The Christian consciousness, its relation to evolution in morals and in doctrine

Preface

The literature that has been devoted to the "Christian Consciousness" has been of a fragmentary character. It has been employed for special purposes from the time of Schleiermacher to the present day. This will appear more at length in the course of this work. But the employment of any tenet in philosophy or in doctrine for special purposes, while it demonstrates the apologetic value of the doctrine, is unfavorable to its general reception and systematic study. It receives little more than a passing notice from writers on systematic theology and dogma. It has been called into the court of public discussion as a witness in favor of sensationalism, of Andover theology so-called, and of various views in eschatology. The opponents of these views naturally and almost inevitably regarded the witness with suspicion. Current controvers}^ partakes largely of the nature of special pleading, and the first thing to do was to discredit the character and the testimony of the witness.

IV PREFACE

There are several questions that must be answered, such as : What is consciousness ? Is there a Christian consciousness? If there is, what are its relations to consciousness in general, and to the religious consciousness in particular? What are its functions? Has it been hitherto neglected ? Is it an old and well-known phase of the truth masquerading under a new name, or is it a hitherto much neglected and little used part of the armor of the Christian apologist?

In an interview with General Booth, he is reported to have said that, while he believed the Bible and wished men to read it, the aim of his army was to bring men to God rather than to the Book. Their endeavor was to get men to pray. This was the point of contact with God. He admitted that he rather dreaded Bible classes, because they got men into disputation. Removed from the Salvation Army by a whole diameter, but moving in the same circle, we find the German theologians, to whom the usually accepted proofs of the inspiration of Scripture are unsatisfactor}* and insufficient, but who can accept their inspiration Iry the appeal to, and the testimony of, the Christian consciousness. Less logical and more vague, but of equal significance, is the Christo-centric contemporary theology.

PREFACE V

The study of the Christian consciousness is in its infancy, but the study of it is an aid to the development of it. It seems strange, at this end of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, that there should be an undeveloped, and partly unused, function of the Christian life ; a function which not only accounts for moral and dogmatic phenomena, but also makes God more real to men. It comes at a time of need. The glory of the Reformation was the exaltation of faith, and the substituting the infallible Bible for the infallible church. But when infallible systems of theology took the place of the infallible book, the church, that had glowed in its contact with the living Word, became chilled at the touch of dead orthodoxies. The exaltation of the Word became a delusion and a snare when pains and penalties were attached to any interpretation of it differing from that of the majority. The immediate result of the Reformation was the formulation of several creeds and orders of church government, each of which made a practical claim of infallibility for its own faith and discipline. In days of polemic warfare the scent for heresy becomes keener and keener. It was in order to reason and debate concerning the letter of the Word, but it was

VI PREFACE

dangerous to speak too freely about its spirit. If any one was rasli enough to appeal to his own inner light, his own Christian consciousness and divine persuasion, it was at once declared to be a presumption "and spiritual pride that savored of blasphemy. The tyranny of creeds resembles political tyrannies in its instinctive desire to keep men under. The dismal exaltation of the divine sovereignty until it distorted the character of God was the instinctive though undesigned policy of ecclesiastical oligarchies. The Christian consciousness had to hide its diminished head, and even doubt and condemn itself. Times have changed, and the Christian consciousness has its part to play in the momentous era of change and development on which the world seems to be entering. Hitherto we have spoken of the Bible, the church, and the reason as being sources of authority. To these three the spirit of the age demands the addition of the Christian consciousness, as being not only a source of authority in and of itself, but also as being a touchstone for the trying of the Bible, the church, and the reason.

Chapter I

"What is it ? — Theories about consciousness supplementary to, rather than antagonistic to, each other. — Locke, Cousin, Descartes, Sir William Hamilton, McCosh, Kant, Herbert Spencer. — Instinct, intuition, consciousness. — Religious and Christian consciousness. Opinions of Dean Mansell, "William F. "Warren, D.D., Professor Candlish, Professor Kaftan. — Definition of the Christian consciousness. — Its imperative categories. — Illumination that comes from willing to do God's will. — Reformation theology not favorable to the doctrine of the Christian consciousness. — Contemporary misconceptions as to Christian consciousness.— Relation of the Christian consciousness to progressive morality 1

