killing God's servants we think that we are doing God service, because our self-blinded hearts have neither known the Father nor the Son, for they would not hear the Holy Spirit.

Earnest belief without prejudice, the being fully persuaded in our own mind with a reasonable conviction, so fully persuaded, that if need were we would lay down our lives for our faith; this is indeed one of the greatest blessings which God can give us. But what is he to do who craves earnestly a firm belief? For indeed to be for ever wavering in doubt is an extreme misery. What, I say, is he to do, who demands to believe, yet feeling his powers of mind to be not great, his knowledge scanty, his opportunities of increasing it few or none, cannot make his own way through the difficulties of a question, but must either remain uncertain, or must in some measure leap to his conclusion; believing, in fact, more from the word and authority of others than from the convictions of his own mind? Can we allow that such an one is fully persuaded in his own mind as a Christian should be; or are we to tell him that faith, the greatest blessing of humanity; faith, without which none can come to God; faith, without which we cannot hold fast to Christ, is to him unattainable? A solemn question this, in which thousands are nearly concerned, and it behoves us well to see how it is to be answered.

It is manifest that this question relates principally to our opinions in matters of religion, because there we are all bound to act; and we may not stand neutral and take no part at all, as I supposed that men might in many instances lawfully do with regard to matters political. With respect to God, it is absolutely necessary that we should believe and that we should act; for he that is not with Him is against Him; he who does not worship, rebels. Act therefore we must, either as God's servants or as His enemies; we must make up our minds one way or the other. Now, many of us-might I not say all of us-have, it is hoped, made up our minds to be God's servants; yet it is certain that all of us have not come to our conclusion in the same way, nor could give the same reasons for it; and it is certain, again, that if we were to call upon all persons to satisfy themselves in the same way, we should be demanding what is utterly impossible. And thus we hear it often said tauntingly, that the mass of mankind has no reason in its belief, but believes whatever it is taught without question. Let us see how far this taunt is really to be regarded.

The religious belief of most of us rests largely indeed on the authority of others, but it is not therefore necessarily blind. A child's belief in his parents, a pupil's belief in his teachers, is and ought to be great; but it is also reasonable,

because parents naturally desire their children's good, and would neither deceive them themselves, nor send them to teachers who would deceive them. This is the foundation of our religious belief. But when we grow older, all of us in whom belief is more than a name, do confirm it by the work of our own minds. I do not say that we all confirm it in the same way: some of us may do it more fully, others less so. But all of us whose belief is more than a name, though we may not go into the question of the evidences of our religion historically and critically, yet we pray and we read our Bibles; and we find that our prayers give us strength and comfort, and we see that the commands of the Bible are good, and pure, and holy, and that the truths which it teaches are such as we might conceive God to have taught, agreeing, so far as we can prove them, with our own experience, and tending, so far as we can avail ourselves of them, to our good. Our own reason sees nothing to make us question the truths in which we were brought up, but much to confirm them; and therefore we do well to abide in them.

But suppose, on the other hand, that after having been taught the truths of religion in early life, we grow up and live afterwards irreligiously; not praying, not reading the scriptures, in no way testing the truth of our early instruction by perceiving its blessed fruits in our hearts and lives,

nor yet examining into its foundations critically and learnedly; but yet retaining a respect for it from old habit, and showing this respect most, as such persons are apt to do, by a great bitterness against those who, we are told, dispute its authority; then such a belief does not deserve the name of faith; such an one is not fully persuaded in his own mind; his opinions are but a prejudice retained blindly and unprofitably; and because they are held so blindly, and without that real sympathy and sanction of our own hearts which makes them reasonable, they are called in the scriptures by no better name than hypocrisy and unbelief.

It is not necessary then to be a learned man, or a man of much leisure, in order to have a belief in Christ which may truly be called reasonable, and the full persuasion of our own minds. The unlearned can discern between good and evil, they can distinguish between a work of God and a work of Satan. They have the same evidence which persuaded, not unreasonably, the Samaritans mentioned in the Gospel. First of all it is said, they believed for the saying of the woman which testified, "He told me all that ever I did." They believed at first on the authority of another, just as we believe, in the first instance, on the authority of our parents and teachers. But when Christ had staid with them two days, and had talked with them, and talked with them only, for it does

not appear that He worked any miracle there, then they said unto the woman, "now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." So may we say when we are grown up, and so ought we to say, "now we believe, not because of our parents' or teachers' saying, for we have heard Him ourselves; we hold His recorded words in our hands, perfect in wisdom, perfect in goodness, we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world."

Thus far, in that Christian faith which is the daily guide and support of our lives, our own hearts and minds and experience do confirm our early teaching, and our belief in Christ and Christ's promises so felt, is not the mere fruit of habit or prejudice, but is a full and reasonable persuasion of our own minds. But there are other opinions connected with religion, and which we may perhaps have learnt from the teaching of others, to which neither our own hearts nor lives can bear testimony; because they are not things bearing manifestly upon them the mark of holiness and wisdom; neither will our conformity to them, if they are matters of practice at all, which is not always the case, make us plainly the better or the happier. And farther, we may know that some, and these not men of clear and open wickedness, like the most of those who deny God and Christ altogether,