Christ openly submitted the truth of his
doctrine to the test of experience, not the same in form or mode as that on which
empirical science builds, but an experience just as real and that just as really grasps
the truth. "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his
will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of
myself." The same principle is given in these words: "He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself." These texts mean that through experience we
may come to know the doctrine of Christ as the very truth of God, and to know Christ as
the Messiah and Saviour. There is another mode of experience through which we reach the
truth of Christianity. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we
are the children of God." "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Here is the consciousness
of a gracious sonship, a consciousness wrought by the Holy Spirit. This is its distinction
of mode, but it is none the less a fact of consciousness, and, therefore, a veritable fact
of experience. In this experience we trap the central facts of Christianity, and the truth
of Christianity itself.
The certitude requisite to a science of
theology is thus reached. The result is not affected by any peculiarity of the experience,
as compared with that which underlies the physical sciences. the method is the same in
both, and as valid in the former as in the latter. Some truths we grasp by intuition.
"There are other truths that come to verification in consciousness by a process, or
by practical experiment; such are more commonly called truths of experience - that is, we
prove them by applying experimental tests and by realizing promised results. Such are
truths of the following and similar kind. Christ promises to realize in us certain
experiences if we will comply with certain conditions. It is the common law of
experimental science.