Chapter II

Reformation theology belittled man. — It was one-sided. — Lecky on exaggerations of human depravity. — The Eighth Psalm. — Elohim. — Christian consciousness sees both sides of this truth. — Evolution testifies to the dignity of man. — Professor Drummond's "Ascent of Man." — Obscurity of the beginnings of all civilization. — The progress of Engvii

Mil CONTENTS

lish-speaking peoples. — Italy. — England. — Scotland. — United States. — Sir William Dawson on inspired achievement 26

Chapter III

The qualifications of the infallibility of the Scriptures. — Infallibility not claimed for the Christian consciousness. — The honor it puts upon man. — Evolution and man. — Future possibilities for him do not meet the Scriptural statements concerning him. — His destiny a future of divine possibilities. — Three great missing links. — Mr. Huxley's view of development coming to an end. — The estimate which science makes of man. — The Christian consciousness accepts and approves his dignity and destiny 46

Chapter IV

Considerations that have prejudiced certain thinkers against Christian consciousness. — Schleiermacher. — The Ritchsliau school. — Professor Harris. — Dr. Francis Patton. — Dr. Behrends. — Standards of Scripture interpretation. — Herbert Spencer. — Henry Lewes. — Historians of civilization. — Utilitarianism. — The struggle for existence. — Presentday sociology. — Maurice's social morality, theoretical and practical. — Views of Benjamin Kidd and Professor Drummond 61

Chapter V The Christian Consciousness And Slavery

In ancient times. — In Puritan times. — John Bacon's w ill. — The evolution of opinion about slavery. —The relation of

CONTENTS IX

discovery and invention to evolution in morals. — The earlier opponents of slavery. — Samuel Sewall. — Legal action of different countries. — Opinions of Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, and Patrick Henry.— Opinions of clergymen during the "War of the Rebellion. — The political economist's explanation. — Dr. Munger on slavery. — The part played by the Christian consciousness 82

Chapter VI

THE CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS AS RELATED TO INTEMPERANCE, THE OPIUM TRADE, AND GAMBLING

Total abstinence a recent reform. — The former and present relation of the church to it. — The Abstemii. — The Nazarites. — Parallel between slavery and intemperance. — Opium trade. — Its unique character. — The conscience of Britain against it. — The secret of its power. — Relation of enlightened public sentiment to the Christian consciousness. — Gambling the vice common to heathenism and to Christianity. —The possibility of heathenism condemning gambling. — The growth of Christian sentiment against • lug. — Mercantile gambling. — Huxley's pessimism.

— Silence of Scripture on this vice. — Professor Proctor. — Similar questions that might be considered .... 103

Chapter VII The Attitude Of The Church To Evolution In Morals

The charges brought against the church, and the inferences therefrom. — Misrepresentation of the church. —Its human side.— Its size. — Its age. — Its prime function. — Its lax discipline in regard to conduct, and its vigilance in dogma.

— The environment of moral movements. — The union with the state. — The opposite extreme. -=- The church not a club 125

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Chapter VIII

THE CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS, AND THE RELIGIOUS CON- SCIOUSNESS OK THE HEATHEN WORLD

Agreement of geology and revelation. — Sir William Dawson's view. — Noah. — Abraham. — Melchisedec. — Job. — Jetliro, Baalam. — Contact of Hebrew and Greek. — Septuagint. — Huxley. — The logos. — The condition of the religious consciousness when Christ came. — The centuries of silence. — Greek thought. — Buddhism. — Confucianism and Taoism.

— The condition of morality when Jesus was on earth . 142

Chapter IX The Relation Of The Christian Consciousness To Doctrine

Has there been an evolution of doctrine? — The difficulty of separating morals from doctrine. — Various definitions of doctrine. — The salvation of infants. — Original sin and inherited guilt. — Sacramentarianism. — The spirit of the age.

