practical difficulty from the heathen or from 
 the Jews on these points. There is not the slightest 
 mark that they were assailed as polytheists or as 
 contradicting themselves. It is evident that they 
 did not hold as essential to Christianity any exact 
 system of logical doctrine, which the opponent could 
 attack as zdlogical. To recognise the authority and 
 headship of Jesus as Messiah, was all that they 
 expected of a convert; and this, not in connexion 
 with any authoritative book that professed to set 
 forth his words as an absolute law of truth. At 
 least, during Paul's labours no such book existed. 
 The convert gladly learned all the wise and holy 
 thoughts which Paul had to impart; but while 
 trusting his “private judgment” so far as to leave 
 the faith of his fathers for Christianity, it did not 
 occur to him to commit an act of moral suicide, 
 by promising thenceforward to have no judgment 
 of his own, but to believe every thing that Paul 
 told him. 
 
 There is no book in all the world which I love 
 and esteem so much as the New Testament, with the 
 devotional parts of the Old. There is none which I 
 know so intimately, the very words of which dwell 
 close to me in my most sacred thoughts, none 
 
 M 
 
242 THE SOUL: 
 
 for which I so thank God, none on which my soul 
 and heart have been to so great an extent moulded. 
 In my early boyhood it was my private delight and 
 daily companion; and to it I owe the best part of 
 whatever wisdom there is in my manhood. Yet 
 after more than thirty years’ study of it, I deli- 
 berately before God and man protest against the 
 attempt to make it a law to men’s understanding, 
 conscience or soul; and am assuredly convinced 
 that the deepest spiritual mischief has occurred to 
 the Churches,—nothing short of a stifling of the 
 Spirit of God (with few intervals) for seventeen 
 centuries and a half,—from taking the Bible (or 
 New Testament), instead of God himself, as our 
 source of inspiration. Paul certainly did not con- 
 template this. “Who then is Paul, or who is 
 Apollos, but ministers by whom ye have believed ?” 
 Paul was an inspired man; but, in his view, so was 
 Timothy, Philemon, Onesimus ; so was the meanest 
 Christian who was faithful. A spiritual man and 
 an inspired man were with him the same thing. 
 Inspiration was not infallibility, nor did it consist 
 in guaranteeing to them the contents of a book. 
 That the writings of the Apostles were more pecu- 
 liarly inspired than their spoken words, is a fiction 
 invented in modern times for the service of con- 
 troversy: while that the one and the other alike 
 were not only fallible but sometimes erroneous, an 
 unprejudiced examination presently shows. Paul 
 and Peter came, once at least, into rude collision. 
 The interpretations of the Old Testament given in 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 243 
 
 the New are very frequently fanciful and mistaken ; 
 and the expectation of Christ's speedy return in the 
 clouds of Heaven to bring about the general judg- 
 ment, is a manifest error which pervades the whole 
 New Testament. When will men leave off the 
 attempt to serve God by a lie? To varnish over 
 these and other plain facts in zeal for God, can only 
 issue in confusion to our own work and damage to 
 true religion. A calm consideration will presently 
 show one who is not tied up from thinking, that as 
 Paul or John might err in astronomy or geology, so 
 might they in history or logic or metaphysics: nay, 
 that they necessarily held all the metaphysics of 
 their own age, without knowing that they did. In 
 communion with God, their souls imbibed many 
 holy feelings, and put forth holy actions; and their 
 reflective intellect shaped, into what we call Doc- 
 trine, the perceptions of their spirits. Unless the 
 intellectual and logical processes had been infal- 
 lible, (of which we have clear evidence before us to 
 the contrary,) the resulting propositions could not 
 be divine and absolute truth, even if the inspiration 
 were the highest possible to human nature; and 
 when ¢hey did not encumber their Gospel with such 
 pretensions, or elaborate an exact system of Divinity 
 as a target for the enemy, it is gratuitous in their 
 modern followers to do this. 
 
 But let us suppose these two burdens cut away 
 from the shoulders of the Christian champion. He 
 does not desire to make the New Testament a law 
 to the mind, nor has he any Corpus of Divinity 
 
 M 2 
 
244 THE SOUL: 
 
 which he needs to uphold in entireness ; he advances 
 as lightly equipped as Priestley himself :—what may 
 we now expect from the true Theologian, when he 
 attacks sin and vice and gross unspirituality among 
 our neglected fellow countrymen? If we form an 
 a priort conception of the genuine champion of the 
 Gospel from the New Testament, we shall say, that 
 he is girt with the only sword of the Spirit, the 
 living word of God, which pierces to the dividing 
 asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and 
 is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the 
 heart. In his hands it is as lightning from God, 
 kindled from the Spirit within him, and piercing 
 through the unbelievers soul, convincing his con- 
 science of sin, and striking him to the ground 
 before God; until those who believe, receive it, not 
 as the word of man, but as, what it is in truth, the 
 word of God. Its action is directly upon the con- 
 science and upon the soul; and hence its wonderful 
 results; not on the critical faculties, upon which 
 the Spirit is powerless. Such at least was Paul's 
 weapon for fighting the Lord’s battles—But when 
 the modern battle commences, what do we see? A 
 study-table spread over with books in various lan- 
 guages; a learned man dealing with historical and 
 literary questions ; referring to Tacitus and Pliny; 
 engaged in establishing that Josephus isacredible and 
 not a credulous writer ; inquiring whether the Greek 
 of the Apocalypse and of the fourth gospel can have 
 come from the same hand; searching through Justin 
 Martyr and Iveneus, in order to find out whether 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 245 
 
 the gospels are a growth by accretion and modifica- 
 tion, or were originally struck off as we now read 
 them ; comparing Philo or Plotinus with John and 
 Paul; in short, we find him engaged (with much 
 or little success) in praiseworthy efforts at Local 
 History, Criticism of Texts, History of Philosophy, 
 Logic, (or the Theory of Evidence,) Physiology, 
 Demonology, and other important but very difficult 
 studies; all inappreciable to the unlearned, all re- 
 mote from the sphere in which the Soul operates. 
 And are these abstruse arguments the powerful and 
 living word of God? Is it not extravagant to call 
 inquiries of this sort “spiritual,” or to expect any 
 spiritual results from them? When the spiritual 
 man (as such) cannot judge, the question is removed 
 into a totally different court from that of the Soul, 
 the court of the critical understanding. Nay, the 
 Soul may not choose by her own instincts; it is a 
 dishonesty to allow likes and dislikes to operate ; 
 calm indifference is required, not impulses for or 
 against alleged historical events: the question is 
 one of external evidence. How then can the state 
 of the Soul be tested, by the conclusion to which 
 the Intellect is led? What means the anathematiz- 
 ing those who remain unconvinced ? And how can 
 it be imagined that the Lord of the Soul cares more 
 about a Historical than about a Geological, Meta- 
 physical or Mathematical argument? ‘The pro- 
 cesses of thought have nothing to quicken the 
 conscience or affect the soul. More words are surely 
 
246 THE SOUL: 
 
 not wanted, to show the intense opposition of all 
 this to the Gospel as conceived of by St. Paul. 
 
 I have already ‘shad occasion to remark, how en- 
 tirely independent of external evidence Paul felt 
 himself to be, when he preached for three years 
 without caring to meet the apostles, whose senses 
 could give the best external witness to the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus: and that he thus kept aloof from 
 them, he many years after deliberately boasted, as 
 among the proofs that his gospel and his apostle- 
 ship came direct from God. I see not how to 
 doubt, that he would have looked on an apparatus 
 of learned evidences with the same contempt as on 
 his Rabbinical books, and would have pronounced 
 them all to be dross and dung. He would at all 
 hazards have refused these weapons; for Saul’s 
 armour must needs encumber David. Nay, he 
 would have espoused the cause of these modern 
 Gentiles, who are so often “without God in the 
 world,” and for their sake would have vindicated a 
 Gospel free from the embarrassments of critical 
 erudition, level to their capacities,—or rather, ad- 
 dressed to the Soul; which is often as active and 
 susceptible in the poorest and most illiterate as in 
 the wise and great. What means vow the declara- 
 tion, “‘ Unto the poor the Gospel is preached?” and 
 what the boast,—‘“‘ I came not unto you with excel- 
 lency of speech, or of man’s learning?” For con- 
 cerning our modern Evidences, the poor and the 
 illiterate cannot possibly judge, and the preacher 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. Hs hy f 
 
 cannot preach unless he is learned: so entirely has 
 the Gospel shifted away from its primitive basis. 
 And then, can we wonder that it is wholly bereft of 
 its power to convince unbelievers ? 
 
 Another important result of this unscriptural and 
 unspiritual system is seen in the Christian Ministry. 
 A Minister in modern days is expected to excel 
 others in what are called Theological accomplish- 
 ments. Theology, one might have thought, was 
 the Science of God; but no: it is the sciences of 
 Biblical Interpretation and Historical Criticism. 
 A person eminent in these becomes a Doctor of 
 Divinity,—Sancte Theologize Professor. And yet 
 these are topics, in which a man might obtain high 
 ecclesiastical renown, though his conscience were 
 seared and his soul utterly paralyzed. Though by 
 courtesy called spiritual, the knowledge is simply 
 secular; and an immediate result of it is, that 
 youth, however unspiritual, if only the critical and 
 logical faculties have been developed, steps into the 
 chair of the Christian teacher, and becomes eccle- 
 siastically higher than age however spiritually exer- 
 cised. Christianity has been turned into a LITERA- 
 TURE, and therefore her teachers necessarily become 
 a literary Profession. Previous to Ordination, they 
 may be subjected to some literary ordeal; they may 
 also be required to profess orthodoxy and to be 
 morally respectable; but this is all that can be 
 attempted in a public system. Thus in result, a 
 national clergy cannot be expected to excel ordi- 
 nary Christians in any spiritual qualities, but only 
 in learning. How then can they be expected to 
 
248 THE SOUL: 
 
 exert any high spiritual influence? Many Dissen- 
 ters imagine that this evil is caused by the Union of 
 Church and Staté; but the same evils appear in 
 their Academies and Churches: naturally not so 
 glaringly, and yet in substance as truly. Age and 
 spiritual experience are, with them also, subordinate 
 to critical cultivation; and plainly, because, with 
 them also, Christianity has become a Literature *. 
 How opposed this is to every thing in primitive 
 Christianity, not Paul alone testifies. By every 
 writer of the New Testament it is manifestly pre- 
 sumed that the historical and logical faculties have 
 nothing to do with that faith, which is distinctive of 
 God's people. Every where it is either stated or 
 implied that the Soul or Spirit of man is alone con- 
 cerned in receiving or rejecting God’s revelation. 
 Unless we can recover this position, we have lost 
 the essential spzr7t of apostolic doctrine ; and then, by 
 holding to the form, we do but tie ourselves to a dead 
 carcass, which may poison us and disgust mankind. 
 To keep and to get Historical Faith, are different 
 
