An anchor of the soul: a study of the nature of faith

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

By ifye Same Ctutfyor.

Book First

I. That there have been Many Different Views and

Definitions of Faith 7

II. That there are Objections to these Views, and Especially One Objection Underlying Them

All 11

III. That, nevertheless, in Study of Faith we must

set out from the Facts as they are 21

IV. That Faith is a Universal Fact 23

V. That there is an Intellectual Element in Faith, 25

VI. That there is an Emotional Element in Faith, 27

VII. That Faith always appears as above Doubt. .. . 28 VIII. That these Elements in Faith show the Human

Search for the Absolute and Perfect 31

IX. That Faith must be Completed with an Object, 35

X. That the Object of Faith is the Universe. .'.... 39

XI. True Definition of Faith 46

XII. The Beauty and Glory of this View of Faith, 49

Book Second

I. Transition to Trust in our own Souls 55

II. That Trust in the Soul has Fared 111 in History, 58

III. That the worst Ill-fare of Trust in the Soul is in

the Moral Sphere 62

IV. That we must Trust our own Souls 65

V. That our Spiritual Being corresponds to Nature, 66 VI. Review in Brief of Trust in the Soul 68

VII. Examples 70

VIII. That this View of Faith tests Character 73

IX. That this View of Faith enlarges the Character, 75 X. That this View of Faith gives great Comfort

and Peace 77

XI. That we are Compelled to Trust our Own Souls, 80 XII. Objection— That Trust in the Soul Fails Practically 82

XIII. That Mental Errors have no Weight against

our Spiritual Trustworthiness 84

XIV. That Moral Errors have no Weight against our

Spiritual Trustworthiness 85

XV. The Mental and Moral States that are Harmful, 87 XVI. That Failure or Wreck is not possible to a

Morally-earnest Spirit 89

Book Third

I. Transition to Thought of God 95

II. Why I have not Defined Faith as Trust in God, 96

III. Now We are to apply the True View of Faith

to the Thought of God 100

IV. The Three Emphases in the One Fact 102

V. First, of Order 103

VI. Secondly, of Law 106

VII. That Law and Order are One 115

VIII. Thirdly, of Unity 116

IX. That Law, Order and Unity are One 119

X. The Emphasis of Each of these Three Terms, 120

XI. That this View of Faith Glorifies Nature, 121

XII. That this View of Faith glorifies the Thought

of God 127

XIII. That this View of Faith is Strength, Peace, Joy, 133

XIV. That this View of Faith deepens Devotion and

Worship 137

XV. That this View of Faith is a Revealer of God, 141 XVI. Conclusion 144

Chapter I

That there have been Many Different Views and Definitions of Faith.

Words are but sign-posts, showing the paths in the soul; you can not go to the end of any path. Or again: Words are like doors, swinging wide, serving to make us free of vast courts, corridors, archways, aisles, holy crypts; but when we look in or would go in, the endless halls run into darkness. Human speech thus witnesses to the delicate facts and unpathed regions of the human soul. For these lie before us; they are never absent; facts of the soul arise constantly as matters of experience. Yet they elude definition; language cannot contain them; words make few paths to them and none through them.

Such a fact is Faith. What is this thing called Faith? Let us put forth into this cloister-hall or this vanishing path of the soul and go as far as we can.

The name Faith has been given to many facts or acts of the soul; and often to contrary facts, so that if one has been called faith properly, the others can not be. This name has divided sects and schools from each other, and the people from the philosophers. And among the people, yes, and among the learned too, the wise and unwise alike, very great moral contrasts have been covered by this same name. For what has gone by this name often has been the breath of glorious actions, and often again the veil of lies and cruelties — as on the one hand martyrdom, patience, mercy, forgiveness, trust, courage, knowledge, freedom, blithe heart, and on the other hand " pious frauds," ignorance, mourning, sack cloth and ashes, pride, war, persecution, tortures. The bad and the good, the fierce and the gentle, the free and the slavish, say alike that their deeds come of Faith.