— Salvation of the heathen. — Andover theology. — Rational sanctions and exegetical justification. — Do Christians believe that the heathen are perishing?— Features common to infant salvation, and the salvation of the heathen. — The character of God, when involved. — The legal infliction of torture. — Exceptions to the prevailing belief. — What has brought about the change ? 103

Chapter X Christian Consciousness And Woman's Place In The Church

A question of doctrine as well as of polity.— Paul's teaching. — "Woman's place in the Roman Catholic Church. — Opinion of Robinson of Leyden. — Woman's evolution as a teacher. — As a Christian worker. — Study of medicine. —

CONTENTS xi

Salvation Army. — Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. — Woman in college and in theological seminaries. — Application to this question of Mr. Kidd's philosophy. — Of Professor Drummond's. — George MacDonald's view. — The " Gesta Christi." — Woman in the religious community. — In the age of chivalry . 183

Chapter XI Christian Consciousness And The Sixth Commandment

The thirst for hlood. — War. — The War of the Rebellion. — A moral problem. — As a peacemaker Christianity has been a failure. — The duel. — Severities of the criminal code. — Judicial combat. — The prize-ring and college football. — Danger a popular attraction. — Societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals. — Admiration of personal daring. — Danger of the loss of manliness and courage. — The moral force of Charles Loring Brace. — The problem presented in this chapter 202

Chapter XII

Objections to evolution in morals. — View of President E. G. Robinson. — Unchanging morality. — When true. — Xon- Christian ethical systems. — The divine and the human thought. — Joseph Cook. — Christian consciousness and sectarianism. — Hindrance to union. — Schleiermacher's views. — Eschatology. — The questions raised by physical science and by the higher criticism not to be dreaded. — The moral difficulties are real and persistent. — Various kinds of doubt. — The revealing of the Father. — The eve of great changes. — Young Men's Christian Associations, The Salvation Army, and Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. — The healing of schism 219

Chapter I

Consciousness is the knowledge of that which passes in one's own mind. It is at once the knowledge and the power to know. It is the instrument of observation as well as of introspection ; and therefore by the observations of consciousness we can attain to conclusions as to principles or morals before we have had experience to guide us. Physiology cannot furnish any explanation of thought or of consciousness. In common speech the knowledge of sensation is familiarly and vaguely expressed by this word, and we have modifying phrases which are not always philosophically accurate. Such expressions as partially conscious, painfully conscious, semi-conscious, and fully conscious, may not be exact terms in metaphysics, but they convey ideas with sufficient clearness, l

What is consciousness ? What is the province of it ? and what is the power of it ? are questions which have been keenly debated by the various schools of philosophy. Is the pure development of reason better secured by abstraction from all finite and material objects, than by mingling with and comprehending the world in which we live ? This question was old in the days of Aristotle. Know thyself is the watchword of philosophy. Knowledge of one's self is consciousness, but not the whole of consciousness. It has been well said that the possibility of science and of morality rests on the "universality of consciousness. Man comes out of a past about which' he learns more or less ; and he dies at the threshold of a future concerning which reason has taught him to anticipate a little, and faith has enabled him to prophesy many things. He is a limi'ted fragment of an unknown whole ; but he can look over the edge of his territory into the undiscovered country, for he can reason from particulars to generals. The unlimited and unexplored becomes a part of his consciousness. "It is by the God within that we can understand the God without." The Bible assures man that the things he does not know now he shall know hereafter ; and this hereafter is not always and necessarily a future state of existence. Science declares that what he does not know now he may know hereafter. We live on an island called Earth. We are conscious of ourselves and of our surroundings; but we know only in part, for we have not yet explored the whole of our island. We are not yet masters of the world within or of the world without. The telescope and the spectroscope enable us to land some of the driftwood that floats to us from the other islands, called worlds, in this infinite sea ; and we refuse to believe that this is all that we are to have, and all that we are to know. The story of the past echoes our heartcry for more light. It tells of secret after secret unfolded. Subjective knowledge has not made as much progress as has objective knowledge.

