POPULAR BELIEF NOT CONVICTION.

            “What, at the present day, is implied by a man accepting the position of a “believer,” and being ready to answer the question of a judicial court? Is it that his belief is the result of evidence, study, conviction, and issues in a pure and devout life? Let the public answer according to its experience. The fact is people are all such “believers” as pass muster in a court of law. Experience leads us to suppose that religious profession, to the law court requirement, means only unthinking or interested habitual conformity in ten cases, for one in which it means personal conviction; that, for one in which it implies a devout and beneficial life, it implies the more level, worldly character in a hundred.

            “Now, what does the public avowal of unbelief in orthodoxy imply? Independent thought, a preference of truth to self-interest and some courage. If you tell me that a man is a “believer,” you tell me nothing. I would not trust him with half a crown without further knowledge of him. If you tell me that a man has publicly and persistently avowed his disbelief in almost universally received opinions, thereby encountering serious misrepresentation, I suspect him to be an honest, courageous man. And, paradoxical as it may sound, I should call the state of mind of that man, non-christian though he were, more religious than most ordinary “believers.” He is bound, and shows the strongest attachment, to something higher than mere selfish and prudential considerations; which is more than can be said for the common believer. How much longer shall men be bamboozled by names? What are we to look at in rating men according to their religious opinions? The net result which may be stated in a formula, or creed, communicated to the ear, and mumbled, parrot-like, by the mouth; or, are we to look to the qualities of mind and heart involved in their formation and maintenance?”—From an English Journal.

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