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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul clich6 sont filmdes d partir de Tangle sup6rieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la m6thode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 I I "I" I _n] /?r IS THERE A GOD FOR MAN TO KNOW ? BY JAMES CARMICHAEL, D.D., aC.L. DEAN OF MONTREAL TORONTO CHURCH OF ENGLAND PUBLISHING CO., LIMITED ^/^/K^/oV^/ :T Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand nine hundred, by The Church of England Publishing Co., Limited, at the Department of Agriculture. PREFACE. In connection with this outline of a cumu- lative argument in favor of the Being of God, it need scarcely be said that the actual facts supporting each ascending step of the argument could be forcibly increased, and those given large- ly expanded. This is specially clear with regard to the first step, that of the "Universality of the Religious Idea," for every year keeps pouring in fresh facts on the subject, in favor of the position taken by the writer. His one object in present- ing so wide a subject within the limits of so small a volume, is that of gaining readers amongst those who, possessed of little time for study, are constantly hearing that it is an intel- lectual impossibility to realize anything in con- nection with the existence and Being of God. i.. 1 1 .IKU^f^ IS THERE A GOD FOR MAN TO KNOW? CHAPTER L THE argument in favor of the Being of God, taken apart from Scripture, needs re-statu- ment. This century has introduced a feel- ing of general uncertainty on the subject, and this requires to be met on the same lines as those on which the uncertainty itself is based, i.e., scientific lines. When great scientific authorities take the position that God may, or may not, exist, because the drift of scientific investigation introduces an element of uncertainty into the ordinary belief on this fundamental point, then the apologist should seek to give scientific reasons in favor of the Being of God, and, having given them, claim that the recognition of God is a reasonable necessity, based on a number of historical, physical and moral facts that can alone be fairly explained by the recognition of a Divine Being. Thus, if it be a fact that the human mind tends towards or recognizes the Supernatural, the existence of a state above and outside of what the same mind recognizes as Nature, which 6 IS THERE A GOD supernatural state is presided over by God, or gods, or spirits of good and evil antagoniHtic to each other, or possibly standing alone, and that such beings exercise an influence on the present lives and future destinies of men, and that a number of physical and moral facts bear out this tendency or recognition, and that we can account for such facts easily and naturally by the existence of a Divine Being, and by the original acknowledgment of his existence in the early hours of man's history ; then, just in pro- portion as such facts are great and far-reaching in their importance, so will the existence of a Supreme Being be reasonably arrived at. That such facts exist is undeniable, indeed their multitudinous character can alone be met by purely scientific methods of arrangement. All science is built up on gathered, arranged and classified facts, and until they are so classi- fied they are largely useless. Thus, tlvu hypo- thesis known as " The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection," is the outcome of a vast body of very cleverly classified facts, which, when studied as classified, has led a large number of able men to assert that the logical outcome of such facts is the evolution of all existing forms of life. So, in the apologetic field, there are a vast number of facts connected with the universe, the world, and man, which, FOR MAN TO KNOW? 7 lying apart from each other, give rise, each one of them, to loose, undefined thoughts as to the necessity of a Divine Being, but which, classi- fied, should increase the power of such thoughts materially. Hence the questions : Can such facts be treated scientifically ? Can they bear the test and strain of arrangement and classifica- tion ? And when arranged and classified, do they demand as a logical outcome of their arrangement the hypothesis of a living, personal God ? This latter is really the main question that the apologist of the present day has to deal with, and an afiirmative answer to this question is sought in these pages. Facts in favor of the Being o^ God may be grouped together undt r the following heads : 1st. — Facts that go to prove that the religious idea is a universal idea. By grouping these facts together, an argument may be based on them called, " The General Consent of Mankind to the Religious Idea." 2nd.— Facts relating to the origination of things fairly called " the Argument from Origin- ation." 3rd. — Facts relating to the order which is characteristic of Nature, called the "Argument from Object and Intention." 4th. — Facts relating to the moral feelings ob- servable in man, called " The Moral Argument." 8 IS THERE A GOD CHAPTER 11. ARGUMENT FROM THE GENERAL CONSENT OF MANKIND TO THE RELIGIOUS IDEA. lAN has been defined as an animal, but if so, facts definitely prove that he is a religioivs animal. He believes in the supernatural, in kind or malign spirits ; in gods, or in gods ruled over by one Supreme God ; or in God ; and all these varied aspects of belief are accompanied by a varying sense of responsibility to these external powers, which responsibility, as an almost universal rule, shows itself in acts of worship. To realize the truth of such assertions the apologist should produce the facts out of which the assertions spring, and this is here attempted to be done by classifying them under different heads. The principle of such a classification is by no means easy to settle, for philology and ethnology are yet in a fluid state. The writer has therefore adopted the principle of noting the ancient religions of ancient peoples, and then has proceeded mainly on geographical lines to note the religious idea as it evidences itself in existing heathen tribes.. .ira FOR MAN TO KNOW? 9 a plan which Mr. Herbert Spencer has adopted to the full in his Synthetic Philosophy. ARYAN OR INDO-GERMANTC RELIGIONS. It may fairly be said of all the greater divisions of the Aryan family, that belief in one God elevated above others was a marked character- istic. In the case of the ancient Afghans, and existing Veddahs, we are without full informa- tion, and consequently have no right to speak definitely. What we do know, however, entitles us to assert that they have been and are pos- sessed of the religious idea. Following the Rig Veda as voicing the religious concept amongst the early Aryans, we come in contact with a defined religion giving birth to the worship of the forces or powers of Nature under the form of Devas or Gods or " Shining Ones," the god worshipped at any one moment being regarded for that moment as the Supreme and Absolute God. Behind these gods, how- ever, was Brahman, "the Impersonal Creator," the " Universal Self- existing Lord of the Crea- tures," described in the 10th Book of the Rig Veda as " the Lord of the bright and shining gods, their sole and only life." .ULL 10 IS THERE A GOD I The Zend Avesta of Persia recognizes at the head of all things good, Ahura Mazda, " The All- knowing Lord," who dwells in the infinite luminous space, eternal and universal, everlasting and everpresent," " the Maker of the material world, the Holy One." The Celts (Irish) believed in "All Dai," or the All-God, together with "Ogma," or Ana his wife, the divine father and mother of a number of inferior deities. Reynaud claims that the ancient Celts of Wales and Gaul believed in an absolute Supreme Being called " Hesus." The Greeks believed in Zeus, the " Heaven Father," the Unseen Being who dwelt in the air " and whose temple was the sky." Tht Romans* It is plain ihat the Zeus of the Greeks and the Jupiter of the Romans were the ouogrowth of the original Aryan idea of the "Lord of the bright and shining gods." The Scandinavians* Odin, the Supreme God and All-Father of all the other Great Gods. Although the Edda of Scandinavia represents Odin as a created God, it invests him with the hirhest Divine powers. The early German Woutan and English Woden were plainly identical with the Scandinavian Odin, and the minor gods, though not as clearly identical, were likely varia- tions of the Norse deities. FOR MAN TO KNOW? 11 The Afghans* MlUler regards the Afghan dia- lect as an offshoot of the Aiyan family of lan- guages. Little is known or likely to be known of the original Afghan religion previous to the triumph of Mohammedanism, beyond the fact that their lingering superstitions with regard to charms, omens, astrology, and their worship of local saints, have led scholars to regard such superstitions as relics of their original religion, The Vcddahs, of Ceylon, are the only savage people who speak an Aryan language, and are regarded by some as a degraded group of Hindoo outcasts. As far as is known of their religicus views, all that can be said at present is that they possess the religious idea, consisting of a kind of demon worship associated with that of ancestors. Moral notions, however, lead them to regard theft, lying, or striking one another as inconceivable wrongs. The Scythians believed in a Supreme Deity, the Goddess Tahiti — goddess of the heart. The Slavs worshipped one God, the maker of the lightning, etc. The original Russian God was Perowne, the God of Thunder. Zingfari* Miiller places the Zingari dialect under the head of Aryan languages. Notwith- standing the efforts that for years have been made 12 IS THERE A GOD to arrive at a correct view of the religious belief of the Gipsies, little advance has been made. It is clear, however, that they believe in the Divine idea. SEMITIC RELIGIONS. The theistic idea is apparent in all forms of Semitic religions. Professor Tiele regards the Semitic religions as descended from a common source. He also states that all of them without a single exception understand the relation be- tween God and man as one between the Supreme Lord and King (^1 the Mighty, Baal, Bel, Adon, Malik, Sar) and his subject or slave, his client or protected one. " They are eminently theocratic and show a marked tendency to monotheism." Tiele's genealogical table covers the following religions : North Arabia, Sabsean or Himyaritic, Hebrew, Aramaean, Semitic religions of Asia Minor, Cretan and Philistine religions, Phoenician, Canaanite, Moabite and Am..ionite, Babylonian and Assyrian religions. HAMITIC. Egypt. According to de Rouge the oldest form of Egyptian religion was raised on a monotheistic foundation belief in one self-existing, self- produc- ing Supreme Being, the Creator of heaven and I FOR MAN TO KNOW? 13 earth, called Amun at Thebes, and Pthah at Mem- phis. The local deities were personifications of the Supreme Deity, and Ra the Sun-God was specially regarded as such. Most Egyptologists make a distinction between the popular aspects of belief, and those of the educated classes. In connection with the latter " the real essential unity of the divine nature was taught and insisted on." The sacred texts spoke of a Single Being " the sole producer of all things in heaven and earth, himself not produced of any," " the only true God, self-originated," of whom " even Ammon, the concealed god, was an external adumbration. This Great Being, that had no name, was a pure spirit, perfect in every respect, all wise,all mighty, supremely and perfectly good." SOUTH-EASTERN ASIATIC. China* According to Legge "the term heaven (Thien) is used everywhere in the Chinese classics for the Supreme Power, ruling and governing all the affairs of men with an omnipotent and omnisci- ent righteousness and goodness ; and this vague term is constantly interchanged in the same paragraph, not to say the same sentence, with the personal names Ti and Shang Ti." " When the Chinese would speak of the Supreme Being by a personal name, they use the terms Ti and Shang u IS THERE A GOD Ti:— saying, 'I believe what our early fathers did when they began to use the word God/ " " Ti is the name which has been employed in China for this concept for fully 5000 years." " I can no more translate Ti - Shang Ti by any other word but God, than I can translate zan by anything else but man." Japan* The ancient religion of Japan was Shinto or the Way of the Gods. The chief deity was the Sun-Goddess, of whom the Mikado was regarded as the direct descendant and repre- sentative. Yesso and Kurilc Islands. The Ainu are the aborigines of Japan residing in Yesso and Kurile Islands. The Ainu worship innumerable gods, seeing a separate deity in each phenomenon in Nature, but above all these gods towers one Great God who is the Maker of all gods, and to whom they are responsible. Their word for God is Kamui, " he " or " that which overshadows," or " he who is greatest for best or worst." I URAL ALTAIC RACES. Yafcutcs. Ten tribes on banks of Lena and Icy Sea, the pagan remnants of the Turkish family. They worship one invisible God under the differ- ent names Artogan, Shugotoygon and Sangara. They are also fetich worshippers. i*»tt FOR MAN TO KNOWl 15 Samoiedes worship Num the Creator, also fetiches. Kamschatkans worship Katchu the Creator, together with inferior gods. Ostiacks worship a Divine Being named Toruim, together with ancestors. Vogouls. A Supreme God ruling over the heavenly bodies. Buriats worship a Divine Being living in the sun, and having under his command hosts of spirits. The Finns worshipped the Sun, and the con- stellation of the Great Bear, together with a number of gods under the name lumalat, pre- eminently Ukko, the Thunder God. Fetich wor- ship was also universal. The Lapps. The Supreme God Jubmel, with secondary spirits. The Biarma worshipped the Solotta Baba or Golden Woman, also spirits of fire, water, etc. The Votiacks. The Supreme God Jumar, liv- ing in the Sun, also spirits of fire, air, water, etc. The Mofduines. The God Jumi-shapas. The Tscheremisses. The God Jumala. The Esquimat-x. The Arctic religions recog- nize the existence of Tornarsuk, the Supreme God, also inuas or governing spirits of the world, 16 IS THERE A GOD and guardian spirits called Tornat, ruling air, fire, etc. Bruton states that " the Esquimaux say that a man consists of three parts, his body, his soul and his name." AUSTRALIA. Northwest Of Pine Plain Tribes believe in One Great Father who loves and makes. New Nufsia (Western Australia), an Omni- potent Being, Creator of heaven and earth, called Motogon. Namoi Ti'i1)es worship Biarraa, the Creator. Murray River Tribes. An immortal being self-created and Creator called Nourali. Larr akia Tribe (Port Darwin) believes in Man- garra dwelling in the stars, the Creator of white races, and in the Good Spirit Naugaburra, who dwells in the bowels of the earth, the Creator of black races. Dieyerie Tribe (North of Adelaide), worships Mooramoora, the Good Spirit who created man out of black lizards. In some cases the Moon is regarded as Creator. Cape River Tribes believe in Boorala the Creator. Kurnai Tribes (S.E. Australia), believe in a Great Being called Mungan (Our Father) who I 4 FOI? MAN TO KNOWi 17 came down to earth and instructed men and ascended to the sky, where he now remains. The Wolgfal and N8:afcto Tribes believe in Daramulun or Tharamulun, the Supreme Spirit who reveals himself only to men. When he is spoken of his title is not given, but he is whisper- ed of as " He," or " the Man," or " the Name I told you of." The women worship Tharamulftn under the title Papang — our Father. Queensland Tribes believe in a Superior Spirit that lives above, ruling over inferior spirits. Central and "Western Tribes believe in a Su- preme Being, but the people are very reticent, and travellers find it hard to obtain information as to his character, etc. "Southwest Tribes. Belief in Boolya the Spirit. The Tasmanians. The Tasmanians are very reticent as to their religious views. Milligan states that they believe in guardian angels and spirits, and in powerful evil spirits inhabiting caverns ; of these latter a few are supposed to possess great power. He heard a Tasmanian ascribe his deliverance from accident to the preserving care of his. father's spirit. Tasmanians converse with the spirits of the dead but never repeat their names. Mr. Clarke, a catechist, claims that the greater part of them believe in li^e after death, and some showed him the stars where they were 2 18 /S THERE A GOD to go to ; others claim that they will go to an island where their forefathers came from, and there they will be turned into white people. New Guinea (or Papua). The inhabitants believe in a good spirit, and in a cruel and vindic- tive spirit. They also believe in heaven as a place of plenty, and in hell as a place of perpetual famine. They regard the soul as distinct from the body, and claim that it leaves the body dur- ing dreaming. The System of Taboo is generally observed. New Zealand* The Maori mythology is an elaborate one, heaven and earth giving birth to six gods, ruling over the forces of nature and the destinies of men. Solomon, Bank, New Hebrides, Loyalty Is- lands, etc* The chief deities of these islands are Qate, the Creator and Marawa. In San Christoval a female of snake form called Vigona is regarded as the creator of all things and worshipped. The Ataros, or spirits of the great dead are worship- ped, and those who have lately died have more power in answering prayer than those long dead. The natives of "^ easury and Shortland islands believe in a good spirit who lives in a happy land whither all men who have lived good lives go after death, the wicked being transported to the Crater of Bagana, the home of the great evil spirit. FOR MAN TO KNOIV? 