(/3) But, it will be said, there can be nothing trustworthy in such merely individual convictions. To claim to be in possession of a revelation from heaven is one of the commonest symptoms of mental disorder ; and those who make such claims most persistently are the most intractable patients in asylums for the insane. There is, unhappily, no doubt of it. The mystical spirit is divorced, in too many cases, from any just sense of the logic of facts ; and incapacity to judge aright of things temporal is often combined with an eager and extra.vagant judgment upon things eternal. It may be — we do not know — that sometimes a true vision of the spiritual order has proved too much for a brain intellectually feeble, and that- the mental powers have been permanently injured by too great an effort being demanded of them. And — conversely — it is undoubtedly true that when the brain fails to do its work, whether from disease, or overstrain, or other causes, the man ceases to be able to distinguish fancies from facts, both in the physical and the spiritual world. But to conclude, therefore, that all alike who have claimed to have had visions of the spiritual order, or who believe that God has answered their prayers directly, are necessarily insane, would be a strangely perverse and illogical inference. Indeed, experience suggests a quite different generaliza- tion. Despite these abnormal cases, the men of spiritual insight who see 'visions,' who live near to the boundary of the spiritual order, are the truly ' practical ' men, and achieve most of endur- ing benefit for the race. The truth is that, taken separately, spiritual experiences cannot be verified by any one except the recipient of them ; but they cannot be dismissed as untrustworthy merely be- cause some who claim to have enjoyed them are not very wise.
The spiritual experience of the individual is not transferable — apparently, for it would not be well to dogmatize on such a point — from one to another.
* This is fully admitted by so thoroughgoing a Rationalist as Kant : ' If the Gospel had not taught the universal moral laws in their purity, reason would not yet have attained to so com- plete a knowledge of them ; although, once they are there, we can be convinced through pure reason of their truth and validity ' (Letter to Jacobi in Jacobi's Werke, Iii. 532).
REVELATION
REVEL ATIOX
r,-^
23
So far, then, it does not submit itself to any objec- tive test of its trustworthiness. But when we find, as we do find, tliat in a larf;e number of cases the individual experiences which are reported or re- corded are of an identical character as regards the information which they supply of the spiritual order, they present a phenomenon which is within the reach of scientific investigation. That the Eternal guides human lives and does not permit them to drift aimlessly into the paths which lead nowhere, that He answers prayer, that He sup- plies counsel and strength — these are not specially Christian convictions, they are shared by count- less nuiltitudes who would all offer the same l^roof of their truth, namely, personal experience. This is a solid fact of human nature which de- mands recognition. And if such convictions are not entirely mistaken, then the Eternal has in so far given a revelation of His power and of His love. He has intervened in human life ; He has given men some insight into His purposes.
The test of truth is experience ; experience must count for something when we are examining the widespread belief of mankind that the Eternal reveals Himself in the life of the individual and in the life of the race alike.
We have seen that the general experience of religious men gives identical testimony as to God's power and willingness to communicate with them in their need. But we saw, too (§ 2), that a cer- tain mental and spiritual cap-acity nuist be pre- supposed in the recipients of any revelation. And, as this grows from age to age in the history of the race, and is by no means equal in all races at the same period, or in all men even of the same race and epoch, it will follow that revelation, if made at all, must be made gradually and progressively, in correspondence not only with the needs but with the capacity of men. We have all learnt the truth of this in regard to the history of the race, and it is unnecessary to dwell upon it. If the minute and careful study of the OT history and literature, which has occupied the best thoughts of so many of our best Christian scholars for 40 years, had taught us nothing but this, we should still have learnt a lesson of the most far- reaclung significance — a lesson which is full of hope and inspiration. It is a lesson which is illtis- trated by the history of every religion in which men have sought to find God ; the measure of His grace is their capacity of receiving it, and not any Divine economy by which there is a jealous hiding of His face. And the same is true of the indi- vidual soul. It is in correspondence with the gradual quickening of our spiritual faculty that the Divine secret is gradually disclosed. ' Unto him that hath, to him shall be given' (Mt IS"^'^) is not a paradox of the Divine bounty ; it is a law of nature, ami therefm-e of revelation as well. Not all at once can we expect to experience the Beatific Vision, but only in proportion as we grow more and more into the Divine likeness, and learn, through the slow and often disappointing di.scip- liue of life, to read the Divine purposes. This is not to evacuate the idea of revelation of its con- tent, and regard our spiritual progress as due entirely to the efforts and strivings of our own souls. These must be present, — there must be a movement on man's part if he is to reach at last his highest, — but the revelation which is given is not his discovery, but a Divine act of unveiling.