VISION^ IN SACRED AND OTHh^K HISTORY. 



93 



Discussion. 



The Chairman said : We are all grateful to the lecturer for his 

 interesting paper. The argument from analogy is often useful. 

 Newton in his observation on the fall of the apple, and his thought 

 about it, has enabled the paths of comets to be traced in the heavens ; 

 and who can describe the consequences arising from Watt's thoughts 

 on the steam in a kettle raising its lid 1 The History of Joan should 

 warn us that things really happen though we can't explain them, 

 and we should be cautious in refusing belief in Scripture stories 

 simply because they are inexplicable by natural laws. In considering 

 her story we should remember that Francia was not modern France, 

 nor the English king an Englishman, that it was the Burgundians, 

 not the English, who condemned and burnt Joan, and as a layman 

 I may say this was due to the clerics amongst them. Many don't 

 believe the story at all, but at any rate it was a fact that at that 

 time England was saved from a great national danger in being 

 delivered from a disastrous union with a portion of France. Here 

 was a girl who did a great w^ork. Don't let us quarrel with the 

 greater mystery involved in it. Can we afford to disbelieve the 

 Spiritual " Absolute certainties " have given way under our feet. 

 Radium has upset the very foundations of many physical theories 

 which used to be considered established. Personally my scepticism 

 is of so-called science, and not of the spiritual element in history. 



The idea of sacrifice here explained, that it does not necessarily 

 involve pain, is fully confirmed in the Levitical sacrifices, in some 

 of which there was death ; but even in them in almost all cases the 

 sacrifices ended in a feast, sorrow was turned into joy. Sacrifice 

 involved the giving up of self to God, and the reception from Him 

 of spiritual grace. We are naturally selfish, and giving up of our- 

 selves to Him is a wrench. The popular idea of sacrifice that it is 

 only giving up the wrong is inadequate, and based upon an untrue 

 meaning of the word " self," which is only English ; foreign renderings 

 of the word would save us from the error. The good of our nature 

 has to be surrendered to God, it must be the whole self, the con- 

 secration of the whole being to God. Evil must, of course, go, and 

 be consumed by the fire on the altar. 



The Eev. Dr. Irving said he had perused Dr. Skrine's paper 

 with much pleasure and mental refreshment, and the more so 



