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Belief -- What Is It?, Or, the Nature of Faith as Determined by the Facts of Human Nature and Sacred History
Belief -- What Is It Or the Nature of Faith as Determined by the Facts of Human Nature and Sacred History Author:John Davidson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1869 Original Publisher: W. Blackwood Subjects: Faith Belief and doubt Fiction / Classics Literary Collections / General Literary Criticism / General Philosophy / Epistemology Religion / Faith Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has... more » no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. THE EDUCATION OF THE WORLD TO FAITH. PART FIRST. -- THE PROGRESS OF REVELATION. Isaiah xxviii. 10. -- Line upon line, line upon line ; precept upon precept, precept upon precept ; here a little, and there a little. John xvi. 12. -- I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 1. We have no means of comparing the first pair's original Ksligious ability to understand and appreciate the nature and love of FoTby'" God with the power their nearest descendants had, except the smnins- but slightly approximate comparison we can make between a very virtuous Christian's readiness of head and heart and the slowness or inability of greatly demoralised persons to realise spiritual truth, whatever their ability to discern and appreciate other knowledge. The sacred Scriptures, however, give expressive representations of the effect produced by continued sin upon the power both of reasoning and feeling as to religious truth. The " understanding is darkened," or " befooled ; " the mind is " turned away from the life of God through the ignorance that is in it," brought on by " blindness " or " callousness" of the heart (Eph. iv. 18). The conscience becomes evil (Heb. x. 22). The mind is " fleshly," and not " capable of accepting the law" -- the fully declared will of God (Rom. viiL 7). 2. In exact accordance with this picture of the effect of sin- Man's fall fulness upon the human natu...« less