YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the
COLLECTION OF OXFORD BOOKS
made by
FALCONER MADAN
Bodley's Librarian

STATEMENTS

OP

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
AND PRACTICE,

EXTRACTED FROM;
THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS
OF THE
REV. BENJAMIN JOWETT, M.A.,
REGIUS PROFESSOR OP GREEK IS THE UNIVERSITY OP OXPORD.

OXFORD,
J. H. and Jas. PARKER;
AND 377, STRAND, LONDON.
l86l.

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PREFACE,

T

HE following extracts have been made from Pro
fessor Jowett's writings without his sanction and
knowledge. It is hoped that, as this practice has been
largely adopted by those who have attacked or mis
represented his opinions, he will forgive the liberty
which his friends have taken in placing before the
public a collection of passages which in most notices
of his works have been withheld from view.
In " Critical Dissertations" on a difficult portion
of Holy Scripture, it is not usually expected that
much will be found of a directly devotional, or dog
matic, or practical character. When a similar collec
tion of extracts was made in 1836 with the object of
vindicating the present Bishop of Hereford, they were
almost entirely drawn, not from his theological works,
but from a volume of Parochial Sermons. Such a
volume Professor Jowett has not published, and, in
the present instance, shortness of time, and the need
of selecting passages which could be separated from
long and complicated arguments, have unavoidably
abridged the number of those here set forth as speci
mens of their Author's practical teaching.
But it is thought that the following extracts will
suffice to shew whether the spirit which breathes
through these pages is likely to destroy or to con
firm the faith of the rising generation; whether it
is the spirit of an " enemy of Christ," or of one who

PREFACE.
is amongst His faithful followers ; whether it is a
spirit at variance, or in unity, with the best teaching
of the Prayer-book and the highest interests of the
Church of England. It is believed, moreover, that,
independently of any temporary agitation, such a col
lection of passages will (even with those who may
not entirely agree with them) be generally useful
for the purposes of Christian edification, as helps to
a careful and reverent study of the Bible, and as tes
timonies to its Divine excellence and authority.

ST. PAUL.
" There is a growth in the Epistles of St. Paul it is true ;
but it is fhe growth of Christian life, not of intellectual pro
gress, — the growth not of reflection, but of spiritual ex
perience, enlarging as the world widens before the Apostle's
eyes, passing from life to death, or from strife to peace, with
the changes in the Apostle's own life or the circumstances of
his converts. There is a rest also iu the Epistles of St. Paul,
discernible not in forms of thought or types of doctrine, but
in the Person of jChrist Himself, who is his centre in every
Epistle, however various may be his modes of expression, or
his treatment of controversial questions."— {St. Paul's Epistles,
vol. i. pp. 3, 4.)
"So he passed away, rejoicing in persecution also, and
' filling up that which was behind of the afllictions of Christ,
for his body's sake.' Many, if not most, of his followers had
forsaken him, and there is no certain memorial of the manner
of his death. Let us look once more a little closer at that
' visage marred' in his Master's service, as it appeared about
three years before on a well-known scene. A poor aged man,
worn by some bodily or mental disorder, who had been often
scourged, and bore on his face the traces of indignity and
sorrow in every form — such an one, led out of prison between
Roman soldiers, probably at times faltering in his utterance,
the creature, as he seemed to spectators, of nervous sensi
bility ; yearning, almost with a sort of fondness, to save the
souls of those whom he saw around him, — spoke a few elo
quent words in the cause of Christian truth, at which kings
were awed, telling the tale of his own conversion with such
simple pathos, that after ages have hardly heard the like.
" Such is the image, not which Christian art has delighted
to consecrate, but which the Apostle has left in his own
writings of himself; an image of true wisdom, and nobleness,
and affection, but of a wisdom unlike the wisdom of this
world ; of a nobleness which must not be transformed into
that of the heroes of the world ; an affection which seemed

8
time; she regards his faults with mingled love and sorrow.
So, in the Apostle, we seem to trace a sort of refinement or
nicety of feeling, when he is dealing with the souls of men.
All his knowledge of mankind shews itself for their sakes ;
and yet not that knowledge of mankind which comes from
without, revealing itself by experience of men and manners,
by taking a part in events, by the insensible course of years
making us learn from what we have seen and suffered. There
is another experience that comes from within, which begins
with the knowledge of self, with the consciousness of our
own weakness and infirmities ; which is continued in love to
others and in works of good to them ; which grows by single
ness and simplicity of heart. Love becomes the interpreter
of how men think, and feel, and act ; and supplies the place
of, or passes into, a worldly prudence wiser than the prudence
of this world. Such is the worldly prudence of St. Paul.
" Once more ; there is in the Apostle, not only prudence,
and knowledge of the human heart, but a kind of subtlety
of moderation, which considers every conceivable case, and
balances one with another ; in the last resort giving no rule,
but allowing all to be superseded by a more general prin
ciple. An instance of this subtle moderation is his deter
mination, or rather omission to determine the question of
meats and drinks, which he first regards as indifferent, se
condly, as depending on men's own conscience, and this
again as limited by the consciences of others, and lastly re
solves all these finer precepts into the general principle,
' Whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' The same
qualification of one principle by another recurs again in his
rules respecting marriage. First, ' do not marry unbelievers,'
and ' let not the wife depart from her husband.' But if you
are married and the unbeliever is willing to remain, then the
spirit of the second precept must prevail over the first. Only
in an extreme case, where both parties are willing to dissolve
the tie, the first principle in turn may again supersede the
second. It may be said in the one case, ' your children are
holy;' in the other, 'What knowest thou, 0 wife, if thou
shalt save thy husband ?' In a similar spirit he withdraws
his censure on the incestuous person, lest such an one, cri
minal as he was, should be swallowed up with overmuch

sorrow. There is a religious aspect of either course of con
duct, and either may be right under given circumstances.
So the kingdoms of this world admit of being regarded
almost as the kingdom of God, in reference to our duties
towards their rulers ; and yet touching the going to law
before unbelievers, we are to think rather of that other
kingdom in which we shall judge angels." — (Vol. i. pp. 363
—365.)

THE FUTURE LIFE.
" The belief in a future life is not derived from revelation,
though greatly strengthened by it. It is the growing sense
of human nature respecting itself. Scarcely any one passes
out of existence fearing that he will cease to be ; perhaps
no one whose mind may be regarded as in a natural state.
Absurd superstitions, even the painful efforts to get rid of
self, in some of the Eastern religions, indirectly bear witness
to the same truth. They seem to say, ' Stamp upon the
soul, crush it as you will, the poor worm will still creep out
into the sunshine of the Almighty.' Nor is the conscious
ness of another life a mere instinct which, however distorted,
still remains : to those who reason it is inseparably con
nected with our highest, that is, with our moral notions.
We feel that God cannot have given us capacities and affec
tions, that they should find no other fulfilment than they
attain here ; that He cannot intend the unequal measure of
good and evil which He has assigned to men on earth to be
the end of all; nor can we believe that the crimes or sins
which go unpunished in this world, are to pass away as
though they had never been ; that the cries of saints and
heroes, and the work of the Saviour Himself, have gone up
unheard before His throne. That can never be. Equally
impossible is it to suppose that creatures whom He has
endowed with reason are, like the great multitude of the
human race, to be sunk for ever in hopeless ignorance and
unconsciousness. It is true that the nature of the change
which is to come over them and us is not disclosed : ' The
times and the seasons the Father has put in His own
power.' Had it been otherwise, immortality must have
overpowered us; the thought of another state would have
swallowed up this.
"And this sense of a future life and judgment to come
has been so quickened in us by Christianity, that it may
be said almost to have been created by it. It is the wit
ness of Christ Himself, than which to the Christian no assur
ance can be greater. He who meditates on this divine life

11
in the brief narrative which has been preserved of it, will
find the belief in another world come again to him when
many physical and metaphysical proofs are beginning to be
as broken reeds. He will find more than enough to balance
the difficulties of the manner ' how' or the time ' when ;'
he will find, as he draws nearer to Christ, a sort of impos
sibility of believing otherwise. "When we ask, ' How are
the dead raised up, and with what body do they come ?' St.
Paul answers, 'Thou fool,' that which thou sowest is not
quickened except it die ;' when we raise objections to the
narrative which has been preserved of our Saviour's dis
course respecting the last things and the end of the world,
may not the answer to this as well as to many other diffi
culties be gathered from His own words — ' It is the Spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing ; the words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are truth?'
" There was a sense in which our Saviour said that it was
better for His disciples that He "should be taken from them,
that the Comforter should come unto them. There is also
a blessing recorded in the Gospels on those who had not seen
and yet had believed. Is there not a sense in which it is
more blessed to live at a distance from those events which
are the beginning of Christianity, than under their imme
diate influence, to see them as they truly are in the light of
this world as well as of another ? If it was an illusion in the
first Christians to believe in the immediate coming of Christ,
is it not a cause of thankfulness that now we see clearly ? Of
truth, as well as of love, it may be said there is no fear in
truth, but perfect truth casteth out fear. The eye which is
strong enough to pierce through the shadow of death, is not
troubled because the golden mist is dispelled and it looks on
the open heaven.
" And though prophecy may fail and tongues cease, though
to those who look back upon them when they are with the
past, they are different from what they were to those who
melted under their influence, the pure moral and spiritual
nature of Christianity, the 'kingdom of God within,' re
mains as at first, the law of Christian love becoming more
and more, and all in all." — (Vol. i. pp. 122 — 124.)

LOVE OF CHEIST.
" The sight, once for all, of Christ crucified, recalling the
thought of what, more than 1800 years ago, He suffered for
us, has ravished the heart and melted the affections, and
made the world seem new, and covered the earth itself with
a fair vision, that is, a heavenly one. The strength of this
feeling arises from its being directed towards a person, a real
being, an individual like ourselves, who has actually endured
all this for our sakes, who was above us, and yet became one
of us and felt as we did, and was like ourselves a true man.
The love which He felt towards us, we seek to return to
Him ; the unity which He has with the Divine nature, He
communicates to us ; His Father is our Father, His God our
God. And as human love draws men onwards to make sacri
fices, and to undergo sufferings for the good of others, Divine
love also leads us to cast away the interests of this world,
and rest only in the noblest object of love. And this love
is not only a feeling or sentiment, or attachment, such as we
may entertain towards a parent, a child, or a wife, in which,
pure and disinterested as it may be, some shadow of earthly
passion unavoidably mingles ; it is also the highest exercise
of the reason, which it seems to endow with the force of the
affections, making us think and feel at once. And although
it begins in gentleness, and tenderness, and weakness, and is
often supposed to be more • natural to women than men, yet
it grows up also to ' the fulness of the stature of the perfect
man.' The truest note of the depth and sincerity of our feel
ings towards our fellow creatures is a manly, — that is, a self-
controlled — temper : still more is this true of the love of the
soul towards Christ and God.
¦ " Every one knows what it is to become like those whom
we admire or esteem ; the impress which a disciple may some
times have received from his teacher, or the servant from his
Lord. Such devotion to a particular person can rarely be
thought to open our hearts to love others also ; it often tends
to weaken the force of individual character. But the love of
Christ is the conducting medium to the love of all mankind ;

13
the image which He impresses upon us is the image not of
any particular individual,* but of the Son of Man. And this
image, as we draw nearer to it, is transfigured into the image
of the Son of God. As we become like Him, we see Him as
He is; and see ourselves and all other things with true
human sympathy. Lastly, we are sensible that more than
all we feel towards Him, He feels towards us, and that it is
He who is drawing us to Him, while we seem to be drawing
to Him ourselves. This is a part of that mystery of which
the Apostle speaks, 'of the length, and depth, and breadth
of the love of Christ,' which passeth knowledge. Mere hu
man love rests on instincts, the working of which we cannot
explain, but which nevertheless touch the inmost springs of
our being. So, too, we have spiritual instincts, acting to
wards higher objects, still more suddenly and wonderfully
capturing our souls in an instant, and making us indifferent
to all things else. Such instincts shew themselves in the
weak no less than in the strong; they seem to be not so
much an original part of our nature as to fulfil our nature,
and add to it, and draw it out, until they make us different
beings to ourselves and others. It was the quaint fancy of
a sentimentalist to ask whether any one who remembers the
first sight of a beloved person, could doubt the existence of
magic. We may ask another question, Can any one who
has ever known the love of Christ, doubt the existence of
a spiritual power ?"— (Vol. ii. pp. 245, 246.)