19 Fiji Islands* The Fijians believe in gods as beings of like passions with man. Strong belief in a religious future. Tahiti. Captain Cooke found that the natives worshipped a number of gods, believed in im- mortality of the soul, and in degrees of happiness hereafter from chiefs downwards. Friendly or Tonga Islands* Same belief as in Tahiti. Micronesia* This title covers the Ladrone, Gil- bert, Marshall, Anson, Magellan groups. The religious beliefs are related to those in Polynesia, gods are recognized but the worship of ancestors is the popular worship. The Caroline Islanders are definite idolaters. Sawaiori* This title covers islands of Samoa, Hawaii, Cooke and Society, the aborigines of which worship the Supreme God Tangaroa as the uncreated Father of all gods, and Creator of all things. He is called Taaroa by the Tahitians and by the western islanders Tangaroa. Sumatra* The typical race of this island is the Battaks. They acknowledge one Superior God under the title Dibali Assl, Assi, and a Trinity of great gods supposed to have been created by him, who in their turn delegate to inferior gods the rule of the world. In some »MHUIM!W>II 20 IS THERE A GOD parts of the island the natives believe in Dewas to whom sacrifices are offered. Borneo* The aboriginal Dyaks worship one Supreme God, ipu, and offer sacrifices of animals and fruits, and sometimes human beings to subor- dinate deities. The Melanow tribe add to the wor- .ship of ipu that of the worship of a beautiful female spirit called Balu Adad, who conducts the souls of the departed to an eternal world just like this, having rivers, trees, crops, etc. Schwaner states " that the Dyaks are utter slaves to their reli- gion," that it enters into every act of their lives. The natives of Southern Borneo assign to their supreme divinity Atala a home in the highest heaven, on the shore of the celestial lake, moved by the moon and surrounded by the sun. The creator is Tupa the forger, one who makes as a forger, forges a spear blade. Tcnembcf or Timor Laitt. The inhabitants believe in a Divine Being called Duadilah, whose image is on every house, and carried on the person. Madag:ascar. The Malagasy worship a Divine Being whom they call Andriamanitra — the fra- grant one, and Zanshary the creator. Celebes* What remains of paganism amongst the aborigines recognizes a Divinity called Kaeren ",,.(r-v«?i FOR J\fAN TO KNOW? 21 Lov^, who has power over the health and life of the body. Andaman and Nicobar* According to E. H. Marr, the inhabitants of these islands believe in an immortal, omniscient and invisible being called " Palugo," who lives in the sky, who created all things, pities those in pain and distress, and affords relief. In Car Nicobar belief in a per- sonal Satan is clear and defined. The Minco- pies believe in the existence of numerous spirits, self- created and undying, who punish sin. ABORIGINAL TRIBES OF INDIA, ETC. According to the General Report of the Census of India for 1891 the forest and hill tribes number 15,922,000, although but 9,280,- 000 are returned under the tribal form of religion. This arises from the accommodating nature of Brahmanism, which makes in many cases but small demands on those who change their faith, leading many who are merely Animistic heathen to be classed as Brah- mans. The 9,280,000 may therefore be re- garded as untinctured by Brahmanism. 1'he report classes the hill and forest religions under the head of Animism, or, according to Tiele, belief in " the existence of souls or spirits of which only the powerful acquire the rank of 22 IS THERE A GOD Divine Beings and become objects of worship. These spirits are conceived as moving freely through earth and air, and doing so either of their own accord, or because conjured by some spell, and thus under compulsion appearing to' men (Spiritism). But they may also take up their abode either permanently or temporarily in some object, whether lifeless or living it matters not; and this object as endowed with higher power is then worshipped or employed to protect individuals or communities. Spiritism must be carefully distinguished from Fetichism, but can only rarely be separated from it." The Lepchas of the Himalayas believe in the direct influence of good and evil spirits, but con- fine worship largely to the latter, on the principle that the good spirits are harmless. The Singfphos* A Supreme Creator, God or Nhat, named Shingrawak, from whom they fell away, and in three spirits or Nhats. The Abof and Mkis. Gods dwelling in trees. The Kotas worship ideal gods, named but not represented by images. The Kukfs believe in Puthen, the Supreme God, creator, governor, rewarder, and his wife Nongjar, who intercedes with her husband on behalf of worshippers. I \ FOR MAN TO KNOW? 23 The Buiyas and Savaras worship Boram, a benevolent sun god, and the Goddess Thakurani. The Santals and Hos worship Sing Bonga, the creator of the world and maker of the universe, together with inferior deities and spirits. Marang Burnu, or the Great Mountain, is invoked for rain, and the Santals worship the tiger demon. The Juangs are said not to possess any idea of a future life. The Kofkus worship aun and moon, bison god, and tiger god. The Bhcels worship Bhillet, a hill god, and inferior Hindu gods. Kafirs of Hindu Kush. Imbra, Supreme God, with Mani as mediator. Also inferior spirits originally earthly heroes. Khonds« Some worship Burra Pennu, the sun, creator and benefactor, others his wife Tari, the earth goddess, who demands annual offerings of human victims. A prayer of the Khonds reads, "O Lord, we know not what is good for us ; thou knowest what it is. For it we pray." The Ghonds. Khodo Pen, god of the rice fields, and Bhagwan, the great spirit, together with the bell god, chain god, etc., deified heroes, spirits, fetiches. The Shans (Burmah and Siam). The Shans are nominally Buddhists, but worship a divine :l .' 24 /S THERE A GOD being called Phy" Then, and propitiate Nhats or spirits by sacrifice. A female incarnation of deity, the Nang Tim, is found in some of the Siamese villages. The Steins (South-east Asia) recognize a divine being called Br^, also evil beings, who send disease, and believe in Nhats or spirits. Thf; Red Karens worship a superior being called Tie, but the general worship is rendered to Nhats, by prayers, offerings and sacrifices. AFRICAN RELIGIONS. Generally, with regard to all negro heathen, Oldendorp asserts, "they possess a universal belief in the existence of God ; that he did not know of a tribe which did not believe in a God, and had not given him a name. Together with their superior deity they believe in a number of in- ferior gods, mediators between the Great God and men. Pra>er is universal and of a very direct and personal character." De Quatrefages states, " from Cape Verde to Cape Lopez on the Atlantic Coast of Africa, the inhabitants believe in a Supreme God, the Creator, to whom petitions, thanks and prayers are addressed, and in a hierarchy of inferior gods who make the various fetiches their abode." FOR MAN TO KNOW? 25 Hottentots* This race originally worshipped the "Red Dawn," but Ha,hn claims a higher wor- ship behind, i.e., that of Tsuni Goam, the great captain or " Wounded Knee." Ancestor worship, belief in influence of spirits, value of charms, witch doctors is universal. Kolben states that they believe in a God of gods and an evil spirit. Hahn also mentions that Homi, the high heaven who pours the rain, blows the wind and sends heat and cold on earth, is worshipped. The Zulus worship Unkulunkula — the old, old one, the Creator of the world — ancestor wor- ship common. Colenso states that the Zulus re- cognize the existence of a double heart, or strife of flesh and spirit, Ugovana urging them to hate, kill and steal, and Unembeza inciting them to leave all evil. The Kaffirs. The Basutos believe in Morena — the intelligent Being who is above, who reveals himself in dreams and is felt spiritually. They worship Molimas or household gods ; believe in another life in another world situate in the centre of the earth and called " the abyes that is never filled." Colenso claims that the Kaffirs worship Unkulunkula, and that this word in varying forms is used all along the Eastern coast of Africa. The Bachapine Kafiirs recognize an evil being called Moulumo, and the Kosas Kaffirs a Supreme Being called Ulunga (supreme), sometimes Uliks, 26 AS* THERE A GOD 111 (beautiful). They believe also in the immortality oi the soul, a Providence, use of prayer, and invocation of ancestors. Bakalahariy Bechuanas, Bakwains. Living- stone states that there is no need oS telling even the most degraded amongst these tribes of the existence of a Grod, or of a future state, the facts being universally admitted. Everything that can- not be ascribed to a common cause is ascribed to divine working. " How curiously God made these things," is a common expression. Speak- ing of the dead they say, " he is gone to the gods." They claim that they held all their views as to God, sin, etc., before they heard of a white man. Bosjesmans or Bushmen^ De Quatref ages claims that the Bosjesmans are fully entitled to be re- cognized as religious. They believe in the god Cagn and pray to him, and Black collected among them thousands of tales concerning their gods in relation to men and animals. Balandat Barotse» and Eastern Tribes* Living- stone claims that the nations of the Eastern Provinces have a clear idea of a Supreme Being, the Maker and Governor of all things, named, according to varying dialects, Morimo or Molungo, or Reza, or Mpambe, etc. ?f-p ■mni FOR MAN TO KNOW? 27 G>]>gfo. The natives worship a god called Nzambi, together with idols. Angfola* The Quisarama tribe believe in one Supreme Being, together with inferior gods, spirits, ancestors ; Azoon the house protector, Bo the god of war, etc. Dahomey* Ophiolitry, or serpent worship, worship of sun, moon, leopard and crocodile. Fetich worship universal. Ashangfo Land* The Goumbi and other tribes believe in the power of gods, worship idols, spirits, fetiches. The Camaroons worship the Sun God. The Fans* Actual religion not known, but evidence of ceremonial observances of a religious character reasonably apparent, such as dedication of infants and method of cannibal feasting. Fclotips, Bainunkas, observe a strange symbolic system of idolatry, the idols teaching spiritual lessons. A solid stone idol signifies rooted relig- ion ; an idol covered with soft mud indicates religion guarded by tender feelings ; sticks stuck into mud, steadfastness and devotion of personal religion ; heart-shaped shells signify that religion fihould dwell in the heart ; and blood poured out» purification from sin. The Papals worship an idol called Chine. 28 IS THERE A GOD The Zapcs, Foulis. Supreme Being and idols. The BuIIums^ Bagfoes, worship wooden idols, fetiches. Shilooks worship Divine trees or unhewn up- right stones. Central Africa. The twelve tribes on the shores of Lake Tanganyeka have a general idea of the existence of one All-powerful Being ruling over spirits, etc. The Bantus worship spirits, and believe in a future life like this, burying pipe, bow and arrows, etc., with the dead. Mashonland. A supreme spirit or god called Muali ; ancestor worship, the ancestors acting as intercessors between the worshippers and Muali. RELIGIONS OF AMERICA. Professor Tiele regards all the religions of North and South America, " apart from the Arctic nations as closely allied, sevfiral myths and religious customs being characteristic of distant tribes on both continents. Fetichism and idolatry are not strongly developed. The Redskins of North America, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, possess in common the worship of the Great Spirit under different names, Kdtche, Manitoo, Wahcon[da]," etc., whilst the religions of the more Southern parts vary. m w^^mmrnmrmtk FOR MAN TO KNOW? 29 CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES, CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. Algonquin. Kitanitowet, the Great Wonder Maker, and Manibosha, the Deceiver, and the Great Thunder Bird. Wyandot Iroquois. Tarahiawagon, the holder of the heavens, or Rawenigo, our Great Father, and Heno, the Thunder God. Dakotah or Sioux. The Sun God and Oonk- tayhee, gods of vital energy, and the Takoosh Kanokau, or controlling gods. Stony Indians. A good and evil spirit, sun dances, etc. Pawnee. The god Morning Star and a media- tor bird sent by him. Appalachian. Issakita Emmissi, the master of life and holder of breath, and minor gods. Crees. Good and evil spirits, thirst and fasting dances. Blackfcet. The "great above medicine per- son," and Mapi, " old man," the creator. The Tinneh or Athabascan. Tihugan, " my old friend," the good spirit living in tht sun, Chutsain the evil spirit, and minor spirits called Nanteena. The Loucheux branch recognize a divine being living in the moon, to whom they pray for success in hunting. l-*^ 30 IS THERE A GOD Komagfas* Shljam Schoa, chief deity, Eyak the evil deity, minor spirits. Aleuts* A creator god of stoic nature, with spirits (Kugan) under him to whom the direction of earthly affairs is committed. Temporary idols carried from place to place during December dances in connection with mysteries sacred to women and men ; while these dances are in progress the spirit is supposed to enter. Masks are worn lest the spirit should be seen, as to look on him would cause death. Haidahs* A great solar spirit, creator and ruler. Also the raven god, evil spirit, minor spirits and goblins. Thicnkcets* A mysterious being in the back- ground of belief called Khanukh. Also Yehl, the creator or raven god, possessed of human attributes, eternal in past and future. Nootkas* Quahootze, the great supreme who lives in the sky. Also a supernatural teacher called the " Copper Man," and Matloose the evil spirit. Northwest Tribes. Yetl, the creator, a raven who is personated in the dark thunder cloud. Ahts, Sun (male), moon (female), deities to whom prayer is made; Quahootze the creator, and Tootooch the great thunder bird. FOR MAN TO KNOW? 31 Okanagans. The good spirit called Eleme- humkillan waste or Scappe, to whom prayer is made. The evil spirit is called Chacha. Salish Tribes. The sun the supreme deity, ruling over spirits. Chinooks. Ikanam the creator of the universe, and Italapas the creator of man. Also an evil spirit, a fire spirit and familiar spirits. Shoshones. Evil spirits called ninumbees, and water spirits of evil called pahonas. Ncveda and Utah. A great kind spirit. G>manchcs. A great father god and mother god. Moque. Matevil the creator. Omahas* Thunder god and Wakanda and fetiches. Californian Tribes. The "old man" or the "great man above." This belief passes down the coast in varying fojms till we meet the Alchones, a coast tribe between San Francisco andMontcray, where the " old man " is identified with the sun. Acagfchemcn Nations. Ouiot the " great cap- tain," the oflfspring of heaven and earth ; Chinig- chinich the creator, and the mountain god Touch. Perictics. Niparaya, the "almighty and in- visible one," the creator of earth and sea, and 32 IS THERE A GOD Anayecoyondi his wife, and the evil god Wac or Tuparan. Navajos. Wnaillahay, a good deity, and Chinday, the evil one. Pueblo. A great and good spirit whose name is too sacred to be mentioned. Montezuma is regarded by some Pueblo tribes as equal with this great spirit, by others as inferior. The sun is also worshipped and minor divinities of good and evil. Upper California, Northwest Tribes believe in a great god who in anger for the sins of the tribes gave over the first men to certain evil powers, of whom Kalicknatick, a huge bird, was the most powerful. Mexican Tribes believed in Teotl, an omnipot- ent and invisible god; in Tezcatlapoca, the creator and god of providence, and his rival Quetzalcoatl, the maker of man and god of merchandise. The Zunis. (Sedentary) of New Mexico be- lieve that Awonawilona, the creator, conceived within himself and thought outward in space. Tribes Adjoining Mexico* The deer god or lion snake, and the deer goddess or tiger snake, the father and mother of all gods. Nicaragftia* Tamagostal and Cipatoral, male and female supreme deities and joint creators. RP if\ FOR MAN TO KNOIV? 