 * I have been thought here to undervalue mental culture and 
 scientific accomplishment in ministers of religion: but that is not my 
 intention. I believe that the only essential qualities for them are Age 
 and Spiritual Experience ; nevertheless, it is of very high importance 
 that a considerable fraction of them should also have a large and 
 liberal cultivation ; without which, the rest will become narrow and 
 fanatical. But in the individual, as in human history, religion must 
 be a Life, long before it can approximate to the character of a 
 Science ; and a knowledge of human nature in general seems to be 
 far more valuable to a religious teacher than any special set of facts. 
 Indeed, much that is currently called Theology, appears to me suited 
 only to bring barrenness, degeneracy, and contempt upon Religion. 
 (Second Edition.) 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 249 
 
 problems. He who has been educated in it and 
 never has lost it, throws the burden of disproof 
 upon others: he believes, till some refutation is 
 shown him. Hence mere indolence of mind suffices 
 to keep him in his father’s (historical) faith: and 
 without any such indolence, he is generally kept in 
 it, if he have any keen feelings of the spiritual 
 glories of Christianity. But if a man have no here- 
 ditary faith in it; if he was born a heathen or a Jew, 
 or has cast off all reverence for his national Chris- 
 tianity, from seemg so much hypocrisy and worldli- 
 ness in it, and knowing nothing of the good ;—then 
 he casts the burden of proof the other way: he dis- 
 believes, until somebody shows him valid reason for 
 believing things marvellous and beyond his expe- 
 rience. It is absolutely impossible to recover the 
 tens of thousands who have learned to scorn Chris- 
 tian faith, by arguments of erudition and criticism. 
 Unless the appeal can be made directly to the Con- 
 science and the Soul, faith in Christianity once lost 
 by the vulgar is lost for ever: what could the very 
 chiefest of Apostles do to bring it back? They 
 never converted one soul by learned proofs; and 
 why should we dream that they would attempt it now, 
 or could succeed? If we-continue to do as we 
 are doing,—if no action of a totally new kind 
 is set up,—the present course of affairs must go 
 steadily forward, but with accelerated velocity, in 
 proportion to the increase of mental sharpness or 
 physical destitution: a real black infidelity will 
 M 3 
 
OU THE SOUL: 
 
 spread among the millions,—an infidelity of the 
 soul to God, of the heart to virtue,—until the large 
 towns of England* become what Paris is. And as 
 for the cultivated and philosophic, what else will 
 they become but poetical Pantheists? acknowledging 
 intellectually a plastic Spirit or (as it were) Life in 
 the Universe, but just as empty of the moral affection 
 towards God, which has been the great animating 
 principle of Christianity and of the highest Judaism, 
 as if they were avowed Atheists. 
 
 But it will be said: ‘‘ What are we to do? we are 
 not Apostles, and how can we speak as Apostles?” 
 I reply: if you wish to be a follower of the Apos- 
 tles, and can seize and keep both the form and the 
 life of their teaching,——well: do so. Imitate all the 
 early preachers of Christianity. In teaching about 
 God and Christ, lay aside the wisdom of the wise: 
 forswear History and all its apparatus: hold com- 
 munion with the Father and the Son in the Spirit: 
 from this communion learn all that is essential to 
 the Gospel, and still (if possible) retain every pro- 
 position which Paul believed and taught. Propose 
 them to the faith of others, to be tested by inward 
 and spiritual evidence only; and you will at least be 
 in the true apostolic track.—If however you meet 
 (as I confess I meet) insuperable difficulties here, 
 in the attempt to hold fast, on such a basis, the 
 form of their Gospel; then, solemnly do I say, Oh 
 God most High, let us not lose the Spirit also! 
 At present, we are trampling down the Spirit, in an 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 25] 
 
 attempt to retain the Form: with how little success 
 even as to that mean object, our countless divisions 
 prove. 
 
 The tangle in which we find ourselves, and which 
 (it seems to me) must be boldly cut, and can never 
 be untied, is this:—ze cannot reason as the Apostles 
 did, unless we could recover the Metaphysics and 
 Logic of the apostolic age. This is now to us a 
 matter of erudition: with them it was a medium of 
 all common thought to rich and poor alike, except 
 to a few highly cultivated men. Modern research 
 and experience have wrought a revolution in all our 
 notions of Evidence. We have been forced to choose 
 between easy belief of miracles, and so admitting far 
 more than those of orthodoxy; or difficult belief, 
 and so criticising those of Scripture with a severity 
 of which no Apostle dreamed. We are also far 
 more scrupulous and fastidious in the sort of evi- 
 dence which we can admit in each subject. We 
 cannot take Astronomical proof of a Physiological 
 proposition, nor Chemical proof of a Moral one: 
 we have learned the divisions of the Sciences. But 
 Plato did not hesitate to offer Grammatical proofs 
 of the Soul's Immortality ; and the ancients in ge- 
 neral were prone to give Moral proofs of Physical 
 truth, or perhaps Physical explanations of Moral 
 facts. We now know that though in their higher 
 developement the Sciences osculate, yet (to the 
 human mind) their bases are quite independent, the 
 specific facts of each being furnished by a specific 
 sense or informant: and a result of this is, that the 
 
252 THE SOUL: 
 
 idea of Historical Religion is seen to involve as 
 essential a contradiction as Historical Astronomy or 
 Mathematical Religion. Every Science has a His- 
 tory; but cannot Je History, nor can History be it. 
 As to Historical Religion, we find in it two incon- 
 eruous elements, iron and miry clay. The iron is 
 the pure morals and spiritual doctrine, of which the 
 conscience and Soul take cognizance; and this is 
 at once the strong part and the precious part of 
 Christianity ; being concerned with Eternal Truth. 
 The miry clay is the historical element, of which the 
 Soul can take no cognizance at all; which is con- 
 cerned with the accidents of Time; which is to be 
 dealt with by critical erudition (according to our 
 notions of Evidence) and therefore is essentially out 
 of the reach of the great mass of mankind *. How 
 can we then include the latter element in Religion 
 at all? ‘This mixture of the Historical with the 
 Spiritual effectually forbids formal Christianity to 
 be a pure spiritual system, and lames its spiritual 
 energy. 
 
 That the metaphysics (or current philosophy) of 
 early ages, and of the Apostles themselves, was here 
 in irreconcilable opposition to ours, is clear beyond 
 dispute. If an Englishman of this century, how- 
 
 * All the attempts to found historical fact on spiritual evidence, 
 when analyzed, present an argument which runs thus: “It docs my 
 soul good to believe such and such external events; therefore such 
 events are historically true.” This is speciously called “ the argument 
 which rests on the adaptation of the Christian scheme to the wants of 
 our nature.” 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 253 
 
 ever deyout and morally wise, were to declare that 
 he had learned by communion with God the truth 
 or falsehood of some external event, said to have 
 happened in a distant time or place, (as a Virgin's 
 immaculate conception, or somebody simpeccability, ) 
 he would be thought a hopeless fanatic or mono- 
 maniac*. It is a first principle with us that the 
 spiritual faculties discern spiritual things on/y, and 
 cannot teach worldly and external truth, which 
 essentially demands the aid of the specific bodily 
 senses. Nor would it any the more satisfy us, if 
 the person asserted that the knowledge was im- 
 parted to him in a supernatural trance or mesmeric 
 rapture: for we should ask how he discriminated 
 his revelation from a dream or dosing fancy; and 
 until he explained this, and gave us the means of 
 testing and verifying the accuracy of this new 
 faculty of his, his statement would go for nothing. 
 Now it is clear that in ancient times no call was 
 made for this discrimination, nor for any verification 
 at all. A person who professed to have a vision 
 was believed outright, provided that the moral and 
 spiritual doctrine connected with it seemed satisfac- 
 tory: for spiritual men then judged by the Soul a// 
 
 * Of late years a sect has been heard of, called the Lampeter 
 Brethren, who believe a certain Mr. Prince to be an Incarnation of 
 the Most High. Such pretensions however are rejected by all sound- 
 minded persons without examination. We do not wait to ask whether 
 Mr. Prince offers evidence by miracles, or from prophecy, or by emi- 
 nent holiness of life, &c., &c., but we repudiate the idea as obviously 
 and intrinsically incredible. 
 
254 THE SOUL: 
 
 things that stood in any spiritual connexion, even 
 those which in our view manifestly cannot be made 
 independent of Sense or of the common Under- 
 standing. 
 
 And here, (if I meet with a reader of that stamp, ) 
 I may be told that our deviations from the old 
 ways of reasoning are indeed lamentably great, 
 but that we ought therefore to throw away our 
 modern Philosophy, as false and impious, and 
 adopt afresh the Philosophy of the apostolic age. 
 This will be said seriously and devoutly by thou- 
 sands of women, and by men of feminine under- 
 standings; yet I do not hesitate to assert, that 
 whoever holds this language, is (just in proportion 
 to his influence) actively fighting against the souls 
 of men—little as he knows it,—and helping to 
 propagate heathen darkness. He virtually tells us, 
 that we shall not have God in our Souls, except 
 by the sacrifice of our Understandings. Hereby 
 he does not any the more enter the kingdom of God 
 himself, but he hinders others from entering it. As 
 the old Jews “pleased not God, and were contrary 
 to men,” forbidding the Gentiles to be saved, unless 
 they would accept the law of Moses, so have these 
 moderns a zeal for God, but not according to know- 
 ledge. 
 
 First of all, it is z¢chked so to sacrifice our under- 
 standings: and secondly, though possible in an 
 individual case, it is quite zmposszble on a large 
 scale.—It is a faithless thought, that God has so 
 constructed our nature, that its different parts are 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 255 
 
 essentially in conflict: and the result of such a 
 wilful sacrifice of the understanding, might be a 
 wretched, incurable, drivelling superstition; nay, 
 any amount of moral corruption, if the remon- 
 strances of the understanding are thus put down 
 by authority. It is not into modern English 
 orthodoxy, nor into an enlightened Romanism, 
 that such a sacrifice might plunge us; but into 
 whatever is uglest in the darkest Romanism: 
 for the check to black superstition being once 
 broken in pieces, we are left at the mercy of 
 accident, as to how far we may go. To sacrifice 
 the Understanding will never produce true Religion, 
 but only Fanaticism. Now the Apostles and their 
 contemporaries made no such sacrifice. They 
 breathed the philosophy of their own century; and 
 if we are to imitate their spirit, we shall abide in 
 ours, and not engage the two parts of our nature in 
 a fatal civil war; which they neither did nor ap- 
 proved. The “vain philosophy” which Paul de- 
 precates, is that which the Soul spurns as unspi- 
 ritual,—namely, the pretence of a sanctification 
 from Fastings, Ceremonies and Bodily Hvercise or 
 Asceticism: Coloss. ii. Nor has any man a right 
 to invest with a divine sanction the philosophizings 
 of Paul or of John. It is clear that Paul and 
 Gamaliel, John’and Philo, held common principles 
 of logic and metaphysics; which belonged to each 
 apostle by the accident of his age, and not by reve- 
 lation from God. 
 