But this division, diversity, unlikeness, has its use; indeed, no little value. For it is a witness to how great and deep a fact of soul Faith is. If only one party of men lay claim to it, then Faith might be an empty error, a vanity, a conceit of a little company. Nay, if all men were agreed what Faith was, then Faith were no very great thing. For what grand thing is there in the world, on the nature of which men are agreed? It is some small thing, and mostly such as can be handled, and, next, what may be seen, and less still, what may be heard (for hearing is the most spiritual sense that purveys knowledge), on which men are agreed. Therefore, since all parties differ and often are very wide apart as to what Faith may be, and yet

BOOK FIRST. g

all claim it and revere it, and say it is a mighty thing in the soul, it must be so — it must be a great deep within us which thus bears every one up and no one can sound it. The word or name, Faith, is needful and has come forth by reason of sublime moral facts in human nature. We shall not do unwisely if we set out with this thought, as on a path, and try whither it will lead.

Moreover, as the word Faith has been used to name so many unlike things, we may suspect a unity or likeness lurking somewhere at which men have aimed by this name. For it is a strange thing, and the like not to be found in language, if men have fixed one name on so many things altogether different, even contrary and opposed. Wherefore let us look narrowly whether there be not an inward state of a believer, a manner of believing, and this state or manner, being alike in all, has caused men to give one name, Faith, each to his own belief, because men felt in a like way and believed with a like spirit, but saw only the unlike beliefs. This is no more than to say that early and easily men have known the lighter and floating things in which they differ, but only long afterward, and not even yet, the deep things in which they are at one.

We have then these two thoughts to set out with, that Faith is a very great reality of some kind, and that the manner of believing or state of the believer may be more material to Faith than the belief.

IO AN ANCHOR OF THE SOUL.

But what are some of the unlike things which men have called faith?

I intend only the religious sense of it; for the word has other uses in human affairs. I speak of the meaning of Faith among the terms of religion. These meanings in chief I count four:

Faith has signified a very strong conviction, very fervent and held very sacred, come to by the mind in its free exercise of reason. This is the noblest meaning of the four.

Secondly, Faith has signified a strong conviction, very fervent and held very sacred, but not come to by the mind, but rather loaded upon the mind by impression and sentiment, or by opinion and voice, without oversight of reason, making light of reason, or even scorning and scouting it. This is the lowest and poorest meaning, and discloses weakness of the spirit.

For the third, Faith has signified thorough cession of oneself and entire subjection to a church or priesthood or to writings, held to be of divine authority. This is a tyrannic sense. Like all tyrannies, it may work in two ways: If men be low, it will raise them by order and obedience, for order is a great power and obedience a great virtue. But if once men grow high in all things but the tyranny and hence need it no more, and still it hold its grip, then it drags them down, being like armor, stifling weights and fetters when no longer it is defence.

For the fourth meaning, Faith has denoted an

Book First. II

acceptance of saving doctrine wrought in the soul by an act of divine grace. To me this meaning is an impiety. I mean not that they are impious, who hold it; for it is wonderful what profane things men may do, say and think, while yet there is no impiety in their hearts. But if goodness be something real and is unlike sinfulness, and if truth be something real and differs from error, then to bestow salvation for no virtue of the soul, nay, nor even for any thinking of the soul's own, but for a credence done in it by grace, is but an unholy wilfulness; and that is an unrighteous, a barbarous, thought of God.

Around these four main views of Faith, as they have prevailed in times or in places, one or another of them, or as they h*ave striven with each other, have been grouped many things in history, literature, government and art.

Chapter II

That there are Objections to these Views, and Especially One Objection Underlying Them All.

