REASON AND PREDISPOSITION 139 



SO intimately harmonizes Tfith that circle of recog- 

 nized dogmatic truths into which it has been recently- 

 received." To some minds it would occur to ask, 

 Does it harmonize with the circle of known facts 

 governing human propagation ? In reasoning him- 

 self into a belief in the infallibility of the Pope, 

 Newman makes a long run before he jumps; he 

 begins with a series of startling assumptions. Sup- 

 pose this to be true, and that to be true, and still 

 another thing to be true, and then the leap, and the 

 chasm is cleared. But Newman was a born Eoman- 

 ist. He says, " From the age of fifteen dogma has 

 been the fundamental principle of my religion ; " 

 " religion as a mere sentiment is to me a dream and 

 a mockery." Religion as a dogma has drenched the 

 world in blood ; as a sentiment it has refined and 

 elevated the race. As a dogma it says, " Believe as 

 I do, or I will kill you ; " as a sentiment it says, 

 "Except ye become as little children." 



Eeason never led man to a religion. Eeligion 

 does not exist for his reason, but for his emotional 

 nature, his fears, his hopes, his spiritual aspirations, 

 and as an escape from the disappointments and the 

 materialism of life. Probably no religion that has 

 yet existed can stand the test of reason — religion, 

 I mean, not as a system of ethics, but as a system of 

 dogma. The question for an outsider to ask con- 

 cerning the religion of a race or people is not, Is 

 it true ? but. Is it elevating ? Is it saving ? It seems 

 to me that the various lines of reasoning that have 

 been resorted to to prove the truth of Christianity 



