No^v antecedently there is no reason why God might not have made natural religion much more mightj' and availing. As it is, nothing is more powerless in itself, though useful as an ally to revelation. Religion or no religion means revelation or no revelation. Iteject rev- elation, and the only reason for not rejecting natural re- ligion is that it is not worth the trouble. If religion, then, is a necessity of our present state, this means that revelation is a necessity. We are quite aware that even revealed religion does not explain all the difficulties of our present state. There is very much of doubt sug- gested by our philosophy to which Christianity gives only this answer. Believe and wait. It is, in fact, rig- idly careful in refusing to give any and every explana- tion of things present except a practical one: in the most marked way it is silent as to the cause of our be- ing what we are, and as to the nature of the world to come. It tells us that we do not now see the realities themselves, but only reflections of them in a mirror, and even that only in a riddling way (1 Cor. xiii, 1 2). Here- after it promises that we shall see the things themselves.
and understand the true nature and exposition of the enigmas of life. Meanwhile it gives us every practical help and necessary guidance for the present. Judged thus by practical results and by its working powers, it is a thing indispensable. Without it man is imperfect, and society has nothing to arrest its dissolution, or arouse it to a struggle after amendment. Reformation is es-. sentially a Christian idea. That a state should throw off its ignoble past and start on a new quest after excel- lence and right is possible only where there is a religion strong enough to move men, and noble enough to dfTer them a high ideal. Reform movements have therefore been confined to Christian states; and for the individual, his one road to perfection has been a moving forwards towards God.
Upon this, then, we base our argument for miracles. The universal instincts of men prove the necessity of the existence of religion. Without it the promptings of our hearts, compelling us to believe in a God and to hope for a future, would be empty and meaningless; and this no human instincts are. There is no instinct whatsoever which has not in external nature that which exactly corresponds to it, and is its proper field of exer- cise. And, in the next place, natural religion, though in entire agreement with revealed, is, as we have shown, insufficient for the purposes for which religion is re- quired. And, finally, there is the phenomenon that the revealed religion which we profess does act as a motive to progress. Christian nations— in morals, in freedom, in literature, in science, in the arts, and in all that adorns or beautifies society and human life— hold un- doubtedh' the foremost place, and are still moving for- ward. And in proportion as a Christian nation holds its faith purely and firmly, so surely does it advance on- wards. It is content with nothing to which it has at- tained, but sees before it the ideal of a higher perfection (Phil, iii, 13, 14).
Now a revealed religion can be proved onlj^ by that which involves the supernatural. What our Lord says to the Jews, that " they would not have sinned in re- jecting him but for his works" (John xxv, 24), com- mends itself at once to our reason. No proof can rise higher than the order of things to which it belongs. And thus all that can be proved by the elaborate exam- ination of all created things, and the diligent inquiry into their conformation and uses and instincts, and the purposes for which each organ or faculty was given them ; yea, even the search into man's own mind, and all the psychologic problems which suggest so very much to us as to the purposes of our existence — all this can rise no higher than natural religion. They are at best but guesses and vague conjectures, and a feeling and groping after truth. Nothing of this sort could prove to us a revealed religion. For how are we to know that it is revealed ? In order to its being revealed, God must be the giver of it. And how are we to know that it is he who speaks? Its strength, its value, its au- thority, all depend upon its being the voice of God. No subjective authority can prove this. The nature of the truths revealed, their adaptability to our wants, their usefulness, their probability — nothing of this would prove that they had not been thought out by some highly-gifted man. We must have direct evidence — something pledging God himself— before we can accept a religion as revealed.
We shall see this more clearly if we reflect upon the nature of the obedience which we are required to render to a revealed religion. Its authority is summarj-, and knows no appeal. It is God who speaks, and there is no higher tribunal than his throne. Take, for instance, the Ten Commandments. Essentialh' they are a re- publication of the laws of natural religion, excepting perhaps the fourth commandment. But upon how dif- ferent a footing do they stand ! The duty of not killing is in natural nligidn counteracted by the law of self- preservation, antl in licathen communities has been gen- erally very powerless, and human life but little valued.