WACE'S BAMPTON LECTURES.*

QUITE a number of books with titles closely resembling that

chosen by Professor Wace for his Bampton Lectures have been published in recent years. We have The Scientific Bases of Faith, by Mr. Murphy ; the Basis of Faith, by Mr. Conder ; the Basis of Belief, by Mr. Miall ; and we have as second title The Foundations of a Creed, given by the late George Henry Lewes to the first volume of his Problems of Life and Mind, in which, with unconscious naivete, he proclaims that the foundations of a creed can only rest on the known and knowable. All these books differ from each other in aim, purpose, and point of view, but all of them agree in representing the office, function, and nature of faith as one aspect of the universal relation which the human mind bears to truth. The problem of Faith is almost uni- versally treated as part of the problem of knowledge. Even Pro- fessor Wace, though in some parts of his lectures be approaches very near to what we have come to regard as the true solution, has in his formal definition of faith taken up the same position. Quoting Bishop Pearson, he says :—" Faith is an assent unto

that which is credible as credible," and he describes this defini- tion as " eminently satisfactory." Following the Bishop, he shows that the description applies, not to assent based on im- mediate knowledge, nor to assent derived from ratiocination,

but to assent based on testimony. This immediately leads to an analysis of the nature of testimony, and to a description of the ability and integrity of witnesses. An endless controversy, for when all is said, it remains true that the knowledge derived from testimony is of all kinds of knowledge the least trust- worthy. The credenda cannot withstand the shock of cross- examination, and the mind, tortured with the cross-currents of doubt and difficulty, is continually on the outlook for some infallible authority to buttress its failing faith. History sup- plies the fitting illustration of the tendency of this view in the fact that Rome guarantees her credenda by the infallible authority of the Pope, and Protestantism has been driven by stress of criticism to find refuge in the infallible authority of a book.

Without entering on the general philosophical question of the relation of belief to knowledge, or of the mind to truth—a ques- tion on which a great deal remains to be said—we come to the more narrow question discussed in these Lectures. We state the author's purpose in his own words :—

" The object of this course of Lectures will be to offer a contribu- tion towards strengthening the foundations and elucidating the elements of Faith, and thus to illustrate the character and the just limits of that authority on which, notwithstanding the silence of science and the hesitation of reason, we build our expectations of things hoped for, our conviction of things not seen. For this pur- pose, an endeavour will be made to exhibit the manner in which Faith is founded in the deep convictions of the conscience, to trace the development of its lofty structure under the guidance of revela- tion ; and, finally, to consider the ground on which it rests in our own Church, and at the present time."

As we read the opening pages of the first lecture, in which the

office of faith is so vividly described, we thought we had in Professor Wace a sure guide, and in his work a worthy defence

against the attacks made on Christianity in our time. Such passages as the following, true in themselves and accurately and eloquently expressed, seemed to show us that Professor Wace had reached firm ground

" We behold millions of men and women, most of them struggling painfully under physical burdens, amidst moral and mental perplexi- ties, with but a brief space of life before them, and no certain know- ledge of the world beyond, yet trusting their souls and their wholo present and future to the guidance of a man like themselves, whose claims to their allegiance must in great measure rest on his own word and assurance. In reliance on him, they are ready to meet death and torture themselves;. they are content to train their children to follow the same guidance ; until the hopes and interests of countless generations have been hazarded on the promises of a single prophet or sage. There would seem to have been no limit to the trustfulness of human nature ; and the responsibility of those who have appealed to this trust, and who in some instances have abused it, is proportionately tremendous." (pp. 8-9.) It would seem that ground sufficiently firm had been found, when faith is described as reliance do a person, in virtue of which meu are ready to meet death and torture. Is not faith best and most accurately described as a relation between per- sons ? This is so obvious, that. Professor Wace could not miss it. But he is not contented with this analysis of faith. He must press it further, in accordance with the almost universal tradition of philosophy and theology, and must regard this • The Foundations of Faith. By Henry Wace, M.A., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in King's College, London. London : Pickering and Co. 1880.

living trust in a person as only a means to the obtaining of knowledge and the ascertaining of truth.

This question is of primary importance. For the concep- tion we form of revelation closely corresponds to our conception of faith. If our idea of faith be intellectual, if it be assent to that which is credible as credible, then the design of revelation must be the communication of eternal abstract truths, or un- changing principles of morality, which otherwise could not have been known to man. It must be a revelation of truth, or, if the revelation of a person, then the person is revealed for the sake of the truth which he has to communicate. Then, also, there is the necessity of providing a criterion of the truth of the revealed dogma, and this must lie either in its inherent reasonableness, or its congruity with truth already firmly established on other grounds. At every stage opportunities arise for the exercise of scepticism. Is it necessary for the vindication of the claims of revelation on the one hand, or of faith on the other, to be committed to the defence of a line of so great a length, and so perilously open to attack ? Is it the office of revelation to provide man with a number of credenda of theoretical dogmas which are to be believed iu and assented to ? The answer of theologians, from the time of Origen downwards, has been usually in the affirmative. The Old Testament has been regarded as a revelation of eternal truths wrapped up in special forms, which required the help of the alle- gorical method in order to disentangle them from their peculiar embodiment. The life and work of Jesus Christ were represented simply in relation to the production of dogmas, which consist partly of things to be believed, and partly of laws to be obeyed. The theologians of scholasticism took up this conception, and after their manner elaborated it into the most highly articulated system which the world has ever seen. Revelation was regarded as a system of intelligible truth, hard to be understood, which needed to be explained and vindicated by an infallible authority. To this result all are bound, sooner or later, to come, who hold revelation in any true sense, and who yet hold that faith is an assent to that which is credible as credible. It is strange to find theologians who in some respects are far removed from Rome entrenching them- selves on Rome's chosen ground, and advocating principles which logically must land them in her infallible arms.

