earth, but where men had least suspected, in those distant heavenly orbs which night and day are looking down upon the face of the great deep, and exercising thereupon their strange attractive influence.

And are these phenomena of the moral world, men's wills and unruly passions, in all climes and in all ages, yielding themselves to obey a mighty unseen Power which controls them, less worthy matter for philosophic thought? Human hearts rising and heaving under one and the same mighty impulse all round the world, is not this a patent fact urgently demanding explanation?

And if, after exhausting every other hypothesis, philosophers find the only possible solution, not on earth but in heaven-in the conception of a Supreme Personal Being, the Father of the spirits of all flesh-why should they refuse assent?-nay, why should not they, too, enter the sanctuary, and learn to know Him with that deeper personal knowledge which that poor suffering woman in her sick chamber had attained to, and made her own for ever?

And now to sum up this chapter. We have glanced at some of the proofs commonly given of God's exist ence the proof from the reason of the thing (as men say), the proof of natural theology, and the moral proof resting on the conscience of mankind.

We have tried to show that there was vouchsafed to some, and those the holiest, a far more convincing proof, derived from a direct personal knowledge of God.

And, finally, we ventured to suggest that this last,

though attainable only by those who are within the sanctuary, was nevertheless to the philosopher outside well worthy of consideration. For was it not a plain, undeniable fact—as patent as any phenomenon of the natural world—that numbers of men, and those the noblest, of every age and nation, were actuated by an unseen, mysterious Power, controlling them and constraining them to make efforts directly opposed to all the impulses of their common nature?

Thus we claim for our belief in God a truly scientific basis.

CHAPTER II.

The Doctrine of the Second Person of the Trinity.

WE

E saw in the first chapter that before any of us can attain to that deeper consciousness of God which grows out of communion with Him, the belief in God must have been in some way suggested to us. And we saw further, that the great majority of us owed the suggestion to our nurture within the pale of the Church.

The individual Christian may not require to know the grounds on which the Church's teaching ultimately rests; but clearly the Church is responsible for producing her reasons if required to do so; they are the title-deeds of her inheritance.

This leads us at once to Revelation, and so to the second Article of our Creed, on which we must now enter; and, indeed, it is most true, we cannot understand the Church's faith in the first Article of her Creed unless we go farther, and seek to understand her faith in the second.

We could never have really believed in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, unless we had learned to believe also in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord. We cannot claim the blessing of that know

ledge of God which is life eternal, unless we complete the verse, “This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."

For what saith St. John's Gospel in another place? "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (i. 18). And what was the answer to Philip when he said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us"? "Jesus saith unto Him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" (xiv. 9.)

This, then, is our Church's answer to any one who asks us whence we derive our knowledge of God. We derive it from a revelation made by One who, eighteen hundred years ago, declared Himself to be the Son of God.

This is our answer. But this answer lays us open to the further question, "On what grounds do you believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God?" To this question we must be prepared to make answer. But here let me once more guard myself. When I say we must be prepared to answer this question, I do not mean that each Christian must be prepared to answer it. Is every soldier responsible for knowing the grounds on which war has been declared before he draws his sword? Is every citizen responsible for understanding the policy of his country before he pays a tax to carry out that policy? It is enough for each to answer, "I accept in this matter the judgment of those in whom I have confidence." So

with the individual members of a Church, when asked for the grounds of their faith, it may be enough for them to say, "I have confidence in the Church to which I belong. To my Church I refer you."

But if this be so, then all the more incumbent is it on the Church to see to it that the grounds of her faith be clear and distinct, and be made intelligible from age to age, and accessible to all who may wish to know them. What, then, are our Church's grounds for teaching her members to believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son our Lord?

Now, it may seem at first sight as if this question of Christ's Divinity opened up questions of evidence, of the authenticity of the New Testament, of its inspiration, of the credibility of miracles, and many other questions equally difficult. Into none of these do we propose to enter. They would utterly exceed the limits of this volume. There is one kind of evidence which is perpetually fresh, needing no knowledge of history, no critical apparatus, no philosophy.

It is Christ's self-revelation, contained in those four Gospels, which you have in your hands. Never mind now how those Gospels came into your hands; never mind now what claim they may have to inspiration. Read them, that will suffice. Read them as you might if an utterly unknown stranger had placed the volume in your hands, and left it there without saying a word about it. You will find the portraiture of One called Jesus Christ. Study that portraiture, and say honestly whether it could possibly have been invented; and then, further, say