clapping their wings in self-applause, and fancying themselves much grander creatures than the Christian; who all the while is soaring on high like the lark, and mounting on his way to heaven." There are dishonest sceptics, professing to be wise, whom Tennyson describes— "'Law is God,' say some: 'Not God at all,' says the fool; 'For all we have power to see is a straight stick bent in a pool."" To all such, these are my only words "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.” Longfellow. Amongst the higher and more honest infidels, some of scientific power have little imagination and small spirituality, fail in reverent heed of Scripture, and consequently are not whole or comprehensive men. They amass, and sometimes systematise facts, and unsparingly devote the best years of their life to one class of ideas, but their mechanical process on things fails when applied to thoughts, because a partial apprehension of general truth, and the attempt to formulate nature as wholly material and external, narrow their minds. Good in technicalities, but incapable of wide range, they are specially unfit for the elevated themes of theology, which are in the widest sense universal. From the habit of contemplating phenomena in which uniformity of antecedents and consequents obtains, they cannot refrain from the assumption that nothing was, is, or can be at variance with their constant but limited experience. They explain the external structure of the world indeed, but according to the technic of man, taking no account of the spiritual and internal. The mechanism is all, the maker is nothing in their theory; nevertheless, their own doctrine of continuity proves that the visible is the actualisation of the invisible, and the natural a passing of the supernatural into history, or as Schelling too pantheistically expresses it: "Nature is visible mind, and mind is invisible nature;" or putting it more correctly and scientifically, "the phenomenal universe is the manifestation of a Divine power that cannot be identified with the vitality of phenomena." Professor Tyndall infers that Aristotle, praised as a physi Errors of Materialists. 23 cist, was wholly unphysical; and says of Goethe, "He could not formulate distinct mechanical conceptions; he could not see the force of mechanical reasoning; and in regions where such reasoning reigns supreme, he became a mere ignis fatuus to those who followed him." It may be said with equal fairness, that scientific men, in pursuit of the merely mechanical, neglect their best and greatest work, the establishment of intelligent enduring alliance between Religion and Science; the shewing that they wage battle for one and the same cause -the cause of truth, of goodness, of beauty, of God. Like Lucretius of old, they affirm: "Nature is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself," when nothing of the kind is seen, for the energy that works cannot be identified with the phenomena. They pretend to find in the chance clash of atoms the world's ground plan from origination to completion, for some, even of those who own God to be the cause of all things, assert that He is the explanation of nothing: "Dieu est la cause de tout, mais il n'est explication de rien." They profess that inorganic matter, unaided by God, contains the promise and potency of all life; yet of this life, concerning which is such positive affirmation, they know little or nothing: "it is the continuous equilibration of the organism with its environment," that is, the art or power of living! They so express the law of conservation of energy as to bind the world in the chains of fate, leave no place for God, no liberty for man, no soul for eternity, and strangely enough, count this conservation of energy in the things that are, a sort of means by which those that are not began to exist. They claim regard as clear witted men, who live in "the high and dry light of intellect," yet wholly forget, for any pious purpose, that every meal we eat and cup we drink of, illustrate the mysterious control of mind over matter, and of higher law subordinating lower. They know that, even as to geometrical truths, more is required than axioms and definitions -there must be intuition of the figures, and knowledge besides that of experience; yet not being able to see the Unknown by introspection of what they know, they would 1 "Address before the British Association at Belfast, 1874." 2 M. Scherer. deprive others of all that knowledge which grows out of spiritual experience. In the Secular School, human morality is identified with brute selfishness, and conscience is declared to be "a hoarded fund of traditionary pressure of utility." Shall we waste our time with these men, and try every possible way of going wrong? Life is too short. Religion satisfies a moral and spiritual yearning, which cannot be otherwise appeased. Intellect and Piety unite in worship of the Great Supreme, whom to know is eternal life. Brothers come with us, and escape the horrors of Richter's dream. He passed through unknown shadows, darkling around an empty altar. On the church dome was a dial plate barren of figures, but a dark figure pointed at it, and dead men sought to see and read. Be not like those men, pointing at the figureless dial-plate of unrecovered centuries. Be not those blind, trying to read where nothing can be read; not those deaf, listening where no voice can be heard. The best thinkers in every science give up the despairing creed, and decide for religion. The great facts and doctrines of Revealed Truth are becoming more and more approved by accurate thought. The light of Revelation illumines the invisible world; we not only look into certain apartments of the material universe, but behold within them many forms of spiritual grace and grandeur. While we look, our constitution and faculties enlarge in conscious existence, and we become almost other beings in impassioned emotion and intellectuality. The promise and prophecy of higher and imperishable corporeity, which will ere long be fulfilled to believers, increase every present enjoyment. New melodies and harmonies, continually breaking in upon the soul, are delicious refreshments, and assurances of heavenly help. The strength of our intellect delights in the words of inspired narrative and in its glorious acts. Intelligence unites with Piety in proclaiming that God is the source of all and the disposer of all; that the birth of a human being is not a less manifestation of Divine Power than is the exit of a human being in chariot of fire. The ordinary and extraordinary acts of Divine Government are known to be relatively, not essentially, Piety the Crown of Intellect. 25 different; and, having this knowledge of the Supreme, marvels and miracles are rightly regarded as special messages and impressive signs. Without repugnance, therefore, we admit the Divine element in religion, only weaklings refuse it; and we hold that, beyond controversy, Divinity is the very life and soul of Nature. Those apologetic commentaries, or excusing expositions, which were formerly accepted, do not satisfy our nicer feelings; nor will our surer confidence try to evade intelligent inquiry. We have a firm, rational hold of historic evidence, and due knowledge of physics and philosophy, attesting the origin and continuance of Revelation. We disregard the petulant outcries of irreligious persons, who denounce all who know and believe more than themselves, and dare to say they know. After due inquiry, it is not so much that we consent to retain our faith in Holy Scripture, as that Scripture retains us. The inquiry, renewed again and again in different ages of the world and periods of life, affords a consecutive accordance of innumerable affirmations. Book after book, chapter after chapter, verse after verse, and word after word, have their own history, their own criticism, with pleadings for and against. There remains no softening to save our pride; it is not we who hold the Bible, the Bible holds us, consecrates our affections, and crowns our intellect. "The purer the light in the human heart, the more it will have an expression of itself in the mind of Christ; the greater the knowledge of the development of man, the truer will be the insight gained into the increasing purpose of Revelation." Intellect is not divorced from Piety; Piety is the crown of Intelligence. STUDY II. THE SUPERNATURAL. "A Presence that disturbs me with the joy WORDSWORTH, Tintern Abbey. WE are apt to forget, in listening to denials of the Supernatural, that they enter a region of thought where absolute demonstration, in a scientific sense, is impossible. When told by Renan that, not from one process of reasoning, but from the mass of all modern sciences, we have proof that there is no Supernatural,1 the violence of the assertion carries us away for a moment from the fact that there neither is nor can be scientific proof of that which is so confidently affirmed. The origin and continuance of the Bible cannot be accounted for by purely human forces, nor can all events be explained by mechanical adjustment. All history and all experience prove that love and belief of the Divine flourish in heathen, Christian and scientific minds; that, indeed, the conviction of the existence and omnipresent operation of "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise," is the universal thought of humanity-adapting itself alike to the history, the poetry, the speculation and the science of every age. We may advance to the proof step by step. 1 "Ce n'est pas d'un raisonnement, mais de tout l'ensemble des sciences modernes que soit cet immense résultat-il n'y a pas de surnaturel." Renan, "Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse," p. 206. |