Chase.l ■* "** [Feb. 7, 



already, would only show himself to be one "that darkeneth counsel by- 

 words without knowledge." 



All knowledge must not only begin in faith, but it must also proceed by 

 faith, end in faith, and rest on faith. So long as our faith is weak in the 

 full self-evidence, of our premises, of their logical connection, of the legiti- 

 macy of our reasoning faculties, or of their rightful exercise, all our infer- 

 ences will be vitiated by doubt ; we may reach some degree of probability, 

 but no certainty. Of these reasonable requirements the legitimacy of our 

 reasoning faculties underlies all the others. We can have no other reason- 

 able assurance of that legitimacy than our conviction of the wisdom and 

 truthfulness of the Author of our being. The highest faith is, therefore, 

 religious faith ; the highest religion is the one which offers the most satis- 

 factory provision for all the spiritual needs of man, in all ages and under 

 all circumstances. 



None of our faculties have been made in vain. If the human race, in 

 its infancy, was more given to theology than it is in the present day, its 

 devotion was due to a greater sense of its needs. If the devotion led to 

 any exaggerated development of a faith which looks to eternity, who will 

 say that it displayed less true manhood than like exaggerations of a reason 

 which looks only to earthly temporalities, and prides itself in "oppositions 

 of science falsely so-called?" 



True science will not only gladly accept, but it will even eagerly seek, 

 all the help that it can get from every quarter. Assured of the perfect 

 harmony of all truth, and of its manj r -sided relations, it will see that no truth 

 can be fully understood until it has been studied in its several primary 

 bearings on the triform intelligence of man ; that the proper culture of in- 

 telligence looks to a complete and symmetrical growth instead of a mon- 

 strous, distorted, one-sided growth ; that the loftiest revelations of faith 

 yield the most soul-satisfying food for "the scientific uses of the imagina- 

 tion ;" that the most complete sanctification of desire is attended by the 

 greatest earnestness of purpose ; that the fullest inspiration of understand- 

 ing is shown by the clearest recognition and the most cheerful acknowledg- 

 ment of the divine origin of the inspiration ; that the dicta of all the men- 

 tal faculties should be accepted, compared and reconciled, so as to give the 

 broadest possible views of truth ; that whenever inclination or avocation 

 give the mind a special bias in one direction, special pains should be taken 

 to learn what religious, moral or scientific acquirements are needed in order 

 to maintain the equipoise of perfect manhood. 



God's revelations in the book of nature, are as old as creation. Man, 

 after the lapse of thousands of years, learns the alphabet, spells out a few 

 of the simplest sentences in the record, and sets himself up in the pride of 

 his new attainments, as the intellectual lord of the universe. He forgets 

 that the lesson must have beea set before it could be learned ; thai it may 

 be learned sooner by those who are ready to listen to the Teacher, than by 

 those who try to pick it out by themselves ; and that it is never learned 

 without the Teacher's help, although the help may be so skilfully given 

 that the scholar is not aware of it. 



