Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/251

Rh no toil of your own; say these inert disciplinarians of humanity, "but seek ye the kingdom of heaven in the revealed word of God, and there ye shall find it with all its blessings." True; but these teachers overlook the fact that there are two distinct questions, and two distinct tasks, involved in this precept of "seeking the kingdom of heaven." To some people, the injunction, "Seek for it faithfully, and ye shall find it in the Scriptures," may be sufficient. But others, again (and we believe the generality of men are in this predicament), may require, first of all, to be informed about a very different matter, and may be unable to rest satisfied until they have obtained this information: they may demand, namely, an answer to a new question, But where shall we find the seeking of the kingdom of heaven? Before finding itself, we must know how, and where, and in what war, we are to find the seeking of it; for that is the great secret which eludes and baffles our researches.

The only answer that can be given to these querists is, You must find the seeking of it in yourselves. The Bible reveals to us the kingdom of heaven itself; but philosophy it is that leads us to the discovery of our own search after it. To this discovery philosophy leads us, by teaching us to know ourselves, by teaching us what we really are. And what does philosophy teach us respecting ourselves? Does she teach us that we stand in a harmonious relation towards the universe around us; towards the universe