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Reverence.

III.

CRITICISMS.

E all of us employ language in a more or

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less loose style, and we should generally be puzzled to give, on the spur of the moment, a definition of nine-tenths of the terms we use. Now there is no harm in our employing any word in any sense, provided we explain to our hearers or readers the signification which we propose to attach to it, and provided we ourselves always strictly adhere to this signification. It is desirable, however, to conform as far as possible to the common and popular usage, or else we shall oblige people not only to learn a number of new definitions, but also to unlearn

a number of old ones. Suppose, for example, I wrote a mathematical treatise, in which I defined a triangle as a four-sided figure enclosed by four straight lines, and a square as a threesided figure contained by three straight lines. Here I should be reversing old definitions for no purpose, and simply wasting the reader's time and attention. The words square and triangle were long ago defined once and for ever, and any change in the definition would be a change for the worse. But you will see the case is quite different with words like religion, worship, reverence. These terms stand not for simple, but for very complex ideas. The attempt to define them. with any approach to accuracy has seldom, if ever, been made. They are constantly used in a variety of senses. And it becomes necessary for us, therefore, to determine which of these significations is the best. To do this satisfactorily we must begin by observing the way in which the term is generally used. This will give us the fundamental idea involved in it, and the fundamental idea will lead us to the true definition. When we have got so far, we shall probably be

able to explain how it is that the term is sometimes used improperly in other and conflicting senses. This is what I have been attempting to do with regard to the subject of reverence.

Some criticisms have been offered to me during the past week, to which I must now refer. It is said that "reverence " must have originally implied fear, for it is allied etymologically to the word wary. It was first used when the gods were conceived of as cruel and ill-disposed. In those days the word reverence signified fear of evil that repelled. How then, it is asked, can I be justified in saying that the fundamental idea of reverence is love for goodness that attracts? I will explain. You must distinguish between the fundamental idea and the original idea. The fundamental conception implied in a word at any given time may be something different, and may indeed be something quite opposed, to the conception which was originally implied in it. The old term may have come to be the best expression for an entirely new idea. The German word. schlecht once meant good, afterwards good for nothing, and now stands for what is positively

bad. Our word prevent, which now means to hinder, formerly meant to help. And a change no less extreme has taken place in the signification of the words religion and reverence.

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Religion" originally meant paying court to supernatural powers, who were naturally inclined to injure us, but who might be bribed into letting us alone, or perhaps even into giving us good things. The word cult-one of the synonyms for religion—is very suggestive. It is derived, as you know, from colo, which meant primarily to till the soil, and secondarily to pay attention to the gods. In olden time men cultivated the deities just as they did their estates-for the sake of what could be got out of them. We still speak of cultivating a useful acquaintance—¿.e., paying attention to a person who has it in his power to give us something in return. But such an "attention' to the gods is now generally called superstition. The term religion has come, or is coming, to mean the worship of a Being who is not evilly disposed, but on the contrary infinitely good; the worship of a Being, not for what can be got out of Him, but simply and solely for what He is in Himself.

And a similar change has passed over the word

reverence.

No doubt it once meant the prudent

and politic cultivation of the gods. That was the original idea implied in it. But that is not the fundamental idea to-day. We never apply the term in common life to anything which we fear. However much we might do to propitiate a garotter, a scandal-monger, or a fiend, we should never speak of reverencing them. Whereas it would not be at all unnatural or illegitimate to speak of the reverence of a man for the woman whom he loved. Manifestly then the term reverence in the present day implies fundamentally, not fear for something which repels, but love for something which attracts. And this attractive something I explained to you was goodness. We admire beauty, we respect ability, but we revere only character. The devotion of the soul to goodness is, or at any rate is becoming, the meaning of the word reverence.

And you will find, if you look into the matter, that when the word is used in other senses, it is only through misleading associations and a consequent confusion of thought. For example: though

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