84: THE LIGHT OF DAY 



As we have been long taught, belief in the Chris- 

 tian religion is more a matter of will than of reason. 

 The will must be reached or enlisted first. Cole- 

 ridge said to Crabb Robinson that " religious belief 

 is an act, not of the understanding, biit of the will. 

 To become a believer one must love the doctrine 

 and feel in harmony with it, and not sit down and 

 coolly inquire whether he should believe it or not." 



Hence I agree with Dr. Ksher that in these 

 matters " the timidity of reason has to be overcome 

 by a courageous exercise of will. In appropriating, 

 or making our own, the things of faith, there is a 

 venture to be made on the ground of evidence, with- 

 out the stimulus and support of an appeal to the 

 senses." People of strong wills, men of action and 

 of affairs, are less apt to be skeptical than more 

 purely meditative and intellectual minds. Words- 

 worth said of his poet, — 



" Tou must love Mm, ere to you 

 He will seem worthy of your love; " 



and of the Christian faith it is equally true that you 

 must believe it ere it seems worthy of your credence. 

 How to do this is the great problem. Hence the 

 cry that goes up from the churches continually for 

 more faith, more faith. 



I have said that faith begins where reason ends ; 

 but by this statement I would only emphasize the 

 fact that the province of the one lies entirely outside 

 the province of the other. In the order of nature 

 faith is first. We find ourselves in possession of a 

 certain belief or certitude, and then we proceed to 