33 Papagfo Country. The great spirit and the hero god J^IoT^tezuma, together with the coyote or prairie wolf. Fimas* Chiowotmahke the creator who spun the world out of himself. Moquis. A great father living where the sun lises, and a great mother who gave birth to nine races of original men. Semaloas. A number of spirit gods. The Tahus, a bianch of this family, are serpent-wor- shippers. Cholchimis. One Supreme God, reigning over inferior gods. Los Angfclcs. Quor, the creator. Columbia* The God Nemterqueteba. Guiana. A Divine Being called Wacinaci, " Our Father; " or Wamurreticwonci, the creator; or Aiomunkondi, the dweller on high ; together with a number of evil spirits. The Caribs. The Great Father, called Tamosi Kabotans, and the evil spirit Yurokon. Peru and Bolivia. The worshipping of sun, moon and evening star. Patagfonians. One Supreme God, or good spirit, who made the Indians first, then animals ; also belief in an evil spirit, Gualychu. This belief is held by the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, T*" 34 IS THERE A GOD many of the Brazilian tribes, and those about the Orinoco River. The Tchuelches of Patagonia relate that the Creator first moulded men and all animals on " the Hill of God " and then set them loose to people the earth. The Yahgans of Terra del Fuego observe a rigid ceremonial law touching religious belief and practice. The following conclusions may be drawn from the foregoing enquiry : 1st. — That the religious idea is as widespread as man himself. 2nd. — That belief in one Supreme God, or a marked tendency towards such belief, is the leading characteristic of the Aryan, Semitic, Egyptian and Ural Altaic branches of the humjin family, and of the continents of Africa and America. 3rd. — That whilst Animism is largely char- acteristic of the aboriginal races of India and of the Mai ay- Polynesian races, belief in one Great Spirit or Divine Being, or in God as Creator, or in a solar god, is also markedly noticeable amongst not a few races. 4th. — That the idea of a Supreme Being is the most widespread characteristic of the varied faiths of the human family. So much so that if we could fancy a consultation of all the faiths of the earth to promulgate a universal creed, the common starting point of agreement would FOR MAN TO KNOWl 35 naturally be belief in Gofl as a Divine power behind gods, spirits of good and evil, worship of deified ancestors or heroes, or worship of idols or images. In other words, the strongest and most widespread characteristic of belief round which differing views would naturally crystallize would be belief in God. OBJECTIONS. To the foregoing list of religions, or any list of a like, though more extended nature, that may be hereafter made, it is objected that whilst such lists may show that the tendency towards Monotheism is widespread, such a form of evidence cannot prove it to be universal as long as Fetichism, Buddhism and isolated cases of tribal atheism can be produced, as testifying to positive non-belief, or to ideas of worship so de- graded as to lie outside of the religious idea altogether. The objection seems at first sight in every way reasonable, for it must freely be confessed that our present state of knowledge as to the exact particulars of the faiths of many tribes is naturally limited, and what we do know is always open to revision. Spite of this, however, the objection is capable of being reasonably answered. f 36 IS THERE A GOD Fi^rnciiisM. Ap to Fetich ism, it is clear that it could no more exist apart from the positively divine or spiritualistic idea, than Christianity could exist apart from Christ, for the reason that " Fetichism takes deity for granted," being in many cases associated with a clear cut belief in one Supreme God, and always with the recognition of some divine power. A fetich may be anything — stones, twigs, feathers of birds, etc., selected by an individual about to eflfect some work, and which he promises to worship as a god if his work prove successful. Success in the work makes the fetich a god ; failure leaves it what it was previous to selection. But there must be belief in god or gods in the mind of the individ- ual that selects ; in other words, the divine con- cept must exist behind that of the fetich, other- wise there could be no realization of the fetich itself as a power. Lubbock states that Fetichism " takes deity for granted ; " Miillei', " that it pre- supposes an earlier stage in which the name and concept of something divine, the predicate of every fetich was formed. It would be fatal," he says, " to any system of a priori reasoning if it placed Fetichism before that phase of belief in the development of human thought which is represented by the first formation of divine con- cepts. It would be a real hysteron-proteron." J.-^!^.^ -» FOJi MAN TO KNOW? 37 % 'i 1 I Codrington states " that the Melanesians believe that the souls of the dead act through bones, while the independent spirits (Vui) choose stones as their medium, and t^at these objects are, as it were, limbs or members of these incorporeal powers." Not only are the above, opinions necessarily correct, but such correctness is prov- ed by the fact that in countries where Fetichism is most powerful it forms a part of religious systems rather than a solitary belief. There is no part of the world where Fetichism is more universal than in Africa amongst the negroes, and yet it is in Africa that we find it intimately associated with far nobler beliefs, as in Ashango Land and Dahomey, where, although Fetichism is fully practised, belief in gods presiding over different aspects of life and governing the affairs of men, is universal. So far, then, from Fetichism operating against the view that mankind tends toward Monothe- ism, it is one of the strongest evidence of the higher phase of religious thought, — the Divine. The devoted fetich-worshipper mentally brings divinity into the commonest as well as the greatest acts of his life. He regards it as something always present, and ready to trans- fer itself into some lowly object that can be carried on his own person and become his own property, so that he, in hunting, fishing, fighting, 38 IS THERE A GOD has God either with him, or so clearly his pro- perty that he can return, if successful, to the very spot where he left the fetich, and there render it grateful praise. BUDDHISM. The objection that Buddhism destroys the general consent of man to the divine idea arises from a warped view of the doctrines of the sys- tem, and from ignoring existing facts. Judged as a doctrinal system, Buddhism omits a self- existent and eternal God out of its defined belief, but it certainly recognizes the divine idea, speak- ing of " the world of the gods," " the envy of the gods," towards those who are awakened, the " praise of the gods " freely given to the wise and virtuous, and the existence of a being super- ior to the gods called " Brahman," — *' even the gods praise him, (the wise man,) he is praised even by Brahman." It also recognizes the ex- istence of gods (Dewas) and Brahma's, who shall abide, after all knowledge of the doctrines of Buddha shall have disappeared from the earth. It is true that these gods may themselves be beings of limited powers, but as compared with man, they are of a divine order even as he is of an earthly order. Then existing facts ariring out of the religion itself, so far from making against the general consent of mankind to the divine FOR MAN TO KNOW? 39 idea, add powerfully to its force. In one sense the idea of one great God was originally absent from Buddhism ; its presentation of religiondid not crystallize around a definite theistic idea; indeed as contrasted with Brahmanism it " substituted the merit of a good life for that of cult, theolog- ical lore, or asceticism." Hence if any religion ought to have produced an abiding atheistic, system, Buddhism ought to have done so, and yet the very reverse is the case. Whatever the personal views of Sakya Muni were on the sub- ject of a Divine Being, atheistic or othsx^wise, one thing is certain that his silence with regard to the matter was an unnatural silence that could not be maintained. The tide of man's mind runs Godward, and continued silence on such a subject seems impossible, and, in connection with Buddhism, it brought its own natural re- action in the apotheosis of him who ordained the silence, for unquestionably apart from any theological definil^ion, Sakya Muni has become the god of Buddhism. " The founder received the honor of apotheosis at the hands of his dis- ciples; miracles were attributed to him," his "simple ritual" was " enriched ; finally, gorgeous temples and shrines were erected over his relics, and all kinds of legends clustered round his per- son; he was regarded as the Sinless and Omnis- cient One, and as such was openly and earnest! v 40 IS THERE A GOD worshipped." In fact, Buddhism is one of the strongest evidences we possess in favor of the necessity of belief in God, for in it we find the existence of a personal god ignored or dropped out of sight, and in time the millions swinging out of such a dangeroiis position into a vigorous belief in gods, of which the founder of the reli- gion is the chief god. TRIBAL ATHEISM. The objection of Sir John Lubbock and others that there are tribes which have no religious beliefs depends wholly on the evidence furnished in favor of the objection ; and if Sir John Lub- bock's evidence is subjected to the verification of the q aotations on which his evidence is based, it will be found that of all authorities on this subject he is least reliable. One wonders how so admirable a writer on other subjects could ever have grouped together such a number of partial and misj^uidinr^ quotations, almost every quo- tation, if increased by its context, proving the very opposite of that which the writer uses the quotation to prove. His errors plainly arise from "that peculiar blindness which all stu- dents know is apt to fall on the eyes of one striving to gather material to support a theory. In such cases, as the eye runs down page after page of close print, seeking for a W7f BM«.w,WB~T,-Tf~..t-^.„-;.-,T^V. J^OJ? MAN TO KNOW? 41 scrap of information here or there, it naturally selects the sentence favorable to the theory, and pasties over or does not see unfavorable senten- ces that positively neutralize the quotation as given." But such a method of gaining infor- mation is palpably unscientific, being calculated to give a partial view of the point at issue, whatever that may be. If Sir John Lubbock, in the hurry of a busy life, has not fsllen under this common temptation^ then one knows not how to explain the extraordinary fact that one of the keenest minds in the English scientific world has so persistently left undone what he ought to have done, and done what he ought not to have done, as he gave to the public quotations from other writers. The fact is, that there is nothing harder to prove than the position that any one tribe is devoid of the religious idea, because what may seem this year strong evidence in favor of the position may be wiped clean out of the advo- cate's brief by the information on hand next year. This is ceaselessly occurring, and the tide of ever- accumulating information is wholly against the non-religious position. Some years ago the '* black list " contained the names of the Calif ornian Indians, the Five Nations of Canada, the Hudson Bay Tribes of Canada, Solomon and Caroline Islanders, Andaman and Nicobar I 42 IS THERE A GOD Islanders, Lepchas of North India, Baehapine Kaffirs and Hottentots of Africa, New Zealand- ers, Eskimo, Fuegians ; but now these names are justly erased, for it is fairly proved that all these tribes have religions, and some of them elaborate systems of religion. Darwin, depend- ent on his partial knowledge of the Fuegians, placed them almost below the level of animals. Later investigations, however, tell a very differ- ent story. Lieutenant Masters asserts that the Fuegians acknowledge one Supreme God or spirit, and Captain Fitzroy defines the belief more accurately as " belief in a just God," and states that the Tagan dialect consists of about 30,000 words, far beyond the number of words in the ordinary vocabulary of an English laborer. Captain Parker Snow describes the Fuegians as beautiful representatives of the human race, whilst Prof. Virchow protests strongly against the idea of their being an in- ferior race. The testimony of De Quatrefages on the general question of the irreligion of savages is well worthy of notice, as coming from one whose life work entitled him to speak with authority. " Obliged, in the course of my instructions, to review all human races, I have sought atheism in the lowest as well as in the highest. I have nowhere met with it except in individuals, or in t d with each other as to create what may fairly he called "a rei^n of law," we seem forced to admit that so far from such laws being originators, they themselves must have been originated. INTENTIONAL CREATION. We seem thus fairly shut up to the conclusion that the world, and inferentially the universe, must have been originated intentionally, and consequently that Mind and Power must have existed behind origination. In one sense such a mind must be unthinkable., for we have not the faintest idea how a universe could have been originated, but the very fact of the existence of a duly balanced universe leads us naturally to place Mind behind Force and Matter, and Natural Law, and everything. The extent, scope, power, etc.,of such mind may also be unthinkable, but the idea is not so ; it rises naturally within our minds as the least strained explanation of the ori2i:in of material things. Further, this mental power may fairly be regarded as the working not of many minds, but of one mind, be- cause all we know of the universe goes to prove that it is at unity with itself. It is not a mad chaos of land, and water, and air, a universe of * T"- ' I W J * " ' — -- 60 IS THERE A GOD wild material contradictions and paradoxes ; but an ordered, arranged and balanced universe. It seerna to teach what an old record teaches with regard to it, that one Voice said, "let (things) be," and " they were." Indeed, so orderly is it that science wholly apart from religion has coined the expression that testifies to that order, " The Laws of Nature." Here then we can see a reason why the relig- ious idea is universal and tends towards Mono- theism. Such a Mind — capable of thinking out the creation of a universe, of instituting