PEAYEE.
' "The instrument whereby, above all others, we realise
the power of God, and the love of Christ, which carries us
into their presence, and places us within the circle of a Divine
yet personal influence, is prayer. Prayer is the summing up
of the Christian life in a definite act, which is at once inward
and outward, the power of which on the character, like that
of any other act, is proportioned to its intensity. The im
agination of doing rightly adds little to our strength ; even
the wish to do so is not necessarily accompanied by a change
of heart and conduct. But in prayer we imagine, and wish,
and perform all in one. Our imperfect resolutions are offered
up to God ; our weakness becomes strength, our words deeds.
No other action is so mysterious ; there is none in which we
seem, in the same manner, to renounce ourselves that we
may be one with God.
" Of what nature that prayer is which is effectual to the
obtaining of its requests is a question of the same kind as
what constitutes a true faith. That prayer, we should reply,
which is itself most of an act, which is most immediately
followed by action, which is most truthful, manly, self-con
trolled, which seems to lead and direct, rather than to follow,
our natural emotions. That prayer which is its own answer
because it asks not for any temporal good, but for union with
God. That prayer which begins with the confession, 'We
know not what to pray for as we ought ;' which can never
by any possibility interfere with the laws of nature, because
even in extremity of danger or suffering, it seeks only the
fulfilment of His will. That prayer which acknowledges
that our enemies, or those of a different faith, are equally
with ourselves in the hands of God ; in which we never un
wittingly ask for our own good at the expense of others.
That prayer in which faith is strong enough to submit to
experience ; in which the soul of man is nevertheless con
scious not of any self-produced impression, but of a true
communion with the Author and Maker of his being.

15
" In prayer, as in all religion, there is something that it is
impossible to describe, and that seems to be untrue the mo
ment it is expressed in words. In the relations of man with
God, it is vain to attempt to separate what belongs to the
finite and what to the infinite. We can feel, but we cannot
analyse it. We can lay down practical rules for it, but can
give no adequate account of it. It is a mystery which we do
not need to fathom. In all religion there is an element of
which we are conscious ; — which is no mystery, which ought
to b.e and is on a level with reason and experience. There is
something besides, which, in those who give way to every
vague spiritual emotion, may often fall below reason (for to
them it becomes a merely physical state) ; which may also
raise us above ourselves, until reason and feeling meet in one,
and the life on earth even of the poor and ignorant answers
to the description of the Apostle, ' Having your conversation
in heaven.'
" This partial indistinctness of the subject of religion, even
independently of mysticism or superstition, may become to
intellectual minds a ground for doubting the truth of that
which will not be altogether reduced to the rules of human
knowledge, which seems to elude our grasp, and retires into
the recesses of the soul the moment we ask for the demon
stration of its existence. Against this natural suspicion let
us set two observations : first, that if the Gospel had spoken
to the reason only, and not to the feelings — if ' the way to
the blessed life' had to be won by clearness of ideas, then it
is impossible that ' to the poor the Gospel should have been
first preached.' It would have begun at the other end of
society, and probably remained, like Greek philosophy, the
abstraction of educated men. Secondly, let us remark that
even now, judged by its effects, the power of religion is of all
powers the greatest. Knowledge itself is a weak instrument
to stir the soul compared with religion; morality has no
way to the heart of man : but the Gospel reaches the feelings
and the intellect at once. In nations as well as individuals,
in barbarous times as well as civilised, in the great crises of
history especially, even in the latest ages, when the minds
of men seem to wax cold, and all things remain the same as
at the beginning, it has shewn itself to be a reality without

16
which human nature would cease to be what it is. Almost
every one has had the witness of it in himself. No one, says
Plato, ever passed from youth to age in unbelief of the gods,
in heathen times. Hardly any educated person in a Chris
tian land has passed from youth to age without some aspira
tion after a better life, some thought of the country to which
he is going.
" As a fact, it would be admitted by most that, at some
period of their lives, the thought of the world to come and
of future judgment, the beauty and loveliness of the truths
of the Gospel, the sense of the shortness of our days here,
have wrought a more quickening and powerful effect than
any moral truths or prudential maxims. Many a one would
acknowledge that he has been carried whither he knew not,
and had nobler thoughts, and felt higher aspirations, than
the course of his ordinary life seemed to allow. These were
the most important moments of his life for good or for evil ;
the critical points which have made him what he is, either
as he used or neglected them. They came he knew not
how, sometimes with some outward and apparent cause, at
other times without, — the result of affliction or sickness, or
' the wind blowing where it listeth.' " — (Vol. ii. pp. 246 —
249.)

CONVEESION.
"Scripture and reason alike require that we should en
tirely turn to God, that we should obey the whole law. And
hard as this may seem at first, there is a witness within us
which pleads that it is possible. Our mind and moral nature
are one ; we cannot break ourselves into pieces in action any
more than in thought. The whole man is in every part and
in every act. This is not a mere mode of thought, but a truth
of great practical importance. ' Easier to change many things
than one,' is the common saying. Easier, we may add, in re
ligion or morality to change the whole than the part. Easier
because more natural, more agreeable to the voice of con
science and the promises of Scripture. God Himself deals
with us as a whole ; He does not forgive us in part any more
than He requires us to serve Him in part. It may be true
that, of the thousand hearers of the appeal of the preacher,
not above one begins a new life. And some persons will
imagine that it might be better to make an impression on
them little by little, like the effect of the dropping of water
upon stone. Not in this way is the Gospel written down on
the fleshly tables of the heart. More true to our own expe
rience of self, as well as to the words of Scripture, are such
ideas as renovation, renewal, regeneration, taking up the
cross and following Christ, dying with Christ that we may
also live with Him.
" Many a person will tease himself by counting minutes
and providing small rules for his life, who would have found
the task an easier and a nobler one, had he viewed it in its
whole extent, and gone to God in a ' large and liberal spirit,'
to offer up his life to Him. To have no arriere pensee in the
service of God and virtue is the great source of peace and
happiness. Make clean that which is within, and you have
no need to purify that which is without. Take care of the
little things of life, and the great ones will take care of
themselves, is the maxim of the trader, which is sometimes,
and with a certain degree of truth, applied to the service of
c

18
God. But much more true is it in religion that we should
take care of the great things, and the trifles of life will take
care of themselves. ' If thine eye be single, thy whole body
will be full of light.' Christianity is not acquired as an art,
by long practice ; it does not carve and polish human nature
with a graving tool : it makes the whole man ; first pouring
out his soul before God, and then ' casting him in a mould.'
Its workings are not to be measured by time, even though
among educated persons, and in modern times, sudden and
momentary conversions can rarely occur." — (Vol. ii. pp. 235,
236.)

THE PEEACHLNG OF THE GOSPEL
TO THE POOE.
" The Gospel is still preached to the poor as before, in the
same sacred yet familiar language. They could not understand
questions of grammar before ; they do not understand modes
of thought now. It is the peculiar nature of our religious
ideas that we are able to apply them, and to receive comfort
from them, without being able to analyze or explain them.
All the metaphysical and logical speculations in the world
will not rob the poor, the sick, or the dying of the truths of
the Gospel. Yet the subject which we have been considering
is not without a practical result. It warns us to restore the
Gospel to its simplicity, to turn from the letter to the spirit,
to withdraw from the number of the essentials of Chris
tianity points almost too subtle for the naked eye, which de
pend on modes of thought or Alexandrian usages, to require
no more of preciseness or definition than is necessary to give
form and substance to our teaching. Not only the feebleness
of human faculties, but the imperfection of language itself
will often make silence our truest wisdom. The saying of
Scaliger, taken not seriously but in irony, is full of meaning :
— ' Many a man has missed of his salvation from ignorance
of grammar.'
" To the poor and uneducated, at times to all, no better
advice can be given for the understanding of Scripture than
to read the Bible humbly with prayer. The critical and
metaphysical student requires another sort of rule, for which
this can never be made a substitute. His duty is to throw
himself back into the times, the modes of thought, the lan
guage of the Apostolic age. He must pass from the abstract
to the concrete, from the ideal and intellectual to the spiri
tual, from later statements of faith or doctrine to the words
of inspiration which fell from the lips of the first believers.
He must seek to conceive the religion of Christ in its rela
tion to the religions of other ages and distant countries, to
the philosophy of our own or other times ; and if in this
c2

20
effort his mind seems to fail or waver, he must win back
in life and practice the hold on the truths of the Gospel
which he is beginning to lose in the mazes of speculation." —
(Vol. ii. pp. 108, 109.)
" If reason and reflection seem to weaken as they regu
late the springs of human action, this very fact may lead
us to consider that reason, and reflection, and education, and
the experience of age, and the force of manly sense, are
not the links which bind us to the communion of the body
of Christ ; that it is rather to those qualities which we have,
or may have, in common with our fellow men, that the
Gospel is promised ; and that it is with the weak, the poor,
the babes in Christ, — not with the strong-minded, the reso
lute, the consistent, — that we shall sit down in the kingdom
of heaven."— (Vol. ii. p. 249.)

IT IS ONE GOD WHICH SHALL JUSTIFY THE
CIECUMCISION BY FAITH, AND UNCIE-
CUMCISION THEOUGH FAITH.
" Let us turn aside for a moment to consider how great
this thought was in that age and country ; a thought which
the wisest of men had never before uttered, which at the
present hour we imperfectly realise, which is still leavening
the world, and shall do so until the whole is leavened, and
the differences of races, of nations, of castes, of religions, of
languages, are finally done away. Nothing could seem a less
natural or obvious lesson in the then state of the world, no
thing could be more at variance with experience, or more
diflicult to carry out into practice. Even to us it is hard
to imagine that the islander of the South Seas, the pariah
of India, the African in his worst estate, is equally with
ourselves God's creature. But in the age of St. Paul how
great must have been the difficulty of conceiving barbarian
and Scythian, bond and free, all colours, forms, races, and
languages alike and equal in the presence of God who made
them ! The origin of the human race was veiled in a deeper
mystery to the ancient world, and the lines which separated
mankind were harder and stronger ; yet the ' love of Christ
constraining' bound together in its cords, those most se
parated by time or distance, those who were the types of
the most extreme differences of which the human form is
capable. " The idea of this brotherhood of all mankind, the great
family on earth, implies that all men have certain ties with
us, and certain rights at our hands. The truest way in
which we can regard them is as they appear in the sight
of God, from Whom they can never suffer wrong : nor from
us, while we think of them as His creatures equally with
ourselves. There is yet a closer bond with them as our
brethren in the Gospel. No one can interpose impediments
of rank or fortune, or colour or religious opinion, between
those who are one in Christ. Beyond and above such transi
tory differences is the work of Christ, 'making all things

22
kin.' Moreover, the remembrance of this brotherhood is
a rest to us when our ' light is low,' and the world and its
distinctions are passing from our sight, and our thoughts are
of the dark valley and the solitary way. For it leads us
to trust in God, not as selecting us, because He had a favour
unto us, but as infinitely just to all mankind. It links our
fortunes with those of men in general, and gives us the same
support in reference to our eternal destiny, that we receive
from each other in a narrow sphere in the concerns of daily
life. To think of ourselves, or our Church, or our country,
or our age, 'as the particular exceptions which a Divine mercy
makes, whether in this life or another, is not a thought of
comfort, but of perplexity. Lastly : — It relieves us from
anxiety about the condition of other men, of friends departed,
of those ignorant of the Gospel, of those of a different form
of faith from our own ; knowing that God who has thus far
lifted up the veil, 'will justify the circumcision through
faith, and the uncircumcision by faith ;' the Jew who fulfils
the law, and the Gentile who does by nature the things con
tained in the law."— (Vol. ii. pp. 140, 141.)

THE FIEST AND SECOND ADAM.
" The figure of the Apostle bears the impress of his own
age and country ; the interpretation of the figure is for every
age, and for the whole world. A figure of speech it remains
still, an allegory after the manner of that age and country,
but yet with no uncertain or ambiguous signification. It
means that ' God hath made of one blood all the nations of
the earth ;' and that ' He hath concluded all under sin, that
He may have mercy upon all.' It means a truth deep yet
simple, — the fact which we recognise in ourselves and trace
everywhere around us, — that we are one in a common evil
nature, which, if it be not derived from the sin of Adam,
exists as really as if it were. It means that we shall be made
one in Christ, by the grace of God, in a measure here, more
fully and perfectly in another world. It means that Christ
is the natural head of the human race, the author of its spi
ritual life. It shews Him to us as He enters within the veil,
in form as a man, the ' first-fruits of them which sleep.' It
is a sign or intimation which guides our thoughts in another
direction also, beyond the world of which religion speaks, to
observe what science tells us of the interdependence of soul
and body — what history tells of the chain of lives and events.
It leads us to reflect on ourselves not as isolated, independent
beings; — not such as we appear to be to our own narrow
consciousness; but as we truly are — the creatures of ante
cedents which we can never know, fashioned by circum
stances over which we have no control. The infant, coming
into existence in a wonderful manner, inherits something,
not from its parents only, but from the first beginning of
the human race. He too is born into a family of which God
in Christ is the Father. There is enough here to meditate
upon — ' a mystery since the world was' — without the * weak
and beggarly' elements of Rabbinical lore. We may not
encumber St. Paul ' with the things which he destroyed.' "
—(Vol. ii. p. 187.)

