self-satisfied and the proud, are moved to opposition and enmity.'(40) Hence this opposition is a proof in favour of, and not against, Christianity. If there had been a revelation which placed everything upon our own work and merit, it would please us, for it would nourish our pride; but then it would not be true. Because, however, it places everything in the condescension and grace of God, it displeases for it humbles us, but for this very reason it is true. 'All those oppositions,' says Pascal, 'which seem as if they would keep me furthest from the knowledge of religion, have most powerfully drawn me to it.'(41) Hence, in spite of this opposition, it has always stood its ground; and the only science which is contrary to general reason, and to the nature of man, is the only one which has endured throughout all ages.'(42)

Our very disinclination to yield to it is an evidence in its favour. Recognise, then," says Pascal, 'the truth of religion in its obscurity, in an indifference to becoming acquainted with it,'(43) and in another place he says that if the Jews of the time of Jesus had all assented to His claims, that very circumstance would render Him an object of mistrust, for it would be suspicious testimony; and the unbelief of the Jews ought itself to be a reason for our belief in Him.'(44) In short, the opposition of revelation to reason, i.e. to proud and self-exalting reason, the necessity it lays upon us of renouncing this reason, is but an evidence in its favour. 'There is nothing so consistent with reason as this abnegation of reason.'(45) We must know

how to doubt when necessary, to maintain an opinion when necessary, and to submit when necessary.'(46)

Behind this proud and self-exalting reason is found reason's hidden truth, even a secret feeling and conviction that we are made for God, and to God, and an inward moral consciousness that we are sinners, and in need of mercy. And with this reason revelation is in harmony. In this sense it is true that revelation is not merely beyond and contrary to reason, but also that it is in agreement with reason. Reason opens the great case to be investigated; revelation prosecutes it by furnishing the answer. "Reason is the human preface to divine revelation." (47) It sometimes happens that the preface promises more than the book itself performs; but revelation fully performs what

reason announces.

If revelation agrees with reason, reason, on the other hand, is the organ for the perception of revelation. And certainly reason is sufficiently skilful and exactly adapted for this perception. As is the relation in which the eye, made for light, stands to the sun, so is the relation in which reason stands to divine revelation. But to see the light, the eye must be opened; and to perceive the sun, a right position must be occupied with respect to it. And so too must we unclose our reason, and bring it into a right position with respect to revelation, if it is to be enlightened thereby. Moreover, we must be willing to have it enlightened, It often happens that an object may be before our eyes without our seeing it, that a sound may reach our

ears without our hearing it, because our attention is not directed towards it, because we do not yield ourselves to the impression. So also shall we fail in attaining a knowledge of revelation unless we surrender ourselves thereto. This surrender to knowledge is love. All true knowledge is a loving absorption in its object. Only love of the truth understands truth. Love is not blind, as has been said, but sees correctly, and in fact alone sees correctly, for it alone sees the nature of things and their hidden truth. It is with the heart that we truly know, and especially that we truly know God and His revelation. As Pascal so finely says,Things human must be known to be loved; things divine must be loved to be known.'(48) He who walks in this way of love will not fail to perceive that revelation is of all things that which is most in harmony with reason,-nay, that it is itself the highest reason, the reason's truth.

LECTURE VIII.

THE HISTORY OF REVELATION-HEATHENISM AND

R

JUDAISM.

If

EVELATION has gone through a history. It was not complete at once, but was subjected to that law of development which prevails over everything that has life on earth. revelation was to form a component part of history, and to dovetail with the progress of the human mind, it must of necessity be placed under the law by which that mind was ruled. Why, it has often been asked, with the intent to raise an objection to Christian doctrine, if the sin of the first man brought so much misery upon the human race, and rendered, as the Church teaches us, so great a sacrifice necessary, did not God abolish this misery, and restore mankind to their lost communion with Him immediately after the fall? The answer to this objection lies in this law of development. God began to reveal redemption immediately, but this revelation appeared under the law of history. Hence, though supernatural in its nature and origin, it became natural in its actuality, because it entered into combination with the history of mankind and of the human mind.

Revelation has a history, because there is history in general; there is history, because there is an end in view; there is an end in view, because there is a God, and eternal love; because there is also providence, which rules the destinies of man, and guides them towards the end appointed by divine Love. If there were no such end, human life would be the saddest and most wearisome thing in existence. We are all persuaded that history is no mere spectacle of intricate mazes, or self-repeating transitions, but a progress. Nothing is more certain to modern thought, nor more demanded by it, than progress. But there can be no progress when there is no end in view. It is not we who have set this end before ourselves, but it is the thought of that eternal Love which arranges all that concerns us, and which alone can bring it to pass. This end we emphatically call the kingdom of God; the realization of the highest moral and religious task and destiny of mankind, the realization of our moral and religious ideal. We have such an ideal in our minds, we long for it; and it will, it must, come to pass. The secret of History, that which makes history a sublime subject of contemplation, is to pursue, or at least to form a conjecture of, the ways by which God is leading us to this end. It bestows a higher meaning and dignity even upon individual life, and its small doings, to be able to say, that even our actions, be they ever so insignificant, do, if they be but laudable, contribute to the accomplishment of the high moral task of mankind, and