English
Nor must I shrink from expressing to you my own concurrence in the suggestion of Sad^nanda, that Christianity may be true as an expression of whatever is most devout in human nature, with due allowance for the moods of affection, or the attitude of various speakers. To put, however, my own deliberate view more generally, it seems to me that any faith which would ex- press our desire of communing with what is Highest and Best above us, must take account of every constituent in our minds, or be the harmonious aspiration of a balance of all our powers, either of feeling or acquirement. Thus not only to omit religion as a gratefiil incense from our life, would be suicidal to man's peace of mind and his noblest capacities (for then we should sink into the narrow verge of prospect and endeavour which belong to animals) ; but each part of our nature must find utter- ance, as for instance the conscience in doing right by man, and the sense of awe in prayer or song, and our sorrow or shame in penitence, and our joy in thanksgiving. The greatest excel- lence of Christianity seems to consist in its giving voice to what is best in us ; or, as its doctors often say, in its adaptation to the moral constitution of man ; but this very correspondence implies a connexion between the two things, which may be of the nature of cause and effect. Take care, then, I should say to religious teachers in general, lest you either violate the better instincts of our nature, or fail in your systems to give due expression to any of them in all their manifold relations. So may your result be a perfect echo of man's heart, and mirror of his consciousness." " When I compare your present speech with what I remem- ber of your first," was Blancombe's reply, " I feel thankful for the improvement. But you must forgive my saying that the present one is very inadequate, and perhaps more strikingly so. 524 SCEPTICAL RATIONALISM INCONSISTENT. from its setting out on a journey, of which it does not reach the end. For when once your religion has taken account of all, as you say, and the whole of our mental faculties, the higher ones, such as conscience and the clear reason elevating itself into faith, will not bear a divided dominion ; nor will they rest in anything lower, or even in themselves, but look outward to the law of their witness, and the Author of their being. There are princi- ples which once admitted must reign supreme. So our higher faculties, when duly awakened, must govern the baser elements in us, and cast out the evil spirit of doubt which ministers to them. Yet they themselves cannot ignore that by wliich they live, or refuse to acknowledge whatever instrumentality of out- ward evidence either in person or book or event or history has served to win them a full consciousness of themselves. Thus if Christ and all that belongs to the life of Christ has brought home to our minds a clearer knowledge of God, He must remain for ever the representative of a higher authority than that within us, which answers and bears witness to Him. So if His rising from the grave has exemplified the entering of spirits made perfect into glory, what was once an instinct or aspiration has become now a fulfilment. You speak of the anticipation of a ftiture life as a ruling force in the world's history. But all the Christian nations who have cherished such anticipation for eighteen centuries, have not held it as such nakedly or alone, but ever in connexion with the truth of their risen Lord. So that the historical truth is the quickening power, and not the bare instinct. While then I myself contend, in harmony with all the soundest doctors of the English Church, that the faith of Christ agrees with conscience and reason, I do not therefore make it their product. For these would have no power, unless it were given them from above. Only own their leading, and they will lead you on to One higher than themselves. They refuse to be flattered, as if they were authors or beginnings oi religion; but the more majesty you ascribe to them, the more they rejoice in throwing it down at the feet of a greater and TRUE RATIONALISM DEVOUT. 525 better Master, who is their God and Saviour. For all their light, they say, is a reflected one ; their rule is only a delegated vice-royalty; and they are not the very law so much as wit- nesses to the will of the Lawgiver. So that all your tlieory of religion's being a product of the human mind, as if we could make it at our will, not only fails, but contains the instruments of its own destruction. The thing we can least of all do, is to make a religion. It is rather our innermost necessity to take that which God Himself shews us. For truth is of all things the least dependent on our caprice, and we only reach it in so far as we know by faith the very Being of the Eternal. Yet this utter repudiation of your theory in the shape you leave it, as if our aspirations were a suflScient religion without the truth of that higher Being which they point to, is not inconsistent with my own admission of a large variety of modes in which we may conceive of the only true God as teaching us. But I have said enough of the broader and the narrower views of the play of Divine Providence both in nature and revelation, and again in history and scripture. Nor do I deny that God may have scattered elements of His own Truth largely among nations who both mingle it with errors, and conceive inadequately of its rightful Author. So that, in conversing with our friends here, I would have them indeed throw away their idols, yet not neces- sarily all kindly feeling for that which they have been brought up in, but rather associate whatever is best in it with the purer faith which we bring them, and the firmer historical warrants by which we recommend it ; and so, living by the best they know, and learning as they live, I would have them pray the Father of the spirits of all flesh to lead them into the entire truth." " It is very agreeable to me," here remarked the Saugata, " to hear from the stranger tones of more tolerant wisdom than those in which some foreigners address us. But I humbly think, he and his friend should carry their charity a little farther, and permit us to sympathise with them in the truths which we have in common, as for instance in a zeal for virtue, and for the 626 BUDDHIST OBJECTION, AND ANSWER. general growth of intelligence in the world, rather than force upon us a worship we are not prepared for. Nor can I receive with any cordiality the recommendation that we should renounce our Saviour Sakya, whose faith has been proved by miracles, and written in inspired books, and advanced by peaceful mis- sions, and adorned with so many gentle virtues, for the name of any one who may have wrought a kindred deliverance for men elsewhere, but who at least is later in time than Sdkya, and whose name we see no reason to hold more sacred." " But pray, when you speak of charity," replied Blancombe, "what do you exactly mean? If charity is love or kindness, that is just the principle which makes us invite you to a more excellent way. Out of charity we came into this country, en- deavouring to persuade men to be saved. What greater kind- ness could we do you, than to shew you a way of holiness here, and peace hereafter? Your own missionaries, under the in- fluence, I suppose, of kindred motives, went about preaching to men still more ignorant. We, seeing even the better doctrines of their preaching to have vanished from you, and some thin^ vital to have been wanting in their doctrine originally, try to imitate their goodwill, but with more reason for our purer faith. You have spoken of the errors of the old Brahmanical priesthood. But they taught no error grosser than the worship of dead men'a bones, which you now practise. You speak of deliverance from a yoke. But no sacerdotal yoke in the world is heavier than that now borne in many countries where the Bauddha priesthood has dominion. You desire the growth of intelligence. But that neither ministers to the purposes of your priestly order, nor prevails in the countries of its rule.