The theories about, and the definitions of, consciousness that have been advanced by moralists and metaphysicians, may be regarded as being not antagonistic to each other, but rather as supplementary to each other. Locke says that complex ideas can be resolved into simple ideas; and that simple ideas come to us through sense perception; that is, by the gateway of the physical senses. This is sensation. The second factor to the production of an idea is reflection. But reflection is another name for consciousness. In many things Locke is more orthodox than he knew himself to be, or than he intended to be. He exalts sense perception, but he has done good in calling attention to the relation of the physical senses to ideas. Cousin says, " Consciousness is composed of three inseparable elements ; viz., sensibility, or sense perception ; activity, or liberty ; and reason. The middle element, activity or liberty, is a sort of postulate between sensibility and reason." The sensibility and reason of Cousin are the sensation and reflection of Locke. Descartes' famous " Cogito, ergo sum " is the reason of Cousin and the reflection of Locke. The primary data of consciousness, according to Sir William Hamilton, are truths of perception and truths of reason. He is a realist, and exalts the dictates of consciousness. We do not, however, assert that idealists belittle the commanding power of consciousness. In the words of McCosh, " We know self as having being, existence. The knowledge we have in self-consciousness, which is associated with every intelligent act, is not an impression, as Hume would say, nor a mere quality or attribute, as certain of the Scott is! 1 metaphysicians affirm, nor a phenomenon in the sense of appearance, as Kant supposes, but of a thing or reality." Kant affirms that space and time are the forms given by the mind to the phenomena which are presented through the senses, and are not to be supposed as having anything more than a subjective existence. McCosh holds this to be a fatal heresy, and opposed to the revelations of consciousness. In his well-known chapter on the " Physiology of Laughter," Herbert Spencer says, " There is still another direction in which any excited portion of the nervous system may discharge itself; and a direction in which it usually does discharge itself when the excitement is not strong. It may pass on the stimulus to some other portion of the nervous system. This is what occurs in quiet thinking and feeling. The successive states which constitute consciousness result from this. . . . While we are totally unable to comprehend how the excitement of certain nerves should generate feeling, — while, in the production of consciousness by physical agents acting on physical structure, we come to an absolute mystery, never to be solved, it is yet quite possible for us to know by observation what are the successive forms which this absolute mystery may take." This is materialism pure and simple.

A certain amount of confusion arises from permitting ourselves to get into a habit of indefinite thinking about instinct, intuition, and consciousness. An instinct is a faculty independent of instruction and prior to experience. When we use such expressions as " instinctive reverence," "instinctive worship," our words are meaningless, except in so far as they are misleading. The errors of the pulpit in the use of the words instinct and instinctive are many ttnd various. An intuition is a self-evident, necessary, and universal truth. It is not mere insight, nor is it illumination, whether sacred or secular. It is not inspiration, which is the gift of infallibility in proclaiming moral and religious truth. It is not illumination, which is the glow and white heat with which light comes to our minds. Inspiration may produce this intellectual glow ; but it may and usually does come as the result of ratiocination, or of memory, or of unconscious cerebration and association of ideas. The intuitions of the mind are not before consciousness, nor are they identical with consciousness, or parallel with it, but rather should we say that our intuitions are supplied by the exercise of consciousness and memory. We have the fruits and results of metaphysics, but the question is as to origin rather than as to mode. It is not a priori or a posteriori, realist or idealist, deductive or inductive ; for to-day the query is is not, What is consciousness ? but, Whence is it? Is our conception materialistic or theistic? Sir William Hamilton declares that "no difficulty emerges in theology which had not previously emerged in philosophy." It is impossible to conceive of the Christian or religious consciousness which is not of theistic origin. 1

1 Many writers, while not expressing themselves very definitely, seem to imply that the religious consciousness is quite possible in any form of belief. Livingstone in his last journal remarks that he never had met with an African chief whom he could not make ashamed of selling his own people into slavery, but arousing the conscience is not the creating of religious consciousness. It must always be a question as to how near the theistic conception the more thoughtful heathen are, while within the borders of civilization we may grant, the personal honesty of non-theists, who may call themselves agnostics,

In the use of the terms " Christian Consciousness " and "religious consciousness" as interchangeable, it is to be borne in mind that while practically no confusion of thought results, the terms are not synonymous. All Christian consciousness is religious consciousness ; but all religious consciousness is not, therefore, Christian consciousness. The Buddhist and Mohammedan have a religious consciousness which is not Christian. The Christian consciousness differs from theirs not only in degree, but also in kind. What is Christian consciousness? This question has had many answers. Dean Mansell, in his Bampton Lectures entitled the "Limits of Religious Thought," reasons from the general conditions of all human consciousness that there is a necessary limitation to its powers, and therefore an inability to conceive the Infinite. His conditions of consciousness are : —

(1) Distinction between one object and another.

(2) Relation between subject and object.

or materialists, or atheists, and yet refuse to believe in the possibility of their being able to free themselves from the theistic conception.

