RIGHT RELATION OF REASON TO RELIGION- 263 



ity tacitly admit the appeal to reason to be finally 

 unavoidable. Throughout the historical develop- 

 ment of the Method of Authority, whether at the 

 hands of Romanists or of Protestants, there is 

 after all profoundly implied the power of human 

 reason to judge of spiritual things, — of God, his 

 character, his nature, his will toward men and for 

 men. It is this silent assumption, constantly com- 

 ing to light even amid the most plain and formal 

 professions to the contrary, that imparts to the 

 method of testimony, and to the theory of miracle 

 as the credential of testimony, whatever of plau- 

 sible force they may have. The working-power of 

 this whole authoritative scheme is really derived 

 from a reliance, albeit unconscious, on the fact 

 that human reason is all the while deep in the 

 counsels of God ; it knows the true signs of God's 

 presence and word, because it knows from of old 

 what God is, and what are the word and the act that 

 become him. This is revealed in the striking fact 

 that none but commands of great moral worth are 

 received as parts of Divine Revelation, whereas 

 the miraculous vindication, taken purely and simply, 

 would not provide for regarding the supreme rational 

 distinction between Right and Wrong. On the con- 

 trary, on the ground of pure authority, tested by 

 power alone, zvhatever came as edict would have 

 to be regarded right, as the primitive religions held. 