That all these four views of Faith, except the first one, are open to objections I have said already; as that the second is but a weakness of spirit, doffing reason, like a helmet too heavy for the head — surely no such strong thing this as Faith must be; that the third is as weak as the second, and harsher, because both are subjections, but in the latter the master is foreign — I mean outside the mind, and often has been cruel; and that the fourth has no look of reality or nature or harmony in it, but of pretence or invention — unrighteous, wilful, ill-sorted, mis-joined. Now these general objections run into many divisions, and bring to light many instances and points; but it is needless to follow them, for there is one objection which is enough of itself, and applies to all the four views, the first no less than the others.

This objection is, that by all these views Faith is not distinguished from belief — I mean belief in some fixed doctrines; and even some who have tried to define Faith better than this, say no more than that it lies in the manner of believing these same things, and is a certain great energy and ardor of belief of them. But now I will dare to say that Faith must not be confused with belief in any sum of doctrines or with any manner of believing the same; because Faith is something much greater than any doctrines however venerable or religious, and greater than any manner of holding doctrines however devoted be this manner. This point, the greatness of the true nature of Faith, is my aim or goal, to which I hope we shall come in good time. But here I will offer five special reasons why it is well or needful to part Faith carefully from belief in any doctrines, or from any manner of believing them.

The first reason is that by a strange argument, hanging on this view of Faith, persons commend

Book First. 13

themselves for taking doctrines carelessly, without thought. For, say they, we are to- be saved by Faith; therefore the more Faith, the better and safer. But Faith is belief in the true creed. Therefore we will believe all that is offered us, or as much as possible, and question not; because if we err in believing more than enough, this is no hurtful error, for at least we believe enough, and are safe. The morality of this argument is so bad, and so servile and fawning it is, that I should not state it here as a mode of thinking, or deem it could prevail in any one, if more than one person had not set it forth to me as potent in their minds and as good wisdom in religion. But the evil is not in the logic but in this wrong view of Faith. I know no way to fly from the logic if once the bad premises be granted, that Faith is belief in any sum of doctrines, or a manner of believing them.

Another reason against this same view of Faith, is that it nurses a very vile pride, a pride of Faith, a vaunting of oneself in religion. Then doth a man put on a badge and face it out boldly that thereby he has put on the virtues of which the badge is token. But, as says Amiel in his Journal, "generally speaking it is the contrary which happens. The nobler the badge, the less estimable is the wearer of it. Such at least is the presumption." By which I think Amiel means that a noble badge is like to draw a crowd of the unworthy to dress themselves with it; or perhaps he means that one who takes any glorious thing to make a mark or badge for himself whereby to set himself above others, so misuses greatness as to show himself little. " It is extremely dangerous," Amiel continues, "to pride oneself on any moral or religious specialty whatever. Tell me what you pique yourself upon and I will tell you what you are not." Now this view of Faith, that it is belief in a sum of doctrines, has nourished this bad pride, the content and comfort of multitudes who will not take one step in any path to knowledge and thought. "Lo! we are above the great and look down on the learned," they cry; "for behold us well assured in matters which impiously they cast away, or weakly wrestle with by their dull sense and unlighted reason." So Barrow says — "By virtue of Faith, rustic and mechanic idiots do in true knowledge surpass the most refined wits, * * * tell us that which a learned infidel doth not know; " and on he goes with a long triumph on the illumination of a Christian child, properly indoctrinated, compared with the darkness of Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus. But what "rustic and mechanic" boasting is this! And all for no shape of his own, but for garments overlaid on him! Here is no humility, no simpleness, no, nor true knowledge, no, nor yet fineness nor chastity of soul, but only loud flourishing, pride, flapping and crowing, like a cock who equally well will crow on any place of advantage, whether it be a barn-heap or a hill of sweet-flowering turf. 'Tis a bad count against any

Book First. 15

view of Faith that ever it nurses such a pride. True, the pride may be in the man, with no root in the thought. Yet if the like pride appear in many men, the thoughts common to them are to be examined narrowly.

