are confident at least of one thing. It is that this modern form of Judaism is one of the methods by which God is preparing his ancient people, in the fullness of time, to receive Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah and the Redeemer of men. "Come then, thou great Deliverer, come; The veil from Jacob's heart remove; O bring thine ancient people home, And let them know thy dying love." Art. VIII.-WHAT IS TRUTH? BY PROF. JACOB COOPER, D. C.L., Rutgers College. THIS is a question of prime importance, since it underlies all moral and metaphysical speculation. Moreover, all progress in knowledge assumes not only the existence of Truth, but that it can in part be discovered. This question is, at the same time, a crucial test by which to determine the character of the inquirer; for it is easy or difficult to answer according to the temper of mind in which it is approached. He who desires to know, and is willing to receive with becoming humility the response to this momentous inquiry, will invariably find a solution to his immediate difficulties, which is all that can reasonably be demanded. For if light be given at each successive step, the conditions of life are met; since this exists only in the present, and each moment is a stepping stone to that which is beyond. But, if we will receive an answer to any question, it must be propounded according to the conditions under which the subject of inquiry presents itself to us. Neither Nature* nor Revelation will be forced to testify and yield their secrets except to those who come into full sympathy with them. The question concerning the nature of Truth is as old as speculative philosophy, and the responses given have been most diverse. Frequently it has been asked contemptuously, * Bacon, Nov. Organum, Lib. I., Aph. III. Natura enim non nisi parendo vin under the belief that it could not be answered; and this rendered the questioner both averse to the labor necessary to find a solution, and unwilling to accept it if offered. Besides, a fruitless search in the wrong way begets doubt, since the mind is prone to conclude that what it does not find after laborious effort, cannot be discovered. For men readily adopt the doctrine of Protagoras,* and make themselves the measure of all things; and hence believe that what does not submit to this standard does not exist, or is not worth the discovery. Truth, in its essential nature, is one of those primary notions which are so simple that they cannot be explained; since any of the terms employed in the definition are more obscure than the thing to be defined. For a necessary condition of a definition is that it makes something clear, which before was dark. The labored efforts to explain this notion in words have, therefore, been misspent; and the results, assuming the protean shape of the terms employed to elucidate, have diverted attention from the real object of pursuit. This has led Pyrrho, Democritus, and their many followers, to doubt the existence of Truth; and, as a necessary consequence, to believe nothing. For if there be not this foundation to build upon, of course there cannot be knowledge, and this unbelief is a magician's serpent, which does not merely swallow up all others, but, if consistent, swallows itself. The trouble, however, in such definitions, arises because that has been attempted which is impossible from the nature of the case to be done, save by a superior intelligence. It cannot be doubted that he who gave understanding to men, can, if he choses, make primary notions more clear than they now are to us, either by strengthening the intellectual powers, or by presenting the idea in a different view. This might be done by resolving that which is to us, with our present powers, a primary notion, into something more elementary; or by elucidating the idea through its relations. The latter was done by our Lord, when on trial before the Roman governor, through the explanation of an abstract primary conception by means of a concrete example. This is, indeed, the most satisfactory sort of elucidation; for nothing * Plato Theaet., 152 Α. Πρωταγόρας φησί γὰρ ποῦ πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον ἄνθρωπον εἶναι, τῶν μὲν οντων, ὡς εστι, των δέ μὴ ὄντων, ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν. can be clearer than the exhibition of a principle in its actual working. Accordingly, the definition by which Christ declared himself to be the embodiment of the Truth, becomes clearly intelligible through its relations. Guided, then, by this authoritative utterance, we may adequately define Truth to be: CONFORMITY TO THE WILL OF GOD.* This may be described further as: The relations of things established by the Divine Will, and which are expressed in the creation and government of the universe. A moment's reflection will satisfy any professed Theist that the relations of things, both physical and moral, are not fortuitous, but exist in the modes we find them because the Creator fixed them so. Whether he could, consistently with the Divine character, have arranged all things in different relations toward each other, is no question of ours; for we have to deal with them as they are, not as they might be conceived to have been made. Yet we know it must be the will of a perfectly independent originator to dispose those things which he has created in that way which seems good to himself. For before the act of creation, the choice to form a universe of matter and spirit must depend on himself alone; and out of all the possibilities within the reach of infinite resource, that must be selected which conforms to his will. "He spake and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast." Thus the simple reason why we