 But secondly, such a method of solving our dif- 
 
256 THE SOUL: 
 
 ficulties is ¢mpossible. Within certain limits, the 
 Will no doubt has controul over intellectual opi- 
 nion, namely, when the evidence on which an opi- 
 nion rests does not meet us everywhere, but in 
 certain places only. Then we can purposely shun 
 that evidence, and fill our minds with what is of 
 opposite tendency; in which way men bring them- 
 selves sincerely to believe many things, which it is 
 for their apparent spiritual benefit to believe or for 
 their worldly interest to profess. But this power of 
 the Will is not omnipotent. Three centuries ago it 
 was able to sustain a man in the disbelief of the Co- 
 pernican, and in the belief of the Tychonian theory ; 
 it is now, on the contrary, quite unequal to such an 
 effect on a mind which moves in educated or half- 
 educated circles; because the certainty of truth in 
 the Copernican or rather Newtonian system has 
 permeated all cultivated thought: hence the Will 
 cannot avoid the evidence or hinder its effect on the 
 judgment. Precisely the same thing is true of those 
 logical principles, which pervade, as axioms, all 
 modern accurate investigation. In every step for- 
 ward which the Sciences make, in all their harmo- 
 nious results, in all their practical applications, we 
 have perpetual verification of the truth of the great 
 principles by which their processes are animated : 
 and the conviction of this has sunk deep into the 
 hearts of all, who, even as artizans only, behold the 
 achievements of practical science. It is thought a 
 great thing for a man to stake his life on the truth 
 of his religious faith. It is mot a great thing, but 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 25% 
 
 a matter of every day, for common men to stake 
 their lives on the truth of scientific propositions ; 
 which propositions would be quite uncertain, if any 
 doubt rested on the soundness of our scientific 
 foundations. He who knowingly sets Religion into 
 contest with Science, is digging a pit for the souls 
 of his fellow men. Except the more ignorant or 
 rash, all probably will allow this: a sufficient proof 
 indeed of it is found in the actual state of Theology. 
 Why else would men load themselves with the un- 
 endurable burden called Christian Evidences? a 
 mass of investigation, which, if it is to be calmly 
 and thoroughly judged, requires some ten years 
 persevering study from a cultivated intellect in its 
 prime. Why all this effort for Theological Col- 
 leges, and instruction in learned Divinity, except 
 that it is felt to the very bottom of our minds, that 
 external miracles can only be believed upon external 
 proofs? And this is a conviction too profound, 
 ever to be got rid of by any resoluteness of the Will 
 to return to a more primitive metaphysics. 
 
 Religion can never resume her pristine vigour, 
 until she becomes purely Spiritual, and, as in apos- 
 tolic days, appeals only to the Soul: and the real 
 problem for all who wish to save cultivated Europe 
 from Pantheism, Selfishness, and Sensuality, (such 
 as flooded and ruined ancient Greece,) is,—to ex- 
 tract and preserve the heavenly spirit of Christianity, 
 while neglecting its earthly husk. Our Deists of 
 past centuries tried to make religion a matter of the 
 pure intellect, and thereby halted at the very fron- 
 
258 THE SOUL: 
 
 tier of its inward life: they cut themselves off even 
 from all acquaintance with the experience of spi- 
 ritual men, and their religion necessarily vacillated 
 between that of Plato and Aristotle. Practical 
 Christianity has been as nothing to them, because 
 they took those divines at their word, who said that 
 it all depended on historical faith ;—which in fact is 
 as needless, as it is confessedly insufficient. Let 
 this truth be avowed, and a preacher, animated by 
 the spirit of Christ and Paul, will have plenty to 
 say, alike to the vulgar and to the philosophers, 
 appreciable by the Soul. Then he will be able to 
 keep clear of Historical and other extraneous in- 
 quiries. The guide through entanglements is this 
 single principle: to render to the Understanding the 
 things that belong to the Understanding, and to the 
 Soul the things of the Soul. Then he may speak 
 with confidence, of what he knows and feels; and 
 call on his hearers, of themselves to try and prove 
 his words. ‘Then, the conversion of men to the love 
 of God may take place by hundreds and thousands, 
 as in some former instances. ‘Then at length some 
 hope may dawn that Mohammedans and Hindoos 
 may be joimed in one fold with us, under one Shep- 
 herd, who will only have regained his older name of 
 the Lord God. ‘Then finally, the long schism of Jew 
 and Gentile may be healed, and the hearts of the 
 Sathers may be turned to the children, ere God comes 
 to smite us both with a curse. 
 
 I well know that (if this book be read) people 
 will exclaim, that I am advising them to throw away 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 259 
 
 Christianity ¢¢se/f, when I make light of its histo- 
 rical and miraculous side: and none will be more 
 clamorous to this effect, than those who care little 
 about that spiritual life which Paul lived, and 
 which is here set forth as essential Christianity. 
 Nowadays men are generally thought fanatical, 
 whose souls are in sympathy with Paul’s: and I feel 
 certain that this book will meet with at least as much 
 dislike (not to use a harsher word) because it lays 
 down certain Christian experiences as matter of 
 fact, as because it treats as unimportant those 
 things which are indifferent to the life of the 
 Soul. Answer to God, ye who think yourselves on 
 the side of Paul and John; who say of yourselves, 
 “The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, 
 are we;’—do you believe in Sanctification of the 
 Spirit by Peace and Communion with God? in the 
 New Birth of the Soul by believing in God? in the 
 Free Grace of Him, who loved us before we loved 
 Him? in Justification of the sinner, in the midst of 
 his sins, by simple Faith in God ? in the permanent 
 Union of the believing Soul with God? what know 
 you of the love of God shed abroad in the heart by 
 the Spirit, and of the Hope, that makes not ashamed, 
 thence arising? or of man’s insight into the heart of 
 God, when he has received somewhat of that Spirit 
 which searcheth even the deep things of God? ofa 
 Faith that overcomes the World? of a Spirit that 
 guides by a higher rule than Law? Such senti- 
 ments and experiences (not propositions) are the 
 true heart of Christianity: and if the reader 
 
260 THE SOUL: 
 
 hold them not, he may haply have the shell of 
 Christian truth, but he has not the kernel. If he 
 rightly knows them, he will not say, ‘They are 
 all worth nothing, without a belief in Historical and 
 Metaphysical paradoxes.” 
 
 Alas! what extension of Christianity can be ex- 
 pected among our neglected millions, when men in 
 high ecclesiastical places eagerly promote sacerdotal 
 inanities! when zeal is called out for Episcopal 
 Power, for Baptismal Regeneration, for Mechanical 
 Apostolic Succession ; nay, for Episcopal Revenues 
 and lordly pomp; when the higher clergy are ex- 
 posed to the taunt of loving the splendours and 
 greatness of this world, and therefore of not having 
 the love of God in them; when not only Mechanical 
 Inspiration is ascribed to the Bible, but a power of 
 Mechanical Consecration to the hands of Bishops 
 and Priests; nor only immaculate truth to “all 
 and everything” in the book of Common Prayer, 
 but extreme importance to everything in the Rubric ! 
 The heart sinks at the infatuation of such extrava- 
 gances, while sin and crime and hardness of heart 
 are abroad among us. Meanwhile, it is well if the 
 Soul’s present union with God in peace and joy and 
 sanctification is only secretly despised, and not de- 
 nounced as hypocritical or fanatical rant, by those 
 who display zeal for the Church and for the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity. Yet of what use would Baptism 
 or Bishops or the Church or the Trinity or the pro- 
 mise of Heaven be to us, if the soul had here no union 
 or sympathy with God? If earthly things have 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 261 
 
 been tendered to us, and we receive them not, why 
 should God show us things beyond the grave? and 
 if we have not been faithful in that which is our own, 
 who shall commit to us that which is another's? 
 To rise to the full dimensions of the Jew, is surely 
 pre-requisite for those who aspire to the stature of 
 Christ; and even the Jew thirsted for God, found 
 peace with Him, loved Him, rejoiced in Hin, 
 clung to Him. Yet, after the first blaze of 
 apostolic Christianity, the heavenly flame instantly 
 paled, the Churches declined, form and rule grew 
 up, Bishops became proud, superstition increased, 
 controversy raged, persecution began, this World 
 became the prize for which the Churches fought, 
 ecclesiastical dominion took deep root, darkness 
 overspread the earth, polytheism invaded what 
 should have been God’s kingdom, and cruelty, sen- 
 suality, ambition and avarice hid beneath priests’ 
 robes. Devout individuals there always were, whose 
 spiritual life was independent of the prevailing 
 system: but no public and visible ameliorations 
 took place, except very partially, where a little 
 Freedom was obtained ; until the great Insurrection 
 against Authority, to which the name of Luther 
 has been attached. The Reformation brought about 
 much good, till the forces of Freedom which ani- 
 mated it were again chained down; and then com- 
 menced a new decay, and a sapping of spiritual 
 faith, alike in Germany and in England. Is it not 
 historically manifest, that Authority has been the 
 bane of Christendom? Authority; which, when 
 
262 THE SOUL: 
 
 established as a church-rule, means that we are to 
 prefer Sense to Conscience, ostensible presumptions 
 to spiritual insight; that we are to subject our 
 mature to our immature convictions, progressive 
 knowledge to some fixed standard in the past. To 
 set up other men’s inspiration as our law, is to dis- 
 own that teaching of God, to which alone they owed 
 their eminence. Christians were certain to dege- 
 nerate, the moment they began to worship apostles 
 and books and church-rules and precedent and tra- 
 dition, and thus to sip at other men’s buckets, 
 instead of drawing living water from the true foun- 
 tain, God himself. Better would it have been to 
 retain peaceably in the church shoals of Judaists, 
 Docetists, Gnostics, Cerinthians, Valentinians, and 
 every heterodox name which Theology hates, than 
 to acquiesce in the belief that all God’s inspiration 
 had been drunk up by the apostles, and drive out 
 into corners and overwhelm with contumely (as we 
 also now are apt to do) the only men who might 
 have secured that Freedom, without which there 
 can be no Justice and no Love in a community. 
 So Christ's church, where all were to be brethren 
 and where no one was to bear rule, was turned into 
 a kingdom of this world, where the few ruled over 
 the many ; while the many liked to have it so, and 
 applauded the cruel and wicked punishment of those 
 who would not be subject. So too the passions of 
 princes and the struggles of party have dictated 
 rigid forms of orthodoxy, which gecure no one spiri- 
 tual quality of soul, and which Satan would sub- 
 
PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 268 
 
 scribe, if occasion required. So now they strain 
 out of God's ministry all who have scrupulous con- 
 sciences, and swallow down the world unstrained ; 
 and while men frown or tremble at Free Inquiry 
 and stop their windows against the light of Cri- 
 ticism, they do not blush to enunciate, that whoso 
 receives not the words to which they give assent, 
 hath not received the love of the Truth, that he 
 might be saved! Might not one call on the Powers 
 of Darkness to rejoice, that Darkness calls itself 
 Light, and religious England believes it ? 
 
 But alas, it is not the Church of the State only, 
 that is paralyzed. None of the Churches, except 
 in some small measure the fanatical ones, address 
 themselves directly to the Soul. Nearly all the 
 teachers of that Gospel, which once scorned the 
 learning of this world, confound worldly sciences, — 
 the domain of erudition,—with spiritual knowledge 
 and faith. They appeal to the Intellect, not to the 
 Soul, in order to establish a spiritual religion; and 
 try to force propositions into the mind, instead of 
 bidding the heart freely to expand in the light and 
 glory and love of God. 
 
 Surely God has a noble army of faithful men, 
 who would follow the night, if they did but see it; 
 but many an old idol has to be broken, many a 
 mental struggle to be gone through. Oh brethren, 
 (if there be any whom I may dare so to address,) 
 learn that inspired words were not meant as pre- 
 misses for syllogisms, nor as ready-made weapons 
 against heretics, nor as barriers against free thought 
 
264 THE SOUL. 
 
 and feeling; but as torches that kindle new souls, 
 so that the child in the Spirit is as truly inspired 
 as the parent: for the heart of man is still young ; 
 the Spirit of God has not died out. The Bible is 
 a blessed book, rightly used: yet the Bible may be 
 causing more spiritual evil than any other book, if 
 by it you smother the Holy Spirit within your- 
 selves, and condemn those who love God. A great 
 revolution of mind is wanted. The kingdom of 
 God is not meat and drink, nor sermons and sab- 
 baths, nor history and exegesis, nor a belief in the 
 infallibility of any book, nor in the supernatural 
 memory of any man; but it is, as Paul says, 
 righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
 Spirit. And he who in these last is minded as 
 Christ, is accepted with God, and shall at length 
 be approved by men. For to the life of God neither 
 belief in miracles availeth anything, nor unbelief; 
 but a new Creation; and Faith that worketh by 
 Love: and as many as walk after THIS RULE, peace 
 
 shall be upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel 
 of God. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London. 
 
