The work of God’s Spirit it is.”
Hope is constantly active in reference, first, to the immediate future. We hope all things, and are carried along by this feeling through dangers innumerable, until we at last drop into the grave. Had hope no ken beyond the grave, all would be dreary; but secondly, this feeling, in its religious function, brings to view a happy eternity, where all is joy, peace, love, and praise. How different, and how much more exciting, is the hope which dwells on eternity than that which has reference to time!
We must remark here, that in the doctrines of phrenology there is nothing which can be construed to aid or oppose the peculiarly sectarian views of Christians. All those who disbelieve in the doctrine of the Trinity, will not have the same views of regeneration as those who believe in it. They will not believe in the agency of the Holy Spirit; but they will believe in a change of heart from the use of purely human means, and those will be governed by precisely the same laws in both views of the subject. We will therefore attempt to give what will be called the evangelical view of conversion, and leave it for persons of different views to account for the power which produces this change in their own way.
The first inquiry is this, What are the degrees of activity among the faculties as governed by the ordinary laws of exercise?
1. Thus some of the faculties, especially those termed religious, are brought into a very great degree of activity. This arises from the great extent and importance of the objects with which they are brought into relation.
2. The propensities in general, and Self-esteem and Approbativeness in particular, are deprived of their ordinary stimulus, and for a time become in a measure paralysed; as self, and the objects which excite the propensities, appear much diminished by contrast. To some, the contrast appears so great that they feel humbled as in the dust.
3. By little and little the higher sentiments become accustomed to this newly acquired higher degree of activity, and spontaneously range in their newly acquired world of objects. Every thing is now viewed as in the light of eternity. Man is now not only known, but felt to be an immortal being with a soul of uncounted worth. There is often a degree of exaltation of the feelings, and an increased mental power, which greatly surprises those who knew them in their former state. This appears in their deep insight into divine things, and in their exalted devotional exercises.
4. As the religious sentiments become more and more evangelized, or, in other words, as growth in grace progresses, they acquire an habitual, an uncontested ascendency over the propensities, and take the religious lead of their newly acquired masters.
In all this change, great, thorough, radical, and abiding as it really is, we recognise only the operation of the same general laws which characterise all great changes in mental character. The physical organs are affected powerfully; and the emotions are only in exact proportion to the felt importance of their objects. If exerted too much at one time, or too frequently for the healthy endurance of the cerebral organs, inflammation follows, and, with it, religious mania.