542 THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS

say,-Here is the treasure, we have found it, and have it, and will give you some of it; but in those who say,-We think that is a good place to dig, and you will dig most easily in such and such a way.

20. Farther, it has been promised that if such earnest search be made, Truth shall be discovered: as much truth, that is, as is necessary for the person seeking. These, therefore, I hold, for two fundamental principles of religion,-that, without seeking, truth cannot be known at all; and that, by seeking, it may be discovered by the simplest. I say, without seeking it cannot be known at all. It can neither be declared from pulpits, nor set down in Articles, nor in anywise “prepared and sold” in packages, ready for use. Truth must be ground for every man by himself out of its husk, with such help as he can get, indeed, but not without stern labour of his own. In what science is knowledge to be had cheap? or truth to be told over a velvet cushion, in half-an-hour’s talk every seventh day? Can you learn chemistry so?-zoology?-anatomy? and do you expect to penetrate the secret of all secrets, and to know that whose price is above rubies; and of which the depth saith,-It is not in me,¹-in so easy fashion? There are doubts in this matter which evil spirits darken with their wings, and that is true of all such doubts which we were told long ago-they can “be ended by action alone.”*

21. As surely as we live, this truth of truths can only so be discerned: to those who act on what they know,

* (Carlyle, Past and Present, chapter xi.) Can anything be more striking than the repeated warnings of St. Paul against strife of words; and his distinct setting forth of Action as the only true means of attaining knowledge of the truth, and the only sign of men’s possessing the true faith? Compare 1 Timothy vi. 4, 20, (the latter verse especially, in connection with the previous three,) and 2 Timothy ii. 14, 19, 22, 23, tracing the connection with here also; add Titus i. 10, 14, 16, nothing “in works they deny him,” and Titus iii. 8, 9, “affirm constantly that they be careful to maintain good works; but avoid foolish questions;” and finally, 1 Timothy i. 4-7: a passage which seems to have been especially written for these times.

¹ [Job xxviii. 14, 18.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]