But the religious experience of some quickened souls under Christian influences, of such as Augustine, Fox, Bunyan, and Edwards, who have moved millions, has compelled Philosophy either to admit a more powerful teacher than herself, or to claim to be that teacher uttering new lessons with unfamiliar tones. Any attempt to confound revelation with philosophy must begin by doing violence to the well-established meaning of words, and with such tricks upon language, the lessons which language is used to convey become unintelligible and chaotRevelation has its source from above, and is a raying out of light and truth towards this earth, from the central Sun of light and truth. Philosophy expresses the efforts made by man to interpret nature and life for himself. Egypt had science. The Greeks had philosophy. The Jews had neither of these, but they had a pure and a divine religion, which both Egypt and Greece lacked.

ic.

The broad question presents itself to our notice, whether speculative philosophy can help the cause of popular religion, that is, can deepen, strengthen, elevate, and enforce the influence of pure religion upon the mass of human beings. If we were forced to answer this question directly, and without opportunity to define and qualify, we should say that popular religion cannot be greatly helped by the processes of speculative philosophy, but may find most valuable assistance in its results.

Religious truth is designed for, and is needed by, the whole human race. It must, therefore, be simple, easy to be understood, plain in its lessons, and authoritative in its sanctions. But the average degree of intellectual power in the human race is below what philosophers in general estimate it to be. The highest facts of science are made intelligible to but a few of each generation, but a knowledge of them is not absolutely essential. Relig ious truths are necessary for the happiness and the virtue of all, and should therefore be understood, be made credible and authoritative for all. Now a sufficient token of the futility, if not of the absolute worthlessness, of very much of the religious philosophizing of the present day, is found in the fact, that not one person among a hundred can understand or appreciate it. Who can fail to note that some of our thinkers and writers are offering to the world, as religion, views and processes of thought

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which are within the compass of only a very few minds? True philosophy, if we could find it, and be sure of it when we had found it, would be true religion. But if all the world must wait till philosophy has settled its disputes and established its theories, many whole generations must die, and a large part of all subsequent generations also must die, before true, simple religion has been wrought out by philosophy. He must have but a visionary idea of human nature, and of the amount of intelligence in the mass of men, who supposes that philosophy can ever be a sufficient substitute or an equivalent for the Christian religion with common people. We might as well undertake to make astronomers out of miners and colliers, as to offer the abstrusities of metaphysics to plain men and women, instead of the Law and the Gospel. Nor will science ever work out a religion for our race. The heavens may disclose more of their marvels, but the heavens might as well form an impenetrable marble dome a few miles above our heads, for all the aid which their masses of mere matter could be made to furnish to man's spirit, independently of the plain, authoritative lessons of revealed religion.

Nothing passes out of the mind so quickly as do philosophical distinctions in the terms and methods of argument. Only those who have a logical talent, and love argumentative exercises, can retain the philosophical attention, and acuteness of mental perception. With the mass of men these efforts are vain. And this unstable memory for terms and distinctions in argument must likewise affect the results which are expected from them. This fact alone might prove that the processes of speculative philosophy are not available to the mass of men.

Yet it would be manifestly unfair to argue this question only by referring to the lack of capacities in the mass of men to understand, and of a willingness to apply themselves to, the abstrusities of metaphysics. The conclusion reached by such a mode of arguing would be but a return to the point from which the argument started, namely, that, as the mass of men will not and cannot give themselves to metaphysics, therefore metaphysics are useless to them. But the same might be said of mathematics, of astronomy, of scientific agriculture, and even of Biblical criticism; for these are of use to millions who

cannot follow their processes. The form of the question, therefore, must be changed, from the processes of philosophy which the mass of men cannot or will not pursue, to the results of philosophy. Then, as the mass of men are reached by their teachers, we may ask whether a legitimate philosophy will help these teachers to reach the mass of men and affect them religiously. Will the results of wise metaphysical inquiries be auxiliary to the communication and impression of religious truth? Only stupidity or bigotry could answer this question in the negative.

All the results of earnest thought and patient inquiry, pursued under the guidance of a right spirit, must ever be favorable to faith, and to a religion of which faith is the chief pillar. In exact proportion as works on speculative philosophy are multiplied, their unsatisfactory character will appear to those who may look to them to explain all problems, or to serve as substitutes for religious faith with its inspired materials. But philosophy as an aid to faith is a very different thing from philosophy as a substitute for faith. Philosophical views of the Scriptures, and of the plan and substance of the Christian religion, might be made very invigorating to the minds of the believing. But it would be difficult to conceive or to realize the idea of a philosophical treatise which might supersede the Bible, so as to take its place in public or family worship, in the lonely hours of absence or travel, in the sick-chamber, or by the death-bed.