laws of creation and sustentation — must in the nature of things be so far removed above all human ideas of mentality as to present to our minds that of a Divine mind — omniscient, omnipresent, omni- potent — a mind of which the human mind may be a reflection, but one as far above the human mind as the human mind itself is capable of conceiving. ^^Ms^ FOK 'AN TO KNOW? W CHAPTER IV. THE ARGUMENT FROM OBJECT AND ORDER IN ORIGINATED THINGS. rr\HLS ar^^umeut deals with all nature as we I know it, and claims that its most striking characteristics are object and order, and that as object and order cannot reasonably be disconnected from the working of an intelligent mind, nature as a whole must be the offspring of the highest order of intelligence. Of course, this argument does not claim to be free from isolated aspects of nature that seem to contradict it. Such apparent contradictions crop up here and there for the plain reason that the secrets of nature yet to be mastered are far more than those already known. All that the argument can claim is, that everything in nature m far as nature is known to us, is, because it was intend- ed to be what it is. The argument does not touch the methods whereby this Intelligent In- tention performed its work, it only deals with results as they appear to us— results which seem to prove object and order. In using the word " object " the argument claims that such results imply aim and purpose, an end in view. In 52 IS THERE A GOD using the word " order," the argument claims that nature teems with objects that must not only have had a purpose of their own given to them, but that such objects furnish evidence of intelligent harmony between themselves and other objects of a wholly different nature. In short, the argument draws its life r^ot only from nature as a whole, but from the n. «5*^ intricate workings of nature, microscopy furnishing it with material as woll as astronomy. INORGANIC NATURE. There are few things that imply intelligence more clearly than a correct appreciation of " weights and measures." It is easy to speak of standards of length, units of mass, units of weight, but when we remember that such things are intimately connected with temperature and atmosphere, and that correct views with regard to them require a special study, the need of in- telligence for a due understanding of such things becomes very apparent, and as the principle of weights and measures is ingrained in the very constitution of nature, the implication of intel- lisrence behind that constitution is a decisive im- plication. Thus all matter can be reduced at least to some sixty-five or more elements; each element is composed of ultimate atoms, the atom of each element has its own distinctive weight, all atoms ^,aiS,^ .■Tft-X^. — FOJi MAN TO KNOlVi 53 of any one element being of the same weight. This is proved by the fact that the proportions in which bodies combine with each other depend upon the weight of the individual atoms which make them up, and so constant is this combining ratio or proportion that no known chemical change can alter it, the whole amount of the com- bining power apparently having been ordered beforehand. Thus water is always composed of oxygen and hydrogen and nothing else, and the proportions in which tiiese elements are present are sixteen parts of oxygen and two parts of hydrogen, and so on with the ultimate atoms of all elements, each according to its combining proportion. For these reasons the late J. Clarke Maxwell stated " that each atom throughout the universe bears impressed upon it the stamp of a metric system," etc.; Sir John Herschell, " that atoms have the essential character of manufac- tured articles," and Dalton states " that nature has, as it were, made up the different elementary bodies into parcels of fixed weight, which is the same for each parcel of the same element." The atom consequently becomes in nature a most important thing, for if chemically we could reduce this world to its original elements, and the elements to the atoms composing them, we would find the arrangements in connection with the weight of different kinds of atoms a perfect 54 JS THEJiE A GOD arrangement. And this perfection of arrange- ment is clearly seen in chemical combination, when it is viewed from the standpoint of animal and vegetable life, for if the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere were mixed in differ- ent proportions to those existirg, death would reign universally. Thus the atom, an unseen mass of matter, is intimately connected with things greater than itself, as a world is connected with the universe. Now one may ask, how was a fundamental ar- rangement such as this, which in its effects tells on ail life, brought a^out ? One can no more regard it as the result of chance than one can regard the medicine, carefully compounded by a chemist, under the directions of a medical pre- scrij)tion, the result of chance, for in each case everything either is, or seems to have been care- fully weighed by skilled hands. Nor is it pos- sible to conceive such a delicate arrangement brought about through what might be regarded as "a natural selection" of atoms, for from the very beginning each atom must have possessed the same weight that it possesses to-day. Hence atom;s clearly require an atom weigher, a mind behind them. " We are small," they say, " infini- tesimal, but we compose the world, worlds ; the universe ; and we do so by rule, behind us there must be a ruler." ■< ir'm^*''f^y!-f \ ^mismi FOR MAN TO KNOW? 55 From tliestu ly of the infinitesimal atom, we may rise to the .study of the solar system, which is composed of arranged atoms, and an arrange- ment so perfect with reference to correspondence, shape, weight, forces of right intensity and direction meeting together to produce necessary results, tliab one feels dazed at the mere concep- tion of the mental power which must lie behind such arrangements, for, although such results have clearly been brought about by the action and interaction of various laws, all the necessi- ties of the coming order, beauty and fitness must have been mentally figured before the laws were brought into action to produce them. Thus the sun as a material body possesses a certain bulk weight, and on that weight depends the force of its attractive power, and as a consequence the unity and order of the whole planetary system. If the bulk wer. different from what it is, its attractive power less or more, if the centrifugal and centripetal forces were not balanced, the one correcting the otlier, the planets would fly off into space, and what is called the solar system would cease to be. But these calculations, arrangements and col- locations of atoms cannot be confined to our planetary system, for ours is but one of countless systems in which planets revolve round suus, and yet of other systems in which suns revolve 5G IS THERE A GOD round greater suns, and pOH^ibly of one united empire system revolving round one mighty cen- tral sun, or central point of created attraction as yet undeduced. But no one of the countless systems which revolve round their respective suns is anything more than an arrangement of ultimate atoms, each separate atom bearing on it, as it were, the stamp of a metric system, and all combined resulting in the overwhehning empire of magnificence which we call the universe. Further, within this great field of the universe, the united voice of all natural phenomena re- sponds to the demands of the severest mathe- matics as, for instance, in the case of eclipses. Step by step the astronomer forecasts the date of the eclipse, predicts its magnitude, duration, and phases, calculates the motion of the shadow, and prepares charts exhibiting the motion — in short, enables the public to know the history and moment of the eclipse long before the event takes place. Now this mathematical certainty CQ the part of the astronomer arises solely from the mathematical certainty that rules the heaven- ly bodies; the earthly figures and calculations are but the language of the spheres themselves translated by human mind and brought within the area of human appreciation. The translation is perfect but only because the original speech is perfect — the language of a universe, the voice ^m^ ■"'——*-*-' - -«»"^»-"*aan" FOR MAN TO KNOIV? 57 of order. Hence, if it be acknowledged that the term " mathematics " covers some of the grandest eftbrts of human intelligence, and that it unques- tionably requires a superior mind to appreciate the science, and if it be further acknowledged that the universe, as far as we know of it, is so mathe- matically formed, arranged and ordered, that it furnishes the noblest field for the highest type of human mind to exeicise itself in, then it stands to reason that the universe which is arranged mathematically must have resulted from mind joined with power, and that each must have been proportionate to the im- mensity and sph'ndor of the universe itself. In- organic Nature cannot realize or work out a mathematical problem, and Organic Nature fur- nishes but one representative that can do so, namely, man, and man can only do so because man is possessed of mind. Hence as mind and mathematics naturally go together, and that we find the universe responding to mathematical axioms, we are logically driven to the conclusion that the universe is the result of an Intelligence whose mind must have thought out the laws that govern it. ORGANIC NATURE. The word " organ " implies fitness, some part of a living form, animal, or vegetable, fitted to T 58 IS THERE A GOD perform a particular function or functions ; thus the eye is called "The Organ of Sight," the hand the '• Organ of Touch." As man and all animal forms are organic in action, one may roughly assert that they are fitted to be what they are. The marks of this fitness oi- intention are so com- mon that the trouble lies in selecting the most striking proofs. In few things, however, is this fitness seen more clearly than in the healthy, undiseased, human body, which is composed of several systems <;ach fulfilling its distinct duty in the general interest of the whole structure. In a healthy, well-constructed body, many organs are exactly fitted for their own work and nothing else, as in the eye or ear. In other cases several diflTerent organs are so connected with each other that their associated functions tend to accomplish a single and plainly pre- determined object. Thus the circulation of the blood is carried on by distinctly formed and fitted circulatory organs, but the blood could never circulate properly if the organs of the respiratory system with the diaphragm and other muscles did not do their duty. In short, the healthful life of the whole body is the result of the simultaneous and harmonious action, and interaction of all the various complicated parts of which the body is composed — a fact that it seems impossible to account for, apart from Intention. I ll I^L^R MAN TO k'XOir? 59 THE VILLI OF THE SMALL INTESTINE. As an evidence of tlie beauty and utility of structure in connection with the formation and function of organs, the raucous metnbrane or lining of the small intestine may be taken as one example out of thousands that might be cited. This membrane, po-ssessed of many won- derful contrivances, is amongst other tilings pro- vided with a special apparatus for sucking up the digestive nourishment. This apparatus is composed of minute tongue-like prolongations, standing out from the membrane itself called " Villi," and it is calculated that there are several millions ot them in the small intestine. *' By their great abundance as well as their pro- jecting form, they multiply the exfent of surface over which the digested fluid comes in contact with the intestinal mucous membrane, and increase to a corresponding degree the energy with which the absorption takes place; just as the roots of a tree penetrate the soil, and suck up the nourishment, so these villi hang out from the membrane into the nutritious semi-fluid mass formed by digestion, and they suck up the liquefied portions of the food with a rapidity which is in direct propor- tion to the extent of their surface, and the Ir mm 60 IS THERE A GOD quickness of the circulation." These villi are connected with the mesenteric artery, through the blood vessels which aid in composing their substance, and this connection brings them into direct contact with the circulatory blood system. They are also connected with the lym{)hatic sys- tem of circulation through a lymphatic vessel which lies imbedded in the centre of each separate villus, so that each has a double communication with circulation, one through its own blood ves- sels, and the other through its own lymph vessels. Now it seems impossible to explain .such organs, apart from Intention or as the result of the ac- tion of Natural Selection, and the fact that they are positively necessary for the health of man seems to rule out Natural Selection. Whatever primitive man was mentally, it is clear from his remains that he was ph}sically a v^ry powerful representative of humanity — a being of rude, vigorous health, hence it is not at all likely that his villi were fewer or weaker than those found in man at the present day. For the sake of argu- ment, admitting him to have been the offspring of some animal, not man, then the question arises, were there immediate ancestors of man that did not possess villi? or did they in the long reaches of the past appear gradually, and had some past ancestor the advantage of possessing a few of them, and passing them on to his offspring ? lit I'lii tf ■rTiJSiiiaj.afaii ■di^ y''(9/e MAN TO KNOW^ 61 gu- But what possible advantage would a few villi be ? and how did the nourishment of the body possessing the limited number proceed without the full (juantity, for it is not easy to fancy the process of absorption goin;^ on in the first possessors of villi apart from a full re- presentation of this special apparatus ? Indeed the perpetuation of widespread mammalian life as well as that of man is largely bound up with the apparatus, for villi form an important part of the chorion or investing membrane of embryonic life so important at the early stages of the life of the embryo that one cannot easily see how either the chorion in man, or the allantois in lower animals could have done without them. Hence we appear to be naturally shut up to the conclusion that villi were intentionally provided. THE MIMICRY OF ANIMALS. What is called the "mimicry of animals" or suit- ability of their color, form, etc., to their surround- ings can alone be explained on grounds of Natural Selection, or as an implanted gift having as its object thn preservation of the life of the form, Thus Arctic animals are white, desert animals brown. Soles and flat fish present the speckled appearance of the s.ind on which they lie ; fishes and crustaceans living in sea weed are yellow, and 62 /S THERE A GOD aphides are bright green like the foliage around them, etc. That such characteristics are the result of chance is most improbable ; that they are the result of Natural Selection is more than doubt- ful. For survival of a peculiar colored animal by means of Natural Selection docs not explain how the Canadian rabbit and snowbird, the Arctic fox and ptarmigan, are possessed of the power of changing their colors to meet the seasons, how the chameleon varies its color to suit the posi- tion it happens to be in, how a number of Central African insects can imitate the color of the grass or foliage on which they light. In such cases there must be some organic influence at work in the form which enables it to make these changes, and which the instinct of the animal under certain conditions impels it to avail itself of. One can easily understand how natural selection might improve a gift of this nature, but it seems impossible to conceive how it could bestow it. It should also be borne in mind that whilst such mimicry possesses unquestioned pro- tective powers for the animal possessing the gift in fulness, that a partial possession of such gifts would be a peculiarity and, as such, a danger, marking out the animal possessing the peculiarity in much the same way that a man with a promin- ent birthmark on his face, moving about in a crowd of a thousand people, will appear as a dis- it..