INDUCTIVE REASON AND FAITH 269 



life is the best for him to live, as long as he is on this 

 earth. 



Prof Jones says: "The 'true' derives all its value 

 from the 'good'. In itself it is an abstraction . . . and 

 is incapable of satisfying the spiritual needs of man." 

 Of course it is. No abstraction can possibly do so. 

 That is just why the preaching of morals will never 

 regenerate the masses of mankind, as Aristotle said.^ 

 It is just because the 'true' must come down from the 

 clouds of metaphysics and take a concrete form in a 

 Person; Who zV— not the "true" but— the "Truth," 

 that " Faith " may grasp it as a living principle. The 

 experiment has been tried. Jesus Christ was, and is 

 accepted, not as the "true," or as the "good," but solely 

 on the grounds that He was the living Truth and living 

 Goodness personified. 



Rationalists are repeatedly asking. What is there new 

 in Christ's teaching? The following is Harnack's reply: 

 " You ask, ' What was there that was new ? ' The question 

 is out of place in Monotheistic religion. Ask rather: 

 ' Had what was here proclaimed any strength and any 

 vigour ? ' I answer : Take the people of Israel and search 

 the whole history of their religion. Take history gener- 

 ally, and where will you find any message about God and 

 the good that was ever so pure and so full of strength — 

 for purity and strength go together — as we hear and read 

 of in the Gospels ? . . . Pharisaical teachers had proclaimed 

 that everything was contained in the injunction to love 

 God and one's neighbour. They spoke excellently, the 

 words might have come out of Jesus' mouth. But what 

 was the result of their language ? That the nation con- 

 demned the man who took the words seriously. All 



^Ethics, book X., chap. ix. 