The third reason why this view of Faith, that it is the same with believing some doctrines or with a manner of believing them, is an ill view, is that thereupon Faith makes no room for doubt with it or near it, but must have the whole chamber of the mind to itself and casts out doubt as an unwelcome intruder. "Doubt shall have no part with me," quoth Faith; "I will make no junto with such a fellow; he is a shabby Alien, with none of my blood in him, nor the blood of my race." Thus by Faith, at this turn or view of it wherein it is confused with belief, doubt always has been disowned and thrust out; and rightly too, if Faith be merely belief of a creed or a manner of believing it. For then doubt is the direct opposite of Faith, and a false claimant, a thievish " sturd)' beggar" at the door. Therefore it has been hated and hunted, as a disturber and enemy, an artful pretender, a destroyer of peace, a foe of the truth. Yea, so great is the confidence of this family of Faith that it has not scrupled to pass divine judgment, outlawing doubt as "an enemy of God." To choke a doubt has been glorified as a high victory of Faith, and to be past having a doubt, or not to have come to one, howsoever it might be, has been called the very crown and mark of the high calling of Faith. No way to deal with doubt but by flight into Faith's chamber and hiding one's head under the creed! Sir Thomas Browne writes of himself, " There are, as in philosophy, so in divinity, sturdy doubts and boisterous objections wherewith the unhappiness of our knowledge too nearly acquainteth us. More of these no man hath known than myself; which I confess I conquered not in a martial posture, but on my knees." Then tells he how the devil whispered to him that the brazen serpent might have healed through some secret sympathy, that perhaps it was naphtha, not water, which Elijah poured over his altar, that the combustion of Sodom might be due to a bituminous lake, and the manna of Moses the same as the honey-dew in Arabia described by travelers. "The devil therefore," says he, "made the query, 'Where was then the miracle in the days of Moses?' The Israelites saw but that in his time, which the natives of those countries behold in ours. Thus the devil played at chess with me, and, yielding a pawn, thought to gain a queen of me, taking advantage of my honest endeavors; and, whilst I labored to raise the structure of my reason, he strove to undermine the edifice of my faith."* But truly I must say, not profanely, that it is but a demoniacal kind of Faith which so dances to find a devil in doubt; for always you shall find that it is the devil who is quick to think he noses an imp, being steamed in his own smell and

Book First. 17

carrying always his abode in his nostrils. Doubt is not a foe, an alien, a thief, nor aught infernal or evil, no, but divine, most friendly to man and whispering angelically to the soul, albeit first the voice be like a discipline. It is the quickening of a new child of Thought. It is the sudden sight of the mind, or — nobler still — that long, dutiful, patient suspense, which is the very power and patience of God in us. It is the rapturous burst, or the exciting surmise, of things much greater than yet we know. There is no way to doubt never but to think never, to dream never; yea, even never to worship, for adoration will lift the soul sometime to a height where things will look little that once looked large. Wherefore, by the confusion of Faith with belief, doubt has been like a Christ coming down into the human soul, by virtue of its reasonable essence, to reveal new and great glories from heaven, and forever cast out and crucified.*

The fourth reason against viewing Faith as a belief in a creed or as intensity of such belief, is that moral and spiritual distinctions are confounded thereby; yes, and distinctions of the very greatest import to the religious life, so that not only unlike things are confounded, shuffled together and confused, but the bad is confounded with the

*" Europe was beginning (in the twelfth century) to enter into that inexpressibly painful period in which men have learned to doubt, but have not yet learned to regard doubt as innocent; in which the new mental activity produces a variety of opinions, while the old credulity persuades them that all but one class of opinions are the suggestions of the devil." — Lecky's " Rationalism in Europe ," Vol. I., p. 72.

l8 AN ANCHOR OF THE SOUL.

