course we must be ready to admit with all humility, that _our_ notions
of God are probably unworthy and distorted enough; but that is no
reason why we should not follow the light which we have, or mistrust
it on the ground that it is "too _good_ to be true."

Nor would it be fair to say that this argument makes religion depend
merely on _feeling_. A theology based on mere feeling is (as Hegel
said) as much contrary to revealed religion as to rational knowledge.
The fact that God is present to our feeling is no proof that He
exists; our feelings include imaginations which have no reality
corresponding to them. No, it is not feeling, but the _heart_ or
_reason_ (whichever term we prefer), which speaks with authority. By
the heart or reason I mean the whole personality acting in concord, an
abiding mood of thinking, willing, and feeling. The life of the spirit
perhaps begins with mere feeling, and perhaps will be consummated in
mere feeling, when "that which is in part shall be done away"; but
during its struggles to enter into its full inheritance, it gathers up
into itself the activities of all the faculties, which act
harmoniously together in proportion as the organism to which they
belong is in a healthy state.

Once more, this reliance on the inner light does not mean that every
man must be his own prophet, his own priest, and his own saviour. The
individual is not independent of the Church, nor the Church of the
historical Christ. But the Church is a _living_ body and the
Incarnation and Atonement are _living_ facts still in operation. They
are part of the eternal counsels of God; and whether they are enacted
in the Abyss of the Divine Nature, or once for all in their fulness on
the stage of history, or in miniature, as it were, in your soul and
mine, the process is the same, and the tremendous importance of those
historical facts which our creeds affirm is due precisely to the fact
that they are _not_ unique and isolated portents, but the supreme
manifestation of the grandest and most universal laws.

These considerations may well have a calming and reassuring influence
upon those who, from whatever cause, are troubled by religious doubts.
The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord
knoweth, and is known by, them that are His. But we must not expect
that "religious difficulties" will ever cease. Every truth that we
know is but the husk of a deeper truth; and it may be that the Holy
Spirit has