THE CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS i)

(3) Succession and duration in time.

(4) Personality.

He holds that the religious consciousness is reflective and intuitive. The reasonings of the reflective consciousness are sufficient to correct our conception of a supreme being, but not sufficient to originate such a conception. The other part of consciousness — religious intuition — manifests itself in the feeling of dependence, and in the conviction of moral obligation. These two conditions beget prayer and expiation. Dependence implies a personal superior, hence our conviction of the power of God. Moral obligation implies a moral lawgiver, hence our conviction of the goodness of God. His limits of religious consciousness are : —

(1) That a sense of dependence is not a consciousness of the absolute and the infinite.

(2) Nor is a sense of moral obligation a consciousness of the absolute and the infinite.

(3) Religious consciousness implies the infinite.

(4) God is known as a person through the consciousness of ourselves as persons. There can be no philosophical theism without this consciousness. The materialist or the pantheist who denies his own personality is on the straight road to atheism.

Fifteen years after Dean Mansell's book was published, the Rev. William F. Warren, D.D., Dean of the Boston University School of Theology, delivered one of the Boston lectures on " Christianity and Scepticism." His theme was " The Christian Consciousness : its apologetic value." His position is : —

(1) Every man has some sort of religious consciousness, e.g., theistic, pantheistic, polytheistic, atheistic.

There are sub-types of religious consciousness, e.g., Jewish, Christian, Mohammedan.

His leading traits of the ideal Christian consciousness are : —

(1) An immediate knowledge or feeling or realization of some kind of personal communion with God. He subdivides into the Old Testament religions or God-consciousness, the ordinary Christian consciousness, and the higherlife Christian consciousness. The apologetic value of the Christian consciousness over the atheistic, polytheistic, and pantheistic is, that the votaries of these last three believe, but the Christian knows. He holds that in the narrower field of controversy, where theistie naturalism and supranaturalism grapple, the facts of normal Christian consciousness forever settle, for its possessor, every speculative doubt and difficulty — that miracles and incarnation are easily grasped by Christian consciousness.

Professor Candlish, of the Free Church College, Glasgow, wrote the article " Dogmatic " in the ninth edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," since published in fuller shape in book form. He says, " The inward spiritual enlightenment of the believer corresponds very nearly to what has been called Christian consciousness." He ascribes the phrase to Schleiermacher, whose fundamental principle was that religion consists properly in feeling, and that we have an immediate consciousness of the divine — a God-consciousness. This Mansell denies. It will be found that the truth lies between the sensationalism of Schleiermacher and the intellectualism against which he revolted ; but the difficulty is to find a meeting-place for sensationalism and intellectualism which will be satisfactory to both.

Professer Kaftan divides with Professor Harnack the honors of brilliance and popularity in the University of Berlin. He brings enthusiasm and spirituality to his work. He is the most distinguished advocate of the Ritschlian school of theology, the avowed object of which is to reconcile supranaturalism and rationalism. The task which this school has assigned itself does not seem as difficult of accomplishment as it did twenty years ago. With Schleiermacher they assert that the religious consciousness is the fountain of belief. They antagonize metaphysical statement of doctrine, and exalt the moral side of life and religion. While they maintain that the Holy Scriptures are the final and supreme authority in doctrine, because in them we have the Christian consciousness in its primitive purity, they are not orthodox on the question of inspiration.

This most popular school of religious thought in Germany of to-day has many attractive features ; and it is certain, in the near future, to exercise wide influence in America. Religious consciousness as taught in Germany to-day exalts the subjective determination of truth, and in this lies its danger. The counterfeits of Christian consciousness will prove as dangerous as the exaggerations of it, or the ignoring of it. Like every real thing, it has to he sifted and tried, for it cannot he ignored.

Religious consciousness is consciousness plus the theistic conception ; and Christian consciousness is religious consciousness with certain notable additions. These are : —

(1) What we know of our faith and of our feelings in the light of the revealed Word.

(2) What we know of our will to do God's will.

(3) What we know of the promised result of this willing to do God's will.

(4) What we know of being led by the Holy Spirit into truth.

(5) What we know of the witness of the Holy Spirit with our spirits as to our divine sonship.

