THE SANCTIFICATION OF REASON.

" They came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews; and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." — Acts xvii. 1, 2.

It is an impressive spectacle — and it becomes more impressive as we take time to consider it — to see one man facing a group or an assembly of his fellow-men, and endeavouring to change their convictions, and thereby shape their conduct. For what is it that we witness going on there? It is the subtle, mystic action of mind upon mind in virtue of a marvellous gift possessed in common by speaker and hearers — the God-like gift of reason. When Paul stood up in the synagogue at Thessalonica or elsewhere, and sought to win acceptance for the beliefs he held, he was bringing his own reason to bear on the reason of those listening to him. He took for granted that the same gift of reason which belonged to himself was also in the possession of every one before him, and therefore he appealed to it, and worked upon it, in the hope that he might lead his audience round to his point of view, and persuade them to see the matters he spoke of as he saw them.

This gift of reason is an essential part of our human nature, and its exercise is called for, more or less, in every detail of our daily transactions. If our work is to be of any avail, or our efforts to come to any good, we must think and put things together; we must know what we are doing or intend to do; we must consider how we are to lay out our time and deal with the affairs that demand our attention. There is not a day we can pass, nor a step we can take, without having our reason thus summoned into action; and apart from the exercise of reason life would be a tangle of confusion, — a blind, aimless, baffling business.

It is of supreme moment, therefore, that a faculty which enters so incessantly into all our doings should be brought, and kept, under the control of the highest motives. And to secure this result is one of the distinctive aims of the Christian Gospel. There have been periods in history when the notion was entertained that religion represses reason, and that reason is antagonistic to religion. That notion has now been exploded. It has been proved that religion, if it is to have any profound and lasting effect, must address itself to the reason as well as to the other capacities of the mind of man. It has been proved that religion, the religion of Jesus Christ, welcomes the exercise of reason, that it quickens and develops the reason by the very grandeur of the truths it reveals, and, moreover, that it gives the reason a loftier direction by the high and earnest spirit it enkindles. Plain men and women have had their intelligence strengthened in grasp and widened in range by the influence which Christ and His Gospel have exerted upon them.

That is the sanctification of reason; and The Higher Powers of the Soul

it is urgently required. For reason is in danger of being perverted to unworthy uses by the clamorous greeds and selfish passions that are for ever pressing their claims. And if this sublime faculty is to be turned to its best account, it can only be when it is governed by the sacred promptings and aspirations of a sincere religious faith. Then only can it be safely trusted as a guide in the great concerns of life.

1. The Interpretation of Facts.

Keeping this in view, consider, in the first place, the part which reason plays in the Interpretation of Facts. It is the function of reason to pierce below the surface and find out the explanations of things. Through reason, searching and inquiring, the sciences have been carried to the stage of advance they have reached. It is through the exercise of reason that men have discovered how the rocks were built up, and hills and valleys formed, — how the varied species of plants and animals have grown and spread, how the stars are wheeled in their orbits, and the mysterious comets guided in their vast and for-travelled course. The whole world of Nature has been robed in richer glory for us, because reason has so far interpreted its visible facts and traced the laws and forces that work behind them. And that great achievement is not unfavourable to religion, as many for a while feared. It has furnished larger scope for the wonder and adoration of the reverent soul, and given men new conceptions of the might and majesty of the Creator.

Then there is the stirring world of Human life, in which we are all mixed up. Everything that happens there also has a meaning deeper than appears on the surface. And one of the foremost essentials to our good is the ability to interpret the facts of our own experience, and see the meaning that lies beneath. Some of those facts baffle us. There are crosses and trials which are beyond our power, for the time at least, to explain. Their design or purpose is veiled in mystery. Yet, if we can wait and trust, some day perhaps, when devoutly pondering over what we have come through, our reason may be surprised by a flash of illumination, and we shall see. Many of the uses and meanings of the divine dealings are only discernible in the clearer after-light of retrospect, not in the dark, agitating season of actual experience. As in the case of Moses at Sinai, anxious to understand the drift of the divine designs (Exodus xxxiii. 21-23), so with us also; — often it is only from behind, and after God in His sterner dealings has passed by, that we discover the explanation of His ways which we pine so wistfully to know. And although the explanation is not reached till the severe ordeal has passed, still it is to reason that the explanation is revealed, — to reason devoutly searching and inquiring into the hidden purpose of the Lord; and when it is revealed, it becomes a source of strength and encouragement for other ordeals that may yet have to be undergone.

Moreover, there are the facts of our material position, the circumstances amid which we have to move and act. Unless we can in some measure understand these, and discern the line of duty to which they point, we are sadly crippled. In this matter all depends on the spirit and motives by which our reason is swayed. It is a familiar saying that the eye sees only what it brings with it the power of seeing. And so it is with the mind likewise. "The wish is father to the thought"; and as a rule the mind finds in the circumstances it has to deal with just what it is prepared by its own disposition to find. Thus, many a time, the difficulties which to one person are a depressing hindrance and a ground of complaint, are to another a stimulus to more courageous effort, or to greater patience and firmness of resolve. In such a case there is a difference in the way of reading the meaning of facts. And that is due to a difference in the spirit by which the reason is impelled. If the reason is actuated by self-caring, self-saving desires, it will interpret everything by the standard of selfish ease, and the life consequently will be a poor, shifty affair. But if, behind reason, there be a nobler impulse at work, a sense of responsibility to God and truth, then the interpretation arrived at will be like a bracing trumpet-call to the soul, and the harder tasks, which make others shrink, will shine with the glow of divinely-given opportunities. And that is a secret of richest blessing.

