THE ground of certainty in religion is a subject which has of late received very close attention from the thinking minds of Europe; and in our own country more works than one of a high order have been devoted to its elucidation. In countries like Germany and France, where Protestantism is confronted by Roman Catholicism, the disposition to raise this question is stimulated by the challenge of the Romish Church to Protestanism to produce its credentials, but the necessity lies far deeper: thoughtful and earnest minds cannot but ask, How can we be sure that our religion is true? It is only shallowness or recklessness that can long refrain from asking this question. The more the issues, for time and eternity, involved in religion are realized, the more imperative must the desire become to be certain that we are building upon the rock and not upon the sand.
It is indeed a tremendous question; to be asked and answered, not as an abstract question, but in its practical application to ourselves and to the various conditions of our actual life in this twentieth century of Christianity.
1. Now, in the first place, it is always to be remembered that we inherit our Christianity, as we inherit our knowledge, our institutions, our civilization in all its forms, from the ages of the past. It comes to us “time honoured” in the true sense of the word, as a great living reality, which has proved itself the leading force, moulding and directing human progress—intellectual, social, moral, spiritual—and creating (so to speak) the very atmosphere of our higher life. In spite of all imperfections, internal corruptions, external antagonisms, it has shown through all the ages a transcendent vitality; if these could be taken away, or even diminished, it is clear that this beneficent vitality has in itself capacity for infinitely higher development. It is, indeed, the highest example of that inheritance from the past on which, under the great law of evolution, the whole, or nearly the whole, of human progress depends. We cannot stand aloof from it. Whether we will or not, it presents itself as a dominant force of influence, and it claims from us an “obedience of faith.” (Rom_16:26) We must recognize that reality; we must examine and test that claim. We may accept or reject it; but we cannot ignore it. Its Divine Founder has Himself said, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” (Mat_12:30; Luk_11:23)
2. Nor is this all. The individual soul is not left to itself to investigate and estimate this great spiritual force and this transcendent claim. It is from the beginning taught and educated on this all-important subject by those who profess to speak in the name and by the inspiration of God Himself. To the child that religious education comes from parents, teachers, pastors; to the manhood of the world from a Church of Christ, of which these are the representatives. So, we read, Christ Himself ordained; while He claimed as supreme the witness of the Holy Spirit, He added to all His disciples “ye also shall bear witness of me.” (Joh_15:27) In this we have the highest exemplification of the general law of the progress of all human knowledge, which generally comes to mankind not by original thought and discovery, but by the teaching of those who have, or claim to have, superior knowledge and wisdom, both from individual teachers and from the accumulated knowledge and collective wisdom of human society.
3. But on this great question above all others, no man can divest himself of his unalienable moral responsibility of judgment. For faith is the free adhesion of the individual soul face to face with the supreme spiritual realities of its life. Naturally, therefore, it is the express command of the Apostolic teaching itself that men are to “prove all things” and to “hold fast to that which they find to be good.” (1Th_5:21) True faith is not simple credulity, it must “try the spirits whether they be of God.” (1Jn_4:1) But for men generally this proof is not so much theoretical as practical. If by practical experience they find that Christianity has a real spiritual efficacy; if they find that a living Christian faith is a light of guidance in the perplexities and mysteries of life; if they find in it a moral inspiration, victorious alike over weakness and sinfulness within and over the antagonism of evil without; if they find in it an unfailing comfort in sorrow and disappointment, and an undying hope of future victory and happiness; if, above all, they realize through it a true spiritual communion with the Divine—then they seek no further. In the words of Holy Scripture they “have tasted that the Lord is gracious,” (1Pe_2:3) and it is enough, and more than enough, for them. How His grace works in the soul and why it was needful that it should work in the way which the gospel proclaims, they may not clearly see. But for this knowledge they can well afford to wait. There may be for them still many unsolved mysteries of God and man, and many perplexities which are severe trials of their faith. But if in spite of these they have what they find to be “a lantern to their feet and a light to their path,” they are rightly content to follow it. There is a true insight in those well-known words:
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my Star, my Sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk
Till travelling days are done.
4. But while this is the wisdom and the happiness of the great mass of men, yet it may be necessary to look on the great question, so to speak, from without, and to see what, so considered, is the “defence of the hope that is in us”—what are (to use the common term) the evidences on which our faith rests, and through which we “know him in whom we believe.” It must be so always for the Church of Christ in its unceasing witness to the world and its bold claim of the world’s allegiance to its Master. It may be so for the more thoughtful and more inquiring minds of the leaders of human thought, who cannot help longing to look into the deeper things of God, that they may apprehend them for themselves and may teach them to their brethren. It will certainly be so for those whose faith is actually so troubled and even bewildered by the denials and doubts of which in these days of inquiry the air is full, that they must seek to think out for themselves, or seek to learn through the guidance of others, the grounds on which the faith of Christendom rests. In all these cases the great inquiry cannot be put aside without prejudice to the vitality of faith itself. When our spiritual inheritance is undisturbed, we are content to enjoy it and strive to use it rightly, but when it is seriously questioned, we must study its title-deeds.
