exed at finding _other_ men of ability not true believers, as at
finding that certain _rich_ men are not true believers, or certain
_poor_ men, or some in every rank and circumstance of life. A belief
in Christianity has hardly more connexion with what is called talent,
than it has with riches, station, power, or bodily strength.

Now let me explain what I have said by a further remark. Is it not
plain that earnestness is necessary for gaining religious truth? On
the other hand, is it not a natural effect of ability to save us
trouble, and even to tempt us to dispense with it, and to lead us to be
indolent? Do not we see this even in the case of children--the more
clever are the more idle, because they rely on their own quickness and
power of apprehension? Is indolence the way to gain knowledge from
God? Yet this surely is continually forgotten in the world. It is
forgotten in a measure even by the best of Christians, for no man on
earth seeks to know God's will, and to do His duty with an earnestness
suitable to the importance of the object. But not to speak thus
rigorously, let us consider for an instant how eagerly men in general
pursue objects of this world; now with what portion of this eagerness
do they exert themselves to know the truth of God's word? Undeniable,
then, as is the doctrine that God does not reveal Himself to those who
do not seek Him, it is certain that its truth is not really felt by us,
or we should seek Him more earnestly than we do.

Nothing is more common than to think that we shall gain religious
knowledge as a thing of course, without express trouble on our part.
Though there is no art or business of this world which is learned
without time and exertion, yet it is commonly conceived that the
knowledge of God and our duty will come as if by accident or by a
natural process. Men go by their feelings and likings; they take up
what is popular, or what comes first to hand. They think it much if
they now and then have serious thoughts, if they now and then open the
Bible; and their minds recur with satisfaction to such seasons, as if
they had done some very great thing, never remembering that to seek and
gain religious truth is a long and systematic work. And others think
that education will do every thing for them, and that if they learn to
read, and use religious words, they understand religion itself. And
others again go so far as to maintain that exertion is not necessary
for dis