faith, and that religion as a mere sentiment is a
dream and a mockery. But he was so afraid of "the all-corroding,
all-dissolving skepticism of the intellect in religious inquiries" that
he placed the safeguard of faith in "a right state of heart," and
refused to trust his mind to think its way through to God. Martineau
justly complained that "his certainties are on the surface, and his
uncertainties below." We are only safe as believers when, besides
keeping the heart clean, we

press bold to the tether's end
Allotted to this life's intelligence.

Those, again, who insist that in religion the willingness is all, forget
that it seems no more in our power to believe than it is to love. We
apparently "fall into" the one as we do into the other; we do not choose
to believe, we cannot help believing. And unless a man's mind is
satisfied with the reasonableness of faith, he cannot "make believe."
Romanes, who certainly wished for fellowship with the Christian God as
ardently as any man, confessed: "Even the simplest act of will in regard
to religion--that of prayer--has not been performed by me for at least a
quarter of a century, simply because it has seemed so impossible to
pray, as it were, hypothetically, that much as I have always desired to
be able to pray, I cannot will the attempt." Christianity has ever laid
stress upon its intellectual appeal. By the manifestation of the truth
its missionaries have, from Paul's day, tried to commend themselves. We
do not hear of "Evidence Societies" among non-Christian faiths. When the
Emperor Julian attempted to restore the ancient paganism, he did not
argue for its superior credibility, but contented himself with abusing
the creed of Christians and extolling the beauty of the rituals of the
religion it had supplanted. But the propaganda of the gospel of Jesus is
invariably one of persuasion, convincing and confirming men's minds with
its truth.

It would be as false, however, to neglect the part a man's willingness
has in his faith. To believe in the Christian God demands a severe moral
effort. It can never be an easy thing to rely on love as the ultimate
wisdom and power in the universe. "The will to believe," if not
everything, is all but everything, in predisposing us to listen to the
arguments of the faith and in rendering us inflammable to its kindling
emotions.

But no man can be truly religious who is not in communion with God with
"as much as in him is." Som