The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-21


 Among the resolutions which, before h.
 was twenty, he wrote for his own bene fit is this: Resolved when I think o1 any theorem in divinity to be solved immediately to do what I can towards
 solving it, if circumstances do not hin
 der" We meet with this entry in his
 diary little later: T observe that olc
 men seldom have any advantage of new
 discoveries, because they are beside | the way of thinking to which they have
 been SO long used. Resolved, If ever l live to [advancedl years, that l will be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and receive them 1 if rational, how long soever I have
 been used to another way of thinking l Unquestionably Edwards ranks with | Berkeley and Hume, as one of the three greatest metaphysical thinkers of the English race in the last century. The verdict written good while ago by Dugald Stewart will be sanctioned by judges qualified to speak. After the remark that Edwards is the only philosopher of note whom America had produced, Stewart adds Tn logical acuteness and subtilty, he does not yield to any disputant bred In the uni- versites of Europe" His power of sub tie argument is pronounced by Sir James Mackintosh, who was not given to overstat tement, "to have been un- matched, certainly unsurpassed among men," These eulogies touch on a sim gle constituent in the mental endoW- ment of Edwards. In speculative genius, as related to the broad realm of philosophy and theology he is up to the level of the foremost of the pioneers in this field in modern times Moreover, in our mental analysis we must not for get the spiritual insight which has led to this being characterized, in a phrase, however, not to be construed literally, as nationalist and a mystic. I may be permitted to say that time and again, as I have returned to the writings of Ed wards, I have been increasingly struck with the variety as well as the supe- riority of his powers. In reading him have called to mind by q. natural as- sociation the most exalted names in the history of Theology--names of men who have illustrated this rare blending of light and heat,-such as Augustine, Anselm and Aquinas. The treatise on the Will, a masterpiece of logic though it be, does not outrank In merit some other products of his pen. The Essay on the Chief End of God in Creation, and the Essay on the Nature of True Virtue stand fully as high in the scale. The eminent German Philosopher, the Fichte was made acquainted with the Essay on Virtue through the report of its contents by Macintosh. What he reports of it., writes Fichte, I find to be of remarkable excellence He goes on to speak of the bold and profound thought that God, as the source of love in all creatures, on the same ground loves Himself infinitely more than any finite being. and so in the creation of the world can have no other end than the revlation of his own perfection. which, it is to be observed. consists in love. "So,' concludes Fichte, has this solitary thinker of North America risen to the deepest and oftiest ground which can underlie the of morals. Universal benevo- ence, which In us, as it were. is poten- ially latent, and in morality Is to emerge into full consciousness and ac- ivity is only the effect of the bond of , ove which encoses us all in God Fichte, System d. Ethik., Vol l. pp. IA 545). Other productions of Edwards tand on the same high plane, but are likewise in different vein from the nore famous treatise on the Will, Let my discerning student take up this reatise and observe the sharp, unre- enting logic with which the author lunts down his opponents, and then let i'm take up the same authors sermon n the Nature and Reality of Spiritual light, or passages in his book on the Affections, or some of the extracts from is Diary It is like passing from the ages of Scotus or Aquinas to Thomas
 Kempis or St. Francis of Assissi. 'hose to whom the name of Edwards alls up only the image of dry req oner or of an austere preacher, deal lg out detailed pictures of the suffer lgs of lost souls, should read the leditations on the beauty and sweet ess"-I use his own words-of divine nings, when to his almost inspired wis., ,n the whole face of nature was trans gured. When still in his youth, there Drang up "a. sense of divine things" fter which, he tells us, the appear nee of everything was altered; there , aemed to be, as 1t were, a calm, sweet 1st, or appearance of divine glory in , in the sun, moon and , ars; and in the clouds and blue sky; ,
 the grass, flowers, trees; in tho wa 7 IT and all nature, which used greatly , fix my mind. l often used to sit and z few the moon for iong time; and in ( le day, spent much time in viewing ' le clouds and sky to behold the sweet l ory of God in these things; in the | eantime, singing forth with low ( ,ice my contemplations of the Creator l Id Redeen1er." He would have sym f tthized with Wordsworth's Lines ' bcve Tintern Abbey only infusing r to them more theistic tinge. I
 'I have felt [ presence that disturbs me with the joy r elevated thoughts; sense sublime
 something far more deeply interfused. hose dwelling Is the light of setting surs T. Id the round ocean, and the living air f Id the blue sky, and in the mind of man." f I spent most of my time,' he con- f lues, thinking of divine things. h one in the woods and soli- c ry places, for meditation, so- I. oquy and prayer, and converse with h 'd. l was almost constantly in ejacu- q Ory DraVer wherever I was Whao .