The Holy Scriptures are the supreme authority in doctrine and in life. We do not claim, like the German school to which reference has been made, that the Holy Scriptures are in a sense subordinate to the Christian consciousness; nor need we, like Professor Candlish, maintain that the Christian consciousness is a subordinate authority. It is a co-ordinate authority. It is the illumined Word. It is not a primary and independent source of authority, but it takes the initiative in all change. Through it the new light from the Word of God flashes forth. We do not assert that the Christian consciousness is necessarily and always unerring.

The Papal claim of infallibility is not based on the Christian consciousness. There is no question as to the possibility of the Christian consciousness outgrowing the Holy Scriptures. It is as reasonable to speak of outgrowing the multiplication table as of outgrowing the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount. We make mistakes in our interpretation of the Scriptures. We make mistakes in our interpretation of the Christian consciousness. A mistake in dogma is an error ; persistent error becomes the sin of heresy. A mistake of a moral kind is also an error. But the error of to-day often becomes the sin of the future.

God is immanent in mind and in matter. Man has a conscience. In that conscience, by God's immanence in mind, a moral law is revealed. A moral law leads naturally to the law-maker, the law-keeper, and the law-breaker.

The Word of God reveals the law-maker and the moral law. God's manifestation of himself in Christ illumines the sacred Word. Consciousness becomes Christian consciousness. It proves all things, and holds fast to that which is good. It has certain imperative categories which are its touchstones.

(i) What does the Word of God say?

(2) Is this or is it not the letter that kills?

(3) What is the spirit of it?

(4) In what way can moral certitude be attained ?

(5) That is — How shall I know that the Spirit of truth is witnessing with my spirit ?

(6) Shall not this be brought to the test of reason ?

(7) Shall not the final appeal be the Christian consciousness ?

It is self-evident that we cannot o-et from the

o

Word of God that which is not in it ; but there are treasures in it, both new and old. Our Lord tells us to search the Scriptures. The man who imagines that his Christian consciousness is to be the result of a miracle of grace, without effort on his part, is on the high road to fanaticism. " He that wills to do God\s will shall know the doctrine." a Obedience to the divine will brings certitude to the soul with regard to moral truth. A single-hearted desire to please God illumines every question of a religious nature. Looked at from the standpoint of human philosophy, this is a most astounding assertion that Christ makes. When he uttered those words, earth listened to a new truth. He does not say, " If any man wills to do his will, lie shall know that the teaching is wise or good or of superior excellence." Such statements as these are made every day. When any law or business scheme or system of government is presented to- the individual or to the community, we examine it in the light of past experience, and of recognized laws and general principles, and come to a conclusion as to whether we should accept or reject this thing. Sometimes the result proves that we make a mistake. We are overpersuaded by the ingenious advocacy, or promoters and adopters of this new departure were equally mistaken.

When there is great conflict of opinion as to the advantage of this new thing, the plea usually is to give it a fair and practical trial,

i John vii. 17.

and by so doing demonstrate on which side the sound reasoning is. The political economy of our own and other countries is a practical illustration of this law in its working. That our putting the Scripture code into practice should convince us that it is very excellent, and suited to mankind, need excite no surprise. From the standpoint of secular history, Mosaic law is as worthy of study as is Roman or Greek law. ( )ne of the wonders of history is, that while Rome was in the zenith of her glory, and Palestine was but a fragment of her vast dominions, the future of earth was being moulded, not in the imperial city, but by a peasant of that insignificant province. In view of the historical antecedents, there is nothing wonderful in the man or the community that models its life after the Bible pattern, finding that the legislation is a model of wisdom and of beneficence. But our Lord did not say that he who did the will of God .was to find out that the teaching was wise or good, but that he was to know that the teaching came from God. This discovery of the supernatural origin of the Word, this higher evidence of the authenticity of Scripture, is the wonderful thing in this statement of our Lord's. He does not teach that the mere performance of the things commanded will produce this result ; but lie does teach that if a man's heart be set on doing the will of God, this supranatural divine illumination comes. This divine illumination is the miracle of grace. It is a part, but not the whole, of the Christian consciousness. It has been much neglected by the individual Christian, and has been almost always practically ignored by the church; but it rises above faith. Faith gives us certainty where reason may fail us ; but the Christian consciousness turns faith into sight. He does not believe that the Word is from God. He knows it.