of Divine truths, and hence the varieties of the versions and the
inconsistencies of them. I would allow a man to select whichever
version of this truth he liked _afterwards_; but I would ask him to
begin with no version, but go back to the facts and base his Christian
life upon these.
That is the great lesson of the New Testament way of looking at
doubt--of Christ's treatment of doubt. It is not "Brand him!"--but
lovingly, wisely and tenderly to teach him. Faith is never opposed to
reason in the New Testament; it is opposed to sight. You will find
that a principle worth thinking over. _Faith is never opposed to
reason in the New Testament, but to sight._
With these principles in mind as to the origin of doubt, and as to
Christ's treatment of it, how are we ourselves to deal with those who
are in intellectual difficulty?
In the first place, I think _we must make all the concessions to them
that we conscientiously can_.
When a doubter first encounters you, he pours out a deluge of abuse of
churches, and ministers, and creeds, and Christians. Nine-tenths of
what he says is probably true. Make concessions. Agree with him. It
does him good to unburden himself of these things. He has been
cherishing them for years--laying them up against Christians, against
the Church, and against Christianity; and now he is startled to find
the first Christian with whom he has talked over the thing almost
entirely agrees with him. We are, of course, not responsible for
everything that is said in the name of Christianity; but a man does
not give up medicine because there are quack doctors, and no man has a
right to give up his Christianity because there are spurious or
inconsistent Christians. Then, as I already said, creeds are human
versions of Divine truths; and we do not ask a man to accept all the
creeds, any more than we ask him to accept all the Christians. We ask
him to accept Christ, and the facts about Christ and the words of
Christ. You will find the battle is half won when you have endorsed
the man's objections, and possibly added a great many more to the
charges which he has against ourselves. These men are