The Visible World Permeated by the Invisible. 57 some kinetic, then build up the natural conception by a notion of gas or vapour indefinitely diffused, condensing either by contraction or by diminution of heat, until a liquid is formed, then regard the process as visible by which a liquid passes into a solid. In this way a scientifically exercised imagination obtains a view of the passage of things from the unseen to the seen, and how the operation of energy in and upon the matter of the universe produces those infinite varieties of existence which adorn and enrich the visible dominions of God. The same fact as to spirit and matter may be otherwise thought of, seeing that different orders of being pervade the grosser and more material; that all kinds of attractions and affinities exist where none could be expected; that mind, incorporate with matter, acts upon it and is reacted upon; that the partitions between the visible and invisible are pierced, so that human intelligence permeates from one to the other; and as it is an unworthy imagination that infinite space contains nothing but matter infinitesimal in comparison, we arrive at the conception that not only human but other finite intelligences may pass and repass as the Supreme Intelligence arranges. The conception is scientific, not superstitious. Such passage from the unseen to the seen, from the immaterial to the material, is in perfect agreement with the existing arrangement of worlds, and to such an extent, that the actions and passings of electricity, magnetism and light out of invisible state and place into perceptible condition, are a material analogue of spiritual migration and mutation. We may have a sort of embodiment as to this by experiment. Take a glass tube, 3 feet long by 3 inches wide, perfectly cleanse it, and follow the example of Professor Tyndall in his experiments on light. Roll a small bit of bibulous paper into a pellet not a fourth of the size of a small pea, moisten it with a liquid of higher boiling point than water. Hold the pellet in your fingers till it is almost dry, then place it in a small pipe serving for the introduction of gas into the main tube, and allow dry air to pass over it into this tube. The air charged with the modicum of vapour thus taken up will, when subjected to the action of light, begin immediately to form a blue actinic cloud, and in five minutes the blue colour will extend quite through the tube. At the end of fifteen minutes the blue becomes a dense white cloud filling the tube. Nor is that all; take away the pellet, empty the tube, sweep it by passing a current of dry air through it, and fill it again with the vapour of hydrochloric acid. Now, though the amount of "light generating matter" is almost infinitesimal, yet, when the electric lamp pours light through the tube, in one minute a faint cloud shows itself, grows in beauty, and in fifteen minutes the body of light is astounding. When we think of the small amount of vapour carried in by the air at the first experiment, the appearance of a cloud so massive and luminous seems like the creation of a world out of nothing, and is, at least we may think so, a beautiful example of the material texture out of which was framed the visible world by Invisible Mind. As to the second experiment, our own intelligence directing the light that reveals existence of which we were before unconscious, not only yields an example of a passage from the unseen to the seen, but affords a symbol of the passing and repassing of those mysterious influences, under guidance of the Eternal, which are so active in the existing arrangement of worlds. It is agreeable to every faculty of our mental and physical powers, that we should thus seek to view the mysterious passage from one state of things to another, the connection of former states with our present existence, and ascertain whether our faculties are at the end of the series. They are not at the end; every physical experiment, and every mental inquiry, prove that we are only beginning to know. Our sense of Divinity has feeling rather than knowledge for its basis. We are on the threshold of creation, in the childhood of intellectual and spiritual life; nevertheless, even now, "the soul," says Francis Newman, "is that side of our nature which is in relation with the Infinite; therefore, we are the amalgam of two substances;" or, as Isaac Taylor states," a mean, essentially unlike what could have resulted from any possible construction of one by itself;" and, by this compounding of mind with matter, we control both, and acquire Science Throws Light on Scripture. 59 the power to conquer and possess new worlds, to pass from sonship as to man unto sonship as to God. "The wind, before it woos the harp, Is but the wild and tuneless air; 1 There are those who think that science can neither contradict nor affirm what is taught by Scripture as to the beginning of things, and of creation; and as "it is unworthy timidity in the lover of Scripture to fear contradiction, so it is ungrounded presumption to look for a confirmation in such cases; but as science is undoubtedly able, with some accuracy, to retrace the past, when the earth was not, no religious man should stand outside while she reverently uncovers the inner works and mysteries of the world. Such revelation as to the works is worthy of all acceptation for enlightenment as to the words. "So far as we can judge, no one will demonstrate what was the primitive state from which the progressive course of the earth took its origin. . . . We cannot, in any of the palæontological sciences, ascend to a beginning which is of the same nature as the existing course of events, and which