82 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES ms 



and a reflection, is in the universe before it is in 

 man. 



' Or, again, a prolonged period of controversy and 

 reflection has resulted in making it fairly apparent 

 that no scientific doctrine or conjecture about the 

 dim origins of the spiritual life of man can affect 

 the argument from its development and persistence. 

 It has developed and persisted, as one of the most 

 prominent features of human life, solely on the 

 postulate of God. And is it not out of analogy with 

 all that science teaches us to imagine that so impor- 

 tant, continuous, and universal a development of 

 human faculty could have arisen and persisted unless 

 it were in correspondence with reality ? 



' In fact we may almost say that the obstacles to 

 belief on the side of science were gone when once it 

 was admitted that God Who has revealed to us His 

 nature and ours, and made this revelation in part 

 through an historical process and in the literature of 

 a nation, has yet, and for obvious reasons, given us 

 no revelation at all on matters which fall within the 

 domain of scientific research. 



' A similar removal of obstacles must be claimed 

 in the region of historical criticism. There, again, 

 it has become apparent that, whatever turns out true 

 about this or that Old Testament narrative, no 

 question really vital to the Christian rehgion can be 

 said to be at stake in this field ; while in the region 

 of the New Testament the most sifting criticism has 

 had a result emphatically reassuring. The critical 

 evidence justifies, or more than justifies, the belief of 

 the Church which is expressed in her Creeds.' 



But this has been a hard-won fight for most — 



' Friends, companions, and train 

 The avalanche swept from our side,' ^ 



and no one felt the strain, the positive agony of soul, 



' ' Rugby Chapel, M. Arnold. 



