the other has had an enormous indirect influence in inoculating the Nonconformist Churches with what has come to be called Agnosticism. It is, to a greater extent than is generally recognized, the secret cause of the arrested progress of the Free Churches. Mansel's teaching, being regarded by the High Church Party as a form of atheism, the Oxford Movement was thus strengthened, and the Church of England gained a hold of the nation it had not hitherto possessed. It greatly aided in the spread of evolution and gave a new direction to Biblical criticism. Henceforth creeds and the study of systematic theology came everywhere to be spoken against. The doctrine of the Witness of the Spirit came to be gradually ignored, as it was said it tended to a morbid introspection and interfered with spiritual enjoyment. If the conscious presence of the Spirit of God in the heart is in any degree ignored, spiritual decline in the Churches becomes inevitable. Their numerical strength will only be retained, if retained at all, through the family tie and the social friendships of the members.

It is remarkable how little colleges and universities do in promoting and developing spiritual life. They are often the source from whence originates gross error. We do not mean by this to disparage these institutions, but they can never fulfil their proper vocation if the Witness of the Spirit is allowed to occupy a subordinate position in philosophy and religion. It is impossible to reconcile the real recognized experience of the Witness of the Spirit in a full, present salvation in this life, so clearly taught in the Bible, with the theories of Agnosticism and Evolution. The Bible teaches the necessity of 'growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,' but it is utterly absurd to confound such growth' with these two theories.

THE

CHAPTER XI

NATURE-EVOLUTION OR CREATION?

HE fact of the existence of matter, in all its numerous forms and variations, and of selfconscious thought itself, is universally admitted, and cannot be rationally denied.

It is, however, not sufficient for man-a born metaphysician-whose nature is thinking-reason, simply to know these facts; his great requirement is an explanation of them. Burke said, 'One fact is worth a thousand arguments'; we say, One fact explained is worth a thousand unexplained.

The business of philosophy is to explain: to give a logical explanation even of existence. To philosophize is to explain what are known merely as 'bare facts.' A man's knowledge of facts will be greater or less according to the extent of his observations. Such knowledge, however, is only superficial, but it must not be regarded as mere assumption. To assume is not to philosophize: assumption is no more than mere guessing, conjecture, or opinion. When we attempt to explain facts by assumptions we have become false to reason, false to philosophy.

Only the most superficial observer can fail to see, on reflection, that everything is connected in an essential relation with every other thing throughout the infinite totality of Being. The inorganic and organic worlds exist in a unity involving a close and

essential relation. Universal being is a concrete whole consisting of infinite particulars, and man by his very nature is compelled to ask for an explanation of the reason and cause of all these things, even of the cause of existence or the secret of life itself.

It is often declared, at the present time, that the secret of the universe is not to be found in the philosophy of creative power, wisdom and design essentially inherent in the nature of thought itself, but rather in an evolution under the blind guidance of ' natural selection.' We are compelled to ask, Evolution from what? for evolution cannot begin from nothing, from an absolute void. Even agnostic evolutionists must admit existence in manifold forms as a present fact. From what did this stupendous universe, with its astonishing varieties and wonderful harmonies, evolve? Did it evolve from matter without thought? Was it from matter in a state of firemist, or from matter in an invisible, infinitely diffused gas, or from matter in the shape of atoms and molecules? If thought has to seek, as from its very nature it is compelled to do, an intelligible cause for the start in the process of evolution, all these are utterly unintelligible beginnings. However much time, as part of infinite time, be allowed for the evolutionary processes an intelligible cause is still demanded as a reason for the start. But why should we wander aimlessly back into the infinite past, or grub and dissect in protoplasmic protoplasmic cell-germs, molecules atoms for an intelligible cause, when each man himself is in possession of thought whose absolute nature is infinite and constitutes the very highest and greatest glory man's nature can possibly possess, either here or hereafter? Since thought is, why could it not always have been? As for matter, as Dr. Stirling says, 'There are particulars in existence,

or

each for itself and as such; but matter, as matter, does not exist; it is, but it is only a universal of thought, an entity in the intellect.' The atom itself was but a thing of thought, and sensibly in existence nowhere.'

Matter as matter gives not in any way an intelligible explanation of the origin of the universe, or of thought. We cannot but regard with the greatest astonishment the fact that educated men should, so willingly and readily, without apparently much scruple, believe that thought may spring from matter, and yet be quite shocked to think or suppose that matter may spring from, or be created by, thought. It is a known fact that thought can comprehend and explain matter in its qualities as it exists in innumerable states and uses, while no one supposes that matter can, in the same way, comprehend thought, or give an intelligible explanation of its nature, operations and powers.

Yet it must be either that matter creates or blindly gives birth to thought, or that thought creates matter. We hold it is irrational to contend that matter gives birth to thought; reason rather compels the belief that thought creates matter in all its infinite manifold forms and qualities, and so compels the disbelief that thought in any way springs from or has been created out of matter, as mere matter.

A logical philosophy demands a deeper unity and identity in nature than can be found either in matter or even in gravitation, and this can only be found in Thought. Thought as thought cannot but be regarded as superior to matter as matter, and it must also be acknowledged that the latter derives all its value from the former. Indeed, the universe is nothing but a stupendous system of ideas. It does not follow that this universal bond of unity is in every different object in its externality identically the

same; here, as elsewhere, there is difference in identity, and identity in difference. Potential and Active Energy possess identity in their difference, for the entire doctrine of the transformation and conservation of energy' implies the principle of identity in difference and difference in identity. Form, matter, force and thought are all difference in identity, but thought is the eternally necessary, essential and intelligible bond of unity between matter and form; gravitation apart from thought at its root is unintelligible. To say with the agnostic that force is unknowable, or with a certain class of theologians, that it is merely an inscrutable mystery, is to cease to reason; yea, it means that man turns his back upon himself, upon his own essential spirit. This was not Paul's attitude, for he tells us that the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the depth of the Godhead or the deep things of God.' (If Paul did not mean here the Spirit of God vitally and essentially in man's spirit, then the words are totally misleading, for the Spirit, in the sense of omniscience, has no need to search.) The Spirit of God in man reveals to man the things that are freely given to us of God,' for the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man.' Reason in man cannot fully and finally renounce itself. Man may by indifference to some extent stultify the action of his own nature, but the question of the 'What' perpetually returns. What is it that What is it that gives unity to the differents? What is gravitation? What is matter in which gravitation is said to inhere? We cannot stop at merely asking questions; reason demands answers: it is the still, small voice, which may for the moment be stifled by the din of mere clamour, but never fails to reassert its divine prerogative to reign supreme. In other words, it demands a satisfactory answer of itself to itself. Merely to