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 —+ $32 Ge 
 
 . 
 NORIGA ; or, Tales of Niirenberg from the Olden Time. After a Manu- . 
 
 script of the 16th Century. Translated from the German of AuGusT 
 
 HAGEN. 
 
 Fcp. 8vo., ornamental binding. 
 
 Nearly Ready. 
 
 NYY 
 
 LECTURES ON 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 By FRANCIS 
 
 Witi1am Newman, Author of “Phases of Faith,” “History of the 
 Hebrew Monarchy,” &c. Post 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 ““ This most able and instructive book, 
 which exhibits, we think, no less moral 
 
 leas 
 
 than economical wisdom.”’—Prospective 
 Review. 
 
 < 
 
 THE CREED OF CHRISTENDOM; ts Foundations and 
 
 Superstructure. By WiLLrAM RATHBONE GREG. 8vo, cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 ** Will rank high with those critical and 
 erudite works which have of late cleared 
 up so many obscure matters in the history 
 of religion, corrected so many false theo- 
 
 ries, dispelled so many errors, and done so | 
 
 much to bring into harmony, science, and 
 religion, the voice of Nature, and the voice 
 of God.”—Economist. 
 
 ** In a calm, dispassionate manner, and in 
 a style peculiarly elegant, and, at the same 
 time, arguinentative, the momentous ques- 
 
 tions of revelation, Christianity, and a fu-! 
 
 ture state, are discussed. There is no dog- 
 matism, no assertion, no arriving with an 
 undue haste at irrelevant conclusions in its 
 pages; but there are to be found all the 
 
 evidences of profound study, scholarship, | 
 
 much reading, more thinking, and cer- 
 
 tainly there is every indication of sincerity | 
 
 and truth. It will arouse a spirit of in- 
 guiry where that is dormant, and will take 
 its place among those suggestive and intel- 
 
 ligent works which are now becoming the 
 moral alphabets of a new generation.”— 
 Weekly Dispatch. . 
 
 ** He appears to us to have executed his 
 task with thorough honesty of purpose, 
 ' and in a spirit essentially reverential—in a 
 style clear, animated, and often eloquent, 
 and, for one who disclaims the possession 
 of learning, with no small amount of criti- 
 eal knowledge and philosophic endow- 
 | ment.”—Prospective Revierw. 
 
 ““No candid reader of the ‘Creed of 
 Christendom’ can close the book without 
 ‘the secret acknowledgment that it is a 
 model of honest investigation and clear 
 exposition; that it is conceived in the true 
 spirit of serious and faithful research ; and 
 that whatever the author wants of being an 
 ecclesiastical Christian, is plainly not essen- 
 | tial to the noble guidance of life, and the 
 ,devout earnestness of the aftections.”— 
 | Westminster Review. 
 
MR. CHAPMAN’S 
 
 CHRISTIAN ASPECTS OF 
 
 courses by JoHNn JAMES TAYLER, 
 
 ** Abounds with lessons of the highest 
 practical wisdom conveyed in language of 
 consummate beauty.”’—Inquirer. 
 
 ‘These sermons are admirable. They 
 partake more directly of the character of 
 religious instruction, and possess vastly 
 more literary merit than is usual in such 
 compositions. The thought is arranged 
 with great clearness, and the style for its 
 lucid and felicitous phraseology is beyond 
 all praise. The greatest charm of the whole 
 volume, however, is its fine spirit. All the 
 writer’s human sympathies are generous 
 
 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 iN 
 
 FAITH AND DUTY. 
 
 B.A. Post 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 and elevated, and his religious feelings and 
 aspirations pure and fervent. ..... e 
 are sure that many will thank us for com- 
 mending to them a volume from which 
 such catholic views and elevated sentiments 
 may be derived.”—Nonconformist. 
 
 “* Marked by much fervid sincerity, by 
 plain and clear language, by calm, quiet, 
 good taste. The business and duties of 
 life are viewed under a Christian aspect, 
 and the object of elevating and improving 
 the human character is never lost sight of.” 
 —LEconomist. 
 
 Dis- 
 
 ~ 
 
 THE COTTON AND COMMERCE OF INDIA Considered 
 
 in relation to the Interests of Great Britain ; with Remarks on Railway 
 
 Communication in the Bombay Presidency. 
 
 By JOHN CHAPMAN, 
 
 Founder and late Manager of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway 
 
 Company. 8vo, cloth, 12s. 
 
 ** Promises to be one of the most useful 
 treatises that have been furnished on this 
 important subject. . . . . It is distin- 
 guished by a close and logical style, coupled 
 with an accuracy of detail which will, in a 
 
 reat measure, render it a text-book.”’— 
 Times, Jan, 22, 1851. 
 
 ** This book will go far to forestall the 
 inquiries to be instituted by Mr. Alexander 
 Mackay for the Manchester Chamber of 
 Commerce. . . . Mr. Chapman examines 
 the subject in detail and gives ample rea- 
 sons for his deductions. . . . His work is 
 marked, too, by sound good sense, akin to 
 the highest wisdom of the statesman. ‘The 
 author has given to the public the most 
 complete book we have for some time met 
 with on any subject.”— Economist. 
 
 “* Mr. Chapman’s great practical know- 
 ledge and experience of the subjects upon 
 which he treats has enabled him to col- 
 lect an amount of information, founded 
 upon facts, such as we believe has never 
 before been laid before the public. The all- 
 important questions of supply, production, 
 and prices of cotton in India, as well as the 
 commercial and financial questions con- 
 nected with it, are most ably treated.”— 
 Morning Chronicle. ; 
 
 ** Written by an intelligent, painstaking, 
 and well-informed gentleman, 
 
 Flaca 
 Nothing can be more correct than his} 
 
 views, so far as they extend, his survey 
 and character of districts, his conclusions 
 as to the supply the earth can yield, and 
 his assertion that the cost of transit is with 
 Indian cotton the first and ruling element 
 of price.”—Daily News. 
 
 ** Mr. Chapman’s work is only appreci- 
 able in the fulness of its value and merits 
 by those who are interested in one or other 
 branch of his subject. Full of data for 
 reasoning, replete with facts to which the 
 most implicit credit may be attached, and 
 free from any political bias, the volume is 
 that rara, if not incognita avis, a truth- 
 ful blue book, a volume of statistics not 
 cooked up to meet a theory or defend a 
 practice.’—Britannia. 
 
 “*A most valuable volume.”?— Home 
 News. 
 
 ‘““The arrangement is clear, and the 
 treatment of the subject in all cases mas- 
 terly.”’—Indian News. 
 
 ** An extremely valuable work, and will, 
 we have no doubt, claim a large share of 
 public attention from the large amount of 
 information it contains, and the careful con- 
 scientious manner in which the investiga- 
 tion of the subject has been conducted.”— 
 Anti-Slavery Reporter. 
 
 ““This is a comprehensive, practical, 
 careful, and temperate investigation,” &c. 
 —Indian Mail. 
 
0 $8 
 MR. CHAPMAN’S PUBLICATIONS. 4 
 
 SOCT ALO ST ATICS ; or, the Conditions essential to Human Happi- 
 
 We ee 
 4% 
 
 ness Specified, and the First of them Developed. By HERBERT SPEN- 
 
 CER. 8vo, cloth, 12s. 
 
 *“It is the most eloquent, the most 
 interesting, the most clearly expressed and 
 logically reasoned work, with views the 
 most original, that has appeared in the 
 
 science of social polity.’”—Literary Ga-: 
 
 zette. 
 
 ‘* The author of the present work is no 
 ordinary thinker, and no ordinary writer ; 
 and he gives, in language that sparkles 
 with beauties and reasoning, at once novel 
 and elaborate, precise and logical, a very 
 comprehensive and complete exposition of 
 
 the rights of menin society. The book will 
 | mark an epoch in the literature of scientific 
 morality.”— Economist. ¢ 
 
 ‘““We remember no work on ethics, 
 since that of Spinoza, to be compared with 
 it in the simplicity of its premises, and the 
 | logical rigour with which a complete sys- 
 tem of scientific ethics is evolved from 
 ,them. This is high praise, but we give it 
 ' deliberately.”— Leader. 
 
 “A very interesting and _ beautifully 
 logical work.’’—Nonconformist. 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 and Development. 
 Post 8vo, cloth, 9s. 
 
 *‘ Of the many remarkable facts related 
 in this book we can say little now. What 
 rather strikes us is the elevating influence 
 of an acknowledgement of mystery in any 
 form at all. In spite of all that we have 
 said, there is a tone in Mr. Atkinson’s 
 thoughts far above those of most of us who 
 live in slavery to daily experience. The 
 world is awful to him—truth is sacred. 
 However wildly he has wandered in search 
 of it, truth is all for which he cares to live. 
 If he is dogmatic, he is not vain; if he is 
 drying up the fountain of life, yet to him 
 lite is holy. He does not care for fame, 
 for wealth, for rank, for reputation, for 
 anything, except to find truth and to live 
 beautifully by it; and all this because he 
 feels the unknown and terrible forces which 
 are busy at the warp and woof of the mar- 
 vellous existence.”—Frazer’s Magazine. 
 
 *¢ A book from the reasonings and con- 
 clusions of which we are bound to express 
 our entire dissent, but to which it is im- 
 
 ossible to deny the rare merit of strictest 
 
 onesty of purpose, as an investigation 
 into a subject of the highest importance, 
 upon which the wisest of us is almost 
 entirely ignorant, begun with a sincere 
 desire to penetrate the mystery and ascer- 
 tain the truth, pursued with a brave resolve 
 to shrink from no results to whieh that 
 inquiry might lead, and to state them, 
 
 ON THE LAWS 
 
 OF MAN'S NATURE 
 
 By H. G. Arxinson and HArRreT MARTINEAU. 
 
 whatever reception they might have from 
 the world.”— Critic. 
 
 ** A curious and valuable contribution to 
 psychological science, and we regard it 
 with interest, as containing the best and 
 fullest development of the new theories of 
 mesmerism, clairvoyance, and the kindred 
 hypotheses. The book is replete with pro- 
 found refiections thrown out incidentally, 
 is distinguished by a peculiar elegance of 
 style, and in the hands of a calm and 
 philosophical theologian may serve as a 
 useful precis of the most formidable diffi- 
 culties he has to contend against in the 
 present day.”— Weekly News. 
 
 ‘““The Letters are remarkable for the 
 analytical powers which characterize them, 
 and will be eagerly read by all those who 
 “et Shara the value of the assertion, that 
 ‘The vroper study of mankind is man.’ 
 The range of reading which they embody 
 is no less extensive than the sincerity as 
 well as depth of thought and earnestness 
 in the search after truth which are their 
 principal features. Without affectation or 
 pedantry, faults arrived at by so easy a 
 transition, they are marked by simplicity 
 of diction, by an ease and grace of lan- 
 guage and expression that gives to a sub- 
 ject, for the most part intricate and per- 
 plexing, an inexpressible charm.”— Weekly 
 Dispatch. 
 
 SOCIAL ASPECTS, By Joun StTores SMITH, author of “ Mirabeau, 
 
 a Life History.” 
 