CHEISTIAN PEUDENCE.
" The law, then, of Christian prudence, using that mode
ration which we shew in things pertaining to this life ; or
the law of Christian charity, resolving, and as it were ab
sorbing, our scruples in the love of other men ; or the law of
the individual conscience, making that right to a man in
matters in themselves indifferent which seems to be so ; or
the law of freedom, giving us a spirit, instead of a letter,
and enlarging the first principles of the doctrine of Christ ;
or all together, — shall furnish the doubting believer with
a sufficient rule of faith and conduct. Even the law of
Christian charity is a rule of freedom rather than of re
straint, in proportion as it places men above questions of
meats and drinks, and enables them to regard such disputes
only by the light of love to God and man. For there is a
tyranny which even freedom may exercise, when it makes us
intolerant of other men's difficulties. ' Where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty ;' but there is also a liberty with
out the Spirit of the Lord. To eat with unwashen hands
defileth not a man ; but to denounce those who do, or do not
do so, may, in St. Paul's language, cause not only the weak
brother, but him that fancieth he standeth, to fall ; and so,
in a false endeavour to preach the Gospel of Christ, men
* may perish for whom Christ died.' " — (Vol. ii. p. 392.)

CASUISTEY AND CONFESSION.
" Casuistry not only renders us independent of our own
convictions, it renders us independent also of the opinion of
mankind in general. It puts the confessor in the place of
ourselves, and in the place of the world. By making the
actions of men matters of science, it cuts away the supports
and safeguards which public opinion gives to morality ; the
confessor in the silence of the closet easily introduces prin
ciples from which the common sense or conscience of man
kind would have shrunk back. Especially in matters of
truth and falsehood, in the nice sense of honour shown in
the unwillingness to get others within our power, his standard
will probably fall short of that of the world at large. Public
opinion, it is true, drives men's vices inwards ; it teaches
them to conceal their faults from others, and if possible from
themselves, and this very concealment may sink them in
despair, or cover them with self-deceit. And the soul — •
whose ' house is its castle' — has an enemy within, the
strength of which may be often increased by communications
from without. Yet the good of this privacy is on the whole
greater than the evil. Not only is the outward aspect of
society more decorous, and the confidence between man and
man less liable to be impaired ; the mere fact of men's sins
being known to themselves and God only, and the support
afforded even by the undeserved opinion of their fellows,
are of themselves great helps to a moral and religious life.
Many a one by being thought better than he was has be
come better ; by being thought as bad or worse has become
worse. To communicate our sins to those who have no claim
to know them is of itself a diminution of our moral strength.
It throws upon others what we ought to do for ourselves ; it
leads us to seek in the sympathy of others a strength which
no sympathy can give. It is a greater trust than is right
for us commonly to repose in our fellow-creatures ; it places
us in their power; it may make us their tools." — (Vol.
ii. pp. 406, 407.)

26
" No insight of the confessor can make him clairvoyant
of the penitent's soul. Know ourselves we sometimes truly
may, but we cannot know others, and no other can know us.
No other can know or understand us in the same wonderful
or mysterious way ; no other can be conscious of the spirit in
which we have lived ; no other can see us as a whole, or get
within. God has placed a veil of flesh between ourselves and
other men, to screen the nakedness of our soul. Into the
secret chamber He does not require that we should admit
any other judge or counsellor but Himself. Two eyes only
are upon us, — the eye of our own soul, the eye of God, — and
the one is the light of the other. That is the true light, on
the which if a man look he will have a knowledge of himself
different in kind from that which the confessor extracts from
the books of the casuists." — (Vol. ii. p. 405.)

MISSIONS.
" The command remains : ' Go forth and preach the Gospel
to every creature.' Nor can any blessing be conceived greater
than the spread of Christianity among heathen nations, nor
any calling nobler or higher to which Christians can devote
themselves. Why are we unable to fulfil this command in
any effectual manner ? Is it that the Gospel has had barriers
set to it, and that the stream no longer overflows on the sur
rounding territory ; that we have enough of this water for
ourselves, but not enough for us and them ? or that the ex
ample of nominal Christians, who are bent on their own trade
or interest, destroys the lesson which has been preached by
the ministers of religion ? Yet the lives of believers did not
prevent the spread of Christianity at Corinth and Ephesus.
And it is hard to suppose that the religion which is true for
ourselves has lost its vital power in the world.
" The truth seems to be, not that Christianity has lost its
power, but that we are seeking to propagate Christianity
under circumstances which, during the eighteen centuries of
its existence, , it has never yet encountered. Perhaps there
may have been a want of zeal, or discretion, or education in
the preachers ; sometimes there may have been too great
a desire to impress on the mind of the heathen some peculiar
doctrine, instead of the more general lesson of 'righteous
ness, temperance, judgment to come.' But however this may
be, there is no reason to believe that even if a saint or apostle
could rise from the dead, he would produce by his preaching
alone, without the use of other means, any wide or deep im
pression on India or China. To restore life to those coun
tries is a vast and complex work, in which many agencies
have to co-operate, — political, industrial, social; and mis
sionary efforts, though a blessed, are but a small part ; and
the Government is not. the less Christian because it seeks to
rule a heathen nation on principles of truth and justice only.
Let us not measure this great work by the number of com
municants or converts. Even when wholly detached from

28
Christianity, the true spirit of Christianity may animate it.
The extirpation of crime, the administration of justice, the
punishment of falsehood, may be regarded, without a figure
of speech, as 'the word of the Lord' to a weak and deceitful
people. Lessons of purity and love too flow insensibly out
of improvement in the relations of social life. It is the dis
ciple of Christ, not Christ Himself, who would forbid us to
give these to the many, because we can only give the Gospel
to a very few. For it is of the millions, not of the thousands,
in India that we must first give an account. Our relations
to the heathen are different from those of Christians in former
ages, and our progress in their conversion slower. The suc
cess which attends our efforts may be disparagingly compared
with that of Boniface or Augustin ; but if we look a little
closer, we shall see no reason to regret that Providence has
placed in our hands other instruments for the spread of
Christianity besides the zeal of heroes and martyrs. The
power to convert multitudes by a look or a word has passed
away ; but God has given us another means of ameliorating
the condition of mankind, by acting on their circumstances,
which works extensively rather than intensively, and is in
some respects safer and less liable to abuse. The mission
is one of Governments rather than of Churches or individuals.
And if, in carrying it out, we seem to lose sight of some of
the distinctive marks of Christianity, let us not doubt that
the increase of justice and mercy, the growing sense of
truth, even the progress of industry, are in themselves so
many steps towards the kingdom of heaven." — (Vol. ii.
pp. 447, 448.)
" In dealing with classes of men, we seem to find that we
have greater power to shape their circumstances than im
mediately to affect their wills. The voice of the preacher
passes into the air ; the members of his congregation are like
persons * beholding their natural face in a glass ;' they go
their way, forgetting their own likeness. And often the re
sult of a long life of ministerial work has been the conversion
of two or three individuals. The power which is exerted in
such a case may be compared to the unaided use of the hand,
while mechanical appliances are neglected. Or to turn to

29
another field of labour, in which the direct influence of Chris
tianity has been hitherto small, may not the reason why the
result of missions is often disappointing be found in the cir
cumstance, that we have done little to improve the political
or industrial state of those among whom our missionaries are
sent? We have thought of the souls of men, and of the
Spirit of God influencing them, in too naked a way ; instead
of attending to the complexity of human nature, and the
manner in which God has ever revealed Himself in the his
tory of mankind.
" The great lesson, which Christians have to learn in the
present day, is to know the world as it is ; that is to say, to
know themselves as they are ; human life as it is ; nature as
it is ; history as it is. Such knowledge is also a power, to
fulfil the will of God and to contribute to the happiness
of man. It is a resting-place in speculation, and a new
beginning in practice." — (Vol. ii. pp. 631, 632.)

CEEATION.
"That which seems to underlie our conception both of
first and final causes, is the idea of law which we see not
broken or intercepted, or appearing only in particular spots
of nature, but every where and in all things. All things
do not equally exhibit marks of design, but all things are
equally subject to the operation of law. The highest mark
of intelligence pervades the whole ; no one part is better
than another ; it is all ' very good.' The absence of design,
if we like so to turn the phrase, is a part, of the design.
Even the less comely parts, like the plain spaces in a build
ing, have elements of use and beauty. He who has ever
thought in the most imperfect manner of the universe which
modern science unveils, needs no evidence that the details
of it are incapable of being framed by anything short of
a Divine power. Art, and nature, and science, these three, —
the first giving us the conception of the relation of parts to
a whole ; the second, of endless variety and intricacy, such
as no art has ever attained ; the third, of uniform laws which
amid all the changes of created things remain fixed as at the
first, reaching even to the heavens, — are the witnesses of the
Creator in the external world.
" Nor can it weaken our belief in a Supreme Being, to ob
serve that the same harmony and uniformity extend also
to the actions of men. Why should it be thought a thing
incredible that God should give law and order to the spi
ritual, no less than the natural creation ? That human beings
do not 'thrust or break their ranks ;' that the life of nations,
like that of plants or animals, has a regular growth ; that
the same strata or stages are observable in the religions, no
less than the languages of mankind, as in the structure of
the earth, are strange reasons for doubting the Providence
of God. Perhaps it is even stranger, that those who do
not doubt should eye with jealousy the accumulation of such
facts. Do we really wish that our conceptions of God should
only be on the level of the ignorant ; adequate to the passing

31
emotions of human feeling, but to reason inadequate ? That
Christianity is the confluence of many channels of human
thought does not interfere with its Divine origin. It is
not the less immediately the word of God because there
have been preparations for it in all ages, and in many
countries. " The more we take out of the category of chance in the
world either of nature or of mind, the more present evidence
we have of the faithfulness of God, We do not need to have
a chapter of accidents in life to enable us to realise the
existence of a personal God, as though events which we can
account for were not equally His work. Let not use or
custom so prevail in our minds as to make this higher notion
of God cheerless or uncomfortable to us. The rays of His
presence may still warm us, as well as enlighten us. Surely
He in whom we live and move and have our being is nearer
to us than He would be if He interfered occasionally for our
benefit. " ' The curtain of the physical world is closing in upon
us :' What does this mean but that the arms of His intelli
gence are embracing us on every side ? We have no more
fear of nature ; for our knowledge of the laws of nature has
cast out fear. We know Him as He shows Himself in them,
even as we are known of Him. Do we think to draw near
to God by returning to that state in which nature seemed to
r be without law, when man cowered like the animals before
the storm, and in the meteors of the skies and the motions
of the heavenly bodies sought to read the purposes of God
respecting himself? Or shall we rest in that stage of the
knowledge of nature which was common to the heathen
philosophers and to the Fathers of the Christian Church ? or
in that of two hundred years ago, ere the laws of the hea
venly bodies were discovered ? or of fifty years ago, before
geology had established its truths on sure foundations ? or of
thirty years ago, ere the investigation of old language had
revealed the earlier stages of the history of the human mind ?
At which of these resting-places shall we pause to renew the
covenant between Reason and Faith? Rather at none of
them, if the first condition of a true faith be the belief in all
true knowledge."— (Vol. i. pp. 483—485.)

32
"While nature still presents to us its world of unex
hausted wonders; while sin and sorrow lead us to walk
by faith, and not by sight ; while the soul of man departs
this life knowing not whither it goes ; so long will the belief
endure of an Almighty Creator, from whom we came, to
whom we return." — (Vol. ii, p. 485.)
"There are two witnesses (we may add in a later strain
of reflection) of the being of God; the order of nature in
the world, and the progress of the mind of man. He is not
the order of nature, nor the progress of mind, nor both to
gether ; but that which is above and beyond them ; of which
they, even if conceived in a single instant, are but the ex
ternal sign, the highest evidences of God which we can con
ceive, but not God Himself. The first to the ancient world
seemed to be the work of chance, or the personal operation
of one or many Divine beings. We know it to be the result
of laws endless in their complexity, and yet not the less
admirable for their simplicity also. The second has been
regarded, even in our own day, as a series of errors caprici
ously invented by the ingenuity of individual men. We
know it to have a law of its own, a continuous order which
cannot be inverted; not to be confounded with, yet not
wholly separate from, the law of nature and the will of God.
Shall we doubt the world to be the creation of a Divine
power, only because it is more wonderful than could have
been conceived by 'them of old time ;' or human reason to
be in the image of God, because it too bears the marks of an
overruling law or intelligence ?" — (Vol. i. p. 487.)

