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imagines if need be, something that may fill the place of 
God in his inward nature. This is sufficient proof, surely, not 
that man can “ by searching find out God,’ but that man is 
meant to have God consciously as part of the environment in 
which he lives. There are thoughts, feelings, ‘ changes” of 
divers kinds in man’s mind and heart within, which bear 
witness to, and demand the knowledge of, something really 
existing in the environment without. This does not, of course, 
prove the existence of an objective revelation. But it does 
show the existence of a nature ready to respond to such a 
revelation, and to live by it if it be granted. 
11. The second generalisation to be noticed is likewise one 
that may be put forth with some confidence, inasmuch as it is 
supported by high authority. It is thus alluded to by Mr. 
Collins, in a paper read before this Institute the year before 
last.* ‘*The only natural law which the science of religion 
has forced upon my own conviction is, that man has exhibited 
a constant tendency to drop the spiritual out of religion while 
he may retain the material. Deterioration from the original 
truth seems to have been the natural order of growth in 
religions. It was certainly so in the religion of Israel. It 
_ has been certainly so in the history of Christianity.” . 
12. The same law of deterioration in religion is frequently laid 
down by Professor Max Miiller:—‘‘ If there is one thing 
which a comparative study of religions places in the clearest 
light, it is the inevitable decay to which every religion is 
exposed. It may seem almost like a truism that no religion 
can continue, to be what it was during the lifetime of its 
founder and its first apostles. Yet it is but seldom borne in 
mind that without constant reformation,—i.e., without a 
constant return to its fountain-head,—every religion, even the 
most perfect, nay, the most perfect on account of its very 
perfection, more than others, suffers from its contact with the 
world, as the purest air suffers from the mere fact of its being 
breathed.” + 
13. Deterioration, then, and not improvement, is the law of 
religions. But deterioration how, and in what respect? Into 
this the same great authority gives us some insight in another 
place.t ‘There are two distinct tendencies to be observed 
in the growth of an ancient religion. There is, on the one 
side, the struggle of the mind against the material character of 
* Vol. xviii. p. 203. oe 
+ Chips from a German Workshop, i. p. xxiii. 
ft Lectures on Science of Religion, p. 268. 
M 2 