 **This work isthe production of athought- 
 ful mind, and of an ardent and earnest 
 spirit, and is well deserving of a peruss.: in 
 extenso by all those who reflect on so so- 
 lemn and important a theme as the future 
 destiny of their native country.”—Morn- 
 ing Chronicle. 
 
 ** 4 work of whose merits, we can hardly 
 speak too highly.”—Literary Gazette. 
 
 “This book has awakened in us many 
 painful thoughts and intense feelings. It 
 is fearfully true—passionate in its upbraid- 
 
 are 
 
 RELIGIOUS SCEPTICISM 
 
 History, Cause, Cure, and Mission. 
 
 Post 8vo, cloth, 5s. 
 
 Post 8vo, cloth, price 6s. 
 
 ings, unsparing in its exposures—yet full 
 of wisdom, and pervaded by an earnest 
 loving spirit. The author sees things as 
 they are—too sad and too real for silence— 
 and courageously tells of them with stern 
 and honest truth...... We receive with 
 pleasure a work so free from polite lisp- 
 ings, pretty theorizings, and canting pro- 
 gressionisms; speaking, as it does, earnest 
 truth, fearlessly but in love.”—Noncon- 
 Sormist. 
 
 AND INFIDELITY ; | their 
 
 By JoHN ALFRED LANGFORD. 
 
 He 
 
a 
 
 MR. CHAPMAN’S 
 
 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF THE INTELLECT, as exemplified in 
 
 the Religious Developments of the Greeks and Hebrews. 
 
 By R. W. 
 
 Mackay, M.A. 2 vols. 8vo, cloth, price 24s. 
 
 *“Mr. Mackay brings forward in support 
 of his views an amount of erudition which 
 will prove formidable to his antagonists. 
 Most of the best German editions of the 
 Greek and Latin classics seem to be per- 
 fectly familiar to the author, who knows 
 well how to wield such ponderous mate- 
 rials. .... The account of the theosophy 
 of Aristotle, given in the first volume, is 
 evidently the production of a master of the 
 subject.”—A theneum. 
 
 ***The Progress of the Intellect’ is in- 
 comparably the most important contribu- 
 tion yet made by any English writer to 
 views first broadly put forth by rationalistic 
 German theologians. He has widened their 
 basis—given them freer scope and larger 
 aims— supported them by stores of as 
 various and accumulated learning, and 
 imparted to them all the dignity which can 
 be derived from a sober and weighty style 
 of writing, and from processes of thought 
 to which imagination and reason contribute 
 in almost equal degrees. This is unusual 
 praise; but it is due to unusual powers ; 
 and to be offered to Mr. Mackay quite apart 
 from any agreement in_the tendency or 
 object of his treatise. We will not even 
 say that we have read it with sufficient care 
 or critical guidance to be entitled to offer 
 an opinion on the soundness of its criticism 
 or reasoning, or on the truth or falsehood 
 of its particular conclusions, or, indeed, 
 on anything but its manifest labour and 
 patience, the rare and indisputable monu- 
 ments of knowledge which we find in it, 
 and the surprising range of method it in- 
 cludes—logical, philosophical, and imagi- 
 native. Not many books have at any time 
 been published with such irresistible claims 
 
 to attention in these respects; in our own 
 day we remember none.”—Examiner. 
 
 “Over the vast area of cloud-land, 
 bounded on one side by the wars of the 
 Christians, and on the other by the last 
 book of the Odyssey, he has thrown the 
 penetrating electric lightof modern science, 
 and found a meaning for every fable and 
 every phantom by which the mysterious 
 region is haunted.”—Atlas. 
 
 * All the views are justified by authorities. 
 The work embraces many important sub- 
 jects included in and suggested by the reli- 
 gious theories of the Greeks and Hebrews : 
 and from this minute accuracy will be a 
 storehouse for arguments and. facts for 
 those disposed to attack the theories, if not 
 for those who have an interest in defending 
 them. For a book so full of learning it is 
 remarkably well written.””— Economist. 
 
 *“* The work before us exhibits an in- 
 dustry of research which reminds us of 
 Cudworth, and for which, in recent litera- 
 ture, we must seek a parallel in Germany 
 rather than in England, while its philo- 
 sophy and aims are at once lofty and 
 practical. Scattered through its more 
 abstruse disqnisitions are found passages of 
 pre-eminent beauty—gems into which are 
 absorbed the finest rays of intelligence and 
 feeling. We believe Mr. Mackay’s work 
 is unique in its kind .... The analysis 
 and history of the theory of mediation, 
 from its earliest mythical embodiments, 
 are admirable, both from their panoramic 
 breadth and their richness in illustrative 
 details. We can only recommend the 
 reader to resort himself to this treasury of 
 mingled thought and learning.”—West- 
 minster Review, Jan. 1, 1851. 
 
 LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT AND CENTRALIZATION: 
 
 The characteristics of each, and its Practical Tendencies as affect- 
 ing social, moral, and political welfare and progress: including com- 
 
 prehensive outlines of the English Constitution. 
 
 SMITH. Post 8vo, cloth, 8s. 6d. 
 
 ** This is a valuable, because a thought- 
 ful, treatise upon one of the general sub- 
 ne of theoretical and practical politics. 
 
 o one in all probability will give an abso- 
 lute assent to all its conclusions, but the 
 reader of Mr. Smith’s volume will in any 
 case be induced to give more weight to the 
 important principle insisted on.”’—Tait’s 
 Magazine. 
 
 “Embracing, with a vast range of con- 
 stitutional learning, used in a singularly 
 attractive form, an elaborate review of all 
 the leading questions of our day.’”’—Eclec- 
 tic Review. 
 
 ‘This is a book, therefore, of immediate 
 interest, and one well worthy of the most 
 studious consideration of every reforiner ; 
 but it is also the only complete and correct 
 exposition we have of our political system ; 
 and we mistake much if it does not take its 
 place in literature as our standard text-book 
 of the constitution.”’ 
 
 *< The special chapters on local self-go- 
 vernment and centralization will be found 
 
 By J. TOULMIN 
 
 chapters of the soundest practical philo- 
 sophy ; every page bearing the marks of 
 profound and practical thought.’’ 
 
 ** The chapters on the crown, and on 
 common law, and statute law, display a 
 thorough knowledge of constitutional law 
 and history, and a vast body of learning is 
 brought forward for popular information 
 without the least parade or pedantry.’’ 
 
 “* Mr. Toulmin Smith has made a most 
 valuable contribution to English literature ; 
 for he has given the people a true account 
 of their once glorious constitution; more 
 than that, he has given them a book replete 
 with the soundest and most practical views 
 of political philosophy.”— Weekly News. 
 
 ** There is much research, sound princi- 
 ple, and good logic in this book; and we 
 can recommend it to the perusal of all who 
 wish to attain a competent knowledge of 
 the broad and lasting basis of English con- 
 stitutional law and practice.’—Morning 
 Advertiser. 
 
PB 
 
 ‘ 
 
 MR. CHAPMAN’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 nee 
 
 THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART AMONG THE GREEKS, 
 
 By JoHN WINCKELMANN. From the German, by G. H. Lopez. Demy 
 8vo, cloth, with illustrations, price 12s. 
 
 ** That Winckelmann was well fitted for or less indebted. He possessed extensive 
 the task of writing a History of Ancient ' information, a refined taste, and great zeal. 
 Art, no one can deny who is acquainted with , His style is plain, direct, and specific, so 
 his profound learning and genius. .| that you are never ata loss for his meaning. 
 He undoubtedly possessed in the highest Some very good outlines, representing fine 
 degree the power of appreciating artistic types of Ancient Greek Art, illustrate the 
 skill wherever it was met with, but never text, and the volume is got up in a style 
 more so than when seen in the garb of an- | worthy of its subject.”—Spectator. 
 tiquity. . . . . The work is of ‘no; “To all lovers of art this volume will 
 common order,’ and a careful study of the | furnish the most necessary and safe guide 
 great principles embodied in it must neces-;in studying the pure principles of nature 
 sarily tend to form a pure, correct, and|and beauty in creative art...... We 
 elevated taste.””— Eclectic Revie. cannot wish better to English art than for 
 
 *“* The work is throughout lucid, and free ! a wide circulation of this invaluable work.’’ 
 from the pedantry of technicality. Its ;}—Standard of Freedom. 
 clearness constitutes its great charm. It | **The mixture of the philosopher and 
 does not discuss any one subject at great artist in Winckelman’s mind gave it at 
 length, but aims at a general view of Art, once an elegance, penetration, and know- 
 with attention to its minute developments. | ledge, which fitted him to a marvel for the 
 It is, if we may use the phrase, a Grammar , task he undertook. . . . Such awork ought 
 of Greek Art, a sine quad non to all who | to be in the library of every artist and man 
 would thoroughly investigate its language | of taste, and even the most general reader 
 
 < 
 
 LGe 
 
 | 
 
 OI 
 
 of form.”—Literary World. : 
 **Winckelman is a standard writer to 
 whom most students of art have been more 
 
 will find in it much to instruct, and much 
 to interest him.”’—Atlas. 
 
 THE ARTIST'S MARRIED LIFE: BEING THAT OF ALBERT 
 
 DURER. For devout Disciples of the Arts, Prudent Maidens, as well 
 as for the Profit and Instruction of all Christendom, given to the light. 
 Translated from the German of LEopoLD SCHEFER, by Mrs. J. R. 
 
 STODART. 
 
 “Tt is the worthy aim of the novelist to 
 show that even the trials of genius are part 
 of its education—that its very wounds are 
 furrows for its harvest. . . . Noone, indeed, 
 would have a right to expect from the 
 author of the ‘ Laienbrevier’ (see Ath. No. 
 437) such astern and forcible picture of old 
 times and trials as a Meinhold can give— 
 still less the wire-drawn sentimentalities of 
 a Hahn-Hahn; but pure thoughts—high 
 morals—tender feelings—might be looked 
 The merits of this story consist 
 in its fine purpose, and its thoughtful, and 
 for the most part just, exposition of man’s 
 inner life. To those who, chiefly appre- 
 ciating such qualities, can dispense with 
 the stimulants of incident and passion, 
 the book before us will not be unaccept- 
 able.’—Atheneum. 
 
 1 vol. fep. 8vo, ornamental binding, 6s. 
 
 “*The work reminds us of the happiest 
 efforts of Tieck..... The design is to 
 show how, in spite of every obstacle, genius 
 will manifest itself to the world, and give 
 shape and substance to its beautiful dreams 
 and fancies..... It is a very pure and 
 delightful composition, is tastefully pro- 
 duced in an antique style, and retains in 
 the translation all the peculiarities (without 
 which the book would lose half its merit) 
 of German thought and idiom.” —Bri- 
 tannia. 
 
 ‘¢ Simply then we assure our readers that 
 we have been much pleased with this work. 
 The narrative portion is well conceived, 
 and completely illustrates the author’s 
 moral; while it is interspersed with many 
 passages which are full of beauty and 
 pathos.”—Inquirer. 
 
 HEARTS IN MORTMAIN, AND CORNELIA. A Novel, in 1 vol. post 
 
 8vo, price 10s. 6d. 
 
 *“To come to such writings as ‘ Hearts in 
 Mortmain, and Cornelia’ after the anxieties 
 and roughness of our worldly struggle, is 
 like bathing in fresh waters after the dust 
 and heat of bodily exertion.....To a 
 peculiar and attractive grace they join con- 
 siderable dramatic power, and one or two 
 of the characters are conceived and exe- 
 cuted with real genius.”? — Prospective 
 Revien. 
 
