There is nothing in the world of reality that in any way corresponds to them. They are mere castles in the air. Prominent among these airy structures is the attempt to explain the existence of a creature's life without a living Creator, and a child's life without a great living Father. Jesus Christ, though not setting Himself to expose and explode such a tendency, nevertheless effectually does it. His entire story is one of life and love. That wonderful "stream of tendency" issuing from the Father's heart, and flowing by the way of Calvary, is bearing human thought and feeling outward to the everlasting ocean of truth and safety. There are eddies enough, back waters enough, obstructions and confusion enough, but the course is still onward; for all that is great in matter, great in mind, great in morals, great in religion, points in the direction of the Saviour's words when He speaks of "the living Father."

There is thus a wide circle of philosophical thought in the representation which He gives of the Father. To the physiologist and psychologist alike life is a great problem. We wander as best we can through the Problems of Life and Mind, but find nothing in the "physical basis," nothing in the "nervous mechanism,”

nothing in "animal automatism," or in "reflex theories," to lift the veil from the great secret of life. Herbert Spencer opens no window for us in the blank wall, when he defines life as 'the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations." It is easy enough to describe the ways in which life manifests itself. It is not so easy, however, to describe what it is, or, if God is kept out of sight, to tell us whence it comes. Scientists can tell us under what conditions crystals may be formed and eggs may be hatched, but that is not throwing much light on life. When we have built up in thought a bit of beautiful mechanism, and have given it the name of animal automatism, we are not much, if any, nearer the solution of our problem. The tendency in the meantime is to trace the whole of the phenomena of life to material causes. Even the wonderfully complex life of man is reduced to the same level. There is no need of a "living Father." There is nothing for Him to do. Particular arrangements of matter and force are quite sufficient for all the purposes of the universe. Though how the arrangement of matter and force goes on without Him is not quite clear. One would suppose that the absurdity of seeking arrangements that had

no arranger would be apparent enough; but it is marvellous what a change in terminology can do, and how, under such names as "natural selection," "Incomprehensible Power," "Inscrutable Reality," the arranging Intelligence is assumed which is desired when we speak of a "living Father." Professor Tyndall, in discussing the theory of spontaneous generation, has said that "life does not appear without the operation of antecedent life;" and George Mivart has just said that "at present the occurrence of spontaneous generation has not been conclusively demonstrated, nor is it easy to see how it ever can be." Whatever be the bearing of such remarks upon the system of the universe which modern thought has put before the people, we are quite sure that the evolutionist has in them a hard nut to crack. Evolution implies involution. Atoms and cells cannot give what they do not possess. Thus the "living Father," as Jesus presents Him, is a real necessity of thought.

"Inscrutable Reality" is Herbert Spencer's substitute for the Personal living Father of whom Jesus Christ speaks. Is the substitute an advantage to us? Does it widen in any way, or make more clear our sphere of thought? Is it a higher or truer conception of what

thought demands as lying behind the phenomena of the universe? It seems as if men, though conscious of their own personality, could sacrifice the Divine personality without a pang. They would eliminate it from all literature. They write with the expressed hope, and in the most confident tone, that the day is fast dawning when the idea and its influence shall evaporate from the mind. But surely the idea of a personal Intelligence, a living Father, is an immeasurably higher conception than that of a power that is inscrutable. If we are to be held free to affirm anything of God at all, by all means do not let us degrade ourselves by selecting the lower forms of representing Him to our thought, while there are higher and truer ones within our reach. We are safe, then, while sitting at the Saviour's feet, and listening to Him while He speaks of a personal, living Father. For all that we can possibly mean by personality is given us in the Saviour's representation. If we had no personal Father, then we should as persons be as orphans. The jewel, however, that is thus so wonderfully set in the centre of our nature, flashes its light back upon the hand that set it there. We are the personal children of a personal Father. And though

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Jesus does not emphasise this primary truth, it is because it must be assumed as the origin and cause of all human personality. Why should you prove that the sun is shining while the flowers are blooming and the birds are singing in the light he gives?

The double conception of parentage and personality carries us far up among the higher things of thought. There is more in the term father than there is in that of person. There is more in it than there is in the idea of cause. It is expressive of a relationship that is very close and strong. Our human relations and it is quite legitimate to reason from them-help us up to a true conception of what it is. The charge of anthropomorphism must not deter us from taking advantage of all that is highest and best in our nature, in order that we may be able to think worthily of God.* The old objection that, when we speak of parentage and

* 66 Anthropomorphism in physics," says Professor Flint, "was probably never more prevalent than at present, especially among those who denounce anthropomorphism in theology. Confidently deny free will to man, and confidently ascribe it to atoms, and you stand a good chance just now of being widely acknowledged as a great physical philosopher, and are sure at least of being honoured as an 'advanced thinker.' But nonsense does not cease to be nonsense when it becomes popular."