depends upon causes that are still in operation. Philosophers never have demonstrated, and probably never will be able to demonstrate, what was the original condition of the solar system, of the earth, of the vegetable and animal worlds, of languages, of arts." Despite all this, it is possible to obtain knowledge of past creations; for we detect processes of aggregation which are even now building up new worlds. Processes "leading, according to the position and perhaps the character of the masses acted upon, to the formation of suns of greater or less splendour and magnitude, of streams and clusters of small stars, and of systems in which suns and stellar streams and clusters seem to be intermingled." There are waning worlds and waxing worlds at the present moment, dried up as the moon, fertile as the earth, semi-fluid as Saturn, or cloud form as Nebulæ. They lie between the ruins of worlds that 1 "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," vol. i., p. 688: Wm. Whewell, D.D. 2 “ Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,” vol. i., p. 688: Wm. Whewell, D.D. 3 Richard A. Proctor. have been, and the chaotic materials of worlds which shall be. In spite of wear and tear, worlds are extending their sway, and cosmos is conquering chaos. Thus science gives definiteness to our conceptions of creation, confirms or annuls those conceptions. We no longer look at the earth as a savage regards a steamship,-a something wholly beyond comprehension. The entire process is one of energy, but not of energy only. The external world, so far as we see the phenomena and their characteristics, is unquestionably the result of intelligent action; while the inner world, as seen in the instinct of animals, and in the morals, religion and intellect of man, has a voluntary capability of turning natural processes into other uses, of arraying energy against energy, and reducing nature to such obedience that the wind blows for us, fire burns for us, water becomes a mighty servant, and the electric fluid is our swift messenger. Test, by means of one word, "Beginning," whether our knowledge of God's work does not enlarge and confirm our view of truth in God's Word. What does Beginning mean? It means the origination of things. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Until of late many of us had taken "beginning" to imply a comparatively modern time; but, in truth, time has no connection with it, except in meaning that before time was, when the Word was with God and was God, in that eternity, when the Son was, then were the worlds created. In that beginning, when the Son was with God, God, the Son, created all things. Now, God is eternally all that He is; there is nothing new, nothing by chance nor of caprice. If He is Creator, He is eternally Creator; for the power, the wisdom, the love are eternal; and the act of Creation, proceeding from them, must of necessity be eternal, though not eternally creating, or we impose on the Creator the conditions of time, and subject Him to the vicissitudes of the future. We are not responsible for the difficulty growing out of this, and the difficulty seems-God has eternally created, but the creation had origin, and that origin gave birth to time. The difficulty really lies in the inadequacy of language to express, and the imperfection of our understanding to know, Divine Eternity and Infinity. 61 things. It is certain that no number of creatures, vast as that number may be, no extension of space or ages, however grand that extension, can express the eternity and infinity of the Creator. We must, willing or unwilling, admit that to our consciousness, all duration is comprised within two series, a series of past infinite moments, and a series of future infinite moments; we add these together, and they form relatively, eternity; but absolutely, time; one series is behind, another is before. As for God, to whom nothing is past or future, the two series exist under the same title, the one and the other are contained in the Now or Eternity of the Eternal. It may seem as if the idea of a created world, without commencement in time, and without limit in space, is one of those infinities which cannot be explained; in that case it is the best possible example of the Infinity and Eternity of the Creator (Gen. i. I ; John i. 1-3). Creation, to express the eternity, the infinity, the majesty, the wisdom, all the perfections of God, ought to extend to an eternity of ages, to an infinity of spaces, to an innumerable variety of existences in every degree, all finite in themselves, but, in space beyond space, and world beyond world, a symbol of Infinity; the absolute Infinity being figured by an infinity that is relative. The relative being duration, and extent without bounds, only contained by eternity and infinite space. Is not this pantheism? No; the Creator alone is absolutely eternal and infinite; but the creation, occupying all space and all time, subject to division and limit, does, in those innumerable divisions and exhaustless limits, represent to the utmost possible extent the operations of God. To obtain even a faint conception of this, we must deepen our notions both of eternity and time. Time is the law of everything that changes, Eternity is the incommunicable and unchangeable attribute of God. Plato says:-"Time is a movable image of immovable eternity." We cannot say there was a time when no time was; yet, as time was created, and the world was fashioned, we ought to say,-" There was no time without creation, the successive movements of which form time; therefore, time and creation have always been; nevertheless, they were created, and are not co-eternal with God;" for, |