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the more he is baffled. In all directions his investigations eventually bring him face to face with the unknowable; and he ever more clearly perceives it to be the unknowable. . . . . . He feels, with a vividness which no others can, the utter incomprehensibleness of the simplest fact, considered in itself. He alone truly sees that absolute knowledge is impossible. He alone knows that under all things there lies an impenetrable mystery." 1

In these days of vagrant hypotheses, that assume the air of established theories, it is refreshing now and then to hear from some true scientist the confession of an impenetrable mystery in nature. How confident at first was the nebular hpyothesis of solving the formation of the universe!2 Yet plausible and self-consistent as was this hypothesis, fifty years have added nothing to confirm the ingenious guesses of Herschell and Laplace. It remains only an hypothesis; and an eminent authority does not scruple to suggest that "all nebulosity may arise from deficiency in the optical powers of the astronomer, rather than inhere in the constitution of the nebulae themselves." In any event, "the nebular hypothesis throws no light on the ori gin of diffused matter; and diffused matter as much needs. accounting for as concrete matter." So with the hypothesis of development—not yet raised to the dignity of a theory. Like the hypothesis of apostolical succession, it fails at the vital point of the first links; there is nothing to

1 Illustrations of Universal Progress, pp. 59, 60.

2 "Laplace once went in form to present an edition of his Systéme du Monde to the first consul. Napoleon, whom some wags had told that this book contained no mention of the name of God, and who was fond of putting embarrassing questions, received it with: 'M. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator.' Laplace, who, though the most supple of politicians, was as stiff as a martyr on every point of his philosophy or religion (e.g. even under Charles X. he never concealed his dislike of the priests), drew himself up, and answered bluntly, 'Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse là.' Napoleon, greatly amused, told this reply to Lagrange, who exclaimed, ‘Ah! c'est une belle hypothèse; ca explique beaucoup de choses.'"-Prof. de Morgan, in the Athenaeum.

hook it to the beginning; since, "the first strata, had they been preserved, instead of containing the lowest rudiments of life, might have contained the foot-prints of the present archangels." It is becoming, then, in science to admit at the beginning," an impenetrable mystery."

1

But just where science confesses itself incompetent, · Christianity comes forward to unveil the mystery hidden from ages and from generations. It brings us face to face with a personal God, the creator of the universe and its lord; and it brings God face to face with us in Jesus Christ, the incarnation, which was also the manifestation, the unveiling.

Not long ago there was set up in a public square in the city of Frankfort, a huge frame, which purported to contain a work of art designed for a national memorial. For many days it stood there unopened and unexplained; only the dim outlines of a colossal statue were visible to the curious

through the chinks of the screens. At length, on an appointed day, the magistrates, the artists, and the literary men of the city, with government officers of rank, accompa nied by a band and a chorus of musicians, went in procession to the square, and there, in presence of an immense concourse, the screens were carefully and ceremoniously removed. But curiosity was still baffled by a thick white veil enveloping the statue from head to foot. A long and learned oration sounded forth the genius and worth of a great poet and historian of Germany; and a grand overture of Mendelssohn rendered its homage to the hour. Yet all the while the eager crowd saw nothing but the outlines of a figure veiled in white. At last, the speech and the music over, the ropes were cut from behind, the veil fell, and amid the huzzas of the vast crowd, Schiller stood revealed, holding in one hand an open book, in the other a ready pen. Long time there stood, in the high place of human thought and concourse, seen of many, penetrated by none, a mysterious screen, behind which was said to be hidden the

