God's personal existence; yet though so many have sought,--so many,
and so able, and for so long a time--none have found. There is no
demonstration which can be pointed to with any unanimity as settling
the matter beyond power of reasonable cavil. On the contrary, it may
be observed that from the attempt to prove the existence of a
personal God to the denial of that existence altogether, the path is
easy. As in the case of our own existence, it will be found that
they alone are perfect believers in a personal Deity and in the
Christian religion who have not yet begun to feel that either stands
in need of demonstration. We observe that most people, whether
Christians, or Jews, or Mohammedans, are unable to give their reasons
for the faith that is in them with any readiness or completeness; and
this is sure proof that they really hold it so utterly as to have no
further sense that it either can be demonstrated or ought to be so,
but feel towards it as towards the air which they breathe but do not
notice. On the other hand, a living prelate was reported in the
"Times" to have said in one of his latest charges: "My belief is
that a widely extended good practice must be founded upon Christian
doctrine." The fact of the Archbishop's recognising this as among
the number of his beliefs is conclusive evidence with those who have
devoted attention to the laws of thought, that his mind is not yet
clear as to whether or no there is any connection at all between
Christian doctrine and widely extended good practice. {4}

Again, it has been often and very truly said that it is not the
conscious and self-styled sceptic, as Shelley for example, who is the
true unbeliever. Such a man as Shelley will, as indeed his life
abundantly proves, have more in common than not with the true
unselfconscious believer. Gallio again, whose indifference to
religious animosities has won him the cheapest immortality which, so