^ iL/:g7» i iliiilM-iWiN Mib^tti rtMMMfl T'C^A' J/yi^V rc; KNOW? 63 pro- gifts tinct memory while the nine hundred and ninety- nine mif^ht be forgotten. Natural Selection, given unimpeded opportunity to perfect its working, might produce ultimate markings of great ad- vantage to any one animal, bit the tirst markings would unquestionably make the animal peculiar, and hence its chances of life under many con- ditions would be impaired rather than improved. Consecpiontly it seems but reasonable to regard such powers of mimicry as an intentional gift meant to aid in preserving the lives of those animals to whom it has been given. THE EYE. The eye from its earliest appearance in the embryo testifios to object or intention. The foundation of the eye in the embryo is a hollow tube growing out from each side of the first cere- bral vesicle, and is known as the optic vesicle ; this latter in due time becomes narrv>wed and subsequently solid, and is converted into the optic nerve. While these changes have been going on in the optic vesicles, development has also |)roceeded in this same region, and given rise to the rudiments of the retina, lens, vitreous humour and other parls of the eye. The retina is formed from the inner wall of the optic vesicle ; the crystalline lens, which is an offshoot of the skin, is fo'-med in a distinct cavity in front of the ■■nl 64 IS THERE A GOD I!! retina; nnd Hubsequently that portion of the eye- ball between the retina and the lens is filled in with a jelly-like transparent mass known as the vitreous humour. Tlie cornea is also originally a part of the skin, and remains somewhat untrans- parent until close to birth. The iris is a muscu- lar partition formed in front of the crystalline lens. Its central openin/^ which afterwards be- comes the pupil, is at first closed by the pupillary mt'mbrane, which is attached to the pupillary border of the iris and which usually comj)letely disappears by the end of the seventh or ei^^hth month of foetal life. The ej^elids which are formed by folds of the skin which project fnjin above and below at the situation of the eyeball, grow so rapidly during the second and third months, that their free margins adhere together, and remain adherent until the seventh month. The eyes are discernible in the first month of pregnancy, and the organ goes on steadily build- ing itself up till birth. Realizing this growth, the question arises, was the eye intended to be an organ of vision ? Everything points towards intention. Thus, the retina, which is the terminal organ of vision, all in front of it being arrangements for securing that a correct image will be focussed on it, " is not merely an accidental expansion of the fibres of the optic nerve, it is in itself a membrane of T FOR MAN TO KNOIV? 65 |U8, the on, all curing ' is not bres ot* ane of special structure, a peculiar nervous apparatus adapted to receive the inipresaions of luminous rays, and connected by means of the optic nerve with the grey matter of the brain." The absence of the retina would destroy the use of the optic nerve, for that, though plairdy meant to convey luminous impressions to the brain, would fail to do so apart from the stimulus furnished by the retina. On the other hand, the retina would be utteily useless apart from the action of the optic nerve, for whilst the retina is sensitive to light, if severed from the optic nerve it would be useless. In the same way each part of the eye, (cornea, iris, lens, nerve, coats), whilst fulfilling a defined mission of its own, is dependent on the otherparts for the due fulfilment of its work, the whole con- stituting an organ of vision so associated and interdependent as to preclude the idea that its several parts could have come together by chance. THEORY OF EVOLUTION OF EYE. Further, one cannot avoid seeing insuperable diflficulties in the gradual evolution of an eye apart from intention, for far back as we can go in the records of animal life, the eye has not only existed, but has done so as an organ of most beautiful and beneficial construction, as may be seen in the eye of the Silurian trilobite. This organ does not pass onwards from a simple 5 mmm 66 IS THERE A GOD and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect. It appears at the very first in the fulness of perfect adaptation to the uses and conditions of the class of life to which this form of eye is appropriate. A further difficulty connected with the idea of the evolution of the eye is found in what evolutionists take for granted in connection with it. Natural Selection with Darwin is like the fairy godmother in the fairy tale that always had ready at hand the exact thing needed by her godchild, with this difference, that the fairy godmother acted intentionally, whereas natural selec- tion, we are told, never does. Darwin's theory as to the eye is that, unintentionally a nerve in some living creature's head became sensitive to light ; this having once taken place, then all necessary to build up a useful eye followed as a matter of course. A thick layer of transparent tissue has its spaces filled with fluid and a nerve becomes sensitive to light, then every part of the layer keeps slowly chang- ing in density, separating into layers of different densities and thicknesses, such layers being placed at different distances from each other, and with the surfaces of each layer slowly changing in form ; and all this takes place, we are asked to believe, apart from an^ intention of evolving an eye. '_,£C£ FOR MAN TO KNOW? 67 lith ve, ye- Natural Select'on unintentionally keeps watch- ing and carefully preserving the slightest profit- able change in the transparent ]a3^er8 until aftf'»' millions of years a living optical instri:ment is formed, which was never intended to be an instrument of light, and might as far as inten- tion is concerned have, through possible con- tingencies, turned out something wholly differ- ent. Authors sometimes give advice that they do not profit by themselves, and one cannot strive to master this hypothesis as to the evolu- tion of the eye, without feeling that Darwin needed to give more thought to Darwin's btate- ment — "To sui)pose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances, etc., could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely con- fess, absurd in the highest degree." Further, Darwin takes for granted that a gradually evolving eye would be for the unques- tioned advantage of the subject of such evolu- tion in the struggle for existence. But surely this is open to question, for might not a gradu- ally evolving eye place the owner of it at a dis- advantage in the struggle ? We may fairly take for granted that animals originally eyeless were in every way suited to their surroundings, and lived as comfortable lives as such animals are in the habit of living. It is true that such were blind, but their surroundings must have been suited to 68 IS THERE A GOD blindness, and as they never knew what sight was they could never have felt what we would call its loss, ^'uddenly, or it may have been very gradually, a nerve, presumably connected with the brain of one of these blind forms, be- comes sensitive to light, placing it in a state of nervous feelings totally different from its fellows; and as the nerve would certainly not be an eye, at a disadvantage as compared with its fellows, for it wo'^ld experience a number of novel, pos- sibly painiul, and certainly useless sensations that might make its life a very sad one, just as persons suffering from nerve inflammation are not by any means the most likely to come out victors in the struggle for existence. Indeed we may suppose that a nerve becoming sensitive to light might become a disease or injury to ease and hence an obstacle to placing the animal suffer- ing from it upon the list of animals necessary for the evolution of life organs. On these, and many other like grounds connected with other organs, we seem forced to the con- clusion that the eye was intended to be an organ of sight, and as such implies a creative mind be- hind it. In the early ages of telescope-making, the makers were sorely puzzled because, work how they would, the pencils of light, in passing through the glass lenses, were separated into different colours, tinging the edges of the object FOR MAN TO KNOW? G9 as if they were viewed through a prism. At last Dollond began his experiments, and arrived at the two following facts: — First, that light fell from heaven on the human eye, just as in the case of the telescope, with all this trouble of mixed colouring; but, secondly, that as the light passed through the combined fluids of the eye the difficulty was remedied before it reached the bottom of the eye. Consequently Dollond imi- tated these fluids by making an object glass of crown and flint glasses, which, through their counteractive powers, took the place of the eye fluids, and perfected the telescope. Now, here is a case where advanced science, as a designer, has been flung back on the eye as an instrument, and the conclusion is irresistible. If the achromatic telescope of Dollond bears on it the marks of a mind worAing out a design (and who could deny it), none the Jess does the human eye, which was the parent of the teles- cope, bear on it the marks of a mind carrying out a design also. This conclusion is in no wise injured by any optical defects that may exist in the eye as an organ, or by the further fact that there are difierent kinds of eyes in diflerent animals. As to optical defects arising from (1) the curvature of the refractive surfaces, (2) from the dispersion of light by the refractive media, we are told by 70 IS THERE A GOB McKendrick that " such defects are not appre- ciated, have little or no influence on our sen- sations, and in one case, namely, the aberration of sphericity, the defect is corrected by optical arrangements within the organ." It bhould also be borne in mind that the influence of time on the organ coupled with that of transmitted organic weaknesses may account largely for what a modern physiologist calls " The optical imperfections of the eye;" for as early man was physically a stronger man than his modern representative, so his eyes may have been per- fect ; in other words, primitive man may have had no experience whatsoever of myopic, hyper- metropic, or even presbyopic eyes. With refer- ence to different kinds of eyes, such as eye dots in Medusae, Annelidae, etc., or the compound eye of insects and crustaceans, whatever the nature of the organ may be it is suited to the condition of life in which the animal lives, and as far as we know it suffers no inconvenience, or is placed at no disadvantage with its fellows in the struggle for existence. GENERAL EVIDENCE OF INTENTION. Carrying on this train of thought with refer- ence to object and order in nature as evidencing a creative mind, it seems impossible (certainly in a work of this kind) to attempt even to classify .•^i«c.«'- FOR MAN TO KNOW? 71 the myriad cases that might he produced in favor of the theory. In fact, the evidence for object iu nature seems only to be bounded by our knowledge of nature, and as that knowledge increases, so the evidence for object in nature in- creases. From lowliest microscopic Algae up to noblest plant, from organless Amoeba up to man himself, from beast and bird, and fish and fowl, and leaf and flower, goes forth one loud testi- mony to object and intention, the testimony that man has placed in words, that some of the great- est scientific minds that ever lived have endorsed as correct. " He made us, and not we ourselves." And this testimony stands out boldly in spite of some things connected with organic nature that seem to make against the hypothesis, for in truth the evidences in its favor are so over- whelming that the cases cited in opposition seem almost insignificant. As yet man does not know everything. Scientific investigation has not run its course and reached its limit, and the time may come when such things as claimed " useless organs " may yet be regarded as evidences of intention. Indeed, as it is, the objection with regard to the stunted wings of the ostrich and penguin is practically disposed of, for it is now freely admitted that the wings of the ostrich, though useless for flight, materially aid the rapid locomotion of the bird, and that .^-^ 72 IS THERE A GOD \\ V. the so-called wings of the penguin are useful as paddles. Geologically, birds are poorly repre- sented amongst fossils, but it is worthy of notice that the wings of the earliest known Jurassic birds prove that they were " poor flyers," and that some Cretacious birds had '* short, ostrich-like wings," so that possibly, if geology ever comes across a fossil ostricli and penguin, it will be found that stunted wings will be characteristic of tb ^ former and paddles of the latter. OBJECTIONS. There are two objections against object and order in nature, as proceeding from intelligence, well worthv of notice. 1st. That for sake of argument, assuming the existence of a Divine Being, it degrades the divine ideal to regard Him from the standpoint of a Great Mechanic, moulding and fashioning things after ideas of pattern, form, etc. This very common objection assumes a posi- tion that no one of reverential mind, or, indeed, of common sense, takes ; for no apologist worthy of the name has attempted to define God's actual method of creation as applied to forms of life distinct from man. What is known of the universe and what is naturally realized in connection with a Divine Being, would lead to the supposition that God forecast a universe, in- li^^S^ FOR MAN TO KNOW? 73 stitutecl potent laws for its creation, set those laws in motion as instruments of His will, and as a result of their working as His agents, created a universe and all things connected with it. All that the argument from object and order in nature seeks to establish is, that however the universe came to be, there is associated with it such evidences of object and order as force us to acknowledge that it must have been thought out, intended, forecast, in such a manner as only the mind of God could forecast it ; in other words, that a Majestic Intelligence greater than the universe itself must have called it into being. The second objection practically asserts that there is no need of God in connection with nature, that its existence can be rationally ex- plained by a widespread application of the hypothesis of evolution, and that object and order as claimed to be seen in nature is the undesigned outcome of the action of natural laws, matter, force, etc. This position might have standing room if the evolutionist could answer the questions : Whence came Matter ? Whence came Force ? Whence came the laws governing both ? For in these questions appears to lie the whole secret of uni- verse-making ; indeed all object and order must originally have been infolded in them. But Matter, Force and Law, as far as we 74 IS THERE A GOD know of them, are mindless, unintelligent things, and no system of evolutionary thought can regard them otherwise. And yet, accord- ing to evolution, these palpabh'^ unintelligent things created a universe existing under stern laws of mathematics, and exhibiting in all its aspects signs of an intelligence greater and grander than the universe itself. Surely the admission of some Intelligence proportionate to the grandeur of the work is reasonably demand- ed, unless the evolutionist is prepared to take the position that intelligence cannot be inferred from intelligent work, or will inferred from evi- dence of directed action. NATURAL SELECTION. Much the same may be said with regard to undirected, unintelligent Natural Selection ac- counting for all the varieties of life in the natu- ral world. Most evolutionists stake the main work of the development of life on Natural Selection. Given the struggle for existence, the strong and the weak taking part in tl at struggle, the weak going to the wall, the strong selected to survive through Natural Selection, and every species of animal and vegetable life is accounted for apart from