-in separate parts-by causal links; it is certain that no finite mind, however gifted, can infer, from the present, either the past or the future; or say, “it was and it will be regular." Natural continuance is a succession of variables. Nature, ever and ever, becomes other than it is. Hence, the continual and momentary involution and evolution of things is by a ceaseless universal blending of the natural with the preternatural.

By similar process, investigate the evolution of the common from the miraculous. Scientists amuse us by trying to show that material causes are a sufficient ex· planation of facts as we see them: but we can never be sure of that. There is an infinite number of causes, and to think that the few we know-apart from the many unknown, are the only causes is folly indeed. Everything known exists as part of something else, and the cause of a thing is not the thing itself. That which is true of all the parts, is true of the whole; for the whole is not more than the total of the several parts; therefore, the universe—the sum total of worlds-exists and continues to exist by means of other than itself. The conditioned is evolved from the unconditioned, time from eternity, and space from infinitude. Thus, thought enlarges the measure of belief, and leads to the scientific hypothesis that our capacity of thought is not the limit of existence, nor can knowledge be coextensive with faith. The common is an evolution wrought and maintained by the constant afflux and influx of that eternal infinite energy which by universally diffused media gives force, mass, and chemical affinity to atoms; vitality and intelligence to organisms. No man can say where the common begins, or where the miraculous ends.

Apply evolution to the process by which the ideal becomes material. When men talk of the moon and of elementary substances, they mean things that we see or touch; but when science speaks about the intimate structure of bodies, words must be used which have only a symbolic meaning, for the intimate structure can neither be perceived nor handled. Whether Realism or Idealism be true; whether matter is all in all, or Mind is the cause transcending all; the world, as represented by science, can no more be adequately perceived than can God, as set forth by theology; we have only weak symbolical images. If, instead of trying to form an idea of matter as it appears to us, we strive for knowledge of what it really is, we attempt an impossibility: sense and reason alike fail. The ideal blends with the essence of all that is real; the states and very existence of matter, so far as we are concerned, can only be inferred by means of mind. We get at the material by the ideal. This view of the inscrutable operations by which the natural is evolved from the supernatural, the common from the miraculous, the material from the ideal, shows the reasonableness of the hypothesis that the course of the cosmos is by directed progress with provision for every kind of life and intelligence.

If any quibble at the word design, they may say "purpose." As to purpose, think of it as manifested in progress: past, present, future. The past, an indefinitely extended line in one direction; the future, an indefinitely extended line in another direction; the present, a line intersecting all existence in which the past and future meet. Add the conception that this infinitely extended line rotates from left to right. Then reason

further the progress from infinity to infinity is actual, every present moment can exist only by intersection of the infinite-at some certain yet ever-varying and shifting point for production of the things that are and those that shall be; and there is required-at these evervarying and shifting points of the infinite line-a neverceasing directive intersection and convergence of those innumerable forces which effect the wide-embracing teleology and adaptations of the universe. It is possible for directiveness to be manifested by a machine, or by a tree, these possessing no intelligence; but this proves that the blind instrument is made to act by a seeing principle—a mind.

This conception of the unseen directively bearing down upon us from an infinitude

“Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans

LUCRET., i. 66.

having relations with a past and a future eternity, accounts for our consciousness of God, our yearnings for immortality, and affords a plea for belief in Revelation concerning supreme Life and Intelligence. It becomes. a power of discernment rendering our reason far-sighted. It puts to utmost and highest tasks our faculty to investigate the true utility and hidden wisdom of the works of God; and in its use we possess knowledge of the Divine Existence. "Nous vivons en effet au milieu d'un systeme de choses invisibles manifestées visiblement " (J. De Maistre, "Les Soirées de St. Petersbourg "). This knowledge, in its tendency to wisdom, grasps truth, not as isolated notions or facts, but as correlated members of an organic whole.

The realities of this knowledge may seem, to those defective in spiritual insight, pale, thin, and ineffectual as Ossian's ghost

“ νεκύων ἀμενηνὰ καρηνα·”

HOMER, Odyssey, K. 521.

66

Tenues sine corpore formæ ; "

VIRGIL, Eneid, vi. 292.

but unto possessors of adequate power to discern that the wants and aspirations of spiritual nature are proof of some great reality, they will be as the light of stars shining through space, as potentialities and prophetic tokens of immortality.

Able, by our thought of time and eternity, of space, of infinitude, of progress in nature, to evolve a persuasion of the Divine Existence and of immortality; it is clear that the Supernatural is not inconsistent with the Natural, otherwise, our faculties would be in permanent confu-. sion. Indeed, we are compelled to believe in an infinite Existence; and we naturally associate even the motions of matter with some occult sensation—a life escaping our observation. This finite conception of Godhead, of Revelation and scientific teachings, must necessarily be of a human imperfect character. Owing to forgetfulness of this, materialists and unscientific theologians separate into two hostile camps.

The close investigation of nature leads to mystery, the natural conducts to the Supernatural. We perceive that all changeable limited and conditioned things are connected with a permanent infinite and unconditioned reality; that the visible universe, not being self-made in any of the parts, cannot be self-made as a whole. Our knowledge of God and persuasion of immortality, though

C

partaking of the Supernatural and miraculous, are scientific. Scientific, because the faculties by which we attain knowledge and co-ordinate it into system are the base of our every effort to rise above the finite and variable to the permanent and boundless.

We now inquire concerning that matter, or spacefilling stuff, of which things are formed. Is Matter eternal? Investigation must precede reply.

An accurate geometric mechanical basis of physical science, sufficiently comprehensive to include all that atheistic evolutionists assume for their theory, cannot be laid until we know the forms, sizes, positions of atoms, and their combinations in molecules. This realm of attainable knowledge is so immensely great that probably vast labour and time will be required for its investigation. Jevons ("Principles of Science," vol. ii. p. 452) says, “An atom of pure iron is probably a vastly more complicated system than that of the planets and their satellites." Others state that pure iron, ignited to whiteness, emits simultaneously rays of light of more than four hundred and sixty different rates of vibration. Titanium emits a much larger number. The changes produced by heat on these metallic substances are so great that (as stated in Philosophical Magazine, September, 1870) in some experiments they seem endowed with vitality. All these changes and all known substances are so inseparably related that universality of causation and universality of law are the assumed foundation of all scientific truth. Matter is also assumed to be the seat of energy-wherever matter exists, is energy-potential or active. To these laws are addedthe persistence of matter and energy, correlation of forces,