revelation in the soul. Since revelation speaks to the central and most divine part of the personality, it conveys absolute truth, from which, as I have maintained, we are not excluded, though the forms under which it is conveyed are human and imperfect. As revelation corresponds to intellectual Faith, so redemption corresponds to what we may call heart-Faith. Faith is, on one side, self-surrender. But surrender is only the first stage in the human process which corresponds to redemption; the second stage is atonement, or reconciliation. God redeems man from evil and guilt, and man feels himself reconciled to God. Redemption and atonement are functionally identical, and the feeling of reconciliation is peace. Surrender, reconciliation, peace, are the three stages of heart-Faith, which correspond to the act of grace as redemption.1 The third form of Grace is that which belongs to the will. The religious relation, says Hartmann in the work just referred to, raises us above relative dependence on the world, to absolute dependence on God, which is freedom. Sanctification' is the name given to both the negative and positive stages of this deliverance and elevation. On the human side the first stage is moral freedom, the second moral energy. Holiness is virtue rooted in the religious relation; its activities are the actualising of the religious relation. The distinction between holiness and virtue is qualitative, not quantitative. But revelation, redemption, and sanctification are closely connected. Only the unity of intellectual, affective, and practical Faith embraces the whole conception of Faith, Just as only the unity of revelation, redemption, and sanctification realises the whole conception of grace. 2 Hartmann's treatment of Faith and Grace as the human and divine aspects of the same activity seems to me to make it easier to harmonise the static and dynamic aspects of spiritual truth. I will conclude these lectures by a quotation from a writer who speaks with high authority. I am glad to find in his words a powerful support for the view of the nature and function of Faith which I have endeavoured to lay before you. Faith is the faculty implanted in every man made in the image of God, the ally of the reason, the will, the affections, /which swiftly discerns and swiftly weighs evidence as to the things of the unseen and eternal order, appealing partly to the intellect and partly to the spirit. The divine gift of reason is educated by the divine gift of Faith; and Faith is educated by reason. For a while reason and Faith pursue their journey together. At length the time comes when reason acknowledges that there is a bar to further progress, and when Faith must press on alone into the realities of the unseen and the eternal. Faith returns at length from that far journey and submits to reason the assurance she has gained as to the things of God. Reason reviews, harmonises, gives expression to the discoveries of Faith. The will translates them into the activities of a holy life. The heart loves and rejoices in the God and Father of whom Faith witnesses. The reason, the will, the heart, are the allies of Faith. Together, if they have their perfect work, they make the life on earth divine. Together they realise that eternal life which lies about us and is in us, but which as yet is hidden from us by the shadows of the seen and the temporal.' 1 1 Bishop of Ely (Dr. Chase) at Barrow Church Congress, 1906. BIBLIOGRAPHY BALFOUR, A. J., Foundations of Belief. BARRY, Bishop, The Manifold Witness for Christ. CAIRD, JOHN, Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, Protrepticus; Paedagogus; Stromateis. DU BOSE, W., The Gospel in the Gospels. EUCKEN, R., The Life of the Spirit, and other works. GREEN, T. H., Faith. GRUBB, E., Authority and the Light Within. GWATKIN, M., The Knowledge of God. HARE, JULIUS, Sermons. HARTMANN, E. VON, Religion des Geistes. HÉBERT, Évolution de la Foi Catholique. HOLLAND, HENRY SCOTT, Essay on Faith in Lux Mundi. INGE, W. R., Faith and Knowledge; Truth and Falsehood in Religion. JASTROW, M., The Study of Religion. LADD, G. T., A Theory of Reality; Philosophy of Religion. MARTINEAU, J., A Study of Religion; The Seat of Authority in Religion. MOORE, AUBREY L., Science and the Faith. NEWMAN, Cardinal, Lectures on Justification. O'BRIEN, Bishop, Sermons on the Nature and Effects of Faith PRATT, J. B., Psychology of Religious Belief. ROMANES, G. J., Thoughts on Religion. SABATIER, A., Les Religions d'Autorité et la Religion de l'Esprit. SKRINE, J. H., What is Faith? STANTON, V. H., The Place of Authority in Matters of Religious Belief. STARBUCK, E. D., The Psychology of Religion. TIELE, C. P., Elements of the Science of Religion. UPTON, C. B., Hibbert Lectures, 1893. WATSON, JOHN, The Philosophical Basis of Religion. |