Intelligence or Design in any form. Now it is admitted that there is evil, and I FOR MAN TO KNOW? 75 sorrow, and a struggle in the world, but such admissions do not of necessity lead to the con- sequences claimed by evolutionists. For it is perfectly clear that Natural Selection is not an irresistible law, sweeping on its ruthless course without let or hindrance, crushing to death what it regards as unfit to live, and preserving what it considers possessed of things favorable to life, but one of many laws, and like all laws bal- anced and bounded by the action of other laws. Admit the existence of Natural Selection, yet it is plein that as an active power its undue in- fluence is guarded against by the due action of at least two other laws (probably many more), the law of Natural Protection, and the law of Equalization. THE LAW OF NATURAL PROTECTION. In the law of Natural Protection, we see a power which steps right into the struggle for existence, and instead of protecting the strong, seems ordeiei to protect the weak, that it may preserve ar J retain and keep them alive, and in so doing place a restraint on the ruthless work- ing of Natural Selection. In the brute creation the weak are constantly preserved by the instinct, bravery and strength of a powerful parentage. You may easily steal m 76 IS THERE A GOD the weak and sickly whelp of the tiger while the mother is absent; but you will be more guarded in obtaining possession of it with the raging form of the powerful beast crouching over it, and with the roar of the male tiger sounding through the jungle. It is not alone in this and countless cases a question of the strength or weakness of the cub ; it is a ques- tion of the united physical power and instinct of parentage, combined against you through the whole of the brute creation, and determined to resist you to the very death, before the strong will allow the weak to perish. Further, it seems necessary to hold that this law of Natural Protection must have been ex- orcised over man himself. If we adopt the theory of evolutionists, the First Man becomes a trying puzzle. The law of Evolution could not give us a perfect man, so mentally endowed as to be able to gather around him those weapons of defence and protection, which would have made him strong to resist the physically stronger. He must have been a lonely, solitary creature, surrounded b}'" deadly foes in the animal world, and with climate and opportunities of obtaining food, suited to his new conditions, all against him. Midst the battle for existence, and under the law of Natural Selection, which selects the strong and rejects the weak, he ought FOR MAN TO KNOW? 77 to have been literally crushed out as an unpro- fitable variety. But he, weak amidst the strong claimed as his ancestors, survived and peopled a world ; in other words, he was naturally protected by the working of that mind with which from the very first he must have been endowed, and which enabled him, though physically weaker than his enemies, to conquer and subdue them. Then explain it also how you will, where human love exists, the irresistible working of Natural Selection is driven out before it everywhere. Even in lowest life, the hun- gry cry of a starving child gives energy to the foot of a strong-made father in his hunt for food, and many a war path has been tracked through lonely forests, as the strong came to the rescue of the weak, to' win back a stolen child, or save unharmed a timid girl. The weak would always go to the wall, save for the law which brings the strength of love, or the strength of muscle, or both combined, to the rescue of the weak; so that the weak is as the strong, the dwarf is in one sense a giant, and the defenceless, irresistible. And this is still more apparent under the highest teaching of human love and sympathy There is a mighty power in the world, ever in- creasing, which only lives to protect the weak. A. power that tends the sick, and builds the 78 IS THERE A GOD hospital, and trains the nurse, furnishes the free medicine, and provides the ablest skill. A power that linf^ers in tender ministrations over the poorest of the poor, the weakest of the weak, the most loathsome of the diseased. A power that teaches us that evil is to be remedied by love and gentleness and pity ; that the weak are not of necessity to die of weakness, or the poverty-stricken to die in a ditch, because of poverty, or climate, or want of food ; or through uncared-for debility and wretchedness. This power may be called Judaism, Christianity, Morality — anything; but it existiu and works, and the wider its area and the stronger its strength, the less room remains for the workings of Natural Selection, which only exists to crush out the weak and enable the hand of a man to snatch from the hand of a woman the last crust, that fairly divided might preserve the lives of both. Where man is uncivilized the care of the weak runs as far as love and family relationship run, and sometimes is wholly absent with reference to the aged. In such a state of societj^ Natural Selection might have a large field to work in, for the young, strong and well fed would possess great advantages. But w^here civilization exists the care of the weak becomes a national charac- teristic, and cities abound with Medical, Surgical, FOR MAN TO KNOWl 79 Maternity, Ophthalmic. Cancer, Consumptive, Conta^rious Hospitals, meant wliolly for the preservation of the weak, and with Lunatic, Blind, Deaf and Dumb and Orphan Asylums,' Homes and Alms-houses for the a^^ed poor, and a number of other institutions all carried on in the interests of the weak and the degraded, in the interests of that very class that Natural Selection, left to itself, would kill, or that the law of Ecjualization, left to itself, would palpa- bly reduce. For although to a limited degree Natural Selection may work in an hospital, the gain arismg from the highest skill brought to bear on the death rate of the weak is wholly on the side of a class of life that, left to itself, would go to the wall ; in other words, the great- est barrier to Natural Selection is that noblest of all earthly professions— the Medical, and the higher its perfection in pathological, medical and surgical skill, the more crippled and confined the action of Natural Selection amongst the sons of men. THE LAW OF EQUALIZATION. In the law of Equalization we see another power which steps right into the struggle for existence and impedes the law of Natural Selec- tion, by equalizing the chances of life or death, thus bringing the strong and the weak to an 80 IS THERE A GOD unmistakable level. In a limited volume of this description it would be impossible to give full details of the working of this law, but the author can assure his readers that its working is as palpable amongst all classes of life as is the claimed working of Natural Selection. In reviewing the methods by which death comes to various forms of Microscopic life, apart from age or disease, one finds three methods, each of which bring the chances of life for im- proved and unimproved varieties to an equality. Wherever death becomes imminent to smaller forms, through their getting into strong ciliary currents, which convey them as food to the mouths or orifices of larger forms, death seeks the strong and weak, the healthy and sickly, the best fitted and the worst fitted alike. Careful study of the action of ciliary currents proceed- ing from a form like that of a Rotifer, proves clearly that as a rule " there is no escape in that war," and that in exceptional cases where there is a chance of escape, tlie smaller and lighter forms on the id ' gin of the current appear to be more likely to get free than the stronger, on the principio that in a river a chip is often stranded when a heavy log is carried forward. The same principle holds true of the Rotalia and liL e forms that seek food by threadlike protrusions of their bodies <^hrough shell orifices. As the threads of FOR MAN TO KNO Wl 81 be ihe ed me ms eir oi such forms are thrust into the water it is im- possible to say what improved or unimproved form of animal or vegetable microscopic life they may come in contact with ; hence the im- proved or unimproved run exactly the same chances of escape or death. Tlie second form of death is equally outside of discrimination, i.e., death arising from fish feed- ing on the green substance covering stones and rocks in rivers, streams and pools, which sub- stance is, according to the season, filled with Philodinse, Vorticellfo, Melicertse, Stentors, etc. Here the methods of fish feeding are wholly de- structive of any kind of selection. Tadpoles, cattish, etc., browse over a given space till they clear out everything, and then move to another space, whilst chub, minnow, etc., as a rule, tear off sections and strips teeming with life and bolt them wholesale. The third method of death arises from the sudden or gradual evaporation of the water in which microscopic forms live. Here there is but little chance of escape save for forms possessed of the power of maintaining life under dry con- ditions (encysting) or for smaller ibrms. If an ordinary microscopic slide be evaporated it will be found, as a rule, the smaller the form the greater the chance of life, for large and power- ful representatives of any species quickly melt 6 k^ 82 IS THERE A GOD out of existence, whilst smaller forms of the same species continue lively and vigorous, the last to melt out being the smallest. Hence it may be claimed that, as far as gen- eral microscopic life is concerned, there are at least three widespread methods of death, which in some cases wholly paralyze, and in others materially limit the working of Natural Selec- tion, by reducing the chances for strong and weak to an equality, or if there be selection, selecting the weak. The same law plainly applies to a wide field of Radiate life, to those forms which cannot be said always to seek their food, but to whom it is largely brought : such as sea urchins, star fish, sand stars, sea slugs, sand swallowers, sea bask, etc., etc. Wide as is the field of Insectivorous life, there are few if any departments of it in which this law uf Equalization may not in some sense be seen working, and wherever it works it paralyzes or limits Natural Selection, What v/ill the fate of the fittest to survive be in the foliage of oak, beech, or poplar, when cockchafers leave the trees as bare as if they had never budded? or what prospect of survival is there for the fittest in any vegetable form when the larvae of locusts, grasshoppers, etc., are hatched out and in their winged state begin their career of destruction ? FOR MAN TO KNOW? 83 liere this e be lyzes fate oak, the ] or Ittest iusts, Itheir tion ? or what advantage has an improved gnat over an unimproved, as the dragon-fly suddenly swoops into a cloud of gnats ? In the case of the deadly tsetse-fly of Africa, which works in de- fined belts, if there be any discrimination, it seems likely that it works against the strong, for it follows the larger game and disappears with them. But there does not seem to be selection in personal attack, for, according to Livingstone, weak and strong alike suffer; and the same may be said of the attacks of wharae and gad- flies. Then many cases may be cited where, as far as life is concerned, a favorable variety of lower forms useful as food to Mollusks is in no better position than an unfavorable. In scallops, oysters, mussels, cockles, etc., the gill fringes are covered with cilia or hair-like processes, which by constant vibration create powerful and rapid currents, whfch, sweeping over the entiie sur- face of the gills, hnrry towards the mouth, in a perfectly indiscriminate manner, the living food supply. In the case of the Periwinkle, it grazes on marine pastures as cattle on land, feeding straight on, and swallowing everything within a r^iven space, and in the case of the Northern Clio the almost countless suckers on its tentacles prove clearly that it is formed to make an indis- criminate onslaught on the tiny creatures form- ing its food supply. ismammtaia 84 IS THERE A GOD The methods of gaining food characteristic of Fishes seem at first sight to support the hypo- thesis of the stiong destroying the weak, for un- questionably a large proportion of the food supply of fishes is furnished by weaker forms of fish, ^.e., fish feed on fish. But then as a rule they feed indiscriminately, a method that de- stroys the chances of improved varieties of fish, forming food supplies, escaping. Mackerel in feeding follow schools of herring fry, and swal- low wholesale, and conger eels, sturgeon, the white shark, etc., are such voracious eaters, that they will swallow almost anything. Though whales, porpoises, etc., cannot be classified as fish, yet for temporary convenience they may here be regarded as such. In tl e case of the Greenland or Right whale, the destruction of life for food is not only indiscriminate but is enormous, one single mouthful meaning a rush of water that engulphs thousands of crustaceans and pteropods, and as the Right whale seeks out shoals of these forms the wholesale destruction can scarcely be computed, and much the same may be said of the Roquail and other whales, which feed mainly on squid and the smaller forms of cuttle fish. Porpoises also follow shoals of mackerel, pilchards and herring, swallowing indiscriminately a mass of struggling life, and dolphins feed in the same voracious manner on FOR MAN TG K:/0W1 85 ■Hi I crustaceans and fish. One might as well speak of an improved variety of man having a chance over an unimproved in the rapids of Niagara as of the chances of an improved fish when any of these larger forms swim_ through a shoal of small- fish life, filling and refilling their mouths as they proceed. How far Birds exercise a choice in food mate- rial is open to question, but it is plain that, in many cases, no choice exists, and consequently the chances of life are equal as far as the prey of such birds are concerned. As the giant con- dor soars over a flock of fleeced vicunas ; as owls make their sudden and silent foray on nests of young birds ; as the night jar wings its way through a flight of moths ; as th^^ woodpecker clears the tree-bark of the hidden insect life beneath it ; as seed and grain eating birds con- sume indiscriminately, one finds it hard to fancy how under such circumstances Natural Selection could ever act. In the wide field of Mammalian life this law of equal chances is also apparent, the hab:ts of many of the carnivora, as they seek for prev, precluding the influence of selection. As a rule! none of the great Cat family hunt or select their prey, but, lying in covert close to spots where other animals resort, spring from their conceal- ment and deliver the coath blow suddenly. ■•^•^Pi «■■ .-.r M MH>fi«ii I'miill, ''^if^W ' .