 . “Both stories contain matter of thought 
 and reflection which would set up a dozen 
 cammon-place circulating library produc- 
 
 ‘tions.’—Hxraminer. 
 
 “Tt is not often now-a-days that two 
 works of such a rare degree of excellence 
 in their class are to be found in one volume; 
 
 a 
 
 it is rarer still to find two works, each of 
 which contains matter for two volumes, 
 bound up in these times in one cover.”— 
 Observer. 
 
 “The above is an extremely pleasing 
 book. The first story is written in the anti- 
 quated form of letters, but its simplicity 
 and good taste redeem it from the tedious- 
 ness and appearance of egotism which gene- 
 rally attend that style of composition.”’— 
 Economist. : : 
 
 ** Well written and interesting.”—Daily 
 News. 
 
 “Two very pleasing and elegant novels. 
 Some passages display descriptive powers 
 of a high order.”—Britannia. 
 
SR Gate 
 
 MR. CHAPMAN’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 PHASES OF FAITH, OR PASSAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF 
 
 MY CREED. 
 
 By Francis WiLLIAM Newman, Author of “ The 
 
 History of the Hebrew Monarchy,” “ The Soul: her Sorrows and her 
 
 Aspirations.” 
 
 ** Besides a style of remarkable fascina- 
 tion, from its perfect simplicity and the 
 absence of all thought of writing, the lite- 
 rary character of this book arises from its 
 display of the writer’s mind, and the narra- 
 tive of his struggles ..... In addition to 
 the religious and metaphysical interest, it 
 contains some more tangible biographical 
 matter, in incidental pictures of the writer’s 
 career, and glimpses of the alienations and 
 social persecutions he underwent in conse- 
 quence of his opinions.”’—Spectator. 
 
 “The book altogether is a most remark- 
 able book, and is destined, we think, to 
 acquire all the notoriety which was attained 
 a few years since by the ‘ Vestiges of Crea- 
 tion,’ and to produce a more lasting effect.’’ 
 —Weekly News. 
 
 ** No work in our experience has yet been 
 published so capable of grasping the mind 
 of the reader and carrying him through 
 the tortuous labyrinth of religious contro- 
 versy; no work so energetically clearing 
 the subject of all its ambiguities and sophis- 
 tications; no work so capable of making a 
 path for the new reformation to tread_se- 
 curely on. In this history of the conflicts 
 of a deeply religious mind, courageously 
 
 Post 8vo, cloth, 6s. 
 
 seeking the truth, and conquering for itself, 
 bit by bit, the right to pronounce dogmati- 
 cally on that which it had heretofore ac- 
 cepted traditionally, we see reflected, as in 
 a mirror, the history of the last few centu- 
 ries. Modern spiritualism has reason to be 
 feiicee grateful to Mr. Newman: his learn- 
 ing, his piety, his courage, his candour, 
 and his thorough mastery of his subject, 
 render his alliance doubly precious to the 
 cause.”’—The Leader. 
 
 ‘““Mr. Newman is a master of style, and 
 his book, written in plain and nervous 
 English, treats of too important a subject 
 to fail in commanding the attention of all 
 thinking men, and particularly of all the 
 ministers of religion.”’—Econonvist. 
 
 “As a narrative of the various doubts 
 and misgivings that beset a religious mind 
 when compelled by conviction to deviate 
 from the orthodox views, and as a history 
 of the conclusions arrived at by an intelli 
 gent and educated mind, with the reasons 
 and steps by which such conclusions were 
 gained, this work is most interesting and 
 oF great importance.”—Morning Adver- 
 
 iser. 
 
 NEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. 
 
 THE SOUL: HER SORROWS 
 
 AND HER ASPIRATIONS, An 
 
 Essay towards the Natural History of the Soul, as the basis of Theo- 
 
 logy. 
 
 By Francis Wi~tt1AM Newman, formerly Fellow of Balliol 
 
 College, Oxford, and Author of “ A History of the Hebrew Monarchy.” 
 
 Post 8vo, cloth, 6s. 
 
 “<The spirit throughout has our warmest 
 sympathy. It contains more of the genuine 
 life of Christianity, than half the books.that 
 are coldly elaborated in its defence. The 
 charm of the volume is the tone of faithful- 
 ness and sincerity which it breathes—the 
 evidences which it affords in every page, of 
 being drawn direct from the fountains of 
 conviction.”—Prospective Review. 
 
 **On the great ability of the author we 
 
 need not comment. The force with which 
 he puts his arguments, whether for good 
 or for evil, is obvious on every page.’’— 
 Literary Gazette. 
 
 ** We have seldom met with so much preg- 
 nant and suggestive matter in asmall com- 
 pass, as in this remarkable volume. It is 
 distinguished by a force of thought and 
 freshness of feeling, rare in the treatment 
 of religious subjects.”’—Inquirer. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE HEBREW MONARCHY, from the Administra- 
 
 tion of Samuel to the Babylonish Captivity. 
 
 By Francis WILLIAM 
 
 NEwMAN, formerly Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and Author of 
 “The Soul: her Sorrows and her Aspirations,” &c. 8vo, cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 “Tt is truly refreshing to find Jewish 
 history treated, as in the volume before us, 
 according to the rules of sound criticism, 
 and good sense. ,... The publication of 
 such a work will form an epoch in biblical 
 literature in this country.”—Inquirer. 
 
 “The Author has brought a very acute 
 mind, familiar with knowledge that is 
 beyond the range of ordinary scholarship, 
 to the task of combining and interpreting 
 the antique and fragmentary records which 
 
 contain the only materials for his work.”’— 
 Prospective Review. 
 
 ** This book must be regarded, we think, 
 as the most valuable contribution ever made 
 in the English Language to our means of un- 
 derstanding that portion of Hebrew History 
 to which it relates ..-.. The Author has 
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 THE LIFE OF JESUS, CRITICALLY EXAMINED, By Dr. Dayrp 
 
 FRIEDRICH STRAUSS. 
 
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 « »« « « - Strauss’s dialectic dexterity, his 
 forensic coolness, the even polish of his 
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 to feel the temptation to unfair advantage 
 or unseemly temper ..... Wecan testify 
 that the translator has achieved a very tough 
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 The author, though indeed a good writer, 
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 GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 
 
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 RELIGION, THE CHURCH, AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
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 RISTIAN EXAMINER 
 
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 little work is worthy the attention both 
 
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 CONTENTS. 
 
 I.—Preliminary dissertation on the 
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 II.—A discourse on the divinity of 
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 **Mr. Bushnell’s dissertation is valuable 
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 **The author of the discourses before us 
 
 POPULAR CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Development. 
 
 IIJ.—A discourse on the Atonement. 
 
 IV.—A discourse on Dogma and 
 Spirit; or the true reviving of 
 Religion. 
 
 is original in that sense in which no faith- 
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 thought so. He is original in having gone 
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 spite of all imposing creeds and customs.’ 
 —Inquirer. 
 
 : Its Transition State and probable 
 By Freperick Foxton, A.B., formerly of Pembroke 
 
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 Herefordshire. Cloth, 6s. 
 
 _ * Few writers are bolder, but his manner 
 is singularly considerate towards the very 
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 singularly calm and measured. He is 
 evidently a man who has his purpose 
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 writing for effect. But what most distin- 
 guishes him from many with whom he 
 may be compared is, the positiveness of 
 his doctrine. A prototype for his volume 
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 gion.’ There is a great coincidence in the 
 train of ideas. Parker is more copious 
 and eloquent, but Foxton is far more 
 explicit, definite, and comprehensible in 
 his meaning.’”’—Spectator. 
 
 “* He has a penetration into the spiritual 
 desires and wants of the age possible only 
 to one who partakes of them, and he has 
 uttered the most prophetic fact of our 
 religious condition, with a force of convic- 
 tion which itself gives confidence, that the 
 
 fact is as he sees it. His book appears to 
 us to contain many just and profound 
 views of the religious character of the 
 present age, and its indications of pro- 
 gress. He often touches a deep and fruit- 
 ful truth with a power and fulness that 
 leave nothing to be desired.”—Prospective 
 Review, Nov. 1849. 
 
 **Tt contains many passages that show a 
 warm appreciation of the moral beauty of 
 Christianity, — written with considerable 
 power.”—Inquirer. 
 
 ‘*. , .. with earnestness and eloquence.” 
 —Critic. 
 
 “‘ We must refer our readers to the work 
 itself, which is most ably written, and 
 evinces a spirit at once earnest, enlight- 
 ened, and liberal; in a small compass he 
 presents a most lucid exposition of views, 
 many of them original, and supported by 
 arguments which cannot fail to create a 
 deep sensation in the religious world.”— 
 Observer. 
 
MR. CHAPMAN’S 
 
 THE CATHOLIC 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE MEN. 
 
 Waxtpo Emerson. Cloth, 5s. 
 
 ““Mr. Emerson’s book is for us rather 
 strange than pleasing. Like Mr. Carlyle, 
 he strains after effect by quaint phrase- 
 ology—the novelty will gain him admirers 
 and readers. At the same time there is 
 good sterling stuff in him;—already pos- 
 sessing a great name in his own country, | 
 and being well known to the reading world 
 of Europe, his present work, speaking of 
 men and things with which we are familiar, 
 will extend his fame. It is more real and 
 material than his former volumes; more | 
 pointedly written, more terse and pithy, | 
 contains many new views, and is on the; 
 whole both a good and a readable book.” 
 —Economist. 
 
 **There are many sentences that glitter 
 and sparkle like crystals in the sunlight; 
 and many thoughts, which seem invoked | 
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 
 
 Second Edition, enlarged. Cloth, 4s, 6d. 
 
 LIAM SMITH. 
 
 “.....A Life of Fichte, full of noble- 
 ness and instruction, of grand purpose, 
 tender feeling, and brave effort! ...... 
 the compilation of which is executed with 
 great judgment and fidelity.”—Prospec- 
 tive Review. 
 
 **We state Fichte’s character as it is 
 known and admitted by men of all parties 
 among the Germans, when we say that so 
 robust an intellect, asoul so calm, so lofty, 
 massive, and immoveable, has not mingled 
 
 ee 
 
 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SERIES—continued. 
 
 SEVEN LECTURES. By RALPH 
 
 by a stern philosophy from the depths of 
 the heart.’— Weekly News. 
 
 ‘*There is more practical sense and 
 wisdom to be found in it (this Book) than 
 in any of the Books he has given to the 
 world, since his first. .... When Emer- 
 son keeps within his depth, he scatters 
 
 ‘about him a great deal of true wisdom, 
 
 mingled with much genuine poetry. There 
 is also a merit in him which it would be 
 ungrateful not to acknowledge; he has 
 made others think; he has directed the 
 minds of thousands to loftier exercises 
 than they had known before; he has 
 stimulated the reflective faculties of mul- 
 titudes, and thus led to inquiry, and 
 inquiry certainly will conduct to truth.”— 
 Critic. 
 
 By WIL- 
 
 in philosophical discussion since the time 
 OL Leher se sat Fichte’s opinions may be 
 true or false; but his character as a thinker 
 can be slightly valued only by such as 
 know it ill; and as a man, approved by 
 action and suffering, in his life and in his 
 death, he ranks with a class of men who 
 were common only in better ages than 
 ours.”—State of German Literature, by 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 THE WAY TOWARDS THE BLESSED LIFE; or, The 
 
 Doctrine of Religion. 
 WILLIAM SmiTH. Cloth, 6s. 
 
