The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1897-06-05

| Our Opinion A. Affected by Oar
Power OF VIII.
Prof. james, of Harvard university,
| has published an admirable essay with
the above caption in a volume of admir-
able essays which bears the same gem
eral title. He shows very clearly, not
merely that our opinions are affected
by our will, but that they ought 20 be
SO affected; that the Twill to believe"
Is as important as the belief itself
perhaps we should rather say moro
important; that, even in the case of
the scientist. who is supposed 10 be
wholly free from those prejudices
which popular error identifies with tho
'.will to believe" there Is an earnest
determination to reach the truth. With
out this action of the win the voyages
of a Darwin. the Alpine explorations
OF Tyndall, the researches in the
Archipelago of Wallace, the inyestiga-
tions in the biological laboratory of a
Huxley, would have been impossiblc-
Belief is not a mere lazy intellectual ac-
ceptance OF an opinion forced upon au
indifferent listener. 1t Is the result OF
serious endeavor. product of will In
diligently directed.
| In the religious realm the "will to
believe" is an essential factor in oil val
liable belief. The traditionalism which
forbids research and paralyzes the will
by giving TO the soul n belief ready
made is almost as great a foe to faith
as the indifferentism which declares
that research Is useless and Ignorance
10 tI.ax mil
by Offering the result of thought with
out the trouble of thinking; the other,
by declaring that thinking, however
earnest and honest, will bring no re-
| suit; but both paralyze it, And by par
alyzing IL both destroy faith. For
faith Is in the twill 20 believe" more
than In the belief itself, in the high
endeavor more than in the resultant
creed. All moral beliefs have this will
to believe" behind them, giving them
at once their inspiration and their
worth.
For IL is In the will rather than in
the intellect that moral quality lies
He who desires to believe that Love
is the Ruler OF the universe, and Is
strenuous to bring his life into har-
mony with the law of love, Is better
than he who believes, or thinks he be-
lieves, that God is love and does not
care whether He Is or not. He who
| desires to find some clearer unwilling
| of God than he can find In nature or In
the consciousness Of his own soul, hns
o better faith than he who believes, or
thinks he believes, that the Bible Is an
a 49, nNI
never reads IL. He who feels the bur
den of his past guilt and the hindrance
of his present imperfection, and has
| the will TO believe In Helper who
| shall save him from his own undotng.
has n truer and more Christian faith
than he who believes, or thinks he
believes, in the total depravity of the
| human race and In salvation by grace,
but never experiences humility in the
enc belief or hope in the other. On
the one band, earnest skepticism has
In it more faith than Indifferent belief;
CD the other, the moral evil of agnosti-
cism lies not so much In the doctrine
that God and the future are unknown
and unlSnowable, as in the spirit which
is satisfied to leave them so.
The more skeptical man can have the
"will 20 beleve." He can wish there
were God of supreme authority, whom
he might obey with unfaltering loyal
| ~; and there were n life of love and
service, worth immortality, and that he
might make it his own; that there were
some sure word of prophecy by which
he could interpret the hierglyphics OF
nature and the mystic voices IN his owlr
soul; that there were come Helper TO
whom he could look alike TO teach him
what life is and 10 give him power to
attain it. And It Is this will TO believe
which is the faith that saves.-N. \.
OutlOnlx