2S2 histinct. 



The probability of a Revelation in words, would be 

 settled, and the proper tests of such a Revelation 

 would be determined. So that, in the end, man's 

 Reason would be satisfied as to the existence of 

 God, His character, and relations to man, and the 

 nature and extent of His Communications to him. 

 All such knowledge would be of slow growth, 

 and it is evident that if religion depended solely 

 upon such knowledge, it could only be in the later 

 and more perfect forms of society that an adequate 

 knowledge of God could be reached, or that a Rev-- 

 elation could be so tested by Reason as to be ac- \ 

 cepted on rational grounds. 



But in distinction from all this, there is in man 

 the Instinct of a child, or of a dependent towards 

 some Unseen Power. This instinct manifests itself 

 as a power in all races of men, so that religion does 

 not begin as a product of Reason, or as a result 

 of induction from the study of the works of nature. 

 This impulse, or this instinctive belief, has been so 

 strong as to give rise to the numberless gods of the 

 heathen, and to belief in oracles, auguries, signs 

 and visions, for the guidance of man. They have 

 all been believed in, because they are such mani- 

 festations in kind as this instinct leads man to ex- 

 pect. They have been accepted in all their crudi- 

 ties, because the comprehending Power of man 

 has not done its appropriate work in giving the 

 hght and guidance to this instinct, which it ought 

 to furnish. It plainly has but two methods of giv- 

 ing light on this subject. The first is through the 



