thing positive in virtue of its immediacy, and the process of inference which starts from something laid down or given has a similar basis. It is man only who has a religion, and religion has its seat and its soil in thought. Heart or feeling is not the heart or feeling of an animal, but the heart of thinking man, a thinking heart, or feeling; and what shows itself in the heart as the feeling for religion, exists in the thinking element of the heart, or feeling. In so far as we begin to draw conclusions, to draw inferences, to suggest reasons, to advance to thought-determinations or categories of thought, we do this always by the exercise of thought.
Inasmuch as the doctrines of the Christian religion are found in the Bible, they are given in a positive way; and if they become subjective, if the Spirit bears witness to their truth, this can happen only in a purely immediate way, by a man’s inner nature, his spirit, his thought, his reason being impressed with their truth and assenting to it. Thus, for the Christian it is the Bible which is this basis, the fundamental basis, and which has upon him the effect referred to, which touches a chord in his heart, and gives firmness to his convictions.
We get a stage further, however, when it is seen that just because he is a thinking being he cannot rest in this state of immediate consent or witnessing to truth, but turns it over by thinking, meditating, and reflecting upon it. This accordingly leads to a further development in religion; and in its highest and most developed form it is theology, scientific religion; it is this content of religion known in a scientific way as the witness of Spirit.
But here a principle which is the opposite of this comes in, and which is expressed by saying that we should simply keep to the Bible. Looked at in one aspect, that is a perfectly correct principle. There are people who are very religious, who do nothing but read the Bible and repeat sayings out of it, and whose piety and religious feeling are of a lofty kind, but they are not
