356 
beforehand, that this may not be. We do not know, until 
we find it so, or not, by experience. 
144. The tone assumed by a Revelation may in some cases be 
very positive ; The authority which a true Revela- 
cf Revelation tion asserts, where it proclaims itself at all, would 
would be po- fog 0 f n0 hesitating character : but this does not 
touch our position. — The very tone adopted by our 
Supreme Teacher (judging by similar facts) might even increase 
our power as we accepted the truth. 
145. Thus the positive tone in which a Revelation from the 
Supreme Governor might be expected to address us by no 
means interferes with Deontology : rather it may greatly aid 
us. Even the morality which is natural to us comes in fact, at 
first, in the form of positive injunction and prohibition, from 
immediate superiors, though our conscious agency at length 
accepts it, as inherently right. Considering then that Revela- 
tion is defined as coming to those who have need of 
does B not sac ^ L assistance, its approach would be likely to be 
mand mere thus authoritative, and our acceptance take at 
acquiescence. times the outward form of obedience. This may 
often give rise to the superficial thought, that 
obedience oj acquiescence is sufficient for the ends designed in 
Revelation. But this would be an assumption : and indeed obe- 
dience of mere acquiescence we know is less than individual 
responsibility requires, and might even (as already intimated) 
involve collision with our relation as conscious beings, towards 
the true-always. 
146. Any false theory of obedience would open a chasm 
between objective Revelation and the human consciousness: 
and yet it may be observed, that the more definite a Revelation 
becomes, the greater is the facility with which it is assumed by 
some to supersede, instead of assisting, moral agency : though 
it needs but little reflection to see that mere obedience, as 
such, is not moral at all. 
If moral agency implies self-control, it is plain that a 
mechanical obedience is a surrender of self-control 
mustbemorai! — a simple abnegation, as far as possible, of all 
further responsibility. Moral obedience must be 
the acceptance of principle, as well as submission to autho- 
rity. We are thus responsible for receiving and not merely 
submitting to truth. 
147. Further : However large may be the possible addition 
of facts or knowledge discovered to some men by a Revelation 
from the Supreme Governor, as soon as it takes its place among 
the elements of human training and finds its fit rank among 
the moral circumstances in which we live and act, it becomes 