good, so that either the bad is praised or the good is scouted according to the temper or creed of the beholder. If it be Faith to give ourselves up and surrender us like a prey or a captive to some particular belief or creed, and doubt by consequence either is impossible by reason of our slavishness or called impiety by our ignorance, why then madness and sound mind are one, frenzy and calmness are the same, both being Faith, fearing and trusting, thinking and non-thinking, cruelty and mercy are alike, the inquisitor and the martyr are the same persons, the torturer and the victim have one countenance, fanatical fury and saintly forbearance agree, Jesus is overleaped by Peter the Hermit and Pope John has a better title than Huss, — all are confused, one not to be known from another in morals and religion, if Faith be but belief or intensity thereof. But is it to be said that it is one thing, one heavenly fact, named Faith, which upholds the martyr in the fire and brought him to the flames smiling, yet likewise fires up fanatics till the fagots catch flames from them? No. This confounds all moral and spiritual qualities. Rather I say the difference is as wide as the heavens. 'Tis not charity, but ignorance of Faith and abuse of the high name of it, if we call the creed-zeal and passion of the inquisitor Faith.

Finally, for the fifth reason against this view of Faith, it is this, that history tears it from us if once we will let that stern Muse lay hands on

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our minds. It is possible to forbear her, easy in truth to escape her; for what easier than ignorance? Therefore many persons still do cling to Faith as a belief in a particular creed — a very rudeness of mind — by the same way as they escape gentle attiring, because they have not grace to obtain good company. But if once you shall make terms of friendship with History, the unconforming Muse will strip you clean of many rank, fusty garments to put on you new robes of intelligence. Thereupon you will find yourself clad with the knowledge that creeds are transient things, yes, very clouds of dust, thick enough at the time, and so tickling human organs that they can but cough and sneeze out the same dust with much repetition and great noise, but clearing away gradually, and after a little not a sign of it left: or if you will seek it, you must look on the ground, down to which it has settled, and men treading on it. Where now are the Greek deities, that banished Anaxagoras, burned the books of Protagoras and tipped the hemlock to the lips of Socrates? What are they but the lone strifes of students and the sociable delights of poets? The Roman genius is dead, Rome's heroes myths. Is our Christianity that of Paul and the gospels, with their role of speedy Messianic splendors in a crystal sky? No; but a sober love of nature's order has clad our Christianity, as in a simple white stole, and we sleep no longer every night, like Paul and the seer of Patmos, looking to be awaked very likely by the trumpet and the armies in the heavens and to be "caught up to meet the Lord in the air." We have unmantled us of an infallible church. Now are we unlacing from about us an infallible Bible and miraculous Christ. The Trinity, the Mediator, the Atonement, Everlasting Punishment and Election, are old garments, no more even to be patched, but just hung away as they are. Salvation no more is to be found in Baptism or Eucharist, nay, the word itself has "suffered a sea-change;" "those are pearls that were," its fiery eyes,

"And to be saved is only this, Salvation from our selfishness."

Yea, and all the miracles, of Old and New Testament together, as many think, and as truly to be honest I must say, are on the march to the kingdom of sweet shadows. What field for Faith is here, what room for it in such a procession, what rock for it in such a flood, and what a sad, sorry creature is man, if Faith, which so dearly the soul cherishes, be but a fond or frightened or fanatic clinging to a log of creed floating by in a freshet of passion.

These now are five good reasons, without seeking others, why it is bad and untruthful to view Faith as the embracing of a particular body of doctrines, or a passion of embrace of it: I. That this leads to lack of all scruples in believing:

2. That it breeds a very vile pride of mind:

3. That it puts out the lamp of doubting and

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questioning: 4. That it confounds moral distinctions: 5. That History soon puts her besom to it if we let her in.

Chapter III

That, nevertheless, in the Study of Faith we must set out from the Facts as they are.

But now it may be said, — 'Tis true indeed that these evils come of unreasoning and fanatical devotion to a creed; wherefore they would be good reasons against confusing Faith with this same creed-believing if Faith had any better character to offer for itself. But in truth Faith is no more than another name for fanatical belief in a creed — a name by which to gild over the coarse stuff of the fact. 'Tis mere prejudice, slavishness, passion, frenzy, " essentially irrational, blind and the fruit of ungoverned imaginations," "invoked sometimes to make up for the silence of reason and sometimes to constrain the reason to be silent," Faith is no more than the turmoil, tumult and fury of the creed-passion.

