e for an
individual or a nation, if it were not made, in the order of a merciful
Providence, the transition to a more deeply-seated faith. It is a means,
not an end.

You tell me, doubt is devil-born.

I know not; one indeed I knew
In many a subtle question versed,
Who touch'd jarring lyre at first,
But ever strove to make it true:

Perplext in faith, but not in deeds,
At last he beat his music out.
There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.

He fought his doubts, and gathered strength,
He would not make his judgment blind,
He faced the spectres of the mind
And laid them: thus he came at length

To find a stronger faith his own.(799)

Religious truth is open to those who will seek it with humility and
prayer.

In addition to the natural action of reason, the fatherly pity of God is
nigh, to give help to all that ask it, and that endeavour to sanctify
their studies to His honour. Even though the search be long, and a large
portion of life be spent in the agony of baffled effort, the mind reaps
improvement from its heart-sorrows, and at last receives the reward of its
patient faith. "Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled."(800) If we are thankful to be
spared the sorrows of the doubter, let us admire the wisdom and mercy
shown in the process by which Providence rescues men or nations from the
state of doubt. "The Lord God omnipotent reigneth;"(801) and He shall
reign for ever and ever.

LECTURE VII. FREE THOUGHT: IN GERMANY SUBSEQUENTLY TO 1835; AND IN FRANCE
DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY.

MATT. xiii. 52.

_Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is
like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out
of his treasure things new and old._

The last lecture was brought to a close before we reached the final forms
assumed by German theology. In the present one we must complete the
narrative; and afterwards carry on the history of free thought in France,
as affected by the influence of German literature, from the period at
which the narrative was previously interrupted to the present time.

We have noticed the traces of the reaction in favour of orthodoxy, which
was produced in Germany by the influence of Schleiermacher. We treated the
philosophical side of the movement, the vindication of the dist