second proof of the worth of fire: once found, he would not part with it
for gold. But the highest spiritual certainty is not like our conviction
of a bodily fact; and though we know the worth of Christ as we know the
preciousness of fire, we may not in like manner grasp this truth,
acknowledging it in our lives. He--John--in whose sight his Lord had
been transfigured, had walked upon the waters, and raised the dead to
life: _he, too_, forsook Him when the 'noise' and 'torchlight,' and the
'sudden Roman faces,' and the 'violent hands' were upon them...."

The doubter, he imagines, will argue thus, taking "John's" Gospel for
his starting-point:--

(_a_) "Your story is proved inaccurate, if not untrue. The doctrine
which rests upon it is therefore unproved, except in so far as it is
attested by the human heart. And this proof again is invalid. For the
doctrine is that of Divine love; and we, who believe in love, because we
ourselves possess it, may read it into a record in which it has no
place. Man, in his mental infancy, read his own emotions and his own
will into the forces of nature, as he clothed their supposed personal
existence in his own face and form. But his growing understanding
discarded the idea of these material gods. It now replaces the idea of
the one Divine intelligence by that of universal law. God is proved to
us as law--'named,' but 'not known.' A divinity, which we can recognize
by like attributes to our own, is disproved by them."

(_b_) "And granting that there is truth in your teaching: why is this
allowed to mislead us? Why are we left to hit or miss the truth,
according as our insight is weak or strong, instead of being plainly
told this thing _was_, or it _was not_? Does 'John' proceed with us as
did the heathen bard, who drew a fictitious picture of the manner in
which fire had been given to man; and left his readers to discover that
the fact was not the fable itself, but only contained in it?"

And John replies:

(_a_) "Man is made for progress, and receives therefore, step by step,
such spiritual assistance as is proportionate to his strength. The
testimony of miracles is granted when it is needed to assist faith. It
is withdrawn so soon as it would compel it. He who rejects God's love in
Christ because _he_ has learned the need of love, is as the lamp which
overswims with oil, the stomach which flags from excess of food: his
mind is being starved by the very abundance of what was meant