CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. Page ix, line 5, after sense, add except where there is evident symbol. 4, note 1, line 1, after does, add a. ESSAY I. THE LOCALITY OF THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE. PART I.-ANALYTIC. WHATEVER be the subject which may be engaging our attention, our first object should be to understand it aright, and to discover as far as possible the truth with regard to it. Truth is sacred; and in proportion as it is known by us will it lead us to good. Error is deceptive; and in the precise degree in which it is mixed up in our views are we suffering injury from it. This should be recognised as a rule from which, properly, there can be no exception. Again, the true view of every subject, whatever be its nature, will be sure to be found eventually the most practical. It will bring with it realities otherwise not seen, and it will have a force and bearing upon our minds and conduct which no other view, however plausible, can possibly have. In short, as it was with the empty speculations of philosophers before true science existed man derived no benefit from them; and as the discovery of the laws of nature has since been the means of conferring upon him innumerable benefits, so has it been, and so will it ever be, with our views and speculations on subjects of a spiritual nature, or on those which relate to our future and eternal prospects. These will be useful and beneficial just in proportion to their truth. Here again, a rule must be recognised from which no exception can ever be allowed. It would be dangerous, most dangerous, to admit such an exception in any degree. We might as well affirm, that while, generally speaking, wholesome food is of course essential, a little poison may yet be desirable.1 In the discovery of truth, or in the search for it, regard must be had to the source or sources from which it can be derived; and these will of course vary with the subject. Physical truth must be learnt from the Works of God; spiritual truth, from His Word. There are no other sources of knowledge; and what Bacon laid down as his first axiom with 1 "The least errors in theology always bear fruit. Never does man take up an incorrect principle of interpreting Scripture without that principle entailing awkward consequences, and colouring the whole tone of his religion."-Rev. J. C. Ryle. |