sciences, and corrupting their manners by the false maxims and licentious examples of courts, it has all been for the people's good. Now, this could never have been but for the prevalence of the notion that the many have merely the capacity of receiving light, and none of originating it; that the many are therefore incapable of taking care of themselves, but must entreat the noble few to take care of them.

"The same notion introduced into our religious faith has been attended by consequences still more revolting to a true lover of his race. The notion that only a few are religiously inspired, that God reveals his purposes only to a few chosen witnesses, and appoints these to reveal them to the people, has built up priesthoods, given a basis to priestcraft, and brought the human race into bondage to sacerdotal corporations. If the masses who bowed with all reverence to the priest, had not believed that he possessed means of communicating with the gods which they did not, would they have submitted to his exactions? Every priesthood is built up on the idea that God reveals himself only to a few, and that these few are to be the teachers of the world." The priest having once made the notion prevail that he was more in God's secrets than the mass, and that they had no means of knowing God but through him, was able to impose upon them almost at will.

"The vast amount of wretched cant and fulsome panegyric, which disgusts the enlightened mind and correct taste, in regard to the Bible, comes from the same source. Why do men cry out so vehemently against every one who advances a doctrine not found in the Bible, or not taken directly from it? Simply because they suppose the authors of the Bible were specially illuminated in order to be in their turn the special illuminators of the world. The Jewish nation was instructed that it might instruct other nations. Peter, James, John, and Paul were taught the truth by God himself, that they might teach it to others. This and all coming ages are therefore entirely dependent on a single book for all true knowledge of God. Alas for man, then, if by any wickedness the book should be corrupted, or by any accident destroyed! Alas, too, for the nations who receive not this book, have never heard of it, and had no means of hearing of it! They are all in darkness, wandering in the wilderness with not a single star even to break through the thick clouds and guide them by its feeble light to their home.

66

"Now, people may say what they will, priests anathematize as they may, and statesmen utter as many old saws as they please, but I for one protest with the whole energy of my being, by all my reverence for God, and by all my love for mankind against a doctrine pregnant with such disastrous consequences. I shall not be a convert to it, till I become able to go all lengths in upholding priestcraft and kingcraft.

"I value books, and of all books I value the Bible the most; I value the services of great and good men; and I yield to no man in my readiness to receive instructions from those above me; but I will not own that any man has any means of knowing God, man, and man's destiny, which I have not also. If there be that in any man by virtue of which he has the right to call himself priest or king, there is also that in every man by virtue of which he has the same right. The Gospel aims to make all men kings and priests. Every man is a man if he chooses to be, and has in himself all that he needs in order to be a man in the full significance of the term; and therefore no one has any occasion to borrow a part of his manship from his brother.

"But do not infer from this that I hold all to be inspired in an equal degree. Reason is in all men, and it acts spontaneously in all men. All men, then, are inspired to a certain extent, and hence the power of all to apprehend the inspiration of each. But reason is not active to the same degree in all men. No doubt some feel it more vividly than others, and have a clearer view of God and duty. They are therefore undoubtedly capacitated to take the lead, to go before the multitude. But all have a kindred inspiration, and are merely younger brothers. They are members of the same family, and equal heirs, though not the elder members, nor the first to come into possession of their inheritance.

"Neither will you understand me to deny that one man may aid another. In whatever requires observation, in science and philosophy, one may undoubtedly be of great service to another, and even to the world. Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Bacon, Locke, have not lived in vain, nor spent their strength for naught. The human race is greatly their debtor. But in all that concerns first principles, each mind has the light in itself. The great office of the teacher, the principal mission of books, is to turn the mind in upon itself, and induce it to look with clear vision and reverent feeling upon the light ever shining there.

"Inspiration rarely manifests itself in single minds alone. It may sometimes do it; but in general it manifests itself in the masses, and is called the spirit of the age. Christianity was an inspiration in this sense. The age in which it broke out was inspired. It was in fact a spontaneous outbreak of the common mind, the outspeaking of God moving in the midst of the people. It found in Jesus its first clear and distinct utterance, in Paul its first philosophic interpreter, who gave it a fixed formula, and founded the church. Yet not in the mind of Jesus only was there this inspiration. Other minds and hearts as well as his were travailling with the divine idea of immortality; and when his ministers went forth to preach it, they did but reveal the multitude to themselves. They merely gave voice and form to what was already in the minds and hearts of their hearers. Hence their power, the success of their preaching, and the conversion of the world.

