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religions, which, with whatever errors and corruptions they 
have been associated, have still been, beyond question, 
advances in the elevation of the human race. Let us con- 
sider their influence, moreover, within the sphere in which it 
is admitted to have been legitimate — that of morality and of 
human experience. Has the chief instrument in these ad- 
vances been as a matter of fact, the exercise of the duty of 
inquiry by the prophet’s followers ? It is very well, and, 
doubtless, very necessary, to lay down rules after the event 
as to the limits within which a prophet’s authority may 
be accepted. But it is not by means of any such rules that 
the religion is established and the new morality enforced. It 
is by faith ; by personal submission to the personal influence 
of the prophet, and by childlike obedience to him. 
8. In matters of morality, in fact, this must always be the 
case, for moral habits can never to those who first adopt them 
be matters of experiment. If they are to be real, they must be 
adopted “ with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, 
and with all the strength.” This, at all events, is the ideal to be 
aimed at; it expresses the spirit in which the most characteristic 
points of Christian morality were accepted, and it is utterly in- 
consistent with a doubting habit of mind. Professor Clifford 
admits that “ there are many cases in which it is our duty to 
act upon probabilities, although the evidence is such as not to 
justify present belief ; because it is precisely by such action, 
and by observation of its fruits, that evidence is got which 
may justify future belief. So that we have no reason to fear 
lest a habit of conscientious inquiry should paralyze the actions 
of our daily life.” But if the observations just offered are 
valid, we have great reason to fear such a result from a habit 
of subordinating the duty of faith to the duty of inquiry. To 
rejoeat a question I have asked elsewhere,* what would be now 
the position of our race if the first Christians had confined 
themselves to tentative experiments on the relative advantages 
of monogamy and polygamy, instead of adopting the former 
in faith, in reliance on the testimony of the Apostles, and 
resolutely turning their backs upon the innumerable influences 
to the contrary which the heathen society of the day brought 
to bear upon them ? In a word, if we are to be guided by 
the experience of mankind, Faith and not Science must 
determine the practical order of life. The Just, according 
to Professor Clifford, shall live by Doubt. But the lesson 
* The Boyle Lecture.* for lb75. I. The Province 0/ Faith. 