*^^ 86 IS THERE A GOD When a hungry lion springs over the thorny wall of a zereba, it often leaps on the animal it kills,and having gained what is essentially chance prey, releaps the enclosure with its prey in its mouth. In the tiger, its lying in wait is palpa- ble. It has no idea what prey may come within its reach; it waits and takes what comes. In short, of all these animals the chance of prey escaping through keenness of sight or swiftness of foot is almost impossible, on account of the cunning of the animal in hiding and the rapidity of its attack. When we come to Man, we reach Mind, and may consequently look for selection in food sup- ply, but, unfortunately for Natural Selection, Man will always select the best for consumption, not the poorest. The kitchen middens of Den- mark, composed of oysters, cockle, periwinkle and mussel shells, prove very clearly that primi- tive man made a selection, but if he did, the br^st perished and the weakest survived. It is clear also from the nets and hooks used b" the lake- dwellers of Switzerland that they made their hooks large, and their nets wide meshed, in order to kill the very forms that Natural Selection would have preserved, i.e., the strongest and best developed. Then there are Methods of obtaining food cuaracteristic of savages, that if they do not destroy the best, bring strong and wfak to an equal level of death or escape. Australian sav- wm it food not to an sav- FOJi MAN TO KNOW? 87 ages will surround a given space of bushland and drive great and small prey to the centre, where they slaughter them indiscriminately. Amongst some South American Indians fish is killed by throwing the narcotic euphorbia into deep pools, bringing all within the pools to the surface, and Chinook Indians draw salmon within reach of their spears by waving torches. In both these cases, narcotic and torch alike are instruments to bring about a wholesale, or chance harvest of the fish within reach. Apart from early man and his food supply, one can see many ways in which the exercise of his will blocks the action of Natural Selection in the onward and upward development of the race it- self. Sparta unquestionably helped the work of Natural Selection by training strong women to become the mothers of strong children, but its success as a breeder of physically powerful men was only a question of time, as it must always be with any nation that surrenders the flower of its manhood to war. No nation can go on cen- tury after century culling out its finest men as soldiers, and losing such soldiers in repeated wars, without lowering in course of time the physical standard of the nation. Hence the great seuret of the almost total extinction of magnificent tribes in Africa and elsewhere where tribal wars were unceasing. And it is becoming even wor.se in our own day, wherever the Christian feelings ■^"■•t ■.%^ ^ 88 IS THERE A GOD or diplomacy of nations cannot avoid war, for. war with us is not an accumulation of individual deeds of brave men acting in concert, or bravery combined with military tactics, or a mere ques- tion of bodily weight ; it is fast becoming a strife of military machinery. Artillery is meant to kill men, to reduce the living fighting force of an enemy. As it becomes a greater power, each nation must seek to obtain the power at its best, and behind it armies proportionately large, to bear its desolating fires, and yet be strong enough to follow up in charge, assault, or defence, its influence on the strife. Instead of time advanc- ing the human race by Natural Selection in physical and mental strength, force and power, the drains that future wars, if carried out on such lines, must bring on the nations of earth cannot fail but to limit materially the general advance. It seems reasonably plain, therefore, that these laws of Natural Protection and of Equali- zation must in the nature of things retard the triumphant, irresistible progress of Natural Selection. But if that be retarded, and in countless cases completely paralyzed, then the main factor connected with Evolution becomes a limited factor, and falls into the comparatively subordinate position of many other laws, which, whilst doing their part to aid in supporting a general empire of law, cannot fairly be regarded in the light in which evolutionists regard it. riU FOR MAN TO KNOW? 89 CHAPTER V. THE MORAL ARGUMENT. rr\HIS argument is based on the sense of re- 1 sponsibility which seems part and parcel of Man as a reasoning Being, and which liis reasoning faculties endorse as a correct an ^1 proper sense. Hence Man is moral in proportion as he re- gards himself responsible, for even where respon- sibility is weakest, it is the chief element which lifts him up above the brute creation, and where cultivated its fruits are acknowledged to be in every way beneficent. This responsibility seems to be a necessary or elementary principle of the nature or constitution of Man. Thus, on questioning my individual consciousness, I find that when I obey the law of what I understand as justice, I have a strong supporting sense of acting rightly, and a further sense of happiness arising out of the action, but if I disobey the law I have an equally strong sense (though I may not show it) of acting wrongly, and some- times a senne of shame, disgrace and meanness so strong that my shame becomes my shameful secret, and I hide it away and dread its revela- tion. Now all this, to whatever degree felt I 90 IS THERE A GOD implies responsibility, and that, not an ordinary responsibility to law or social custom, for the shame is capable of being experienced on a desert, where one shipwrecked sailor does a palpably unjust act towards another. Hence the existence of this moral sense involves the existence of a standard of moral rectitude, by reference to which the morality of my acts is measured. I am responsible because I instinct- ively feel that as an individual I am living under a great rule and measure of justice, goodness, etc., silent, yet operative. (I) This sense of responsibility may be found amongst the most ancient nations, and to-day, amongst the most savage and de- graded tribes, for there is nf) tribe known with- out its tribal sense of right and wrong, of justice and injustice, its responsibility to duty in con- nection with Right, and its idea of present or future reward or ])unishment as the result of duty done, or left undone. Of course, the stan- dard of Right may be most degraded, the duty arising out of that standard may lead to cruelty and bloodshed, and what to us is revolting inde- cency, but behind all these fruits of hereditary, barbaric uncivilization is the sense of Right and Wrong always present in some shape, and in whatever shape implying personal responsibility to a law which governs strongly the human conscience. 2'OR MAN TO KNOWl 91 This sense of Right and Wrong and of respon- sibility to God, or to the gods for personal conduct and of need of pardon to ease us of deserved penalty, runs through the Rig-veda of India clear and distinct as in the followinfr extracts: "If we to any dear and loved comj.anion Have evil done, to brother or to neighbour, To our own countryman or to a stranger. That sin, do thou, O Varuna, forgive us."' '' If ever we deceived like cheating players. If consciously we've erred, or all unconscious, According to our sin do thou not punish. Be thou the sinners guardian in thy wisdom." The necessity of right-doing in these words arises from a consciousness of the omniscience of God. "Whate'er exists between the earth and heaven Or both beyond, to Varuna open lies." "WhoeVr moves, or stands, who glides in secret, Who seeks a hiding-place or hastens from it, What things two men may plan in seciet council, A third, King Varuna notes it also." In the Rig-veda is found the two ideas so con- tradictory to the human understanding, and yet ^ .0^, \^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) :/_ i/j '(/. % 1.0 I.I 21 1.8 1.25 U III 1.6 V] v^ '> ^> a /A 'W '/ es «■ % <^ ^ % ^* 'i c?< Q- &»/ 92 IS THERE A GOD ii^»-« 80 easily reconciled in the human heart, the eternal laws of right and wrong established by God, punishing .sin and rewarding virtue, and yet, the same God, willing to forgive, just and merciful, a j udge and yet a father. "Forgive the wrongs committed by our fathers, What we ourselves have sinned in mercy pardon, My own misdeeds do thou, God, take from me, And for another's sin let me not suffer." " We turn aside thy anger with our offerings, King, by our libations and devotions. Do thou, who hast the power, wise King eternal, Release us from the sins we have committed." The sense of right and wrong and of man's responsibility is clearly defined in the Zend Avesta of Perski. Man is in contract with God, God being the maker of six great con- tracts, any one of which if broken renders the sinner liable to a distinct punishment in hell for the breach of that contract. These liabilities, however, may be averted by atonement, but such responsibilities and liabilities lie at the root of the Zend religion. In the Shu King of China the great underly- ing religious thoughts are obedience to God (Heaven), and reverence for Holy things ; obedi- ence and reverence constitute right, disobedience FOR MAN TO KNOW? 93 and irreverence, wrong. Out of these thoughts spring reverence and submission to rulers, ic, given the model ruler and the model people will appear. The great thought of rule stretches uj) from the lowliest earthly father to God, the great submission from the lowliest subject to the Emperor. From the standpoint of the Emperor this fe=ense of responsibility may be seen all through the Shu King. Thus Pan-Kang says: "Were I to err in my government my great ancestor would send down on me great punishment for my crime and say, why do you oppress m^ people?" A teacher of the Emperor says : " In its inspec- tion of men below Heaven's first consideration is of their righteousness. It is not Heaven that cuts short men's lives, they bring them to an end themselves, hence your majesty's business is to care reverently for the peoi)le." To an evil king his instructor says: " Son of Heaven, heaven is bringing to an end your dynasty, by your dis- soluteness and sport you are bringing on the end yourself. Our people now all wish the dynasty to perish, saying, why does not Heaven send down its indignation ? " The same sense of right and wrong, of suffer- ing for evil and reward for good, is characteristic of Buddhistic teaching, as seen in the following extracts from the Dhammapada (Pali Buddhist): 94 IS THERE A GOD i \ it' « " The evil-doer mourns in this world, and he mourns in the next, he mourns in both. The virtuous man delights in this world, he delights in the next, he delights in both." " He who says what is not (true) goes to Hell." In the Sutta-Nepata, the volume of primitive Buddhism, responsibility is very apparent. " Some Br^hmanas are continually caught in sinful deeds, and are to be blamed in this world, while in the coming world Hell awaits them, birth (rebirth) does not save them from Hell." This sense of responsibility is seen equally clearly amongst the most de^jraded heathen tribes, and a high sense of light, as contrasted with wrong, often appears in the most unexpect- ed quarters. Livingstone, writing of the Baka- lahari, Bechuanas, Bakwains, states : " Respect- ing their sense of right and wrong, they profess that nothing we indicate as sin ever appeared to them in any other light, except the statement that it was wrong to have more wives than one." According to Colenzo the Kaffirs explain the secret of Right and Wrong by the conflict ever going on between Ugovana the Evil One, urging them to hate, kill, and steal, and Unambeza bid- ding them leave all this. This conflict as felt in themselves is spoken of as the double heart, or strife of flesh and spirit." Livingstone states that " on questioning the natives of South Cen- lii i FOR MAN TO KNOW? 96 tral Africa as to knowledge of God, good and evil, etc., they scouted the idea of any^of them having been without a tolerable clear concep- tion of such subjects ; " and DeChaillu that " the natives of Ashango Land trace back Right and Wrong to the action of good and evil spirits." The Weddas of Ceylon, a singularly inferior race, possess a clear distinction between Right and Wrong, moral notions leading them to re- gard theft, lying, or striking one another as in- conceivable wrongs." Amongst the Cherokees, Mayas and Peruvians, the first Roman Catholic missionaries were horrified at finding that pre- sarvation from wrong-doing lay in a rite appal- lingly like Christian baptism. This, which was connected with the giving of a name, was re- garded as freeing from inherent sin through the formation of a new heart. The Shamanism characteristic of the Ural Altaic peoples is based upon the recognition of good and evil influences operating on the individual, the Shaman or Wizard priest being the intermediate power be- tween Erlik, the king of the lower world, from whom death and all evils come, and Kaira Kan, the god of highest good. Right and wrong, evil and good, are regarded as the great powers over life, and hence some races worship and propitiate Erlik in order to have him a friend for good, rather than an enemy for evil. 96 IS THERE A GOD \\ li But he v/ho obeys Kaira Kan is on the right road, the good will of Erlik being only a help that clears the road of terrible obstacles. (II) This responsibility is further seen in the universal idea of reward or punishment in a future life. Punishment, as a rule, is regarded in connection with ills done, and not as an ex- cuse for causing pain, and reward, as a rule, is re- garded as something conferred because something deserved, and these moral distinctions, which in some cases are characteristic of the most degrad- ed tribes, imply a standard of rectitude to those who make them. The savage did not make the standard, he may often rebel against it, but none the less does he feel that where good, according to his idea of good, is done, it deserves reward, and wrong, according to his idea of wrong, de- serves punishment. Amongst the native Australians belief in Heaven as the place of reward, and hell as the place of punishment, is apparent. The Queens- land tribes speak of Hea/en as Yalairy — the nice place ; the North Australians call Heaven Raka, the place of plenty, and Hell Tagcani, the foodless place. The Esquimaux, according to Dr. Rink, place Heaven underground, a warm, comfortable place where the good go, whereas the evil ascend into the cold, upper world, where they suffer from freezing and famine. The FOR MAN TO KNOW? 97 in the -the Lven the g to rarm, jreas rhere The Tasmanians, according to Clarke, believed in a heaven in the stars reserved for the meritor- ious. The Solomon Islanders believe in a good spirit who lives in a happy land whither all the good go after death, the evil being transported to the crater of Bagana, the home of the great evil spirit ; the Figians believe in heaven and hell, the Battaks of Sumatra in a kind of pur- gatory leading to a paradise, and in the annihi- lation of the wicked ; the Dyaks of Borneo in an eternal world like this, having rivers, trees, crops, etc.; the Tenember Islanders in a heavenly is- land, the home of the good, and all American Indians in an eternal world like this, but full of happiness. The more fresh light is gained on the religion of savages the more clearly it ap- pears that spiritual responsibility is associated with a varying appreciation of the two states awaiting man after death, heaven and hell. (Ill) Again, this responsibility is seen in ordin- ary human intercourse. The exercise of all inter- course is based on the supposition of truth, justice, obedience to law, save in the case of those weak in mind, or avowedly depraved. Even where these principles are professed to be held, apart from their exercise, even there the profes- sion is an acknowledgment of the principles, hypocrites and schemers feeling that their con- duct is cloaked so long as they can keep in appar- 7 98 IS THERE A GOD 'I ent union with the guidance of such principles. We naturally treat men as if they with ourselves were bound by these principles. Every legal document, every treaty between civilized races and savage tribes, and between savage tribes themselves, gives evidence of a right course, and seeks to provide against the ado])tion of a wrong course, and in many cases define penalties for the latter. Even in degraded savage life, no matter how low the standard may be, one savage treats another as if he expected him to act on the lines of savage law and order as between man and man — in a word, the standard may be degraded, but it exists. (IV) Further, this responsibility is seen in people that are cut off by natural defects from intercourse with their fellow-creatures. Mr. Large, a noted specialist in the treatment of the deaf and dumb, asserts that the discernment of right and wrong by deaf-mutes is equal to that possessed by hearing children, and because of the certainty of this he advises the same kind of punishment for deaf-mute children as that given to hearing children. In the light of these facts the great question arises, to whom or to what is man responsible ? 