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or in propagating our religious belief. The question at issue 
in the first instance is not whether we think certain opinions 
on theological questions more tenable than others, but whether 
we believe certain men more worthy to be followed and trusted 
than others. Could their testimony be shown to be incom- 
patible with truth scientifically established, of course their 
authority would be proportionally weakened, if not overthrown. 
But until this has been done the faith we have once pledged 
to them imposes on us obligations of trust and loyalty 
similar to those involved in other personal relations, and we 
can no more be always questioning their authority than we 
can be always investigating the faithfulness of a friend, a wife, 
or a husband. We are willing to entertain such an inquiry 
upon good cause shown ; but our whole presumption is in 
favour of faith and not in favour of doubt. Of the two errors, 
it is safer in matters of practice, both for the individual and 
for society, to err on the side of belief and trust than on the 
side of doubt and hesitation. 
16. Such considerations, it may be added, seem to have an 
important bearing on the question now under discussion as to 
the influence upon morality of a decline ha religious belief. 
As the Dean of St. PauPs has observed, the question cannot 
be properly discussed unless it is understood definitely what 
belief and what morality are intended. But one thing is evi- 
dent, that a decline in Christian belief involves a decline in 
the personal influence exerted by our Lord and by His 
Apostles. It is impossible that men who feel themselves com- 
petent, like most sceptical authors, to criticize the statements 
of St. John or St. Paul with as much freedom as those of any 
other teachers should submit themselves to their moral and 
spii’itual influence as completely as Christians, who accept such 
Saints as supreme authorities, and believe them to have been 
in possession of truths far beyond our natural ken. The 
great personages of the New Testament must cease to be, in 
anything like the same degree as before, the personal guides 
and leaders of our moral and spii’itual life. Whether moi’ality 
in the abstract would lose in authority may be a matter for 
argument. But it seems scarcely questionable that Christian 
moi’ality would in pi’actice lose one of the most potent forces 
which sustain it. If we would avert such a misfortune, we 
must adhere to the old, and it is to be feared too much for- 
gotten, Ethics of Belief. 
The Chairman. — I am sure, from the applause, that I may return the 
N 2 
