INEVITABLE 5 



upon which we depend in every sphere of rational 

 thinking. There is but one human reason, and to 

 abandon its use in any field is to become irrational. 

 An irrational faith can never hold its own among 

 rational men. But, and this is the point, no man can 

 see all this until he has had some experience in spiritual 

 knowledge, and the natural man needs to be moved 

 by higher than merely natural considerations before 

 he will set himself to acquire spiritual experience. 



Nor is this all; the faculties of the mind which are 

 called into exercise in the investigation and assimila- 

 tion of spiritual verities are very subtle, and are more 

 easily deranged than any others — especially by moral 

 causes. Faith is not only a mental act, but also, by 

 reason of the conditions of its successful exercise, a 

 virtue. I do not mean that it is impossible to possess 

 a genuine faith without having perfect character. The 

 capacity to believe and to exercise the reason success- 

 fully in spiritual things lies within the reach of all 

 who will submit to the conditions of spiritual knowl- 

 edge. But perfect faith and complete emancipation 

 from doubt, like perfect virtue, is the goal, rather than 

 an early stage of spiritual growth. The beginner, if 

 he is sincere in his efforts to lay hold upon divine truth, 

 can acquire a very genuine faith — one which is the 

 earnest of a final acquisition of the certainty which is 

 called knowledge. But at every stage of its growth 

 the capacity to assimilate divine truth depends upon a 

 combination of conditions which may easily be dis- 

 turbed; and when they are disturbed doubt obtrudes 



