Page:On Science, its Divine Origin, Operation, Use and End.pdf/38

34 it obtains entrance into the life, it abides only in the external memory, and makes no part of the man. Thus religious science, the most interesting, the most important, and the most beneficial of all others, because intended to conduct man to the knowledge and love of God, and so to prepare him for heaven and immortality, never gains admission into the life of man until he makes it his own, and he never can make it his own, only in the degree in which he examines, approves, confirms, and is affected by it. Until this is the case, he receives it on the testimony and credit of others, and the creed which he repeats may rather be called the exposition and declaration of another’s faith than of his own.

It is otherwise with proper science which being attentively examined by the understanding, and cherished in the will, no longer remains in the outer court of the memory only, but being exalted thence into the interior chambers of the intellectual mind, incorporates itself with the life of man, which it at once enlightens, recreates, modifies, ennobles, and blesses. ' This is particularly the case with the science of religion, when it is rendered man's own by his examination, confirmation, and approbation of the important truths which it developes and teaches. From that moment his religious creed is no longer admitted merely on the testimony of others, but on its own bright evidence, manifesting itself by the splendour of its light, by the power of its consolations, by the blessed hopes which it inspires, by the