2. The Judgment of Values.

A second function of reason consists in the Judgment of Values. Amid the multitude of objects that surround us here on earth it is absolutely necessary to make some choice as to those which are best entitled to claim our interest and engage our energies. To plunge into life haphazard, and grasp blindly the glittering attractions that thrust themselves upon us, would be to court disaster. But we are dowered with the gift of reason that we may compare things, and form an estimate of their worth and of their bearing on our happiness, and act accordingly. To bring reason thus into exercise is an imperative obligation if our true well-being is to be consulted. For "all that glitters is not gold"; and many things wear a shining glamour which is hollow and delusive. We need to judge wisely, therefore, if we are not to be ensnared to our injury. Our reason must be brought to bear on gauging and estimating the objects that compete for our regard. But it must be reason purified in its aim by reverence for the truth and mind of Christ, — reason looking to Christ for its standard of valuation, trying to see things with His eyes, and in the light He sheds. Only thus is it possible to distinguish between what is really important to our highest interests, and what is of slighter account, between what is worthy of the heart’s devotion and what is transient and vain.

And nothing has a more direct influence on our life’s true good than the decisions we thus form. All that is most vital to us hangs on the choice we make as to the things on which the ardour of our ambition is to be set. A mistake here means ultimate blight to our hopes of genuine satisfaction. If the reason is not sanctified by the power of earnest motives, the glare of the alluring and the showy will be apt to dazzle, and lead it astray. Then, too, there will be the risk of accepting conventional valuations, and timidly following the superficial judgments of fashion or the prevailing popular taste. That is slavery, and it may mean beggary of soul and happiness ere all is done.

There is no safeguard amid the manifold allurements of life, but a reason governed by a devout reverence for Christ’s standard of worth. Then that God-given faculty becomes an incalculable help. It enables us to distinguish the solid substance from the empty sham, the real good from the counterfeit, the reward which is worth any sacrifice to gain from the reward that curses as soon as it is grasped.

3. The Adaptation of Means to Ends.

A third function of reason is the Adaptation of Means to Ends. Of what reason has accomplished in this direction we have numberless illustrations on every hand. The machinery that drives our factories and keeps our industries going, the means of locomotion on land and sea, the appliances for rapid communication across the earth and through the air, our political organisations and public institutions — are all the inventions of reason, planning and devising to attain certain results in the sphere of material and social affairs.

But there is scope and need for applying the same power of planning and devising in the management of individual life. Many a person stumbles sadly and misses much that is dear to his heart and hopes, because there is some defect in his manner of employing his reason to secure the end he desires. You may set your heart on a true and worthy object, but in order to reach it you must contrive and use the appropriate means. Your line of conduct must be adapted to the result at which you aim. If you want the glow of high thought as a source of satisfying happiness, you must nourish your mind by communing with the great thinkers who have poured out their inspiring thoughts in their books. If you want to attain the deep peace of a clean conscience, you must take such measures as you can to avoid occasions of temptation, and to protect yourself against what you know to be your besetting weakness. If it is worth of soul to which you aspire, and you wish to possess an inward wealth which shall be a treasure to you, whatever your outward fortunes, you must bend your reason to find out and follow the ways of living and acting which Christ guides you to employ. You must endeavour to discover what principles of behaviour, what practices of devotion and of fellowship with the unseen, are best fitted to cultivate the dispositions and feelings that make the spirit rich within. And if you are alive to the eternal issues of life and long to have your destiny beyond the grave secured, you must deliberately order your course of conduct on a plan that is calculated to lead to a result so grand.

It is all a question of adaptation, the devising and employment of means suited to accomplish a definite end. And just here it is, in those matters of transcendent moment, that failures often occur. It is lamentable to see the slipshod fashion of managing their religious life which some people display. They have high enough aims and a certain degree of spiritual desire, but they have no method or order, no intelligent arrangement of their habits and their time, with a view to promoting the objects they profess. They take their seasons of worship and their religious devotions by fits and starts. They trifle with ensnaring distractions, though secretly aware that these spoil their relish for sacred things. They leave the feeding of their souls and the quickening of their spiritual feelings very much to chance.

In all this there is a failure to apply the reason seriously to the most solemn concerns with which men and women have to do. For reason, if consulted in the light of Christ, would show that such blessings as peace of conscience, elevation of soul, inward wealth and preparation for immortality, cannot be gained by the careless, random ways of acting with which those persons are inclined to be content Common sense would tell them that the means they take are not at all adapted to the end required. And indeed a sanctified common sense is one of the best helps that can be possessed in the right ordering of life. It is simply reason imbued with a sacred purpose and a spirit of reverence for Christ and Christlike things. And when reason is thus graciously influenced it becomes a faculty of spiritual insight, and is beyond price in the working out of our highest weal. It gives sagacity and prudence in the regulation of conduct, and prevents thoughtless tamperings with moral risks. It gives tact and discretion in the wise performance of duty, and saves the good a person has from being evil spoken of. It keeps the soul in trim for embracing opportunities of progress and usefulness. It steadies the bent of the life on one lofty aim, and thereby makes it possible to go from strength to strength, growing in grace, and doing ever better service for the Lord. And thus the Godlike gift implanted in us becomes more Godlike still, when hallowed by a Godlike purpose and devoted to Godlike ends.