Well, if this be so, then we have in Faith but another soft-draping word for an ill and hard thing. But I think 'tis worth searching whether there be not a central spiritual fact in us belonging to the word; — or rather I would say the word belongs to the fact, and has sprung from it. And having searched, I think I find it indeed. Men have felt somewhat stir by nature in the depths of them which in act, to the great sorrowing and suffering of many innocents, they confused with creedfervor and belief, which, notwithstanding, they could not think to be exactly the same with mental assent however fanatical. From the effort of men to name this somewhat has sprung the word Faith — so I think. In searching whether this be true or not, we must gather first all the facts that have marked what men have called Faith and take the light of them. We must set out from the ancient and present struggles of human nature. If Faith be a mistake, an interesting superstition, though it has swept solemn harmonies from people, statesmen, philosophers, from high and low alike, saints and sinners, learned and ignorant, carved huge things from the stony Hebrew pride and soothed their fanaticism to psalms, inspired Paul, Alfred, Aquinas, St. Louis, Wicliff, Huss, and the thousand such, yea, and multitudes who from no historic vantage and grand spectacle but by their dark obscurity the more shone in the flames mayhap to their Lord's eyes, yea, and the Sacred Seven, who continually speak of Faith as breath of life — has done all this and yet be but a fiery superstition, how better or more quickly unmask it than by bringing together its marks till these show it is no more than a fanatic belief, not to be distinguished from a blind devotion to a particular creed; wherefore, not only a passing phase, but now nearly past, the foe of light and letters. But,

Book First. 23

contrariwise, if there be aught in the soul, a joined trust and thought, which is different from intense assent to any special creed or system, nay, perhaps is the direct opposite thereof, which has in truth an object related to it in the facts of Creation and but one sole possible object, — if this be so, then this too we can find no sooner than by searching out the unities or constant terms in all the forms which Faith has taken.

Thus we shall set out from the beating human heart, which will give us a warm speeding, and from the compared facts covered heretofore by the name of Faith, which will give us firm ground and good method.

CHAPTER IV. That Faith is a Universal Fact

Now in setting forth to observe the facts or marks of Faith, we see forthwith that Faith is universal. 'Tis not the trait of any one sect or religion or people. It belongs to man. Wherever man is, if he have come to a little thought, feeling and worship, he begins to speak of Faith. 'Tis not confined to civilized Europeans, nor to cultivated Greeks, nor to prophetic Jews, nor to fiery Arabians, nor to barbarians; but all have it. Neither does learning out-learn it nor ignorance come short of it. The Druid willingly would be stabbed with his own golden knife for his sacred mistletoe.

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AN ANCHOR OF THE SOUL.

The Goth sailed up the Egyptian rivers after Valhalla and Odin. The dialectical Socrates prophesied to the Dikasts like an oriental mystic. He was an Elijah speaking Greek and infected with a passing mood of argument. No high place is there, no low place, where the name or the characteristic fact of Faith appears not. 'Tis like the atmosphere wherein the atoms move about while the whole is unchanged, so that the same self particles redden the blood of Esquimau and Hindoo, now one, now the other. Like the air, too, while it is one thing and reddens all blood, 'tis a different matter in the blood that rumbles in a barbarian's skull-caverns and in the tide that sets flushing and murmuring the gulfs of a philosopher's or poet's soul. But whatever be the genius, I believe it but spreads the more to Faith the more the mind is round and continental. I mean not merely that this would seem to me the nature of such a mind, but that so the facts are. The high intelligence studies Faith and draws fine lines like a delicate instrument, making nice distinctions and boundaries, but discards it not as a false thing, nor slights it as a little matter.