"Ordinarily when the time has come for a new doctrine to be brought out and incorporated into the common belief of mankind, you find everywhere persons springing up, independent of each other, with a strong faith in it, and an invincible zeal in its defence. A new virtue is to be realized and practised by the race; all the world seem carried away in its direction. The staid and sober few who may remain unaffected, may oppose themselves to the general current, but all in vain. Conservatives may sneer, reason, declaim, nickname, call the defenders of the new virtue disorganizers, enemies of God and man, but all to no purpose. On they sweep by a power not their own, which they comprehend not, and which they do not even seek to comprehend. In all other respects than this one they may be wrong, and even destructive. No matter. There is no resisting them. Old institutions, old manners, old customs, old modes of thought, men and women counted wise and prudent, all are before them as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor before the wind,—are swept away or trampled under foot as on the multitude presses to the realization of the idea with which it is inspired. To the mere spectator this multitude may appear as the apostles did to some on the day of Pentecost, when others mocking said, These men are filled with new wine.' In this way the Christian idea of immortality became predominant; in this same way the doctrine of salvation by a crucified Redeemer was established, and the church founded; in this same way was instituted the commonwealth

in England, and the republic in France; and this same way all important revolutions or reforms in the faith or practice of mankind will be effected."

CHAPTER XXV. THE BIBLE.

"I find nothing in particular to object to your views of inspiration. I see very clearly that you have a right to call yourself a supernaturalist as well as a rationalist. But I confess that I do not see how, on the ground you have assumed, you can maintain the special inspiration of the authors of the Bible. Why were not Homer, Socrates, Plato, Milton, Rousseau, inspired as well as David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Paul?"

"If, instead of the word special, you used the word exclusive, I would admit your objection. I do not contend for the exclusive inspiration of the Bible-writers, but I do contend for their special inspiration."

"But you do not admit them to be inspired in the same sense the Christian world does."

"Of that I am not so certain. There is a looseness, a vagueness in most men's notions which renders it extremely difficult to tell precisely what they are. Give precision to the prevailing ideas of inspiration entertained by the Christian world, express them in clear and definite terms, and I think they will be found to be the same with mine. It has never been a doctrine of the church that none but the writers of the Bible were illuminated by the spirit of God. Some of the early Greek fathers contended for the reality of the inspiration of the gentile sages. They say that it is by the inspirations of one and the same logos, or reason, that an Isaiah prophesies, a Homer sings, and a Euclid solves mathematical problems. Paul assures us that the manifestation of the Spirit is given unto every man to profit withal.' Job declares that there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.' John bears witness to a true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world.' Jesus promises the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who was to abide with us forever, and who should lead us into all truth. Moreover, the church has always, in some form or other, held to the reality of the inner light. Always has it held to the doctrine of experimental religion, and in experimental religion it contends for an illumination of the understanding, by the Spirit of God,

6

as well as for a purification of the affections. So the exclusive inspiration of the Bible-writers has never been a doctrine of the church. I do not then, in reality, depart from what has ever been accounted orthodoxy, when I assert that God reveals himself to all men. What else in fact has the church meant by its doctrine of 'common grace?' What else has it meant by the assertion that the Spirit of God strives with all men?

"But while I contend, that in a certain sense God reveals himself to all men, and that all therefore are really and truly inspired, I also admit that individuals may be specially inspired; that is, inspired in a more eminent degree than the many. These individuals are admitted into a closer intimacy, if I may so speak, with the All-wise and Allholy, and therefore are able to tell us more of God, and to be better interpreters of his will. Now ordinarily we call none inspired, save those who are inspired in an eminent degree. These alone are called the inspired; these alone are the prophets of God. This is what produces the seeming discrepancy between my views and those of the church. But the discrepancy is only seeming, not real. I too call these individuals the inspired; I too call them prophets of God, in a sense in which I do not others.

Now, bear in mind, that we have determined the spontaneous reason, that is, reason acting independently of our wills, to be supernatural, divine. This reason is in all men. Hence, the universal beliefs of mankind, the universality of the belief in God and religion. Hence, too, the power of all men to judge of supernatural revelations. All are able to detect the supernatural, because all have the supernatural in themselves. Were it not so, we could detect God in no miracle, we could recognise him in none of his works, and could receive no revelation of him. Inasmuch as reason taken in its independence is absolute, is supernatural, its spontaneous revelations are supernatural, superhuman.

"Bear in mind, also, that some individuals experience more of the workings of the supernatural reason than do the many. God is revealed to them more fully than he is to the world. These, according to the common mode of speaking, are the inspired, the prophets of God. Their words are words of God, as we have seen, and are for that reason authoritative. Now the Bible I hold to be written by individuals of this description. It is a record which the inspired prophets of the Hebrew nation, have left us of