 By JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 
 
 Translated by 
 
 WILLIAM VON HUMBOLDT’S LETTERS TO A FE- 
 
 MALE FRIEND. A Complete Edition. 
 
 German Edition. 
 
 “* We cordially recommend these volumes 
 to the attention of our readers...... 
 The work is in every way worthy of the 
 character and experience of its distin- 
 guished author.”— Daily News. 
 
 ** These admirable letters were, we believe, 
 first introduced to notice in England by 
 the ‘Athenseum;’ and perhaps no greater 
 boon was ever conferred upon the English 
 reader than in the publication of the two 
 volumes which contain this excellent trans- 
 lation of William Humboldt’s portion of 
 a lengthened correspondence with his 
 female friend.”—Westminster and Fo- 
 reign Quarterly Revie. 
 
 “The beautiful series of W. Von Hum- 
 boldt’s letters, now for the first time trans- 
 lated and published complete, possess not 
 
 2 vols., cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 only high intrinsic interest, but an interest 
 arising from the very striking circum- 
 stances im which they originated...... 
 We wish we had space to verify our re- 
 marks. But we should not know where to 
 begin, or where to end; we have therefore 
 no alternative but to recommend the entire 
 book to careful perusal, and to promise a 
 continuance of occasional extracts into 
 our columns from the beauties of thought 
 and feeling with which it abounds.”—Man- 
 chester Examiner and Times. F 
 
 “‘Tt is the only complete collection of 
 these remarkable letters, which has yet 
 been published in English, and the transla- 
 tion is singularly perfect; we have seldom 
 read such a rendering of German thoughts 
 into the English tongue.”—Critic. 
 
 Translated from the Second 
 By CATHERINE M. A. Courrr, Author of “ Visits 
 to Beechwood Farm,” “ Lucy’s Half-Crown,” &c. 
 
 ‘ 
 
MR. CHAPMAN’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 BRRREE PALL LL LL LOLOL EOL OL 
 
 THE CATHOLIC 
 
 THE VOCATION OF MAN. 
 
 SERIES—continued. 
 
 By JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 
 
 Translated from the German, by Wrxtit1Am SmirH. Cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 
 **In the progress of my present work, I 
 have taken a deeper glance into religion 
 than ever I did before. In me the emotions 
 of the heart proceed only from perfect in- 
 tellectual clearness;—it cannot be but that 
 the clearness I have now attained on this 
 subject shall also take possession of my 
 heart.”’—Fichte’s Correspondence. 
 
 “©The Vocation of Man’ is, as Fichte 
 truly says, intelligible to all readers who are 
 reatty. able to understand a book at all; 
 and as the history of the mind in its various 
 phases of doubt, knowledge, and faith, it is 
 of interest to all. A book of this stamp is 
 
 THE CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 sure to teach you much, because it excites 
 thought. If it rouses you to combat his 
 conclusions, it has done a good work; for 
 in that very effort you are stirred to a con- 
 sideration of points which have hitherto 
 escaped your indolent acquiescence.’ — 
 Foreign Quarterly. 
 
 “This is Fichte’s most popular work, 
 and is every way remarkable.”—A las. 
 
 **Tt appears to us the boldest and most 
 emphatic attempt that has yet been made 
 to explain to man his restiess and uncon- 
 querable desire to win the True and the 
 Eternal.”—Sentinel. 
 
 OF THE PRESENT AGE. 
 
 By JoHANN GOTTLIEB FicuTe. Translated from the German, by W1L- 
 
 LIAM SmiTH. Cloth, 7s. 
 
 **A noble and most notable acquisition 
 to the literature of England.”—Douglas 
 Jerrold’s Weekly Paper. 
 
 *“ We accept these lectures as a true and 
 most admirable delineation of the present 
 age; and on this ground alone we should 
 bestow on them our heartiest recommend- 
 ation; but it is because they teach us how 
 we may rise above the age that we bestow 
 on them our most emphatic praise. 
 
 THE VOCATION OF THE 
 
 LIEB FICHTE. 
 Cloth, 2s. ; paper cover, 1s. 6d. 
 
 **¢The Vocation of the Scholar’...... 
 is distinguished by the same high moral 
 tone, and manly, vigorous expression which 
 characterize all Fichte’s works in the Ger- 
 man, and is nothing lost in Mr. Smith’s 
 clear, unembarrassed, and thoroughly Eng- 
 lish translation.”? — Douglas Jerrold’s 
 Newspaper. 
 
 *s We are glad to see this excellent trans- 
 lation of one of the best of Fichte’s works 
 
 *“He makes us think, and perhaps more 
 sublimely than we have ever formerly 
 thought, but it is only in order that we 
 may the more nobly act. 
 
 **As a majestic and most stirring utter- 
 ance from the lips of the greatest German 
 prophet, we trust that the book will find a 
 response in many an English soul, and 
 potently help to regenerate English society.” 
 —The Critic. 
 
 SCHOLAR. 
 
 By JOHANN GoTT- 
 
 Translated from the German, by WILLIAM SMITH. 
 
 presented to the public in a very neatform. 
 . ... No class needs an earnest and sincere 
 spirit more than the literary class: and 
 therefore the ‘ Vocation of the Scholar,’ the 
 ‘Guide of the Human Race,’ written in 
 Fichte’s most earnest, most commanding 
 temper, will be welcomed in its English 
 dress by public writers, and be beneficial 
 to the cause of truth.”’”—Heonomist. 
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR, AND ITS 
 
 MANIFESTATIONS. 
 
 By JoHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 
 
 Translated 
 
 from the German, by WiLL1AM SmirH. Second Edition. Cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 ** With great satisfaction we welcome 
 this first English translation of an author 
 who occupies the most exalted position as 
 a profound and original thinker; as an 
 irresistible orator in the cause of what he 
 believed to be truth; as a_ thoroughly 
 honest and heroic man..... The appear- 
 ance of any of his works in our language 
 is, we believe, a perfect novelty... . These 
 orations are admirably fitted for their pur- 
 save so grand is the position taken by the 
 ecturer, and so irresistible their eloquence.”’ 
 —Exraminer. 
 
 “This work must inevitably arrest the 
 attention of the scientific physician, by the 
 grand spirituality of its doctrines, and the 
 pure morality it teaches. .... Shall we be 
 presumptuous if we recommend these views 
 to our professional brethren? or if we say 
 to the enlightened, the thoughtful, the 
 serious, This—if you be true scholars—is 
 your Vocation? We know not a higher 
 morality than this, or more noble principles 
 than these : they are full of truth.”— British 
 and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review. 
 
MR. CHAPMAN’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 wee 
 
 THE CATHOLIC 
 
 SERIES—continued. 
 
 THE POPULAR WORKS 
 
 OF JOHANN GOTTLIEB 
 
 FICHTE. Cloth, 12s. per volume. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF VOL. I. 
 
 1. Memorr or tHE AvtHor, by W1itiiAm SmitH. 
 2. Tux VocATION OF THE SCHOLAR, 
 
 3. THe NATURE oF THE SCHOLAR. 
 4 
 
 . THE VoOATION oF Man. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF VOL. II. 
 
 1. Tor CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 
 2. Tue Way TOWARDS THE BuesseD LirE; or, THE DooTRINE OF 
 
 RELIGION, 
 
 SERMONS OF CONSOLATION. 
 
 D.D. 8s. cloth. 
 
 **This a really delightful volume, which 
 we would gladly see producing its purify- 
 ing and elevating influences in all our 
 families.”—Inquirer. 
 
 **This beautiful volume we are sure will 
 
 SELF-CULTURE. 
 
 cover ; 1s. cloth. 
 
 By Witt1amM ELLERY CHANNING. 
 
 By F. W. P. GrREENwoop, 
 
 meet with a grateful reception from all who 
 seek instruction on the topics most interest- 
 ing to a thoughtful mind. There are 
 twenty-seven sermons in the volume.’’— 
 Christian Examiner. 
 
 6d. paper 
 
 THE CRITICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 
 
 OF THEODORE PARKER. Cloth, 6s. 
 
 ** Tt will be seen from these extracts that 
 Theodore Parker is a writer of considerable 
 power and freshness, if not originality. Of 
 the school of Carlyle, or rather taking the 
 same German originals for his models, 
 Parker has a more sober style and a less 
 theatric taste. His composition wants the 
 
 rotesque animation and richness of Car- 
 
 yle, but it is vivid, strong, and frequently 
 picturesque, with a tenderness that the 
 po Scotchman does not possess.”’—Spec- 
 ator. : 
 
 ** Viewing him as a most useful, as well 
 as highly-gifted man, we cordially welcome 
 the appearance of an English reprint of 
 some of his best productions. The‘ Miscel- 
 laneous’ Pieces are characterised by the 
 peculiar eloquence which is without a 
 parallel in the works of English writers. 
 
 His language is almost entirely figurative : 
 the glories of nature are pressed into his 
 service, and convey his most careless 
 thought. This is the principal charm of 
 his writings; his eloquence is altogether 
 unlike that of the English orator or 
 essayist; it partakes of the grandeur of the 
 forests in his native land; and we seem, 
 when listening to his speech, to hear the 
 music of the woods, the rustling of the 
 pine-trees, and the ringing of the wood- 
 man’s axe. In this respect he resembles 
 Emerson; but, unlike that celebrated man, 
 he never discourses audibly with himself, 
 in a language unknown to the world—he 
 is never obscure; the stream, though deep, 
 reveals the glittering gems which cluster 
 so thickly on its bed.” —Inquirer. 
 
 €—-£$£@————$ —____——+_—____s@ 
 
 Ee 
 
MR. CHAPMAN’S 
 
 THE CATHOLIC 
 
 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SERIES—continued. 
 
 THE LIFE OF JEAN PAUL FR. RICHTER, compitea 
 
 from various sources. Together with his Autobiography, translated 
 
 from the German. 
 grayed on Steel. Cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 “‘The autobiography of Richter, which 
 extends only to his twelfth year, is one of 
 the most interesting studies of a true poet’s 
 childhood ever given to the world.”? — 
 Lowe’s Edinburgh Magazine. 
 
 ** Richter has an intellect vehement, 
 rugged, irresistible, crushing in pieces the 
 hardest problems; piercing into the most 
 hidden combinations of things, and grasp- 
 ing the most distant ; an imagination ee 
 sombre, splendid, or appalling, brooding 
 over the abysses of being, wandering through 
 infinitude, and summoning before us, in 
 its dim religious light, shapes of brilliancy, 
 solemnity, or terror; a fancy of exube- 
 rance literally Spee ey for it pours 
 its treasures with a lavishness which knows 
 no limit, hanging, like the sun, a jewel on 
 every grass-blade, and sowing the earth at 
 large with orient pearls. But deeper than 
 all these lies humour, the ruling quality of 
 Richter—as it were the central fire that 
 
 ervades and vivifies his whole being. He 
 is a humourist from his inmost soul; he 
 thinks as a humourist; he imagines, acts, 
 feels as a humourist: sport is the element 
 in which his nature lives and works.”— 
 Thomas Carlyle. | |. 
 
 ‘“*With such a writer it is no common 
 treat to be intimately acquainted. .In the 
 proximity of great and virtuous minds we 
 imbibe a portion of their nature—feel, as 
 mesmerists say, a healthful contagion, are 
 braced with the same spirit of faith, hope, 
 and patient endurance—are furnished with 
 data for clearing ue and working out the 
 intricate problem of life, and are inspired, 
 like them, with the prospect of immortality. 
 No reader of sensibility can rise from the 
 
 erusal of these volumes without becoming 
 
 oth wiser and better.”—Atlas. 
 
