Doubts.

DOUBT, though not one of the commonest, is certainly one of the heaviest of trials. Many pass through life without any doubt, from sheer thoughtlessness or laziness. They have not cared enough about this faith. to doubt it. To some is given a blessed, simple, childlike faith, that never hesitates. But a good number of earnest, thoughtful people have periods when their faith wavers, and when difficulties seem terribly great, while some are constantly tormented with doubts, and pass through unspeakable mental agonies in consequence. What counsel and comfort may we offer them?

First, let us recognise the fact that doubts often are the result of ill-health or weakness, and are consequently in large measure be

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yond our control. When we get back to our usual condition of body, our mind will recover its balance. The only course under such circumstances is to wait patiently and faithfully, with prayer that God will soon

restore us.

Next, we must remember that people's minds are very differently constituted. Some can believe with perfect ease, others with great difficulty. God who makes us all, knows these things, and deals with us accordingly, and will help us if we are doing our best.

But now to come to the actual question of doubt. Sometimes it takes the form of doubting the very existence of God. Perhaps the best intellectual remedy for this is to consider the exceeding difficulty of supposing the non-existence of a personal God. We may further believe that to those who are honestly seeking the truth God will, sooner or later, reveal Himself. More often doubt consists in not being able to believe

parts of the Bible. The fault of this is probably to be laid largely at the door of those who would make the words of the sacred writers state more than ever was intended. To try to make people believe too much has the inevitable result of making them believe too little. The system of comparing or contrasting isolated texts of various writers is as unfair as it is unscientific. We have to consider the history and proportions of the Bible. We must study the age in which each book was written its purpose with reference to the central fact of the Incarnation-the natural and obvious limitations of its author.

Again, the sacred writers were plainly not inspired in matters of scientific detail, it was not their province. We attach a different weight to the sayings of Christ to those even of St. Paul. His moral teaching is absolutely in harmony with that of His Master, but as he himself said he had not authority to speak on all points of detail, and when he

did, he was, as events showed, sometimes. mistaken. We cannot go deeply into this question now, but our object is to warn, lest people should make for themselves difficulties out of the Bible which do not exist in reality.

Also beware of doubting for the sake of doubting. There is a good deal of shallow and flippant criticism, both in speech and writing, at the present day. Some people think it rather intellectual and "smart" to be unorthodox, not from honest difficulty but for the sake of a species of reputation, or because these questions are a sort of interesting puzzle to them. Nothing can be more contemptible or more dangerous. Honest doubts are worthy of respect-fictitious ones only of scorn, and to trifle with religious doubt is emphatically to "play with edged tools."

But if doubts are really a trouble to you, you may find much help in this consideration. "Is it reasonable that you should understand these things fully." You are dealing not

with mathematical figures but with things boundless-supernatural and eternal. The wisest here knows but very little, how then can the ordinary mind expect to grapple exhaustively with the workings of God? It is often more reasonable to confess that we cannot, with our present limitations, understand, than to expect to understand. How can you with your finite mind hope to grasp things which are infinite?

If you cannot believe at all in the existence of God, wait patiently, and if you desire it honestly no doubt in His own good time God will manifest Himself to you. If you can believe in the existence of God your difficulties will be comparatively light. No religion can be grasped entirely by the mind -there must be besides the apprehensions of the spirit, which may not be logical, but are stronger, and often truer than logic itself. But the Christian religion is pre-eminently a reasonable one, and if you will not expect to know more than what is reasonable