THE CHURCH AND THE WOELD.
" ' The God of peace rest upon you,' is the concluding bene
diction of most of the Epistles. How can He rest upon us,
who draw so many hard lines of demarcation between our
selves and other men ; who oppose the Church and the world,
Sundays and working days, revelation and science, the past
and present, the life and state of which religion speaks and
the life which we ordinarily lead ? . . . We are all members of
the same Christian world ; we are all members of the same
Christian Church. Who can bear to doubt this of themselves
or of their family ? What parent would think otherwise of
his child ? — what child of his parent ? Religion holds before
us an ideal which we are far from reaching ; natural affection
softens and relieves the characters of those we love ; experi
ence alone shews men what they truly are. All these three
must so meet as to do violence to none. If, in the age of
the Apostles, it seemed to be the duty of the believers to
separate themselves from the world and take up a hostile
position, not less marked in the present age is the duty of
abolishing in a Christian country what has now become an
artificial distinction, and seeking by every means in our
power, by fairness, by truthfulness, by knowledge, by love
unfeigned, by the absence of party and prejudice, by acknow
ledging the good in all things, to reconcile the Church to the
world, the one half of our nature to the other ; drawing the
mind off from speculative difficulties, or matters of party and
opinion, to that which almost all equally acknowledge and
almost equally rest short of — the life of Christ." — (Vol.
ii. pp. 493, 494.)
"Sometimes the Church bears a high and noble witness
against the world, and at other times, even to the religious
mind, the balance seems to be even, and the world in its turn
begins to bear witness against the Church. There are periods
of history in which they both grow, together." — (Vol. ii.
p. 491.)

THE LAW AND FAITH.
" As the Apostle looks upon the face of the world, he sees
all men, by the light of revelation in himself, returning,
through Christ, into union with the God who made them.
There is no distinction of Jew or Gentile, circumcision or un-
circumcision. Soon he passes over into another point of
view, 'setting the world in their hearts.' Two dispensa
tions are in the bosom of every man who comes to the know.
ledge of the truth ; these are symbolised by two words, the
Law and Faith. The one is slavery, the other freedom ; the
one death, the other life ; the one strife, the other peace ; the
one alienation from God, the other reconciliation with him.
Not at once does the one dispensation take the place of the
other. There is a period of natural life first ; the Law enters
and plants the seeds of mortal disease. Will and knowledge,
the common sources of human action, begin to decompose,
the will to evil struggling with the knowledge of good. The
creature is made powerless to act by his consciousness of sin ;
the Law only terrifies — he dies at the very sight of it : it is
a dry ' eye' turning every way upon his misery. The soul,
hanging between good and evil, is in a state of paralysis,
doing what it would not, and hating itself for what it does.
But, again, the soul is persuaded by many arguments that
'the Law is dead;' it throws away the worser half, and
clings to its risen Lord. Faith is the hand by which it is
united to Him — the instrument whereby it is accepted, re
newed, sanctified — the sense through which it looks up to
God, revealing Himself in man, and around on creation." —
(Vol. ii. pp. 32, 33.)
" In the course of the Epistle we pass more and more in
ward to the dividing asunder of the flesh and spirit, until
darkness takes the place of light, and death of life. More
than once the shadow of peace rests upon us in passing, but
we must first enter into the depths of human nature, and take
part in the strueele, ere we can attain finallv to that rest

35
which is in Christ Jesus. At length the body of death slips
from us : the law of the spirit of life prevails over the law of
sin. And yet the fleshly body, though dead to sin, still
cleaves to us : it has ceased to strive against the spirit, but
is not yet adopted into the fellowship of Christ. But, though
groaning within ourselves, we have the inward witness of the
Spirit; we know that all things are working together for
good : we ask in triumph, ' If God be for us, who can be
against us?' "—(Vol. ii. pp. 33, 34.)

d2

EIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH.
" The expression ' righteousness by faith ' indicates the
personal character of salvation ; it is not the tale of works
that we do, but we ourselves who are accepted of God,
Who can bear to think of his own actions as they are seen
by the eye of the Almighty ? Looking at their defective
performance, or analysing them into the secondary motives
out of which they have sprung, do we seem to have any
ground on which we can stand ; is there anything which
satisfies ourselves ? Yet, knowing that our own works can
not abide the judgment of God, we know also that His love
is not proportioned to them. He is a Person who deals with
us as persons over whom He has an absolute right, who have
nevertheless an endless value to Him. When He might exact
all, He forgives all; ' the kingdom of heaven' is like not only
to a master taking account with his servants, but to a father
going out to meet his returning son. The symbol and mean
of this personal relation of man to God is faith; and the
righteousness which consists not in what we do, but in what
we are, is the righteousness of faith.
" Faith may be spoken of in the language of the Epistle
to the Hebrews, as the substance of things unseen. But
what are the things unseen? Not only an invisible world
ready to flash through the material at the appearance of
Christ; not angels, or powers of darkness, or even God
Himself 'sitting,' as the Old Testament described, 'on the
circle of the heavens ;' but the kingdom of truth and justice,
the things that are within, of which God is the centre, and
with which men everywhere by faith hold communion.
Faith is the belief in the existence of this kingdom ; that is,
in the truth and justice and mercy of God, who disposes all
things — not, perhaps, in our judgment, for the greatest hap
piness of His creatures, but absolutely in accordance with our
moral notions. And that this is not seen to be the case here,
makes it a matter of faith that it will be so in some way that

37
we do not at present comprehend. He that believes on God
believes, first, that He is ; and, secondly, that He is the
Rewarder of them that seek Him.
" Now, if we go on to ask what gives this assurance of the
truth and justice of God, the answer is, the life and death
of Christ, who is the Son of God, and the Revelation of God.
We know what He Himself has told us of God, and we can
not conceive perfect goodness separate from perfect truth;
nay, this good itself is the only conception we can form of
God, if we confess what the mere immensity of the material
world tends to suggest, that the Almighty is not a natural
or even a supernatural power, but a Being of whom the
reason and conscience of man have a truer conception than
imagination in its highest flights. He is not in the storm,
nor in the thunder, nor in the earthquake, but ' in the still
small voice.' And this image of God as He reveals Himself
in the heart of man is ' Christ in us the hope of glory ;'
Christ as He once was upon earth in His sufferings rather
than His miracles, — the image of goodness and truth, and
peace and love." — (Vol. ii. pp. 541 — 543.)
" In the Epistles of St. Paul, and yet more in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, the relation of Christ to mankind is ex
pressed under figures of speech taken from the Mosaic dis
pensation : He is the Sacrifice for the sins of men, ' the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sins of the world ;' the Anti
type of all the types, the fulfilment in His own person of the
Jewish law. Such words may give comfort to those who
think of God under human imagery, but they seem to re
quire explanation when we rise to the contemplation of Him
as the God of truth, without parts or passions, who knows
all things, and cannot be angry with any, or see them other
than they truly are. What is indicated by them, to us
' who are dead to the law,' is, that God has manifested Him
self in Christ as the God of mercy ; who is more ready to
hear than we to pray ; who has forgiven us almost before we
ask Him ; who has given us His only Son, and how will He
not with Him also give us all things ? They intimate, on God's
part, that He is not extreme to mark what is done amiss ; in
human language, ' He is touched with the feeling of our in-

38
firmities ;' on our part, that we say to God, ' Not of ourselves,
but of Thy grace and mercy, 0 Lord.' Not in fulness of life
and health, nor in the midst of business, nor in the schools
of theology ; but in the sick chamber, where are no more
earthly interests, and in the hour of death, we have before
us the living image of the truth of justification by faith,
when man acknowledges, on the confines of another world,
the unprofitableness of his own good deeds, and the goodness
of God even in afflicting him, and his absolute reliance not
on works of righteousness that he has done, but on the
Divine mercy.
" A true faith has been sometimes defined to be not a faith
in the unseen merely, or in God or Christ, but a personal
assurance of salvation. Such a feeling may be only the veil
of sensualism ; it may be also the noble confidence of St. Paul.
' I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.' It may be an emotion, resting on
no other ground except that we believe; or, a conviction
deeply rooted in our life and character. Scripture and rea
son alike seem to require this belief in our salvation : and yet
to assume that we are at the end of the race may make us
lag in our course. Whatever danger there is in the doctrine
of the Divine decrees, the danger is nearer home, and more
liable to influence practice, when our faith takes the form
of personal assurance. How, then, are we to escape from the
dilemma, and have a rational confidence in the mercy of God?
" This confidence must rest, first, on a sense of the truth
and justice of God, rising above perplexities of fact in the
world around us, or the tangle of metaphysical or theological
difficulties. But although such a sense of the truth or jus
tice of God is the beginning of our peace, yet a link of con
nexion is wanting before we can venture to apply to our
selves that which we acknowledge in the abstract. The
justice of God may lead to our condemnation as well as to
our justification. Are we then, in the language of the ancient
tragedy, to say that no one can be counted happy before he
dies, or that salvation is only granted when the end of our

39
course is seen ? Not so ; the Gospel encourages us to regard
ourselves, as already saved ; for we have communion with
Christ and appropriate His work by faith. And this ap
propriation means nothing short of the renunciation of self
and the taking up of the cross of Christ in daily life. Whe
ther such an imitation or appropriation of Christ is illusive
or real, — a new mould of nature or only an outward and
superficial impression, is a question not to be answered by
any further theological distinction but by an honest and good
heart searching into itself. Then only, when we surrender
ourselves into the hands of God, when we ask Him to show
us to ourselves as we truly are, when we allow ourselves in no
sin, when we attribute nothing to our own merits, when we
test our faith, not by the sincerity of an hour, but of months
and years, we learn the true meaning of that word in which,
better than any other, the nature of righteousnesss by faith
is summed up, — peace.
" ' And now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three ; but
the greatest of these is love.' There seems to be a contra
diction in love being the ' greatest,' when faith is the medium
of acceptance. Love, according to some, is preferred to faith,
because it reaches to another life ; when faith and hope are
swallowed up in sight, love remains still. Love, according
to others, has the first place, because it is Divine as well as
human; it is the love of God to man, as well as of man. to
God. Perhaps, the order of precedence is sufficiently ex
plained by the occasion ; to a Church torn by divisions the
Apostle says, 'that the first of Christian graces is love.'
Another thought, however, is suggested by these words,
which has a bearing on our present subject. It is this, that
in using the received terms of theology, we must also acknow
ledge their relative and transient character. Christian truth
has many modes of statement ; love is the more natural ex
pression to St. John, faith to St. Paul. The indwelling of
Christ or of the Spirit of God, grace, faith, hope, love, are
not parts of a system, but powers or aspects of the Christian
life. Human minds are different, and the same mind is not
the same at different times ; and the best of men now-a-days
have but a feeble consciousness of spiritual truths. We ought
not to dim that consciousness by insisting on a single for-

40
mula ; and therefore while speaking of faith as the instru
ment of justification, because faith indicates the apprehensive,
dependent character of the believer's relation to Christ, we
are bound also to deny that the Gospel is contained in any
word, or the Christian life inseparably linked to any one
quality. We must acknowledge the imperfection of language
and thought, and seek rather to describe than to define
the work of God in the soul, which has as many forms as
the tempers, capacities, circumstances, and accidents of our
nature."— (Vol. ii. pp. 543—546.)

