Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/266

276 new on the earth. Already Paul (Romans ii. 15) had spoken of it, and after him, Pascal, Rousseau, Schleiermacher, and many others, and they had referred to the conscience, as a primeval-consciousness, an original fountain in the human breast. When the Swiss A. Vinet and Charles Secretan again brought it forward as the highest organ of religious truth, it acquired a new force, and a higher consciousness; but it did not contain any thing new. It was evident to me, that conscience, the most holy portion of the human being, must, if it continued the fountain of truth regarding God—contain also the fountain of truth and certainty in—every thing.

Amidst prayer and labor, amidst conflict in good and in evil (or contradiction,) with men and books, but above all, amidst faithful examination into the depth of my own soul, my view became clear, and I found—that which I shall shortly speak of.

Two great teachers offered themselves as guides to me on my way, and both said: “Trust in me, and thou shalt find the truth and happiness!” And each warned me of the other as misleaders and teachers of error. These were the Catholic and Protestant churches. Both said, “I will lead you to Christ, and through Christ to God!”

The former, the Catholic, showed me, as the means of coming to the acquaintance with the Savior, faith in that church—or in its priesthood, which would one and the same thing—and also good works.

The latter, the Protestant, gave me, as the means for this purpose, the Holy Scriptures, and charged me to have “faith alone.”