ancient and the modern metaphors just set before you can you entertain a moment's doubt? Might we not imagine the question put—after the old Roman authoritative fashion—to an assembly of the consciences of universal mankind: "Christ says that God is a Father in heaven; refined thinkers say that He is a Tendency; utri creditis, gentes?" To which I seem to hear the answer of the Universe come back, "We will have no Tendencies seated on the throne of Heaven. Give us a Father, or we will have nothing." And you, my dear friend, how is it with you? Utri credis?
But perhaps you complain, or some of your friends might complain, that this is not treating the question fairly. "The doctrine of the Fatherhood of God," they may say, "is to be discussed like any other proposition, upon the evidence." I entirely deny it, if from your "evidence" you intend to exclude the witness of Imagination expressed in Faith and Hope. I assert, on the contrary, that it is to be believed in, against what may be called quasi-evidence. It cannot be demonstrated to be either true or false. Do not misunderstand me. There is abundant evidence of a certain kind—as I will hereafter shew—for the Fatherhood of God; but there is also evidence against it: and what I mean is, that the mind is not to sit impartially and coldly neutral between the two testimonies, but is to grasp the former and hold it fast and keep it constantly in view, while it lays less stress on and (after a time) puts on one side the latter. I have shewn you that many of our deepest and most vital convictions are based less upon Reason than upon Imagination. Why then should we be surprised if the most profound convictions of all, our religious certainties, rest upon that imaginative desire to which we have given the name of Faith?[1] If
- ↑ Faith is "desire (approved by the Conscience) of which we imagine the fulfilment, while putting doubt at a distance": see the Definitions at the end of the volume.
