220 RELIGIOUS FEELING 



religion in lower or savage man, those elements that are 

 common to, or form the basis of, the religions of all men. 



In his Baird Lecture on the ' Philosophy of Eeligion,' 

 given in St. George's Church, Edinburgh, in February 1877, 

 Professor Flint thus defines human religion : ' The contro- 

 versy as to whether religion is essentially knowing, feeling, 

 or willing is merely verbal. . . . Eeligion belongs exclu- 

 sively to no one disposition or faculty of the soul, but em- 

 braces the whole mind, the whole man. At its lowest it has 

 something alike of intellect, affection, and practical obe- 

 dience in it; and at its best it should include all the highest 

 exercises of reason, all the purest and deepest emotions and 

 affections, and the noblest kind of conduct. . . . Only a reli- 

 gion which presents an object of worship capable of eliciting 

 the entire devotion of the worshipper's nature, and at the 

 same time of ennobling, enlarging, and satisfying that nature, 

 fully realises the idea of religion, or, in other words, can 

 claim to be a perfect religion.' ! This recent and public 

 utterance of the Professor of Divinity in the University of 

 Edinburgh is important not only as showing the breadth 

 and liberality of view that characterise such Scottish theolo- 

 gians as Principal Tulloch and Professor Knight, of St. 

 Andrews, Principal Caird, of Glasgow, and Professor Smith, 

 of Aberdeen, but as bringing out the fact that religion is 

 not a special or separate faculty or instinct even in man. 

 It is, in short, merely a mode in which the action or opera- 

 tion of various moral or intellectual faculties, or both, may 

 be combined, harmonised, and manifested. 



Applying such a standard as Professor's Flint's to the 

 dog, on the one hand, and to savage man on the other, to 

 the worship by the one of man a living, visible, intelligible 

 power and the idolatry by the other of his wooden or stone 

 fetich or symbol, or his imaginary spirit, it cannot fail to 

 strike those who have made themselves conversant with the 

 habits equally of dog and savage how much more appro- 

 priate the description or definition of human religion is to 

 the dog than to the man. Professor Flint tells us that the 

 * human heart cries out for a living, personal God to wor- 



1 Courant,' February 20, 1877. 



