The  evidence  of  experience,  however,  does  not  consist
wholly  in  testimony.  Experience  of  faith  in  the  good
God  brings  forth  fruits  of  inexpressible  preciousness,
which  attest  the  reality  of  the  source  from  which  they


126  AN  OUTLINE   OF  CHRISTIAN   THEOLOGY

sprang.  Trust  in  the  God  of  moral  perfection  has  always
tended  to  produce  the  elements  of  moral  perfection  in
men.  This  work  has  never  been  perfect,  but  it  has
always  been  genuine.  Purity,  strength,  and  loveliness  of
character,  and  unselfishness,  usefulness,  and  efficiency  in
life,  have  grown  up  in  those  who  have  put  God's  existence
to  the  practical  test.  If  there  is  a  good  God,  those  who
live  in  fellowship  with  him  will  grow  in  goodness.
Despite  all  the  faults  of  religious  souls  the  world  over,
we  safely  appeal  to  this  testimony  of  fruits  in  character.
The  likeness  of  a  good  God  has  certainly  been  visibly
brought  forth  —  imperfectly,  yet  really  —  in  men  w^ho  have
believed  in  such  a  God.  Belief  in  such  a  God  enlarges
all  the  spiritual  powers;  it  quickens  hope  of  immortality,
and  lifts  man  to  his  best  possibilities.  It  must  be  a  true
belief.
These  three  arguments  lead  to  the  conviction  that  God
must  be  real,  with  perfect  goodness,  by  showing  that
men  were  made  for  such  a  God ;  that  if  he  does  not  exist,
the  great  Being  who  does  exist  is  the  worst  of  beings,
and  life  is  a  delusion;  and  that  experience  finds  him
real.
Objections.  —  Each  of  these  two  lines  of  proof,  the
intellectual  and  the  moral  and  religious,  encounters  a
characteristic  objection,  concerning  which  a  word  may
here  be    spoken.