The way to avoid this result is to take up the Reformation position as true in itself, and as the position which, owing to the use of the historical method in our time, has become the only tenable one. Let men ask what they find in the sacred books and in the organised life of Christendom. Let men look with open eyes at the Old-Testament books, and they will find in them not the promulgation of theological dogmas, but the revelation of God, and the actual manifestation of a divine pre- sence in a long history of special redemptive activity. What is revealed is God himself. The wonder of the Old Testament consists, not in the supposition that in it we have a divine phe- nomenon, magically endowed in every letter with mystic trea- sures of wisdom and of knowledge, but in the fact that in it is the record of the redemptive activity of the living God, making himself known to Israel in deeds of grace and power. Through- out all these books, written by so many men, of different characters, powers, and degrees of culture, at distant times and in different places, in the varying literary forms of psalm, prophecy, and historical narrative, one consistent representation of the God of Israel runs. He is the same in the beginning as in the end. In all the varied literature of the Old Testament One Divine Form is moving, One Divine Character is at work, and everywhere an attentive reader is in the presence of One supreme in wisdom, power, and love. Mutilate these documents as we may, detach them from each other by the subtile resources of criticism as we please, yet the scattered fragments draw together again, and by the vitality in them give forth anew to the patient student, a living impression of the power of Him who is glorious in holiness, and lead men often, whether they will or no, into direct conscious relation with him. The more we realise the historical times when these olden words were spoken, and the historical circumstances:when these deeds were done, the more clearly do we apprehend the spiritual presence of the God of Israel.

On looking at the Old Testament in this historical way, we come to understand the historical position and work of Christ, and appreciate the historical ground on which the Apostles stand in their delineation of the kingdom of God. The Being under whose influence we are brought in the Old Testament, and in whose presence we darkly stand, comes forth in

clear, full, and adequate manifestation in Christ. True life in Israel is always represented to be a life of personal relation to God, and in the New Testament God is seen pouring out his whole heart, revealing the inmost treasures of his love in Christ, the Incarnate Word. The divine character is at length fully and clearly revealed, and men are able to look through all symbols and all words to Christ himself, and are brought into fellowship with him,—not into au impossible mystica Itnio, such as the Middle Ages longed for, not the dreary union with the divine of modern Pantheism, but into such a personal union as subsists between two loving human souls, and which is rendered possible by the twofold stream of God's per- sonal Word coming down to man, and man's personal faith going up to God. It seems to us that not only is this the re- presentation which the Scriptures give of their own aim and purpose, but it is the only position which apologists can really make good in the mighty conflicts of the present hour. Let the contents of revelation be looked at as the revelation of God. Let men see what is really there,—God striving with men, working patiently for them and for their good, reasoning, expostu- lating, persuading, above all, loving them ; and on the other hand, let men see that the faith so much spoken of is just the getting into relation with God in Christ, and all the laboured lines of defence which have been thrown up to ward of attacks on all sides may be left to lie as interesting antiquarian relics of a former state of strife. For then the mistake will no longer be made of looking at Christ as important for the sake of the new truth he communicates, and the new information he brings. Theologians have too long had a wrong terminus as their goal. The true goal is not a creed, but God in Christ ; not things to be believed, but a life of living fellowship with him. Thus the endless debate on evidences will be shunted into a siding, and the way be left clear for the true work of life.

If in the analysis of faith men had only looked in the right direction, what travail and toil would have been soared them ! If instead of regarding it as a means for buttressing up opinions which, for some reason, were insecure, they had looked at the lives of men andat the movements of society, they would have found innumerable illustrations of its nature on every side. A mother's love overhangs the child, to which it responds with unhesitating faith. Faith in persons is the ruling power in virtue of which the vast trade of the world is kept in living movement. Even in our own country, where, to some minds, things seem to move as by machinery, and the Constitution seems to have an existence in and for itself, in the long result loyalty to authority comes practically to mean belief in a person and trust in him, and the great political conflict recently decided turned on the issue which of two men was to be ruler of England for the next few years. In the family circle, in civic and in national government, in the ramifications of trade, in the opera- tions of peace and of war alike, we find the principle of personal faith in persons to be the uniting bond of all social life. We merely indicate where those who have to analyse faith ought to look for its working. But we find that faith has been measured by philosophy and appraised by theology by the value of its in- tellectual product, as if action depended for its motive-power on knowledge. It is time, in the interests of theology and philosophy, that a new investigation should be made on new lines into the nature and influence of this great principle of faith. It would be well to bring into clearness the state of mind and heart of the soldiers of Marlborough, who were wont to say, " Corporal John will bring us through ;" or of 'Wellington's soldier, who said he would rather see the Duke's face than have the help of ten thousand men. It would be well to ascertain the secret of the mysterious influence exerted by leaders of men, and of the faith in them shown by their followers. For the true results of such an inquiry would lead us nearer to what Paul meant by faith, and to the heroic trust in Christ shown by many, than will any number of dissertations on the nature of testimony, the credibility of witnesses, and the assent to the credible as credi. .

ble. These last are not without value in their place, but in rela- tion to the true nature of faith, the light which they give is but darkness. We should add that Professor Wace has written much in these lectures which is of value for the purpose we have indicated. A great deal of what he has said has no vital connection with Bishop Pearson's definition of faith, and those parts which describe the faith of the old covenant, the faith of the early Church, and the faith of the Reformation, are true, and good, and seasonable.