Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-02-15

| mysterious personality within: the
eye is the SOULS lens, gathering light
like any other lens: the ear is the
souls telephone, taking the vibrations
from the air and transmitting them
| inward TO be made into speech. All
the senses are correspondents for the
soul, going out into different parts of
the world. making observations, col
lecting facts, sending reports to the
central Office Of the brain, where
thought puts meaning into it, utters
it in an ineligible language for the
wider instruction of mankind.
The soul, too, you see, must trust
it's messengers and must also rely on
that marvellous process by which facts
and events are made into knowledge.
Faith comes before knowledge: behind
the senses there must be faith in the
senses, that they are reliable reporters,
that they convey the fact to US and
behind the brain there must be faith
that thought is a reality, that the
minds Interpretation of what we see
and hear has truth in it. The whole
fabric of knowledge rests on faith, all
we know, from the simplest act of
common observation to the widest and
grandeSt generalization of science, is
by an unconscious exercise of this
sublime faculty.
We see, then, that ali men, and
always, by nature and by necessity,
must rely on testimony. The only
difference between men is in the kind
Of testimony they prefer, some are
satisfied with little, others demand
more, but this same power of faith is
at work here also and determines the
choice Of testimony. Analyze it and
you will see. Why does one man want
more evidence than another? Why
does he not accept truth on author
ity without any question or doubt?
We say, because he does not have faith
in that authority and why not? 1t
satisfies another man and why not this
man? The real reason is, he seeks to
get at the back of that authority
down to the foundation on which it
rests, he cannot be satisfied until he
knows how and from what source it
derives its right and power. But why
should man trouble about that? 1t
is easy for us to reply that he is seek
ing the reason for it, but that does
not take us to the bottom of it. What
is reason and why does he reason about
it? 1t is faith that sets him to reason;
that gives the idea there is something
behind the authority and moves him
to make the search for it.
Faith, then, is not an unqueStiOning
submission to authority, it is the
power which penetrateS to the ulti-
mate fact and will know if the author
ity has truth behind it.
Faith demands the fullest and most
harmonious testimony, prefers the
much before the little, that which is
oft repeated instead of that which is
seldom heard, the many witnesses
| rather than the few and the agree
ment of the many before the conflict
of the few. This concurrence of
testimony leads to an implicit faith in
the senses. When the witnesses
always agree with and cOrrObOrate
each other when they unite in telling
one consistent story, free from dis
crepancy and mistake, they make the
impression of truth and create conf
dence
This concurrence of testimony helps
US to take another step, 1T leads us
from facts to principles: facts reported
by the senses of all men are bound to-
gether because they tit into each other
and harmonic. And SO we pass from
trust in the mere facts to trust in the
laws WulCI ullluc Ullclll. llc
ported stone falls, it is everywhere SO,
always so, accepting this unvarying
testimony we seek it's law and call it
see. And how can we do that? We do
it by faith, the faith that there is
something which gives regularity and
that there is a meaning in the orderly
movement.
The Scientist develops into the phil
osopher and the philosopher into the
TheiSt. The Scientist cannot rest in
mere facts, he goes on to generalizelife,
to arrange them in order, to discover
their law, to find the purpose of the
law; he is led on from one stage to
another, from observation to claSSiti-
cation, to reflection, until he sees
meaning in the order of the world:
the Scientist becomes a philosopher,
he sees reason in the world, he gets a
glimpse of the infinite wisdom. he
feels that he is in the presence of one
who is the Maker of Law, the Mighty
Orderer of this vast system of things.
sense of awe steals over him. he
grows reyerent, the spirit of worship
rises within him.
And SO we grow from faith in what
we see with the bodily eye to faith in
what we see by the eye of the mind.
We learn to trust our mental percep-
tions as implicitly as we do the physical
organ of sight. A principle or law
becomes as real to us as an object of
the material world; we are led from
things to thoughts about things: from
thoughts to their origin; from the
seen to the unseen; and how? Yes.
how do we make the transition? How
do we get from one to the Cther-frOm
facts to principleS-from things to
thoughts. from the isolated events of
history to a law of progress? How do
we relate tomorrow with today, the
present with unlimited time, the
transient with the Interchangeable?
The deepest answer you can find is.
we do it by faith-by that faith which
is the outlook of life: which is spiritual
vision piercing the future, which is
the infinite element charging our life
to comprehend greater truth.
Faith then, is not a leapin the dark,
a venture, risk: we do not begin TO
believe when we have reached the
of knowledge and underlieS all its
processes; it is through our faith that
we are in touch with reality and by
which we get the first hints that
there is anything to know.
And now, we can see why faith
grows; we can understand why there
are changes. why people are dissatis-
fed with creeds, it is because the
beliefs of the past have been out
grown, because faith is living power
and has it's roots deep down in the
eternal nature of things; it is like the
roots of the mighty tree that go far
below the surface of tile earth and are
spread over wide area, which have