288 GENERAL RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 



But in exalting the emotions and the will as springs of belief, have 

 we sufficiently taken account of that other fact, also asserted by 

 Paulsen, that reason must approve, even though it cannot prove, 

 that which we believe? The time certainly comes, and it should 

 come, when every intelligent person calls his belief to pass muster 

 at the bar of his intellect. I should be sorry for any man who then 

 could not find at least one solid belief. Let him hold fast to that. 

 One is enough, if that is all he has, and if he is " one of those whose 

 little is his own." Let him affirm that mightily and triumphantly; 

 and then let him add to it as he can. In most instances his case will 

 be like that of the college student who went to the consulting pastor 

 in grief because he had so many doubts. " Will you do one thing 

 for me ? " s.aid the pastor. " Go to your room and spend one hour 

 in writing down, on one side of a sheet of paper, the things you 

 really do believe." On his return the youth said: " I could have 

 spent two hours and filled the other side. I believe more than I 

 had any idea I did." 



A word before leaving this point on authority, a quickened sense 

 of which we undoubtedly need here in America and at the present 

 time. There can be no obedience without it. But it makes a 

 difference what kind of authority. There is the authority of reason, 

 the authority of institutions, the authority of faith. These three 

 may be at odds one with another, but not necessarily so. So far as 

 they are pure they all spring from within, and are at one. The only 

 obedience to authority which deserves the name of moral, is obedi- 

 ence to the authority that springs from within. The moral man 

 obeys himself. But that is only another way of saying that the 

 moral man obeys God. Religion will have performed its highest 

 service for morality when it has helped us to discern the authorita- 

 tive voice of God, not only in the individual reason, but in social 

 institutions, and in every relation of life. 



Next to belief and obedience, as the roots of morality, we must 

 place the sentiment of reverence. Reverence has been truly called 

 the mother of morality. Like belief and obedience it is the fruit of 

 religion; and like them it is not to-day flourishing as it should 

 flourish. " There are few persons," says Mr. Lecky, 1 " who are not 

 conscious that no character can attain a supreme degree of excellence 

 in which a reverential spirit is wanting. Of all the forms of moral 

 goodness, it is that to which the epithet ' beautiful ' may be most 

 emphatically applied. Yet the habits of advancing civilization are, 

 if I mistake not, on the whole, inimical to its growth." 



Why is it that the habits of advancing civilization are on the whole 

 inimical to the growth of the sentiment of reverence? The answer 

 to this question is suggested by such observations as these: Wonder 



1 History of European Morals, n, p. 141. 



