^ R. W. Corbet, Letters from a Mystic oj the Present Day, 112. 'A. Striudberg, Zones of the Sj)irU, 13.
I THESSALONIANS v. 21 37
^ A man has as much right to use his own understanding, in judging of truth, as he has a right to use his own eyes, to see hia way : therefore it is no offence to another, that any man uses his own right. It is not to be expected that another man should think as I would, to please me, since I cannot think as I would to please myself ; it is neither in his nor my power to think as we will, but as we see reason, and find cause. It is better for us that there should be difference of judgment, if we keep charity : but it is most unmanly to quarrel because we differ. Men's apprehen- sions are often nearer than their expressions ; they may mean the same thing, when they seem not to say the same thing.^
3. This shows us the place and the duty of criticism in relation to the Bible. To criticize is, first, to distinguish — to distinguish in a complex reality what is primary, essential, eternal, from what is secondary, accidental, temporary. So we find out what is the essence of the thing itself, making it what it is, as distinct from accessories not necessarily peculiar to it, which have gathered round it, and which can be, and perhaps at times should be, stripped off. To criticize is, next, to test. When this first duty of distinction has been discharged, and the root of the matter made known to us, it has then to go on to the work described in the text — to test or prove it. It must try to discern, first, whether it is a reality — whether (that is) what it declares as truth is a real truth, accordant with the great laws of being; whether the power which it claims to wield is a real power, able to guide, to rule, and to exalt humanity. Historical science has studied and analysed the actual Christianity, the Church of Christ, in all ages. It has bidden us look through the visible develop- ments of law, system, ritual, to the inner spiritual force, which gives them life ; it has distinguished in it the obviously human element, with all the imperfection and evil clinging to it, which it shares with other great world-wide powers, from that element which is its peculiar characteristic, clearly unique and claiming to be miraculous and Divine. It makes us see plainly that this inner reality is, in spite of all imperfections, accretions, superstitions, the reproduction in the individual and the community of the life of Christ Himself. So, again, literary and critical science examines the Holy Scripture. It distinguishes in it also the * Benjamin Whichcote, Moral and Religious Aphorisms.
38 PROVING AND HOLDING FAST
human element of imperfection and progressiveness from that which claims to be Divine — the essential truth itself from the forms in which it has been conveyed. And the result is to make us see clearly that the one key to its right interpretation is the knowledge of the central manifestation of Christ Himself — His Life, His Word, His Person — that in relation to this all other parts stand simply as preparatory or explanatory, and only in that dependence can be rightly understood and reasonably reverenced.
^ Professor Huxley once said that men of science no longer believed in justification by faith, but in "justification by verifica- tion." Now, St. Paul taught justification by faith, but he also, as we see, taught justification by verification. In his view, the one did not exclude the other. St. Paul calls, not for the surrender, but for the exercise, of the reason. We have his approval if we feel that, in religious as in other matters, we wish to have our intelligence satisfied, before we yield the submission of our hearts.*
^ In order to the discovery of that which is better of two things, it is necessary that both should be equally submitted to the attention, and therefore that we should have so much faith in authority as shall make us repeatedly observe and attend to that which is said to be right, even though at present we may not feel it so. And in the right mingling of this faith with the openness of heart which proves all things, lies the great difficulty of the cultivation of the taste, as far as the spirit of the scholar is concerned ; though, even when he has this spirit, he may be long retarded by having evil examples submitted to him by ignorant masters. The temper, therefore, by which right taste is formed is characteristically patient. It dwells upon what is submitted to it. It does not trample upon it, lest it should be pearls, even though it looks like husks. It is a good ground, soft, penetrable, retentive ; it does not send up thorns of unkind thoughts, to choke the weak seed ; it is hungry and thirsty too, and drinks all the dew that falls on it. It is " an honest and good heart," that shows no too ready springing before the sun be up, but fails not after- wards ; it is distrustful of itself, so as to be ready to believe and to try all things, and yet so trustful of itself, that it will neither quit what it has tried nor take anything without trying. And the pleasure which it has in things that it finds true and good is so great, that it cannot possibly be led aside by any tricks of