The intuitions of the mind inductively investigated / by James McCosh.

  • McCosh, James, 1811-1894.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The intuitions of the mind inductively investigated / by James McCosh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    448/478 (page 428)
    or more frequently gods, fashioned by them according to the crude cravings and cherished wishes of their hearts. But in this state of half-conscious sin there is a powerful intui- tion awakened, which, though to a large extent blind, and to some extent incapable of hearing, will at times cry terribly for its ob- ject. The longing may be indefinite—“an infant crying in the night” when its mother is gone, because it wants it knows not what; the want is positive, the object cried for is unknown, but there is a terrible cry for it when at any time it awakes. Thera will rise up a conscience of guilt, and an apprehension of an un- known danger, hke the sullen roar of ocean waves evidently at hand, but not seen in a murky and stormy night ; and this wil] be followed by an anxious, though possibly very ignorant and per- plexed looking round for a way of escape. While men are en- grossed with the cares and gratifications, with the climbings and falls of this world, these apprehensions may, to a large extent, be suppressed ; still they are there deep down in the heart, and at times they will breathe out in yearnings after some help, to come they know not whence, or burst forth in dreadful cries and alarms ; or if these natural outlets be closed by a cherished unbelief, it will only be to make the restrained feelings spread like a disease, and burn like an internal fire. It is this sentiment which keeps alive a sense of sin and a fear of God and of a judgment-day among all nations, and which so far prepares the Heathen to listen to the tidings of a provided Saviour. But this instinct may likewise be misled, because of its blindness, and may be directed to objects w^hich seem fitted to gratify it, but which in the end disappoint it. It may tempt the inan who is moved by it to picture God as a vindictive Being, or it may prompt to acts of laceration, supposed to be fitted to appease the Divine anger. But the anxious spirit, even after the most horrid and excruciating acts have been per- formed, will not be satisfied, for it will still be in doubt whether, after all, that terrible Divinity be pacified. These cravings wiU always make us feel that there is nothing to meet them in a deistic or rationalistic creed, and that there is nothing to give them peace in Pagan ritual and sacrifices. I believe they can be met, and gratified, and brought to peace and composure only by the