232 THE EET. A. R. WHATELY^ M.A.^ D.D., ON 



central truth — it must have unfathomable depths. The spiritual 

 life that vitalizes it also needs it. Without it communion with 

 God would dissolve into cosmic ecstasies or sentimental 

 apostrophes of the Infinite. If a specific Atonement is a real 

 fact, we must know the fact as a fact before we can enjoy it as 

 an experience. If Christ indeed is the Way, the Truth, and 

 the Life, we must know the position He holds in relation to 

 man and to the Father. 



This may be stated baldly, because we are assuming tlie 

 essential truths of the Christian religion. And when we do 

 accept it, there need be no timid obscurantism. God's truth 

 is too vigorous, too vital, too rich in resources, to fear the fullest 

 daylight and the strongest pressure. Only if nursed in the 

 darkness does it shrivel and harden. 



And, on the other hand, we do no true homage to its intel- 

 lectual vitality if we cheapen or minimize its specific message : 

 if we reduce it to generalities, however lofty : if we treat its 

 doctrines as mere provisional accommodations to the mental 

 attitude of cultured men at the moment. 



If, then, the first great requisite for the effective pursuit of 

 Christian Philosophy is a real appreciation of the movement of 

 the human mind, the second — not second in importance — is the 

 vital adherence to a specific and social confession of belief. 

 Social, both because thought is social and because the Christian 

 religion is social. A private creed is not only contrary to that 

 Church fellowship without which there could be no Gospel of 

 redeemed manhood, but also undervalues the relation between 

 thought and intercourse. Definite thought, before we even 

 intend to express it to others, shapes itself on the lines of 

 common language. Expression, even to ourselves, is only, as it 

 were, suppressed communication. Our very minds, in their inner 

 workings, are not merely private, but elements in the social 

 organism. 



This will never, in its application to Christian truth, carry 

 conviction, so long as the Creeds are regarded as mere petrified 

 opinion. But let us be sure there can be no Gospel — in the 

 true sense of that grossly abused word — without a creed. For 

 a Gospel is the announcement of an historical occurrence, and as 

 that occurrence is ex hypothesi a Divine and super historical, as 

 well as an historical, event, then we must know its meaning in 

 terms of theology. 



Here we see the need of Biblical Study. There is no time, 

 and on this occasion no need, to dwell on this point; but I do 

 not wish to pass it over without allusion, lest it should seem to 