DIYEESITIES OF EELIGIOUS CHAEACTEE.
" The gifts of God to man have ever some reference to
natural disposition. He who becomes the servant of God
does not thereby cease to be himself. Often the transition
is greater in appearance than in reality, from the suddenness
of its manifestation. There is a kind of rebellion against
self and nature and God, which, through the mercy of God
to the soul, seems almost necessarily to lead to re-action.
Persons have been worse than their fellow-men in outward
appearance, and yet there was within them the spirit of
a child waiting to return home to their father's house.
A change passes upon them which we may figure to our
selves, not only as the new man taking the place of the old,
but as the inner man taking the place of the outer. So com
plex is human nature, that the very opposite to what we are
has often an inexpressible power over us. Contrast is not
only a law of association : it is also a principle of action.
Many run from one extreme to another, from licentiousness
to the ecstacy of religious feeling, from religious feeling back
to licentiousness, not without a ' fearful looking for of judg
ment.' If we could trace the hidden workings of good and
evil, they would appear far less surprising and more natural
than as they are seen by the outward eye. Our spiritual
nature is without spring, or chasm, but it has a certain play
or freedom which leads very often to consequences the oppo
site of what we expect. It seems in some instances as if the
same religious education had tended to contrary results ; in
one case to a devout life, in another to a re-action against it ;
sometimes to one form of faith, at other times to another.
Many parents have wept to see the early religious training
of their children draw them, by a kind of repulsion, to
a communion or mode of opinion which is the extreme op
posite of that in which they have been brought up. Let
them have peace in the thought that it was not always in

42
their power to fulfil the duty in which they seem to them
selves to have failed. These reflections serve to make us
think that all spiritual influences, however antagonistic they
may appear, have more in common with each other than
they have with the temper of the world; and that it is
easier to pass from one form of faith to another than from
leading the life of all men to either. There is more in com
mon between those who anathematize each other than be
tween either and the spirit of toleration which characterises
the ordinary dealings of man and man, or much more the
spirit of Christ, for whom they are alike contending.
" Perhaps we shall not be far wrong in concluding, that
those who have undergone great religious changes have been
of a fervid imaginative cast of mind; looking for more in
this world than it was capable of yielding; easily touched
by the remembrance of the past, or inspired by some ideal
of the future. When with this has been combined a zeal
for the good of their fellow-men, they have become the
heralds and champions of the religious movements of the
world. The change has begun within, but has overflowed
without them. ' When thou art converted, strengthen thy
brethren,' is the order of nature and of grace. In secret they
brood over their own state ; " weary and profitless their soul
fainteth within them. The religion they profess is a religion
not of life to them, but of death ; they lose their interest in
the world, and are cut off from the communion of their
fellow-creatures. While they are musing, the fire kindles,
and at the last — ' they speak with their tongue.' Then pours
forth irrepressibly the pent-up stream — ' unto all and upon
all' their fellow-men : the intense flame of inward enthusiasm
warms and lights up the world. First they are the evidence
to others ; then, again, others are the evidence to them. All
religious leaders cannot be reduced to a single type of cha
racter; yet in all, perhaps, two characteristics may be ob
served; the first, great self-reflection; the second, intense
sympathy with other men. They are not the creatures of
habit or of circumstances, leading a blind life, unconscious
of what they are ; their whole effort is to realize their in
ward nature, and to make it palpable and visible to their

43
fellows. Unlike other men who are confined to the circle
of themselves or of their family, their affections are never .
straitened; they embrace with their love all men who are
like-minded with. them, almost all men too who are unlike
them, in the hope that they may become like." — (Vol. i.
pp. 354— 356.)

ELECTION.
" In the Old Testament the only election of individuals is
that of the great leaders or chiefs, who are identified with
the nation. But in the New Testament, where religion has
become a personal and individual matter, it follows that
election must also be of persons. The Jewish nation knew,
or seemed to know, one fact, that they were the chosen
people. They saw, also, eminent men raised up by the hand
of God to be the deliverers of His servants. It is not in this
' historical' way that the Christian becomes conscious of his
individual election. From within, not from without, he is
made aware of the purpose of God respecting himself. Liv
ing in close and intimate union with God, having the mind
of the Spirit and knowing the things of the Spirit, he begins
to consider with St. Paul, ' When it pleased God, who sepa
rated me from my mother's womb, to reveal His Son in me.'
His whole life seems a sort of miracle to him ; supernatural,
and beyond other men's in the gifts of grace which he has
received. If he asks himself, ' Whence was this to me ?' he
finds no other answer but that God gave them ' because He
had a favour unto him.' He recalls the hour of his con
version, when, in a moment, he was changed from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Or, per
haps, the dealings of God with him have been insensible, yet
not the less real ; like a child, he cannot remember the time
when he first began to trust the love of his parent. How
can he separate himself from that love or refuse to believe
that He who began the good work will also accomplish it
unto the end ? At which step in the ladder of God's mercy
will he stop ? ' Whom He did foreknow, them He did predes
tinate ; whom He did predestinate, them He also called ;
whom He called, them He justified ? whom He justified,
them He also glorified.'
"A religious mind feels the difference between saying,
' God chose me ; I cannot tell why ; not for any good that I
have done ; and I am persuaded that He will keep me unto

45
the end ;' and saying, ' God chooses men quite irrespective
of their actions, and predestines them to eternal salvation ;'
and yet more, it we add the other half of the doctrine, ' God
refuses men quite irrespective of their actions, and they
become reprobates, predestined to everlasting damnation.'
Could we be willing to return to that stage of the doc
trine which St. Paul taught, without comparing contradictory
statements or drawing out logical conclusions, — could we be
content to rest our belief, as some of the greatest, even of
Calvinistic divines have done, on fact and experience, the
ology would be no longer at variance with morality.
" ' Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ;
for it is God that worketh in you both to do and to will
of His good pleasure,' is the language of Scripture, adjusting
the opposite aspects of this question. The Arminian would
say, ' Work out your own salvation ;' the Calvinist, ' God
worketh in you both to do and to will of His good pleasure.'
However contradictory it may sound, the Scripture unites
both ; work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ;
for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do
of His good pleasure." — (Vol. ii. pp. 609, 610.)

THE ATONEMENT.
" All, or almost all, Christians would agree that in some
sense or other we are reconciled to God through Christ ;
whether by the atonement and satisfaction which He made
to God for us, or by His manifestation of the justice of God
or love of God in the world, by the passive obedience of His
death or the active obedience of His life, by the imputation
of His righteousness to us or by our identity and communion
with Him, or likeness to Him, or love of Him ; in some one
of these senses, which easily pass into each other, all would
join in saying that ' He is the way, the truth, and the life.'
And had the human mind the same power of holding fast
points of agreement as of discerning differences, there would
be an end of the controversy.
" We can live and die in the language of St. Paul and St.
John ; there is nothing there repugnant to our moral sense.
We have a yet higher authority in the words of Christ Him
self. Only in repeating and elucidating these statements,
we must remember that Scripture phraseology is of two
kinds, simple and figurative, and that the first is the inter
pretation of the second. We must not bring the New Testa
ment into bondage to the Old, but ennoble and transfigure
the Old by the New.
" First ; the death of Christ may be described as a sacrifice.
But what sacrifice ? Not ' the blood of bulls and of goats, nor
the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,' but the living
sacrifice ' to do Thy will, 0 God.' It is a sacrifice which is
the negation of sacrifice ; ' Christ the end of the law to them
that believe.' Peradventure, in a heathen country, to put an
end to the rite of sacrifice ' some one would even dare to die ;'
that expresses the relation in which the offering on Mount
Calvary stands to the Levitical offerings. It is the death of
what is outward and local, the life of what is inward and
spiritual : ' I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all
men after Me ;' and ' Neither in this mountain nor at Jeru
salem shall ye worship the Father.' It is the offering up of
the old world on the cross ; the law with its handwriting of

47
ordinances, the former man with his affections and lusts, the
body of sin with its remembrances of past sin. It is the
New Testament revealed in the blood of Christ, the Gospel
of freedom, which draws men together in the communion of
one spirit, as in St. Paul's time without respect of persons
and nations, so in our own day without regard to the divi
sions of Christendom. In the place of Churches, priesthoods,
ceremonials, systems, it puts a moral and spiritual prin
ciple which works with them, not necessarily in opposition to
them, but beside or within them, to renew life in the in
dividual soul.
" Again, the death of Christ may be described as a ransom.
It is not that God needs some payment which He must re
ceive before He will set the captives free. The ransom is
not a human ransom, any more than the sacrifice is a Levi
tical sacrifice. Rightly to comprehend the nature of this
Divine ransom, we must begin with that question of the Apo
stle : ' Know ye not that whose servants ye yield yourselves
to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin
unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness ?' There are
those who will reply : ' We were never in bondage at any
time.' To whom Christ answers : ' Whosoever committeth
sin is the servant of sin ;' and, ' If the Son shall make you
free, ye shall be free indeed.' Ransom is ' deliverance to the
captive.' There are mixed modes here also, as in the use of
the term sacrifice — the word has a temporary allusive refer
ence to a Mosaical figure of speech. That secondary allusive
reference we are constrained to drop, because it is unessential ;
and also because it immediately involves further questions —
a ransom to whom ? for what ? — about which Scripture is
silent, to which reason refuses to answer.
" Thirdly, the death of Christ is spoken of as a death for
us, or for our sins. The ambiguous use of the preposition
' for,' combined with the figure of sacrifice, has tended to in
troduce the idea of substitution ; when the real meaning is
not ' in our stead,' but only ' in behalf of,' or ' because of us.'
It is a great assumption, or an unfair deduction, from such
expressions, to say that Christ takes our place, or that the
Father in looking at the sinner sees only Christ. Christ
died for us in no other sense than He lived or rose again for

48
us. Scripture affords no hint of His taking our place in His
death in. any other way than He did also in His life. He
Himself speaks of His ' decease which He should accomplish
at Jerusalem,' quite simply : ' greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' The
words of Caiaphas, ' It is expedient that one man should die
for this nation,' and the comment of the Evangelist, ' and not
for that nation only, but that He should gather together in
one the children of God that are scattered abroad,' afford
a measure of the meaning of such expressions. Here, too,
there are mixed modes which seem to be inextricably blended
in the language of Scripture, and which theology has not
always distinguished. For the thing signified is, partly, that
Christ died for our sakes, partly that He died by the hands of
sinners, partly that He died with a perfect and Divine sym
pathy for human evil and suffering. But this ambiguity
(which we may silently correct or explain) need not prevent
our joining in words which, more perhaps than any others,
have been consecrated by religious use to express the love
and affection of Christians towards their Lord.
"Everywhere St. Paul speaks of the Christian as. one with
Christ. He is united with Him, not in His death only, but
in all the stages of His existence ; living with Him, suffering
with Him, crucified with Him, buried with Him, rising again
with Him, renewed in His image, glorified together with
Him ; these are the expressions by which this union is
denoted. There is something meant by this language which
goes beyond the experience of ordinary Christians, some
thing, perhaps, more mystical than in these latter days of
the world most persons seem to be capable of feeling, yet the
main thing signified is the same for all ages, the knowledge
and love of Christ, by which men pass out of themselves to
make their will His and His theirs, the consciousness of Him
in their thoughts and actions, communion with Him, and
trust in Him. Of every act of kindness or good which they
do to others His life is the type ; of every act of devotion or
self-denial His death is the type ; of every act of faith His
resurrection is the type. And often they walk with Him on
earth, not in a figure only, and find Him near them, not in
a figure only, in the valley of death. They experience from

49
Him the same kind of support as from the sympathy and
communion of an earthly friend. That friend is also a
Divine power. In proportion as they become like Him,
they are reconciled to God through Him ; they pass with
Him into the relationship of sons of God. There is enough
here for faith to think of, without sullying the mirror of
God's justice, or overclouding His truth. We need not sup
pose that God ever sees us other than we really are, or
attributes to us what we never did. Doctrinal statements,
in which the nature of the work of Christ is most exactly
defined, cannot really afford the same support as the simple
conviction of His love.
"Again, the import of the death of Christ may be in
terpreted by His life. No theological speculation can throw
an equal light on it. From the other side we cannot see it,
but only from this. Now the life of Christ is the life of One
who knew no sin, on whom the shadow of evil never passed ;
who went about doing good : who had not where to lay His
head ; whose condition was in all respects the reverse of
earthly and human greatness ; who also had a sort of infinite
sympathy or communion with all men everywhere ; whom,
nevertheless, His own nation betrayed to a shameful death.
It is the life of One who came to bear witness of the truth,
who knew what was in man, and never spared to rebuke
him, yet condemned him not ; Himself without sin, yet One
to whom all men would soonest have gone to confess and
receive forgiveness of sin. It is the life of One who was in
constant communion with God as well as man ; who was the
inhabitant of another world while outwardly in this. It is
the life of One in whom we see balanced and united the
separate gifts and graces of which we catch glimpses only in
the lives of His followers. It is a life which is mysterious
to us, which we forbear to praise, in the earthly sense, be
cause it is above praise, being the most perfect image and
embodiment that we can conceive of Divine goodness.
" And the death of Christ is the fulfilment and consum
mation of His life, the greatest moral act ever done in this
world, the highest manifestation of perfect love, the centre
in which the rays of love converge and meet, the extremest
abnegation or annihilation of self. It is the death of One

