364 
faith, thought, and action, must be all moral. In this every 
one who loves goodness will rejoice. Let any truth 
and part of come before a man of elevated aims and high 
ontology. moral nature, and his heart goes out towards it. 
So far as our moral nature is at all in our own 
keeping, or control, we are so responsible, that we surely 
have a consciousness of guilt if ever we find ourselves shrink- 
ing from the loftiest ideal of good. 
166. Faith has ever its own grand reason within for aiming 
at the highest : and has a certainty all its own. And as the 
man of genius in the pursuit of science may be long sustained 
by some inspired thought, which he is yet unable 
FaUh tainty ° f to demonstrate, but is sure of it as true, though the 
many may smile at it as a dream ; so the man of 
faith has in himself a vision of things unrecognized by sense. 
True, he may demonstrate much ; but he sees more than he 
yet demonstrates, and loves the purest truth, even when most 
faintly seen. The realities of faith, like the true- always, 
existing apart from the phenomenal which alone admits of 
definition here, may seem dim to those who would only ascer- 
tain them ah extra; but such dimness may indicate true 
elements of grandeur and of power. Idealities 
and its ana- which our nature refuses to dispense with, (not- 
true-aiways! ne withstanding all our defective apprehension,) and 
which recede into their own vastness as our finite 
measurements would approach, surely remind us that they 
belong to another sphere. 
167. And now in looking back on the course of the whole ar- 
gument thus pursued to its close, let it be remembered that it is 
addressed to those only who believe that the character of men 
is now being formed ; and that men are Responsible beings, 
justly liable to Praise and Blame ; yet that we are surrounded 
by difficulties connected with both our knowledge and power, 
which call for alleviation. “ Whatsoever things are true . . . 
whatsoever things are good, if there be any virtue, or any 
praise, think on these things.” 
We have appealed to each man’s Consciousness and Obser- 
vation. We have not dogmatized, we have not speculated; we 
have reasoned — as we promised, — on the whole range of the 
ascertained facts ; and if any be dissatisfied, we still cannot 
help the conclusions of logic. Our Philosophy is 
Conclusion, Positive and Rational. We dare claim for 
our Religious conclusions nothing less than this. Just as a 
false theory in science about oxygen and hydrogen, or about 
the distances of the stars, might be misdirecting and mis- 
chievous for a while, but could not alter the state of facts ; so. 