find the relations of moral and physical nature to be what they are, is because God willed them to be in this way rather than any other. Hence, the idea of morality or physical law existing independently, or being antecedent to the will of God expressed in their constitution, is an absurdity. The question indeed, mooted by Kant, "whether it is conceivable that the universe could have been created on any other principle, as, for example, that the truths of geometry, physics, or morals, would have been diametrically opposite to what we, as now constituted, apprehend them to be," has no relevancy to our subject. It is conceivable, we think, because we are not limited by our experience in making postulates. * The "Will of God" is not employed to denote a single one of the Divine attributes, but the result and expression of all in harmonious action. The distinction between the ethical and voluntary character of the Divine Nature is not well taken, and shows confusion of thought in those who contrast these attributes. Hence, any supposition contrary to fact may be entertained, even contradictory to the senses, and may be thought of apart from all its relations, without involving absurdity merely by its conception. But the instant we connect it with the order of thought, such conception falls to the ground. Truth, then, being the conformity to the will of God, as made known to us by its expression in creation and the Divine government, it follows: I. This Truth is one and indivisible, save in thought, wherever it is found. It would be impossible, without writing a history of speculative philosophy, to discuss all the theories which have been held respecting the essence and relations of Truth. For every inquiry after new facts, every investigation of unexplained phenomena, is only a question about Truth in its applications. A search after its essence embodies the substance of Realism; while the substitution of a name instead of the essence in each case where truth exists, is Nominalism. Both these conflicting systems, however, are only species embraced under a higher genus, and are coördinate in our conception of Truth. Plato, and those who follow him, hold that names, whether general or particular terms, represent actually existing things, and these are ideas or images which have had a being from all eternity, and were the patterns after which God created the world.* Hence, the embodiment of these ideas in creation are the manifestations of Νοῦς as Δημιουργός, α Divine Intelligence. This is Realism, and so far presents no objectionable features, because we are compelled to believe that God created the universe according to his pleasure, and that each thing made was fashioned in conformity to an act of his will. Those, again, who follow Aristotle and reject Realism, discern in the name of a thing no actual existence, but merely a sign by which it is signified. Yet these have in mind. some energy, blind or intelligent, according to their attitude toward Theism, which, while known to us only by name, because it cannot be apprehended by the senses, produces a * Timaeus, 38 C. Καὶ κατὰ τὸ παράδειγμα τῆς αἰωνιάς φύσεως, ἵν ̓ ὡς ομοιότατος αυτῷ κατὰ δύναμιν ᾖ τὸ μὲν γὰρ δὴ παράδειγμα πάντα αἰῶνα ἐστιν ὂν, ὁ δ ̓ αὖ διὰ τέλους τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον γεγονώς τὲ καὶ ὢν καὶ ἐσόμενους. † Parmenides, 132 D. Τὰ μὲν εἴδη ταῦς ὥσπερ πασαδείγματα ἐστάναι ἐν τῇ φύσει, τα δ' αλλα τούτοις εοικέναι και ειναι ὁμοιώματα. world from nothing, or develops it from matter eternally exist ing. Truth, according to this view, is the correspondence with things as they are ;* and the existence of all things must be conformed to the Supreme will, whether that be conceived of as a personal God, or as the laws of Nature. So we see that the earliest schools into which all metaphysical speculation has been divided, agree in this, that Truth is conformity to the supreme directing power. Indeed, according to the deep utterance of Coleridge, all men must be either Platonists or Aristotelians; that is, must accept one or the other view of the relation of mind to matter. Hence, if the universe be a creation, Truth is the conformity of the thing made to the will of the Maker; and if it be a development, this is conformity to the law of growth. Undoubtedly the Platonic idea is more agreeable to Christian modes of thought; and, accordingly, his whole philosophic system readily adapted itself to the doctrines of Revelation. For if the Greek thought of the world being made after the ideas which were taken by the Divine mind as models, the Jews believed that not only all the articles of ceremonial worship were fashioned after the pattern shown to Moses in the Mount, but also the entire earthly system was a transcript of the heavenly. The Christian notion that Jesus was the instrument by which the universe was made, and is the Divine energy pervading all things, agrees well with the Platonic conception of preexistent types. For as the Idea was in the Nous or Divine Mind from all eternity, so the Only Begotten was in the bosom of the Father. And as the embodiment of the Idea produced a visible world, so the Eternal Father was declared in the person and work of the Son. The Christian Church was perfectly justified in holding that Christ was the Truth itself, for he distinctly declared this fact. And as he was the Truth, both personified and embodied, so he knew no will but God's, and did no work but his. Through him was the will of God actualized; since without him was not anything made that was made.¶ Thus * Aristot. Met., 993 Bekk. 69' ἕκαστον ὡς ἔχει του εἶναι, ὅντω καὶ τῆς ἀληθαείς. + Numb. xxv: 40. Ezekiel xl-xlvii. Plato Timaeus, 37, C. D. John i: 14, 18. John i: 3. |