thing mystical about faith; it is not peculiarly a
religious principle, nor is it the ideal way of getting knowledge. As
Newman says, "The word of another is in itself a faint evidence
compared with that of sight or reason. It is influential only when we
cannot do without it."

Now it may be difficult to suppose that God has ever spoken in the
world. But if we think He has, it cannot be irrational to take His
word and believe it; it cannot be absurd to trust a Divine message,
when we are every day trusting human messages. And one thing further.
When we trust a friend's report, we do not make our previous ideas of
what is probable, a test of how much we shall believe of what he says.
If we were already competent to say what happened, we should not go to
him for information. Unless it is impossible, or against all the laws
of probability, we assent to what he says, however much it may
surprise, or startle, or alarm us; if we cannot do this, we have not
real trust. But trusting it is irrational "to pick and choose;" to say
this we will accept and that we will reject, according as it seems
antecedently likely or not. Surely this must be also true of divine
testimony. If God, the perfect, the unerring intelligence, speaks, we
are at least to give Him the same respect we should show to a
fellow-man; we are not to say, "this is credible and I accept it; that
is strange, mysterious, and I must reject it." If we knew beforehand
what was true, to what end would God give the revelation? And if we do
thus sit in judgment, we simply show (unless we are dishonest) that we
do not believe that God has spoken. Hence, what is called the
submission of reason, which, in the large sense of the word, it is
only rational to give, if God has indeed given a message to the world.
Protestants so submit to the teachings of the Bible; Catholics do to
the teachings of the Church. If God really speaks in either, it is as
rational to do so as it is to trust Stanley's reports of the lakes and
jungles, the weird forests and strange inhabitants of Central
Africa--yes, as much more so as Stanley is a man, and God is God. Most
simply and frankly does Newman say, in speaking of early converts,
"The Church was their teacher; they did not come to argue, to examine,
to pick and choose, but to accept whatever was put before them." This
attitude of arguing, examining, picking, and choosing in relation to
things of which we really know nothing, and can know nothi