 ** Apart from the interest of the work, as 
 the life of Jean Paul, the reader learns 
 something of German life and German 
 thought, and is introduced to Weimar 
 during its most distinguished period— 
 when Goethe, Schiller, Herder, and Wie- 
 land, the great fixed stars of ist a in 
 conjunction with Jean Paul, were there, 
 surrounded by beautiful and admiring 
 
 Second Edition. 
 
 Illustrated with a Portrait en- 
 
 women, of the most refined and exalted 
 natures, and of princely rank. It is full 
 of passages so attractive and valuable that 
 it is difficult to make a selection as ex- 
 amples of its character.”—Inquirer. 
 
 *““The work is a useful exhibition of a 
 great and amiable man, who, possessed of 
 the kindliest feelings, and the most bril- 
 liant fantasy, turned to a high purpose 
 that humour of which Rabelais is the great 
 grandfather, and Sterne one of the line of 
 ancestors, and contrasted it with an exalta- 
 tion of feeling and a rhapsodical poetry 
 which are entirely his own. Let us hope 
 that it will complete the work begun by 
 Mr. Carlyle’s Essays, and cause Jean Paul 
 to be really read in this country.’—Ez- 
 aminer. 
 
 ** Richter is exhibited in a most amiable 
 light in this biography — industrious, 
 frugal, benevolent, with a child-like sim- 
 plicity of character, and a heart overflow- 
 ing with the purest love. His letters to 
 his wife are beautiful memorials of true 
 affection, and the way in which he perpe- 
 tually speaks of his children shows that he 
 was the most attached and indulgent of 
 fathers. Whoever came within the sphere 
 of his companionship appears to have con- 
 tracted an affection for him that death only 
 dissolved: and while his name was re- 
 sounding through Germany, he remained 
 as meek and humble as if he hadstill been 
 an unknown adventurer on Parnassus.”— 
 The Apprentice. 
 
 “The life of Jean Paul is a charming 
 piece of biography which draws and rivets 
 the attention. The affections of the reader 
 are fixed on the hero with an intensity 
 rarely bestowed onan historical character. 
 It is impossible to read this biography 
 without a conviction of its integrity and 
 truth; and though Richter’s style is more 
 difficult of translation than that of any 
 other German, yet we feel that his golden 
 thoughts have reached us pure from the 
 mine, to which he has given that impress 
 of genius which makes them current in all 
 countries.”—Christian Reformer. 
 
 THE RATIONALE OF RELIGIOUS INQUIRY; or, the 
 
 Question stated, of Reason, the 
 
 Bible, and the Church. By JAMES 
 
 MartinEAv. Third Edition. With a Critical Lecture on Rationalism, 
 Miracles, and the Authority of Scripture, by the late Rev. JosrrH 
 
 BLANco WHITE. 
 
 4s. paper cover ; 4s. 6d. cloth. 
 
MR. CHAPMAN’S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE CATHOLIC SER!IES—continued. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ART, An Oration on the Relation of 
 
 Translated from the German of F. W. J. 
 
 the Plastic Arts to Nature. 
 
 VON SCHELLING, by A. JOHNSON. 
 
 **This excellent oration is an application 
 to art of Schelling’s general philosophic 
 principles. Schelling takes the bold course, 
 and declares that what is ordinarily called 
 nature is not the summit of perfection, but 
 is only the inadequate manifestation of a 
 high idea, which it is the office of man to 
 penetrate. The true astronomer is not he 
 who notes down laws and causes which 
 were never revealed to sensuous organs, 
 and which are often opposed to the prima 
 Jacie influences of sensuous observers. 
 The true artist is not he who merely imi- 
 tates an isolated object in nature, but he 
 who can penetrate into the unseen essence 
 that lurks behind the visible crust, and 
 afterwards reproduce it in a visible form. 
 In the surrounding world means and ends 
 are clashed and jarred together; in the 
 
 ESSAYS. BY R. W. EMERSON. 
 
 3s. paper cover ; 3s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Notice by Tuomas CARLYLE. 
 
 ** The difficulty we find in giving a proper 
 notice of this volume arises from the per- 
 vadingness of its excellence, and the com- 
 pression of its matter. With more learning 
 than Hazlitt, more perspicuity than Car- 
 lyle, more vigour and depth of thought 
 than Addison, and with as much originality 
 and fascination as any of them, this volume 
 
 is a brilliant addition to the Table Taik of | 
 
 intellectual men, be they who or where 
 they may.’—Prospective Review. 
 
 ““Mr. Emerson is not a common man, 
 and everything he writes contains sugges- 
 tive matter of much thought and earnest- 
 ness.”— Examiner. 
 
 ““That Emerson is, in a high degree, 
 possessed of the faculty and vision of the 
 seer, none can doubt who will earnestly 
 and with a kind and reverential spirit 
 peruse these nine Essays. 
 with the true and the eternal. His piercing 
 gaze at once shoots swiitly, surely, through 
 the outward and the superficial, to the 
 inmost causes and workings. Any one can 
 tell the time who looks on the face of the 
 clock, but he loves to lay bare the machinery 
 and show its moving principle. His words 
 and his thoughts are a fresh spring, that 
 invigorates the soul that is steeped therein. 
 His mind is ever dealing with the eternal; 
 and those who only live to exercise their 
 
 He deals only | 
 
 1s. paper cover; 1s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 work of art the heterogeneous is excluded, 
 and a unity is attained not to be found 
 elsewhere. Schelling, in his oration, chiefly, 
 not exclusively, regards the arts of painting 
 and sculpture; but his remarks will equally 
 apply to others, such as poetry and music. 
 This oration of Schelling’s deserves an 
 extensive perusal. The translation, with 
 the exception of a few trifling inaccuracies, 
 is admirably done by Mr. Johnson; and 
 we know of no work in our language 
 better suited to give a notion of the turn 
 which German philosophy took after it 
 abandoned the subjectivity of Kant and 
 Fichte. The notion will, of course, be a 
 faint one; but it is something to know the 
 latitude and longitude of a mental posi- 
 tion.”—Examiner. 
 
 (Second Series.) With a 
 
 have not a feeling or an interest in the great 
 question of mind and matter, eternity and 
 nature, will disregard him as unintelligible 
 and uninteresting, as they do Bacon and 
 Plato, and, indeed, philosophy itself.’— 
 Douglas Jerrold’s Magazine. 
 
 ** Beyond social science, because beyond 
 and outside social existence, there lies the 
 science of self, the development of man in 
 his individual existence, within himself 
 and for himself. Of this latter science, 
 which may perhaps be called the philo- 
 sophy of individuality, Mr. Emerson is an 
 able apostle and interpreter.”’— League. 
 
 “As regards the particular volume of 
 EMERSON before us, we think it an im- 
 provement upon the first series of essays. 
 The subjects are better chosen. They come 
 home more to the experience of the mass 
 of mankind, and are consequently more 
 interesting. Their treatment also indicates 
 an artistic improvement in the composi- 
 tion.”—Spectator. 
 
 ** All lovers of literature will read Mr. 
 Emerson’s new volume, as the most of 
 them have read _ his former one; and if 
 correct taste, and sober views of life, and 
 such ideas on the higher subjects of thought 
 as we have been accustomed to account as 
 truths, are sometimes outraged, we at least 
 meet at every step with originality, imagi- 
 
 lower intellectual faculties, and desire only | nation, and eloquence.”—Inquirer. 
 
 new facts and new images, and those who 
 
‘Too much encouragement cannot be given to enterprising publications 
 like the present. They are directly in the teeth of popular prejudice and 
 popular trash. They are addressed to the higher class of readers—those 
 who think as well as read. They are works at which ordinary publishers 
 shudder as ‘ unsaleable,’ but which are really capable of finding a very 
 large public.”—Foreign Quarterly. 
 
 “The works already published embrace a great variety of subjects, and 
 display a great variety of talent. They are not exclusively, nor even chiefly, 
 religious ; and they are from the pens of German, French, American, 
 as well as English authors. Without reference to the opinion which they 
 to bring together some of the works which do honour to our common 
 nature, “by the genius they display, or by their ennobling tendency and 
 lofty aspirations.” —Jnquirer. 
 
 “It is highly creditable to Mr. Chapman to find his name in connexion 
 with so much well-directed enterprise in the cause of German literature 
 and philosophy. He is the first publisher who seems to have proposed to 
 himself the worthy object of introducing the English reader to the philo- 
 sophie mind of Germany, uninfluenced by the tradesman’s distrust of the 
 marketable nature of the article. It is a very praiseworthy ambition; and 
 we trust the public will justify his confidence. Nothing could be more un- 
 
 contain, we may safely say that they are generally such as all men of free 
 and philosophical minds would do well to know and ponder.”—Noncon- 
 worthy than the attempt to discourage, and indeed punish, such unselfish 
 enterprise, by attaching a bad reputation for orthodoxy to everything con- 
 
 rie 
 Sormist. 
 nected with German philosophy and theology. This is especially unworthy 
 
 Characterijation of the Catholic Series 
 BY THE: PRESS. 
 
 “ The various works composing the ‘ Catholic Series,” should be known 
 to all lovers of literature, and may be recommended as calculated to in- 
 struct and elevate by the proposition of noble aims and the inculcation of 
 noble truths, furnishing reflective and cultivated minds with more whole- 
 
 “This series deserves attention, both for what it has already given, and 
 in the ‘student,’ or the ‘scholar, to borrow Fichte’s names, who should dis- 
 
 some food than the nauseous trash which the popular tale-writers of the 
 day set before their readers.”—Morning Chronicle. 
 for what it promises.’"—Tait's Magazine. 
 
 “A series not intended to represent or maintain a form of opinion, but 
 dain to set themselves the task of exciting, by their friction, a popular pre- 
 judice and clamour on matters on which the populace are no competent 
 judges, and have, indeed, no judgment of their own,—-and who should feel, 
 as men themselves devoted to thought, that what makes a good book is 
 not that it should gain its reader’s acquiescence, but that it should multiply 
 his mental experience; that it should acquaint him with the ideas which 
 philosophers and scholars, reared by a training different from their own, 
 have laboriously reached and devoutly entertain; that, in a word, it should 
 enlarge his materials and his sympathies as a man and a thinker.”—Pro- 
 
 spective Review. 
 ‘“‘ A series of serious and manly publications.”—Economist. 
 
 LWPS 
 
IN 
 
 NOW READY, 
 No. I. 
 
 CHAPMAN'S 
 Mibrary for the aeople: 
 
 “SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN CAPITALS,” 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM WARE, M.D, 
 AUTHOR OF ‘* ZENOBIA; OR, LETTERS FROM PALMYRA,” “‘ AURELIAN,” ETC. 
 
 Post 8vo, ornamental cover, price 1s. 
 
 In the press, and will be published Nov. 1st, 
 No. I. 
 
 “LITERATURE AND LIFE” 
 
 LECTURES BY 
 
 EDWIN P. WHIPPLE, 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 Lecture I. Authors in their Relations | Lecture IV. The Ludicrous Side of 
 to Life. Life. 
 » Il. Novels and Novelists— =) V. Genius. 
 Charles Dickens. » VI. Intellectual Health and 
 » LI. Wit and Humor. Disease. 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN CHAPMAN, 142, STRAND. 
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