Page:Who is Jesus?.pdf/22

. By a posteriori processes we all form theories from the facts of the world as we see them, but the theories, once formed, are applied a priori to all facts, new or old. If our theories thus formed do not fit all the facts (and the above-nature facts are often left out because unseen, except in their effects) we are too often prone to reject undeniable but undesirable facts. Mr. Podsnap's method, with which Dickens made us acquainted, of eliminating from our consideration whatever we ﬁnd inconvenient by a simple wave of the arm, is possibly far more prevalent with us all than we care to admit.

Do we love the truth sincerely and honestly, love it for its own sake, love it in spite of the disagreeable things it may reveal? Perhaps we are a little cautious in our reply. We do not know just what the possession of the truth involves. It may mean that we shall have to regard things differently from what we do now, and we are pretty well satisfied with our present views. The truth may be unpleasant to us in many ways. Not only may it necessitate the giving up of our present comfortable theories in the domain of thought, but a possible change in our present comfortable attitude toward life. We do not like to change either our thoughts or our