There can be no question but that the religious faith of very many persons might be cheered and strengthened, if they could be made to philosophize, to reason, weigh, and deliberate, and thus to confirm what they wish to believe, and to remove objections which perplex or confound them. Thus, for instance, a person of fair intelligence may say, "I am troubled by the fact, that any evil should exist under the government of a perfectly wise, powerful, and good God." Now we may quote Scripture texts to that man, and yet not satisfy him, because they are not suited to his state of mind, they are not suffi cient for him. They are fair conclusions, perhaps, but he wishes to know the processes involved in them. It is somewhat as if you should offer him a gross amount as wages for work done at intervals, in broken days, and

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with deductions made for his waste or your charges against him, without stating to him the particulars. He wishes to know the intricate mathematics of the account. The principle of faith in one who is looking at the evil that is in the world, so far from being able to receive the conclusion as stated positively in Scripture texts, is staggered and weakened by those statements. Philosophy may relieve his difficulties, and it may not. For then the question comes up, Is the man able and willing to philosophize? Can he sustain his mental attention? Can he keep the thread of an argument? Will he be patient, discriminating, and candid? Above all, will he retain the principle of faith with which he started, or part with it, taking as a substitute his limited discoveries in the open, but bewildering, field of truth? This supposed case presents to us fairly the province of speculative philosophy, with the conditions of its profitable use. Its province is specific and limited, not general or universal. It is to explain, to illustrate, to relieve, and to confirm truth. Its value depends on the intelligence, the mental power, the discrimination, the penetration, the candor, of him who employs it.

Philosophy and faith may both deal with the same truths which religion proposes to man, but they deal differently with them. Those shining truths, like the stars, we are always to see, and contemplate, and inquire of, but never on earth are we to approach nearer to them. So says religion, and she commits those truths to the keeping of faith. But philosophy wishes to approach nearer to them and to look behind them. There is no disguising that that is the uneasy wish, the proud aim, of philosophy. Thus the profitable exercises of philosophy are those which recognize, which discuss, and argue for the existence and the authority of those truths. The unprofitable exercises of philosophy are those which attempt to give the whole explanation of those truths, or to pierce through them, or to look behind them. Faith is the home, the resting-place of the soul, where truth comes to nourish it. Philosophy is the course of wanderings and excursions. Philosophy and religion make men desire truth on many vital subjects. Religion brings that truth to men, philosophy sets them to searching after it themselves. Of that portion of truth which religion leaves undisclosed or unexplained, she asks of faith to be VOL. XLVIII. -4TH S. VOL. XIII. NO. I.

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the voucher. Of that portion of truth which philosophy fails to discover, she is always doubtful and unhappy because of the doubt. Faith must come in for its full authority, either at the beginning or at the end of philosophy,

or man's wisdom. Of very many of the Hebrew titles in the Old Testament, the name of God makes one syllable, standing sometimes the first, sometimes the last. But whether that syllable be at the beginning or at the end of the word, the human name is consecrated by the divine. Elijah was a prophet of God, Gabri-el is an angel of God. God with man, and man with God, mean much the same thing. After this example, philosophy must attach itself to faith, and allow faith to form a part of it, if philosophy would be a consecrated science.

G. E. E.

ART. VI. BARTOL'S SERMONS.*

SIDNEY SMITH (if we may judge from his indolence, with as much truth as wit) remarked that he never liked to read a book he was going to review, it was so apt to prejudice him. Had we taken this course with regard to the book before us, our notice of it would probably have seemed the more impartial; for though, when it was announced as in press, we could not divest ourselves of prejudice in its favor, that prejudice has been marvellously strengthened by the perusal. Unlike most sermons, Mr. Bartol's gain much by passing through the press. Not that there is any essential obscurity in his style, his sentences are compact, their members arranged, and their rhythm rounded with that nice rhetorical instinct which results from liberal culture, and is in fact art matured into spontaneousness; but they are so full of the details of thought, reasoning, and imagery, that the ear receives more than the mind can digest or the memory retain. We are, therefore, the more ready to welcome the appearance of this volume. It is printed at the right time, while its author retains the vigor and glow of youth un

* Discourses on the Christian Spirit and Life. By C. A. BARTOL, Junior Minister of the West Church, Boston. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1850. 12mo. pp. 344.