If this is true of Christians, may it not be true of those who cannot call themselves Christians, and yet strive to do their duty? Is not the impulse to duty, to goodness, to truth in them an unconscious faith which has its origin in the inspiration of His spirit and which, if it has, He will own? What else can Christ mean, when in illustrating the realities of the final judgment and looking over the whole range of human life in its infinite variety of knowledge and of ignorance, of opportunity and of limitation of light and of darkness, He says, "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave Me drink: I was sick and ye visited Me: I was in prison and ye came unto Me. Then shall the righteous answer Him saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered and fed Thee, or thirsty and gave Thee drink? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." He seems to comprehend all goodness, all sacrifice, all duty for love and for truth as duty to Him. Or again He says, when He seems to be looking beyond the Christian Church, the fold of the visible kingdom upon earth, and thinking of the seekers after the truth, the children of duty without the light who are striving to walk by the dim light which they have, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." The Christian philosophy of duty seems to authorize the hope that this may in some sense be a true interpretation of His wonderful words. LECTURE III FAITH AND REASON Difference between Christian thought passing beyond the conception of antagonism between reason and faith. Old controversy revived. Mr. Balfour's "Foundations of Belief." Mr. Benjamin Kidd's "Social Evolution." The unity of reason and faith in revelation, in presentation of doctrine and in Christian ethics. ethics of Christianity and all other systems. Scripture makes reason and faith basis of morality. Examples from the New Testament. Belief in its ideal form, harmonious action of reason and faith. Belief distinguished from notions of the intellect or conclusions of logic. From feeling. Belief leads to action; the practical power in life. Belief the secret of power of great leaders and men of action. Illustrations from portrayals of literature. Shakespeare's Hamlet. Philosophy of Hamlet's character. Mozley's criticism. Illustrations from social and political life. Sir Robert Peel and the factory laws. Reforms by Mr. Wilberforce. Government depends upon the character of the people. Remedy for evils of the prevalence of divorce. History of the Christian Church reveals the survival of Christianity due to Christian character appealing to reasonable faith of mankind. Gibbon's five causes for spread of Christianity. Reason for failure of scepticism in attacks upon Christianity. Controversy of the Church with Gnosticism. Prolonged controversy in modern world between the advance of knowledge and doctrine of verbal infallibility of the Bible. Plato on dangers to reason and faith when they outgrow ancient forms. First contact of science with the Church. Galileo and the Church. Controversy healed by reasonable faith. Archbishop Temple's Bampton lectures, Religion and Science. Danger of precipitate judgments. What is personal faith? Faith a step forward and each step is confirmed by the reason. IN the last lecture we considered faith in itself and in its relations to reason as furnishing it with |