Let this then suffice and render it needless to recur to similar discussions. If any think themselves bound to interpret this and all the other facts in these narratives in their most literal sense; if they hold that the mere mention of such things by unknown writers in unknown time--possibly centuries afterwards, when the event may have become magnified by the refraction of tradition--is sufficient to substantiate them, let them hold their own opinion as long as it can satisfy them. But _proof_ of such an opinion they neither have nor can have; and let them beware of priding themselves on the vaunt of their "faith," when such "faith" may haply prove to be no more than a distortion of the truer faith which proves all things and only holds fast that which will stand the test. A belief based on some _a priori_ opinion about "verbal dictation" is not necessarily meritorious. It may be quite the reverse. Such a dogma has never been laid down by the Church in general. It has very rarely been insisted upon by any branch of the Church in any age. A belief which prides itself on ignorance of the vast horizon opened to us by the study of many forms of literature, by the advance of criticism, by the science of comparative religion--so far from being religious or spiritual may only be a sign of ignorance, or of a defective love of truth. A dogmatism which heaps upon intelligent faith burdens at once needless and intolerable may spring from sources which should tend to self-humiliation rather than to spiritual pride.[623] _Abundet quisque in sensu suo._ But such beliefs have not the smallest connexion with true faith or sincere Christianity. God is a God of truth, and he who tries to force himself into a view which history and literature, no less than the faithful following of the Divine light within him, convince him to be untenable, does not rise into faith, but sins and does mischief by feebleness and _lack_ of faith.[624] FOOTNOTES: [606] Tobit i. 2. [607] Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 2; Vat. (LXX.), Θεσβίτης ὁ ἐκ θεσβῶν. The Alex. LXX. omits Θεσβίτης. An immense amount has been written about Elijah. Among others, see Knobel, _Der Prophetismus_, ii. 73; Köster, _Der Thesbiter_; Stanley, ii., lect. xxx.; Maurice, _Prophets and Kings_, serm. viii.; F. W. Robertson, ii., serm. vi.; Milligan, _Elijah_ (Men of the Bible). [608] See 1 Chron. ii. 55. [609] See Cheyne, _The Hallowing of Criticism_, p. 9. [610] Zech. xiii. 4. [611] The word also means "sea-mist" (Cheyne, p. 15). [612] Lev. xxvi. 19; Psalm cxxxiv. 1; Heb. x. 11. [613] So too Ecclus. xlviii. 2, "He _brought_ a sore famine upon them, and by his zeal he diminished their number"; but the writer adds, "_By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens._" Deut. xxviii. 12; Amos iv. 7. [614] 2 Sam. xxi. 1. [615] 2 Sam. xxiv. 13. "Three," not "seven," is probably here the true reading.