It behoves us to beware of originality in matters of faith. The old maxim that “What is true is not new, and what is new is not true,” is of no little value. Parke Godwin used to say that he had heard a good deal of “original investigation where the originality surpassed the investigation.” Dr. C.F. Deans also remarked, “Believe your beliefs, and doubt your doubts; never make the mistake of doubting your beliefs and believing your doubts.” Never be reckless in abandoning, without sufficient cause, a faith long cherished by the most devout souls of all ages. As Paley says, “We should never suffer what we know to be disturbed by what we do not know.” And Butler well adds, “if a truth be established, objections are nothing; the one is founded on our knowledge, the other on our ignorance.” There is an Arab fable of a dervish who was told that the “philosopher’s stone” lay in a certain river bed. He picked up pebble after pebble only to throw it away; and actually picked up the treasure among the rest, but he had formed such a habit of casting away that he threw the philosopher’s stone away too, and never could recover it. (A. T. Pierson.)
