The Subjective Theory of Inspiration [pp. 192-204]

SUBJECTIVE THEORY OF INSPIRATION.
the Bible find me at greater depths of my being; and that whatever finds
me brings with it an irresistible evidence of its having proceeded from the
Holy Spirit."
"I comprise and conclude the sum of my conviction in this one sentence: Revealed Religion (and I know of no religion not revealed) is in
ifs highest contemplation the unity-that is, the identity or coherence-of
Subjective and Objective. It is in itself, and irrelatively, at once Inward
Life and Truth and Outward Fact and Luminary... As much of
reality, as much of objective truth, as the Scriptures communicate to the
subjective experiences of the believer, so much of present life, of living
and effective import, do these experiences give to the letter of these
Scriptures."
Coleridge was not a systematic writer. It was reserved for
J. D. Morell to introduce German philosophy into England in
systematic form. Tho Mr. Morell cannot be classed with
any particular school, he has exhibited a greater approximation
to the Eclecticism of Cousin than to any other system. In his
work on the "Philosophy of Religion," he defines Revelation
to be "a process of the intuitional consciousness, gazing upon
eternal verities; while theology is the reflection of the understanding upon those vital intuitions, so as to reduce them to a
logical and scientific expression. Revelation and Inspiration
indicate one united process, the result of which upon the human
mind is to produce a state of spiritual intuition, whose phenomena are so extraordinary that we at once separate the agency
by which they are produced from any of the ordinary principles
of human development. And yet this agency is applied in perfect consistency with the laws and natural operations of our
spiritual nature. Inspiration does not imply anything generically new in the actual processes of the human mind; it does
not involve any form of intelligence essentially different from
what we already possess; it indicates rather the elevation of the
religious consciousness, and with it, of course, the power of
spiritual vision, to a degree of intensity peculiar to the individuals thus highly favored of God."
This theory of inspiration, in its different forms, may be
briefly stated in the three following propositions;
I. Inspiration belongs to the sphere of the natural intelli
gence.
II. Inspiration belongs to the sphere of the spiritual, and
I95