act of the human spirit
when brought into contact with divine truth, and it lies at the root of a
new ethical power, and of a deeper knowledge of God. If the apostle
appears to speak disparagingly of wisdom it is the wisdom of pride, of
'knowledge that puffeth up.' He warns Timothy against 'science falsely
so called.' On the whole St. Paul exalts the intellect and bids men
attain to the full exercise of their mental powers. 'Be not children in
understanding: but in understanding be men.'[25]

If, as we have seen, the body be an integral part of man, and has its
place and function in the Christian life, not less, but even more, has
the mind a special ethical importance. It is to the intelligence that
Christianity appeals, and it is with the rational faculties that moral
truth is apprehended and applied to life. Reason in its broadest sense
is the most distinctive feature of man, and by means of it he exerts his
mightiest influence upon the world. Mental and moral growth are closely
connected, and personal character is largely moulded by thought. 'As a
man thinketh in his heart so is he.' Not only at the beginning of the
new life, but in all its after stages the mind is an important factor,
and its consecration and cultivation are laid upon us as an obligation by
Him in whose image we have been made, and whom to know and serve is our
highest end.

[1] See Author's _Ethics of St. Paul_.

[2] Cf. Murray, _Sandbank of Christian Ethics_. See also Hegel, _Phil.
der Religion_, vol. ii. p. 210 ff., where the antithesis is finely worked
out.

[3] Gen. i. 26; Eccles. vii. 29; Col. iii. 10; James iii. 9.

[4] See Hugh Miller's _Essays_, quoted by Murray, _op. cit._, p. 137.

[5] Cf. W. James, _Varieties of Religious Experience_, pp. 81-86.

[6] Cf. Goethe's _Faust_. See also Nietzsche, _Goetzendaemmerung_ for
trenchant criticism of Rousseau.

[7] Murray, _idem_.

[8] Max Mueller, Fraser, _Golden Bough_, and others.

[9] Anfaenge des Christentums.

[10] Cf. Ottley, _Christian Ideas and Ideals_, p. 52. 'Christianity does
justice both to man's inherent instinct that he has been made for God,
and to his sense of unworthiness and incapacity.'

[11] _Pensees_, part ii. art. 1.

[12] Emerson.

[13] Ed. Caird, _Critical Philosophy of Kant_, p. 35.

[14] See Author's _Ethics of St. Paul_.

[15] Ottley, _idem_, p. 55.

[16] Luke xxi. 19.

[17] Cf. John Caird, _Introd. to the Philosophy of Religion_.