RIGHT RELATION OF REASON TO RELIGION 23 1 



diet the mind of God, and so, for righteousness' 

 sake, must be contradicted by God's direct word ; 

 or else the discrediting of reason, even though with 

 gracious condescension, by excluding its incapacity 

 from the realm of things sacred, and essential to the 

 welfare of the soul, where again resort must be had 

 to the direct word of God as the only means of sup- 

 plement. And if reason — and let me here say that 

 in this discussion I shall always mean by reason the 

 human powers of insight in their completest scope, 

 and not merely the faculty of "reasoning," or con- 

 sistent and consecutive syllogising, or "explaining" 

 and "proving," in this mechanical sense — if reason 

 either necessarily misjudges concerning the things of 

 eternal life, or is incapable of any judgment at all 

 about them, then there is of course nothing for it, in 

 the highest concerns of its being, but simply to hear 

 and obey the direct declaration of God. 



" Most true ! " — I can imagine the advocate of 

 Authority saying, — " most true ! and that is exactly 

 our impregnable doctrine." I cannot agree with him 

 in this confidence, however ; the doctrine is anything 

 but impregnable, it really contradicts itself, and this 

 in more than one way. 



Certainly it is a doctrine on the surface very 

 plausible, but it will not bear the test of an exact 

 and careful thinking out. For we cannot but go on 

 to ask, How, then, is the direct declaration of God 