50
who seals with His blood the witness of the truth which He
came into the world to teach, which therefore confirms our
faith in Him as well as animates our love. It is the death
of One, who says at the last hour, 'Of them that Thou
gavest me, I have not lost one,' — of One who, having come
forth from God, and having finished the: work which He
came into the world to do, returns to God. It is a death in
which all the separate gifts of heroes and martyrs are united
in a Divine excellence, — of One who most perfectly foresaw
all things that were coming upon Him — who felt all, and
shrank not, — of One who, in the hour of death, set the ex
ample to His followers of praying for His enemies. It is
a death which, more even than His life, is singular and
mysterioTis, in which nevertheless we all are partakers,— in
which there was the thought and consciousness of mankind
to the end of time, which has also the power of drawing to
itself the thoughts of men to the end of time.
"Lastly, there is a true Christian feeling in many other ways
of regarding the salvation of man, of which the heart is its
own witness, which yet admit, still less than the preceding, .
of logical rule and precision. He who is conscious of his
own infirmity and sinfulness, is ready to confess that he needs
reconciliation with God. He has no proud thoughts: he
knows that he is saved 'not of himself, it is the gift of <>od ;'
the better he is, the more he feels, in the language of Scrip
ture, 'that he is an unprofitable servant.'' Sometimes he
imagines the Father 'coming out to meet him, when he is
yet a long way off,' as in the parable of the Prodigal Son ; at
other times the burden of sin lies heavy on him ; he seems
to need more suppoTt — he can approach God only through
Christ. AE men are not the same ; one has more of the
strength of reason in his religion ; another more of the ten
derness of feeling. With some, faith partakes of the nature
of a pure and spiritual morality ; there are others who have
gone through the struggle of St. Paul or Luther, and attain
rest only in casting all on Christ. One will live after the
pattern of the Sermon on the Mount, or the Epistle of
St. James. Another finds a deep consolation and meaning in
a closer union with Christ ; he will ' put on Christ,' he will
hide himself in Christ ; he will experience in his own person

51
the truth of those words of the Apostle, ' I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me.' But if he have the spirit of moderation that there was
in St. Paul, he will not stereotype these true, though often
passing feelings, in any formula of substitution or satisfaction ;
still less will he draw out formulas of this sort into remote
consequences. Such logical idealism is of another age ; it is
neither faith nor philosophy in this. Least of all will he
judge others by the circumstance of their admitting or re
fusing to admit the expression of his individual feelings as
an eternal truth. He shrinks from asserting his own right
eousness ; he is equally unwilling to affirm that the right
eousness of Christ is imputed to him. He is looking for
forgiveness of sins, not because Christ has satisfied the wrath
of God, but because God can show mercy without satisfaction :
he may have no right to acquittal, he dare not say, God has
no right to acquit. Yet again, he is very far from imagining
that the most merciful God will indiscriminately forgive ;
or that the weakness of human emotions, groaning out at
the last hour a few accustomed phrases, is a sufficient ground
of confidence and hope. He knows that the only external
evidence, of forgiveness is the fact, that he has ceased to
do evil; no other is possible. Having Christ near as a
friend and a brother, and making the Christian life his
great aim, he is no longer under the dominion of a con
ventional theology. He will not be distracted by its phrases
from communion with his fellow-men. He can never fall
into that confusion of head and heart, which elevates matters
of opinion into practical principles. Difficulties and doubts
diminish with him, as he himself grows more like Christ, not
because he forcibly suppresses them, but because they become
unimportant in comparison with purity, and holiness, and
love. Enough of truth for him seems to radiate from the
person of the Saviour. He thinks more and more of the
human nature of Christ as the expression of the divine. He
has found the way of life ; — that way is not an easy way —
but neither is it beset by the imaginary perplexities with
which a false use of the intellect in religion has often sur
rounded it.
" If our Saviour were to come again to earth, which of all
e 2

52
the theories of atonement and sacrifice would He sanction
with His authority ? Perhaps none of them, yet perhaps all
may be consistent with a true service of Him. The question
has no answer. But it suggests the thought that we shrink
from bringing controversy into His presence. The same
kind of lesson may be gathered from the consideration of
theological differences in the face of death. Who, as he
draws near to Christ, will not feel himself drawn towards his
theological opponents ? At the end of life, when a man looks
back calmly, he is most likely to find that he exaggerated
in some things ; that he mistook party spirit for a love of
truth. Perhaps, he had not sufficient consideration for others,
or stated the truth itself in a manner which was calculated
to give offence. In the heat of the struggle, let us at least
pause to imagine polemical disputes as they will appear
a year, two years, three years hence; it may be, dead and
gone — certainly more truly seen than in the hour of contro
versy. For the truths about which we are disputing cannot
partake of the passing stir ; they do not change even with
the greater revolutions of human things. They are in eter
nity ; and the image of them on earth is not the movement
on the surface of the waters, but the depths of the silent sea.
Lastly, as a measure of the value of such disputes, which
above all other interests seem to have for a time the power of
absorbing men's minds and rousing] their passions, we may
carry our thoughts onwards to the invisible world, and there
behold, as in a glass, the great theological teachers of past
ages, who have anathematized each other in their lives, rest
ing together in the communion of the same Lord." — (Vol. ii.
pp. 587—595.) _

THE WOEDS OF CHRIST.
" There is no study of theology which is likely to exer
cise a more elevating influence on the individual, or a more
healing one on divisions of opinion, than the study of the
words of Christ Himself. The heart is its own witness to
them ; all Christian sects acknowledge them ; they seem to
escape or rise above the region or atmosphere of controversy.
The form in which they exhibit the Gospel to us is the
simplest and also the deepest ; they are more free from de
tails than any other part of Scripture, and they are abso
lutely independent of personal and national influences. In
them is contained the expression of the inner life, of man
kind, and of the Church ; there, too, the individual beholds,
as in a glass, the image of a goodness which is not of this
world. To rank their authority below that of Apostles and
Evangelists is to give up the best hope of reuniting Christen
dom in itself, and of making Christianity a universal reli
gion."— (Vol. ii. p. 556.)

UNITY OF THE OLD AND NEW
TESTAMENTS.
"A real unity remains to ourselves as well as to the
Apostle, the unity not of the letter, but of the spirit, like the
unity of life or of a human soul, which la'sts on amid the
changes of our being. The Old Testament and the New do
not dovetail into one another like the parts of an indenture ;
it is a higher figure than this, which is needed to describe
the continuity of the Divine work. Or rather, the simple
fact is above all figures, and can receive no addition from
philosophical notions of design, or the observation of minute
coincidences. What we term the Old and New dispensation
is the increasing revelation of God, amid the accidents of
human history : first, in Himself ; secondly, in His Son,
gathering not one nation only, but all mankind into His
family. It is the vision of God Himself, true and just, and
remembering mercy in one age of the world ; not ceasing to
be true and just, but softening also into human gentleness,
and love, and forgiveness, and making his dwelling in the
human heart in another. The wind, and the earthquake, and
the fire pass by first, and after that 'the still small voice.
This is the great fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets in
the Gospel. No other religion has anything like it. And
the use of language, and systems of theology, and the neces
sity of 'giving ideas through something,' and the prayers
and thoughts of eighteen hundred years, have formed an
other connexion between the Old and New Testament, more
accidental and outward, and also more intricate and complex,
which is incapable of being accurately drawn out, and ought
not to be imposed as an article of faith ; which yet seems to
many to supply a want in human nature, and gives expres
sion to feelings which would otherwise be unuttered." — (Vol.
ii. p. 158.)

SCRIPTURE.
" It is often supposed that, if the evidence of the genuine
ness of a single book of Scripture be weakened, or the credit
of a single chapter shaken, the whole is overthrown. Some
times the danger of losing the whole is made an argument
against criticism of any part. Much more true is it that, in
short portions or single verses of Scripture the whole is con
tained. Had we but one discourse of Christ, one Epistle of
Paul, more than half would have been preserved. There is
a story of a solitary of the desert, who came into the city of
Alexandria and carried back with him a text of Scripture,
refusing afterwards to learn another, because he could never
completely practise the first. The story belongs to another
age ; it may still be applied by those who interpret a doubt
respecting the least portion of Scripture into a denial of the
Christian faith."— (Vol. i. p. 400.)
" The writings of the Apostle, like the words of our Sa
viour, are but a fragment of his life. And they must be
restored to their context before they can be truly understood.
They do not acquire any real sacredness by isolation from
the rest. It would be a loss, not a gain, to deprive the New
Testament of its natural human character, — instead of re
ceiving a higher and diviner meaning, it would only be
reduced to a level with the sacred writings of the Asiatic
religions. ' So Christ and his Apostles went about speaking
day after day,' is a truer and more instructive thought than
'these things were formally set down for our instruction.'
Nor does it really diminish the power of Scripture to describe
it, as it appears to the eye of the critical student, as a col
lection of fragmentary and occasional pieces. For these frag
ments are living plants ; the germ of eternal life is in them
all; the least of all seeds, when compared in bulk with
human literature, they have grown up into a tree, the shade
of which covers the earth." — (Vol. i. p. 201.)

56
" Natural theology speaks clearly, but it is of God only ;
moral philosophy speaks clearly, but it is of man only :
but the Gospel is, as it were, the communion of God and
man, and its ideas are in a state of transition or oscillation,
having two aspects towards God and towards man, which it
is hard to keep in view at once. Thus, to quote once more
the example just given, the righteousness of God is an idea
not difficult to us to comprehend, human justice and good
ness are also intelligible; but to conceive justice or right
eousness as passing from heaven to earth, from God to man,
actu et potentid at once, as a sort of life, or stream, or motion,
is perplexing. And yet this notion of the communion of the
righteousness of God being what constitutes righteousness,
is of the very essence of the Gospel. It was what the Apo
stle and the first believers meant and felt, and what, if we
could get the simple unlettered Christian, receiving the
Gospel as a little child, to describe to us his feelings, he
would describe." — (Vol. ii. p. 105.)

SCEIPTUEE.
"In what relation does Scripture stand to actual life? Is
it a law, or only a spirit ? for nations, or for individuals ? to
be enforced generally, or in details also ? Are its maxims
to be modified by experience, or acted upon in defiance of
experience? Are the accidental circumstances of the first
believers to become a rule for us ? Is everything, in short,
done or said by our Saviour and His Apostles, to be regarded
as a precept or example which is to be followed on all occa
sions and to last for all time? That can hardly be, con
sistently with the changes of human things. It would be a
rigid skeleton of Christianity (not the image of Christ), to
which society and politics, as well as the lives of individuals,
would be conformed. It would be the oldness of the letter on
which the world would be stretched ; not ' the law of the spirit
of life,' which St. Paul teaches. The attempt to force politics
and law into the framework of religion is apt to drive us up
into a corner, in which the great principles of truth and jus
tice have no longer room to make themselves felt. It is
better, as well as safer, to take the liberty with which Christ
has made us free. For our Lord Himself has left behind
Him words which contain a principle large enough to admit
all the forms of a society or of life ; ' My kingdom is not of
this world.' (John xviii. 36.) It does not come into collision
with politics or knowledge ; it has nothing to do with the
Roman government or the Jewish priesthood, or with corre
sponding institutions in the present day : it is a counsel of
perfection, and has its dwelling-place in the heart of man.
That is the real solution of questions of Church and State ;
all else is relative to the history or circumstances of par
ticular nations. That is the answer to a doubt which is also
raised respecting the obligation of the letter of the Gospel
on individual Christians. But this inwardness of the words
of Christ is what few are able to receive ; it is easier to apply
them superficially to things without than to be a partaker of
them from within. And false and miserable applications of
them are often made, and the kingdom of God becomes the

