Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/206

Rh there are three sources of knowledge accessible to Men, two of these are direct, and one indirect. First, Perception through the senses; by this we only get an acquaintance with material things and their properties. Second, Intuition through Intellect, Conscience, the Religious Faculty, by which we get an acquaintance with spiritual things, which are not objects of sense. Third, Reflection, a mental process, by which we unfold what is contained or implied or suggested in perceptions or intuitions. Then as a secondary, but not ultimate source, there is Testimony, by which we learn what others have found out through perception, intuition, or reflection. Now thoughts or objects of thought may be classified in reference to their sources. The truths of Absolute Religion are not matters of Sense, it is plain. If objects of Reflection or Intuition, they must be obvious to all who have the intuitive or reflective faculty, and will use it. They therefore are matters of direct personal experience; not so a knowledge of any given historical form of Religion. As it has been before said, the great truths of Religion are matters of spontaneous Intuition, and then of voluntary Reflection, God helping the faithful, who use their faculties justly. Therefore, theoretically, each may depend on his own intuitions and reflections. The aid, the counsel, the example of good men help us to the truth. The wise and the pious are the educators whom God appoints for the race. By their superior gift, they help feebler men to understand, what else the latter might never have reached. The same rule holds good in both Philosophy and Religion; the weak need the help of the strong; youth of experience; the faithless of the faithful. Even the experience of wicked men is an element of human progression, a warning light. The works and words of the saint help the sinner to the source of truth. This is the office of prophets and apostles.

In historical questions, respecting events that took place out of the sphere of our observation, we must depend on the testimony of others who report what they have seen and heard, felt or thought. To determine what Jesus taught, we must depend on the testimony of the Evangelists, who profess to relate his works and words, and the Apostles, who reduced his thought to organization and applied it to life. To speak of the four