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The new conviction awakens corresponding emotions in our 
moral nature ; and, according to the laws of our mental con- 
stitution, generates a variety of kindred conceptions and 
emotions. The more the idea is contemplated, the greater is 
the moral force which it acquires. When opposing principles 
exist, a struggle necessarily arises between the new and the 
old, each striving to obtain the mastery over our entire moral 
being. All men who have not sunk into a state of hopeless 
degradation testify to the reality of this struggle within them. 
The mode in which good triumphs over evil is by intensifying 
the depth of the conviction. The principle of habituation aids 
in intensifying the power. Every time a successful resistance 
is offered, its moral force is augmented. Christianity, by her 
revelation of religious truth, has enlisted the whole might of 
the religious tendencies in man into the service of what is 
good and holy, thus creating a mighty force, which is brought 
to bear on our spiritual being, which could not be evoked in 
the exclusive regions of morality. 
52. Let us now briefly analyze the mode in which it is con- 
nected with the intuitional powers of the. mind. An idea of 
excellence, producing a firm conviction of truth, is presented 
to our reason. The rational powers either embrace it or reject 
it. These are closely connected with certain emotions in our 
moral being, and are awakened by the ideas presented to 
the reason. I need hardly observe that this forms the 
highest aspect of faith as it is exhibited in the New 
Testament. The ideal of goodness is the divine person of 
its Lord. 
53. The principle is one of extensive application. Between 
large classes of our ideas and our moral and spiritual affections 
there is the closest connection. The one mutually awakens 
and generates the other. The presence of the conception in 
the intellect calls the affection into play, or awakens ff if pre- 
viously dormant. The more the conception is meditated on, 
the more powerful is its influence to kindle the affection in the 
one case or to awaken it in the other. It should be observed 
here, that if a man is sunk into a state in which a divorce has 
taken place between rational conviction and moral emotion, 
and the presence of the conception in the intellect has no 
tendency to awaken the corresponding affection in the heart, 
he is fallen into a state of hopeless moral corruption. There 
are no means of curing such a man by any instrumentality 
of which philosophy can detect the modus ojoerandi. Here 
she recognizes a lacuna. As the inquiry into this involves 
nothing of a practical character, it lies outside our present 
investigation. It is sufficient for our purpose, that such is 