58
tool of the kingdoms of the world."— (Essays and Reviews,
pp. 357, 358.)
"In many of our Lord's discourses He speaks of the
'blessedness of poverty:' of the hardness which they that
have riches will experience ' in attaining eternal life.' ' It is
easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye,' and ' Son>
thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,' and again,
' One thing thou lack est, go and sell all that thou hast.'
Precepts like these do not appeal to our own experience of
life ; they are unlike anything that we see around us at the
present day, even among good men ; to some among us they
will recall the remarkable saying of Lessing, — ' that the Chris
tian religion had been tried for eighteen centuries ; the reli
gion of Christ remained to be tried.' To take them literally
would be injurious to ourselves and to soeiety (at least, so
we think) . . . Well then, are the precepts of Christ not to be
obeyed? Perhaps in their fullest sense they cannot be obeyed.
But at any rate they are not to be explained away; the
standard of Christ is not to be lowered to ordinary Christian
life, because ordinary Christian life cannot rise, even in good
men, to the standard of Christ. And there may be ' stand
ing, among us' some one in ten thousand ' whom we know
not,' in whom there is such a divine union of charity and
prudence that he is most blest in the entire fulfilment of the
precept, ' Go, sell all that thou hast,' — which to obey literally
in other cases would be evil, and not good. Many there
have been, doubtless (not one or two only) who have given
all that they had on earth to their family or friends — the
poor servant ' casting her two mites into the treasury,' deny
ing herself the ordinary comforts of life for the sake of an
erring parent or brother ; that is not probably an uncom
mon case, and as near an approach as in this life we make to
heaven. And there may be some one or two rare natures
in the world in which there is such a divine courtesy, such
a gentleness and dignity of soul, that differences of rank
seem to vanish before them, and they look upon the face
of others, even of their own servants and dependants, only
as they are in the sight of God and will be in His kingdom.
And there may be some tender and delicate woman among
us, who feels that she has a divine vocation to falfil the most

59
repulsive offices towards the dying inmates of a hospital, or
the soldier perishing in a foreign land. Whether such ex
amples of self-sacrifice are good or evil, must depend, not al
together on social or economical principles, but on the spirit
of those who offer them, and the power which they have in
themselves of ' making all things kin.' And even if the ideal
itself were not carried out by us in practice, it has neverthe
less what may be termed a truth of feeling. ' Let them that
have riches be as though they had them not.' ' Let the
rich man wear the load lightly; he will one day fold them
up as a vesture.' Let not the refinement of society make us
forget that it is not the refined only who are received into
the kingdom of God ; nor the daintiness of life hide from us
the bodily evils of which the rich man and Lazarus are alike
heirs. Thoughts such as these have the power to re-unite us
to our fellow- creatures from whom the accidents of birth,
position, wealth have separated us ; they soften our hearts
towards them, when divided not only by vice and igndrance,
but what is even a greater barrier, difference of manners and
associations. For if there be anything in our own fortune
superior to that of others, instead of idolizing it or cherish
ing it in the blood, the Gospel would have us cast it from
us ; and if there be anything mean or despised in those with
whom we have to do, the Gospel would have us regard such
as friends and brethren, yea, even as having the person of
Christ."— (pp. 361—364.)
" There are notes struck in places of Scripture, which
like some discoveries of science, have sounded before their
time ; and only after many days have been caught up and
found a response on the earth. They are germs of truth
which after thousands of years have never yet taken root in
the world. There are lessons in the Prophets which, how
ever simple, mankind have not yet learned even in theory ;
and which the complexity of society rather tends to hide ;
aspects of human life in Job and Ecclesiastes which have a
truth of desolation about them which we faintly realize in
ordinary circumstances. It is, perhaps, the greatest difficulty
of all to enter into the meaning of the words of Christ — so
gentle, so human, so divine, neither adding to them nor

60
marring their simplicity. The attempt to illustrate or draw
them out in detail, even to guard against their abuse, is apt
to disturb the balance of truth. The interpreter needs no
thing short of ' fashioning ' in himself the image of the mind
of Christ. He has to be born again into a new spiritual or
intellectual world, from which the thoughts of this world are
shut out. It is one of the highest tasks on which the labour
of a life can be spent, to bring the words of Christ a little
nearer the heart of man."-^(pp. 379, 380.)
" Nothing that can be said of the greatness or sublimity,
or truth, or depth, or tenderness, of many passages, is too
much. But that greatness is of a simple kind; it is not
increased by double senses, or systems of types, or elaborate
structure, or design. If every sentence was a mystery, every
word a riddle, every letter a symbol, that would not make
the Scriptures more worthy of a Divine author : it is a hea
thenish or Rabbinical fancy which reads them in this way.
Such complexity would not place them above but below
human compositions in general ; for it would deprive them
of the ordinary intelligibleness of human language. It is
not for a Christian theologian to say that words were given
to mankind to conceal their thoughts, neither was revelation
given them to conceal the Divine." — (p. 382.)
" In this consideration of the separate books of Scripture
it is not to be forgotten that they have also a sort of con
tinuity. We make a separate study of the subject, the mode
of thought, in some degree also of the language of each book.
And at length the idea arises in our minds of a common
literature, a pervading life, and overruling law. It may be
compared tn the effect of some natural scene in which we
suddenly perceive a harmony or picture, or to the imperfect
appearance of design which suggests itself in looking at the
surface of the globe. That is to say, there is nothing mira
culous or artificial in the arrangement of the books of Scrip
ture ; it is the result, not the design, which appears in them
when bound in the same volume. Or if we like so to say,
there is design, but a natural design which is revealed to
after ages. Such continuity or design is best expressed

61
under some notion of progress or growth, not regular, how
ever, but with broken and imperfect stages, which the want
of knowledge prevents our minutely defining. The great
truth of the unity of God was there from the first ; slowly as
the morning broke in the heavens, like some central light, it
filled and afterwards dispersed the mists of human passion in
which it was itself enveloped. A change passes over the
Jewish religion from fear to love, from power to wisdom,
from the justice of God to the mercy of God, from the nation
to the individual, from this world to another; from the
visitation of the sins of the fathers upon the children, to
' every soul shall bear its own iniquity ;' from the fire, the
earthquake, and the storm, to the still small voice. There
never was a time after the deliverance from Egypt, in which
the Jewish people did not bear a kind of witness against the
cruelty and licentiousness of the surrounding tribes. In the
decline of the monarchy, as the kingdom itself was sinking
under foreign conquerors, whether springing from contact
with the outer world, or from some reaction within, the
undergrowth of morality gathers strength ; first, in the an
ticipation of prophecy, secondly, like a green plant in the
hollow rind of Pharisaism, — and individuals pray and com
mune with God each one for himself. At length the tree of
life blossoms; the faith in immortality which had hitherto
slumbered in the heart of man, intimated only in doubtful
words (2 Sam. xii. 23 ; Psalm xvii. 15), or beaming for an
instant in dark places (Job xix. 25), has become the prevail
ing belief."— (pp. 384—386.)
" In an age which was the victim of its own passions, the
creature of its own circumstances, the slave of its own de
generate religion, our Saviour taught a lesson absolutely free
from all the influences of a surrounding world. He made
the last perfect revelation of God to man ; a revelation not
indeed immediately applicable to the state of society or the
world, but in its truth and purity inexhaustible by the after
generations of men. And of the first application of the truth
which He taught as a counsel of perfection to the actual
circumstances of mankind, we have the example in the
Epistles.

62
" Such a general conception of growth or development in
Scripture, beginning with the truth of the Unity of God in
the earliest books and ending with the perfection of Christ,
naturally springs up in our minds in the perusal of the sacred
writings. It is a notion of value to the interpreter, for it
enables him at the same time to grasp the whole and dis
tinguish the parts. It saves him from the necessity of main
taining that the Old Testament is one and the same every
where ; that the books of Moses contain truths or precepts,
such as the duty of prayer or the faith in immortality, or the
spiritual interpretation of sacrifice, which no one has ever
seen there. It leaves him room enough to admit all the facts
of the case. No longer is he required to defend or to explain
away David's imprecations against his enemies, or his injunc
tions to Solomon, any more than his sin in the matter of
Uriah. Nor is he hampered with a theory of accommodation.
Still the sense of ' the increasing purpose which through the
ages ran' is present to him, nowhere else continuously dis
cernible or ending in a divine perfection. Nowhere else is
there found the same interpenetration of the political and
religious element — a whole nation, ' though never good for
much at any time,' possessed with the conviction that it was
living in the face of God — in whom the Sun of righteousness
shone upon the corruption of an Eastern nature — the ' fewest
of all people,' yet bearing the greatest part in the education
of the world. Nowhere else among the teachers and bene
factors of mankind is there any form like His, in whom the
desire of the nation is fulfilled, and ' not of that nation only,'
but of all mankind, whom He restores to His Father and
their Father, to His God and their God."— (pp. 386, 387.)
" Interpretation is the province of few ; it requires a finer
perception of language, and a higher degree of cultivation
than is attained by the majority of mankind. But applica
tions are made by all, from the philosopher reading ' God in
History,' to the poor woman who finds in them a response to
her prayers, and the solace of her daily life. In the hour of
death we do not want critical explanations ; in most cases,
those to whom they would be offered are incapable of under
standing them. A few words, breathing the sense of the

63
whole Christian world, such as ' I know that my Redeemer
liveth,' (though the exact meaning of thera may be doubtful
to the Hebrew scholar) ; ' I shall go to him, but he shall
not return to me;' touch a chord which would never be
reached by the most skilful exposition of the argument of
one of St. Paul's Epistles."— (p. 405.)
"The least expression of Scripture is weighty; it affects
the minds of the hearers in a way that no other language
can. Whatever responsibility attaches to idle words, at
taches in still greater degree to the idle or fallacious use
of Scripture terms. And there is surely a want of proper
reverence for Scripture, when we confound the weakest and
feeblest applications of its words with their true meaning —
when we avail ourselves of their natural power to point them
against some enemy — when we divert the eternal words of
charity and truth into a defence of some passing opinion.
For not only in the days of the Pharisees, but in our own,
the letter has been taking the place of the spirit ; the least
matters, of the greatest, and the primary meaning has been
lost in the secondary use." — (pp. 409, 410.)
"The portion of Scripture which more than any other
is immediately and universally applicable to our own times
is, doubtless, that which is contained in the words of Christ
Himself. The reason is that they are words of the most
universal import. They do not relate to the circumstances
of the time, but to the common life of all mankind. You
cannot extract from them a political creed ; only, ' Render
unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's,' and ' The Scribes
and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat ; whatsoever, therefore,
they say unto you do, but after their works do not.' They
present to us a standard of truth and duty, such as no one
can at once and immediately practise — such, in its perfection,
no one has fulfilled in this world. But this idealism does
not interfere with their influence as a religious lesson. Ideals,
even though unrealized, have effect on our daily life. The
preacher of the Gospel is, or ought to be, aware that his
calls to repentance, his standard of obligations, his lamenta
tions over his own shortcomings or those of others, do not at

64
once convert hundreds or thousands, as on the day of Pente*
cost. Yet it does not follow that they are thrown away, or
that it would be well to substitute for them mere prudential
or economical lessons, lectures on health or sanitary im
provement. For they tend to raise men above themselves,
providing them with Sabbaths as well as working- days,
giving them a taste of 'the good word of God' and of 'the
powers of the world to come.' Human nature needs to be
idealized; it seems as if it took a dislike to itself when pre
sented always in its ordinary attire ; it lives on in the hope
of becoming better. And the image or hope of a better life —
the vision of Christ crucified — which is held up to it, doubt
less has an influence ; not like the rushing mighty wind of
the day of Pentecost; it may rather be compared to the
leaven ' which a woman took and hid in three measures of
meal, till the whole was leavened.'
"The Parables of our Lord are a portion of the New
Testament, which we may apply in the most easy and literal
manner. The persons in them are the persons among whom
we live and move; there are times and occasions at which
the truths symbolized by them come home to the hearts of
all who have ever been impressed by religion. We have
been prodigal sons returning to our Father ; servants to
whom talents have been entrusted ; labourers in the vineyard
inclined to murmur at our lot, when compared with that of
others, yet receiving every man his due ; well satisfied Phari
sees ; repentant Publicans : — we have received the seed, and
the cares of the world have choked it — we hope also at times
that we have found the pearl of great price after sweeping
the house — we are ready like the Good Samaritari to shew
kindness to all mankind. Of these circumstances of life or
phases of mind, which are typified by the parables, most
Christians have experience. We may go on to apply many
of them further to the condition of nations and Churches.
Such a treasury has Christ provided us of things new and
old, which refer to all time and all mankind — may we not
say in His own words — 'Because He is the Son of Man?'
" There is no language of Scripture which penetrates the
individual soul, and embraces all the world in the arms of
its love, in the same manner as that of Christ Himself. Yet

65
the Epistles contain lessons which are not found iu the
Gospels, or, at least, not expressed with the same degree of
clearness. For the Epistles are nearer to actual life — they
relate to the circumstances of the first believers, to their
struggles with the world without, to their temptations and
divisions from within — their subject is not only the doctrine
of the Christian religion, but the business of the early Church.
And although their circumstances are not our circumstances
— we are not afflicted or persecuted, or driven out of the
world, but in possession of the blessings, and security, and
property of an established religion — yet there is a Christian
spirit which infuses itself into all circumstances, of which
they are a pure and living source." — (pp. 413 — 415.)
" Even in this life, there are numberless links which unite
moral good with intellectual truth. It is hardly too much to
say that the one is but a narrower form of the other. Truth
is to the world what holiness of life is to the individual — to
man collectively the source of justice and peace and good.
" There are many ways in which the connexion between
truth and good may be traced in the interpretation of Scrip
ture. Is it a mere chimera that "the different sections of
Christendom may meet on the common ground of the New
Testament? Or that the individual may be urged by the
vacancy and unprofitableness of old traditions to make the
Gospel his own — a life of Christ in the soul, instead of a
theory of Christ which is in a book, or written down ? Or
that in missions to the heathen, Scripture may become the
expression of universal truths rather than of the tenets of
particular men or Churches ? That would remove many ob
stacles to the reception of Christianity. Or that the study
of Scripture may have a more important place in a liberal
education than hitherto? Or that the 'rational service' of
interpreting Scripture may dry up the crude and dreamy
vapours of religious excitement P Or, that in preaching, new
sources of spiritual health may flow from a more natural use
of Scripture? Or that the lessons of Scripture may have a
nearer way to the hearts of the poor when disengaged from
theological formulas ?"— (pp. 423, 424.)

