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never asked by a reasonable man. One who has a fever on a July day
complains of cold. The bystanders deny his right to say it is cold. Now
do they obtain their right from a comparison of their impressions with
something objective? No. His knowledge is subjective in this sense; that
it arises from sources which are in him alone, while theirs is
objective, because they compare their impressions. Error is not in the
impression but in the explanation. Man has more than sensual
impressions. We have a faculty which brings us into contact with a
spiritual world. The religious man is by necessity an anthropomorphist.
He claims a personal God, a Father, a Redeemer, an Ideal. We need a
sharp analysis to see the reflections of the contents of our religious
feeling. Our mind seeks a conception of God, the basis of which must be
the idea of the Absolute, Infinite Being. The Scriptures must be
criticised by our reason. The first three gospels, which tell us what
Christ said and did, are not authority for us. Their writers are
unknown, in the main, and by no means original. But exact criticism may
succeed in giving us a portrait of the Prophet of Galilee. He lived a
life according to the spirit, and proclaimed a religion such as no one
before or after him has been able to do. Is it not enough that he has
glorified humanity, and made himself adored as king of humanity, even
with a crown of thorns upon his brow? The hearts of men have been
disclosed to him, and he has caused to well up therefrom streams of
love, which none can turn aside. Is his name not glorious when we think
that the penitence of a Magdalene, and the sorrow of a Peter, are
flowers which have permanently sprung up from earth only after that
earth had been drenched by his blood and tears? But the Church has made
a mythological character of Christ. It has contemned the real Jesus who
stood in opposition to authority and tradition. In his name the Church
has enthroned and glorified this authority. It was not from a system
but from a principle that he expected the regeneration of man. We have a
safe revelation in the world about us. It is God's work in and around
ourselves. Explore it; study yourself and man; but do it with such a
spirit and purpose as Christ possessed.

As a specimen of Pierson's style, we give his portrait of a good
preacher: "All elements are concentrated in him in such a way that men
will, can, and must listen, for attention is as much a state as lov