1 North American Review, July, 1864, p. 16.

source of all thought and power, the poem of life and of the universe. At length, when art and culture, and science and philosophy had achieved their highest renown, the trumpets sound, the world gives ear, and some Plato or Aristotle discoursing, with majestic music, of nature and the divine, the screens are drawn aside, and there stands the figure still covered with an impenetrable veil. Art, music, poetry, all bring their homage, science and philosophy essay their description, but there is no vision, no motion, no life. Only the outer screens are removed; the veil remains untaken away. Then, in the fulness of time, there reaches forth from the Invisible a hand that cuts the cord; the veil drops, and we behold "the brightness of the Father's glory," the "image of his person;" in his hand the Book of life, and the pen that reveals all truth, that writes all destinies. Does science sneer at "the mechanical God of Paley," and insist that the theory of development presents a loftier ideal of the First Cause; that "creation by manufacture is a much lower thing than creation by evolution." We care not to argue the secondary question between these methods or processes of creation, since the scriptures, which admit as well of either or both, at the very beginning lift us to a far higher plane of thought. For the first presentation of God in the Bible is of a personal Spirit, having will, wisdom, power, as put forth in the act of creation, be that instantaneous or immeasurable in time; be its method mechanical or derivative, by collocation or by growth. And the next view is of a loving Father caring for the children made in his own image; and the next, of the just Ruler condemning sin; and thus on, in the series of divine manifestations, until Sinai sets forth the holy and merciful Sovereign, and Calvary the righteous and the redeeming God. No pantheistic emanation, no scientific theory of evolution, no metaphysical scheme of the Absolute, can ever so task, so elevate, so satisfy, so exhaust the intellect of man. Robert Browning shows herein a larger faculty than Herbert Spencer, whose highest faith reaches

only to some "unknown reality which underlies both spirit and matter":

"I say that miracle was duly wrought

When, save for it, no faith was possible.

So faith grew, making void more miracles,
Because, too much, they would compel, not help.
I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee

All questions in the earth and out of it,

And has so far advanced thee to be wise."1

(2) Christianity is equal to the whole work of social reform and of humanitary progress which our age proposes, and will accomplish that work by the wisest, the simplest, and the surest methods. It might well be argued that the very impulses toward reform that mark this as an age of practical philanthropy, owe their origin to Christianity; for Christianity exists not merely as a doctrine in a text-book, and as an institution in the organic form of the church, but is abroad in the world as a light and an atmosphere; so that the organic philanthropy which is a distinguishing feature of this century, has come into being after so many centuries of Christian influence in humanizing mankind, and as a side-growth from its ever-diffusive spirit of charity. This philanthropy originates nowhere outside the pale of Christendom. Though sometimes magnified as a practical religion by men who reject the theology of the Bible, it does not spring from the spirit of religious scepticism as its root, and cannot be sustained by that as its vital force. But all works of philanthropy affiliate themselves with Christianity by a law of natural affinity; they rely mainly upon Christian charity for resources, and upon Christian activity for their accomplishment; and when all is done, philanthropy can be nothing more than a practical improvement of the beatitudes of Christ and his sermon at Nazareth; its achievements can never go beyond the simple record. of his life the Son of man came to seek and to save that

1 Browning's "Death in the Desert."

which is lost; he went about doing good, healing all manner of diseases and infirmities, and all that were oppressed of the devil; and philanthropy can frame no higher motto than that which the Lord Jesus gave his disciples: "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

A theist of the new school, who unites a masculine vigor of intellect with a feminine delicacy of sentiment, affirms that "the faith founded on consciousness must look for its moral law to the intuitions of the soul, and not to the authority of a book"; and this faith of intuition, she thinks, will teach us the brotherhood of mankind; the love of the weak and the lowly, even though they be unlovely; and will "pour the spirit of love into duty." But we have a book that teaches all this, and more, in its ten commandments and its Sermon on the Mount. Why, then, give up the faith this book has taught us, and which stands transfigured in the life of Christ, only to reconstruct the same of doubtful" intuitions."

1

Christianity equal to the demands of the age for reform! What but Christianity has given birth and utterance to these demands? What but Christianity has produced an age capable of embracing the interests of humanity, and of making the elevation of man the theme of literature and the care of politics? "In modern times," says one, "all moral and political speculation is forward-looking, and is full of anticipations of new discoveries in happiness and knowledge. But Roman statesmen and philosophers took no such comprehensive survey of the destinies of their race."2 That survey can be gained only through the gospel, which at once declares that God made of one blood all nations of men, that he hath redeemed them with the blood of his Son, and that he will judge them in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Man, the offspring and the image of God; man, so loved of God that God spared not his own Son to redeem him; man, so great in his sphere of moral action and in his immortality that God will judge him for his ways

1 Frances Power Cobbe, "Broken Lights," Chap. XI.

2 Merivale's Roman Empire, Vol. II. p. 427.