INSPIEATION.
"Almost all Christians agree in the word which use and
tradition have consecrated to express the reverence which
they truly feel for the Old and New Testaments. But here
the agreement of opinion ends; the meaning of inspiration has
been variously explained, or more often passed over in silence
from a fear of stirring the difficulties that would arise about
it. It is one of those theological terms which may be re
garded as ' great peacemakers,' but which are also sources of
distrust and misunderstanding. For while we are ready to
shake hands with any one who uses the same language as
ourselves, a doubt is apt to insinuate itself whether he takes
language in the same senses^-whether a particular term con
veys all the associations to another which it does to ourselves
— whether it is not possible that one who disagrees about
the word may not be more nearly agreed about the thing.
The advice has, indeed, been given to the theologian that he
' should take care of words and leave things to themselves ;'
the authority, however, who gives the advice is not good— -it
is placed by Goethe in the mouth of Mephistopheles. Pascal
seriously charges the Jesuits with acting on a similar maxim
— excommunicating those who meant the same thing and
said auother, holding communion with those who said the
same thing and meant another. But this is not the way to
heal the wounds of the Church of Christ; we cannot thus
'skin and film' the weak places -of theology. Errors about
words, and the attribution to words themselves of an ex
cessive importance, lie at the root of theological as of other
confusions. In theology they are more dangerous than in
other sciences, because they cannot so readily be brought to
the test of facts.
" The word inspiration has received more numerous grada
tions and distinctions of meaning than perhaps any other in
the whole of theology. There is an inspiration of super
intendence and an inspiration of suggestion ; an inspiration
which would have been consistent with the Apostle or Evange
list falling into error, and an inspiration which would have pre
vented him from erring ; verbal organic inspiration by which
the inspired person is the passive utterer of a Divine Word,
and an inspiration which acts through the character of the

67
sacred writer; there is an inspiration which absolutely com
municates the fact to be revealed or statement to be made,
and an inspiration which does not supersede the ordinary
knowledge of human events; there is an inspiration which
demands infallibility in matters of doctrine, but allows for
mistakes in fact. Lastly, there is a view of inspiration which
recognises only its supernatural and prophetic character, and
a view of inspiration which regards the Apostles and Evange
lists as equally inspired in their writings and in their lives,
and in both receiving the guidance of the Spirit of truth in
a manner not different in kind but only in degree from
ordinary Christians. . . .
" The subject will clear of itself if we bear in mind two
considerations : — First, that the nature of inspiration can
only be known from the examination of Scripture. There
is no other source to which we can turn for information;
and we have no right to assume some imaginary doctrine
of inspiration like the infallibility of the Roman Catholic
Church. To the question, ' What is inspiration ? ' the first
answer therefore is, ' That idea of Scripture which we gather
frum the knowledge of it.' It is no mere a priori notion,
but one to which the book is itself a witness. It is a fact
which we infer from the study of Scripture -not of one
portion only, but of the whole. Obviously then it embraces
writings of very different kinds — the book of Esther, for
example, or the Song of Solomon, as well as the Gospel of
St. John. It is reconcileable with the mixed good and evil
of the characters of the Old Testament, which nevertheless
does not exclude them from the favour of God, with the at
tribution to the Divine Being of actions at variance with that
higher revelation, which He.has given of Himself in the Gos
pel ; it is not inconsistent with imperfect or opposite aspects
of the truth as in the book of Job or Ecclesiastes, with va
riations of fact in the Gospels or the books of Kings and
Chronicles, with inaccuracies of language in the Epistles of
St. Paul. For these are all found in Scripture ; neither is
there any reason why they should not be, except a general
impression that Scripture ought to have been written in a
way different from what it has. A principle of progressive
revelation admits them all ; and this is already contained in
the words of our Saviour, ' Moses because of the hardness

68
of your hearts ;' or even in the Old Testament, .' Henceforth
there shall be no more this proverb in the house of Israel.'
For what is progressive is necessarily imperfect in its earlier
stages, and even erring to those who come after, whether it
be the maxims of a half- civilized world which are compared
with those of a civilized one, or the law with the Gospel.
Scripture itself points the way to answer the moral objections
to Scripture. Lesser difficulties remain, but only such as
would be found commonly in writings of the same age or
country. There is no more reason why imperfect narratives
should be excluded from Scripture than imperfect grammar ;
no more ground for expecting that the New Testament
would be logical or Aristotelian in form, than that it would
be written in Attic Greek.
" The other consideration is one which has been neglected
by writers on this subject. It is this — that any true doctrine
of inspiration must conform to all well-ascertained facts of
history or of science. The same fact cannot be true and
untrue, any more than the same words can have two oppo
site meanings. The same fact cannot be true in religion
when seen by the light of faith, and untrue in science when
looked at through the medium of evidence or experiment.
But if so, there is no need of elaborate reconcilements of
revelation and science ; they reconcile themselves the moment
any scientific truth is distinctly ascertained. As the idea
of nature enlarges, the idea of revelation also enlarges; it
was a temporary misunderstanding which severed them.
And as the knowledge of nature which is possessed by the
few is communicated in its leading features at least to the
many, they will receive with it a higher conception of the
ways of God to man.
" Commentators are often more occupied with the proof of
miracles than with the declaration of life and immortality;
with the fulfilment of the details of prophecy than with its
life and power ; with the reconcilement of the discrepancies
in the narrative of the infancy, pointed out by Schleiermacher,
than with the importance of the great event of the appear
ance of the Saviour, — ' To this end was I born and for this
cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. ' "—(pp. 344—352.)

CEEEDS.
"The creeds are acknowledged to be a part of Christi
anity; they stand in a close relation to the words of Christ
and His Apostles; nor can it be said that any heterodox
formula makes a nearer approach to a simple and scriptural
rule of faith ....
" The language of the New Testament is the first utterance
and consciousness of the mind of Christ ; or the immediate
vision of the Word of life (1 John i. 1) as it presented itself
before the eyes of His first followers, or as the sense of His
truth and power grew upon them (Romans i. 3, 4) ; the lan
guage of the Creeds is the result of three or four centuries
of reflection and controversy ....
" That advantage which the New Testament has over the
teaching of the Church, as representing what may be termed
the childhood of the Gospel, would be lost if its language
were required to conform to that of the Creeds." — (pp. 353,
354.)

DIFFICULTIES.
" If any one who is about to become a clergyman feels or
thinks that he feels that some of the preceding statements
cast a shade of trouble or suspicion on his future walk of life,
who, either from the influence of a stronger mind than his
own, or from some natural tendency in himself, has been led
to examine those great questions which lie on the threshold
of the higher study of theology, and experiences a sort of
shrinking or dizziness at the prospect which is opening upon
him ; let him lay to heart the following considerations : —
First, that he may possibly not be the person who is called
upon to pursue such inquiries. No man should busy him
self with them who has not clearness of mind enough to see
things as they are, and a faith strong enough to rest in that
degree of knowledge which God has really given ; or who is
unable to separate the truth from his own religious wants
and experiences. For the theologian as well as the philo
sopher has need of ' dry light,' ' unmingled with any tincture
of the affections,' the more so as his conclusions are oftener
liable to be disordered by them. He who is of another tem
perament may find another work to do, which is in some re
spects a higher one. Unlike philosophy, the Gospel has an
ideal life to offer, not to a few only, but to all. There is one
word of caution, however, to be given to those who renounce
inquiry ; it is that they cannot retain the right to condemn
inquirers. Their duty is to say with Nicodemus, ' Doth the
Gospel condemn any man before it hear him ?' although the
answer may be only ' Art thou also of Galilee?' They have
chosen the path of practical usefulness, and they should ac
knowledge that it is a narrow path. For any but a ' strong
swimmer' will be insensibly drawn out of it by the tide of
public^ppinion or the current of party.
" Secondly, let him consider that the difficulty is not so
great as imagination sometimes paints it. It is a difficulty
which arises chiefly out of differences of education in different
classes of society. . . Criticism itself is not only negative ; if it
creates some difficulties, it does away others. It may put us at

variance with a party or section of Christians in our own neigh
bourhood. But on the other hand, it enables us to look at all
men as they are in the sight of God, not as they appear to
human eye, separated and often interdicted from each other
by lines of religious demarcation, it divides us from the parts
to unite us to the whole. That is a great help to religious
communion. It does away with the supposed opposition of
reason and faith. It throws us back on the conviction that
religion is a personal thing, in which certainty is to be slowly
won and not assumed as the result of evidence or testimony.
It places us, in some respects (though it be deemed a paradox
to say so), more nearly in the position of the first Christians
to whom the New Testament was not yet given, in whom the
Gospel was a living word, not yet embodied in forms or sup
ported by ancient institutions.
"Thirdly, the suspicion or difficulty which attends critical
inquiries is no reason for doubting their value. The Scrip
ture nowhere leads us to suppose that the circumstance pf
all men speaking well of us is any ground for supposing that
we are acceptable in the sight of God. And there is no
reason why the condemnation of others should be witnessed
to by our own conscience. Perhaps it may be true that,
owing to the jealousy or fear of some, the reticence of others,
the terrorism of a few, we may not always find it easy to
regard these subjects with calmness and judgment. But, on
the other hand, these accidental circumstances have nothing
to do with the question at issue; they cannot have the
slightest influence on the meaning of the words, or on the
truth of facts. No one can carry out the principle that public
opinion or Church authority is the guide to truth, when
he goes beyond the limits of his own Church or country,
That is a consideration which may well make him pause
before he accepts of such a guide in the journey to another
world. All the arguments for repressing inquiries into Scrip
ture in Protestant countries hold equally in Italy and*"Spain
for repressing inquiries into matters of fact or doctrine, and
so for denying the Scriptures to the common people.
" Lastly, let him be assured that there is some nobler idea
of truth than is supplied by the opinion of mankind in general,
or the voice of parties in a Church. Every one, whether a

72
student of theology or not, has need to make war against his
prejudices no less than against his passions ; and, in the reli
gious teacher, the first is even more necessary than the last.
For, while the vices of mankind are in a great degree isolated,
aud are, at any rate, reprobated by public opinion, their pre
judices have a sort of communion or kindred with the world
without. They are a collective evil, and have their being in
the interest, classes, states of society, and other influences
amid which we live. He who takes the prevailing opinions
of Christians and decks them out in their gayest colours —
who reflects the better mind of the world to itself — is likely
to be its favourite teacher. In that ministry of the Gospel,
even when assuming forms repulsive to persons of education,
no doubt the good is far greater than the error or harm. But
there is also a deeper work which is not dependent on the
opinions of men, in which many elements combine, some
alien to religion, or accidentally at variance with it. That
work can hardly expect to win much popular favour, so far
as it runs counter to the feelings of religious parties. But
he who bears a part in it may feel a confidence, which no
popular caresses or religious sympathy could inspire, that he
has by a divine help been enabled to plant his foot somewhere
beyond the waves of time. He may depart hence before the
natural term, worn out with intellectual toil ; regarded with
suspicion by many of his contemporaries ; yet not without
a sure hope that the love of truth, which men of saintly lives
often seem to slight, is, nevertheless, accepted before God."
—(pp. 430—433.)

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