1. When a man comes to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as Paul did, not by any laborious process of argument but by a swifter operation of the mind, he does not need to seek about for confirmations. So far as he himself is concerned, and so long as the power of the vision holds him, he is possessed by a certainty which is complete. In Emerson’s phrase, “the contradiction of all mankind cannot shake it, and the consent of all mankind cannot confirm it.” And yet to every man there come changes of mood. Courage flags and the mists come down; and, specially, the burden of the surrounding indifference may press upon him.
He is convinced that he did see, but why is he alone in seeing? It is very well for Luther to compare the simplicity of his own conviction to the straightforward sense that 3 and 7 make 10, as if there were no possible room for debate. But one uncomfortable difference obtrudes itself; for in the arithmetical case, everybody who is not an imbecile or a savage arrives at the same result, whilst in the spiritual a man may make the damping discovery that he is quite alone in his conclusion.
Dr. Dale confesses that he sometimes wondered whether he should be sure that his own perception of the sun and stars was trustworthy, if he were alone in seeing them. “For myself, when I actually saw the sun rising morning after morning, and ascending the meridian, and when I actually saw the constellations glittering in the heavens at night, the conviction of their reality would be irresistible; and yet side by side with this conviction there would be doubt—doubt mastered and suppressed but with life in it still, and certain to grow large and strong if for many weeks brooding clouds concealed the celestial glories. But if, here and there, another man came to see what I saw, and by degrees, groups of men; if, by a surprising discovery of a lost literature, it became certain that the poets of a vanished people had sung of the stars and the sunrise and the sunset, and their sailors had steered their course by them, I should become sure of myself, and all doubt would vanish. So the knowledge that other men, as the result of their appeal to Christ, have passed into a diviner world, have received accessions of strength, . . . have seen evil passions wither, while it adds nothing to the distinction or power of similar experiences of my own, relieves me from the doubt which would worry my faith, if my experience were solitary and unique.” Paul was little troubled by such fantastic bewilderments, for he knew whom he had believed; and yet he did welcome confirmation when it came, because it served to enrich his thought of Jesus Christ, and thus might make his ministry more widely efficacious.
2. A man might sometimes doubt his own experience, if it stood perfectly alone. But what if he sees it multiplied from a thousand different quarters? Scientific men have sometimes arrived at results of which they felt pretty confident; but their confidence grew into an absolute certainty when other scientists, living in other parts of the world, and working by different methods, arrived at results precisely similar. Here is a Christian man who has had his own experience—that wonderful experience which follows the entrance of Christ into the heart. But suppose it seems to him almost too wonderful to be true. Suppose the greatness of the wonder should itself beget a doubt. He goes out, and seeks the confidence of a brother Christian; and, lo, he finds heart answering to heart.
For a Christian is not a hermit. He is not alone either in his experience or in the expression of his experience. He has a community, he lives in a testing and supplementing and confirming community. In every crisis of his life, in every new turn of public opinion, in every phase of self-knowledge, in every look at his moral ideal, before and during and after every self-decision, he is bounded by a brotherhood. And this brotherhood is singularly adapted to the needs of the Christian man. It is made up of moral persons, all trying to complete their life in truth and reality; all these moral persons have had the initial moral and Christian experiences; all have now the same profound relation to Jesus Christ and His death for their salvation; and still all these redeemed moral persons come together with countless differences in individuality, in mental training, in position and occupation, in influence over men, and in present religious attainment. Thus, this brotherhood has mighty resources in social service and confirmation. It is too much to say that this confirmation is coercive, turning conviction into knowledge; but it is not too much to say that it gives to personal assurance such ratification that the Christian consciousness is full of certainty.
Emerson reports that in some New England towns before the Civil War, “every man was an Abolitionist by conviction, but he did not believe that his neighbour was. The opinions of masses of men, which the tactics of primary caucuses and the proverbial timidity of trade had concealed, were discovered by the War, and it was found, contrary to all popular belief, that the country was at heart Abolitionist, and for the Union was ready to die.” The discovery of such agreement in opinion does not change belief, but it may give it a different quality. Galileo, with every one against him, might doggedly mutter, “And yet it does move,” for his conviction was independent of the crowd; but if people whose judgment he valued had one by one come to his side, and if each new convert had arrived at his conclusion by observations and reflections of his own, the conviction would at least have been more triumphantly entertained. [Note: W. M. Macgregor, Christian Freedom, 140.]
3. If the consent of others is to have legitimate influence over us it must be a free consent. If you put, by means of ecclesiastical authority, a high premium on some particular opinion, then the evidential value of a consensus of thought in favour of that opinion is greatly weakened. In enforcing particular opinions by ecclesiastical discipline, you destroy the rational authority for that particular opinion which you are seeking to foster. Such a use of ecclesiastical discipline is not merely something which might not command our assent, but something as to which we might be comparatively indifferent if we agreed with the doctrine in question. The measure of our belief in the doctrine in question must be the measure of our objection to a process which cuts at the root of rational authority for that doctrine.
What confirms our faith is therefore never the mere voice of the multitude. Augustine’s famous dictum, Secaucus judicat orbis terrarum, is often quoted as though it signified much the same thing as the pagan proposition, Vox populi vox Dei. But truth cannot be determined by any majority vote, whether in the House of Commons or in the Council of Nicaea. “The longest Sword, the strongest Lungs, the most Voices, are false measures of Truth.” Certainty is not to be attained by conformity to the vote of the majority, by shouting with the crowd. The philosophy of By-ends is a virtual denial that there is any quest for truth.
Weak minds find confirmation of their beliefs in the discovery of the same beliefs in other people. They do not take the trouble to find out how their neighbours obtained these beliefs. If they are current at the time, the probability is that the coincidence is worthless as any evidence of validity. [Note: Mark Rutherford, More Pages from, a Journal, 220.]
4. In accepting testimony we prefer that of those who have made themselves masters of the subject. The words of Livingstone concerning Africa, and of Nansen concerning the icy North, are accepted at once. We do not demand evidence of their credibility before we receive their reports. Then why do we not with the same readiness accept the testimonies of those who have explored “the unsearchable riches of Christ” when the power of our own verification by experience is at our hand?
We have no hesitation in accepting the words of Darwin on such a subject as worms, because he spent forty years of his life in making their acquaintance, and in studying their ways. If he had spent the same time and energy in studying angels, we would have acknowledged him as an authority on that subject also; but, as he did not, we cannot. We are quite prepared to accept Huxley as an authority on natural science, for he has studied the subject, but we are not prepared to accept his verdict upon the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the joys of His service, for on such matters even Huxley is no authority whatever. [Note: G. G. Muir, Shoulder to Shoulder, 161.]
