Page:Catholic Thoughts on the Bible and Theology.djvu/10



though a high duty, is by no means the highest, nor is it nearly the only one, in such matters as these: and that so long as the claims of the less strong upon our sympathy are sedulously recognised and respected, it may very lawfully be permitted us to attempt to furnish food more convenient for those who have their senses exercised to discern the subtler forms of good and evil. And he who knows much, or even only a little, of the modes of thought and feeling which exist among the more cultivated members of the various churches of Christendom will know that the questions herein discussed are no superfluous novelties, but that they are emphatically the questions which have for some time already engaged the frequent and careful attention of some of the foremost minds of our time, and are now deeply interesting many of those who are the most earnest. For indeed it is not only the least spiritual, but often rather the most so, who are engaged in such investigations, and who have come to conclusions which widely diverge from those which are with us at present the most popular. Among such are certainly some who personally realise the Christian ideal as fully as any who differ from them in opinion-men whose evangelical graces and good deeds might be coveted by any, and who in sympathy with the spirit of the New Testament, and in zeal for the propagation of its characteristic Revelations, are not inferior to any of their generation.

Doubtless, on the other hand, there are many most pious persons, who occupy prominent stations in their several churches, and who are doing admirable service on the whole to the great cause of, who are not aware, and cannot even be made so, of the difficulties which are felt by many on the subject of the composition arid significance of the Sacred Scriptures, and who treat all expression of doubt concerning them as the mere indication of latent iniquity of heart, or of presumptuous abuse of the understanding. They consider that state of mind which these Pages would treat with sympathy and with reasoning so much a sin that it ought to be met only with stern rebuke and solemn warning, and if with pity yet also with denunciation equally commingled. For such this Book can have