but, as he believes, a spiritual gift of superhuman origin. But the utilitarian, who believes that all knowledge is a posteriori, has no desire because he has no conviction analogous to that which fills the heart of the Christian. The standard of morals prescribed by his philosophy is no doubt his standard of life, but the knowledge of its requirements is not sufficient to impel him to obey it. The fruit of observation on human experience, it presents itself as an achievement of the intellect more or less fallible, but has no control over the heart, and, of necessity, can have no such control, for the supremacy of reason is a thing impossible in the nature of things for the bulk of mankind; and an enlightened, highly-cultured, wellbalanced intellect, even when acquired, is not to be depended on in the battle against moral evil. Knowledge alone will not transform the selfish heart; but knowledge is all that the utilitarian depends upon.

So far we see the mistakes made by Science and Philosophy, in that, whilst recognising the existence of a world transcending the power of reason, they deny the spiritual life of man.

This position, which to the religious mind is the head and front of their offence, is probably more injurious to the cause of truth than all the mistakes and narrow conceptions of theology, injurious and calamitous as these have been. It is a position which is eminently unscientific, inasmuch as it implies the rejection, without sufficient investigation, of a whole world of fact. It is a position inconsistent alike with natural fact and revelation, and therefore not that of true Science, but of an incomplete and therefore erroneous deduction from nature. In this manner is Reason responsible on her side for the antagonism between Science and Theology.

The world that Reason affirms and denies as it were

in the same breath is realised by the religious sentiment of man which, under Christianity, develops in its highest form in faith. A faith of some sort is

shown in the history of man to be necessary to his moral welfare. The Grecian and Roman myths were effective before advancing intelligence discovered their true character; and Neander remarks that the ancient superstition of Rome, by which its religion. was intimately inwrought in the civil and domestic life of the people, was the foremost pillar of the Roman state. So faiths, however blemished, have always been the mainspring of honest and effective action, and the faith which is the power of Christianity is, according to human experience, the most essential condition of human development, and therefore of happiness and salvation.

is

But faith has been interfered with where interference pure mischief. Who thinks of interfering with reason in the domain of physical science? But faith in the region of religion seems destined to perpetual interference, and here comes the error of theology, by which it shares with science and philosophy the responsibility of their mutual antagonisms. Revelation, and faith by which it is realised, denied by Reason, are hampered and obscured and discredited by Theology. A theology is necessary, but a theology of untenable dogmas has been the bane of religion, and, like a parasite, limits and paralyses the truth on which it subsists. Faith, which in its highest Scriptural sense is the love of God in Christ, and the means of our realisation of the life of Christ, does not depend on intellectual effort in the shape of dogma, and flourishes better without than with it. The basis on which dogmas rest is the assumption that the mind of the spirit can be expressed perfectly in dogmatic forms cognisable by man's understanding. Thus, in the early history of Christianity, the love of God to man

as exhibited in the Gospel was gradually displaced by the very things that the Christian dispensation had superseded. From the spiritual weakness of man the preaching of the Gospel rapidly merged into the preaching of opinions and the practice of rites and

ceremonies.

Spiritual life requires high effort, and, surrounded externally by things which engross his attention, man shrinks from such effort, and welcomes whatever appears to promise relief from the obligation. Hence, when he ought to be content only with spiritual life, he takes refuge in acts of the understanding, and seeks guidance from formulas. Turning," says Baldwin Brown, "from the Light, the Life which is the light of men, he is ever making for himself and bowing down to infallible idols, be it a church, be it a man, be it a book. Precisely the same process goes on in every religious movement. In the first generations, the inspiring principle, the life, touches and kindles men ; then the life dies down, and the forms which once expressed it are regarded with idolatrous reverence in its room. And this principle in the early centuries. withdrew from men's sight and thought that life which is the light of men, and substituted service and sacrament in its room.' "'*

Here is the origin of that theological interference with spiritual revelation which is the incubus of religion, and a rock of offence to science and philosophy. In this interference lies the secret of the success of Rome. What has been the history of the Roman dogma of Infallibility? In brief, it is this: the Roman Catholic Church took advantage of the weakness and indolence of mankind in spiritual matters to erect a powerful hierarchy, and in these latter days it has

*First Principles of Ecclesiastical Truth. Rev. J. Baldwin Brown.

finally satisfied the demands prompted by that weakness and indolence, and at the same time pushed its own pretensions to their logical extremity by decreeing the dogma of Papal Infallibility. With regard to the growth of dogma in the Protestant Churches, no one will deny that, in spite of the Protestantism of those Churches, there is the same influence at work here.

The demand for authority in matters of religion which shall supersede to some extent individual responsibility, and individual spiritual effort, is visible everywhere; and the consequence is that Theology transgresses its limits, and advances propositions which cannot be verified, and are so far not vital to religion that they are distinctly inimical to it. Our own Society of Friends, after throwing off the bondage of centuries, and starting fresh with the original Gospel of light and life, has presented in slighter degree exactly the same phenomenon as every other body. The great difficulty and necessity of individual and spiritual effort is at present in danger of being met and superseded by the application of "the principle of adaptation to our needs.'

Thus is Theology responsible on its side for the breach between itself and Science. Between the complete and authentic evidence collected respectively from the realms of Nature and Revelation, no breach can be proved to exist, whilst he who is "harmoniously developed" is unconscious in his own experience of any such discord, but "mind and soul according well, make but one music."

FREDERICK BURGESS.

THOUGHTS ON "THE HIGHER CHRISTIAN LIFE."

THIS term is probably familiar to all the readers of the Examiner, having been brought prominently before us in various ways of late. of late. And well it is for some of us to be roused from our apathy, and incited to come up higher," and to "covet earnestly the best gifts." Still it is to be feared that in some diffident minds, discouragement instead of strength has been the result of the teaching which has gone under this appellation, and it is for the sake of these, who may deem themselves the hindermost of the flock, that I would suggest a few reflections which have been comforting to myself during a time of isolation, and necessary withdrawal from any visible work or service. Was not the life of Christ the highest Christian life? And yet it was a life emphatically "hid" with God. He was fully and completely the manifestation of His Father's will, whether in doing or in suffering, and both were equally embraced by Him whom the Psalmist personified when he said, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God." In similar words, our Lord Himself declared, "I came down from Heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me; and again, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." In His last prayer for His disciples the same filial spirit predominates, and although the apparent result of His Divine mission was limited to a mere handful of followers, He could confidingly appeal to His Father and say, "I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do."

Out of the three-and-thirty years of His life, nearly