Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/171

 BELIEF 153

person has had experience and opportunity to organize his intellectual life, and thus should be equipped to weigh and consider all presentations that seek admittance to his mind as truth. We consider it, therefore, abnormal and repre hensible for him, in matters of important concern, to accept what he is told without the exercise of his own reason. In no matter of great practical importance should his belief rest blindly upon authority, the subjective correlate of which is suggestibility. It should have its roots in himself. It should be tested in the crucible of his own intellect. If he believes the statements of others it should not be the acqui escence of mere credulity, but the assent of a rationally acting mind. Vital assurance also stands in antithesis to credulous belief, but not to rational conviction. It is dis tinct from the latter in principle but is not inconsistent with it. By its very nature its content often is not subject to final ratification by the logical faculty. That content, however, should not be inconsistent with the rational con clusions of the mind; and if such an inconsistency appears, the strength of the vital assurance is weakened in proportion to the depth of the antagonism. There should be harmony between the two in order to secure inward peace and unity and a high degree of practical efficiency. And on the whole there is a tendency for the two types of belief to coincide.

Sometimes, however, it happens that a man builds up a belief on what seems to him at the time a rational basis; but subsequently, when a powerful stimulation of the in stinctive nature occurs, he finds that this belief denies sat isfaction to some of his most vital longings. Sometimes, again, it happens that beliefs which do satisfy the instinctive longings are wrought into an intellectual system which new knowledge seems to render untenable. Then there is dis tress of mind. In the long run a man will usually build a structure of belief that is consistent with the central cravings of his nature; but such a fortunate adjustment does not always take place, and he is then left with a permanent and more or less painful discord in his mental life. Such situa-

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