KNOWLEDGE AND FAITH. 509 
though conscious of that perversion at the time, I do nothing to correct the false impres- 
sion, I deceive him,—TI lie to him; and my guilt is as great as though I had communicated 
the falsehood to him verbally. 
188. But if I merely give him a work written in a foreign language with which he is 
somewhat familiar, and if he falls into error through carelessness in consulting his lexicon, 
or in the use of a faulty grammatical construction, the error is no longer mine. I have 
been truthful, but he has been guilty of a mistake. The mistake has arisen from an im- 
proper use of his free agency. 
189. We are all pupils in the school of the universe. 
190. The Power that gave us being has created us with a certain physical organization 
and certain spiritual faculties, by means of which we are connected with the physical and 
spiritual world. If the natural and proper exercise of any one of the faculties leads us 
into error, the responsibility of that error rests with the Creator, but if we are deceived 
by an improper use of our powers, we alone are responsible. 
191. All that is selfevident is, therefore, true. Ali truth is a revelation from God. 
Revelation is perfect and continual. It is not confined to mere words, times, or localities. 
It is uttered in a language that all can understand, at all times and in all places, where a 
Soul is found capable of receiving it. It comes in music to the ear, in beauty to the eye, 
in symmetry to the touch, in perfume to the smell, in pleasant savor to the taste, in truth 
to the mind. It is independent of human agency and human laws, its truthfulness de- 
pending on the highest conceivable authority, the word of the Almighty.* 
* Some objection may perhaps be made to the use of the term Revelation in this broad sense, but I know of 
no other term that will so well express the “unveiling” of eternal and necessary truths. Since the days of George 
Fox, the belief has become general among different denominations of Christians, that our conscientious convictions 
of duty are immediately revealed to us by the Holy Spirit; and as it cannot be doubted that our fundamental 
beliefs are implanted in us by the Creator, I can see no impropriety in classing them with other and higher reve- 
lations from the same authority. He who most fully recognizes the indubitable character and Divine origin of the 
faith on which all his knowledge rests, will be best prepared to perceive that reason without faith is adelusive guide, 
and that the revealed records contained in the Holy Scriptures, appeal to a higher and more authoritative portion 
of our spiritual being than the logical faculties,—in other words, that Faith is higher than Reason. 
St. Augustin and Luther speak of our primitive beliefs as acts of faith,—Reid, Stewart, Degerando, Jacobi, Cou- 
sin, and others, call them revelations or inspirations. See Meid, pp. 760-1. 
‘That philosophy is the only true, because in it alone can truth be realized, which does not revolt against the 
authority of ovr natural beliefs. 
‘The voice of Nature is the voice of God.’ ”’ 
“ Consciousness is to the philosopher, what the Bible is to the theologian. Both are professedly revelations of 
Divine truth.”” Hamilton, Discussions,-pp. 69, 90. 
“Let every good and true Christian understand that truth, wherever he finds it, belongs to his Lord. . . By 