1. It is plain that this feeling of ultimate responsibility has no necessary reference to any class of men, for the noblest evidences of honour, I'OR MAN TO KNOWl right, and justice have been seen in savage life where every man was his own master, when re- garded apart from his spiritual convictions. Fur- tlier, where law, as we understand it, does exist, and crime is punished with a strong hand, keen and unscrupulous minds will, if possible, evade its powers, but the evasion, even where successful, does not always kill out the sense of responsibil- ity, for cases are well known where successful evasion went side by side with remorse and wretchedness of mind that made life intolerable, and even led to suicide. 2. Neither does this feeling arise from an irresistible law of responsibility, because intel- ligp^ 'jeings may train themselves under certain feelir - to act as wholly irresponsible agents, as in t!ie case of Nihilists who openly avow that they are morally responsible to no one, or no thing. How far in such cases the actual sense of responsibility is killed it is hard to say, but the existence of such cases proves that however widespread and general the law of responsibility may be, it may be violated by the exercise of that free will or choice which is plainly charac- teristic of man as an individual. Now if this responsibility has no necessary refeience to humanity, law or fate, what has it reference to ? Something tells me to be just, truthful, good ; if I am not these things I feel 100 IS THERE A GOD that in some way I am violating these peculiar attributes of my nature, a feeling that I do not necessarily possess towards the culture of my mind or even the care of my body. This com- manding, influencing power cannot be a material thing like a stone, or a vaporous thing like a cloud, or a dead thing like a mechanical law ; it must be something which itself appreciates justice, truth and goodness, and is itself truthful, just and good. But nothing that we can possibly imagine could appreciate such things save mind, and hence there grows up before us responsioility to something that is possessed of Mind — in short, a Person, and this realization seems to fit in naturally with human thought. OBJECTIONS. (I) To this line of argument it is objected that man, like everything else in Nature, is placed under laws by which he is irresistibly gov- erned, so much so that human acts can be averaged before being performed. Hence it is folly to speak of him as responsible in any other sense than a stone is responsible to the law of gravitation, consequently his morality, where it exists, is a mechanical element in his nature, that may be cultivated and improved by education, culture, etc. In answer to this it may be said, that whilst Man in common with every- FOR MAN TO KNOW? 101 thing else is under law, all such laws seem sub- ject to his mind and freedom of will, and the blessings or penalties of such naturrJ laws de- pend on his choice of action. Hence, whilst it is perfectly true that a stone must gravitate, it 13 not true that man must murder, or must steal, or must be just and upright. It is plain that man is placed under wise laws which, if obeyed, preserve his health of body ; if disobeyed, injure it. Yet he can certainly fling aside his responsibilities under such laws, and running realized risks, can, of his own free will, break every known law of health and suffer accordingly. In the same way a man can deal with the laws of Justice, Truth and Good ness ; he may submit to them, or recuse even to gravitate towards them, and the fact that he can mentally settle how he will act towards them proves his freedom of choice under them. That the crimes of a community, or oihy, or Em- pire, may be averaged in advance of their com- mittal, and that consequently criminals cannot fairly be responsible agents, is an argument that sounds stronger than it really is. As far as we know of the laws of Nature they must do what they were intended to do— thus, a falling stone must gravitate towards the earth, it can never reverse its action and fly upwards ; but this cannot in fairness be said of the hy[)othet- ^2H| 102 IS THERE A GOD IS^ f' 1 II fij^iiiiiii ical law of Averages. It is not true that the same number of murders or .suicides are commit- ted yenr by year in proportion to the population, say, of London; all that can be reasonably aKsert- ed is, that these acts vary within a flexible averaj^e. It is true that the whole principle of life insurance is based on the principle of aver- ages, but it is also true that no life insuiance company worthy of public confidence would so rely on the testimony of carefully worked-out averages as to fail to create a '^eserve fund to meet cases where, for the time, such averages may be practically annihilate 1. Let an epidemic come 8weoj)ing through a country with irresistible force, and the law of Averages for the time being would become as useless as if it never furnished material for insurance companies to figure on. (II) It is objected that admitting the claimed omnipotence of God, the sicknesses, woes and sorrows of life prove that He cannot be benevo- lent or the author of morality, otherwise He would do away with suffering altogether, or les- sen it, or at least equalize it. This objection takes for granted that all woe and sorrow is essentially evil, and cannot in any way produce good, yet judging character as not a little moulded by circumstances, much may be said in favor of the position that man is " made perfect through suffering," and that what is FOR MAN TO KNOW! 103 called the " furnace of affliction " is often a puri- fying process whereby the fine gold of individual character, and sometimes of family, and even national life, is purged from its dross and made truly valuable. Sickness from one standpoint seems almost a cruel evil, but viewed from an- other it is essentially a spiritual educator, as to individuals, and a great public educator as to communities, for the sicknesses of mankind have drawn out some of the noblest public schemes for alleviating its trials, and have called out an amount of personal generosity, kindness and sympathy as between man and man, that fur- nishes the noblest evidence of the ffood that lies hidden in human nature. Hence, underlying all such troubles lies the question impossible to solve, for the whole array of facts can never at once be before us, whether much of the sorrow of this life is not overruled for the advantage of the human race as a whole, thereby furnishing evid- ence of a moral and benevolent government over a world of sin, which government brings good out of evil through creating and maintaining what we understand as philanthropy. (Ill) It is urged that the world is full of posi- tive injustices, national, public, private, and that such wrongs could not be if man existed under the rule of a moral governor. But surely there are some things which even God Himself (be it I I 104 IS THERE A GOD \\ I ! i ill reverently said) could not do, such as making a perfectly straight line crooked and yet maintain- ing its straightness, and this is one of these things. The objection, no doubt, would be well taken if man was like a piece of mechanism under the control of a ruling mechanic — a machine — with- out any mind or will of his own. But it is im- possible to possess freedom of judgment, will and action, and at the same time to be so under the control of an overruling power as to be forced to do exactly what that power wills. Man has the tremendous responsibility resting on him of pos- sessing a mind and will of his own — Godlike and powerful. He is free to exercise both as gov- ernor of his own acts. No doubt God could have formed a being that would have been so mechanically obf Jient to God that he could not have run counter to God's law, but such a being would not have been man, and in connection with this objection it is with man, a,nd man alone, we have to deal. One thing is certain, that such injustices and wrongs are done wholly by man. That he is capable of doing them through the freedom of his will and the power of his intelli- gence, and that the evils arising from the exer- cise of such powers can no more be laid to the charge of God than the creation of the world can (IV) It is further objected that if God always existed as an omnipotent and benevolent Being, FOR MAN TO KNOW? 105 He would never hdve allowed what is popularly called wrong-doing to exist. In this statement too much is taken for granted, and too much ignored. Apart from claimed revelation, we know nothing of the genesis of wrong-doing, and even with claimed revelation but little. One thing we do know is, that v^hat is realized as wrong-doing is a terrible and real fact, and that worked out in human lives it creates terrible and real penal- ties. Hence we are arguing wholly in the dark when we dogmatically assert that a mora! and benevolent God would not allow wrong-doing to exist. Then we ignore what already has been referred to, namely, the fact that Man is possessed of in- telligence and free will. However wrong-doing came, wherever it came from, it is platn that man cannot only resist, but that he can over- come it, and although we may not be able to explain why such an awful contest should be allowed, still we know enough of victory over wrong-doing, to give us a reasonable hope that out of evil good may ultimately come, even as at present good often comes out of it. In any case, the objection is un- reasonable, because (apart from revelation) the full conditions of the problem are not before us ; we see certain effects that may be classified under the heads of moral victories and moral defeats, 106 IS THERE A GOD but what originally led up to such things is not present. And in such victories we may surely see more than mere glimpses of divinely benevo- lent intention, for the fact is apparent that when justice, goodness, purity, are developed in Man, they work for the good and happiness f>f the individual and the race, and that the correspond- ing vices bring about opposite results. Hence may we not reasonably surmise that, even though the full conditions of the problem are not before us, the development of goodness in Man is the main object of God's plan, and that Man would not come out ultimately what God desires him to be unless he passed through the contest of good against evil ; consequently it is not un- likely that when Man has made his full record on earth, it will be found that an omnipotent and benevolent God was never absent from him in the contest with evil, and that on the whole, things had worked well for all those who, mak- ing goodness the goal of their efforts, had worked on through repeated successes to final victory. (V) Finally, it is objected that if God be the Author and Preserver of Nature as it exists, He cannot be loving and merciful, for of all cruel things Nature is the cruelest. This statement, as far as Man and beast are concerned, cannot fairly be answered without trenching on what lies outside of the lines of the general argument rf*B FOR MAN TO KNOW? 107 as here presented, i.e., the positive teaching of Revelation. In closing, however, it may be said that Revelation finds at least a partial answer to the objection in the existence and power of Sin, in that awful blight or curse which has deformed Man " made in God's image," and under which " the whole Creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together." It seems to one studying the foregoing evidence that an acknowledgment of the ex- istence of a Divine Being, Maker of heaven and earth, is a mental necessity. The consent of Mankind to the religious Idea, postulates the existence of a Divine Being or Beings ; the argu- ment from origination teaches that this Being must be one possessed of mind, will and power; the argument from object and order proves that this Being is a magnificent In- telligence, and the argument derived from our sense of responsibility that He is just and true and good. This latter argument appeals to my heart as well as my mind. In my own heart I feel that Justice, Truth and Goodness should rule ray life and actions, and hence is born the further feeling that I am responsible to a Person who knows my transgression and estimates it exactly, who knows every act of duty and estimates it exactly, and the Eternal Being of this Person I -im^^mmgWK- ilil 108 IS THERE A GOD naturally assume, for ray responsibility goes out towards Him as a Divine Intelligence. He grows up before me mentally and spiritually on the lines of my felt responsibility as the Just, Righteous, Truthful and Good God ; through the force of that awful sense of res.jonsibility with- in me which in varying degrees of power is ever saying, " Be Just, be Righteous, be True, be Good." liii ■ill i^BHta FOR MAN TO KNOW? 109 BCXDKS REFERRED TO OR QUOTED. Anderson— The Lion and the Elephant. Anthropological Jouknal (various vols.) Anderson— Mandelay to Momien. Asiatic Researches, Vol. 7. American Ethnological Bureau, 1881. American Antiquarian. Atom— Article on, Encly. Brit., Vol. 3. Argle— Unity of Nature. Astronomical Society, Proceedings of. Airey — Lectures on Astronomy. Arrowsmith— The Rig- Veda. Brinton— Religions of Primitive Peoples. British Association, Proceedings of. Batchelor— The Ainu of Japan. BoNWiCK-Daily Life of Tasmanians. Baines— Exploration in Africa. BuRMAN, Rev. A.— Notes on Stoney Indians. Bancroft— American Races. Bates— Life in the Amazons. Burchell— Travels in South Africa. Burton— Paper in Transactions of Ethnolo- gical Society. Beale, Dr. Lionel— Protoplasm. Blyth— Hand Book of Metals. ■' I 110 IS THERE A GOD Boyle — Adventures among Dyaks. CuRR — Australian Races. Chalmkrs — Pioneering in New Guinea. CoDRiNGTON — Religious Belief in Melanesia. CUMMINGS — Figi. CoLQUHOUN — Amongst the Shans. Chemistry — Article Encly. Brit. CailLE — Travels to Timbuctoo. Collins — English Colony in New South Wales. Golden — The Five Nations of Canada. De Ricci — Figi. De Chaillu — Ashango Land. Drummond — Tropical Africa. Duncan — Nervous System of Actinia (Royal Society). Dallinger — Hooked Monads. Micros. Jour- nal, 1873, etc. Darwin — Voyage of Beagle. " — Origin of Species. " — Descent of Man. Drummond — Ascent of Man. Dana — Manual of Geology, 4th ed. DoBRiTZHOFFER — Account of Abipones. Dawson — Earth and Man. —Fossil Man. Dalton — Human Physiology. Encyclopedia Britannic a. Erman — Travels in Siberia. Forbes — Eastern Archipelago. FOR MAN TO KNOW? Ill \. les. Dyal our- FoRSYTH— Highlanders of Central India. Franklin Institute Journals. Foster and Balfour— Embryology. Foster— Physiology. Gra Y — Anatomy. Grant— A Walk Across Africa. Grinnell— Blackfoot Lodge Tales. Gill— Myths and Songs of South Pacific. Grey— Polynesiarx Mythology. Hahn — Africa. Hale, Horatio— Letters to Author. Hardy— Eastern Monachism. Herschell— Lectures. — Outlines of Astronomy. Haeckel— History of Creation. Huxley— Critiques, etc. — Discourses, etc. —Man's Place in Nature. Hooker — Himalayan Journals. Hue— Journey through Tartary. Hogg— The Microscope. Jukes- Voyage of the Fly. James— Principles of Psychology. KoLBEN— Cape of Good Hope. Kraff— Travels in Eastern Africa. Kent Saville— Manual of the Infusoria. Leach Archdeacon— Notes on Moral Argu- ment. Lubbock— Origin of Civilization, etc. 112 IS THERE A GOD « (( Livingstone — Missionary Travels. LoOMES — Practical Astronomy. Low — Sarawak. Microscopical Journals. MuLLER — Chips from German Workshop. — Science of Language. — Tlie Savage. Nineteenth Century Mag., Jan. 7, 1885. Malagasy Folk Lore. Mashonland — Article Contemporary Review, 1893. Milligan — Voyage of the Beacon. Mivart — Man and Apes. Mills — Comparative Physiology. McCosH — Development Hypothesis. McLean — The Indians. Mitchell — Explorations Eastern Australia. MoFFATT — Missionary Labors in South Africa. Nineteenth Century Magazine, Jan., 1885. Newcome — Astronomy. Pritchard — History of Man. Pritchard — Infusoria. Popular Science Monthly, Aug., 1890. Pearson — Practical Astronomy. Park (Mungo) — Trav ^-^in Interior of Africa. De Quatrefages — Human Species. Rawlinson — Ancient Religions. Report of Census of India, 1891. Reports of Smithsonian Institute. '"".■.'•'I i*m FOR MAN TO KNOW J 113 RoscoE — Spectroscopic Analysis. Ross — V^oyage of Discovery. Raffles — History cif Japan. Royal Geographical Journals. Sacred Books of the East. Schoolcraft — Indian Tribes of U.S. Stralensburg — Asia. SiBREE — Madagascar. Stanley — Congo. Snow, Captain Parker — Two Years' Cruise off Terra del Fue