139 
terred from an examination of his next position. He tells us 
(p. 258) that man is as incapable of receiving a revelation of 
religion as of a dictionary and grammar. And (p. 256) he tells 
us that the students of the science of religion, pursuing the 
only true method, — 
“ Have undertaken a genealogical classification of all the materials which 
have hitherto been collected, and they have then only approached the ques- 
tion of the origin of religion in a new spirit, by trying to find out how the 
roots of the various religions, the radical concepts which from their founda- 
tion, and, before all, the concept of the Infinite, could have been developed, 
taking for granted nothing but sensuous perception on one side, and the world, 
by which we are surrounded on the other.” 
Thus by implication, and directly an immediate Divine 
revelation is denied. And, in proof of the direct denial, he 
says : — 
“ Ask a missionary whether he can efficiently preach the mysteries of 
Christianity to a people who have no idea of what religion is. All he can 
do is to discover the few germs of religion which exist even among the 
lowest savages, though hidden it may be beneath deep layers of rubbish ; to 
make them grow again by tearing up the weeds that have choked them, 
and then to wait patiently till the soil in which the natural seeds of religion 
can grow may become fit again to receive and to nurture the seeds of a 
higher religion.” * 
There is difficulty in getting at the precise sense of the 
above. We have a people who have no idea of what religion 
is, and yet they have some few germs of religion, hidden 
under rubbish. Where is it hidden? In their individual 
minds or in floating tradition ? But the missionary has to 
make these germs grow by tearing up the weeds and taking 
away the rubbish. This reads smoothly; but what line of 
action does it describe ? Having got rid of the weeds and 
rubbish, he has to wait patiently till this soil, which can only 
sustain these buried germs, is able to nurture nobler seeds. 
How is improvement to come about ? Will it be by the growth 
of the natural germs ? This would hardly hold good either in 
agriculture or in psychology. The final act is to put in the 
seeds of a higher religion. That is, to speak without figure , 
by an extraneous revelation the new religion is caused to 
grow. But this supposed case was brought to show that man 
has not only not received an external revelation, but that it 
would have been of no use to him if he had received it. 
The rule of missionary labour which Mr. Muller lays down 
is as wide of reality as the theory it was brought to sustain. 
* Hibbert Lecture , p. 258. 
